# Abu Salabikh

The archaeological site of Abu Salabikh (Tell Abū Ṣalābīkh), around 20 km (12 mi) northwest of the site of ancient Nippur and about 150 kilometers southeast of the modern city of Baghdad in Al-Qādisiyyah Governorate, Iraq marks the site of a small Sumerian city that existed from the Neolithic through the late 3rd millennium, with cultural connections to the cities of Kish, Mari and Ebla. Its ancient name is unknown though Eresh and Kesh have been suggested as well as Gišgi. Kesh was suggested by Thorkild Jacobsen before excavations began. The Euphrates was the city's highway and lifeline; when it shifted its old bed (which was identified to the west of the Main Mound by coring techniques), in the late third millennium BC, the city dwindled away. Only eroded traces remain on the site's surface of habitation after the Early Dynastic Period. There is another small archaeological site named Abu-Salabikh in the Hammar Lake region of Southern Iraq, which has been suggested as the possible capital of the Sealand dynasty.

## History

Although signs of occupation at the site date back to the Neolithic period, primary occupation occurred during the Uruk period in the Late Chalcolithic and then in the Jemdat Nasr and Early Dynastic periods in the Early Bronze Age. An examination of the smaller outlying sites nearby showed there was also occupation in the Kassite, Sassanian, Seleucid, and Parthian periods in the area.

## Archaeology

The site consists of three mounds with an overall extent of roughly 900 meters by 850 meters. To the east is the 12 hectare wall enclosed Main (Early Dynastic) mound. To the west, on the other side of the bed of an ancient canal or watercourse, is the 10 hectare Uruk and Jemdet Nasr mound to the north and the 8 hectare South mound with its Early Dynastic palace to the south. The full Early dynastic extent, with outer margins now under alluvial deposits, is estimated at 50 hectares.
Abu Salabikh was excavated by an American expedition from the Oriental Institute of Chicago led by Donald P. Hansen in 1963 and 1965 for a total of 8 weeks. They found the site, lying in a salt bog, had numerous robber holes. Unlike the nearby site of Nippur which continued to be occupied for millennia, at Abu Salabikh the Early Dynastic remains were near the surface. The expedition found around 500 tablets and fragments, containing some of the earliest ancient literature. A number of animal remains were also found including domestic dog, lion, equid, pig, cattle, gazelle, caprines (sheep and goat), and antelope. Remains of various birds were also found.
Between 1975 and 1990 Abu Salabikh was excavated by a British School of Archaeology in Iraq team under the direction of Nicholas Postgate. Finds included beveled rim bowls. Excavations were suspended in 1990 with the Invasion of Kuwait and have not been resumed. The city, built on a rectilinear plan in the early Uruk period, revealed a small but important repertory of cuneiform texts on some 500 tablets, of which the originals were stored in the Iraq Museum, Baghdad. Texts, comparable in date and content with texts from Shuruppak (modern Fara, Iraq) included school texts, literary texts, word lists, and some administrative archives, as well as the Instructions of Shuruppak, a well-known Sumerian "wisdom' text of which the Abu Salabikh tablet is the oldest copy. While the writing remained Sumerian, Semitic scribal names became more common as the Early Dynastic period wore on. The archaic form of Sumerian in the texts is not fully understood however a number of literary compositions were found that had beforehand been thought to have not existed until half a millennium later in the Old Babylonian period. Originally it was thought that the tablet, contemporary with the ones found at Fara were dated to the period of Early Dynastic III ruler of First dynasty of Lagash Ur-Nanshe (c. 2500 BC). Subsequent study pushed the dating to a century before Ur-Nanshe though it has also been suggested that the dating was after Ur-Nanshe though before Eannatum of Lagash, his grandson. This is still an open issue.
On the Uruk mound, which was abandoned after the Jemdet Nasr period, 1650 high fired clay sickles were found. Two grain samples from the Middle Uruk layer of the Uruk Mound were accelerator radiocarbon dated with calibrated dates of 3520 ± 130 BC. Calibration was based on that of Pearson.
Seventy-four Neolithic clay accounting tokens were found at the site. Over one hundred pottery shards that had been filed into 3 centimeter discs and pierced were found, suggested as for use in abacus type counting devices.

## Eresh

The city of Eresh (eréš$^{ki}$) is known from the Early Dynastic, through the Akkadian period into the Ur III period and then apparently disappears from history though a year name of Sin-Muballit (c. 1813-1792 BC) is "Year Sin-muballity built the city wall of Eresz". Its location is unknown though earlier Uruk was proposed and more recently Abu-Salabikh and Jarin. One tablet found at Abu Salabikh (IAS 505) did mention workers belonging to a "King of Eresh". Its city-god was Nisaba, whose cult site was later moved to Nippur. Eresh appears on an Early Dynastic geographical list. It is known that during the reign of the second Ur III Empire ruler Shulgi there was a governor of Eresh named Ea-Bani and one named Ur-Ninmug, and under Amar-Sin one named Ur-Baba. In the Ur III period there was a shrine to the goddess Annunitum at Eresh.
Enheduanna, daughter of Sargon of Akkad, the first ruler of the Akkadian Empire wrote a collection of 42 Temple Hymns, with the final one, which survives in fragmentary form, dedicated to E-Zagin, the temple of Nisaba in Eresh.
   "House of Stars. House of Lapis Lazuli, sparkling bright, you open the way to all the lands ... are set in the shrine. Eresh. Each month, the ancient lords raise their head for you. On the hill, soap ... The great goddess Nisaba has brought the great powers from heaven, adding to your powers ... Righteous woman of unmatched mind. Soothing ... and opening her mouth, consulting a tablet of lapis lazuli, giving guidance to all the lands. Righteous woman, cleansing soap, born to the upright stylus. She measures the heavens and outlines the earth:All praise Nisaba."
In the Sumerian literary composition Enmerkar and En-suhgir-ana, a sorcerer, Urgirinuna, goes to Eresh and makes all the cows and goats stop giving milk.