Tell al-Lahm

Tell al-Lahm (also Tell el-Lahm or Tell el-Lehem) is an archaeological site in Dhi Qar Governorate (Iraq). It is 38 kilometers southeast of the site of ancient Ur. Its ancient name is not known with certainty with Kuara, Kisig, and Dur-Iakin having been proposed. The Euphrates river is 25 kilometers away but in ancient times it, or a branch of it, ran by the site, continuing to flow until Islamic times.
Archaeology
The site is oblong with an extent of 350 meters by 300 meters, consisting of one main mound with some peripheral ridges and depressions and near a dry canal bed. The surface is irregular due to use in modern times as a cemetery and from local Bedouin camping and digging defensive trenches. The mound rises to about 15 meters. Around the main mound are a number of low (less than 2 meter) mounds, mostly from much later occupation. The largest, 30 meters to the northeast, has about the same area as the main mound. The site is surrounded by the remains of a city wall, which had circular buttresses at the corners.
The location was excavated for a few days in 1855 by John George Taylor. After digging a number of deep trenches he found no buildings, only the remnants of a few brick pavements, and a single cuneiform tablet. The brick inscriptions were too defaced to read. He also found a number of graves from later periods. The content or the disposition of the tablet is unclear. While working at Eridu for the British Museum in 1918, R. Campbell Thompson excavated there briefly finding two bricks of Neo-Babylonian ruler Nabonidus and one of Ur III Empire ruler Bur-Sin. There was a sizable Neo-Babylonian settlement to the east of the site (later worked by Fuad Safar) so it is uncertain if the Nabonidus brick is in its original location. In more modern times, Fuad Safar conducted soundings at Kuara in 1949. Six deep soundings were dug on the main mound, providing a detail stratigraphy of the site. The first sounding found an inscribed brick of Bur-Sin. Small pits excavated on the large low mound to the northeast found some Neo-Assyrian remains including a cylinder seal and the rim of a stone vase (thought to be from the main mound originally) inscribed with "dShu-nir". Five soundings were also conducted on the low mound. It found remains of a large building, a few fragmentary cuneiform tablets (disposition unclear), a figurine (thought to be of the god Nabu) and a damaged baked clay cylinder of Nabonidus. At the upper level three blackish partly baked tablets (disposition unclear) were found, two with a date of Achaemenid Empire king Darius. No transcriptions or translations of epigraphy were reported.
The inscription on the Nabonidus cylinder (in literature referred to as "Nabonidus Cylinder II, 6", "[Nabonidus] Inscription 10", and the "Eamaškuga Cylinder"), which figures heavily in debates about the sites original name, reads:
An earlier epigrapher had translated the key phrase "the pure sheepfold that is inside the city Kissik" as "which is within Dur" sparking speculation about "Dur" and its implication for the name of the city. Another epigrapher suggest the goddess Annunitum rather than Ningal.
The inscribed brick of Ur III ruler Amar-Sin read:
In 2008 a team of Iraqi and British Museum archaeologists assessing damage to archaeological sites in Iraq visited Tell al-Lahm. They found numerous looting holes and significant damage from military activity and the remains of tank emplacements.
History
The earliest known occupation at the site is in the Early Dynastic period. Occupation was extensive in the following Akkadian Empire period, Ur III period, Isin-Larsa period, Old Babylonian period, and Kassite period. Afterward the site showed at most modest occupation (Neo-Babylonian and Neo-Assyrian on a 30 meter distant low mound), aside from later use as a cemetery.
Name
One researcher, based on the recovered cylinder of Nabonidus, contended that Tell al-Lahm was the site of the 1st millennium BC city of Kisik. The primary argument is based on the mention of the E-amas-ku-ga temple of Ningal in that cylinder. Another researcher based this on the fact that there is thought to have been an E-amas-ku-ga temple of Istar in Kisig which has been proposed as the earlier name for Kisik. Based on the possible mention of a "Dur" in the Nabonidus cylinder an epigrapher proposed that the 1st Millennium BC name of the site was Dur-Iakin. a fortress of the Sealands belonging to the Bit-Iakin tribe. The possibility of being named Kuura in the Early Dynatic period is somewhat more tenuous. It relies on 1) the reading of Annunitum instead of Ningal in the Nabonidus cylinder, 2) that Annunitim is a epitaph of Istar, 3) that a temple of Istar with the name E-amas-ku-ga was thought to be in Kisik, and 4) the possibility that Kuara was an earlier name for Kisik.
Dur-Iakin
Dur refers to a fortress in Akkadian so Dur-Iakin is the "Fortress of the Iakin", more formally the Bit-Iakin (also Bit-Yakin). The name is only attested in the 1st Millennium BC. Its most notable occurrence is from the battles between the Neo-Assyrian ruler Sargon II and the Neo-Babylonian (sometimes called Chaldean) ruler Marduk-apla-iddina II. Marduk-apla-iddina II, who is the Merodach-Baladan of the Hebrew Bible, rallied opposition to Sargon, including the Bit-Iakin, at Dur-Iakin, digging a canal to the Euphrates for water. In 709 BC Sargon, according to Assyrian sources, sieged and then in 707 BC destroyed Dur-Iakin, deported its populace, and took away its gods, though Marduk-apla-iddina II escaped to Elam and lived to fight another day.
Kisik/Kisig
Also sometimes Kissik. It is mostly attested in the 1st Millennium BC with one possible mention in the early 2nd Millennium BC. It has been suggested that the city was named Kisik, usually spelled syllabically but also logographically (EZENxKU7ki) in the 1st millennium BC but had been named Kisig (EZENxSIGki) in earlier periods. A calendar of Neo-Babylonian ruler Nebuchadnezzar II mentions sangu (high priests) of Kissik. It is believed to have been in the region controlled by the Bit-Iakin, like Dur-Iakin. One researcher suggested that the residence of the early 2nd Millennium BC Isin-Larsa period ruler Naplanum was at Kisig and that the city was Amorite. In the time of Neo-Assyrian ruler Ashurbanipal (669–631 BC) the Elamite ruler Nabu-bel-shumate carried away some citizens of Kisig and as a result that town swore an oath to Ashurbanipal and provided troops. They later complained that their troops were not being treated well. Sargon II (722–705 BC) awarded andurāru status to "Dēr, Ur, Uruk, Eridu, Larsa, Kullab, Kisik, and Nemed-Laguda".
Kuara (Ku'ara)
Personal names such as Lú-a.ḫaki "The man from Kuara" are known in the Early Dynastic period. In a Ur III empire period a tablet from Puzrish-Dagan lists an ensi (governor) of Ku'ara as Enlil-zisagal. Several researchers have suggested that the name of the city evolved over time, becoming Kuwara and then later Kumari.
In Sumerian mythology Kuara was considered the birthplace of the god Asarluhi, son of the pantheons primary god Enki (Ea). In the Old Babylonian period, Marduk, previously an insignificant local god of Babylon, was subsumed into the figure of Asarluhi, making him the son of Enki. The temple hymns of Enheduana, daughter of Akkadian Empire ruler Sargon of Akkad included a section reading:
According to various sources Ku'ara contained cult centers or temples to various gods including Lugal-eri-saga, Lugal-nita-zi(d) and Ensi-mah in the Ur III period, (Nin-)ges-zida, and Nin-sun. A tablet from Puzrish-Dagan indicates that only the gods "Ninsun, Asalluḫi and Nindamana" actually had temples in Ku'ara and suggests that Martu, perhaps an early form of Marduk, was also worshiped there. In the Sumerian King List, Kuara was the home of Dumuzid, the fisherman, a god and the legendary third king of Uruk. In fact the SKL lists two Dumizids, the other, Dumizid the shepherd, also being a god and ruler of Bad-Tibira.
See also
Cities of the Ancient Near East
References
Further reading
Alhawi, Nagham A., Badir N. Albadran, and Jennifer R. Pournelle, "The archaeological sites along the ancient course of Euphrates river", Am. Sci. Res. J. Eng. Technol. Sci. ASRJETS 29, pp. 1-20, 2017
Kessler, Karlheinz, "Bemerkungen zu den Tontafeln der Sondagen Fuad Safars 1949 im Tell el-Laḥm", Nomina in aqua scripta. Homenaje a Joaquín María Córdoba Zoilo, hrsg. v. Adolfo J. Domínguez Monedero, pp. 497-510, 2021
Röllig, Wolfgang, "Kisiga, Kissik", Reallexikon der Assyriologie, vol. 5, pp. 620-622, 1976-1980 (in German)
External links
Tell al-Lahm inscriptions at CDLI
Archaeological sites in Iraq
Former populated places in Iraq
Dhi Qar Governorate