Tell Ishchali
Nerebtum/Kiti (?)
Tell Ishchali is located in Iraq
Tell Ishchali
Shown within Iraq
LocationDiyala Province, Iraq
RegionMesopotamia
Coordinates33°18′11″N 44°35′03.3″E / 33.30306°N 44.584250°E / 33.30306; 44.584250
Typetell
Area23 ha (57 acres)
Site notes
Excavation dates1934–1936
ArchaeologistsT. Jacobsen, H. Hill

Tell Ishchali (also Iščāli or Šaǧālī) is an archaeological site in Diyala Province (Iraq) a few hundred meters from the Diyala River and 3 miles south by southeast from the ancient city of Khafajah. It is thought to be ancient Nerebtum or Kiti and was part of the city-state of Eshnunna. It is known to have been occupied during the Isin-Larsa period and Old Babylonian period with excavations ending before earlier levels were reached.

Ancient name

At first, the site of Ishchali was thought to be Khafajah. Upon discovery there of a date formula that read "year that king Ishme-Bali built the great wall of Nerebtum", that designation became popular. Currently, scholarly opinion is split between Nerebtum and Kiti as the result of many tablets from the temple of Inanna of Kiti being analyzed. The name of Sadlas has also been proposed.

A number of bricks of Ipiq-Adad II were found in the Kitium temple inscribed with:

"To Inanna Kititum did Ipiq-Adad, the mighty king, the king who enlarged Eshnunna, shepherd of the dark headed (people), beloved of Tispak, son of Ibal-pi-el, grant Neribtum"[1]

Archaeology

Four-headed god statuette, Isin-Larsa to Old Babylonia periods, 2000-1600 BC, Ishchali. Oriental Institute Museum.[2]

The site lies about 3 miles (4.8 km) south and 7 miles (11 km) east of the modern city of Baghdad and 15 miles (24 km) southeast of Eshnunna on the Diyala River, a tributary of the Tigris. The main tell at Ishchali measures roughly 600 by 300 metres (1,970 ft × 980 ft). There are also small mounds to the north and south of it. The entire site covers around 23 hectares (57 acres).[1]

Items from illegal excavations at Ishchali began appearing on the open market in the 1920s, including many clay tablets. Brick robbing by locals was also occurring. To pre-empt this activity, the Iraq expedition of the Oriental Institute of Chicago conducted two seasons of excavations there between 1934 and 1936. The expedition was led by Henri Frankfort and the work at Ishchali was handled by Thorkild Jacobsen and Harold Hill, all of the Oriental Institute.[3][4] A number of cuneiform tablets from the Old Babylonian period were found and later published.[5][6][7] For a few tablets the provenance is in dispute between Ishcali and Khafajah.[8] Excavations only reached the Isin-Larsa level before excavations ended.[9]

Of the 280 tablets excavated, 138 went to the Oriental Institute with the remaining 142 assigned to the Iraq Museum. Among them was a fragment of the Epic of Gilgamesh. The tablets illegally excavated from Ishchali are in many locations including the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology at Berkeley, the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire in Geneva, Iraq Museum, Oriental Institute, and the Free Library of Philadelphia. The archive of the chief administrator of the Kititum temple is represented by 155 purchased Free Library tablets and 55 excavated Oriental Institute tablets.[10]

Aside from the temple of Inanna-Kititum a temple of Shamash (or possibly Sin) was also found. The excavators referred to the building as the Shamash Temple in all documents but also noted that evidence was mixed and that it could instead be a temple of Sin.[11]

History

Plaque with musician playing a lute, Ischali, Isin-Larsa period, 2000-1600 BC, baked clay - Oriental Institute Museum, University of Chicago - DSC07344

Surface finds indicate that Ishchali may have been occupied as far back as the Akkadian period, but all excavated epigraphic evidence dates to the Old Babylonian period. While some tablets mention early local rulers, for most of the known history of Ishchali kings from Eshnunna held sway there, including Ipiq-Adad and Ibal-pi-El. During the time of Sabium, king of Babylon, Ibal-pi-El I of Ešnunna, Sîn-iddinam of Larsa and Sîn-kašid of Uruk the king of Nerebtum was Iku(n)-pi-Si.[12][13]

The most notable feature of Ishchali is the main temple. It was that of Inanna-Kititum, or Inanna of Kiti (occasionally called Ištar-Kititum). It is one of the largest temples ever found in the ancient Near East at 100 meters by 65 meters. Rebuilt several times, always following the original plan, the monumental building consisted of one large upper temple and two smaller areas which are thought to be shrines (the westernmost shrine was used for domestic type activities in the later periods). The many tablets found there give an excellent picture of temple life. A number of cylinder seals dating from the Early Dynastic to the Larsa period were also found there, assumed to be relic donations to the temple.[14] Cylinder seals, from the Isin-Larsa and Old Babylon periods, were also found at the Shamash temple and in private homes.[15]

The location of Kiti, the cult site of Inanna of Kititum, is as yet unknown, though it has been suggested that it was an earlier name for Tell Ishchali. She was worshiped in the Diyala region including at the capitol city of Eshnunna where this oracular inscription was found:

"O king Ibalpiel, thus says Kititum:/The secrets of the gods are placed before me./Because you constantly pronounce my name with your mouth, I keep disclosing the secrets of the gods for you./On the advice of the gods and by the command of Anu, the country is given you to rule./You will ransom the upper and lower country,/you will amass the riches of the upper and lower country./Your commerce will not diminish, there will be a perm[anent] food of peace [for] any country that your hand keeps hold of./I, Kititum, will strengthen the foundations of your throne,/I have established the protective spirit for you.May your [e]ar be attentive to me!"[16]

Artifacts from Ishchali

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Jacobsen, T., "Epigraphic material from Ishchali", In H.D. Hill, T. Jacobsen, P. Delougaz, .A. Holland, and A. McMahon, Old Babylonian public buildings in the Diyala region. Part 1: Excavations at Ishchali; part 2: Khafājah mounds B, C, and D, (OIP 98) (pp. 89–98). Chicago: The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, 1990 ISBN 0-918986-62-1
  2. ↑ Roux, Georges (1992). "Ancient Iraq". ISBN 978-0-14-193825-7. OCLC 1003999632.
  3. ↑ Frankfort, Henri; University of Chicago Press (1936). "Progress of the work of the Oriental Institute in Iraq, 1934/35: fifth preliminary report of the Iraq Expedition" (PDF). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. OCLC 968514533.
  4. ↑ Hill, Harold D; Deloughaz, Pinhas; Jacobsen, Thorkild (1990). "Old Babylonian public buildings in the Diyala region" (PDF). Chicago, Ill.: Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. OCLC 938410164.
  5. ↑ Lutz, Henry Frederick, "Legal and economic documents from Ashjaly", University of California Press, 1931
  6. ↑ Landsberger, Benno, and Thorkild Jacobsen, "An Old Babylonian Charm against Merḫu", Journal of Near Eastern Studies, vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 14–21, 1955
  7. ↑ Greengus, Samuel (1979). "Old Babylonian Tablets from Ishchali and Vicinity". ISBN 978-90-6258-044-6.
  8. ↑ Farber, Walter, (detailed review of Greengus book), Journal of Near Eastern Studies, vol. 43, no. 4, 1984, pp. 346–50
  9. ↑ , Pinhas Delougaz, "Pottery from the Diyala Region", Oriental Institute Publications 63, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1952 ISBN 0-226-14233-7
  10. ↑ Ellis, Maria deJong, "The Archive of the Old Babylonian Kititum Temple and Other Texts from Ishchali", JAOS 106, pp. 757–86, 1986
  11. ↑ Henri Frankfort., "More Sculpture from the Diyala Region", Oriental Institute Publications 60, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1943
  12. ↑ Sasson, Jack M., "Chapter 1. Kingship", in Mari Archives: An Anthology of Old Babylonian Letters, University Park, USA: Penn State University Press, pp. 21-118, 2021
  13. ↑ Rients de Boer, "Beginnings of Old Babylonian Babylon: Sumu-Abum and Sumu-La-El", Journal of Cuneiform Studies, vol. 70, pp. 53–86, 2018
  14. ↑ Drewnowska, Olga. "Old Babylonian Nērebtum and its main deity." Stories Told Around the Fountain. Papers Offered to Piotr Bieliński on the Occasion of His 70th Birthday. Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego 221-233, 2019
  15. ↑ Henri Frankfort, "Stratified Cylinder Seals from the Diyala Region", Oriental Institute Publications 72, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1955
  16. ↑ Nissinen, Martti, "Prophets and the Divine Council", in Prophetic Divination: Essays in Ancient Near Eastern Prophecy, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, pp. 461-478, 2019

Further reading

  • de Jong Ellis, Maria (1986). "The Goddess Kititum Speaks to King Ibalpiel: Oracle Texts from Ishchali". "MARI 5". pp. 235–266.
  • Ellis, M. D, "Delivery Records from the Archive of the Kititum Temple at Ishchali", Cuneiform Archives and Libraries, pp. 112-120, Papers read at the 30e Rencontre assyriologique internationale, Leiden 4 - 8 July 1983, Leiden, 1986
  • Friberg, Jöran, et al., "Five Texts from Old Babylonian Mê-Turran (Tell Haddad), Ishchali and Shaduppûm (Tell Harmal) with Rectangular-Linear Problems for Figures of a Given Form", New Mathematical Cuneiform Texts, pp. 149-212, 2016
  • Gentili, Paolo (2004). "A Catalogue of the Ishchali Texts in the Iraq Museum". Journal of Near Eastern Studies. 63 (4): 257–275. doi:10.1086/426629. ISSN 0022-2968. JSTOR 10.1086/426629. S2CID 161539369.
  • Greengus, Samuel (1986). "Studies in Ishchali documents" (in Akkadian). Malibu: Undena Publications. ISBN 978-0-89003-167-4. OCLC 715246491.
  • T. Jacobsen, "The Mesopotamian Temple Plan and the Kititum Temple", Eretz-Israel 20 (Yadin Volume), pp. 79–91, 1989
  • Miglus, P.A., "Nērebtum", In Reallexikon der Assyriologie und Vorderasiatischen Archäologie IX, pp. 211–214, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1998-2001
  • Roßberger, E., "Dedicated objects and memory construction at the Ištar-Kitītum temple at Iščāli", in Kaelin, O. [e. a.] (ed.), Proceedings of the 9th international congress on the archaeology of the Ancient Near East 1. Travelling image. Transfer and transformation of visual ideas. Wiesbaden, pp. 419–430, 2016
  • Roberts, J. J. M., "The Earliest Semitic Pantheon: A Study of the Semitic Deities Attested in Mesopotamia before Ur III", Baltimore/London 1972 ISBN 978-0801813887
  • Saporetti, Claudio, "Un testo di Ishchali con un interesse particolare", Egitto e Vicino Oriente, vol. 19, pp. 83–87, 1996
  • Viaggio, Salvatore, "Sull'amministrazione del tempio di Ištar Kitītum Aishjali", Egitto e Vicino Oriente, vol. 29, pp. 185–217, 2006
  • Yuhong, W., "The treaty between Shadlash (Sumu-numhim) and Neribtum (Hammi-dushur)", Journal of Ancient Civilizations , vol. 9, pp. 124–136, 1994
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