Coordinates: 31°57′N, 45°58′E
Adab (modern Bismaya, Iraq) was an ancient Sumerian city between Telloh and Nippur
Archaeology
A group of ruin mounds are what remains of the ancient city. The mounds are about 1.5 km(1 mile) long and two miles (3 km) wide, consisting of a number of low ridges, nowhere exceeding 12 m(40 ft) in height, lying in the Jezireh, somewhat nearer to the Tigris than the Euphrates, about a day's journey to the south-east of Nippur.
Excavations conducted here for six months, from Christmas of 1903 to June 1904, for the University of Chicago, by Dr. Edgar James Banks, proved that these mounds covered the site of the ancient city of Adab (Ud-Nun), hitherto known only from the Sumerian king list and a brief mention of its name in the introduction to the Hammurabi Code (c. 2250 B.C.). The city was divided into two parts by a canal, on an island in which stood the temple, E-mach, with a ziggurat, or stepped tower. It was evidently once a city of considerable importance, but deserted at a very early period, since the ruins found close to the surface of the mounds belong to Dungi and Ur Gur, kings of Ur in the latter part of the third millennium B.C.citation needed Immediately below these, as at Nippur, were found artifacts dating to the reign of Naram-Sin and Sargon, ca. 2300 BC. Below these there were still 10.5m (35 ft) of stratified remains, constituting seven-eighths of the total depth of the ruins. Besides the remains of buildings, walls and graves, Dr. Banks discovered a large number of inscribed clay tablets of a very early period, bronze and stone tablets, bronze implements and the like. But the two most notable discoveries were a complete statue in white marble, apparently the earliest yet found in Mesopotamia, now in the museum in Constantinople, bearing the inscription E-mach, King Da-udu, King of, Ud-Nuncitation needed; and a temple refuse heap, consisting of great quantities of fragments of vases in marble, alabaster, onyx, porphyry and granite, some of which were inscribed, and others engraved and inlaid with ivory and precious stones. Banks sold cuneiform tablets from the site to private collections.
Of the Adab tablets that ended up at the University of Chicago, sponsorer of the excavations, all have been published and also made available in digital form online.[1] Of the tablets sold piecemeal to various owners, a few have also made their way into publication.[2]
There is a Sumerian comic tale of the Three Ox-drivers from Adab (translation).
References
See also
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