Kish (Sumer)

The ancient cities of Sumer.

Kish was occupied from the Ubaid period (c.5300-4300 BC), gaining prominence as one of the pre-eminent powers in the region during the early dynastic period.[5]

Third Dynasty of Kish (ca. 2500–2330 BC)

Mesannepada, Lugal Kish-ki (𒈩𒀭𒉌𒅆𒊒𒁕 𒈗 𒆧𒆠), "Mesannepada, King of Kish", on a seal impression found in the Royal Cemetery at Ur.[10][11] The last column of characters, is thought to mean "his wife..." (𒁮𒉡𒍼, dam-nu-gig).[12]

The Third Dynasty of Kish is unique in that it begins with a woman, previously a tavern keeper, Kubau, as "king". She was later deified as the goddess Kheba.

Afterwards, although its military and economic power was diminished, Kish retained a strong political and symbolic significance. Just as with Nippur to the south, control of Kish was a prime element in legitimizing dominance over the north of Mesopotamia (Assyria, Subartu). Because of the city's symbolic value, strong rulers later claimed the traditional title "King of Kish", even if they were from Akkad, Ur, Assyria, Isin, Larsa or Babylon. One of the earliest to adopt this title upon subjecting Kish to his empire was King Mesannepada of Ur, as well as Mesilim.[13] A few governors of Kish for other powers in later times are also known, including Ashduniarim and Iawium.[14]

Sargon of Akkad, the founder of the Akkadian Empire, came from the area nearby Kish, called Azupiranu. He would later declare himself the king of Kish, as an attempt to signify his connection to the religiously important area. In Akkadian times the city's patron deity was Zababa (or Zamama), along with his wife, the goddess Inanna.

Later history

Macehead inscription of Manishtushu, ruler of the Akkadian Empire: Manishtushu Lugal Kish, "Manishtushu King of Kish"

After the fall of the Akkadian Empire, Kish became the capital of a small independent kingdom. One king, named Ashduniarim, ruled around the same time as Lipit-Ishtar of Isin. By the early part of the First Dynasty of Babylon, during the reigns of Sumu-abum and Sumu-la-El, Kish appears to have come under the rule of another city-state, possibly Kutha. Iawium, king of Kish around this time, ruled as a vassal of kings named Halium and Manana. Sumu-la-El conquered Kish and, later, subjugated Halium and Manana, bringing their territories into the expanding Babylonian Empire. The First Dynasty kings Hammurabi and Samsu-iluna undertook construction at Kish, with the former restoring the city's ziggurat and the latter building a wall around Kish. By this time, the eastern settlement at Hursagkalama had become viewed as a distinct city, and it was probably not included in the walled area.[15]

After the Old Babylonian period, however, Kish appears to have declined in importance; it is only mentioned in a few documents from the later second millennium BCE. During the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian periods, Kish is mentioned more frequently in texts. However, by this time, Kish proper (Tell al-Uhaymir) had been almost completely abandoned, and the settlement that texts from this period call "Kish" was probably Hursagkalama (Tell Ingharra).[15]

After the Achaemenid period, Kish completely disappears from the historical record; however, archaeological evidence indicates that the town remained in existence for a long time thereafter.[15] Although the site at Tell al-Uhaymir was mostly abandoned, Tell Ingharra was revived during the Parthian period, growing into a sizeable town with a large mud-brick fortress. During the Sasanian period, the site of the old city was completely abandoned in favor of a string of connected settlements spread out along both sides of the Shatt en-Nil canal. This last incarnation of Kish prospered under Sasanian and then Islamic rule, before finally abandoned during the later years of the Abbasid Caliphate (750–1258). [16]

The Kish archaeological site is an oval area roughly 8 by 3 km (5 by 2 mi), transected by the dry former bed of the Euphrates River, encompassing around 40 mounds, the largest being Uhaimir and Ingharra. The most notable mounds are:

Murex shell bearing the name of "Rimush, king of Kish", c. 2270 BC, Louvre.

• Tell Uhaimir – believed to be the location of the city of Kish. It means "the red" after the red bricks of the ziggurat there.
• Tell Ingharra – believed to be the location of Hursagkalamma, east of Kish home of a temple of Inanna.[17]
• Tell Khazneh
• Tell el-Bender – held Parthian material
• Mound W – where a number of Neo-Assyrian tablets were discovered

After irregularly excavated tablets began appearing at the beginning of the twentieth century, François Thureau-Dangin identified the site as being Kish. Those tablets ended up in a variety of museums.

Because of its close proximity to Babylon the site was visited by a number of explorers and travelers in the 19th century, some involving excavation, most notably by the foreman of Hormuzd Rassam who dug there with a crew of 20 men for a number of months. None of this early work was published. A French archaeological team under Henri de Genouillac excavated at Tell Uhaimir between 1912 and 1914, finding some 1,400 Old Babylonian tablets which were distributed to the Istanbul Archaeology Museum and the Louvre. [18][19] Later, a joint Field Museum and University of Oxford team under Stephen Langdon excavated from 1923 to 1933, with the recovered materials split between Chicago and the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford.[20][21][22][23][24][25][26]

The actual excavations at Tell Uhaimir were led initially by E. MacKay and later by L. C. Watelin. Work on the faunal and flora remains was conducted by Henry Field.[27][28]

More recently, a Japanese team from the Kokushikan University led by Ken Matsumoto excavated at Tell Uhaimir in 1988, 2000, and 2001. The final season lasted only one week.[29][30][31]

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  Ruins of a ziggurat at the Sumerian city of Kish. Babel Governorate, Iraq.
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  An ancient mound at Kish, Babel Governorate, Iraq
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  An ancient mound at the city of Kish, Mesopotamia, Babel Governorate, Iraq
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  Pottery fragments, illegal exavations at the ancient city of Kish, Tell al-Uhaymir, Iraq
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  Ancient mound at the city of Kish, Mesopotamia, Babil Governorate, Iraq
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  Ruins near the ziggurat of Kish at Tell al-Uhaymir, Mesopotamia, Babel Governorate, Iraq
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  Ruins near the ziggurat of Kish, Tell al-Uhaymir, Babylon Governorate, Iraq
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  Ruins near the ziggurat of the city of Kish at Tell al-Uhaymir, Babel Governorate, Iraq
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  Ruins of the ziggurat of the ancient city of Kish, Tell al-Uhaymir, Mesopotamia, Iraq
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  Indus Valley Civilisation "Unicorn" seal excavated in Kish, early Sumerian period, circa 3000 BCE. An example of ancient Indus-Mesopotamia relations.[32]

Stone tablet inscribed with the Sumerian King List

Spear dedicated to "Lugal(...) King of Kish". Circa 2600 BC

The Sumerian King List gives a list of the rulers of the four dynasties of Kish.

• Cities of the Ancient Near East
• Tell (archaeology)
• Short chronology timeline

• E. Mackay, Report on the Excavation of the "A" Cemetery at Kish, Mesopotamia, Pt. 1, A Sumerian Palace and the "A" Cemetery, Pt. 2 (Anthropology Memoirs I, 1-2), Chicago: Field Museum,1931
• Nissen, Hans The early history of the ancient Near East, 9000–2000 B.C. (Chicago/London: University of Chicago Press, 1988. ISBN 0-226-58656-1, ISBN 0-226-58658-8) Elizabeth Lutzeir, trans.
• I. J. Gelb, Sargonic Texts in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, Materials for the Assyrian Dictionary 5, University of Chicago Press, 1970 ISBN 0-226-62309-2
• McGuire Gibson, The Archaeological uses of Cuneiform Documents: Patterns of Occupation at the City of Kish, Iraq, vol. 34, iss. 2, pp. 113–123, Autumn 1972
• Gibson, McGuire (1972). The City and Area of Kish. Miami: Field Research Projects. pp. 53–55, 155.
• T. Claydon, Kish in the Kassite Period (c. 1650 – 1150 B.C), Iraq, vol. 54, pp. 141–155, 1992
• P. R. S. Moorey, A Re-Consideration of the Excavations on Tell Ingharra (East Kish) 1923-33, Iraq, vol. 28, no. 1, pp. 18–51, 1966
• P. R. S. Moorey, The Terracotta Plaques from Kish and Hursagkalama, c. 1850 to 1650 B.C., Iraq, vol. 37, no. 2, pp. 79–99, 1975
• P. R. S. Moorey, 1978 Kish Excavation 1923 – 1933 (Oxford: Oxford Press, 1978).
• Norman Yoffee, The Economics of Ritual at Late Old Babylonian Kish, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, vol. 41, no. 3, pp. 312–343, 1998
• P. R. S. Moorey, The "Plano-Convex Building" at Kish and Early Mesopotamian Palaces, Iraq, vol. 26, no. 2, pp. 83–98, 1964
• P. R. S. Moorey, Cemetery A at Kish: Grave Groups and Chronology, Iraq, vol. 32, no. 2, pp. 86–128, 1970
• Weiss, Harvey, and Mcguire Gibson. “Kish, Akkad and Agade.” Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. 95, no. 3, 1975, doi:10.2307/599355.
• Wu Yuhong and Stephanie Dalley, The Origins of the Manana Dynasty at Kish and the Assyrian King List, Iraq, vol. 52, pp. 159–165, 1990
• Seton Lloyd, Back to Ingharra: Some Further Thoughts on the Excavations at East Kish, Iraq, vol. 31, no. 1, pp. 40–48, 1969
• Federico Zaina, Radiocarbon date from Early Dynastic Kish and the stratigraphy and chronology of the YWN Sounding at Tell Ingharr, Iraq, vol. 77(1), pp. 225–234, 2015
• Zaina, F., Craft, Administration and Power in Early Dynastic Mesopotamian Public Buildings. Recovering the Plano-convex Building at Kish, Iraq, Paléorient, vol. 41, p. 177–197, 2015

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kish (Mesopotamia).

• Online Kish Collection at the Field Museum
• YouTube video on Field Museum Kish effort
• Kish Site photographs at Oriental Institute of Chicago
• The gold helmet worn by a Sumerian King of Kish.