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THE EARLY DYNASTIC MONUMENTAL BUILDINGS AT UMM AL-AQARIB1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 March 2015

Haider Oraibi Almamori
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Abstract

This article presents the results of excavations conducted at the site of Umm al-Aqarib, in the Dhi Qar Governorate of Iraq, in the years 1999–2002 and 2008–2010. Despite significant practical difficulties, the excavations revealed an Early Dynastic city of major importance, with monumental architecture including two large temples, called here the White Temple and Temple H, and a palace. In interpreting the excavation results, the author argues that Umm al-Aqarib, and not Jokha (Umma) as has previously been thought, was the central settlement of the kingdom of Gišša during the Early Dynastic III period, and that the White Temple, the largest yet known from Early Dynastic Sumer, is to be identified as the temple of Šara, city god of Gišša.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 76 , December 2014 , pp. 149 - 187
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 2015 

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Footnotes

1

I would like to dedicate this article to the memory of the late Dr Donny George, who was field director of the excavations of Umm al-Aqarib for the first and second seasons (1999–2000). I will never forget the exciting days which I spent with him at the site during those years of difficulties for Iraq. I thank Mr Taha Kerim Abod, field director of the fifth, sixth and seventh seasons (2008–2010), who kindly permitted me to study and publish evidence found at Umm al-Aqarib in those seasons.

The present article derives from my PhD dissertation Umm al-Aqarib: An Architectural and Textual Study of a Sumerian City, which I submitted to Kokushikan University in 2013. Another article entitled “Gišša (Umm al-Aqarib), Umma (Jokha), and Lagaš in the Early Dynastic III period,” also based on my PhD dissertation, has been published in Al-Rafidān 2014. I wish to express my thanks to Profs. Kazuya Maekawa (Kokushikan University), Yasuyoshi Okada (Kokushikan University), and Daisuke Shibata (Tsukuba University), who gave me many suggestions and advice during my doctoral studies.

I am most grateful to Prof. Zainab Bahrani (Columbia University) and Dr. Harriet Crawford (University of London), who kindly helped me in the interpretation of the Umm al-Aqarib excavations. They also corrected errors and improved my English for this article.

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