Sippar (Tell Abu Habbah) – Temple City of Shamash
Sippar · Abu Habbah · Zimbir
Early Dynastic to Parthian (c. 3000 BCE – 100 CE)·Sumerian / Akkadian / Babylonian / Neo-Babylonian / Achaemenid·🇮🇶 Baghdad Governorate, Tell Abu Habbah, Iraq
About
About Sippar (Tell Abu Habbah) – Temple City of Shamash
Sippar (Zimbir) – twin Sumerian-Babylonian temple city of Shamash (Utu), sun-god, with Sippar-Yahrurum (Abu Habbah) and Sippar-Amnanum (Tell ed-Der) straddling the Euphrates. Its river harbour on the Euphrates palaeochannel handled Shamash temple estates' grain, now 2 km west of modern Euphrates after river avulsion 700 BCE. Rassam's 1881 discovery of the Sippar Shamash temple (Ebabbara) with 4000 tablets, the Sun God Tablet (9th c. BCE), and the Babylonian Map of the World (6th c. BCE) revealed harbour canal (Nār-šamaš). The ziggurat core and quay mud remain under alluvium.
Why it mattersOnly Shamash temple city preserving intact Ebabbara archive (4000 tablets) and Babylonian Map of the World; documents Euphrates harbour canal shift.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Sippar-Yahrurum vs Amnanum harbour attribution
- 02Chronology of Euphrates palaeochannel shift relative to Babylon
Theories
- 01Sun God Tablet validates Shamash iconography; World Map plots Babylonian cosmology
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- City Early Dynastic c. 3000 BCE; Ebabbara Early Dynastic; harbour canal OB
- Period
- Early Dynastic to Parthian (c. 3000 BCE – 100 CE)
- Culture
- Sumerian / Akkadian / Babylonian / Neo-Babylonian / Achaemenid
- Purpose
- Shamash oracle city – law, divination and Euphrates grain transshipment
- Abandoned
- Parthian abandonment + river avulsion
- Rediscovered
- Rassam 1881; Harris/BE 1970s
- Excavation
- Buried
City Early Dynastic c. 3000 BCE; Ebabbara Early Dynastic; harbour canal OB
Initial construction
c. 1321 CE
Major expansion
On the ground
Structures & features
33.0590° N · 44.2550° E · 35 m · 3 mapped features
Ebabbara Shamash Temple
templeEbabbara sun-temple 90×60 m – Rassam's 4000-tablet findspot and Sun God Tablet
33.0595° N · 44.2555° ESippar Harbour Canal (Nār-šamaš)
canalHarbour canal trace 300 m west of tell – Euphrates quay harbour canal at –1 m alluvium
33.0580° N · 44.2530° ESippar Ziggurat E-babbar
zigguratZiggurat core of Shamash – staged tower behind temple
33.0600° N · 44.2560° E