Tell Harmal — Shaduppum Ziggurat Mound
Shaduppum · Tell Harmal (Abu Harmal)
Isin-Larsa, Old Babylonian·Akkadian/Amorite — Old Babylonian·🇮🇶 Baghdad Governorate, Baghdad (east), Iraq
Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP(Glasg) · CC BY-SA 4.0
About
About Tell Harmal — Shaduppum Ziggurat Mound
Mound in eastern Baghdad now within urban fringe, excavated by Taha Baqir (1945–63), preserving complete Old Babylonian administrative quarter with 3000 cuneiform tablets covering law, mathematics and administration — including earliest copies of Code of Hammurabi school exercises, mathematical problems and contracts. The central temple on platform interpreted as small ziggurat/temple mound dedicated to Nisaba/Bel-gašer, with altar and store rooms. Houses around show vaulted roofs and courtyard plan. Museum shelter over temple.
Why it mattersLargest archive of Old Babylonian school tablets; proves Babylonian scribal curriculum.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Relation to Eshnunna kingdom border
Theories
- 01Shaduppum was state-run administrative-college town
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c. 2000–1750 BCE
- Period
- Isin-Larsa, Old Babylonian
- Culture
- Akkadian/Amorite — Old Babylonian
- Builders
- Akkadian/Amorite
- Purpose
- Administrative town and scribal school with ziggurat-like temple on tell mound within Larsa kingdom, later Babylon
- Excavation
- Excavated
1945
Taha Baqir first excavates Tell Harmal
1949
Tablet archive of scribal school discovered
On the ground
Structures & features
33.3095° N · 44.4668° E · 40 m · 2 mapped features
Gallery