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  • 21 Aug, 2019

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Tell Muhammad
Tell Muhammad (also Tell Mohammed and Tall Muhammad), is an ancient Near East archaeological site currently in the outskirts of Baghdad, along the Tigris river in the Diyala region. It is a very short distance from the site of Tell Harmal to the north and not far from the site of Tell al-Dhiba'i to the northeast. The ancient name of the site is unknown though Diniktum has been suggested. The lost city of Akkad has also been proposed. Based on a year name found on one of the cuneiform tablets the name Banaia has also been proposed.

Not to be confused with Tell Mohammed Arab, excavated as part of the Eski Mosul Saddam Dam rescue project in Iraq or Tell Mohammed Diyáb in Syria.

Archaeology

Mace heads Hammurabi Tell Muhammad BM 22455 6

Its original extent was about 25 hectares, now reduced to about 5 hectares with a maximum height of 2.5 meters. There was six meter wide fortification wall the full extent of which has not been determined. The site, at that time about 6 miles southwest of Baghdad, was excavated by J. F. Jones in 1850. He found several bronze mace heads with an inscription of Hammurabi, ruler of Babylon. The site was examined by A. H. Layard in 1853 who also found mace heads inscribed "E.GAL ha-am-mu-ra-pi" - "(property of) the palace of Hammurabi". In the early 1900s it was sketched by E. Hertzfeld showing dimensions of 550 meters north to south and 350 meters east to west. In 1957, during an archaeological survey of the region (Adams site #414), it was reported to have been partially destroyed by a modern canal construction. To the northeast there was a large square enclosure (now built over) measuring 900 meters northeast by 900 meters southwest. It was worked for 8 seasons between 1978 and 1985 and again in 1999 by the Iraqi State Antiquities Organization, under the direction of Sd. Mu'tasim Rashid Abdur-Ra. The excavations have revealed remains dating to the Isin-Larsa, Old Babylonian, and Kassite periods.

A number of Old Babylonian period cuneiform tablets were found in Levels II and III and are now held at the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad. About 70 of the tablets have been published and are from a private context and record contracts of two generations of a commercial family. Those in Level III carry the old event style date year name formula and those from Level II carry two dates, one of the event style formula and one of the newer date formula. This is thought to represent a transition from Babylonian to Kassite control. The latest tablets carry only a date formula year name.

Work at the site has resumed under an University of Catania (Baghdad Urban Archaeological Project) effort led by Nicola Laneri of the University of Sicily with excavation seasons in 2022 and 2023. Before the site was fenced in 2017 it had been used as an unofficial garbage dump and much of the first season involved removing that garbage. Residential, commercial, and water management areas were examined. Finds included three cylinder seals and a number of terracotta plaques, models, a toilet, a funerary chapel, and figurines. One cylinder seal was inscribed with the text "Awil-Adad, son of La-sani, servant of Sin".

Excavators have determined that the site stratigraphy encompassed 8 levels:

  • Levels V-VIII - Isin-Larsa - Ur III (late 3rd millennium BC)
  • Level IV - Early Old Babylonian (c. 19th century BC)
  • Level III - Mid-Early Old Babylonian (c. 18th century BC)
  • Level II - Late Old Babylonian (c. 16th - 17th century BC)
  • Level I - Kassite (c, 13th - 15th century BC)

where only pottery remains and graves of the Kassite level were found.

History

Tell Muhammad was occupied from the Ur III to the Kassite period but is primarily an Old Babylonian period site (the 1957 survey reported Akkadian period pottery but later excavations were unable to replicate that find). Two rulers are known from recovered tablets, Ḫurbaḫ (Ḫurbaḫ/zum) and Šipta-ulzi, both Kassite names. These match the names of early Kassite rulers on the Synchronic King List. They are thought to have ruled at roughly the same time as Samsu-ditāna (c. 1625 – 1595BC), last ruler of First Dynasty of Babylon and Sealand Dynasty rulers Pešgaldarameš and Ayadaragalama. An alternative proposal is to date these Tell Muhammad rulers to the time of the previous ruler of Babylon, Ammi-Saduqa.

At Tell Muhammad several tablets, silver loan contracts, were found that were dated with two year names "Year 38 after Babylon was resettled" and "The year that the Moon was eclipsed". The former year name is of a format used by the Kassites, a change from the event format used through the Old Babylonian period. Attempts have been made to use this eclipse to date the sack of Babylon and its resettlement by the Kassites. Other known year names include "Year in which the son of Ḫurbaḫ was killed in Tupliaš" (mu ša dumu ḫu-ur-ba-aḫ i-na tu-up-li-ia-aš di-kú), "The year when the son of Hurbah became hostile to the king" (mu dumu ḫu-ur-ba-aḫ ki lugal ik-ki-ru), and "Year Ḫurbaḫ restored the gods of Ešnunna" (MU DINGIR.DIDLI ša áš-nun-naki ḫu-ur-ba-aḫ ú-ud-di-šu).

See also

References

  1. ^ Gentili, Paolo, "Where is Diniktum? : Remarks on the Situation and a Supposition", Rivista Degli Studi Orientali, vol. 79, no. 1/4, pp. 231–238, 2006
  2. ^ [1] Naohiko Kawakami, "The Location of the Ancient City of Akkade: Review of Past Theories and Identification of Issues for Formulating a Specific Methodology for Searching Akkade", AL-RĀFIDĀN: Journal of Western Asiatic Studies, vol. 45, pp. 45–68, 2023
  3. ^ Gentili, Paolo, "The 'Strange(r)' Month Names of Tell Muhammad and the Diyāla Calendars", Egitto e Vicino Oriente, vol. 25, pp. 203–30, 2002
  4. ^ J. F. Jones, "Memoir on the Province of Baghdad Accompanied by a Ground-Plan of the Enceinte", Selections from the Records of the Bombay Government, XLIII, 1857
  5. ^ Curtis J.E., "Maceheads from Tell Mohammed in the British Museum", in Frame G. (éd.) From the Upper Sea to the Lower Sea. Studies on the History of Assyria and Babylonia in Honour of A.K. Grayson. PIHANS 101, Leyde : Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten, pp. 57-66, 2004
  6. ^ [2]A. H. Layard, "Discoveries among the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon", New York: Harper & Brothers, 1853
  7. ^ F. Sarre and E. Hertzfeld, "Archiiologische Reise im Euphrat- und Tigris-Gebiet, vol. 2, Berlin, 1920
  8. ^ [3] Adams, Robert M., "Land Behind Baghdad: A History of Settlement on the Diyala Plains", Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1965
  9. ^ Metab, A, "Tell Mohammed Excavations", Sumer, vol. 46, pp. 127-159, 1989-1990 (in Arabic)
  10. ^ Hamze, H.A., "Tall Muhammad. The eighth season of excavations." In Between the Cultures, The Central Tigris Region from the 3rd to the 1st Millennium BC. Papers read at the symposium at Heidelberg January 22nd-24th, 2009. Heidelberger Studien zum Alten Orient 14, 2011
  11. ^ "Excavations in Iraq, 1979-80." Iraq, vol. 43, no. 2, pp. 167–98, 1981
  12. ^ "Excavations in Iraq, 1977-78." Iraq, vol. 41, no. 2, pp. 141–81, 1979
  13. ^ "Excavations in Iraq, 1981-82." Iraq, vol. 45, no. 2, pp. 199–224, 1983
  14. ^ van Koppen, Frans, "The Old to Middle Babylonian transition: history and chronology of the Mesopotamian Dark Age", Ägypten Und Levante / Egypt and the Levant, vol. 20, pp. 453–63, 2010
  15. ^ "Sulle tracce di Hammurabi: nuove scoperte a Tell Muhammad, antica città babilonese nei pressi di Baghdad " - University of Catania - 26 October 2023
  16. ^ New discoveries at Tell Muhammad - Heritage Daily - October 27, 2023
  17. ^ Boese, Johannes, "„Ḫarbašipak“, „Tiptakzi“ und die Chronologie der älteren Kassitenzeit", Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und Vorderasiatische Archäologie, vol. 98, no. 2, pp. 201-210, 2008
  18. ^ Boivin, Odette, "Geographical and chronological considerations", The First Dynasty of the Sealand in Mesopotamia, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, pp. 60-85, 2018
  19. ^ Gentili, Paolo. "Wandering Through Time: The Chronology of Tell Mohammed", Studi Classici e Orientali, vol. 57, pp. 39–55, 2011
  20. ^ Calderbank, Daniel, "Dispersed Communities of Practice During the First Dynasty of the Sealand: The Pottery from Tell Khaiber, Southern Iraq", Babylonia under the Sealand and Kassite Dynasties, edited by Susanne Paulus and Tim Clayden, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, pp. 58-87, 2020
  21. ^ [4] V.G.Gurzadyan, "Astronomy and the Fall of Babylon", Sky & Telescope, vol. 100, no.1 (July), pp. 40–45, 2000
  22. ^ Gasche, Hermann, and Michel Tanret, eds., "Changing Watercourses in Babylonia: Towards a Reconstruction of the Ancient Environment in Lower Mesopotamia", Volume 1. Mesopotamian History and Environment Series II Memoirs V. Ghent and Chicago: University of Ghent and the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, 1998
  23. ^ Roaf, Michael, "Kassite and Elamite Kings", Volume 1 Karduniaš. Babylonia under the Kassites 1, edited by Alexa Bartelmus and Katja Sternitzke, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, pp. 166-195, 2017
  24. ^ Susanne Paulus, "Fraud, Forgery, and Fiction: Is There Still Hope for Agum-Kakrime?", Journal of Cuneiform Studies, vol. 70, pp. 115–66, 2018

Further reading

  • Abass, M.H., "Duqqer and Amulet from Tell Muhammad and Fly Amulets from Ur", Sumer 52, pp. 152–68, 2003/2004 (in Arabic)
  • Al-Khayyat, A. A., "A Study of a Number of Terracottas from Tell Muhammad", Sumer 43, pp. 146–154, 1984 (in Arabic)
  • I.J. Alubaid, "Unpublished Cuneiform Texts from Old Babylonian Period, Diyala Region, Tell Muhammad", MA Thesis, College of Arts, University of Baghdad, 1983
  • P. Gentili, "Tell Muhammad ... again!", Sumer, vol. 52, pp. 34–38, 2003/2004
  • Goetze, Albrecht, "Remarks on the Old Babylonian Itinerary", Journal of Cuneiform Studies, vol. 18, no. 4, pp. 114–19, 1964
  • Lappin, David F., "The Venus Tablets of Ammizaduga and Attested 30-day Lunar Months in a Reassessment of Babylonian First Dynasty Chronology", 2008
  • Van Koppen, Frans, "The early Kassite period", Karduniaš: Babylonia Under the Kassites, Proceedings of the Symposium Held in Munich 30 Juni to 2 July 2011. Vol. 2, 2017
  • Wall-Romana, Christophe "An areal location of Agade", Journal of Near Eastern Studies 49.3, pp. 205–245, 1990
  • Zomer, Elyze, "Enmity against Samsu-ditāna", Law and (Dis) Order in the Ancient Near East: Proceedings of the 59th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale Held at Ghent, Belgium, 15–19 July 2013, pp. 324–332, 2021
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