Nippur

Nippur (Sumerian Nibru, Akkadian Nibbur ) was a Sumerian city whose history dates back to 5th millennium BC. It is located about 180 km southeast of present-day Baghdad ( Iraq).

• 5.1 For agricultural Text
• 5.2 For Murasu archive

History

In Nippur was located the main temple of the sky and creator god Enlil. From this grew the role of Nippur as the religious center of Sumer, the. Well under a variety of configurations of power, such as in the kingdom of Akkad, under the hegemony of the Second Dynasty of Lagash, or III Get dynasty of Ur remained. Primary to the latter go the typical Sumerian temples back.

From Kassite period ( Burna - Buriasch II until the end of the reign of Kaschtiliasch IV ) have been handed down from Nippur many economic texts. Both the king himself and the temple of the god Enlil had extensive land holdings in the city. However, the taxation of the temple was subject to royal control. Also the irrigation system was under the ruler and was supervised by the GÙ.EN.NA. Kadašman Turgu - led work on È.KUR ( Enlil temple ) of Nippur by. Numerous lapis lazuli panels show dedications, especially Enlil, Ninlil, Ninurta and Nusku were considered. Some priests are known by name, such as Ninurta -RES- USU at the time of Nazi Maruttaš. Also Adad - šuma - usur built on È.KUR.

Nippur AD was inhabited until the 8th century. It was a Muslim city, but it was also a bishopric.

Excavations

The ruins, now Nuffar ( Niffer ) is explored since the end of the 19th century excavations primarily of American research groups. In the years 1889-90 the Babylonian Expedition of the University of Pennsylvania discovered numerous Cassite business texts. Other documents were excavated in the " Tablet Hill " 1893-1895. Due to the high age of the city, which was also less damaged or destroyed because of their accepted by warring groups role as a religious center than other cities, here particularly good results were achieved.

The E in the temple found, consisting of a copper alloy, so-called Nippur cubit is the oldest rem dar. scale well due to its weight of 45.5 kg, it was spared the looting.

An important piece of the Fund excavations of the University of Pennsylvania is a 21.5 by 17 centimeters in size clay tablet with a map of Nippur, the oldest known to date map of the world, dated to about 1400 BC.

Temple

Important were mainly the É.KUR, the temple of Enlil, who had three goals and É.ŠU.ME.DU ( esumetum, eschumesha? ), The temple of Ninurta.

Written documents

A text about agriculture

After the finding of eight fragments of a text, one would today call almanac, was found in 1950 seven times a eleven inches wide three and a half thousand year old clay tablet, as follows from the Sumerologists Kramer, Benno Landsberger and Jacobson was translated and one of the oldest texts on agriculture applies:

The Murasu archive

The Murasu archive belonged to the same family of entrepreneurs who were active in BC Nippur in the second half of the fifth century.

The texts of the archive were unearthed in 1893 in Nippur. The 830 previously known and published, late Babylonian texts are now in museums in Berkeley, Istanbul, Jena, London and Philadelphia. Part of the cuneiform tablets carries Aramaic glosses. To the archive also included Aramaic documents that are mentioned in the cuneiform texts, of which today bear witness only bulls of seals. The archive has a term of 454 BC ( Artaxerxes I ) to 404 BC ( Artaxerxes II ).

Most documents were written on behalf of Murašûs son Enlil - Schum - iddin and his grandson Rimut -Ninurta. However, the last owner of the Archives was an agent of the Arsames, a Persian prince and satrap of Egypt. The documents relating to lease contracts, receipts for rents and taxes, and promissory notes. The Murašûs managten cultivable arable land, ie Crown land, domains of members of the court or high officials and temple lands. Crown land was leased by the government to small farmers, who had to pay for taxes and military service. The Murašûs held Nutzrechte on such lands and leased it to farmers.

The Murasu archive is the most comprehensive source on the economic conditions in Mesopotamia under the Achaemenids.