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'Umma

This article is about the Sumerian city. For the Islamic term, see Ummah. For other uses, see Umma (disambiguation).
Umma
Aerial view of Umma, following pillage after the US invasion 1.jpg
Aerial view of Umma
Umma is located in Near East
Umma
Umma
Shown within Near East
Umma is located in Iraq
Umma
Umma
Umma (Iraq)
LocationDhi Qar Province, Iraq
RegionMesopotamia
Coordinates31°40′02″N 45°53′15″E / 31.66722°N 45.88750°E / 31.66722; 45.88750Coordinates: 31°40′02″N 45°53′15″E / 31.66722°N 45.88750°E / 31.66722; 45.88750
TypeSettlement
Location of the city of Umma in Sumer
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Umma (Sumerian: 𒄑𒆵𒆠 ummaKI;[1] in modern Dhi Qar Province in Iraq, formerly also called Gishban) was an ancient city in Sumer. There is some scholarly debate about the Sumerian and Akkadian names for this site.[2] Traditionally, Umma was identified with Tell Jokha. More recently it has been suggested that it was located at Umm al-Aqarib, less than 7 km (4.3 mi) to its northwest or was even the name of both cities.[3][4][5] One or both were the leading city of the Early Dynastic kingdom of Gišša, with the most recent excavators putting forth that Umm al-Aqarib was prominent in EDIII but Jokha rose to preeminence later.

History[]

In the early Sumerian text Inanna's descent to the netherworld, Inanna dissuades demons from the netherworld from taking Shara, patron of Umma, who was living in squalor. They eventually take Dumuzid king of Uruk instead, who lived in palatial opulence.[6]

Best known for its long frontier conflict with Lagash, as reported circa 2400 BC by Entemena,[7] the city reached its zenith c. 2350 BC, under the rule of Lugal-Zage-Si who also controlled Ur and Uruk. Under the Ur III dynasty, Umma became an important provincial center. Most of the over 30,000 tablets recovered from the site are administrative and economic texts from that time. They permit an excellent insight into affairs in Umma.[8] The Umma calendar of Shulgi (c. 21st century BC) is the immediate predecessor of the later Babylonian calendar, and indirectly of the post-exilic Hebrew calendar. Umma appears to have been abandoned after the Middle Bronze Age.[5]

Archaeology[]

The site of Tell Jokha was visited by William Loftus in 1854 and John Punnett Peters of the University of Pennsylvania in 1885.[9][10] In the early 1900s, many illegally excavated Umma tablets from the Third Dynasty of Ur began to appear on the antiquities market.[11] From 1999 to 2002 Jokha was worked by an Iraqi team, recovering a number of tablets and bullae from the Old Babylonian period.[12] In 2017, the Slovak Archaeological and Historical Institute began excavations at Tell Jokha.[13]

The site of Umm al-Aqarib (located at 45.80°E longitude and 31.60°N latitude) covers about 5 square kilometers and is made up of 21 mounds the largest of which is 20 meters above the level of the plain. The location was first visited by John Punnett Peters in the 1800s. It was excavated for a total of 7 seasons in 1999–2002 and 2008–2010 by Iraqi archaeologists under difficult conditions. At Umm al-Aqarib, archaeologists uncovered levels from the Early Dynastic Period (c. 2900–2300 BC), including several monumental buildings, one of them variously identified as a temple or palace.[5][14]


Looting[]

Imprisoned man of Umma on the Stele of the Vultures
An inscription from Umma dated c. 2130 BC. "Lugalannatum prince of Umma... built the E.GIDRU [Sceptre] Temple at Umma, buried his foundation deposit [and] regulated the orders. At that time, Si'um was king of Gutium." (Collection of the Louvre Museum.)

During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, after Coalition bombing began, looters descended upon the site which is now pockmarked with hundreds of ditches and pits. The prospects for future official excavation and research were seriously compromised in the process.[17]

In 2011, Global Heritage Network, which monitors threats to cultural heritage sites in developing nations, released aerial images comparing Umma in 2003 and 2010, showing a landscape devastated by looters' trenches during that time—approximately 1.12 square km in total.[18] Additional images relevant to the situation at Umm al-Aqarib are included in Tucker's article on the destruction of Iraq's archaeological heritage.[19]

Rulers of Umma[]

Aga of Kish (26th century BC), king of Kish, probably took over Umma, and consequently Zabala, which was dependant of it in the Early Dynastic Period.[20]

First Dynasty of Umma[]

Ruler Proposed reign Notes
Pabilgagaltuku c. 2500 BC A governor of Umma, he was captured by Ur-Nanshe of Lagash.[21]
Ush
("Ninta")		 Imprisoned man of Umma on the Stele of the Vultures.jpg 2500–2450 BC Attacked Lagash and removed the boundary stone set up by Mesilim, and was defeated by Eannatum.[21]
Enakalle
Enakalle on the plate of queen Bara-irnun.jpg
 c. 2450 BC Made a boundary treaty with Eannatum.[22]
Ur-Lumma Ur-Lumma, king of Umma, son of En-a-Kale tablet.jpg 2450–2400 BC Son of Enakalle. Challenged Enannatum I, but was defeated by his successor Enmetena.[22][21]
Il Stone tablet re Il, king of Umma, c. 2400 BC - Oriental Institute Museum, University of Chicago - DSC07155 (orientation).jpg 2450–2400 BC Successor to Ur-Lumna. He rebelled against Enannatum II, and destroyed the dynasty of Ur-Nanshe.[22]
Gishakidu This cuneiform text gives the city of Umma's account of its long-running border dispute with Lagash. Circa 2350 BCE. From Umma, Iraq. The British Museum, London.jpg 2450–2400 BC Son of Il[21]
Edin 2450–2400 BC Ruler of Umma [21]
Meanedu c. 2400 BC Ruler of Umma[21]
Ushurdu? 2400–2350 BC Ruler of Umma[21]
Ukush Lugalzagesi king of Uruk king of the Land son of Ukush.jpg 2400–2350 BC Father of Lugal-Zage-Si.[21]
Lugal-Zage-Si Prisoner exiting a cage, on an Akkadian Empire victory stele circa 2300 BCE, Louvre Museum.jpg c. 2350 BC Conqueror of all Sumer, founder of the third dynasty of Uruk, vanquished by Sargon of Akkad.[21]

Second Dynasty of Umma[]

Ruler Proposed reign Notes
Lugalanatum Gutian inscription-AO 4783-gradient.jpg c.2120 BC Vassal to the Gutian Dynasty.[21]
An official of Umma, circa 2400 BC
Diorite statue of Lupad, an official of the city of Umma, with inscriptions recording the purchase of land in Lagash. Early Dynastic Period III, c. 2400 BC.[23]

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ "ORACC – Umma".
  2. ^ Lambert, W. G. (1990). "The Names of Umma". Journal of Near Eastern Studies. 49 (1): 75–80. doi:10.1086/373421. ISSN 0022-2968. JSTOR 544410. S2CID 162374749.
  3. ^ Bartasch, Vitali (2015). "On the Sumerian City UB-meki, the Alleged "Umma"". Cuneiform Digital Library Bulletin. 2. ISSN 1540-8760.
  4. ^ Almamori, Haider O. (2014). "Gišša (Umm Al-Aqarib), Umma ( Jokha), and Lagaš in the Early Dynastic III Period". Al-Rāidān. 35: 1–37.
  5. ^ a b c Bryce, Trevor (2012). The Routledge handbook of the peoples and places of ancient western Asia : the Near East from the early Bronze Age to the fall of the Persian Empire. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-69261-8. OCLC 767524716.
  6. ^ "Inana's descent to the nether world". Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature. Retrieved 2021-07-22.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  7. ^ Cooper, Jerrold S. (1983). Reconstructing history from ancient inscriptions : the Lagash-Umma border conflict. Malibu: Undena Publications. ISBN 0-89003-059-6. OCLC 10304478.
  8. ^ Parr, P. A. (1972-06-01). "A Letter of Ur-Lisi, Governor of Umma". Journal of Cuneiform Studies. 24 (4): 135–136. doi:10.2307/1359635. ISSN 0022-0256. JSTOR 1359635. S2CID 163250537.
  9. ^ Loftus, William K. (1857). Travels and Researches in Chaldaea and Susiana, Travels and Researches in Chaldaea and Susiana: With an Account of Excavations at Warka, the "Erech" of Nimrod, and Shush, "Shushan the Palace" of Esther, in 1849–52. Robert Carter & Brothers.
  10. ^ Peters, John P. (1897). Nippur; Or, Explorations and Adventures on the Euphrates: The Narrative of the University of Pennsylvania Expion to Babylonia in the Years 1888–1890 (PDF). University of Pennsylvania Babylonian Expion. Putnam.
  11. ^ Georges Contenau, Contribution a l'Histoire Economique d'Umma, Librairie Champion, 1915
  12. ^ Mutawalli, Nawala Ahmed al-; Ismaʻel, Khalid Salim; Sallaberger, Walther; Harbi, Hamza Shahad al-; Otto, Adelheid (2019). Bullae from the Shara Temple = Wuṣūlāt at-tasallum (bulla) min maʻbad aš-Šārā. ISBN 978-3-447-11159-1. OCLC 1101969238.
  13. ^ Drahoslav Hulínek and Tibor Lieskovský, Report Archaeological project SAHI - Tell Jokha, 2016, Slovak Archaeological and Historical Institute, 2016
  14. ^ Almamori, Haider Oraibi (2014). "The Early Dynastic Monumental Buildings at Umm Al-Aqarib". Iraq. 76: 149–187. doi:10.1017/irq.2014.10. ISSN 0021-0889. JSTOR 43307193.
  15. ^ "Stele of Ushumgal". www.metmuseum.org.
  16. ^ "Site officiel du musée du Louvre". cartelfr.louvre.fr.
  17. ^ "Simon Jenkins: In Iraq's four-year looting frenzy, allies the vandals". the Guardian. 2007-06-07. Retrieved 2021-07-23.
  18. ^ "Satellite Imagery Briefing: Monitoring Endangered Cultural Heritage Sites" (PDF). Global Heritage Fund. Retrieved 2021-07-23.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  19. ^ Diane Tucker (21 September 2009). "Brutal Destruction of Iraq's Archaeological Sites Continues". uruknet.info.
  20. ^ Frayne, Douglas (2009). The Struggle for Hegemony in "Early Dynastic II" Sumer. The Canadian Society for Mesopotamian Studies 2010. pp. 65–66.
  21. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Sallaberger, Walther; Schrakamp, Ingo (2015). History & Philology (PDF). Walther Sallaberger & Ingo Schrakamp (eds), Brepols. pp. 74–80. ISBN 978-2-503-53494-7.
  22. ^ a b c Van De Mieroop, Marc (2004). A History of the Ancient Near East: Ca. 3000-323 BC. Wiley. pp. 50–51. ISBN 9780631225522.
  23. ^ King, L. W. (Leonard William) (1910). A history of Sumer and Akkad : an account of the early races of Babylonia from prehistoric times to the foundation of the Babylonian monarchy. London : Chatto & Windus. p. 96.

Further reading[]

External links[]