Suruppak
 
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Šuruppak on the map of Iraq |
Šuruppak or Shuruppak (also Suruppak , Fāra , Fara ) is a Sumerian place that dates from around 3400 BC. BC ( Late Uruk period ) was settled. Geographically, it lies in the center of southern Mesopotamia . In the Gilgamesh epic it is the city of the gods in which Ziusudra proclaimed the flood .
Archeology and history
The location is of great importance with regard to the clay tablet finds, even if the names of rulers have not yet been identified. The cuneiform tablets show that up to 2900 BC A city association with Uruk , Adab , Nippur , Lagaš , Umma and Šuruppak founded as a war coalition. In this context the term Ki'engi was already used, which was later to be used as a term for South Babylonia or Sumer.
By 2004 about 500 of almost 1,000 clay tablets had been published. The sites were widely scattered. The research therefore does not agree on whether the economy was decentralized or whether the economic decisions were made by the discovered royal palace and the town hall .
Economic activities
From the present sales contracts and the real estate documents among the cuneiform finds it could be determined that the purchase sums were paid in copper , silver and barley . The barley conversion rate used proves the function of staple foods as a payment object. In the case of the land purchase agreements, up to 25 other people, in addition to the buyer and seller, were involved in the transfer of ownership. What is striking is the fact that the sellers mostly belonged to a clan association . Only a single seller appears after the battery life .
Kudurrus
The kudurrus represented global documents of several transactions as stone documents and corresponded to today's land registers . There is a north-south divide: the sale of large estates is only known from the north. In the south, however, only very small properties (gardens) were sold. The ownership of the land was jointly owned by large families, clans or temple shrines, some of which also issued a permit, similar to the long lease , to build on the land.
Language and lists of gods
Very early on, the frequent use of Semitic scribes' names made a clearly noticeable Semitic- Early Accadic influence perceptible.
Most of the lists of gods in later epochs are based on the family tree from Šuruppak, which in turn draws on older models. So far, only Enlil and Anu have been identified as the supreme gods. Numerous DIGIR NIN names are known, but could not be assigned unequivocally to the sanctuaries and deities.
The goddess DIGIR NIN-imma, also known as DIGIR NIN-SIG 7 , who was documented at this time , shows striking similarities to the later DINGIR NIN-imin ( mistress of the seven deities ) and DINGIR NIN-nammu ( mistress of everything ). The phonetic form Nammu / Namma is taken from the later writing En -mimma .
literature
- Gebhard J. Selz : Sumerians and Akkadians. CH Beck, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-406-50874-X .
- Horst Steible , Fatma Yildiz: The lists with donations to gods from Suruppak. In: Mitteilungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft zu Berlin , No. 140 (2008), ISSN 0342-118X , pp. 151–204.