Ḫafāǧī
Coordinates: 33 ° 45 ′ 0 ″ N , 44 ° 45 ′ 0 ″ E
Ḫafāǧī ( Arabic خفاجة Chafadscha , DMG Ḫafāǧa or Chafadschi /خفاجي / Ḫafāǧī ) is an ancient oriental archaeological site in the Diyala / Hamrin area in today's Iraq and is identified with the historical Tutub and with Dur-Šamšuiluna . The site is best known for its three temples, each of which was built from the plano-convex bricks typical of the time.
history
Ḫafāǧī was settled during the entire early dynasty and the Akkadian period before it came under the control of Ešnunna and finally Babylon with the beginning of the Early Bronze Age . The son of Hammurabi and 7th king of the Babylonian dynasty, Šamšu-iluna , built a fort named after him there. After that, the place was abandoned forever.
temple
Sîn temple
The oldest temple of Ḫafāǧī is named after the moon god Sîn , but belonging to the god is not entirely guaranteed. The sanctuary was founded in the Jemdet Nasr period and rebuilt a total of ten times during its existence. This makes it particularly valuable for archeology, since it enables the development of architecture from the Jemdet-Nasr period to the end of the early dynasty to be traced.
The Sîn Temple is initially a three-row 11.8 m long central hall house and has a courtyard. A staircase or ramp is assumed to be in the south-western longitudinal tract, which, however, disappears in the beginning of the early early dynastic period, so that the temple initially has two rows. The north-eastern longitudinal tract houses adjoining rooms, including the sacristy, which can be entered from the cult site and also functions as a treasury. In the cella there is a pedestal and behind it are niches that vary in number from two to four in later construction phases. Multi-room buildings adjoin the walled courtyard to the southeast. For the first time, two pillars on the outer wall to the entrance to the sanctuary have been identified in the sixth construction phase. These are replaced by towers in the last state.
The two-part temple of the early dynastic period has a second cella in addition to the main cella, in which the cult direction rotates by 180 °. From the last construction phases onwards, the sanctuary has four sacred rooms. After the cult places in the courtyard were given up, a cult room was built in a building adjacent to the courtyard wall. Likewise, the temple receives a third cella in addition to the two adjacent cells, so that the temple regains its tripartism in the final state. The outward-facing walls of the temple are now provided with a pillar-niche structure. Among other things, statuettes of prayers were found in the sanctuary.
Nintu temple
To the south of the Sin Temple, the remains of another sacred building built in the early dynastic period were found. This building is considered to be the temple of the Sumerian mother goddess Nintu. The original complex consisted of a cult room and a large courtyard surrounded by an irregular wall. A second complex, added later, had two cult rooms and a trapezoidal courtyard. Some famous bronze works of art have been found, including depictions of two wrestlers .
Temple oval
At the end of the Early Dynastic Period I - around 2750 BC. BC - the sacred area of Ḫafāǧī was surrounded by two oval walls. A forecourt stretched between the outer and the inner, much wider wall, on which a large building stood in the north-facing corner, which - as Pinhas Delougaz suspects - was available to the temple priest as a residence. On the inside of the second wall were numerous rooms that were used to store supplies, to accommodate equipment or as apartments. The result was a rectangular courtyard with a large terrace supported by a wall in a pillar-niche construction. A temple stood on it, but no more archaeological evidence could be found. The temple complex was rebuilt after a fire in the early dynastic period. In the course of a further renovation in Akkadian times , the oval enclosure was converted into a rectangle with rounded edges. The construction principle of a high temple on a terrace, which is surrounded by concentric walls, is considered to be the forerunner of the ziggurat . It is unclear to which deity the temple was dedicated.
Research history
Ḫafāǧī was investigated between 1930 and 1937 in six excavation campaigns by the Iraq Expedition of the University of Chicago under the direction of Henri Frankfort , followed by two excavation campaigns (1937-1939) of the University Museum Philadelphia and the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) under the direction of Pinhas Delougaz. Together with the research results from Tell Asmar (Ešnunna) and Tell Aqrab , the results of Ḫafāǧī served to define the Early Dynastic Period in Mesopotamia.
literature
- Pinhas Delougaz: The Temple Oval at Khafājah (= Oriental Institute Publications 53). Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1940. ( online )
- Rivkah Harris: The Archive of the Sin Temple at Khafajah (Tutub). In: Journal of Cuneiform Studies 9 (1955), pp. 31-88, 91-120.
- Ernst Heinrich: Architecture from the early to the neo-Sumerian times , in: W. Orthmann: Der Alte Orient (Propylaen Art History, Volume 14), Propyläen-Verlag, Berlin 1975, pp. 131–158.
- Ernst Heinrich: The temples and sanctuaries in ancient Mesopotamia. Typology, morphology and history (monuments of ancient architecture 14) De Gruyter, Berlin 1982.
- Harold D. Hill et al. a .: Old Babylonian Public Buildings in the Diyala Region II: Khafajah Mounds B, C, and D (= Oriental Institute Publications 98). Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1990. - ISBN 0-918-98662-1 ( online )
- Clemens Reichel: sv Tutub B. Archäologische , Reallexikon der Assyriologie and Near Eastern Archeology, Vol. 14, De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2014, 244–247.
- Aaron Skaist: The Sale Contracts from Khafajah. In: Jacob Klein, Aaron Skaist (eds.): Bar-Ilan Studies in Assyriology dedicated to Pinḥas Artzi. Ramat Gan 1990, pp. 255-276.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Piere Amiet et al. a .: forms and styles - antiquity; Evergreen / Bendedikt Taschen Verlag 1981
- ↑ Clemens Reichel: sv Tutub B. Archäologische , Reallexikon der Assyriologie und Vorderasiatischen Aräologie, Vol. 14, De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2014, 244–247, p. 244
- ↑ Ernst Heinrich: The temples and sanctuaries in ancient Mesopotamia. Typology, morphology and history (monuments of ancient architecture 14) De Gruyter, Berlin 1982, p. 58 and p. 93
- ↑ Ernst Heinrich: The temples and sanctuaries in ancient Mesopotamia. Typology, morphology and history (monuments of ancient architecture 14) De Gruyter, Berlin 1982, p. 93
- ↑ Ernst Heinrich: The temples and sanctuaries in ancient Mesopotamia. Typology, morphology and history (monuments of ancient architecture 14) De Gruyter, Berlin 1982, p. 121f.
- ^ Reichel, Tutub, p. 246
- ^ Heinrich, Architektur, p. 157