Glossary

AKK. = Akkadian

SUM. = Sumerian

ABU SALABIKH A city occupied in the Early Dynastic period, possibly to be identified as ancient Eresh. An archive of ED IIIa tablets were found here.

ABZU (Akk. Apsu) 1. God of the primordial freshwater. 2. The realm of freshwater after the Creation, the responsibility of the god Enki (Ea). The term is particularly associated with the extensive freshwater around Eridu, where a shrine developed.

ACHAEMENID PERIOD From 539 B. C.E. when Babylon fell to the Persians, Mesopotamia was part of the Achaemenid (Persian) Empire. This was founded by Cyrus II in 550 b. c.e. after defeating the Median king, Astyages.

ADAB (Modern Bismaya) A Sumerian city 30 kilometers southeast of Nippur, allied with Shuruppak in the Early Dynastic period, when it features in the Sumerian King List.

ADAD (Sum. Ishkur) Akkadian name for the storm god, revered for his gift of rain and water from mountain streams, bringing vegetation for pasturing animals. Son of the sky god An (or, in earlier traditions, of Enlil), with whom he shared a twin shrine at Assur (see photo p. 187).

AGADE Capital of the Akkadian Empire, founded by Sargon of Akkad and described in the poem "The Curse of Agade." Probably situated in the area between Babylon, Kish, and Sippar, its location was still known to first-millennium Mesopotamians, but it has yet to be identified by archaeologists.

AKITU Southern Mesopotamian rural festivals, celebrated from third millennium onward, also the name given specifically to the Babylonian New Year festival (see also New Year festival; bit akitu).

AKKAD The northern part of Babylonia, known as ki-uri in Sumerian.

AKKADIAN The eastern branch of the Semitic language family. The earliest known form, Old Akkadian (2600-2000 b. c.e. ), gave rise to the Assyrian and Babylonian dialects.

AKKADIAN EMPIRE First state uniting the lands of southern Mesopotamia (Sumer and Akkad), founded by Sargon of Akkad in 2334 b. c.e. The empire's influence stretched from eastern Anatolia to western Iran and endured until 2193 b. c.e., when it succumbed to internal problems and external attacks, especially by the Guti.

AKKADIAN PERIOD The period of the Akkadian Empire, 2334-2193 b. c.e.

AKKADIANS Speakers of the Akkadian language who in the third millennium b. c.e. lived particularly in Akkad but were also present in Sumer.

ALALAKH (Modern Tell 'Atchana) A city on the Amuq plain east of the Orontes, often a dependent of its more powerful neighbors.

ALLUVIUM Fertile silt deposited by rivers over their floodplains. The alluvium of the Euphrates provided the agricultural prosperity of southern Mesopotamia, but few natural resources other than plants, date palms and a few other trees, mud and clay, and animals.

ALPHABET A script in which signs represent individual phonemes. The first alphabet was devised by Canaanites around 1700 b. c.e. Two alphabets are known at Ugarit in the fourteenth century b. c.e. One, using cuneiform characters, was used only briefly; the other, based on Egyptian hieroglyphs with canaanite phonetic values, is ancestral to most of the alphabets of the later world. The original alphabet rendered only consonants; signs for vowels were added by the Greeks when they modified the script to write their own language.

AMARNA LETTERS Remains of the royal archive in the short-lived Egyptian capital, Akhetaten (modern Tell el-Amarna), were rediscovered in 1887. It contained correspondence received from, and copies of a few letters sent to, contemporary Near Eastern rulers, including Mitanni and Kassite kings. It therefore constitutes a major source of information on international diplomacy and politics in the fourteenth century b. c.e. Most of the letters were written in Akkadian cuneiform, the internationally used script and language.

AMORITES (Sum. martu, Akk. amurru) Semitic-speaking pastoralists living in the Syrian steppe in the later third millennium b. c.e., when they posed a threat to Babylonia, leading to the construction of a defensive wall against them. They gradually settled in Babylonia and had merged with the Babylonian population before the middle of the second millennium b. c.e. The Mari royal house in the eighteenth century b. c.e. were Amorites. Tribes in parts of the Levant in the second millennium b. c.e. were also known as Amorites (see also Martu).

AN (Akk. Anu) 1. The Sumerian god of the sky, sometime patron of Uruk, where the Kullaba precinct was dedicated to his worship. Father of the gods and creator of the universe after the separation of heaven and earth, in some versions of the Creation myth. 2. "On High," the upper region of the cosmos, contrasted with Ki, "Below," the Earth, including the underworld.

ANATOLIA Asiatic Turkey.

ANNALS Dated royal records of campaigns, which are a major source of historical information. They begin with simple inscriptions in the ED III period that mention campaigns along with royal titles and range from brief sentences to the clay prisms of Neo-Assyrian kings inscribed with hundreds of lines of text.

ANSHAN The region around the city of Anshan (modern Tell-i Malyan) in Iran, often associated with Elam as a unified kingdom.

ANU see An.

ANUNNAKI (Anuna, Anunnaku) An early Sumerian term for the gods, especially the mass of nameless gods who were first created. By the second millennium, however, the term generally refers more specifically to the gods of earth and the underworld, contrasting with igigi.

ANZU (Sum. Imdugud) A monstrous lion-headed bird, the flapping of whose wings created whirlwinds and sandstorms. It features in a number of traditional tales and legends.

ARABS A general term used for nomads in the first millennium b. c.e. and as a specific ethnic term for the nomadic inhabitants of Arabia from the fourth century c. e. Like most of the inhabitants of the Levant they spoke a Semitic language. Arabs riding camels were among the enemies depicted in the reliefs of King Tiglath-Pileser at Nimrud but they also collaborated with the Assyrians as allies of Esarhaddon in his conquest of Egypt. Tribes operating from oases in northeast Arabia were traders, particularly in incense from the kingdoms of southwest Arabia, and enjoyed generally good relations with the Babylonians.

ARAMAEANS Inhabitants of the region west of the middle Euphrates around 1000 B. C.E. who subsequently settled in the Euphrates bend, forming tribal kingdoms known by the title "Bit" ("House"). They occupied settled villages and practiced mixed farming, with a strong emphasis on pastoralism.

ARAMAIC 1. A western Semitic language current from the ninth century b. c.e., the language of the Aramaeans. 2. An alphabetic script that was in widespread use in the Near East in the first millennium and which was ancestral to many later scripts.

ARATTA A city and region, probably in eastern Iran, that features in the early-third-millennium b. c.e. story of Enmerkar as the source of exotic materials including lapis lazuli and precious metals. The story claims Inanna, goddess of Uruk, was also worshipped in Aratta. Recent discoveries of a large cemetery and associated settlement near Jiroft on the Halil River in Kerman province, southeast Iran, indicate the presence there in the third millennium of a civilized society, which is being tentatively identified with Aratta. More than a hundred other sites have been located along the Halil River. The manufacture of chlorite vessels seems to have been a major local industry.

ARCHIVES Collections of texts stored together, especially in temples and palaces and mainly made up of official documents such as tax records and royal correspondence.

ARD A primitive form of plough that cut through the soil, breaking it up and creating a furrow, but not turning the soil.

ASAG (Akk. Asakku) A monstrous demon born of the union of An and Ki. He and his allies, the stones of the mountains, were defeated by the storm god Ninurta (or Adad in another version). The Asag was also seen as a magical demon responsible for death by disease.

ASHIPU (Sum. lu. mash. mash) Exorcist.

ASHUR Patron god of the city of Assur and of Assyria. His importance grew with the power of the Assyrians. Indefinite in his original attributes, he gradually appropriated those of other major gods, particularly the Sumerian god Enlil and the Babylonian deity Marduk.

ASHURBANIPAL King of Assyria (668-627 b. c.e.). He completed the conquest of Egypt and extended the empire, also fighting a series of campaigns against the Elamites and their ally, his brother, Shamash-shum-ukin, king of Babylon. He decorated the palace at Nineveh with reliefs and established a library containing all the extant works of Mesopotamian literature (see photos pp. 20, 104, 106).

ASHURNASIRPAL II King of Assyria (883-859 b. c.e.). He was responsible for greatly extending the empire and built the North-West Palace at Kalhu.

ASSUR (Ashur; Modern Qalat Sherqat) Capital city of the Assyrians in the second millennium b. c.e. and an important religious center thereafter when the capital was shifted to other cities. Kings were generally buried here.

ASSYRIA Northern Mesopotamia. The area around the city of Assur and the center of an empire of fluctuating extent, ranging from the heartland along the upper Tigris to an empire stretching from Egypt to Elam, including the Levant and Babylonia. The rain-fed plains of Assyria enjoyed agricultural prosperity. The region was dominated by Mitanni in the midsecond millennium b. c.e. but regained its independence under Ashur-uballit I and thereafter grew to become a major power in the first millennium B. C.E.

ASSYRIANS The inhabitants of Assur and its region, or of Assyria; speakers of Assyrian, a language derived from Old Akkadian.

ASU Doctor.

ATRAHASIS 1. "Very wise," king of Shuruppak, hero of the Old Babylonian poem recounting the Flood story. In other versions he is known as Ziusudra or Utnapishtim. 2. The title by which this poem is usually known in English.

BABYLON Probably founded in the early or mid-third millennium b. c.e., Babylon rose to prominence in the eighteenth century b. c.e. when the earlier southern cities were in decline; thereafter it remained the centre of Babylonia and one of the greatest cities of the ancient world. The most spectacular remains date to the Neo-Babylonian period and include the temple and ziggurat of Marduk, Nebuchadrezzar's palace, the great Processional Way to the akitu temple, and the city walls and gates. Controversy surrounds the location of the famous Hanging Gardens. The city's importance survived its fall to the Persians in 539 b. c.e.

BABYLONIA Southern Mesopotamia, composed in the third millennium b. c.e. of Sumer and Akkad. Babylonia rose to power under the dynasty of Hammurabi, experiencing periods of expansion and decline. Political, economic, and geographical considerations brought it frequently into conflict with Assyria to its north and Elam to its east, and it was periodically ravaged by nomads from the adjacent mountains and deserts, who were frequently later assimilated into the Babylonian population.

BABYLONIANS The inhabitants of Babylonia. Speakers of Babylonian, which developed from Old Akkadian in the early second millennium b. c.e.

BALA (Akk. palu) 1. The divinely ordained "turn" at holding supreme kingship in Sumer, according to the Sumerian King List. 2. The tax (offerings) paid by the core provinces of the Ur III Empire, consisting of a proportion of their produce.

BALAWAT (Ancient Imgur-enlil) A palace built by Shalmaneser III 16 kilometers northeast of Nimrud. A pair of massive wooden gates sheathed in bronze and decorated with reliefs show Shalmaneser's campaigns; two other pairs were erected by Ashurnasirpal II (see photos pp. 31, 168).

BAN (Sum.) A measure of volume, around 10 liters, equivalent to 10 sila.

BARIGA (Sum.) A measure of volume, around 60 liters, equivalent to 6 ban.

BARU Diviner.

BERU see stage.

BILTU see talent.

BIT, BITU (Sum. E) "House." Broad term with many extension meanings. 1. Temple, temple household. 2. Clan. 3. Province in later Babylonia, reflecting clan-based political organization. 4. Clan-based regional division in the desert region between Mesopotamia and the Levant.

BIT AKITU The shrine used in the akitu festival in a number of cities; situated outside the city, it was approached by a processional way.

BITANNU The inner courtyard and private portions of the palace.

BIT HILANI A pillared portico giving access to a large chamber or throne room, a feature of northern Syrian architecture. The portico was adopted by Sargon II and incorporated into his palace at Dur-Sharrukin.

BORSIPPA (Modern Birs Nimrud) A town near Babylon whose ziggurat was often mistakenly identified by early travelers as the Tower of Babel. Its patron deity was Nabu, the son of Marduk.

BRAK, TELL (Probably ancient Nagar or Nawar) A tell occupied from the Ubaid period to around 1200 b. c.e.; the city was at its height around 2500 b. c.e., before it was incorporated into the Akkadian Empire, when Sargon built a frontier fortress here. One of its most impressive monuments is the Eye Temple of the Uruk period, where numerous eye idols were found.

BULLA 1. A solid clay tag usually bearing a seal impression attached to a string of tokens. 2. A hollow clay ball used as an envelope to contain tokens: This is a loose use of the term bulla, and it should more properly be called an envelope.

BUR (Sum.) A measure of area, equivalent to 3 eshe—around 6.48 hectares.

BURUSHKHANDA (Purushkhanda; Akk. Purushhattum; modern Acem Hoyuk or Karahuyuk-Konya) An Anatolian town in which the Assyrians opened a trading colony (karum) in the nineteenth century b. c.e. A Sumerian story, King of Battle, preserved in a text found at fourteenth-century b. c.e.

Amarna, recounts how Sargon of Akkad mounted an expedition to rescue Akkadian merchants who were suffering oppression in Burushkhanda: This may have been written as propaganda in the reign of Shamshi-Adad when the Assyrian trading colony at Kanesh was revived.

BUSHEL see gur.

CANAANITES Inhabitants of the region bordering the Mediterranean between Egypt and Anatolia in the second millennium b. c.e. and inventors of the alphabet.

CARCHEMISH (Modern Jerablus) A major town in the second and first millennia, situated on the west bank of the Euphrates. Ruled by Assyria from 717 B. C.E., it was the scene of the Babylonians' defeat of Assyria and Egypt in 605 B. C.E.

CHALDAEANS Tribes who settled in southern Mesopotamia around 1000-900 B. C.E. They formed several independent kingdoms in conflict with Babylonian and Assyrian rulers. In 626 b. c.e. a Chaldaean dynasty seized the Babylonian throne, founding the Neo-Babylonian Empire.

CHLORITE A form of steatite (soapstone) found at various places, including near Tepe Yahya on the Iranian plateau where fine chlorite bowls were manufactured and widely exported.

CIMMERIANS Central Asian nomads who made troublesome raids on northern Near Eastern states during the ninth to seventh centuries b. c.e.

CIRE-PERDUE "Lost-wax"—a technique of casting metal where a full-scale model of a desired object is made in wax, which is then coated in clay and fired. The wax runs out leaving a mould in which metal objects in complex shapes can be cast.

CONE MOSAICS Colored wall decorations, usually in geometric patterns, made by pushing clay cones with painted heads (or occasionally cones of colored stone) into wall plaster.

CUBIT Sumerian kush, Akkadian ammatu: a measure of length, around 50 centimeters.

CUNEIFORM Wedge-shaped, a term used to describe the Mesopotamian writing formed by impressing a wedge-shaped reed stylus into soft clay.

CYLINDER SEAL A cylinder usually of stone inscribed with a design and written text that could be endlessly reproduced by rolling it across wet clay. Cylinder seals began to replace the simpler and less useful stamp seals in the fourth millennium b. c.e. (see photos pp. 63, 90, 92, 208, 247).

DAGAN A West Semitic grain god extensively worshipped in the Near East including Mari. He was assimilated into the Mesopotamian pantheon in a subordinate position.

DAMGULNUNA (Akk. Damkina) A mother goddess, wife of Enki and mother of Marduk. Probably another name for Ninhursaga. City goddess of Malgum, she was also worshipped in early times at Umma and Lagash. Like Enki, she received offerings of fish.

DANNA see stage.

DECIPHERMENT Breaking the code of ancient scripts. In order for decipherment to be possible there have to be substantial texts in the script; a knowledge of the underlying language is necessary unless there are bilingual inscriptions; scripts using the same or similar characters may be helpful but should not be relied on. Many Near Eastern scripts, including cuneiform, have been deciphered since their discovery in the last few centuries, but some still defy decipherment, notably Proto-Elamite.

DENDROCHRONOLOGY A method of physically dating wood that can produce accurate and precise calendar dates. It has been little used in the Near East but has had a vital secondary impact by providing data for calibrating radiocarbon dates.

DER (Modern T. Aqar) A city-state east of the Tigris in northeastern Babylonia, capital of Emutbal.

DILMUN (Akk. Tilmun) Referred to in legend as the paradise land and as the home of the immortal couple who survived the great Flood, Dilmun was known to Sumerians from the fourth millennium b. c.e., when it may be identified as Tarut Island and adjacent areas of the Arabian mainland. In the third millennium b. c.e., the name referred to the island of Bahrain as well, and around 2000 b. c.e., Failaka was also incorporated within its realms. Dilmun was an important trading state, possessing abundant freshwater, pearls, and excellent dates of its own and acting as a major entrepot for goods from farther southeast (Magan and Meluhha).

DIYALA A major river flowing down from the Zagros to join the Tigris, which acted as a main artery of trade. Its middle reaches, the Hamrin basin, were an important area of dry farming, occupied from Samarra times, whereas irrigation agriculture was practiced on the plains of the lower Diyala by the Ubaid period. The latter region formed the territory of the city of Eshnunna.

DUMUZI (Tammuz) The divine shepherd and husband of the goddess Inanna. Dumuzi was also the "elan vital" of the date palm and by extension of the vegetation that grew annually, his death coinciding with the end of the growing season for crops and birthing season for animals.

DUR-KURIGALZU (Modern Aqar Kuf) The Kassite capital founded by Kurigalzu I in the late fifteenth or early fourteenth century. It was abandoned after the fall of the Kassites. The main religious complex, including the ziggurat, was dedicated to Enlil. A substantial palace with painted walls has also been uncovered.

DUR SHARRUKIN (Modern Khorsabad) "Sargon's fortress," a city built in 717 B. C.E. by the Assyrian king Sargon II as his capital but abandoned after his ill-omened death in 706.

EA see Enki.

EANNA Name of a district of Uruk and more specifically the precinct of Inanna; possibly a separate village in Ubaid times (see photo p. 82). EARLY DYNASTIC PERIOD (ED) The period of historical and legendary kings and emerging city-states in southern Mesopotamia, from around 2900

B. C.E. to the beginning of the Akkadian Empire. It was divided into three phases, I ca. 2900-2750 b. c.e., II ca. 2750-2600, and III ca. 2600-2334 b. c.e., subdivided into IIIa and IIIb.

EBLA (Modern Tell Mardikh) The city was capital of a small independent kingdom in the Orontes valley during the Early and Middle Bronze Age. A massive wall and a number of palaces have been excavated here. It is famous for its archive of around 1,200 tablets, preserved when the city was burned down in the twenty-third or twenty-second century b. c.e. The city was abandoned after it was again fired around 1600 B. C.E.

ED Early Dynastic period q. v.

EGYPT Apart from little-understood links in the late fourth millennium (PreDynastic period), Egypt and Mesopotamia did not have much contact until the later second millennium b. c.e. when they were among the powers vying for control of the Levant and engaging in international diplomacy. In the seventh century b. c.e., Assyria briefly conquered Egypt.

EKAL MASHARTI Review Palace. Part of the royal establishment developing from the ninth century b. c.e. as a base for the ordnance, animals, and supplies for the increasingly large professional armies of the Assyrian kings. The complex also included a parade ground where the troops could be drilled and inspected, and storerooms for booty taken on campaign. "Fort Shalmaneser" at Kalhu is the best-known example.

EKALLATUM A small kingdom north of Assur, ancestral home of the eighteenth-century king, Shamshi-Adad.

EKUR "Mountain house," the temple of the supreme god Enlil in the city of Nippur, regarded as the paramount shrine by the ED and later people of southern Mesopotamia, where kings dedicated inscribed vessels and stelae to the god. Regarded as the seat of the gods' assembly, it was probably the place where the alliance of southern Mesopotamian city-states met to elect their leader.

ELAM The region to the east of Babylonia, in southwestern Iran, comprising both highland and lowland zones. The main cities were Susa and Anshan, capitals of the regions of Susiana and Anshan. From early times Elam was strongly linked culturally with its western neighbor, Mesopotamia, enjoying periods both of cooperation and of hostility. Elam also had important links with towns to the east on the Iranian plateau. Initially home to many disparate and independent groups, of which only some spoke the language known as Elamite, Elam came to denote a polity of variable size, often known locally as Susa and Anshan.

ELAMITE A language spoken by the people of southwestern Iran, the inhabitants of Elam, although other languages were also spoken there. Elamite is not related with certainty to any other known language.

EMAR (Modern Meskeneh) A town strategically situated at the main crossing of the Euphrates on routes linking Mesopotamia to the Levant, Anatolia, and the Mediterranean. Emar was important from the third millennium B. C.E. until its fall in 1185 b. c.e.

EMESAL (Akk. luru / ummisallu) A Sumerian dialect with some differences in sound and vocabulary, used by women. It was also used in some liturgical songs.

EMUTBAL An Amorite kingdom in the east of Mesopotamia, whose rulers gained control of Larsa in 1834 b. c.e.

EN 1. Sumerian: "lord." The main religious and political leader of early Sumerian cities. Later his function probably became purely religious. 2. (Akk. entu) The title used for high priestesses, such as that of Nanna in Ur.

ENHEDUANNA Daughter of Sargon and entu-priestess at Ur. She both collected sacred texts and herself composed hymns, and is the first author in the world to whom we can give a name.

ENKI (Akk. Ea) God of the freshwater ocean (Abzu) and of wisdom and magic, who was well disposed toward humanity and helped them on a number of occasions. His main shrine, E-abzu ("house of the Abzu"), was at Eridu, and dates back into the Ubaid period. Enki played a leading role in the Creation, shaping lesser gods and everything the gods might need including, eventually, humanity from clay softened with the water of the Abzu.

ENLIL (Akk. Ellil) "Lord Air," the god of the wind, particularly the life-giving winds of spring. Also known as Nunmanir. Usually portrayed as the son of An, but sometimes seen as the son of two earlier offspring of primordial ocean. He was the ruler of the gods until supplanted by Marduk during the second millennium b. c.e.

ENMERKAR Legendary king of Uruk, said to be the son of Utu, father of Lugalbanda and grandfather of Gilgamesh. He is the protagonist of a poem "Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta," in which he attempts to gain precious materials from Aratta to build a temple for Inanna, and features in several other poems that also deal with relations between Aratta and Mesopotamia, including "Enmerkar and En-suhgir-ana."

ENMETENA King of Lagash ca. 2404-2375 b. c.e. He defeated Umma and restored the disputed boundary between the two states, and he built a canal linking the Euphrates to the Tigris.

ENSI Originally a steward, an official responsible for supervising the cultivated land of a settlement, but later the governor of a city or the king of a minor city.

ENTU see en.

ENUMA ANA BIT MARSIASHIPU ILLIKU "When the exorcist is going to the house of the patient... ," a medical collection of some forty tablets listing omens, symptoms, and aspects of the patient to be observed along with some prognoses and a few magical treatments.

ENUMA ANU ENLIL "When Anu and Enlil... ," the first words and title of the principal collection of astronomical observations and their interpretation as omens.

ENUMA ELISH "When on High. . . ," the first words and title of the Babylonian Epic of Creation, composed around 1100 b. c.e. This polished work recounts the emergence of the gods and Marduk's creation of the world, justifying the political preeminence of Marduk and his city, Babylon.

EPIC OF ERRA Composed in Akkadian around 1000-800 b. c.e. by Kapti-ilani-Marduk after it was revealed to him in a dream, the epic tells the story of a disastrous period when Marduk leaves control of the world in the hands of Erra, god of strife. This reflects the period of international disturbance around the end of the second millennium b. c.e.

EPONYM A year known by the name of an Assyrian official, the limmu. By the first millennium these formed a regular pattern: The second year in a king's reign took his name, followed by five years named after the chief state officials, and the names of provincial governors were used thereafter. Careful eponym lists were kept, as they were vital for various recording purposes.

ERESH An ancient Sumerian city, possibly to be identified with modern Abu Salabikh.

ERESHKIGAL (Akk. Allatu) Daughter of Nanna and ruler of the netherworld. By her first husband Gugulanna, she bore Ninazu, father of Ningishzida, both underworld deities; later she was courted by Nergal who became her co-ruler in the underworld.

ERIDU (Sum. Eridug) One of the earliest Sumerian cities, and in myth the first city created by Enki when he brought order to the world. It was located on an island of higher ground in the southern Mesopotamian marshland and was believed to sit within the Abzu, the freshwater ocean underlying the Earth, the realm of Enki whose principal shrine was located here. This existed by Ubaid times and was venerated, renovated, and embellished by monarchs long after the settlement itself had been abandoned.

ERRA (Sum. Nergal) Originally a separate deity, Erra later became syncretized with Nergal. God of strife, pestilence, and destruction, he was the protagonist in a late-second-millennium poem "The Epic of Erra" that reflected the political, military, and economic chaos of the times.

ESAGILA The temple of Marduk at Babylon.

ESHE A measure of area, equivalent to 6 iku—around 2.16 hectares.

ESHNUNNA (Modern Tell Asmar) A city on the Diyala in northeast Babylonia, capital of the state of Warium. The city existed in the ED period but expanded greatly in the later third millennium when large temples and palaces were built here. It was one of the cities that vied for power in the Isin-Larsa period but was conquered by Hammurabi in 1763 and abandoned a few years later.

ETANA A legendary king of Kish, whose story survives in incomplete Akkadian texts. The childless king prays to Shamash for an heir. Following the god's advice, he rescues an injured eagle from a pit where it has been cast, without its feathers, as punishment for betraying its sworn friendship with a snake. Etana cares for the eagle until its feathers regrow, when it takes him on its back and flies with him to Heaven to obtain the Plant of Birth (a scene illustrated on cylinder seals). The end of the story is lost, but the Sumerian King List shows that Etana eventually had a son (see photo p. 208).

ETEMENANKI "Foundation of Heaven and Earth": the ziggurat of Marduk (the "Tower of Babel") in Babylon.

EUPHRATES The more amenable of the two rivers that watered Mesopotamia. The majority of Babylonian cities were built along its many branches.

FAIENCE A paste of silica grains such as quartz sand, lime, and an alkali such as soda or potash, mixed with water and heated to around 800-950 degrees centigrade (1440-740 Fahrenheit) when the grains sinter and the surface melts to form a glaze. Ash made by burning desert plants supplied the lime, soda, and potash. Copper oxide was added to the mixture, colouring the faience blue, turquoise or green. Faience was made in Mesopotamia from the mid-fifth millennium.

“FORT SHALMANESER” The ekal masharti of Kalhu, built by Shalmaneser III.

GAGUM (Akk.) Sacred household of naditums dedicated to the worship of particular gods (such as Shamash and Aya at Sippar), and including a range of personnel, from administrators and scribes to laborers and slaves.

GALA (Akk. kalum) Lamentation priest, a post possibly held by a homosexual, transvestite, or eunuch.

GESHTINANNA A rural goddess, sister of the fertility god Dumuzi and his chief mourner when he was taken to the netherworld. She became a substitute for him there to allow him to return to Earth for six months of the year, and acted as a scribe to the queen of the underworld, Ereshkigal.

GILGAMESH Legendary king of Uruk, who may have lived around 2600 b. c.e., although some scholars place him up to 200 years earlier. Many stories were told of him, from his conflict with the historical king Agga of Kish to his wanderings in search of immortality; these enjoyed wide popularity in the ancient Near East. After his death he became a judge in the underworld.

GILGAMESH EPIC The story of Gilgamesh is known from five Sumerian poems of the Ur III period, which recount separate episodes in his life; from an epic poem of the eighteenth century b. c.e., Shutur eli sharri "Surpassing all other kings," preserved only as fragments, and its successor, Sha naqba imuru "He who saw the Deep," known also as the Standard Version, composed in the late second millennium b. c.e.

GN see shekel.

GIPARU (Sum.) The residence of the moon god Nanna, his wife Ningal, and the important entu, priestess who served him, located within the precinct of Nanna at Ur.

GIRSU (Modern Telloh) Located in the territory of Lagash, it rose to the position of the principal city during ED times, eclipsing Lagash city. The city deity was Ningirsu (identified with Ninurta); records from the temple of his wife, Bau (or Baba), were for a long time the main source of information on the organization of early temple estates. The city has also yielded many fine stone statues and stelae such as the "Stele of the Vultures" and many statues of Gudea. It declined from the late third millennium.

GLACIS A steep artificial mound of earth over a mudbrick or stone core, faced with clay or lime, on which a city's walls were erected. A glacis slowed and hampered attacks and made it more difficult for the attackers to set up scaling ladders.

GUN see talent.

GUR A Sumerian measure of volume (bushel), equivalent to 5 bariga—around 300 liters.

GUTI (Gutians) The inhabitants of Gutium, a mountainous region in the Zagros, whose raids troubled the latter years of the Akkadian Empire. They seized control of part of Sumer and Akkad until expelled by Utu-hegal of Uruk around 2120.

HAMMURABI King of Babylon 1792-1750 b. c.e. who extended his small kingdom into a great empire by military campaigning, diplomacy, and ruthlessness, driving out the Elamites and Guti, and conquering the cities of Babylonia and the middle Euphrates. He took a keen interest in administration and justice (see photos pp. 88, 246).

HARRAN A city on the Balikh in northern Mesopotamia, an area associated with the Aramaeans and with biblical figures, including Abraham and Jacob. The moon god Sin was its patron deity. It was the last stronghold of Assyrian resistance to the Babylonians, falling in 610. Thereafter it was controlled by the Medes until the conquest by the Persians in the reign of the Babylonian king Nabonidus, a native of the city and devotee of Sin. He restored the temples neglected by the Medes.

HATTUSAS (Modern Bogazkhoy) An Anatolian town containing an Assyrian karum in the nineteenth century b. c.e., it later became the capital city of the Hittite Empire.

HITTITES The Indo-European-speaking inhabitants of Anatolia, whose empire began to develop around 1700 b. c.e., reaching its peak around 1400-1200 B. C.E. when it controlled much of the Euphrates region and the northern Levant, bringing it into conflict with Egypt and Mitanni.

HUMBABA see Huwawa.

HURRIAN A language of the Caucasian family. Individuals with Hurrian names are mentioned in texts from at least the time of the Akkadian Empire.

HUWAWA The demon of the Cedar Mountain, the guardian appointed by Enlil, who was slain by Gilgamesh and Enkidu after they deprived him of his "auras" by trickery. In the Standard Version of the Gilgamesh epic he is called Humbaba.

IGIGI (Igigu) Originally in OB times a collective term for the chief gods, it later came to mean all the gods of Heaven, contrasted with Anunnakki, the gods of the Earth and the underworld.

IKU A measure of area, equivalent to 100 sar—around 0.36 hectares.

IMDUGUD see Anzu.

INANNA (Akk. Ishtar) Variously portrayed as the daughter of An, Nanna, Enlil, or Enki. Goddess of love, war, rain and storms, the morning and evening star, and various more minor responsibilities. The goddess of prostitutes and carnal love, she had no connection with motherhood and little with matrimony, the Sacred Marriage in which she took part being essentially a fertility ritual, rapidly followed in mythology by the death of her spouse, Dumuzi. She was one of the most important deities, playing a leading role in many myths. Inanna was the patron deity of Uruk, and initially of Agade, and was worshipped in Kish as the wife of the city's deity, Zababa, and, according to the poem "Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta," in distant Aratta in eastern Iran.

ISHKUR Sumerian name for the storm god, called Adad in Akkadian. Revered in the north as a source of life-giving rain, in the south he was more feared as the bringer of storms, hail, and floods.

ISHME-DAGAN Son of Shamshi-Adad I, and his viceroy in Ekallatum. He spent much time campaigning against the Elamites and Eshnunna. After succeeding his father in 1776, he gradually lost lands, becoming a vassal of Hammurabi from 1764 until his death in 1741.

ISHTAR Patron goddess of Nineveh and Arbil, among other cities, and Assyrian goddess of war. Probably originally a separate goddess but early syncretized with Inanna.

ISIN Capital city of the eponymous state that gained control of most of southern Babylonia after the fall of the Ur III Empire. Its territories shrank in competition with other emerging states, and it was conquered by Larsa around 1794 b. c.e.

ISIN-LARSA PERIOD The period from the fall of the Ur III Empire in 2004 to the creation of Hammurabi's empire in the 1760s. Many states vied for power during this period, with Isin initially dominant and Larsa becoming the major power after 1794.

ISRAEL A kingdom that emerged in the early first millennium in the southern Levant. Traditionally, after the death of Solomon it was partitioned into Israel in the north with its capital at Samaria and Judah in the south. Until its fall to Assyria in 720 b. c.e., it was constantly at the mercy of its powerful neighbors, Egypt and Assyria, and in conflict with Judah and other local kingdoms.

JEMDET NASR A settlement north of Kish occupied from the later Uruk to early ED periods, which has given its name to the intervening Jemdet Nasr (JN) period. A large number of tablets with early writing were excavated here in a building that was probably a palace.

JIROFT see Aratta.

JN Jemdet Nasr period, ca. 3100-2900 b. c.e.

JUDAH The southern kingdom after the traditional partition of Israel in the late tenth century, it retained control of the capital, Jerusalem. It suffered periodic attacks by Israel and Assyria, and finally fell to the Babylonians in 586 B. C.E., when many of its leading people were deported.

KALAM "The Land"—the Sumerian name for Babylonia.

KALHU (Modern Nimrud, biblical Calah) Originally a small administrative centre, Kalhu was the Assyrian capital from 863 to 707 b. c.e. and remained an important city thereafter. Palaces were built here by Ashurnasirpal II, who also transformed the original settlement into a magnificent city, Shalmaneser III, Adad-Nirari III, Tiglath-Pileser III, and Esarhaddon. In 1990 the lavishly furnished tombs of three Assyrian royal ladies were discovered in Ashurnasirpal's palace. The city was sacked in 612 B. C.E. when the Assyrian Empire crumbled.

KANESH (Modern Kultepe) An Anatolia town with a substantial foreign merchant quarter (karum) in its lower town. Merchants from a number of cities operated here, including Assur. The destruction of the town by fire preserved the merchants' archive of tablets, mainly dealing with their trade but alluding also to personal matters.

KAR-TUKULTI-NINURTA A new capital 3 kilometers north of Assur built by Tukulti-Ninurta I but abandoned after his death in 1207.

KARANA A trading city in northern Mesopotamia, often identified with Tell al-Rimah where an extensive OB archive was discovered.

KARUM Literally "quay"—a trading colony or commercial center, such as that established in the nineteenth-century Anatolian town of Kanesh; many cities had a karum outside their walls.

KASSITE The language spoken by the Kassites, apparently unrelated to any known language. Only a few words in the Kassite language survive, mostly names, although there are also two short Akkadian-Kassite word lists.

KASSITE PERIOD The Kassite king Agum II seized power in Babylonia around 1570 B. C.E. and the dynasty survived until 1155.

KASSITES A tribal group probably originally from the Zagros, who gradually settled in Babylonia as laborers and mercenaries in the early second millennium b. c.e. After the fall of Hammurabi's dynasty, Kassites seized control. Their reign was a time of peace, prosperity, and cultural development.

KHORSABAD see Dur Sharrukin.

KI (Akk. Irsitu) 1. The goddess of Earth, also known as Urash. From her union with An came all plants. 2. The Earth, with the Abzu, the Ocean, and the Netherworld; contrasted with An, "On High."

KING LIST A list of kings giving their length of reign and often city and parentage, sometimes with other information. The earliest is the Sumerian King List, running from before the Flood to the fall of Isin; others list Babylonian and Assyrian kings from the early second millennium onward.

KISH (Modern Tell Ingharra and Tell Uhaimir) An important northern Sumerian city, occupied from the Ubaid period into Achaemenid times. Excavated remains of the ED city include a large administrative building, a cemetery with chariot burials, and two ziggurats. By the late ED period

The title "King of Kish" implied some form of authority over the cities of Sumer (see photo p. 72).

KUDURRU A land grant record, particularly applied to stone examples from the Kassite period, which were carved with relief designs of gods or their symbols and sometimes of the king. They bore details of land grants and tax exemptions from kings to their loyal followers. Later kudurrus were often humbler records in the form of tablets and could refer to private transfers of land (see photos pp. 94, 213).

KUSH see cubit.

LAGASH (Modern Al-Hiba, Sum. Urukug) One of the major Sumerian city-states in ED times, frequently in conflict with Umma over disputed border territory. It enjoyed a period of prominence after the fall of the Akkadian dynasty, particularly under Gudea. Its first city, Lagash, was eclipsed by the city of Girsu during the ED period.

LAMASHTU Evil she-demon, daughter of the god Anu, who attacked unborn children and young babies and brought disease more generally.

LAND, THE Kalam, the Sumerian name for Sumer and Akkad.

LAPIS LAZULI A beautiful and highly valued blue stone; the only source known to the people of the ancient Near East was Badakhshan in Afghanistan.

LARSA (Modern Senkereh) A city south of Uruk that gained control over much of Babylonia in the early second millennium b. c.e. Under the Amorite dynasty founded by Kudur-Mabuk in 1834 and particularly under Rim-Sin I Larsa's power grew, defeating its main rival Isin in 1794. It succumbed to Hammurabi in 1763, after a six-month siege.

LAW CODES Royal statements of social, economic, and legal policy or reforms, expressed in the form of a code of practice; these probably did not determine day-to-day legal practice.

LEVEE A riverbed and surrounding banks raised above the level of the plain through which the river flows. Levees are formed in regions of low gradient like southern Mesopotamia where periodic floods cause the river to overtop its banks. The resulting reduction in the velocity of the river's flow causes much of the silt it was carrying to be deposited in its bed and on its banks, progressively raising them.

LIMMU see eponym.

LOGOGRAM A sign representing a word: This has the same meaning in different languages but a different spoken form.

LOST-WAX CASTING see cire-perdue.

LUDLUL The "Poem of the Righteous Sufferer," an Akkadian lamentation of 500 lines spread over four tablets, recounting the sufferings of a virtuous individual, his attempts to understand his misfortunes, and eventual resignation to the situation where the gods may have to cause an individual suffering while maintaining the greater good of the world.

LUGAL (Akk. sharrum) "Great Man." A title given to war leaders that later came to mean king. His duties included leading the army in defense of the city and acting as judge.

LUGALBANDA Legendary king of Uruk, son of Enmerkar and father of Gilgamesh. Taken ill in the journey to Aratta, he was left to recover and experienced a number of supernatural adventures.

LUGALE A poem recounting the myth of Ninurta's defeat of the monster Asag.

LUGALZAGESI Governor of Umma from ca. 2349 b. c.e., conqueror of Lagash, and king of Uruk from 2340. He gained control of Ur and the approval of Nippur and went on to create an empire in Sumer with influence through much of the north. He was defeated around 2316 b. c.e. by Sargon.

LULLUBI People from the mountains to the east who were referred to in Akkadian times.

MAGAN A name probably applied to the Makran coast of Iran but mainly to the Oman peninsula where substantial deposits of copper ore were mined. Its inhabitants traded with Mesopotamia and Dilmun, Meluhha, and probably southern Arabia and East Africa.

MANA see mina.

MANNAI A state in northwest Iran, east of the Zagros.

MANU see mina.

MARDUK Son of Enki and Damgalnuna, Marduk was the patron deity of Babylon and rose to prominence in the pantheon as his city gained in importance. The Babylonian Creation story, Enuma elish, written down around 1100 b. c.e., provides a mythological justification for his achievement of supreme divine power. Marduk was often referred to as Bel, meaning "Lord."

MARI A city in the middle Euphrates region, founded in the ED period. The royal palace is well preserved and has been completely excavated, giving a detailed picture of the layout and functioning of royal households. Mari controlled a city-state in the early second millennium, when much is known about public and royal private life here from letters and other documents preserved in the palace archive when the town was sacked by Hammurabi in 1757 b. c.e.

MARTU (Akk. amurru) 1. The Amorites q. v. 2. A nomadic shepherd god associated with the Amorites; he was depicted in art dressed in nomad garb, carrying a shepherd's crook and sometimes with a gazelle under his arm. When the Amorites began to settle in Babylonia, Martu was incorporated into the Babylonian pantheon: He married the daughter of the god Numushda, despite the latter's warnings that Martu and his people were uncivilized savages who ate raw meat and did not live in houses or bury their dead.

MASHKAN SHAPIR (Modern Tell Abu Dhuwari) Second city of the kingdom of Larsa during the nineteenth and eighteenth centuries b. c.e. Its layout has been recorded by surface survey with limited excavation. The city was traversed by at least six canals, with two large harbors. The southern sector of the city housed the temple of Nergal and other religious buildings. Administrative buildings and a walled cemetery lay in the southwest. Industrial activity was found throughout the settlement although there were also concentrations of pottery making, copper, and stone working in particular sectors of the walled city.

ME (Akk. parsu) A key Sumerian religious concept, the ME were the divine powers behind all the features of civilization, encompassing not only the benefits such as kingship, peace, justice, crafts, writing, and the arts, but also the less attractive aspects such as slander, perjury, and prostitution. Generally they were held by the supreme gods, An, Enlil, or Enki.

MEBARAGESI A king of Kish mentioned in the Sumerian King List (where he is called Enmebaragesi—lord Mebaragesi), father of Gilgamesh's opponent Agga. His historical reality is attested by two early ED inscriptions bearing his name.

MEDES An Indo-European-speaking people, who created a kingdom in western Iran in the eighth century b. c.e. and spread westward, allying with the Babylonians to bring about the downfall of Assyria.

MELUHHA 1. The Indus civilization that flourished between ca. 2600 and 1800 B. C.E. in the valleys of the Indus and Saraswati Rivers and adjacent areas. Traders from Meluhha were present in Sumer and Akkad, bringing many important raw materials, but there is no evidence that the Sumerians ventured as far afield as Meluhha. 2. In the first millennium b. c.e. the name Meluhha was transferred to Nubia.

MICROMORPHOLOGY The study of a thin section of a soil sample under the microscope, which can yield data on formation processes and composition that can reveal information on the environment and human effects upon it, and on the activities that took place in parts of a settlement.

MINA Sumerian mana, Akkadian manu, a measure of weight, equivalent to 60 shekels—around 500 grams.

MITANNI The Hurrian kingdom that flourished in northern Mesopotamia ca. 1600-1100 B. C.E., controlling Assyria and other neighboring smaller states, and rivaling the Hittites and Egyptians.

MUSHHUSSSHU "Furious snake," a dragon with horns on its forehead, a snake's head, body, and tail, the forelegs of a lion and hindlegs of a bird of prey. Principally known as the attendant of Marduk, this creature was also associated with Enlil and Marduk's son Nabu and became associated with Ashur when the Assyrians under Sennacherib conquered Babylonia.

MUSHKI A region and its people probably identifiable as Phrygia in Anatolia. In the eighth century it was initially hostile to Assyria but later allied with it.

NABONIDUS Last king of Babylonia 555-539 b. c.e. He spent ten years of his reign in the oasis of Taima, outside Babylonia; his son Belshazzar acted as his viceroy in Babylon.

NABU God of scribes and writing and, by extension, wisdom; minister, and later son, of the Babylonian supreme deity Marduk; his wife was Nisaba who had earlier been the patron deity of writing. Beautifully written texts were often deposited as votive offerings from scribes in the shrines of Nabu.

NAMMU The mother of creation. In one version of the Mesopotamian Creation myths she was the primordial water from which all creation arose; in others she was the wife of An and mother of Enki. Jacobsen suggests she was the power in the riverbed to produce water.

NANNA (Also known as Suen or Nanna-Suen; Akk. Sin) God of the moon, patron deity of the city of Ur. Nanna was the father of a number of major deities, notably Utu, Inanna, and Ereshkigal (see photo p. 223).

NARAM-SIN Fourth king of the Akkadian dynasty, 2254-2218 b. c.e. He campaigned widely and was made a god during his lifetime.

NEBUCHADREZZAR II King of Babylonia 604-562 b. c.e. As crown prince he completed the conquest of Assyria and brought peace to the united realm. He undertook major building work in Babylon and other cities.

NEO-ASSYRIAN PERIOD The period of Assyria's greatest expansion, from the accession of Tiglath-Pileser II in 966 to its fall to the Babylonians and Medes in 609 b. c.e.

NEO-BABYLONIAN PERIOD The period in Babylonia contemporary with the rise and fall of the Assyrian Empire, and particularly the period from the expulsion of the Assyrians in 626, when Babylonia became the major power in the Near East, to the fall of Babylon in 539 b. c.e.

NERGAL (Akk. Erra) A son of Enlil and his wife Ninlil or Belet-ili, Nergal was a warlike deity who violently courted Ereshkigal, Queen of the Underworld, and became her co-ruler. Originally a separate deity he became closely identified with Erra, both being associated with plague and other forms of disaster and violent or sudden death.

NEW YEAR FESTIVAL Also known as akitu, this was the principal festival in Babylon, celebrating both the beginning of the year and the supreme role of Marduk, the city's patron deity, and reaffirming the responsibilities of the king. The New Year began around the spring equinox, the time of the barley harvest, the celebration of which was also marked by the festival.

NIMRUD see Kalhu.

NIMRUD IVORIES A huge assemblage of thousands of ivories, mainly decorations from furniture, excavated from various parts of Nimrud, notably Fort Shalmaneser, the Burnt Palace, and wells in the North-West Palace, where they had been abandoned by looters in 612 b. c.e. Originally the ivory objects and the furniture decorated with ivory had been either in use in the palaces or stored in Fort Shalmaneser: They were acquired as royal gifts, tribute or booty by Assyrian kings from Ashurnasirpal II to Ashurbanipal.

NINDAN (Akk.) A measure of length, equivalent to 12 cubits—about 6 meters.

NINEVEH (Ancient Ninua) A settlement on the Tigris established in the seventh millennium b. c.e. and already substantial by the Ninevite 5 period (the regional equivalent to the ED period in the south). Shalmaneser I and later kings built palaces here, and Sennacherib made it the Assyrian capital. Prominent mounds, now called Kuyunjik and Nebi Yunus, attracted the attention of early excavators: The former was the citadel, where Sennacherib's "Palace without a Rival" and Ashurbanipal's palace have yielded magnificent reliefs and Ashurbanipal's library; the latter held the royal arsenal.

NINGAL A goddess, wife of the moon god Nanna and worshipped along with him at Ur and Harran. Mother of Utu (Shamash).

NINGIRSU Patron deity of Girsu, the capital of Lagash state, and identified with Ninurta, god of storms. On the "Stele of the Vultures," an ED victory stele, he is shown gathering the defeated enemy from the rival state of Umma into a net.

NINHURSAGA (Akk. Belit-ili) "Lady of the Foothills." Also known as Damgalnuna, Nintur, and Ninmah. She was the principal mother goddess, involved in the various versions of the creation of humanity. Sometimes depicted as the wife of Enlil to whom she bore Ninurta and the gods of Summer and Winter, she is alternatively his sister or the wife of Enki. She was worshipped as Ninmah in the city of Adab and also had connections with Kish.

NINISINA (Akk. Gula) "Lady of Isin," daughter of An, and patron deity of the city of Isin. She became a Great Goddess during that city's period of power, usurping Inanna's position as goddess of war. Goddess of healing and divine midwife, she became identified with the Semitic goddess Gula in the late OB period.

NINLIL Also known as Sud. A goddess, wife of Enlil, and mother of Nanna. She was probably a mother goddess and a goddess of grain.

NINMAH Another name for the mother goddess, Ninhursaga, and patron deity of the city of Adab.

NINURTA The god of storms, the spring flood, and warfare, Ninurta was often associated with the mountain foothills, realm of his mother Ninhursaga. Inventor of the plough and of irrigation, he was particularly associated with agriculture, whereas Ishkur, another storm god, was associated with pastoralism. His principal shrine was at Nippur.

NIPPUR (Sum. Nibru) One of the principal cities in ED and later times, Nippur was never the political center of a larger entity but instead enjoyed spiritual authority as the home of the ruling god Enlil, until this role was usurped by Marduk and Babylon. Here the gods met in assembly, possibly mirroring an assembly of ED kings. In addition to Enlil's shrine, Ekur, the city had temples to Inanna, Ninurta, and other deities. Excavations uncovered many OB texts in what was probably the scribal quarter of the city.

NUZI (Modern Yorgan Tepe) A settlement east of the Tigris, occupied from the Ubaid period. It was a provincial town of the kingdom of Arrapha in the Mitanni Empire, mainly occupied by Hurrian speakers. Extensive archives give a very full picture of life here.

OBSIDIAN Volcanic glass, highly prized for its appearance and the sharpness of its flaked edge, traded in the Near East by the beginning of the Holocene Epoch.

OB Old Babylonian period q. v.

OLD AKKADIAN The Semitic language spoken in the third millennium, ancestral to Assyrian and Babylonian.

OLD BABYLONIAN PERIOD Strictly this refers to the period from the fall of Isin in 1787 to the fall of Babylon in 1595 b. c.e., but it is also used more loosely to refer to the whole period from the fall of the Ur III empire in 2004 until 1595.

ONAGER The wild steppe ass, Equus hemionus. This intractable beast was never fully domesticated, but crossing it with the domestic donkey produced an animal that was both strong and docile. References to onagers pulling vehicles generally mean this hybrid.

OSTRACON (pl. ostraca, also ostrakon, ostraka) The Greek word for potsherd (sherd), referring specifically to a piece of pottery used as a writing medium and frequently as "scrap-paper."

OSTRAKA see ostracon.

‘OUEILI, TELL EL - The solitary seventh-millennium settlement currently known in southern Mesopotamia.

PAZUZU A first-millennium demon, god of the winds. Despite his grotesque and forbidding appearance, he was benevolent, warding off harmful winds and driving away the demoness Lamashtu who threatened infants and unborn children. Amulets of Pazuzu were often worn by pregnant women.

PERSIANS Indo-European speakers living in western Iran by the first millennium B. C.E. and including both the tribes known as Medes (q. v.) and those referred to as Persians in antiquity. The latter achieved hegemony under Cyrus II from 550 b. c.e., founding the Persian or Achaemenid Empire (see also Achaemenid Period).

PHOENICIANS First-millennium descendants of the Canaanite inhabitants of the Levant coast, renowned as traders and seafarers (see photos pp. 141, 239).

PICTOGRAPH A pictorial sign used in writing.

POOR MAN OF NIPPUR A humorous folk tale about a poor man, Gimil-Ninurta, who is badly treated by the local mayor and exacts his revenge by creating three opportunities to beat him up.

POTSHERD see sherd.

PROCESSIONAL WAY A paved road leading from the city's sacred precinct to the extramural akitu temple. A processional way has been uncovered at Assur and is known from literary sources to have existed at Uruk. The best known is that of Babylon, where it ran from the Esagila, Marduk's shrine, leaving the city through the imposing Ishtar Gate. It was flanked by walls with monumental decoration showing lions. Known to the Babylonians as ai-ibur-shabu, "may the proud not flourish," this was the route taken not only by the New Year festival procession but also at the ceremonial departure and return of the army led by the king.

PROTO-ELAMITE The script devised in Elam in the late fourth millennium that died out during the ED period. Although it is assumed to render an early form of the Elamite language, this has not been demonstrated since it has not been deciphered.

PUABI A queen buried in the Royal Cemetery at Ur and named on an inscribed seal found in her tomb.

PUZRISH-DAGAN (Modern Drehem) Livestock depot under the Ur III kings, situated near Nippur. All livestock paid in taxes were brought here before being distributed to centers such as Ur and Nippur.

QARQAR A place on the Orontes where a battle was fought in 853 b. c.e. between the Assyrians and a combined force including Israel, other Levantine states, and Egyptian and Arab contingents, under the leadership of the king of Damascus.

QATNA A city in Syria, capital of an important kingdom in the early second millennium b. c.e., linked to Mesopotamia via the desert route that ran from Mari through the oasis of Tadmor (Palmyra).

QU see sila.

REBITU A public place belonging to a city ward, next to the gate inside the city wall, where the assembly met and the garrison was stationed; it was perhaps also the scene of market activities.

RIM-SIN I Second king of the Amorite dynasty of Isin, who enlarged the kingdom to include most of southern Mesopotamia. Ruling from 1822, he was finally defeated by Hammurabi in 1763 b. c.e.

SAR (Sum.) A measure of area, around 36 square meters.

SARGON II King of Assyria 721-705 b. c.e. He fought long and hard against Babylonia, gaining control of it in 709, and also campaigned against Urartu and states in the north, where he was killed in battle. He shifted Assyria's capital to Dur-Sharrukin, a new foundation, which was abandoned after his death.

SARGON OF AKKAD Founder of the city of Agade and creator of the Akkadian empire. He ruled from 2334 to 2279 b. c.e., but it is not clear how early in his reign he gained control of the city-states of Sumer.

SCYTHIANS Central Asian horse-riding nomads who attacked northern Near Eastern and Iranian states during the first millennium b. c.e. The Assyrians fought against them but also made alliances with them.

SEA PEOPLES A collective term for aggressive groups from a number of sources in the eastern and central Mediterranean, often accompanied by women and children, and therefore probably refugees from problems in their homelands. They attacked coastal states in the Near East and Egypt during the thirteenth and twelfth centuries b. c.e. Some, like the

Philistines (Peleset), settled in the regions they entered, and some found service as mercenaries.

SEALAND The marshy southern lands of Babylonia around the head of the Gulf, which offered a place of refuge for those forced to flee enemies or justice. In the second millennium two Babylonian dynasties arose here and during the first millennium it was the home of Chaldaean tribes.

SEMITIC LANGUAGES The group of languages spoken by most of the peoples of the Near East, ancient and modern.

SENNACHERIB King of Assyria 704-681 b. c.e. He campaigned for most of his reign against Babylonia and the Elamites, sacking Babylon in 689, an impious act that may have precipitated his assassination. He also fought in the north and east. He moved Assyria's capital to Nineveh where he constructed his "Palace without a Rival" (see photos pp. 169, 180).

SEVEN SAGES Seven wise men (apkallu) who lived before the Flood, representatives of seven cities. Enki selected and instructed them, entrusting them with the task of introducing the arts of civilization to humanity. They were also credited with laying the foundations of Uruk's first city walls, which Gilgamesh rebuilt. Eventually they angered the gods and were banished to the Abzu, taking on a fishy appearance: It is as men-fish that they are often depicted in Assyrian art. They are also shown as griffin-demons, with birds' heads and wings, purifying with pine cone and bucket.

SEXAGESIMAL Base-sixty (counting system).

SHADUF A simple device for lifting water from rivers or reservoirs, devised by the Mesopotamians in or before the third millennium b. c.e. This consisted of a horizontal beam fixed to an upright but able to pivot, with a bucket on one end that was pulled down and dipped into the water. When released, a counterweight on the other end of the beam raised the bucket, which could then be emptied into a trough or irrigation channel.

SHALMANESER III King of Assyria 858-824 b. c.e. He extended the Assyrian realms to the Euphrates and campaigned over an area from the southern Levant to Babylonia and western Iran; he also constructed the Review Palace at Kalhu (see photos pp. 31, 98, 99, 168).

SHAMASH (Sum. Utu) God of the sun and divine patron of justice; sometimes regarded as the son of Anu or Enlil, unlike his Sumerian counterpart. He shared a temple with Sin (Nanna) in Assur (see photo p. 246).

SHAMSHI-ADAD I A member of the Amorite ruling house of t