Nippur: Iraq’s ancient city still revealing Mesopotamia’s secrets – Shafaq News

Shafaq News- Al-Diwaniyah

More than 4,000 years after emerging as the spiritual heart
of ancient Mesopotamia, the archaeological city of Nippur in Iraq’s
Al-Diwaniyah province continues to yield discoveries that deepen understanding
of the Sumerian, Akkadian, and Babylonian civilizations.

Near the town of Nafar in Afaq district, the sprawling ruins
are marked by towering mounds, mud-brick structures, and scattered pottery
fragments. At their center stand the remains of the ancient ziggurat and
adjoining temples, once among the most revered religious complexes in
Mesopotamia.

During a visit, Shafaq News observed visitors walking among
pottery shards and ancient remains, enduring traces of a settlement that for
centuries shaped the religious life of southern Mesopotamia. Bassem Jabbar,
director of Al-Diwaniyah’s Antiquities and Heritage Department, explained that
Nippur’s exceptional standing rested on the Temple of Enlil, dedicated to the
supreme deity of the Sumerian pantheon.

“Although Nippur was never the political capital of a
Sumerian or Babylonian kingdom, its religious status gave it exceptional
influence throughout Mesopotamia.”

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He traced archaeological exploration of Nippur to 1851, with
large-scale excavations beginning in 1889 under the University of Pennsylvania.
Those missions unearthed thousands of cuneiform tablets, one of the world’s
oldest known city maps, the ziggurat, temples, and an extensive library
preserving Sumerian, Babylonian, and Assyrian writings on religion, literature,
administration, economics, mathematics, and astronomy.

Today, Iraq’s State Board of Antiquities and Heritage and an
American archaeological mission conduct annual excavations that continue to
uncover artifacts and expand knowledge of the ancient city, Jabbar added.

Among the most important discoveries are the monumental
ziggurat dedicated to Enlil and the Ekur Temple, or “Mountain House,” his
principal sanctuary and one of Mesopotamia’s holiest religious sites.
Archaeologists have also identified dozens of occupation layers dating to the
Uruk period, alongside bronze statues, clay tablets, cylinder seals, pottery,
and metal tools.

From the summit of the ziggurat, visitors can overlook the
remains of a city that influenced Mesopotamian religious traditions for
millennia. Nippur is also linked to Enheduanna, daughter of the Akkadian king
Sargon and the earliest known named author in recorded history. Although she
served as high priestess of the moon god Nanna in Ur, Enlil’s sanctuary
retained its position as one of the region’s foremost places of worship.

The thousands of cuneiform tablets recovered from Nippur,
according to Jabbar, form one of the richest documentary archives from the
ancient Near East, preserving commercial contracts, administrative records,
school exercises, scientific writings, myths, and religious texts.

He also pointed out that the archaeological city remains on
UNESCO’s Tentative List of World Heritage Sites while Iraqi authorities
continue to fulfill the technical and administrative requirements for full
inscription.

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