Adab (city)

Adab (Sumerian: 𒌓𒉣𒆠 Adabki, spelled UD.NUNKI) was an ancient Sumerian city between Girsu and Nippur, lying about 35 kilometers (22 miles) southeast of the latter. It was located at the site of modern Bismaya or Bismya in the Al-Qādisiyyah Governorate of Iraq. The site was occupied at least as early as the 3rd millennium BC, through the Early Dynastic, Akkadian Empire, and Ur III Empire periods, into the Kassite period in the mid-2nd millennium BC. It is known that there were temples of Ninhursag/Digirmah, Iskur, Asgi, Inanna and Enki at Adab and that the city-god of Adab was Parag'ellilegarra (Panigingarra) "The Sovereign Appointed by Enlil".

Bismaya is not to be confused with the small, later (Old Babylonian and Sassanian periods) archaeological site named Tell Bismaya, 9 kilometers (5.6 miles) east of the confluence of the Diyala and the Tigris rivers, excavated by Iraqi archaeologists in the 1980s or Tell Basmaya, southeast of modern Baghdad, excavated by Iraqi archaeologists in 2013-2014.

Archaeology

The 400-hectare site consists of a number of mounds distributed over an area about 1.5 kilometres (0.93 mi) long and 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) wide, consisting of a number of low ridges, nowhere exceeding 12 metres (39 ft) in height, lying somewhat nearer to the Tigris than the Euphrates, about a day's journey to the southeast of Nippur. It was surrounded by a double wall. In total there are twelve mounds of which two (Mounds X and XII) are the result of sand dredged from the Iturungal canal, though some rooms and 20 tablets were found on the northern extension of X. Persons reported working on mound XIV and mound XVI but there is no record where they lay. Some private houses were noted outside the east wall. Notable mounds were

Mound I - Palace, Isin/Larsa - Old Babylonian Periods. About 33 meters by 25 meters.