Sippar, city-state of
Years: 3100BCE - 1
Sippar (Sumerian: Zimbir) is an ancient Near Eastern city on the east bank of the Euphrates river, located at the site of modern Tell Abu Habbah in Iraq's Babil Governorate, some 60 km north of Babylon and 30 km southeast of Baghdad.
Given that thousands of cuneiform tablets have been recovered at the site, relatively little is known about the history of Sippar.
As is often the case in Mesopotamia, it is part of a pair of cities, separated by a river.
Sippar is on the east side of the Euphrates, while its sister city, Sippar-Amnanum, is on the west.While pottery finds indicate that the site of Sippar was in use as early as the Uruk period, substantial occupation occurs only in the Early Dynastic period of the 3rd millennium BCE, the Old Babylonian period of the 2nd millennium BCE, and the Neo-Babylonian time of the 1st millennium BCE.
Lesser levels of use continue into the time of the Achaemenid, Seleucid and Parthian Empires.Sippar is the cult site of the sun god (Sumerian Utu, Akkadian Shamash) and the home of his temple E-babbara.
