H 276 x W 203 mm
246 pages
114 figures, 6 tables (colour throughout)
Published Mar 2024
ISBN
Paperback: 9781803276694
Digital: 9781803276700
Keywords
Early Mesopotamia; Urban plan; Domestic Architecture; Agriculture; Industry; City-state Politics; Cuneiform Library
Related titles
This book presents the city beneath the surface of Abu Salabikh, southern Iraq. The archaeology and the textual data combine to reveal its architecture, agricultural and industrial enterprises, and social structure. Integrated with our wider knowledge of south Mesopotamia at this time it creates a vivid image of city life in 2600 BC.
Introduction
Chapter 1. The site and the environment
Chapter 2. The mounds and the city layout
Chapter 3. Buildings and builders
Chapter 4. Burials and memorials
Chapter 5. The temple and the tablets
Chapter 6. The temple estates
Chapter 7. Textiles, clay and stone
Chapter 8. Ornamental stones and metals
Chapter 9. The ensi and his city
Chapter 10. Kingships and patron deities
Chapter 11. Cities and states: recognition and rivalry
Chapter 12. Abu Salabikh in context
Appendix 1. Ereš and Nisaba
Appendix 2 ki.en-gi
Appendix 3. Records of land allocations
Appendix 4. The profession PA.USAN
Bibliographical matters
Bibliography
Nicholas Postgate taught Akkadian at SOAS in London from 1967-71 and then moved to the British School of Archaeology in Baghdad until 1980 when he returned to teach Mesopotamian history and archaeology at Cambridge, and later Sumerian and Akkadian language and literature, retiring in 2013. His main archaeological project in Iraq was Abu Salabikh, though he also worked at Tell Madhhur and under Diana Kirkbride at Umm Dabaghiyah. After Iraq became out of bounds in 1990 he directed the Bronze and Iron Age excavation at Kilise Tepe in Rough Cilicia from 1994 to 1998 and again in 2007-2012. Alongside his books, Early Mesopotamia: society and economy at the dawn of history (1992) and Bronze Age bureaucracy: writing and the practice of government in Assyria (2013), he has edited Middle and Neo-Assyrian archives, co-edited the Concise Dictionary of Akkadian, and written articles on various historical topics, and recently on Sumerian grammar.