Umma

Umma (Sumerian: 𒄑𒆵𒆠 ummaKI;[1] modern Umm al-Aqarib, Dhi Qar Province in Iraq, formerly also called Gishban) was an ancient city in Sumer. There is some scholarly debate about the Sumerian and Akkadian names for this site.[2] Traditionally, Umma was identified with Tell Jokha. More recently it has been suggested that it was located at Umm al-Aqarib, less than 7 km to its northwest or was even the name of both cities.[3][4]

This article is about the Sumerian city. For the Islamic term, see Ummah. For other uses, see Umma (disambiguation).
    Umma
    Aerial view of Umma
    Umma
    Shown within Near East
    Umma
    Umma (Iraq)
    LocationDhi Qar Province, Iraq
    RegionMesopotamia
    Coordinates31°37′16.93″N 45°56′0.26″E
    TypeSettlement
    Location of the city of Umma in Sumer
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    History

    In the early Sumerian text Inanna's descent to the netherworld, Inanna dissuades demons from the netherworld from taking Shara, patron of Umma, who was living in squalor. They eventually take Dumuzid king of Uruk instead, who lived in palatial opulence.[5]

    Best known for its long frontier conflict with Lagash, as reported circa 2400 BC by Entemena,[6] the city reached its zenith c. 2275 BC, under the rule of Lugal-Zage-Si who also controlled Ur and Uruk. Under the Ur III dynasty, Umma became an important provincial centre. Most of the over 30,000 tablets recovered from the site are administrative and economic texts from that time. They permit an excellent insight into affairs in Umma.[7] The Umma calendar of Shulgi (c. 21st century BC) is the immediate predecessor of the later Babylonian calendar, and indirectly of the post-exilic Hebrew calendar. Umma appears to have been abandoned after the Middle Bronze Age.[4]

    Archaeology

    The site of Tell Jokha was visited by William Loftus in 1854 and John Punnett Peters of the University of Pennsylvania in 1885.[8][9] In the early 1900s, many illegally excavated Umma tablets from the Third Dynasty of Ur began to appear on the antiquities market.[10] Tell Jokha has been identified as Umma's dependency Gisha (or Kissa), while the site of Umma itself has been located about 6.5 km to the southeast, at Umm al-Aqarib. At Umm al-Aqarib, archaeologists uncovered levels dating as early as the Early Dynastic Period (c. 2900–2300 BCE), including several monumental buildings, one of them variously identified as a temple or palace.[4][11]

    In 2017, the Slovak Archaeological and Historical Institute began excavations at Tell Jokha.[12]

    • Stele of Ushumgal, 2900-2700 BCE. Probably from Umma.[13]
    • Vase of King Gishakidu, king of Umma, and son of Ur-Lumma. This cuneiform text gives the city of Umma's account of its long-running border dispute with Lagash. Circa 2350 BCE. From Umma, Iraq. The British Museum, London
    • Votive plaque offered by Bara-irnun, queen of Umma, to God Šara in gratitude for sparing her life. Date circa 2370 BC.[14]

    Looting
    Imprisoned man of Umma on the Stele of the Vultures
    An inscription from Umma dated c. 2130 BCE. "Lugalannatum prince of Umma... built the E.GIDRU [Sceptre] Temple at Umma, buried his foundation deposit [and] regulated the orders. At that time, Si'um was king of Gutium." (Collection of the Louvre Museum.)

    During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, after Coalition bombing began, looters descended upon the site which is now pockmarked with hundreds of ditches and pits. The prospects for future official excavation and research were seriously compromised in the process.[15]

    In 2011, Global Heritage Network, which monitors threats to cultural heritage sites in developing nations, released aerial images comparing Umma in 2003 and 2010, showing a landscape devastated by looters' trenches during that time—approximately 1.12 square km in total.[16] Additional images relevant to the situation at Umm al-Aqarib are included in Tucker's article on the destruction of Iraq's archaeological heritage.[17]

    Rulers of Umma

    First Dynasty of Umma
    RulerProposed reignNotes
    Pabilgagaltuku26th century BCEA governor of Umma, he was captured by Ur-Nanshe of Lagash.[18]
    Ush
    ("Ninta")    		c. 2500 BCEAttacked Lagash and removed the boundary stone set up by Mesilim, and was defeated by Eannatum.[18]
    Enakalle
    		2500–2400 BCEMade a boundary treaty with Eannatum.[19]
    Ur-Lumma2500–2400 BCESon of Enakalle. Challenged Enannatum I, but was defeated by his successor Enmetena.[19][18]
    Il2500–2400 BCESuccessor to Ur-Lumna. He rebelled against Enannatum II, and destroyed the dynasty of Ur-Nanshe.[19]
    Gishakidu2500–2400 BCESon of Il[18]
    Edin2500–2400 BCERuler of Umma [18]
    Meanedu2500–2400 BCERuler of Umma[18]
    Ushurdu2500–2400 BCERuler of Umma[18]
    Ukush2400–2300 BCEFather of Lugal-Zage-Si.[18]
    Lugal-Zage-Si2400–2300 BCEConquerer of all Sumer, founder of the third dynasty of Uruk, vanquished by Sargon of Akkad.[18]

    Second Dynasty of Umma
    RulerProposed reignNotes
    Lugalanatumc. 2113 BCEVassal to the Gutian Dynasty.[18]
    An official of Umma, circa 2400 BC
    Diorite statue of Lupad, an official of the city of Umma, with inscriptions recording the purchase of land in Lagash. Early Dynastic Period III, c. 2400 BC.[20]

    References
    1. "ORACC – Umma".
    2. W. G. Lambert, "The Names of Umma", Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 49 (1990), pp. 75–80.
    3. Vitali Bartash, "On the Sumerian City UB-meki, the Alleged “Umma”, Cuneiform Digital Library Bulletin 2015:2, Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative, November 2015, ISSN 1540-8760
    4. Trevor Bryce, The Routledge Handbook of The Peoples and Places of Ancient Western Asia: The Near East from the Early Bronze Age to the fall of the Persian Empire, Routledge, 2009, pp. 738–739.
    5. Inanna's descent to the netherworld - ETCSL
    6. Jerrold S. Cooper, History from Ancient Inscriptions: The Lagash-Umma Border Conflict, Undena, 1983, ISBN 0-89003-059-6
    7. P. A. Parr, "A Letter of Ur-Lisi: Governor of Umma", Journal of Cuneiform Studies, 24 (1972), pp. 135–136
    8. Loftus, William K. (1857). Travels and Researches in Chaldaea and Susiana, Travels and Researches in Chaldaea and Susiana: With an Account of Excavations at Warka, the "Erech" of Nimrod, and Shush, "Shushan the Palace" of Esther, in 1849–52. Robert Carter & Brothers.
    9. Peters, John P. (1897). Nippur; Or, Explorations and Adventures on the Euphrates: The Narrative of the University of Pennsylvania Expedition to Babylonia in the Years 1888–1890 (PDF). University of Pennsylvania Babylonian Expedition. Putnam.
    10. Georges Contenau, Contribution a l'Histoire Economique d'Umma, Librairie Champion, 1915
    11. Haider Oraibi Almamori, "The Early Dynastic Monumental Buildings At Umm Al-Aqarib", Iraq, 76 (December 2014), pp. 149-187
    12. Drahoslav Hulínek and Tibor Lieskovský, Report Archaeological project SAHI - Tell Jokha, 2016, Slovak Archaeological and Historical Institute, 2016
    13. "Stele of Ushumgal". www.metmuseum.org.
    14. "Site officiel du musée du Louvre". cartelfr.louvre.fr.
    15. Guardian article on Umma looting
    16. Satellite Imagery Briefing: Monitoring Endangered Cultural Heritage
    17. Diane Tucker (21 September 2009). "Brutal Destruction of Iraq's Archaeological Sites Continues". uruknet.info.
    18. Sallaberger, Walther; Schrakamp, Ingo (2015). History & Philology (PDF). Walther Sallaberger & Ingo Schrakamp (eds), Brepols. pp. 74–80. ISBN 978-2-503-53494-7.
    19. Van De Mieroop, Marc (2004). A History of the Ancient Near East: Ca. 3000-323 BC. Wiley. pp. 50–51. ISBN 9780631225522.
    20. King, L. W. (Leonard William) (1910). A history of Sumer and Akkad : an account of the early races of Babylonia from prehistoric times to the foundation of the Babylonian monarchy. London : Chatto & Windus. p. 96.

    See also
    • Cities of the Ancient Near East
    • Short chronology timeline

    References
    • B. Alster, Geštinanna as Singer and the Chorus of Uruk and Zabalam: UET 6/1 22, JCS, vol. 37, pp. 219–28, 1985
    • Tonia M. Sharlach, Provincial taxation and the Ur III State, Brill, 2003, ISBN 90-04-13581-2
    • Trevor Bryce, The Routledge Handbook of The Peoples and Places of Ancient Western Asia: The Near East from the Early Bronze Age to the fall of the Persian Empire, Routledge, 2009
    • B. R. Foster, Umma in the Sargonic Period, Memoirs of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, vol. 20, Hamden, 1982
    • Georges Contenau, Umma sous la Dynastie d'Ur, Librarie Paul Geuthner, 1916
    • Jacob L. Dahl, The Ruling Family of Ur III Umma: A Prosopographical Analysis of an Elite Family in Southern Iraq 4000 Years ago, Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten/Netherlands Institute for the Near East (NINO), 2007, ISBN 90-6258-319-9
    • Shin T. Kang, Sumerian economic texts from the Umma archive, University of Illinois Press, 1973, ISBN 0-252-00425-6
    • Diana Tucker, "Brutal Destruction of Iraq's Archaeological Sites Continues", online article from September 21, 2009 posted on www.uruknet.info, http://www.uruknet.info/?p=58169
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