- Sippar
Sippar (
Sumerian Zimbir "bird city", modern Tell Abu Habbah,Iraq ), was an ancientSumer ian and laterBabylonia n city on the east bank of theEuphrates , some 60 km north ofBabylon .It was divided into two parts, "Sippar of the Sun-god" and "Sippar of the goddess
Anunit ," the former of which was discovered byHormuzd Rassam in1881 at Abu Habba, 16 miles southeast ofBaghdad .Sippar is called "Sepharvaim" in the
Old Testament , which alludes to the two parts of the city by its dual form.Two other Sippars are mentioned in inscriptions, one of them being "Sippar of Eden," which may have been an additional quarter of the city. It is possible that one of the "Sippars" might be identified with
Akkad , the capital of the first Semitic Empire.The main god of the city was the Sumerian Sun god,
Utu (Shamash in Akkadian).Archaeology
A large number of cuneiform tablets and other artifacts have been found in the ruins of the temple of Shamash, which was called "E-Babara" by the
Sumer ians, "Bit-Un" by theSemite s. This temple is thought to be the world's oldest bank, in operation until at least 1831 BC. [cite journal | author=Benjamin Bromberg | title=The Origin of Banking: Religious Finance in Babylonia | journal=The Journal of Economic History | year=1942 | volume=2 | issue=1 | pages= 77–88]Xisuthros, the "Chaldean Noah", is said by
Berossus to have buried the records of theantediluvian world here--possibly because the name of Sippar was supposed to be connected with "sipru", "a writing". And according toAbydenus , Nebuchadnezzar excavated a great reservoir in the neighbourhood. Here too was the Babylonian camp in the reign ofNabonidos .Pliny ("Natural History" 6.30.123) mentions a sect, or school of Chaldeans called the "Hippareni". It is often assumed that this name refers to Sippar (especially because the other two schools mentioned seem to be named after cities as well: the "Orcheni" after
Uruk , and the "Borsippeni" afterBorsippa ), but this is not universally accepted. ["It is usually assumed that the Hippareni refers to Sippar (Ptolemy's Sippara), but even that requires proof, since the change of ‘s’ to ‘h’ is strange." —cite journal | author=R. D. Barnett | title=Xenophon and the Wall of Media | journal=The Journal of Hellenic Studies | year=1963 | volume=83 | pages=14 | doi = 10.2307/628451]References
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.