Karkar (ancient city)

Karkar was an ancient Mesopotamian city in present-day Iraq. Its exact location is unknown, though based on textual sources it is known that it is to be sought on the Tigris, between Adab and Zabalam. Identification with the archeological site Tell Ĝidr has been proposed, though it is not universally accepted. The city is first mentioned in texts from the Uruk period. It served as a cult center of the weather god Ishkur, later known under the Akkadian name Adad, and a temple dedicated to him located there is well attested. While various royal inscriptions and administrative texts from the Ur III and Old Babylonian periods mention Karkar, in later times attestations are limited to literary texts, and it is not certain if the city continued to be inhabited.