Bad-tibira

Bad-tibira
	Shown within Iraq
Alternative name	Tell Madineh
Location	Dhi Qar Governorate, Iraq
Coordinates	31°22′47″N 45°59′59″E / 31.37972°N 45.99972°E
Type	settlement
History
Periods	Early Dynastic, Ur III, Old Babylonian
Site notes
Excavation dates	1927
Archaeologists	Raymond P. Dougherty
Condition	Ruined
Ownership	Public
Public access	Yes

Bad-tibira (Sumerian: 𒂦𒁾𒉄𒆠, bad₃-tibira^ki), "Wall of the Copper Worker(s)",^[1] or "Fortress of the Smiths",^[2] identified as modern Tell al-Madineh (also Tell Madineh), between Ash Shatrah and Tell as-Senkereh (ancient Larsa) and 33 kilometers northeast of ancient Girsu in southern Iraq,^[3] was an ancient Sumerian city on the Iturungal canal (built by Ur III ruler Ur-Nammu), which appears among antediluvian cities in the Sumerian King List. Its Akkadian name was Dûr-gurgurri.^[4] It was also called Παντιβίβλος (Pantibiblos) by Greek authors such as Berossus, transmitted by Abydenus and Apollodorus. This may reflect another version of the city's name, Patibira, "Canal of the Smiths".^[5]

There is known to be a temple of the deity Kittum at Bad-tibira.^[6] It has been suggested that Ninsheshegarra, an aspect of the goddess Geshtinanna who is sister of Dumuzid, was worshiped in the temple Esheshegarra at Bad-tibira.^[7]^[8]

^ W.F. Albright and T.O. Lambdin, "The Evidence of Language", in The Cambridge Ancient History I, part 1 (Cambridge University Press), 1971, ISBN 0-521-07051-1, page 150.
^ Hallo, William W. and William Kelly Simpson, The Ancient Near East: A History, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., New York, 1971, p. 32
^ Vaughn E. Crawford, "The Location of Bad-Tibira", Iraq 22 "Ur in Retrospect. In Memory of Sir C. Leonard Woolley" (Spring - Autumn 1960:197-199); the secure identification is based on the recovery at the pillaged site of fragments of a known inscription of Entemena that had surfaced in the black market without provenance. Earlier excavations at a mound called Medain near the site of Lagash, following a report of a vendor of one of the inscriptions, had proved fruitless: see H. de Genouillac, Fouilles de Telloh, ii:139 (noted by Crawford 1960:197 note 7).
^ Collection of taxes from Dûr-gurgurri features in correspondence of Hammurabi (first half of the 18th century BCE) noted in L. W. King and H. R. Hall, Egypt and Western Asia in the Light of Recent Discoveries (New York, 2005) p. 306f; it remained a city of metal-workers and the principal settlement of the guild of gugurrē, "metalworkers" (L. W. King, The Letters And Inscriptions Of Hammurabi, King Of Babylon About B.C. 2200 vol. III, p. 21, note 2.).
^ Hallo, William W. and William Kelly Simpson, The Ancient Near East: A History, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., New York, 1971
^ Frayne, Douglas R. and Stuckey, Johanna H., "K", A Handbook of Gods and Goddesses of the Ancient Near East: Three Thousand Deities of Anatolia, Syria, Israel, Sumer, Babylonia, Assyria, and Elam, University Park, USA: Penn State University Press, pp. 158-174, 2021
^ George, A. R., "House Most High. The temples of ancient Mesopotamia", Winona Lake, 1993 ISBN 978-0931464805
^ Metcalf, Christopher, "A Poem about Ĝeštinana (“Dumuzi-Inana J”)", Sumerian Literary Texts in the Schøyen Collection: Volume 1: Literary Sources on Old Babylonian Religion, University Park, USA: Penn State University Press, pp. 76-78, 2019

[1] W.F. Albright and T.O. Lambdin, "The Evidence of Language", in The Cambridge Ancient History I, part 1 (Cambridge University Press), 1971, ISBN 0-521-07051-1, page 150.

[2] Hallo, William W. and William Kelly Simpson, The Ancient Near East: A History, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., New York, 1971, p. 32

[3] Vaughn E. Crawford, "The Location of Bad-Tibira", Iraq 22 "Ur in Retrospect. In Memory of Sir C. Leonard Woolley" (Spring - Autumn 1960:197-199); the secure identification is based on the recovery at the pillaged site of fragments of a known inscription of Entemena that had surfaced in the black market without provenance. Earlier excavations at a mound called Medain near the site of Lagash, following a report of a vendor of one of the inscriptions, had proved fruitless: see H. de Genouillac, Fouilles de Telloh, ii:139 (noted by Crawford 1960:197 note 7).

[4] Collection of taxes from Dûr-gurgurri features in correspondence of Hammurabi (first half of the 18th century BCE) noted in L. W. King and H. R. Hall, Egypt and Western Asia in the Light of Recent Discoveries (New York, 2005) p. 306f; it remained a city of metal-workers and the principal settlement of the guild of gugurrē, "metalworkers" (L. W. King, The Letters And Inscriptions Of Hammurabi, King Of Babylon About B.C. 2200 vol. III, p. 21, note 2.).

[5] Hallo, William W. and William Kelly Simpson, The Ancient Near East: A History, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., New York, 1971

[6] Frayne, Douglas R. and Stuckey, Johanna H., "K", A Handbook of Gods and Goddesses of the Ancient Near East: Three Thousand Deities of Anatolia, Syria, Israel, Sumer, Babylonia, Assyria, and Elam, University Park, USA: Penn State University Press, pp. 158-174, 2021

[7] George, A. R., "House Most High. The temples of ancient Mesopotamia", Winona Lake, 1993 ISBN 978-0931464805

[8] Metcalf, Christopher, "A Poem about Ĝeštinana (“Dumuzi-Inana J”)", Sumerian Literary Texts in the Schøyen Collection: Volume 1: Literary Sources on Old Babylonian Religion, University Park, USA: Penn State University Press, pp. 76-78, 2019

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History
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Shown within Iraq
Alternative name	Tell Madineh
Location	Dhi Qar Governorate, Iraq
Coordinates	31°22′47″N 45°59′59″E / 31.37972°N 45.99972°E / 31.37972; 45.99972
Type	settlement
Periods	Early Dynastic, Ur III, Old Babylonian
Site notes
Excavation dates	1927
Archaeologists	Raymond P. Dougherty
Condition	Ruined
Ownership	Public
Public access	Yes