Sippar

Sippar, ancient city of N Babylonia, on the Euphrates in present Iraq, 20 mi (32 km) SW of Baghdad. It was one of the capitals of Sargon and had a great temple to the sungod Shamash. Excavations begun in 1882 have yielded thousands of inscribed clay tablets.

Ancient city, Babylonia. It is located in central Iraq, southwest of present-day Baghdad, on the Euphrates River. From the 3rd millennium BC, Sippar was a centre of worship of the Sumerian sun god Shamash. It was subject to the 1st dynasty of Babylon, but little else is known about the city before 1174 BC, when it was sacked by the Elamites. It recovered from its defeat but was later captured by the Assyrians. Excavations, begun in the 1880s, have uncovered the remains of a large temple and thousands of religious and historic clay tablets.

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Sippar (Sumerian Zimbir "bird city", modern Tell Abu Habbah, Iraq), was an ancient Sumerian and later Babylonian city on the east bank of the Euphrates, some 60 km north of Babylon.

It was divided into two parts, "Sippar of the Sun-god" and "Sippar of the goddess Anunit," the former of which was discovered by Hormuzd Rassam in 1881 at Abu Habba, 16 miles southeast of Baghdad.

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 Sumerians, Bit-Un by the Semites. This temple is thought to be the world's oldest bank, in operation until at least 1831 BC.

Xisuthros, the "Chaldean Noah", is said by Berossus to have buried the records of the antediluvian world here--possibly because the name of Sippar was supposed to be connected with sipru, "a writing". And according to Abydenus, Nebuchadnezzar excavated a great reservoir in the neighbourhood. Here too was the Babylonian camp in the reign of Nabonidos.

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 after Borsippa), but this is not universally accepted.

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