Bad-tibira

Bad-tibira

Bad-tibira, identified as modern Tell al-Madineh, between Ash-Shatrah and Senkerch (ancient Larsa) in southern Iraq,) was an ancient Sumerian city. Its Akkadian name was Dûr-gurgurri.

The name means metal worker in Sumerian. It was also called Παντιβίβλος Pantibiblos by Greek authors (Abydenus, Apollodorus, Berossus).

According to the Sumerian king list, Bad-tibira was the second city to "exercise kingship" in Sumer, following Eridu. These kings were En-nen-lu-ana, En-men-gal-ana and Dumuzid, the Shepherd. Some badly effaced half-bricks on the surface of the mound bore the inscription of Amar-Sin, of the Third Dynasty of Ur. Pieces of vitrified brick scattered over the surface of the large mound bore witness to the city's destruction by fire. Possession of the city passed between Larsa, whose king Sin-iddinnam, claims to have built Bad-tibira, and Isin, whose king Libit-Ishtar, "the shepherd of Nippur", claimed to have built the "House of Righteousness" there.

The main god of the city was Lugal, the "king". The city's temple, E-mush-kalamma, was mentioned in the tale of Inanna's descent to the underworld. The "brotherhood text" in cuneiform inscriptions on cones plundered from the site in the 1930s records the friendship pact of En-temena, governor of Lagash, and Lugal-kinishedudu, governor of Uruk. It identifies En-temena as the builder of the temple E-mush to Inanna and Dumuzi, under his local epithet Lugal-E-mush.

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