Haradum
Encyclopedia
Ancient Near East
The ancient Near East was the home of early civilizations within a region roughly corresponding to the modern Middle East: Mesopotamia , ancient Egypt, ancient Iran The ancient Near East was the home of early civilizations within a region roughly corresponding to the modern Middle East: Mesopotamia...
city on the middle Euphrates
Euphrates
The Euphrates is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia. Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia...
about 90 kilometers southeast of Mari.
History
While the site of Haradum was occupied earlier, being mentioned in texts from Mari, it did not grow into a proper town until the 18th century BC under the control of the First Dynasty of Babylon. The earliet dated record is from the 26th year of king Samsu-iluna
Samsu-Iluna
Samsu-iluna was the seventh king of the founding Amorite dynasty of Babylon, ruling from 1750 BC to 1712 BC middle chronology. He was the son and successor of Hammurabi by an unknown mother...
of Babylon.
Tablets from the reign of Abi-eshuh
Abi-Eshuh
Abi-Eshuh was an Amorite king of Babylon who reigned from 1711-1684 BC. He was preceded by Samsu-iluna....
, Ammi-ditana
Ammi-Ditana
Ammi-Ditana was a king of Babylon who reigned from 1683-1640s BC. He was preceded by Abi-Eshuh. Year-names survive for the first 37 years of his reign, plus fragments for a few possible additional years...
, Ammi-saduqa
Ammi-Saduqa
Ammi-Saduqa was a king of the First Dynasty of Babylon. Some 21 year-names survive for his reign, including the first 17...
,
and Samsu-Ditana
Samsu-Ditana
Samsu-Ditana was the King of Babylon, who reigned from 1626 BC to 1595 BC.Samsu-Ditana is the last king of the First Babylonian Dynasty. After the Hittite army under Mursilis I invaded Babylon, he was overthrown....
have also been found at Haradum. The town of Haradum was destroyed during the reign of Samsu-Ditana.
Haradum is noted for being one of the earliest
examples of a planned city, with a square layout and straight streets.
Archaeology
The site of Haradum is small, about 1.5 hectares in area. It was excavated for6 seasons in the 1980s by a team from the Délégation Archéologique Française en Iraq led by Christine Kepinski-Lecomte. The work was a salvage operation in
ressponse to dam construction.
See also
- Cities of the ancient Near EastCities of the ancient Near EastThe largest cities in the Bronze Age ancient Near East housed several tens of thousands. Memphis in the Early Bronze Age with some 30,000 inhabitants was the largest city of the time by far...
- Short chronology timelineShort chronology timelineThe short chronology is one chronology of the Near Eastern Bronze and Early Iron Age, which fixes the reign of Hammurabi to 1728 BC – 1686 BC and the sack of Babylon to 1531 BC....
