Haradum

Haradum (modern Khirbit ed-Diniye (also Khirbet ed-Diniyé), Iraq) was an ancient Near East city on the middle Euphrates about 90 kilometers southeast of Mari. It was part of the ancient region of Suhum. The name of the town meant "the place where one stands watch".[1]

Babylonia at the time of Hammurabi, ca. 1792-1750 BC

History

While the site of Haradum was occupied earlier, under the control of Eshnunna, being mentioned in texts from Mari, [2] it did not grow into a proper town until the 18th century BC under the control of the First Dynasty of Babylon.

Babylonian period

The earliest dated record is from the 26th year of King Samsu-iluna of Babylon. Tablets from the reign of Abi-eshuh, Ammi-ditana, Ammi-saduqa, and Samsu-Ditana 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 rectilinear layout and straight streets. It contained two temples (dedicated to Ishtar and Adad respectively) but no palace.[3]

Archaeology

The site of Haradum is small, about 1.5 hectares in area. It was excavated for six seasons in the 1980s by a team from the Délégation Archéologique Française en Iraq led by Christine Kepinski-Lecomte. A number of cuneiform tablets were found in residential and temple contexts. The work was a salvage operation in response to dam construction.[4][5][6][7]

See also

Notes
  1. Kepinski, Christine. "Organization of Harrâdum, Suhum, 18th–17th Centuries b.c., Iraqi Middle Euphrates". Organization, Representation, and Symbols of Power in the Ancient Near East: Proceedings of the 54th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale at Würzburg 20–25 Jul, edited by Gernot Wilhelm, University Park, USA: Penn State University Press, 2022, pp. 143-154.
  2. Wolfgang Heimpel, Letters to the King of Mari, EISENBRAUNS, 2003,ISBN 1-57506-080-9
  3. C.Kepinski-Lecomte, Spatial occupation of a new town Haradum, in Houses and Households in ancient Mesopotamia. K.R. Veenhof (ed.); Leiden: Nederlands Historisch-Archaeologisch Instituut te Istanbul, pp. 191-96, 1996
  4. Christine Kepinski and Olivier Lecomte, Mari et Haradum, Mari Annales de Recherches Interdisciplinaires, vol. 4, pp. 615-621, 1985
  5. Christine Kepinski and Olivier Lecomte, Haradum/Harada, une forteresse sur l'Euphrate, Archeologia, vol. 205, pp. 46-55, 1985
  6. F. Joannes, C. Kepinski, and O.Lecomte, Présence babylonienne dans le pays de Suhu au XVIIe siècle av. J.-C: L'exemple de Kherbet ed Diniye, Iraq, Revue d'assyriologie d'archéologie orientale, vol. 77, pp. 119-142, 1983
  7. F. Joannes, Haradum et le pays de Suhum, Archeologia, vol. 205, pp. 56-59, 2005

References
  • Christine Kepinski-Lecompte, Haradum I: Une ville nouvelle sur le Moyen-Euphrate, Editions Recherche sur les Civilisations, 1992, ISBN 2-86538-229-X
  • F. Joannes, C. Kepinski-Lecompte, Gudrun Colbow, Haradum II. Les Textes de la Periode Paleo-Babylonienne (Samsu-iluna - Ammi-saduqa), ERC, 2006, ISBN 2-86538-311-3
  • C. Kepinski, Material Culture of a Babylonian Outpost on the Iraqi Middle Euphrates: the Case of Haradum during the Middle Bronze Age, Akkadica, vol. 126, pp. 121–131, 2005
  • Mark W. Chavalas, Terqa and Haradum: A Comparative Analysis of Old Babylonian Period Houses Along the Euphrates
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