Sippar (undoubtedly rather marked Sippir in the Antiquity, written Zimbir in Ideogram Sumérien) is the name carried by two cities close to Low Mésopotamie, currently the south of the Iraq, located at the North-West of Babylon, and separated from hardly seven kilometers. The two cities bore several names, but one generally keeps the reference to their principal divinity to differentiate them. There is thus “Sippar of Shamash”, current Abu Habbah, and “Sippar of Annunitu”, current Such ED-DER.

The town of Sippar is quoted like one of oldest of the Mésopotamie in the royal Liste sumérienne. It would have been the fourth city has to exert the royalty, the penultimate one before the Déluge. This dynasty comprises only one king, Enmenduranna, which would have reigned the 21.000 years trifle. The old levels of the two cities having borne the name of Sippar are alas not known, and archeology cannot confirm the seniority of this city.

Sippar de Shamash (Abu Habbah)

Other names: Sippar-Yahruru (m), Sippar-sati (m), Sippar-seri (m).

This site was excavated by Hormuzd Rassam in 1881, which explored the temple of Shamash, and brought back nearly 60000 fragments of shelves, from which much results from clandestine excavations. In 1894, the site was briefly excavated by the father Jean-Vincent Scheil, a French, then in 1927 by the Germans Walter Andrae and Julius Jordan. It was then explored by Iraqi archeologists, in the years 1940 then in the years 1970.

The heart of this city was the temple of the large god-Sun Shamash, the Ebabbar, protected by an interior enclosure. A Ziggourat had been built at side. Important batches of shelves were released in the crowned district, by clandestine diggers. Once given vaguely in order (extent of documentation not facilitating the things), one could locate several batches of files: those of a “cloister” of the paléo-Babylonian time (19th-17th front centuries J. - C.) inhabited by nuns devoted to Shamash, the files of the temple of the néo-Babylonian time (6th front century J. - C.). A library of the same time was put at the day more recently.

Elsewhere on the site, one also released from the districts of dwelling, dating from the paléo-Babylonian time with there too an important group of files. Sippar was girded by a rampart making 1300 meters length for 800 broad.

Sippar d' Annunitu (Such ED-DER)

Other names: Sippar-Amnānu (m), Sippar-dūri (m), Sippar-rabū (m).

Such ED-DER was excavated more recently than Abu Habbah, since the first blows of pickaxe were carried there in 1975 by Belgian archeologists of the university of Ghent in the years 1970. Less explored, this city delivered less things than its neighbor.

One explored the residence of Ur-Utu, a lamentator of the clergy of Annunitum at the 17th front century J. - C, and one discovered there a batch of files of notable size (2 000 shelves).