Kullaba (also Kulaba, Kulab, and Kullab) was a city in the ancient Near East which was later largely absorbed into the city of Uruk. There was also a district of the city of Babylon named Kullab, known to contain a temple of Šarrat-Larsa ("Queen of Larsa") called Emekiliburur. Da Riva, Rocío, "Urban Religion in First Millennium BCE Babylonia", Naming and Mapping the Gods in the Ancient Mediterranean: Spaces, Mobilities, Imaginaries, edited by Corinne Bonnet, Thomas Galoppin, Elodie Guillon, Max Luaces, Asuman Lätzer-Lasar, Sylvain Lebreton, Fabio Porzia, Jörg Rüpke and Emiliano Rubens Urciuoli, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, pp. 763-790, 2022 It has been suggested that in Neo-Babylonian times there were two localities named Kullaba, with one being at Uruk, in addition to the district in Babylon. Beaulieu, Paul-Alain, "The pantheon of Uruk during the neo-Babylonian period", Vol. 23. Brill, 2021
At the archaeological site of Warka there are two main mounds with occupation. They were originally separated by an ancient waterway which was improved into a canal. By the beginning of the Early Dynastic period (c. 2900 BC) the western polity was known as Kullaba (where the earliest archaeological layers dating back to the Ubaid period) and 0.5 kilometers away the southeastern polity was known as Unug. Kullaba is now generally taken as a district on the city of Uruk but at least until the end of the Ur III period (c. 2000 BC) and possibly at later times it was a separate entity. The Kullaba mound became the site for what became called the Anu Ziggurat and the White Temple beginning in the late 4th millennium BC Uruk IV and majorly rebuilt in the Uruk III period, and the Irigal and Bit-Resh in the 1st millennium BC.Krystyna Szarzyńska, "Observations on the Temple Precinct Eš3 in Archaic Uruk", Journal of Cuneiform Studies, vol. 63, pp. 1–4, 2011Algaze, Guillermo, et al., "Entropic Cities: The Paradox of Urbanism in Ancient Mesopotamia", Current Anthropology, vol. 59, no. 1, pp. 23–54, 2018Pittman, Holly, "The First Cities", Journey to the City: A Companion to the Middle East Galleries at the Penn Museum, edited by Steve Tinney and Karen Sonik, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, pp. 45-74, 2019 In the Uruk IV period an unusual underground cult installation, dubbed the Steingebaude was also constructed at Kuballa.Szarzyńska, K., "Some Remarks on the So-Called “Steingebäude” in Archaic Uruk-Warka", Akkadica 23, pp. 45–49, 1981 In the Uruk III (Jemdat Nasr) period the entire site of Warka, 600 hectares in area at that time, was encompassed in a city wall. That event is traditionly, based on literary compositions, ascribed to Gilgamesh.North, Robert, "Status of the Warka Excavation", Orientalia, vol. 26, no. 3, pp. 185–256, 1957
In an alternative view it has been suggested that Kullaba referred to the central district of Uruk, where the temple Enanna of Inanna was located and that the western area was possibly called KI.KALki.Steinkeller, Piotr, "The Reluctant En of Inana — or the Persona of Gilgameš in the Perspective of Babylonian Political Philosophy", Journal of Ancient Near Eastern History, vol. 5, no. 1-2, pp. 149-177, 2018
History
Pottery and building foundations at Kullaba date back to the Late Ubaid and Terminal Ubaid periods (1st half of the 4th millennium BC). The occupation picture for early periods at Uruk is clouded because the original excavators only dug a single deep sounding, beginning at the Uruk V (c. 3500 BC) layer, which after 19 meters reached virgin soil but at that point only had a width of 1.5 meters.Strommenger, Eva, "The Chronological Division of the Archaic Levels of Uruk-Eanna VI to III/II: Past and Present", American Journal of Archaeology, vol. 84, no. 4, pp. 479–87, 1980 More recent excavations have uncovered remains of monumental Ubaid period construction."Excavations in Iraq 1971-72", Iraq, vol. 34, no. 2, pp. 138–50, 1972
In the Uruk IV period a number of structures were built there, mostly now with only the foundations remaining. These structures were built on top of a platform whose construction began in the Ubaid period. A notable building was the underground Steingebäude (Stone Building) constructed with a series of concentric walls encompassing an area of 27 meter by 32 meters and a sloping ramp going underground as its entrance. The building's stone floor had a stone and plaster pedestal with 5 holes forming a square and walls were of bitumen mortared limestone. The Uruk IV construction has been radiocarbon dated to c. 3450 BC.Eichmann, Ricardo, "Uruk’s early Monumental Architecture", in Nicola Crüsemannet al. (eds.), Uruk: First city of the Ancient World, Los Angeles, pp. 97–107, 2013
In the Uruk III period all earlier structures were dismantled down to the 50 cm foundations and the area leveled (with fill not from the original structures and including discarded proto-cuneiform tablets) then a huge platform constructed and all new structures built on to of that. A notable Uruk III building was the White Temple.Laneri, Nicola, "From High to Low: Reflections about the Emplacement of Religion in Ancient Mesopotamia", Naming and Mapping the Gods in the Ancient Mediterranean: Spaces, Mobilities, Imaginaries, edited by Corinne Bonnet, Thomas Galoppin, Elodie Guillon, Max Luaces, Asuman Lätzer-Lasar, Sylvain Lebreton, Fabio Porzia, Jörg Rüpke and Emiliano Rubens Urciuoli, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, pp. 371-386, 2022 Hageneuer, S., "Le Temple blanc d’Uruk sur sa haute terrasse", in P. Quenet (ed.), Ana ziqquratim. Sur la piste de Babel, Strasbourg: Presses Universitaires de Strasbourg, pp. 112–113, 2016 The White Temple was a 24 meter by 19 meter buttressed and niched tripartite structure with a "freestanding central offering table and a corner podium" and with four adjoining rooms on each side, built on a large four course bitumen and mudbrick base terrace. Ann Louise Perkins, "The Comparative Archeology of Early Mesopotamia", Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization 25, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1949 Adjacent to the White Temple was the "Old Terrace" with an area of 173 meters by 200 meters.Krul, Julia, "The revival of the Anu cult and the nocturnal fire ceremony at late Babylonian Uruk", Vol. 95, Brill, 2018 The terrace was accessed by a long staircase. It was plastered with white-washed clay and the outer walls bore two bands of bottle shaped clay cones as decoration. In one foundation corner the "skeletal remains of a leopard and a lion were found buried in a mudbrick box".Mallowan, M. E. L., "Early Mesopotamia and Iran", London: Thames & Hudson, 1965 The remaining walls are up to 3 meters high and the building is thought to have originally had a 6-meter height. It lay on top of a number of prior structures (22 archaeological levels were found) which had raised the height of its terrace to 13 meters, leading to it having sometimes been incorrectly termed a ziggurat, often called the "Anu Ziggurat".Algaze, Guillermo, "The end of prehistory and the Uruk period", The Sumerian World, Routledge, pp. 68-94, 2013 Eichmann, R., "Uruk. Die Stratigraphie. Grabungen 1912–1977", in den Bereichen ‘Eanna’und ‘Anu-Ziqqurrat’(Ausgrabungen in Uruk-Warka Endberichte 3), Mainz, 1989 The idea that the White temple complex was dedicated to Anu stems from the fact that this was the case in Neo-Assyrian times, almost three millennia later.
After the Uruk period, Uruk and the Kullaba area with it, declined in influence and population and any development favored the southeastern Enanna (Unug) half of the site especially in the Ur III Empire period. The Kullaba area had a resurgence in the late 3rd millennium under ruler Utu-hengal and for a time under the Old Babylonian period (1st half of 2nd millennium BC) Sixth dynasty of Uruk when Sîn-kāšid built a large palace on the far northwestern part of Kullaba and ruler Rîm-Anum constructed a nearby facility for housing and employing prisoners of war.Leemans, Wilhelmus F., "The Asīru", Revue d’Assyriologie et d’Archéologie Orientale 55, pp. 57-76, 1961Rositani, Annunziata, "Rīm-Anum Texts in the British Museum", in NISABA. Studi Assiriologici Messinesi (Di.Sc.A.M.), Vol. 4, 2003 Rositani, Annunziata, "Some Rim-Anum Texts from the bit asiri kept at the British Museum", Rivista degli studi orientali : LXXXII, 1/4, pp. 97-121, 2009Rositani, Annunziata, "More Rīm-Anum’s texts from the bīt asīrī", Semitica 56, pp. 35-64, 2014
In the Neo-Assyrian period the "Old Terrace" was restored and ruler Esarhaddon built a mudbrick mantle around the mound supporting the White Temple. The Kullaba area again saw notable use in the later part of the 1st millennium BC in the Hellenistic period. Much of the older archaeological areas are unavailable because of the enormous Seleucid period Bit-Resh complex (built in 244 BC, enlarged in 205 BC, burned down in 131 BC) of the god Anu and his consort Antum where 158 cuneiform tablets were found during excavations.Boiy, Tom, "Temple Building in Hellenistic Babylonia", in From the Foundations to the Crenellations. Essays on Temple Building in the Ancient Near East and Hebrew Bible, eds. Mark J.Boda and Jamie Novotny. AOAT 366. Münster: Uruk-Verlag, pp. 211–19, 2010 Postgate, J. Nicholas (ed)., "Artefacts of Complexity. Tracking the Uruk in the Near East", Iraq Archaeological Reports 5., Warminster: Aris and Phillips, 2002Nissen, Hans J. and Heine, Peter, "Alexander and the Seleucids in Babylonia (331–141 BCE)", From Mesopotamia to Iraq: A Concise History, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 114-119, 2009 A classical period Mithraeum (temple to the god Mithras) was built between the Bit-Resh and Ištar's cult center Irigal (Ešgal) where Ninirigal was also worshiped and a Parthian era Temple of Gareus in the far southeastern area of Kullaba.Lenzen, Heinrich J., "New Discoveries at WARKA in Southern Iraq", Archaeology, vol. 17, no. 2, pp. 122–31, 1964
Historical sources
Two texts found in Early Dynastic period Lagash contained personal names based on Kullaba, Me-Kul-ab4ki-ta "From the divine forces of Kulaba".Tavernier, Jan, "Ur and Other Cities in Some Sumerian and Akkadian Personal Names: The Pre-Sargonic and Sargonic Periods", Ur in the Twenty-First Century CE: Proceedings of the 62nd Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale at Philadelphia, July 11–15, 2016, edited by Grant Frame, Joshua Jeffers and Holly Pittman, University Park, USA: Penn State University Press, pp. 485-502, 2021
The last pre-Sargonic source for the city was in the Early Dynastic IIIa period (c. 2600-2500 BC) in a text found at Shuruppak listing polities controlled by Uruk under ruler Lumma.Steinkeller, Piotr, "A Campaign of Southern City-States against Kiš as Documented in the ED IIIa Sources from Šuruppak (Fara)", Journal of Cuneiform Studies 76.1, pp. 3-26, 2024 A number of other Shuruppak texts from that period mention Kullaba (as GIŠ-[KUN]-Kul-aba4ki).Edzard, D. O., Farber, G., and Sollberger, E., "Die Orts- und Gewässernamen der präsargonischen und sargonischen Zeit", RGTC 1. Wiesbaden: Reichert, 1977Visicato, Giuseppe, "Indices of Early Dynastic Administrative Tablets of Šuruppak", Istituto universitario orientale di Napoli, dipartimento di studi asiatici 6.A. Naples: Istituto universitario orientale di Napoli, 1997
In the victory stele of Utu-hengal (c. 2119 – c. 2112 BC), the only member of the Fifth dynasty of Uruk, he stated "The citizens of Uruk and the citizens of Kullab he caused to rejoice at this.""RIME 2.13.06.04 Composite Artifact Entry", (2012) 2024. Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (CDLI). October 1, 2024
In the Sumerian king list, which straddles the line between historic source and literary composition, written in various rescensions from the Ur III period to the Old Babylonian period, Gigamesh is called "the lord of Kulaba". Stephen Herbert Langdon, "Oxford editions of cuneiform texts", Oxford University Press, 1923
Iron Age