The Iturungal canal (id₂-en-urin-gal, id₂-en-urin-gal-ka) was a major waterway in Sumer used for commercial and religious functions. It is unclear when it was built but it existed by the middle 3rd millennium BC and remained in use for several millennia. Mesopotamia was crisscrossed by numerous canals. Some were short distance links between cities and between main canals and cities. Canals were also modified, repaired, and sometime extended with the passage of time. As new cities rose and others were abandoned new canals were built and others fell out of use. The Iturungal canal was a long haul canal which transected Mesopotamia roughly north to south. The Id-Ka-sahar canal served similar duty further north. Much is uncertain about the Iturungal partly because of current gaps in archaeology but also because it too changed over time, changes especially driven by the shifting Euphrates River (and in some cases the Tigris river). Some of its course and some of the cites it flowed past are now more certain. The canal had many different spelling over its history including Id-en-urin-gal, Id-en-urin-gal, Id-EREN-nun-na, Id-en-urin-gal, En-er en-gal, I-tu-ru-un-gal, I-su-ru(-en)-gal, I-dar-en-gal, and Id-dur-an-gal. The course of the Euphrates changed over time, especially around 800 BC when it was briefly called Arahtu, and its main course is called Purattu. Both branches may have, for a time, existed together.Cole, Steven W., "Marsh Formation in the Borsippa Region and the Course of the Lower Euphrates", Journal of Near Eastern Studies, vol. 53, no. 2, pp. 81–109, 1994Gibson, McGuire, "The Archaeological Uses of Cuneiform Documents: Patterns of Occupation at the City of Kish", Iraq, vol. 34, no. 2, pp. 113–23, 1972
Currently, the Iturungal canal is generally considered, based on hydrology and textual sources, to have originated at the Tigris river downstream from Karkar (Tell Jidr?), passed through the unlocated city of NagSu, and flowed toward Uruk joining the Euphrates river just south of that city. Much of its course would have run in the province of Umma.Abraham, Kathleen, "Kaštiliašu and the Sumundar Canal: A New Middle Babylonian Royal Inscription", Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und vorderasiatische Archäologie, vol. 103, no. 2, pp. 183-195, 2013
Earlier it was believed that it branched off the Euphrates (or was actually a secondary branch of that river) near Sippar then went on to Kish and then Nippur.Ahmed, Sami Said, "Geographical Framework", Southern Mesopotamia in the time of Ashurbanipal, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Mouton, pp. 17-26, 1968 An alternate view had it splitting from the main Euphrates channel (Buranun/Purattu) north of Nippur passing on to Adab, then south to Zabalam, Umma, and Bad-tibira at which point it returned to the main Euphrates channel. The Sirara canal branched off the Iturungal canal at Zabalam and proceeded to Lagash in this view.Jacobsen, Thorkild, "Early Political Development in Mesopotamia", Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und Vorderasiatische Archäologie, vol. 52, no. Jahresband, pp. 91-140, 1957Westenholz, J. G., & Westenholz, A., "Part II Royal Inscriptions", in Cuneiform Inscriptions in the Collection of the Bible Lands Museum Jerusalem, Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, pp. 83–104, 2006 It was even suggested that the Iturungal canal was actually the Tigris river.Heimpel, Wolfgang, "Ein zweiter Schritt zur Rehabilitierung der Rolle des Tigris in Sumer", Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und Vorderasiatische Archäologie 80.1-2, pp. 204-213, 1990 This is complicated by varying translation of and interpretation of textual sources. R. McC. Adams and H. Nissen, "The Uruk Countryside: The Natural Setting of Urban Societies", Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1972
It is known that there were sub branches off the Iturungal including Íd-Ninaki-du-a and Nanna-gú-gal. The city of Kutalla lay on such a branch that also ran to Bad-tibira. The Magura canal flowed between the Tigris and the Iturungal in the area of Umma and Apišal.Thorkild Jacobsen, "The Waters of Ur", Toward the Image of Tammuz and Other Essays on Mesopotamian History and Culture, Cambridge, MA and London, England: Harvard University Press, pp. 231-244, 1970McEwan, G. J. P., "d MUŠ and Related Matters", Orientalia, vol. 52, no. 2, pp. 215–29, 1983
A survey of some of the course of the canal near Girsu found a number of archaeological mound dating to the Early Dynastic period with some continuing into the Old Babylonian period. Jacobsen, Th., "A Survey of Girsu (Telloh) Region", Sumer 25, pp. 103-110, 1969
The archaeological site of Tell Jidr (possibly Karkar) lies on the Iturungal canal. Marchetti, N., Gallerani, V., Luglio, G., Valeri, M., "Tell Jidr: A Late antique Megacity in Central Mesopotamia", Poster presented at the 11th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, Munich, 2018
It is known that the Iturungal canal connected Uruk and Garšana.Steinkeller, Piotr, "On the Location of the Town of GARsana and Related Matters", Garshana Studies, pp. 373-390, 2011
History
In the Tablet of Utu-hengal by the Uruk ruler Utu-hengal (c. 2119–2112 BC) describing his victory over the Gutians "He (Utu-hegal) arranged in correct array his select elite troops. After he (Utu-hegal) departed (from) the temple of the god Iškur, on the fourth day he set up... in the city of Nagsu on the Iturungal canal."Douglas Frayne, "Uruk" in "Sargonic and Gutian Periods (2234-2113 BC)", RIM The Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia Volume 2, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, pp. 274-296, 1993 Widell, Magnus, "The Calendar of Neo-Sumerian Ur and Its Political Significance", Cuneiform Digital Library Journal 2004.2, 1970
An illegally excavated cone said to have been found at Tell al-Madineh marked the construction by Ur-Nammu (c. 2100 BC), a ruler of the Ur III empire, of the Iturungal canal though it may have already existed in some form.
Ur III ruler Amar-Sin (c. 2046–2037 BC) is known, in his years 2 to 6, to have built a canal (i₇-dAmar-dEN.ZU-ĝar/ĝa₂-ra) joining the Euphrates to the Iturungal. It was located in the area between Kisurra and Adab.D’Agostino, F., & Romano, L., "Two New Inscribed Bricks from Abu Tbeirah (Southern Iraq)", In The Third Millennium, Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, pp. 259–269, 2020
An Ur III tablet from Umma about an accused grave robber states "Lugal-me’a, the [...], declared: 'Šarabansag, who dug up the grave, at the bank of the Iturungal, in his house (A-nini’s?), he [...]'".Molina Martos, Manuel, "Sumerian judicial procedures against tomb robbers", De L’argile au numérique. Mélanges assyriologiques en l’honneur de Dominique Charpin 2, pp. 693-712, 2019
Isin ruler Sîn-māgir (c. 1827–1817 BC) had a year name "(Sîn-māgir) built on the bank of the Iturungal canal (the old wadi) a great fortification (called) Sîn-māgir-madana-dagal-dagal (Sîn-māgir broadens his country)."Jean, Charles-François, "Nouveaux Contrats de Larse", Revue d’Assyriologie et d’Archéologie Orientale 26, pp. 101–14, 1929
The ruler Isin Ur-du-kuga (c. 1830–1828 BC) is known (Cone IM 95461 found at Isin) to have built a cultic center of the god Lulal at Du6-eden-na (Dul-edena) which lay on the Iturungal canal.Glenn, Anna and Peterson, Jeremiah, "The Lulal širgida Composition CBS 12590 (HAV 5, pl. 7, VIII)", Altorientalische Forschungen, vol. 45, no. 2, pp. 168-181, 2018Douglas Frayne, "ISIN", Old Babylonian Period (2003-1595 B.C.): Early Periods, Volume 4, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, pp. 5-106, 1990
An-am (18th century BC), an Old Babylonian period ruler of Uruk recorded building a temple for the goddess Kanisurra, who was called the "mistress of the Iturungal".
It has been suggested that Babylon ruler Sin-Muballit (c. 1811–1793 BC) damned or diverted the Iturungal to defeat the city of Isin.Boivin, Odette, "Geographical and chronological considerations". The First Dynasty of the Sealand in Mesopotamia, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, pp. 60-85, 2018
In the Sumerian literary composition Enkimdu and Dumuzi it states "Let them eat grain in the šuba (stones) fields of Unug, Let your goatlings and lambs drink water from my Iturungal canal".da Silva Ferreira, Nelson Henrique, "Herding and farming symbiosis: a dialogic exercise on the manifestation of a universal toposin Sumerian and Roman primary cultures", West & East, pp. 145-160, 2020
In one text of the Sumerian literary composition Descent of Inanna into the Underworld Inanna "takes from Uruk to the Netherworld, following the Iturungal Canal upstream and passing the cities of Bad Tibira, Zabalam, Adad, Nippur, Kis, and finally Akkad, where she enters the Netherworld without crossing over the Hubur River".Horowitz, Wayne, "Mesopotamian Cosmic Geography,"Second Edition, Vol. 11 of Mesopotamian Civilizations. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2011
See also Cities of the ancient Near East
Further reading Adams, Robert McC, "An interdisciplinary overview of a Mesopotamian city and its hinterlands", Cuneiform Digital Library Journal 2008.1, 1970 Carroué, François, "Études de géographie et de topographie sumériennes III: L’Iturungal et le sud sumérien", Acta Sumerologica 15, pp. 11–69, 1993 Sauren, Herbert, "Der Feldzug Utuḫengals von Uruk Gegen Tirigan Und Das Siedlungsgebiet Der Gutäer", Revue d’Assyriologie et d’archéologie Orientale, vol. 61, no. 1, pp. 75–79, 1967
References