Ricerc@Sapienza

Nella ricostruzione storica, archeologica e linguistica dell’Oriente antico un ruolo preminente ha da sempre assunto il tentativo di definire le identità culturali, un tentativo che risale all’espressione “terra delle genti con la testa nera” toponimia in lingua sumerica con cui le prime culture urbane (seconda metà del IV millennio a.C.) della Mesopotamia antica si riconobbero e distinsero.

Una civiltà dimenticata da millenni emerge dalla decifrazione dei più antichi documenti scritti. Questo volume guida il lettore alla riscoperta delle culture della Mesopotamia in tutta la loro ricca complessità. Gli elementi che appartengono all'immaginario comune quando si pensa alla Mesopotamia, come l'astrologia, la torre di Babele, l'Eden, sono qui presentati in una sintesi organica.

The attention towards the registration of damage to ancient archaeological sites and historical places in the Mediterranean and the Near East has increased because of the frequency of deliberate destruction.

The Italian archaeological project at Tell Zurghul is a joint archaeological expedition of Sapienza Università di Roma and the Università degli Studi di Perugia and started working at the site in 2015; three seasons of excavation have been conducted with three operations (Area A, Area B, and Area D) and a survey on the western edge of the site (Area C) (Figure 1).

The Italian Archaeological Expedition to Nigin of Sapienza University of Rome and University of Perugia started excavations at Tell Zurghul in 2015: a survey and three excavations seasons were carried out in the period between 2016 and 2017. This volume presents the results of the archaeological explorations with the analysis of the stratigraphic and architectural contexts of Area A, B and D as well as the study of the pottery from the contexts so far investigated and the survey in Area C in the western sector of the site.

In 2015, the joint Italian expedition of the Università degli Studi di Perugia and Sapienza Università di Roma started the exploration of the site of Tell
Zurghul in the province of Dhi Qar, in southern Iraq. Tell Zurghul, a site of nearly 70 hectares, is located about 7 km south-east from Lagash and corresponds to the ancient Sumerian city of Nigin (formerly written as Nina).

The marshy environment of Southern Sumer in the 3rd millennium BC surely had an impact on the local economy that can be sought for in the written sources. The perception of marshes was however twofold: as a prosperous environment in literary compositions and as a place to be tamed for regular, state-controlled exploitation in royal inscriptions. The great majority of attestations of marshes in economic documents refer to field names, thus, probably referring to agricultural units in drained marsh areas.

In this paper I discuss various aspects related to the imaginary and to the symbolism of the date palm in the written sources from ancient Mesopotamia through the analysis of two compositions. The first is a Sumerian text known as Inanna and Šukaletuda, which contains in the first part a myth describing the creation of the date palm by a raven instructed by the god Enki. The second is a Babylonian dispute, Palm and Tamarisk, in which the two trees try to prevail one over the other, proclaiming their virtues and functions.

This book presents the results of the archaeological activities and specialistic studies carried out at the site of Abu Tbeirah (Nasiriyah, Province of Dhi Qar, southern Iraq) by the Iraqi-Italian joint mission of the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage and of Sapienza, led by F. D’Agostino and L. Romano (Dipartimento – Istituto Italiano di Studi Orientali). In the volume the accomplishments of the first seven campaigns (2011-2016) are introduced together with an assessment of the palaeo-environment and landscape surrounding the site.