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News from Iraq

Intact Temple Library Found at Sippar

Archaeologists dream of opening a door and discovering an archive—the words, in a sense the voice—of an ancient people. That’s what happened at ancient Sippar in Iraq, where the temple library, overlooked by 19th-century excavators, has emerged. The ancient city of Sippar (today called Abu Habba by nearby villagers) is located about 25 miles southwest of Baghdad. A center of learning in the ancient world, Sippar was first excavated by Hormuzd Rassam in 1881, and by the French excavator Père Vincent Scheil in 1882. Subsequently, for almost a century, Sippar was neglected. Then in 1977 a commission of scientific excavations was formed in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Baghdad. The commission assumed responsibility for training students in scientific methods of excavation so they would be prepared to resume excavation at Sippar as well as to conduct a survey of archaeological sites in the surrounding area.