Eshnunna

Eshnunna

 or Tall Al-Asmar

Statuettes found at Tall al-Asmar, Early Dynastic II (c. 2775–c. 2650 BC); in …

(credit: Courtesy of the Oriental Institute, the University of Chicago)

Ancient city ruins, eastern Iraq. Occupied before 3000 BC, it was, during the 3rd dynasty of Ur, the seat of an ensi (governor). After the collapse of Ur, it became independent but was later conquered by Hammurabi. Stone tablets found near Baghdad, called the “Laws of Eshnunna,” predate the Code of Hammurabi by about two generations and help show the development of ancient law. After Hammurabi's time it fell into decline. Sumerian artifacts from the site include stone statuettes dating from the 3rd millennium BC.

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Eshnunna 

(also Ashnunnak; now the archaeological site of Tell Asmar, Iraq), an ancient city-state in Mesopotamia.

Eshnunna arose not later than the third millennium B.C. In the 21st century B.C. it belonged to the powerful Sumerian-Akkadian kingdom, ruled by the Third Dynasty of Ur. From the 20th century B.C. to the early 18th century B.C. it was the center of an autonomous state. The city was subsequently conquered by Hammurabi and then by the Kassites, who called it Tupliash. The last mention of the city in cuneiform documents dates from the sixth century B.C.

A text of laws of Eshnunna, written in Acadian and dating from the 19th century B.C, was found by Iraqi archaeologists in 1945 in Tall Abu Harmal. The text is kept in the Iraqi Museum in Baghdad; a Russian translation, edited by I. M. D’iakonov, was published in Vestnik drevnei istorii (1952, no. 3). Excavations of Eshnunna were conducted from 1930 to 1936 by an American expedition led by H. Frankfort and T. Jacobsen. The expedition uncovered temples, the palace of King Naramsin of Eshnunna, a sewerage system, and various dwellings. Sculptures and seals were also found.