Larak (Sumer)

Larak is believed to be in the vicinity of the ancient city of Isin. It has been suggested that Tell al-Hayyad, a 40 hectare site, is Larak. The site is #1306 in the Adams survey. The site is 1100 meters X 450 meters and split by later canals into three parts. The central summit of the southwestern part, the largest and highest, showed as a significant Jemdat Nasr occupation and otherwise numerous Uruk period shards and limited Early Dynastic remains based on a surface survey. It has not been excavated. The site was a large city in the Early, Middle, and Late Uruk period. The 3rd millennium BC site of Tell al-Wilayah has also been proposed. ==Textual sources==

Early dynastic city According to the Babyloniaca of Berossus, the ruler of Shuruppak, Ubara-Tutu, mentioned in the Sumerian King List and the Epic of Gilgamesh, came from Larak. Larak is listed as one of the five antedeluvian (before the flood) cities in the Sumerian King List. In some rescensions it is the 3rd while in others it is 4th. Only one ruler, is En-sipad-zid-ana, is mentioned in the SKL (ruling for 28.800 years) before rulership moved on to the next city. The city is also mentioned in the Lament for Ur which states "Ninašte has abandoned the house in Larak, her sheepfold—to the wind". In the later literary composition Inanna Lament it reads "From my brickwork of Larak, he called out after me!", referring to the destruction of her temples by some enemy. In the Eridu Genesis, a literary composition written around 1600 BC, Larak is listed as the 3rd city i.e. "the third, Larak, she gave to Pabilsag,". In The Destroyed House, a lament for the destruction of Isin it states "[Ni]nashte, mistress of Larak, am I—". This lament is part of the basis for assuming Larak is near Isin. Ninashte means "mistress of Ashte" where Ashte is thought to be a location in Larak. Iron Age city Larak is mentioned in writings of Neo-Babylonian and Neo-Assyrian times but it is not certain if this is the same city. The ruler Neo-Assyrian ruler Sennacherib (705–681 BC) listed Larak (as a city of the Chaldean Bit-Amukkani tribe) among the cities he defeated in his first military campaign. To rebuild the Etemenanki temple of Marduk in Babylon, the neo-Babylonian ruler Nebuchadnezzar II (605-562 BC) taxed a number of towns including Larak: There are a number of records of Larak stemming from the conflict between the Neo-Babyloan ruler Marduk-apla-iddina II and the Neo-Assyrian ruler Tiglath-pileser III (745–727 BC). Various Chaldean and Aramean tribes at various times allied with and opposed these rulers and warred with each other. One raid by another Chaldean tribe was reports as carrying away 20, 000 sheep from Larak and its ruler Nadinu. The Neo-Assyrian ruler Sargon II (722–705 BC) received a report which included ==List of rulers==

The following list should not be considered complete: ==See also==