Karkar was settled from the Uruk period to the Kassite period.
Early Bronze Age Uruk and Jemdet Nasr periods Chalcolithic/Early Bronze IIA. Karkar is already attested in sources from the
Uruk period. The city served as a cult center of the Mesopotamian
weather god. It served as a cult center of the weather god
Ishkur.
Early Dynastic I-III Early Bronze IIB-IIIB (c. 2850/2750-2350 BCE). No available data.
Akkadian period Early Bronze IVA (c. 2350-2150 BCE). In the Akkadian period (c. 2334-2154 BCE), the deity became known under the
Akkadian name Adad, and a
temple dedicated to him located there is well attested.
Utu-Hengal and Ur III period Early Bronze IVB (c. 2150-2020/2000 BCE). The city is listed in the campaign itinerary of Uruk ruler
Utu-hengal (r. 2119-2112 BCE) against the Gutian ruler
Tirigan. The campaign left Uruk, passed through Nagsu and then proceeded on the Karkar. While originally referred to with the
Sumerian name
Ishkur, by the
Ur III period he came to be fully fused with Adad, who was already associated with him at least by scribes in
pre-Sargonic Mari. He could be referred to with the epithet Lugal-Karkar or Lugal-Karkarra, “lord of Karkar”. He was also the main deity of the local pantheon. In addition to Ishkur, his wife
Shala was also worshiped in Karkar. A
temple dedicated to the weather god existed in the city. It bore the ceremonial name Eugalgal (also spelled Eugalgalla), “House of Great Storms”. In the
Temple Hymns the same sanctuary is referred to as Eugalgim, “House Like a Great Storm”. Both names occur in the
Canonical Temple List, respectively in lines 295 and 297. It is also possible that Edurku, “House, Pure Abode”, a sanctuary of Shala attested in a
lipšur litany, was similarly located in Karkar and formed a part of the Eugalgal. The oldest reference to the
cult of the weather god in Karkar occurs in a text known from three copies from the
Old Babylonian period, but presumably originally composed in the late third millennium BCE, according to which king
Utu-hegal of
Uruk prayed to him in this city to gain his support in an upcoming battle during his campaign against the
Gutians. While a temple hymn focused on the sanctuary is known too, and was traditionally associated with
Enheduanna, it cannot be dated precisely. Additionally, as argued by , some of the early sources from
Adab presumably mention religious officials from Karkar. He highlights the existence
Sargonic administrative texts dealing with rations meant for the
ereš-dingir (
entum) priestess and
sanga (
šangûm) priest of Ishkur as possible examples. Sources pertaining to Karkar from the Ur III period are also available. The city was considered a major religious site, and offerings to the temple of Ishkur were provided not only from a center of royal administration,
Puzrish-Dagan, but also from
Girsu and
Umma, as documented in texts from the reign of
Shu-Sin. A single reference to a transaction concerning goods meant for this sanctuary occurs in the text corpus from
Nippur as well. Additionally, a year name of an unspecified king from the Third Dynasty of Ur, according to Douglas Frayne
Ur-Nammu, though
Shulgi has also been suggested, which mentions the appointment of a priestess of Ishkur who was “chosen by omens” might also be related to the traditions of Karkar.
Middle Bronze Age Isin-Larsa period In the
Isin-Larsa period (c. 2020/2004-1763 BCE), the first king of the Isin dynasty,
Ishbi-Erra (r. c. 2017–1985 BCE), seized control of Umma shortly after the collapse of the Third Dynasty of Ur. According to historical inscriptions, Ishbi-Erra's expansion from Isin included the capture of several major cities, specifically Nippur, Umma, Girsu, and Puzrish-Dagan.
Iddin-Dagan of
Isin (r. 1975-1954 BCE) mentions Karkar in a year-name stating: "Year
Iddin-Dagan made a throne dais for Iszkur of Karkarki." The Larsa king
Sumuel (c. 1895-1866 BCE) explicitly claims to have defeated the army of Isin and destroyed Umma. In the same period, he boasts of conquering Kish and Akusum, indicating a total sweep of the central and eastern plains, indicating Karkar was now part of Larsa.
Rim-Sin I of
Larsa (r. 1822-1763 BCE) appears to have controlled the city, and in his 12th year name, he records the appointment of a high priestess (
entum) of Adad in Karkar. Additional attestations from the period of the latter ruler's reign include a reference to a daughter of this king being the current high priestess of Adad in Karkar, an administrative text from Larsa mentioning a herd of sheep owned by said god, and two passages in texts from Nippur which reference allotments to a certain Adad-ešar, who acted on behalf of said priestess from Karkar.
Babylonian period Karkar and its temple are documented in sources from the Old Babylonian period. When Hammurabi defeated Rim-Sin I in 1763 BCE, Karkar was absorbed into the growing Babylonian Empire. The name Bit Karkar (House/District of Karkar) appears in the Prologue to the
Code of Hammurabi, royal inscriptions, and contemporary administrative letters.
Hammurabi (r. 1792-1750 BCE) identifies himself as the "Prince who makes the face of Adad shine in Karkar" and the "One who restored the E-udgalgal" (the temple of Adad) in the heart of the city. By restoring the temple he was both pious and asserted control over the home of the storm god, important for a society where rain and flood was an expression of divine power. A reference to “Adad of Karkar” also occurs in the prologue of the
Laws of Hammurabi in an enumeration of the main deities of
Babylonia. The name of the city could also be used as an element of personal names, according to Daniel Schwmer as a stand-in for the name of its main deity.
Late Bronze Age Kassite period It is not certain if Karkar remained a major urban center after the Old Babylonian period, and the possibility that it was gradually abandoned has been suggested. No non-literary references to it have been identified in sources from later periods. An exception is the name of a certain Rīš-Karkara, “Karkar is acclaimed”,) identified in a
Middle Babylonian text. Karkar might also be attested under the logographic spelling of its name in the list of
ziggurat and
city wall names from
Nineveh (final section of the text K 4337), most likely originally composed in the
Kassite period. It mentions a ziggurat located in this city, Earattakišarra (
é-arattaki-ki–šár-ra; according to
Andrew R. George’s translation “House, Mountain/Noblest of the Universe”). Another text, a list of temples, also mentions a ziggurat in IMki, presumably also to be understood as Karkar in this context, but states it was known as Eudegalanna (“House, Great Wonder of Heaven”). In a fragmentary literary text of the Old Babylonian (or possibly following Kassite) era there is a reference to an uprising by troops that "deposed four kings" at Karkar. ==See also==