Dur-Kurigalzu

33°21′13″N 44°12′8″E / 33.35361°N 44.20222°E / 33.35361; 44.20222 Template:FixBunching Template:Ancient Near East portal Template:FixBunching

Template:FixBunching Dur-Kurigalzu (modern Aqar-Quf, Iraq) was a city in southern Mesopotamia near the confluence of the Tigris and Diyala rivers about 30 km west of modern Baghdad. It was founded by a Kassite king of Babylon, Kurigalzu I or II, some time in the 14th century BC, and was abandoned after the fall of the Kassite dynasty. The prefix Dur- is an Akkadian term meaning "fortess of", while the Kassite royal name Kurigalzu,^[1] since it is repeated in the Kassite king list, may have a descriptive meaning as an epithet, such as "herder of the folk (or of the Kassites)".

The city contained a ziggurat and temples dedicated to Sumerian gods, as well as a royal palace. It was excavated by Iraqi archaeologists between 1943 and 1945. The ziggurat was unusually well-preserved, standing to a height of about 170 feet. It was "restored" to its first level by the Saddam Hussein government during the 1970s.

Notes

^ The name only occurs royally. J.A. Brinkman, Materials and Studies for Kassite History I (University of Chicago) 1976:245 and references; there is an incubation-dream narrative of which the hero is Kurigalzu surrounded by courtiers, clearly a king, according to Irving L. Finkel, "The Dream of Kurigalzu and the Tablet of Sins" Anatolian Studies 33 (1983:75-80).

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[1] The name only occurs royally. J.A. Brinkman, Materials and Studies for Kassite History I (University of Chicago) 1976:245 and references; there is an incubation-dream narrative of which the hero is Kurigalzu surrounded by courtiers, clearly a king, according to Irving L. Finkel, "The Dream of Kurigalzu and the Tablet of Sins" Anatolian Studies 33 (1983:75-80).

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