Malgium


Malgium is an ancient Mesopotamian city tentatively identified as Tell Yassir which thrived especially in the Middle Bronze Age, ca. 2000 BC - 1600 BC. Malgium formed a small city-state in an area where the edges of the territories controlled by Larsa, Babylon and Elam converged. Inscribed in cuneiform as ma-al-gi-imKI, its chief deities were Ea and Damkina. A temple of Ulmašītum is known to have been there. There was also a temple to the goddess Bēlet-ilī called Ekitusgestu as well as a temple to the god Anum.
Tablets illegally excavated from Malgium have begun to appear on the antiquities market. One, in a private collection, had a new, second, year name for Imgur-Sîn "The year the ‘Tigris/Zubi-Canal-of-Imgur-Sîn’ was dug by King dImgur-Sîn". Note the divine determinative for the rulers name.
A few complete and partial year names for rulers of Malgium have been determined including "year when king dŠu-Kakka killed aurochs and wild cows", "year when dNur-Eštar, the mighty male, set in place the foundation of Eduru-Mama", "year when dŠu-Kakka erected Bad-Enlila", and "year when king dImgur-Sin erected Bad-Enlila in the Upper Land, and erected Bad-gar.lum facing the Native Land"
A fragmentary Lament for the destruction of Kesh and Malgium has also been found.

Tell Yassir

Tell Yassir, 20 kilometers northwest of Maškan-šāpir is now generally thought to be the location of ancient Malgium. Note that the site of Tell al-Baghdadya has also been suggested.
Tell Yassir is a single mound covering around 15 hectares. It is one of a group of tells collectively called Tulūl al-Fāj which have now been identified as the location of Malgium. After the 2003 invasion Iraqi archaeologists with the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage conducted a surface survey at Tell Yassir and found that the site was heavily looted, to the extent that administrative, temple, and palatial structures visible from earlier satellite images could no longer be found. In 2018 a team from the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage led by Ahmed Ali Jawad surveyed the site of Tell Yassir. Along with pottery shards a number of inscribed bricks were found including those of Ur III rulers and rulers of Malgium and declared Tell Yassir as the site of Malgium though this was not universally accepted.
An example brick inscription:

Tulūl al-Fāj

Tulūl al-Fāj is a group of archaeological sites one of which is Tell Yassir
In 2017 Iraqi archaeologists, led by Abbas Al-Hussainy of the University of Al-Qadisiyah began an archaeological survey of an area east of the Euphrates and in 2019 conducted a surface survey at Tell Yassir. During this survey about 50 inscribed bricks or Malgium rulers were found, with 48 of the inscriptions being stamped. One of the stamped bricks, from ruler Tulūl al-Fāj, also contained a handwritten inscriptions. Thisd team suggested that Tulūl al-Fāj may be the site of Malgium vs only Tell Yassir.
The area was also visited several times beginning in 2018 by an Italian team from the University of Venice led by Lucio Milano though as yet no results from this have been published. The region is being surveyed, with 2024 being its fourth season after beginning in 2018, by the Wasit Archaeological Survey by the University of Florence and Ca' Foscari University of Venice led by Lucio Milano.

History

Three of its rulers have been identified with certainty, through attestation in their inscriptions as šàr ma-al-gi-imki, dTakil-ilissu, son of Ištaran-asû, dImgur-Sîn, son of Ili-abi, and, probably the last one, dIpiq-Ištar, son of Apil-Ilišu, a contemporary of Ḫammu-rāpi of Babylon, who celebrated conflict with the city in two of his year names. A further three rulers have been proposed, dŠu-Kakka, dNabi-Enlil and dŠu-Amurrum, three generations of a dynasty, based upon Šu-Kakka’s year name honoring the goddess Damkina and seal impressions. Their absolute position is uncertain but they seem to have reigned from the immediate aftermath of the downfall of the Ur III empire.

Early Bronze

Akkadian Period

Malgium is also mentioned in the literary composition "Cuthean Legend of Naram-Sin" ie "He has summoned against me a mighty foe. battle against me as far as Malgium."

Ur III Period

Cuneiform tablets from the city of Irisaĝrig, now published, show that Malgium conquered that city roughly after year 10 of Ibbi-Sin, the last ruler of the Ur III empire. The tablets also included year names showing that kings Nur-Eštar, dŠu-Kakka, dNabi-Enlil, dŠu-Amurrum, dImgur-Sin, and Ištaran-asu ruled over Irisaĝrig.

Middle Bronze

Isin-Larsa Period

The kings of Larsa targeted Malgium in their pursuit of territorial expansion with Gungunum celebrating its defeat in his 19th year name "Year on the orders of An, Enlil and Nanna Malgium was defeated by weapons...", circa 1914 BC, Sin-Iddinam its defeat in his 5th year name ca. 1844 and Warad-Sîn commemorated mu ugnim mà-al-gu-umki gištukul ba-sìg, “Year : the army? of Malgium was smitten by weapons”, ca. 1831 BC.

Old Babylonian Period

Ḫammu-rāpi of Babylon, in a coalition with Shamshi-Adad I and Ibal-pi-El II, campaigned against the city-state until its ruler bought them off with 15 talents of silver. Malgium’s king, dIpiq-Ištar, concluded a treaty and subsequently provided aid and soldiers in Ḫammu-rāpi’s campaign against Larsa. After years of conflict, Ḫammu-rāpi destroyed the city walls of Malgium in his 35th year of reign denoting that year as "Year in which Hammu-rabi the king by the orders of An and Enlil destroyed the city walls of Mari and Malgium". Most of the population of Malgium was deported to Kish, Isin, and especially Pī-Kasî. Prisoner of war records from Uruk under ruler Rîm-Anum who was a contemporary of Samsu-iluna of Babylon mention a number of captives from Malgium.
Malgium survived in some form until late in the 2nd millennium BC and is recorded in two kudurru of Kassite ruler Meli-Šipak.

Tell Abu Antiq

The site of Tell Abu Antiq lies about 50 kilometers south of ancient Babylon. Its ancient name is
believed to have been Pī-Kasî. Little is known about the city of Pī-Kasî.
After its destruction by Hammurabi most of the population of Malgium was deported to Pī-Kasî.
The site consists of two hills, separated by an ancient water channel, with a total area of 9 square kilometers. It was excavated by an Iraqi team between
1999 and 2007 in response to continued looting and over 1250 Old Babylonian period cuneiform tablets from the reigns of Samsu-iluna and Abi-ešuḫ were recovered as well as other finds. The tablets are of "letters, economic and administrative tablets, lexical lists, literature, mathematical tablets, and lenticular school exercises".
Before excavations began the site had been subject to heavy looting by locals beginning before
1913 and a number of cuneiform tablets had entered the antiquities market from that. The results of archaeological excavation have allowed the provenance of about 500 of
the pre-1913 tablets to be assigned to Tell Abu Antiq. Many of the texts are held in private and public collections and classed as a group "Yaḫrūrum šaplûm archives". The archive is dated to the reign of Babylonian ruler Samsu-iluna. Some are held in the De Liagre Böhl collection at The Netherlands Institute for the Near East and the Louvre.
An example of a tablet from Tell Abu Antiq :