Puzrish-Dagan (modern Drehem) (Tall ad-Duraihim) is an important archaeological site in Al-Qādisiyyah Governorate (Iraq). It is best known for the thousands of clay tablets that are known to have come from the site through looting during the early twentieth century.
History of research Puzrish-Dagan came first to the attention of scholars when clay tablets coming from the site started to appear on the antiquities market in 1909–1910.Hussey, Mary Inda. "Tablets from Dréhem in the Public Library of Cleveland, Ohio.", Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. 33, pp. 167–79, 1913 Based on information from the antiquities traders who sold the tablets, Puzrish-Dagan could be identied with modern Drehem in Iraq. Since then, some 12,000 tablets thought to have come from the site have been published. M. Hilgert, "Cuneiform Texts from the Ur III Period in the Oriental Institute, Volume 1: Drehem Administrative Documents from the Reign of Shulgi", Oriental Institute Publications 115 Chicago: The Oriental Institute, 1998 ISBN 1-885923-07-4 Markus Hilgert, Clemens D. Reichel, Cuneiform Texts from the Ur III Period in the Oriental Institute, Volume 2: Drehem Administrative Documents from the Reign of Amar-Suena, Oriental Institute Publications 121 Chicago: The Oriental Institute, 2003 ISBN 1-885923-24-4 The objects are scattered across numerous collections, for example those of the Royal Ontario Museum, the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, Harvard Museum, and the Iraq Museum.Tsouparopoulou, Christina. The Ur III seals impressed on documents from Puzriš-Dagān (Drehem). Heidelberger Studien zum alten Orient, 2015Marcel Sigrist, "Neo-Sumerian Texts from the Royal Ontario Museum: The administration at Drehem", CDL Press, 1995 ISBN 9781883053161 Stephen Herbert Langdon briefly excavated there in 1924.Zettler, Richard L., "Archaeology and the Problem of Textual Evidence for the Third Dynasty of Ur", Bulletin of the Canadian Society for Mesopotamian Studies 38, pp. 49-62, 2003
The site was surveyed by Robert McCormick Adams as part of his important archaeological work in the region.Robert McCormick Adams, (1965): Land behind Baghdad. A history of settlements in the Diyala plains. Chicago Robert McCormick Adams, (1981): Heartland of cities. Surveys of ancient settlements and land use on the central floodplain of the Euphrates. Chicago Iraqi archaeologists excavated the site in 2007 under the direction of Ali Ubeid Shalkam.Al-Mutawalli, N. A., and A. Ubeid Shalkham. "From the Archive of DI." KU5-mīšar. Excavation of Drehem (Ancient Puzriš-Dagan). Sumer 57 (2012): 19-40AI-Mutawalli, N., and Ali Ubeid Shalkham. "From the Archive of di. ku 5-mīšar: Excavation of Drehem (Ancient Puzriš-d Dagan)." Sumer 59 (2014): 93-112 The Iraqi-Italian QADIS-project surveyed the site in 2016. From 2016 to 2019 the University of Bologna and the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage conducted a program of coordinated remote sensing and surface surveys in the Qadisiyah province, including at Drehem. Marchetti, Nicolò, et al. "New Results on Ancient Settlement Patterns in the South-Eastern Qadisiyah Region (Iraq). The 2016-2017 Iraqi-Italian Qadis Survey Project." Al-Adab Journal 123 (2017): 45-62 Marchetti, Nicolò, et al. "The rise of urbanized landscapes in Mesopotamia: The QADIS integrated survey results and the interpretation of multi-layered historical landscapes." Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und vorderasiatische Archäologie 109.2 (2019): 214-237 It determined that the site had an extent of 60 hectares. It determined that the city was surrounded by canals, was laid out as an urban grid, had a number of administrative building, and had a harbor. Marchetti, Nicolò, and Federico Zaina. "Rediscovering the Heartland of Cities." NEAR EASTERN ARCHAEOLOGY 83 (2020): 147
The Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures has received permission to start new excavations at the site as part of their renewed work at the nearby site of Nippur and carried out a preliminary survey in 2019.
The site and its environment Puzrish-Dagan is located some southeast of Nippur, of which it has sometimes been called a suburb. The site consists of two areas: a northern and a southern mound.Tsouparopoulou, Christina. Bridging the text:artefact divide: Towards a materialitäts-profiling, 2019/2025. doi:10.31219/osf.io/akqud_v1. The northern mound measures for a total area of . The southern mound is slightly larger: it measures , is high and occupies an area of . Recent remote sensing research suggests the maximum extent was about 80 hectares. Parts of the site are now obscured by modern agricultural fields and several irrigation canals cut through it. The mound has been described as a "beehive" due to the illegal looting taking place since the early 1900s.
Based on the site morphology, the southern mound possibly contains a ziggurat. Both mounds probably contain large buildings over in length. Traces of the walls are still visible on the surface, and the regularity of these traces suggests that the buildings were planned and built within a short period. The QADIS survey has documented possible traces of a city wall, a large temple complex next to the ziggurat, ancient canals that ran alongside and through the settlement, as well as a harbor.
Occupation history
Traces of the Early Dynastic, Akkadian and Ur III periods have been found at the site according to a 1967 publication of the Iraqi Directorate General of antiquities. The QADIS-survey found sherds dating to the Middle Uruk period and confirmed that the Ur III period was probably the most important settlement level at Drehem. Evidence for the Isin-Larsa as well as the Parthian and/or Sasanian periods has also been found. The thousands of texts coming from the site all date to the Ur III period.Tsouparopoulou, Christina. A reconstruction of the Puzriš-Dagan central livestock agency, Cuneiform Digital Library Journal 2013/6/2. https://cdli.earth/articles/cdlj/2013-2 In the absence of excavations, these texts provide the most information on the nature of the settlement at Drehem. Puzrish-Dagan was founded by King Shulgi as an important administrative center in the bala tax system of the Ur III period. Year name 39 of Shulgi was "The year Šulgi, king of Ur, king of the four quarters, built é-Puzriš-Dagan, a residence {palace? temple?} of Šulgi", though Drehem texts are known to start as far back as Shulgi year 26. Texts between S26 and S39 are referred to as "Early Drehem Series". Sharlach, Tonia, "Šulgi, Mighty Man, King of Ur", Fortune and Misfortune in the Ancient Near East, pp. 211-20, 2016 The following two year names also marked this same event, which is generally treated as the founding of Puzriš-Dagan.Sallaberger, W., "Schlachtvieh aus Puzriš-Dagan. Zur Bedeutung dieses königlichen Archivs", JEOL 38, pp. 45–62, 2003/2004 Witnessed by thousands of cuneiform tablets, livestock (cattle, sheep, and goats) of the state was centralized at Drehem and subsequently redistributed to temples, its officials, and royal palaces. The temples of nearby Nippur were the main destinations of the livestock.
See also Cities of the ancient Near East
References
Further reading Richard Firth, "Synchronization of the Drehem, Nippur, and Umma Calendars During the Latter Part of Ur III", CDLJ 2016:1, Cuneiform Digital Library Journal, 2016 Kang, Shin T, "Sumerian Economic Texts from the Drehem Archive", Sumerian and Akkadian Cuneiform Texts in the Collection of the World Heritage Museum of the University of Illinois 1. Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 1972 Maeda, Tohru, "Bringing (mu-túm) Livestock and the Puzurish-Dagan Organization in the Ur III Dynasty", ASJ 11, pp. 69–111, 1989 Maeda, Tohru, "The Receiving and Delivering Officials in Puzurish-Dagan", ASJ 15, pp. 297–300, 1993 Nesbit, William Marsiglia, "Sumerian records from Drehem", No. 8, Columbia University Press, 1914 Sigrist, Marcel, "Drehem", Bethesda, Md.: CDL Press, 1992 (in French) Steinkeller, Piotr, "Sheep and Goat Terminology in Ur III Sources from Drehem", BSA 8, pp. 49–70, 1995 Tsouparopoulou, "The ‘K-9 Corps’ of the Third Dynasty of Ur: The Dog Handlers at Drehem and the Army", ZA102, pp. 1–16, 2012 Tsouparopoulou, Christina, "Killing and Skinning Animals in the Ur III Period: The Puzriš-Dagan (Drehem) Office Managing of Dead Animals and Slaughter By-Products", AoF 40, pp. 150–82, 2013 Tsouparopoulou, Christina, "The Ur III Seals Impressed on Documents from Puzriš-Dagan (Drehem)", HSAO 16, Heidelberg: Heidelberger Orientverlag, 2015 Tsouparopoulou, Christina, "A Reconstruction of the Puzriš-Dagan Central Livestock Agency", Cuneiform Digital Library Journal, Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative, 2013 (ISSN: 1540-8779) Whiting, R.M., "Some Observation on the Drehem Calendar", ZA, pp. 69–75, 1979