Apišal (A-pi4-sal4ki) is an ancient Near Eastern city known from the 2nd half of the 3rd millennium BC in the Akkadian Empire period and especially the Ur III Empire period. In Ur III times it was one of four districts of the Umma province along with Da-Umma, Gu’edena, and Mušbiana. Stephanie Rost, "Written Sources in the Empirical Investigation of Ancient Irrigation: The Operation of the I-sala Irrigation System in the Umma Province in Late Third-Millennium BCE Southern Mesopotamia", in Irrigation in Early States: New Directions, Oriental Institute Seminars 13, Chicago: The Oriental Institute, pp. 137–174, 2022 It is currently unlocated though it is known to be in the northeastern area of Umma on the Tigris river though it was originally thought to be near Mari due to conflating it with Abarsal.Gelb, I. J., "Studies in the Topography of Western Asia", The American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures, vol. 55, no. 1, pp. 66–85, 1938Otto, Adelheid, "Archeological Perspectives on the Localization of Naram-Sin’s Armanum", Journal of Cuneiform Studies, vol. 58, pp. 1–26, 2006 There are no historical mentions of Apišal after the end of the 3rd millennium BC though it does appear in literary and omen texts into the 1st millennium BC. Foster, Benjamin R, "Naram-Sin in Martu and Magan", RIM Project, 1990 The site of Tell Muhalliqiya has been proposed as its location. Rost, Stephanie, "Watercourse management and political centralization in third-millennium BC Southern Mesopotamia: a case study of the Umma Province of the Ur III period (2112-2004 BC)", Dissertation, State University of New York at Stony Brook, 2015
In the Ur III period institutions called "mar-sa" handled harbor administration and its related activities including boat building and repairing and storage of raw material. There was a "mar-sa" at Apišal.D’Agostino, Franco, and Licia Romano, "The Harbor of Abu Tbeirah and The Southern Mesopotamian Landscape in the 3rd Mill. BC: Preliminary Considerations", Rivista Degli Studi Orientali, vol. 91, no. 1/4, pp. 33–45, 2018 Földi, Zsombor J., "New evidence on the understanding of “gaba-aš” and “gaba-ta” in the Ur III messenger texts", N.A.B.U. 2021 nᵒ 3 (septembre), pp. 161-162, 2021 It is also known that there was a "weir of Apišal" which supports the notion Apišal was on a river or major canal.Niederreiter, Zoltán, "Fourteen Ur III Texts Belonging to the Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal and the Département Des Monnaies, Médailles et Antiques", Akkadica 135/1, pp. 73–105, 2014 Also at that time Apišal is known to have held one of the four guesthouses (e2-kas4 a-pi-sal4ki), for messengers and traders, in the Umma province. It is associated with the guesthouse in Pašime. Li, Zhi, "Support for messengers: road stations in the Ur III period", Dissertation, lmu, 2021Saadoon, Abather, and Angela Greco, "Insights into the State’s Periphery and Core: New Texts from the Ur III Period Housed in the Iraq Museum", Journal of Cuneiform Studies 78.1, pp. 141-167, 2026
Apišal is mentioned in a number of Mesopotamian omen (extispicy) texts. George, Andrew R., "The sign of the Flood and the Language of Signs in Babylonian Omen Literature", Language in the Ancient Near East, Winona Lake, pp. 323-35, 2010 An example:
In that period rulers, towns, and religious institutions had "banners" complete with silver, or silver and gold at the highest level. Apišal is known to have had its own banner. Besides being known as a source for "good beer" it is known to have been a significant supplier of wool and of fish, the later being sometimes shipped "upstream" to Nippur, as well as a having a granary.Cripps, Eric L., "The Structure of Prices in the Neo-Sumerian Economy (II): The Wool: Silver Price Ratio", Revue d’Assyriologie et d’archéologie Orientale, vol. 113, pp. 13–38, 2019Borrelli, N., "Fisheries in Ur III Southern Mesopotamia", Annali Sezione Orientale, 81(1-2), pp. 3-38, 2011Sharlach, T. M., "The Bala of the Province of Umma: Part I: Commodities", in Provincial Taxation and the UR III State. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, pp. 23–59, 2004
The city is also featured in the later fragmentary Sumerian literary composition Narām-Sîn and the Lord of Apišal (BM 139965).J. Goodnick Westenholz, "Legends of the Kings of Akkade: the texts", Vol. 7, Eisenbrauns, 1997Güterbock, H. G., Ernst F. Weidner, and T. G. Pinches, "Keilschrifttexte nach Kopien von TG Pinches. Aus dem Nachlass veröffentlicht und bearbeitet.(Fortsetzung)", Archiv für Orientforschung 13, pp. 46-55, 1939
History
Akkadian Empire period texts from Susa mention Apišal. Some commercial texts refer to emmer wheat brought from there.Foster, Benjamin R., ""International“ Trade at Sargonic Susa (Susa in the Sargonic Period III)", Altorientalische Forschungen, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 59-68, 1993 Some translations of the text about the widespread revolt against Akkad ruler Naram-Sin of Akkad (c. 2255–2218 BC) name Apišal as one of the revolting cities. In that recension the ruler of Apišal is named as Ri-iš-dAdad.Jonker, G., "Choices I: The Construction of the Past in the Old Babylonian Period". in The Topography of Remembrance, Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, pp. 109-132, 1995Winters, R. D., "Negotiating exchange: Ebla and the international system of the early bronze age", Dissertation, 2019
While essentially all textual mentions of Apišal come from the late 3rd millennium BC period, primarily from the Ur III Empire, it has been suggested that the city was mentioned in the early 2nd millennium Old Babylonian period in the region around Ebla, Mari, and Alalakh partly based on a presumed equivalence of Abarsal and Apišal.Charpin, b. and N. Ziegler, "Mekum, roi d’Apisal", MARI 8, pp. 243-250, 1997 A text (c. 1786–1776) from Mari, a letter from Yasmah-Addu to Aplahanda of Kargemish, mentioned a ruler Mekum of possibly Apišal.Lebrun, René, "Mari 8. Annales de Recherches Interdisciplinaires", pp. 326-328, 2000 A tablet from Alalakh, again based on the Abarsal correspondence, is said to suggest that a Nawar-adal was a ruler of Apišal in this period.Archi, A., "Išḫara and Aštar at Ebla: Some Definitions", in The Third Millennium. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, pp. 1–34, 2020
Religion Ur III period texts show regular offerings (sá-du₁₁ diĝir-re-ne) for Šara of Apišal ((dŠára A-pi4-sal4ki)), Ninura of Apišal, and Šulgi of Apišal. Similar offerings were made to Šara of KI.AN (dŠára KI.ANki) and Šara of Anzubbar (dŠára-anÁnzumušen-bábbar).Pitts, Audrey, The Cult of the Deified King in Ur III Mesopotamia, Harvard University, 2015 There was also a priestess of Iškur (Haddad) in Apišal. A Nin-Zabala (Inanna of Zabalam) of Apisal is also mentioned.Dahl, Jacob Lebovitch, "The ruling family of Ur III Umma: a prosopographical analysis of a provincial elite family in Southern Iraq ca. 2100–2000 BC", University of California, Los Angeles, 2003Veldhuis, Niek, "The Treasure of Alimmah: CUSAS 39 211", Revue d'assyriologie et d'archéologie orientale 118.1, pp. 21-38, 2024 In some texts Šulgi of Apišal is replaced by Lamma-lugal (Lamma-Sulgira) of Apišal.Notizia, Palmiro, and Francesco Pomponio, "A new annual account of wool from the Neo-Sumerian province of Umma", Revue d’Assyriologie et d’archéologie Orientale, vol. 113, pp. 45–58, 2019 The Lamma-lugal, the embodiment of an deified Ur III ruler, is not fully understood though it has been suggested that it took the form of a statue. There was also known to be a dLamma-lugal KI.ANkiOuyang, X., "Foundlings Raised in the Temple? The Meaning of dumu kar-ra in Ur III Umma", DABIR, 9(1), pp. 21-34, 2022Pitts, Audrey", The Cult of the Deified King in Ur III Mesopotamia", Disertation, Harvard University, 2015 Another text reads "1 1/2 sila3 of good ghee, oil of the emblem of Nin-ura of Apisal".Dahl, Jacob L., "Ur III Texts in the Schøyen Collection", Cornell University Studies in Assyriology and Sumerology (CUSAS), Volume 39. University Park, Pennsylvania: Eisenbrauns, 2020 And another "good reed, fodder for the fattening sheep, the regular offerings of Šara, torn out in the field of Naram-Sin, to the sheep fold in Apišal carried". It is known that the Šara cult center in Apišal produced beer based on a text showing that 1,950 liters of "good beer" has been provided to the governor that year.Marek Stępień, "The Economic Status of Governors in Ur III Times: An Example of the Governor of Umma", Journal of Cuneiform Studies, vol. 64, pp. 17–30, 2012
Location Earlier on Apišal was speculated to be in Syria. Now it is generally considered to be in the area of Umma. In the late 3rd millennium BC Umma, originally an independent kingdom then a province of the Ur III Empire, contained the major cities of Umma and Apišal (followed by Guedena, Kamari, KI.AN, Karkar, Edana, Guab and Nagsu). Apišal is known to have been near the border with Lagash based on texts. Also a location in Lagash was named "Apisal i.dub = Apišal silo". There are two known large archaeological sites in the Umma region which show occupation in the late 3rd millennium BC, Tell Jidr which is thought to be Karkar and Tell Zichariya (WS 213).van Driel, G., "The Size of Institutional Umma", Archiv Für Orientforschung, vol. 46/47, pp. 80–91, 1999
Apišal is known to have been on the Tigris river.Alivernini, Sergio, "A Catalogue of Harbours in the Province of Ĝirsu/Lagaš Documented in the Administrative Texts of the Ur III Period", Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, vol. 72, no. 3, pp. 275–86, 2019Steinkeller, Piotr, "New Light on the Hydrology and Topography of Southern Babylonia in the Third Millennium", Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und Vorderasiatische Archäologie, vol. 91, no. 1, pp. 22-84, 2001 Apišal is known to have provided the personnel for the "roadhouse" of Pashime which lay on the nearby Persian Gulf coast to the east.Steinkeller, Piotr, "The Question of Marḫaši: A Contribution to the Historical Geography of Iran in the Third Millennium B.C.", Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und Vorderasiatische Archäologie, vol. 72, no. 2, pp. 237-265, 1982
One proposal for the location of Apišal is Muhallaqiya (Tell Muhalliqiya, Tell Mehaliqyyat) partly based on its location on the Tigris in the northeastern area of Umma and its 30 kilometer distance from Umma, it being known that Apišal was 2 or 3 walking days from Umma. The ancient course of the Tigris passing the site was detected on satellite imagery.Al-Hamdani, Abdulameer, "The Settlement and Canal Systems During the First Sealand Dynasty (1721–1340 BCE)", Babylonia under the Sealand and Kassite Dynasties, edited by Susanne Paulus and Tim Clayden, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, pp. 28-57, 2020 R. McC. Adams and H. Nissen, "The Uruk Countryside: The Natural Setting of Urban Societies", Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1972
It is known that 15 man-days were expended floating a boat from Apišal to E-duru5-ma-ri, the "Mari village" There was a "Elamites' Village" in Lagash.Tohru, Ozaki, and Fatma Yildiz, "Neue Ur-III Texte in den Nippurund Puzriš-Dagan-Sammlungen der Archäologischen Museen zu Istanbul", Journal of cuneiform studies 54.1, pp. 1-23, 2002 A tablet reports "barges of 60 gur (capacity), 2 ban2 (per day) each, their skippers piloting, ... from Apišal to Nippur, with wool filled ..."Schneider, Nikolaus, "Die Drehem- Und Djoḫa-Urkunden Der Strassburger Universitäts- Und Landesbibliothek", Analecta Orientalia 1, Roma: Pontificio Istituto Biblico, 1931 A number of barges