Old Babylonian (c. c. 1894–1595 BCE) hematite cylinder seal. The king makes an animal offering to Shamash. The style of this seal suggests that it originated from a workshop in Sippar, the site of Shamash's main sanctuary, the Ebabbar.
Sippar (Sumerian: Zimbir) was an ancient Sumerian and later Babylonian city located on the east bank of the Euphrates in present-day Iraq, north of Babylon. It was one of the oldest and most significant cities in Mesopotamia, inhabited from the Uruk period through the Parthian period, with its greatest prominence during the Akkadian, Old Babylonian, Kassite, and Neo-Babylonian eras. Sippar was best known as the religious center of the sun god Shamash (Utu), whose famous temple, the Ebabbar ("White House"), made the city an important place of worship and justice. It also served as a major economic center, particularly for wool production and the manufacture of finely crafted cylinder seals.
Throughout its history, Sippar changed hands multiple times. It joined a failed rebellion against the Akkadian ruler Naram-Sin, later became part of the expanding Babylonian kingdom under Sumu-la-El, and flourished during the reign of Hammurabi, who reinforced its city walls and likely erected the Code of Hammurabi there. After Babylon's fall to the Hittites, Sippar came under Kassite, Elamite, Neo-Assyrian, Neo-Babylonian, and finally Achaemenid Persian rule, surrendering peacefully after the Persian conquest in 539 BCE. Archaeologists have uncovered thousands of cuneiform tablets at the site, making Sippar one of the most valuable sources of information about ancient Mesopotamian religion, administration, and daily life. The city is also associated with later traditions, including the Babylonian flood hero Xisuthros and the possible biblical city of Sepharvaim.
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