Dilbat

Historical description

Dilbat (modern Tell ed-Duleym), a small city southeast of Babylon on the eastern bank of the Euphrates River, was the cult center of the god Uraš and the goddess Ninegal. The site consists of two mounds of ruins: the larger, eastern mound contains the remains of earlier building phases (going back to the city’s founding in the Early Dynastic Period, ca. 2700 BC), while the smaller, western ruin hill contains the first-millennium-BC and later building occupations (down to the early Islamic Period). Little is known about the cultic topography of this small Babylonian city. Two first-millennium-BC ziggurat lists and a few Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian royal inscriptions record that Dilbat’s main temple was E-ibbi-Anum and its ziggurat was Eguba’anki, both were dedicated to Uraš. The temple of Ninegal (Bēlet-ēkalli) might have been named Esapar. Recent excavations on the eastern mound have unearthed the Kassite-Period remains of E-ibbi-Anum.

Geographic evidence

The coordinates are a representative_point_not_boundary. They identify a research anchor and do not by themselves assert an ancient administrative boundary or the full extent of the settlement.

Provenance: Barrington Atlas: BAtlas 91 F5 Dilbat

Source and reuse

This profile derives from the Pleiades current GIS record, licensed CC BY 3.0. Pleiades place record The profile preserves the source name, point, type, description, precision and provenance without silently adding a boundary reconstruction.

Research path

Compare this place with the chronological map at the relevant year, nearby political units, routes, institutions and the period portals. Where the source record is silent about jurisdiction, population or ecclesiastical rank, this profile makes no such claim.