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SITE ID - NAME :	K4	Kish
ANCIENT NAME :	-
OTHER NAME :	includes the sites Al Uhaimer and Ingharra
LOCATION :	Central Iraq, Hillah
CHRONOLOGY :	Protoliterate; Early Historic; Late Historic
PERIOD CODE :	5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
DESCRIPTION :	An important Sumerian (Early Dynastic) city on a former channel of the Euphrates. The site is composed of several separate large mounds that together define an occupation sequence from the Ubaid to medieval times. The most important discoveries of the Early Dynastic phases are the 'Y settlement', with rich burials (including cart burials comparable to those at Ur and Susa), and the 'A complex', consisting of a palace, ziggurat (= temple tower) and a cemetery. Kish plays a pivotal role in 3rd millennium textual sources, which present us with vivid descriptions of rivalry between competing city-states. Of the post-Early Dynastic occupation, the Neo-Babylonian temple constructed by Nebuchadnezzar is best known, as its walls still stand to a height of ca. 6 m.
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