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KISH

(Sum. Kiš)

(PLACE)

The capital of an ancient city-state situated on a now dead branch of the Euphrates. The present site (in Iraq, NE of modern Hilla) consists of a series of tells ca. 14.5 km. (9 mi.) SE of ancient Babylon.

According to the Sumerian King List, Kish represented the first dynasty after the Flood; it was here that kingship descended from heaven and was given to humankind. The title “king of Kish” was of major importance in the early historic periods, and it was from Kish that Sargon set out to create the kingdom of Akkad. Kish flourished as an Early Dynastic city that was a rival of Erech; it was linked with the legendary king Etana, and Early Dynastic II king Agga opposed Gilgamesh. Kish was continuously occupied from the time of Akkad through the Old Babylonian and Kassite periods.

The site was excavated by the French (beginning in 1912), by a joint Oxford (Ashmolean Museum) and Chicago (Field Museum) expedition (1923-1933), and by a Japanese expedition led by Hideo Fuji (1989); only one season of the Japanese expedition was completed before the 1991 Persian Gulf War. The excavations have yielded a flood-deposit level (ca. 3300 b.c.), many cuneiform tablets from the earlier occupation and the 2nd millennium, graves, pottery, palaces, temples, ziggurats, and canals, and a variety of other objects. Because of the large complex of tells in the general area, much more detailed excavation and research are needed to clarify the occupations.

Larry L. Walker

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

KISH

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)