city state · Mesopotamia and Iran

Nippur

2900 BCE – 2334 BCE (approx.) · capital Nippur

The holy city of Enlil, chief god of the Sumerians, whose temple granted legitimacy to any king who claimed to rule Sumer and Akkad.

Origins

Nippur was inhabited from the Ubaid period and by the Early Dynastic period had become the religious heart of Sumer. Lying between north and south, it never produced a dynasty in the Sumerian King List; instead rulers of Kish, Uruk, Ur and Lagash competed for control of it and recorded gifts to its temple, the E-kur.

Rule and society

Nippur was governed by temple officials and local governors, and its authority was religious rather than military: recognition by Enlil at Nippur confirmed a ruler as overlord of the land. The city was also a centre of learning. Thousands of school tablets from the early second millennium BCE preserve much of the surviving Sumerian literature, including hymns, laments and the Sumerian King List itself.

Decline and legacy

Its independence, such as it was, ended when Sargon of Akkad conquered Sumer around 2334 BCE. Nippur nevertheless remained a major cult and scribal city under later empires, including the Kassite and Persian periods, when the Murashu business archive was written, and it was occupied until around 800 CE.

Connections (2)

More states of Mesopotamia and Iran →

Cite this page
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Nippur. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/nippur
MLA
“Nippur.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/nippur. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Nippur.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/nippur.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Nippur’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/nippur (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻