Shuruppak excavation reveals massive flood layer below Sumerian cities. Shuruppak is an ancient city in Iraq mentioned in Sumerian, Assyrian, Acadian, and Babylonian cuneiform tablets Penn Museum holds excavation records from 1931 Iraq excavations Archaeologists found Shuruppak at 15 feet down with evidence of two civilizations above it
Archaeologists excavating Shuruppak (modern Tell Fara), Iraq found evidence of an ancient city with multiple occupation layers. The site yielded a flood stratum (Schmidt, 1931) that corresponds to the flood stories found in the Epic of Gilgamesh and Atrahasis, which predate the Biblical Noah account. Shuruppak was an ancient Sumerian city situated about 55 km south of Nippur and 30 km north of Uruk on the Euphrates River.
Key Facts
- Shuruppak is an ancient city in Iraq mentioned in Sumerian, Assyrian, Acadian, and Babylonian cuneiform tablets
- Penn Museum holds excavation records from 1931 Iraq excavations
- Archaeologists found Shuruppak at 15 feet down with evidence of two civilizations above it
- A massive flood layer (4 feet thick) was found above the Shuruppak layer with no human remains
- The flood layer corresponds to the flood stories in the Epic of Gilgamesh and Atrahasis
- The story predates the Biblical Noah account and originates from Mesopotamian narratives
Related site: Shuruppak — view location, images, and history on the Ancient Nerds map.
Source: NEW Discoveries in Iraq and Türkiye| Shuruppak | Expedition - Matthew LaCroix, Matt Beall by Matthew LaCroix