Eridu (modern Abu Shahrain) had a ziggurat with only two stages yet reaching seventy feet high (Jastrow 1915, p 29-30). The tower was crowned by a small chapel or chamber, likely housing a statue of Eridu’s deity Ea.
Borsippa (modern Birs Nimrud) had a striking ruin of a ziggurat rising high above its mounds (Jastrow 1915, p 30). Borsippa was close to Babylon, likely forming a single complex in antiquity (Jastrow 1915, p 31). After restorations at the start of the 6th century BC, the tower had seven stages whose lowest stage was 272 square feet and 26 feet high (Jastrow 1915, p 32). Brick fragments were glazed in black, blue, red and possibly other colors. Regarding excavating the ziggurat, the following story is remarkable:
An alliance of the Medes and Babylonias, a decision that Assyria had become too much to deal with, forced the Assyrians to fall back into Haran. Then the Babylonians took over all the southern half of old Assyria and the Medes took over all the northern half. Sacked in 763 BCE, Harran was restored under the Assyrian ruler Sargon II. It served for two years as the headquarters for the then–crumbling Assyrian Empire after the fall of its capital Nineveh in 612 BCE.
Mari has provided more than 20,000 texts written in Old Babylonian, found in destroys remains of palace of Zimri-lin (~1,664 BC) and regarding adminsitration and royal correspondence. Primary source for identifying “city states” as actual kingdoms are the inscriptions found at Mari.
Hasanlu (aka Mania) was a well-preserved city caught between the Urartians and Assyrians, and others. It had pseudo-Assyrian art styles, and was eventually obliterated in an utterly destructive attack likely by the Babylonias (due to the preponderance of scythian arrowheads).
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