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Zabala (also Zabalam, modern Tell Ibzeikh, Dhi Qar Governorate, Iraq) was a city of ancient Sumer in what is now the Dhi Qar governorate in Iraq. Zabala was at the crossing of the ancient Iturungal and Ninagina canals. The city's deity was Inanna of Zabala.
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History
The first mentions of Zabala are in seals from the Jemdet Nasr period including a list of early cites - Ur, Nippur, Larsa, Uruk, Kes, and Zabalam. The earliest historical record, a bowl inscription, indicates that Zabala was under the control of Lugalzagesi of Lagash. In the Sargonic Period, Shar-kali-sharri and Naram-Sin both reported building a temple to the goddess Inanna in Zabala and Rimush of Akkad reports Zabala as attempting to rebel against the control of the Akkadian Empire. After the fall of Akkad, Zabala came into the sphere of the city-state of Isin as reported by the year names of several rulers including Itar-pisa and Ur-Ninurta. The town was later subject to Abisare of Larsa, who's year name reported the building of the "Favorite of Inanna of Zabalam" canal. During the Ur III period, Zabala was controlled by the Ur governor in Umma which was the capital of Umma Province. Cuneiform texts state that Hammurabi built Zabala's temple Ezi-Kalam-ma to the goddess Innana. The temple of Inanna in Zabalam is the subject of hymn 26 in the temple hymns of Enheduanna.
Archaeology
Beginning in the early 1900s, a great deal of illegal excavation occurred in Zabala. This activity reached a new height in the 1990s, at which time the Iraqi State Organization of Antiquities and Heritage appears to have authorized an official excavation, the first at the site. It is not clear that the results were ever published. A further outbreak of archaeological looting at Zabala broke out after the 2003 War in Iraq.