Saggarâtum

Saggarâtum (sa-ga-ra-tum^ki) was a city in the ancient Near East which is still unlocated though it is known to have been on the Habur River, a tributary of the Euphrates. In texts from Ebla it is called "Sag-gar^ki". One proposal is that other readings of the name were "Sapiratum" or "Sapirete" though this is generally thought to be a different cities. Another suggestion is that by the 1st millennium BC it had become "Sangarite".

Saggarâtum was a river port and known to have been the location of one of the kingdoms icehouses and a source of truffles. In a text from Yaqqim-Addu I, governor of Saggarâtum, to his king Zimri-Lim he wrote:

"Ever since I reached Saggaratum five days ago, I have continuously dispatched truffles to my lord. But my lord wrote me: 'You have sent me bad truffles!' But my lord ought not to condemn(?) with regards to the truffles. I have sent my lord what they have picked for me..."

The religion of Saggarâtum is unclear. A deity "Aštabi-Il" was mentioned in documents found at Mari. A deity, Aštabi, was known to have been worshiped at nearby Ebla in the 3rd millennium BC. It is known the cult statutes were held in Saggarâtum. It has been proposed that the Hurrian deities Teshub and Ḫepat were worshiped there though most of the personal names at Saggarâtum were Semitic.