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Updated: May 1, 2025
Several attempts are made to reorganize the cult, but it was left for Nabubaliddin in the tenth century to restore E-Babbara to its former prestige. Esarhaddon and Ashurbanabal, who pay homage to the old Bel at Nippur, also devote themselves to Shamash at Sippar. They restore such portions of it as had suffered from the lapse of time and from other causes.
Another class is formed by such names as are suggested by the attributes of the deity to whom the edifices are dedicated. Such are E-babbara, 'the brilliant house, which, as the name of the temples to Shamash at Sippar and Larsa, recalls at once the character of the sun-god.
Some of these were intended as a salute upon the sun's rising, others celebrated his setting. These hymns convey the impression of having been composed for the worship of the god in one of his great temples perhaps in E-babbara, at Sippar.
Both terms for this room convey the idea of its being "shut off" from the rest of the building, precisely as the holy of holies in the temple of Jerusalem containing the ark, was separated from the central hall. We are fortunate in having a pictorial representation of such a papakhu. A stone tablet found at Sippar represents Shamash seated in the "holy of holies" of the temple E-Babbara.
We have such a psalm written in the days of Ashurbanabal, in which that proud monarch humbles himself before the great god Nabu, and has the satisfaction in return of receiving a reassuring oracle. I will raise thy head, I will increase thy glory in the temple of E-babbara. The reference to the temple of Shamash at Sippar reveals the situation.
O sun-god in the midst of heaven at thy setting, May the enclosure of the pure heaven greet thee, May the gate of heaven approach thee, May the directing god, the messenger who loves thee, direct thy way. In E-babbara, the seat of thy sovereignty, thy supremacy rises like the dawn.
Innovations were limited to increasing the amounts of these regular sacrifices. So, for example, Nabubaliddin restores and increases the ginê of the great temple E-babbara at Sippar. But regular sacrifices do not necessarily involve daily offerings.
At that time there was already a sanctuary to Anunit within the precincts of E-Babbara. Members of the Cassite dynasty devote themselves to the restoration of this sanctuary. Through a subsequent invasion of the nomads, the cult was interrupted and the great statue of Shamash destroyed.
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