Kullaba

Kullaba (also Kulaba, Kulab, and Kullab) was a city in the ancient Near East which was later largely absorbed into the city of Uruk. There was also a district of the city of Babylon named Kullab, known to contain a temple of Šarrat-Larsa ("Queen of Larsa") called Emekiliburur. It has been suggested that in Neo-Babylonian times there were two localities named Kullaba, with one being at Uruk, in addition to the district in Babylon.

At the archaeological site of Warka there are two main mounds with occupation. They were originally separated by an ancient waterway which was improved into a canal. By the beginning of the Early Dynastic period (c. 2900 BC) the western polity was known as Kullaba (where the earliest archaeological layers dating back to the Ubaid period) and 0.5 kilometers away the southeastern polity was known as Unug. Kullaba is now generally taken as a district on the city of Uruk but at least until the end of the Ur III period (c. 2000 BC) and possibly at later times it was a separate entity. The Kullaba mound became the site for what became called the Anu Ziggurat and the White Temple beginning in the late 4th millennium BC Uruk IV and majorly rebuilt in the Uruk III period, and the Irigal and Bit-Resh in the 1st millennium BC. In the Uruk IV period an unusual underground cult installation, dubbed the Steingebaude was also constructed at Kuballa. In the Uruk III (Jemdat Nasr) period the entire site of Warka, 600 hectares in area at that time, was encompassed in a city wall. That event is traditionly, based on literary compositions, ascribed to Gilgamesh.

In an alternative view it has been suggested that Kullaba referred to the central district of Uruk, where the temple Enanna of Inanna was located and that the western area was possibly called KI.KAL^ki.