Ziggurats are of varying sizes with bases ranging from 20 meters on a side to over 90 meters on a side. Architectural styles feature stairs in some, ramps in others, and combinations of the two in still others. In time, the span begins perhaps as early as the Ubaid temples at Eridu (end of the 5th millennium BC) and extends through the restorations and additions made even in Seleucid times (third century BC). 2 In location, they stretch from Mari and Tell-Brak in the northwest and Dur-Sharrukin in the north, to Ur and Eridu in the south, and to Susa and Choga Zambil in the east. Nearly 30 ziggurats in the area of Mesopotamia have been discovered by archaeologists. A possible nonmilitary function of a mgd may occur in Ugaritic as a place of sacrifice (Keret IV: 166-72). Despite the fact then that the Hebrew term is used primarily in military senses or as watch towers, the context here and the known background of the narrative prevent us from being limited to that semantic range. To call the ziggurat a tower is not inaccurate, and as a matter of fact, the term they used is derived from the Hebrew term gdl (to be large), which is somewhat parallel to the etymological root of the Akkadian word, ziqqurat ( zaqaru, to be high). Given the absence of a term in Hebrew, we would expect them to either borrow the word if they had to talk about them, use a suitable existing term, or devise a word. We do not expect the Israelites to have a ready term for ziggurats because ziggurats were not a part of the Israelite culture. We do not expect to see the term migdal used of ziggurats in Hebrew because the Israelites did not have ziggurats. The frequent objection that the Hebrew term migdal is used primarily in military contexts or as a watch tower, but never used of a ziggurat, is easily addressed on three fronts. It is common for the ziggurat to be of central importance in city planning. This is easily concluded from the importance that the ziggurat had in the civilizations of southern Mesopotamia from the earliest development of urbanized life to the high political reaches of the Neo- Babylonian Empire. One of the immediate results of that perspective is firm conviction that the tower that figures predominantly in the narrative is to be identified as a ziggurat. Artist reconstruction of a ziggurat (pyramid) in Babylon.
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