Khafajah

Khafajah is an ancient Mesopotamian archaeological site in the Diyala valley northeast of Baghdad, identified with the historical city-state of Tutub and later with Dur-Šamšuiluna of the Kassite period. Excavations carried out by the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago in the 1930s revealed three distinct temple complexes built from planconvex bricks — a construction technique characteristic of the early third millennium BCE in southern Mesopotamia. The site yielded a rich corpus of votive figurines, cylinder seals, and cuneiform inscriptions that have become foundational reference material for the study of early Mesopotamian urbanism and religion. Today Khafajah remains primarily a site of scholarly significance, largely unvisited and unrestored.