[3][4] Sippar was the cult site of the sun god (Sumerian Utu, Akkadian Shamash), along with his consort Aya, and the home of his temple E-babbara (𒂍𒌓𒌓𒊏, means "white house") where the Cruciform Monument of Manishtushu was found.

[5] Mamu, the daughter of Shamash, also had a temple in Sippar as did the goddesses Nin-Isina, Ninḫegal, Ninkarrak, and Tašmētum.

[6] In the later part of the 3rd millennium BC, a large coalition of city-states led by Iphur-Kis of Kish (Sumer) and Amar-Girid of Uruk, joined by Enlil-nizu of Nippur, and including the city-states of "Kutha, TiWA, Sippar, Kazallu, Kiritab, [Api]ak and GN" as well as "Amorite [hi]ghlanders" revolted against Akkadian Empire ruler Naram-Sin of Akkad.

Shutruk-Nakhunte carried back statues from the Shamash temple to Susa adding his own inscription to a stele of the Akkadian Empire ruler Naram-Sin: "I am Shutruk-Nahhunte, son of Hallutush-Inshushinak, beloved servant of the god Inshushinak, king of Anshan and Susa, who has enlarged the kingdom, who takes care of the lands of Elam, the lord of the land of Elam.

[12] After the final defeat of the Neo-Assyrians by the Neo-Babylonians at the Battle of Carchemish in 605 BC text report that a number of Egyptian and Assyrian prisoners were brought to Sippar as chattel.

[16] Xisuthros, the "Chaldean Noah" in Sumerian mythology, is said by Berossus to have buried the records of the antediluvian world here—possibly because the name of Sippar was supposed to be connected with sipru, "a writing".

[19] Sippar has been suggested as the location of the Biblical Sepharvaim in the Old Testament, which alludes to the two parts of the city in its dual form.

[20] Tell Abu Habba, measuring over 1 square kilometer was first excavated by Hormuzd Rassam (referring to the site as Aboo-Habba) between 1880 and 1881 for the British Museum in a dig that lasted 18 months.

[27] Other tablets from Sippar were bought on the open market during that time and ended up at places like the British Museum and the University of Pennsylvania.

A tablet of Samsu-iluna was found showing the wall dated back to at least Old Babylonian period though ground water prevented deeper excavation.

[35] Iraqi archaeologists from the College of Arts at the University of Baghdad, led by Walid al-Jadir with Farouk al-Rawi, have excavated at Tell Abu Habbah starting in 1978.

Work began with a new site contour map and excavation in the Old Babylonian area in the north where two buildings were uncovered.

[37] Subsequently, the team worked in an Old Babylonian residential area where terracotta plaques and figurines, and cuneiform tablets were found.

The tablets included copies of earlier inscriptions dating back to the Akkadian Empire and contemporary texts as late as the reign of Cambyses II.