In this tale, Inanna dissuades demons from the netherworld from taking Lulal, patron of Bad-tibira, who was living in squalor.

A cone found at the site marked the construction by Ur-Nammu (c. 2100 BC), a ruler of the Ur III empire, of the Iturungal canal.

"For the goddess Inanna, [la]dy of Eanna, his lady, Ur-Nammu, mighty man, king of Ur, king of the lands of Sumer and Akkad, dug for her the Iturungal canal, her beloved canal"[10]The "brotherhood text" in cuneiform inscriptions on a cone, of which there are many exemplars, from the site records the friendship pact of Entemena, governor of Lagash, and Lugal-kinishedudu, governor of Uruk.

[12] "For the goddess Inanna and the god Lugal-emush, En-metena, ruler of Lagash, Built the E-mush (“House — Radiance [of the Land]”), their beloved temple, and ordered (these) clay nails(?)

Pieces of vitrified brick scattered over the surface of the large mound bore witness to the city's destruction by fire.

[19] In 1965 Vaughn E. Crawford of the Metropolitan Museum of Art visited the site, noting that surface pottery indicated occupation until about 1500 BC.

[20] The site, on the Tigris River in modern Al-Qādisiyyah Governorate in Iraq, lay on the ancient Iturungal canal which also connected Adab, Umma, and Zabalam.

At various locations around the site remains of the Ubaid, Uruk, Early Dynastic I, Kassite, and into the Sassanian period (without evidence of Neo-Babylonian or Achaemenid on the surface).

[26] At various times a number of city names have been proposed for the site including Karkar, Irisaĝrig, KI.AN, Kesh, and Dabrumki.

[33] Two inscribed bricks of the Ur III ruler Ur-Nammu were found which contained a dedication to Ishkur which would support the identification of the location as Karkar.