¹ Earlier seasons at Fort Shalmaneser have been reported in Iraq XXI, Pt. 2, pp. 98–129 (1957–1958)Google Scholar and Iraq, XXIII, Pt. 1, pp. 1–14 (1960)Google Scholar.

² Iraq XXI Pt. 2, p. 110Google Scholar.

³ In the building inscription of the ekal-mašarli at Nineveh (Nebi Yunus), A, Heidel, “A New Hexagonal Prism ot Esarhaddon,” Sumo XII, Pt. 1, p. 28 ll. 32–39Google Scholar.

⁴ Millard, A. R., “Alphabetic Inscriptions on Ivories from Nimrud,’ pp. 41–51Google Scholar of this volume.

⁵ E.g. M. 124553 (Assurnasirpal II; North-West Palace, Nimrud), Assyrian Sculptures in the British Museum, pl. XIII, 1, and B.M. 124536 (same date and provenance), and Assyrian Sculptures B.M., pl. XXIV, 1.

⁶ The Fort Shalmaneser cylinders were found in 1958–60 in and near the house of the rab-ekalli (Iraq XXI, Pt. 2, p. 109 and XXIII, Pt. 1, p. 12Google Scholar) and the text has been published by Millard, A. R., Iraq XXIII, Pt. 2, pp. 176–8Google Scholar. For a possible location of the cylinders in the building see p. 12 below. Professor J. Laessøe has pointed out (Iraq XXI, Pt. 1 p. 39Google Scholar) that the Nimrud cylinder, published by ProfessorWiseman, D. J. in Iraq XIV, Pt. 1, pp. 57 ff.Google Scholar, also refers to an ekal-mašarti. This text is dated to 672 B.C. The description which it gives of the radical reconstruction and enlargement of an arsenal in Calah, founded by Shalmaneser III, is difficult to reconcile with the archaeological evidence in Fort Shalmaneser, but the exaggerated phraseology is common to many such texts and will probably not bear a literal interpretation. No other ekal-mašarti has been found at Calah, and the unfinished South-West Palace of Esarhaddon, although closer to the find-spot of the cylinder near Nimrud village, was obviously intended for residential and ceremonial use. It seems likely that this inscription commemorates a later phase of the work at Fort Shalmaneser, perhaps an extension of the outer bailey on the west and north (see n. 28, p. 21), or of the southern part of the residential area S, in which we have evidence of the substantial remodelling of some suites by Esarhaddon (Iraq XXIII, Pt. 1, pp. 7–8Google Scholar). A cylinder buried in either of these localities might well have been brought to the surface by erosion or ploughing, and have been transported thence to one of the villages in the valley, whose inhabitants have long had cultivators' rights on this land.

⁷ E.g. Assyrian Sculptures in the British Museum, pl. XXIV, 1.

⁸ A. Parrot, Nineveh and Babylon, pl. 222.

⁹ loc. cit., n. 7.

¹⁰ There are certain points on which a more complicated solution seems probable. For instance, the marked overhang just below parapet level, which is invariably indicated both in frontal elevation and in profile on the sculptures, has no obvious structural function except as a system of machicolation, but we certainly have no evidence by which the details of such a system could be reconstructed.

¹¹ Iraq XXIII, Pt. 1, pp. 8–9 and pls. III, IVGoogle Scholar.

¹² As in other parts of the fortress, cf. Trench X 1, Iraq XXI, Pt. 2, pl. XXIIIb, and S 31Google Scholar, Iraq XXIII, Pt. 1, pl. IV.

¹³ B.M. 124919 (Palace of Aššurbanipal, Nineveh), illustrated by R. D. Barnett, Assyrian Palace Reliefs, pl. 132.

¹⁴ Wiseman, D. J., Chronicles of Chaldaean Kings, p. 17 and refs., n. 4.Google Scholar

¹⁵ Wiseman, op. cit., pp. 61, 65.

¹⁶ Assyrian Sculptures in the British Museum, pl, XXIV, 1.

¹⁷ Iraq XXI, Pt. 2, p. 127Google Scholar.

¹⁸ Wiseman, op. cit., p. 20.

¹⁹ See n. 6, p. 6 above.

²⁰ This chronology, first suggested in Iraq XXIII, Pt. 1, p. 9Google Scholar, is used throughout this account, since it accords with the information at present available. It must be reiterated, however, that no document mentions the fate of Calah, and it is always possible that the discovery of a new chronicle might revise our dating of the archaeological evidence. There may, for instance, have been an earlier invasion (? Phraortes, Herodotus 1, 102) to account for the first sack, but the incomplete repairs suggest a short interval between the two attacks, and documents have been found in Calah dated as late as the limmu of Bel-Iqbi, probably 616 B.C. (ND. 5550, from the Nabu Temple, Iraq XIX, Pt. 2, p. 136Google Scholar).

²¹ Wiseman, op. cit., pp. 15–16.

²² Tablets found during this season apparently refer to repairs to chariots carried out in Fort Shalmaneser; see p. 22 below.

²³ H. Frankfort, Art and Architecture of the Ancient Orient, pl. 82.

²⁴ Laessoe, J., “A Statue of Shalmaneser III from Nimrud,” Iraq XXI, Pt. 2, pp. 147 ff. and pl. XLGoogle Scholar.

²⁵ I owe this suggestion, and information about the content of the inscription, to Mr. J. V. Kinnier Wilson, who will publish a complete description and text in due course.

²⁶ I am informed by Miss Barbara Parker and Mr. Kinnier Wilson that the reading Kurba'il, put forward again by MissParker, in Iraq XXIII, Pt. 1, p. 31Google Scholar, is to be preferred to Kurban. Aššurnaṣirpal II records on the North-West Palace stela (Wiseman, , Iraq XIV, Pt. 1, p. 30Google Scholar) that he restored a temple of Adad and Šala in Calah, but there is no reason to suppose that it was specifically dedicated to Adad of Kurba'il; its location is unknown. The site of Kurba'il is likewise uncertain, although there are a number of indications of its general whereabouts. Forrer (Provinzeinteilung des assyrischen Reiches, p. 36) places it on the Urarṭian frontier, on the evidence of R.C.A.E. 123 which reports that scouts sent to keep a watch on Urarṭu entered a house in Kurba’il, and relays information about the Urarṭian city of Turušpa near Lake Van. This certainly implies that it lay to the north of Nineveh, but the same letter relates that some men were being sent on to other places, and it seems that Kurba’il may have been on a road to the northern frontier, not necessarily on the frontier itself. ND.2476 (Iraq XXIII, Pt. 1, p. 31Google Scholar) refers to Kurba’il as the centre of a piḫat district, and lists its dependent towns with those in the qani of Khorsabad. Miss Parker cites ad locum, as evidence for connections with Calah, a contract (ND. 203, Iraq XII, Pt. 1, p. 187Google Scholar) in which one of the penalties for non-fulfilment is flogging (?) from the gate of Calah to the gate of Kurba’il; but it seems possible that this is not intended as a tolerable punishment, cf. ND. 496 (Iraq XIII, Pt. 1, p. 117) ‘he shall cat one mana of carded wool …, burn his eldest son to Sin, etc.’ ND. 3469 (Iraq XV, Pt. 2, p. 146Google Scholar) lists Kurba’il among cities contributing to the grand total of grain received from Nineveh, and it should therefore have lain within the administrative province of Nineveh at the date of this document, probably in the reign of Sargon or earlier. In R.C.A.E. 413 Sennacherib, then crown prince, reports to Sargon that there is serious flooding in the district of Kurba’il, implying that it lay on or near a considerable watercourse; it might indeed be expected that the only famous shrine of Adad in this region, outside the capital cities of Aššur and Calah, would be in a place where the god's power over flood and tempest were often manifested. But this is not a very specific criterion in Assyria, as those who have journeyed there in the spring of a wet year have good cause to know. Kurba’il is not mentioned in the inscription (O.I.P. XXIV, p. 36) which lists the towns from which Sennacherib took water to supply Nineveh, but this text relates only to the triangle of country between Nineveh, Tell Billah and Bavian, and does not include all the towns in that area. On the whole the evidence would seem to point to a location near one of two routes from Nineveh: the north-west road through Zakho or Dohuk, with its more easterly branch through Al Kosh; or the north-cast road across the plain of Navkur and the Gomel river, which now enters the mountains at Aqra. This would, however, rule out a literal interpretation of ND. 203, and would seem to render it unlikely that a statue from Kurba'il was brought to Calah, rather than to the ekal-mašarti at Nineveh, for repair.

²⁷ Iraq XXI, Pt. 2, p. 108Google Scholar.

²⁸ Iraq XXI, Pt. 2, pp. 103–4Google Scholar. It is a little strange that the ration-lists so far discovered in Fort Shalmaneser should deal with the issue of wine to the almost complete exclusion of other, more staple commodities such as grain, but it seems possible that the wine-cellars lay within the complex which we have excavated, whereas the government granaries, which must have occupied a considerable area, lay outside and were served by a different record office. The contours of the land (Iraq XX, Pt. 2, pl. XIVGoogle Scholar) suggest that the building which we call Fort Shalmaneser was only the nucleus and headquarters of a much larger establishment, since it is surrounded on the cityward side by an open space, extending over 200 m. to the north and 450 m. to the west, in which there is no surface pottery or sign of building. This great exercise or parade ground, which would obviously have been essential for the annual muster of the levies and the training of cavalry and chariots, is in turn enclosed by a high ridge, obviously covering a considerable range of buildings (cf. also Felix Jones' plan of Nimrud, reproduced by Budge, , By Nile and Tigris, Vol. II, p. 95Google Scholar). Although no excavation has been undertaken, one would undoubtedly expect to find here the stores, granaries, chariot houses and other large structures which could not be included within the limited circuit, and did not require the greater security, of the inner fortress.

²⁹ See p. 17 above.

³⁰ Iraq XXI, Pt. 2, p. 111Google Scholar.

³¹ Sumer XII, Pt. 1, p. 28, col. iv, ll, 32–39 and p. 37Google Scholar, col. vi, ll. 30–35 (Nebi Yunus prism, dated 676 B.C.; references here are to this text). Also Thompson, R. Campbell, The Prisms of Esarhaddon and of Ashurbanipal, p. 24, col. v, ll. 42–46Google Scholar, and p. 28, col. vi, ll. 58–61 (found near Kuyunjik, dated 673 B.C.).

³² MissParker, Barbara, ‘Administrative Tablets from the North-West Palace, Nimrud,” Iraq XXIII, Pt. 1, pp. 15 ff.Google Scholar

³³ Iraq XXI, Pt. 2, pp. 174 and 178Google Scholar.