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A Stela of Adad-Nirari III and Nergal-Ereš from Tell al Rimah

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

Stephanie Page
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Extract

A Stela of Adad-nirari III was found during the eventful season of Spring 1967 at Tell al Rimah. It stood in position inside the cella of a Late Assyrian shrine, set beside the podium, a placing that is unparalleled among the find spots of other royal stelae. It was inscribed on the face with twenty-one lines, of which nine had been deliberately erased in antiquity; the writing ran across the skirt of the king, who was sculptured upon it slightly less than life-size, but not over the frame or sides of the stone (see Plate XXXVIII). The stela is 1·30 m. high and measures 0·69 m. in width at the base; it is parabolic in shape. It is made from a single slab of hard grey, crystalline “Mosul marble”, in an excellent state of preservation. No traces of paint were visible on the surface as it was unearthed.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 30 , Issue 2 , Autumn 1968 , pp. 139 - 153
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1968

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References

1 The stela of Esarhaddon at Zincirli stood in the city gate (Von Luschan, F., Ausgrabungen in Sendscherli, I, p. 11).Google Scholar The monolith of Aššur-naṣir-pal II stood in a corridor in the N.W. palace at Nimrud (Oates, D., Iraq 14 (1952), 24).Google Scholar A stela of Aššur-naṣir-pal II stood at the entrance to the Ninurta temple at Nimrud (Layard, A. H., Nineveh and Babylon, 351Google Scholar and Gadd, C. J., Stones of Assyria p. 129).Google Scholar Most other stelae have been found out of context, or excavated in such a way that the context was obscure.

2 am grateful to Professor D. J. Wiseman, Mr. David Oates and Professor R. Ellis for their help with this article.

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