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The Excavations at Nimrud (Kalḫu), 19531

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

Extract

The Expedition to Nimrud sponsored by the British School of Archaeology in Iraq began its fifth successive season on March 5th, 1953, and was in the field for a period of two months until the end of the first week in May. The opening of the dig was preceded by a week of violent rain and the spring was exceptionally wet, but so effective is the drainage on an ancient mound that there was but little interruption to the work. Once again, on an average, more than two hundred workmen were employed and we made every effort to dig as much ground as we could, for this was to be our last campaign before publishing the results of what had been achieved since 1949. It is therefore intended that the report of our latest Expedition shall be followed by a book incorporating the general account of what has been done at Nimrud in the past five years. The plan of our campaign was thus directed with this end in view, and we aimed especially at assembling as much fresh information as possible about the main chronological sequence of the different periods of occupation in the city from the beginning of the ninth, until the end of the seventh century B.C.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 16 , Issue 1 , Spring 1954 , pp. 59 - 114
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1954

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Footnotes

page 59 note 1

Owing to the length of this report, it has been divided into two halves, the second of which will appear in the next number of Iraq.

References

page 60 note 1 I.L.N. July 22 and 29, 1950; July 28 and August 4, 1951; August 9, 16 and 23, 1952; August 8, 15 and 22, 1955. Iraq, XII, Pt. 2; XIII, Pts. 1, 2; XIV, Pt. 1; XV, Pts. 1, 2.

page 62 note 1 Iraq, XV, Pt. 2, pp. 135 ffGoogle Scholar.

page 64 note 1 Iraq, XV, Pt. I, p. 16Google Scholar. Letters addressed to Sargon; one of them, ND. 1107, which refers to the Cimmerians, implying a date between 714 and 706 B.C., was found in the Throne Room in the same burnt stratum which contained the ivories; whilst another, ND. 1120, actually dated to the year 714 B.C., came from the rubbish of the S.E. Palace which was probably contemporary—see below. For the tablets, see also Iraq, XIV, Pt. 1, p. 61 fGoogle Scholar.

page 64 note 2 Iraq, XII, Pt. 2, p. 163 fGoogle Scholar. Excavated in the first campaign, 1949.

page 64 note 3 Not only in the Governor's Palace but also in the shape of statues dedicated by him to the god Nabu, found by H. Rassam in 1854, cf. Assbur and the Land of Nimrod, 10 f., and summary of evidence in Gadd, C. J., The Stones of Assyria, 150, 229Google Scholar.

page 65 note 1 Iraq, XV, Pt. I, p. 19fGoogle Scholar.

page 66 note 1 The detailed description of Z.T. with additional illustrations and drawings, will appear in Iraq, XVI, Pt. 2.

page 66 note 2 Iraq, XV, Pt. 1, p. 29 fGoogle Scholar.

page 66 note 3 Nergal-uballit, bēl piḫati of Aḫi-zuḫina, was eponym for 751 B.C. I am indebted to Mr. H. W. F. Saggs for this information.

page 66 note 4 There are, however, a few documents dated to the reigns of Sennacherib and Esarhaddon.

page 67 note 1 Layard, A. H., Nineveb and its Remains, Vol. II, 73 ffGoogle Scholar. The same ravine was used for dragging down other sculpture at the close of the excavations in 1851. Nineveh and Babylon, 202 ff.

page 67 note 2 Smith, George, Assyrian Discoveries, 75 ffGoogle Scholar, says: “I came to the conclusion that there was a flight of steps on that side leading up to the tower.”

page 68 note 1 The plans and sections of these houses and a detailed description of the discoveries made within them will be published in the next number of Iraq.

page 68 note 2 Iraq, XII, Pt. 2, p. 161 fGoogle Scholar. and XIV, Pt. 1, p. 4.

page 68 note 3 Already published by inWiseman, D. J.Iraq, XV, Pt. 2, pp. 135 ffGoogle Scholar.

page 69 note 1 Plans and section of this dig, and a detailed account, will be published in the next number of Iraq.

page 71 note 1 The Burnt Palace plan is based on the work of Mr. R. W. Hamilton, and has been redrawn by Mr. J. H. Reid with conventions appropriate to each successive phase. Mr. Reid has been responsible for drawing the sections, one of which is published here (Plate XXI), the remainder will appear at a later date.

page 71 note 2 Iraq, XV, Pt. 1, pp. 5 ffGoogle Scholar.

page 72 note 1 See page 64 above for the references.

page 72 note 2 Iraq, XII, Pt. 2, p. 178Google Scholar, and XIII, Pt. 1, for an account of ivories of a similar style from the N.W. Palace, and reference to a dated docket in room HH. It is true that the lot from HH is similar rather than identical, but elsewhere in the N.W. Palace there are remarkable parallels: compare ND. 1091, fragment of a figure wearing a pleated skirt from room A J of N.W. Palace with ND. 1143, ivory pyxis of a lady carrying lotus found in the throne-room of the Burnt Palace (published in I.L.N., August 4, 1951, fig. 17, and noted in Iraq, XIV, Pt. 1, p. 17)Google Scholar. Further similar ivories found by Layard and subsequently by ourselves in rooms V and W are from the “Juniper wing” of N.W. Palace—a wing reconstituted by Sargon as we know from his inscription above that of Aššur-naṣir-pal II on the entrance to room U, cf. Iraq, XIV, Pt. 1, p. 47, and XV, Pt. 1, p. 16Google Scholar.

page 73 note 1 Nineveh and Babylon, 197. (BM. 90952).

page 73 note 2 ND. 2270, found on the floor of Room 25 in ash, 17 × 8.5 cm., registered at the time as fragment of a tray but clearly a board or cover with raised margin similar to that found in well AB.

page 73 note 3 Iraq, XV, Pt. 1, p. 13Google Scholar, for the stratification of those found at the southern end of Burnt Palace.

page 73 note 4 Waterman, Royal Correspondence of the Assyrian Empire, Letter No. 486.

page 73 note 5 Compare O.I.P., XL, Khorsabad, Pt. 2, Pl. 36 A-C, Pl. 66.

page 73 note 6 See the detailed discussion of the evidence below, p. 84.

page 74 note 1 Luckenbill, , O.I.P., IIGoogle Scholar. The remarkable inscription entitled the “Palace without a Rival” makes this clear. Sennacherib states that the eternal foundation of Enlil had been neglected, and he set to work on a new town-planning scheme.

page 74 note 2 Waterman, Royal Correspondence of the Assyrian Empire, No. 1103, ascribed to the reign of Esarhaddon, though it must be admitted that the letter is not dated.

page 74 note 3 Published by Wiseman, D. J. in Iraq, XIV, Pt. 1, p. 54Google Scholar. In Iraq, XIV, Pt. 1, p. 5Google Scholar, I ventured to suggest that this cylinder might have come from a scribal house in the plain. Having subsequently examined the ground on which it is alleged to have been found by a ploughman, I believe that it had probably been removed by a workman from the mound itself and buried under the floor of a house in the old village of Nimrud, perhaps in Layard's day, or shortly afterwards.

page 74 note 4 In his aqueduct at Jerwan, cf. O.I.P., XXIV, and at Assur, cf. Andrae, W., Wiedererstandene Assur, p. 158Google Scholar, and Taf. 72 for an illustration of a bastion.

page 74 note 5 O.I.P., XL, Pl. 12D, appears to offer evidence of some use of slightly rusticated blocks in the face of the Nabu Temple ramp at Khorsabad. See also loc. cit., Pl. 13, for the typical “niche and reed” decoration.

page 74 note 6 R. Campbell Thompson, The Prisms of Esarhaddon and of Ashurbanipal.

page 75 note 1 See also below. Alternatively this tablet may have been written towards the beginning of Aššur-bani-pal's reign.

page 75 note 2 Iraq, XV, Pt. 2, p. 148Google Scholar.

page 75 note 3 669 B.C. was probably the last year of Esarhaddon's reign according to the chronology given by Dubberstein, W. H. in J.N.E.S., III, 1944, 38 fGoogle Scholar. The limmu names therefore give an alternative date early in the reign of Aššur-bani-pal; but it has to be remembered that the passage in which the tablet was found can hardly be later, and is most probably older than it. The assumption therefore is that this document may be given an approximate date for the close of the period 2B occupation which may well have continued into the early years of Aššur-bani-pal.

page 77 note 1 See also p. 83 and footnote.

page 77 note 2 I do not deny that there may have been a few houses within the akropolis itself, but hardly any walls which could certainly be attributed to this period have survived. Moreover we have Xenophon's explicit statement that the city was deserted when the 10,000 passed it by (401 B.C.) and that natives from the villages (perhaps situated in the outer town) had taken refuge on the top of the ziggurrat.

page 78 note 1 See p. 87 below.

page 78 note 2 O.I.P., XL, Khorsabad, pt. 2, pl. 30E shows a similar stone ring in the angle of a doorway, and on p. 26 it is suggested that the purpose of it was to fasten a prop against the door when the wind was blowing violently. Elsewhere such rings could be used for tethering. See also O.I.P., XXXVIII, Khorsabad, pt. 1, fig. 102, p. 93Google Scholar.

page 79 note 1 O.I.P., XL, Kborsabad, pt. 2, plate 66.

page 80 note 1 e.g. in Assyrian Discoveries, 74, “After the city had declined, this part of the mound appears to have been used as a granary.”

page 81 note 1 Iraq, XV, Pt. 1, p. 12Google Scholar. Subsequent work has made it clear that the dadoes were renovated and that in the throne-room the latest bitumen coat was contemporaneous with the red-painted wall plaster.

page 81 note 2 Thureau-Dangin, , in Til-Barsib, 46Google Scholar, remarked that green was rarely used in Assyrian painting and that the only precisely dated evidence for this and yellow was in Sargon's palace at Khorsabad. On the other hand Smith, George, Assyrian Discoveries, 78Google Scholar, says that in the S.E. Palace “The walls were coloured in horizontal bands of red, green and yellow on plaster; and where the lower parts of the chambers were panelled with small stone slabs, the plaster and colours were continued over these.” In one of these rooms he found a box under the floor, containing a set of winged figures—the apkalle. When we recall that the statues dedicated to Adad-nirari III were found in the adjacent temple of Nabu, we cannot exclude the possibility that green may already have been used on mural decoration within the Burnt Palace, at that period, i.e. early eighth century B.C.

page 81 note 3 Iraq, XIV, Pt. 2, p. 122Google Scholar, noted by H. Frankfort in the Upper Palace at Zencirli as being on an Assyrian model.

page 82 note 1 O.I.P., XL, Khorsabad, pt. 2, p. 14, 21Google Scholar.

page 83 note 1 Dr. H. J. Plenderleith kindly arranged for the material to be examined in the Research Laboratory, British Museum; the quantitative analyses were conducted by Miss Mavis Bimson. The specimens submitted proved to be cakes of red and of blue-green glass. The technical report will be published in a future number of Iraq.

page 83 note 2 See under the objects found in the Burnt Palace, p. 93 below.

page 83 note 3 Smith, George, Assyrian Discoveries, 73 ff.Google Scholar, was of the same opinion. His Shalmaneser II is now known to be III.

page 83 note 4 Until this area is excavated we cannot be certain if 45 was separated from a court to the north of it by a hall, the normal arrangement, or if it was contiguous to a court.

page 85 note 1 O.I.P., XL, Khorsabad, pt. 2, p. 37 fGoogle Scholar. and plate 80 for the various types of niche and reed facade in use at that site. Owing to the considerable reduction of our photograph on Plate XI the details of the S.E. Palace facade are barely visible, but can be seen with a magnifying glass.

page 85 note 2 O.I.P., XL, 18Google Scholar, for an account of the use of stone for foundations.

page 86 note 1 Gurney, O. R., in A.A.A., XXII, 63, 95Google Scholar, for evidence of the dating of these texts.

page 86 note 2 The overlooking of such boxes implies no discredit to the early pioneers, such as Loftus, who had only untrained labour at their disposal; George Smith surprisingly managed to find one of them. Assyrian Discoveries, 78. Much credit is due to one of the best of our Sherqati craftsmen for the skill and delicacy of touch which he displayed in locating them.

page 86 note 3 A.A.A., XXII, 65Google Scholar.

page 87 note 1 Assyrian Sculptures in the British Museum from Shalmaneser III to Sennacherib, plate IV. It is also clear that the winged figurines are related to the bird-headed creatures with human bodies, bucket in the left hand, carved on the reliefs of Aššur-naṣir-pal, e.g., C. J. Gadd, The Stones of Assyria, Pl. 5.

page 87 note 2 A.A.A., XXII, 53, 69Google Scholar, and for the fighting figures, J.R.A.S., 10, 1926, 705Google Scholar.

page 87 note 3 J.R.A.S., 10, 1926, 706Google Scholar, “the gypsum is the god Ninurta, the bitumen is the asakku demon”—said of these two materials when smeared on the gate of the sick man's house.

page 88 note 1 This is Gurney's view, cf. A.A.A., XXII, 39, 40Google Scholar.

page 88 note 2 J.R.A.S., loc. cit., 696, and footnotes 14 on p. 709 and 23 on p. 710.

page 88 note 3 At Nimrud curiously enough there is only one example of a figure by the side of a door—that against the east wall of passage 39; the remainder were all in the corners of the rooms. At Babylon and at Kish they appear in the doorways and in front of the statue base.

page 88 note 4 J.R.A.S., 1926, 806Google Scholar, in this case, however, set at the head of the bed of the sick man, and said to be the god NIN.AMAS.KU.GA.

page 88 note 5 I.L.N., July 22, 1950, fig. 9.

page 89 note 1 Waterman, , Royal Correspondence of the Assyrian Empire, No. 977. p. 181Google Scholar.

page 89 note 2 The illustration on p. 78 of Assyrian Discoveries establishes the identity beyond doubt.

page 90 note 1 O.I.P., XXXVIII, Khorsabad, pt. 1, fig. 117, and pt. 2, p. 21Google Scholar, described by G. Loud as “frequently set into the floors of courts at either side of the portals leading to the more important rooms. These boxes have baked-brick sides and are so arranged that the cover becomes one of the paving-bricks and cannot be distinguished from them.”

page 90 note 2 I had been present at the time of their discovery in my first season at Ur, 1925-1926, and still had a vivid recollection of seeing these fragile figures emerge from the soil when we found the Nimrud lot, twenty-seven years later.

page 91 note 1 Koldewey, , Excavations at Babylon (Johns, ' translation), 207Google Scholar, says that a stamped brick of Esarhaddon measured 40 cm. square, the pavement-bricks above it were 33 cm. square: these measurements approximate closely to bricks in 2B of the Burnt Palace.

page 91 note 2 Sidney Smith considers that this name is hardly justified as a general appellation for the figures at Babylon, cf. J.R.A.S., October, 1926,710, footnote 21.

page 91 note 3 J.R.A.S., October, 1926, plate X, No. 6, for the type at Ur.

page 92 note 1 The suggestion appears to me to be plausible. I cannot claim that it is necessarily correct, but in my opinion it is not incompatible with the theory that they also represented the seven who served Nergal, the dreaded god of the Underworld.

page 93 note 1 For an illustration, see I.L.N., August 15, 1953, fig. 2. This and other seals from Nimrud will be described, together with photographs, in a subsequent number of Iraq.

page 94 note 1 The horned pole with fillets does also figure on a faience cylinder seal ND. 3301 in conjunction with a cobra, but no seat is represented thereon. That seal was found in the corridor of PD. 5 (Adad-nirari III's Palace in the town) on the pavement, of a secondary period which was probably contemporary with the end of the Assyrian empire.

page 94 note 2 Nineveh and Babylon, 176; Cooper's woodcut is on the same page.

page 95 note 1 A number of Aššur-nasir-pal bricks were still standing in position, along the front of the north wall; they bore the standard three-line Palace inscription. Note also that other inscribed bricks of the same monarch were associated with the well, cf. Iraq, XV, Pt. 2, p. 149, ND. 3491, 3492Google Scholar; these appear to have been designed as well-bricks for the Sibitti and Kidmurri temples.

page 95 note 2 Nineveh and Babylon, 176 f.

page 96 note 1 Nineveh and Babylon, Chapter 8, is devoted to a description of the objects found in this room. It should be noted that all of them were on or above the pavement, none from the well.

page 97 note 1 Iraq, XV, Pt. 1, p. 19 fGoogle Scholar. There we penetrated to a depth of 83 feet and 5 inches, but nothing was found below 81 feet.

page 98 note 1 Nineveh and Babylon, 178-179.

page 98 note 2 The drawing in Layard's, Nineveh and Babylon, 178Google Scholar, appears to be from a relief of Sennacherib discovered at Quyunjik, cf. Assyrian Sculptures in the British Museum from Shalmaneser III to Sennacherib, pl. XLIV. See also Place, Ninive et l'Assyrie, I, pl. 39, for buttons on horse's harness at Khorsabad.

page 98 note 3 Detailed illustrations to show the arrangement of the hinges will be published in a subsequent article. On the photograph, Plate XXII, which is the inside face of the outer cover only the ribbed depressions appear.

page 98 note 4 As all of them were in a fragmentary condition it was impossible to be certain as to their exact dimensions; but they seem to have been about the same size as the ivory boards, certainly no smaller.

page 99 note 1 In mediaeval times pitch or resin was used for that purpose, see Archaeologia, Vol. 55.

It is hoped that in a subsequent number of Iraq, Mr. Wiseman will publish an article discussing the technique of the boards and the text with which they are associated.

page 99 note 2 Dictionary of Assyrian Chemistry and Geology, 57, 223Google Scholar. A.A.A. XXII, p. 64Google Scholar, kalû-paste was applied to the apkalle before they were inscribed.

page 99 note 3 Though not closely relevant it is interesting to recall that the Pentateuch was kept in a box.

page 100 note 1 Orientalia, Vol. XVII, 1948, 5970Google Scholar. Haben die Babylonien Wachstafeln als Schriftträger gekannt?

page 100 note 2 E.g. ND. 787 Bone stylus, l.11 cm., probably of Sargonid date, from passage P of N.W. Palace.

page 100 note 3 Driver, G. R., Schweich Lectures. 1948Google Scholar. Semitic Writing, 84 f. for discussion of the stylus, and illustrations on plates 29-31.

page 101 note 1 Koldewey, , The Excavations at Babylon (translated by Johns, ), 163 f, and fig. 102 for an illustrationGoogle Scholar.

page 101 note 2 Olmstead, A. T., History of Assyria, 79Google Scholar.

page 101 note 3 Thureau-Dangin, , R.A., XXXI, 138139Google Scholar, believed that the date of the stela in question must be after 1000 B.C.; see also the same author in Til-Barsib, 141, for Šamši-ilu, independent governor of KarSalmanasar, who substituted his own name for that of Shalmaneser IV on the monuments; and for references to Bêl-Ḫarrân-uṣur who did likewise. Smith, Sidney, C.A.H. III, 31Google Scholar, assigns Shamash-rešusur to this period of Assyrian weakness.

page 101 note 4 For a discussion of wooden tablets and Hittite scribes, see Güterbock, H. G. in Symbolae ad iura.. P. Koschaleer, ded., 1939, p. 260Google Scholar.

page 101 note 5 B. Hrozny, Code Hittite, para. 91. Note also that in the Hittite myth which describes the search for the lost Telepinus it was the bee that was sent out to sting and reanimate him. See the references and interesting discussion on bees in Anatolia by Barnett, R. D., J.H.S., LXVIII, 1948, 20, 1, and footnote 133Google Scholar.

page 102 note 1 Homer, , Od., XII, 175Google Scholar (translated by T. E. Lawrence).

page 102 note 2 Texts exist but are rare, e.g., a few tablets from Billa the ancient Šibaniba, , J.C.S. VII, No, 4Google Scholar.

page 102 note 3 M.O.S., Heft, XIV, Autgrabungen in Sendschirli, IV (Berlin, 1911) Taf. LXGoogle Scholar. As Bar-rekub was a vassal of Tiglath-pileser III the book illustrated on this monument is not more than about 20 years earlier than the “books” from Calah.

page 102 note 4 Now in the Louvre. Illustrated by Contenau, G., Manuel d'archéologie orientate, IV, 2215, fig. 1244Google Scholar.

page 103 note 1 Assyrian Sculptures in the British Museum from Shalmaneser III to Sennacherib, Plates XI (Tiglath-pileser III), and XLVII, XLVIII, LV (Sennacherib).

page 103 note 2 M.O.S., Heft. XV, Ausgrabungen in Sendschirli V (Berlin, 1943), 108109Google Scholar, Abb. 148 and Taf. 52. Andrae also refers to C. F. Lehmann-Haupt on Toprak-kale, s. 97, fig. 68, s. 96.

page 103 note 3 A.F.O., XIV, 19411944. 177Google Scholar.

page 103 note 4 Thompson, R. Campbell, Dictionary of Assyrian Botany (1949)Google Scholar, is the authoritative work on the subject. This masterly survey has, however, no reference to walnut.

page 104 note 1 Thompson, R. Campbell, The Reports of the Magicians and Astrologers of Nineveh and Babylon, No. 15 2, pp. lix, and 51, and pl. 43Google Scholar. Comparison with the text on the ivory from Nimrud shows that Thompson's transcription šá ûm (ilu) ÍN.LIL should read: enuma Anu Enlil.

page 104 note 2 On the astrological series enuma Anu Enlil see Weidner, E. F., A.F.O., XIV, 19411944, 172 fGoogle Scholar, and Virolleaud, , Les Origines de l'astrologie Chaldéenne, 7, 99104Google Scholar.

page 105 note 1 The problem of the length of the text -will be discussed by Mr. D. J. Wiseman in a subsequent number of Iraq.

page 105 note 2 King Lear, Act I, Scene II.

page 105 note 3 R. Campbell Thompson, The Reports of the Magicians and Astrologers of Nineveh and Babylon, No. 192.

page 105 note 4 No doubt in the course of time one and the same celestial phenomenon was observed to have been associated with events both good and evil. Concatenations of this kind would have made it easily possible to interpret the signs and portents in alternative ways to suit the occasion. It would appear that not all the texts were canonical, and it may be that there was eventually in existence a heretical set of documents. This conclusion may be inferred from an ancient annotation to that effect: “This omen does not come from the series, but from the mouth of an authority”: cf. Jastrow, , Religion's B. and A., II, 656659Google Scholar, and R.A., 7, 165Google Scholar.

page 105 note 5 ND. 5483, published by Wiseman, D. J. in Iraq, XV, Pt. 2, p. 148Google Scholar. The tablet was found in ZTE. 30, a chamber in the official building which lay between the Ziggurrat terrace and the N.W. Palace, as described in this and the next number of Iraq.

page 106 note 1 See Furtwängler, and Reichold, , Griechische Vasemalerei, II, Tfn., 136, 88, 110Google Scholar respectively for illustrations of the three vases which depict waxed tablets and which are described here.

page 106 note 2 Hdt. VII, 239Google Scholar (translated by Henry Cary), No less interesting in this connection is a famous passage in Homer, , Il., VI, 169Google Scholar, which describes how the king of Tiryns treacherously sent Bellerophon to Lycia, ϒρψαδ έν πίνακι πτνκτ* ΘνμοΦθύρα πολά, ‘having written on a folded tablet many things that should work his destruction.’ The context suggests that the tablets were sealed, and that the bearer was unaware of the contents. W. Leaf notes that elsewhere in Homer ϒράΦειν and its compounds mean scratch only. It may well be that scratch is its meaning here. The epithet ΘνμοΦθύρα is also applied to magic potions, and Leaf suggests that the writing was regarded as a form of magic. It is curious that on reaching Lycia one of Bellerophon's tasks was to kill a monster πρόσθε λέων *πιθεν δέ δράκων μέση δέ Χίμαιρα part lion, part dragon, part goat, surely a first cousin to the Assyrian lamaštu.

page 107 note 1 Ancient Egypt, 09, 1927, Pt. III, 1Google Scholar. “Tablets of the Third Century B.C.” by H. I. Bell, 2. “A Ptolemaic Holiday”, by Flinders Petrie.

page 107 note 2 See the inscription, translated by Mr. D. J. Wiseman on p. 99 above.

page 107 note 3 Some of the ivories found at Khorsabad were identical in style and in subject with those found at Nimiud; they were also burnt. It is not impossible that some of them had been transferred from Calah to Dûr-Šarrukin. Sec O.I.P., XL, Kho rsabad, pt. 2, pls. 51-56.

page 108 note 1 Layard, Monuments of Nineveh, pl. 62, for the Phoenician inscription on a bronze bowl with design of an eagle rending a hare, and pl. 65, of a bronze showing lion killing huntsman. Descriptions in Nineveh and Babylon, 185 f.

page 108 note 1 But as far as I am aware there is nothing closely comparable in Phoenician, Egyptian or Assyrian art, to the chryselephantine plaques from Nimrud. We may discern in them a poise and natural vigour of movement which indicate the hand of a great artist: one would hesitate to say what his nationality was. See I.L.N., August 16th, 1952. Colour Plate I.

page 108 note 3 ND. 2270, see p. 73 above.

page 108 note 4 I.L.N., August 16th, 1952, and Iraq, XV, Pt. 1, p. 19 fGoogle Scholar.

page 108 note 5 I am grateful to Professor Frankfort for his kindness in sending me a copy of a part of his MS. on Phoenician and Syrian Art, which is shortly to appear in the Pelican History of Art. It is apparently alleged by the excavators of T. Halaf that a tomb containing ivories antedates the Assyrian occupation of 808 B.C.; whether or no the stratification at T. Halaf warrants this assumption I am not yet prepared to say, but many of the Assyrian objects illustrated from that site are manifestly later in date: see below.

page 108 note 6 I refer only to the ivories found in the Burnt Palace, sometimes called the “Loftus group” and the lots from the wells and the Juniper wing of the N.W. Palace. It is undisputed that there is an older, early ninth century group, purely Assyrian in style, of which good examples were found by us in the throne room, and outside the north gate of the N.W. Palace; one of these ivories is thought to depict ASSur-nasir-pal himself. Cf. Iraq, XIV, Pt. I, Plate I; XV, Pl. III.

page 109 note 1 von Oppenheim, M., Der Tell Halaf, Abb. 4, s. 261Google Scholar, especially pot Nos. 4, 9, 10.

page 109 note 2 Iraq, XV, Pt. 1, p. 25Google Scholar.

page 110 note 1 Iraq, XII, Pt. 2, pp. 179180Google Scholar.

page 110 note 2 Described by Layard, in Nineveh and Babylon, 198Google Scholar.

page 110 note 3 Iraq, XIV, Pt. 1, p. 14Google Scholar.

page 110 note 4 Iraq, XIV, Pt. 1, p. 14Google Scholar, and photograph in I.L.N., July 28th, 1951, fig. 16.

page 111 note 1 Sec also Iraq, XV, Pt. 1, 1953, p. 38 and Fig. 5Google Scholar. Square K7 on Contour Map, Iraq, XII, Pt. 2, p. 26Google Scholar.

page 112 note 1 Koldewey, , The Excavations at Babylon (Translated by Johns, ), 197198, and fig. 122Google Scholar, The bridge is estimated to have been 123 metres in length; it was built either by Nebuchadrezzar or by Nabopolassar. The Assyrians were fully capable of building the like we have the evidence of Sennacherib's aqueduct—a huge bridge, which however spanned a ravine, not a river. Cf. O.I.P., XXIV.

page 113 note 1 See the recent translation by Warner, Rex, Xenophon, The Persian Expedition, Penguin BooksGoogle Scholar.

page 113 note 2 Iraq, XV, Pt. 1, p. 39Google Scholar. Estimated at 10.2 metres: existing height was 7.1 metres.