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Fragments of Historical Texts from Nineveh: Middle Assyrian and Later Kings

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

A. R. Millard
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Extract

A Number of the historical texts excavated by R. Campbell Thompson at Nineveh belong to the period of the Middle Assyrian kingdom, or to the first two centuries of the first millennium B.C. They attest the activity of successive Assyrian rulers in structural works on the mound of Kouyunjik, although the buildings themselves have been demolished, or remain undiscovered. Moreover, they add information on the history of that age, known mainly from texts unearthed at Ashur. All the pieces studied here are catalogued in the Second Supplement to the Catalogue of Cuneiform Tablets in the Kouyunjik Collection of the British Museum (1968) where details of provenance and physical appearance are given. They are published by permission of the Trustees.

The series of clay knobs (‘bosses’) recording the history of the Temple of Ishtar was edited by R. Campbell Thompson and he had a presentation of some other texts in hand at the time of his death, in 1941. His notes and copies were made available by courtesy of the Keeper of the Department of Western Asiatic Antiquities, but the tablets have been baked and cleaned recently, so new copies have been drawn. One of the texts, an important tablet of Tiglath-pileser I, has been edited by E. F. Weidner (see below, n.2), the remaining fragments of historical content are given now, and some related pieces added for the information they add in this respect. Although these are but scraps, and many are unidentified, they merit publication as records of a poorly documented era.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 32 , Issue 2 , Autumn 1970 , pp. 167 - 176
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1970

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References

1 Mainly in AAA 19 (1932), 93ff.Google Scholar

2 AfO 18 (1957–1958). 347–53Google Scholar; 19(1959–60). 141–3, ms B copied by F. Köcher Taf. XXVIII–XXX.

3 Einleitung, 118–20.

4 Weidner, E. F., Afo 6 (1930–1931), 75–94 Google Scholar; cf. Borger, R., Einleitung, 135–8.Google Scholar

5 E. F. Weidner, loc. cit.

6 Assur 6796a has māt a-ra-me.

7 Monolith ii 35–38; IIIR 8; ARAB I § 603.Google Scholar

8 āl šur-ut-tir-aṣ-bat ša šēD am-ma-te ša nār uratti ša eli nār sa-gu-ri ša amēlē meš.e māt ḫat-ta-a-a āl pi-it-ru i-qa-bu-šú-ni Monolith ii 85, ARAB I § 610 Google Scholar, and many parallels

9 ‘Die Inschriften Adadniraris II’ MAOG 9.3 (1935)Google Scholar; cf. Weidner, E. F., RLA I, 29–31.Google Scholar

10 So also A; D has dagal ta meš .

11 E. F. Weidner, Tn 58–9, nos. 70, 71 (= CT 34 39.1′-13′).

12 Gelb, I. J., Hurrians and Subarians (1944), 28ff.Google Scholar

13 The inscription and its possible significance were brought to my notice by K. A. Kitchen of Liverpool University, and the proposed dating is his. For discussion of the stele see Laroche, E., RHA 11, fasc. 52 (1960), 47–56.Google Scholar

14 Weidner, E. F., AfO 10 (1935–1936), 1–52.Google Scholar Postgate, J. N., Neo-Assjrian Royal Grants and Decrees (1969), 124 Google Scholar suggests our text may be a list of namurtu gifts to king or temple.

15 Cf. Fine, H. A., Studies in Middle Assyrian Chronology and Religion (1955), 143.Google Scholar

16 Cf. Ebeling's, E. reading of KAJ 13.7, 23 Google Scholar; AfO 10 (1935–1936)Google Scholar, 37 no. 72.7; 42, no. 97, 7; āl ša-da-la-ia in MAOG 13.1 (1939), 97 Google Scholar, against Weidnrr's āl ša-ba (var.pa)-la-ia.

17 Inscription of Bel-ercsh from Ashur, Nassouhi, E. MAOG 3 (1927), 6–10.Google Scholar

18 Lewy, J., Or 21 (1952), 266 Google Scholar, n.2; Falkner, M., AfO 18 (1957–1958), 7 Google Scholar; distinct from the place east of the Tigris, Weidner, E., AfO 21 (1966), 40–41.Google Scholar

19 Wiseman, D. J., Iraq 14 (1952), 43 Google Scholar, line 116. If ziqu is an Aramaic loanword, as proposed in CAD z 129a, it can be seen as one of the few early borrowings into Assyrian, presumably through the wine trade, cf. Soden, W. von, Or 37 (1968), 269 Google Scholar, and 35 (1966), 4.

20 Fine, H. A., Studies …. 49.Google Scholar

21 Weidner, E. F., AfO 8 (1952–1953), 17–27.Google Scholar

22 Munn-Rankin, M. apud Williams, V. Seton, Iraq 23 (1961), 73f.Google Scholar The mention of Urartu is too obscure to throw light on the identity of the suzerain in the Scfire stelae. For discussion of the problem involved in identifying the land of KTK see Fitzmyer, J. A., The Aramaic Inscriptions of Sefire (1967), 127–35Google Scholar; Degen, R., WdO 4 (1967), 48–60.Google Scholar

23 e.g. §§ 12, 13 of the Esarhaddon treaties, Wiseman, D. J., Iraq 20 (1958), 39–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

24 Ibid. §§ 14–15; Sefire III 1–7.

25 For recognition of galû ‘to go into exile’ see Saggs, H. W. F., Iraq 17 (1955), 33 Google Scholar; Soden, W. von, AHw 275 Google Scholar and Or 35 (1966), 8.Google Scholar

26 The nature of the piece and its variants were recognised by W. G. Lambert in the course of compiling the Second Supplement to the Catalogue of Cuneiform Tablets from Kouyunijik. He has generously agreed to its publication here, but is not responsible for the comments which follow.

27 Gelb, I. J., JNES 13 (1954), 209–250 Google Scholar; Kraus, F. R., Könige, die in Zelten wohnten (1965).Google Scholar For the historical perspective of the King List see Oates, D., Studies in the Ancient History of Northern Iraq (1968), 21ff.Google Scholar

28 For this reading see Finkelstein, J. J., JCS 20 (1966), 98.Google Scholar

28 The line arrangement gains importance in the light of the ‘Genealogy of the Hammurabi Dynasty’ and its understanding of the names, ibid.

30 Cf. Röllig, W., lišān mitḫurti (1969), 270.Google Scholar

31 Op. cit.

32 Nassouhi, E., AfO 4 (1927), 1–11.Google Scholar

33 The oldest fragment of any part of the list is reckoned to be KAV 15 by Grayson, A. K. in Röllig, W. ed. lišān mitḫurti (1969), 109.Google Scholar