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Neo-Assyrian Apotropaic Figures Figurines, Rituals and Monumental Art, with Special Reference to the Figurines from the Excavations of the British School of Archaeology in Iraq, at Nimrud*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

Anthony Green
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Extract

From Assyria and Babylonia in the first half of the first millennium B.C. comes a series of small figurines in the round and relief plaques, which are usually found beneath the floors of buildings within receptacles of baked or unbaked brick or (at Nineveh) stone slabs or (so far restricted to Aššur) pottery jars; the figurines themselves are almost invariably of sun-dried clay, very occasionally, perhaps, of terracotta or metal. Their purpose, as texts prescribing the rituals involved attest, was to avert evil from the buildings and sickness from the inhabitants. The British School's Nimrud complement comprises at least 136 relevant pieces from 66 separate deposits discovered in three buildings: the Burnt Palace, the Acropolis Palace (AB) and Fort Shalmaneser, and dating possibly from the reign of Shalmaneser III (?) or, at least, Adad-nirari III down to the fall of the Assyrian Empire in 613 B.C.

In this paper I shall deal with just one, but perhaps the most important, area on which the series sheds light, namely the question of the identification of the creatures represented by the various iconographic types. It can hardly be denied that the study of apotropaic figurines is of somewhat limited importance in itself. Where it succeeds is rather in the light which it throws upon other matters of more general and basic interest. It is vital here to recognize the official nature of the ritual and practice, and the consequent position of the iconography of the figurines in the official religion of the Assyrian state. And while there are no apparent documentary sources directly concerning, for example, the subjects of the apotropaic palace reliefs, there are texts ordaining procedures for apotropaic rituals involving figurines, which often enable identifications of analogous types.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 45 , Issue 1 , Spring 1983 , pp. 87 - 96
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1983

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Footnotes

*

The excavations of the British School of Archaeology in Iraq at the site of ancient Kalḫu, the modern tells of Nimrud and ‘Azar, were carried out between 1949 and 1962 under the directorships of the late Professor Sir Max Mallowan, Professor David Oates and, in the final season, Mr. Jeffery Orchard. I would like to thank the School for the award of a travel grant in 1979 and two annual Fellowships between 1980–82, which have enabled me to study the corpus of Assyrian figurines from these excavations and comparable material from other sites. I must also record my gratitude to the Iraqi State Organization for Antiquities and Heritage under the Presidency of Dr. Muayad Sa'id, for permitting and facilitating my work in the Iraq Museum; also to the other institutions and their staffs who have provided me with information and photographs. Special thanks go to Lady Mallowan, for help with the figurines now in London, Professor David Oates, for elucidating matters relating to the excavations, Mr. Jeffery Orchard, for many helpful suggestions in locating the pieces, Dr. John Curtis, for information relating to the Assyrian reliefs in the British Museum, and in particular Mr. Nicholas Postgate, for often crucial aid with the figurines' inscriptions.

References

1 Van Buren, E. Douglas, Foundation Figurines and Offerings (Berlin, 1931)Google Scholar [henceforth referred to as FFO] is now out-dated on this subject. For a synthesis of material mainly from published sources up to 1973, see Rittig, Dessa, Assyrisch-babylonische Kleinplastik magischer Bedeutung vom 13.–6. Jh. v. Chr. (München, 1977) [henceforth Rittig]Google Scholar. The Nimrud corpus remains for the most part unpublished. A certain amount of new material, including Nimrud figurines, will appear in Ellis, R. S., Domestic Spirits: Apotropaic Figurines in Mesopotamian Buildings (Philadelphia, forthcoming)Google Scholar.

2 Cf. Smith, S., JRAS 1926, 695 ff.Google Scholar; Gurney, O. R., AAA 22 (1935), 21 ff.Google Scholar; Rittig, 151 ff.; Ellis, forthcoming, chapter 2.

3 Some of the “spearman” figures from Fort Shalmaneser may date to the original foundation, but this is uncertain. The Burnt Palace figurines begin in Phase E: cf. Mallowan, M. E. L., Iraq 16 (1954), 78Google Scholar; Nimrud and its Remains (London, 1966) [henceforth N & R] I, 228Google Scholar, caption to pl.-figs. 188–9; 286 f. Layard found a set of figurines of the fish-apkallu type in the Palace, S.W.: Nineveh and its Remains (London, 1850) II, 37Google Scholar, with two examples published in Monuments of Nineveh I (London, 1849)Google Scholar, Pl. 95: 5–6 [ = BM 91845, 91843]. Cf. Van Buren, , Clay Figurines of Babylonia and Assyria (New Haven and Oxford, 1930)Google Scholar [henceforth CFBA], nos. 966, 974, 991; FFO, 52 f.; Rittig, 82 f., Nrn. 8.3.2–8, mit 83, Anm. 1.

4 Mallowan, , ILN 08 15, 1953, 256Google Scholar; Iraq 16 (1954), 86 f.Google Scholar, with 87, n. 1; N & R I, 102; 226, caption to pl.-fig. 191. Cf. already Woolley, C. L., JRAS 1926, 709, n. 11Google Scholar.

5 Stearns, J. B., Reliefs from the Palace of Ashurnaṣirpal II. AfO Beiheft 15 (Graz, 1961), 26, n. 44Google Scholar.

6 BaM 10 (1979), 35 ff. figGoogle Scholar.

7 Gurney, , AAA 22 (1935), 64 ff.Google Scholar; Rittig, 152 ff.

8 Three septenary sets were discovered, ND 3518–24, 3527–33, 4101–7. Cf. for now Mallowan, , ILN 08 15, 1953, 255 f.Google Scholar, with Fig. 8; Iraq 16 (1954), 80, 86 ff.Google Scholar; Pls. XVII–XVIII [showing above, ND 3523, 3520; below, ND 3522, 3519]; N & R I, 226; 229, pl.-fig. 191; Barrelet, Marie-Thérèse, Figurines et reliefs en terre-cuite de la Mésopotamie antique I (Paris, 1968) [henceforth Barrelet], 110f.Google Scholar, 79a, b [ = ND 3523, 3520, not as caption]; Rittig, 71, Nrn. 5.2.1–“19” [ND 3606–9, 3628 are not of this type, but arc fish-apkallē]; 75 ff.; Abb. 20.

9 Oates, D., Iraq 23 (1961), 8 f.CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Pl. III:6; Mallowan, N & R II, 384; 387, Fig. 312; 388 f.; 641, n. 387(1): 28; cf. Rittig, 71, Nrn. 5.2.20–“27”.

10 ND 9518, figures in the round rather than flat-backed plaques. Unpublished.

11 BM 90989–92, 90998, 91839. Cf. Smith, G., Assyrian Discoveries (London, 1875), 78, fig. in textGoogle Scholar; Van Buren, CFBA, no. 1106, Pl. LVIII:280; FFO, 49 f., Pl. XVIII: 34; Frankel, D., Clay Figures of Assyria and Babylonia (London, 1976), 9Google Scholar, with British Museum slide WAA 43; Rittig, 72, Nrn. 5.2.28–“34” [read “33”].

12 So Mallowan, , Iraq 16 (1954), 89Google Scholar; N & R I, 293. Van Buren's dating of these pieces (CFBA, no. 1106, FFO, 49) confuses the “S.E. Palace” with the “Central Palace”. Rittig, 72, gives a seventh-century date, but without support. For figures of the type from other sites, cf. Rittig, 70 ff.

13 ND 3606–9 + 3628 [ + 2 figures disintegrated], 4116–22, 4130–6. Examples are published by Mallowan, ILN Aug. 15, 1953, 255 f., with Fig. 6; Iraq 16 (1954), 80, 87, 93Google Scholar; Pl. XIX: 1, 3, 6 [ND 3607, 3606, 3608]; Barrelet, 110f., Fig. 80b; 118, Fig. 87c [ND 3608, not as caption]; Kawami, Trudy S., FuB 16 (1975), 10, 13Google Scholar; Taf. 2: 2. Cf. also Rittig, 80 f., Nrn. 8.1.8–10, Abb. 28; double-catalogued as bird-apkallē (see n. 8 above), 248 f., §30.

14 ND 4123–8. Previously all unpublished.

15 ND 4129. Unpublished.

16 Cf. Oates, D., Iraq 21 (1959), 112Google Scholar; Mallowan, , N & R II, 423Google Scholar. Rittig, 244 f., § 28, wrongly attributes the figures to five foundation boxes “in der Ecken beiderseits der Türe”.

17 ND 7892–5, 7902, 7903A, B. Previously all unpublished.

18 Cf., e.g., Van Buren, CFBA, no. 994, Pl. LII: 251; FFO, Pl. XVIII: 35; Andrae, W., Das wiedererstandene Assur (Leipzig, 1938), Taf. 8a, bGoogle Scholar; Klengel-Brandt, Evelyn, FuB 10 (1968), Taf. 6:1Google Scholar; Kawami, , FuB 16 (1975), Taf. 3:1–2Google Scholar; Rittig, Abbn. 27, 30, 32, 33a, b.

19 Bokhâri, El, Les traditions islamiques. Trnsl. Houdas, O. and Marcias, W. (Paris, 1903–1908), 157Google Scholar. According to Duguet, F., Le pélerinage de la Mecque (Paris, 1932), 84Google Scholar, the pilgrim to the Great Mosque at Mecca enters with the right foot first.

20 Lane, E. W., Modern Egyptians (London, 1836), 308Google Scholar. According to Ibn al-Hajj, a Moslem will leave his home for the mosque right foot first, but must lead with his left when going out to urinate: see Chelhod, J., apud Needham, R. (ed.), Right and Left: Essays on Dual Symbolic Classification (Chicago, 1973), 240Google Scholar.

21 Porada, Edith, Corpus of Ancient Near Eastern Seals in North American Collections I (Washington D.C., 1948), no. 581Google Scholar; cf. Van Buren, , Or ns 23 (1954), 23 f.Google Scholar; Kawami, , Iran 10 (1972), 146, n. 25CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The figure is found widely in Neo-Assyrian glyptic art: see, e.g., Forte, Elizabeth Williams, Ancient Near Eastern Seals (New York, 1976), nos. 39–40, 54Google Scholar.

22 Stela from Tell Ashara, reign of Tukultininurta II: Tournay, J. R. and Saouaf, S., AAS 2 (1952), Pl. IIIGoogle Scholar; pair of reliefs from Ninurta Temple, Nimrud, reign of Aššurnaṣirpal II: Plate Xa; painted frescoes on plastered mudbrick, in Fort Shalmaneser, Nimrud, reign of Shalmaneser III: Reade, J. E., BaM 10 (1979). Taf. 9Google Scholar; idem, apud J. E. Curtis (ed.), Fifty Years of Mesopotamian Discovery (London, 1982), Pl. 7b, c; cf. Oates, D., Iraq 25 (1963), 29CrossRefGoogle Scholar; seven(!) pairs of reliefs from S.W. Palace, Nineveh, reign of Sennacherib: Layard, A. H., Nineveh and Babylon (London, 1853), 343 f.Google Scholar, with woodcut; 442, 460; Paterson, A., The Palace of Sinacherib (The Hague, 1915), 8, 10, 13Google Scholar; Kawami, , Iran 10 (1972), Pl. IIIa, bCrossRefGoogle Scholar; rectangular water-trough from Aššur Temple, Aššur, reign of Sennacherib: Andrae, , Amtl. Berichte 58 (1937), 130 ff., Abb. 1Google Scholar; Das wiedererstandene Assur, Taf. 21; Kawami, , FuB 16 (1975)Google Scholar, Taf. 3: 4; pairs(?) of reliefs from N. Palace, Nineveh, reign of Aššurbanipal: Barnett, R. D., Sculptures from the North Palace of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh (668–627 B.C.) (London, 1976) [henceforth SNPAN], 15, n. 1Google Scholar; 42. Cf. also the conventionalized figure painted on plastered mudbrick in the Palace at Til Barsip, reign of Tiglathpileser III (?): Thureau-Dangin, F. and Dunand, M., Til Barsib (Paris, 1936), Pl. LIIIbGoogle Scholar; Rittig, Abb. 29; cf. Hrouda, B., Kulturgeschichte des Assyrischen Flachbildes (Bonn, 1965), 114Google Scholar.

23 Reade, , BaM 10 (1979), 36 fGoogle Scholar.

24 Cf. Seidl, U., BaM 4 (1968), 171 ffGoogle Scholar.

25 See references cited by Reade, op. cit., 39, n. 142, and now Barnett, SNPAN, Pls. IV, XX, XXI, XXXI, XXXVII, XLV, LV.

26 Frank, K., MAOG 14 (1941) 23 ffGoogle Scholar., esp. S. 33; idem, Babylonische Beschwörungsreliefs (Leipzig, 1908), 26 ff.; Seidl, U., BaM 4 (1968), 173 fGoogle Scholar. Cf. also Klengel-Brandt, , FuB 10 (1968), 36 f.Google Scholar, and references there cited. Notice already a figurine of the type used to illustrate the edition of Utukkū Lemnūlu of Thompson, R. C., The Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia and Assyria II (London, 1904), frontispieceGoogle Scholar.

27 Rittig, 108.

28 Ibid., 109 f. So also Use Fuhr-Jaeppelt, , Malerialien zur Ikonographie des Löwenadlers Anzu-Imdugud (München, 1972), 223 fGoogle Scholar.

29 JRAS 1926, 711, n. 31Google Scholar.

30 Ibid., 712, n. 41. For suggested Akkadian readings of the name, see Ellis, R. S., apud Ellis, Maria de Jong (ed.), Essays on the Ancient Near East in Memory of Jacob Joel Finkelslein (Memoirs of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences 19) (Hamden, 1977)Google Scholar [henceforth Essays … Finkelstein], 74.

31 BaM 10 (1979), 40Google Scholar.

32 ND 8:81, 8190. The former is unpublished; for references to the latter see note to Plate XIa below.

33 mu-tir GABA lemni u a-⌜bi⌝, “Averter of the chest of the evil one and the enemy”. For the prescription of the ritual, see Rittig, 156, 166.

34 Cf. Ellis, , Essays … Finkelstein, 67 ff.Google Scholar, with illustrations pp. 76 f. For figurines of the type, cf. also Rittig, 103 ff. A number of foundation figurines of familiar types were discovered at Aššur in 1980 and described by Dr. B. K. Ismail to the XXVIII e R.A.I., Vienna, 6th–10th July, 1981 (for the excavations, see for now Postgate, J. N., Iraq 43 (1981), 173Google Scholar). They include a human figure in a lion cloak and mask having two vertical incised lines enclosing incised chevrons running down the middle of the back, in even closer conformity to the figure of the relief on Plate XIIc.

35 Ellis, loc. cit.

36 The comments of Rittig, 128 f., Nr. 21.1, are based upon incorrect assumptions.

37 For the former, cf. the tentative suggestions of Ellis, , Essays … Finkelstein, 73 ffGoogle Scholar. He and Reade, , Iraq 34 (1972), 96CrossRefGoogle Scholar, regard the figure as depicting a dressed-up man.

38 For which I am indebted to Herr F. A. M. Wiggermann. For previous readings, sec Ebeling, E., AfO 5 (1928–1929), 218 f.Google Scholar; Gurney, , AAA 22 (1935), 53, n. 4Google Scholar; Landsberger, B., Sam'al (Ankara, 1948), 95, Anm. 227Google Scholar; Rittig, 156. Cf. also CAD 9 (L), 42, s.v. “laḫmu”, § c, and ibid., 16 (s), 84, s.v. “ṣalmu”, § d. Wiggermann interprets laḫmu as “the hairy one”; see also his article, Studies on Babylonian Demonology, I : Exit Talim!, JEOL 28 (1983–1984)Google Scholar, forthcoming. For the object carried by the figure, see Walker, C. B. F., apud Reade, BaM 10 (1979), 38, n. 133Google Scholar; Hibbert, P., apud Kolbe, D., Die Relief-programme religiös-mythologischen Charakters in neu-assyrischen Palästen (Frankfurt am Main, 1981), 195Google Scholar; Wiggermann, forthcoming.

39 Ebeling, loc. cit.; Van Buren, , FFO, 43 f.Google Scholar; Rittig, 190 f., §11.3; Reade, , BaM 10 (1979), 38, n. 133Google Scholar. For the monumental reliefs, see references cited by Reade, loc. cit., and now Barnett, SNPAN, Pl. IV.

40 Contra Rittig, 213 ff. Uninscribed examples from the Burnt Palace are published by Mallowan, , ILN 08 15, 1953, 255, Fig. 6Google Scholar; Iraq 16 (1954)Google Scholar, Pl. XIX: 2, 4, 5, 7 [ND 3629, 3526, 3516, 3311]; N & R I, 228, pl.-figs. 188–9 [ND 3629, 3516; not as caption]. Examples of two Fort Shalmaneser subtypes are published: ND 7847, as in note to Plate XIIIa below, and ND 11304, in the catalogues of the exhibition “Sieben Jahrtausende Kunst und Kultur an Euphrat und Tigris” [issued in nearly identical form under various titles, e.g. Trésors du musée de Bagdad, Der Garten in Eden, Sumer Assur Babylon, ed. by Strommenger, Eva (Mainz am Rhein, 1977 ff.)Google Scholar, cf. also e.g. Tigris-Euphrates (in Japanese)], no. 142 [not from Burnt Palace as stated in German commentaries]. Both of these pieces are inscribed, the former [er]-ba ? MAŠKIM s[IG5?]/ṣi-i MAŠKIM ḪUL-ti (Plate XIIIa), the latter IR TU MAŠKIM SILIM-me/Ḫi-i MAŠKIM ḪUL-ti “Come in demon of good, go out demon of evil!”.

41 Cf. Woolley, , JRAS 1926, 694, no. 3Google Scholar; 709. n. 7 [identification with wrong passage of ritual]; Ur Excavations VIII (London, 1965), 94, no. 2Google Scholar. Notice the association of laḫmu with the apsû: CAD 9 (L), 42.

42 For figurines of this type, cf. Rittig, 44 ff. Such figures are common at Late Babylonian sites, but that they are also an Assyrian type is shown by the examples from Khorsabad and Aššur (Rittig, Nrn. 1.2.1–2) and perhaps Assyrian-occupied Ur (Nr. 1.2.1.3). An additional figurine of the type was found in the recent excavations at Aššur (see note 34 above); another was discovered at Nineveh by Dr. ‘Amr Suleimann, The Results of the Excavations of the University of Mosul in the Walls of Nineveh [in Arabic], Adab al-Rafidain 1 (07 1971), 45 ff.Google Scholar, with fig. between pp. 96 and 97 [I owe this reference to Dr. M. A. Roaf].

43 Cf. Gurney, , AAA 22 (1935), 68 f.Google Scholar; Rittig, 156, 166. Figurines of the deity with raised arm sometimes carry small metal or stone weapons: see Rittig, 44 ff., 130 ff., 211 f.

44 For other suggestions as to the identity of the figure, cf. Rittig, 211 f. Reade, , BaM 10 (1979), 36Google Scholar, offers no specific identification, but ibid., 38, implies the identity of the “House god” with a different figure on the reliefs.

45 Rittig, 206; cf. 190, § II.2, and for figurines of the types, 98 ff. Two additional examples were found at Aššur in 1980, inscribed in the usual manner. F. A. M. Wiggermann has suggested to me the possible Akkadian name kusarikku; he reads in this passage [NU.MEŠ GUD] ⌜DUMU⌝ [d]⌜UTU⌝. Cf. already Reade, , BaM 10 (1979), 40Google Scholar.

46 È[ …, “Go out […” Other figures from Fort Shalmaneser are inscribed in the appropriate fashion, but are extant above the waist only, so that any original taurine features are lost; Oates, D., Iraq 21 (1959), 112Google Scholar, type (iv), describes these as depicting a cloaked figure holding a spear, but no such attribute is apparent. Unpublished.

47 Cf. the remarks of Stronach, Pasargadae, 75.

48 Quoted by Barnett, , SNPAN, 42Google Scholar.

49 Pottier, E., Musée National du Louvre: Catalogue des antiquités assyriennes (Paris, 1924), no. 6, Pl. IVGoogle Scholar; Meuszyński, J., Iraq 38 (1976), Pl. XIVCrossRefGoogle Scholar. Reade, , BaM 10 (1979), 39Google Scholar, describes the figure as having “a fish-head penis”, but this looks to have more the shape of a snake's head (?), and the figurines of the type may be closely related to those of snakes (see note 52 below). Outside monumental sculpture (cf. also Oates, D., Iraq 28 (1966), Pl. XXXIVbGoogle Scholar; Meuszyński, , Iraq 38 (1976), Pl. IXaCrossRefGoogle Scholar; Canby, Jeanny V., Iraq 33 (1971), Pl. XVIaCrossRefGoogle Scholar; Thompson, R. C., AAA 18 (1931), Pl. XXVII)Google Scholar, the figure is not usually winged, but cf. Ch. Zervos, , L'Art de la Mésopotamia … (Paris and Londres, 1935), P. 139Google Scholar = Layard, , Monuments of Nineveh I, Pl. 95AGoogle Scholar: 10 [Neo-Assyrian pottery vessel from Nimrud, BM 91941]; Carnegie, Helena, Catalogue of the Collection of Antique Gems formed by James, 9th Earl of Southesk II (London, 1908), no. Qd 16Google Scholar; Delaporte, L., Catalogue des cylindres, cachets el pierres gravées de style oriental du Musée du Louvre II (Paris, 1923), no. A. 703Google Scholar.

50 Frankfort, H., Cylinder Seals (London, 1939), 201 f.Google Scholar; Rittig, 218; Ellis, , Essays … Finkelstein, 74Google Scholar; Reade, , BaM 10 (1979), 39Google Scholar. For the reading of the Akkadian name here used, see CAD 21 (z), 165 f., s.v. “zuqaqīpu”.

51 DINGIR É lu-u ka-a-a-⌜an⌝/⌜na

DINGIR É/AN.KAL ( = LAMA) [lu(-u) ] da-a-ri

“May the god of the house be permanent(ly present),

“[May] the god of the house/the lamassu be permanent(ly present)!”

Contra the translation in Iraq 21 (1959), 112Google Scholar, second inscription. It does not, in fact, appear to occur on another figurine. For the prescription, cf. Rittig, 157, 167; Wiggermann now reads ina GÙB-šu-nu dLAMA É lu dà-⌜a-ri⌝ (personal communication).

52 Cf. Rittig, 122 f., the Aššur examples inscribed as in the ritual: cf. ibid., 188, § II. 1; 206. Additional figures of snakes were found at Aššur in 1980, but with illegible inscriptions. The two Nimrud examples, ND 9524–5, are uninscribed (unpublished). That at Ur the boxes housing snake figures were in close association with those containing the equivalent of the scorpion-tailed figure (see JRAS 1926, 690, Fig. 28: positions of boxes housing types 4 and 10) suggests that there is again some significance to the order of the types as prescribed in the ritual.

53 For the creature in Mesopotamian art, cf. Seidl, , BaM 4 (1968), 187 ffGoogle Scholar. It occurs on a relief of Assurbanipal: Barnett, SNPAN, Pl. LIV.

54 Cf. Rittig, 186 f., § Ib.i; 188 f., § Ib.2; 206; 218. The figure of Plate XVa is inscribed er-ba taš-mu u ma-ga-ru “Come in, favourable hearing, compliance!”, corresponding to KAR, 298, rev. line 5. The figure of Plate XVb is uninscribed, but similar models carry an exhortation closely approximating to KAR, 298, rev. lines 6 f.: see Rittig, 94 f., Nr. 9.1.2, and exhibition catalogues as in note 40 above, no. 141. The kulīlu occurs quite frequently in Neo-Assyrian art, including on reliefs from the palace at Khorsabad (Botta, P. E., Monument de Ninive I (Paris, 1849), Pls. 32, 34Google Scholar; Pottier, Catalogue des antiquités assyriennes, no. 44, Pl. XX), on a bronze work band from the Nabu Temple at the same site (Loud, G. and Altman, C. B., Khorsabad II (Chicago, 1938), Pl. 49, no. 20Google Scholar) and in the form of sculptured figures in the round outside a gate of the Ezida Temple at Nimrud (Mallowan, , Iraq 19 (1957), Pl. IVCrossRefGoogle Scholar; N&R I, 235, pl.-fig. 198). The figure occurs in glyptic art at least from the Old Babylonian period onwards: see Van Buren, , Or ns 23 (1954), 23Google Scholar. For the suḫurmaššu in Mesopotamian art, see Seidl, , BaM 4 (1968), 178 ffGoogle Scholar.

55 By Gadd, C. J., apud Barnett, , SNPAN 40, Pl. XXGoogle Scholar. For a figurine of the same being with similar (perhaps in fact identical) inscription, see Klengel-Brandt, , FuB 10 (1968), 26, Taf. 5:2Google Scholar; Ellis, , Essays … Finkelstein, 74Google Scholar; Rittig, 112 f., Nr. 14.1.1; 186 f., §Ib.1.

56 Gadd, , RA 19 (1922), 158 f.Google Scholar; Frankel, , Clay Figures of Assyria and Babylonia, 8 f.Google Scholar, with B.M. slide WAA 42; Barnett, SNPAN, Pls. I, XLV; cf. pp. 18, 36, 50, 74. For these and other examples, see also Rittig, 116ff.

57 ND 2182–6, 2214, 3209. Cf. Mallowan, , ILN 08 16, 1952, 254Google Scholar, Fig. 3; Iraq 15 (1953), 24Google Scholar; N&R I, 146 f., pl.-fig. 86 [from left to right, ND 2185, 2183, 2182, and on p. 147 ND 2185 again; not as caption]; Rittig, 121, Nrn. 16. “1” [read “2”?], 26–8. See also Curtis, J. E., An Examination of Late Assyrian Metalwork with Special Reference to Material from Nimrud (Ph.D. dissertation, Institute of Archaeology, University of London, 1979) I, 210 f.Google Scholar; II, 48 f., Pls. XXXVI–XXXVII.

58 See references as in note 57; also Woolley, , JRAS 1926, 712, n. 44Google Scholar. None of the Nimrud dogs is inscribed; the statement in N & R I, 103, that one of them carried an apotropaic inscription, which misled Rittig, 121, should be referred back to the original version in ILN Aug. 16, 1952, 254, stating that “one of them which has been in the British Museum for many years”, i.e. one of the clay dogs from Nineveh, was inscribed in this fashion.

59 Those from other sites have been found under the floor, but not in foundation boxes as the clay examples: cf. Rittig, 117 ff. Those from Nippur were also seven in number (Rittig, 117 f., Nrn. 16.1.6–11; 126 f., Nr. 20.1 [ = 6N 276–80, 291; 275]), suggesting that those from well NN represent a complete set.

60 Cf. Klengel-Brandt, , Apotropäische Tonfiguren aus Assur, FuB 10 (1968), 19 ffGoogle Scholar.