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Some Inscribed Objects from Sherif Khan in the British Museum1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

J. E. Curtis  and
A. K. Grayson
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Extract

The inscribed objects published here have never been adequately published anywhere, or, in one case, never published at all. The purpose of this article, therefore, is to describe each of the objects in detail and to publish the inscriptions in full. Two of the inscriptions are on stone mace-heads of a distinctive type, and are significant for the dating and derivation of such mace-heads. This will be discussed, and since little has been written about the site of Sherif Khan (ancient Tarbiṣu), the history of modern excavations there will be traced and a brief sketch will be provided of the ancient history of the city.

The first excavations at Sherif Khan were by Layard, who worked there in January and February, 1850. They were reopened by Rawlinson in the spring of 1852, and all the objects considered here come from his excavations. They can be identified from a report sent by Rawlinson to the Trustees of the British Museum on the 21st April. 1852.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 44 , Issue 1 , Spring 1982 , pp. 87 - 94
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1982

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Footnotes

1

It gives both authors great pleasure to be associated with this tribute to Professor Seton Lloyd on his 80th birthday. JEC in particular would like to put on record his great debt to Professor Lloyd; he had the privilege of studying under him, and will always be grateful that he received his introduction to Mesopotamian archaeology from such an acknowledged master of the subject.

References

2 Thanks are due to Ann Searight for drawing the mace-head BM 131128, and to Mr J. E. Hendry for the photographs. AKG is grateful to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for its continued support of his research trips abroad which make possible the publication of articles of this kind.

3 Nineveh and Babylon, 598–9.

4 Original Letters and Papers, vol. XLVII (01–May, 1852)Google Scholar; partly reproduced in Barnett, , Catalogue of Nimrud Ivories, 19Google Scholar.

5 This is almost certainly the well-known seal inscribed with the name of Mushezib-Ninurta, a ruler of Shadikanni (BM 89135). How it came to be found at Sherif Khan is quite unclear, but Unger suggests that its owner may have been held captive there. See Layard, , N&B, 603Google Scholar; Unger, , BASOR 130 1953), 15–21Google Scholar; and Frankfort, Cylinder Seals, Pl. XXXIIIa.

6 On these, see Barnett, , CNI, 19, n. 8Google Scholar.

7 Grayson, , ARI I, § 361Google Scholar.

8 For details, see the Cambridge Ancient History 3/2, 2nd edition, in preparation.

9 Grayson, , ABC 93:25Google Scholar.

10 Datierbare Bronzen, 92. See also Calmeyer's, comments in RLA V, 7/8, 580, § e (“Keule”)Google Scholar.

11 Barnett, , Eretz Israel 8 (1967), 4–6, Pl. VIIIGoogle Scholar.

12 BM 55–13–5, 302–3.

13 Johns, ADD, No. 90.

14 Place, , Ninive et l'Assyrie I, 65–6Google Scholar; III, Pl. 74: 11–13.

15 Abada, , Sumer 30 (1974), Pls. 10a–d between pp. 334–5Google Scholar.

16 Botta, , Monument de Ninive I, Pl. 13Google Scholar; II, Pls. 103, 114, 116, 137, 144.

17 Thureau-Dangin, Arslan-Tash, Pls. 8–10.

18 Andrae, , Sendschirli V, 88, Figs. 105, 107 i, k–n, pGoogle Scholar; Pl. 42 i, k–n, p.

19 Dunand, , Byblos II, Pl. LIX: 8263Google Scholar.

20 Hogarth, , Carchemish I, Pls. B4a, Bsb, B7aGoogle Scholar.

21 Bossert, Altanatolien, Fig. 888.

22 Akurgal, Die Kunst der Hethiter, Pls. 144, 148.

23 Orthmann, Untersuchungen zur späthethitischen Kunst, passim.

24 ILN, 12th 09, 1964, 374, Fig. 10Google Scholar; Muscarella, , JANES 9 (1977), 39, Fig. 18Google Scholar.

25 Pace Muscarella, ibid., 39, n. 30.

26 Akten des VII. Internationalen Kongresses für Iranische Kunst u. Archäologie, München 1976, 141, Fig. 2:1.

27 Ibid., 141, Fig. 2:4; Vanden Berghe, Het archeologisch Onderzoek naar de Bronscultur van Luristan, Pl. 30:2.

28 Eg. Birmingham, , AS 11 (1961), 187, Fig. 10Google Scholar; Barnett, and Curtis, , BMQ XXXVII (1973), 124Google Scholar; Buhl, , Våbenhistorisk Tidsskrift 2 (1969), 3, Fig. 5Google Scholar; Hvidberg, , Catalogue of the Ancient objects from Persia and the Middle East in the Ib Hvidberg Collection (Copenhagen, 1978), No. 44Google Scholar; Godard, , Athar-e Iran 3 (1938), 255, Fig. 174. All have animal head finialsGoogle Scholar.

29 Dossin, , Iranica Antiqua 2 (1962), Pl. 30: 26–7Google Scholar.

30 Jantzen, , Samos VIII, Pl. 50Google Scholar.

31 Blinkenberg, Chr., Lindos I, Pl. 26:664Google Scholar.

32 Gjerstad, , SCE II, Pl. CLI: 17Google Scholar.

33 Dikaios, RDAC 1935, Pl. XII: 1.

34 Cesnola, , Cyprus, 309Google Scholar.

35 The inscriptions on two of these pieces—one in West Semitic giving an Assyrian name, and the other in cuneiform reading “palace of …” would seem to indicate they are not booty or tribute.

36 Again the occurrence of an Assyrian name would suggest an Assyrian origin. The signs are written in the course of manufacture, and not subsequently.

37 ZA 63 (1973), 127Google Scholar.

38 Hall, Babylonian and Assyrian Sculpture, Pl. LX; Lenormant, Choix de textes cunéiformes, No. 76B; British Museum Guide to Babylonian and Assyrian Antiquities, 3rd ed., 195.

39 Cf., e.g., Layard, , Mon. Nin. I, Pl. 39BGoogle Scholar.

40 Such structures are well known from the Balawat gates; see King, Bronze Reliefs from the Gates of Shalmaneser, passim.

41 Mallowan and Davies, Ivories from Nimrud, fascicule II, Pls. XX–XXI: 67.

42 BM 98860. Cf. also Layard, , N&B, 358Google Scholar, and Mallowan, , N&R I, Fig. 119Google Scholar.

43 ARAB II, §480–2; Walker, Cuneiform Brick Inscriptions, No. 185.

44 Reported in Adab al-Rafidain II, 15–49 (in Arabic). We are much indebted to Dr Lamia al-Gailani Werr for a verbal translation of this article.

45 Op. cit., item 8, pp. 41–2. Cf. Luckenbill, , OIP 2, 155, No. XXGoogle Scholar.

46 Op. cit., 93. The prisms are also illustrated, but the inscriptions are not legible from the photographs.