The state channelled the influx of foreign groups into Babylonian society in various ways during the Chaldean and Persian periods (mid-first millennium BC). The military land-grant system placed incoming groups in the Babylonian countryside and tied them to the king through the principle of “land-for-service”. This scheme is known mainly by its results, for instance in the numerous fiefs occupied by ethnic groups in the area of Nippur in the late fifth century BC (Stolper, Entrepreneurs and Empire). Other foreigners were brought to Babylonia as war captives and were sold into slavery or donated to the country 's many temples (e.g. Bongenaar/Haring, JCS 46).

Unpublished records from Borsippa point towards the existence of another system through which the state regulated the income of foreign ethnic groups. This system relied on the resources of private Babylonian citizens to provide rations and perhaps also shelter to individually assigned foreigners. The dossier that sheds light on this scheme does not answer all the questions that it raises, but it does show the basic workings of the system and herein it is unique, even though the system itself is perhaps not without historical precedent. The importance of this dossier is enhanced by the fact that it deals with an ethnic group that is otherwise badly attested in Babylonia: the Carians.

The Sippar Library tablet IM 124485 is a new source for Tablet XX of Enūma Anu Ellil (EAE), the great compilation of Babylonian celestial and meteorological omens. The twentieth tablet of the series, which deals principally with lunar eclipses on the fourteenth day of each month of the year, was edited by Francesca Rochberg in 1988 along with all the other tablets of lunar-eclipse omens in EAE (Rochberg-Halton 1988: Chapter 10). Rochberg was unable to report the whole text of her MS M = ND 4357, a Neo-Assyrian tablet from the library of the temple of Nabû at Kalaḫ; it can now be consulted as CTN IV 5 (Wiseman and Black 1996: Pls. 5–6, 145), though the copy of the reverse is inadequate. In addition a Late Babylonian exemplar of a further commentary, written in the time of Philip Arrhidaeus for the scholar Iqīša of Uruk, has come to light in W23300 (now IM 75990), published as Uruk IV 162 (von Weiher 1993: 103–5, 186). Despite these additions to knowledge, some of the text of EAE XX remained poorly enough preserved to make the discovery of a new manuscript very welcome.

The new tablet allows seven sections of the text of EAE XX to be reconstructed in full, and our understanding of the technical terminology refined as a consequence. The chief interest of this tablet of EAE emerges more clearly than before. The common denominator of the twelve lunar-eclipse omens of EAE XX is eclipses that, at least notionally, set in “above” and clear “below”, as observed in 1. 66 of the tablet published here. However, the observed phenomena that especially distinguish the protases of EAE XX from those of other calendrical lunar-eclipse tablets appear to be particular to partial eclipses. The progress of the eclipse to a point at which the disk is half eclipsed (imšul) or more (eli mašāli illik) is explicitly recorded on six occasions (§§1.2, IV, V, VII, VIII, IX). The portents relate either to the moon's “emblem” (šurinnu), a term that signifies the moon in eclipse (§§1.1, IV), to its “horns” (qarnu), i.e. the cusps of the partially eclipsed disk (§§VIII, IX, X, XI, XII), or to both (§§V, VII). It seems that what the compiler of EAE XX considered most portentous were the appearance, behaviour and other aspects of the lunar disk while the moon was half, or more than half, eclipsed.

Studies of language contact in Mesopotamia have tended to concern themselves principally with lexical borrowing and structural influence, and to focus on the interaction of Akkadian with Sumerian and (in later times) Aramaic. This paper attempts to innovate on the field in two respects. First, studies of language contact in Mesopotamia largely neglect the sociolinguistic aspects of the phenomenon, which have been problematized with rewarding results in a large and ever-growing body of sociolinguistic literature. A masterly study by Adams has recently shown that sociolinguistic methods can successfully be applied to corpus languages, in his case Latin. Sociolinguistic aspects of language contact are the primary focus of this paper. Second, instead of the interaction between Akkadian and another language (Sumerian, Aramaic), we shall be concerned with that between dialects of Akkadian itself, which can be distinguished through phonology, morphology and, to a lesser extent, lexicon: Neo-Assyrian and two dialects of Babylonian. The Babylonian dialects, respectively vernacular Neo-Babylonian and so-called “Standard Babylonian” (German Jungbabylonisch), appear in different epistolary contexts. As the language of scholarship and belles lettres, Standard Babylonian occurs in learned citations, and was used to elevate one's language. We will encounter it frequently in letters written to the king by Neo-Assyrian scholars. Vernacular Neo-Babylonian was the base dialect of numerous letters by and to Babylonians. Characteristically Neo- (as opposed to Standard) Babylonian forms are usually not found in Assyrian letters.

After the discovery of Royal Palace G at Ebla in 1974, several contributions, particularly by the writer and by P. Matthiae, addressed specific aspects of the artistic and architectural cultures of Early and Old Syrian Ebla. Many of these aspects revealed contacts and comparisons with Ur. It was not, however, possible to build up a coherent picture from these random and unrelated aspects. Such a picture may still elude us, but in the presence of a varied documentation relating to different periods, we think it is now opportune to review the evidence.

The question of identifying cultural symbolism of any period is tortuous without textual or verbal evidence. It is particularly difficult when dealing with an ancient society removed by thousands of years and vast distance in space. Such is the case when interpreting the art of Mesopotamia. Occasionally, textual references help to illuminate possible meanings of imagery. More often than not we are left with nothing but our own culturally conditioned perceptions to explain what we see. However, alternative readings suggested by gender studies raise new ways of approaching familiar scenes. In a recent article I argued that the appearance of a fruiting date palm in the so-called “Garden Party” relief of Ashurbanipal (r. 668–631 BC) from the North Palace at Nineveh helped to situate the scene within a queen's garden. Despite the fact that the climate in Assyria is unfavourable for date-palm cultivation, the image of the tree, closely associated with a goddess, symbolized the feminine space of the garden. I would like to take this proposal further and suggest that the fruiting date palm is a marker of femininity in other images from ancient Iraq and, in addition, that the conifer tree can appear as a symbol of masculinity.

During his excavations “in the south-east corner of the mound” at Nimrud, ancient Kalhu, A. H. Layard discovered some fragments of painted bricks (1853b: 164–7; 1867: 52–7). These can be dated to Esarhaddon on the basis of both iconographic style and subject matter. Thanks to the name “Tell of Athur” reported in Layard's accounts, we can plausibly identify the location as the site of Fort Shalmaneser; unfortunately, Layard does not give a more precise location. Although we can assert that the fragments belong to Fort Shalmaneser at the time of its renovation by Esarhaddon in the seventh century BC, we are not able to define exactly the rooms or outer façade that these fragments originally decorated.

Some hypotheses have been suggested as to the original location of the glazed bricks, either in the south-east corner of the inner south-east courtyard (Oates 1959: 111, fn. 20; Nunn 1988: 183) or in Courtyard T (Postgate and Reade 1976–80: 317; Oates and Oates 2001: 183–4) (Fig. 1), where they seem to have adorned an outer façade, either the façade of Throne Room T1 or that of Courtyard T, where Shalmaneser's glazed-brick panel was found lying in front of the doorway of ante-chamber T3 (Reade 1963: 38–47; Dayton 1978: PL 24,1).

Identification of different iconographic features has allowed modern scholars to argue cases for several possible candidates responsible for the commissioning and representation within Plate LIII. Due to minor characteristically different chariots and artistic techniques, scholars have made widely divergent claims about the origins of the wall paintings that were found at Til-Barsip. In this paper I contend that one vital iconographic factor has been overlooked by modern scholarship and that it is the key to proving that a specific Assyrian king was responsible for Plate LIII. It is concluded that the Assyrian king depicted in the Til-Barsip wall painting was left-handed and by a process of elimination can be none other than Esarhaddon.

Hasanlu Tepe is a large mounded site in the Solduz Valley of western Azerbaijan dating from Islamic to Neolithic times. One of its main occupation levels belonged to the Iron II period (Fig. 1). This settlement was sacked and burned around 800/780 BC, preserving a large quantity of objects of daily living in the collapsed buildings (Dyson and Voigt 1989). One building (BB II) is thought to have been a temple (Dyson and Voigt 2003). Two others (BB IVE and BBV) appear, from the presence of urine stains and horse skeletons, to have been in use as stables at the time of the destruction, converted from an earlier function. They, as well as other areas, contained horse gear as well as skeletons of horses (de Schauensee and Dyson 1983; de Schauensee 1988: 47–9; 1989). Two types of bits for horses were found. Comparisons between them, combined with associated material, suggest that they had distinct, non-overlapping functions.

This paper deals with gods, magistrates and laws. It centres on one example from the Roman-Parthian period. Its title derives from five Hatrean Aramaic inscriptions which record legal statements on capital punishment at Hatra, a city in the steppe of northern Mesopotamia that came to flourish suddenly (and briefly) in the second and early third century AD. I will argue that the information in these inscriptions about the divine world, institutional aspects and legislation can contribute to our understanding of the interaction of various cultural spheres of influence at Hatra. As such, this information may throw some light on the modes in which one can study the civilization of a Near Eastern city in the Roman-Parthian period, and it may help us to understand the gap left by the archaeological record. The paper aims to locate the inscriptions in the framework of the divine world of Hatra, and it will also make suggestions as to their contribution to our understanding of processes of urbanization in the “Classical” Near East. A detailed look at this material can help us to comprehend more fully the history of the Levantine lands in the period during which the Roman imperial armies spread over the eastern provinces. In the words of Fergus Millar, it is necessary to look beyond the range of sources generally used to define the field of Classical studies, “to discern the material development of human life and settlement in the whole vast range of different areas which at one time or another came within the orbit of Graeco-Roman civilisation”.

Hatra was of course brought within the power of the Roman empire only late, a few years before the Sasanian conquest in AD 240. By then — so we are told by Cassius Dio (LXVIII 31, 1–4; LXXVI 10–12) and Herodian (III 1, 2–3; 5, 1; 9, 1–7) — the city had already won renown for withstanding attacks by Trajan and (probably twice) Septimius Severus, and also by the Sasanian king Ardashir. The second Sasanian attempt, however, ended its existence as an inhabited city. When the historian Ammianus Marcellinus passed by its ruins in AD 363, on the way back from the emperor Julian's disastrous Persian campaign, he saw “an old city situated in an uninhabited area and deserted for a long time past” (25.8.5).

This article is the first in a series that aims to present the results of Iraqi excavations from the Ray Jazirah Project (RJP) that took place between 1987 and 1994. An Iraqi archaeologist involved in the RJP, who has chosen to remain anonymous, has recently provided all the primary data used in this and future reports. Gratitude to my Iraqi colleague, who continues to work in difficult circumstances, must be given for contributions to, and involvement in, our collaboration. I wish to thank this colleague, and other Iraqi archaeologists involved in the RJP, for granting permission to publish their work in English prior to publication in Arabic journals. Several colleagues from Iraq's State Board of Antiquities and Heritage have also made this project possible, and my colleague and I would like to thank them for granting permission for this publication project. We would also like to thank the American Academic Research Institute in Iraq (TAARII) for making this joint project possible through their generous funding. Professor McGuire Gibson (President of TAARII) first suggested this project and gave his encouragement; Dr Stephanie Platz (Executive Director of TAARII) and Dr Hala Fattah (Resident Director of TAARII) made many of the necessary arrangements to facilitate this effort from its inception. Special thanks are also due to Dr Rafi Altaweel for his tireless work in cleaning and improving the image quality of figures in this and forthcoming publications: many of the figures derive from drawings and photographs that were stored in less than ideal circumstances for almost two decades.

Splendid isolation and an austere environment allegedly saved Hatra on more than one occasion from the wrath of Rome. Even when the city finally fell to the Sasanians in AD 240 and Shapur carried off its portable wealth, its comparative remoteness prevented the wholesale destruction that happened, for instance, at nearby Ashur. So in 1985 UNESCO had no difficulty in recognising the ruins' value as a gem of world heritage.

Hatra's comparative isolation presents problems but also advantages for archaeologists. The problems concern the city's economy and subsistence with respect to its size and density in a hostile environment beyond the limit of dryland farming. Most prominently Hatra will have played an important role as a centre for nomad-sedentary political and economic exchange. The central temple of Shamash, which might have served as a focus of pilgrimage, will have added in some degree to its wealth, as reflected by its architecture and sculpture. According to some authors the city also played at least some role in long-distance caravan trade, which might have created further substantial revenue. But the important question remains: to what extent did Hatra's inhabitants complement their livelihood through cultivation