A Companion to Assyria

by Eckart Frahm

  Freydank, H. 2005. “Beispiele von Kulturkontakten aus mittelassyrischer Zeit,” in: D. Prechel (ed.), Motivation und Mechanismen des Kulturkontaktes in der späten Bronzezeit, Florence: LoGisma, 59–76.

  Galil, G. et al. (eds.) 2012. The Ancient Near East in the 12th–10th Centuries BCE: Culture and History, Münster: Ugarit‐Verlag.

  George, A.R. 1986. “Sennacherib and the Tablet of Destinies,” Iraq 48, 133–46.

  Jakob, S. 2003. Mittelassyrische Verwaltung und Sozialstruktur, Brill‐Styx: Leiden/Boston.

  Jas, R. 1996. Neo‐Assyrian Judicial Procedures, Helsinki: Neo‐Assyrian Text Corpus Project.

  Harrison, T.P. and Osborne, J.F. 2012. “Building XVI and the Neo‐Assyrian Sacred Precinct at Tell Tayinat,” Journal of Cuneiform Studies 64, 125–43.

  Holloway, S.W. 2002. Aššur Is King! Aššur Is King! Religion in the Exercise of Power in the Neo‐Assyrian Empire, Leiden/Boston/Cologne: Brill

  Jakob, S. 2003. Mittelassyrische Verwaltung und Sozialstruktur, Brill‐Styx: Leiden/Boston.

  Jas, R. 1996. Neo‐Assyrian Judicial Procedures. Helsinki : Neo‐Assyrian Text Corpus Poject.

  Klengel‐Brandt, E. and Radner, K. 1997. “Die Stadtbeamten von Assur und ihre Siegel,” in: S. Parpola and R.M. Whiting (eds.), Assyria 1995, Helsinki: The Neo‐Assyrian Text Corpus Project, 137–59.

  Krawietz, B. 2012. “Normative Islam and Global Scientific Knowledge,” in: J. Renn (ed.), The Globalization of Knowledge in History, n.p.: Open Access Edition, 295–310.

  Kühne, H. et al. 1993. “Vier spätbabylonische Tontafeln aus Tall Šēḫ Ḥamad, Ost‐Syrien,” State Archives of Assyria Bulletin 7, 75–150 (with J.N. Postgate, W. Röllig, J.A. Brinkman, F.M. Fales).

  Lafont, S. 2003. “Middle Assyrian Period,” in: Westbrook (ed.) 2003, 521–63.

  Lambert, W.G. 1960. Babylonian Wisdom Literature, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

  Lambert, W.G. 1983. “The God Aššur,” Iraq 45, 82–6.

  Lanfranchi, G.B. 2005. “The Luwian‐Phoenician Bilingual of Çineköy and the Annexation of Cilicia to the Assyrian Empire,” in: R. Rollinger (ed.), Von Sumer bis Homer: Festschrift … Manfred Schretter, Münster: Ugarit‐Verlag, 481–96.

  Lanfranchi, G.B. et al. (eds.) 2012. Leggo! Studies … Frederick Mario Fales, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.

  Larsen, M.T. 1976. The Old Assyrian City‐state and its Colonies, Copenhagen: Akademisk Forlag.

  Larsen, M.T. 1987. “Commercial Networks in the Ancient Near East,” in: M. Rowlands et al. (eds.), Centre and Periphery in the Ancient World, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 47–57.

  Larsen, M.T. 1999. “Naruqqu‐Verträge (Naruqqu‐Contracts),” in: Reallexikon der Assyriologie 9, 181–4.

  Larsen, M.T. 2000. “The Old Assyrian City‐state,” in: M.H. Hansen (ed.), A Comparative Study of Thirty City‐State Cultures, Copenhagen: C.A. Reitzels, 77–88.

  Lauinger, J. 2011. “Some Preliminary Thoughts on the Tablet Collection in Building XVI from Tell Tayinat,” Journal of the Canadian Society for Mesopotamian Studies 6, 6–14.

  Lauinger, J. 2012. “Esarhaddon’s Succession Treaty at Tell Tayinat: Text and Commentary,” Journal of Cuneiform Studies 64, 87–123.

  Legrand, P. and Munday, R. (eds.) 2003. Comparative Legal Studies: Traditions and Transitions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

  Lipiński, E. 2010. Studies in Aramaic Inscriptions and Onomastics, III. Ma’lanâ, Leuven: Peeters.

  Liverani, M. 1995. “The Medes at Esarhaddon’s Court,” Journal of Cuneiform Studies 47, 57–62.

  Liverani, M. 2008. “La madre di tutte le catastrofi,” Studi storici 49, 277–92.

  Liverani, M. 2008a. “I diritti ‘cuneifomi’: lineamenti per una storia degli studi (con particolare attenzione al caso italiano),” in: Liverani/Mora (eds.) 2008, 11–39.

  Liverani, M. and Mora, C. (eds.) 2008. I diritti del mondo cuneiforme (Mesopotamia e regioni adiacenti, c. 2500–600 a.C.), Pavia: IUSS Press.

  Magdalene, F.R. 2013. “Legal Science Then and Now: Theory and Method in the Work of Raymond Westbrook,” Maarav 18, 17–53.

  Mattila, R. 2000. The King’s Magnates: A Study of the Highest Officials of the Neo‐Assyrian Empire, Helsinki: The Neo‐Assyrian Text Corpus Project.

  Michel, C. 2008. “La correspondance des marchands assyriens du XIXe s. av. J.‐C.: de l’archivage des lettres commerciales et privées,” in: L. Pantalacci (ed.), La lettre d’archive, Le Caire: Institut français d’archéologie orientale, 117–38.

  Millard, A.R. 1994. The Eponyms of the Assyrian Empire 910–612 B.C., Helsinki: The Neo‐Assyrian Text Corpus Project.

  Muffs, Y. 2003. Studies in the Aramaic Legal Papyri from Elephantine, Leiden/Boston: Brill.

  Oates, J. and Oates, D. 2001. Nimrud: An Assyrian Imperial City Revealed, London: British School of Archaeology in Iraq.

  Özgüç, T. 2003. Kültepe‐Kaniš/Nesa: The Earliest International Trade Center and the Oldest Capital City of the Hittites. Istanbul: Middle East Culture Centre of Japan.

  Parker, B.J. 2001. The Mechanics of Empire: The Northern Frontier of Assyria as a Case Study in Imperial Dynamics, Helsinki: Neo‐Assyrian Text Corpus Project.

  Parpola, S. 1995. “The Assyrian Cabinet,” in: M. Dietrich and O. Loretz (eds.), Vom Alten Orient zum Alten Testament. Festschrift für Wolfram Freiherrn von Soden zum 85. Geburtstag, Neukirchen‐Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag, 379–401.

  Parpola, S. 2003. “International Law in the First Millennium,” in: Westbrook (ed.) 2003, II, 1047–66.

  Parpola, S. 2008. “Cuneiform Texts from Ziyaret Tepe (Tušḫān), 2002–2003,” State Archives of Assyria Bulletin 17, 1–113.

  Parpola, S. 2012. “The Neo‐Assyrian Royal Harem,” in: Lanfranchi et al. (eds.) 2012, 613–26.

  Parpola, S. and Watanabe, K. 2000. Neo‐Assyrian Treaties and Loyalty Oaths, State Archives of Assyria 2, Helsinki: University of Helsinki Press.

  Paul, S.M. 2005. Divrei Shalom: Collected Studies of Shalom M. Paul on the Bible and the Ancient Near East, 1967–2005, Leiden/Boston: Brill.

  Ponchia, S. 1989. “Royal Decisions and Courtiers’ Compliance: On Some Formulae in Neo‐Assyrian and Neo‐Babylonian Letters,” State Archives of Assyria Bulletin 3, 115–28.

  Ponchia, S. 2002–05. “Notes on the Legal Conventions and on the Practice of the adê in the Early Neo‐Babylonian Letters from Nippur,” State Archives of Assyria Bulletin 14, 133–67.

  Ponchia, S. 2009. “Witnessing Procedures in the Ancient Near East. Problems and Perspectives of Research,” in: N. Bellotto and S. Ponchia (eds.), Witnessing in the Ancient Near East, Padova: SARGON, 225–51.

  Postgate, J.N. 1982. “Ilku and Land Tenure in the Middle Assyrian Kingdom: a Second Attempt,” in: M.A. Dandameyev et al. (eds.), Societies and Languages of the Ancient Near East: Studies … I.M. Diakonoff, Warminster: Aris & Phillips, 304–13 (= Postgate 2007, 112–22).

  Postgate, J.N. 1986. “Middle Assyrian Tablets: The Instruments of Bureaucracy,” Altorientalische Forschungen 13, 10–39 (= Postgate 2007, 131–60).

  Postgate, J.N. 1992. “The Land of Assur & the Yoke of Assur,” World Archaeology 23, 247–60 (= Postgate 2007, 199–216).

  Postgate, J.N. 1997. “Middle Assyrian to Neo‐Assyrian: the Nature of the Shift,” in: H. Hauptmann and H. Waetzoldt (eds.), Assyrien im Wandel der Zeiten, Heidelberg: Heidelberger Orientverlag, 159–68 (= Postgate 2007, 229–238).

  Postgate, J.N. 2002. “Business and Government at Middle Assyrian Rimah,” in: L. al‐Gailani Werr et al. (eds.), Of Pots and Plans: Papers … David Oates, London: NABU Publications, 297–308 (= Postgate 2007, 319–30).

  Postgate, J.N. 2007. The Land of Assur and the Yoke of Assur: Studies on Assyria 1971–2005, Oxford: Oxbow Books.

  Postgate, J.N. 2010. “The Debris of Government: Reconstructing the Middle Assyrian State Apparatus from Tablets and Potsherds,” Iraq 72, 19–38.

  Postgate, J.N. 2012. “Making Tablets or Taking Tablets? ṭuppa/u ṣabātu in Assyria,” Iraq 73, 14
9–60.

  Radner, K. 1997. Die neuassyrischen Privatrechtsurkunden, Helsinki: The Neo‐Assyrian Text Corpus Project.

  Radner, K. 1997–98. Review of R. Jas, Neo‐Assyrian Judicial Procedures, Archiv für Orientforschung 44–5, 379–87.

  Radner, K. 2003. “Neo‐Assyrian Period,” in: Westbrook (ed.) 2003, II, 883–910.

  Radner, K. 2006. “Assyrische ṭuppi adê als Vorbild fur Deuteronomium 28, 20–44?,” in: M. Witte et al. (eds.), Die deuteronomistischen Geschichtswerke, New York: de Gruyter, 352–78.

  Radner, K. 2008. “The Delegation of Power: Neo‐Assyrian Bureau Seals,” in: P. Briant et al. (eds.), L’archive des fortifications de Persépolis: état des questions et perspectives de recherches, Paris: De Boccard, 481–515.

  Radner, K. 2011. “Schreiberkonventionen im assyrischen Reich: Sprachen und Schriftsysteme,” in: J. Renger (ed.), Assur – Gott, Stadt und Land, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 385–402.

  Roth, M.T. 1997. Law Collections from Mesopotamia and Asia Minor, Atlanta: Scholars Press.

  Saporetti, C. 2008. “Giurisprudenza medioassira,” in: Liverani/Mora (eds.) 2008, 457–72.

  Singer, I.S. 2012. “The Philistines in the North and the Kingdom of Taita,” in: Galil et al. (eds.) 2012, 451–72.

  Slanski, K. 2003. “Middle Babylonian Period,” in: Westbrook (ed.) 2003, I, 485–520.

  Stein, G. 2008. “A Theoretical Model for Political Economy and Social Identity in the Old Assyrian Colonies of Anatolia,” Tüba‐Ar 11, 25–40.

  Tenu, A. 2004. “Ninive et Aššur à l’époque médio‐assyrienne,” Iraq 66, 27–33.

  Ulshöfer, A.M. 1995. Die altassyrischen Privaturkunden, Stuttgart: Franz Steiner.

  Veenhof, K.R. 2003. “Trade and Politics in Ancient Assur: Balancing of Public, Colonial, and Entrepreneurial Interests,” in: C. Zaccagnini (ed.), Mercanti e politica nel mondo antico, Rome: “L’Erma” di Bretschneider, 69–117.

  Veenhof, K.R. 2003a. “Old Assyrian Period,” in: Westbrook (ed.) 2003, I, 431–84.

  Veenhof, K.R. 2003b. The Old Assyrian List of Year Eponyms from Karum Kanish and its Chronological Implications, Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu Basımevi.

  Veenhof, K.R and Eidem, J. 2008. Mesopotamia: The Old Assyrian Period, Fribourg: Academic Press/Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.

  Watanabe, K. 1987. Die adê‐Vereidigung anlässlich der Thronfolgeregelung Asarhaddons, Berlin: Gebr. Mann.

  Westbrook, R. 2003. A History of Ancient Near Eastern Law (ed.), I–II, Leiden/Boston: Brill.

  Westbrook, R. 2003a. “The Character of Ancient Near Eastern Law,” in: Westbrook (ed.) 2003, I, 1–91.

  Westbrook, R. 2003b. “Old Babylonian Period,” in: Westbrook (ed.) 2003, I, 361–430.

  Westbrook, R. 2005. “Patronage in the Ancient Near East,” Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 48, 210–233.

  Wilcke, C. 2007. “Das Recht: Grundlage des sozialen und politischen Diskurses im Alten Orient,” in C. Wilcke (ed.), Das geistige Erfassen der Welt im Alten Orient: Beiträge zu Sprache, Religion, Kultur und Gesellschaft, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 209–44.

  Wiseman, D.J. 1958. The Vassal‐treaties of Esarhaddon, London: British School of Archaeology in Iraq.

  Wittgenstein, L. 1964. Preliminary Studies for the “Philosophical Investigations” Generally Known as the Blue and Brown Books (R. Rhees, ed.), Oxford: Blackwell.

  Zaccagnini, C. 2003. “Nuzi,” in: Westbrook (ed.) 2003, I, 565–617.

  Zaccagnini, C. 2008. “Diritti del mondo cuneiforme e diritto romano: una ‘storia spezzata,’” in: Liverani and Mora (eds.) 2008, 41–50.

  Further Reading

  Recent all‐round works on the subject of ancient Near Eastern Law, comprising many chapters on Assyrian law of various periods, are Westbrook (ed.) 2003 and, in Italian, Liverani and Mora (eds.) 2008. For a handy collection of translations of the Mesopotamian “law codes” and other collections of juridical material, see Roth 1997. On specific aspects of juridical procedure, see, e.g., Bellotto and Ponchia (eds.) 2009. For legal‐institutional aspects of various periods of Assyrian history see, inter alia, Dercksen 2004 (Old Assyrian) and Postgate 2007 (Middle Assyrian and Neo‐Assyrian). For the role of the god Assur in Middle/Neo‐Assyrian law and institutions, see Holloway 2002. On the “loyalty oaths” of Esarhaddon from Nimrud/Kalḫu, and their newly discovered counterpart from Tell Tayinat, see most recently Fales 2012b. Fales 2015 is the most recent treatment of Sennacherib’s “Seal of Destinies” and its implications.

  CHAPTER 23

  Assyrian Cities and Architecture

  John M. Russell

  Introduction

  Throughout its history, Assyrian architecture was constructed almost exclusively of mud brick. Large structures were often built atop mud brick foundations or foundation platforms. Limestone is plentiful in Assyria, but was used architecturally primarily in structures that were exposed to running water, such as river walls and aqueducts, or for defensive purposes, as facing for fortification walls. Major exterior doorways were usually marked by projecting gate towers and in the later periods were often crowned with arches of mud brick. Most interior floors were of beaten earth, which in important rooms must have been covered with reed mats and carpets. Floors exposed to the elements, as in courtyards and terraces, or subjected to running water, as in the rooms conventionally called “bathrooms,” were paved, either with baked bricks or with stone slabs. These paving bricks and slabs are sometimes inscribed and are one of our most plentiful sources of information concerning the identity of royal builders. Roofs were supported on wooden beams, capped by reed mats and a layer of mud. In the cases of very large rooms, the Assyrian kings tell us that roofing timbers were of cedar imported from Lebanon. Small rooms, such as the underground royal tombs in the Northwest Palace at Kalḫu, were sometimes roofed with vaults of baked brick.

  There are three types of primary evidence for Assyrian architecture. The first is the buildings themselves, recovered through archaeological excavations at Assyrian sites. Sometimes such a building contains inscriptions built into its fabric – usually on bricks, paving tiles, or foundation inscriptions – that identify its builder. In the absence of such texts, the date of construction may be conjectured based on stratigraphy or similarities to dated buildings. The second type of evidence is inscriptions that were once part of a structure, but excavated in secondary context. In the Neo‐Assyrian period, such textual evidence is occasionally augmented by letters and administrative texts. Often such documents provide sufficient detail that we may be confident that the building described existed at the site, even if no trace of the physical structure survives. The third type of evidence is documentation by a later king of the construction activities of his forbears. This usually occurs when a king finds documents from an earlier builder in a building he is reconstructing. In such cases the later king lists the previous builders in the written account of his own work.

  The city wall of Ashur provides excellent examples of all three types of evidence. A clay foundation cone of the Middle Assyrian king Aššur‐rem‐nišešu found embedded in a section of the city wall that he restored lists previous builders of the wall as Kikkiya, Ikunum, Sargon I, Puzur‐Aššur II, and Aššur‐nirari I. Aššur‐nirari’s work is confirmed by a clay cone of his that was found in the city wall, but this is the only record that the other four kings worked on the wall. Much later, the Neo‐Assyrian king Shalmaneser III, who did extensive work on the wall, reported that previous builders included Kikkiya, Ikunum, Puzur‐Aššur III, Adad‐nirari I, Tukulti‐Ninurta I, and Tiglath‐pileser I (Grayson 1987: 86, 101; 1996: 55, 58). The work of the last four kings is confirmed by their own texts, found both in primary and secondary contexts at Ashur, while Shalmaneser may have copied the first two from cones of Aššur‐rem‐nišešu.

  Ashur in the Third Millennium BCE

  Originally, the Assyrians were the people of the city of Ashur (modern Qal‘at Širqaṭ), cult city of the god Assur and political ca
pital of the land of Ashur (Assyria). Ashur is sited on a stone bluff on the west bank of the Tigris river 100 kilometers south of Mosul (ancient Nineveh). The site has excellent natural defenses, as the Tigris flowed beneath the north and east sides of the city in antiquity, so only its southwest – landward – side required extensive fortifications (Figure 23.1). Due to its location at the southern margin of the rain‐fed agricultural zone, dry farming is unreliable here, but to the north and east of the city the Tigris valley opens out into a broad basin where irrigation is practical. Located just north of the rugged Jebel Makhul–Jebel Ḥamrin ridge, it is a natural crossroads for major trade routes connecting Anatolia, Babylonia, and Iran, and was also able to benefit from trade with nomadic groups that migrated along the northern fringe of the desert (Oates 1968: 7, 14–15, 19–21).

  Figure 23.1 Ashur, city plan; adapted by the author from Andrae 1938: Beilage.

  Because of the relatively compressed stratigraphy in the oldest part of Ashur its earliest settlement history is unknown. The oldest excavated structure was the temple of Ištar of Ashur. Five levels, designated D, E, F, G, and H, were found superimposed over one another. Temple G was built on the wall stumps of temple H, the earliest level, and their plans were similar. Both had a courtyard entered from the west, surrounded by subsidiary rooms. Running parallel to the court on its east side was a rectangular cella, at the north end of which was a shallow cult chamber with a platform against its rear wall (cella plus cult chamber: 15 × 6 meters). Level F actually represents the later floor levels in Temple G, so Bär redesignated this level “GF” to indicate its continuity with G. The destruction debris of G included statues similar to Early Dynastic IIIB examples from Mari (ca. 2400 BCE), and these have been used to date temple G to that period, while a female head in Akkadian or Ur III style from the GF debris suggests that the temple continued in use at least into the Akkadian period (Andrae 1922: 5–21, 27–97; Bär 2003a: 41–65, 316–17; 2003b).