A Companion to Assyria

by Eckart Frahm

  The monolithic stone sarcophagus in the burial chamber contained the remains of two women, one above the other, both of whom died in their early thirties. The greater degree of bone deterioration in the lower individual indicated that she had been buried twenty to fifty years before her companion. The bones of the upper individual showed evidence of having been heated to 150–250 ° C for several hours, an otherwise unattested treatment that suggests that she had died away from home and her body was then dried to preserve it for transport (Müller‐Karpe, Kunter, and Schultz 2008: 143–4). The lower woman should be the original occupant, presumably Yaba, while the upper woman was probably Atalia, based on a gold bowl engraved with that name placed on her chest. The objects engraved with Banitu’s name would then either have been inherited by Atalia from her predecessor, or as Dalley has proposed, they actually belonged to Yaba, who may have changed her name to Banitu after the death of Tiglath‐pileser III (Dalley 2008). The bodies were accompanied by 14 kg of lavish gold jewelry and accessories, some of them quite massive, including armlets, anklets, diadems, earrings, finger rings, mirrors, and vessels. Much of the jewelry was inlaid with glass and semi‐precious stones, including a surprising abundance of banded agate. An elaborately decorated gold bowl from the tomb appears to have originated in the southern Levant in the 10th century BCE, based on its stylistic and iconographic parallels (Wicke 2010).

  Tomb III was beneath the floor of room 57, directly south of, and adjacent to, room 49 (Damerji 1999; Hussein and Suleiman 2000: 113–28; Damerji 2008: 82; Curtis et al. 2008: plans 4b, 5). The occupants of this tomb present mysteries of a different sort. Inscriptions on a stone tablet in a niche in the antechamber, on the stone doors between the antechamber and burial chamber, and on the lid of the monolithic coffin in the burial chamber all identified the tomb owner as Mulissu‐mukannišat‐Ninua, queen of Aššurnaṣirpal II and Shalmaneser III, and cursed anyone who disturbed her burial or placed anyone else in her tomb. The masonry of the vault included bricks stamped with Shalmaneser’s Kalḫu ziggurat text, which is consistent with the inclusion of his name in the stone inscriptions (Fadhil 1990: 471–9; Damerji 1999: 8–11). If the queen ever was in fact buried here, all that remained was a fragment of bone and a stone bead, the burial chamber having been emptied out by looters who entered by making a hole in the roof of the vault. At some point after the original burial, a second course of baked brick was laid on top of the original pavement in the antechamber, blocking the burial chamber doors (Damerji 1999: 9). The antechamber then effectively became a separate tomb in which were placed three bronze coffins, two side by side on the floor with their rounded ends facing north toward the burial chamber, and a third stacked on top of the eastern lower coffin, with its rounded end facing south toward the outer entrance.

  These bronze coffins contained the partial remains of at least thirteen individuals, but in only one case was the skeleton relatively complete, with the others being represented by only a few bones for each. Müller‐Karpe, Kunter, and Schultz observe that a primary burial in a bronze coffin should be almost complete, as the one skeleton in fact is, and that the others must therefore be secondary burials. Furthermore, the condition of the bones that have copper staining indicates that some were originally interred in bronze coffins (but not necessarily these same coffins), while others were only placed in the bronze coffins after they had deteriorated considerably in a non‐bronze environment (Müller‐Karpe, Kunter, and Schultz 2008: 144–6). The bronze coffins also contained a variety of spectacular grave goods, including 23 kg of gold and silver objects.

  Bronze coffin 1, the upper coffin, was the smallest of the three (130 cm long). It contained a few bones each from an adult, possibly female, in her twenties and five children ranging in age from premature infant to eleven years. It also contained a large amount of gold jewelry – including headbands, child‐sized bracelets, and anklets – located in positions consistent with being worn on a body placed with the head to the north, at the rectangular end. The best preserved skeleton in this coffin belonged to a child around eight to eleven years old, an age consistent with the small size of the coffin. It is possible that this child was the primary burial, or at least was relatively intact with jewelry still in place when moved here, and the other five individuals were fragmentary secondary burials with unknown connections to the child. A surprising find among the grave goods in this coffin was an inscribed gold bowl belonging to Šamši‐ilu, the powerful field marshal (turtānu) under Shalmaneser IV, Aššur‐dan III, and Aššur‐nirari V, a span of roughly 782–745 BCE (Baghdad, Iraq Museum 115548 = ND 255; Hussein and Suleiman 2000: 119, fig. 152, plan 12; Fadhil 1990: 482).

  Bronze coffin 2, the eastern lower coffin, was the second largest at 140 cm and contained the substantially complete skeleton of a female in her late teens, with her head to the north at the rounded end, and a few bones of a pre‐teen child, probably intrusive. This coffin contained the tomb’s most spectacular grave goods – including an elaborate gold floral crown imitating a grape arbor, and gold necklaces, bracelets, and anklets – all in the positions where they would have been worn. Boehmer (2006) argued that the floral crown was of western Syrian or eastern Cilician origin on the basis of the iconography of its small winged figures and flora. There were also a gold bowl in the form of a double rosette, a spectacular gold spouted ewer with delicately embossed friezes showing hunting scenes, six stamp seals, and two cylinder seals.

  Two of the seals were inscribed with the names of their owners. One of these, a gold‐capped blue stone cylinder seal showing a god flanked by two kings and a worshipper, belonged to Ninurta‐idiya‐šukšid, and identifies him as a eunuch official of Adad‐nirari III (Al‐Rawi 2008: 135–6). The other is a gold stamp seal with a guilloche border, typical of royal seals, showing a female worshipper standing before the enthroned goddess Gula, behind whom is a scorpion, which is often represented on the property of palace women. The inscription states it belongs to Hama, and identifies her as queen of Shalmaneser IV, daughter‐in‐law of Adad‐nirari III (Al‐Rawi 2008: 136). This strongly suggests that the well‐preserved, heavily bejeweled remains in this coffin are those of queen Hama and represent the principal burial around which the secondary interments clustered (Spurrier 2012). If this young woman was Hama, then she must have died during her husband’s reign or very soon thereafter, giving a date for her burial around 773 BCE. The eunuch’s seal, which is also consistent with this date, may have been a funerary gift.

  Bronze coffin 3, the western lower coffin, was the largest at 147 cm and contained a few bones each from five adults – three men and two women – ranging in age from their thirties to sixties. It has been suggested that one of these individuals – a man around sixty years old – could have been Šamši‐ilu, but this is speculation and it is noteworthy that Šamši‐ilu’s gold bowl was found in bronze coffin 1 (Oates and Oates 2001: 87). The documented grave goods in coffin 3 were less spectacular than those in the others, primarily vessels of copper and ceramic, with very little gold jewelry.

  The latest datable object from tomb III was a 15 mina duck weight inscribed with a text of Tiglath‐pileser III, found in the debris in the “front part” of the antechamber (Fadhil 1990: 480, Taf. 42–3; Hussein et al. 2016: 27, 151, pl. 94a). This is also roughly the date proposed by Curtis for the bronze coffins, which he dated to the late eighth century BCE on the basis of comparison with examples from other sites (Curtis 2008). Potential additional dating information comes from over 150 clay tablets found on the floor of room 57, the room beneath which the tomb was built. These belong to various palace officials, including the Palace Scribe and several Stewards of the Queen, and date from 800 to 734. They include texts from the reigns of all five kings who ruled during this period: Adad‐nirari III, Shalmaneser IV, Aššur‐dan III, Aššur‐nirari V, and Tiglath‐pileser III (Ahmad 2008). The tablets in room 57, therefore, cover the same time span as the dated objects in the tomb below its floor.


  Despite the abundance of inscriptions in Tomb III, their wide range of dates together with the large number of burials, presents challenges for reconstructing the tomb’s sequence of use. Perhaps the most straightforward interpretation would be that the tomb was built by Shalmaneser III for Mulissu‐mukannišat‐Ninua, his father’s queen, as evidenced by the inclusion of Shalmaneser’s name in the inscriptions on the sarcophagus lid and doors. She was buried in the inner, vaulted chamber. Some sixty to seventy years later, the antechamber of the tomb was reopened for the burial of Hama, the young queen of Shalmaneser IV. The antechamber was prepared by laying a new brick pavement over the old one, sealing the doors to the inner chamber in the process. Despite Curtis’s suggestion of a late eighth century date for the bronze coffins, at least bronze coffin 2 must date earlier, since Hama would have been placed in it very soon after her death, as evidenced by the good preservation of her skeleton and the location of her jewelry in the positions where it was worn. It seems likely that her coffin was placed in the antechamber at this time, although it is possible that it was moved there at a later date with her in it.

  If Hama was in fact placed in the antechamber shortly after her death, then the tomb must have been reopened at least once during or after the reign of Tiglath‐pileser III, as evidenced by the inclusion of his inscribed duck weight. At that time or on other occasions two more bronze coffins and bones from twelve more individuals were added. With the possible exception of the eight to eleven year old child in bronze coffin 1, all of these people were originally interred elsewhere, and only a few bones from each were later moved to Tomb III. The bones of the pre‐teen child that were found in Hama’s coffin might be explained by proposing that they belonged to a child of hers that survived her for a few years. Bronze coffins 1 and 3 and their occupants could have been added at the same time as Hama’s coffin or anytime thereafter.

  The reason why a few bones each from multiple individuals were moved to this tomb is a mystery. Architecturally, room 57 serves as a gate chamber between courtyards 56 and 55. The dates on the tablets found on its floor suggest that this room was being used by the Palace Scribe and queen’s stewards, either as an office or for document storage, during the period from Adad‐nirari III to Tiglath‐pileser III. Perhaps these individuals were responsible for maintaining the funerary offerings for Mulissu‐mukannišat‐Ninua. Later, Hama and the twelve others were placed in the antechamber and the offerings could have been expanded to include them too. Ultimately Yaba and Atalia were buried in the adjacent room to the north where they too could benefit from these services. Therefore, whether by accident or design, this area could have become viewed as the traditional burial place of queens, where their needs in the afterlife were one focus of the administrative activity.

  References

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