by Eckart Frahm
From the new quarry, which was called Balatai, the bull‐colossi were transported by land, which was certainly more secure though no less laborious (Grayson and Novotny 2012: 140, vi 62–75). The northern and eastern walls of court VI in Sennacherib’s Southwest Palace in Nineveh were decorated with a relief cycle that depicts the transport of one or more bull‐colossi (Figure 25.3). The cycle begins with an image of the quarry, where the sculptors have already begun the stone block treatment. The colossus is then transported on a sledge, which is pulled by four teams of workers. Supervisors standing in front of the teams coordinate the entire operation while others “motivate” the workers with whips. Four more supervisors stand on the stone block and inspect the work, one of them carrying a megaphone. A fifth team of workers, at the rear, maintains the level of the sledge. Sennacherib himself observes the transport from a high position. The sledge’s movement is facilitated by wooden planks or rollers, which the workers place under its front. The representation of such technical operations demonstrates not only Sennacherib’s interest in technical matters but also his recognition of his “engineers’” achievements.
Figure 25.3 Transport of bull‐colossus. Nineveh, Southwest Palace, Court VI, Plates 63–4 (BM 124820).
Source: A.H. Layard, A Second Series of Monuments of Nineveh, London, 1853, Plate 15.
Abbreviation
SAA
= S. Parpola (ed.), State Archives of Assyria, 19 volumes published, Helsinki: Helsinki University Press 1987–.
References
Albenda, P. 1983. “A Mediterranean Seascape from Khorsabad,” Assur 3/3.
Bagg, A.M. 2000a. Assyrische Wasserbauten, Mainz: Philipp von Zabern.
Bagg, A.M. 2000b. “Irrigation in Northern Mesopotamia. Water for the Assyrian Capitals (12th–7th Centuries BC),” Irrigation and Drainage Systems 14, 301–24.
Bagg, A.M. 2001. “Wasserhebevorrichtungen im Alten Mesopotamien,” Wasser & Boden 53, 40–7.
Bagg, A.M. 2006. “Ancient Mesopotamian Sewage Systems According to the Cuneiform Sources,” in: G. Wiplinger (ed.), Cura Aquarum in Ephesus, Leuven: Peeters, 273–9.
Bagg, A.M. 2011. “Brücken im Alten Orient: 2000 Jahre Brückenbaugeschichte,” in: M. Prell (ed.), Archaeology of Bridges, Regensburg: Verlag Friedrich Pustet, 2–7.
Bagg, A. and Cancik‐Kirschbaum, E. 2006. “Technische Experten in frühen Hochkulturen: Der Alte Orient,” in: W. Kaiser and W. König (eds.), Geschichte des Ingenieurs. Ein Beruf in sechs Jahrtausenden, Munich/Vienna: Hanser, 4–31.
Borger, R. 1956. Die Inschriften Asarhaddons, Königs von Assyrien, Graz: Selbstverlag des Herausgebers.
Davey, C. J. 1985. “The Negub Tunnel,” Iraq 47, 49–56.
Fales, F.M. 1983. “Il taglio e il trasporto di legname nelle lettere a Sargon II,” in: O. Carruba et al. (ed.), Studi orientalistici in ricordo di Franco Pintore, Pavia: GJES, 49–92.
Fales, F.M. 1993. “River Transport in Neo‐Assyrian Letters,” in: J. Zablocka and S. Zawadzki (eds.), Everyday Life in the Ancient Near East (Šulmu IV), Pozna: UAM, 79–92.
Fales, F.M. and Del Fabbro, R. 2014. “Back to Sennacherib’s Aqueduct at Jerwan: A Reassessment of the Textual Evidence,” Iraq 76, 65–98.
Frahm, E. 1997. Einleitung in die Sanherib‐Inschriften, Vienna: Institut für Orientalistik.
Fuchs, A. 1994. Die Inschriften Sargons II. aus Khorsabad, Göttingen: Cuvillier Verlag.
Grayson, A.K. 1987. Assyrian Rulers of the Third and Second Millennia BC (to 1115 BC), Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Grayson, A.K. 1991. Assyrian Rulers of the Early First Millennium BC I (1114–859 BC), Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Grayson, A.K. and Novotny, J. 2012. The Royal Inscriptions of Sennacherib, King of Assyria (704–681 BC), Part 1, Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns.
Grayson, A.K. and Novotny, J. 2014. The Royal Inscriptions of Sennacherib, King of Assyria (704–681 BC), Part 2, Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns.
Jacobsen, T. and Lloyd, S. 1935. Sennacherib’s Aqueduct at Jerwan, Chicago: Oriental Institute.
Linder, E. 1986. “The Khorsabad Wall Relief: A Mediterranean Seascape or River Transport of Timbers?,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 106, 273–81.
Loud, G. and Altman, B. 1938. Khorsabad II, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Lackenbacher, S. 1982. Le roi bâtisseur. Les récits de construction assyriens des origines à Teglatphalasar III, Paris: Éditions Recherche sur les civilisations.
Oates, D. 1968. Studies in the Ancient History of Northern Iraq, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Parpola, S. 1995. “The Construction of Dur‐Šarrukin in the Assyrian Royal Correspondence,” in: A. Caubet (ed.), Khorsabad, le palais de Sargon II, roi d'Assyrie, Paris, La Documentation française, 47–68.
Postgate, J.N. and Reade, J.E. 1976–1980. “Kalḫu,” Reallexikon der Assyriologie 5, 303–23.
Reade, J.E. 1998–2001. “Ninive (Nineveh),” Reallexikon der Assyriologie 9, 388–433.
Stronach, D. 1994. “Village to Metropolis: Nineveh and the Beginnings of Urbanism in Northern Mesopotamia,” in: S. Mazzoni (ed.), Nuove fondazioni nel Vicino Oriente Antico: Realtà e ideologia, Pisa: Giardini, 85–114.
Further Reading
For the history of Mesopotamian “engineers,” see Bagg and Cancik‐Kirschbaum 2006. City planning and monumental buildings are discussed by Lackenbacher (1982), who provides sources for the role of the kings as builders. For the construction of Dur‐Šarrukin, see Parpola 1995; for the buildings in Kalḫu, see Postgate & Reade 1976–80. An excellent overview of the construction activities in Nineveh is provided by Reade 1998–2001. As for hydraulic engineering, see the comprehensive study of the Assyrian irrigation works in Bagg 2000a (with further literature and sources) and an overview (in English) in Bagg 2000b. For Sennacherib’s aqueduct at Jerwan see Jacobsen and Lloyd 1935 and Fales and Del Fabbro 2014. Concerning water‐lifting devices in Assyria, see also Bagg 2001. Observations on ancient Near Eastern bridges can be found in Bagg 2011. For river transportation in the Assyrian sources, see Fales 1993, and for a study of timber transport Fales 1983.
CHAPTER 26
Assyrian Warfare
Stephanie Dalley
Sources of information on how Assyrians conducted wars include cuneiform texts of various kinds on stone and clay, stone panels carved in low relief, cylinder seals, and various kinds of excavated material. They are unevenly distributed through time. Before the great palace bas‐relief panels of the ninth–seventh century BCE, texts and pictorial representations are sparse: almost non‐existent for the third millennium (Early Bronze Age), and rare for the second (Middle and Late Bronze Age). Until the full development of chariotry and horsemanship in the mid‐second millennium, we rely on occasional references in the correspondence of officials.
The texts are mainly found at Mari on the Middle Euphrates, at Tell al‐Rimah west of Nineveh, and at Shemshara, east of the Tigris. Those texts, many from the reign of Šamši‐Adad I of Assyria (ca.1808–1776), show that foot‐soldiers as the mainstay of the fighting forces were recruited and equipped on a local basis, their loyalty encouraged through the tēbibtum ceremony which included a ritual act of sympathetic magic, swearing an oath of loyalty, and eating food that would turn against a perjurer. Conscription was linked partly to the ilkum‐duty which could include non‐military activity, and partly to the use of semi‐nomadic people, on a seasonal basis (e.g. Charpin 2004). Many weapons at that time were derived from hunting (bow and arrows and nets) and agriculture; the main weapon was the spear, šukurrum, a word which was also used to mean military service. Units consisted of tens and hundreds; numbers of people involved in particular expeditions numbered thousands and occasionally tens of thousands according to letters, which may be approximately reliable.
Kings made military alliances reinforced with oaths, often of short validity; Šamši‐Adad I complained that the crazy ruler of Aḫazum had broken oaths to five kings in close succession:
(Eidem and Laessøe 2001: no. 1)
Raiding, capture of slaves, taking hostages for ransom, escort duties, and the occasional siege of a walled town, were deeds carried out with mainly bronze weapons: axe, spear, sword, as well as wood and stone: mace and bow and arrow. Battering rams were deployed, but results were sometimes slow, especially where freezing weather made movement impossible: a Shemshara letter tells of a siege that lasted for nine years. An effective ploy at some sites was to divert a watercourse upstream. Armor for head and body was probably made of leather. On a rare representation the ruler is shown on foot, wielding an axe, with his left foot treading down a conquered foe (Louvre stela AO 2776). The light chariot began to emerge for use in battle around 1800 BCE, carrying an archer with a composite bow (Moorey 1986). Two inventions, the jointed bit for horses (replacing the nose‐ring) and the spoked wheel (replacing the solid wheel), are the two crucial advances in technology that enabled chariots to become effective.
Since towns and cities were storage centers for a largely redistributive economy, they needed protection from attack. Temples and palaces were built at the highest point on a citadel, encircled with one or two concentric walls of mud‐brick. The height of towers at intervals on the walls gave useful look‐out points and an advantage against attack. A moat would hinder ladders and battering rams being set up against the city wall. Garrison forts (birtum) could provide reinforcements for the besieged. Booty, ransom, and the capture of slaves helped to enrich a city‐state. Trading abroad was backed up by treaties, and perhaps also by military escorts (mušallimum, taqribātum), and the threat of force. Diviners, whether centralized or local accompanists on campaign, frequently consulted the gods Šamaš and Adad, enquiring whether, for example, a city was safe from attack
by disturbing, overturning, pushing, by revolt, by trickery, by siege, by smooth talk, by undermining, by sheer might, by encircling, by heaping up earth, by causing distress, by cutting off food supply, by breaching walls, by siege tower, by battering ram, by claw, by ladder, by boring engines, by cutting through a wall, by ramp, by spreading confusion, by causing panic, by the robber’s dagger, by hunger, famine, want, thirst, … by as many tricks as there are …
(Lambert 2007: no.1)
Fire signals allowed fast communication in clear weather. The army was led by two gods presumably represented by the standards of Nergal (Erra) and Adad, to right and left of the king, a practice that continued into the Neo‐Assyrian period (Durand 1998: 393; Wiggermann 1998–2001: 222, 226; and see Figure 26.1).
Figure 26.1 Panel of bas‐relief sculpture from the Southwest Palace of Sennacherib at Nineveh showing the Assyrian camp at the siege of Lachish, with two priests making offerings to two military standards.
Source: Reproduced with permission of Judith Dekel, from Ussishkin 1982, Segment VIII.
After a break of several centuries (roughly 1700–1400 BCE) for which information is lacking, a major change in the conduct of warfare is apparent, both from inscriptions and from sculpture. Owing to the expense and expertise involved, military prowess was transformed into an elite occupation backed by specialist skills in training horses and in wood‐working. From this time onwards metal body armor developed, especially scale armor consisting of overlapping bronze platelets sewn on to a backing of leather. Details from texts are sparse, but increasing centralization can be assumed, possibly leading to the formation of a standing army. Already a “royal road” is attested, leading westwards from Assyria, and a systematic building of forts to guard routes and to supply travelers and troops is confirmed by archaeological survey and excavation.
Some of the observable changes may be due to foreign influence. For instance, a manual for horse‐training was taken over from the Indo‐Iranian Mittani kings who ruled a largely Hurrian population in north‐western Assyria; a Hurrian word mariannu was used for a chariot‐driver, and the use of the Hurrian military title turtānu suggests that a new command structure was adopted. Some enclaves of Kassite horsemen, emigrants from the highlands of western Iran who settled on the Middle Euphrates, served as equestrian specialists. These are examples of how Assyrians absorbed expertise from their periphery. A system of provincial governors enabled kings of the Middle Assyrian period to conquer and control new territories. Their policy of deporting large numbers of conquered peoples (Oded 1978) provided a labor force for building works and for agriculture, and brought new specialist skills into Assyria; but punishment of defeated enemies was harsh; for instance against Šattuara the king of Mittani, Shalmaneser I (1263–1234 [1273–1244]) wrote: “I butchered their hordes, 14,400 of them I blinded and carried off alive” and of the Gutians “I filled the broad countryside with the corpses of their warriors” (Grayson 1987: 184). Literary hyperbole can be identified by other types of detail; for instance, Tukulti‐Ninurta I (1233–1197 [1243–1207]) “made the entire land of the Qutû look like ruin hills from a deluge,” “surrounded their army with a circle of sandstorms,” and “filled caves and ravines of the mountains with their corpses.” He also claims, however: “I captured hordes of princes and brought them bound to my city … made them swear loyalty by the great gods … and released them to their lands … annually I receive their valuable tribute …” (Grayson 1987: 234). An accidental result of moving large numbers of soldiers and prisoners was the spread of diseases.
At the beginning of the first millennium (Iron Age) the Neo‐Assyrian army inherited from its predecessors a warrior ethic based on elite chariotry, a system of provincial governors who raised local levies, and reliance on mass deportation to break up centers of resistance. Two new developments consist of the gradual introduction of iron for weaponry and armor, and the increasing use of cavalry which eventually relegated chariotry to a mainly ceremonial role, perhaps as early as the reign of Sargon II. Shalmaneser III (858–824) claims to have captured from an alliance of Damascus and Hamath after the battle of Qarqar in Syria in 853 equal numbers of chariotry and cavalry (Grayson 1996: p.23), whereas when Sargon II (721–705) conquered Carchemish, he took fifty chariots and 200 cavalry, a ratio 1:4, into his royal regiment (Luckenbill 1927 vol. 2: p. 4).
Information derives from bas‐relief panels from the palaces, beginning with Aššurnaṣirpal II’s Northwest Palace at Nimrud in the ninth century and ending with those of Assurbanipal’s North Palace at Nineveh in the mid‐seventh; and from wall‐paintings found at Til Barsip in a governor’s palace (late eighth to mid‐seventh century BCE). Battles, sieges, tribute and looting, punishment and prisoner‐taking, weaponry and armor, are shown in great detail, covering many different parts of the empire. Similar detail is shown on bronze bands decorating the great temple doors at Balawat, one set from the reign of Aššurnaṣirpal II, the other of Shalmaneser III, sometimes giving types of scene that are not extant on palace panels. The scenes were presumably composed by war artists who accompanied the army.
Administrative texts mainly from the late eighth and seventh century record details of supply – men, animals, arms, and armor, sometimes with quantification; they include lists of men with military titles, lists of horses, lists of top people at celebratory banquets; all recorded in Assyrian cuneiform on clay, also towards the end of the empire in Aramaic on papyrus, parchment and ostraca; bas‐reliefs show the two types of scribe standing side by side. Letters of officials, especially abundant for the reign of Sargon II, reveal details of organization. Witnesses with military professions listed in legal texts in order of rank are especially useful. Divination queries requesting guidance on the timing and performance of campaigns are extant for the reigns of Esarhaddon and Assurbanipal, a tradition derived from earlier, similar texts. They were asked of the sun‐god Šamaš as a ram was sacrificed, along these lines:
Šamaš, great lord, give me a firm positive answer to what I req
uest of you. From this day x, this month y, this month z, for 30 days and nights, my stipulated term: within this stipulated term will the king of … strive and plan? Will he mobilize a powerful army against … the magnates and army of Assyria? Will they ambush or attack, kill and plunder them?
(Starr 1990)
Treaties with vassal kings and with client kings were composed according to particular circumstances. In the case of Phoenician cities, Assyria relied on good relations because they needed expert boat‐builders, and access to trade in the East Mediterranean; Sennacherib had Phoenicians build boats on the Euphrates for his campaigns in the marshes of southern Babylonia. Royal annals contain embedded itineraries and tribute lists, derived from administrative records; and royal letters written as reports on one particular campaign, addressed to the gods, contribute to a much fuller picture than was possible for preceding periods (Borger 1957–71: 576).
A network of roads, some of them called “royal roads,” allowed communication by royal mule express making use of way‐stations (bēt mardēti); the officer in charge was the rab kallie (Kessler 1997).
Our understanding of the structure and units of the army is dependent on how reliably we interpret the words and logograms for terms of profession. Two terms can apply simultaneously to one man whose duties were flexible and various; Assyrian dialect words may be used as alternatives to Babylonian ones; literal etymologies at first taken at face value are sometimes modified by better contexts. For those reasons the words and logograms have been included where applicable.
