Ancient Iraq

by Georges Roux

  7. II Kings xix. 35; HERODOTUS, II, 141; BEROSSUS in JOSEPHUS, Jewish Antiquities, X, i, 4 – 5.

  8. See the studies by J. A. BRINKMAN, ‘Sennacherib's Babylonian problem: an interpretation’, JCS, XXV (1973), pp. 89 – 99; L. D. LEVINE, ‘Sennacherib's southern front: 704 – 869 B.C.’, JCS, XXXIV (1982), pp. 28 – 58.

  9. ARAB, II, § 242.

  10. ARAB, II, §§ 246 – 7, 318 – 22, 350, 353.

  11. Tell ‘Umar, on the Tigris, south of Baghdad.

  12. S. PARPOLA, ‘A letter from Shamash-shum-ukin to Esarhad-on’, Iraq, XXXIV (1972), pp. 21 – 34.

  13. Assyrian version of the battle in ARAB, II, §§ 253 – 4. The ‘Babylonian Chronicle' (ABC, p. 80) talks of an ‘Assyrian retreat’. Hallulê is probably to be located near the lower Diyala river.

  14. ARAB, II, §§ 339 – 41. The ‘Babylonian Chronicle' (ABC, pp. 80 – 81) simply says: ‘On the first day of the month of kislimu the city was taken. Mushezib-Marduk was captured and taken to Assyria’.

  15. II Kings xxx. 36 – 7; ‘Babylonian Chronicle’ (ABC, p. 81); ARAB, II, § 795. See: E. G. KRAELING, ‘The death of Sennacherib’, JAOS, LIII (1933), pp. 335 – 46; S. PARPOLA, ‘The murder of Sennacherib' in B. ALSTER (ed.), Death in Mesopotamia, Copenhagen, 1980, pp. 171 – 82.

  16. Nebi Yunus is built up and has hardly been touched by archaeologists. Kuyunjik has been the object of several campaigns of excavations since the pioneer work of LAYARD in 1847. For a general description of the site, cf. R. CAMPBELL THOMPSON, A Century of Exploration at Nineveh, London, 1929; T. MADHLOOM and A. M. MEHDI, Nineveh, Baghdad, 1976.

  17. ARAB, II, § 366.

  18. T. JACOBSEN and SETON LLOYD, Sennacherib's Aqueduct at Jerwan, Chicago, 1935; J. READE, ‘Studies in Assyrian geography I, Sennacherib and the waters of Nineveh’, RA, LXXII (1978), pp. 47 – 72 and 157 – 180.

  19. W. BACHMANN, Felsreliefs in Assyrian, Leipzig, 1927; L. W. KING, ‘Some unpublished rock inscriptions of Sennacherib on the Judi-Dâgh’, PSBA, XXXV (1913), pp. 66 – 94.

  20. Most of Esarhaddon's inscriptions are to be found in R. BORGER, Die Inscriften Asarhaddons, König von Assyrien, Graz, 1956. Other inscriptions have since been published, including Sumer, XII (1956), pp. 9 – 38; AfO, XVIII (1957 – 8), pp. 314 – 18; Iraq, XXIII (1961), pp. 176 – 8; XXIV (1962), pp. 116 – 17; XXVI (1964), pp. 122 – 3; JCS, XVII (1963), pp. 119 – 31.

  21. ARAB, II, §§ 501 – 5; ANET, pp. 288 – 90.

  22. ARAB, II, § 639 – 87. Cf. J. NOUGAYROL, AfO, XVIII (1957 – 8). On the role played by the queen Naqi'a/Nakûtu in this reconstruction, see: H. LEWY, ‘Nitokris-Naqîa’, JNES, XI (1952), pp. 264 – 86.

  23. ‘Babylonian Chronicle’, II, 39 – 50; IV, 1 – 2, 9 – 10 (ABC, pp. 82 – 3); ‘Esarhaddon's Chronicle’, 10 – 11 – 35 – 37 (ABC, pp. 126 – 7).

  24. On this treaty, see now: S. PARPOLA, K. WATANABE, Neo-Assyrian Treaties and Loyalty Oaths (SAA, II), Helsinki, 1988, pp. 24 – 7.

  25. On the Scythians generally, see: T. TALBOT RICE, The Scythians, London, 1957; B. D. GRAPOW, Die Skythen, Berlin, 1978; A. M. KHAZANOV, ‘The dawn of Scythian history’, Iranica Antiqua, XVII (1982), pp. 49 – 63.

  26. A. SPALINGER, ‘Esarhaddon in Egypt’, Orientalia, XLIII (1974), pp. 295 – 306. On Egypt in that period, see: K. A. KITCHEN, The Third Intermediate Period in Egypt, Warminster, 1973.

  27. A. K. IRVIN, ‘The Arabs and Ethiopians’ in D. J. WISEMAN (ed.), People of Old Testament Times, Oxford, 1973, p. 291. Texts in ARAB, II, §§ 518 – 36, 551; ANET, pp. 191 – 2.

  28. ANET, p. 293. In reality, bloody battles were fought at Memphis, and the kings of the Delta remained on their throne. Statues of Taharqa and of the Egyptian goddess Anuqet have been discovered at Nineveh (Nebi Yunus). Cf. v. VIKENTIEV, Sumer, XI (1955), pp. 111 – 14; XII (1956), PP. 76 – 9.

  29. D. J. WISEMAN, ‘The vassal-treaties of Esarhaddon’, Iraq, XXX, (1958), pp. 1 – 99. Cf. ANET, pp. 534 – 41. Also see SAA II, pp. 28 – 58.

  30. The so-called ‘Zakûtu treaty’, SAA, II, pp. 62 – 4.

  31. ARAB, II, 762 – 1129; M. STRECK, Assurbanipal, 3 vols., Leipzig, 1916. T. BAUER, Das Inschriftwerk Assurbanipals, Leipzig, 1933; A. C. PIEPKORN, Historical Prism Inscriptions of Ashurbanipal, Chicago, 1933. Other texts or fragments: W. G. LAMBERT, AfO, XVIII (1957 – 8), pp. 382 – 98; D. J. WISEMAN, Iraq, XXVI (1964), pp. 118 – 24; E. KNUDSEN, Iraq, XXIX (1967), pp. 49 – 69; A. MILLARD, Iraq, XXX (1968), pp. 98 – 114; R. BORGER, AfO, XXIII (1970), P. 90.

  32. J. H. BREASTED, Ancient Records of Egypt, Chicago, 1906 – 7, IV, pp. 919 ff. Also see: A. SPALINGER, ‘Assurbanipal and Egypt: a source study’, JAOS, XCIV (1974), pp. 316 – 28.

  33. ANET, pp. 294 – 5 (cf. ARAB, II, § 772).

  34. Ashurbanipal (ARAB, II, §§ 784 – 5, 849, 909 – 10) says that Gyges sent him a messenger with a letter stating that he had seen the god Ashur in a dream, who had told him to ‘seize the feet of the King of Assyria and evoke his name to fight the enemy’.

  35. ARAB, II, § 855.

  36. HERODOTUS, II, 152.

  37. AAO, pl. 114; D. FRANKEL, Ashurbanipal and the Head of Teumman, London, 1977.

  38. RCAE, No. 301.

  39. See the text published by KNUDSEN in Iraq, XXIX (1967), pp. 55 – 6, where mention is made of cannibalism.

  40. This is the famous ‘suicide’ of Sardanapallus’, as told by DIO-DORUS SICULUS 11, 27, who confused Ashurbanipal (Sarda-napallus) with his brother. The text published by M. COGAN and H. TADMOR in Orientalia, L (1981), pp. 229 – 40 confirms that Shamash-shum-ukin died in a fire, but does not speak of suicide.

  41. The belief that Kandalanu was the name taken by Ashurbanipal as King of Babylon is rejected by most scholars. Cf. J. A. BRINKMAN, Prelude to Empire, Philadelphia, 1984, pp. 105 – 6; H. W. F. SAGGS, The Might that was Assyria, pp. 114, 117.

  42. Texts in ARAB, II, §§ 817 – 30, 868 – 70, 878 – 80, 940 – 43, 946 – 50, and in ANET, pp. 297 – 301. Detailed study by WEIPPERT, ‘Die Kampfe des assyrischen Königs Assurbanipal gegen die Araber’, Die Welt des Orients, VII (1973 – 4, pp. 38 – 85.

  43. ANET, p. 299.

  44. Good summary in W. HINZ, The Lost World of Elam, New York, 1971.

  45. ARAB, II, §§ 810 – 11.

  46. According to II Chronicles xxxiii. 11, the Assyrians took Manasseh, King of Judah, and ‘carried him to Babylon’. This event is not mentioned in the (incomplete) Assyrian records.

  47. Nahum, 7, 15, 19.

  Chapter 21

  1. J. N. POSTGATE ‘The economic structure of the Assyrian empire’, in T. LARSEN (Ed.), Power and Propaganda, Copenhagen, 1979, pp. 193 – 221 (esp. pp. 194 – 217).

  2. LORD BYRON, ‘The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold’, The Destruction of Sennacherib, canto I, line 1.

  3. On this subject in general, cf. R. LABAT, Le Caractére Religieux de la Royauté Assyro-Babylonienne, Paris, 1939, and H. FRANKFORT, Kingship and the Gods, Chicago, 1948.

  4. This site has been briefly excavated by Layard in 1850 and Rawlinson in 1852. Cf J. E. CURTISS and A. K. GRAYSON, Iraq, XLIV (1982), pp. 87 – 94.

  5. ARAB, II, § 986.

  6. A. HALLER, Die Graber und Grüfte von Assur, Berlin, 1954, pp. 170 – 80. J. McGINNIS, ‘A Neo-Assyrian text describing a royal funeral’, SAA Bulletin, I, 1, 1987, pp. 1 – 11.

  7. These tombs have not yet been studied and published scientifically. To our knowledge, at the time of writing the only information available comes from newspapers and magazines.

  8. H. FRANKFORT, op. cit., p. 259; Also see R. LABAT, p. cit., pp. 82 – 7; J. RENGER, article ‘Inthronization’ in RLA, V, pp. 128 – 36.

  9. R. FRANKENA, Tâkultu, Leiden, 1954 (in Dutch with summary in English). J. LAEssØE, Studies on the Assyrian Ritual and Series bit rimki, Copenhagen, 1955; R. BORGER, ‘Das dritte “Haus” der Serie bit rimki’, JCS, XXI (1967), pp. 1 – 17.

  10. H. FRANKFORT, op. cit., p. 259.

  11. RCAE, No. 437 (R. LABAT, op. cit., p. 359; H.
FRANKFORT, cit., p. 264).

  12. R. CAMPBELL THOMPSON, The Reports of the Magicians and Astrolo-gers of Nineveh and Babylon, London, 1900, remains fundamental. Among studies on Mesopotamian divination and magical practices, the most penetrating is that of J. BOTTERO, ‘Symptômes, signes, ériture‘, in J. P. VERNANT et al. (eds.), Divination et Rationalité, Paris, 1974.

  13. RCAE, No. 1237.

  14. RCAE, No. 137.

  15. J. V. KINNIER WILSON, The Nimrud Wine List, London, 1972. See also: E. KLAUBER, Assyrisches Beamtentum, Leipzig, 1910, and P. GARELLI, ‘Remarques sur l'administration de l'empire assyrien’, RA, LXVII (1974), pp. 1129 – 40. Also see Chapter 19, note 15.

  16. C. PREUSSER, Die Wohnaüser in Assur, Berlin, 1955, pp. 15 – 60. G. LOUD and CH. B. ALTMAN, Khorsabad, II, Chicago, 1938.

  17. J. N. POSTGATE, Neo-Assyrian Grants and Decrees, Rome, 1969.

  18. C. J. JOHNS, An Assyrian Doomsday Book, Leipzig, 1901; J. N. POSTGATE, op. cit. G. VAN DRIEL, ‘Land and people in Assyria’, Bi.Or., XXVII (1970), pp. 168 – 75; F. M. FALES, Censimenti e Castati di Epoca Neo-Assyria, Roma, 1973.

  19. Sargon forced Egypt to open trade relations with Assyria (c. J. GADD, Iraq, XVI, 1954, p. 179) and Esarhaddon encouraged the Babylonians to engage in commerce with ‘all countries’ (R. BORGER, Die Inschriften Asarhaddons, pp. 25 ff.).

  20. A. L. OPPENHEIM, Ancient Mesopotamia, pp. 93 – 4, and ‘Essay on overland trade in the first millennium B.C.’, JCS, XXI (1967), pp. 236 – 54.

  21. G. VAN DRIEL, ‘Land and people in Assyria: some remarks’, Bi.Or., XXVII (1970), pp. 168 – 75; P. GARELLI, ‘Problèmes de stratification sociale dans l'empire assyrien’, in Gesellschaftsklassen im alten Zweistromland, München, 1972, pp. 73 – 9.

  22. To the fundamental and still valid study of W. MANITIUS, ‘Das stehende Herr der Assyrerkönige und seine Organization’, ZA (ancient series), XXIV (1910), pp. 97 – 148 and 185 – 224, must now be added that of F. MALBRAN-LABAT, L'Armée et l'Organisation Militaire de l'Assyrie, Geneva/Paris, 1982. Also see: Y. YADIN, The Art of Warfare in Biblical Lands, London, 1963.

  23. J. N. POSTGATE, Taxation and Conscription in the Assyrian Empire, Rome, 1974, pp. 218 – 26.

  24. H. W. SAGGS, ‘Assyrian warfare in the Sargonid period’, Iraq, XXV (1963), pp. 145 – 54 (esp. pp. 146 – 7).

  25. A. L. OPPENHEIM, ‘The eyes of the Lord’, JAOS, LXXXVIII (1968); F. MALBRAN-LABAT, Op. cit., pp. 13 – 29; 41 – 57.

  26. J. E. READE, ‘The Neo-Assyrian court and army: evidence from the sculptures’, Iraq, XXXIV (1972), pp. 87 – 112.

  27. Pieces of equipment and weapons were found in ‘Fort Shalmaneser’ at Nimrud: D. STRONACH, ‘Metal objects from the 1957 excavations at Nimrud’, Iraq, XX (1958), pp. 169 – 81.

  28. Among the numerous publications devoted to Assyrian reliefs, see: C. J. GADD, The Stones of Assyria, London, 1936, and Assyrian Sculptures in the British Museum, from Shalmanezer III to Sennacherib, London, 1938; E. WEIDNER, Die Reliefs der assyrischen Könige, Berlin, 1939; R. D. BARNET and M. FALKNER, The Sculptures of Assur-nasir-apli, Tiglathpileser III, Esarhaddon from the Central and South-West Palaces at Nimrud, London, 1962; R. D. BARNETT and N. FORMAN, Assyrian Palace Reliefs in the British Museum, London, 1970; R. D. BARNETT, Sculptures from the North Palace of Ashurbani-pal at Nineveh, London, 1976. See also: AAO, pis. 77, 83 – 114. Excellent photographs in A. PARROT, Nineveh and Babylon, London, 1961, and E. STROMMENGER, The Art of Mesopotamia, London, 1964.

  29. A. WALTER, Kultrelief aus dem Brunnen des Assur Tempels zu Assur, Leipzig, 1931; AAO, pl. 72.

  30. A. WALTER, Farbige Keramik aus Assur, Berlin, 1923; G. LOUD and CH. B. ALTMAN, Khorsabad, II, Chicago, 1938, pl. 89.

  31. A. PARROT, Assur, fig. 109 – 111; 343 – 5.

  32. See, in particular, the splendid embroidered coat of Ashurnasiral in AAO, p. 104; fig. 41.

  33. M. E. L. MALLOWAN, The Nimrud Ivories, London. 1978. Cf. R. D. BARNETT, A Catalogue of the Nimrud Ivories in the British Museum; London, 1975; M. E. L. MALLOWAN et al., Ivories from Nimrud, 4 vol., London, 1966 – 74 ff. On the difficult problem of the origin of ivory and of the styles of ivory objects, see: R. D. BARNETT, Iraq, XXV (1963), pp. 81 – 5; I. J. WINTER, Iraq, LXI (1981), pp. 1 – 22; D. COLLON, Iraq, XXXIX (1977), pp. 219 – 22.

  Chapter 22

  1. SETON LLOYD, Foundations in the Dust, London, 1980, p. 126.

  2. C. BEZOLD, Catalogue of the Cuneiform Tablets… in the British Museum, London, 1889 – 99, with supplements by L. W. KING in 1914 and by W. G. LAMBERT and W. G. MILLARD in 1968.

  3. RCAE, IV, p. 213, No. 6 (transl. E. CHIERA, They Wrote on Clay, Chicago, 1938, p. 174). Cf. also RCAE, Nos. 18, 255, 688.

  4. Among other royal libraries is that of Tiglathpileser I. Cf. E. WEIDNER ‘Die Bibliothek Tiglathpilesers I’, AfO, XVI (1952), p. 197 ff.

  5. These texts have been published by O. R. GURNEY, W. G. LAMBERT and J. J. FINKELSTEIN in Anatolian Studies, II (1952) to XXII (1972). On the last named piece, see: J. S. COOPER, ‘Structure, humour and satire in the Poor Man of Nippur, JCS, XXVII (1975), pp. 163 – 74. Also: J. BOTTERO in Les Pouvoirs Locaux en Mésopotamie, Bruxelles, 1980, pp. 24 – 8.

  6. s. PARPOLA, ‘Assyrian library records’, JNES, XLII (1983, pp. 1 – 29); D. J. WISEMAN, ‘Assyrian writing-boards’, Iraq, XXVII (1955), pp. 3 – 13.

  7. On Mesopotamian sciences in general: O. NEUGEBAUER, The Exact Sciences in Antiquity, Providence, Rhode Island, 1957; R. LABAT, ‘La Mésopotamie’ in La Science Antique et Médiévale, Histoire Générale des Sciences, I, Paris, 1957, pp. 73 – 138. In spite of its date, B. MEISSNER, Babylonien und Assyrien, II, Heidelberg, 1925, is still extremely useful.

  8. On schools, see Chapter 13, note 31.

  9. On these lists, see A. L. OPPENHEIM, Ancient Mesopotamia, Chicago, 1964, pp. 180, 248, 371.

  10. B. LANDSBERGER, Die Fauna des alten Mesopotamien, Leipzig, 1934; R. C. THOMPSON, A Dictionary of Assyrian Chemistry and Geology, Oxford, 1936; A Dictionary of Assyrian Botany, London, 1949; M. LEVEY, Chemistry and Chemical Technology in Ancient Mesopotamia, Amsterdam, 1959.

  11. W. HOROWITZ, ‘The Babylonian map of the world’, Iraq, L (1988), pp. 147 – 65.

  12. A. L. OPPENHEIM et al., Glass and Glassmaking in Ancient Mesopotamia, Corning, N.Y., 1970.

  13. This point has recently been emphasized by J. C. MARGUERON, Les Mésopotamiens, Paris, 1991, Vol. II, pp. 179 – 81.

  14. Good summary on mathematics by R. CARATINI in R. LABAT, op. cit., pp. 103 – 37 (with bibliography). See also: O. NEUGE-BAUER, ‘Ancient mathematics and astronomy’, in C. SINGER et al. (eds.), A History of Technology, I, Oxford, 1954, pp. 785 – 804; E. M. BRUINS, ‘Interpretation of cuneiform mathematics’, Physis, IV (1962), pp. 277 – 340. More recently: G. IFRAH, Histoire Uni-verselle des Chiffres, Paris, 1981; J. FRIBERG, ‘Methods and traditions of Babylonian mathematics’, Historia Mathematica, VIII (1981), pp. 277 – 318; Id., ‘Index of publications on Sumero-Akkadian mathematics and related topics’, AfO Beiheft, XIX (1982), pp. 225 – 32; R. BRADLEY, ‘Mathematics in ancient Mesopotamia’, Ur (Baghdad), 1981/3, pp. 28 – 31.

  15. R. LABAT, Op. cit., p. 112.

  16. TAHA BAQIR, Sumer, VII (1951), p. 30.

  17. R. LABAT, Op. cit., p. 113.

  18. H. GOETSCH, ‘Die Algebra der Babylonier’, Archive for History of Exact Sciences, Berlin and New York, 1968, pp. 79 – 153.

  19. O. NEUGEBAUER, Astronomical Cuneiform Texts, 3 vol., London, 1955; ‘Ancient mathematics and astronomy’, in C. SINGER et al., A History of Technology, Oxford, 54; A History of Ancient Mathematics and Astronomy, New York, 1975. Good summaries in R. LABAT, op. cit., note 7, pp. 123 – 37 and in H. W. F. SAGGS, The Greatness that was Babylon, London, 1962, pp. 453 – 9.

  20. S. LANGDON and J. K. FOTHERINGHAM, The Venus Tablets of Ammizaduga, London, 1928, and J. D. WEIR, The Venus Tablets of Ammizaduga, Istanbul, 1972; E. REINER, Same title, Malibu, Calif., 1975.

  21. R. A. PARKER and W. H. DUBBERSTEIN, Babylonia
n Chronology, Providence, Rhode Island, 1956, pp. 1 – 3.

  22. A. T. OLMSTEAD, History of the Persian Empire, Chicago, 1948, p. 206.

  23. A. T. OLMSTEAD, op. cit., p. 457.

  24. G. SARTON, ‘Chaldaean astronomy in the last three centuries B.C.’, JAOS, LXXV (1955), pp. 166 – 73 (citation p. 170).

  25. Most medical texts have been published by F. KÖCHER, Die babylonisch-assyrische Medizin in Texten und Untersuchungen, 6 vol., Berlin, 1963 – 80. General studies in G. CONTENAU, La Médecine en Assyrie et en Babylonie, Paris, 1938; H. E. SIGERIST, A History of Medicine, I, Oxford, 1951, pp. 377 – 497; A. L. OPPENHEIM, ‘Mesopotamian medicine’, Bulletin of the History of Medicine, XXXVI (1962), pp. 97 – 108.