Writing Neo-Assyrian History: Sources, Problems, and Approaches [1 ed.] 9521095024, 9789521095023

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STATE ARCHIVES OF ASSYRIA STUDIES VOLUME XXIX

G.B. Lanfranchi, R. Mattila and R. Rollinger (eds.)

WRITING NEG-ASSYRIAN HISTORY SOURCES, PROBLEMS, AND APPROACHES THE NEO-ASSYRIAN TEXT CORPUS PROJECT

STATE ARCHIVES OF ASSYRIA STUDIES VOLUME XXIX

THE NEO-ASSYRIAN TEXT CORPUS PROJECT

1 1 1111 I I

ISBN 978-952-10-9502-3

9

789521

095023

90000

PUB LICATIONS OF THE FOUNDATION FOR FINNISH ASSYRIOLOGICAL RESEARCH

N0.23

STATE ARCHIVES OF ASSYRIA STUDIES VOLUME XXIX

STATE ARCHIVES OF ASSYRIA STUDIES Published by the Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project, Helsinki in association with the Foundation for Finnish Assyriological Research Project Director Simo Parpola

VOLUMEXXIX G.B. Lanfranchi, R. Mattila and R. Rollinger (eds.) WRITING NEG-ASSYRIAN HISTORY SOURCES, PROBLEMS, AND APPROACHES

TH E NEO-A S SYRIA N TEXT CORPUS P R OJECT

State Archives of Assyria Studies is a series of monographic studies relating to and supplementing the text editions published in the SAA series. Manuscripts are accepted in English, French and German. The responsibility for the contents of the volumes rests entirely with the authors.

© 2019 by the Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project, Helsinki and the Foundation for Finnish Assyriological Research All Rights Reserved

Published with the support of the Foundation for

Finnish A ssy riological Research

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Set inTimes The Assyrian Royal Seal emblem drawn by Dominique Collon from original Seventh Century B.C. impressions (BM 84672 and 84677) in the British Museum Cover: Assyrian scribes recording spoils of war. Wall painting in the palace ofTil-Barsip. After A. Parrot,Nioeveh and Babylon (Paris, 1961), fig. 348. Typesetting by G.B. Lanfranchi Cover typography byTeemu Lipasti and Mikko Heikkinen

Printed in the USA

ISBN-13 978-952-10-9502-3 (Volume 29) ISSN 1235-1032 (SAAS) ISSN 1798-7431 (PFFAR)

WRITING

NEO-ASSYRIAN HISTORY Sources, Problems, and Approaches Proceedings of an International Conference Held at the University of Helsinki on September 22-25, 2014

Edited by G.B. Lanfranchi, R. Mattila and R. Rollinger

THE NEO-ASSYRIAN TEXT CORPUS PROJECT 2019

CONTENTS

ABBREVIATIONS ............................................................................................................. vii Raija Mattila, Giovanni Battista Lanfranchi, Robert Rollinger, Introduction ............................... xi

History ofResearch and General Questions Grant Frame, A History of Research on the Neo-Assyrian Empire ...................................... l Ariel M. Bagg, The Neo-Assyrian Empire and Its Chronological and Geographical Frameworks ................................. .......................................................... 27 Frederick Mario Fales, The Composition and Structure of the NeoAssyrian Empire: Ethnicity, Language and Identities .................................................. 45 Sebastian Fink, The Neo-Assyrian Empire and the History of Science: Western Terminology and Ancient Near Eastern Sources ............................................ 91 Jamie Novotny, Texts, Scribes and Literary Traditions: a General Introduction .......................................... ...................................................................... 109

How to Deal with the Neo-Assyrian Sources Mario Liverani, The Role of the Royal Inscriptions in Reconstructing

Assyrian History ............. ............................................................................................ 123

Eckart Frahm, The Neo-Assyrian Royal Inscriptions as Text: History,

Ideology, and Intertextuality .............. ......................................................................... 139 Shigeo Yamada, Neo-Assyrian Eponym Lists and Eponym Chronicles: Contents, Stylistic Variants and Their Historical-ideological Background ................................................................................................................. 161

The Religious Texts Martti Nissinen, Religious Texts as a Historical Source: Assyrian Pro-

phecies as Sources for Esarhaddon 's Nineveh A Inscription ..................................... 183

Simo Parpola, Neo-Assyrian Religious Texts and the Problem of their

Redaction Process . .. ................................................................................................... 195

The Literary Texts Simonetta Ponchia, Literary Texts as Historical Sources: How to

Approach and Use Them .... ........................................................................................ 203

The Letters Mikko Luukko, Letters as a Historical Source: How to Use and Deal with Them ................................................................................................................... 229 Sanae Ito, The Problem of Original Letter, Draft and Copy ............................................ 247

The Administrative and Legal Texts Betina Faist, Legal Texts as a Historical Source: How to Use and to Deal with Them ........................................................................................................... 261 Salvatore Gaspa, Administrative Texts and their "Sitz im Leben": Text Production and Bureaucratic Contexts ...................................................................... 275

The Treaties Karen Radner, Neo-Assyrian Treaties as a Source for the Historian: Bonds of Friendship, the Vigilant Subject and the Vengeful King 's Treaty ............................................................................................................................ 00

Archaeological Sources Davide Nadali, Bas-reliefs as a Source/or Neo-Assyrian History ................................... 309 Janoscha Kreppner, Archaeological Remains and Neo-Assyrian History ........................................................................................................................ 329 Maria Grazia Masetti-Rouault, Urban Planning and Neo-Assyrian History ........................................................................................................................ 365 Ann Gunter, The History of Art and Neo-Assyrian History ...... ....................................... 383

Neo-Assyrian Onomastics Ran Zadok, Onomastics as a Historical Source ............................................................... 399

The Periphery ofAssyria Annick Payne, Hieroglyphic Luwian Texts and Neo-Assyrian History ............................ 489 Helene Sader, Aramaic and Phoenician Texts and Neo-Assyrian History ........................................................................................................................ 515

ABBREVIATIONS A= tablets in the collections oflstanbul Arkeoloji Muzeleri. ABL= R. F. Harper, Assyrian and Babylonian Letters Belonging to the Kouyunjik Collection of the British Museum I-XIV, Chicago, 1892-1914. ADW= A.Y. Ahmad, J. N. Postgate, Archives.from the Domestic Wing of the North-West Palace at Kalhu/Nimrud (Edubba 10), London 2007. AHw = W. von Soden, Akkadisches Handworterbuch, Wiesbaden 1959-1981. ALA= 0. Pedersen, Archives and Libraries in the City of Assur, Uppsala, Part I 1985, Part II 1986. BIWA = R. Borger, Beitriige zum Inschriftenwerk Assurbanipals. Die Prismenklassen A, B, C=K, D, E, F, G, H, J und T sowie andere Inschriften. Mit einem Beitrag von Andreas Fuchs, Wies­ baden, 1996. BWL = W. G. Lambert, Babylonian Wisdom Literature, Oxford, 1960. CAD = The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, Chicago, Gliickstadt 1956-2010. CAH = J. B. Bury, S. A. Cook, F. E. Adcock (eds.), The Cambridge Ancient History, Vol. III, Cambridge, 1925. CAH2 =1. E. S. Edwards, C. J. Gadd and N. G. L. Hammond (eds.), The Cambridge Ancient History. Second Edition, Vol. //1/2: The Assyrian and Babylonian Empires and Other States of the Near East,from the 8th to the 6th Centuries B.C., Cambridge, 1991. CDA = J. Black, A. George, N. Postgate, A Concise Dictionary of Akkadian, Wiesbaden 2000 (2nd ed.). CDLI= The Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. CHLI = J.D. Hawkins, Corpus of Hieroglyphic Luwian Inscriptions, Volume. I: Inscriptions of the Iron Ages (Studies in Indo-European Language and Culture 8/1), Berlin - New York 2000. CT= Cuneiform Textsfrom Babylonian Tablets in the British Museum, London CT 53 = S. Parpola, Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets in the British Museum, Part 53: Neo-Assyrian Letters.from the Kuyunjik Collection, London, 1979. CT 54 = M. Dietrich, Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets in the British Museum, part 54. Neo-Babylonian Letters.from the Kuyunjik Collection, London, 1979. GPA= J. N. Postgate, The Governor's Palace Archive, London 1973. K= tablets in the collections of the British Museum. KAJ = E. Ebeling, Kei/schrifttexte aus Assur juristischen Inhalts ( Wissenschaftliche Verojfentli­ chung der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft 50), Leipzig 1927. KAN l = L. Jakob-Rost, F. M. Fales, Neuassyrische Rechtsurkunden, I ( Wissenschaftliche Verof­ fentlichungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft 94), Berlin 1996. KAN 2 = L. Jakob-Rost, K. Radner, V. Donbaz, Neuassyrische Rechtsurkunden, II ( Wissenschaft­ liche Verojfentlichungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft 98), Saarbriicken 2000. KAN 3 =B. I. Faist, Neuassyrische Rechtsurkunden, III ( Wissenschaftliche Veroffentlichungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft 110), Saarwellingen 2005. KAN 4= B. I. Faist,. Neuassyrische Rechtsurkunden IV ( Wissenschaftliche Verojfentlichungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft 132), Wiesbaden 2010. KAR = E. Ebeling, Keilschrifttexte aus Assur religiosen Inhalts, Leipzig 1920-23 (Neudruck: Osnabriick 1970-72). KAV = 0. Schroeder, Keilschrifttexte aus Assur verschiedenen Inhalts ( Wissenschaftliche Verof­ fentlichungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft 35), Leipzig 1920. LAS = S. Parpola, Lettersfrom Assyrian Scholars to the Kings Esarhaddon and Assurbanipal (Alter Orient und Altes Testament 5/1-11), Kevelaer, Neukirchen-Vluyn, 1970-83. LAS 2 = S. Parpola, Letters from Assyrian Scholars to the Kings Esarhaddon and Assurbanipa/, Part II: Commentary and Appendices (Alter Orient und Altes Testament 5/2), Neukirchen­ Vluyn, 1983. LKA = E. Ebeling, Literarische Keilschrifttexte aus Assur, Berlin, 1953. IX

ABBREVIATIONS

MARV I = H. Freydank, Mittelassyrische Rechtsurkunden und Verwaltungstexte, I (Vorderasia­ tische Schriftdenkmiiler der Staat/ichen Museen zu Berlin 19, N.F. 3),Berlin 1976. MARV II= H. Freydank, Mittelassyrische Rechtsurkunden und Verwa/tungstexte, II (Vorderasia­ tische Schriftdenkmiiler der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin 21, N.F. 5),Berlin 1982. MARV III= H. Freydank, Mittelassyrische Rechtsurkunden und Verwaltungstexte, III (Wissen­ schaft/iche Veroffent/ichung der Deutschen Orient-Gese//schaft 92),Berlin 1994. MARV IV= H. Freydank, C. Fischer, Mittelassyrische Rechtsurkunden und Verwa/tungstexte, IV: Tafeln aus Kar-Tukultf-Ninurta (Wissenschaft/iche Veroffent/ichung der Deutschen Orient-Ge­ sellschaft 99), Saarbrilcken 200 l. MARV V = H. Freydank, B. Feller, Mittelassyrische Rechtsurkunden und Verwaltungstexte, V (Wissenschaft/iche Veroffentlichung der Deutschen Orient-Gese//schaft 106), Saarbrilcken

2004. MARV VI = H. Freydank, B. Feller, Mittelassyrische Rechtsurkunden und Verwaltungstexte, VI (Wissenschaft/iche Veroffent/ichung der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft 109), Saarwellingen 2005. MARV VII= H. Freydank,B. Feller, Mittelassyrische Rechtsurkunden und Verwaltungstexte, VII (Wissenschaft/iche Veroffentlichung der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft 111), Saarwellingen 2006. MARV VIII= H. Freydank,B. Feller, Mittelassyrische Rechtsurkunden und Verwa/tungstexte, VIII (Wissenschaftliche Veroffent/ichung der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft 119), Wiesbaden 2007. MARV IX= H. Freydank, B. Feller, Mittelassyrische Rechtsurkunden und Verwaltungstexte, IX (Wissenschaftliche Veroffent/ichung der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft 125), Wiesbaden 2010. MSL 12 = M. Civil, The Series lu = sa and Related Texts (Materia/ien zum sumerischen Lexikon 12), Roma 1969. NATAPA 1 = F. M. Fales, L. Jakob-Rost, ''Neo-Assyrian Texts from Assur. Private Archives in the Vorderasiatisches Museum ofBerlin, Part I", State Archives of Assyria Bulletin 5 (1991). NATAPA 2 = K. Deller, F. M. Fales, L. Jakob-Rost, ''Neo-Assyrian Texts from Assur. Private Archives in the Vorderasiatisches Museum ofBerlin, Part II", State Archives of Assyria Bulletin 9 (1995). ND = field numbers of tablets excavated in Nimrod. NL= H. W. F. Saggs, "The Nimrod Letters, 1952 - Parts I-IX", Iraq 17 (1955), 21-50 until Iraq 36 (1974), 199-221. NWL = J. V. Kinnier Wilson, The Nimrud Wine Lists: A Study of Men and Administration at the Assyrian Capital in the Eighth Century BC (Cuneiform Texts from Nimrud l ), London 1972. OIP 117= S. W. Cole, The Early Neo-Babylonian Governor's Archivefrom Nippur, Chicago 1996. PNA = K. Radner, H. D.Baker (eds.), The Prosopography of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, Helsinki 1998-201 l. PNA 1/1= K. Radner (ed.), The Prosopography of the Neo-Assyrian Empire 1, Part I: A, Helsinki 1998. PNA 1/11 = K. Radner (ed.), The Prosopography of the Neo-Assyrian Empire 1, part II: B-G, Helsinki, 1999. PNA 2/1 = H. D. Baker (ed.), The Prosopography of the Neo-Assyrian Empire 2, Part I: H-K, Helsinki, 2000. PNA 2/11 = H. D. Baker (ed.), The Prosopography of the Neo-Assyrian Empire 2, Part II: L-N, Helsinki, 200 l. PNA 3/1 = H. D. Baker (ed.), The Prosopography of the Neo-Assyrian Empire 3, Part I: P-S, Helsinki 2002. PNA 3/11 = H. D.Baker (ed.), The Prosopography of the Neo-Assyrian Empire 3, Part II: S-Z, Helsinki 2011 RGTC 7/1 = A.Bagg, Die Orts- und Gewiissername der neuassyrischen Zeit, Teil I: Die Levante (Repertoire geographique des textes cuneiformes 7/1 [Beihefte zum Tiibinger Atlas des Vorderen Orients], Wiesbaden, 2007. RIMA 1= A .K. Grayson, Assyrian Rulers of the 3rd and 2nd Millenia BC (to 1115 BC) (The Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia, Assyrian Periods l ), Toronto 1987. X

ABBREVIATIONS

RIMA 2 = A. K. Grayson, Assyrian Rulers of the Early First Millennium BC I (1114-859 BC) ( The Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia, Assyrian Periods 2), Toronto, 1991. RIMA 3= A. K. Grayson, Assyrian Rulers of the Early First Millennium BC II: 858-745 BC (The Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia. Assyrian Periods), Toronto 1996. RIMB 2= G. Frame, Rulers of Babyloniafrom the Second Dynasty of !sin to the End of the Assyrian Domination (1157-612 BC) ( The Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia. Babylonian Periods Vol. 2), Toronto, 1995. RIME 4= D. R.Frayne, Old Babylonian Period (2003-1595 BC) ( The Royal Inscriptions of Meso­ potamia. Early Periods 4), Toronto 1990. RJNAP 1= H. Tadmor, Sh. Yamada, The Royal Inscriptions of Tiglath-pileser III (744-727 BC),

and Shalmaneser V (726-722 BC), Kings of Assyria (Royal Inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian Period Vol. 1), Winona Lake, IN, 2011. RJNAP 3/1= A. K. Grayson, J. Novotny, The Royal Inscriptions of Sennacherib, King of Assyria (704-681 BC), Part 1 (Royal Inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian Period Vol. 3/1), Winona Lake,

IN, 2012. RJNAP 3/2= A. K. Grayson, J. Novotny, The Royal Inscriptions of Sennacherib, King of Assyria (704-681 BC), Part 1 (Royal Inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian Period Vol. 3/2), Winona Lake, IN, 2014. RINAP 4 = E. Leichty, The Royal Inscriptions of Esarhaddon, King of Assyria 680-669 BC (Royal Inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian Period 4), Winona Lake, IN 2011. RINAP 5/1 = J. Novotny, J. Jeffers, The Royal Inscriptions of Ashurbanipal (668-631 BC), Assur­ etel-iliini (630-627 BC), and Sin-sarra-iskun (626-612 BC), Kings of Assyria, Part 1 ( The Royal Inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian Period 5/1), Winona Lake 2018. RIA = Reallexikon der Assyriologie und Vorderasiatischen Archiiologie, Leipzig, Berlin, New

York, 1928-. SAA= State Archives of Assyria, Helsinki 1987-. SAA 1 = S. Parpola, The Correspondence of Sargon II, Part I. Letters from Assyria and the West (State Archives of Assyria I), Helsinki, 1987. SAA 2 = S. Parpola, K. Watanabe, Neo-Assyrian Treaties and Loyalty Oaths (State Archives of Assyria II), Helsinki, 1988. SAA 3 = A. Livingstone, Court Poetry and Literary Miscellanea (State Archives of Assyria III), Helsinki, 1989. SAA 4 = I. Starr, Queries to the Sungod: Divination and Politics in Sargonid Assyria (State Archives of Assyria IV), Helsinki, 1990. SAA 5 = G.B. Lanfranchi, S. Parpola, The Correspondence of Sargon II, Part II: Letters from the Northern and Northeastern Provinces (State Archives of Assyria V), Helsinki, 1990. SAA 6 = T. Kwasman, S. Parpola, Legal Transactions of the Royal Court of Nineveh, Part I. Tiglath-Pileser III through Esarhaddon (State Archives of Assyria VI), Helsinki, 1991. SAA 7 = F. M. Fales, J. N. Postgate, Imperial Administrative Records, Part I. Palace and Temple Administration (State Archives of Assyria VII), Helsinki, 1992. SAA 8 = H. Hunger, Astrological Reports to Assyrian Kings (State Archives of Assyria VIII), Helsinki, 1992. SAA 9 = S. Parpola, Assyrian Prophecies (State Archives of Assyria IX), Helsinki, 1997. SAA 10 = S. Parpola, Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars (State Archives of Assyria X), Helsinki, 1993. SAA 11 = F. M. Fales, J. N. Postgate, Imperial Administrative Records, Part II: Provincial and Military Administration (State Archives of Assyria XI), Helsinki, 1995. SAA 12 = L. Kataja, R. Whiting, Grants, Decrees and Gifts of the Neo-Assyrian Period (State Archives of Assyria XII), Helsinki, 1995. SAA 13 = S. W. Cole, P. Machinist, Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Priests to Kings Esarhaddon and Assurbanipal (State Archives of Assyria XIII), Helsinki, 1998. SAA 14 = R. Mattila, Legal Transactions of the Royal Court of Nineveh, Part II. Assurbanipal through Sin-sarru-iskun (State Archives of Assyria XIV), Helsinki, 2002.

xi

ABBREVIATIONS

SAA 15 = A. Fuchs, S. Parpola, The Correspondence of Sargon IL Part III. Lettersfrom Babylonia and the Eastern Provinces (State Archives of Assyria XV), Helsinki, 2002. SAA 16 = M. Luukko, G. Van Buylaere, The Political Correspondence of Esarhaddon (State Ar­ chives of Assyria XVI), Helsinki, 2002. SAA 17= M. Dietrich, The Babylonian Correspondence of Sargon and Sennacherib (State Archives of Assyria XVII), Helsinki, 2003. SAA 18 = F. Reynolds, The Babylonian Correspondence of Esarhaddon and Letters to Assurba­ nipal and Sin-sarru-iskun from Northern and Central Babylonia (State Archives of Assyria XVIII), Helsinki, 2003. SAA 19= M. Luukko, The Correspondence of Tiglath-pileser III and Sargon IIfrom Calah/Nimrud (State Archives of Assyria XIX), Helsinki, 2012. SAA 20 = S. Parpola, Assyrian Royal Rituals and Cu/tic texts, Helsinki 2017. SAA 21= S. Parpola, The Correspondence of Assurbanipal, Part JI: Lettersfrom the King andfrom Northern and Central Babylonia (State Archives of Assyria 22), Helsinki, 2018. SAA 22 = G. Frame, The Correspondence of Assurbanipal, Part II: Lettersfrom Southern Baby­ lonia (State Archives of Assyria 22), Helsinki, forthcoming. SAAS 8 = A. Fuchs, Die Annalen des Jahres 7I 1 v. Chr. (State Archives of Assyria Studies VIII), Helsinki 1998. StAT 1 = K. Radner, Ein neuassyrisches Privatarchiv der Tempelgoldschmiede von Assur (Studien zu den Assur-Texten 1), Saarbrilcken 1999. StAT 2= V. Donbaz, S. Parpola, Neo-Assyrian Legal Texts in Istanbul (Studien zu den Assur-Texten 2), Saarbriicken 2001. StAT 3 = B. Faist, Alltagstexte aus neuassyrischen Archiven und Bibliotheken der Stadt Assur (Studien zu den Assur-Texten 3), Wiesbaden 2007. TAVO = Tubinger Atlas des Vorderen Orients, Wiesbaden 1969-1994. TCAE = J. N. Postgate, Taxation and Conscription in the Assyrian Empire (Studia Pohl: Series Maior 3), Roma 1974. TCL 3 = F. Thureau-Dangin, Une relation de la huitieme campagne de Sargon (714 av. J. C.) (Textes cuneiformes du Louvre 3), Paris, 1912. TFS= S. Dalley, J:N. Postgate, The Tabletsfrom Fort Shalmaneser (Cuneiform Textsfrom Nimrud 3), London 1984. TIM 9 = J. van Dijk, Cuneiform Texts: Texts of Varying Content (Texts in the Iraq Museum 9), Baghdad, Wiesbaden 1976. Ugaritica 5 = J. Nougayrol, Nouveaux textes accadiens, hourrites et ugaritiques des archives et bibliotheques privees d'Ugarit. Choix de textes litteraires, 1968.

xii

INTRODUCTION

Giovanni Battista Lanfranchi, Raija Mattila, Robert Rollinger Due to the collective effort of the Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project in Helsinki the Neo- Assyrian epoch is one ofthe best documented periods within Ancient Near Eastern history. So far 2 1 volumes have been published presenting the most im­ portant bulk of the archival, literary and religious sources in new and reliable text editions, collated and indexed, and complemented with English translations and elucidating introductions. In the meanwhile, most of the Neo-Assyrian royal in­ scriptions are as well available in modem editions with English translations, thanks to the efforts of the Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia and the Royal Inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian Period projects. Having these facts in mind, in early 2014 we decided that it was time to launch an international conference aiming at establishing a full-fledged methodological address to the problems concerned with the "Writing of Neo-Assyrian History". This approach included a clear cut look at the sources, and at the problems con­ nected with their interpretation and "transformation" into what is used to be called "history". Accordingly, the conference focused on several main topics connected to this issue, and therefore we organized an international meeting in September 20 14 at the University of Helsinki when Robert Rollinger held his Finland Distin­ guished Professor at the Department of World Cultures, University of Helsinki (Re­ search Director of the project "Intellectual Heritage of the Ancient Near East", 201 1-201 5). The structuring of the volume mainly follows the outline of the conference with some additions and adaptions. The first section "History of Research and General Questions" is devoted to important problems of defining the Neo-Assyrian empire as well as its history within broader frameworks. How does the composition and structure of the empire look like? What about ethnicities, languages and identities? How did the Neo-Assyrians themselves approach their past and how? Which role are texts, scribes and literary tradition playing in shaping what we are used to call Neo-Assyrian history? What does Neo-Assyrian history mean and what is the place ofNeo-Assyrian history within world history? This also includes modes of modem approach and terminologies. Gendered history is a keyword in this respect, but there is also the vast problem that Neo-Assyrian history - as Ancient Near Eastern his­ tory in general - is still widely perceived through western lenses and encapsulated in western terminologies. These are defined by sources from the Biblical and Clas­ sical World, and this bears important consequences on how we assess and qualify

xi

GIOVANNI BATIISTA LANFRANCHI, RAIJA MATIILA, ROBERT ROLLINGER

historical processes and developments. These issues give way to a broad range of topics which are dealt with in the second section of the volume. In this second section "How to deal with the Neo-Assyrian Sources" some gen­ eral questions are addressed. The various contributions focus on three main cate­ gories of sources that can be defined as "historical" stricto sensu: royal inscriptions, eponym lists, and eponym chronicles. The next seven sections develop a broader focus on Neo-Assyrian history by defining and discussing all available sources and their specifics: the religious texts, the literary texts, the letters, the administrative and legal texts, the treaties, archae­ ological sources. In this context the sources themselves are introduced and quali­ fied, distinguishing between the different categories of source production and their Sitz im Leben. This includes both the written and the archaeological sources. Bu­ reaucratic contexts and redaction processes are taken into consideration and the relevant archaeological contexts are revealed. Assyrian royal inscriptions and trea­ ties, religious texts and literary texts, letters, administrative and legal texts on the one side, archaeological remains, reliefs, and works of art as well as urban planning on the other side are evaluated and put into their specific contexts. Each section's discussions do not only imply the simple question ofhow to use and deal with these sources, but to reflect on text production and context and to develop an updated theory of how to approach these sources. Their specific characteristics are outlined, their validity are analysed and the main problems addressed a modem historian is facing who is using these sources. In this respect the problems of transforming the available sources into "history" are specified and discussed in detail. How can a modem historian use these sources and what are the main problems he/she encoun­ ters when he/she is dealing with them? The volume concludes with two additional sections. The first one focuses on the Neo-Assyrian Onomastics and its relevance for writing Neo-Assyrian history. The second one deals with the Periphery of the Assyria by discussing two exemplary neighbouring regions of the empire and their text production. By addressing these questions the conference was aimed at singling out para­ digmatically a specific and extraordinarily well documented period of Ancient Near Eastern history and at addressing the basic questions of any historiographical ap­ proach. This should be done within an Ancient Near Eastern framework, where Classical and Biblical historiographies are not taken as a defining leitmotiv but as a point of reference where specific regional and cultural developments are taken into considerations accordingly. True, the goals of this conference were ambitious; but we are convinced that the various contributions, how diverse and varicoloured the sources of Neo-Assyrian history are, could contribute to an intense methodological discussion and to a robust increase of historical self-conscience in Neo-Assyrian studies. We also were, and still are convinced that this is a distinct field of historical research offering an enormous potential for historical analysis, methodology and sophisticated Quel/enkritik. It al­ lows rich insights in general historical problems which not only deserve to be con­ sidered by specialists but also by any historian who can learn as much from Neo­ Assyrian history as, just to take some examples, from histories of the French Rev­ olution, the First World War or the Cold War. Neo-Assyrian history is important, illuminating and exciting, and the path towards it are the sources we have. These were the aims of our conference, and we very much hope that with this publication its targets have been somehow accomplished. xii

INTRODUCTION

*** This volume contains most of the contributions of the conference held in Helsinki in September 2014. However, after the conference, we considered that some im­ portant fields were not covered due to various reasons; thus, we requested some scholars to submit additional contributions so as to have a more complete view on the general topic of "How to write Neo-Assyrian history?". Not all those who agreed, however, were able to submit their text, and in late 20 1 7 we decided to proceed for final publication with the available texts at our hands.

***

With the publication of such a volume it is always a pleasure to thank those col­ leagues and institutions without whose assistance and help this volume would not have been possible. This is first the University of Helsinki which launched the pro­ ject "Intellectual Heritage of the Ancient Near East" and hosted Robert Rollinger as Finland Distinguished Professor (20 1 1-201 5). We are especially grateful to Prof. Jaakko Hameen-Anttila the former Director of the project who was excited about the conference and its aims from the very beginning. A special thanks goes to the Getty Foundation that offered Robert Rollinger a Getty Scholarship during which the final steps of the editing process of this volume could be accomplished. We wholeheartedly thank Prof. Simo Parpola, Editor in Chief of the State Archives of Assyria series, for accepting this volume in the series State Archives of Assyria Studies, of which he is Project Director. Last but not least, we thank Dr. Silvia Gabrieli, Universita degli studi di Verona, for her difficult but very successful en­ terprise of preparing the indexes of this volume. We very much hope that the volume will be useful not only for specialists but for all those who are interested in ancient Near Eastern history of the first millen­ nium BCE, a period of high interest and relevance that still does not have the place in world history it really deserves.

Giovanni Battista Lanfranchi, Padova Raija Mattila, Helsinki Robert Rollinger, Getty Villa, Los Angeles

xiii

A HISTORY OF RESEARCH ON THENEO-ASSYRIAN EMPIRE

Grant Frame Almost twenty years ago, at a conference here in Helsinki to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus project, Kirk Grayson presented a paper entitled "The Resurrection of Ashur: A History of Assyrian Studies". Since he was my first teacher of Akkadian and the one who implanted in me an interest in the Neo-Assyrian period, I am somewhat hesitant about dealing with an almost identical topic in the same place. 1 He began his paper with the statement "the history of Assyrian studies . . . is not a subject to which previously I have given much thought, nor to which I have devoted my research".2 The same can be said for me about the topic I was assigned by the conference organizers. As a result, I must ask for your pardon if in what follows I do not mention someone or something that you consider particularly relevant or important. Moreover, not all the works that I do mention have equal scholarly value and assessing them is out of the question. We may now look at some early publications with derision - and some were certainly derided by scholars at the time - but in one way or another they advanced our knowledge of the Neo-Assyrian Empire and its culture. When I began to prepare this presentation, I started by creating a chronological chart of when the various books and important articles dealing with the Neo­ Assyrian period had been published and who had written them. I began at page one of Rykle Borger's invaluable Handbuch der Keilschriftliteratur (1967-1975) and went through to its end, creating a list of publications from the first half of the nineteenth century down to 1 973. Of course, this list was not totally complete for that period since the Handbuch normally only lists text copies and editions, but it still provided a fascinating list. I next went through my own private library and scanned the shelves of the library of the Babylonian Section of the Penn Museum for additional, and more recent, items. Then, I examined the bibliographies cited later in this talk and those in a few major publications dealing with the Neo-Assyrian period. With this done, I sat, and tried to decide what I could say that might be of interest. Since I am neither an archaeologist nor a specialist in linguistics, I decided to focus mainly on historical research, and in particular research based on cuneiform texts. A more holistic approach, one considering archaeological and linguistic research more 1 I would like to express my appreciation to J. A. Brinkman, J. Jeffers, A. Kuhrt, M. Luukko, J. Novotny and J. Renger for reading all or parts of early drafts of this manuscript and for making several helpful suggestions. The views expressed, however, are those of the author and he is responsible for any errors and omissions. 2 Grayson 1 997, 105.

GRANT FRAME

fully and taking into account the non-cuneiform sources (in particular those written in Aramaic and hieroglyphic Luwian) and, more widely, the diverse ethnicities incorporated within the Empire, is beyond the scope of this study. I immediately ran into two major problems with regard to the topic. When exactly did the Neo-Assyrian Empire begin and when did real research on it start? Actually, there was also a third problem. Should one include the study of the numerous literary, scientific and religious texts found at Neo-Assyrian sites as part of the topic? Many of these latter texts are in the Babylonian dialect and/or script and a large number of them either actually come from Babylonia or are really just copies of texts from Babylonia. Should one consider them part of a common Mesopotamian culture of the first millennium rather than specifically Neo-Assyrian, even though they do reflect what was of interest and importance to people (or at least the elites) in the heartland of the Neo-Assyrian Empire? I do note that there is no paper to be presented at this conference on the Neo-Assyrian "scientific" texts, such as those dealing with mathematics, medicine, extispicy and astrology, found at Kuyunjik and other Assyrian sites. I can certainly understand the omission of mathematical texts since Eleanor Robson's catalogue of texts of that genre includes only five Neo­ Assyrian ones, and these are not well preserved.3 In this paper, I will not normally deal with the literary, scientific and religious texts, but this is more due to pressure of time than to the view that these should not be treated when looking at the Neo­ Assyrian Empire. Certainly the active collection of such texts by Esarhaddon and in particular Ashurbanipal is an important aspect of the history of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. With regard to the first problem, there appeared to be three main points at which I could consider the Neo-Assyrian Empire to have begun. The earliest was in the last half of the tei;tth century, in the time of Assur-dan II (934-9 12 BCE), who was the first Assyrian ruler in the first millennium known to have conducted (relatively) extensive campaigns. The second was in the first half of the ninth century, in the reign of Ashurnasirpal II (883-859), who campaigned extensively outside the Assyr­ ian heartland, washed his weapons in the Mediterranean, and claimed to have re­ ceived tribute and exotic gifts from such coastal cities as Tyre and Sidon. The third, and latest, was in the second half of the eighth century, in the time ofTiglath-pileser III (744-727), who took the throne of Babylon as well as that of Assyria and conducted a major reorganization of the administration of the areas controlled by Assyria. Although in•manx ways the Neo-Assyrian expansion before Tiglath-pileser III was simply the recovery and consolidation of what had once been part of the Middle Assyrian kingdom and there are clear continuities between the Middle Assyrian period and the Neo-Assyrian period, I will arbitrarily consider that the Empire began in the ninth century with Ashurnasirpal II. More importantly, when should I say that actual research on the Neo-Assyrian Empire began? Should I choose a point in pre-modern times, before the "rediscovery" of ancient Mesopotamia in the 1 800s of our own era? I could go back to the Biblical accounts, which, for example, describe in great detail Sennacherib's invasion of Judah in the time of Hezekiah (II Kings 18-19; II Chronicles 32; Isaiah 36-37) and provide numerous details that can be supported by cuneiform sources 3

2

Two texts are from Assur, two from Nineveh and one from Sultantepe. The website also lists one non-mathematical word problem from Nineveh. See http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/dccmt/ updates/index.html (seen September 10, 201 5).

A HISTORY OF RESEARCH ON THE NEO-ASSYRIAN EMPIRE

from the time of Sennacherib. However, since we really do not know when the various Biblical stories were written down and since they clearly had a religious agenda to expound, should I consider them products of real research? I could begin instead with the Greek writer Herodotus in the fifth century whose Histories the infamously unreliable source Wikipedia says "is now considered as the founding work of history in Western literature". Certainly there is some accurate information on Assyria in the Histories but I doubt that many, if any, scholars today consider it the result of real research rather than just the uncritical repetition of stories and traditions told to him. He states, for example, that Sennacherib invaded Egypt, but we have no contemporary evidence for such an invasion in the Mesopotamian sources. Some of the Greeks and Romans who wrote about the Near East had never been there and looked down on its people, considering them barbarians (which really just meant non-Greek speakers), and this biased view often comes through in their works. So, should we consider their works the products of true research? I could go back to the writings of the native Babylonian priest Berossos in the third century BCE. He appears to have been able to read cuneiform texts, but his Babyloniaka (a history of Babylonia, not Assyria) is only preserved in scraps - often passages selected by later writers to support parts of the Bible - and is only known via the writings of later classical writers (e.g., Josephus). Alexander Polyhistor (first half of the first century BCE) wrote a history of Assyria and Babylonia, and Juba II of Numidia (ca. 50 BCE-23 CE) was author of a work entitled On the Assyrians. Nothing has been preserved of either of work and so I cannot say whether or not they were based on real research. Polyhistor claims to have made use of Berossos' Babyloniaka and Juba may have done so as well. Perhaps there were early or mediaeval Arab historians and geographers (e.g. , Ahmad al-Ya'qubi in the ninth century CE) who wrote about the Neo-Assyrian kings after really trying to find out something about them, but I am afraid that my knowledge of their works is limited. Nor do I wish to begin with any of the accounts left by early European travellers who passed through Mesopotamia, even with the famous Jewish traveller of the twelfth century Benjamin of Tudela, who left one of the earliest reasonably accurate descriptions of the site of ancient Nineveh; they were more scholarly tourists than researchers. I might say that research started in the middle of the nineteenth century, ca. 1 8401880, when the first archaeological digs took place in Iraq, remains of the most important Neo-Assyrian cities were found, and the first copies and editions of texts dating to the Neo-Assyrian period were published. Jean-Claude Margueron has stated that "Mesopotamian archaeology was born at the end of March 1 843, on the day when P[aul] E[mile] Botta . . . brought to light a group of buildings . . . on the mound of Khorsabad", buildings that were part of the palace of the Neo-Assyrian king Sargon II. 4 Botta thought that he had found the Nineveh of the Bible, but, as Seton Lloyd has pointed out, early Arab geographers referred to the site as Saraoun and Saraghoun, names that are clearly connected to the site's ancient one, Dur­ Sarrukin. 5 The Englishman Austen Henry Layard began excavations in 1 845 at Nimrud, or ancient Kai.bu, the capital of Assyria for most of the ninth and eighth centuries, and soon thereafter excavations were carried out at Kuyunjik, the citadel mound of Nineveh, the capital of Assyria when the Neo-Assyrian Empire was at its 4 5

Margueron 1967, 13. Lloyd 1947, 106 n. l .

3

GRANT FRAME

greatest height. Working on behalf of the British Museum, Hormuzd Rassam found on Kuyunjik what has been called "the library of Ashurbanipal", Ashurbanipal being the last great ruler of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. Artefacts and reliefs from these three Assyrian capitals were shipped back to Paris and London, where they fascinated viewers. 6 The subsequent publication and study of the documents and objects found at these three sites might also be a reasonable place to say that research on the Empire began. So I might reasonably begin in the 1 840s and 1 850s with these excavations and the publication of Botta's Monument de Ninive in 1 849-1 850 and Layard's Monuments of Nineveh in 1 849 and 1 853. Or, if I did not consider the basic publication of copies and archaeological material as real research on the Empire, I could go to the 1 870s when George Smith published three books that made available information from a large number of cuneiform texts: History ofAssurbanipal ( 1871 ), The Assyrian Eponym Canon (1875), and History ofSennacherib (1878). To which one could add Ernest Alfred Wallis Budge's The History of Esarhaddon in 1880. But these are really just very basic text editions, often with typeset copies. Since these mid-nineteenth century scholars were not consciously studying the Neo­ Assyrian Empire as opposed to ancient Mesopotamia in general, I am hesitant to say that research on the Neo-Assyrian Empire commenced then. Yes, they were primarily looking for information on the Assyria of the Bible and classical sources, sources which really only deal with the time of the Empire, but that is not exactly the same thing. There have been numerous studies of the early days of Assyriology (for example the first volume ofC. Fossey's Manuel d'assyriologie [1 904], E. A. W. Budge's Rise and Progress ofAssyriology [1925]; Seton Lloyd's Foundations in the Dust [ 1 947], and Mogens Trolle Larsen's engaging The Conquest ofAssyria [ 1996]) and whatever I might say on this period would be redundant. From about 1 880 until the First World War, work on Neo-Assyrian materials increased dramatically, as more and more scholars became interested in the field of Assyriology and as this interest spread to scholars in North America. During these years, numerous Neo-Assyrian texts were published and the quality of the editions improved as our understanding of the Akkadian language advanced. Moreover, German excavations at Assur revealed a vast amount of new material for study. Much of the interest and work on this period was still spurred by a desire to use the information gained to help understand Biblical accounts and prove their accuracy. Thus, many of these early scholars were also clergymen or members of religious orders (e.g., Archibald Heru:y Sayce), something that did not really change until sometime after the Second World War. They were also almost exclusively men, and this also did not change until two or three decades after the Second World War. In the 1 880s and 1 890s several scholars published important works editing or studying the official inscriptions of rulers from the time of the Empire. These would include two works by Eberhard Schrader (Zur Kritik der Inschriften Tiglath-Pile­ ser 's IL des Asarhaddon und des Asurbanipal [ 1 880] and Die Sargonsstele [ 1 882]), as well as Samuel Birch and Theophilus Goldridge Pinches' Bronze Ornaments of the Palace Gates of Balawat ( 1 880-1902), David Gordon Lyon's Keilschrifttexte Sargon 's (1 883), Samuel Alden's Keilschrifttexte Asurbanipals (1 887-1 889), Hugo Winckler's Die Keilschrifttexte Sargons (1 889), and Paul's Die Keilschrifttexte Ti-

4

6 For a study of the impact that the arrival of the Assyrian reliefs and artefacts had in England and France, see Bohrer 2003.

A HISTORY OF RESEARCH ON THE NED-ASSYRIAN EMPIRE

glat-Pilesers Ill ( 1893), as well as his Bauinschriften Sanheribs (1 893) and Bauin­ schriften Asarhaddons ( 1 898), the latter two written together with Bruno Meissner. The important work done by Winckler on Neo-Assyrian matters around this time must be stressed. He has been described as "not the only one writing about Assyrio­ logical matters, but . . . certainly the most active exponent; he was also the most bellicose and, according to many authors, one of the most capable historians of the ANE". 7 The study of the Near East passed through the Babel-Bible controversy and the height of the Panbabylonian school of thought during the early years of the twentieth century and texts from Nineveh dating to the time of the Neo-Assyrian Empire were used prominently in the debates. Unfortunately, Winckler could also be considered "the founder and the most radical representative of Panbabylonism". 8 With regards to economic texts and letters published during this time, one should single out for mention Claude Hermann Walter Johns' four volumes of Assyrian Deeds and Documents (published 1 898-1923) and Robert Francis Harper's fourteen volumes of almost fifteen hundred Assyrian and Babylonian Letters (published 1 892-1 9 14). Thus both projects carried on well into the twentieth century. All this work was facilitated by the publication of Carl Bezold's five-volume Kuyunjik Catalogue in 1 889-1 899, as well as Leonard William king's 1914 supplement.9 As already mentioned, numerous texts from the Neo-Assyrian period were found Assur early in the twentieth century; the excavations were directed by the German at archaeologist Walter Andrae, who worked at the site 1 903-1914. His excavations were both well conducted and well published in the series Wissenschaftliche Vero_f fentlichungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft (WVDOG), a series that continues to publish important works on both the archaeological and textual materials from Assur. In the early 1900s several major works on Neo-Assyrian royal inscriptions ap­ peared: Budge and King, Annals of the Kings of Assyria I ( 1902); Yves Marie Le Gae, Les inscriptions d'Assur-nasir-aplu III ( 1907); Leopold Messerschmidt, Keil­ schrifttexte aus Assur historischen Inhalts 1 ( 19 1 1); and Fran�ois Thureau-Dangin's 1912 publication of Sargon's letter to the god Assur reporting on his campaign into Urartu. From this period, we can note also Ernst G. Klauber' s 19 13 book Politisch­ religiose Texte, which published a large number of extispicy requests from the time of Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal. With regard to economic texts and letters, Reginald Campbell Thompson's Reports of the Magicians and Astrologers of Nineveh (1900), Johns' Assyrian Doomsday Book (1901), and Josef Kohler and Arthur Ungnad's Assyrische Rechtsurkunden (19 13) are particularly worthy of mention. In 1 912, Sigurd C. Ylvisaker's grammar of Assyrian and Babylonian letters provided an important aid in understanding the letters. Even during the years of the First World War, 19 14-1918, several important works on the Empire appeared: Vincent Scheil, Le prisme S d'Assarhaddon (1914); King, Bronze Reliefs from the Gates of Shalmaneser ( 1 9 1 5); Archibald Paterson, Palace of Sinacherib ( 1912-1913); and Maximilian Streck, Assurbanipal und die letzten assyrischen Konige ( 1916); as well as Knut Leonard Tallqvist's useful com­ pendium Assyrian Personal Names ( 1914). With advances in our understanding of

7 Carena 1989, 96. 8 Ibid. For a brief description of the Babel-Bible controversy, see Larsen 1 995.

9 Note also the two later supplements Lambert & Millard 1968 and Lambert 1 992, and also Leichty 1 964, and the appendices at the back of Borger 1 967 and 1 975 (HKL volumes I and 2).

5

GRANT FRAME

the Akkadian language and Assyrian royal inscriptions, and the growing number of text editions of a wide variety of relevant documents, it was becoming possible to do serious work on the history of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, as opposed to simply editing and explaining individual texts. In some ways, I wonder if we should not say that real research on the Neo-Assyrian Empire began in the decade immediately before the first world war and the one immediately after it ended, ca. 1905-1 925, with such works as Emil Forrer's Provinzeinteilung des assyrischen Reiches published in 1920 and Albert Ten Eyck Olmstead's Western Asia in the Days of Sargon ofAssyria in 1908, Assyrian Historiography in 19 16 and History ofAssyria in 1923. Forrer's work was a real attempt at understanding one aspect of the Neo­ Assyrian Empire and I think it would be fair to say that Olmstead was one of the earliest true historians of ancient Mesopotamia, as opposed to a philologist publishing editions of texts with some historical commentary. Certainly, there had been numerous earlier histories of Assyria or Assyria and Babylonia, but to say that they were really scholarly studies focusing on the Neo-Assyrian Empire and using the tools of the historian would be wrong in my view. In his informative study History of the Near Eastern Historiography and its Problems (1 989), Omar Carena describes Olmstead's 1908 work as an "Exemplary work for its methodological care and the interpretive attention which goes beyond the mere historical-political data, already very precise in the succession of the military campaigns of Sargon II". 10 It was also during these years that G. K.lauber's Assyrisches Beamtentum (1910) appeared, as well as several interesting historical studies, such as Friedrich Schmidtke's Assarhaddons Statthalterschaft in Babylonien ( 1 9 1 6). One should also note that Sidney Smith's five chapters on the empire in the first edition of the Cambridge Ancient History appeared in 1925, and soon thereafter was Tallqvist's Der assyrische Gott (1 932). Excavations during the twenty years between the two world wars continued to provide new information on the time of the Empire, both in terms of archaeological materials and texts. Reginald Campbell Thompson conducted excavations at Kuyun­ jik and found a large number ofNeo-Assyrian documents that were mostly published in such journals as Annals ofArchaeology and Anthropology (Liverpool), Archaeo­ logia and Iraq. Regrettably his archaeological work left something to be desired, even by the standards of the time. American excavations at Khorsabad provided new information on the capital of Sargon II (Gordon Loud, Khorsabad 1 [1936] and Gordon Loud and Charles B. Altman, Khorsabad 2 [1938]). Additional materials came from such other sites as Jerwan (Thorkild Jacobsen and Seton Lloyd, Senna­ cherib 's Aqueduct at Jerwan [1935]) and Til Barsip (Fran�ois Thureau-Dangin and Maurice Dunand, Ti/ Barsip [1936]). Among the numerous works published between the two world wars, I might single out for mention the appearance of copies of numerous texts from Assur by Otto Schroeder and Erich Ebeling in the Wissenschaft/iche Veroffent/ichung der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft series (Ebeling, Keilschrifttexte aus Assur religiosen Inhalts [ 1 9 1 9 and 1923]; Schroeder, Keilschrifttexte aus Assur verschiedenen Inhalts [ 1 920]; Schroeder, Kei/schrifttexte aus Assur historischen Inhalts 2 [1922]; and Ebeling, Keilschrifttexte aus Assur juristischen /nhalts [1 927]) and of texts from Nineveh by Cyril John Gadd in the series Cuneiform Textsfrom Babylonian Tablets

°

1 Carena 1 989, 49. 6

A HISTORY OF RESEARCH ON THE NED-ASSYRIAN EMPIRE

in the British Museum (CT 38-41 [1925-193 1]). 1 1 Daniel David Luckenbill's Annals of Sennacherib and Essad Nassouhi's "Prisme d' Assurbanipal" in Archiv far Keil­ schriftforschung 2 both appeared in 1924-1925; and in 1 933, two important works on Ashurbanipal's official inscriptions were published: Theo Bauer's Inschriftenwerk Assurbanipals; and Arthur Carl Piepkorn's Historical Prism Inscriptions of Ashurbanipal, as well as Eckhard Unger's Sargon II. von Assyrien. Other major works include: Arthur Godfred Lie's Inscriptions of Sargon II (1929) and Campbell Thompson's The Prisms of Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal (193 1). Luckenbill's 1 926-1927 work Ancient Records ofAssyria and Babylonia provided translations of all the Assyrian royal inscriptions known to him, and most of these come from the time of the Empire. These translations are still regularly cited today, even though more recent works have really made them obsolete. Although I have not tended to mention work on Neo-Assyrian scholarly and scientific texts, I think that I would be remiss in not noting the efforts of Campbell Thompson, with his Assyrian Medical Texts; Assyrian Herbal; On the Chemistry of the Ancient Assyr­ ians; and Dictionary of Assyrian Chemistry and Geology, published in 1923, 1924, 1 925 and 1 936 respectively, and his later Dictionary ofAssyrian Botany (published posthumously in 1949). These four works included a lot of non-Neo-Assyrian material, in particular material from Babylonia, but the Kuyunjik collection of texts provided a vast amount of his information. Editions of the almost fifteen hundred letters copied by Harper were produced by Leroy Waterman in 1930-1936 (Royal Correspondence ofthe Assyrian Empire) and in 1935 Robert Henry Pfeiffer published editions of 355 of them in his State Letters ofAssyria; and we should not forget Joseph Schawe's slightly earlier Untersuchung der Elambriefe aus dem Archiv Assurbanipals (1927). Waterman's work remained the basic edition of the letters for about forty years, until Simo Parpola published the first volume of his Letters from Assyrian Scholars to the Kings Esarhaddon and As­ surbanipal in 1 970, and later began the Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project (NATCP) to re-edit all the Neo-Assyrian letters, as well as most of the other non-royal Neo­ Assyrian texts. Before leaving the interwar period, I should not fail to mention the esteemed Assyriologist Ernst Weidner, who has left us numerous important studies on various aspects of the Empire, as well as on numerous other topics, often in articles in his journal Archivfar Orientforschung, articles that continued into the 1960s. Also wor­ thy of mention is Friedrich (Frederick) Wilhelm Geers, who between 1 924 and 1939 made the famous "Geers copies" of texts in the Kuyunjik collection, although they were not really worked on systematically until after his death in 1955. Although several important works on the Neo-Assyrian Empire appeared during World War I, very little on this topic was published during World War II. In addition, few major works were published in the decade following World War II, as people strove to recover economically from the widespread effects of that war. We can, however, note the beginning of a long series of articles on Shalmaneser III by Ernst Michel in the periodical Welt des Orients (1947-1967). It is impossible for me to survey all the research done on the Neo-Assyrian Empire since the mid-1950s in this paper, and this is indeed a happy fact. It shows 1 1 Numerous texts from the Neo-Assyrian period have been published in the CT series over the years, most recently more than fifteen hundred fragmentary letters found on Kuyunjik at Nineveh (CT 53 and 54 = Parpola 1979 and Dietrich 1 979 respectively).

7

GRANT FRAME

that research in this area has expanded rapidly. In the late 1950s and 1960s a number of young scholars began to work on the Neo-Assyrian Empire and their publications have remained central to the study of the Neo-Assyrian Empire until now, and for the foreseeable future; prominent among these scholars were Rykle Borger, Karl­ heinz Deller, A. Kirk Grayson, Simo Parpola, J. Nicholas Postgate, and Hayim Tad­ mor. At the "Assyria 1995" conference, Grayson stated that [t]he birth of"Assyrian" Studies, as opposed to other branches of Mesopotamian culture such as Babylonian, dates to the 1 950s. By this time there was a clear recognition among scholars that Assyria was a distinct culture with its own special dialect of the Akkadian language. Research accordingly reflected this recognition in archaeological and philo­ logical activity and in cultural studies" . 1 2

For the period from the 1950s to 1 995, he emphasized in particular: (1) the archaeo­ logical work at Nimrud by Max Edgar Lucien Mallowan and David Oates and the creation of the Cuneiform Texts from Nimrud (CTN) series of text publications; 13 (2) various salvage excavation projects conducted along the Euphrates and Tigris rivers; (3) the importance of Karlheinz Deller's 1 959 doctoral thesis Lautlehre des Neuassyrischen which was unpublished when Grayson spoke and which remains still unpublished today, although available in various centres of Assyriology; (4) the holding of several "small symposia concentrating on individual aspects of Assyrian studies"; (5) "a growing circle of specialists in Assyrian dialects"; and (6) the appearance of "new projects of importance to Assyrian studies". 14 I can agree with Grayson's view that the 1950s saw the commencement ofa major advance in the study of Assyrian studies, and in particular the study of the Neo­ Assyrian Empire, but I would add that beginning in the 1980s matters began to advance at an even more rapid pace and that some new developments around that time have spurred that advance. I will also highlight a number of topics, approaches and trends that I see in the field of Neo-Assyrian studies over the past approximately fifty years, some of which are a continuation of matters noted by Grayson twenty years ago and some of which are new. 1) The publication of up-to-date editions of the official inscriptions of the rulers of the Neo-Assyrian Empire based on collation of the originals has continued. Here, we think of the excellent work of such scholars as Rykle Borger (Inschriften Asar­ haddons [1 956] and Beitriige zum Inschriftenwerk Assurbanipals [1996]) and his students Eckart Frahm (Einleitung in die Sanherib-Inschriften [ 1997]) and Andreas Fuchs (Die Inschriften Sargons II. aus Khorsabad [1994]), as well as that of the Israeli scholar Hayim Tadmor (Tig/ath-pileser III [1994]). I must also unabashedly point to the work of Albert Kirk Grayson and the members of his Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia Project (RIM) (in particular Grayson, The Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia. Assyrian Periods 2 and 3 [ 1991 and 1996]), and to the work of my own Royal Inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian Period Project (RINAP) (Hayim Tadmor and Shigeo Yamada, RINAP 1 [20 1 1]; A. K. Grayson and Jamie Novotny, RINAP 3/1-2 [20 12 and 2014]; and Erle Leichty, RINAP 4 [201 1]) to produce stan12

Grayson 1997, 1 12. The archaeological work by Mallowan and Oates also resulted in a flood of text-based articles by such scholars as Cyril John Gadd, Barbara Parker, Henry William Frederick Saggs, and Donald John Wiseman in the journal Iraq. See also Saggs 2001 (Cuneiform Texts from Nimrud 5) for revised editions of the letters excavated in 1952 and originally published in Iraq. 14 Grayson 1 997, 1 12f. 13

8

A HISTORY OF RESEARCH ON THE NED-ASSYRIAN EMPIRE

dardized editions based on extensive collations of the originals. 15 RIM began at the University of Toronto in 1980 and lasted until 2006, while RINAP began at the University of Pennsylvania in 2008 and is on-going. In total, six volumes Neo­ Assyrian royal inscriptions have appeared in the RIM and RINAP series, and more RINAP volumes are in progress. Making these texts, the basic instruments for the study of the history of the Neo-Assyrian period, available in a user-friendly way to non-specialists has been the goal of both projects. 1 6 2) One could legitimately state that the products and by-products of the Neo-As­ syrian Text Corpus project (see http://www.helsinki.fi/science/saa/ and http://oracc. museum.upenn.edu/saao/), a project begun by Simo Parpola in Helsinki in 1986, are where one normally first looks for current research on the Neo-Assyrian Empire. Editions of letters, legal and administrative texts, literary texts, treaties, religious texts and divination requests are presented in its series State Archives of Assyria, where twenty volumes have appeared to date, by such people as Simo Parpola, Man­ fred Dietrich, Frederick Mario Fales, Alasdair Livingstone, Mikko Luuk- ko, J. N. Postgate, Ivan Starr and Greta Van Buylaere, with at least two more volumes in the works, including one by myself on the letters to Ashurbanipal from southern Babylonia. 1 7 Studies of numerous topics - including for example eponym lists (Alan Millard 1 994),judicial procedure (Remko Jas 1 996), private legal texts (Karen Radner 1997), Sargon's Nineveh prism (Andreas Fuchs 1 998), "Herrschaftswissen" (Beate Pongratz-Leisten 1999), royal magnates (Raija Mattila 2000), Neo-Assyrian grammar (Jaakko Hameen-Anttila 2000) and grammatical variation (Mikko Luukko 2004) - have appeared in its series State Archives ofAssyria Studies, with twenty­ five volumes appearing to date. Identifying individuals in Neo-Assyrian documents has been made much simpler by its Prosopography of the Neo-Assyrian Empire (PNA), edited in tum by Karen Radner and Heather Baker (1998-present). 1 8 Among its other numerous volumes, I will just mention Simo Parpola and Michael Porter's The Helsinki Atlas ofthe Near East in the Neo-Assyrian Period (200 1) as something that I consult regularly (although I admit that I don't always agree with the probability factor assigned to the identification of every site). In 1987, the Neo­ Assyrian Text Corpus Project created the first - and still only - periodical devoted to the Neo-Assyrian period, the State Archives of Assyria Bulletin (SAAB), edited by Frederick Mario Fales, Giovanni B. Lanfranchi and Simonetta Ponchia, which has up until now published twenty-one volumes. 19 3) The Assur project is supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and is a common endeavour of the Deutsche Orientgesellschaft, the Vorderasiatisches Museum, and the Freie Universitat of Berlin. It has been headed since 1994 by Johannes Renger and has about thirty archaeologists and Assyriologists working on the documentation of the excavation and finds (including inscribed objects) of the German work at Assur. In addition to various archaeological volumes, four volumes 15

For the RINAP project and its online material, see http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/. The new editions of the Neo-Assyrian rulers have facilitated studies of those rulers' reigns (e.g., Yamada 2000). 1 7 Volumes 1-10 can also be found online (State Archives of Assyria Online = SAAo); see below sub no. 8. 18 The basic prosopography was completed in 201 1 with volume 3 part 2, but H. Baker is about to submit for publication an index volume, which will be volume 4 part I . 19 Tables of contexts for volumes 1-1 8 may be found online at http://www.helsinki.fi/science/ saa/saab. 16

9

GRANT FRAME

of Neo-Assyrian texts preserved in the Vorderasiatisches Museum that had previ­ ously been unavailable to western scholars have appeared in the series Keilschrift­ texte aus Assur aus neuassyrischer Zeit (KAN 1 = Liane Jakob-Rost and F. Mario Fales 1 996; KAN 2 = Jakob-Rost, Radner and Veysel Donbaz 2000; KAN 3 = Faist 2005; and KAN 4 = Faist 20 1 1). The series Studien zu den Assur-Texten (StAT) has produced important studies of legal and administrative texts by Radner (StAT 1 [1 999]), Donbaz and Parpola (StAT 2 [2001 ]), and Faist (StAT 3 [2007]). At Hei­ delberg, a team headed by Stefan M. Maul focuses on literary and scientific texts from Assur and has recent published Eckart Frahm's Historische und historisch-lite­ rarische Texte (2009) as the third volume in the series Keilschrifttexte aus Assur literarischen Inhalts (KAL). 4) What one might call the Italian school of Neo-Assyrian studies led by Mario Liverani, F. Mario Fales and Giovanni B. Lanfranchi has advanced the study of the Assyrian Empire in numerous ways by using new approaches to the materials and producing important works, in particular on geographical and ideological-related matters (e.g., Liverani, Studies on the Annals ofAshurnasirpal II. 2: Topographical Analysis [1 992] and Neo-Assyrian Geography [1995]). Because some of their publications are written in Italian (e.g., Fales, Censimenti e catasti di epoca neo­ assira [1973] and Fales and Lanfranchi, Lettere dalla corte assira [ 1992]) they have not been cited by non-Italian scholars as frequently as they deserve. 5) Numerous important conferences have taken place since the late 1 970s that have allowed specialists working on the Neo-Assyrian period to gather and discuss matters. All of these conferences resulted in the publication of some or all of the papers presented, including many important studies on the Empire. Such conferences include: 20 1977 Copenhagen, Denmark : "Empires in the Ancient World" (Larsen, Power and Propa­ ganda [ 1979]); 1980 Cetona, Italy: "Assyrian Royal Inscriptions: New Horizons" (Fales, Assyrian Royal Inscriptions [198 1 ]); 1992 Heidelberg, Germany: "Assyrien im Wandel der Zeiten," 39th Rencontre Assyriolo­ gique Internationale (Waetzoldt and Hauptmann, Assyrien im Wandel der Zeiten [1997]); 1994 Paris, France: "Khorsabad, le palais de Sargon II, roi d'Assyrie" (Caubet, Khorsabad [1995]); 1995 Helsinki, Finland: "Assyria 1995" (Parpola and Whiting, Assyria 1995 [1997)); 2001 Padua, Italy: "Continuity of Empire: Assyria, Media, Persia" (Lanfranchi, Roaf and Rollinger, Continuity of Empire (?) [2003])21 ; 2002 London, England: "Nimrod' (Curtis et al., New Light on Nimrud [2008]); 2003 London, England: "Nineveh," 49th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale (George and Collon, Nineveh [2005]);

20

A few of the conferences and subsequent publications mentioned below did not dealjust with the Neo-Assyrian Empire, but included numerous important presentations on it (e.g., Copenhagen 1977, and Heidelberg 1992). 21 It is interesting, and important, to note that while the title of the conference was "Continuity of Empire: Assyria, Media, Persia," for the publication "(?)" was added to the title: "Continuity of Empire (?): Assyria, Media, Persia" (see p. viii oftbe publication).

A HISTORY OF RESEARCH ON THE NEO-ASSYRIAN EMPIRE

2003 Jerusalem, Israel: Conference in Honour of Hayim Tadmor's 80th Birthday (Eph'al and Na'aman, Royal Assyrian Inscriptions: History, Historiography and Ideology [2009]); 2004 Berlin, Germany: "Assur: Gott, Stadt und Land," lntemationales Colloquium der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft 5 (Renger, Assur - Gott, Stadt und Land [2011]); 2009 Edinburgh, Scotland: ''Neo-Assyrian Prophecy"22 (Gordon and Barstad, "Thus Speaks Ishtar of Arbela " [2013]) 2012 Cambridge, England: "Provincial Archaeology of the Assyrian Empire" (MacGinnis, Wicke and Greenfield, The Provincial Archaeology of the Assyrian Empire [2016]) 20 1 4 Helsinki, Finland: "Writing Neo-Assyrian History: Sources, Problems and Ap­ proaches" (publication: the present volume) 20 1 4 Tsukuba, Japan: "Interaction, Interplay and Combined Use of Different Sources in Neo-Assyrian Studies: Monumental Texts and Archival Sources" (publication forth­ coming)

6) While an increasing number of scholars consider the numerous Festschriften in the field of Assyriology a blot on the scholarly and professional landscape, such volumes have become ubiquitous and are, I regret to say, in effect no longer marks of particular esteem. Some volumes for scholars working mainly in the Neo­ Assyrian period have included a substantial number of important articles related to our topic. Such Festschriften include those for F. M. Fales, A. K. Grayson, G. B. Lanfranchi, S. Parpola, and H. Tadmor.23 Interestingly, some others - such as those for R. Borger and K. Deller24 - have comparatively few Neo-Assyrian-related articles.25 7) Young scholars today find it difficult to imagine anyone doing serious work without using a computer and electronic databases, but these are comparatively recent innovations. The early stages of their use in Neo-Assyrian studies may again go back to Helsinki and a Finnish scholar. In 1970, Simo Parpola used punch cards to produce his Neo-Assyrian Toponyms. Beginning in about 1980, the RIM project in Toronto used a mainframe UNIX computer and the ''vi" ("visual editor") program, which we commonly referred to as "vile", to organize materials and to produce manuscripts. The use of computers and computerized databases has made it much easier for scholars to manipulate the large amounts of data, whether items of material culture or information from large bodies of texts from the time of the Empire. 8) Another recent development, one that has resulted from the creation of the Internet, has been the increasing presentation of material online, sometimes in con­ nection with more traditional printed publications and sometimes not. At times the websites are designed for strictly pedagogical purposes and at times for scholarly research purposes. A number ofthe online presentations are associated with the Open 22

See www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/divinity/research/proj ects/prophecy/2009-conference (seen September 10, 2015). 23 Fales: Lanfranchi et al. 2012; Grayson: Frame 2004; Lanfranchi: Gaspa et al. 2014; Parpola: Luukko, Svlird & Mattila 2009; Tadmor: Cogan & Eph'al 1991; Eph'al & Na'aman 2009; and note also Eph'al, Ben-Tor & Machinist 2003. 24 Borger: Maul 1998; and Deller: Mauer & Magen 1988. 25 Although not the product of a conference or a Festschrift, one should also note the important volume edited by Hayim Tadmor and Moshe Weinfeld, History, Historiography, and Interpreta­ tion (1983) for some useful articles on the topic. 11

GRANT FRAME

Richly Annotated Cuneiform Corpus (ORA.CC), created by Stephen Tinney and managed by him, Jamie Novotny, Eleanor Robson and Niek Veldhuis.26 The relevant projects located there include: a) Assyrian Empire Builders (AEB) (directed by K. Radner) b) The Geography of Knowledge in Assyria and Babylonia (GKAB) (directed by E. Robson) c) Knowledge and Power in the Neo-Assyrian Empire (K&P) (directed by K. Radner and E. Robson) d) Nimrod: Materialities of Assyrian Knowledge Production (directed by E. Robson) e) Royal Inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian Period (RINAP) (directed by G. Frame) f) State Archives of Assyria Online (SAAo) (based on a heritage dataset created by Simo Parpola and directed by K. Radner)

9) Important aids for the study of the Empire have appeared in the last few decades, some in print form and some online. Among the printed items, I might single out Wolfgang Schramm's Einleitung in die assyrischen Konigsinschriften, Part 2, in 1 973; Olof Pedersen's Archives and Libraries in the City ofAssur in 1985-1 986 and Katalog der beschrifteten Objekte aus Assur in 1 997; and Ariel Bagg's first of three volumes on the Neo-Assyrian period for the Repertoire geographique des textes cuneiformes (Beihefte zum Tubinger Atlas des Vorderen Orients) in 2007. Several useful bibliographies dealing with the Neo-Assyrian period also have appeared, in particular five bibliographies published in SAAB: a) Jaakko Hameen-Anttila, SAAB 1/2 (1987); for the years 1 948-1987; b) Karlheinz Deller, SAAB 2/2 (1 988); for the year 1 988, but with some items from the years 1 979-1987 not found in the previous bibliography; c) Raija M�ttila and Karen Radner, SAAB 1 1 (1 997); for the years 1 988-1997; d) Mikko Luukko and Salvatore Gaspa, SAAB 17 (2008); for the years 1 998-2006; e) Salvatore Gaspa, SAAB 1 9 (201 1-12); for the years 2007-20 12.

It is interesting to note that Luukko and Gaspa divide their bibliography in SAAB 17 into twenty-three different fields or subgroups ofNeo-Assyrian studies. Among the various important online aids, I must first point to the British Museum and the website of its Ashurbanipal library project (begun in 2002).27 In addition, there are a number of online resources that are not Neo-Assyrian specific but that provide great help .to scholars working on Neo-Assyrian materials, for example: a) The "Cuneiform Digital L1brary Inititative" (CDLI) based at the University of California Los Angeles provides photos of - and at times some bibliographic and textual infor­ mation on - a vast number of cuneiform texts (http://cdli.ucla. edu/). b) The "Digitale Nah- und Mittelost-Studien" site at the University of Marburg provides access to indices of Akkadian and Sumerian words found in the Register Assyriologie published in Archivfar Orientforschung volumes 25 (1974-77) to 52 (201 1 ) (http://www. dnms.org/apps). c) "KeiBi online" of the University ofTiibingen provides access to some of the Keilschrift­ bibliographie from the journal Orientalia (http://vergil.uni-tuebingen.de/keibi/). 26

See http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/index.html. See http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/research_projects/all_current_projects/Ashurbanipal_lib rary_phase_l .aspx. Note also http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/asbp/index.html and http: //www.fincke-cuneiform.com/nineveh/, as well as Fincke 2003-04, 1 1 1-149. 27

12

A HISTORY OF RESEARCH ON THE NEG-ASSYRIAN EMPIRE

d) AMAR, the "Archive of Mesopotamia Archaeological Site Reports" managed by E. Stone, provides access to numerous archaeological site reports (http://amar.hsclib.swtysb. edu/amar/). e) The wide-ranging "Ancient World Online" (AWOL), managed by C.E Jones at Penn State, has links to a vast amowit of open access material relating to the ancient world (http://ancientworldonline.blogspot.com/).

An excellent overview of the internet resources for Assyriology is Dominique Charpin's article "Ressources assyriologiques sur internet" in Bibliotheca Orienta/is 71 (20 14). 33 1-357, although it is already somewhat out-of-date, as will the present list by the time it is published. 10) While interest in the period of the empire was initially spurred by its numer­ ous contacts with and influence on the peoples of the Bible, nowadays most Assyriologists come to the field out of an interest in the ancient cultures of Mesopo­ tamia and the Near East in general, rather than because they want to learn more about the background against which the events of the Bible took place or more specifically to prove those events actually occurred. Thus, the studies of Assyrian-Biblical rela­ tions by such scholars as Morton (Mordechai) Cogan, Israel Eph'al, Steven Winford Holloway, Nadav Na'aman, and K. Lawson Younger are generally quite different, and more even-handed in their treatment of Assyria than those written by many earlier scholars. 1 1) Since the 1970s, there has developed a strong interest in the ideology and implementation ofNeo-Assyrian imperialism, with such works as Morton Cogan's Imperialism and Religion ( 1974), J. N. Postgate's Taxation and Conscription in the Assyrian Empire (1974), Bustenay Oded's Mass Deportations and Deportees in the Neo-Assyrian Empire (1 979) and War, Peace and Empire (1 992), Jurgen Bar's Der assyrische Tribut (1 996), Bradley J. Parker's The Mechanics ofEmpire (2001), Galo W. Vera Chamaza's Die Omnipotenz Assurs (2002) and Steven Winford Holloway's Assur is King (2002). Since the 1970s there has also been renewed interest in study­ ing the Assyrian military, an area that had been generally neglected since the important article by Walther Manitius in Zeitschrift for Assyriologie in 19 10. For example, Tariq A. Madhloom's Chronology ofNeo-Assyrian Art (1 970) has helped us identify changes in military armour and equipment over time. In the 1980s there were important works by Florence Malbran-Labat (L 'armee et / 'organisation mili­ taire [1 982]) and Stephanie Dalley and Nicholas Postgate (Cuneiform Texts from Nimrud 3 [ 1 984]), and more recent works include Israel Eph'al's The City Besieged (2009), Mario Fales' Guerre et paix en Assyrie (2010), Tamas Dezso's The Assyrian Army (20 12 and 20 16), and Fabrice De Backer's L 'art du siege neo-assyrien (2013 ). 12) I will not enumerate any of the important works in the study ofNeo-Assyrian art and architecture, or of women in the Neo-Assyrian period, or of any of the other various areas I could single out for consideration. I will, however, mention one area ofresearch that has become important since the 1950s: the study of treaties or loyalty oaths (ade). Certainly some Neo-Assyrian treaties were known earlier, but the publi­ cation of Esarhaddon's "vassal treaties" by D. J. Wiseman in 1958 and A.K. Gray­ son's and S. Parpola's publication of several additional fragmentary treaties in Journal of Cuneiform Studies 39 (1 987) spurred work in this area. All the Neo­ Assyrian treaties are edited in an SAA volume (Parpola and Watanabe, SAA 2

13

GRANT FRAME

[ 1 988]).28 A copy of Esarhaddon's "vassal treaty" recently found at Tell Tayinat, on the Orontes River in southern Turkey, and published by Jacob Lauinger in Journal of Cuneiform Studies 64 (20 12) has caused even more interest in this genre, in large part because of the fact that is seems to have been set up for display in a temple cella. 1 3) Research on the Neo-Assyrian Empire has now spread to Japan, a country that had formerly been a zone of almost purely Sumerian research. Able work has been done by such scholars as Daisuke Shibata, Chikako Watanabe, Kazuko Wata­ nabe and Shigeo Yamada, as well as undoubtedly in the future by Sanae Ito, who defended her dissertation on Royal Image and Political Thinking in the Letters of Assurbanipal at the University of Helsinki in early 20 15. In contrast, there appears to be a decreasing interest in the Neo-Assyrian period in the French-speaking world. Certainly in the past important work on this period has been carried out in France and some continues to be done by such scholars as Philippe Talon and Pierre Villard. Moreover, the current relative lack of interest in this area does not reflect a lack of work or interest in Assyriology in general in France and the rest of the French­ speaking world.29 14) Numerous sites with Neo-Assyrian levels have been excavated, legally or illegally, in the provincial and border areas, and these have provided a wealth of information on those regions about which little had been known previously. Such sites include, for example, Tell Tayinat and Ziyaret Tepe in Turkey, Ma'allanate (modem Ma'lana?) and Tell Sheikh Hamad in Syria, and various small sites on the Middle Euphrates in Iraq near Anat (e.g., Sur Jar'a and Yemniyeh). Regrettably the political situation in the area has deteriorated drastically since 1 979 and the pace of that deterioration is increasing. I hope that this will end and that once again work on recovering the history and heritage of the ancient Assyrians can be carried out. 1 5) Scholars are beginning to look more closely at the connections between the Middle Assyrian and Neo-Assyrian periods, noting both continuities and disconti­ nuities. As of now, there has been no monograph length study of this, but several scholars have written articles on this topic, for example Pinhas Artzi ( 1997), Mario Liverani (2004), Nicholas Postgate (1997), Johannes Renger (1997), and Michael Roaf (2001). 1 6) It is worthy of note that, as far as I am aware, there has been no monograph­ length scholarly history or detailed study of the Neo-Assyrian Empire as a whole in 28

14

It should be noted that for some things the edition ofEsarhaddon's vassal treaties in Watanabe 1 987 is better and more easily used than that in SAA 2. 29 Dr. Olivier Rouault has suggested to me that the relative lack of interest in, or perhaps better, of specialized research on, the Neo-Assyrian empire in France may depend on ( 1) a deep embed­ ded "rationalizing" attitude in French historiography, which refrains from studies in ancient ide­ ologies so close to religion - considered as too obvious, in a way -, leaving them to other kinds of analysis, and (2) the objective fact that the early twentieth century French zone of influence in the Middle East included Syria and the Levant, but not Iraq. Thus French scholars have concen­ trated their work on Syrian sites - in particular Mari and Ugarit - which have been providing abundant second-millennium epigraphic materials for publication and study, until a very recent time. Nevertheless, the tradition of "Assyrian" studies inherited from R. Labat and P. Garelli is still alive. See, among others, the works ofL. Marti, B. Lion, M. G. Masetti-Rouault, F. Joannes and P. Clancier specializing on the Neo-Babylonian period. From an archaeological point of view, the excavations in Tell Masaikh/Kar Assumasiipal in the Syrian Lower Euphrates valley, carried out by M. G. Masetti-Rouault (2005-201 1) have been followed by the new programs in Iraqi Kurdistan, launched in Qasr Shemamok-Kilizu, as well as in Bash Tappa, by the mission directed by L. Marti and C. Nicolle.

A HISTORY OF RESEARCH ON THE NEO-ASSYRIAN EMPIRE

English, French or German, although we should note F. M. Fales' L 'impero assiro (200 1) in Italian. Undoubtedly this is due to the vast amount of material that would have to be gone through and examined for such a study. Among the more extensive or detailed works that do exist are the series of five chapters by A. K. Grayson in the second edition of the Cambridge Ancient History (volumes 3/1 and 3/2, published in 1 982 and 1 991 respectively) and the latter part of Walter Mayer's Politik und Kriegs­ kunst der Assyrer (1995). There have of course been numerous studies published on individual rulers or particular areas of the empire, for example, Daniel Amaud's biography of Assurbanipal (2007), Barbara Nevling Porter's study of Esarhaddon's Babylonian policy (1 993), Walther Mayer's study dealing with Assyria and Urartu (201 3), and my own study of Babylonia under the Assyrian empire 68-627 (1992). 17) Sociologists and scholars in other fields are beginning to take notice of the Neo-Assyrian empire and to make use of material on it in their own studies (e.g., Michael Mann, The Sources of Social Power, vol. 1 [ 1 986] and Ian Morris and Walter Scheidel, The Dynamics of Ancient Empires: State Power from Assyria to Byzantium [2009]). 1 8) Finally, a great deal of research on the Neo-Assyrian Empire has in a way vanished from purview or is at least hidden in doctoral dissertations, in particular in the English-speaking world where dissertations are not required to be published. Many or most of these can be acquired through ProQuest (formerly University Microfilms) if one knows about them and a few are sometimes cited in scholarly publications, such as Pamela Gerardi's Penn dissertation Assurbanipal 's Elamite Campaigns (1 987) and Nancy Woodington's Yale dissertation A Grammar of the Neo-Babylonian Letters ofthe Kuyunjik Collection (1982), but many are not. Perhaps it is best that some have disappeared from view, but one might say the same about some published dissertations, not just in the English-speaking world. A list of the dissertations in English known to the author that have not resulted in books or a series of major articles is found in Appendix A at the end of this article. At the present time, ISIS/ISIL/DAESH extremists are attempting to obliterate the remains of the great history of ancient Mesopotamia, by such means as blowing up the palace of Ashurnasirpal II at Nimrud and smashing Neo-Assyrian palace reliefs in Mosul. Thus, it is important for us to do all we can to preserve knowledge of the history and achievements of the Neo-Assyrian Empire and make it known to the world at large. Despite the current deplorable conditions in northern Iraq and Syria, in view of 1) the increasing amount of material available for the study ofthe history and culture of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, with new texts coming from both legal and illegal excavations and from both well-known and previously unexcavated provincial sites, and, 2) the increasing number of standardized, up-to-date editions oflarge bodies of texts based on collation of the original documents; 3) the increasing number of new resources for understanding and working on the texts, resources both in printed form and online, and 4) the increasing use of new approaches and methodologies in looking these materials. I think that we are seeing the beginning of a new age in the study ofthe Neo-Assyrian Empire. 15

GRANT FRAME

APPENDIX A This appendix includes a list of dissertations (almost exclusively from North America) that in some way deal with the Neo-Assyrian period and that have not resulted in any published monograph or major article to the author's knowledge. A few dissertations that are in the process of being prepared for publication have not been included. A number of the items listed were kindly brought to the author's attention by Mikko Luukko. Ahmad, Ali Yaseen, Some Neo-Assyrian Provincial Administrators, Ph.D. dissertation Uni­ versity of London, 1 984. Allen, Michael Jack, Contested Peripheries: Philistia in the Neo-Assyrian World System, Ph.D. dissertation University of California, Los Angeles, 1 997. Arbino, Gary P., Effects of Neo-Assyrian Administration on Populations West of the Euphra­ tes, Ph.D. dissertation Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary, 1 995. Arnold, Bill T., Babylonian Letters from the Kuyunjik Collection: Seventh Century Uruk in Light of New Epistolary Evidence, Ph.D. dissertation Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion, 1 985. Barbanes, Eleanor, Heartland and Province: Urban and Rural Settlement in the Neo-As­ syrian Empire, Ph.D. dissertation University of California, Berkeley, 1 999. Barron, Amy E., Late Assyrian Arms and Armour: Art versus Artifact, Ph.D. dissertation University of Toronto, 2010. Bing, John Daniel, A History of Cilicia During the Assyrian Period, Ph.D. dissertation Indiana University, 1 968. Bloom, Joanne B., Material Remains of the Neo-Assyrian Presence in Palestine and Trans­ jordan, Ph.D. dissertation Bryn Mawr College, 1 988. Bulbach, Stanley Walter, Judah in the Reign of Manasseh as Evidenced in Texts during the Neo-Assyrian Period and in the Archaeology of the Iron Age, Ph.D. dissertation New York University, 1 98 1. Cathey, Joseph Ray, A Narrato/ogical-Discourse Analysis of Selected Assyrian and Biblical Conquest Accounts, Ph.D. dissertation Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2003. Cheng, Jack, Assyrian Music as Represented and Representations of Assyrian Music, Ph.D. dissertation Harvard University, 2001. Cifarelli, Megan, Enmity, Alienation and Assyrianization: The Role of Cultural Differences in the Visual and Verbal Expression of Assyrian Ideology in the Reign of Assurnasirpal II (883-859 B.C.), Ph.D. dissertation Columbia University, 1 995. Dreyfus, Renee Beller, A Purely Assyrian Art: Ivories Carved in the "Assyrian Style", Ph.D.

dissertation University of California, Berkeley, 2001. Freedman, Robert David, The Cuneiform Tablets in St. Louis, Ph.D. dissertation Columbia University, 1 975. Gerardi, Pamela DeHart, Assurbanipal's Elamite Campaigns: A Literary and Political Study, Ph.D. dissertation University of Pennsylvania, 1987. Hannoon, Nail, Studies in the Historical Geography of Northern Iraq during the Middle and Neo-Assyrian Periods, Ph.D. dissertation University of Toronto, 1 986. Helm, Peyton Randolph, "Greeks " in the Neo-Assyrian Levant and "Assyria " in Early Greek Writers, Ph.D. dissertation University of Pennsylvania, 1980. Herrmann, V. Rimmer, Society and Economy under Empire at Iron Age Sam'al (Zincirli Hoyiik, Turkey), Ph.D. dissertation The University of Chicago, 201 1 . Kim, Tae-Hun, Assyrian Historical Inscriptions and Political and Economic Relations among Assyria, the Syro-Palestinian States, and Egypt in the Eighth-Seventh Centuries BCE,

Ph.D. dissertation University of California, Berkeley, 2002. Knapp, Andrew, Royal Apologetic in the Ancient Near East, Ph.D. dissertation The Johns Hopkins University, 201 2. 16

A HISTORY OF RESEARCH ON THE NEG-ASSYRIAN EMPIRE

Lederman, Richard C., The Designation of Foreign Te"itory in Assyrian Royal Inscriptions of the Sargonid Period, Ph.D. dissertation Annenberg Research Institute, 1 989. Mangie, Evelyn DeLong, A Comparative Study of the Perceptions of Illness in New Kingdom Egypt and Mesopotamia of the Early First Millennium, Ph.D. dissertation University of Akron, 1 991. May, Natalie Naomi, Sacral Functions of the King as Represented in Neo-Assyrian Art (Ninth-Seventh Centuries BCE), Ph.D. dissertation Beer-Sheva, Ben Gurion University of the Negev 2008. Meltzer, Cheryl Dawn, Concluding Formulae in Ancient Mesopotamian Royal Inscriptions: The Assyrian Sources, Ph.D. dissertation University of Toronto, 1 983. Morrison, Eric D., A Form-Critical Study of Assyrian Royal Inscriptions Containing Building Texts, Ph.D. dissertation Claremont Graduate University, 1998. Neumann, Kiersten Ashley, Resu"ected and Reevaluated: The Neo-Assyrian Temple as a Ritualized and Ritualizing Built Environment, Ph.D. dissertation University of California, Berkeley, 2014. Novotny, Jamie R., Ebulbul, Egipar, Emelamana, and Sin 's Akftu-House: A Study of Assyr­ ian Building Activities at /jarriin, Ph.D. dissertation University of Toronto, 2003. Platt, Hendrik Gert, Divine Rule and Political Aggression: A Study of First Millennium Cu­ neiform Inscriptions, Ph.D. dissertation Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion, 1998. Redford, Douglas William, Quest for the Crown Jewel: The Centrality of Egypt in the For­ eign Policy of Esarhaddon, Ph.D. dissertation Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, 1998. Russell, G. Lindsay, Sennacherib 's Annals: A Foundation Text Study, Ph.D. dissertation Dropsie College, 1 967. Russell, H.F, The Historical Geography of Upper Mesopotamia and Surrounding Areas Ac­ cording to the Middle- and Neo-Assyrian Sources, Ph.D. dissertation University of London, 1 983. Schneider, Tami Joy, A New Analysis of the Royal Annals ofShalmaneser III, Ph.D. disserta­ tion University of Pennsylvania, 1991. Sinclair, Cameron, A Linguistic Analysis ofNeo-Assyrian Syntax, Ph.D. dissertation Dropsie College, 1970. Taleb, Muhmud Abu, Investigations in the History of North Syria 1115-717 B.C., Ph.D. dissertation University of Pennsylvania, 1 973. Tanyeri-Erdemir, Tugba, Continuity, Change, and Innovation: Considering the Agency of Rusa II in the Production of the Imperial Art and Architecture of Urartu in the 7th century B.C., Ph.D. dissertation Boston University, 2005. Tudeau Crespo, J., Assyrian Building Practices and Ideologies According to the Assyrian Royal Inscriptions and State Archives, Ph.D. dissertation University of Cambridge, 20 1 2. Unwalla, A., The Propaganda & Ideology Seen in the Reliefs of the Achaemenid & Neo­ Assyrian Empires: A Comparative Study, M.A. thesis University of Leiden, 2007. Whitekettle, Richard Wagner, Human Reproduction in the Textual Record of Mesopotamia and Syria-Palestine during the First and Second Millennia B.C., Ph.D. dissertation Yale

University, 1 995. Woodington, Nancy Ruth, A Grammar of the Neo-Babylonian Letters of the Kuyunjik Collec­ tion, Ph.D. dissertation Yale University, 1 982. Wright, Charlotte Ann, The Literary Structure of Assyro-Babylonian Prayers to Ishtar, Ph.D. dissertation University of Michigan, 1 979. Yun, 11-Sung Andrew, The Aramaic and Akkadian Bilingual Inscription.from Tell Fekheriyeh and the Dialects of Old Aramaic, Ph.D. dissertation The Johns Hopkins University, 2008. Zamazalova, Silvie, Claiming the World: Geographical Conceptions and Royal Ideology in the Neo-Assyrian Empire, with Focus on the Reign of Sargon II (721-705 BC), Ph.D. dissertation University College London, 201 3 Zsolnay, Ilona, The Function o f /star in the Assyrian Royal Inscriptions: A Contextual Analysis of the Actions Attributed to /star in the Inscriptions of ltiti through Shalmaneser lll, Ph.D. dissertation Brandeis University, 2009.

17

GRANT FRAME

Fig. 1. Carl Bezold (1859-1922)

Fig. 2. Rykle Borger (1929-2010)

Fig. 3. Reginald Campbell Thompson (1876-1941)

Fig. 4. Karlheinz Deller (1927-2003)

Fig. 5. Robert Francis Harper (1864-1914)

Fig. 6. Claude Hermann Walter Johns (1857-1920)

Fig. 7. Fig. 8. Daniel David Luckenbill Albert Ten Eyck Olmstead (1881-1927) (1880-1945) 18

Fig. 9. Henry William Frederick Saggs (1920-2005)

A HISTORY OF RESEARCH ON THE NED-ASSYRIAN EMPIRE

�

1.., /J,,,.,� t.,.,

��-

...,1,.:.. ;NL\ � 1 "·

Fig. 10. Hayim Tadmor (1 923-2005)

Fig. I I . Knut Leonard Tallqvist (1865-1949)

Fig. 12 Hugo Winckler (1863-1913)

Figs. I , 3. Courtesy of J. Taylor. Fig. 2. Courtesy ofS. Maul. Fig. 4. Courtesy ofP. Gesche. Fig. 5. Courtesy of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago (P. 2175). Fig. 6. Courtesy of the Archives of St. Catharine's College, Cambridge (PHOT/7/Johns). Fig. 7. Courtesy of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago (P. 6953). Fig. 8. From Bulletin ofthe American Schools of Oriental Research 99 (1945), p. I . Fig. 9. Courtesy of the British Institute for the Study oflraq. Fig. 10. © The Picture Collections of the National Board of Antiquities / Dyrendahl C. P.), courtesy of S. Svlird. Fig. 11. Courtesy of Sh. Yamada. Fig. 12. From Mitteilungen der Vorderasiatisch-Agyptischen Gesellschaft volume 20 (1915), frontispiece.

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scher Kulturen im Umbruch vom 2. zum 1. Vorchristlichen Jahrtausend: Akten des Intenationalen Kolloquiums Berlin 23. bis 26. November 1999 (Kolloquien zur Vor- und Friihgeschichte 6),

Bonn, 357-369. Rost, P., 1 893. Die Kei/schrifttexte Tiglat-Pi/esers Ill. nach den Papierabklatschen und Originalen des Britischen Museums. 2 volumes, Leipzig. Saggs, H. W. F., 2001. The Nimrud Letters, 1952 ( Cuneiform Texts from Nimrud 5), London. Schawe, J., 1 927. Untersuchung der Elambriefe aus dem Archiv Assurbanipals: Beitriige zur ela­ misch-assyrischen Geschichte in der Sargonidenzeit, Berlin. Scheil, V., 1 914. Le prisme S d'Assarhaddon, roi d'Assyrie 681-668, Paris. Schmidtke, F., 1916. Asarhaddons Statthalterschaft in Baby/onien und seine Thronbesteigung in Assyrien 681 v. Chr. (Altorientalische Texte und Untersuchungen 1 /2), Leiden. Schramm, W., 1 973. Einleitung in die assyrischen Konigsinschriften. Zweiter Tei/: 934-722 v. Chr. (Handbuch der Orientalistik E5/l /2), Leiden. Schrader, E., 1 880. Zur Kritik der Inschriften Tiglath-Pi/eser's II., des Asarhaddon und des Asurba­ nipal, Berlin. -- 1 882. Die Sargonsstele des Berliner Museums, Berlin. Schroeder, 0., 1 920. Keilschrifttexte aus Assur verschiedenen lnhalts ( Wissenschaftliche Veroffentli­ chung der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft 35), Leipzig. -- 1 922. Kei/schrifttexte aus Assur historischen Inhalts. Part 2 ( Wissenschaftliche Veroffentlichung der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft 37), Leipzig. Smith, G., 1 871. History of Assurbanipal, Translated from the Cuneiform Inscriptions, London. -- [1875]. The Assyrian Eponym Canon: Containing Translations of the Documents, and an Ac­ count of the Evidence, on the Comparative Chronology of the Assyrian and Jewish Kingdoms, from the Death of Solomon to Nebuchadnezzar, London. -- 1 878. History of Sennacherib, Translated from the Cuneiform Inscriptions. Edited by A. H.

Sayce, London, Edinburgh. Smith, S., 1 925a. ''The Foundation of the Assyrian Empire", in J. B. Bury, S. A. Cook, F. E. Adcock (eds.), The Cambridge Ancient History, volume 3, Cambridge, 1-31. -- 1 925b. "The Supremacy of Assyria", in J. B. Bury, S. A. Cook, F. E. Adcock (eds.), The Cam­ bridge Ancient History, volume 3, Cambridge, 32--60. -- 1 925c. "Sennacherib and Esarhaddon", in J. B. Bury, S. A. Cook, F. E. Adcock (eds.), The Cambridge Ancient History, volume 3, Cambridge, 61 -87. -- 1925d. ''The Age of Ashurbanipal", in J. B. Bury, S. A. Cook, F. E. Adcock (eds.), The Cam­ bridge Ancient History, volume 3, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 88- 1 12. -- 1 925e. "Ashurbanipal and the Fall of Assyria", in J. B. Bury, S. A. Cook, F. E. Adcock (eds.), The Cambridge Ancient History, volume 3, Cambridge, 1 1 3-131. Smith, S. A., 1 887-89 . Die Keilschrifttexte Asurbanipals, Konigs von Assyrien (668-626 v. Chr.). 3 volumes, Leipzig. Streck, M., 1916. Assurbanipal und die letzten assyrischen Konige bis zum Untergange Niniveh 's. 3 volumes ( Vorderasiatische Bibliothek 7/1-3), Leipzig. Tadmor, H., 1994. The Inscriptions of Tiglath-pileser III, King of Assyria, Jerusalem. Tadmor, H., Weinfeld, M. (eds.), 1 983. History, Historiography and Interpretation: Studies in Biblical and Cuneiform Literatures, Jerusalem, Leiden.

25

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Tadmor, H., Yamada, Sh., 201 1. The Royal Inscriptions of Tiglath-pileser III (744-72 7 BC) and Shal­ maneser V (726-722 BC), Kings of Assyria (Royal Inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian Period 1), Winona Lake, IN. Tallqvist, K. L., 1 9 14. Assyrian Personal Names (Acta Societatis Scientiarum Fennicae 43/1), Hel­ sinki (reprint: Hildesheim 1966). -- 1932. Der assyrische Gott (Studia Orientalia 4/3), Helsinki. Thureau-Dangin, F., 1 9 1 2. Une relation de la huitieme campagne de Sargon (714 av. J. -C.) ( Textes cuneiformes, Musees du Louvre 3), Paris. Thureau-Dangin, F., Dunand, M., 1936. Ti/ Barsip. Avec le concours de L. Davro et G. Dos-sin. 2 volumes (Bibliotheque archeologique et historique 33), Paris. Unger, E., 1933. Sargon II. von Assyrien der Sohn Tiglatpilesers Ill. (Istanbul Asanatika Muzeleri Nesriyatz 9), Istanbul. Vera Chamaza, G. W., 2002. Die Omnipotenz Assurs: Entwicklungen in der Assur-Theologie unter den Sargoniden Sargon II., Sanherib und Asarhaddon (Alter Orient und Altes Testament 295) Munster. Waetzoldt, H., Hauptmann, H. (eds.), 1997. Assyrien im Wandel der Zeiten. XXXIX" Rencontre Assy­ riologique Internationale, Heidelberg 6.-10. Juli 1992 (Heidelberger Studien zum A/ten Orient 6), Heidelberg. Watanabe, K., 1987. Die ade-Vereidigung anliisslich der Thronfolgeregelung Asarhaddons (Baghdader Mitteilungen Beiheft 3), Berlin. Waterman, L., 1930-36. Royal Correspondence of the Assyrian Empire. 4 volumes, Ann Arbor. Winckler, H., 1889. Die Keilschrifttexte Sargons. 2 volumes, Leipzig. Wiseman, D. J., 1958. The Vassal-Treaties of Esarhaddon, London. Yamada, Sh., 2000. The Construction of the Assyrian Empire: A Historical Study of the Inscriptions of Shalmaneser III (859-824 B.C.) Relating to His Campaigns to the West (Culture and History of the Ancient Near East 3), Leiden. Ylvisaker, S. C., 19 12. Zur babylonischen und assyrischen Grammatik: Eine Untersuchung au/Grund der Briefe aus der Sargonidenzeit (Leipziger Semitische Studien 5/6), Leipzig.

26

THE NEO-ASSYRIAN EMPIRE AND ITS CHRONOLOGICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL FRAMEWORKS Ariel M. Bagg Ashurbanipal, great king, mighty king, king of the world, king of Assyria, king of the four quarters (of the world), king of kings, prince who has no rival, who rules from the Upper Sea to the Lower Sea and has subjugated all rulers. 1

Thus reads the self-portrayal of Ashurbanipal in an inscription on clay cylinders dating from the first half of his reign. He claims to rule over the world and he controlled in fact a wide region which comprised a great part of the Near East. The Neo-Assyrian Empire, as this region is known among scholars, was put together piece by piece over a period of about 300 years from the late 10th to the late 7th centuries BCE. The historical age called the Neo-Assyrian Period extended from the reign of Assur-dan II (934-91 2 BCE2) up to the death of Assur-uballit II in 609, the last Assyrian king who resisted an alliance of Medes and Babylonians in Harran after the fall of Nineveh, the capital of the empire, in 6 12. Even if there existed a dynastic continuity between the Middle- and the Neo-Assyrian Period,3 Assur-dan II was the first known king who regained territories formerly controlled by Assyrian kings but then held by the Arameans for more than a century; he thus initiated a process of recovery and expansion. Neo-Assyrian is not only an historical but also a linguistic period, as in that time the youngest Assyrian dialect was developed and used alongside Aramaic. The last known Neo-Assyrian document dates from 600 BCE.4 The Neo-Assyrian period is one of the best documented periods in the Ancient Near East and we know the greatest part of its chronology with a high degree of precision. One of the main sources for the Assyrian chronology is the Assyrian King List, which provides the names of the rulers in chronological sequence from the origins of Assyria up to the reign of Shalmaneser V (726-722).5 The historical accounts of the royal inscriptions - arranged by regnal year (palu) or military campaign (girru) - and the chronicles allow to fill this framework with information and to reconstruct the political history as a sequence of military campaigns, which are described in more or less detail. The second pillar of Neo-Assyrian chronology 1

RIMB 2 8.6.32.1 9, 7-8. All translations of Assyrian royal inscriptions after the RIM or RINAP volumes unless otherwise indicated. 2 All the dates are to be interpreted as BCE. 3 A§§ur-dan II was the son of Tiglath-pileser II, RIMA 2 98.3, 1-4. 4 Postgate 1 993, 1 17-1 19, No. 4 (SH 92/6349/ 1 0 date in the 5th year ofNebuchadnezzar). 5 Grayson 1980-83, 101-1 1 5; Yamada 1994; Yamada 2003. 27

ARIEL M. BAGG

is the dating system used since the Old-Assyrian period: 6 Each year was named after a high official referred to as lfmu or limmu, "eponym", and the Assyrian scribes compiled Eponym Lists and Eponym Chronicles.7 The Eponym Lists contain just the names of the officials and mark only the kings by title (until the reign ofTiglath­ pileser III), whereas Eponym Chronicles give besides the names and titles of the eponyms a relevant event that took place in that year. The king himself was eponym at some point of his reign (from Shalmaneser III to Shalmaneser V in the second year), followed in most cases by the "commander-in-chief' (turtiinu), then by other high officials in a non-fixed sequence: 8 the "chief cupbearer" (rah siiqe), the "palace herold" (nagir ekal/i), the "chief treasurer" (masennu) and after them came gover­ nors of Assyrian provinces.9 The different sources list the eponyms for some part of the period, and the recon­ structed "Eponym Canon" spans the years from 9 1 0 to 649. 10 Texts after 649 were also dated by eponyms, the so-called post-canonical eponyms. But the sequence of the eponyms for the 40 years between 648 and 609 is controversial, as there exists no canonical list and the number of attested eponyms is greater than the number of years. 1 1 Since the pioneering work of Margarete Falkner 1 2 a lot has been done to reconstruct the order of the post-canonical eponyms and thanks to the work of many scholars we have useful tentative lists. 13 Most of the events mentioned in the entries of the eponym chronicles are of the type "to" followed by a place name, in other cases "in the land" (ina miiti) or "revolt in" (sibu ina) followed by a place name, so that a very strong bond between time and space can be ascertained. Fortunately, in one case an astronomical event was registered providing a precious fixed point not only for the Assyrian but also for the whole Ancient Near Eastern absolute chronol­ ogy: in the eponymate of Bur-Sagale, governor of Guzana, a solar eclipse is men­ tioned to have occurred in the month Simanu. 14 This eclipse was identified with the almost complete solar eclipse which could be observed in Nineveh on June 1 5, 763 at about 10:45 a.m. 15 The same relationship between chronology and geography, between time and space, that characterizes the dating system and the Assyrian royal inscriptions, can be ascertained in the scholarly writing of Assyrian history. We interpret the Neo­ Assyrian political history as a process of permanent expansion starting from the 6

Veenhof 2003. Millard 1 994 with Finket& Reade 1 998. 8 The different sequences were probably due to the fact that eponyms seem to have been chosen by lot, Millard 1 994, 8; Finkel & Reade 1 995. 9 In five cases a sakin miiti, "governor of the land", without indication of a specific province follows the masennu, see Millard 1994, 9, table I . 10 The Assyrian year began around the middle of March ( I st month Nisannu) encompassing therefore parts of two Julian years. Conventionally dates are given as a single Julian year, namely that when the Assyrian year began. It must be noticed that events which happened late in a certain Assyrian year - from the middle of the 10th to the 12th month - actually took place in the following Julian year. 11 For problems of the post-canonical eponyms see Whiting 1 994. 12 Falkner 1 954-56. 13 PNA 1/1, xviii-xx; Reade 1998; Zawadzki 1 994. 14 Millard 1 994, 4 1 . 15 Kudlek & Mickler 1 97 1 , 39, 1 89. 7

28

THE NEG-ASSYRIAN EMPIRE AND ITS CHRONOLOGICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL FRAMEWORKS

Assyrian heartland after the controlled territory had undergone a series of expansions and shrinkages in the Middle-Assyrian period. We divide the Neo-Assyrian period into different phases of expansion, associating time spans with a certain geography (Fig. l ): a recovery phase from Assur-diin II to Ashurnasirpal II (934-859), a first expansion (858-745) mainly during the reign of Shalmaneser III (858-824), a sec­ ond expansion during the reigns of Tiglath-pileser III and Sargon II (745-705) and a last phase with further incorporation of territory during the reigns of Sennacherib, Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal (704-627). 16

'•

MUSH

on (D Size ot lhe empire in 859 BC @ Conquesls ol Tlglalh-piloaer Ill @ ConquoslS ol Sa,von II @ Following conquoslB

Fig. 1 . Assyrian expansion in the 1 st millennium BC. Source: Liverani 2014, 485, fig. 28.4.

Permanent expansion, space gained in the course of time, an eagerness to conquer new territories characterize this period of Assyrian history. The geography of the empire played an important role as shows the great number of cities, countries, peoples, mountains and rivers mentioned in the royal inscriptions. But, were the Assyrians interested in geography? The Assyrian kings claimed that they ruled over the world, and according to the royal discourse and to its scholarly interpretation they reached the edges of this world. But, did they really believe to have reached the edges of the world? What was the Assyrian world view like? In the following I will try to answer these questions, but let me first present the geographical stage. At the time of its maximal expansion (reigns of Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal) the Assyrian Empire covered a surface of about 822,700 sq. km. 1 7 This is indeed a large area, which, without any intention to retract from the Assyrian achievements, is 1 .5 times the surface of France (547,030 sq. km) and 2.4 times the surface of Finland (338,145 sq. km). The Assyrian empire would go 12 times in the USA (9,629,09 1 sq. km) or China (9,596,960 sq. km) and 2 1 times in Russia (17,075,200 sq. km), it represents 0.55 % of the land surface of the Earth (149,430,000 sq. km). In comparison, the Roman Empire at the time of Trajan was 8 times (6,500,000 sq. km) and the British Empire 46 times (38,000,000 sq. km) as great, representing re­ spectively 4.35 % and 25.4 % of our planet's land surface. The Assyrians controlled a great part of the Ancient Near East, but the major part of the military campaigns 16

Liverani 2014, 475-496, with fig. 28.4 on p. 485; see also TAYO maps B III 7, B IV 10, and B IV 13. 1 7 Continental surface based on the TAYO map B IV 13 (red marked borders and Egypt); with Cyprus (9,25 1 sq. km) 83 1,95 1 sq. km.

29

ARIEL M. BAGG

took place - leaving aside Egypt which was conquered in the late period - in an area delimited by the, from an Assyrian perspective, natural borders (Fig. 2): the impressive mountain belt ofthe Taurus and Zagros mountains extending from North­ west to Southeast, the Syro-Arabian desert describing an arch from Southwest to Southeast, the Mediterranean in the West and the Arabian Gulf in the Southeast. As the mountain belt mentioned above consists of several parallel mountain ranges some campaigns took place right at the border. Furthermore, besides Egypt there are other regions beyond those natural borders reached by or at least known to the Assyrians, with which I will deal later. Campaigning at or beyond the natural borders, namely the sea, the mountains or the desert, was always full of difficulties and risks, of which the Assyrians were well aware.

Fig. 2. Natural borders (schematic) and extreme points according to Sargon H's inscriptions (black) and to the location of most distant stelae and reliefs (white). Source: Based on the TAVO map A I l , Middle East. Relief, Hydrology and Settlements, Wiesbaden 1993 (kind permission of the Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag, Wi�sbaden).

At first glance the variety of regions and toponyms touched by the Assyrian op­ erations and registered in the inscriptions may suggest a certain interest in the geog­ raphy ofthe empire, but this interest was a very special one. The lack of descriptions of landscapes or cities is really notable. One possible explanation could be that even if the Assyrians entered unknown territory again and again, they did not find new worlds there, but rather already known landscapes: mountains of medium size, valleys, steppes, and relatively modest watercourses. This may explain the lack of astonishment, but not the lack of curiosity. Ashurnasirpal II during his 9th campaign was the first Neo-Assyrian king to reach the Mediterranean, about 200 years after Assur-bel-kala ( 1 073-1056) had done so. 1 8 Considering that the Mediterranean was the largest expanse of water that the Assyrian had ever seen, the three short lines 18

30

RIMA 2 89.7, iv 1-3.

THE NEO-ASSYRIAN EMPIRE AND ITS CHRONOWGICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL FRAMEWORKS

telling that he arrived, washed his weapons and made sacrifices to the gods are rather disappointing. 19 An important ritual act, but no astonishment.20 Descriptions are in­ deed very rare and the few available exceptions only confirm the rule. Esarhaddon' s account of the campaign to the land Bazu, probably located in the north-eastern part of the Arabian Peninsula, or Sargon's description of Mount Waus at the border between Mannaja and Uraqu, northeast of the Urmia-Lake, where a battle between Assyria and Urartu took place,2 1 refer to regions beyond the natural borders of the empire. Both the desert and the mountain are described as extremely difficult and arduous places, and in the case of the desert also its remoteness is stressed. Let me present as an example Esarhaddon's description of the Arabian desert: (As for) the land Bazu, a district in a remote place, a forgotten place of dry land, saline ground, a place of thirst, one hundred and twenty leagues of desert, thistles, and gazelle­ tooth stones, where snakes and scorpions fill the plain like ants. 22

It is precisely because of the difficulty of the terrain and the consequent capacity of the Assyrian king to overcome such obstacles that these landscapes were described.23 The Assyrian kings claimed repeatedly to have gone where no one of their predeces­ sors had been in the past. However, no traces of curiosity24 or interest in the explora­ tion of the world can be found in their accounts: their interest focused rather on the profit that the plundering or incorporation of new regions could bring.25 Campaign­ ing at or beyond the natural borders - and the situation was similar in the case of the sea, as Assyria had no maritime know-how - confronted the Assyrian kings with adverse geographical conditions. This was an additional and critical factor that increased the complexity, the costs and the risks of military expeditions. To extend the territory of Assyria was a duty demanded by the gods. In Ashurba­ nipal's coronation hymn we read the order "Spread your land wide at your feet!"26 and the blessing "May they (scil. the great gods) give him a straight sceptre to extend the land and his peoples".27 Sargon declares that he was "the one who enlarges the territory of Assyria"28 and Esarhaddon tells in the Zincirli stele that the god Assur 19 RIMA 2 1 0 1 . 1 , iii 84-85. Not less disappointing is Tiglath-pileser I's (1 1 1 4-1076) account, who was the first Assyrian king who reached the Mediterranean, RIMA 2 87.3, 1 6-25; 87.4, 2430; 87. 10, 28-35; see also Bagg 201 1 , 66f. 20 The same can be said in the case ofShalmaneser III who also washed his weapons (and erected a stele) when he arrived for the first time at the Urmia Lake (tamtu sa Na 'iri) in his accession year, RIMA 3 1 02. 1 , 33-37; 1 02.2, i 25-27; 102.6, i 38-40; 102.28, 1 0-13; 1 02.63; see also Ya­ mada 2000, 275f. 21 Sg 8, 96-102. 22 RINAP 4 1, iv 53-56 (p. 20). 23 See also the account of Esarhaddon's transit through the Negev and Sinai deserts, RINAP 4 34, 15'-r.8 (pp. 87f.), with Radner 2007 and 2008. Furthermore, Ashurbanipal's description of the Syrian Desert (BIWA, 247, A viii 87-1 1 0) shows many parallels to Esarhaddon's account of the Arabian desert. 24 See the interesting remarks in Villard 2000, 8 1 . 25 Compare with the exploration of remote regions i n antiquity, Olshausen 2007. 26 SAA 3 1 1 , 3. 27 SAA 3 1 1 , 17. This royal duty is already mentioned in a Middle-Assyrian ritual from the reign ofTukultI-Ninurta I, Muller 1 937, 12, ii 35; see Tadmor 1 999, 55. 28 musarbu mi$ir mat Assur, Fuchs 1 994, 36, Zyl 30.

31

ARIEL M. BAGG

empowered him "to enlarge the territory of Assyria". 29 In their quest to fulfil this duty the Assyrian kings competed permanently with their forerunners. Tiglath-pile­ ser declares for instance "I appointed governors in places where the chariots of the kings, my ancestors, never crossed over'',3° and Sargon stresses in connection with the land Jii' in Cyprus that since remote times none of the kings who preceded him had even heard about this toponym. 3 1 Esarhaddon put it in a nutshell: "At the com­ mand of Assur, my lord, who can rival me in kingship? Moreover, who among the kings, my ancestors, was there whose dominion was as great as mine?". 32 Following this imperative for expansion the Assyrian kings from Assur-diin II to Ashumasirpal II recovered first lost territories inside the traditional borders of AB­ syria up to the Zagros Mountains and the middle Euphrates,33 namely the borders reached already in Middle-Assyrian times. 34 With Shalmaneser III began the further enlargement up to the natural borders35 which was completed by Tiglath-pileser III, the first king who really transcended those borders.36 From his reign to the end of the empire the Sargonids tried to control territories located in and beyond the natural borders, with different degrees of success.37 The Assyrian kings claimed world do­ minion, and according to the extreme points of their conquests mentioned in their inscriptions it seems that they believed to have reached the edges of the world. All Neo-Assyrian kings used the title sar kissati, "king of the world" or "king of the totality", in most cases combined with sar kibriit erbetti, "king ofthe four (world) quarters". 38 sar kissati was used since the time of Samsi-addu I, and both titles have a long tradition in Mesopotamia. 39 Even if these titles clearly point to the idea of world dominion they are rather the expression of a desire than the description of a concrete reality, as the "world" ruled by Assur-dan II at the very beginning of the expansion is different from the "world" ruled by Esarhaddon or Ashurbanipal at the time of t}le maximal expansion. Furthermore, neither in the case of Assur-diin II nor in that of Esarhaddon or Ashurbanipal did the controlled territory match the totality of the world as known at that time. Closer to reality are the expressions used as epitheta and in the summaries of the campaigns which give the reached extreme 29

RINAP 4 98, r.34-35 (p. 1 85). Also Tiglath-pileser III declares to have been commanded by Assur to widen Assyria, RINAP 1 146, 4 (p. 1 14). 30 RINAP 1 35, ii 20'-2 1 ' (p. 86). 31 Fuchs 1994, 232f., Prunk 1 46-147. 32 RINAP 4 1 , v 21-23 (p. 22). 33 Wittke et al. 2007, 47A (A. Fuchs). 34 TAVO map B III 7; Wittke et al. 2007, 1 5B (A. Fuchs). For this phase of expansion see Live­ rani 1 988 and 1 992. 35 TAYO map B IV 1 0; Wittke et al. 2007, 47B (A. Fuchs); see Liverani 2004. 36 Wittke et al. 2007, 49 (A. Fuchs). 37 TAYO map B IV 1 3 ; Wittke et al. 2007, 5 1 , 53 (A. Fuchs). 38 sar kibrat erbetti is not attested in the inscripions of Assur-dan II, Tukulfi-Ninurta II, Samsi­ Adad V, Assur-etel-ilani and Sin-sar-iskun; both titles are used together by Ashurnasirpal II, Adad-neran III, Shalmaneser IV, Tiglath-pileser III, Sargon II, Sennacherib, Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal. In the inscriptions ofAdad-neran II, Shalmaneser III as well as in some inscriptions of Sennacherib and Esarhaddon the titles are used separately. 39 For sar kissati see Hallo 1957, 2 1-28; Seux 1967, 208-21 3 ; CAD K, 458 s.v. kissatu A l b l ' ; for sar kibrat erbetti (earlier sar kibratim arba 'im) attested since the Sargonic period see Glassner 1 984, 26-29; Hallo 1 957, 49-56; Maeda 1 984; Seux 1 965, 1 1-1 8; Seux 1 967, 305-308; CAD K, 3 3 1 s.V. kibratu a. 32

THE NEO-ASSYRIAN EMPIRE AND ITS CHRONOLOGICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL FRAMEWORKS

points as limits of the controlled territory. The expression "from the Upper sea to the Lower sea" and its many variations meaning "from the Mediterranean to the Arabian Gulf''4° were used by Shalmaneser III for the first time in this period.4 1 The pair of seas in the phrase "from . . . to . . . " is first attested in the inscriptions of Sargon of Akkad,42 and the idea that the Mediterranean and the Arabian Gulf represented the extremes of a world controlled by one king was also developed in the Sargonic period.43 The terms "upper" and "lower" must be understood in relation to the Mes­ opotamian main axis from northwest to southeast which corresponds to the flow di­ rection of the Tigris and the Euphrates and to the direction of the prevailing winds. As the expansion progressed and reached ever more distant regions, the Assyrian kings not only mentioned them but also used, in the summary descriptions, these extreme points as borders of the world under their control. Furthermore, to reach new remote territories was considered a great achievement and therefore marked by means of a stele or a rock relief. One of the best examples of declared world domin­ ion is the summary account of Sargon's conquests in his so-called Prunkinschrift from Diir-Sarruken.44 The listed territories are embraced by a great bow from Jadna­ na (Cyprus) "in the middle of the sea" up to Dilmun (Bahrain), islands in the Mediterranean and the Arabian Gulf respectively. From West to East four regions denoted explicitly as pafu - "region" but also "border" - are extreme points on the main axes NW-SEINE-SW of the Mesopotamian geography (Fig. 2): Musku in the Northwest, Egypt in the Southwest, Mount Bikni (Mount Demavend or Alwand45) in the Northeast and Dilrnun (Bahrain) in the Southeast. These four points are interpreted by some scholars as expression of the four edges of the world.46 The passage mentions furthermore regions in Elam, Aramaean tribes on and East of the Tigris, cities at the border with Elam and Chaldean tribes. Sargon surpassed the continental borders reached by Tiglath-pileser IIl47 and boasts to have extended his dominion up to the "middle of the sea"48 where the islands Cyprus and Bahrain are located. 40 See attestations in RGTC 7, 294-299, s.v. tdmtu e/'ftu, and also Yamada 2005. 41 RIMA 2 1 02.25, 9-10; 26, 5-8; 27, 3-5. Concerning the attestation in RIMA 2 1 02. l , 7-8 see Yamada 2005, 40. 42 RIME 2 E2. l . l . l , 79-85; E2. l . l .2, 82-9 1 . 43 Yamada 2005, 3 1 . 44 Fuchs 1994, 343f., Prunk 1 6-23 and the duplicate passage (with minor variants) in IM 721 3 1 , 5-16 published by Frame 2004, l O l f. For this passage see Fuchs 1 994, 394f.; Gaiter 2014, 337f.; Lang & Rollinger 201 0, 2 17f. 45 The identifications with Mount Demavend (Reade 1 995, maps on pages 35 and 36 followed by Gaiter 201 4, 337) or Mount Alwand (Levine 1 974, 1 1 8f.) are hypothetical, Fuchs 1 994, 426 s.v. Bikni. 46 Fuchs 1 994, 395 followed by Gaiter 201 4, 337; Lang & Rollinger 201 0, 2 1 8; Villard 2000, 75. Mount Bikni and Egypt are given as the easternmost and westernmost borders ofTiglath-pileser's conquests, RINAP 1 47, 3-4 (p. 1 1 8). According to Esarhaddon's inscription near Mount Bikni there was a salt desert (bit-fabti, the Dast-e Kavir east of Teheran) where the land Patusarri was located, RINAP 4 1 , iv 46-52 (p. 20) and parallels (see RINAP 4, 344 s.v. Patusa"i). A salt desert (bit-fabti) is also mentioned in Tiglath-pileser's inscriptions, RINAP 1 42, 9' (p. 1 02) and 47, 32, (p. 1 20). 47 Leaving aside the already known coastal islands Arwada (ar-Ruwad) and Surru (Tyros), s. RGTC 7/1 , 27-29 and 235-237 respectively. 48 The usual expression for "island", sa (ina) qabal ttimti, sa qereb tdmti. 33

ARIEL M. BAGG

Remote places in the peripheral regions at or outside the natural borders were not only mentioned in the royal inscriptions but commemorated with monuments set up in situ, namely stelae or rock reliefs which bore in many cases an inscription.49 Mon­ uments in or near urban areas conquered or controlled by Assyria were intended as a reminder that the Assyrian army had been there and would be back in case of some contest in the future. 50 Monuments in non-urban places, which were difficult to ac­ cess and seldom frequented by the local population, were intended mainly for the gods and future Assyrian kings who might visit the place. They commemorate that the king reached a remote region in a difficult terrain and took knowledge of the site (Fig. 2). The northernmost monuments are the stele that Tiglath-pileser III erected in front of the Urartian city of Turuspa (Van)5 1 and almost at the same latitude Shalmaneser's III rocks reliefs carved on the walls of the grotto at Birkleyn,52 which he supposed to be the sources of the Tigris and where he came upon reliefs from Tiglath-pileser I. 53 The westernmost point marked by a monument is K.ition/Lamaka in Cyprus where Sargon's stele was found,54 which lies only 1 5 km to the west from the stele that Tiglath-pileser III erected at the "Brook of Egypt" (Nabal-Mu.yur). 55 The easternmost monument is a stele erected by Sargon not far from Najafehabad in Iran, where it was discovered.56 The southernmost point marked by a monument is the already mentioned stele at the "Brook from Egypt". 57 The Tigris-grotto and the "Brook of Egypt" were located at the very northern and southwestern borders of the empire, whereas Kition and Najafehabad lie outside the Assyrian borders. All men­ tioned monuments were situated in areas without permanent Assyrian presence. The Assyrian kings reached more and more distant places, but were they aware of approaching the edges of the world? The answer depends first of all on the Assyr­ ian world view, which is not easy to reconstruct. It is generally assumed that the AssyriiJns imagined the world as a continent surrounded by an ocean,58 as repre­ sented on the Babylonian world map (Fig. 3),59 and some few clues in the royal in­ scriptions may support such a world view. In the annals of Samsi-Adad V (823-8 10) there are two references to "the sea of the sunset" (tamtu sa su/um Samsi), otherwise an usual designation for the Mediterranean, in connection with military campaigns

49

See the comprehensive study by Morandi Bonacossi 1 988 and the catalogue by Borker-Klahn 1 982. 50 For instance the ZincirH-Stele: Borker-Kllihn 1982, 2 1 3, Nr. 2 19, RINAP 4 98 (pp. 1 8 1- 1 86). 51 Attested in the following inscriptions: RINAP 1 39, 23-24; RINAP 1 4 1 , 2 1 '-25' (p. 1 03); RINAP 1 49, 3'-4' (p. 129). 52 Birkleyn lies at 38° 3 1 ' N and Van at 38° 30' N. 53 For the inscriptions see Radner 2009 and for the reliefs Schachner 2009, 203- 223. 54 For the inscription see Malbran-Labat 2004 and for the stele Borker-Kllihn 1 982, 202f., Nr. 175 with Radner 2010, 429-435 and Porter 2012. 55 Attested only in RINAP I 48, 18' (p. 1 27); for (Al-)Nat,al-Mu�ur see ROTC 7/1 , Sf. and 291 . Kition lies at 33 ° 3 8 ' E and the outlet of the WadI l'Aris ( a probable candidate for the "Brook of Egypt") at 33 ° 49' E. 56 Najafehabad lies at 5 1 ° 35' E; Borker-Kllihn 1982, 201 , Nr. 173; Levine 1 972, 25-50. The Najafehabad Stele is after A. Fuchs (SAAS 8, 56 no. 1 5 followed by Gaiter 2014, 333f.) the same stele that Sargon erected in Kisessim and is mentioned in SAAS 8, 55-56, ill.b, 1 5-2 1 . 57 At 3 1 ° 08' N. 58 Gaiter 201 4, 337; Liverani 2001, 67; Villard 2000, 80; Wittke et al. 2007, 3B (A. Fuchs). 59 Horowitz 1 998, 28-42. 34

THE NEO-ASSYRIAN EMPIRE AND ITS CHRONOLOGICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL FRAMEWORKS

Fig. 3. The Babylonian World Map (BM 92687, obverse). Source: Horowitz I 998, 402, plate 2.

carried out against the Na' iri lands and a region east of Assyria.60 As according to the geographical context an interpretation as the Mediterranean is difficult to explain, it was proposed that the Caspian Sea was meant. The extraordinary use of the name for the Mediterranean for the Caspian Sea could point to the idea that the latter was considered the continuation of the former, in other words, that both were part of a great sea or ocean extending from the West to the Northeast. 61 A similar situation can be found in a summary inscription of Adad-nerari III listing conquests in the East (Ellipi, Mada, Parsua and Andia among others), where he claims to have reached "the great sea of the sunrise" (tamtu rab'ftu sa napab Samsi).62 This is one of the names of the Arabian Gulf, but in this case may have been used for the Caspian Sea, perceived as a continuation of the Arabian Gulf.63 Furthermore, we read in the Cyprus-Stele that Sargon unified under his rule the peoples from the Upper Sea to the Lower Sea, but there the expressions marratu el'ftu for the Mediterranean and marratu sapl'ftu for the Arabian Gulf are used.64 Marratu, 60

RIMA 3 103. 1 , ii 2 1 ; iii 68. Villard 2000, 80, and Yamada 2005, 38 after Reade 1 995, 38. 62 RIMA 3 104.8, 5-1 1 . 63 CAD T, 1 54, s.v. tamtu l h4'; Villard 2000, 80; and Yamada 2005, 3 8 after Reade 1995, 38f. It must be noted that among the mentioned toponyms Andia lay in fact near the Caspian Sea, but Ellipi for instance near the Arabian Gulf. Furthermore, Andia is mentioned (together with a Mount BADhu) at the end of the list and just before "the great sea of the sunrise", so that they may summarize the whole region conquered, namely from Andia in the North to the Arabian Gulf in the South. 64 Malbran-Labat 2004, right side 23-24 (Cyprus-Stele) and also attested in the inscription on a clay cylinder from Nineveh, Thompson 1 940, 87, 12. 61

35

ARIEL M. BAGG

a term denoting a body of salt water translated as "sea" or "ocean", is a common designation for the Arabian Gulf but is very rare in connection with the Mediterra­ nean.65 The use of this term for both seas may indicate that they were supposed to be part of the same ocean that surrounded the inhabited world66 as shown in the Babylo­ nian world map where it is in fact called marratum.67 A problematic text known as ''The Sargon Geography" (SG), which equates the entire world with the empire of Sargon of Akkad, is often quoted as a detailed description of the earth's geography and an exponent of the Neo-Assyrian world view. 68 The text is preserved in two tablets, a Neo-Assyrian exemplar found in the "House of the Exorcist" in Assur and a Late Babylonian tablet from Sippar.69 The composition begins in medias res without introduction and consists ofmany different sections: the first two list regions with their borders (SG 1-3 and 6--32), a third sec­ tion gives the extension of major regions in Mesopotamia and adjacent areas as circumferences (SG 33-44) and a fourth fragmentary section lists place-names and names of peoples (SG 45-59). Some of the mentioned toponyms are attested only before, and others not till the Neo-Assyrian period. The text was therefore compiled long after the reign of Sargon, probably in the 7 th century - not before the reign of Esarhaddon as the mention ofBazu in the first and fourth sections seems to indicate70 - and made use of disparate sources. The purpose for which the text was composed is not known. Anyway, the conveyed world view is, as in the case of the Babylonian world map, highly diffuse (and confused). 71 The mention of place-names from the second and third millennia as well as the reference to Sargon of Akkad points rather to a literary than to a geographical interest, that could have been accomplished in a more accurate way, if the compiler had concentrated on the royal inscriptions of Sargon II and Esarhaddon. However, some concrete information about the military achievements in the late 8th and 7th centuries seems to have percolated into the text. In lines 41 and 42 we find the well-known bipolar summary description of the world mentioning on the one side Anaku72 and Kaptara (Crete)73 as lands across or 65

RGTC 7/1 , 290. Villard 2000, 80. 67 Horowitz 1 998, 22, 1 4-17 with comment on pages 29f. 68 Newest commented edition by Horowitz 1 998, 67-95; see also the interesting study by Live­ rani 1999-2000. 69 Horowitz 1 998, 67. 70 SG 1 and 47. 71 If the aim was a synthesis of the existent geographical knowledge describing the world (pre­ sented as the conquests of Sargon of Akkad) in Neo-Assyrian times, the result is rather disappointing, considering the mass of information available in the royal inscriptions. One cannot speak here of geography as a discipline, and this product of the scholarly cabinet does not compare by far with book XVI of Strabo's Geography; cf. Biffi 2002. 72 Location unknown; maybe on the south-western Anatolian coast (Liverani 1 999-2000, 66 with footnote 42), but other regions have also been proposed, Horowitz 1 998, 88. 73 Kaptara is usually identified with Crete, Horowitz 1 998, 87f.; R1A 6, 225-230 (especially 227), but the toponym is attested neither in Middle- nor in Neo-Assyrian inscriptions. If Sargon or Esarhaddon had really known an island in the Mediterranean that was more distant than Cyprus (Jadnana), they would not have hesitated to mention it. Therefore, Crete cannot be included into the geographical horizon of the Neo-Assyrian period, and the mention of Kaptara shows rather the eclectic world view of the scholar(s) who wrote the text. 66

36

THE NEO-ASSYRIAN EMPIRE AND ITS CHRONOLOGICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL FRAMEWORKS

on the other side (eberti)74 of the Upper Sea (Mediterranean), and Dilmun (Bahrain) and Magan (Oman)75 across or on the other side of the Lower Sea.76 As M. Liverani noticed, while the symmetrical opposition of both seas is known since the Sargonic period, the specification of an island is a Neo-Assyrian novelty. 77 Another feature of the Sargon Geography that may echo a late Neo-Assyrian influence is the reference to long distances expressed in beru "league" (approximately 10,800 meters).78 At the end of the second section, where regions and their borders are given in the form "from . . . to . . . ", it is mentioned that the lands Magan and Meluhl}a lie 120 leagues from the "tail" (zibbatu) of the Euphrates.79 This line has been differently interpreted depending on the location assumed for Magan and Meluhl}a on the one side, and for the "tail" of the Euphrates on the other side. I think that Magan and Meluhl}a refer here as in pre-Neo-Assyrian times to Oman and the Indus Valley80 and not to Egypt and Nubia as attested in the late Neo-Assyrian texts. 8 1 Furthermore, the most plausi­ ble interpretation for the "tail" of the Euphrates is that of its outlet in southernmost Babylonia near the head of the Arabian Gulf.82 A distance of 120 leagues, namely about 1,300 km, from the head of the Arabian Gulf matches perfectly with the loca­ tion of Magan at Oman and Meluhl}a in the Indus Valley. Wayne Horowitz assumes that Assyria was supposed to be located at the middle of the earth and that the distance from there to Magan and Meluhl}a, about 2,250 km, would represent the radius of a circumference covering the totality of the world. 83 A Note that the text uses eberti, "across or on the other side", and not ina qabal or ina qereb, "in the middle of (the sea)". 75 Magan and Melul}ba are used in the Neo-Assyrian texts almost exclusively for Egypt and Nubia; in this literary composition Magan (SG 30 and 42) and Melubba (SG 30) are used with the pre-Neo-Assyrian meaning for Oman and the Indus Valley. 76 For these lines see Liverani 1999-2000, 67-69. 77 Liverani 1 999-2000, 65. 78 It is unlrnown how the Assyrians measured long distances, but probably soldiers or specialists were instructed to count their paces. During Alexander the Great's campaigns pacers (Greek bematistes, "one who measures by paces") counted their paces during the march and registered the direction and place names, Strabo 1 1 .8.9 and Pliny, Nat. Hist., 6, xxi, 61-62; see also Lewis 2012, 141. 79 SG 30. 80 Horowitz 1 998, 85f. 81 Liverani 1 999-2000, 7 1 with fig 1 2. 82 Horowitz 1 998, 85. The alternative interpretation as the "basin" of the Euphrates as the upper/ middle course of the river (Liverani 1 999-2000, 7 1 with fig. 1 2) would be a very diffuse and extended point of reference to express a distance. Liverani 1 999-2000, 73-75 with fig. 1 1 needs to locate the "tail" of the Euphrates at its upper/middle course to make it match with his location of Magan and Melul}ba in Egypt and Nubia, based on the assumption that SG 30 reflects the distances given in the account of Esarhaddon's Egyptian campaign (RINAP 4 34, 1 5'-r. 1 9, pp. 87-88). The passage (the last part of which is badly damaged) gives distances from Apqu in the Levant (ROTC 7/1 , 1 8f.) to Egypt in sections of 30, 20, 1 6 (as 4 stretches of 4 bero), 16 and 40 leagues, in all 1 22 leagues. Liverani does not consider the four stretches of four leagues each as he assumes they were inner detours, and he adds 20 leagues from Nineveh to Byblos (actually Apqu). Furthermore, if a scribe intended to give the distance up to Egypt according to Esarhaddon's campaign, he would not choose as starting point the basin of the Euphrates but Nineveh. Therefore the idea that SG 30 corresponds to Esarhaddon's Egyptian campaign is not sustainable. 83 Horowitz 1 998, 94f. 74

37

ARIEL M. BAGG

good but only speculative idea not explicitly expressed in the text.84 Not less specula­ tive is Liverani's assumption of a circumference centred in Niniveh with a radius of 120 leagues ( 1,296 km), a distance which is not attested in any royal inscription. Long distances are seldom mentioned in the texts, but the few cases relate to regions beyond the natural borders. 85 The largest distance of 140 leagues (1,5 12 km) is mentioned by Esarhaddon in connection with his campaign to the land Ba.zu on the Arabian coast of the Gulf86 and corresponds to a region some 250 km south of Bah­ rain.87 If this and other large distances indicate the intention to measure the world, a world conceived as centred in Nineveh, taking those distances as possible radii lies in the field of speculation. 88 An amorphous land, since the 7th century BCE with a confirmed extension in certain directions of at least 120 to 140 leagues from Nineveh, surrounded by an ocean: this picture can be taken as a working hypothesis for a Neo-Assyrian world view (Fig. 4). However, it must be noted that neither in the royal inscriptions nor in

YAri�.�:b '.._�

UPPER SEA

,,...."' -

'\

...,t\\

&"'�

Fig. 4. A possible Assyrian world view according with Sargon H's inscriptions. Source: based on Liverani 1 999-2000, 67, fig. 8.

the Sargon Geography such a mental map is explicitly mentioned, but only some elements which become probable allusions when considered against the background of the Babylonian world map. If the world was surrounded by an ocean, its edges could only be reached when this water expanse was reached, and this happened only in the West, the Southeast and maybe the Northeast when the Assyrians arrived at the Mediterranean, the Arabian Gulf and the Caspian Sea respectively. 89 The contour of the world was unknown, and in the few parts where the extreme borders were 84

Liverani 1 999-2000, 83. Tiglath-pileser III claims to have marched 70 leagues (756 km) in Urartian territory, RINAP 1 39, 24-25 (p. 98). Esarhaddon gives a total distance of 122 leagues (1,3 18 km) from Apqu in the northern Levant to Egypt, RINAP 4 34, 15'-r. 1 9 (pp. 87f.), and footnote 82 above. Ashurbanipal's army pursued the Arabs for a distance of 1 00 leagues (1 ,080 km) from Nineveh in direction of the Syrian Desert (region of Palmyra), BIWA 247, A, viii 91-96. 86 RINAP 4 1 , iv 53-60 (p. 20). 87 Corresponding approximately to 24° N. 88 Against Liverani 1 999-2000, 81-84. 89 Whether the Van- (tamtu el'ftu sa Na 'iri) and Urmia-Lakes (tamtu sapl'ftu sa Na 'iri, tamtu sa Na 'iri) were perceived as part of the surrounding sea is not known. 85

38

THE NEC-ASSYRIAN EMPIRE AND ITS CHRONOLOGICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL FRAMEWORKS

reached, there was neither the aim nor the attempt to explore the coastal line.90 If the title sar kibriit erbetti was meant as "king of the four quarters (of the world)", the intention was to show that the Assyrian kings campaigned in the four main directions of the wind rose. But if the title was intended to mean "king of the four edges (of the world)", namely of the extreme borders of the world in the four directions, as often interpreted in the literature, it was rather an expression of a desire than a declaration of its fulfilment. If only stretches of the edges of the world were known, what about the rule over the totality of the world?91 While the general world view of the Assyrian kings was diffuse - and could not be else considering the technological and scien­ tific knowledge at that time -, they had at their disposal a large amount of geograph­ ical data derived from their military campaigns and the corresponding accounts.92 Therefore they were aware of the fact that there was more ''world" than what they controlled or what had come to their knowledge. Three geographical levels or horizons can be distinguished in the royal inscrip­ tions (Fig. 5). The first horizon is the territory under the direct or indirect control of the Assyrian king, namely the Assyrian empire, which coincides with the region located during the most part of the Neo-Assyrian period inside or at natural barriers, namely the mountains, the desert or the sea. The Assyrian kings - especially since Tiglath-pileser III - campaigned ofcourse also in regions at or beyond these natural borders with different degrees of success and intensity depending on the natural barrier involved. This second horizon, defined by the operating range of the Assyrian army, includes territories mostly located at or beyond the northern and north-eastern mountain ranges: some of them were incorporated into the empire and later lost again (Tabalu93), while others were never part of the empire (Uraqu). Most of the military operations beyond the natural borders concerned the mountain border, which was the least difficult to overcome in comparison to the desert and the sea. However, the difficulties that a mountainous landscape posed to an army were important and are often mentioned in the texts. 94

90

It could be pleaded that an exploration by water was not possible, as the Assyrians had neither the know-how nor own ships to do it, but the coast could have been followed from the land. 9 1 The most ambitious expression of world dominion is attested in one of Tiglath-pileser's summary inscriptions: he says that he ruled "from the horizon to the zenith", RINAP I 47, 4 (p. 1 18). A similar hyperbolic expression can be found in the Sargon Geography, when referring to Sargon of Akkad it is said that "he conquered the totality of the land under heaven", SG 3 1 . 92 Soldiers and officers who took part repeatedly in military campaigns must have had a far more realistic view of the geography of the empire than the compiler(s) of the Sargon Geography. Their mental maps covered the visited regions and had probably the format of itineraries (namely stations along certain directions) in the course of which certain landform configurations and landscapes were met. 93 Tabiilu was conquered by Sargon in 7 1 3 and annexed to the empire; the province was lost probably in 7 1 1 . See a summary of the complicated history of the conquest and resistance of Tabiilu in Fuchs 1 994, 462--464 and in RIA 13, 389f. (S. Aro). 94 For instance, Ashurnasirpal II stresses the difficulties faced by the chariots during his 4th cam­ paign in the hilly hinterland of Assyria (RIMA 2 1 0 1 . 1 7, iii 98-10 I}, and Sennacherib tells how his knees became tired at Mount Nipur (the Cudi Dag1 in northern Mesopotamia) because it was not possible to carry him on his chair, RINAP 3/1 1 7, iv 25-35 (p. 1 34) and RINAP 3/2 46, 3941 (p. 8 1 ).

39

ARIEL M. BAGG

Fig. 5. Neo-Assyrian geographical horizons: first horizon (inside or at the natural borders), second horizon (white), third horizon (black). Source: Based on the TAVO map A I 1, Middle East. Relief, Hydrology and Settlements, Wies­ baden 1993 (kind permission of the Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag, Wiesbaden.)

Campaigns through or in the desert were those ofEsarhaddon in the Southwest which ended with the incorporation of Lower Egypt95 and in the Southeast against the already mentioned land Bazu.96 Sennacherib reached Adummatu (Al-Gaut) during his campaign against the Arabs,97 and also Ashurbanipal campaigned against Arab tribes in the Syrian Desert.98 The Assyrians seldom ventured into the sea. On the one side they had neither maritime tradition nor their own fleet. On the other side, the Phoenician cities had the necessary know-how in navigation and shipbuilding, but the Assyrian kings made seldom use of it and never on a large scale. Leaving aside minor episodes in the Mediterranean99 and the Urmia or Zeribor Lake, 100 the most 95 96

RINAP 4 34, 15'-r.19 (pp. 87f.); for the Assyrian conquest of Egypt see Onasch 1990. RINAP 4 1, iv 53-77 (pp. 20f.), and Liverani 1999-2000, 73. 97 RINAP 3/1 35, r.53'-59' and 1"-3" (p. 232); also RINAP 3/2 111-115 (booty from Adummatu). 98 BIWA, 245-249, A, vii 82-x 1-5; see also BIWA, 243-245, for the corresponding passages in the prisms B, C and G. 99 Sargon claims to have pursued and defeated pirates from laman (Jonians) with Phoenician ships, Fuchs 1994, 320, Ann 117-119 (cf. 290, Zyl 21; see further parallels in RGTC 7/1, 123f.). Lulli, the king of Sidon, fled to Jadnana in the course of Sennacherib's third campaign but was not pursued, RINAP 3/1 4, 32-35 (pp. 63f.) and parallel passages (see RINAP 3/1, 257, and 3/2, 379 s.v. Lu/f). On the contrary, Abdi-Milkiiti of Sidon, who also fled into the sea (probably to Jadnana), was "fished" there and executed by Esarhaddon, RINAP 4 1, ii 16-74 (p. 16) and parallel passages (s. RINAP 4, 341 s.v. Abdi-Milkuti). 100 During the campaigns against Mazamua in Shalmaneser's III 2nd (855) and 4th regnal years, a persecution and a battle in a "sea" took place, RIMA 3 102.2, ii 75-78 (2nd palu); 102.6, ii 1015 and 102.8, 8'-11' (4th palu); 102.28, 43-44 (probably 4th palu, see RIMA 3, p. 102). The "sea", located after the context in Mazamua, may be identical with the "sea of the interior of the land Zamua" (tamdu Zamua betiim) mentioned in one ofShalmaneser's inscriptions in the Tigris-

sa

40

sa

THE NEO-ASSYRIAN EMPIRE AND ITS CHRONOLOGICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL FRAMEWORKS

ambitious amphibious operation - the difficulties of which were described in detail - was Sennacherib's campaign against Nagitu, a city on an island in the Arabian Gulf where the Chaldaean Marduk-apla-iddina took refuge and that could be reached by ships built and navigated by Phoenicians. 101 Most of the remotest places mentioned by the Assyrian kings as extreme points oftheir "world", namely Jadnana, Dilmun, Mount Bikni and Egypt, 102 are located at the external edge of this second geographical horizon. The explicit mention of Jadnana and Dilmun as islands in the middle of the sea stresses the remoteness of those places, 1 03 but it must be noted, that neither in Cyprus 104 nor in Bahrain was there any Assyrian military presence. 105 At first view the "world" seems to match the regions where the Assyrian king ruled and undertook military campaigns, namely the above-mentioned first and second horizons. But there existed a third horizon, as the Assyrians were aware of toponyms and peoples located beyond the maximal operating distance of their army in all directions: Luddi (Lydia), Musku and laman (Jonians) 106 in the Northwest, Kiisu (Nubia) in the Southwest, Guriana (a region between Uraqu and Gamirra/Gimir) 107 and Gimir (Cimmeria) in the Northeast, Qade (an alternative name of earlier Magan in Oman) in the Southeast, Terna (Taima' in north Arabia) and Saba'a (the land of the Sabaeans in Yemen) in the South. 1 08 The exact location of these places was probably unknown, as the information in the texts is scarce (probably due to the low interest that they awoke) and the Assyrians seem not to have had a great interest in the geographical knowledge of countries and peoples located at the border of the empire like the Phoenicians. 109 The Assyrian kings claimed world dominion but they really knew that the world extended beyond the declared maximal extension of their area of influence. If there was more to be conquered, how was that compatible with the idea of world do­ minion? It can be argued that they did not conquer or at least intend to conquer more regions because they had not enough time. But it seems rather that the Assyrians Grotto (RIMA 3 102.23, 1 8) which has been equated with the Urmia-Lake (Medvedskaja 2000, 435f.; Radner 2009, 1 8 1 , comment to line 1 8) and the Zeribor Lake (Levine 1 973, 20f.). 1 01 RINAP 3/2 46, 56-102 (pp. 82-84). 1 02 With the exception ofMu§ku (RGTC 7/1 , 178f., s. v. Musku 1 ), which lay slightly outside this horizon, as it was not reached by the Assyrian army. 1 03 For this topic see Lang & Rollinger 2010, 2 16-253. 1 04 Radner 2010, 435-440 clearly shows that there was no Assyrian conquest of Cyprus. 105 Furthermore, the exaggerated indication that Jadnana was located in a distance of seven days from the coast (Radner 2012, 438) shows that the information did not rest on practical knowledge, Fuchs 1 994, 309, XIV 1 7-18; 337, Ann 394; 360, S4 41-45; Gadd 1954, 1 92, vii 25-28; Levine 1999, 40, 24). Also the distance of 30 leagues (324 km), probably taken from the head of the Arabian Gulf, for the location of Dilmun (Fuchs 1 994, 304, Stier 34-36; 309, Zyl 20-2 1 ; 335336, Ann 383-384; 360, S4 54-59; Gadd 1 954, 1 92, vii 20-22; Levine 1 999, 40, 27; Malbran­ Labat 2004, 350, left side, 23-25) does not match the real distance of approximately 500 km, showing too an imprecise idea of its location. 106 See Rollinger 1 997-99 and 2007. 107 SAA 5 92, 5-6. 108 Tarsisi in RINAP 4 60, 10' (p. 135) may refer to Tartessos in Spain according to plausible arguments given by Rollinger 2008. This would mean a great extension of the third horizon to the west. 109 I am more tempted to follow the pessimistic view of Villard 2000, 8 1 than the optimistic one of A. Fuchs in Wittke et al. 2007, 2. 41

ARIEL M. BAGG

made a clever evaluation of risks and always kept in mind the relation between the costs of a military campaign and the gains that it may produce. Inside the borders of the region that became the Assyrian empire .the geography was no decisive factor for the military operations and the consequent expansion. On the contrary, the natural barriers played an essential role as operations in remote and difficult regions were linked to high risks and costs. 1 1 0 Why venture in the Mediterranean, when Assyria could benefit from the commercial gains of the Phoenician trade? Why undertake maritime campaigns, when the remote islands Jadnana 1 1 1 and Dilmun 1 1 2 paid tribute without military pressure? Why venture difficult and expensive military actions in the Taurus Mountains to subdue Tabalu and ijilakku, when the benefits would not be in relation with the effort? 1 1 3 Why march further to the Northwest, if Lydia sent gifts and ambassadors looking forward to help against the Cimmerians? 1 1 4 The Assyrian policy at and beyond the boundaries of the empire was conditioned by the geography. The Assyrian kings were not blinded by the ideology of world supremacy and decided in each case the course of action with great pragmatism, avoiding dangerous operations with potential catastrophic consequences. Assur or­ dered them to extend their land, and the Assyrian kings did so in an up-to-then un­ precedented extent. But as the god did not specify how far to extend the boundaries, the Assyrian kings could live with the idea that the world was greater than declared in their inscriptions.

LITERATURE Bagg, A. M., 201 1 . Die Assyrer und das Westland, Leuven ( Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 2 1 6). Biffi, N., 2002. II medio oriente di Strabone. Libro XVI de/la Geografia, Bari. Falkner, M., 1954--56. "Die Eponymen der spiitassyrischen Zeit", Archiv far Orientforschung 1 7, 1 00--120. Finkel, I. L., Reade, J. E. 1 995. "Lots of eponyms", Iraq 57, 1 67-1 72. -- 1 998. "Assyrian eponyms, 873--649 BC", Orientalia. Nova Series 67, 248-254. 1 10 However these boundaries were not impossible to overcome, as the impressive extension of Alexander the Great's campaigns to the East and Northwest show, see Wittke et al. 2007, 1 13. 1 1 1 Seven kings of Ja', a region in Jadnana, sent spontaneously precious metals and woods to Sargon, Fuchs 1994, 337, Ann 393-398; 352, Prunk 145-248. During the reign ofEsarhaddon ten kings of Jadnana delivered raw materials for the construction of his palace in Nineveh, RINAP 4 1 , v 63-vi 1 (p. 23). The same ten kings sent their audience gifts to Ashurbanipal and assisted him with ships during his campaign against Egypt in 667, BIWA 2 12, C, ii 50--67 (concerning the historical accuracy of this list ofnames see PNA 1/11, 395, s. v. Eki�tiira). 1 12 The tribute (variants gift and submission) of Uperi of Dilmun during the reign of Sargon is attested in Fuchs 1 994, 335f., Ann 383-384 (gift); 360, S4 54 (tribute); 352, Pronk 144-145 (gift); 304, Stier 34--36 (tribute); 309, XIV 20-21 (tribute), Malbran-Labat 2004, 350, left side, 23-27 (submission). Abundara, probably Uperi's successor, brought also tribute during Sargon's reign, Gadd 1954, 1 92, vii 20-24. After the destruction of Babylon, Dilmun sent audience gifts to Sennacherib, RINAP 3/2 168, 40-44 (p. 248). During Ashurbanipal's reign IJundaru of Dilmun came annually to Nineveh with a heavy tribute, ITT 129-13 1 ; see also ABL 458, 7-r. 1 where it is mentioned that · Idru, the muribbiinu of IJundaru, brought tribute. 1 13 Fuchs 2010, 409. 1 14 See the excellent treatment of this subject by Fuchs 2010 with the corresponding passages in Ashurbanipal's inscriptions on page 420. 42

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Frame, G., 2004. "The order of the wall slabs with the annals ofSargon II in room V of the palace at Khorsabad", in G. Frame (ed.), From the Upper Sea to the Lower Sea. Studies on the History of Assyria and Babylonia in Honour ofA. K. Grayson, Leiden, 89-102. Fuchs, A., 1994. Die Inschriften Sargons II. aus Khorsabad, Gottingen. - 2010. "Gyges, Assurbanipal und Dugdamrne/Lygdamis: Absurde Kontakte zwischen Anatolia und Ninive", in R. Rollinger et al. (eds.), Interku/tura/itiit in der A/ten Welt, Wiesbaden, 409-428. Gadd, C. J., 1954. "Inscribed prisms ofSargon II from Nimrud", Iraq 16, 173-201. Gaiter, H., 2014. "Sargon II. und die Eroberung der Welt", in H. Neumann et al. (eds.), Krieg und Frieden im A/ten Vorderasien. 52• Rencontre Assyrio/ogique Internationale, Munster, 17.-21. Juli 2006 (Alter Orient und Altes Testament 401), Munster, 329-344. Glassner, J.-J., 1984. "La division quinaire de la terre", Akkadica 40, 17-34. Grayson, A. K., 1980-83. "Konigslisten und Chroniken: B. Akkadisch", Reallexikon der Assyriologie und Vorderasiatischen Archiio/ogie 6, Leipzig, Berlin, New York, 86-135. Hallo, W. W., 1957. Early Mesopotamian Royal Titles (American Oriental Series 43), New Haven. Kudlek, M., Mickler, E. H., 1971. Solar and Lunar Eclipses ofthe Ancient Near Eastfrom 3000 B. C. to O with Maps (Alter Orient und Altes Testament. Sonderreihe 1), Kevelaer, Neukirchen-Vluyn. Lang, M., Rollinger, R., 2010. "Im Herzen der Meere und in der Mitte des Meeres. Das Buch Ezechiel und die in assyrischer Zeit fassbaren Vorstellungen von den Grenzen der Welt", in R. Rollinger et al. (eds.), Interkulturalitiit in der A/ten Welt, Wiesbaden, 207-264. Levine, L. D., 1973. "Geographical Studies in the Neo-Assyrian Zagros", Iran 9, 16-22. -- 1974. Geographical Studies in the Neo-Assyrian Zagros, Toronto, London, 1974. -- 1999. "The Inscription ofSargon II at Tang-i Var", Orienta/ia. Nova Series 68, 31-57. Lewis, M., 2012. "Greek and Roman Surveying and Surveying Instruments", in R. J. A. Talbert (ed.), Ancient Perspectives. Maps and Their Place in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece and Rome, Chicago, 129-162. Liverani, M. 1988. "The Growth of the Assyrian Empire in the Habur / Middle Euphrates Area: A New Paradigm", State Archives ofAssyria Bulletin 2, 81-98. -- 1992. Studies on the Annals ofAshurnasirpa/ II. 2: Topographical Analysis, Rome. -- 1999-2000. "The Sargon Geography and the Late Assyrian Mensuration of the Earth", State Archives ofAssyria Bulletin 13, 57-85. -- 2004. "Assyria in the Ninth Century: Continuity or Change?", in G. Frame (ed.), From the Up­ per Sea to the Lower Sea. Studies on the History of Assyria and Babylonia in Honour of A. K. Grayson, Leiden, 213-226. -- 2014. The Ancient Near East, London, New York. Maeda, T., 1984. " 'King of the four Regions ' in the dynasty of Akkade", Orient 20, 67-82. Malbran-Labat, F., 2004. "Section 4: Inscription assyrienne (N° 4001)", in M. Yon (ed.), Kition dans /es textes, Paris, 345-354. Medvedskaja, I., 2000. "Zamua, Inner Zamua and Mazamua", in R. Dittmann (ed.), Iran und der Westen: Gedenkschriftfar Peter Ca/meyer (Alter Orient und Altes Testament 272) , Munster, 426-443. Millard, A. R., 1994. The Eponymns ofthe Assyrian Empire 910-612 B. C. (State Archives ofAssyria Studies 2), Helsinki. Morandi Bonacossi, D., 1988. "Stele e statue reali assire: localizzazione, diffusione e implicazioni ideologiche", Mesopotamia 23, 105-137. Miiller, K. F., 1937. Das assyrische Ritual. Tei/ 1: Texte zum assyrischen Konigsritua/ (Mittei/ungen der Vorderasiatisch-A.gyptischen Gesellschaft 41/3), Leipzig. Olshausen, E., 2007. "Fernkundung in der antiken Welt", in Wittke et al. 2007, 6-9. Onasch, H. U., 1990. Die assyrischen Eroberungen Agyptens, Wiesbaden. Porter, B. N., 2012. "Audiences for the Cyprus Stela of Sargon II", in G. B. Lanfranchi et al. (eds.), Leggo! Studies Presented to Frederick Mario Fales, Wiesbaden, 669-675. Postgate, J. N., 1993. "The Four 'Neo-Assyrian' Tablets from Seb I:Iamad", State Archives ofAssyria Bulletin 7, 109-124. Radner, K., 2007. "The Winged Snakes of Arabia and the Fossil Site of Makhtesh Ramon in the Negev", Wiener Zeitschriftfar die Kunde des Morgenlandes 97 (Fs Hunger), 353-366. - 2008. "Esarhaddon's Expedition from Palestine to Egypt in 671 BCE: A Trek through Negev and Sinai", in D. Bonatz et al. (eds.), Fundstellen: Gesammelte Schriften zur Archiio/ogie und Geschichte Altvorderasiens ad honorem Hartmut Kuhne, Wiesbaden, 305-314. 43

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-- 2009. "Die assyrischen Konigsinschriften", in Schachner 2009, 172-203. -- 2010. ''The Stele of Sargon II at Kition: A Focus for an Emerging Cyprus Identity?", in R. Rollinger et al. (ed.), lnterku/turalitiit in der A/ten Welt, Wiesbaden, 429--449. Reade, J. E., 1995. "Iran in the Neo-Assyrian Period", in M. Liverani, Studies in Neo-Assyrian Geo­ graphy, Roma, 31-42. Rollinger, R., 1997-99. "Zur Bezeichnung von ,,Griechen" in Keilschrifttexten", Revue d 'assyriologie et d 'archeologie orientale 91, 167-172. -- 2007. "Zur Herkunft und Hintergrund der in altorientalischen Texten genannten 'Griechen' ", in R. Rollinger et al. (eds.), Getrennte Wege? Kommunikation, Raum und Wahrnehmung in der A/ten Welt, Frankfurt a. M., 259-330. -- 2008. "Das altorientalische Weltbild und der feme Westen in neuassyrischer Zeit", in J. Hengstl et al. (eds.), Antike Lebenswe/ten. Festschriftfor lngomar Weiler zum 70. Geburtstag, Wiesbaden, 683-695. Schachner, A., 2009. Assyriens Konige an einer der Quel/en des Tigris. Archiiologische Forschungen im Hoh/ensystem von Bzrkleyn und am sogenannten Tigris-Tunnel (Jstanbuler Forschungen 51), Tiibingen. Seux, M.-J., 1965. "Les titres royaux 'sar kissati ' et 'sar kibriit arba 'i ' ", Revue d 'assyrio/ogie et d'archeologie orientale 59, 1-18. -- 1967. Epithetes roya/es akkadiennes et sumeriennes, Paris. Thompson, R. C., 1940. "A Selection from Historical Texts from Nineveh", Iraq 7, 85-131. Veenhof, K. R., 2003. The Old Assyrian List of Year Eponyms From Kamm Kanish and Its Chronological Implications, Ankara. Villard, P., 2000. "Les limites du monde connu a l'epoque neo-assyrienne", in L. Milano et al. (eds.), Landscapes. Territories, Frontiers and Horizons in the Ancient Near East, Volume fl Geography and Cultural Landscapes (History of the Ancient Near East/Monographs 3), Padova, 73-81. Whiting, R. M., 1994. ''The Post-canonical and Extra-canonical Eponyrns", in Millard 1994, 72-78. Wittke, A.-M., Olshausen, E., Szydlalc, R. (eds.), 2007. Historischer Atlas der antiken Welt (Der Neue Pauly: Supp/emente Band 3), Stuttgart. Yamada, K., 2005. " 'From the Upper Sea to the Lower Sea'. The Development of the Names of the Seas in the Assyrian Royal Inscriptions", Orient 40, 31-55. Yamada, Sh., 1994. ''The Editorial History of the Assyrian King List", Zeitschriftfor Assyriologie und vorderasiatische Archiiologie 84, 11-37. -- 2000. The Construction of the Assyrian Empire, Leiden. -- 2003. ''Notes on the Genealogical Data of the Assyrian King List", in": I. Eph'al et al. (eds.), Hayim and Miriam Tadmor Volume, Eretz-lsrael 27, Jerusalem, 265*-275*. Zawadzki, S., 1994. "Das Eponyrnat von A§§ur-gimilli-tirri im Lichte der Berliner Eponyrnen-Liste", State Archives of Assyria Bulletin 8, 43-54.

44

THE COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE OF THE NEO­ ASSYRIAN EMPIRE: ETHNICITY, LANGUAGE AND IDENTITIES* Frederick Mario Fales 1 The quest for ethnicity regarding ancient civilizations Ethnicity is, in present-day anthropological terms, a highly flexible notion along both geographical and historical guidelines. It involves the pinpointing of group identities and/or differentiations on the basis of mutual contact, such as they are observed from the protagonists' viewpoint or from that of the surrounding social order. 1 Such identities, as has been stated, "are essentially defined by self-ascription and ascription by others, a sheer mechanism of inclusion and exclusion", and the only actual "rule" is that of a self-established boundary separating the group from other groupings of the same order, "regardless of any cultural traits or patterns of behavior that may from time to time be seen as characteristic for the members of the group" on the part of the outside observer.2 Not surprisingly, the concept of ethnicity, in its frequently uncertain balancing act between the competing notions of genetic background - which of course formed the backbone of the traditional idea of ethnos - and cultural build-up,3 appears to • This essay, delivered as a paper in Helsinki, was completed after the publication of three previous articles, organized in a specific series, on the topic of ethnicity in the Neo-Assyrian empire through the lens of the nisbe: Fales 2013, Fales 201 5a, and Fales 2017a. It may thus be read as explicitly presenting a bird's-eye view of the results given in much greater detail therein, although it also offers a number of new additions in the footnotes and the bibliography. 1 Cf. Jones 1 997, 5 1--{i5, for a presentation of the development of the concept/use of ethnicity from the 1 960s onward. 2 Luraghi 2008, 7, partially quoting the introduction by Fredrik Barth in Barth (ed,) 1969, 9-38 (and esp. 17-19). On Barth's very innovative views of ethnicity, and on their influence on subsequent studies and methodological trends, cf. e.g. the critical-historical evaluation by Fabietti 1998, 95-104. As recalled e.g. by Emberling (1997, 295), studies on ethnicity may nowadays be subdivided into those preceding or following the Barth paradigm shift (B.B. / A.B. = "before/after Barth"), i.e. between research on "culture as a whole" or, instead, focused on "subgroups of people". A Barthian-type approach to ethnicity, and more specifically a relativistic definition of the term "ethnicity'' such as was presented for past and present societies by Jones 1 997 (xiii, and passim): "all those social and psychological phenomena associated with a culturally constructed group identity'', will be followed in the present evaluation of the nisbe in Assyrian texts. Cf. also fn. 30, below. 3 This dualism -which still today lies at the heart of ethnicity studies - is succinctly but clearly presented through the parallel quote of contrasting definitions of ethnicity by Roaf 2005, 307f.

45

FREDERICK MARIO FALES

have acquired major relevance for social studies during the last decades, especially in relation to the recent phenomenon of worldwide mass migration and to the ensuing problems of multiple collective integration in specific local, national, or globalized environments. On the other hand, the same set of recent events has caused a renewed reflection on ethnicity also on the part of the "receiving" communities, with a eye to the historical formation of their own particular identities, and in view of the possibilities, ways, and overall convenience of preserving such identities in the future, and/or assimilating others to them. 4 Thus it may be stated, in sum, that ethnicity represents a pivotal conceptual and problematic focus of our day and age. 5 Certainly, in the higher reaches of learning, the concept of ethnicity appears to have given rise to a wide gamut of studies and Contra, according to B. A. Brown (2014, 5 1 7), the dissociation of these two notions is considered a given nowadays, although this author is forced to admit that even recent studies - e.g. Bahrani 2006 - still conflate concepts of race and culture when dealing with ethnicity in the Ancient Near East. As had already been indicated by Emberling and Yoffee (1 999, 273), "in Mesopotamia, the ascription of ethnicity has often been confused with that of 'race' " - with the significant quote of a well-known and ground-breaking study by I. J. Gelb ( 1960). 4 Cf. e.g. Kaufmann 2004, a useful conference volume regarding a number of present-day case­ studies in this perspective. However, it must be underscored that some of the latest developments in world history, with the many concurrent factors of ethnic identity (affirmed/rejected), ethnic discrimination/oppression/"cleansing", ethnification of specific cultural groups (e.g. "Muslims"), and the persistence/resurgence of truly racial biases, have forced specialists of the field to revise previous more broad-minded views, and to conclude that ''the relationship between race and ethnicity is complex. Ideas of 'race' may or may not form part of ethnic ideologies . . . Quite clearly, there exist important ethnic differences which are not thought of as 'racial' in the sense of being based on group-specific, immutable characteristics . . . On the other hand, . . . the boundary between what is perceived as natural, biological differences between groups, and acquired, cultural differences is often fuzzy in practice. Ethnic differentiation frequently entails, to a greater or lesser extent, the existence of folk notions of inborn group differences that are assumed to explain some cultural differences" (Eriksen 201 0, Sf.). 5 As Malesevic (2006, 13) states, "Identity is not something tangible or visible: you cannot touch, smell, taste or see it. Yet many claim that its presence is so prevalent today that nearly everything has become a matter of identity". In very general terms, it may be pointed out that nowadays studies on ethnicity/ethnic identity form a veritable galaxy, with specialized branches regarding all main geographical areas (post-colonial/emerging nations, the West, Central and South America, Africa, the Far East, �tc.➔, addressing questions of gender and other physical markers (e.g. reli­ gious dress), etc., and - most recently - tackling specific issues which mark and affect the contemporary world (and its ensuing perceptions). Among the latter, this writer would quote glob­ alization and its reflexes in integration/multiculturalism or exclusion/prejudice, migration studies in situations of peace/conflict (from economic diaspora and political flight to expected return or new adaption), fear/phobia of "the Other" in relation to terrorism and its ensuing regulations, and - fmally - international recruitment in economic/religious/military organizations as a reflex of dissatisfaction/alienation in regard to original/acquired ethnic identity (cf., e.g., the 201 6 map [last consulted on July 23, 2016] depicting "Foreign Fighters" from all over the world for ISIS/.;....l.i: http://www.rferl.org/contentinfographics/foreign-fighters-syria-iraq-is-isis-isil-infographic/26584940. html). In general, it may be observed that studies on ethnicity/ethnic identity have absorbed, and culturally modified to a certain extent (through inputs from history, anthropology, semiotics, IT studies, etc.), the relevant sectors of the vaster field of sociology, per se concerned with socially construed entities, analyzable and measurable as such.

46

THE COMPOSITION AND STRUCTIJRE OF THE NEO-ASSYRIAN EMPIRE

interpretations permeating social and ethno-anthropological studies in their entirety, and has decidedly begun to filter from the post-colonial horizon into that of historical studies. This chronologically dilated dimension of a regard on ethnicity seems espe­ cially productive in view of the long-range temporal perspective that the historical record may offer, thus casting light on unforeseen and/or previously neglected scenarios, from (e.g.) the dynamics of group formation to the differentiation and transformation of identities/self-definitions in relation to specific phases, or opportunities, for economic, social, and political development in autonomy or in relation to other groups. And, in this light, even the remote horizon ofAntiquity may be a profitable candidate for examination, provided that the sources illustrating specific ancient historical contexts be sufficiently abundant and detailed. 6 As is obvious, the manifold textual testimonials on the pre-Hellenistic phases of Western Asiatic history fit more than adequately the basic requirements on this line of investigation. It is thus - just as obviously - of interest for Assyriologists and historians of the ancient Near East to single out specific markers of inter- and intra­ group categorisation, embodiment and group perceptions within the domain of the written or iconographic evidence at their disposal in specific chronological (short- to long-term) brackets. And for this very reason, a number of innovative studies on ethnic identity on the part of diverse Ancient Near Eastern specialists have testified during the last 1 5 years that the subject of ethnicity in a historical perspective is indeed worth pursuing. 7 But a vast amount of work still remains to be done in this field, and it is to be hoped that numerous further applications will be attempted and brought to completion in the near future. The following presentation of achieved results merely regards one such application, albeit of particularly vast contextual scope, both from the point of view of the geographical range and of the intrinsic variety of case-studies involved.

*** 6 A good example of recent debate concerning the complex issues of detecting ethnic identities in Antiquity, both as regards the textual and the material/archaeological record, may be found in the papers assembled by Derks & Roymans (eds., 2009). A quite different but also interesting example, which brings to the fore and discusses the concepts of alterity and "otherness" in the Classical and Judaic horizon, is represented by Gruen 201 1 . 7 Possible markers of ethnicity within Mesopotamian cultures through the written record of the 3rd and early 2nd millennium BC have hitherto attracted the majority of scholarly efforts (cf. especially Kamp & Yoffee 1980; Emberling & Yoffee 1 999), while much less attention has been hitherto devoted to the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages (cf. e.g. Jakob 2005 for non-Assyrian ethnicities in the western region of the Middle-Assyrian reign, also on the basis of Herkunftsappellative, i.e. the nisbe and other similar markers). On the other hand, the theme of the many and culturally/geographically overlapping ethnicities in the Early Iron Age Levant has grown into a specific focus of research, mainly on archaeological or artistic grounds (cf. e.g. Hoffmann 2005; Gilboa 2005; Fantalkin 2006) and more rarely with reference to the written record (e.g. Routledge 2000; Killebrew & Lehmann [eds.] 2013). Finally, for a later period than the one dealt with here, the contribution by Van der Spek 2005 on ethnic segregation in Hellenistic Babylon based on cuneiform sources may be singled out as a successful application ofthe Barthian approach to an ancient social context (this paper is reproduced in Derks & Roymans 2009, 1011 16). 47

FREDERICK MARIO FALES

The Assyrian empire between the 9th and 7th centuries BC, with its vast blend of peoples progressively falling under the "yoke of Assur", 8 and/or being moved to and fro for military and economic reasons, presents a unique challenge as observation point for the study of the mechanisms of identity or differentiation, and of the perceptions of sameness or the biases of alterity, within the ancient Near Eastern context. This is of course due to the fact that we are nowadays in the position to view this period -in its vast geographical scenario and great socio-economic complexity - not only through the filter of written sources reflecting the official discourse of Assyrian royalty, but also through the intimations derived from many hundreds of documents dealing with "everyday" administrative practice, retrieved in the archives of capitals and provincial cities. Finally, as is well known, a particularly fruitful domain for the study of ethnicity in the Assyrian empire is represented by the icono­ graphic evidence ofpalatial bas-reliefs - an area which has been specifically sifted as such, e.g. by Julian Reade, Markus Wafter, and most recently Brian Brown. 9 Restricting ourselves in this contribution to the written sources, we may note that the hustle and bustle of humanity in its different "hues" of ethnicity within Assyrian cities and the outlying countryside may be in particular detected in a series of ad­ ministrative inventories detailing specific professional groups of men and women, as well as in lists of witnesses in the many hundreds of legal documents. It may be further detailed in depth through lists of palatial personnel drawn up within loyalty oaths or queries to the Sun-god Samas on matters of fealty to the Crown. In particu­ lar, the great variety of peoples which marked the composition and structure of the population within the Assyrian Empire, deriving from military conquests as well as from planned displacements, may be gauged through two essential markers. These are ( 1 ) personal names in a linguistic perspective, and (2) the "labels" of geographic/ ethnic.provenance which were attached to individuals or groups within the written documentation.

2 Onomastics and the nisbe as tools for studying ethnicities m the Assyrian empire Personal names as material for an evaluation of ethnicity in the Neo-Assyrian empire have hitherto been in the limelight, especially in connection with a linguistic and geographical evaluati�n of the relevant attestations. 10 A first aspect regards the 8

For a general history of the Assyrian empire, cf. Fales 2001 (an English edition with updates is forthcoming for the Mesopotamian Civilizations series); whereas the collected studies of J. N. Postgate (Postgate 2007) offer a history of the period (but also of the previous MA one) constituted, in a sort of "patchwork" pattern, by a variety of interrelated perspectives. A brief overview of all Assyrian history has recently been published by K. Radner (Radner 20 1 5). 9 Reade 1 972 (Assyrian court and army); Watler 1 975 (foreign peoples); Brown 201 4 (ethnicity in general). 10 The outright connection between onomastics and ethnicity in the Ancient Near East goes back to Gelb 1 962 (see fns. 23 and 24, below). An overview of onomastic studies on the Neo-Assyrian period is undoubtedly favored, at this time, by the excellent state of scholarly editions in the field, not only thanks to the full availability of the corpus of "everyday" documents of this age in clear and updated transliterations and translations in the SAA series (see http://www.helsinki.fi/science/

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THE COMPOSITION AND S1RUCTURE OF THE NEO-ASSYRIAN EMPIRE

linguistic-cultural affiliation of the PNs, on the basis of the etymologies of their verbal/nominal components and of the known cultic backgrounds of the gods therein invoked. 1 1 Such names represent of course a useful complement to envisage what linguistic traditions could have been maintained within the private sphere of com­ munication and/or cultic affiliation - not only Aramaic, for which abundant textual attestations exist as a partially approved second language of the empire, 12 and Egyp­ tian, memory of which is preserved on sparse objects, 13 but also other West Semitic, as well as Anatolian and Zagric, varieties, and even Greek. 14 In a nutshell, the purely linguistic elements of the PN may be quite useful for pinpointing the existence of a specific ethnic origin vis-a-vis others; however, this result may only be attained after an extensive "decoding" of the way the NA written record represented these PNs. 1 5 A second productive aspect regarding personal names concerns the spatial local­ ization of the bearers - as may be deduced from outright textual indications or con­ textual clues. These data have hitherto been used to derive a number of historical "snapshots", pinpointing the ultimate origins of some population groups and their distribution throughout Assyria; or, viceversa, of the composite ethnicities which shared specific areas. 16 Similarly to the previous case, deductions regarding the saa/publicat.html for the published volumes), but in particular to a vast and detailed prosopograph­ ical repertory drawn from such documents (PNA I-III). Specifically, the latter project was based on a vast network of international competences and on fully computerized processes (databases, bibliographical lists) for the filing and printouts of the onomastic and prosopographical data in their documentary context. Thus, the information for each onomastic item also comprised a brief, but very useful, description and partial quote of each documentary context in which the specific PN occurs. As for the plurality of international contributors to the PNA, it may be said to have enormously accelerated the practical realization of the work; but especially it has endowed the PNA itself with a great variety of philological and linguistic capabilities, such as are nowadays largely beyond the range of individual researchers, thus putting the many difficult etymological attributions of the names on the firmest of footings available at present. 11 It may be useful to recall J. Eidem's succinct but clear definition of PNs in ancient Meso­ potamia (Eidem 2004, 1 91): "The personal names (PNs) from Ancient Mesopotamia clearly constitute an important source material. Indeed quite a large portion of the total text-matter in the cuneiform record consists of PNs, due to the preponderance of administrative and legal archives. In contrast to modem European tradition PNs in the Ancient Near East carried semantic content, i.e. they had a lexico-grammatical structure conveying information which could be understood in contemporary society". In this connection, it may also be noted that Mesopotamian PNs differed radically from ancient Egyptian practices of name-giving, which in many periods foresaw the possibility of two or even three names borne by the same individual (see e.g. the overview by Vittmann 201 3), whereas ancient Semitic Namengebung shows variance almost exclusively through hypocoristic (familiar/endearing) nicknames, mainly representing shortened forms of the original PN. 12 Cf. Fales 2007, with previous literature. 13 For Egyptian PNs in Assyria, cf. Pedersen & Troy 1 993; Huber 2006. For Egyptian/Egypt­ ianizing objects in mortuary, cultic, palace, and private domestic contexts at Nimrud and elsewhere - scarabs, scaraboids, seal-impressions, amulets (wadjet-eyes, Bes-figures), beads, stone vessels, statuettes and weights - cf. Thomason 2004, 1 57-1 62; Mumford 2007, 1 52. 14 See, e.g., most recently studies of Greek names in NA texts by Rollinger & Korenjak 200 1 ; Schmitz 2009. 15 Cf., e.g., Fales 1 977, on the encoding techniques for Aramaic PNs in NA texts. 16 Cf.. , e.g., Fales 1993 (Dur-katlimmu); Lipinski 2000, passim (Aramaic PNs, by sites), 201 0

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FREDERICK MARIO FALES

presence of this or that ethnicity in a statistical or geographical light should be sug­ gested with the utmost caution. 17 Furthermore, both these cases only point quite rarely to how the named individuals were classified as regards their ethnic identities from an official bureaucratic perspective within the Assyrian empire (as will be said in §4, below, it is quite likely that they were in the main uniformly classified as "As­ syrians"): thus, e.g., to search for patterns regarding the professional affiliations of individuals bearing PNs from specific linguistic-cultural groups may lead to by and large unproven speculations on the social role and ranking of different ethnicities within the empire. 1 8 This said, however, it may be easily admitted that the relatively vast non-Assyrian onomastic material gives rise to a general sociolinguistic image of the heartland (and random peripheral areas) of the Assyrian Empire as populated in the 8th and 7th centu­ ries BC by a vast assortment of peoples of different heritage - basically, from all over Western Asia, as well as from Egypt, the Arabian peninsula, the Iranian plateau, and the Eastern Mediterranean - albeit through different incoming "waves". In­ depth evaluations ofNeo-Assyrian administrative and legal documents on the basis of personal names further suggest that these peoples were either allowed to reside in mutual (and basically unrestrained) admixture within the main cities of the Empire itself, or were, to the opposite, organized in compact "islands" of single ethnicities in urban or rural milieus, due to specific circumstances, whether of social (as in the case of tribal groups) or political (e.g. the forced resettlement of entire communities of foreign deportees) nature. 19 On the other hand, as already implied above, the study of onomastics in the frame­ work of ethnicity studies is far from foolproof in general, and shows specific method­ ological pitfalls when applied to linguistic-cultural contexts which are only available to us in written form, such as the PNs from the Ancient Near East. I would point out the following problem areas: 1) the PN surely reflects the linguistic/cultural parameters of the parents of the bearer, not necessarily of the bearer himself.20 Thus only the study of family onomastics in (Mallanate); and especially Zadok 1978 (PNs from the Levant in Mesopotamia), 1981 (Arabians in Mesopotamia), 1 988 (Israelite PNs), 1995 (PNs of the Jezirah), 2002 (PNs in NW Iran, Kur­ distan), 2013. (tribal PNs in Babylonia). 17 Cf., e.g., Fales 1"991 (on the diffusion and social relevance of West Semitic PNs in Assyria). 18 This point was made in Fales 201 5b, 723f. 19 As is well known, this cosmopolitan patterning ofNA-period names - which may be seen as one of the functions of an overall tolerance, if not actually an outright taste, of Assyrian rulership for the perpetuation of the cultures native to the vanquished peoples - did not find a continuation to the same extent in the (equally wide-ranging) NB empire, where onomastics show a prevailing conformity to Babylonian linguistic and religious standards. However, recent reappraisals of the NB evidence, such as R. Zadok's (201 5) study on West Semitic personal/place names in the Nippur region between the 8th and 4th centuries BC, are beginning to refine the picture of interac­ tions between native Babylonians and groups of foreign origin. 20 As already pointed out long ago by I. J. Gelb ( 1 962, 47): " . . . they [= the personal names] are generally easy to understand. The reason for this comprehensibility is that they were usually couched in the language of the person or persons giving the name. The reason for their being couched in the current language of the name-givers was that the latter customarily formed names

50

THE COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE OF THE NEO-ASSYRIAN EMPIRE

a sequential-generational light (i.e. with case-studies which are not frequent to come by in the NA documentation) may lead to some conclusion regarding the continuity/ discontinuity of this or that linguistic marker through time. 2) theoretically, the divine names which are invoked (mainly as subject-elements) in the NA PNs represent acceptable clues for the detection of socially/culturally distinc­ tive features in the realm of cults and beliefs, but this factually occurs only in few, and very specific, cases (e.g., Yahwistic names of deportees). 21 To the contrary, more often such divine names prove to be open to more than one conclusion, or to none at all, as concerns the particular ethnicity of the bearers (see e.g. the case of syncretistic pan-Semitic divine figures, such as the Weather God, the Moon-God, etc.); 3) the predicative elements of the PN are theoretically of greater value to pinpoint the presence of a specific ethnic identity/origin vis-a-vis other ones. However, this aspect proves to be worth pursuing only in specifically pre-determined temporal/ spatial contexts, and with clearly interrelated onomastic data (e.g. , deriving from a single archive),22 otherwise it may give rise to vague and non-decisive results: e.g., the predicative element * 'abd-, "slave", characterizes all West Semitic onomastics of this and previous/later periods, and thus its realizations in NA cuneiform hardly allow a closer ascription to a particular linguistic-cultural milieu (Aramaic/Phoeni­ cian/Hebrew/Arab, etc.).23 Thus, in a nutshell, there seem to be more caveats to be made than certainties to be gained in an approach to ethnicity in the NA empire which takes onomastics as its primary, when not exclusive, basis. It is undisputable, as said above, that the overall mass of personal names in NA texts yields a broad picture of an empire in which peoples of many different linguistic-cultural origins and of many diverse primary beliefs were brought together, both in the cities and the countryside; but it is arduous to go beyond this general sociological framework - which could be applied to most, if not all, ancient (and even less ancient) empires. In particular, at a detailed regard, only bare shreds of purely onomastic evidence (i.e. evidence with no accompanying contextual information) may be summoned to illustrate (a) profiles of continuity or directions of specific change as concerns linguistic-cultural affiliation within family groups or geographically pinpointed local communities over time; (b) correlations between ethnicities and professional skills or traditional knowledge, and to what extent they existed; (c) the presence of multiple onomastic designations, to suit the possibly mutable requirements of Assyrian society (i.e. the problem of possible co­ existence of "family monikers" vs. "public names", such as are surely known for for their children in order to express a sentiment, a wish, or gratitude, revolving around their prog­ eny or themselves . . . the conclusion that the ancient Near Eastern names reproduced the current language of the name-givers and were consequently easily understood holds true". 21 Cf., e.g., Fales 1993, for the Yahwistic PNs from Dur-katlimmu. 22 Cf., e.g., Fales 1973, for the onomastic analysis of the texts of the so-called "Harran census", all dated to the reign of Sargon and centered on a limited region of NW Mesopotamia, traditionally characterized by a widespread worship of the Moon-god and his divine family. Most of the relevant evidence may now be found in greater detail in the PNA, under the "rubrics" Nas(u)b(u)­ and Se' - (also by the present author). 23 Cf. Silverman 198 1 , on this specific onomastic typology.

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some rulers, and might have been extended to others within the palatial elite).24 In sum, ifwe skim through the overall corpus of NA onomastics in the PNA, we will hardly gain a more detailed picture of the ethnicities of the Assyrian empire than the one imagined as deriving from a examination of the Chicago census by future Martian invader-philologists, such as was evoked in the well-known 1962 essay by I. J. Gelb - who readily visualized some pitfalls intrinsic to this superficial level of onomastic (and toponomastic) appraisal,25 although he proved to be overly optimistic in his conclusions.26 To update Gelb's example for the sake of discussion, it may be observed that the "phone-books" of our present, complex, globalized world tell us less and less per se about ethnicity, day by day: in themselves, they cannot even begin to clarify the underlying mechanisms whereby Barack Hussein Obama has been the 24

For the well-known cases of double denomination of the Assyrian kings Pii/u/figlath-pileser III, and U/ii/ayu!Shalmaneser V, cf. resp. Brinkman 1968, 240f. fn. 1 544; Radner 2003-04; and PNA, 1375. An example of onomastic abbreviation is instead, e.g., that of the Babylonian rulers Nergal-usezib and Musezib-Marduk, both called Suzubu by the Assyrians (Frahm 1997, 105a; PNA, l 297b-1298a). In a bilingual social perspective, the presence of double names has been e.g. well studied for Greek and Akkadian in Hellenistic Babylonia: cf. Boyi 2005, and cf. fn. 1 1 , above. 25 "What likely conclusions could be drawn by the would-be Martian philologists from a study of these names? The personal names would represent a linguistic jumble (English, German, Polish, etc.), but it would be relatively easy to reach the conclusion that these Chicago names resemble similar names found in the excavations of different European sites. Since the European names antedate by centuries those found in and around Chicago, the concomitant conclusion would be that the Chicago names were borne by settlers coming from Europe. The names would also show that small proportions of settlers came originally from Asia and Africa. But the information gathered from personal names would yield nothing about the older population of the Chicago area and the wrong conclusion might be drawn that the new populations were settled in an area formerly devoid of any human beings. Let us now consider the conclusions which might be based on a study of geographical names. These too would represent a jumble resembling geographical names found mainly in Europe. The clear majority of the names would be English (Evanston, Elmhurst, Hyde Park, Woodlawn, Kenwood, etc.), with very small proportions of French (Joliet, Des Plaines, etc.) and German (Munster, Schaumburg, etc.) names. In addition to these, a rather substantial number of names - second only to those of English origin - including Chicago, Illinois, Michigan, Calumet, Milwaukee, Waukegan, Kankakee, etc., would be considered unique and without parallels outside of our area. These strange-sounding names would obviously be taken as representing the native population of the area. But it would be wrong to draw the conclusion on the basis of the gedgraphical names and their proportions that by far the most common popula­ tion of the Chicago area in the year 1960 was represented by peoples of English origin, that the next most common population consisted of American Indians, that the people of French and German origins followed suit proportionately, and that the Slavonic peoples were hardly repre­ sented" (Gelb 1962, 5 l f.). 26 "Only by a joint utilization of the evidence based both on personal and geographic names could the right conclusions be reached: that the personal names, being innovating, reflect rather ade­ quately the ethnic background of the population of the Chicago area in 1960, composed as it was mainly of peoples of English, German, Polish, etc., origin in that order; and that the geographical names, being conservative, yield incorrect ethnic information about the Chicago area in 1960, but allow a historical reconstruction of the population of the area as being composed first of native (namely, American Indian) peoples, who were later superseded as a result of a very strong settle­ ment activity of English (or British) people and a much weaker one on the part of the peoples of French and German origins" (Gelb 1962, 52).

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44th POTUS, Elio Di Rupo has been Prime minister of Belgium (201 1-2014), and Kazuo Ishiguro and Hanif Kureishi are two prize-winning novelists from (and writ­ ing about) Great Britain. Especially nowadays, then, we are allowed to pose not only the time-honored Shakesperean question "What's in a name?", but also and espe­ cially its very opposite, "What is not in a (linguistically transparent) personal name?".

*** Quite different is the case of the so-called "ethnic-group terms" as identifying labels of ethnicity within the Neo-Assyrian empire.27 The NA written record offers us a great variety of toponyms, ethnonyms, and other locational terms to which the the suffix of relation or pertinence, i.e. the so-called "nisbe" (an-nisbah, �I in the original Arabic rendering), was applied. The nisbe is an afformative for nouns, known in virtually all Semitic languages. In Akkadian, it has the form -iiy/-iiyum, and its use is restricted, following von Soden,28 to the indication of Volker- und Einwohnerbe­ zeichnungen. Not attested before Old Babylonian, and here only at Mari, the Akka­ dian nisbe was surmised - still by von Soden - to be of West Semitic origin, where it is undoubtedly very productive. Alongside it, as is well known, we find the tradi­ tional Akkadian ending -f, -i'um, which is of strictly adjectival use (thus taking on full declension), and shows a semantical range extending beyond the mere indication of origin, to mark a wider "belonging" of the subject to a specific structure, a profes­ sion, or other.29 For the aims of this paper, it may suffice to note that, at least as regards Neo-Assyrian, there would seem to be a certain overlap between them. 30 Right from the outset, it may be noted that the nisbe presents the basic advantage over personal names that it represents an explicit identifier in terms of ethnicity, ru­ dimentary as it may be, whereas onomastics - as said above - only allow ethnicities to be deduced as such. On the other hand, it is obvious that the attestation of a nisbe cannot be considered automatic proof of the actual, and "live", historical existence of this or that ethnicity on the scenario of the chosen documentation, but merely as the totally subjective - and even merely occasional - perception and communication of that ethnicity.3 1 In sum, we should not expect from an evaluation of the nisbe in NA texts to draw an "objective" historical picture of the jigsaw puzzle of the ethnici27

Cf. Nuccetelli 2004 for this terminology and its applications, specifically in a linguistic-phil­ osophical perspective. 28 GAG, §56p. 29 Ibid., §56q. 30 Insofar as (a) the first of the two, written -a-a in Neo-Assyrian (and to be transcribed as -iiya according to K.-H. Deller or -ay following S. Parpola), although mainly indeclinable, presents some interesting exceptions, such as e.g. LV.ku-ma-a-a-e (cf. Hameen-Anttila 2000, 84); while (b) the second appears productive only in the feminine, which has the expected form in the singular (e.g., arm'ftu), but something ofa hybrid form in the plural (Mi.ar-ma-a-a-te). 31 See Geertz 1 974, for Moroccan Arabic. This eminent anthropologist defined the nisbe as creating "a framework within which persons can be identified in terms of supposedly immanent charac­ teristics", with the latter at the same time shaping practical relations and how the self sees and describes himself within Moroccan culture.

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ties which formed the Assyrian empire. 32 What we may draw, instead, is a tentative historical-anthropological framework on how the dominating level of imperial society - from which our surviving documentation on Assyria derives - perceived the existence of "others", whether living beyond its borders or interspersed in its very midst, per se and especially vis-a-vis its self-identification.33 The opposite situation, i.e. how the "others" perceived the Assyrians, is unfortu­ nately largely lost to us, due to the lack of "everyday" documents written (or pre­ served) by the neighboring or subjected peoples; at most, we may find official utter­ ances (in Aramaic, Luwian, Urartian, etc.) which present fleeting and stereotypical political views on the Assyrian Empire, which are thus of no real use for our present purposes.34 Somewhat more satisfactory, as is well known, is the Biblical record: here, a well-known study by P. Machinist represents a landmark contribution on how Assyria was perceived in the First Isaiah's prophetic utterances.35 How is one to proceed factually in an evaluation of the nisbe? A mere itemization of the attestations ofthe gentilic marker in Neo-Assyrian texts (such as may be carried out in a comprehensive manner starting out from all existing repertories and indices) proves to have only limited potential for historical purposes per se. The nisbe was of course frequently employed, and for a certain variety of ethno-social descriptions, from a polity, to a city, a tribe, or a professional group, and to communities both "beyond" or "within" the Assyrian frontiers, but, as a matter of fact, it was not em­ ployed in all conceivable cases. At times, other indications of provenience or belong­ ing are attested (e.g., through the expression[s] UN.MES KUR/URU.GN or LUIDUMU. KUR/URU.GN, resp. "people of the region/town GN" and "of the stock of the region/ town GN").36 However, this is to a certain extent beside the point, at least from the 32

Just to give one example, as in many other cultures of Antiquity, archaizing or generalizing identity-markers could be employed by the Mesopotamian scribes to denote foreign and "remote" population groups, and we sometimes find these markers recorded in the very same contexts as other, much more clearly and immediately meaningful, nisbe-designations. A good case in point is that of the ethnonym Umman-manda (of uncertain meaning), which goes back to the so-called "Cuthean legend" of Naram-Sin, at least beginning with the late-200 millennium re-elaborations of this text, and which was applied to the Gimimiya!Cimmerians in NA texts and to the Medes in NB texts. See most recently Adah 201 1 . 33 This particular approach to the problem of ethnicity and to its application as a historical tool has, in point of fact, few forerunners in research on the Assyrian Empire. Straightforward histori­ cal descriptions of the c:;.thnic components of Mesopotamian society (e.g. Arameans, Chaldeans, Elamites, Arabs, etc.) in the 1 st millennium BC are certainly not lacking, and at times are remarka­ ble for depth and detail: see, e.g., the informative chapters on the Arameans, Chaldeans, and Kassites in Babylonia in Brinkman 1968; D. 0. Edzard in RIA V, 291-297 s.v. "Kaldu"; Frame 1 992; Cole 1996; for the Arameans, cf. the vast monograph by Lipinski 200 1 . For the Arabs, Eph'al 1982; for the Medes, Radner 2003. On the other hand, hitherto little has been done in the area of the subjective perception of ethnicity within the Assyrian written record - with the excep­ tion ofattempts concerning the gentilic Assuray(a), "Assyrian" itself (Machinist 1 993; Parpola 2004; cf. §4, below). 34 See, however, the useful ideological-political results concerning the acceptance of vassalage to the empire reached by Lanfranchi 2009 on the .! -I< -II. --EE' -f< l r:l= lal• � l- r:1= + 1a1 n -¥ 4 --' 1... -· .; -Sheikh Hamad decoration -·----------,a.

10 cm

Fig. 13: Time line showing the archaeological contexts, empires, and selected pottery types; Central Lower Town II, settlement phase l a, Canal: I. SHI 0/6949/0396/020, Fugert et al. 2014, Fig. 9,7; 2. SHI0/6949/0396/018, Filgert et al. 2014, Fig. 9,22; 3. SHI0/4565/0062/006, Fugert et al. 2014, Fig. 7,44; 4. SHI 0/6949/0396/027, Fugert et al. 2014, Fig. 9,41; 5. SHl0/6949/0396/007, Filgert et al. 2014, Fig. 9,38; Central Lower Town II, settlement phase 2, House 4, Room RR: 6. SH92/615l /0309, Kreppner 2006, Taf. 1,6; 7. SH92/6l5l /0023/001, Kreppner 2006, Taf. 6,1; 8. SH92/615 l /0289/004, Kreppner 2006, Taf. 4,8; 9. SH92/615l /0576, Kreppner 2006, Taf. 11,5; Central Lower 'fown II, settlement phase 3, Red House GNP 1--4: IO. SH94/6147/0l 08/003, Kreppner 2006, Taf. 30,12; l l . SH94/6147/0l 27, Kreppner 2006, Taf. 46,7; 12. SH97/6543/0006/028, Kreppner 2006, 46,14; 13. SH95/6345/0339, Kreppner 2006, 97,8; 14. SH97/6345/0015/, Kreppner 2006, 27,3; Central Lower Town II, settlement phase 3, Red House GNP 5-14: 15. SH94/6145/0139/002, Kreppner 2006, 117,4; 16. SH95/6147/0049/003, Kreppner 2006, 112,5; 17. SH94/6145/0336/003, Kreppner 2006, 115,14. © Tell Sheikh Hamad Archive, Berlin

Recently published books or articles on Neo-Assyrian pottery demonstrate that ce­ ramics from well stratified archaeological contexts of the first quarter of the first 358

ARCHAEOLOGICAL REMAINS AND NEO-ASSYRIAN HISTORY

millennium BC in Upper Mesopotamia are rare and poorly documented. 54 Therefore it should be of particular interest that the excavation of the town canal in Tell Sheikh Hamad furnished 102 diagnostic ceramic sherds which - according to the chrono­ stratigraphical context - have to be dated to the early Neo-Assyrian period. Ceramics from the last phase of the Assyrian empire makes up by far the largest portion of archaeologically documented Neo-Assyrian ceramics, excavated at nu­ merous sites in the central and neighbouring regions. A remarkable continuity in ware and form has now been proven with regard to Neo-Assyrian ceramic repertory during the long period from the 9 th century BC until the empire's fall at the end of the 7 th century BC. Contrary to various assumptions, 55 also after the fall of the Neo-Assyr­ ian empire - during the so called "post"-Assyrian period - the clay used for pottery was continuously prepared with straw temper and the forms known from the seventh century were also used during the sixth century B.C. The assemblages of central Lower Town stratigraphical sequence document that the ceramic tradition in Dur­ Katlimmu was continued from the early Neo-Assyrian period beyond the political disruption and fall of the empire. Pottery of Neo-Babylonian type was not intro­ duced. 56 In addition, it proves that Neo-Assyrian ceramic tradition continued to exist even after the destruction of the elite-residence, though under totally changed socio­ economic conditions. It lasted until the settlement area in the central Lower Town II of Tell Sheikh Hamad was finally given up during the time of Achaemenid govern­ ance in Northern Mesopotamia at the end of the 6th or the early 5 th century BC. The socio-economic conditions of the inhabitants had changed dramatically: The portion of fine-ware in the repertoire of ceramic assemblages has markedly shrunk during this reuse period ofthe building. On the floor of the last period, in which the building was used, no fine-ware at all was found.

8 Conclusions How different archaeological methods in the past have formed and still form our archaeological knowledge When the spectacular Assyrian kings' palaces in the Assyrian heartland on the banks of the river Tigris were discovered, excavations started in the middle of the 19th cen­ tury uncovering numerous Neo-Assyrian archaeological remains. Because of the present insecure political situation in Northern Iraq, since decades large-scale ar­ chaeological projects and long term excavations could not be conducted any more. Therefore, excavation dates from Kalhu, Dur-Sarruken, Nineveh and Assur come to a large part from excavations conducted 50, 100, or even 150 years ago. These data have been produced by using theoretical concepts, excavation techniques and docu­ mentation methods of these times. This clearly has affected and still does affect in a negative way the evaluations of these former excavations. For example, shattered ceramics were believed as being without any value. They were not documented and just thrown away. Only selected single pieces, mostly outstanding special forms with paintings and ornaments, unbroken, were considered and registered. Consequently, the exceptional pieces became over-representatively known. Since no complete 54

55 56

Hausleiter 2010; Anastasio 201 1 ; D' Agostino 201 1 ; Jamieson 2012. Curtis 1989, 52. Kreppner 2006; 2008a; 2008b; 2015.

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assemblages are documented, it is not possible today to investigate the development of ceramics within the Neo-Assyrian period on the basis of pottery finds from old excavations and thus to identify social implications. The analysis of the pottery should have played a more important role, as it is the most frequent finding. Another reason for the difficulty to reconstruct the development of ceramics within the Neo-Assyrian period is the fact, that many excavated Neo-Assyrian ar­ chaeological contexts come from the late Neo-Assyrian period, particularly from the second half of the 7th century BC. 57 This situation is caused by the genesis of the archaeological remains. The formation processes reflect the development of settle­ ment during the late Neo-Assyrian period as a prospering period which is character­ ized by intensive construction activities. Old buildings had to be tom down. There­ fore, archaeological contexts of the earlier Neo-Assyrian period are preserved only sparsely and could rarely be discovered in excavations. In Tell Sheikh Hamad this situation could be exemplified with help of the buildings of phase 1 in the central Lower Town II (Fig. 5, above). However, other buildings like the palace of Assurna­ sirpal II in Kalhu remained in use for a very long period of time. The inventories were deposited with the end of the buildings' use. Therefore, possible finds coming from former phases were intermingled because of continuous use. This is also the case for phase 2 in Tell Sheikh Hamad, where inventories could be found only at a few places ( e.g. House 4, Room RR), because for the most part the buildings were again used in phase 3.

What archaeological remains can tell us about continuity and discontinuity in historical processes The �ew method to deal with the archaeological remains with regard to earth deposits and settlement development of the phase 3 Red House in Dur-Katlimmu gives us information about the continuity in the biography of the building during a period in which the well-known historical descriptions signal discontinuity and disruption. This is the case for the break down period of the Assyrian empire (6 12-609 BC) as well as for the period characterizing the end of the Late Babylonian empire. The main use phase of the Red House represents the first period; the phases of its later uses represent the second one. The material culture in Tell Sheikh Hamad clearly indicates that the socio-cul­ tural decay of Dur-Katlimmu took place not simultaneously, but with a certain time lapse in relation to tlie fall of the Neo-Assyrian empire. After the fall the Red House remained inhabited in full scale. The fact that, from a certain time on, contracts re­ mained undocumented on cuneiform tablets, indeed means the end of this type of written records, but there was continuity in settlement activities. However, for the time after the main use phase, archaeological sources tell us a story about the con­ tinuous decline of settlement activity during the numerous phases of the later uses in the ruins of the Red House. These trends clearly indicate that the collapse of the Neo-Assyrian empire cannot be treated equivalent to the end of Assyrian history. The biography of the Red House illuminates this period of socio-cultural change in the post imperial period in a new way; it indicates that this change was less radical and took place at a lower speed than many of historians, assyriologists and archaeologists have believed so far. 57

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Hausleiter 201 0, 496f.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL REMAINS AND NEO-ASSYRIAN HISTORY

Moreover, it also appears that this change cannot be seen as a total historical break. Archaeological material remains, when treated with appropriate methodological approaches, can give us answers to questions about social and regional histories. With a kit of new methodological approaches, archaeology is able to make more essential data-based contributions for a better understanding, illumination and differ­ entiation of the history of Assyria.

LITERATURE Albenda, P., 2003. "Dur-Sharrukin, the Royal City of Sargon II, King of Assyria", Bulletin of the Canadian Society for Mesopotamian Studies 38, 5-13. Aljuboori, A., 2016. "The Excavations of the College ofArchaeology at Kuyunjik (ancient Nineveh)", in J. MacGinnis, D. Wicke, T. Greenfield (eds.), The Provincial Archaeology of the Assyrian Empire, Cambridge, 107-1 16. S., 2010. Atlas of the Assyrian Pottery of the Iron Age (Subartu 24), Turnhout. astasio, An Andrae, W., 2003. Das Wiedererstandene Assur. Second edition revised and completed by B. Hrouda, Miinchen, 1977. Curtis, J., 1989. Excavations at Qasrij Cliffand Khirbet Qasrij (Saddam Dam Report 10), London. -- 2016. "The Eski Mosul Region in the Late Assyrian Period", in J. MacGinnis, D. Wicke, T. Greenfield (eds.), The Provincial Archaeology of the Assyrian Empire, Cambridge, 97-106 d'Agostino, A., 201 1. ''The Upper Khabur and Upper Tigris Valleys between the End of the Late Bronze Age and the Beginning of the Iron Age: An Assessment of the Archaeological Evidence (Settlement Patterns and Pottery Assemblages)", in D. Bonatz (ed.), The Archaeology of Political Spaces: The Upper Mesopotamian Piedmont in the Second Millennium BCE ( Topoi 1 2), Berlin, 87-137. Fugert, A., 20 14. Die neuassyrische und spiitbabylonische Glyptik aus Dur-Katlimmu I Magda/u (Be­ richte der Ausgrabung Tall Se!J lfamad/Dur-Kat/immu 16), Wiesbaden. Fiigert, A., Janoscha Kreppner, F., Kuhne, H. Rohde, J., 2014. "Early Neo-Assyrian Dur-Katlimmu", in P. Bielinski, M. Gawlikowski, R. Kolinski, D. Lawecka, A. Sohysiak, Z. Wygnanska (eds.), Proceedings of the 8th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East 30 April - 4 May 2012, University of Warsaw, Volume 1, Plenary Sessions, Township and Villages, High and Low - The Minor Arts for the Elite and for the Populace, Wiesbaden, 21 7-239. Hausleiter, A., 2010. Neuassyrische Keramik im Kerngebiet Assyriens - Chronologie und Formen (Abhandlungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesel/schaft 27), Wiesbaden. Heinrich, E., 1984. Die Paliiste Im A/ten Mesopotamien, Berlin. Hicks, D., 20 10. "The Material-Cultural Tum: Event and Effect", in D. Hicks, M. Beaudry (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Material Culture Studies, Oxford, 25-98. Hodder, I., 1 986. Reading the Past: Cu"ent Approaches to Interpretation in Archaeology, Cam­ bridge. -- 1999. The Archaeological Process. An Introduction, Oxford. -- 201 2. Entangled: An Archaeology of the Relationships between Humans and Things, Malden, MA. Jamieson, A., 201 2. Tell Ahmar III. Neo-Assyrian Potteryfrom Area C (Ancient Near Eastern Studies Supplement 5), Leuven. Kanjou, Y., Tsuneki, A. (eds.), 2016. A History of Syria in One Hundred Sites, Oxford. Kertai, D., 2015. The Architecture of Late Assyrian Royal Palaces, Oxford. Kopanias, K., MacGinnis, J. (eds.), 201 6. The Archaeology of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and Adjacent Regions, Oxford. Kreppner, F. J., 2006. Die Keramik des 'Roten Hauses' von Tall Se!J lfamad/Dur-Katlimmu. Eine Betrachtung der Keramik Nordmesopotamiens aus der zweiten Hiilfte des 7. und aus dem 6. Jahr­ hundert v. Chr. Mit Beitrligen von M. Daszkiewicz, E. Bobryk und G. Schneider (Berichte der Ausgrabung Tall Se!J lfamad/Dur-Katlimmu 7), Wiesbaden. 361

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Kreppner, F. J., 2008a. "The Continuity of Ceramic Production after the Fall of the Neo-Assyrjan Empire. New Data from the Red House of Tell Sheikh Hamad", in H. Kiihne, R. Czichon, F.J. Kreppner (eds.), Proceedings of the 4th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, 29 March - 3 April 2004, Berlin, Germany. Vol. 2: Social and Cultural Transfor­ mation: the Archaeology of Transitional Periods and Dark Ages, Archaeological Field Reports (Excavations, Surveys, Conservation), Wiesbaden, 167-178. -- 2008b. "The Collapse of the Assyrian Empire and the Continuity of Ceramic Culture: The Case of the Red House at Tell Sheikh Hamad", in A. Sagona (ed.), A Re-Assessment of Iron Ages Chro­ nology in Anatolia and Neighbouring Regions. Proceedings of a Symposium Held at Ege Univer­ sity, Izmir, Turkey, 25-27 May 2005 (Ancient Near Eastern Studies 45), Leuven, 147-165. -- 2012. "Site Formation Processes in the Lower Town II of Dur-Katlimmu. The Case of the Red House", in R. Matthews, J. Curtis (eds.), Proceedings of the 7th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East 12-16 April 2010 in London. Vol. 1, Wiesbaden, 217-228. -- 2015. "Late Bronze Age Official Pottery and the Ceramics of an Iron Age Elite Residence in the Assyrian City Dur-Katlimmu: Functional Context and Ceramic Characterisics", in C. Glatz (ed.), Plain Pottery Traditions of the Eastern Mediterranean and Near East, Production, Use, and Social Significance, Walnut Creek, 215-236. -- 2016. "The Aftermath of the Assyrian Empire as Seen from the Red House Operation in Dur­ Katlimmu", in J. MacGinnis, D. Wicke (eds), The Provincial Archaeology of the Assyrian Empire, Oxford, 177-187. Kreppner, F. J., Heide Hornig, 2010. "A Neo-Assyrian Chamber Tomb in Diir-Katlimmu", in H. Kiihne (ed.), Dur-Katlimmu 2008 (Studia Chaburensia 1), Wiesbaden, 107-114. Kreppner, F. J., Schmid, J., 2013. Die Stratigraphie und Architektur des 'Roten Hauses ' von Tall Seb lfamad/Dur-Katlimmu mit Beitriigen von Jens Rohde und einer Abhandlung iiber die Holzkohle­ funde von Rainer Gerisch (Berichte der Ausgrabung Tall Seb lfamadl Dur-Katlimmu 11), Wies­ baden. Kiihne, H., 1993. "Vier spiitbabylonische Tontafeln aus Tall Seh" I:Iamad, Ost-Syrien", State Archives of Assyria Bulletin 7, 75-107. -- 2005. "Die Ausgrabung Tall Seb I:Iamad: Eine Einfiihrung in die methodischen Grundlagen", in H.Kiihne (ed.), Magdalu/Magdala. Tall Seb lfamad von der postassyrischen Zeit bis zur romi­ schen Kaiserzeit (Berichte der Ausgrabung Tall Seb lfamad/Dur-Kat-limmu 2), Berlin, 1-24. -- 2013. "Tell Sheikh Hamad. The Assyrian-Aramean Centre of Diir-Katlimmu/Magdalu", in D. Bonatz, L. Martin (eds.), 100 Jahre archiiologische Feldforschungen in Nordost-Syrien - eine Bilanz. Berichte des Internationalen Symposiums des Instituts fur Vorderasiatische Archiiologie der Freien Universitiit Berlin und des Vorderasiatischen Museums der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin vom 21. Juli bis 23. Juli 2011 im Pergamonmuseum (Schriften der Max Freiherr von Op­ penheim-Stiftung 18), Wiesbaden, 235-258. -- 2016. "Tell Sheikh Hamad/Dur-Katlimmu/Magdalu (Deir ez-Zor)", in Y. Kanjou, A. Tsuneki (eds.), A Histqry of Syria in One Hundred Sites, Oxford, 119-126. Kiihne, H., Radner, K., ·2008. "Das Siegel des Isme-ilii, Eunuch des Nergar-ere§, aus Diir-Katlimmu", Zeitschriftfur Assyriologie und Vorderasiatische Archiiologie 98, 26-44. Larsen, M. T., 1996. The Conquest of Assyria: Excavations in an Antique Land 1840-1860, London. Lucas, G., 2012. Understanding the Archaeological Record, Cambridge. MacGinnis, J., Wicke, D., Greenfield, T. (eds.), 2016. The Provincial Archaeology of the Assyrian Empire, Cambridge. Margueron, J.-C., 2005. ''Notes d'archeologie et d'architecture orientales 12 - Du Bitanu, de l'etage et des salles hypostyles dans Jes palais neo-assyriens", Syria 82, 93-138. Marzahn, J., Salje, B. (eds.) 2003. Wiedererstehendes Assur. 100 Jahre deutsche Ausgrabungen in Assyrien, Mainz am Rhein. Matney, T., Greenfield, T., Koroglu, K., MacGinnis, J., Proctor, L., Rosenzweig, M., Wicke, D., 2015. "Excavations at Ziyaret Tepe, Diyarbakrr Province, Turkey, 2011-2014 Seasons", Anato/ica 41, 125-176. Matney, T., MacGinnis, J., Wicke, D., Koroglu, K., 2017. Exploring the Anatolian Frontier of the Assyrian Empire, Istanbul. Miglus, P., 1999. Stiidtische Wohnarchitektur in Babylonien und Assyrien (Baghdader Forschungen 22), Mainz am Rhein. 362

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_ 2006-08. "Qal'at Sirqiit (Assur)", Real/exikon der Assyriologie und Vorderasiatischen Archiio­ logie 11, 146-152. Oates, J., Oates, D., 2001. Nimrud: An Assyrian Imperial City Revealed, London. pflilzner, P., 2007. "The Late Bronze Age Ceramic Traditions of the Syrian Jazirah", in al-M. Maqdissi, V. Matoian, Ch. Nicolle (eds.), Ceramique de L 'age du Bronze en Syrie 2. L 'Euphrale et la region de Jezireh, Beyrouth, 231-258. Pucci, M., 2008. "The Neoassyrian Residences of Tell Sheikh Hamad, Syria", in J. M. Cordoba, M. Molist, M. C. Perez, I Rubio, S. Martinez (eds.), Proceedings of the 5th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, 3-8 April 2006, Madrid, Spain, Vol. III, Madrid, 49-63. Radner, K., 2002. Die Neuassyrischen Texte aus Tall Set, lfamad. Mit Beitriigen von W. Rollig zu den aramiiischen Beischriften (Berichte der Ausgrabung Tall Set, lfamad/Dur-Katlimmu 6), Berlin. - 2008. "Sail} I:Iamad, Tall. A. Philologisch", Reallexikon der Assyriologie und Vorderasiatischen Archiiologie 11, 542-543. - 2010. ''Neue neuassyrische Texte aus Diir-Katlimmu", in H. Kuhne (ed.), Dur-Katlimmu 2008 and Beyond (Studia Chaburensia 1), Wiesbaden, 175-186. - 2011. "The Assur-Nineveh-Arbela Triangle: Central Assyria in the Neo-Assyrian Period", in P. Miglus, S. Muhl (eds.), Between the Cultures: the Central Tigris Region in Mesopotamia from the 3rd to the JS' Millennium BC (Heidelberger Studien zum A/ten Orient 14), Heidelberg, 321-329. Radner, K., Kreppner, F. J., Squitieri, A. (eds.), 2016. Exploring the Neo-Assyrian Frontier with Western Iran: the 2015 Season at Gird-i Bazar and Qalat-i Dinka (Peshdar Plain Project Publica­ tions 1), Gladbeck. -- 2017. Unearthing the Dinka Settlement Complex: The 2016 Season at Gird-i Bazar and Qalat­ i Dinka (Peshdar Plain Project Publications 2), Gladbeck. Reade, J. E., 2000. ''Ninive (Nineveh)", in Real/exikon der Assyrio/ogie und Vorderasiatischen Ar­ chiiologie 9, 387-433. Rohde, J., 2013. "Die archiiologischen Fundkontexte der Schriftfunde aus der Grabungsstelle Rotes Haus", in F. J. Kreppner, J. Schmid (eds.), Die Stratigraphie und Architekturdes 'Roten Hauses ' von Tall Set, lfamad/Dur-Katlimmu mit Beitriigen von Jens Rohde und einer Abhandlung iiber die Holzkohlefunde von Rainer Gerisch (Berichte der Ausgrabung Tall Set, lfamad/Dur-Kat­ /immu 11), Wiesbaden, 331-354. Rollig, W., 2014. Die aramiiischen Texte aus Tall Set, lfamad/Dur-Kat/immu/Magdalu (Berichte der Ausgrabung Tall Set, lfamad/Dur-Katlimmu 17), Wiesbaden. Schiffer, M. B., 1996. Formation Processes of the Archaeological Record, Salt Lake City, Utah. Turner, G., 1970. "The State Apartments of Late Assyrian Palaces", Iraq 32, 177-213.

363

URBAN PLANNING AND NEO-ASSYRIAN HISTORY Maria Grazia Masetti-Rouault 1 Introduction There are many ways to study the relations between urban planning and Neo-Assyr­ ian history. In the assyriological field, traditionally, the theme is covered mainly by studies in kingship: urban topography is supposed to reflect the kings' use of spaces and their interests.' Leo Oppenheim thought Assyrian city plans reminded of the orthogonal structure of military camps, as reproduced in the reliefs. 2 Architects and art historians, on their part, have been in general more interested in studying well identified parts of urban morphology - palaces, temples, gates, gardens. Today ar­ chaeologists are ready for this debate, armed with a different kind of documentation, and formed in reading and understanding satellite pictures, and images produced by remote sensing or geo-magnetic surveys. We have now, under our eyes, an immedi­ ate vision of the urban forms of the Assyrian cities, or at least of their ruins, captured at a given moment of their recent evolution. These pictures can be indeed very sug­ gestive, sometimes breath-taking: they seem to represent a reality, not a mental re­ construction or an architectural projection. They highlight the very existence of ur­ ban forms, making them available as an independent object of study.

2 Urban plans and planning as historical documents But we all agree, this visual perspective - a view from the sky - did not exist, and could not be controlled or exploited in any way by ancient city planners, by the kings and their architects - with the possible exception of Etana3 - even if they had a virtual comprehension of volumes, space and forms, and used plans, maps and mod­ els to reproduce them. The language we speak today discussing urban forms has emerged not only from a different exploitation of the visual data, but also from their multiplication. It is possible now to read these images through specialized, non-phil­ ological techniques, created by contemporary needs of military intelligence.4 Much more than extrapolations from plans drawn by always limited excavations, this visual material makes possible and acceptable reconstructions of very large urban struc­ tures. 1

Cf. Frankfort 1950; Oppenheim 1 964, 109-142; Novak 1 999, 2014; Roaf 2013. In general, see also Heinz 1 997; Maran 2006, Harman�ah 2013; Osborne 2015. For Assyria, cf. Lackenbacher 1982, 1990; Novak 2004. 2 Oppenheim 1964, 134f.; see also Micale & Nadali 2004. 3 Selz 1 998. 4 Cf., as exemples, Casana & Hermann 2010; Casana, Jackson & Kalayci 2012; Ur 2013a. 365

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In Northern Mesopotamian and Jazireh regions, it is mainly Assyrian urbanism and urbanization which is largely explored in this way. Depending also on the results of surface surveys, Assyrian imperial power is asswned to have been the last one able to leave such evident marks in the landscape, still readable for us - notwith­ standing later destructions, abandonments and further occupations.5 The obvious risk, sometimes overshadowed in recent studies, is that too quick readings of the surface images and survey reports, if not compared with archaeological and strati­ graphic records, can produce a form of knowledge lacking a chronologic and dia­ chronic setting, precise enough to allow a meaningful historical interpretation. While these limitations should be taken into serious consideration, the results obtained by these studies are so important, to justify their integration into historical research.

3 Urban plans as representations of power Beyond the enthusiasm for these images, reasons NOT to discuss urban forms and topography at all, in any case not only as instrumentum regni tout court, have pro­ gressively appeared in the scientific debate.6 It is their historical meaning which is questioned, not only by architects, but also by philologists.7 The asswnption that urban plans can be exploited to define cultural or ideological identities and to recon­ struct their history can be, and has been contested. It works out only if town planning is seen not as complex process, the result of social and economic dynamics adapted to environmental conditions, but as a sort of global political event, carried out by an elite - kingship and the palace.8 Only in this perspective changes and developments in urban planning can be considered revealing idiomatic aspects, or phases, of an historical evolution. A study about the Forma Urbis, or even of the Ideal City, should not be launched without having clarified which kind of agency we imagine for the task of city plan­ ning - the king, economic elites, all society. We are all aware of the long evolution of urban forms of, for example, European cities under different political regimes.9 On the other hand, the cuneiform textual documentation shows the everlasting im­ portance of "private" properties, families' or clans' real estate policies in ancient Mesopotamian urban spaces. 1 0 It is difficult to accept the idea that urban form plan­ ning is a manifestation of a single agent or power, the king's will, and the product of his ideological and intellectual efforts of communication and social control. If this idea cannot be easily relinquished, it is not only because this is what ancient chan­ celleries and literary sources have to say on the subject. Since Gordon Childe' s discovery of the "urban revolution", 1 1 archaeological studies about urban planning could not help integrating the idea that city - every 5

See, as examples, Wilkinson, Ur, Barbanes Wilkinson, Altaweel 2005; Altaweel 2008; Ur 2013b; Ur, De Jong, Giraud, Osborne, MacGinnis 201 3. 6 For a theoretical approach, Lawrence & Low 1990; see now May & Steinert 2014, with literature; Osborne 2015. 7 Cf. Baker 201 1 , 2014; Leach 1978; Smith 2007. 8 Pongratz-Leisten 2013. 9 De Vries 1 984. 10 Postgate 1989; Zaccagnini 1 999; Van de Mieroop 1 997. 11 Childe 1 950; cf. Smith 2004; Cowgill 2004; Markus & Sabloff 2008; Renfrew 2008. 366

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city - is the result of a creative act of "foundation", of a definite ideological and economic choice, breaking up any continuity with village and tribal, social and ar­ chitectural structure. Considering the new scale of the operations and of the eco­ nomic investments needed to plan the town itself, the existence of an elite - a class of deciders and of specialists - must be supposed, to manage this situation. In the absence of information, they have been mythologized, in a way, also by modem ar­ chaeologists. 12

4 City founders and architects: gods and kings For these reasons, speaking even today of urban planning and urbanization, it is al­ most impossible not to evocate the idea of a foundation and of a founder, who traces the perimeter of the urban walls, and manages the complexity of the project and of its costs, with enough authority to have his plan respected by all the social forces in presence. Contrary to western traditions, ancient and modem, cuneiform literature rather suggests an original continuity between the natural landscape, organized by the gods (sometimes after a Chaos-kampf), and the cities, where their residences can be found. Cities are the final, but almost collateral result of a god's project to build his own palace, which itself mirrors, on earth, heavenly and cosmic realities. 1 3 Cities were there for men to live in, and to work for the gods, just as kingship itself was given later on, descending from heaven into urban societies to put an end to their still chaotic, natural way of life, and to organize properly their service to the gods. 14 In this context, it is often reminded that Mesopotamian kings refrain to assume the divine charge of city foundations in their own representations. In the inscriptions relating their building activities, much attention is given to the kings ' efforts to assure that their own planning follows pre-existing models, or, at least, that their project is agreed by the original founders, divine or royal. 1 5 This ideological and rhetoric rule resists firmly until the end of the cuneiform official literature, attested in royal inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Baby­ lonian period. Opposed to this taboo, since Tukulti-Ninurta I's experience, 16 the As­ syrian kings' attitude - to show their will to plan and to carry out new foundations - has been considered both by ancient and modem historians particularly meaning­ ful and suspicious, highlighting their megalomaniac hubris, the despotic nature of their power, even their implicit divinization in the process, only to encounter, later, a rightful punishment. Ancient Greek comments attributed this building mania to queens, to be sure. 17 It is maybe possible to better understand the difference marking Assyrian town planning ideology, exploring the formation of the literary topoi which record this royal activity. Cuneiform traditions distinguish the foundation itself, possibly left to 12 Cf., for example, Margueron 2013, 6 1 0--613, but see also Bretschneider, Jans & Van Lerberghe 2007. 13 In general, Carl, Kemp, Lawrence, Coningham, Higham, Cowgill 2000; cf. Azara 2010. 14 Masetti-Rouault 201 2. 15 Masetti-Rouault 200 1 . 16 Gilibert 2008, and cf. Bunnens 1 996. 17 Liverani 1 997; 2013; Masetti-Rouault 2009.

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the gods, 18 from urban form planning. If, viewed from high above, the city-wall lay­ out determines and organizes urban topography, its function is perceived in the texts in another way. Ramparts certainly establish a political and symbolic border and or­ der for the city, 19 but they are only an element of its topography, and not even the most important one, as were the temples, even if useful and necessary as canals, wells or gates are. So, since Pre-Sargonic times, and more during Ur III period, royal inscriptions can quote explicitly the construction of city walls, without suggesting a king's willful gesture to define the urban form. Since the more ancient attestations, kings are shown as acting in a deliberate way, out of their desires, freed of the obligation to respect a pre-existing pattern or original city layout. In war times, they cut the city wall of their enemy,2° as they build a new, larger one in their own capital, to show authority as well as their care for the protection of the people - themes often expressed by the toponymy.2 1 Royal freedom in the creation of urban structures is developed in a much clearer form after the affirmation of Amorite ideology over the Early Bronze Age kingship traditions. First of all, Amorite kings build, or rebuild, temples and urban walls not only in their capitals, but also in the urban centres they come to master, in order to mark a completed integration into their rule and dominion.22 Moreover, some Old Babylonian kings state that they did found new settlements, marking the toponymy with their own name, added to the term duru, usually translated as "fortress". In the Lower Syrian Middle Euphrates valley, Yahdun-Lim of Mari founded Dur-Yahdun­ Lim in a heroic fashion, in a desert landscape, needing the opening of a canal, just out of his royal desire and for his pleasure.23 Samsu-iluna founds, from scratch, Dur­ Samsu-iluna, in order to reorganize submitted lands and population. Further, he pro­ tects the settlement with a rampart, in order to reassure the dwellers:24 this is already the logic of the motif marking new urbanization programs in Assyrian culture. We do not have any archaeological information about the plan of these new Mid­ dle Bronze II-III settlements, but the urban form of at least two foundations, or re­ foundations in Babylonian culture regions, Tell Harmal-Shaduppu,25 and Tell ed­ Diniye-Haradum26 show some common characteristics in their plan, even if they are not, strictly speaking, anybody's duru. They both have a regular, almost rectangular form, organizing a sort of Hippodamian net of streets, with the traditional, uneven distribution of the official buildings along the main avenues. This geometric form, marked by comers � sometimes square comers - is opposed to any natural, round (or elliptic) form created by the normal expansion of a village, or by the erosion of a 18 Frayne 1 990: 605, 1. 34 (Yahdun-Lim) 1 9 Battini 2008; cf. Rey 2012; for urban gates, see also May 201 4; Miglus 1 982.

20

See, for example, Frayne 1 993, 10, 1 2-22; 1 1, 59-66 ; 12, 94-101 (Sargon). As examples, see the inscriptions ofEntemena ofLagash, Sollberger & Kupper 1 97 1 , 67, 1 07b, (II 8-IV 3); of Shu-Sin, Sollberger & Kupper 1 97 1 , 1 5 l f., IIIA4d, (20-30). 22 As an example, cf. Frayne 1 990, 603, 3 1 -34 (Yahdun-Lim, Mari); 386, 63-79 ; 387f., 1 16127; 390, 42-56 (Samsu-iluna) 23 Frayne 1 990, 603, 39-54. 24 Frayne 1 990, 390f., 57-76. 25 Cf. Baqir 1 959, fig. l ; cf. Margueron 2013, 3 1 6-3 1 8. 26 Kepinski-Lecomte 1 992, l lf., pis. IV-V. 21

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more ancient settlement. So, the choice to use this pattern would emphasize the origin of the new settlement,27 as well as the technical skills of the planners. The geometric, regular shape becomes, in the course of time, common in later Babylonian city planning, exemplified by Babylon itself.28 Its adoption by Tukulti­ Ninurta I, when he decided to build Kar-Tukulti-Ninurta, out of Assur, can be ex­ plained as a deliberate effort to mark a "new foundation", to distinguish its plan from a natural expansion of "old" city, unless it was an assumed imitation of Babylonian urban models too.

5 City planning in Assyrian history: Old Assyrian precedents We do not have, for the Old Assyrian or even earlier periods, almost any evidence to reconstruct an original Assyrian city plan. The karum in Kanesh housing the As­ syrian colony does not show any peculiar, idiomatic architectural forms. 29 The Assur city plan, developed from a traditional cult and market centre situated on the rocky hill on the Tigris West bank, depends much on its very geographical situation.30 The two branches of the river encircle the settlement on the northern and eastern sides, where quays, managing and checking the Tigris circulation, are to be found, while the main temples and official buildings are situated on the northern slopes of the hill. Only the Southern area, along the river bank, was open for further limited, settlement expansion, recreating, in this way, an usual North-Mesopotamian urban landscape: an ancient mound with terraces where the official buildings are settled and can be seen from far, and a distinct "lower town" expanding around it, with residential and production functions, connected to the citadel by a wall. Reconstructions of the two city walls, the inner one, separating the Lower Town, and the outer one, overlapping in two points, are systematically recorded by the Assyrian kings, as well as the land additions to the city. "Royal" inscriptions of the Old Assyrian period do show the engagement of the issiakku, waklu of the god Assur in the management of urban space and social ser­ vices, 31 detailing, as expected, the construction or modification of the city walls, but also of the opening of wells and canalizations inside the city. Interestingly enough, texts of the period mention a new subdivision of "city plots", expanding residential areas, in connection with the edification of a new (city) wall.32 However, the author­ ity of the Genius Loci itself, the god Assur, is constantly evoked in the process,33 possibly in connection with the expropriation/evacuation of private houses imposed by building projects, to convince resisting citizens: city works planning could not go without political challenges. The continuity of the theme of the king's legal obliga­ tion toward landowners can be found again much later, when Assurnasirpal II moved 27

Already attested by the city plan of the Uruk period settlement in Northern Syria Habuba Kabi­ ra, cf. Margueron 2013, 243-250; cf. Bwmens 1 996. 28 See also Van de Mieroop 2003. 29 Michel 2010. 3 Cf. the plan in Andrae 1 938; Matthiae 1 997, 23-29. 31 Grayson 1 97 1 ; Larsen 1 974. 32 Grayson 1 987, 17, 16--48 (Ilu-shumma); 33 Grayson 1 987, 20, 1 12, 5-23 (Assur-uballit I)

°

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Tushan inhabitants to settle Assyrian colons in the renovated city,34 and in Sargon H's affirmation that he has refunded the villagers of Magganubba, destroyed to open the area for his new capital foundation.35 To be true, a more nervous, belligerent attitude of the kings concerning private property rights appears in Middle Assyrian period. Arik-den-ili has no qualms in announcing that he has eliminated private in­ stallations unlawfully settled in an abandoned urban area, previously occupied by a Shamash temple, in order to reconstruct it. 36

6 City planning in Assyrian history: Middle Assyrian precedents Another theme from the Amorite stock concerning royal interventions in urban mor­ phology is developed again since Middle Assyrian period. Royal inscriptions are found not only in Assur, but also in other cities conquered by the Assyrian army, as in Ta' idu, or integrated into the "empire" as at Arbela, Nineveh37 and K.ilizi.3 8 In­ serted into the structures, or kept in the buildings themselves, these texts do not rec­ ord a general reshaping of the urban forms: foundation or restoration ofroyal palaces and temples outside Assur are judged strong enough signs to reveal the king's fulfil­ ment of the order he received to enlarge borders and boundaries of the "land of Assur", now quoted in the royal titles. This motif determines a new important narra­ tive development, which will mark Assyrian royal ideology and literature. Overcoming his first, usual reaction - to plunder and to annihilate the Mitannian capital Tai· du and to sow kudimmus on its surface, to avoid reconstructions - Adad­ nirari I is portrayed contemplating the effects of destruction, and the low level of land exploitation. Changing his mind, the king decides the construction of a palace.39 On the pattern of this episode, the narrative motif is built with a sequence starting with' the construction of a palace - first in new conquered lands, but later also in Assyrian settlements lost to the Arameans and by then recuperated - followed by the mention of an increase of cereals and straw production, and closed by a note about breeding animals for transport, mainly horses, to implement the army and cav­ alry forces. In the Neo-Assyrian period, since Shalmaneser Ill's inscriptions, the mention of the palace foundation can be replaced by the announcement of the impo­ sition upon the local elites and population of the control of Assyrian governors, later eunuchs, representing the king and his administration40 - the beginning of a pro­ vincial system.4 1 In this topos tlie construction of a (new) palace in the capital of a foreign region is apparently singled out to mean its "assyrianization", or, at least and more pre­ cisely, to summarize the royal structure managing its control and exploitation. As 34

Grayson 1991, 202, ii 9b-12a; cf. Masetti-Rouault & Sahnon 2010. Parpola 1 995, 53 and note 43. 36 Grayson 1 987, 121, 14-40. 37 Grayson 1 987, 137, 37-40 (Adad-nirari I, Tai'du); 204, iii 6'-22'); 206, 6-9; 209, 7 (Shal­ maneser I); Tenu 2004. 3 8 Rouault & Masetti-Rouault in press. 39 Grayson 1 987, 1 58, 55-60 (and cf. 136, 1 5-36). 40 Liverani 20 12. 41 Grayson 1 996, 41, iv 37-39, 45-48, but see already Grayson 1 99 1 , 249, iv 14b--l8a (Assur­ nasirpal II); Postgate 1 994; Radner 2006-09. 35

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the motif was, at that point, already formulated, it is not easy to understand why it has not been exploited more methodically to record, in the royal inscriptions, the foundation of other "palaces" and/or settlements in the territories just annexed. In the Syrian Jezireh, in the last decades some archaeological programs highlighted the importance of the Middle-Assyrian urbanization program in the region,42 for exam­ ple at Tell Chuera, at Tell Sheikh Hamad, at Tell Sabi Abiad, or at Giricano. These excavations started to reveal some settlement plans, which, however, seem not to show idiomatic Assyrian models, but, rather, to adapt the new foundation to the pre­ vious Late Bronze Age settlements structures remains.43 Contrasting with archaeological and epigraphic evidence, the Middle Assyrian royal inscriptions, even the more complete ones, are consistent in NOT reporting kings' building projects in the Jazireh, nor anywhere else. The "mixed" nature and political status of the colonial settlements in Hanigalbat, the development of which reposed also on private funding and investments of the Assyrian court and admin­ istration personnel, can possibly explain the silence of the royal sources.44 It is a fact, at least in the actual state of the documentation, that Tukulti-Ninurta's activities in city planning are focused only at Kar-Tukulti-Ninurta, and, laterally, at Assur. His inscriptions acknowledge, by and large, his charge of "administering" peo­ ples, cities and countries (including Babylon) conquered by war, unifying them in an imperial system, but they do not mention any city, colony, or even palace foun­ dation in the annexed lands. These regions are evocated, for the frrst time, as the origin of pillaged materials, tributes and taxes from the conquered countries, as well as of deportees work, needed for building programs.45 Royal city planning, now an autonomous object of the official narration, concerns only the new Assyrian capital - not a durum but a karum, for the king. If Tukulti-Ninurta's building activities in Assur itself balance certainly the political significance - whatever it was - of the new city foundation, it would be impossible to deny the change this decision trig­ gered in the State and royal court style of life, as well as in the urban society spatial organization. The orthogonal plan of new city appears to us as a message, with an intention, implying surely this political and social change,46 but it would be risky to decipher - on the basis of the choice of location, dimensions and plan - the new ideological autonomy requested by the royal authority, expressed by the spatial dis­ tance from the Assur Temple, 3 km downstream.

7 City planning in Assyrian history: beginning of the Neo-Assyrian period, elements of continuity Without mentioning a distinct toponymy, Tiglath-pileser I's texts still acknowledge, in general, the existence of a system of palaces and cult centres in the provinces of the empire, built by his forefathers. They are described in a temporary state of aban42

Kuhne 1995; Akkerrnans & Schwartz 2003, 348-350. See also, for the cuneiform archives, Postgate 2013, 260-326. 43 Akkerrnans 2006. 44 Postgate 2013, 333-342. 45 Cf. for example Grayson 1 987, 235, iii 12-20, 2 1-29, 27 1-274. 46 Cf. Reade 1 98 1 ; Eickoff l 985; Dolce 1 997. 371

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donrnent and ruin, after the Arameans' take over, in order to explain the king's res­ toration of the urban structures.47 His version of the topos explicitly connects the reconquista and urbanization projects with the launching of a new management plan of agriculture production and horses breeding. Assur-dan H's inscription further adds a reference to demographic increase, remarking that his restorations allow to settle down Assyrian refugees and migrants, coming back in their country.48 There is no way to verify what the topos actually means: beyond Assur, the only city where Tig­ lath-pileser's building activity is attested by inscriptions is Nineveh,49 which as­ sumed the function of a royal city, possibly of a capital5°. Also in this case the texts attribute to the king the renovation of buildings made by his forefathers, of the Ish­ tar's temple,51 of the urban walls and as well as of a splendid royal palace with its towers. A garden, irrigated by a canal coming from the Husir, is now added to the city for his lordly leisure, repeating an ancient Amorite theme, but also, not so subtly, the K.ar-Tukulti-Ninurta project: 52 since then, capital towns planning always in­ volves also hydrological works in dry-farming areas, the construction of a canal to water royal gardens with exotic plants and animals - the world inside the city - as a representation of a power on the way to become universal. 53 At the beginning of the Iron II Neo-Assyrian period, the question was to wrestle back the Jazireh settlements from their local, "Aramean" governance. Their topog­ raphy and the architecture of the buildings, if ever they were marked by the Assyrian culture, were not anymore a sign of their integration in the empire. Assur-bel-kala's texts had already elaborated a new, easier, undoubtedly cheaper and quicker way to mark the Assyrian royal signature in a settlement, the installation of a stela,54 adding royal iconography and a text, more readable and precise in the message about his glory. These monuments are set up everywhere, in the palaces of the enemy kings, in their temples, as well as in the landscape, in liminal or extreme locations, to mark Assyrian presence and property. The mention of their installation can replace in the texts, progressively, other royal interventions in local architectural structures.55

8 City planning in Assyrian history: the Neo-Assyrian period, and the empire A new period for the urbanization and town planning started in the ninth century with Assumasirpql II, founder not only of a new capital upstream in Calah, but also of many other settlements. Already during his father Tukulti-Ninurta H's reign in-

47

Grayson 1991, 26f., vi 85-vii 16; see also 27, vii 28-35. Grayson 1 991, l 34f., 60--67. 49 Reade 198 1 , 145-149. 5 Kertai 2015, 14. 51 Grayson 1 991, 59, 24'-3 1 '. 52 Grayson 1 991, 54f., 54-88. 53 Masetti-Roualt 2018. 54 Grayson 1 991, 92, iii 13'-14'; 93, iii 20'b-2 1 '; 94, l '-5'. 55 Morandi Bonacossi 1 988. Obviously, the construction of new palaces are still- mentioned in Assur-bel-kala's inscriptions, cf. Grayson 1991, 105, v 32-37. See Yamada 2000, 294-296.

48

°

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scriptions recorded the foundation of a palace in a town called Nemed-Tukulti-Ni­ nurta, close to Nineveh;56 in Tell Barri/ Kabat an inscription was found mentioning a palace built by him, now partially excavated.57 However, the scale of this trend in urban planning changes: Assurnasirpal H's chancery fully exploited every possibility offered by the traditional representations of the king as a city and palace planner and founder. Urbanization and city planning are definitively considered since now on as a way to administer the state and to enlarge royal authority over a geographic area. This is evident to not only in the narratives about Calah,58 but also in the multiplica­ tion of palaces, temples, settlements and cities he founds all over Mat-Assur, partially attested also by archaeological excavations: Assur, Nineveh, Balawat/lmgur-Ellil, Apqu, as well as in new conquered lands.59 Cities are founded ex novo, as Nebarti-Assur and Kar-Assurnasirpal, identified respectively with the sites of Greya and Tell Masaikh on the opposite banks of the Lower Middle Euphrates area, checking points for the river crossing and circula­ tion.60 Other cities are completely renovated and change their name, as Atlila, re­ named Dur-Assur,6 1 while others, as Tushan/Ziyaret Tepe, were re-founded, but con­ served their original name. 62 In some cities only a palace is "consecrated", as in Til­ Uli in Katmuhu,63 while royal images and inscriptions are installed in the palaces of the submitted kings, such as at Hindanu64 or in Matyatu.65 The inscriptions concerning Calah, following the usual standard narrative for city renovation/foundation used also for Tushan and other places, minimize the risk to link, or to compare the project for the capital with the experience of Kar-Tukulti­ Ninurta. Its foundation corresponds certainly to State's needs, but it involved also architectural choices, mirroring a new policy elaborated by the king and his court, however never detailed in the texts. We have no other city plans which can be surely dated to Assurnasirpal's period, but Nimrud-Calah, with its layout marked by the urban walls, is considered to correspond to Assurnasirpal's planning, notwithstand­ ing later modifications, - such as the construction of the ekal masarti by Shal­ maneser III in the Lower Town.66 But Calah was no repetition of Kar-Tukulti-Ni­ nurta, even if its perimeter has adopted an almost orthogonal, rectangular develop­ ment, shared with other North-Mesopotamian, Syrian cities.67 The difference, com­ pared to Kar-Tukulti-Ninurta, is obviously marked at Calah by the presence of a citadel, in the West, with the main official buildings, palaces, and temples, situated 56

Kertai 201 5, 14; Grayson 199 1 , l 79f., 1-IOa. Grayson 1 991, 181, 1-5. 58 Grayson 1 991, 227f., 52-62; 289-291, 20b-101. 59 Kuhne 1994. 60 Grayson 1 991, 216, 49b-50b, and cf. Masetti-Rouault 2013; 2014. 6 1 Grayson 1991, 208, ii 84a-86b; 249, iii 1 36'-137'; about the ideological meaning ofnew topon­ ymy, see Pongratz-Leisten 1997. 62 Grayson 1 991, 202, ii 2b-l2a, and 242f., ii 5b-36; cf. Matney, Wicke, MacGinnis, Koruglu 2012. 63 Grayson 1991, 208, ii 87. 64 Grayson 1 991, 200, i 96b-99a. 65 Grayson 1 991, 209, ii 91 ; 249, iii 16b-18a. 66 Matthiae 1 994; 1996, 1 1-18; Fiorina 201 1 . 67 Cf. Guzana: Margueron 2013, 242; Novak 2013a, 2013 b. In general, Bunnens 2006. 57

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on the surface of the top of an ancient mound. 68 As in Assur, the citadel is separated from the much larger Lower Town by a wall, while the outer ramparts define the city limits. Slightly irregular in its form, the Citadel has been built joining the western outer wall, so dominating not only the Lower Town, but also the external environ­ ment and the Tigris bank. This position suggests a relative independence from the Lower Town, and guarantees visibility and communication with the outer world. This articulated structure - an orthogonal, well defined Lower Town, occupied by residential structures associated with a Citadel situated on one of its sides - char­ acterizes, since the beginning of the eighth century, the Neo-Assyrian foundations. 69 Covering very different surface areas, they developed mainly in the Jazireh region from previous Assyrian or Aramean settlements. The urban restorations launched then in Kar-Assumasirpal and in Dur-katlimmu repeat its model.70 Their evolution gives evidence of a new awareness of the message transmitted by the city skyline and architecture, as well as of the possibilities to manipulate and to transform it. It should be kept in mind, however, that their plan was not directly dictated by the royal orders, ideology and architectural tastes. It depended on Nergal-eresh's, the governor ofRasappa, political and tactical choices, when he was charged by Adad-nirari III to develop an urbanization program in his province. Kar-Assumasirpal imitates Calah in a closer way, with the same structure of the citadel and a reduced model of the North-West Palace. Notwithstanding royal authority and the Calah example, other models could be preferred in the Assyrian city planning, especially when the projects were carried out by provincial administration personnel, sometimes oflocal origin, who had their own goals and tastes.7 1 They rather adapt the development of the city in their control to different geographical and topographical features, but also, possibly, to other cultural orientations. For example, the semi-circular Syro-Hittite Aramean city ot Til Barsip, on the eastern Euphrates bank, reorganized and renamed Kar-Shalmaneser after the Assyrian conquest, grew up around a citadel on a tell cut by the Euphrates, under the authority of the turtanu Shamshi-ilu, and probably never looked like a smaller Ca­ lah.72 At almost the same time, the not far town ofHadattu/Arslan Tash was given a round form by the construction of its city wall and gates, with the citadel - the palace - situated far from the ramparts, almost in its centre. Ninurta-bel-usur, gov­ ernor ofKar-Shalmaneser and eunuch belonging to Shamshi-ilu's entourage, respon­ sible of the construction of the wall, acknowledges freely in his inscription on a basalt lion, in three languages and types of writings, that he is not a native Assyrian himself, but he comes from Hilahhu, a northern region.73 For the round city forms, Zincirli­ Sam'al could be also the nearer reference. 74 During Salmanasar IV's reign, but also under the more centralized government of Tiglath-pileser III, Bel-Harran-belu-usur, the palace herald, writes an inscription 68

Ur 2013b; Margueron 2013, 265-267. Kuhne 201 1 . For a comparison with other North-Mesopotamian, Syro-Hittite urban plans, see Mazzoni 1 994; 1 995; 1 997; Rossi 201 1 ; Osborne 2014. 70 Masetti-Rouault 201 3 ; Kuhne 1 994; 201 1 . 71 Grayson 1 993; Dalley 2000; Mattila 2000; Yamada 2000, 300-303; Blocher 200 1 . 72 Novak 1 999, 1 83-1 88; Bunnens 2009; Margueron 201 3, 329-33 1 . 73 Rollig 2000; Gaiter 2004. See also Matthiae 1 996, 40f. 74 Novak 1 999, 1 96--203; Schloen & Fink 2009; Casana & Hermann 201 0. 69

374

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dedicated in the first position to the god Marduk, to celebrate his foundation of the city sporting his own name, Dur-Bel-Harran-bel-usur, at Tell Abta, south of the Sin­ jar. 75 Not only in this occasion he fishes out again the theme of the heroic foundation of a town in the desert, with a canal as well as a temple, at the order directly given by the gods, but, even more, he decides without complexes the freedom of this set­ tlement from any kind of state taxation, a strictly royal prerogative.

9 Conclusions: variability in Assyrian city planning and universal powers The non-royal authorship of this kind of city planning, revealed by the variability of their forms, as well as, only quite late, by the inscriptions, is possibly a much more ancient reality, at least since the Middle Assyrian period. Beyond this fact, it has been convincingly argued that the planning of Iron II Assyrian cities in Western Ja­ zireh was influenced by Syro-Hittite and Aramean urban models of the Late Bronze age - Iron I periods, such as at Karkemish, Guzana/fell Halaf, Tell Tayinat/K.unu­ lua. 76 Tiglath-pileser III, even if credited with a hard fight against the local autonomies built up by the Assyrian governors, seems in his inscriptions not to care about the lack of control of this urbanization development. However, I believe it was his army which destroyed the Kar-Assurnasirpal colony, building afterward a new palace in the citadel. His texts present the king still reproducing the traditional royal behav­ iour, i.e. building or restoring residences, cities and fortresses, installing his statues, steles and eunuchs as governors, adding sometimes a rare reference to the installation of Assur's weapon in local shrines. The foundation of Dur-Sharrukin, and the literary description of its material and intellectual planning by the king, appear now as an open reaction against the informal liberty and variability in city planning in the Land of Assur during the whole eighth century. Sargon II's attitude, focusing on the almost divine knowledge he has to master in order to carry out his planning,77 reveals also a strong opposition both to the idea and to the praxis that in the empire everybody can found cities: gods and kings are not alone anymore in imposing order in the world though urbanization. As a consequence, the image and the message brought by the Assyrian urban forms and topography are blurred, obscured and confused. Sargon's own plans for his new cap­ ital show how central and urgent was this specific project for his own image and for the correct management of the world - felt as a challenge for his imperial authority. But the solution he found seems an arrest on the image, as actually his planning tries to go back to Calah ideal structure. Keeping the separation between the citadel, over­ looking and outstretched even more over the ramparts to the North, and the Lower Town, Sargon intellectual and technical efforts are bound to bring to perfection all the regular, geometric, mathematical and also mystic aspects of its conception, in

75 Grayson 1 996, 241 f. 76 Mazzoni 1 995; Novak 2013a, 201 3b; Bunnens 1996; Harrison 2014. 77 Matthiae 1 994; 1996, 42-47; Parpola 1 995; Novak 1999, 141-152; Margueron 1 995; 201 3, 203-208.

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order to generate an absolute, controlled balance in the cosmic forces. His texts even­ tually allow, and even invite to this kind of reading of the Khorsabad plan, as a rep­ resentation of the king's image, name, and a stele for his glory.78 Sennacherib did not go back to Calah, but his father's idea was well understood: to make of the urban form, and of the king's residence, the centre of the world, and of the cosmic forces net. A holy city with a long past and a complex evolution toward assyrianization, Nineveh - a regional capital with surface covering around 150 hec­ tares - is suddenly transformed by · the king in a megalopolis five times its area, more than 750 hectares, to be the core and the counterweight of an universal empire. Its city wall perimeter is more than doubled, passing from 5 to 1 2 km, the city ex­ tending well beyond the Hasir river, which now cuts the habitat in two parts, each one with a more elevated area, a mound. 79 The traditional opposition between an orthogonal Lower Town and the citadel, immediately visible and useful for orientation, is not relevant anymore. In an indirect imitation of Babylon, major buildings are to be found in different areas of the street net, while a mechanically irrigated royal garden represents again, in the urban space, the integration ofnature in the imperial domain, under the king's control - reversing eventually the inside/outside dimensions. 8° Far from the image of an ideal city Biblical and late antiquity opinions on Nineveh do not leave doubts on this point its plan reproduces a well organized chaos, a new entropy in which, however, the royal palace and its processional way try to impose a kind of management, an orien­ tation, and a meaning. The lesson was learnt, but variability and adaptation continued in Assyrian urban planning. Babylon was rebuilt as it used to be - in no way reproducing any Assyrian architectural feature - and other cities were restructured, also in the homeland, as Kili:zu, or Tushan,8 1 with their roundish, almost heart-shaped plans. While certainly not random, these plans mean a message not different from their forms: the media, the city, is the message.

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THE HISTORY OF ART AND NEO-ASSYRIAN HISTORY Ann C. Gunter Charged with addressing a disciplinary perspective rather than a discrete corpus of material, I reflect in this paper on various ways in which Neo-Assyrian art has been defined and approached, with special reference to writing Neo-Assyrian history. The field of"Neo-Assyrian art" initially focused on developments from the ninth to sev­ enth centuries in the Assyrian heartland: palaces and other building programs in the royal centres, together with their decoration, have long furnished primary sources for writing the biographies of individual Assyrian kings. Over the past few decades they have been profitably re-examined, aided by a greater familiarity with the cunei­ form sources and often with more explicit theoretical orientation (examples include Russell 1 99 1 ; Winter 1997; Schachner 2007; Ata-;: 2010; Kertai 2015b). Studying the art of the empire now often entails a far greater scope, both geographically and chronologically. This revised perspective has emerged from a dramatic expansion in archaeological evidence throughout the empire's domains and beyond its frontiers; from innovative approaches drawn from multiple disciplines; and from the rich cor­ pus of newly available texts this volume examines in detail. A critical assessment of all categories of remains comprising the generally rec­ ognized field of "Neo-Assyrian art" lies beyond this paper's scope and one scholar's expertise (for the palace reliefs see Nadali, this volume). I begin with comments on the influential surveys written in the last century, then briefly review selected areas of current research that exemplify broader perspectives on the art of the empire as a historical source. Investigations of visual and material culture as primary - and of­ ten independent - sources for reconstructing the empire's history are positioned to generate and address a wide range of questions concerning the imperial project and its successful functioning. How did visual and material culture constitute and con­ tribute to the institution of Assyrian kingship (or queenship) and the operating of the imperial enterprise? Through what channels did which kinds of images travel, and how did that means of transmission affect audience, meaning, and impact? Who saw what, where, and on what occasions? How did aesthetic items, broadly defined, ma­ terialize and shape identities and relationships within the Assyrian ruling class and between Assyrians and non-Assyrians? Investigating these and related questions acknowledges both the empire-wide context of Neo-Assyrian art and its profound engagement with the past.

"Neo-Assyrian Art" Until quite recently, ''Neo-Assyrian art" was understood primarily as a phenomenon situated in the Assyrian heartland, and which therefore belonged to the history of ancient Mesopotamian art. "The Late Assyrian Period" was the penultimate chapter on Mesopotamian art in Henri Frankfort's influential survey, The Art and Architec­ ture of the Ancient Orient, first published in 1954 and still in print. Similarly, "Late

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Assyrian Art" was the final chapter - before the Neo-Babylonian epilogue - in Anton Moortgat's likewise influential book, Die Kunst des a/ten Mesopotamien: Die klassische Kunst Vorderasiens, published in 1 967 and two years later in an English translation (Moortgat 1967; Moortgat 1969). Both authors sought to define and de­ scribe a Neo-Assyrian court style across a small group of media and genres - chiefly architecture and its decoration, sculpture, and painting - through a set of static for­ mal properties: form or type, composition, subject, style, iconographic details, and sometimes also techniques of manufacture or decoration. The works they discussed were ideally correlated with the reign of a particular king, as was usually possible for palaces and sometimes also temples, along with associated reliefs, sculptures, and paintings. The goal was to establish the typological and stylistic development of the "fine arts" produced in Assyria's royal and dynastic centres: what was character­ istic for each reign, what persisted, and what changed over the course of the ninth to seventh centuries BCE. These surveys presented Neo-Assyrian art as curiously detached from the em­ pire's vast territorial expanse - even as the palace reliefs elaborated the progress and victorious outcome of military campaigns in distant foreign lands - and largely disconnected from the past. They emphasized artistic and architectural innovations introduced in the Assyrian royal centres during the ninth century BCE and their sub­ sequent development. This model saw a hierarchical arrangement of "national" or "ethnic" categories as determinative of artistic developments within a given geo­ graphical region. Frankfort ( 1954, xxv-xxvi) reconstructed a Mesopotamian "core" centred in the Assyrian heartland of northern Iraq, surrounded by a "periphery" com­ posed of what he viewed as the inferior arts of peoples such as Aramaeans and Phoe­ nicians (see also Fales 2009, 243). The subtitle of Moortgat's survey implied a sim­ ilar model. First with Sumerian and Akkadian art, and subsequently with the art of the Babylonians and Assyrians, Moortgat wrote, Mesopotamia comprised the "cen­ tral classical stem of ancient Near Eastern art, in comparison with which all the other arts, such as that of the Elamites, Hittites or Phoenicians, were of only peripheral importance" (Moortgat 1969, ix). Works other than the royally commissioned archi­ tecture, sculpture, and relief produced in the Assyrian heartland's centres thus mer­ ited scant attention in the context of "Neo-Assyrian art"; artistic developments else­ where, by definition, comprised the non-Mesopotamian "periphery." The artistic tra­ ditions of other geographical regions entered the picture primarily to help explain the "origins"· of Assyrian innovations, such as the bit bilani (Frankfort 1 954, 80) or carved orthostats and portal figures associated with North Syrian influence (Moort­ gat 1969, 1 30f.). I leave aside legitimate debate over the terms art and artist with respect to Meso­ potamian (and more generally Near Eastern) visual and material culture. Rather than attempting to force our material into mutually exclusive (and historically unrelated) categories of "art" or "craft", we might usefully reflect on institutional conditions or pressures that imposed choices on the study and presentation of our material since its mid-nineteenth century rediscovery - including the conventions and agendas of museum collecting, display, and publication. Like the arts of other "pre-Greek" civ­ ilizations, such as Egypt, the art of Assyria occupied a particular role in the compet­ itive national museum context and a particular place in the evolution of Western civilization. Museum displays, especially those in the European universal museums that initially acquired Assyrian antiquities, helped to naturalize and institutionalize a hierarchical and linear approach to artistic and cultural developments (Bohrer 2003, 384

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70-13 1). Histories of ancient art adopted a comparable approach: what succeeded a civilization or artistic phase literally replaced what came before. Assyria's place in the sequence of "pre-Greek" developments urged the classification of its surviving monuments within a framework already established for classical art - architecture, painting, sculpture, and seals - and were studied and published accordingly (Perrot & Chipiez 1 884). Yet the fine arts system was ill suited to many of the archaeological remains that emerged from pioneer surveys and excavations of Assyrian sites. It effectively ex­ cluded the rock reliefs, for example - both Frankfort and Moortgat omitted them - and often also excluded royal images recovered from the "periphery", such as the Cyprus stele of Sargon II (Perrot & Chipiez 1 884, 635-647 included several rock reliefs). Moreover, the chronological and stylistic phases established through careful study of the well-dated palace reliefs did not always transfer neatly or comprehen­ sively to other categories of material, such as glyptic and metalwork. The subjects of Assyrian glyptic largely diverged from those of the palace reliefs, for example, which in any case were not attested throughout the Neo-Assyrian period. Tellingly, Frankfort scarcely mentioned seals or metalwork in his chapter on Late Assyrian art, dismissing the stamps as inferior to cylinders; Moortgat left out glyptic and metal­ work of this period altogether. With important groups of objects, particularly glyptic and metalwork, it proved difficult to isolate a unique or cohesive Neo-Assyrian style. This situation resulted in part from a lack of evidence from the Assyrian royal centres (Curtis 1 988; Curtis 2013), but also because Assyrian-style objects sometimes over­ lapped with those in other regionally defined styles, such as Babylonian; it is cus­ tomary to treat Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian seals in tandem (Collon 200 1 , l f.). While Frankfort's generation knew relatively little about the archaeology of the "peripheral regions", the prevailing classification of surviving monuments tended to persist in subsequent survey treatments. Der alte Orient (Orthmann 1975) provided more detailed coverage through several chapters that treated Assyrian and Babylo­ nian monuments together: architecture, sculpture in the round, reliefs, minor arts (in­ cluding several Levantine-style ivories from Nimrod), and glyptic. The substantial multi-author entry on Neo-Assyrian art in the Reallexikon der Assyriologie und Vorderasiatische Archaologie ( 1998) adopted a similar division of the material: ar­ chitecture, sculpture in the round, reliefs, glyptic, minor arts, and ceramics. Traditional approaches to "Neo-Assyrian art" implicitly assumed a close correla­ tion between artefact style and "national" or ethnic identity. As a result, a search for ''Neo-Assyrian influence" on artistic developments within the Near East more broadly, or beyond its frontiers, extended almost exclusively to royal commissions or works of recognizably Neo-Assyrian style, or derived from court art but perhaps executed by local workshops that lacked training to metropolitan standards ("pro­ vincial Assyrian style"). Indeed, for regions whose precise status in or relationship to the empire is unknown, objects in Neo-Assyrian style are often assembled and examined as a guide to gauging that status. The assumptions here are that the pres­ ence, character, and quantity of works in Assyrian styles accurately reflect the degree of Assyrian influence or control exercised in that location. These assumptions un­ derlie much of the debate concerning the "Assyrianization" of conquered regions, an assessment that relies substantially on analysing the presence and quantity of "As­ syrian-style" material culture, such as "palace ware", in reconstructing the nature of Assyrian provincial rule (Bagg 201 1 ; Hunt 201 5, both with further references). 385

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The "Art of the Neo-Assyrian Empire" Assyrian imperial mechanisms dramatically changed the "artistic landscape" of the ancient Near East, especially during the eighth and seventh centuries BCE. Among other consequences, Assyrian rule affected the availability of raw materials, the training and employment of artisans, and the distribution and consumption of luxury goods. Policies of large-scale resettlement must also have significantly altered the artistic landscape, relocating communities to distant areas of the empire and dispers­ ing workshops and production centres that previously were regionally based (Gunter 2009, 106--1 17, 178-1 8 1 , with bibliography). An exceptional new resource for re­ constructing this larger picture is unquestionably the newly edited corpus of cunei­ form texts, many of which shed light, directly or indirectly, on the methods of the artisan and the organization and implementation of some of the vast imperial build­ ing projects. Several categories of official texts - including royal inscriptions, cor­ respondence, and administrative records - complement testimony from royal annals and building inscriptions for the production of art under state auspices. Administra­ tive and legal texts, combined with representational evidence, have even permitted partial reconstruction of entire industries that have not survived archaeologically, such as textiles (Gaspa 20 13; Gaspa 201 8). Instead of the "nationally" or "ethnically" constructed map of Near Eastern art embedded in earlier approaches, textual evidence and new art historical perspectives have increasingly documented a dynamic interaction between the art created in the royal centres and the newly conquered domains. In the case of orthostat sculptures and portal figures, for example, scholars could also take a cue from the royal building inscriptions, which specifically mention royal interest in North Syrian architectural features and other cultural traditions, such as gardens (references in Reade 2008; Osborne 20 12). Traditionally, specialists tended to assume that subsequent develop­ ments within well-defined genres, once established in the Assyrian capitals, were primarily internal affairs independent of outside influence. More recently they have recognized and investigated the degree to which seventh-century Assyrian court art was engaged with Egyptian monumental art, for example. Julian Reade (1979, 33 1, 342) identified examples of Egyptian compositional devices, such as "social per­ spective", introduced to stelae and palace reliefs following Esarhaddon's conquest of Egypt. Oskar Kaelin ( 1999) has argued that reliefs depicting Assurbanipal' s battle against Elamite Til-Tuba reflect an Assyrian artistic experiment with pictorial fea­ tures and narratitre technique strongly influenced by a Dynasty 19 representation of the Battle of Kadesh - specifically, the version depicted on the Ramesseum at Thebes. Nor was the Assyrian impact in the visual and material realm unidirectional, or restricted to the official sphere, in provinces, client kingdoms, or neighbouring re­ gions threatened by Assyrian hegemony. Cylinder seals carved in "central" and "pro­ vincial" Assyrian styles, excavated from Level IVB at Hasanlu, in north-western Iran, were closely related in design and style to seals manufactured in the Assyrian heartland or were fashioned in a workshop influenced by local artistic styles (Fig. 1 ). They were used not as sealing devices, however, but as personal ornaments, either worn as necklaces or suspended from elaborate metal dress pins. Administrative uses of seals as devices to secure doors and small containers of luxury goods were served instead by cylinders carved in a distinctive local style, whose material and icono­ graphic repertoire diverged significantly from the "central" and "provincial" Assyr386

THE HISTORY OF ART AND NEC-ASSYRIAN HISTORY

ian seals (Marcus 1996, 46--50). In the client kingdom of Gurgum, in the empire's far western regions, resistance to Assyrian domination was enacted in the private sphere, through funerary monuments that sought through their imagery and location in the landscape to preserve a personal and collective local identity (Dodd 20 13).

Fig. 1. Modern impression ofcylinder seal carved in "central Assyrian style." Hasanlu Level IVB. Stone (white chert?); H. 4.63 cm. HAS 60-13. Philadel­ phia, University Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology. Courtesy of Penn Museum (61-5-19).

New editions of the royal correspondence with court scholars (ummanu) have trans­ formed our understanding of the vital role ritual experts played in a wide range of what we would consider "artistic production." They oversaw the planning and exe­ cution of many works of art or places where they were housed, and advised on the favourable siting and timing of myriad enterprises, from the fashioning of figurines for specific rituals to the founding of an entire city (Parpola 1993; Cole & Machinist 1998). Although concerned largely with the construction and maintenance of pal­ aces, temples, and their furnishings, the correspondence occasionally offers glimpses of a significantly different dimension of artistic production. Alongside an emphasis in official records on an undifferentiated - and largely captive - labour force, the letters attest an important role for specialized artisans and others charged with fash­ ioning or repairing works of art. In addition, artisans outside the circle of court schol­ ars (and outside Assyria) sometimes achieved individual reputations, and their ex­ pertise or unique crafting skills were in demand (e.g., Parpola 1987, no. 39; Lanfran­ chi & Parpola 1 990, no. 71). That experts actively participated in designing and executing key works, including royal statues and cult images, also raises the possi­ bility that features or trends in Neo-Assyrian art that would customarily be attributed to the active influence of a royal patron might instead be viewed as independent contributions or innovations by court specialists (Neumann 2014, 136--1 50, on the role of experts in temple building). These texts also document a spatially extensive model of artistic production that could involve multi-phased work carried out at mul­ tiple locations (e.g., Parpola 1993, no. 349). Written sources finnly establish that "Assyrian art" was produced by Assyrians and non-Assyrians, and that non-Assyrians were not recruited exclusively as un­ skilled labour or to emulate Assyrian criteria of style and expertise. These sources also yield additional details concerning the complex network of personnel and effort involved in the long-distance acquisition ofresources, both human and material. The construction of Dur-Sarrukin, which demanded labour and resources from many 387

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provinces and manifestly engaged Sargon's close attention to every detail, provides a well-documented example (Parpola 1995; for temple building, see now Neumann 2014; on crafts and professions, see Baker 2017).

Images in motion, across time and space: the Assyrian centres and the edges of empire Images played a crucial role in creating dynamic links between the Assyrian royal centres and newly conquered regions and in imperial administration, as recent re­ search has elaborated. The capture of foreign divine and royal images and their relo­ cation to symbolically charged places, attested in texts and representations, well il­ lustrate the mobility and agency of objects in consolidating Assyrian control (Gunter 2009, 1 68f.; Berlejung 2012; Schaudig 20 12). Suzanne Herbordt's (1992) funda­ mental study catalogued the stamp seal impressions preserved on cuneiform tablets and dockets from Nimrod and Nineveh, furnishing a typology of Assyrian royal seals in association with often datable texts and documenting various aspects of seal pro­ tocol (see also Mitchell & Searight 2008). A new type of image-bearing seal evolved in the ninth century BCE with the creation of the empire and its need to delegate authority. Multiple types of these bureau seals with distinctive designs were fash­ ioned, for the office of the king (lion-slayer), the queen (scorpion), the crown prince (Y-shaped cross), and the governor of Kalhu (mace), among others (Radner 2008). Seals ofNeo-Assyrian officials, some inscribed with owners' names, have proven a rich field for investigating the relationship between seal design and various forms of political and social identity (Klengel-Brandt & Radner 1 997; Watanabe 1999; Win­ ter 2000; Klengel-Brandt 20 14). The special capacity of glyptic to engage with the past through the use of heirloom seals is well attested in the ancient Near East. The Old, Middle, and Neo-Assyrian sealings preserved on multiple exemplars of Esar­ haddon's Succession Treaty dramatically illustrate the persistent and vital presence - and wide geographical distribution - of earlier monuments in Neo-Assyrian vis­ ual culture (Parpola & Watanabe 1988, 28f., no. 6; Lauinger 2012). Recent studies have freshly emphasized a category of Neo-Assyrian monuments rarely addressed in earlier surveys: the roughly fifty freestanding reliefs or reliefs carved into the natural rock face depicting the king and the symbols of the gods, set up or created at symbolically charged locations over a wide area of the empire (Fig. 2). Drawing on previous investigations and in some instances on newly attested ex­ amples, reappraisals have substantially altered long-held assumptions about these monuments (Shafer 2007; Harman�ah 201 3; Shafer 2014, all with previous litera­ ture). Because they were typically erected during campaigns, they are often under­ stood to mark the end points of military penetration or newly secured zones of polit­ ical transition. But despite royal assertions, they were seldom created or set up in previously unclaimed territory; instead, they perpetuated a tradition ofrevisiting sites previously marked by earlier kings, forging connections between place and future time, and between successive generations of rulers. Many of these monuments were also sites of ritual activity, including elaborate ceremony and sacrifice. Through their consistent form and decoration, and through their representation in the Assyrian royal centres both in text and image - as with the Tigris tunnel and the Balawat Gates - they also symbolically linked the centre and its borders. 388

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Fig. 2. Detail, Balawat Gates, reign of Shalmaneser III (858-824 BCE). Assyrian stele with royal image. Bronze; h. ofregister ca. 8 cm. London, British Museum ME 124662. © Trustees ofthe British Museum.

Works in non-Assyrian styles in the Assyrian royal centres Beginning with the earliest investigations of Assyrian palaces in the mid-nineteenth century, numerous works in non-Assyrian styles have been recovered from the As­ syrian heartland, chief among them the large numbers of ivories from Nimrud carved in styles initially grouped as Syrian and Phoenician. Yet survey treatments have of­ ten neatly separated them from "Late Assyrian art." Frankfort's (1954, 101-105) section on "applied arts" included a carved ivory furniture inlay in Assyrian style, but his discussion of the Nimrud ivories appeared elsewhere, in the chapter on Ara­ maeans and Phoenicians in Syria ( 1 91-1 95), where little mention was made of their findspots. A similar perspective has tended to dominate subsequent scholarship on the corpus of ivories in Levantine style recovered from multiple locations at Nimrud, which have almost exclusively been investigated as sources for the art of the Iron Age Levant (Figs. 3 and 4). Except for the small group in Assyrian style, they have traditionally been studied in almost complete isolation from "Neo-Assyrian art" or

Fig. 3. Carved furniture panel, Phoenician tradition, "Egyptianizing" school. Nimrud, Northwest Palace, 8th century BCE. Ivory and glass; H. 7.6 cm. London, British Museum ME 118120. © Trustees ofthe British Museum. 389

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Fig. 4. Carved furniture fitting, North Syrian tradition. Nimrud, Southeast Palace, 9th-8th century BCE. Ivory; H. 4.4 cm. London, British Museum ME 118232. © Trustees ofthe British Museum.

390

even "the art of the Neo-Assyrian Empire" (Orthrnann 1975, 328f. included Nimrod ivories in his chapter on Assyrian and Babylonian minor arts). Scholarly attention has concentrated on classification and stylistic analysis, aiming to reconstruct re­ gional production centres and specific workshops of origin in the Levant, with stun­ ning results for the history of ancient Near Eastern art. How this material functioned within an imperial context has been less frequently investigated. The "utility" of the ivories' archaeological contexts in royal storerooms and other locations lay primarily in furnishing a terminus ante quern for their deposition and the possibility they offered for correlating discrete assemblages with Assyrian in­ scriptions recording the taking of booty or delivery of tribute from a particular con­ quered centre in the west (Herrmann 1 986, 48; Grayson 199 1 , A.O. 101 . 1 iii 65-66, 71-77). But these "discrete assemblages" first had to be reconstructed from the highly fragmentary ivories, employing modern scholarly approaches to stylistic clas­ sification and corresponding assumptions about the meaning of style and its referents (Winter 2005 provides a thoughtful analysis). As a group, the ivories appear to reflect a highly complex picture of artistic production. With respect to a few North Syrian sites, ivory workshops identified in part by comparison with monumental art in those centres have been plausibly assigned to a particular place of production. In many cases, however, it appears that we are already dealing with "intracultural" styles that were shared across local political and perhaps cultural boundaries in ways we do not fully understand. The "assumptions that a stylistic subgroup corresponds to a work­ shop and that each city or state worked in one particular style, cannot do justice to either the material or its socio-historical context . . . A single workshop could in all probability produce diverse works for diverse clients" (Suter 20 10, 995). While Assyrian-style ivories with specifically narrative scenes corresponding thematically to the palace reliefs were apparently coordinated with programs of ar­ chitectural decoration, opinion remains divided over whether the Levantine-style ivories acquired as tribute or booty, or housed in palace storerooms at Nimrud were used by - or even visible to - their new owners (for representations of furniture see Rehm 2008; cf. Osborne 20 1 2, 34--41). Luxury objects received as tribute or booty, including ivories, were given as gifts to members of the royal family and high­ ranking officials (Herrmann 2003, 387f.; Bonatz 2004, 397-399). Some of the ivo­ ries may have been in use when Nimrud was destroyed, but for many scholars the

THE HISTORY OF ART AND NEO-ASSYRIAN HISTORY

archaeological evidence indicates that, with few exceptions, only Assyrian-style ivo­ ries were actually used by the palace (Hemnann, Laidlaw & Coffey 2009; Hemnann & Laidlaw 20 1 3 review the archaeological contexts). The scarcity of ivories among the contents of the Nimrud Queens' Tombs further suggests a lack of royal prefer­ ence for the material (Hemnann 2003, 398; Hussein 20 16; Neumann 2014, 1 1 6-1 18 on archaeological and textual evidence for ivory in Assyrian temple decoration). Other scholars contend that the imported ivories were used, or at least "available", until they were stored as a precaution against imminent looting (on findspots see Kertai 20 1 5a). In her study of Neo-Assyrian canons of ideal feminine beauty, Arny Gansell (2014) has included examples of Levantine ivories bearing female images (see Fig. 4, above) with her corpus of female images preserved on Neo-Assyrian royal monuments. Thus the issue of access to imported ivories, and their impact and meaning within royal circles, has major implications for what we can legitimately include in the category of ''Neo-Assyrian art" (or a Neo-Assyrian royal context) and what inferences we can draw from it. If these hoards are to be used as a historical source for royal collecting practices, or to reconstruct their role in a particular di­ mension of royal patronage and aesthetic preference, understanding their function is critical. Neo-Assyrian royal interest in or acquisition of foreign objects has some­ times been presented as an early instance of widely documented cultural practices (such as "collecting") or more specifically Western reception histories ("Egyptoma­ nia") (Reade 2004; Thomason 2004; Thomason 2005). The publication of additional finds from Assyrian heartland centres, such as the Levantine ivories and Egyptian alabaster vessels from Assur, now furnishes new information for analyzing the ac­ quisition and function of works in non-Assyrian styles (Onasch 20 10; Wicke 201 1).

The art of the Neo-Assyrian Empire beyond its frontiers The Neo-Assyrian impact in the realm of material and visual culture manifestly ex­ tended beyond the presence of royal images on the imperial frontiers and the dissem­ ination of works of art in Neo-Assyrian styles. Texts and representations establish that many finely crafted ivories, metal artefacts, and textiles produced in regionally defined styles not only were prized as luxury objects but also played significant roles in imperial strategies of appropriation and control. They were seized as booty, de­ manded as tribute, kept in palace and temple storehouses, and given as gifts to con­ quered rulers and other foreigners. I have explored this topic elsewhere and therefore offer only a few comments here (Gunter 2009; Gunter 20 16). The empire created a multicultural ruling class whose identity was constructed in part through shared items of material culture, including such luxury possessions as ivory containers and ivory-decorated furniture. The transfer of objects (and artisans) within the empire and beyond its frontiers promoted "intercultural" styles in banqueting equipment, personal ornament, and ceremonial weapons. Many of these luxury objects changed hands through ritualized gift-giving among the political and social networks fostered by court ceremonies. The lion-headed situlae depicted in palace interiors and men­ tioned in several texts provide an example of portable luxury arts in "intercultural" styles; examples survive in elite contexts in Tumulus MM at Gordian, the Heraion at Samas, and a tomb in Etruscan Veii (Ebbinghaus 2008) (Fig. 5). Once given to foreigners these objects must have entered local networks of gift exchange and other forms of ceremonial transfer. In tum, this revised perspective allows us to situate 391

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Neo-Assyrian art within global networks that extended as far as the central Mediter­ ranean (Aruz, Graff & Rakic 2014; Aruz & Seymour 201 6).

Fig. 5. Lion-headed situla. Gordion, Tumulus MM, ca. 740 BCE. Bronze; L. 22.5 cm. Ankara, Museum of Anatolian Civilizations 18505. Courtesy ofPenn Museum, image #76452.

Documenting the Neo-Assyrian impact in the visual and material realm also encour­ ages reappraisal of neat distinctions between "official" and "popular" art, not least in the materiality of religion and ritual practices. Erin Darby's (2014) recent study of Judean Pillar Figurines explores the Neo-Assyrian Empire as a context for figurine production used in apotropaic and healing rituals in regions affected by, but not for­ mally incorporated into, the empire. The empire, she suggests, provided the setting for the transmission of ritual techniques. What travelled was not the specific icono­ graphy of the figurines, but the increased use of clay figurines in apotropaic and healing rituals: "the exact iconographic combination of symbols and forms was a unique and local manifestation" (Darby 20 14, 382).

The end of the Empire? After 612 BCE

392

In most accounts, the destruction of royal centres shortly before 600 BCE effectively signals the end ofNeo-Assyrian art. Yet re-examination of the royal monuments and their subsequent reception has opened new avenues of investigation - a useful re­ minder that this "late chapter" in Mesopotamian art need not be understood as a phase altogether replaced or superseded. The recent flourishing of scholarship on Neo-Babylonian history, architecture, and glyptic has also spawned renewed interest in what followed the destruction of Assyrian centres and what imperial administra­ tive practices survived or continued. Carl Nylander's (1980) pioneering study of the Akkadian bronze head found at Nineveh investigated post-destruction ritual activity, demonstrating the visibility and potency of monuments of considerable antiquity. Subsequent analysis of the deliberate and selective mutilation of sculptures and other monuments at Nineveh and Nimrud has furnished new information about the end of the empire and what occurred within the royal centres at the time of their destruction or soon afterward (Reade 1976; Bahrani 1995, 365-368; Porter 2009; May 2012). Further probing of the relationship between Assyrian and Achaemenid art also seems a promising avenue. While establishing the extent and duration of post-de­ struction occupation of the Assyrian heartland remains key (Curtis 2005), explora­ tion of links between Neo-Assyrian and Achaemenid monuments has already indi­ cated a complex and dynamic relationship. Studies by Mark Garrison and Margaret

THE HISTORY OF ART AND NEG-ASSYRIAN HISTORY

Cool Root strongly suggest that connections between Achaemenid glyptic and Neo­ Assyrian art were not limited to the transfer of motifs or subjects either directly (through observing still-visible Assyrian palace decoration) or indirectly (via Neo­ Babylonian court styles and practices), but highly imbricated and played out over several generations. The Persepolis Fortification Tablets preserve multiple impres­ sions of a Neo-Assyrian heirloom seal (PFS 5 1 3) first applied in 503/502 BCE (Fig. 6) (Garrison & Root 2001, 163f., cat. no. 85). Mark Garrison (1991, 7-10) has iden­ tified within this archive an important group of seal impressions, labelled "Persep­ olitan Modelled Style", closely linked in subject and style to Neo-Assyrian/Neo­ Babylonian "Modelled Style" seals (see also Garrison & Root 200 1, 1 6f.). Examples include the personal seals of some of the most exalted court members represented in the archive, including Irtasduna, wife of Darius I, and Pamaka, the king's uncle. Another network connects the seal inscribed for Kuras (Cyrus), son ofTeispes (PFS 93*), with features of subject, style, and composition exhibited in seventh-century palace reliefs from Nineveh and stamp seal impressions from the same site (Herbordt 1 992, 141; Garrison 201 1 ).

PF6 5 1 !

1--� , .,.-�------------'

Fig. 6. Collated line drawing of PFS 5 1 3, impression ofNeo-Assyrian Modelled Style seal; first attested in Persepolis Fortification Tablets in 503/502 BCE. H. of original seal ca. 2.70 cm. Courtesy ofM. B. Garrison, M. C. Root, and the Persepolis Seal Project.

A dynamic interaction between Neo-Assyrian and Achaemenid art has also been ex­ plored with the monumental reliefs from Nineveh and Persepolis. Margaret Root (201 1 ) has proposed that the construction of Elam in the Achaemenid imperial im­ agination reacted to a construction of Elam in the Neo-Assyrian imperial imagina­ tion. Both in the representations of Elamite gift-bearers in the Apadana reliefs and the portrayal of Assurbanipal's victorious battles over the Elamites she discerns a narrative revolving around lions, weapons (bows and daggers), and wealth. Such a reading provides new insights into the cultural representation of subject peoples, and implicitly recognizes a complex and intimate Achaemenid understanding of Neo­ Assyrian imperial art. Additional examples comparing cultural representations in the imperial arts of these empires could be explored.

Conclusions Long defined as a late episode in the history of Mesopotamian art, the imperial pro­ jects in the royal and dynastic centres that have dominated the study ofNeo-Assyrian art unquestionably remain key monuments for writing the empire's history. From another perspective, visual and material culture produced under royal patronage or

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directed toward imperial aims could be understood as inaugurating a new, global era in the history of art: an art of empire - foreshadowing Achaemenid developments rather than signalling the end of a Mesopotamian trajectory. The scope and intensity of Assyrian intervention in the "artistic landscape" of the ancient Near East - through construction, destruction, and relocation - were un­ precedented, extending well beyond the traditional royal acquisition ofrare or exotic materials from distant locations. Assyrian palaces and temples housed, and dynami­ cally engaged with, works created i'n earlier periods; these works not only formed part of Neo-Assyrian visual culture but also played a crucial role in the centre's in­ teraction with conquered regions. A revised perspective on the art of the Neo-Assyr­ ian Empire, broad in its scope and interdisciplinary in its methods and sources, holds considerable promise as a source for writing Neo-Assyrian history.

Acknowledgments I wish to thank Gianni Lanfranchi, Raija Mattila, and Robert Rollinger for organizing this stimulating conference and inviting me to participate, and all conference partic­ ipants for their superb presentations and warm collegiality. I am grateful to Steven W. Cole for helpful suggestions.

LITERATURE Aruz, J.• GraffS. B., Rakic, Y., 20 14. Assyria to Iberia at the Dawn ofthe Classical Age, New York, New Haven. Aruz, J., Seymour, M. (eds.), 2016. Assyria to Iberia: Art and Culture in the Iron Age (Metropolitan Museum of Art Symposia), New York. Ata,;:, M.-A., 20 I 0. The Mythology ofKingship in Neo-Assyrian Art, Cambridge. Bagg, A. M., 2011. Die Assyrer und das Westland: Studien zur historischen Geographie und Herr­ schaftspraxis in der Levante im ]. Jt. v.u.Z. (Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 216), Leuven. Bahrani, Z., 1995. "Assault and Abduction: The Fate of the Royal Image in the Ancient Near East", Art History 18, 363-382. Baker, H. D., 2017. Neo-Assyrian Specialists: Crafts, Offices, and Other Professional Designations (The Prosopography of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, Volume 4, Part I: Professions Index), Helsinki. Berlejung, A., 2012. "§hared Fates: Gaza and Ekron as Examples for the Assyrian Religious Policy in the West", in N. N. May (ed.), Iconoclasm and Text Destruction in the Ancient Near East and Beyond ( Oriental Institute Seminars 8), Chicago, 151-174. Bohrer, F. N., 2003. Orienta/ism and Visual Culture: Imagining Mesopotamia in Nineteenth-century Europe, Cambridge. Bonatz, D., 2004. "Objekte der Kleinkunst als ldeentriiger zwischen dem syro-anatolischen und dem assyrischen Raum. Das Problem der Elfenbeine", in M. Novak, F. Prayon, A.-M. Wittke (eds.), Die Auj3enwirkung des spiithethitischen Kulturraumes: Guteraustausch - Kulturkontakt - Kul­ turtransfer, Munster, 387-404. Cole, S. W., Machinist, P., 1998. Letters from Priests to the Kings Esarhaddon and Assurbanipal (State Archives ofAssyria XIII), Helsinki. Collon, D., 2001. Catalogue of the Western Asiatic Seals in the British Museum. Cylinder Seals V: Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian Periods, London. Curtis, J., 1988. "Assyria as a Bronzeworking Centre in the Late Assyrian Period", in J. Curtis (ed.), Bronzeworking Centres of Western Asia c. 1000-539 B.C., London, 83-96. -- 2005. ''The Achaemenid Period in Northern Iraq", in P. Briant, R. Boucharlat (eds.), L 'archeolo· gie de / 'empire achemenide: nouvel/es recherches, Paris, 175-195.

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-- 2013. An Examination of Late Assyrian Metalwork: With Special Reference to Nimrod, Oxford. parby, E., 2014. Interpreting Judean Pillar Figurines. Gender and Empire in Judean Apotropaic Ritual (Forschungen zum A/ten Testament 2. Reihe 69), Tubingen. dd, po L. S., 2013. "Monuments of Resistance: Gurgum and the Assyrian Conquest", in G. E. Are­ shian (ed.), Empires and Diversity: On the Crossroads of Archaeology, Anthropology, and His­ tory, Los Angeles, 57-83. Ebbinghaus, S., 2008. "Patterns of Elite Interaction: Animal-Headed Vessels in Anatolia in the Eighth and Seventh Centuries BC", in B. J. Collins, M. R. Bachvarova, I. C. Rutherford (eds.), Anatolian Interfaces: Hittites, Greeks and Their Neighbours, Oxford, 181-190. Fales, F. M., 2009. "Art, Performativity, Mimesis, Narrative, Ideology, and Audience: Reflections on Assyrian Palace Reliefs in the Light of Recent Studies", KASKAL. Rivista di storia, ambienti e culture de/ Vicino Oriente Antico 6, 237-295. ran F kfort, H., 1954. The Art and Architecture of the Ancient Orient, Harmondsworth. Gansell, A. R., 2014. "Images and Conceptions of Ideal Feminine Beauty in Neo-Assyrian Royal Contexts, c. 883-627 BCE", in B. A. Brown, M. H. Feldman (eds.), Critical Approaches to An­ cient Near Eastern Art, Berlin, 391-420. Garrison, M. B., 1991. "Seals and the Elite at Persepolis: Some Observations on Early Achaemenid Persian Art", Ars Orienta/is 21, 1-29. - 2011. ''The Seal of 'Kuras the Anzanite, Son of Sespes' (Teispes), PFS 93*: Susa - Ansan ­ Persepolis", in J. Alvarez-Mon, M. B. Garrison (eds.), Elam and Persia, Winona Lake, IN, 375405. Garrison, M. B., Cool Root, M., 2001. Seals on the Persepolis Fortification Tablets. Vol. I: Images of Heroic Encounter (Oriental Institute Publications 117), 2 vols., Chicago. Gaspa, S., 2013. "Textile Production and Consumption in the Neo-Assyrian Empire", in H. Koefoed, E. Andersson Strand, M.-L. Nosch (eds.), Textile Production and Consumption in the Ancient Near East: Archaeology, Epigraphy, Iconography, Oxford, 224-247. -- 2018. Textiles in the Neo-Assyrian Empire (Studies in Ancient Near Eastern Records 1 9), Ber­ lin. Grayson, A. K., 1991. Assyrian Rulers of the Early First Millennium BC, II (J I 14-859 BC) (The Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia. Assyrian Periods 2), Toronto. Gunter, A. C., 2009. Greek Art and the Orient, Cambridge. -- 2016. "Contemplating an Empire: Artistic Responses to the Neo-Assyrian World", in J. Aruz, M. Seymour (eds.), Assyria to Iberia: Art and Culture in the Iron Age (Metropolitan Museum of Art Symposia), New York, 216-226. Hannan�ah, 0., 2013. Cities and the Shaping of Memory in the Ancient Near East, Cambridge. Herbordt, S., 1992. Neuassyrische Glyptik des 8.-7. Jh. v. Chr., unter besonderer Berucksichtigung der Siegelungen auf Tafeln und Tonverschliissen (State Archives of Assyria Studies I ), Helsinki. Hernnann, G., 1986. Ivoriesfrom Room S W 3 7 Fort Shalmaneser: Commentary and Catalogue (Ivo­ riesfrom Nimrod 4), 2 vols., London. Herrmann, G., Laidlaw, S., Coffey, H., 2009. Ivories from the Northwest Palace (1845-1992) (Ivories from Nimrod 6), London. Hernnann, G., Laidlaw, S., 2013. Ivoriesfrom Rooms S W J J/12 and TIO at Fort Shalmaneser. Com­ mentary and Catalogue (Ivoriesfrom Nimrod 7), 2 vols., London. Herrmann, G., Millard, A. R., 2003. "Who Used Ivories in the Early First Millennium BC?", in T. Potts, M. Roaf, D. Stein (eds.), Culture through Objects: Ancient Near Eastern Studies in Honour of P. R .S. Moorey, Oxford, 377-402. Hunt, A. M. W., 2015. Palace Ware across the Neo-Assyrian Imperial Landscape: Social Value and Semiotic Meaning ( Culture and History of the Ancient Near East 78), Leiden. Hussein, M. M., 2016. Nimrod: The Queens ' Tombs (Oriental Institute Miscellaneous Publications), Baghdad, Chicago. Kaelin, 0., 1999. Ein assyrisches Bildexperiment nach iigyptischem Vorbild: Zu Planung und Ausfiih­ rung der "Sch/act am Ulai" (Alter Orient und Altes Testament 266), Munster. Kertai, D., 2015a. "After the Court Moved Away: A Reinterpretation of the Ivory Finds within the Royal Palaces of Kalbu", Altorientalische Forschungen 42, 112-121. - 20 I Sb. The Architecture of Late Assyrian Royal Palaces, Oxford. 395

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Klengel-Brandt, E., 2014. Die neuassyrische Glyptik aus Assur. Ausgrabungen der Deutschen Orie n Gesellschaft in Assur, Fundgruppen 7 ( Wissenschaftliche Veroffentlichung der Deutschen Orient­ t­ Gesellschaft 140), Wiesbaden. Klengel-Brandt, E., Radner, K., 1997. "Die Stadtbeamten von Assur und ihre Siegel", in S. P oJ arp R. M. Whiting (eds.), Assyria 1995. Proceedings of the 10th Anniversary Symposium of the Ne0a� Assyrian Text Corpus Project. Helsinki, September 7-11, 1995, Helsinki, 137-159. Lanfranchi, G. B., Parpola, S., 1990. The Correspondence of Sargon II. Part II: Letters from the Northern and Northeastern Provinces (State Archives of Assyria 5), Helsinki. Lauinger, J., 2012. "Esarhaddon' s Succession Treaty at Tell Tayinat: Text and Commentary", Journal of Cuneiform Studies 64, 87-123. Marcus, M. I., 1996. Emblems of Identity and Prestige: The Seals and Sealings from Hasanlu, Iran. Commentary and Catalogue (Hasanlu Special Studies 3 = University Museum Monographs 84) Philadelphia. May, N. N., 2012. " mAli-Talimu - What Can be Learned from the Destruction of Figurative Com­ plexes?", in N. N. May (ed.), Iconoclasm and Text Destruction in the Ancient Near East and Be­ yond (Oriental Institute Seminars 8), Chicago, 187-230. Mitchell, T. C., Searight, A., 2008. Catalogue of the Western Asiatic Seals in the British Museum. Stamp Seals Ill: Impressions of Stamp Seals on Cuneiform Tablets, Clay Bullae, and Jar Handles ��

Moortgat, A., 1967, Die Kunst des a/ten Mesopotamien: Die klassische Kunst Vorderasiens, Kain. -- 1969, The Art of Ancient Mesopotamia: The Classical Art of the Ancient Near East. Transl. J. Filson, London. Neumann, K. A., 2014. Resurrected and Reevaluated: The Neo-Assyrian Temple as a Ritualized and Ritualizing Built Environment, Ph.D. diss., University of California at Berkeley. Nylander, C., 1980. "Earless in Nineveh: Who Mutilated Sargon's Head?", American Journal ofAr­ chaeology 84, 329-333. Onasch, H.-U., 2010. A.gyptische und assyrische Alabastergefiij3e aus Assur (Ausgrabungen der Deut­ schen Orient-Gesellschaft in Assur, Fundgruppen 2 = Wissenschaftliche Veroffentlichung der Deut­ sch�n Orient-Gesellschaft 128), Wiesbaden. Orthrnann, W. (ed.), 1975. Der alte Orient (Propyliien Kunstgeschichte 14), Berlin. Osborne, J. F., 2012. "Communicating Power in the B'ft ffiliini Palace", Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 368, 29--66. Parpola, S., 1987. The Correspondence of Sargon II. Part I: Letters from Assyria and the West (State Archives of Assyria 1 ), Helsinki. -- 1993. Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars (State Archives of Assyria 10), Helsinki. -- 1995. "The Construction ofDur-Sarrukin in the Assyrian Royal Correspondence", in A. Caubet (ed.), Khorsabad, le palais de Sargon 11, roi d'Assyrie, Paris, 49-77. Parpola, S., Watanabe, K., 1988. Neo-Assyrian Treaties and Loyalty Oaths (State Archives of Assyria 2), Helsinki Perrot, G., Chipiez, Ch., ·1884. Histoire de / 'art dans l 'antiquite. Vol. 2: Cha/dee et Assyrie, Paris. Porter, B. N., 2009. ''Noseless in Nimrod: More Figurative Responses to Assyrian Domination", in M. Luukko, S. Sviird, R. Mattila (eds.), Of God(s), Trees, Kings, and Scholars: Neo-Assyrian and Related Studies in Honour of Simo Parpola (Studia Orientalia 106), Helsinki, 201-320. Radner, K., 2008. ''The Delegation ofPower: Neo-Assyrian Bureau Seals", in P. Briant, W. F. M. Hen­ kelman, M. W. Stolper (eds.), L 'archive des Fortifications de Persepolis: etat des questions et perspectives de recherches (Persika 12), Paris, 481-515. Reade, J., 1976. "Elam and Elamites in Assyrian Sculpture", Archaeologische Mitteilungen aus Iran (NF) 9, 97-105. -- 1979. "Ideology and Propaganda in Assyrian Art", in M. T. Larsen (ed.), Power and Propa­ ganda, Copenhagen, 329-343. -- 2004. ''The Assyrians as Collectors: From Accumulation to Synthesis", in G. Frame with L. S. Wilding (ed.), From the Upper Sea to the Lower Sea: Studies on the History of Assyria and Ba­ bylonia in Honour of A. K. Grayson, Leiden, 255-268. -- 2008. "Real and Imagined 'Hittite Palaces' at Khorsabad and Elsewhere", Iraq 70, 13-40. 396

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Rehm, E., 2005. "Assyrische Mobel fiir den assyrischen Herrscher!", in C. E. Suter, Ch. Dehlinger (eds.), Crafts and Images in Contact. Studies on Eastern Mediterranean Art of the First Millennium BCE ( Orbis Biblicus et Orienta/is 2 l 0), Fribourg, Gottingen, 187-206. Root, M. C., 2011. "Elam in the Imperial Imagination: From Nineveh to Persepolis", in J. Alvarez­ Mon, M. B. Garrison (eds.), Elam and Persia, Winona Lake, Indiana, 419-474. Russell, J. M., 1991. Sennacherib 's Palace without Rival at Nineveh, Chicago. Schachner, A., 2007. Bilder eines Weltreichs. Kunst- und kulturgeschichtliche Untersuchungen zu den Verzierungen eines Tores aus Balawat (Jmgur-Enlil) aus der Zeit von Salmanassar III, Konig von Assyrien (Subartu 20), Turnhout. Schaudig, H., 2012. "Death of Statues and Rebirth of Gods", in N. N. May (ed.), Iconoclasm and Text Destruction in the Ancient Near East and Beyond (Oriental Institute Seminars 8), Chicago, 123149. Shafer, A., 2007. "Assyrian Royal Monuments on the Periphery: Ritual and the Making of Imperial Space", in J. Cheng, M. H. Feldman (eds.), Ancient Near Eastern Art in Context: Studies in Honor ofIrene J. Winter by Her Students, Leiden, 133-159. - 2014. "The Assyrian Landscape as Ritual", in B. A. Brown, M. H. Feldman (eds.), Critical Approaches to Ancient Near Eastern Art, Berlin, 713-739. Suter, C. E., 2010. "Luxury Goods in Ancient Israel: Questions of Consumption and Production", in P. Matthiae, F. Pinnock, L. Nigro, N. Marchetti (eds.), Proceedings of the 6th International Con­ gress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, I, Wiesbaden, 993-1002. Thomason, A. K., 2004. "From Sennacherib's Bronzes to Taharqa's Feet: Conceptions of the Material World at Nineveh", Nineveh: Papers of the 49th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, Part One = Iraq 66, 151-162. - 2005. Luxury and Legitimation: Royal Collecting in Ancient Mesopotamia, Aldershot. Watanabe, K., 1999. "Seals of Neo-Assyrian Officials", in K. Watanabe (ed.), Priests and Officials in the Ancient Near East. Papers of the Second Colloquium on the Ancient Near East - The City and Its Life, Heidelberg, 313-366. Wicke, D., 2011. Kleinfunde aus Elfenbein und Knochen aus Assur. Ausgrabungen der Deutsche Orient­ Gesellschaft in Assur, Fundgruppen 3 ( Wissenschaft/iche Veroffentlichung der Deutschen Orient­ Gesellschaft 131), Wiesbaden. Winter, I. J. 1997. "Art in Empire: The Royal Image and the Visual Dimensions of Assyrian Ideol­ ogy", in S. Parpola, R. M. Whiting (eds.), Assyria 1995. Proceedings of the /0th Anniversary Symposium of the Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project. Helsinki, September 7-J I, 1995, Helsinki, 359-381. - 2000. "Le palais imaginaire: Scale and Meaning in the Iconography ofNeo-Assyrian Cylinder Seals", in Ch. Dehlinger (ed.), Images as Media: Sources for the Cultural History of the Near East and the Eastern Mediterranean (I st millennium BCE) ( Orbis Biblicus et Orienta/is 175), Fribourg, Gottingen, 51-87. -- 2005. "Establishing Group Boundaries: Toward Methodological Refinement in the Determina­ tion of Sets as a Prior Condition to the Analysis of Cultural Contact and/or Innovation in First Millennium BCE Ivory Carving", in C. E. Suter, Ch. Dehlinger (eds.), Crafts and Images in Con­ tact: Studies on Eastern Mediterranean Art of the First Millennium BCE ( Orbis Biblicus et Ori­ enta/is 210), Fribourg, Gottingen, 23-42.

397

ONOMASTICS AS A HISTORICAL SOURCE Ran Zadok Contents O. Introduction 1 . Assyrians and West Semites 2. West Semites - Arameans 3. Chaldeans 4. Arabians 5. Israelites-Judeans (with Table 1) 6. Transjordanians 7. Phoenicians 8. Egyptians 8. 1 . Archives which were found near the Samas Gate in Nineveh 8. 1 . 1 . Asalluhi-suma-iddina archive 8. 1 .2. The archive of (N)inurta-sarra-u�ur 8. 1 .2. 1 . Documents where (N)inurta-sarra-u�ur is mentioned 8.1 .2.2. (N)inurta-sarra-u�ur is not mentioned 8. 1 .2.2. 1 . Documents recording Egyptians 8.1 .2.2.2. Early documents 8.1 .2.2.3. Documents whose date is partially or entirely broken 8. 1 .3. Statistics and evaluation 8. 1 .3 . 1 . Ethno-linguistic classification 8. 1 .3.2. Religious-cultic profile 8. 1 .3.3. Socioeconomic structure 8. 1 .4. Alphabetic list 8.2. Archive from Nabi Yiinis (with an alphabetic list) 8.2. 1 . Documentation 8.2.2. Evaluation 8.2.3. Alphabetic list 8.2.4. Excursus 8.3 . The archive N3 1 (Egyptians) from Assur 8.3 .0. Introduction (with tables 2-4) 8.3 . 1 . The dossier of Urdu-Assur 8.3 . 1 . 1 . Urdu-Assur as sole protagonist 8.3 .1 .2. With Ki�ir-Assur 8.3 . 1 .3 . With Ki�ir-Assur and Salam-[sarri-iqbi] 8.3 . 1 .4. Possibly with Sin-resi-issi 8.3.2. Ki�ir-Assur 8.3.2. 1 . Ki�ir-Assur as a sole protagonist 8.3.2.2. Ki�ir-Assur with Assur-seha 8.3.2.3. Attribution doubtful 399

RAN ZADOK

8.3.3. La-turamrnanni-Assur 8.3 .4. Pabbau 8.3.5. Hurba:;;i 8.3.6. Tapnahte 8.3.7. Hu-u-ru 8.3.8. In-·df-f· 8.3.9. Pitaha'u 8.3 . 1 0. Nabu-meta-uballit 8.3 . 1 1 . Qurdu-Assur 8.3. 12. Abi-ili 8.3 . 1 3. Addi-dillll'1? 8.3.14. Hakiibayu 8.3. 15. Salam-sarri-'x-x-x· 8.3. 1 6. Nabu-d[ii.ri] 8.3 . 1 7. Idrayu 8.3 . 1 8. Apla 8.3 . 1 9. Na:;;iri 8.3 .20. Musezib-Assur 8.3.2 1 . [x-x-x-x] and [x]-x-'#'-[x-x-x] 8.3 .22. Ayya-aba-u:;;ur 8.3.23. Ata 8.3.24. Harharayu 8.3.25. [x-x-x]-·x-x· s. of [x-x]-x-su 8.3 .26. [x]-'x'-[x] 8.3 .27. Protagonist unknown 8.3.28. Operative section lost 8.3.29. Administrative documents 8.3.30. Muqese 8.3.3 1 . Assur-garii'a-nere 8.3.32. Statistics and preliminary evaluation 8.3 .32. 1 . Ethno-linguistic classification 8.3 .32.2. Religious-cultic profile 8.3.32.3 . Socioeconomic structure 8.3.33. Alphabetic list 9. Anatolians 10. Hurro-Urartians 1 0.0. Introduction 1 0. 1 . Certainly Hurro-Urartians 1 0. 1 . 1 . Explicitly and certainly Urartians 1 0. 1 .2. Individuals originating from the Urartian-Assyrian buffer zone 1 0. 1 .3 . Kumrneans 10. 1 .4. A Bearer of undoubtedly Hurrian name 1 0. 1 .5. Bearers of non-hybrid Haldi names 1 0.2. Probably Hurro-Urartians 1 0.2. 1 . With Hurrian cognates 1 0.3. Possibly Hurro-Urartians 1 0.3 . 1 . With possible Hurro-Urartian anthroponyms 1 0.3.2. Bearers of hybrid Haldi-names 1 0.4. Perhaps Hurro-Urartians 400

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10.5. Alternatively Hurro-Urartians 10.6. Appendix I: A rhotacised name 10.7. Appendix II: Giliia 10.8. Some conclusions 1 1 . Peoples from the Iranian plateau 12. Concluding statement

0 Introduction The myriads of named individuals in the Neo-Assyrian record are indispensable as a historical source, although they are not devoid of difficulties, challenges and pit­ falls. 1 Anthroponyms in the ancient Near East, long before the spread of the great missionary religions, are a significant component of their bearers' identity. Simply put, the expansion of Christianity, Islam and Buddhism brought about irrelevance of onomastics to socio-linguistic identity. Of course, the tendency of individuals to adopt prestigious foreign names existed before the advent of the "religious mission", but its extent was limited to the spread of Hellenism and to the acquisition of Roman citizenship throughout the empire especially since the edict of Caracalla. All of these processes postdate the period under discussion here and are therefore irrelevant; the chronological factor is cardinal. The notion that the language of the name does not reveal the vernacular of its bearer, let alone his ethnic affiliation,2 is true only since the early Middle Ages and applies mainly to the followers of the monotheistic reli­ gions. 3 Nevertheless, we must bear in mind that the prestige of Assyrian culture and the control of Assyrian authorities over prominent clients and humble dependents was an influential factor on the onomastics of the Assyrian empire during the 9th-7th centuries BC. This basically programmatic article evaluates certain issues arising from the monumental achievement of the mega-project of the Neo-Assyrian proso­ pography, which indeed facilitates my task.4 Every prosopography is arranged ac­ cording to a necessarily arbitrary principle, in this case alphabetic order, and thus is not free of atomization. A thematic discussion such as this article would to some extent free this huge corpus of data from isolation. Moreover, an archival approach would offer an optimal presentation of the data within their context. Initial endeav­ ours in this direction were undertaken, but the coverage is still limited; it is confined to the countryside and several small urban archives. 5 Most of the NA material belongs to private archives, but a a sizable percentage originates from the palatial sector (especially administrative and epistolary docu­ ments). Therefore it allows a glimpse at various social strata. Regarding methodology, people mentioned in the same archive (notably recurrent witnesses) formed a closed social circle, where means of identification in addition to 1 See Zadok 1 995c, 219. As is vigorously argued by Macdonald 1 998, 1 87-1 89 (cf. 1 993, 381-382). 3 A related phenomenon is the adoption of Sanskrit names by the populace of Indonesia, whose language is entirely different from Old Indian. They have preserved their Sanskrit surnames de­ spite their conversion from Buddhism to Islam. 4 Specific references are made to PNA wherever I deal with a certain individual, but for examples contained in a purely onomastic discussion below, perusal of PNA would be sufficient. All the names listed below are Akkadian unless otherwise indicated. 5 Zadok 1 995c presents a detailed survey of the pertinent evidence from the countryside whereas the abundant documentation from the urban centres is merely summarized. 2

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their given names were redundant (additionasl markers were required, e.g., if several individuals were homonymous ). The very limited use of gentlics and the lack of fil­ iations for most individuals in the NA documentation are serious obstacles for the clarification of the ethno-linguistic situation in Assyria. While analyzing the complicated ethno-linguistic situation in first millennium upper Mesopotamia, one should apply a minimalizing approach in evaluating the proportion ofthe hegemonic and prestigious group, namely the Assyrians, but a max­ imum approach in regarding the influenced stratum, viz. the non-Assyrians. Such an approach is imperative especially with regard to deportees, who were basically de­ pendents (although mostly not slaves) and as such mostly belonged to institutional households, notably to the palatial sector, where some of them were renamed with Assyrian anthroponyms by their superiors. At this juncture, it should be pointed out that onomastics is a source not only for the cultural milieu of the lower classes, but also of the uppermost echelon: the con­ vention ofregnal names was common in both Assyria and its client kingdoms. More­ over, some princes from the vassal kingdoms, who were held as hostages in the As­ syrian court, received Assyrian names stressing their allegiance to their overlord. Such are, for instance, the cases of Sarru-lu-dari ("May the king be eternal") from Ashkelon and his namesake from Tanis in the Egyptian Delta as well as Assur-le'i ("Assur is almighty") from Karalla in the Zagros. Another ruler from that region, Sarru-emuranni, the city lord ofQunbuna, who is homonymous with the governor of Zamua at that time, expressed his allegiance to Sargon who nominated him. 6 The leitmotiv of this contribution, albeit somewhat hidden, will be interference onomastics. An effort will be made to clarify the situations and milieu that encourage this interpretative strategy. It will concentrate and highlight salient cases, such as the compact documentation of Egyptian deportees in Assur and Nineveh in the last gen­ eration of the existence of the Assyrian empire. In this case, like in archaeology, the richest material is obtained from the most recent stratum. On the other hand, little space will be devoted to the onomasticon of the Assyri­ ans, as this has already been thoroughly investigated. Therefore, only names of royal functionaries will be discussed. This is done here, albeit in passing, since many de­ portees were absorbed by the palatial sector. Such names contain the word sarru(m), "king", mostly as a middle element in three-element names (pattern: DN-sarra-finite verb). Few p.ames have mar-sarri as middle component, thereby implying that their bearers belonged- to. the household of the crown prince. Mar-sarri is recorded as a component of names of royal functionaries, e.g., Sulmu-mar-sarri in the archive of Sulmu-sarri. The latter was an intimate (sa-qurbuti) of the crown prince.7 This cate­ gory has a MA precedent: the chief farmer Silli-apil-sarre8 from the lower Habur 6

Lanfranchi & Parpola 1 990, 243. See Zadok 2009-10, 48. 8 Salah 2014, 40, 9-14. MA has apart from the type DN-sarra-u$ur (e.g., Adad-sarra-u�ur, r:rstar­ sarra-u�rI - the former is from Tall ar-Rimal;t where Adad was the main deity) also U�ur-Bel­ sarru and Sin-lusallim-sarra, which refer to a governor (be/ piihete) and a prominent personage respectively. On the other hand, Istar-sarra-m;n was a female weaver, an occupation which was generally of low status (for references see Saporetti 1970, 62, 161, 267, 399, 5 10f.). The common denominator is that all of them were linked to the palace. There is no evidence that such sarru­ names were adopted by MA royal functionaries while in office: Assur-sarra-u�ur and r:rstar-sarra­ u�rI refer to weaned children (cf. Salah 2014, 353c, 362c with refs.). 7

402

ONOMASTICS AS A HISTORICAL SOURCE

belonged to the palatial sector judging from his name ("in the shade, protection of the crown prince"). His ultimate superior, the viceroy of Hanigalbat, was an Assyrian prince. Names of slaves also form a special category.9 Popular among them are types like, e.g., Ana-beli-taklak, Ana-kasa-atkal, DN-bela-u�ur, DN-lu-salim and DN-lu­ dari. These names were also found among other dependent individuals, while Sarru­ lu-dari is extant among vassal kings. A noteworthy Akkadian name is Nergal-mahi�-Hatti, "Nergal is the slayer of Hatti" 10 (below, 8.3.24, 440), which has a clear political message: Hatti (with its centre in Carchemish) was a rival of the emergent Assyrian empire in the West. The name was borne by an individual who lived in the late Sargonid period, almost a century after the demise of Hatti as a political entity, thereby exemplifying the preservation of historical memory. Nergal as slayer of enemies is invoked in an in­ scription of Nebuchadnezzar II; cf. Anum-muttabbil, a ruler of Der in the end of the 3rd millennium BC who fought against Elam and describes himself as mahi� qaqqad umman Ansan. 1 1 The chronological framework for the present discussion is ca. 900 to 600 BC. However, there is very little pertinent NA material before 800 BC. A turning point is the accession ofTiglath-pileser III, who initiated a policy of mass, two-directional deportations. A constant influx of deportees into Assyria also took place throughout the ensuing Sargonid period. The populace of the Assyrian state, which included almost exclusively the Jazira in 900 BC, consisted of Assyrians, Arameans and groups related to Hurrians in the northeast. The ethno-linguistic character of the early Neo-Assyrian populace was shaped by the emergence of the Arameans and related West Semitic groups in the Jazira since the late MA period. However, even prior to the Aramean penetration, the population of Assyria was far from monolithic: there is evidence for presence of Hurrians, as well as Kassite deportees in Assyria proper during the Middle Assyrian period as well as Hurrians and Suteans in the western Jazira at that time. An early Neo-Assyrian list of females from Tushan reveals the presence of an elusive ethno-linguistic group there. 12 The West Semitic Suteans/ Ahlamites and subsequently the Arameans and other West Semites, although under­ represented in the MA records, must have had a sizable and ever-increasing demo­ graphic base in the Jazira. The toponymy of the Jazira contains an Amorite substra­ tum during the 2nd half of the 2nd millennium BC. Like other settlements, locales preserving Amorite names formed part of the MA system of production centres, a system that accommodated mostly people with Assyrian and Hurrian names as well as deportees, thereby generally leaving the West Semites ("Suteans") on the outside. A case in point is the settlement ofRahhabu (gentilic URU.ra- 'ah '-ha-ba-lA-elra-ha­ ba-lA-u),13 which bears a West Semitic name. Almost all the free farmers from this settlement bear Akkadian names. Rahhabu may be the same place as Rf:zbwt hNhr (Genesis 36, 37), i.e. "Rehoboth of the River" (= Euphrates). The latter is tentatively

9

See Stamm 1 939, 307-3 14. However, he evaluates almost exclusively the Babylonian evidence. See [Akerman &] Paropla, PNA 2, 949b. 1 1 See CAD M/1 , 75b, 80b, s.v. maha$U I d, 4e, 3'. 12 See MacGinnis 2012. 13 Salah 2014, 344a with refs. (cf. 1 55 with n. 720). 10

403

RAN ZADOK

identified with Ra];iba1 4 (with a different nominal formation; not recorded before the Islamic period), modem il-Mayiidin near the confluence of the Habur to the Euphra­ tes. 1 5

1 Assyrians and West Semites An important outcome of the linguistic interference between the Assyrians and the Arameans 16 is the Akkadian-West Semitic onomastic category. There is a sizable number of names which are explicable both in Akkadian and West Semitic tenns. This category was introduced to the classification of ethno-linguistic groups by me. 17 As far as I know, no objections have been raised against the validity ofthis category. However, it was not adopted and followed by the PNA, where most of these names are listed as Akkadian. This is not to say that the labeling practiced by the PNA is incorrect. However, I differ as to the application of this sizable entity of individuals bearing such names within the general ethno-linguistic framework. Considering an­ throponyms such as Abiinu or Abu-tab exclusively as Akkadian becomes a theoret­ ical construct divorced from reality, if one ignores the changing milieu. It is worth defining the main name-types ofthis hybrid category: 1 . Gentilics ending in the suffix -iiyu, which is common to both Akkadian and Ara­ maic in the first millennium BC. One may suspect that some of the occurrences of bal-ta-a-a (with the reading bal(a)-ta-a-a) 1 8 mask a gentilic of the town of Baliita (> Balata, Medieval and modem Balad), but this cannot be proven. 2. Adjectives consisting ofa month name (Akkadian borrowed in Aramaic) and end­ ing in -ayu, such as Kaniiniiyu and Uliiliiyu, as well as the female name Du'iizitu. 19 3. Hypocoristica based on theophorous elements (including kinship terms and, ten­ tatively, cases like nar-gi-i, where the base is not transparent) or on another base which is common to Akkadian and West Semitic (e.g., Abbiiyu, Abiinu, Aha, Ahiinu, Ahiini, Bani, Gabbi, Keni, Tiibi, Milkiya, and Za-an-ba-nu). Da-di-i and Na-ni-i be­ long either to this category (based on a DN) or to 8 below. 4. Interrogative sentence names of the type mannu-kf-DN. 5 . Other compound names whose both components are both Akkadian and West Se­ mitic, e.g. DN-diiri, -niiri, -ii-a-a, Diir-DN, Diir-ahhe, Niir-DN, Dayyiin-DN, Abu­ tab.

14

See Lemaire 2001 b, 1 2 l f.

15 See Honigmann & Bianquis 1 995, 393-396. Rbbt 'yr (Genesis 10, 1 1) is merely homonymous with Rbbwt. It is listed between Nineveh and Calah (see Delitzsch 1 88 1 , 260f.), but the order may be insignificant in view of the fact that the location of Rsn < Re§ 'Ayna on the Habur (as recog­ nized by Aphrem the Syrian as early as the 4th century CE) is erroneously stated as "between

404

Nineveh and Calah" according to the next verse. 16 The evidence of linguistic interference multilingualism in the Neo-Assyrian empire is dis­ cussed by Fales 2007. 17 Zadok 1978a, 350-399. 18 M. Luukko and S. Pa.Ipola, PNA 1 , 260f. s.v. Balti-Aia. 19 This is the preferable reading (rather than Tamuzitu, see Faist 2007, 46 ad 1 8, 4, and C. Jean, PNA 3, 1309b, s.v. Tamuzitu (cf. N. Alhadeff, PNA 3, 1 309, s.v. Tamuzayu).

ONOMASTICS AS A HISTORICAL SOURCE

6. Nominal forms (substantives and adjectives) which are common to Akkadian and West Semitic (e.g., Kalbu). An ambiguous case is ag/q-ru. 7 . Verbal sentence names whose predicative element is originally Akkadian, but was borrowed in Aramaic, such as DN-sezib(anni); 8. "Lallatives" (anthroponyms with a reduplicated syllable including "banana" names) and other short and atypical names with or without hypocoristic suffixes (e. g. , b/pu-sa-a-a, b(pu-si-i' gi-ia-a' qa-ta-a' bi-hi-i' b/pul-li-i' i-di-i, ka-ki-i' ke-e-aa, SA-sa-a-a, u-qu-u-a, and u/-/u). 20 Admittedly, the names of this category, which have a very narrow base of firm consonants are theoretically amenable to multiple interpretations. What counts, in my opinion, is the milieu where they occurred and were used. They belong to this category unless there is evidence to the contrary.

2 West Semites - Arameans The West Semitic entity is basically Aramaic, with an Arabian and Canaanite-He­ brew admixture. A neat isolation of Arabians and "Canaaneophones" from the Ara­ means is a complicated task since many names are common to all of these sub­ groups. Furthermore, the distinction within the group "Canaaneophones", viz. be­ tween Hebrews (lsraelites-Judeans) and Phoenicians, is even more difficult. The modest documentation of Phoenicians and Israelites-Judeans, as well as the sizable dossier of Arabians, have thoroughly been analyzed (see below, 4-7), but a compre­ hensive and meticulous analysis of the documentation of the main West Semitic group, viz. the Arameans, is an urgent desidreatum. The abundant onomastic mate­ rial enables the establishment of a detailed and refined classification. A system of common name-types and a pool of well-documented verbal roots emerge. 21 Last, but not least, this helps to discard anthroponyms, whose composition is strange to this system and are devoid of cognates and parallels, such as ga-la-gu-su (probably non­ Semitic). 22 There is evidence for solidarity and cohesion among West Semites: for instance, ahi-mil-ka-ti s. of a-si-pu acted as guarantor for the debtors ab-di-dkur-a and ba-da0_ 23

3 Chaldeans Most of the recorded Chaldeans in NA and NB/LB sources bore Akkadian (Babylo­ nian) names, except for very few individuals, whose anthroponyms are basically Ar­ amaic.24 According to the cylinder inscription of Assur-ketta-lesir II from Tiibete on the Habur, the Chaldeans were found together with the Arameans on the Habur a

°

2

For a preliminary classification see Zadok 1 995b, 437--440.

21 Peruse Zadok 1 978a.

22 This is probably the case, although a segmentation Gala-Gusu would result in two components that are recorded in West Semitic. However, the etymology suggested by Fales 1 974, 1 8 1 , 5) and followed in Zadok 1 978, 63, 84 is unlikely: ga-la- hardly renders G- '-L (one would expect ga-al). Theoretically, it may render gala (to G-L-Y, "to be apparent, revealed", cf. ga-la-a, K. Fabritius, PNA 1 , 419), but *gus is not recorded as the subject of compound verbal names. 23 D&P 1 99. 24 Cf. Zadok 2013, 266f. with previous literature.

405

RAN ZADOK

early as the reign ofTiglath-pileser 1,25 i.e. 220 years before their earliest mention in Babylonia (878 BC). It is also clear that they inhabited a region in Upper Mesopota­ mia in the reign ofTiglath-pileser I: the land of the Chaldeans is mentioned in a MA administrative record26 from the eponymy of Hiyasayu (= 5th year ofTiglath-pileser I = 1 1 10 BC).27 It should be remembered that invasions from upper Mesopotamia to Babylonia passed either via the Middle Euphrates or near Mt. Ebeh (Jabal Hamnn) since the 2nd millennium BC. It follows that the Chaldean migration to Babylonia must have taken place during the 11 th and 10th centuries BC. The infiltration of the Chaldeans into Babylonia began from the northwest, not from the south. Below I present some occurrences of Chaldeans in NA sources, where they bore mosty Akkadian names with a minority of West Semitic anthroponyms. This find accords well with the Babylonian one. Aba-ul-Ide, a Chaldean royal intimate (LD.qur-bu-te)28 is mentioned in a letter from Assur-dur-pan'iya (governor of the province of the treasurer north of Assyria proper) to the king (probably Sargon 11). 29 The soldier aha(PAP)-bu-u (WSem.), son of Kaldayu ("Chaldean"), is recorded at Til-Barsip in the time of Tiglath-pileser III or Sargon 11. 30 Adad-apla-iddina, who was perhaps a Chaldean, is mentioned in connection with the rebellion ofMukin-zeri (ca. 732-729 BC).3 1 Ahhesayu the major-domo (rab-biti) acted as an information officer (mutir femi) of Nabu-usallim, chieftain of Bit-Dak­ kiiri (reign of Esarhaddon); he bought horses. 32 The brothers ahi(SES)-ia-di- ·, Sak­ n'iya and am-ka-nu are mentioned in an undated letter of Bel-ibni from the Sealand to Ashurbanipal with news about Elam. 33 The Chaldean a-hu-tu-un was deported to Amidi (time of Sargon II, probably sometime after 710 BC). The governor of Amidi reported that he was hiding together with five other persons; they were supposed to cultivate royal arable land. 34 This is an obvious case of anachoresis. A-du-ru, ahi-qa-mu, a-gi-nu, and a-ba-il, all bearing West Semitic names, were landowners near Kapar-Kaldu in Assyria, which was named after Chaldeans (presumably deportees, 672? BC). 35 However, it cannot be proven that these individuals were themselves Chaldean deportees or their offspring. I-de, the Chaldean(?) foreman (G[AR ka]l-da-[a-a]), is recorded in an administrative list belonging to the N6 archive from Assur, which is datable to about 6 1 6* BC. 36

25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36

406

For this fully preserved cylinder inscription see Zadok 20 17. Prechel & Freydank 2014, 1 10-1 1 2 - III. Exkurs: MARV (1) 1 0 (re-edition). For the date of this eponym see Bloch 2012, 69-90, esp. 89f. See M. Jursa, PNA 1 , 20, s. v. Aba-ul-ide, 7. Lanfranchi & Parpola 1 990, 59, 4, see B. J. Parker, PNA 1 , 1 80, s.v. Assur-diir-paniya 1 . ND 2684 r. 1 , see K. Fabritius, PNA 1 , 57b, s.v. Ahabfi 2. See M. Luppert-Bamard, PNA 1, 22b, s. v. Adad-apla-iddina 3. ABL 336; see J.A. Brinkman, PNA 1, 60a, s. V. Ahhesayu 1 . de V aan 1 995, 3 1 1 -3 17. Lanfranchi & Parpola 1 990, 14, r.9. See M. Luukko, PNA 1, 55-56, s.vv. Adiiru 2 and Aginu. Faist 2007, 35, ii 33.

ONOMASTICS AS A HISTORICAL SOURCE

4 Arabians The evidence for Arabians in and around the Assyrian empire was discussed in a monograph and in many articles. 37 Here I present a selection of pertinent material. Bir-ha-al/la-ha-a (Aram.) is perhaps from Ma'alanate, but neither the place of issue nor prosopographic links with this settlement are extant in the source (0.3704 from 653 BC). Ha-ni-ia and Summa-sarri, sons of ni-hi-ra-a-ma (unexplained or Egyptian?38) , dispute with bir-ha-al/la-ba-a over a fine which he paid concerning an anonymous female slave; after taking an oath bir-ha-al/la-ba-a is vindicated and the plaintiffs pay him silver with 25% interest and the female slave. 39 The 3 rd, 4th and 7th (last) witnesses are Arabians: bi-a-da-pe-e,40 charioteer (of a senior rank? mukfl-appate sa du-na-a-ni); am-le-e-te, KVR.na-pi-sa-a-a (member of the tribe of Naphish),4 1 and na-i-mi KUR.te-ma-a-a (originally from Tema).42 They are preceded by two colleagues of bi-a-da-pe-e, viz. Samas-sarra-u�ur son of Adda­ barakka, horse trainer of the king,43 and kul-ba-qar, a charioteer. The latter's name is normalized as Zeru-baqar, "the seed is precious".44 However, the form baqar for waqar is recorded only in Old Akkadian. Therefore, a West Semitic interpretation "he has sought (B-Q-R) all, everything" seems preferable, cf. kul-sa-ma-' .45 The 5 th witness, na-sum-ki KUR.qu-ru-mat-a-a, is possibly from Quramati near Carchemish (this reading is more likely than Qurabati).46 He is followed by Sin-sallimani son of Ubri-Harran, who was, judging by his filiation, an adherent of the lunar cult ofHar­ ran in upper Mesopotamia. Hu-zi-[r]u-u sold his daughter Banitu-tetir in 638* BC (Assur, archive N3 1). His name47 ends with -u, which is common in Arabian names and is interchangeable with -f (cf. hu-zi-ri-i from Assur, same year, which refers to a different individual),48 but the base is Aramaic, not Arabian (where one would expect banzfr). One wonders whether it is a case of Aramaic-Arabian linguistic interference. Two witnesses to a transaction from 1 .VII.eponymy of Mi[tunu] = 700 BC, where visitors from Gozan in Assur are recorded, were possibly Arabians. The deed49 be­ longs to the N18 archive from Assur. Za-an-ba-ala(URV)-a arba-bi (as trans- !it­ erated, 2nd witness) is tentatively rendered as "Zanbala Arab". This suggestion of the editors must await confirmation until the copy is published. The name may be expli­ cable in Aramaic terms. 50 Arabians bearing Aramaic names are recorded in first mil­ lennium Mesopotamia. One may suspect that $i-ra-nu-u (the 14th witness) was also 37

Eph'al 1982 as well as Zadok 198 1 ; 1 990; 2000, 655-659 (cf. 652-655). See R. Zadok, PNA 2, 960a, s. v. -, 2. 39 See H. D. Baker, PNA 1, 346a. 40 See Zadok 2000, 653. 41 Cf. P. Villard, PNA 1, 105a, s.v. Ammi-leti 2. 42 See L. Pearce and S. Parpola, PNA 2, 922b. 43 See M. Gross, PNA 3, 1 2 1 1b, s.v. -, 6. 44 See S. Parpola [and K. S. Schmidt], PNA 3, 1443a. 45 See R. Zadok [and K.S. Schmidt], PNA 3, 1445b. 46 Pace Zadok 1978a, 1 7. 47 Cf. Faist 2007, 1 39 ad 88, 4. 48 Faist 2007, 49, 1 1 (archive N27). 49 D&P 53. 50 See E. Lipinski, PNA 3, 1434b. Cf. perhaps the Classical Arab. name lbn Zabala (ofa different nominal formation) from Mecca (al-Samarra'i 1 980, 2, 268-270). 38

407

RAN ZADOK

an Arabian in view of the ending -u which may render an Arabian nominative.

5 Israelites-Judeans The core of the meager docwnentation of Israelite and Judean exiles and their de­ scendants in Assyria consists almost entirely of individuals bearing Yahwistic names and their blood relatives. The statistical sample of seventy-two individuals obtained from this documentation, with no less than 54% bearers of Yahwistic names, is prob­ ably not optimally representative. On the other hand, bearers of Yahwistic names in a sizable comparative sample from Israel and Judah (from ca. 800 to 701 BC) before and during the deportations (i.e. , 732-70 1 BC) are only 43%. The identification oflsraelites-Judeans in Assyrian sources is a complicated task. Direct evidence for these people in Assyrian sources is scanty. No commoner bears the gentilic "Israelite". Most common individuals, who can be regarded as Israelites­ Judeans in Assyrian sources, are identified as such only according to their names. The most reliable criterion for their identification is the occurrence ofthe theophoric element YHW in an individual's name. In Neo-Assyrian cuneiform texts this theo­ phoric element is written ia-u-, a-a-u- (as the initial component) or -ia/ia-(a-) u/u, -(C)i-a-u, -(C)i-a-a-u, -i-ulu (as the second component). 5 1 In one case it is short­ ened to -ia-a, viz., ha-za-qi-a-u and ha-za-qi-ia-a (for the same monarch). All the lsraelites-Judeans are mentioned in Neo-Assyrian cuneiform documents, except for four, viz., yf.Yhw, sm "yh, 'sr ' and m s y 1w(?) x], who are recorded on tablets written in Aramaic. People bearing names with the theophoric element YHW are basically Israelites­ Judeans, seeing that no other ethnic group in the pre-Hellenistic Near East worshiped YHW. The only reason why it cannot be categorically stated that YHW is an exclu­ sively Israelite-Judean theophorous element in the NA period is the fact that it is apparently contained in names of three rulers from Northern Syria, notably Ha­ math, 52 from which people (basically Aramaic-speaking) were also deported to As­ syria (and Ulluba north of Assyria proper) in the same period. 53 However, since YHW was not the main deity of Hamath and several Yahwistic names from Assyria have non-Aramaic (Canaanite) predicates diminishes the possibility that some Yah-

51

Zadok 1979, 1 1, 2i-33. All the Yahwistic names in NA sources have Yau as the second com­ ponent. Notable exceptions referring to commoners are ia-u-ga-a, ia-u-he-e and a-a-u-id-ri (D. Schwemer, PNA 2, 497). Not every name ending with -ia-a-u, -a-a-u is Yahwistic. 52 See Zadok 1979, 4f.; Younger 2003a, 274 with nn. 23, 24; cf. Tadmor (& Cogan) 1 994, 273 with n. 1 . Lipinski 1 971 suggests that the Hamathean usurper Yaubi' di was of Israelite extraction. In the same manner, Weippert 2007, 386f. hypothesizes that az-ri-ia-a-u, who led the Hamathean rebellion in 738 BC, was oflsraelite extraction (see Younger 2003a, 274 with n. 24). To my mind, it is admissible to surmise another scenario, wherein both rebels descend from dynastic marriages between Hamathean rulers and North-Israelite princesses. Such a scenario gains plausibility in light of the geopolitical circumsances existing several decades before, when Jeroboam II reached Lebo near the Hamathean border after defeating Aram Damascus. Maintaining this recently con­ quered territory in the former Damascene Biqa ·, far from the core of the kingdom of Israel, re­ quired new diplomatic initiatives, and it should be remembered that Israel and Hamath shared a common enemy in Aram Damascus. 53 Cf. Oded 1 979, 124. 408

ONOMASTICS AS A HISTORICAL SOURCE

wistic names in the sample presented below belong to North-Syrians. Moreover, sev­ eral individuals with Yahwistic names are associated with bearers of Canaanite names. In the absence of the gentilic "Israelite"/"Judean" for commoners in Neo­ Assyrian sources, the pertinent statistical sample was created by gathering all the individuals bearing Yahwistic names in records from Assyria and the rest of upper Mesopotamia (both in cuneiform and Aramaic sources). 54 The sample of Israelites-Judeans from Assyria is necessarily a combined one, representing Israelites who arrived before 701 BC, as well as Israelites and Judeans after 70 I BC. In order to compare this construct group with the corresponding pools obtained from their countries of origin, one is required to combine the "home sam­ ples" from Israel (the Northern Kingdom, henceforth NK) and Judah. This combina­ tion is imperative for the analysis of both the total construct group, as well as the sub-group of those individuals dated after 70 1 BC, since there is no way to distin­ guish between Israelites and Judeans in Neo-Assyrian sources. However, the group of 27 individuals predating 701 BC, most of them chariot­ eers, presents a unique situation, and the opportunity for a more optimally repre­ sentative pool. By virtue of chronology, we can be sure they are Israelites as distinct from Judeans, and indeed sixteen or seventeen of them are explicitly described as Samarian. There are good reasons for regarding the remaining ten as Israelites. Theoretically, this discrepancy could result from social factors, however, given the instability of the total pool, it seems that the pattern, whereby the percentage of Yahwistic names is higher in Assyria, is in fact observed rather than actual, i.e. re­ flecting a shortcoming of the data. This scenario justifies our determination that the Neo-Assyrian sample is insufficient for meaningful statistical evaluation, and em­ phasizes the need to expand this sample in order to account for, and presumably minimize the gap, thereby making the pool more realistic. For the sake of clarity and transparency, the percentages are displayed in the following table. Assyria 732-701 BC: 37.5% NK before 720 BC: 35.71% Judah before 701 BC: 50.63% Assyria 700-602 BC: 63.63% NK before 720 and Judah before 701 BC combined: 43% Assyria 732--602 BC: 54% Table I . The percentage ofYahwistic names in the home samples vs. the sample from Assyria.

. A-za- ,rz-•?• -[za] - u·,? , son of fz/..ya-b.lvpu- [u] n·? (or f.ya-bu- [u] - a and fra- 'hu-ma ,-a-a, mother of Lu-ahhe, were among a group of eighteen female slaves and their infants (several unnamed and not counted), who were purchased by La-turamanni-Assur and Balassu from three sellers on 28.11.Salam-sarri-iqbi = 630* BC. In view of the un­ certain reading of the the name of a-za- 'rt '-[ia]- 'i? • it is doubtful whether he was an Israelite-Judean.55 As for fra- 'hu-ma ·-a-a, her name may consist of a qatul-for­ mation of R-[J-M and -ay, a suffix which is extant in Canaanite-Hebrew female names, in which case it would denote "the compassionate". The spelling cannot render Aram. rat,fm, "beloved".56 The fact that among the remaining female slaves there are bearers of Aramaic names (da-tar-' df-im-ri, sa-' la· -me-e, ha-a-u-ir-ta-a1 ', i.e. "the white female", and ia-ti-a[t1]) cannot exclude the Hebrew r

54

55 56

r

')

Zadok 1 979, 7-12. The name is subject to collation, to be discussed by G. Galil. As implied by Faist 2007, 22 ad 4, 1 0, who normalizes the name as Rah'fmi-Aia.

409

RAN ZADOK

(Israelite-Judean) caracter of rra-'hu-ma·-a-a's name, seeing that there is no evi­ dence for a blood relationship between the female slaves. The first buyer (possibly son ofEsrayu) was explicitly from Assur and the co-buyer might also be from there. However, it seems that the deed, which belongs to the N2 archive from Assur, was issued in Nineveh in view of the fact that it contains a clause about a fine to be paid to !star of Nineveh in case ofbreach. 57 In this case, the six witnesses from Assur (8th1 3 th) belonged to the circle of colleagues and friends ofthe buyers, who brought them along. It stands to reason that the sellers originated from Nineveh and at least one of them from Turnu, the place of origin of the 14th = last witness (VRV.tur-nu-u- ·a ·-a, gentilic ). Several of the eight witnesses, who in all probability belonged to the sellers' circle and originated from Nineveh (except for the last one), were prominent: a royal intimate (Banayu, whose father, Bel-sarra-ui?ur, also belonged to the royal establishment in view of his name), an officer ("third man"), a deputy and two scribes. A scribe was also among the witnesses from Assur.

6 Transjordanians There is no evidence for Moabites in Mesopotamia during the Sargonid period. Qa­ u-su, a dependent from Siddi-hiriti, was sold with another six people and the land in 694 BC. His name is thought to be identical with that of the Edomite main god Qaws. However, one would expect NA in this case, like the NA rendering of the Edom­ ite royal names qa-us-gab-ri and qa-us-ma-la-ka. 58 The presence of a group of work­ men who were supplied by the Ammonite vassal in Calah was suggested by Naveh 1 979-80, 1 7 1 , in view of an ostracon dated to the late eighth century BC. This os­ tracon was found in Calah. It contains a list of Canaanite-speaking people, who be­ cause of the nature of their theophorous names are neither Israelites-Judeans nor Phoenicians-Philistines (none of the fifteen individuals bore a name with YHW or B ' l; no name is typically Aramaic).59 Naveh 1979-80, 163 cautiously suggested that the list refers to Ammonites. Since deportations from central and southern Transjor­ dan (Ammon, Moab and Edom) are not recorded, we can eliminate this group from our consideration. These kingdoms were faithful vassals of Assyria. Situated on the fringe of the Arabian-Syrian desert, they were under constant threat from the Arabian nomads. Hence, the Transjordanians owed their security and prosperity to the pax Assyriaca. At most there might have been a negligible number of corvee workmen and auxiliary troo,s from this area in Assyria proper. Therefore there is no reason to believe that they settled there to any meaningful extent.

7 Phoenicians Most of the pertinent material has already been presented.60 An additional Phoeni­ cian is me-na-se-e the Tyrian (cf. Phoen. mnsy), 61 co-seller of an unnamed slave to Assur-sezibanni, one of the protagonists of the N32 archive from Assur (XII.634* 57 See Faist 2007, 23 ad 4, where she points out that Turnu is not mentioned elsewhere. 58 See J. Llop, PNA 3, I O l l a, s.w. with lit. 59

60 61

410

-nr of '/nr can render the Canaanite forerunner of Bihl. Heb. -ner rather than Aram. -niir. See, e.g., Lipinski 1 983, 1 99 1 , and Zadok 1 978b, 57--6 1 ; 1 995, 432f. Benz 1 972, 142, 363f.

ONOMASTICS AS A HISTORICAL SOURCE

BC). The guarantor is Ki�ir-Assur, son ofMannu-ki-Assur, who was in charge of the royal graves in Assur. 62 The N3 1 archive from Assur, which is mainly about Egyptians, contains a court case63 (eponymy of Sin-sarra-u�ur = 636* or 625* BC), which involves Egyptian merchants entering the status of ubartu (pl. u-ba-ra-tu, i.e. "foreign guests") in the house of a certain ha-ku-ba-a-a (WSem.). 64 They were attacked by five criminals (four with West Semitic names and one with an Akkadian-West Semitic anthro- po­ nym). Ab-di-sa-lu-u-mu and ru-ma-qa-ar-te (both bearing Phoenician names) acted as the first and 2nd witnesses (out of 12, see below, 8.3.14). Di-lu-se-ri (possibly ends in Eg. -Osiris) s. of ma-u-ra-ni is recorded as a debtor in the same archive (debt of 3.66 shekels of silver, creditor Urdu-Assur, date lost, see below, 8.3. 1 . 1 , f, 162). His paternal name may be Canaanite-Hebrew.65

8 Egyptians Below there is an analysis of the prosopographic sample obtained from the few Ni­ nevite docwnents found in situ. This sample, which amounts to slightly more than 200 individuals, is quite restricted compared with the ca. 3700 individuals contained in docwnents which are said to originate from Nineveh (modem Kuyunjik). The gentilic "Egyptian" (mu$uriiyu) is not recorded in the archives from Nineveh, which were found in situ (8. 1-8.2 below), but the compact documentation of individuals bearing Egyptian names in 8. 1 .2 leaves no doubt about their identity. This case proves again the significance of of onomastics for determining the ethno-linguistic character of a given group.

8. 1 Archives found near the Samas Gate in Nineveh I do not include here the individuals mentioned in rural settlements, which are rec­ orded in these archives.66 8. 1 . 1 Asalluhi-suma-iddina archive (Postgate & Ismail n.d., 1-2; no. 1 is not in­ cluded here as it is from the countryside) Findspot: Area 59, ca. 400 m. east of Nabi-Yiinis, to the north of the modem road leading to Arbil past the Samas Gate. A residence of a high-ranking army officer. Internal evidence: !star of Nineveh is mentioned in the formulary of both deeds which belong to this archive. 1 . Postgate & Ismail n.d., 2 = Mattila 2002, 424, 12.X.Assur-gimilli-tirri (638* BC) 1 . Sukkayu, s. of Pamuari (Anat.), a Kwnmuhean merchant (or commercial agent, tamkaru, his name is Assyrian but his father has an Anatolian name as expected of a native of the Luwian kingdom of Kwnmuh), seller (with a stamp seal) of 12 slaves (three families of 5+4+2 and a single one, their list is by size of the familial unit in descending order) for ten minas of silver (with a fine of one mina of silver to !star of Nineveh in case of contravention). The five witnessing merchants (or commercial The deed is thoroughly discussed by Faist 2007, 1 58 ad 1 05, 2 (with previous lit.). D&P 173 (envelop 17 4). 64 See C. Ambos, PNA 2, 440b, s. v. ~, 2. 65 See E. Lipinski, PNA 2, 746b ad D&P 228. 66 Cf. Zadok 1995c, 254, 4.1 3 .2.3.1. 62

63

41 1

RAN ZADOK

agents, 1 st-5th) must have belonged to the seller's circle (only their title is preserved but their names are lost). Practically all the names of the witnesses belonging to th; buyer's circle are lost in the lacuna, where there originally were at least four (cf. lines 38--4 1 which begin with IGI and a Personenkeil, the provenience of the 6th witness is apparently indicated, cf. line 38 in fine). The head of the 2nd family has an atypical name, but his younger brother bore a West Semitic anthroponym. B/Pusayu was married to a female bearing a West Semitic (practically Aramaic) name and their son had a common Aramaic name.

Pudi

I

a-.1 �

Attar-idrI

NagA I

Fig. I. Genealogy. 2. Asalluhi-suma-iddina son of Asalluhi-ahhe-iddina (from the filiation one may gather that his family worshipped Marduk), company commander (rab-ki$ri) of the king's personal guard (sa sepe sa ekalli), buyer of slaves (for details see ad Sukkayu just above). The presence of a royal intimate, a courtier and a functionary of the crown prince among the witnesses of no. 1 implies that he had links with the upper echelon. The first three witnesses ofno. 1 are his colleagues (company commanders of the king's personal guard). They, the royal intimate, the functionary of the crown prince, the courtier as well as a member of the military establishment, viz. the fore­ man of Gurreans (Gurrayu, auxiliary troops, 5 th w.) belong to his circle. The seller's circle consists at least of his foreman (4th w.), the commander-of-fifty of the weavers (9th w.) and a fellow weaver (the last w.). Weavers generally belonged to the lower­ most classes. The fact that he sold his land to a dignitary suggests that this weaver was in distress. 3. 'i1'-si-i1 (damaged Akk.-WSem., atyp.), slave (head of family) sold, Postgate & Ismail n.d., 2, 4.67 4. a-tar-·x-x· (damaged WSem.), his wife, sold. 68 5. Ba[n]i (damage� Akk.-WSem.), s. of lsf and Attar-·x-x· of 5 spans. 6. Dayyanu-idri (WSem.), his son of [x] spans.69 7. Rama (WSem.),70 his daughter, altogether 5 slaves sold. 8. B/Pusayu (Akk.-WSem. atyp.), head offamily, br. of PiidI (presumably his younger br., both orphans), hus. of na-·ga1'-a (WSem.), slave sold. 9. Naga (WSem.), wi. of B/Pusayu, fem. slave sold.7 1 1 0. Piidi (WSem.), (prob. younger) br. ofB/Pusayu, slave sold.72 67 68 69 70 71 72

412

See G. van Buylaere, PNA 2, 565b, s.v. See L. Pearce, PNA I, 237a, s.v. Attar-[ . . . ], 5. See R. Pruzsinszky, PNA I, 369b. See Parpola and P. Villard, PNA 3, 103 1 a. See L. Pearce, PNA 2, 921b, s.v. Nagaha, 6. See G. van Buylaere, PNA 3, 998a, s. v.

ONOMASTICS AS A HISTORICAL SOURCE

1 1 . Attar-idrI (WSem.), s. of B/Pusiiyu and Naga, slave sold.73 7 1 2. Kiqiliinu (Akk.-WSem.), presumably head of family, br. of Qutari, slave sold. 4 7 5 13 . Qutari (WSem.), (prob. younger) br. of K.iqiliinu, slave sold. 1 4. 11-idrI (WSem.), leather worker (slave sold). 76 Witnesses: 1 5. [ . . . ], merchant ((or commercial agent), 1 6. [ . . . ] merchant (or commercial agent), 17. [ . . . ] merchant (or commercial agent), 1 8. [ . . . ] merchant 19. [ . . . ] merchant (or commercial agent), 20. [ . . . ], and 2 1 . Urdu-Nabu, scribe. ,. •?'1

• ,?

l -Sl-l'

Ba[n]i

a-tar-·xx·

Dayyanu-idrI

Rama

Fig. 2. Genealogy.

8.1.2 The archive of (N)inurta-sarra-u�ur (Postgate & Ismail n.d., 3-30)

Findspot: a chamber near the Samas Gate, stored in a pottery vessel (not in their original context, since the chamber is of a tunnel of Parthian graves); 3-33 belong to the archive of (N)inurta-sarra-u�ur, "son of the palace" (mar ekalli) of the New Pal­ ace.77 There is also internal evidence that the archive is from Nineveh: property in Nineveh is recorded and !star of Nineveh is mentioned (Postgate & Ismail n.d., 3). According to Postgate & Ismail n.d., 4, (N)inurta-sarra-u�ur might have been born to a royal concubine (presumably of Ashurbanipal) of the New Palace and became automatically a member of the upper class. He had indeed links with both the palace (the eunuch Piin-lssiir-liimur was a member of his circle, being a recurrent witness in deeds from his archive; another witness is a butler, no. 1 6) and the military estab­ lishment (a charioteeer and a staff-holder witness one of his deeds, no. 1 6). The rab­ dayyali (8. 1 .2.2.3, c, 5) might have also belonged to the military establishment. Sev­ eral principals recur as witnesses. Such are a-$e-e (8. 1 .2.2. 1 , d, 4), Hallabese, Putu­ Esi, Kaniiniiyu (8. 1 .2. 1 , a, 6) and Piin-lssiir-liimur. 8. 1 .2.1 Documents where (N)inurta-sarra-u�ur is mentioned

a. Postgate & Ismail n.d., 1 5 = Mattila 2002, 442. Bullutu (634* BC) 1 . Abdi-Kurra (WSem.), cook; sold his grandson, who was born to his daughter while she was a temple prostitute for ten shekels of silver; with a cylinder seal).78 2. Aha-iddina, son (of 3 spans) of the anonymous daughter of Abdi-Kurra, a temple prostitute79 (j udging from the name, he was not her firstborn son); 3. pu-fi-ad/tlt-hi-is (Eg.), 80 bought and adopted a son of a temple prostitute from his grandfather. It is stated that he will be his heir even if Puti-athis will have ten sons. 73

74 75 76 77 78 79

80

See F. M. Fales, PNA 1, 235b, s.v. ~, 3. See Ph. Talon, PNA 2, 6 1 9a, s. v. ~, 14. See J. Llop, PNA 3, 1026b, s.v. See M. Jursa, PNA 2, 5 17b, s. v. ~, 5. Cf. Reade 2000, 427: 1 7.9. See F.M. Fales, PNA 1, 6a, s.v. ~, 2. See K. Fabritius, PNA I , 76a, s.v. ~, 14. With an unidentified theophorous element -adlt/f-hi-is (see R. Mattila, PNA 3, l 00 l a, s. v.).

413

RAN ZADOK

This transaction highlights the humble and pitiful status of an Egyptian dependent: an implicitly childless deportee is offered (or rather persuaded by his superiors) to adopt one of the sons of an indigenous prostitute. I suspect that the impressive mun­ her of witnesses were brought not only for juridical reasons; I am convinced that the presence of the Egyptians from his circle was encouraged by their superiors in order to enhance the moral legitimacy of such an unusual step in such a pre-modem soci­ ety. For to become the father of a prostitute's son would be a constant source of deep contempt both for the adoptive parents and the child. By witnessing the adoption, the father's fellow dependents and neighbours express their consent and ensure that they will not ostracize the family. This was also in the best interest of their superiors who dictated the arrangement to them. At least six out of the 20 witnesses, who bore Egyptian names (nos. 6-8, 10, 1 1 , 20, 21), probably belonged to the buyer's circle, whereas (N)inurta-sarra-u�ur and the archive's recurrent witnesses (6, 9, 19) presum­ ably belonged to the seller's circle. The seller is homonymous (perhaps identical) with the father ofUrdu-Nabu, the debtor in no. 6 (622* BC) and a recurrent witness (no. 1 1 from 62 1 * BC), i.e. 12/13 years later. He was not necessarily identical with his witnessing namesake from 655 BC (no. 1 7). Puti-se might have belonged to ei­ ther the buyer's or the seller's circle. Witnesses: 4. Puti-se/u (Eg.), commander-of-fifty, 5. (N)inurta-sarra-u�ur, 6. Kam1nayu (Akk.-WSem., recurrent), 7. Hallabese (Eg., recurrent), 8. Uta-Huru (Eg.), 9. Urdu-(N)inurta (recurrent), 10. Hursese (Eg.), 1 1 . Hasa (Eg.), 12. [x-x]-'x-x· (dam­ aged), 13. Samas-iddina (or -nadin)-[x] (damaged Akk.), 14. Nabu-suma-u�ur, 15. Bel-mu-x[x(x)]x.ME� (damaged Akk.-WSem.), 16. Sukkayu, smith, 17. mi-[ti,1]-nu (damaged), 1 8. Adad-suma-u�ur, 19. Nabu'a (Akk.-WSem., recurrent), 20. ha-BARI mas-a (Eg.), 2 1 . Putu-d?[x-x] (damaged Eg.), 22. gal-ma(?) (damaged), and 23. t­ 'x(-�)'-te? (damaged). b. Postgate & Ismail n.d., 7 = Mattila 2002, 426 a.5. (N)inurta-sarra-u�ur, creditor (followed by a cylinder seal, but the debtor is his equal): half a mina of silver without deadline for payment (presumably passed) and with 25% interest, 20.IX.Salam-sarri-iqbi (630* BC). 1 . Mannu-kI-Nabu (Akk.-WSem.), courtier (lit. "son of the palace", mar-ekalli) of the succession house (bet-riduti), debtor. 8 1 Witnesses: 2. Urdu-(N)inurta, 3. Nabii­ (e)noani, 4. Ahu-edi, 5. Nabu-isse'a, 6. Se'-habi (WSem.), and 7. Emubu (Phoen.). c. Postgate & Ismail n.d., 12 = Mattila 2002, 427. x.11.Marduk-sarra-�ur (627* BC) a.5. (N)inurta-sarra-u�ur, creditor: 1 5 star-[pattemed birds], to be repaid on 1 .[MN], with 100% interest in case of non-repayment; 1 . Nabu-[ . . . ]-ka" in (damaged Akk.), debtor (with a stamp seal). 82 Witnesses: 2. Summa-Nabu (Akk.-WSem.), 3. [x-x-x-x], 4. Adi-mati-Nabu, 5. [x-x-x-x], and 6. Pan-Nabu-[ . . . ] (damaged Akk.). d. Postgate & Ismail n.d., 6 = Mattila 2002, 429. 18.XI.Dadi (622* BC), 1 . Urdu-Nabu (= Aram. 'rdnbw), s. of Abdi-Kurra (WSem.), debtor (with stamp seal; six shekels of silver to be repaid in V, i.e. within slightly less than six months; with 81

82

414

See H. D. Baker, PNA 2, 694b, s. v. ~, 4. See H. D. Baker, PNA 2, 914b, s.v. ~, 2.

ONOMASTICS AS A HISTORICAL SOURCE

25% interest in case of non-payment); cf. no. 1 5 below. 8. 1 .2. l , a, 5. (N)iniirta-sarra­ �ur, creditor. Witnesses: 2. Parsara (non-Sem., recurrent), 3. Yadi' -il (WSem.), 4. Ayakku-ibni (recurrent), 8. 1 .2. 1 , a, 6. Kaniinayu (recurrent), 83 5. Nabu-salit (WSem.), 6. Pan-Issar-lamur, 7. Liqipu, 8. 1 .2. l , a, 19. Nabu'a (recurrent), 8. Nabu­ ban-ahhe, scribe, and 9. Silimmu (Akk.-WSem.). e. Postgate & Ismail n.d., 13 = Mattila 2002, 430. -.V.Bel-iqbi (621 * BC) 8. 1 .2. 1 , a, 5. (N)inurta-sarra-u�ur, court order on his behalf. 1 . Nabu-sallim-ahhe will bear liability to (N)inurta-sarra-u�ur for his donkeys, his penalty until 1 .X (for five months or slightly less). 84 2. Urdu-[dx] (damaged Akk.), copper-man surety ofNabu­ sallim-ahhe against flight and against anything else. Witnesses: 3. Hanni, 4. Abdayu, 5. Musalamu (all WSem.), 8. 1 .2. 1 , a, 4. Puti-se (recurrent), 6. a-a-s[e] (? damaged), 7. Ana-x-[x-x] (damaged), 8. ·x-x-x-x-x' (damaged), 9. lssar-[x-x] (damaged Akk.­ WSem.), 10. Urdu-[x-x-x] (damaged Akk.), 1 1 . su?-•x-x-x' (damaged), and 12. lssar­ ki-[x] (damaged Akk.-WSem.). f. Postgate & Ismail n.d., 1 1 = Mattila 2002, 43 1 - 20.Xlla.Bel-iqbi (62 1 * BC) 8. 1 .2. 1 , a, 5. Niir (< lniirta < Ninurta)-sarra-u�ur, creditor: [one] homer and six seahs of barley according to the seah of 8 "litres", deadline of repayment not preserved; he will pay double in case of non-repayment; 1 . Aqru (Akk.-WSem.), s. of (Ay)ya-sarra-ibni, debtor (with an undefined seal), deadline of repayment not preserved; he shall pay double in case of non-repayment. 85 Witnesses: 8.1.2. 1 , d, 6. Pan-lssar-lamur, 8. 1 .2. 1 , b, 4. Ahu-edi (both recurrent), 2. Kabti, 8 . 1 .2. l , d, 1 . Urdu-Nabu (recurrent), 3. Sarru-nadin-ahhe, and 4. Ladagil-[ili]. g. Postgate & Ismail n.d., 9 = Mattila 2002, 432. 14.1.Nabu-sagib (6 1 8* BC) 8. 1 .2. l , a, 5. (N)inurta-sarra-u�ur, creditor: three homers and three seahs of barley according to the the seah of eight "litres", to be repaid on I .VI (within 4.5 months, with 1 00% interest in case of non-repayment); name of debtor lost. Witnesses: 8. 1 .2. l , d, 9. Silimmu (recurrent), 1 . Bel-�alli,86 8. 1 .2. l , a, 9. Urdu-(N)inurta (recur­ rent), 2. Sarru-isse'a, 8. 1 .2. l , d, 4. Ayakku-ibni (recurrent), 3. lssar-emuqiya, 4. Bel­ niiri (Akk.-WSem.), 8. 1 .2. 1 , a, 6. Kaniinayu (recurrent), and 5. x-[x]-as..,-lam?-[x] (damaged). h. Postgate & Ismail n.d., 8 = Mattila 2002, 433. 1 .-.Bel-aha-u�ur (6 16* BC) 8. 1 .2. 1 , a, 5. (N)inurta-sarra-u�ur, creditor (sum not preserved, with 25% interest), 1 . Tan"ba-Is[sar?], s. of (E)n"bu'a, debtor. Witnesses: 2. Piitayu, 3. Uliilayu (Akk.­ WSem., recurrent), 4. Ahu?-tabu (damaged Akk.-WSem.). i. Postgate & Ismail n.d., 3 = Mattila 2002, 435. -.-.Samas-sarra-ibni, turtannu (61 2* BC; stating that the deed was written after the amnesty = duraru) Hallabese (recurrent), s. of Illaya, coppersmith (with a stamp seal), sold his female slave; 1 . pu-fu-sf-i-s[i-x-x] (Eg.), female slave of Hallabese, sold for 50 shekels of silver, with a fine of [ten] minas of silver and one mina of gold for Istar of Nineveh in case of contravention; 8. 1 .2. 1 , a, 5. (N)inurta-sarra-u�ur, son of the palace, bought 83

84 85 86

See R. Mattila, PNA 2, 602b, s.v. -, 26. See H .D. Baker, PNA 2, 870a, s. v. -, 1 3 . See D . A . Nevez, PNA 1 , 123b, s.v. - , 9 . See R. Jas, PNA 1 , 337a, s. v. Bel-u!?alli.

415

RAN ZADOK

a female slave. Witnesses: 8. 1 .2. 1 , d, 6. Pan-Issar-lamur (recurrent), 2. Abdi-Samsi (WSem.), foreman (saknu) of Halabese, presumably the foreman of the copper­ smiths, 3. Putu-Ese (Eg., recurrent), 4. Ahu' a-erTba, 8 . 1 .2. l , h, 3. Uliilayu (recurrent), 5. Dadu (Akk.-WSem.), 6. Remanni-Illil, 7. Bi 'isi'i (Eg.), 8. 1 .2.1 , a, 13. Samas-id­ dina (recurrent), 8. Ubru-Issar, 9. Mannu-ki-Ninua (Akk.-WSem.), 10. Samas-aha­ iddina (recurrent), and 1 1 . Nabu-nadin-ahhe, scribe. The seller's foreman, who acted as the second witness in order to indicate his consent to the sale, and at least the witnessing Egyptians belonged to the seller's circle, whereas the recurrent witnesses were part of the buyer's circle. j. Postgate & Ismail n.d., 10 = Mattila 2002, 436. 10.X.Mannu-ki-Arbail (sometime between 636 and 6 1 2 BC) 8. 1 .2. 1 , a, 5. (N)inurta-sarra-u!?ur, creditor: [x] homers and three seahs of barley, to be repaid at the threshing floor in Nineveh, in case of non-repayment it will increase by five seahs per homer (50%), l . Edu-sallim, s. of b/pu-u[r?-t]a?-a-a (apparently a gentilic), debtor, (transaction took place in) Nineveh. 87 Although none of the parties is Egyptian, half of the eight witnesses are such. Witnesses: 8. 1 .2. 1, a, 9. Urdu-(N)inurta, 8. 1 .2. 1 , a, 4. Puti-su (both recurrent), 2. Puti-Esu (Eg.) dNIN88, 3. Abi-Huru (Eg.-WSem.), 8 . 1 .2. 1 , a, 7. Hallabe[se] (recurrent), 4. Nabu-[ . . . ] (damaged Akk.-WSem.), 5. Vr[du?-x-x-x] (damaged Akk.), and 6. Nabu-sarra-u!?ur. k. Postgate & Ismail n.d., 24 = Mattila 2002, 450. Date lost 8. 1 .2. 1 , a, 5 . Nur?-sarra-[u!?ur], principal (court decision concerning adoption). l . x­ [x-t]i-in-ti (damaged), principal, 2. • ap'-ti-r[a?-x] (damaged), adopted by 3. Nabu­ mar-sarri-u!?ur. 89 The presence of an Egyptian among the witnesses may imply that the other party, whose name is damaged, was perhaps an Egyptian. Witnesses: 4. a­ x-[x]-ru (damaged), 8.1 .2. l , b, 4. Ahu-edi, 8. 1 .2.1, d, 6. Pan-Issar-lamur (both recur­ rent), 5 . Bel-salme-[x-x] (damaged Akk.), 6. Sa-la-ili-mannu, 8 . 1 .2. l , a, 4. Putu-Esi (recurrent), and 7. [x-x]-ili (damaged Akk.-WSem.), scribe. 8.1 .2.2 (N)inurta-sarra-u!?ur is not mentioned 8. 1.2.2. 1 Documents recording Egyptians90

a. Postgate & Is�ail n.d., 25 = Mattila 2002, 445. 2 1 .1.Bel-iqbi (621 * BC) Principals not preserved; concerning ten shekels of silver, to be paid in the centre of Nineveh in case of non-repayment on time. Witnesses (both recurrent): 8. 1.2. 1 , g, 2. Sarru-isse'a and 8. 1 .2. 1 , a, 4. Putise (Eg.). b. Postgate & Ismail n.d., 22 = Mattila 2002, 446. VII.Samas-sarra-ibni (6 12* BC) 1 . a-$e-e/', s. of [t]a-har-fi-se (Eg., the paternal name begins with the theophorous 87 See W. Pempe, PNA l , 394b, s.v. ~, 7. 88 This insertion is inexplicable; was it added in order to distinguish him from the preceding

witness as both names resemble each other? 89 See R. Mattila, PNA 2, 845b, s.v. ~, 2. 90 See Postgate & Ismail n.d., 4f. An Egyptian udjat-eye made of frit is archaeologically asso­ ciated with the (N)inurta-sarra-u�ur archive (see Pedersen & Troy 1 993). 416

ONOMASTICS AS A HISTORICAL SOURCE

element Ptah9 1 ), debtor (with a seal; IO+x shekels of silver, deadline not preserved; if he does not do the work, there will be [x]% interest; he has paid off a debt of seven shekels of silver according to the postscript;92 prob. = ~ witness in Postgate & Ismail n.d., 14. 2. a-['?-e? . . . ] (damaged), principal (creditor?). The principal and the only preserved witnesses are Egyptian. Witnesses: 3. [x-x-x] x-'x-x-x-x· (damaged), 4. Haqunise93 and 5. Si-Ese (both Eg.). c. Postgate & Ismail n.d., 23 = Mattila 2002, 449 - 14.VI.(eponym's name lost) 1 . bal-x[ . . . ] (damaged), apparently principal, 8 . 1 .2. 1 , a, 6. Kanfin[ayu] (recurrent), principal. 2. x-[x-x-x-x] (damaged), principal. Witnesses: 3. gu[r-. . . ], 4. x-[x-x-x-x], 5. x-[x-x-x-x] (all damaged), 6. Sam[as-sal]lim-ahhe (damaged Akk.), 8. 1 .2. 1 , a, 4. Puti-Esu (recurrent), and 7. Nargi (Akk.-WSem.). d. Postgate & Ismail n.d., 14 = Mattila 2002, 443 . Date lost. This is a case of endog­ amy between Egyptians. 8. 1 .2. 1 , a, 4. Puµi-Esi (recurrent), buyer of a woman for marriage for half a rnina of silver, 1 . Puµi-(me)hesi (Eg.), sold his daughter (2) as wife for Puµi-Esi;94 2. Al­ Hapi-mepi (Eg.)95 wife of Puµi-Esi. If the latter intends to divorce her, Al-hapi-Mepi will pay him ten shekels of silver in order to leave. It is stated that as long as Puµi­ Esi lives the woman with her sons will be given as votaries to !star of Arbela; 96 the foreman or company commander of Puµi-Esi or of Puµi-Mehesi are also mentioned in the clause (in broken context).- 8. 1.2.2.1 , 1. a-$e-e (recurrent), the only preserved witness. This is a case of endogamy among Egyptians. e. Postgate & Ismail n.d., 29 1 . Tubalat, 2. aNA Qumanu) in an inscription of Tu­ kulti-Ninurta I. Qumanu was a Hurrian speaking region like Subria. The royal name can render Akk. Abu-le according to Wilcke (2010, 415 ad 43 1 , 439, iii, 3), but the possibility that it is an interpretatio Akkadica of a foreign anthroponym by the As­ syrian scribe cannto be excluded, the more so since its bearer was not an Assyrian vassal. MA spellings quite often do not render geminate consonants. 1O.1 .3. Kum­ means These people originated from the vassal kingdom of Kumme. 397 Kummeans were deported to Gozan in Sargon Il's time. 398 They are recorded earlier in Assyria proper and later on the middle Euphrates (Hindiinu, see presently). Eleven individ­ uals named Kummayu (fem. Kummftu, originally a gentilic "Kummean") are rec­ orded outside Kumme (Calah: 3, Kapri-Ahu-bani: 1 , Assur: 3, Nineveh: 1, Arrapha: 1 , Hindiinu: 1 and one of unknown provenance) between 803 and 6 18* BC. 399 1 . Ku-ma?-a-a is one of nine or ten creditors of Sama[ . . . ] and Hanana, whose debts 388 389 390 39 1 392 393

Postgate 1 973, 78, 1 0'. Dalley & Postgate 1 984, 108A, I, 1 1 '. Dalley & Postgate 1 984, 90, 1 8 (see 1 54 ad loc.). See K. Raclner and R. Zadok, PNA 1 , 137a. Grayson 1 987, 126f., A.0.75.8, 9'. 10'. 14'.32. Postgate 1 973, 30, 2, 8, 14, see K. Fabritius, PNA 2, 475b. 394 Johns 1898-1901, 742 = Kataja & Whiting 1 995, 50, 32; see J. Llop, PNA 3, 101 8a. 395 ND 2496, r. l ; see M. Fitzgerald, PNA 1 , 120b, s.v. 396 Porten & Yardeni 1 989, B3.4, 4, 2 1 . He was the same individual (a Caspian) as Ynbwly (Porten And Yardeni 1989, B3. 12.4), presumably with a geminate consonant which has under­ gone a dissimilation. The comparison is based on the assumption that the Caspians, who dwelt north-east of the Zagros range, formed part of the Hurro-Urartian continuum. 397 See Parker 200 1 , 89-94, especially 91 with n. 395. 398 Parpola 1 987, 233; see Parker 200 1 , 91 with n. 398. 399 E. Cancik-Kirschbaum, PNA 2, 636f. 471

RAN ZADOK

are paid by the governor of Calah, 267.11.803 BC. 400 2. Ku-mi-tu4 (fem.) was one of eleven creditors from Calah, 26.1111 . 793 BC. 40 1 3. ·Ku-ma, -a-a, first witness (out of three) from Kapri-Ahu-bani, -.III.Bel-clan = 750/744/734 BC.402 4. Kummayu, royal eunuch (sa-resi), 4th witness out of 25, Assur, archive N 5, 6.1.708 BC.403 5. An absent dependent, Calah, datable to the 8th century BC.404 6. Ku-ma-· a'-a, owner ofa house in Nineveh, 22.V.687 BC.405 7. Kummayu; debtor (with an indis­ tinct seal impression on the envelope; creditor: Remanni-lssar). Nabu-tari� guaran­ tees for the repayment of the debt (one mina and six shekels of silver) within ten days (no interest is mentioned). Assur, archive N 28, 6.IV.672 BC. 406 8. Ku-ma-a­ a, 3 rd witness out of 22, Assur, archive N 32, 29.VII.655 BC.407 An individual from Hindanu (gent. [hi]-in-da-na-a-a) is mentioned on l .VIIl.637 BC. 408 9. 'A '-tu-u-ti (Aram. 'ti [ . . . ], perhaps mistake for 'tt)409 s. of Kummayu, seller of female slaves (with three stamp seal impressions. 10. 'Ku'-ma-a-a, witness, provenance unknown, 6 1 8* BC.4 1 0 1 1 . Ku-um-ma-a-a s. of [x-x-x-x] from Arrapha is mentioned in a land grant, datable to the time of Assurbanipal (668-63 1 BC).41 1 Livingstone412 cau­ tiously suggests that the name of the prince() ku-um-ma-a- may refer to Ashur­ banipal. The NA specimen name ubru(SUHUS)-URU.ku-um-me, "client ofK.",4 1 3 is of the type Ubru-GN like, e.g., Ubru-Kalhu4 1 4 and -Libbali.415 10. 1 .4 A bearer of undoubtedly Hurrian name Ku-u-a-ri from su-ni-ge-e1,4 16 no date but datable to the 8th century BC (mentioned together with Ahu-le 'i from Zaliqe).41 7 10. 1 .5 Bearers of non-hybrid Haldi names Haldi was a prominent god of the pantheon of Urartu and its neighbouring regions notably in Mu�a�ir southeast of it.4 1 8 Haldi-names are recorded as early as the MA 400

Postgate 1 973, 90, 6. Postgate 1 973, 93, 3; see E. Cancik-Kirschbaum, PNA 2, 637b. Deller & Fadhil 1 993, 1 8 = Ahmad & Postgate 2007, 33, 26. 403 Faist 2007, 32, r. 4'. 404 Postgate 1 973, 123, 5. 405 Johns 1 898-1901, 3,35 = Kohler & Ungnad 1913, 337 = Kwasman 1988, 93 = Kwasman & Parpola 1 99 1 , 1 54, b.e. 8. 406 Faist 2007, 68, 3; see E. Cancik-Kirschbaum, PNA 2, 637a, s.v. -, 7. 407 Faist 2007, 1 02, 19; see E. Cancik-Kirschbaum, PNA 2, 637a, s.v. -, 8. 408 See Radner 2002, 56. 409 See Rollig apud Radner 2002, 94. 41 0 RE 93, r.14, unpubl., see E. Cancik-Kirschbaum, PNA 2, 637a, s. v. - 12. 41 1 Kataja & Whiting 1 995, 50, 1 3 . 412 Livingstone 1 989, xx.viii ad 32, 27, 37, r. 1 . 41 3 See J . R. Novotny and S . Parpola, PNA 3, 1 365a. 414 See J. R. Novotny, PNA 3, 1365a. 415 See H.D. Baker, PNA 3, 1 365a. 416 Cf. Gelb et al. 1943, 89, 228b. 417 Postgate 1 973, 1 16, 3; see E. Cancik-Kirschbaum, PNA 2, 645b, s.v. 41 8 See Salvini 1 989, 79ff. 40 1 402

472

ONOMASTICS AS A HISTORICAL SOURCE

period.4 19 Their number increases in the NA record.420 All the names are with Akkadian predicative elements, except for 1 . Haldi­ taia42 1 (royal personal guard from Hubaba, 6th out of 19 witnesses, the first in the group of ten witnesses from Hubaba), 17.XI. $alam-sarri-iqbi = 630* BC (Kakkul­ lanu archive)422 and perhaps 2. ir-bi-hal-di. The latter, which was interpreted by Tallqvist ( 1 9 14, 1O2b) as "Great is Haldi", is unexplained according to G. Van Buylaere.423 It refers to a dependent individual from Irbu[ .. ], time ofTiglath-pileser III (744-727 BC, a fragmentary land grant).424 3. Hal-di-ia-a can be either purely Hurro-Urartian or with a Semitic hypocoristic suffix. It refers to an official, who occurs together with Issar-nadin-ahhe and another three men from B/Pusa and Hup[ . . . ] . They were under the authority of Nabu-sarra-u!iur (probably 8th century (Sargon II = 72 1-705 BC).425

10.2 Probably Hurro-Urartians 10.2.1 With Hurrian cognates I . Lu-up-si-a, Sibaniba, 83 1 or 8 1 5 BC (list of replacements,426 cf. URU.lu-up-sa, lup-su-a near Urartu and Habruri) on the one hand and Urart. lu-up-su-ia-ni427 on the other. 2. U-a-ru428 was taken a prisoner perhaps somewhere in the Zagros (time of Sargon II = 721-705 BC7).429 3. Kak-me is recorded in the administrative docu­ ment TH 68 (6) from the archive of Mannu-kI-Assur (end of the 9th-beginning of the 8th century BC). 4. Ar-bi-te-hi/e-rib-ta-ha, landowner near Hasanu, Kakkullanu archive, 1 3.XI.Sin-sarra-u!iur = 625*430-18.V.623*43 1 BC, witness for Kakkulla­ nu,432 cf. Hurr. arip, arpi-,433 but tehi434 is recorded only as an initial component435 (-ehi is common in Urartian names).436 5. U-a-r[i], 2nd out of at least eight in a fragmentary witness list (operative section illegible), 1 6.IF.- (said to be found in Nineveh/Kuyunjik).437 4 19

See Saporetti 1 970, 2,188. Cf. PNA 2, 441 -443. For the spellings see below, 1 0.3. 1 -2. 42 1 See Diakonoff apudMayrhofer 1 979, 22 ad 35. 422 Johns 1 898-1901 , 446 = Kohler and Ungnad 1913, 376 = Kwasman 1 988, 1 1 9 = Mattila 2002, 36, r. 1 5 , see A. Fuchs and R. Zadok, PNA 2, 442b. 423 PNA 2, 564a, s. v. 424 Kataja & Whiting 1 995, 1 5 , 2. 425 Johns 1 898-1901 , 899 = Fales & Postgate 1 995,1 33,i, 6. 426 Finkelstein 1953, 1 70, 72, 4, see A. Berlejung and R. Zadok, PNA 2, 667b, s. v. Lubsia. 427 Salvini 1 979, 1 18f., 1 , 3. 428 Cf. Sasson 1979, 65. 429 Saggs 1 974, 207a and pl. 34: ND 2477 = NL 98 7. 430 Johns 1 898-1901 , 414 = Kohler & Ungnad 1 9 1 3 , 210 = Postgate 1 976, 3 = Kwasman 1 988, 127 = Mattila 2002, 42, r.7, 1 0, I I . 431 Kwasman 1988, App. I = Mattila 2002, 44, r.1 1 . 432 See Ph. Talon, PNA I , 1 28b. 433 Gelb et al. 1 943, 204, 205a. 434 Gelb et al. 1943, 264a. 43 5 Sasson 1 974, 376; 1 979, 5 1 . 436 Cf. Konig 1967, 2 1 2, s.vv. 43 7 Johns 1 898-1901, 97 = Kohler & Ungnad 1 9 1 3, 663 = Mattila 2002, 234, r. 2. 420

473

RAN ZADOK

I 0.2.2 Probably Urartian 1 . Qa-pu-ri,438 2nd out of six witnesses, Assur, l 7.V.653 BC; Bel-suma-iskun and Nabii-musabsi vs. t:Banaya. 439 2. Ul-ka-a, owner of a garden in Irbu (adjacent to a vineyard where se-na-in-ni [below, 10.4, 7] served), 1 7.XI.Salam-sarri-iqbi = 630* BC (Kakkulliinu archive).440 It was cautiously etymologized as Old Iranian. 44 1 However, a homonymous individual is recorded in an Urartian document which was published four years later: ul-ka-a (ot) KUR.ar-ma442 (an abbreviated form of ArmarilF) from ca. 673 BC (or several decades later).

10. 3 Possibly Hurro- Urartians 10.3 . 1 With possible Hurro-Urartian anthroponyms (J, 2 are mentioned in documents which werefound in Tall Billa, ancient Sibaniba)

1 . ls-pi-u-ri-i, a mayor (haziinu) from Iagiriya, datable to the mid 9th century BC.443 2. is-pa-u-ri from Nahal-1;;arbite, 83 1 or 8 1 5 BC (list of replacements);444 Goetze 1 954, 79 suggested that both names are Anatolian, but they may be rather indige­ nous, cf. the toponym URU.is-pa-ri-ra (line 33). Individuals with non-Semitic names were indigenous to Sibaniba and its region, which were adjacent to the Hurro­ Urartian continuum.445 Jsp- may be compared with Urart. is-pi-li-u-qu (-li-u-qu is compared with a-bi-li-u-qu [( . . . )]446), is-pi-lip-ri (ispi=lipri), 447 and is-pi-li-ni as well as with is-pu-e-ni, "fortunate"7448). 3. Js-pa-su-al-di-i, royal intimate, 4th out of six preserved witnesses,presumably Nineveh, eponym: Bel-iqbi of Bet-Zamani = 62 1 * BC.449 For -al-di-i cf. MINA hal-de-e (later hal-di). For isp- cf. ad 1, 2 above.450 4. Ia-IA (Urart.7), servant of the chief eunuch from Til-(N)inurta, 742 BC (acted as a witness; all the other witnesses were also servants of the chief eunuch). He is homonymous with an Urartian royal name (alias of Rusa Ill, reign of Esar­ haddon).451 However, the commoner's name is atypical (with a reduplicated sylla­ ble) and as such cannot be assigned to any specific language.

438 See Zadok 1 995b, 433. 439 Fales 198�, 240f., 252: 9, r.7; see E. Cancik-Kirschbaum, PNA 3, 1007b. 440 Johns 1 898-1901 , 446 = Kohler & Ungnad 1913, 376 = Kwasman 1 988, 1 19 = Mattila 2002, 36, 5 . See Zadok 1 997, 2 1 3f. 442 Salvini 2001 , 284, CB AY-1 1 . 443 Finkelstein 1 953, 137, 69, 1 5 . 444 Finkelstein 1 953, 137f., 72; see G. van Buylaere, PNA 2, 586, s.vv. 445 For a restricted sample from 857-823 BC see Zadok 1995c, 256. 446 By Salvini 1 979, 1 19 ad 1 , 2. 447 Salvini 2001 , 281 , A, CB AY-1, 4. 448 H. D. Baker, PNA 2, 586b. 449 Johns 1 898-1901 , 48 1 = Kohler & Ungnad 19 13, 1 62 = Mattila 2002, 1 66, r. 7, see D. Schwemer, PNA 2, 466b, s. v. Hattusu; already suggested by Tallqvist 1914, 87b with a question mark. 45 Cf. also Zadok 1995b, 433. 451 See E. Frahm, PNA 2, 488a. 44 1

°

474

ONOMASTICS AS A HISTORICAL SOURCE

10.3.2 Bearers of Hybrid Haldi-names (the predicative elements are Akkadian, exceptfor no. 15 which has an Aramaic initial component).

Haldi-anthroponyms originated from the region northeast of Assyria proper, nota­ bly Mu�a�ir, a centre of the cult of this deity452 as well as the regions bordering on Assyria proper in the northeast (notably Urulli near Kipsuna and Bet-Zamani). Their presence in other parts of the Assyrian empire (mostly from Nineveh/Kuyun­ jik, five individuals, viz. -bel-[x], -ila 'i, from Calah and three from Assur) is pre­ sumably due to a later diffusion.453 Ofunknown location is the toponym Qarti-Haldi (qar-ti-hal-di, probably 8 th century BC).454 Judging by its Aramaic name Qarti­ Haldi may be sought somewhere in the Jazira (9 below is recorded in the same document). Only a quarter of the occurrences of this theophorous element (7 out of 28 ) are written with the divine determinative (the spelling dhal-di is indicated be­ low wherever it occurs). The spellings -al-de-e and -al-di-i in non-Semitic names (above, 10. 1 .5, 3 and below, 10.4, 1) are thought to render the same theophorous element. MA forerunners of hybrid Haldi-names are ki-din-dhal-di-a455 and $illi­ hal-de-e (both with Akkadian predicative elements).456 I . La-· qt·-a-a ("Laqean" if the reading is correct, cf. just below) s. of Ubru-Haldi (ub-ru-dhal-di) sold seven slaves to Nabu-tuklatiia, the palace scribe, Calah (fine to (N)inurta ofCalah in case of contravention), -.VII.[sometime between 800 and 765 BC],457 but the scribe was from Nineveh. The reading of the damaged sign of the seller's name may be supported by the occurrence of the Laqean Remiit-Issar as the 5 th witness (out of seven). It may be surmised that the father of the seller from Laqe originated from the northeastern section of the Assyrian empire or beyond it like 'a '-tu-u-ti s. of Kumayu who was based in Hindanu (above, 10. 1 .3, 9), which like neighbouring Laqe was situated on the Middle Euphrates, i.e. on the southern bor­ der of the Assyrian empire. Did they originate from deportees? For generally the deportations were from one extremity of the empire to the opposite one. 2. Haldi (dhal-di)-Remanni, Calah, scribe,458 14.1.744; 14.X.744 (40, 30; both from the archive of Nabu-dayyanu); 8.VIII. 744 (4 1 , 3 1) and 5.1.742 BC (42, 36; both from the archive of Re-zi-AN/il). 3. Haldi-ibni and 4. Haldi-na�ir, 2nd and 3 rd witnesses from Kapar-La-qepu, the vil­ lage where the sold property is located. It stands to reason that they belonged to the circle of the seller Parsidu (the name(s) of the buyer(s) is/are lost; altogether six out of the 12 witnesses of this deed originated from that village, which was located on the road to Kapar-rabuti and Kapar-[x-x]). The deed is said to be found in Nineveh (Kuyunjik), but except for the scribe, all the witnesses explicitly originated from the province; 15.XII.710 BC. 459 452

See Salvini 1989, 80ff. For geographical and chronological distribution see A. Fuchs, PNA l , 441 f. and cf. Zadok 1 995b, 436 as well as just below. 454 Johns 1 898-1901, 899 = Fales & Postgate 1 995,133, ii 1 7'. 455 Saporetti 1 970, 2, 1 88. 456 Salah 2014, 3 1, 9. 457 Ahmad & Postgate 2007, 1 1 , 2, 9. 45 8 Ahmad & Postgate 2007, 39, 24. 459 Johns 1 898-1901, 416 = Kohler & Ungnad 1913, 438 = Kwasman & Parpola 199 1 , 30, r.3'. 453

475

RAN ZADOK

5. Haldi-ila'i team commander of the high officials (under Nergal-sarra-u�ur), Ca­ lah, 7 1 0-708 BC.460 6. Haldi-na�ir, recruit (raksu), who was sent with a letter to the ruler of Biratu in Babylonia according to a letter sent from Assur to the capital, reign of Sargon II = 72 1-705 BC.46 1 7. Haldi-aba-u�ur from Bet-Zamani, held an arable field apparently together with his brother whose name is broken according to a report concerning the anachoresis of six men including H., reign of Sargon II (72 1- 705 BC).462 8. Haldi-bel, juxtaposed with another three individuals in an administrative text from Calah, 8th century BC.463 9. Haldi-eres from B/Puramma is recorded in a list of officials: together with Bar­ ziya he belonged to a group of five under the authority of Sulmu-sarri, probably 8th century (Sargon II = 72 1-705 BC).464 10. Haldi-aha-u�ur, intelligence officer, 7th witness out of 12 (the last in a quintet of members of the military establishment to which the 12th witness should be added). The deed is said to be found in Nineveh (Kuyunjik); the 10th witness is the mayor of Qudiiru, but it cannot be established to which circle the group of six or the mayor belonged; 1 8.-.696 BC.465 1 1 . Haldi-etir, weaver acting as the 15 th witness out of 1 8 (all the other artisans are listed before him, probably an indication that weavers generally formed a depend­ ent class) -.VIII. 695 BC.466 The deed is said to be found in Nineveh (Kuyunjik). The seller was presumably from Urakka or its region (the fine in case of contraven­ tion is to Adad ofUrakka). The buyer, Barsipitu, presumably was a prominent lady in the harem: the first group of witnesses consists of six eunuchs and another two recw: in the archive of the harem manageress Addati.467 12. 'Haldi'-[x-x], first out of two preserved witnesses, -.IV. 687 BC,468 poss. = Haldi-x-[x-x], seller of property (including a garden and female slaves), 17.-.679 BC469 (both said to be found in Nineveh [Kuyunjik]). 13. Haldi (dhal-di)-remanni, merchant or commercial agent (the transaction is pur­ chase of 20 slaves), Nineveh (archive of the menageress of the harem of the central city), 8th out of 1 5 preserved witnesses, time of Sennacherib.470 460

Dalley & Postgate 1984, 1 76. Parpola 1 987, 85, 6; cf. Harper 1 892-1914, 925, r.7. Lanfranchi & Parpola 1 990, 14, r.5 . 463 Parpola 1 973, 1 17, 1 . 464 Johns 1 898-1901, 899 = Fales & Postgate 1995,133, iii 1 0; see A . Fuchs, PNA 2 , 442a. 465 Johns 1 898-1901 , 241 = Kohler & Ungnad 1913, 73 = Kwasman 1 988, 84 = .Kwasman & Parpola 1 99 1 , 1 30, r.7. 466 Johns 1 898-1901, 244 = Kohler & Ungnad 1 91 3, 1 59 = Kwasman 1 988, 72 = Kwasman & Parpola 1 99 1 , 96, r. 14. 467 See Kwasman 1 988, 84 ad 72, 36f.; K. Radner, PNA 1, 5 1 a, s.v. 468 Johns 1 898-190 1 , 454 = Kohler & Ungnad 1913, 368 = Kwasman & Parpola 1991, 1 53, r. 1 . 469 Johns 1 898-1901, 462 = Kohler & Ungnad 1 9 13, 375 = Kwasman & Parpola 1991, 269, 9. 470 Johns 1 898-190 1 , 261 = Kohler & Ungnad 1 913, 87 = Postgate 1974, 140f. = Kwasman 1988, 414 = Kwasman & Parpola 1 99 1 , 86, r. 1 0. 46 1 462

476

ONOMASTICS AS A HISTORICAL SOURCE

14. Haldi-ila'i gardener, 6th witness out of nine, Urulli near Kipsuna22 (he belonged to the circle of the seller who was also a gardener), 28.11.680 BC471 (found in Nine­ veh/Kuyunjik because the buyer was from there). 1 5 . Aram. mrybld, "Haldi is my lord",472 7th preserved w. (out of at least nine) was possibly from Nineveh or its region, 1 8.XII.time of Esarhaddon (680-669 BC). 16. Hal-di-a-a was a gate keeper, 2nd (out of four) witnesses, Assur, archive N 12, l l .V.672 BC.473 17. Haldi-apla-iddina from Calah, probably time of Assurbanipal (668-63 1 BC), witness (dhal-di-A-AS, ND 5475/7, 5). He is mentioned together with Arzabiitu (poss. = ~ f. of Adi-ili-iqbuni from 634* BC).474 18. Haldi-remanni, Assur, witness, 625* BC.475 19. Haldi-da ' 'inanni (hal-DAN-a-ni/ha-al-DAN-an-ni, alternatively WSem. lljaldcm/ with a phonetic complement -alan-ni") s. ofMannu-ki-Assur, br. of Assur-diin and Assur-miita-taqqin (the archive owner), Assur, 20.XI.Nabu-sagi"b = 6 1 8* BC.476 20. Aram. 'bbldy ("Haldi is father", the predicative element is Akkadian­ West Semitic), 9th preserved witness out of 12,477 possibly from the late Sargonid period (region of Mardin7).478 2 1 . Hal--dun-419 is only optional; alternatively: ''the (divine) maternal uncle is my wall" (West Semitic).

10. 4 Perhaps Hurro- Urartians 1 . Pa-ar-ni-al-de-e, messenger, perhaps an Assyrian spy on the northeastern fron­ tier, time of Sargon II = 72 1-705 BC.480 2. K[e1-l]i"-a (cf. ke-li-ia)481 is mentioned in a document from Calah about guards of the wall with their families and livestock4 82 (date lost, datable to the reign of Sargon II = 721-705 BC).483 3. Ke-er-PI/wa/wi484 (perhaps Hurr.),485 military official, mentioned in a list of of­ ficials from Calah, possibly equerries, and equids (possibly 7 16 BC).486

Johns 1 898-190 1 , 360 = Kohler & Ungnad 1913, 373 = Postgate 1 973, 4 = Kwasman 1988, 1 52 = Kwasman & Parpola 1 99 1 ,201 , r.9. 472 See Kwasman 2000, 282 ad 13; Lemaire 2001 a, 24--32: 2, 13 (see 30 ad loc.). 473 D&P 36, r.2. 474 See A. Fuchs, PNA 2, 441 b. 475 Deller, Fales & Jakob-Rost 1 995, 1 3 1 , I.e. 2. 476 Ahmad 1 996, 274f., 288, 34 = Jas 1 996, 22, 7. 477 Lemaire 2001a, 49-53: 5, 1 0', see 52 ad loc. 478 See Lipinski 2002, 254f. 479 See A. Fuchs, PNA 2, 442a. 480 Saggs 2001 , 1 36-139 (see A. Bagg and R. Zadok, PNA 3, 989a). 481 Gelb et al. 1 943, 224f. 482 Parker 1 96 1 , 25f.: ND 2440, i, 8. 483 See A. Fuchs, PNA 2, 616a. 484 Verardi, PNA 2, 613b. 485 Cf. Gelb et al. 1 943, 226a, s.v. kerw (see Zadok 1 995b, 433). 486 See Dalley & Postgate 1 984, 224 ad 1 10, ii 6. 471

477

RAN ZADOK

4. Ta-u-a-ri, probably near Nineveh, 24.1.694 BC,487 cf. MA te-ia-u-ri s. of ur-se­ e-na-lu from Paranzi488 (cp. MB Nuzi tawarriwe, "red wool".489 The paternal n�e ends with -nalu (< GN Nal used as a theophorous element? ; geographical names, such as Kasyari and Nawar, were considered numina and are recorded as the­ ophorous elements).490 5. Ha-an-nu-u-si, 7th witness out of 1 1 , 5.11.year lost (archive of the manageress of Assur who was active in 650 BC);491 cf. GN ha-nu-sa (modem ijinis) and perhaps han, -usse.492 6. Ar-�lza-b/pu-tu, 1 1 th (last) witness in a ranked witnesses' list, Calah, 1 1 .-.Bullutu = 634* BC;493 ar-za-bu-tu acted as witness for Batun who adopted Samas-taqqi­

nanni, Calah, date lost.494 7. Se-na-in-ni (perhaps based on sen-, "brother")495 was a slave, probably from Irbu, 17.Xl.$almu-sarri-iqbi = 630* BC. He was purchased together with Kubabu-ila'i (and a vineyard) by Kakkullanu from Zeru-ukin s. of Bel-dii.ri.496 8. Tur�i-Issar s. of Ha-ru-u-i (the paternal name is defined as "unexpl.",497 but cf. perhaps Ha-ru, Ha-ru-ia),498 together with Amurri he borrowed silver from four men, in return to the silver they have to deliver grain from Hiptunu according to the exchange rate of the province of the Palace Herald (eponym: Nabu-farra-u�ur = 629 BC).499

9. 1-za-· at-di500 was a dependent individual (reign of Assur-etel-ilani). I. and his people were exempted from taxes according to a royal grant to a company com­ mander. 501 His name may be compared to Ugaritic izldn = RS i-za-al-da(-na), bin­ i-za-al-d[a-na] (not certainly Hurr.). 502 10. lr-hu-bal-[x],503 found in Dur-Katlimmu (not necessarily -Ii!, perhaps with Hurr. erh- and pa/ 504) is recorded in a witness list. The operative section and the date are lost.

487

Postgate 1 970, 1 3 lf. and pl. 19 after 1 64, 2 = Kwasman & Parpola 199 1 , 133, r. 1 1 , see above, D, I, 3. 488 Saporetti 1 970, 1 , 480. 489 von Soden 1 959-81, 1298a and Fincke 1 993, 284f., s.v. Tawar(we), [N. Vanderroost and] R. Zadok, PNA 3, 1321f. 490 See Wilhelm 1 998-2001 , 125. 491 Johns 1898-1901 , 209 = Kohler & Ungnad 1913, 521 = Mattila 2002, 14, r.1 3 (see 13). 492 Gelb et al. 1 943, 2 13b, 237b. 493 Johns 1 898-1901, 641 = Kohler & Ungnad 1 913, 44 = Kataja & Whiting 1 995, 93, r. 1 8. 494 ND 5480, r. 16, see K. Kessler, PNA 1, 135a, cf. Zadok 2002, 46, 3.10, c. 495 Gelb et al. 1 943, 255. 496 Johns 1 898-1901, 446 = Kohler & Ungnad 1 913, 376 = Kwasman 1 988, 1 1 9 = Mattila 2002, 36, 9, see H. D. Baker, PNA 3, 1 128b. 497 Cf. R. Mattila, PNA 2, 463a. 498 Gelb et al. 1 943, 2 14a. 499 Parker 1954, 45 and pl. 9 = Postgate 1976, 29, ND 2335, A, 3. 500 H. D. Baker, PNA 2, 590b. 501 Kataja & Whiting 1 995, 36, r.22. 502 Ugaritica 5, ii 43-13; cf. Grondahl 1 967, 227, 260f., 327b, 423. 503 Radner 2002, 1 52, r.7'. 504 Cf. Gelb et al. 1943, 210b, 242b. 478

ONOMASTICS AS A HISTORICAL SOURCE

1 1 . ls-pal-li-pi-re-e in a deed from the archive of the Ninevite Mannu-ki-Arbail (since he does not recur in this archive, he might have belonged to the circle of the other party, viz. is-pal-li-pi-re-e, which is alternatively read Pilaqqu-lipire505), 1 5.XI.679 BC. 506 12. Gi-lu-·1r s. of ha-la-'x-x'in a damaged and fragmentary letter5°7 is regarded as Hurrian508 (presumably rather Kassite, see below, 10. 7). 13. Bar-zu-ta-a, a palace servant, is recorded at Calah in the last quarter of the 8th century BC. 509

10. 5 Alternatively Hurro- Urartians 1 . Ar-ze-zu, company commander, first witness out of six,archive of the Ninevite Mannu-ki-Arbail, 15.XI.679 BC5 1 0 (with a homonymous toponym in Zamua); = ar­ ze-e-zu, witness, VIII.679/8 BC. 5 1 1 2 . Pa-ru-ta-a-ni s . of ar-ze-ez-zi, farmer (erresu) of the chief judge (sartennu, 4th witness), Bet-Hurapi, 12.VI.Musallim-Assur = 639* BC. 512 3. Ap-si-hu-te1, 9th witness out of 14, found in Calah (ZT 16), eponym: Bel-aha­ u�ur = 616* BC,5 1 3 cf. ips and -hut(a). 514 4. Tu-ki 5 1 5 is too short for an unambiguous linguistic classification. 5 16 5. Si-me-e-me s. of e-si-ip-pi-ni, debtor (644* or 629* BC), archive N3 l from Assur (see above, 8.3.2. 1, a). 5 17 The given name is perhaps Elamite, whereas the paternal name cannot be assigned to any known dialect.

10. 6 Appendix I: a rhotacised name The name u-ar-bi-is, which was borne by four individuals,5 1 8 has undergone a rho­ tacism in one case, viz. that of the 3 rd man (on the chariot, 669-663 BC): u-ar-bi­ si/u-a-ar-bi-is/u-bar-bi-is /u-bar-bi-si > u-ar-mi-ri. A later survival of u-a-ar-bi-is is LB u-mar-ri-bi-is (with anaptyxis). 519 sos Cf. R. Pruzsinszky, PNA 3, 994a. 506 Johns 1 898-1901, 1 50 = Kohler & Ungnad 1 913, 222 = Kwasman 1988, 1 55 = Kwasman & Parpola 1 99 1 , 206. 507 Saggs 1 956, 43 and pl. 9 after 56, ND 2665 = NL 27 = Luukko 201 2, 207, 1 5. Hala is a Kassite theophorous element. 508 See Saggs 1956, 44 ad /oc.; P. Lapinkivi, PNA 2, 423b, s.v. with previous lit. 509 See Zadok 1995b, 433. 5 1 0 Johns 1898-1901, 1 50 = Kohler & Ungnad 1 913, 222 = Kwasman 1 988, 155 = Kwasman & Parpola 1 99 1 , 206 (see K. Kessler, PNA 1 , 135b). 51 1 Johns 1 898-1901, 1 1 88 = Kwasman & Parpola 1 99 1 , 247, r.5. 5 12 Johns 1898-1901, 1 60 = Kohler & Ungnad 1913, 657 = Postgate 1 976, 43 = Kwasman 1 988, 205 = Jas 1 996, 14 = Mattila 2002, 104, r.4. 5 13 Parker 1 954, 39 and pl. 7, ND 2308, 29. 5 14 Gelb et al. 1943, 220a and 2 1 8b respectively. 515 Kwasman & Parpola 1990, 148. 5 16 Despite Zehnder 2005, 1 75. 517 Cf. Faist 2007, 144 ad 94, 3f., 7. 518 See M. Gross and R. Zadok, PNA 3, 1354. 5 19 Wunsch forthcoming, 56, 15. 479

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An inverted shift was recognized by Fales 1989 in the toponym la-ap-si-ia < al­ la-ab-ra-a near Nisibis, where the existence of a Hurrian toponymic substratum is arguable.

10. 7 Appendix II: Gilua Both gi-lu-u and gi-lu-u-a (NA) refer to Babylonians. 520 In NB/LB it is mainly a sumame521 and exceptionally a given name (gi-lu-u-a522) referring to an individual connected with Babylonian temples, presumably an urbanite Babylonian. Thirty six years ago, I presented the very meagre evidence for Hurro-Urartians in NB/LB. 523 No new material came to my attention since then. Gilua (surname and paternal name)524 is regarded as Hurrian. 525 It is also recorded as a given name, viz. gi-lu-u­ a s. of Suma-uk:In526 and gi-lu-u-a desc. of Paharu,527 who sold urban property to Marduk of the same clan (Babylon, 16.IX, early NB, probably 7th century BC). However, since there are hardly any NB/LB clans whose names are beyond doubt Hurrian, Gilua would be an isolated case. Therefore I suspect that it is equally pos­ sible if not preferrable (due to obvious historical circumstances) to regard Gilua as Kassite: Id/ is extant in the residual Kassite material. 528 Several surnames in first­ millennium Babylonia are indeed Kassite; on the whole the system of Babylonian surnames was crystallized during the first quarter of the first millennium BC, but its roots go back to the MB period, when the Kassites, who ruled Babylonia, were a prestigious group. Gi-lu-u-a f. of Marduk-suma-ibni, Babylon, -.-. 13 7 Nbk. II; 529 [Suzubu] s. of [g]i-lu-u-a desc. of Sin-sadu.nu (Babylon, -.X.29 Nbk. II = Jan.-Feb. 576 BC and Babylon, 1 1 .VI. 1 Nbn. = 5 Sept. 555 BC). 530 Gi-lu-u-a s. of ha-hu-ru is recorded in the Eanna archive from Uruk. 531 Sin-apla-IIsir desc. of gi-lu-u-a is recorded in an undated list of personal names, which was found at Ur. 532 Gi-lu-u-a recurs in two deeds from there dated from 27.XII.6 Npl. 533 and 21 .II.7 Npl. (first witness). 534

°

52

K. Akerman and P. Lapinkivi, PNA 1 , 423b, s. vv. Gilu, Giliia. Cf. Wunsch 200Q, 295a with refs. 522 Fales & Postgate 1 99�, 60, r.ii 2 15. 523 Zadok 1 979c, 169. 524 Cf. Tallqvist 1 905, 63a. 525 See P. Lapinkivi, PNA 2, 423b, s.v. with previous lit. 526 Keiser 1 917, 1 59, 16; Gehlken 1996, 167, 12, r.7' ['gi '-). 527 See Spar & von Dassow 2002, 269 ad 1 3 1 , 3', 10' (- ·tu- u -a), 1 9 (g[i-lu-u-a]). 528 Cf. Balkan 1 954, 160f. 529 Contenau 1927, 3 1 , 42. 530 Wunsch 2000, 82, 12 and 85, 20 respectively. For the clan (also lqisa s. of gi-lu-u-a desc. of Sin-sadilnu) see Wunsch 2000, 2, 106 ad foe. 531 Gehlken 1 990, 99, 7'. 532 Figulla 1 949, 1 56, 8. 533 Figulla 1 949, 195, 3. 534 Figulla 1 949, 83, 1 3 . 521

480

ONOMASTICS AS A HISTORICAL SOURCE

J 0. 8 Some conclusions Hurro-Urartians in Assyria were always part of the local scene in the northeastern part of Assyria proper, which belonged to the ancient Hurro-Urartian territorial and linguistic continuum. The adjacent buffer states (between Assyria and Urartu) were basically Hurrian and the northeastern part of Assyria had a sizable autochthonous Hurrian component. They are recorded in other regions of the Jazira since Tiglath­ pileser III' s time, presumably due to deportations. 535 The Hurrians, who were the second most important ethno-linguistic group in the Jazira (after the Semites) during the second millennium BC, almost disappeared from this region by the beginning of the first millennium BC. The diligent search conducted above demonstrates that they became a residual element in the core of the Assyrian empire. This sample of 77 individuals, who are regarded as Hurro­ Urartians with various degrees of plausibility (28 certain, seven probable, 25 pos­ sible and 17 questionable or open to alternative interpretation), were neither con­ centrated in a certain region nor formed a cohesive group. These 77 individuals are less than 0.4% of the general NA prosopographic pool of ca. 20,000 and were scat­ tered in no less than 17 locales throughout the Jazira and adjacent regions.

1 1 Peoples from the Iranian plateau The Harharean hu-ut-hu-ti-i owned a house in Assur in 698 BC according to a deed from the N28 archive. 536 He was a neighbour of the Hundurean537 Nab-0.-mudammiq (who perhaps held it together with his brother). Both groups (from Harhar and Hun­ dur in Media) were related, if not identical. Evidence for Manneans in Assur is very doubtful. 538 An interesting case is that ofUliilayu son of se- '-·x-x-x-x' from Harran in the northwestern Jazira who came to Assur in order to sell his infant slave bur­ nu-ka-a-a, a gentilic of b'ft-bu-ur-nak-ka539 on the Elamite border thousands of kil­ ometers southeast ofHarran. It is well known that slave sales were often conducted as long-distance trade. Evidence for Elamites and Iranians residing in Assyria and west of it is residual. Ap-li-ku (a prefect in the Ninevite court, late Sargonid ) is explicitly Elamite. 540 E­ ri-si, a messenger of the Elamite king, who is mentioned in a NB letter, was in­ volved in Babylonian politics. His name was considered Elamite541 just because it is homonymous with e-ri-is in a Neo-Elamite document from Susiana. The latter region had a population with a sizable Semitic admixture. It is very probable that both spellings render Erisu, an Akkadian name common in first-millennium Meso­ potamia. An Elamite derivation is unlikely. For a hypothetical Elamite see above, 8.3.2. 1 , a, 220. A field of the Elamites is recorded in the settlement of ma-ag-da-lu = Aram. 535 536

Cf. Oded 1 979, passim. Faist 2007, 73, 7. 537 For the Hundureans in Assur, who became a professional group, see Fales 1 997, 35-39. 538 Cf. Hauser 201 2, 3 88. 539 ABL 1007, r. 1 9, see Faist 2007, 1 14 ad 72, 1-5 (the deed, whose date is lost, belongs to the N28 archive where all the dated documents are from the 7th century BC). 540 Cf. M. Fitzgerald, PNA l , 1 19b. 541 By E. Frahm, PNA 1 , 403f., s. v. Eris. 481

RAN ZADOK

mgd/542 on the Habur, indicating for us their ethnic cohesion. Indeed, it should be remembered that the Elamites were deported to this region in all probability just one generation prior to this deed, i.e. , after the ephemeral Assyrian conquest of Elam in the late 640s BC. In view of the rich NA documentation about Egyptian exiles, one would expect to find substantial evidence for Elamite deportees in As­ syria, the more so due to the fact that they belonged to one of the latest waves of deportees. However, very few Elamites are recorded in NA documents. It should be remembered that some Elamites from Susiana originally bore Semitic names or were given Assyrian names by their captors ( cf. Faist 2009). It may be argued that since they were brought to Assyria during the last generation of the existence of the Assyrian empire (one generation after the Egyptian deportees), they have not yet integrated into the Assyrian socioeconomic fabric and therefore left very few traces in the NA record.

12 Concluding statement Despite the massive waves of foreign deportees the ethno-linguistic composition of Assyria proper was not radically changed. Most individuals recorded in the rich Neo-Assyrian prosopographic sample bore Akkadian names. Their theophorous an­ throponyms contain Assyro-Babylonian deities. Cases of several waves of depor­ tees in the late Sargonid period, shortly before the demise of the empire are exam­ ined in context. The thorough archival reconstruction and ensuing analysis which were undertaken above are prerequisites for understanding the context. The rich and compact documentation on the Egyptians, who were deported to Assyria proper just two generations before the demise of the Assyrian empire, is compared with the NA evidence concerning other groups of deportees from the Sargonid period. It was demonstrated that despite of the fact that the Elamites were deported to the Jazira even one generation later than the Egyptians, they left almost no trace in the late Assyrian prosopographic documentation. Other interesting cases are the near disappearance of the Hurrians from the Jazira during the first millennium BC and the possibility to compare the arbitrary sample of Israelites-Judeans from Sargonid Assyria with the nearly contemporaneous prosopographic documentation from Is­ rael and Judah. The paper as a whole advocates a comprehensive treatment of each ethno-linguistic group which is recorded in the rich and variegated NA material. The very heterogel}ous NA onomasticon is the result of the vast geographical ex­ pansion of the Assyrian empire and the mass deportations. One of the many desid­ erata is to arrange the hitherto unexplained names according to purely formal crite­ ria.

482

542 Radner 2002, 39, 7; 40, 10. This settlement is not necessarily identical with Diir-K.atlimmu (see Lipinski 2006, 214 with n. 46).

ONOMASTICS AS A HISTORICAL SOURCE

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