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A Stela of Adad-Nirari III and Nergal-Ereš from Tell al Rimah

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

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Extract

A Stela of Adad-nirari III was found during the eventful season of Spring 1967 at Tell al Rimah. It stood in position inside the cella of a Late Assyrian shrine, set beside the podium, a placing that is unparalleled among the find spots of other royal stelae. It was inscribed on the face with twenty-one lines, of which nine had been deliberately erased in antiquity; the writing ran across the skirt of the king, who was sculptured upon it slightly less than life-size, but not over the frame or sides of the stone (see Plate XXXVIII). The stela is 1·30 m. high and measures 0·69 m. in width at the base; it is parabolic in shape. It is made from a single slab of hard grey, crystalline “Mosul marble”, in an excellent state of preservation. No traces of paint were visible on the surface as it was unearthed.


Information

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 30 , Issue 2 , Autumn 1968 , pp. 139 - 153
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1968

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References

1

1 The stela of Esarhaddon at Zincirli stood in the city gate (Von Luschan, F., Ausgrabungen in Sendscherli, I, p. 11).Google Scholar The monolith of Aššur-naṣir-pal II stood in a corridor in the N.W. palace at Nimrud (Oates, D., Iraq 14 (1952), 24).Google Scholar A stela of Aššur-naṣir-pal II stood at the entrance to the Ninurta temple at Nimrud (Layard, A. H., Nineveh and Babylon, 351Google Scholar and Gadd, C. J., Stones of Assyria p. 129).Google Scholar Most other stelae have been found out of context, or excavated in such a way that the context was obscure.

2

2 am grateful to Professor D. J. Wiseman, Mr. David Oates and Professor R. Ellis for their help with this article.

3

3 Unger, E., “Reliefstele Adadniraris III aus Saba'a und Semiramis,” PKOM 2 (1916).Google Scholar

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4 IR.35.1 and Schrader, E., KB, 190.Google Scholar

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5 IR.35.3 and KB, 188.

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6 IR.35.2 and KB, 192.

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7 BM.131124 to be published by A. R. Millard and H. Tadmor with a photograph.

8

8 Rassam, H., Asshur and the land of Nimrod, p. 313.Google Scholar

9

9 BM.115020. It measures approximately 10 × 8 inches. See also n. 58.

10

10 Herodotus, History Bk. 1 § 814.Google Scholar

11

11 RLA sub Eponymen.

12

12 CT 34, pl. 41.

13

13 BM.118884.

14

14 BM.118892.

15

15 The Kurkh monolith (plate I in: Assyrian Sculptures in the British Museum from Shalmaneser III to Sennacherib) and the stela from the Ninurta temple at Nimrud (see note 1).

16

16 See note 7.

17

17 The triple lightening on the Arban stela stands on a pedestal that is stepped on both sides, as are the pedestals for the emblems of Nabû and Marduk on the stela of Bēl-harran-bēl-uṣur.

18

18 See note 14.

19

19 Buren, E. D. Van, Symbols of the Gods, 113.Google Scholar

20

20 Cf. the belts of officials on the Carchemish reliefs; for a good photograph see E. Akurgal, The Art of the Hittites, pl. 119.

21

21 I am most grateful to Christopher J. Dalley for taking excellent photographs of the erased inscription, which were of great help in reconstructing the text. A series is shown on Plates XL-XLI.

22

22 Unger, M. F., Israel and the Aramaeans of Damascus, 61 and 64.Google Scholar

23

23 Soden, W. Von, Das Akkadische Syllabar, Acta Orientalia 27 (1948), 77.Google Scholar

24

24 Balkan, K., Letter of King Anum-ḫirbi of Mama to Warshama of Kanish, 35.Google Scholar

25

25 RLA II, 420422.Google Scholar

26

26 Saba'a stela line 11: ina MU.5.KAM ina kussî šarrūti rabiš ušibu-ma. I take rabiš as meaning “as full regent” or “as one who is of age” with E. Unger, against A. Poebel's almost meaningless “majestically” in JNES 2 (1943), 82Google Scholar, since the year stated in the Rimah text confirms Unger's argument.

27

27 See Poebel, A., JNES 2 (1943) for exact dating of this reign and its eponyms.Google Scholar

28

28 RLA II, p. 428 ff.Google Scholar

29

29 Unger, E., PKOM 2 (1916), 17.Google Scholar

30

30 Poebel, A., JNES 2 (1943), 8284.Google Scholar

31

31 II Kings 3.1.

32

32 II Kings 10.36.

33

33 II Kings 13. 1.

34

34 Theile, E. R., JNES 3 (1944), 152.Google Scholar

35

35 See also H. Tadmor, JCS 12 (1958), 3940.Google Scholar

36

36 Thureau-Dangin, F., Arslan Tash, 135138.Google Scholar

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37 II Kings 13.22.

38

38 Int. Crit. Comm. sub voce.

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39 II Kings 13.25.

40

40 Pognon, H., Inscriptions.… de Mossaul, 178.Google Scholar

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41 Unger, E., PKOM 2 (1916), 27.Google Scholar

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42 Forrer, E., Provinzeinteilung der Assyrisches Reich, pp. 1315.Google Scholar

43

43 Stephens, F., JCS 7 (1953), 73 ff.Google Scholar and Bottéro, J., Semitica 1 (1948), 2532.Google Scholar

44

44 Erroneously identified by E. Forrer, op. cit., 14. Both Apku and Mare are governed by Nergal-ereš according to the Saba'a stela, line 23.

45

45 Parrot, A., Syria 16 (1935), 10.Google Scholar

46

46 The contexts are all fragmentary in Harper 813 and 814, and on the unpublished tablet K.1928. I am grateful to Dr. R. D. Barnett of the British Museum for allowing me to look at the latter.

47

47 Unger, E., Die Stele lies Bēl-harran-bēl-usur …, PKOM 3 (1917), 5.Google Scholar

48

48 Thureau-Dangin, F. and Dunand, M., Til Barsip, 141151.Google Scholar

49

49 Weissbach, F. H., Babylonische Miscellen, WVDOG, 4 (1903).Google Scholar

50

50 E.g. LAR I §484.Google Scholar Aššur-naṣir-pal depopulated the areas that later became Rasappa province.

51

51 Gadd, C. J., The Harran inscriptions of Nabonidus, AS 8 (1958), 3592.Google Scholar

52

52 Nabonidus Chronicle col. II lines 14–15: ina matAkkadiKi bikītu ina muḫḫi ummi šarri šitkunat, showing that the death of the queen mother was an occasion for national mourning fit for mention by a chronicler.

53

53 LAR I §584588.Google Scholar

54

54 LAR I §717.Google Scholar

55

55 See note 48.

56

56 J. Kohler and A. Ungnad, Assyrische Rechtsurkunden no. 3 = ADD. no. 803 and 399.

57

57 The text TR.4001 cannot be connected definitely with Nergal-ereš. The name dšulmanu-ašarid in line II is possibly to be restored; very little is legible except ālZa-ma-ḫi in line 5 and ālNi-mit-15) in line 13. See Iraq 30 (1968), 87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

58

58 LAAA 20 (1933), 113.Google Scholar

19

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A Stela of Adad-Nirari III and Nergal-Ereš from Tell al Rimah

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