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Fragments of Historical Texts from Nineveh: Ashurbanipal

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

A. R. Millard
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Extract

Many important texts from the last series of British Museum excavations at Nineveh were made available in R. Campbell Thompson's paper ‘A Selection from the Cuneiform Historical Texts from Nineveh (1927–32)’, published in Iraq 7 (1940). Mention is made therein of other fragments, said to be mosdy ‘well-known duplicates’. However, among these unedited pieces have been found a number that are worthy of publication as they usefully augment the repertory of Assyrian historical sources. They have been identified during the compilation of a supplementary catalogue of texts from Nineveh on behalf of the Trustees of the British Museum. Thanks are due to the Trustees and to the Keeper of the Department of Western Asiatic Antiquities for permission to publish these manuscripts.

The majority of the pieces in the collection are from the reign of Ashurbanipal, so they are presented here as a homogeneous group. It is hoped to make the other texts known in due course. Although the Annals of Ashurbanipal are familiar, several Editions are so poorly preserved that any new material is welcome, and these texts, together with those from Nimrud studied by E. E. Knudsen, and the promised edition of the Chicago collection by H. Tadmor, will prepare the way for a complete reconstruction of some of them. In this situation, the present study attempts to introduce the new evidence in the context of the previously available texts.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 30 , Issue 1 , Spring 1968 , pp. 98 - 114
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1968

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References

1 Iraq 29 (1967) pp. 49–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 Following Tadmor, H.Proceedings of the 25th International Congress of Orientalists (Moscow) I (1962) p. 240.Google Scholar

3 For previous studies see Bauer, T.Das Inschriftenwerk Assurbanipals (1953)Google Scholar; Piepkorn, A. C.Historical Prism Inscriptions of Ashurbanipal (1933)Google Scholar; Aynard, J-M.Le Prisme du Louvre AO 19.939 (1957).Google Scholar

4 Edited together by Piepkorn pp. 8–17.

5 Iraq 7 (1940) nos. 20, 21, 23Google Scholar; OLZ 51 (1956) col. 332Google Scholar; BO 16 (1959) 138Google Scholar; T. Bauer Pl. 62; cf. R. Borger, loc. cit.

6 Cf. J-M. Aynard p. 18 n. 9.

7 Esaihaddon's titulary, Borger, R.Die Inschriften Asarhaddons (1956) pp. 11, 32 ff.Google Scholar

8 K 1828 lacks line 4; in line 5 presumably read [-r]e-e-a for šu e a read by Bauer and Piepkorn.

9 BM 121018 [iḫ-ṭu-]ú ina lìb-bi.

10 BM 128230 apparently l[e-mut-tim].

11 ‘Large Egyptian Tablets’ are damaged, but appear to diverge slightly, cf. Bauer p. 33 n. 3.

12 Contrast Hartman, L. F., JNES 21 (1962) p. 25.Google Scholar

13 Op. cit. p. 95.

14 Ibid. pp. 90–93.

15 Ibid. p. 101.

16 A 8006, 8007, P 5, omit 71–73.

17 BM 127916 tim-me-šú.

18 Cf. Edition T vi 28 (Piepkorn p. 87 n. 45); BM 127867 has TUR.TUR.TUR.TUR, which, while identically written with the four generations through which Nabonidus' mother lived (AnSt 8 (1968) p. 50, line 33Google Scholar), may be taken as a scribal error for plural writings, as found in Editions B and T.

19 BM 134464 mu-sar-u[ši-ṭir šu-me m]daššur-aḫ-iddina šar mātaššur KI [abi ba-n]i-ia.

20 BM 134464 mu-šá-re-e (also in 92, 93) … šu-me-ia.

21 A 7938, BM 134464 ki-ma.

22 BM 134464 šu-me-ka.

23 So read, rather than Piepkorn's li-[im-gu]-ru.

24 K 1741 šu-me.

25 BM 134464 [m]u-šá-ru-u ši-ṭir šu-me abi ba-ni-ia [u]ši-ṭir šu-me-ia ib-ba-tú.

26 BM 134464 mu-sar-e … šu-me-šú.

27 BM 134464 omits this phrase.

28 BM 134464 lu-ḫal-li-qu.

29 K 1741 araḫdu'ūzi, no day.

30 BM 134464 ‘Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, my father’, in place of Sennacherib.

31 BM 134464 ‘with the name of my father, and my name’.

32 Iraq 7 (1940) no. 34, BM 134436Google Scholar; cf. Borger, R.Asarhaddon p. 106.Google Scholar

33 Op. cit. pp. 4–6, n. 17.

34 Op. cit. p. 66, n. 1.

35 Op. cit. p. 28.

36 Iraq 7 (1940) no. 35 (BM 121027)Google Scholar; Proceedings … 240, where the Chicago piece A 8105 is added, previously mentioned by Piepkorn, p. 4 n. 16, as being in Babylonian script.

37 Sollberger, E., JCS 11 (1957) p. 62Google Scholar; Borger, R., AfO 19 (1960) p. 153.Google Scholar

38 Thompson, R. Campbell, AAA 20 (1933) pp. 79–109, pls. LXXX–XCVII.Google Scholar

39 Op. cit. p. 31, pl. 62.

40 Cf. Borger, R., Asarhaddon p. 92, K 2388, line 4Google Scholar, JCS 19 (1965) p. 77Google Scholar Sin-šar-iškun, Cylinder B line 18.

41 Cf. Luckenbill, D. D., The Annals of Sennacherib (1924) p. 85, H.4, line 3.Google Scholar

42 BM 83–1–18,600 dš[am]aš daš[šur(?)].

43 Cf. Borger, R., Asarhaddon p. 42, line 39.Google Scholar

44 Cf. Landsberger, B., Brief des Bischofs von Esagila an König Asarhaddon (1965) p. 26Google Scholar; Knudsen, E. E., Iraq 29 (1967) p. 52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

45 Bauer p. 18 and ND 4306, Iraq 29 (1967) p. 65, pl. XIVGoogle Scholar (the equation of ND 4306 with Edition B vi 17–25 should be altered to Edition A v 63 ff.).

46 For the rendering of zer ḫalgatē as ‘nomad’ see AHw p. 313 b. On the Scythian relation see Tadmor, H.Proceedings … p. 241Google Scholar and van Loon, M. N., Urartian Art (1966) p. 21, n. 95.Google Scholar

47 So IT 158; BM 123410 x-ib-kat(?).

48 Cf. Borger, R.JCS 18 (1964) p. 52b.Google Scholar

49 AAA 20 (1933) pp. 108–109.Google Scholar

50 Cf. Piepkorn p. 31 nn. 10, 11, and Iraq 7 (1940) p. 98, IM 11528.Google Scholar

51 Column ii′ i′ could be read me-ri-[sin-ni].

52 Iraq 7 (1940) no. 33.Google Scholar

53 Falkner, M.AfO 17 (1954–1956) pp. 100–120.Google Scholar

54 Bauer p. 48.