Part 5 (40-49)

040   041   042   043   044-047   044   045   046   047   048   049  

040 [/rinap/rinap2/Q006521/]

Two lines were copied by P.E. Botta immediately after a section of Sargon's Annals coming from an unknown room of the palace (Botta, Monument de Ninive 4 pl. 163 and Winckler, Sar. 2 pl. 26 no. 55; see the commentary to text no. 6). J. Renger, however, identified these lines as an epigraph (see Borger, HKL 2 p. 322 sub Winckler, Sargon n55). Neither the original placement of the slab nor anything about what the relief on the slab depicted are known. A. Fuchs suggests that the slab may have come from the throne room of the palace (Khorsabad p. 279). For bibliography on the epigraph, see the introduction to text nos. 23–40. The transliteration is based on Botta's copy.

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041 [/rinap/rinap2/Q006522/]

An inscription on the back of a large number of the stone slabs and a few winged bulls from Khorsabad records the building of that city, and in particular its palace, by Sargon II. The text is less carefully inscribed than those texts found on the front of the slabs and winged bulls and mistakes and abnormal sign forms are often encountered. Since Sargon is not given the titles "governor of Babylon" and "king of the land of Sumer and Akkad," it is likely that the inscription was composed before his defeat of Marduk-apla-iddina II and his assumption of the throne of Babylon in his twelfth year (710). The inscriptions on the front of the pieces often refer to Sargon's defeat of Marduk-apla-iddina II. Thus, J.M. Russell has suggested that while the reverses of the slabs were inscribed and placed against the palace walls before the ruler's twelfth year, the texts on their fronts were inscribed after the twelfth year (J.M. Russell, Writing on the Wall p. 103). Because museums have generally placed these reliefs against walls, it has not been possible to collate many exemplars of this inscription from the originals. When the Louvre recently rearranged its Near Eastern galleries, photographs of the inscriptions on the backs of the reliefs were made and these have been kindly made available to the author by B. André-Salvini. For a study of this inscription and how it was written, see André-Salvini in Caubet, Khorsabad pp. 15–45, and note also J.M. Russell, Writing on the Wall pp. 101–103 for the general context of the inscription.

Access the composite text [/rinap/rinap2/Q006522/] or the score [/rinap/scores/Q006522/score] of Sargon II 041

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Commentary

Exs. 5, 18, and 21 are found on the backs of winged bull colossi; all the remaining exemplars are from the backs of wall slabs. The provenances given for exs. 1–9 and 11–17 are those stated by P.E. Botta in Monument de Ninive 4. There is some question, however, about the accuracy of the statements for exs. 6 and 14 and thus their identification with pieces in the Louvre; see below.

With regard to exs. 1–17 and 21–37 in the above catalogue, "p" indicates that the exemplar was collated by means of either photographs of the inscription made when the relevant wall slab was moved for relocation in the Louvre, photographs of squeezes of the inscription, photographs of casts of the inscription, examination of casts of the inscription, or (most commonly) by a combination of these methods.

Ex. 1: AO 19862 has been collated from photographs of the original and from casts in the Louvre. The piece is now broken in two and most of line 26 is no longer preserved; in the score Botta's copy has been followed for the missing section.

Exs. 5, 9, 14, and 21: The squeezes of these exemplars have been examined by means of photographs. Regrettably, the squeezes are often damaged or indicate damage to the original in the places where Botta's copies have abnormal sign forms. The squeeze in the Louvre identified as being Botta, Monument de Ninive 3 pl. 51^c — part of text no. 9 on k,1 (AO 19858) — is actually of the inscription on the back of k,1 (ex. 21).

Exs. 6 and 14: According to Botta, Monument de Ninive 3 p. III and 4 pls. 169 and 177^c (exs. 6 and 14 respectively), the two exemplars of the inscription copied on those plates were found on the backs of Façade L slabs 26 (=AO 19881) and 12 (=AO 19773-19874) respectively. However, Botta's copies do not match the inscriptions actually found on the backs of those two slabs (see also André-Salvini in Caubet, Khorsabad pp. 22 and 29 nn. 14–15). The transliterations for these exemplars are based on Botta's copies.

Ex. 7: AO 19887 is made up of one complete wall slab (Room X, slab 6) and part of an adjoining wall slab (Room X, slab 7). Each is inscribed and each is listed separately above (exs. 7 and 36 respectively). The inscription on the back of Room X, slab 6 was copied and published by Botta as being on slab 8 (Botta, Monument de Ninive 4 pl. 170). Note that Flandin's original drawing misnumbered the reliefs for slabs 6–7 as being on slabs 5–6; see Albenda, Palace of Sargon p. 162. It is not clear to which slab de Longpérier, Notice³ no. 616 belongs; he seems to indicate that it should be AO 19887, but he says the inscription is on twenty-two lines.

Exs. 8 and 46: Although ex. 8 is said by Botta to come from the back of Façade n, slab 37, and ex. 46 comes from Façade n, slab 36 (= Court VIII, slab 24), comparison of their variants and line arrangement might suggest that they are the same text. The differences noted may simply be the result of miscopying by Botta, but because of these, the two have been kept separate here.

Ex. 10: Botta made a squeeze of the text of Monument de Ninive 4 pl. 173^c, but it is no longer extant. Only the right half of ex. 10 as shown on Botta's copy can be checked by means of casts or photographs of the original. For the provenance of ex. 10, see Albenda, Palace of Sargon p. 160.

Exs. 11 and 44: Although ex. 11 is reported to come from the back of Façade n, slab 34 on Botta, Monument de Ninive 4 pl. 174, and ex. 44 is said to be on the back of Façade n, slab 33 (the front being depicted on Monument de Ninive 1 pl. 30), it is likely that they represent the same exemplar. The line arrangement is the same on both pieces and both have a number of otherwise unique variants (e.g., omitting šá ^dé-a ^dbe-let-DINGIR.MEŠ, "that the god Ea (and) the goddess Bēlet-ilī" in line 14; a ŠI lacking the horizontal wedge in line 27 a-ši-bu-ut; and ana for a-na in line 28). The differences noted between the two may be due to inaccurate copying by Botta. Nevertheless, because of these differences, the two have been kept separate here.

Ex. 18: The inscription on the back of the winged bull colossus A 7369 in the Oriental Institute (Chicago) was collated from photos supplied by J. Renger and by photos of the lower section of the inscription taken by the author. Due to the location of the bull close to the wall of the gallery, it is possible to see only a small part of the inscription clearly.

Ex. 19: C.B.F. Walker kindly supplied a photograph of, and information on, BM 118835A. Since there is a blank space below line 21 on this exemplar, the inscription presumably continued onto the back of another slab or was in a second column.

Ex. 20: According to Botta (JA 4/3 [1844] p. 102 [pl. XXII = Monument de Ninive 1 pl. 12]), the text of ex. 20 is found on the back of Façade L, slab 12 (ex. 14). The copy of ex. 20 (ibid. pl. XXXI no. 2; see also Institut de France Botta-Cotta II 2976 folio I sheet 310), however, cannot be identified with the copy of ex. 14 (Monument de Ninive 4 pl. 177^c). Thus, either Façade L, slab 12 had the inscription twice, or one of the provenances is incorrect.

Ex. 24: The back of AO 119869 is damaged and smeared with (modern) plaster, making it impossible to read the inscription located there.

Ex. 25: A section running across the middle of slab AO 19870 has been removed at some point. The missing section contained parts of master lines 18–19.

Exs. 32, 34, and 35: The inscriptions on the backs of these exemplars are upside down in relation to the inscriptions and reliefs on the fronts of those slabs. This would indicate that the inscriptions on the backs had been incised off-site, before the slabs were positioned in the palace, and that the material on the fronts was carved after the slabs had been put in place. See also André-Salvini in Caubet, Khorsabad pp. 22–24.

Exs. 39–47: Information on these exemplars and photographs of some of them were kindly supplied by J.A. Brinkman and K. Neumann. Brinkman also provided the author with his own transliterations of exs. 39, 41–43, and 45 and has allowed him to use them here. Only parts of the inscription on ex. 47 are visible on the photos and thus the edition of this exemplar must be considered incomplete and preliminary.

Exs. 48 and 49: These inscriptions were found on stone fragments discovered at Khorsabad by Botta and are edited from copies made by him and preserved in the Institut de France (Botta-Cotta II 2976 folio I sheet 316). He proposes that they come from the same inscription. While this is certainly possible, it has been thought best to edit them separately here. It is possible that they are to be identified with two of the other exemplars about which nothing is known.

Faint illegible traces of additional lines are sometimes visible immediately before the lines indicated in the catalogue. For example, about 8 and 2–3 additional lines are found on exs. 25 and 37 respectively.

In the edition presented below, the arrangement of lines follows ex. 5, but the master line itself is a conflation from several exemplars. The exemplars often exhibit a mixture of sign forms (Babylonian, Assyrian, and archaizing) within the same exemplar and sometimes within the same line.

This inscription is often written very poorly, with numerous signs, and at times words, omitted, or not fully carved, with the lines at times quite slanted, and with numerous mistakes or incorrect sign forms (e.g., KID for É, I-ZA for IA, DIŠ for LIŠ, and ŠÚ for ŠI). Based upon an examination of photographs and/or casts and/or squeezes of the original inscriptions on exs. 1, 5, 7, 9–10, and 14, it is clear that many, but not all, of the abnormal/incorrect sign forms in Botta's copies in Monument de Ninive do not represent what is on the originals. It would be of little value to indicate in the on-page notes every instance when an exemplar omitted a word or had an unimportant difference (e.g, ex. 28 omitting dan-nu "strong" in line 1; ex. 3 omitting MAN "king" before KUR aš-šur.KI in line 1; and ex. 34 having a-na for i-na in line 26) and thus these are normally found in the list of minor variants at the back of the book. It would also be of little value to indicate all abnormal sign forms (particularly when many are only known from Botta's copies and cannot be confirmed by examination of the original) or cases of abnormal sign forms in Botta's copies that can be seen to have the correct form from the squeezes or originals; for these, see the scores on Oracc where these are indicated. The casts sometimes show more than is currently preserved on the originals and sometimes the casts and/or squeezes represent only a portion of the inscription copied by Botta.

Several wall slabs (exs. 1*–12*) and at least one winged bull (ex. 13*) preserved in the Oriental Institute (Chicago) or Iraq Museum (Baghdad) have inscriptions on their backs, although this is rarely, if ever, noted in publications. The chart of likely additional exemplars above lists the relevant pieces known to the author to have inscriptions on their backs although it has not been possible to see them or provide information on the individual inscriptions.

The information on the pieces in Chicago (including both exs. 39–47 and exs. 1*–2*) was kindly supplied by J.A. Brinkman. He notes, however, that while this list includes all the major pieces with inscriptions on their backs in the Oriental Institute, it may not include all the small fragments. The list of the pieces in the Iraq Museum (exs. 3*–13*) is also unlikely to be complete and is based upon a quick personal examination of some of the pieces on display in that museum. It has not been possible to examine the pieces in the Oriental Institute or to transliterate those in the Iraq Museum in order to ascertain whether or not the inscriptions found on their backs are duplicates of this text. For general information on these pieces and their findspots, see Albenda, Palace of Sargon pp. 171–180.

Bibliography

042 [/rinap/rinap2/Q006523/]

A text found on the back of a wall slab from Khorsabad depicting a left-facing winged genie gives a summary of Sargon's conquests. Similar accounts are found on other texts, in particular ones found on palace thresholds (text nos. 10–15; see also text no. 7 lines 16–23 and text no. 8 lines 21–27). The inscription is both unlike and better written than the one found on the backs of other wall slabs from Khorsabad (text no. 41). The inclusion of Chaldea and Bīt-Yakīn "as far as the border of Dilmun" in the area ruled by Sargon (lines 14–17) would suggest that the text was composed after the Babylonian campaigns in king's twelfth and thirteenth regnal years (710–709).

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Commentary

The museum number is likely IM 72131, but there is some uncertainty about this and it might be IM 72129. It was not possible to ascertain if the matching stone slab (IM 72130) across the entryway from this one has a similar inscription on its reverse or if it even has an inscription there. The edition is based on a photograph and a brief examination of the original.

For photographs showing the discovery of the slab and/or the relief on the front, see Basmachi, Treasures p. 263 fig. 141 and Loud and Altman, Khorsabad 2 pp. 53–54 and pls. 9–10.

Bibliography

043 [/rinap/rinap2/Q006524/]

Numerous prismatic clay cylinders from Khorsabad, as well as one from Nineveh, bear an inscription commemorating the construction of the city Dūr-Šarrukīn, and in particular the building of its palace and city wall. Following an introductory section giving the name of the king and his main epithets (lines 1–3), the text describes in summary fashion the major actions and achievements of Sargon's reign (lines 4–38) and then records the building of the city (lines 39–75), concluding with a curse on anyone who "alters the work of my hands, mutilates my features (on a relief), obliterates the reliefs that I have engraved, (or) effaces my own representation(s)" (lines 76–77). The latest events mentioned in the inscription (the deportation of the people of Bīt-Purutaš, lines 23–24) date to the king's ninth regnal year (713). V. Hurowitz states that this inscription "is marked by an especially high literary level and character" (Exalted House p. 72). The inscription appears in two forms, one that was sixty-seven lines in length (lines 1–33 and 44–77) and an apparently later one that added a further ten lines (lines 34–43). These ten lines dealt with the good things done by the king for the benefit of his land (e.g., resettling abandoned areas, opening up new agricultural land, providing abundant water for irrigation, and attempting to ensure that crops were abundant and food could be purchased cheaply). (With regards to the two versions, see Baruchi-Unna and Cogan, IMSA 9 [2018–2019] p. 47.) The inscription is often referred to as the Khorsabad Cylinder.

Access the composite text [/rinap/rinap2/Q006524/] or the score [/rinap/scores/Q006524/score] of Sargon II 043

A 17587 (text no. 43 ex. 16), a prismatic clay cylinder from the palace at Khorsabad. Courtesy of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.

Sources:

Commentary

The longer, and likely later, form of the inscription (including lines 34–43) is only known on a few exemplars (exs. 1, 19, 35, 42, and 45), although some of the exemplars about which little or nothing is known (e.g., exs. 21–23 and 51–54) may also have the longer form, as may some of the exemplars that are very poorly preserved (e.g., exs. 10, 29, and 41). Based on the shape of ex. 49 and its arrangement of signs, this exemplar probably originally had the long form.

When known, complete cylinders have either eight (ex. 58), nine (exs. 1, 3–5, 16, 18–19, 28, 42, 45, 47, 48, and 57) or ten (exs. 2 and 17) faces, each of which has 7–9 lines of inscription (except at times for the final face on each exemplar which often has fewer lines). At the end of the inscription there is often a single or a double line ruling.

During his excavations, V. Place found two cylinders in the wall between Rooms 18 and 20 and fourteen in Façade P and P′ (Ninive et l'Assyrie 1 pp. 61–62 and 111–112); four of these are apparently exs. 1–4 and one ex. 57. (Although ex. 3 has a Kuyunjik number, it was probably found by Place.) One exemplar (ex. 5) was found at Nineveh and one (ex. 55) is reported to come from Chenchi, presumably Tepe Chenchi, which is located near Khorsabad.

A number of the cylinders preserved in the Oriental Institute (especially exs. 6–9, 33, and 42) need to be cleaned and if this is done the reading of several passages on them could be improved. It is unclear from the wording of Loud and Altman, Khorsabad 2 p. 105 no. 49 whether DŠ 1298 and 1302 (exs. 21 and 24) are pieces of the same prism or of different prisms; they have arbitrarily been considered separate exemplars here. Records in the Oriental Institute indicate that the dimensions of DŠ 1298 and 1302 are ".072 dia." and ".067×.125" respectively. Ex. 27 (DŠ 32-2) is made up of about twelve fragments (nine of which are inscribed), all stored in the same box. Only a few of the pieces clearly join and it is possible that not all of the fragments come from the same cylinder. Nevertheless, all the pieces have been attributed to this exemplar. The findspots of the two fragments making up ex. 28 are suspect since they come from buildings approximately 1.3 km apart. Ex. 35 (DŠ 32-30) is made up of about seven fragments, only two of which join; all the fragments have been included in the score; it is not clear that all actually come from the same exemplar although none of the pieces have overlapping text. Ex. 43 (DŠ 32-45B) has about eight small fragments in the same box as the main fragment. Some of these small pieces preserve all or parts of one or more signs; these have not been included in the score for the text.

J.A. Brinkman, who has worked with both the Chicago excavation records and the cylinders, has identified the following pieces listed by G. Loud with the above exemplars: Loud and Altman, Khorsabad 2 p. 105 no. 48 with possibly DŠ 1000 (ex. 8); no. 50 with DŠ 32-12 (ex. 32); no. 52 with probably DŠ 32-46 (ex. 44); no. 53 with DŠ 32-2 and 32-3 (ex. 27 and part of ex. 28); no. 54 with DŠ 32-31, 32-33, 32-34, and 32-36 (exs. 28 [part], 36–38 and 40–41); no. 55 with DŠ 32-35 (ex. 39), no. 56 with possibly DŠ 32-6 (ex. 31), no. 57 with DŠ 32-5 (ex. 30); no. 58 with DŠ 32-48 (ex. 46) and also DŠ 32-32 (an Esarhaddon prism); no. 59 with DŠ 32-45 (exs. 42 and 43); no. 60 with DŠ 32-19 (ex. 33), no. 63 with DŠ 32-21 (ex. 34); and no. 64 with DŠ 32-4A (ex. 29).

Ex. 56 is part of the right end of a prismatic cylinder and preserves parts of four faces. It was kindly collated by S. Borkowski, who notes that the museum number is FMB 50, and not FMB 48 as cited at CDLI P427649.

Ex. 57 was purchased by the Romanian government from a descendant of Place in 1987 (see http://www.sharinghistory.org/database_item.php?id=object;AWE;rm;29;en [accessed July 10, 2017]) and was kindly collated by J. Taylor.

Ex. 58 was purchased by the British Friends of the Israel Museum at auction from Sotheby and Co. on July 9, 1973 and had previously been owned by Mrs. E.L.E. Corsin. The exemplar was kindly collated by A. Baruchi-Unna.

A photo of ex. 59 was kindly supplied to the author by E. Jiménez, who had identified the piece as being a duplicate of Sargon's Khorsabad cylinder.

Regrettably, the copies by E. Norris (1 R pl. 36) and H. Winckler are of limited value since they often do not indicate from which exemplar particular readings come and since they contain numerous errors (often readings coming from different inscriptions). A number of the incorrect readings (sometimes given as variants) are noted in the list of minor variants at the back of this volume. (For the problems with regard to Norris' and Winckler's copies, see also Fuchs, Khorsabad pp. 30–31.) D.G. Lyon's copy (Sar. no. 1) is based on ex. 1 and uses the following abbreviations for variants: P₁ = Nap. III 3156 [ex. 1], P₂ = Nap. III 3155 [ex. 2], L₁ = BM 22505 [ex. 3], and L₂ = BM 108775 [ex. 4]. A. Fuchs (Khorsabad pp. 29–30) uses the same abbreviations (without using subscript for the numbers) and adds the following: L3 = BM 123413 + 123422 [ex. 5], C1 = DŠ 1294 = A 17590 [ex. 19], C2 = DŠ 32-47 [ex. 45], C3 = DŠ 32-45A [ex. 42] and C4 = DŠ 1293 = A 17589 [ex. 18].

The line arrangement is the same on all exemplars. The master line normally follows ex. 1; however, where ex. 1 is either damaged, the only exemplar to have a particular reading (e.g., omission of ù in lines 8 and 38; omission of MEŠ following UN in line 30; omission of -e after EŠ.BAR in line 57; É for LÍL in ^dEN.LÍL in line 58; omission of -šú in line 77), or only one of two exemplars with an obviously incorrect or 'unusual' reading (e.g., omission of -ba- in line 2; -ṭí for -ṭi in line 23; -ú- for -saḫ- in line 76), another exemplar is followed, normally ex. 2 or ex. 19.

Bibliography

044–047

During the excavations of V. Place in 1854, several texts inscribed on metal and stone tablets were found inside a stone box with an inscribed lid in the wall between Rooms 17 and 19 of the palace at Khorsabad. The number and material of the tablets found in the coffer has been a matter of confusion for many years. J.A. Brinkman re-examined the problem and showed that five tablets were found: four of metal and one of stone. One of the metal tablets was lost in the boat disaster on the Tigris near Qurna in 1855. The three remaining metal tablets are made of bronze, silver, and gold (text nos. 44–46, respectively). These and the stone (magnesite) tablet (text no. 47) are conserved in the Louvre. The missing tablet was likely made of lead. See Brinkman in Curtis, Bronzeworking Centres pp. 144–150 and 158–159, and note also Bjorkman, OLP 18 (1987) pp. 87–97. The four inscriptions record the construction of the city Dūr-Šarrukīn, and all, in particular text nos. 45–47, have close similarities.

044 [/rinap/rinap2/Q006525/]

The bronze tablet found together with four other metal and stone tablets at Khorsabad (see the introduction to text nos. 44–47) bears a poorly preserved inscription of Sargon II recording the construction of the city of Dūr-Šarrukīn, its sanctuaries, and palace.

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Commentary

The inscription is written in Babylonian script and was collated over a period of several days from the original. The tablet, and in particular its reverse, is in a poor state of preservation and it is unlikely that any scholar would see the traces exactly the same way on different days or that any two scholars would read the traces in exactly the same way. When D.G. Lyon examined the tablet in the nineteenth century he saw some signs or traces of signs that were not visible to the author. Since the tablet may have been in a better state of preservation at that time, these have been indicated in notes to the transliteration although it has not been thought necessary to indicate every case where he copies a perfect sign and the author has put it in half brackets or vice versa. In view of difficulties in reading the inscription, in particular the first half of the reverse (lines 31–47), the number of on-page notes is more numerous than normally the case in this volume.

It has sometimes been stated that this tablet is made of copper, but a chemical analysis of the tablet performed in the 1880s by M. Berthelot has shown that it is made of bronze. With regard to the question of the metal; see Brinkman in Curtis, Bronzeworking Centres pp. 144–150.

Lines 36–39 are similar to text no. 43 lines 63–64 and text no. 46 lines 26–32. Lines 47–60 are similar to text no. 43 lines 65 and 72–77 and text no. 9 lines 79–81, 92–97, and 102–106.

Bibliography

045 [/rinap/rinap2/Q006526/]

An inscription of Sargon II recording the construction of the city of Dūr-Šarrukīn, its sanctuaries, and its palace is found on a silver tablet discovered at Khorsabad in an alabaster coffer together with four other metal and stone tablets (see the introduction to text nos. 44–47). The silver tablet is preserved in the Louvre and weighs 435 grams. Text no. 48 may be a duplicate of this inscription since it preserves parts of lines 11–20 of this text. This inscription and the one on the gold tablet (text no. 46) refer to the gods Ea, Sîn, Šamaš, Adad, and Ninurta being installed on their daises and this may be connected to the statement in the Assyrian Eponym Chronicle that "the gods of the city Dūr-Šarrukīn entered their temples" on the twenty-second day of Tašrītu (VII) in the eponymy of Ša-Aššur-dubbu (707).

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Bibliography

046 [/rinap/rinap2/Q006527/]

An inscription of Sargon II on a gold tablet from Khorsabad records the construction of the city of Dūr-Šarrukīn, its sanctuaries, and its palace. It was found in 1854 during the French excavations of the city together with four other metal and stone tablets (see the introduction to text nos. 44–47). The gold tablet weighs 167 grams.

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Bibliography

047 [/rinap/rinap2/Q006528/]

Obverse of Nap. III 2899 (text no. 47 lines 1–15),
a magnesite tablet found in the palace at Khorsabad.
Photo courtesy of A. Thomas.  © Musée du Louvre.

A short inscription of Sargon II recording the construction of the city of Dūr-Šarrukīn, its sanctuaries, and its palace is found on a magnesite tablet from that city. The tablet was found in the palace in 1854 together with four metal tablets (see the introduction to text nos. 44–47).

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Commentary

It has often been stated that this tablet is made of antimony, but a chemical analysis of the tablet performed in the nineteenth century by M. Berthelot showed that it is made of magnesite. With regard to the question of the stone, see Brinkman in Curtis, Bronzeworking Centres pp. 144–150. J. Bjorkman (OLP 18 [1987] pp. 91–97) accepts the identification of the type of stone by Berthelot and argues that the tablet of gišnugalli (generally translated "alabaster," as in line 20 below) mentioned in these texts is this particular tablet.

The engraver made several of the signs slightly abnormal in form: URU (line 10), SI (line 14), KA (line 15), and KUN (line 24); these signs are marked with * in the transliteration below.

Bibliography

048 [/rinap/rinap2/Q006529/]

A fragment of the left side of a clay tablet found in 1932 bears an inscription of Sargon II that duplicates part of the inscription on the silver tablet from Khorsabad (text no. 45) and records the construction of sanctuaries and the royal palace at Dūr-Šarrukīn. Since it is not certain that the clay tablet originally had the whole inscription found on text no. 45, it is arbitrarily treated separately here. Only one side of this fragment is inscribed; the Neo-Assyrian signs are written clearly and are large in size. The restorations in the transliteration are based upon lines 12–20 of text no. 45. The provenance of the piece is not certain. Although no mention is made in Loud and Altman, Khorsabad 2 pp. 104–105 of any item not coming from Khorsabad, T. Jacobsen indicated on the excavation card for this piece that it may have come from Chenchi instead of Khorsabad.

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049 [/rinap/rinap2/Q006530/]

This inscription dedicated to the Sebetti ("the divine Seven"), a group of seven beneficent deities, is found upon a large number of stone altars from Khorsabad. Most or all of these altars come from a temple dedicated to the Sebetti. With regard to the Sebetti, see Wiggermann, RLA 12/5–6 (2010) pp. 459–466 sub "Siebengötter."

Access the composite text [/rinap/rinap2/Q006530/] or the score [/rinap/scores/Q006530/score] of Sargon II 049

Sources:

Commentary

P.E. Botta states that he found two stone altars at Khorsabad (Monument de Ninive 5 p. 171), although he only published the piece that is now in the Louvre (ex. 1). Botta apparently made a squeeze of the inscription on ex. 1, but it is either no longer extant or not kept in the Louvre. The original copy of ex. 1 is currently preserved in the Archives of the Institut de France (Botta-Cotta II 2976, folio I, sheet 325). A.H. Layard (Discoveries p. 131) states that his workmen found at Khorsabad "inscribed altars or tripods, similar to that in the Assyrian collection of the Louvre"; one of these may have been the second altar found by Botta. The present location of these pieces is not known. Ex. 2 was acquired by B. Bey at Basra in 1904 and it entered the museum in Istanbul in 1910. As noted by E. Nassouhi (RA 22 [1925] p. 85), it is possible that this exemplar is the second altar found by Botta. However, a fair portion of the inscription is preserved on ex. 2 while Botta states that only a few cuneiform characters remained on the second altar seen by him (JA 4/2 [1843] pp. 211–212). In addition to ex. 3, the Oriental Institute expedition found another altar at Khorsabad (DŠ 1194, now in the Oriental Institute, Chicago); however, the section of this altar which would have borne the inscription is not preserved (see Loud and Altman, Khorsabad 2 p. 96 and pl. 48 no. 19). As noted by F. Safar (Sumer 13 [1957] pp. 220–221), the two exemplars found by the Oriental Institute excavations may come from the Sebetti temple.

Thirteen exemplars with this text (exs. 4–16) were found in the Sebetti temple as the result of Iraqi excavations prompted by the discovery of three of them during leveling operations for a highway. The bottom part of one further altar, presumably without an inscription, was found in the courtyard of that temple. Although Safar states in the English version of his article that thirteen altars were found in the temple's antecella, only eleven (exs. 4–14) actually come from that room (see Sumer 13 [1957] p. 194 and fig. 1 following p. 196 [Arabic version] against p. 220 [English version]). At least some of these altars were left in situ. All thirteen altars found by the Iraqi excavations are said to have the same inscription, but none of the inscriptions are fully legible from the published photographs. F. Basmachi (Treasures p. 251) states that fourteen were found in the temple, arranged in two rows of seven (thus two altars for each of the seven deities), and that one is IM 67886. In the score, there is no transliteration for exs. 5–16 and what appears for ex. 4 follows the copy published by Safar.

The top of each altar is circular and is placed above a tripod base; the bottom of each of the three corners of the base is in the form of a lion's paw. The inscription is incised around the edge of the circular top of each altar. The master line is a composite made from the various exemplars.

AO 19900 (text no. 49 ex. 1), one of numerous altars found in the temple of the Sebetti at Khorsabad.
Photo courtesy of A. Thomas. © Musée du Louvre.

Bibliography

Grant Frame

Grant Frame, 'Part 5 (40-49)', RINAP 2: Sargon II, Sargon II, The RINAP 2 sub-project of the RINAP Project, 2023 [http://oracc.org/rinap/rinap2/rinap2textintroductions/dursharrukin162/part54049/]