Early in his reign, Ashurbanipal had to deal with a different type of problem than his immediate predecessors: lions, a fierce mountain breed that were reportedly killing shepherds, herdsmen, and their livestock. Dealing with such ferocious beasts had long been the prerogative of the king and it was Ashurbanipal's responsibility to help the rural inhabitants in the Arbela region.[170] The Assyrian king appears to have laid an ambush near one of the lions' water sources. Just after daybreak,[171] Ashurbanipal, in his chariot, sprang into action and killed the lions with arrows; inscriptions boast of the king's deadly accuracy with the bow, stating that each member of the pride was slain with only a single arrow.
The Assyrian king appears to have immensely enjoyed the experience since a few years later (sometime after 664) he went on a hunting expedition with several Elamite princes who had taken refuge in Nineveh. Ashurbanipal claims to have rescued Ummanappa when a lion jumped on him.[172] In addition, Ashurbanipal had an arena set up in Nineveh to "hunt" and kill lions in a controlled setting and with spectators.[173] In an area consecrated to the city's tutelary goddess, Ištar, Ashurbanipal, from his chariot, shot at lions as they were released from cages. Wounded lions that attempted to pounce on the king and his chariot team were repelled and slain with spears and swords. During a single event, eighteen lions, one for each of Nineveh's city gates, are reported to have been killed. In a religious ceremony held immediately afterwards, Ashurbanipal consecrated his victims to Ištar by pouring libations over their corpses. The Assyrian king likely staged other hunts during his long reign, as sculpted wall reliefs seem to suggest.
170 Text no. 14. For a study of the topos of the lion hunt in Ashurbanipal's inscriptions, see Weissert in Parpola and Whiting, Assyria 1995 pp. 349–358 (with references to earlier literature in nn. 2–3); see also Grayson, CAH2 3/2 pp. 158–159. For the hunting reliefs in Ashurbanipal's palace, see Barnett, Sculptures from the North Palace pp. 12–14, 19, 37–38, and 49–54 and pls. V–XIII and XLVI–LIX.
171 According to E. Weissert (in Parpola and Whiting, Assyria 1995 p. 346), "a well-known practice among hunters is to lay an ambush near water sources where the animals gather to drink, and since animals drink in the early hours of the day, it seems logical that Ashurbanipal tracked down the lions a short time after daybreak."
172 A record of this hunt is known from both textual and visual sources (Room S¹ of the North Palace). See text no. 54; Bauer, Asb. pp. 87–88 and pls. 31–32 K 2867+ (the Large Hunting Inscription) lines 24–61; and Barnett, Sculptures from the North Palace pls. LVI–LIX. For the identification of the prince as Urtaku's son Ummanappa, see Weissert in Parpola and Whiting, Assyria 1995 p. 341 n. 7. The injuries sustained during this hunt may have prevented him later from becoming one of the rulers of Elam appointed by Ashurbanipal. Based on statements about Tammarītu, Ummanappa may have been a younger brother of Ummanigaš (Ḫumban-nikaš II) and an older brother of Tammarītu. For another hunt in the wild, see Frame and Grayson, SAAB 8/1 (1994) p. 5 K 6232 obv. 5'–7'.
173 The event may have been recorded on a stele erected on the hill overlooking the hunting area, just like the one shown on the reliefs from Ashurbanipal's palace (Room C) depicting the same "hunt" (Barnett, Sculptures from the North Palace pp. 12–13 and pls. VI–IX); the small stele-shaped hole in the wall opposite the hill of spectators may have held a small, inscribed stele that also commemorated the event (compare, for example, the size and shape of BM 90864 [Novotny, SAACT 10 cover]). A draft of that inscription is likely found on K 6085, as argued by E. Weissert (in Parpola and Whiting, Assyria 1995 p. 351). As for the significance of the number eighteen, Weissert (ibid. p. 355) states: "The number of lions must therefore have a meaning, since it had been decided in advance to bring the spectacle to an end with the death of the eighteenth lion. This is no accident, surely, for the number of gates in the wall surrounding greater Nineveh was also eighteen. In order to trace the possible link between the number of gates in the Nineveh wall and the number of lions shot in the area, we will have to remember that when describing the plague of lions which had supposedly befallen Assyria, the author of the Great Hunting Text specifically noted that frightening lions were obstructing the roads. The conclusion is therefore unavoidable: by killing eighteen lions in the Nineveh arena, Ashurbanipal symbolically secured each exit from the capital city, every gate and road leading out of it being secured by the killing of one lion." For a study of the narrative style of the Room C reliefs, see Watanabe, Critical Approaches pp. 352–359.
Jamie Novotny & Joshua Jeffers
Jamie Novotny & Joshua Jeffers, 'Lion Hunts', RINAP 5: The Royal Inscriptions of Ashurbanipal, Aššur-etel-ilāni, and Sîn-šarra-iškun, The RINAP/RINAP 5 Project, a sub-project of MOCCI, 2019 [http://oracc.org/rinap/rinap5/rinap51introduction/lionhunts/]