Though much is already known about the Assyrian military (which at first glance would seem to have had nothing to do with temple or cult), some 40 letters in this corpus illuminate how and whence certain of its units, which were obliged to meet challenges to imperial authority over an area extending from Iran to Egypt, were supplied with some of the horses and mules that they required.[[36]] Should the reader be asking why this was a priestly concern, the answer is that the animals with which these documents are concerned were inspected by the "mayor" (better "inspector") of the temple of Nabû in Calah, who, after receiving and reviewing them, forwarded reports to the king on the numbers, breeds, origins, and eventual disposition of the equids that had come in. (It is tempting here to postulate the existence of an elite strike-force of the god Nabû, regarded by the Assyrians as the god of victory, to which these animals were directed, but there is no direct evidence for this. Nevertheless, the connection between the reports and the cult of Nabû is intriguing and calls for further study.)
Contributions came from all the major cities of Assyria and from as far away as Parsua in Iran and Damascus in Syria. Those to whom deliveries are attributed include the commander-in-chief, the palace herald, the chief cupbearer, the treasurers of the queen and queen mother, the governors of Calah and Nineveh, and the magnates of the province of Bet-kari in Media — the "50 houses of the magnates" according to one fragmentary report (no. 82).[[37]] The horses were designated as Mesean, Egyptian, or Kushite (apparently a breed that had originated in the region of modern Sudan)[[38]] and were destined to become either cavalry mounts or "yoke horses." Once the inspector of the Nabu temple had conducted his review, some were sent on to the palace in Nineveh (no. 97), others remained in (or were transferred to) the Review Palace in Calah (no. 98), and a few at least were assigned to the teams of the god Aššur (no. 104). We know from other sources that the latter were comprised of white horses,[[39]] since VAT 13596 mentions that white horses pulled Assur's chariot.
36 The majority of these horse reports are collected and analyzed in TCAE, esp. pp. 7-18.
37 It is interesting in this context to compare those who donated regular offerings to the Aššur temple. According to the archive of offering lists mentioned above (= SAA 7 182-219), they included the queen, the crown prince, the treasurer (or his household), the commander-in-chief, the chief cupbearer, and the governor of Assur province; see Fales and Postgate, SAA 7, p. XXXV; also van Driel Cult, p. 190 n. 77.
38 See most recently L.A. Heidorn, "The Horses of Kush," JNES 56 (1997) 105-14.
39 VAT 13596 (= Menzel Tempel 2, Nr. 36 A I 16´ff) states that white horses pulled Aššur's chariot during the akītu festival. In KAV 78 (l. 31) white horses are listed among the gods and shrines receiving donations of "cedar blood" (dām ereni) from the king. We know that white horses also pulled the chariots of the Mari kings (see G. Dossin, RA 35 [1938] 120) and were associated with gods and kings in Persian and Greek times as well (see E.F. Weidner, BiOr 9 [1952] 157-59). Finally, the conveyance of white horses to Aššur or Sin of Harran is a common sanction in NA penalty clauses (see K. Radner, Die neuassyrischen Rechtsurkunden als Quelle für Mensch und Umwelt [SAAS 6, Helsinki 1997], pp. 309-11).
Steven W. Cole
Steven W. Cole, 'Deliveries of Horses to the Nabû Temple', Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Priests to Kings Esarhaddon and Assurbanipal, SAA 13. Original publication: Helsinki, Helsinki University Press, 1998; online contents: SAAo/SAA13 Project, a sub-project of MOCCI, 2020 [http://oracc.org/saao/saa13/lettersfrompriests/deliveriesofhorses/]