A Companion to Assyria

by Eckart Frahm

  In the Ur III period, an inscription on a pierced stone plaque states that Zarriqum, governor of Ashur during the rule of king Amar‐Suen (2046–2038 BCE), built the temple of the goddess Belat‐ekallim. Since this object was deliberately placed in the Ištar temple of Tukulti‐Ninurta I (1243–1207 BCE), it seems probable that this text refers to the Ištar temple of the Ur III period. This should be Ištar Temple level E, which Bär assigned to the Ur III period. Its cella and cult chamber were similar in plan to those of levels G and H, but larger, measuring 22 × 7.5 meters. Temple E was raised on a platform (the debris of the earlier temples) and its entrance was marked by gate towers and a stairway (Grayson 1987: 9; Andrae 1922: 21–5, 97–111; Bär 2003a: 65–73, 317).

  The other third millennium temple was the Assur temple, located on the bluff at the northern end of the city. The remains of its earliest periods were poorly preserved, but the excavators were able to distinguish three levels prior to its rebuilding by Šamši‐Adad I (1813–1781 BCE). The earliest level was represented by scattered walls, which because of their differing orientations and elevations must belong to several phases. These walls were associated with fire pits that seem to have been used for sacrifice, and in the area of the later sanctuary was found a group of copper‐alloy implements and figurines that may be a temple hoard or foundation deposit, dated by Haller to the end of the Early Dynastic period (ca. 2400 BCE) and by Wartke to the last quarter of the third millennium (Haller and Andrae 1955: 9‐12; Wartke, in Harper et al. 1995: 37).

  The next level of the Assur temple, E, had at least two phases. Though the level E plans are fragmentary, they clearly belong to a monumental building, and at least one phase already seems to have the general plan of a central court to the north and a large outer court to the southeast that would characterize the later periods of the Assur temple. Much later, Shalmaneser I listed Ušpia, who may have ruled between the Old Akkadian and Ur III periods (ca. 2150 BCE), as the first builder of the Assur temple. One of the level E phases may therefore be Ušpia’s work, though none of his inscriptions were found during the excavations (Haller and Andrae 1955: 12–14; Grayson 1987: 185, 189).

  The line of the city wall in the third millennium is unknown, as the only preserved remains were at the north near the Assur temple. It must have included the Assur and Ištar temples, but may not have extended as far south and west as it did in the second millennium (Andrae 1922: 95–6, 147, Taf. V). On the basis of the archaeological evidence, therefore, Ashur in the later third millennium must already have been an important trading center with at least two temples and a town wall.

  The Old‐Assyrian Period

  The first Assyrian Kings (ca. 2040–1809 BCE)

  During the Old Assyrian period Ashur was a thriving commercial center with trading colonies in Anatolia. With increasing wealth came a sustained campaign by its kings to improve the city’s fortifications. The first recorded builder of the wall is Kikkiya (ca. 2025 BCE), but this is known only from texts of later kings. The earliest original inscriptions documenting work on the wall belong to Ilušuma (died 1974 BCE), who says that the god Assur opened up two new springs in the city of Ashur, and Ilušuma used this water for making bricks to build a new city wall. This apparently involved expansion of the area of the city, as land for new building lots was thereby made available. His son, Erišum I (1974–1935 BCE), increased the height of his father’s wall; he gives the names of two of the gates, the People’s Gate and the Sheep Gate, both of which seem to be at the west. According to a much later text, Ikunum (1934–1921 BCE), Sargon I (1920–1881 BCE), and Puzur‐Aššur II (1880–1873 BCE) all worked on the city wall (Grayson 1987: 17, 22, 101; 1996: 58; dates according to Chapter 3 of this volume, for slightly different date cf. Barjamovic et al. 2012: 1–40). The city wall in this period probably followed roughly the line of Shalmaneser III’s later inner wall, enclosing an area of some 40 hectares. Approximately the northern third of this relatively small total area was occupied by palaces and temples, and the remaining space must have been quite crowded.

  The next level of the Ištar temple, D, was considerably larger than E. Its poorly preserved remains consisted of a mud brick sub‐foundation, atop which was a foundation of limestone blocks. Its cella, which apparently lacked the separate cult chamber at the end, measured 34 × 8.5 meters. Bär assigned level D to the Old Assyrian period. This should, therefore, be the Ištar temple built by Ilušuma, as recorded in a number of his inscriptions found out of context at Ashur, and according to later kings subsequently restored by Sargon I (Grayson 1987: 15–18, 91, 150, 195, 257; Andrae 1922: 25‐6, 111–16; 1935: 113–18; Bär 2003a: 73–82, 317; Schmitt 2012: 73–81).

  Erišum I rebuilt the entire Assur temple. A number of his inscriptions, including many inscribed bricks, were found throughout the temple and were used by Haller to identify an “Erišum level.” The plan of this level was also fragmentary, but in general seems to have followed level E (Grayson 1987: 15–36; Haller and Andrae 1955: 14–18). According to inscribed bricks from Ashur, a new temple dedicated to Adad was begun by Erišum I and completed by his son, Ikunum. No trace of this structure was recovered in the excavations. It may have been on the same site as the later double temple of Anu and Adad, on the north side of the city just west of the later Old Palace (Grayson 1987: 37–8, 41–2).

  Curiously, there is no mention of a palace in inscriptions of any of the Old Assyrian kings. A building that is probably the earliest palace of Ashur was beneath the Old Palace, southwest of the Assur temple on the north side of the city. The small part that was excavated was a well‐built, apparently monumental building with stone foundations and a large court paved with baked bricks laid on a gravel bed. There were no building inscriptions, but the foundations were at a level that seemed to be of Ur III or Old Assyrian date (Miglus 1989: 107–15; Pedde, Lundström, and Frahm 2008: 27–9). On the eve of Šamši‐Adad’s conquest, therefore, Ashur was a prosperous fortified city some 40 hectares in area, packed with houses and having a palace and temples dedicated to Assur, Ištar, and Adad.

  Šamši‐Adad I (1808–1776 BCE)

  Ashur was conquered by the foreign king Šamši‐Adad I who made it one of the principal cities of his extensive realm. In the process, he leveled and replaced all but one of Ashur’s public buildings, transforming the northern face of the city into something resembling a Babylonian metropolis. Šamši‐Adad demolished and completely rebuilt the Assur temple, giving it the size and general form that it would retain until the end of the Assyrian empire. The main part of the temple was a rectangle measuring 108 × 54 meters, oriented with the corners toward the cardinal points. At the southwest end was an entrance leading into a smallish forecourt, on the opposite side of which was the entrance into a large central court. On the northeast side of the central court was an entrance that opened into an antechamber, beyond which was the cella (28 × 8 meters). On the southeast side of the temple was a large trapezoidal outer court (maximum dimensions: 190 × 70 meters). The ensemble completely filled the triangular space of the projecting bluff (Grayson 1987: 48–51, 60–3; Haller and Andrae 1955: 18–37; Miglus 2001).

  Šamši‐Adad also seems to have built the first ziggurat for the Assur temple, located some 85 meters southwest of the temple and with an orientation somewhat different from that of the temple. Andrae distinguished two building phases, both about 61 meters square. There was no evidence in either phase for the means of access to the upper stages. Andrae assigned the first phase to Šamši‐Adad I on the basis of brick size and color. In view of this king’s work on the neighboring Assur temple and, probably, Old Palace it seems plausible that he built the ziggurat as well (Haller and Andrae 1955: 2; Miglus 1985).

  Just southwest of the ziggurat, directly over the remains of the earlier palace, was the Old Palace. Only its mud brick foundation survived – there was no trace of superstructure. The full plan was recovered. It was nearly square, measuring 112 × 98 meters, and consisted of 172 rooms and ten courtyar
ds. There were no doorways in the foundations, so the circulation pattern is a matter for conjecture. No inscriptions were recovered in the excavations of the Old Palace that identify its builder. Because the foundation trenching and mud brick size were the same as were used in the Assur temple, Andrae identified the builder of the Old Palace as Šamši‐Adad I, and the presence of displaced Assur and Adad temple bricks of Erišum I in the fill on which it was built supports this date (Andrae 1912: 22; 1977: 139; Preusser 1955: 6–13; Miglus 1989: 115–20; Pedde, Lundström, and Frahm 2008: 28–32).

  Completing his transformation of the north side of the city, according to a Middle Assyrian text Šamši‐Adad I rebuilt the Anu‐Adad temple with two ziggurats, which presumably means that at that time it was dedicated to both gods. Nothing survives from this phase of the building (Grayson 1987: 80–1). Directly opposite the Anu‐Adad temple was the double temple of Sîn and Šamaš. Andrae recovered three building levels, the earliest of which had mud‐brick foundations that were almost completely preserved. The building was roughly rectangular, measuring 62 × 32 meters, with an entrance facade on one of the long sides that stepped outward from the ends toward a towered gate in the center. The building was planned around a central courtyard with the entrance in one of its long sides. The two identical shrines opened off the two short side walls of the court. The earliest known inscription that refers to the Sîn‐Šamaš temple is a brick of Aššur‐nirari I, but the bricks in the foundation and the courtyard were identical to those used by Šamši‐Adad I in the Assur temple, so both Haller and Miglus attributed the Sîn‐Šamaš temple to him (Haller and Andrae 1955: 84–6, Taf. 16–18; Miglus 1990; Werner 2009: 14‐22, plans 1–2).

  Šamši‐Adad also ruled over Nineveh, located on the left bank of the Tigris 100 kilometers north of Ashur opposite modern Mosul in northern Iraq. Nineveh is one of the oldest and most important cities of the upper Tigris region. Surrounded by rich, well‐watered farm land, Nineveh is the site of the most popular ancient Tigris ford and consequently controlled major trade routes in all directions (Oates 1968: 21). The oldest part of the city is the large mound of Kuyunjik, about 40 hectares in area, located at the former junction of the Tigris and Khosr rivers (Figure 23.2). The pottery sequence here dates back to the Hassuna period (ca. 6000–5500 BCE). Later the smaller (about 15 hectares) mound of Nebi Yunus about one kilometer to the south was incorporated into the city area.

  Figure 23.2 Nineveh, plan of the mound of Kuyunjik.

  Source: author.

  Šamši‐Adad I placed his distinctive architectural stamp on Nineveh’s principal shrine, the Ištar temple. A number of fragmentary inscribed stone cylinders of Šamši‐Adad I from the temple area report that he rebuilt the temple and its ziggurat. Reade associated this construction with a temple foundation platform that measured at least 45 by 90 meters, built of mud bricks of the same size as those used by Šamši‐Adad I at Ashur. Also like Šamši‐Adad’s buildings at Ashur, the building had mud brick foundations under the walls and loose earth fill under the floors of the rooms. The plan was preserved only at the southwest end, and there only at the foundation level, but it is clear that this end consisted of a single rank of rooms surrounding a courtyard. On the northwest and southwest side were projecting foundations that Reade suggested supported pairs of gate towers. Reade observed that the preserved remains of the Ištar temple at Nineveh are virtually identical in scale and plan to Šamši‐Adad’s new Assur temple at Ashur, and proposed that the two buildings were designed by the same person (Grayson 1987: 51–5; Reade 2005: 362–6).

  The Transition Period (17th to 15th centuries BCE)

  After Šamši‐Adad’s reign, Ashur entered a period of obscurity until about 1500 BCE. The only written reference to the city of Ashur in this period is in an unusual text of Puzur‐Sîn (ca. 1700 BCE), a king who is otherwise unknown. Puzur‐Sîn says here that he came to power by deposing Asinum, grandson of Šamši‐Adad I, whose dynasty was “not of the flesh of the city of Ashur, and who had destroyed the shrines of the city Ashur.” Puzur‐Sîn says he then destroyed that “improper thing,” the palace of Šamši‐Adad, and built a wall, the location of which is unknown. It appears from this that Puzur‐Sîn needed a cheap or quick source of bricks and that the most readily available source was Šamši‐Adad’s palace. If Puzur‐Sîn not only destroyed the palace, but dismantled it as well, that would explain why only the foundation walls survived and why there was so little occupation and superstructure debris found in it (Grayson 1987: 77–8; Reade 2001: 6–8; Pedde, Lundström, and Frahm 2008: 32).

  There ensues a gap of roughly 150 years in our building records from Ashur, followed by a resurgence of activity during the second part of the 16th and first part of the 15th centuries BCE. Much of this activity focused on the city’s fortifications. A later repairer of the wall reports that Aššur‐nirari I worked on the city wall, and one of his inscribed cones was found in the northwest part of the wall. His son, Puzur‐Aššur III, claims to have repaired the wall near the Step Gate of the Assur temple. In addition, later kings credit Puzur‐Aššur with a major project, the construction of the wall surrounding the New Town, which added some 15 hectares to the southeast corner of the city (Grayson 1987: 85–7, 90–1, 99–101, 143–4, 147–8).

  All of Ashur’s public buildings were also restored during this period. According to a later king, the temple of Anu and Adad was restored by Šamši‐Adad III, and a text that may be his refers to the restoration of its ziggurats. Aššur‐nirari I says he repaired the Assur temple and he apparently also restored the Sîn‐Šamaš temple, unless he was actually its original builder. In addition, according to Shalmaneser I (1273–1244 BCE), the Old Palace was rebuilt by Aššur‐nirari I, and a clay cone with a palace inscription of this king was found on the surface at Ashur. Finally, the temple of Ištar of Ashur was restored by Puzur‐Aššur III, but his work was apparently not extensive and cannot be identified in the archaeological remains (Grayson 1987: 80–1, 83–5, 88‐89, 91, 199; 1991: 28).

  The Middle Assyrian Period

  Aššur‐bel‐nišešu to Aššur‐uballiṭ I (1407–1318 [1417–1328] BCE)

  During the Middle Assyrian Period, Assyria witnessed three surges in building activity. The first occurred in Ashur during the reigns of Aššur‐bel‐nišešu through Aššur‐uballiṭ I and apparently accompanied the resurgence of the city toward the end of Mitannian rule. Again, a major focus was the repair of the fortifications. Aššur‐rem‐nišešu and Enlil‐nirari rebuilt parts of the main city wall and Aššur‐bel‐nišešu repaired the wall of the New Town. According to later kings, Aššur‐nadin‐aḫḫe (II?) and Eriba‐Adad I also worked on the wall of the New Town and Aššur‐uballiṭ I rebuilt the northern quay wall (Grayson 1987: 99–102, 118–19, 145, 147; 1991: 38).

  There is relatively little documentation for work on Ashur’s temples during this period. Aššur‐uballiṭ I says he restored the Ištar temple and placed the goddess inside it. By contrast, considerable attention was devoted to the Old Palace. According to later kings, Aššur‐nadin‐aḫḫe rebuilt or restored the Old Palace, and his inscribed palace bricks were found in its central court. Work was continued by Eriba‐Adad I, who built its gatehouse. Aššur‐uballiṭ I renovated a palace, apparently located in the New Town, and in one of the Amarna Letters he asks the Egyptian king to send him gold to help pay for his new palace (Grayson 1987: 105–6, 109–13, 152; 1991: 105; Moran 1992: 39, EA 16).

  A text of a later king reports that Aššur‐uballiṭ I restored the Ištar temple at Nineveh, and fragmentary inscriptions probably belonging to Aššur‐uballiṭ support this, providing evidence that he also ruled over Nineveh (Grayson 1987: 115–16, 206). Since the Middle Assyrian superstructure of the Ištar temple at Nineveh was completely leveled in the course of restorations in the Neo‐Assyrian period, no archaeological remains survived that could be associated with Aššur‐uballiṭ’s work.

  Adad‐nirari I to Tukulti‐Ninurta I (1295�
�1197 [1305–1207] BCE)

  The 13th century BCE saw major construction activity at Ashur. Adad‐nirari I carried out large‐scale renovations on the walls, rebuilding the city wall by the Assur ziggurat, the quay wall, and the wall of the New Town on both the land and river sides. He restored several parts of the Old Palace, as evidenced by the distribution of his inscribed bricks, several of which give the name of the part of the palace in which they were used. He also restored the Assur temple. Finally, he repaired the weakened parts of the temple of Ištar of Ashur, as reported in five limestone tablets evidently originally placed in its foundations (Grayson 1987: 128, 138–57, 162–74). This was apparently still the Old Assyrian level D temple, which by now would have been at least 670 years old! His grandson, Tukulti‐Ninurta I, removed these tablets when he leveled the old Ištar temple and reburied them in the foundation of his new Ištar temple.

  The Assur temple was destroyed by fire during the reign of Shalmaneser I, who completely rebuilt it. In general, his new temple followed the plan of Šamši‐Adad’s temple, but Shalmaneser added a courtyard to the southwest end of the temple, bringing its total length up to 140 meters. The southwest wall of the great outer court was moved further to the southwest to accommodate the temple’s additional length. According to Adad‐nirari I, his father Arik‐den‐ili built a new ziggurat of Assur, and Adad‐nirari says he also worked on it. Shalmaneser I also reports that he rebuilt the Assur ziggurat, and metal disks inscribed with his name were excavated in foundation deposits at the corners of the second of the ziggurat’s two construction phases, suggesting that he is the king primarily responsible for that phase. Shalmaneser I also rebuilt a gate in the city wall near the Assur temple and continued his father’s work on the Old Palace and the temple of Ištar (Grayson 1987: 148, 157, 159, 185–95, 198–200, 204, 211–12; Haller and Andrae 1955: 3, 37–52; Miglus 1985).