by Eckart Frahm
Aššurnaṣirpal’s constructions included a new city wall, a royal palace, and, according to his inscriptions, nine temples. The city wall, which is for the most part still visible, forms a rough square some 7.5 kilometers in circuit and encloses an area of about 360 hectares. Aššurnaṣirpal’s wall was apparently at least 12 meters thick and was built of mud‐brick. Two main gates have been located, on the north and east walls. The citadel mound, an elevated area of some 20 hectares at the southwest corner of the city, had its own fortification wall, also of mud brick (Figure 23.3). At its northeast corner it was 37 meters wide and at least 15 meters high. The only certain gateway to the citadel was on the east side, just north of the Nabû temple (Postgate and Reade 1976–80: 307‐8; Oates and Oates 2001: 27–33).
Figure 23.3 Kalḫu (modern Nimrud), plan of the citadel.
Source: Reproduced with permission of David Kertai.
The largest of Aššurnaṣirpal II’s structures at Kalḫu was his palace – called the Northwest Palace by its excavator – which filled most of the northwest quarter of the citadel. The excavated part measures 200 meters north‐to‐south and 120 meters east‐to‐west, and it may have extended further to the east as well. Its northern third was a large outer court, entered from the east, and surrounded on the north and, probably, east and west sides by offices and storerooms. The south side of the outer court was the throne‐room facade, decorated with five pairs of human‐headed bull and lion colossi. Beyond this were the throne‐room suite and a smaller inner court, surrounded by large state apartments. The walls of all the rooms in this part of the palace were lined with stone slabs, most of which were carved with images of protective deities, rituals, campaigns, and hunts. The areas above the wall reliefs were decorated with wall paintings and glazed bricks, but these survived only in fragments. To the south of the state apartments were smaller undecorated rooms, probably domestic service areas. Two wells in this area contained a large number of ivory plaques, and four undisturbed vaulted tombs concealed beneath the floors here contained lavish grave goods, some of which belonged to Neo‐Assyrian queens (Grayson 1991: 227–8, 276, 289–90; Postgate and Reade 1976–80: 311–14; Oates and Oates 2001: 36–70, 78–104; Hussein and Suleiman 2000; Hussein et al. 2016; also see Chapter 24 of this volume). The Iraq State Organization for Antiquities and Heritage restored the area of the decorated state apartments as a site museum, to give visitors a chance to view a large number of reliefs and inscribed slabs in their original context, but in April 2015 it was mostly destroyed by supporters of ISIS.
Of the nine temples listed in Aššurnaṣirpal II’s inscriptions, four – of Ninurta, Šarrat‐nipḫi, Ištar of Kidmuru, and Nabû – have been located. The Ninurta temple was at the northwest corner of the citadel, between the ziggurat and Aššurnaṣirpal’s palace. A pair of inscribed human‐headed lion colossi was in its main entrance, and other entrances had protective figures carved in relief on wall slabs. Aššurnaṣirpal II’s inscriptions were found throughout the temple, leaving no doubt that he built it. Just east of the Ninurta temple was the temple of Ištar Šarrat‐nipḫi. Its main entrance was decorated with glazed bricks and a pair of inscribed lion colossi that identify Aššurnaṣirpal II as its builder, and two other entrances also contained colossi. Southeast of this was the Kidmuru temple, identified only by its doorway and altar (Grayson 1991: 291; Oates and Oates 2001: 107–10; Reade 2002a; Hussein 2008: 91–5; Hussein, Kertai, and Altaweel 2013: 104–8, pls. XLV–XLIX). The so‐called Central Building at the center of the citadel is dated by inscribed reliefs to Aššurnaṣirpal II. It was probably a temple, though it is not known to whom it was dedicated. Its facade was decorated with colossal bulls and lions, and inside were wall reliefs showing deities (Meuszynski 1976; Sobolewski 1982a: 256–8; Oates and Oates 2001: 71–3; Hussein, Kertai, and Altaweel 2013: 96–8; Kertai 2013: 11–13).
At Imgur‐Enlil (modern Balawat), Aššurnaṣirpal II built a temple to Mamu, the god of dreams, and a palace. Most of the temple has been excavated. It consisted of an outer court with a small shrine opening directly off of its northeast side and the gateway to the inner court on its northwest side. The doorway to the main shrine, which had doors of wood decorated with bronze bands, was on the northwest side of the inner court. The main shrine had the standard Neo‐Assyrian plan of broad antechamber and long cult room. Of the palace, only a single small room has been excavated (Oates 1974; Curtis, in Curtis and Tallis, eds. 2008: 7–22).
Shalmaneser III (858–824 BCE)
We don’t know what city Shalmaneser III considered to be his residential capital at the beginning of his reign, but most of the military campaigns of his first twelve years departed from Nineveh (thereafter, the point of origin is not mentioned at all). At Nineveh, palace bricks of Shalmaneser III were found in secondary context in the area of the Ištar temple (Grayson 1996: 170; Reade 2005: 378).
At Kalḫu, Shalmaneser III worked on the Northwest Palace and either built or finished the ziggurat, which was about 60 meters square, the lower part faced with stone and the upper with baked brick. Until recently the most prominent structure still standing at Kalḫu, the ziggurat was leveled by ISIS in September–October 2016. In addition, a pair of inscribed bull gateway colossi at the center of the citadel mark the entrance to some monumental building that was apparently later demolished by Tiglath‐pileser III to make way for his Central Palace. The character of this building is unknown, but the absence of the word “palace” at the beginning of the inscription suggests that it may have been a temple, perhaps part of Aššurnaṣirpal II’s Central Building, which also contained pavement bricks of Shalmaneser III (Grayson 1996: 42–8, 136, 166–8; Mallowan 1952: 6–7, 11–14; Reade 2002a: 156–67; Sobolewski 1982b; Kertai 2013: 13–14).
On the east side of the citadel, just north of the later Nabû temple, was the Governor’s Palace, which probably dates to late in the reign of Shalmaneser III. Texts found there indicate that it was the palace of the governors of Kalḫu from the late ninth through the eighth centuries. An area of some 50 by 60 meters was excavated, including an inner court surrounded by residential suites and offices, and the building must originally have extended considerably further to the east. Two partially excavated structures, Palace AB and the 1950 Building, are dated to Shalmaneser III on the basis of inscribed bricks (Postgate 1973b: 3–7; Postgate and Reade 1976‐80: 316; Oates and Oates 2001: 130–5).
Shalmaneser III’s largest project at Kalḫu was the arsenal – called the “review palace” by the later Assyrian kings and “Fort Shalmaneser” by its excavators – a huge new palace that served as a storehouse for military equipment and tribute, and as the assembly point for the army. It was located at the southeast corner of the city, just inside the city wall, and measured some 200 by 300 meters. The structure was divided into four quadrants. The two to the north were large entrance courtyards, each surrounded by storerooms and offices. The quadrant to the southwest had been subdivided into a block of smaller courts and long rooms, probably barracks. The quadrant to the southeast had the headquarters of the palace overseer in its northwest corner and the throne‐room suite on its south side. The walls of the throne room suite and other major rooms were not covered with stone slabs, nor were there colossi in the doorways (Grayson 1996: 101–14, 137, 140; Mallowan 1966: II, 369–470; Oates and Oates 2001: 144–94; Kertai 2011).
At Ashur, Shalmaneser III carried out a major rebuilding of the city walls, the visible remains of which are mostly his work. He built a new outer wall that enclosed the New Town and then followed Tukulti‐Ninurta I’s ditch around the south and west to the New Palace. The New Palace was apparently not in use at the time Shalmaneser III’s inner wall was built, since it cuts diagonally across the northeastern side of the palace terrace. The southern quarter of the palace terrace was the site of a number of private houses later in the Neo‐Assyrian period. This was the largest group of houses excavated in Ashur and it is the only place where one gets a real sense of reside
ntial life in the city. Shalmaneser III also completely rebuilt the Anu‐Adad temple. About half of its plan was preserved. The temple itself was about the same length as the previous version and was laid out on the same general plan, but it was narrower and the ziggurats were much smaller, only 24 meters square (Grayson 1996: 55–8, 97–101, 115–16, 119–30, 134–5, 151–2, 156–9; Andrae 1913; Preusser 1954: 15–55; Andrae 1909: 39–78).
Shalmaneser III may have carried out work on the Old Palace as well, and he appears to have been the builder of the East Palace, a new palace southeast of the Old Palace, at the highest point on the city mound. This building, which has been only partially excavated, included one large reception suite and an even larger reception room furnished with “tramlines” for a wheeled brazier. In the final phase of this building, the doors of one of the largest rooms (41) were walled off and the room was filled with grain – the remains of which were found in the burned destruction layer – evidently in preparation for an approaching siege (Lundström 2013; Miglus 2013; Duri et al. 2013: 83–4, pls. XXXIII–XXXIVa).
Til‐Barsip (modern Tell Ahmar), a walled city on the east bank of the Euphrates with an area of about 55 hectares, was a major river ford on the route from Assyria to the Mediterranean. In order to ensure unfettered access to the west, Shalmaneser III captured the city in 856 BCE and renamed it Kar‐Salmanu‐ašared (“Port Shalmaneser”). He built a new palace on the high mound beside the river. Its excavated dimensions were 130 × 70 m, but it was originally larger, as the south side – including most of the throne room – was eroded away. The plan as preserved includes an entrance court, a throne‐room court, and an inner court surrounded by typical reception suites. It is uncertain how much of this structure is Shalmaneser III’s work and how much was added or rebuilt later. The palace is important for its numerous well‐preserved wall paintings, which seem to date to the reigns of Tiglath‐pileser III (744–727 BCE) and a seventh century king (Thureau‐Dangin et al. 1936: 8–42, pls. XXXIX–XLII, plans B, D).
Adad‐nirari III (810–783 BCE)
Aššurnaṣirpal II claims to have founded the Nabû temple of Kalḫu, near the southeast corner of the citadel, but the structure as excavated was built by later kings. Adad‐nirari III apparently built or rebuilt the entire temple, but his work survives only in the southern half. This consisted of twin sanctuaries of Nabû and his consort Tašmetu opening off the west side of a courtyard. Opposite the shrines, on the east side of the courtyard, was a library chamber. The northern half was later rebuilt, and its layout at the time of Adad‐nirari III is unknown. Adad‐nirari III was also probably responsible for a major rebuilding of the “Burnt Palace” directly west of the Nabû temple, first built by a ninth century king. The excavated part of this palace was 90 by 30 meters, but it must have been larger as its south and west ends have not been excavated (Grayson 1996: 226–7; Oates 1957; Postgate and Reade 1976–80: 309–11; Oates and Oates 2001: 111–30).
At the west edge of Kalḫu citadel, four inscribed thresholds identify Adad‐nirari III as the builder of a suite of rooms to the south of Aššurnaṣirpal’s palace. These rooms were on a mud brick platform at a somewhat higher level than Aššurnaṣirpal’s palace and were decorated with wall paintings that featured bulls and geometric and floral motifs. The large reception room in this suite was furnished with a dais and two sets of “tramlines,” evidently tracks for a wheeled brazier. The confusing plan of this suite was clarified somewhat by Iraqi excavations in 1993 (Grayson 1996: 201–3, 212–13; Turner 1970b: 198–9, pl. 43; Russell 1999: 5–6, 83–7; Kertai 2013: 14–17, pl. V; Hussein, Kertai, and Altaweel 2013: 98–104, pls. XLIII–XLIV). Adad‐nirari III also built a palatial residence at the northwest corner of Kalḫu, just inside the city wall (“area PD 5”). Only a small part has been investigated and its original extent and function are unknown. Several of its rooms were decorated with geometric wall paintings (Grayson 1996: 221; Mallowan 1954: 70, 153–63).
The Nabû temple at Nineveh was located near the center of Kuyunjik, about 36 meters northwest of the Ištar temple. As with the Ištar temple, its remains were poorly preserved, but several inscriptions were recovered that give a fair idea of the history of the structure. A text of Sargon II reports that Adad‐nirari III rebuilt the temple, and inscribed bricks of Adad‐nirari III confirm that he built, or rebuilt, it. This accords well with the entry in the Assyrian eponym canon for 788 BCE, “the foundations of the Nabû temple in Nineveh were laid,” suggesting that Adad‐nirari III may have been the original founder of this temple. Also at Nineveh, palace bricks of Šamši‐Adad V and Adad‐nirari III were found in secondary context in the area of the Ištar temple. Those of Adad‐nirari say that he finished the palace begun by his father (Grayson 1996: 218–21; Thompson and Hamilton 1932: 103–4; Millard 1994: 36, 58; Reade 1998–2001: 410).
Tiglath‐pileser III (744–727 BCE)
Tiglath‐pileser III ruled from Kalḫu, where he built a new palace decorated with wall reliefs in the manner of Aššurnaṣirpal II’s palace. No identifiable architectural remains have been recovered from this palace, which Layard called the Central Palace. Tiglath‐pileser III says it was on the Tigris, so Postgate and Reade suggested that it extended from the west edge of the citadel to Shalmaneser III’s bull colossi in the center of the mound. Its southern boundary is unknown. Its walls were not preserved, but many sculptured stone slabs that had been removed from the walls were found stacked in the center of the Kalḫu citadel prior to being moved to Esarhaddon’s Southwest Palace, where other reused Tiglath‐pileser slabs were found already in place on the walls. Some of the reliefs have a place prepared for an inscription that was never added, suggesting that the palace was uncompleted at Tiglath‐pileser’s death. According to his inscriptions, Tiglath‐pileser’s was the first Assyrian palace to include a bīt hilāni “like a Hittite palace,” an appropriation of a desirable North Syrian architectural form (Tadmor and Yamada 2011: 123; Barnett and Falkner 1962: 1–7; Postgate and Reade 1976–80: 314–15; Sobolewski 1982a: 261–73; Kertai 2013: 16–18).
At Ashur, Tiglath‐pileser III and Sargon II added or restored podiums in front of the main southwest and southeast entrances of the Assur temple and faced these with glazed bricks decorated with military narrative scenes. All but one of the drawings and photographs of these glazed panels were lost in World War I, but from Haller’s descriptions, it is clear that the range of subjects was the same as those for the Assyrian wall reliefs. Tiglath‐pileser III also had glazed bricks made for a podium in the Adad temple, but they were used instead by Sargon II for his embellishment of the Assur temple (Andrae 1925: 21–3, figs. 4–5, pl. 6; Haller and Andrae 1955: 56–64).
In the west, Tiglath‐pileser apparently restored the palace at Til‐Barsip, where a number of narrative wall paintings seem to date to his reign (Thureau‐Dangin et al. 1936). Tiglath‐pileser was also active at the provincial town of Ḫadatu (modern Arslan Tash), some 35 km northeast of Til‐Barsip, where he built or restored the west gate, the Ištar temple, and possibly the palace. The architectural remains of the Ištar temple were badly disturbed, but included an outer gate with two inscribed basalt bulls, a shrine with two basalt lions at its entrance, and probably a number of statues of male deities. The inscription on the bulls identified this as the Ištar temple at Ḫadatu and named Tiglath‐pileser III as its builder (Tadmor and Yamada 2011: 139–42; Thureau‐Dangin et al. 1931).
Sargon II (721–705 BCE)
Early in his reign, Sargon II reports that he restored Aššurnaṣirpal II’s palace at Kalḫu, which he calls the “Juniper Palace,” and filled it with plunder, in particular the booty from his conquest of Carchemish (Russell 1999a: 99). Sargon II or Assurbanipal rebuilt the northern half of the Nabû temple at Kalḫu. It included the entrance court, the outer gateway to which was decorated with two headless statues of fish‐people (a text that may refer to this temple mentions both fish‐men and fish‐women, and the sex of these two cannot be determine
d), and a small inner court from which opened a second smaller pair of twin shrines and a reception room. The outer gateway area, including the statues of fish‐people, was destroyed by ISIS with explosives in April 2016. Sargon II also probably rebuilt the “Burnt Palace” directly west of the Nabû temple. The walls of its main reception room were decorated with bands of red paint, and royal letters of Sargon II were found in this area (Oates 1957; Postgate and Reade 1976–80: 309–11, 315–16; Mallowan 1954: 81; Dalley and Postgate 1984: 159–63; Oates and Oates 2001: 124–30; Postgate 1973b: 225–6).
In his fifth year, Sargon founded a new capital city called Dur‐Šarrukin (“Fortress of Sargon”, modern Khorsabad) some 18 kilometers northeast of Nineveh. Sargon claimed the city was completely new, built where only farmland and a small village had been before. The city and its structures are described in a number of contemporary building accounts from Dur‐Šarrukin, one of which gives an unusually complete description of the founding of the city, including the information that the owners of land appropriated for the city were either reimbursed or given comparable land outside the city walls. Sargon’s reasons for choosing this location are not clear, as Dur‐Šarrukin is inferior to Kalḫu and Nineveh both strategically and for ease of communication. Sargon reports that it was built in the vicinity of the springs at the foot of Mt. Muṣri, and like Aššurnaṣirpal, Sargon says he dug a canal to irrigate a pleasure garden, “a replica of Mt. Amanus,” planted with all kinds of trees from Ḫatti. Sargon’s references to the springs, canal, and pleasure garden make it clear that the plentiful supply of irrigation water was a key advantage of this location (Fuchs 1994: 66–74, 304–7; Russell 1999a: 234–41).