Ancient Iraq

by Georges Roux

  26. E. K. RITTER, ‘Magical expert ( = ašipu) and physician ( = asû): notes on two complementary professions in Babylonian medicine’, Assyriological Studies, Chicago, XVI (1965), pp. 299 – 321.

  27. R. LABAT, Traité Akkadien de Diagnostics et Pronostics Médicaux, Leiden, 1951.

  28. R. LABAT, Traité, op. cit., p. 3.

  29. R. LABAT, Traité, p. 81.

  30. R. LABAT, Traité, p. 173.

  31. F. KUCHLER, Beiträge zur Kentniss der Assyrisch-Babylonischen Medizin, Leipzig, 1904, p. 60.

  32. J. V. KINNIER WILSON. ‘An introduction to Babylonian psychiatry’, Festschrif Benno Landsberger, Chicago, 1965, pp. 289 – 98; Id., ‘Mental diseases in ancient Mesopotamia’, in Diseases in Antiquity, Springfield, III, 1967, pp. 723 – 33.

  33. L. LEGRAIN, ‘Nippur old drug store’, University Museum Bulletin, VIII (1940), pp. 25 – 7; M. CIVIL, ‘Prescriptions médicales sumériennes’, RA, LIV (1960), pp. 57 – 72; S. N. KRAMER, The Sumerians, Chicago, 1963, pp. 93 – 8; P. HERRERO, La Thérapeutique Mésopotamienne, Paris, 1984.

  34. R. C. THOMPSON, ‘Assyrian prescriptions for disease of the urine’, Babyloniaca, XIV (1934), p. 124.

  35. R. C. THOMPSON, ‘Assyrian prescriptions for diseases of the chest and lungs’, RA, XXXI (1934), p. 23.

  36. RCAE, No. 108.

  37. A. FINET, ‘Les Médecins au royaume de Mari’, Annuaire de l'Institut de Philologie et d'Histoire Orientales et Slaves, Bruxelles, XV (1954 – 7), pp. 123 – 44

  Chapter 23

  1. The principal sources for the political history of this period are: 1. The six Babylonian chronicles assembled by A. K. GRAYSON in ABC, pp. 87 – 111; 2. A few letters published by E. EBELING, Neubabylonische Briefe, München, 1949; 3. The Old Testament, notably II Kings, II Chronicles and the Prophets; 4. Some classical authors (Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus, Josephus, Berossus); 5. The royal inscriptions published by S. LANGDON, Die Neubabylonischen Königsinschriften (NBK), Leipzig, 1912; their bibliography has been updated by P. R. BERGER under the same title in AOAT, IV, Neukirchen-Vluyn, 1973.

  2. HERODOTUS, I, 102 ff. Cf. DIODORUS SICULUS, II, 26, I-4.

  3. R. BORGER, ‘Der Aufstieg des neubabylonischen Reiches’, JCS, XIX (1965), pp. 59 – 78; J. OATES, ‘Assyrian chronology, 631 – 612 B.C.’, Iraq, XXVII (1965), pp. 135 – 59; W. VON SODEN, ‘Aššuretillilani, Sinsariškun, Sinšum(u) liser, und die Ereignisse im Assyrerreich nach 635 v.Chr.’, ZA, LVIII (1967), pp. 241 – 55; J. READE, ‘The accession of Sinsharishkun’, JCS, XXVIII (1970), pp. 1– 9.

  4. See the reservations expressed by J. A. BRINKMAN, Prelude to Empire, Philadelphia, 1964, p. 110, note 551, on the ethnic origin of Nabopolassar.

  5. This very important chronicle was first published by C. J. GADD, The Fall of Nineveh, London, 1923, then, with additions, by D. J. WISEMAN, Chronicles of Chaldaean Kings, London, 1956 and lately by A. K. GRAYSON in ABC, pp. 90 – 96. Cf. ANET, pp. 303 – 5.

  6. II Kings xxiii. 4, 15 – 19; II Chronicles xxxiv. 6.

  7. D. J. WISEMAN, Chronicles, p. 57; ABC, p. 93.

  8. Discussion by c. J. GADD, The Fall of Nineveh, pp. 10 – 11.

  9. D. J. WISEMAN, Chronicles, pp. 59 – 61; ABC, p. 94.

  10. Kalhu (Nimrud) is not mentioned in the chronicle. It seems that it was taken in 614 and destroyed in 610 B.C. (D. OATES, Iraq, XXIII (1961), pp. 9 – 10).

  11. The term Umman-manda, first used in the second millennium B.C. to designate Indo-European warriors on chariots (F. CORNELIUS, ‘ERIN-manda’, Iraq, XXV, 1963, pp. 167 – 70, then loosely used for the Cimmerians and/or the Scythians, here seems to apply to the Medes (D. J. WISEMAN, Chronicles, p. 16).

  12. NBK, p. 61; A. T. OLMSTEAD, History of Assyria, p. 640.

  13. Joyful reactions in Judah: Zephaniah ii. 13 ff.; Nahum ii. ff., Ezekiel xxxi. 3 ff.; xxxii. 22 ff.

  14. II Kings xxiii. 29; II Chronicles xxxv. 20; Jeremiah xiv. 2; HERODOTUS, II, 159.

  15. D. J. WISEMAN, Chronicles, pp. 59 – 61; ABC, p. 99.

  16. The most recent general studies on this king and his reign are: A. BOYD and T. S. R. BOASE, Nebuchadnezzar, London, 1972; D. J. WISEMAN, Nebuchadrezzar and Babylon, Oxford, 1985.

  17. ‘Chronicle of the early years of Nebuchadnezzar II’, lines 6 – 7 and 9 – 10, ABC, p. 101.

  18. II Kings xxiv.17; Jeremiah xxxvii. 1; JOSEPHUS, Antiq. Jud., X, 6; D. J. WISEMAN, Chronicles, pp. 32 – 5, 73.

  19. Cf. A. GARDINER, Egypt of the Pharaohs, pp. 260 – 61.

  20. II Kings, xxv. 6 – 7 (cf. II Chronicles xxxvi. 13 – 20; Jeremiah xxxiv. 1 – 18).

  21. Five years later, however, Jerusalem revolted and other Jews were deported (Jeremiah lii. 30). It has been estimated that 15,000 men with their families were deported in 587 B.C and that the three deportations involved in all some 50,000 people.

  22. D. J. WISEMAN, Chronicles, pp. 30, 94 – 5.

  23. From an inscription of Nebuchadrezzar in Wadi-Brissa, Lebanon: NBK, p. 175; ANET, p. 307.

  24. HERODOTUS, I, 74.

  25. BEROSSUS, III, 108 – 10. Also see the Nabonidus stele in ANET, pp. 308 – 11. On Neriglissar, see: R. H. SACK, ‘Nergal-šarra-usur, King of Babylon, as seen in the cuneiform, Greek, Latin and Hebrew sources’, ZA, LXVIII (1978), pp. 129 – 49.

  26. D. J. WISEMAN, Chronicles, pp. 37 – 42, 75 – 7.

  27. General studies on Nabonidus's reign: R. H. SACK, ‘Nebuchadnezzar and Nabonidus in folklore and history’, Mesopotamia, XVII (1982), pp. 67 – 131; P. A. BEAULIEU, The Reign of Nabonidus king of Babylon 556 – 539 B.C., New Haven/London, 1989.

  28. Nabonidus had written a biography of his mother after her death, in two stelae. Texts in ANET, pp. 311 – 12 and 560 – 62.

  29. S. SMITH, ‘The verse account of Nabonidus’, Babylonian Historical Texts, London, 1924, pp. 83–97. Cf. ANET, pp. 312 – 15.

  30. Daniel, IV, 28 – 33. Cf. R. MEYER, Das Gebete des Nabonid, Berlin, 1962; W. DOMMERHAUSEN, Nabonidus im Buche Daniel, Mainz, 1964.

  31. SIR LEONARD WOOLLEY and P. R. S. MOOREY, Ur of the Chaldees, London, 1982, pp. 251 – 3; J. OATES, Babylon, 1979, pp. 160 – 62.

  32. HERODOTUS, I, 127 – 30; STRABO, XV, 3, 8; DIODORUS SICULUS, II, 34, 6.

  33. NBK, p. 221. Cf. A. L. OPPENHEIM, The Interpretation of Dreams in the Ancient Near East, Philadelphia, 1956, p. 250, no. 12.

  34. Nabonidus Chronicle, II, 1 – 4 (ABC, p. 106; ANET, pp. 305 – 7).

  35. Nabonidus Chronicle II, 5 – 25.

  36. C. J. GADD, ‘The Harran inscription of Nabonidus’, Anatolian Studies, VII (1958), pp. 35 – 92.

  37. See notably: W. RÖLLIG, ‘Nabonid und Tema’, Compte rendu de la XIe Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, Leiden, 1964, pp. 21 – 32; W. G. LAMBERT, ‘Nabonidus in Arabia’, Proceedings of the Vth Seminar for Arabian Studies, London, 1972, pp. 53 – 64; P. A. BEAULIEU, op. cit., note 27, pp. 178 – 85.

  38. Nabonidus Chronicle, III, 12 – 19 (ABC, pp. 109 – 10; ANET, p. 306).

  39. JOSEPHUS, Contra Apionnem, I, 21; EUSEBIUS, Praep. Evang. IX, 41.

  40. F. H. WEISSBACH, Die Keilinschriften der Achaemeniden, Leipzig, 1911, pp. 2 ff.; ANET, pp. 315 – 16.

  Chapter 24

  1. Jeremiah, li., 7; HERODOTUS, I, 178. The Hebraic and Greek or Latin sources on Babylon have been assembled by W. H. LANE, Babylonian Problems, London, 1923, and the cuneiform sources by E. UNGER, Babylon, die heilige Stadt nach der Beschreibung der Babylonier, Berlin, 1970.

  2. Each important part of the site has been published separately in the series: Wissenschaftliche Veröffentlichungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft (WVDOG), Berlin. Overall review of the results by R. KOLDEWY, Das viedererstehende Babylon, Leipzig, 1925 reprinted in Zurich in 1981. Also see: J. WELLARD, Babylon, New York, 1974, and J. OATES, Babylon, London, 1979, pp. 144 – 59.

  3. F. WETZEL, Die Stadtmauern von Babylon (WVDOG, 48), Leipzig, 1930.

  4. R. KOLDEWEY, Das Ischtar-Tor in Babylon (WVDOG, 32), Leipzig, 1918; J. OATES, Babylon, pp. 153 – 6, fig. 105 – 9; A. P
ARROT, Nineveh and Babylon, London, 1961; fig. 220 – 22.

  5. R. KOLDEWEY and F. WETZEL, Die Königsburgen von Babylon, II (WVDOG, 55), Leipzig, 1932.

  6. O. REUTHER, Merkes, die Innenstadt von Babylon (WVDOG, 47), Leipzig, 1926.

  7. R. KOLDEWEY and F. WETZEL, Die Königsburgen von Babylon, I (WVDOG, 54), Leipzig, 1931.

  8. DIODORUS SICULUS, II, 10; STRABO, XVI, i, 5; QUINTUS CUR-TIUS, Hist Alex., V, i, 31 – 5; BEROSSUS in JOSEPHUS, Antiq. Jud., X, 226 – 7; Contra Apionnem, I, 19.

  9. J. OATES, Babylon, p. 151. Lists of rations for the Jews exiled in Babylon have been found among these tablets (Cf. ANET, p. 308). On the ‘Hanging Gardens’, see: W. NAGEL,’ ‘Wo lagen die “Hängenden Gärten” in Babylon’, MDOG, CX, (1978), pp. 19 –28.

  10. F. WETZEL, E. WEIBACH, Das Hauptheiligtum des Marduk in Babylon: Esagila und Etemenanki (WVDOG, 59), Leipzig, 1938. On ziqqurats see the publications referred to in chapter 10, note 5.

  11. HERODOTUS, I, 182 – 3.

  12. NBK, pp. 125 – 7.

  13. HERODOTUS, I, 183.

  14. The New Year Festival can be reconstructed from various texts, the most important being the akîtu-ritual dating to the Seleucid period published by F. THUREAU-DANGIN, Rituels Accadiens, Paris, 1921, pp. 127 – 54 (ANET, pp. 331 – 4). Descriptions and studies in: A. PALLIS, The Babylonian Akîtu Festival, Copenhagen, 1926; R. LABAT, Le Caractère Religieux, pp. 166 – 76; H. FRANKFORT, Kingship and the Gods, pp. 313 – 33. Important article by A. FALKEN-STEIN, akiti-Fest und akiti-Festhaus, in Festschrift Johannes Friedrich, Heidelberg, 1959, pp. 147 – 82. Outside Babylon, New Year Festivals were celebrated in Assur, Nineveh, Erbil, Harran, Dilbat and Uruk, but at different dates.

  15. Partially excavated by the Germans in 1902 [R. KOLDEWEY, Die Tempel von Babylon und Borsippa (WVDOG, 15), Leipzig, 1911, pp. 50 – 59]. Important remains of the ziqqurat and of the temple.

  16. ANET, p. 334.

  17. For the significance of th gesture and its relationship with the legitimacy of the king, see A. K. GRAYSON, ‘Chronicles and the akîtu festival’, in A. FINET (ed.), Actes de la XVIIe Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, Ham-sur-Heure (Belgium), 1970, pp. 160 – 70.

  18. The bît akîtu of Assur, described by Sennacherib (ARAB, II, §§ 434 – 51c) has been excavated (RLA, I, p. 188; AM, I, pp. 228-30). Excavations at Uruk (UVB, 1956, pp. 35 – 42) have yielded the plan of its bît akîtu. According to A. FALKENSTEIN op. cit., there were three akîtu-temples in Babylon during the Neo-Babylonian period.

  19. W. G. LAMBERT, ‘The great battle of the Mesopotamian religious year: the conflict in the akitu house’, Iraq, XXV (1963), pp. 189 – 90.

  20. The main study on this subject is that of D. COQUERILLAT, Palmeraies et Cultures de l'Eanna d'Uruk (559 – 520), Berlin, 1968. See also: H. F. LUTZ, Neo-Babylonian Administrative Documents from Erech, Berkeley, 1927; R. P. DOUGHERTY, Archives from Erech, New Haven, 1927 – 33. On the temple administration, H. W. F. SAGGS, ‘Two administrative officials at Erech in the sixth century B.C.’, Sumer, XV (1959), pp. 29 – 38, and The Greatness That Was Babylon, op. cit., pp. 261 – 8; P. GARELLI in Le Proche-Orient Asiatique, II, pp. 159 – 64 and 287 – 90.

  21. R. P. DOUGHERTY, The shirkûtu of Babylonian Deities, New Haven, 1923.

  22. O. KRUCKMANN, Neubabylonische Rechts- und Verwaltungstexte, Leipzig, 1933; H. H. FIGULLA, Business Document of the New Babylonian period (UET, IV), London, 1949; M. SAN NICOLO and H. PET-SCHOW, Babylonische Rechtsurkunden aus dem 6. Jahrhundert vor Chr., München, 1960.

  23. A. T. OLMSTEAD, History of Assyria, pp. 256 – 7.

  24. B. MEISSNER, Warenpreise in Babylonia, Berlin, 1936; W. H. DUBBER-TEIN, ‘Comparative prices in later Babylonia‘, AJSL, LVI (1930), pp. 20 – 43. 1 qa was worth 10 gar, or 675 square feet. For a radically different opinion, cf. P. GARELLI, op.cit., pp. 285 – 7.

  25. G. CHILDE, What Happened in History, Harmondsworth, 1942, p. 193.

  26. A. UNGNAD, ‘Das Haus Egibi‘, AfO, XIV (1941 – 4), pp. 57 – 64; R. BOGAERT, Les Origines Antiques de la Banque de Dépôt, Leiden, 1966, pp. 105 – 18.

  Chapter 25

  1. On these dates and their historical implications, see R. A. PARKER and W. H. DUBBERSTEIN, Babylonian Chronology 626 B.C.–A.D. 75, Providence, Rhode Island., 1956.

  2. For a discussion of the events leading to the ‘usurpation’ of Darius, see A. T. OLMSTEAD, History of the Persian Empire, Chicago, 1948, pp. 107 – 13.

  3. F. H. WEISSBACH, Die Keilinschriften der Achaemeniden, Leiden, 1911; F. W. KONIG, Relief und inschrift des Koenigs Daraios I. am Felsen von Bagistan, Leiden, 1938. Cf. G. G. CAMERON, ‘The Old Persian text of the Bisitun inscription’, JCS, V (1951), pp. 47 – 54.

  4. Behistun, § 50.

  5. On these two revolts: TH. DE LIAGRE BÖHL, ‘Die babylonischen Pratendenten zur Anfangzeit des Darius (Dareios), I’, Bi. Or., XXVI (1968), pp. 150 – 53.

  6. R. A. PARKER and W. H. DUBBERSTEIN, op. cit., p. 17; HERODOTUS, I, 183; STRABO, XVI, i, 5; ARRIAN, Anabasis, VII, xvii, 2; DIODORUS, II, ix, 4 ff.; CTESIAS, Persica, Epit. 52 – 3; F. M. TH. DE LIAGRE BOHL, ‘Die Babylonischen Pratendenten zur Zeit Xerxes‘, Bi. Or., XIX (1962), pp. 110 – 14.

  7. SIR LEONARD WOOLLEY and P. R. S. MOOREY, Ur of the Chaldees, London, 1982, p. 259; UVB, XII – XIII (1956), p. 17; pp. 28 – 31; F. WETZEL, E. SCHMIDT and A. MALLWIST; Das Babylon der Spätzeit, (WVDOG, 62), Berlin, 1957, pp. 25 – 7.

  8. A. T. CLAY, Legal and Commercial Transactions dated in the Assyrian, Neo-Babylonian and Persian Periods, Philadelphia, 1908; A. TREMAYNE Records from Erech, Time of Cyrus and Cambyses, New Haven, 1925.

  9. This was a letter of introduction, written in Aramaic, given to a tradesman who returned from Babylonia to Egypt via Assyria: D. OATES, Studies in the Ancient History of Northern Iraq, London, 1968, pp. 59 – 60.

  10. XENOPHON, Anabasis, II, 4 to III, 5; D. OATES, op. cit., pp. 60 – 61; G. GOOSENS, ‘L'Assyrie après l'empire‘, Compte rendu de la IIIe Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, Leiden, 1854, p. 93.

  11. A. T. OLMSTEAD, op. cit., p. 293; M. W. STOLPER, Management and Politics in Later Achaemenid Babylonia, 2 vol., Ann Arbor, 1974.

  12. HERODOTUS, I, 192; A. T. OLMSTEAD, op. cit., p. 293.

  13. A. T. OLMSTEAD, op. cit., pp. 299 – 301.

  14. G. CARDASCIA, Les Archives des Murashû, Paris, 1951.

  15. R. ZADOK, ‘Iranians and individuals bearing Iranian names in Achaemenian Babylonia‘, Israel Oriental Studies, VII (1977), pp. 89 – 138.

  16. Often called, wrongly, the battle of Arbela (Erbil). The battle took place in the plain of Keramlais, 23 kilometres east of Nineveh. Cf. SIR AUREL STEIN, Geographical Journal, C (1942), p. 155.

  17. ARRIAN, Anabasis, III, xvi, 4; VII, xvii, 2; STRABO, XVI, i, 5.

  18. ‘Chronicle concerning the Diadochi‘, ABC, pp. 115 – 19.

  19. A. J. SACHS and D. J. WISEMAN, ‘A Babylonian King List of the hellenistic period‘, Iraq, XVI (1954), pp. 202 – 11.

  20. Discussion in M. ROSTOVTZEFF, The Social and Economic History of the Hellenistic World, Oxford, 1941, I, pp. 499 – 504.

  21. The term ‘Mesopotamia’ is taken here in its broader sense. During the Seleucid period, the country was divided into three satrapies: Mesopotamia in the north, Babylonia in the south and Parapotamia along the Euphrates.

  22. American excavations in 1927 – 32 and 1936 – 7. Italian, then Italian Iraqi excavations from 1964 to 1974, resumed in 1985. Preliminary results in Mesopotamia, I (1966) to VIII (1973 – 4), then XXI (1986). Summary of results by A. INVERNIZZI, ‘Ten years research in the al-Mada’ in area: Seleucia and Ctesiphon‘, Sumer, XXXII (1976), pp. 167 – 75.

  23. French excavations 1922 – 3; American excavations, 1928 – 39. Several Preliminary and Final Reports published. For a general account of the excavations, M. ROSTOVTZFF, Dura-Europus and its Art, Oxford, 1938.

  24. A. T. CLAY Legal Documents from Erech dated in the Seleucid Era, New Haven, 1913; O. KRÜCKMAN, Babylonische Rechts- und V
erwal-tungsurkunden aus der Zeit Alexanders und die Diadochen, Weimar, 1931. Also see: G. K. SARKISIAN in VDI, I (1955), pp. 136 – 70 and Forschungen und Berichte, XVI (1975), pp. 15 – 76.

  25. Nimrud: D. and J. OATES, ‘Nimrud, 1957: the Hellenistic Settlement’, Iraq, XX (1958), pp. 114 – 57. Seleucid graves at Mari: A. PARROT, Syria, XVI (1935), pp. 10 – 11; XXIX (1952), pp. 1867; XXXII (1955), pp. 189 – 90. Remains of a Greco-Oriental temple at Arslan-Tash, F. THUREAU-DANGIN, Arslan-Tash, Paris, 1931.

  26. ANET, p. 317.

  27. F. WETZEL et al., op. cit., pp. 3 – 21. The theatre has recently been re-excavated and restored by the Iraqi Directorate of Antiquities. Cf. Iraq, XXXIV (1972), pp. 139 – 40.