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The Historical Inscriptions of Adad-Nirari III

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

Hayim Tadmor
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Extract

The publication of BM 131124—a fragment of a stele from Sheikh Hammad on the Khabur—and a fresh treatment of another neglected fragment published by V. Scheil in 1917, identified and re-edited by A. R. Millard (above, p. 57 ff.) has increased considerably the small corpus of Adad-nirari's historical inscriptions. Each of the extant texts is a commemorative inscription, usually brief and self-contained, incised on a stele or a stone slab. Another feature which they all share is that they are mainly concerned with Adad-nirari's expeditions to the west, though the precise regnal year of these is not indicated there. This present inquiry will be concerned with the specific character of the best preserved inscriptions and their value as historical documents.

None of the extant historical records of Adad-nirari III published so far can be classified as annals. They all belong to a category which we would like to designate as “summary inscriptions”. A distinctive feature of this type—called Prunkinschriften by Schrader and “Display Inscriptions” by Olmstead—is the condensation of early with later events into one geographically but not chronologically coherent narrative. Usually an inscription of this category is much shorter than any edition of the royal annals, especially as it was inscribed upon a surface with limited space, such as a commemorative stele or a slab. It normally contains the following elements: (a) a prologue, consisting of invocation to the gods and the king's titulature; (b) a geographically arranged summary of events; (c) the main section explaining the circumstances leading to the composition of the inscription, introduced by the formula ina ûmēšūma = “at that time”; (d) an epilogue with maledictions.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 35 , Issue 2 , Autumn 1973 , pp. 141 - 150
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1973

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References

1 A small fragment of a clay tablet, ND 5417 (published by Wiseman, D. J. in Iraq 26 (1964), 119; Plate XXVICrossRefGoogle Scholar) may perhaps belong to Adad-nirari, or to his father Šamši-Adad V. The stele fragment BM 115020 (unpublished) cited in Iraq 30 (1968), 140, n. 9Google Scholar is generally attributed to Šamši-Adad V, see B.M. Guide (1922), 72 no. 250Google Scholar.

2 That is to follow Schrader's, E. original terminology in KAT (1872), 130Google Scholar: “Uebersichtsinschriften”.

3 Suggested in his Zur Kritik der Inschriften Tiglath-Pileser II etc. (Abh. d. Kön. Akad. d. Wiss. zu Berlin) (1880), 13Google Scholar.

4 Assyrian Historiography (1916), 3Google Scholar.

5 Iraq 30 (1968), 141–142 and Plate XXIXGoogle Scholar.

6 The best example is the Broken Obelisk of Aššur-bel-kala (AKA, 128 ff.; ARAB I, §385 ff.Google Scholar; Borger, R., EAK I, 138 ff.Google Scholar). The historical narrative in this text (cols. I–IV), composed in a “telegraphic” style, was copied from a very dry and detailed chronicle written, as usual, in the third person. Only in col. V with the account of the building activities did the royal scribe shift to the first person. Apparently, for this part he had no other source and had to compose it himself.

7 The inscription has been recently republished by Schramm, W., Bi.Or. 27 (1970), 147–160, pls. I–VIGoogle Scholar. The shift ittumuš > attumuš comes in obv. 42, 44, 47; 51, 52; 53, 54, 55; 59, 61 etc, and cf. CAD B, 171b.

8 Following Deller, K., Or. 26 (1957), 269 n.2Google Scholar. Too little is known of these reports. The ummânu's of Adad-nirari II and of Aššurnaṣirpal II made use of them in preparing their royal annals. An account of the Median campaign of Sargon II written, most unexpectedly, in the same diary style was recently published by Levine, Louis D., Two New Assyrian Stelae from Iran (ROM, occasional papers 23; Toronto, (1972), 34 ffGoogle Scholar.

9 Michel, E., WO 2 (1956), 227–232Google Scholar (= ARAB I, §§ 587–588).

10 Cf. J. A. Brinkman, PKB, n. 1322; and below n. 39.

11 More recently Albright (Prolegomenon to a reprint of Burney, C. F., Judges, and Notes to the Books of Kings (KTAV, 1970), 34–36)Google Scholar and Malamat, (BASOR 204 (1971), 37 f.)Google Scholar proposed to read this name as yu-'a-su.

12 Cf. ma-da-a-te in AAA 19 (1932), 100: 5Google Scholar. An unusual plural form ma-da-na-ti occurs in the poetic report of Shalmaneser III's campaign to Urartu: An. St. 11 (1961), 152: 57Google Scholar.

13 Following the translation of Stephanie Page, in VT 20 (1970), 483Google Scholar.

14 Idem, Or. 38 (1969), 457; Brinkman, J. A., RA 63 (1969), 96Google Scholar; Cazelles, H., CRAIBL (1969), 116 n. 28Google Scholar; Tadmor, H., IEJ 19 (1969), 47Google Scholar.

15 See above, p. 57 f.

16 ina libbu šattim ištiāt …; Sollberger, E., RA 61 (1967), 41: 43–44Google Scholar; šattum lā imšulam …; idem, RA 63 (1969), 35: 101–102.

17 ana ištēn šatti … BoST 8, 14: 46Google Scholar. The tendency to use typological numbers in narrating military exploits and other events is well attested in literary texts and in historical sagas, e.g., Mesopotamian and biblical. Joshua's victory over the kings of Canaan and Saul's over the Philistines are described as battles of one single, long day: Joshua 10:12–14; 1 Samuel 14: 23–24 etc. Cf. also AS 16, 353–355Google Scholar for the formula “and it came to pass in the third year”.

18 JCS 12 (1958), 26–32Google Scholar; ina šattīma šiāti is fairly common in the report-form narrative in the early annals and especially in the Obelisk, Broken (AKA, 130 ff.)Google Scholar

19 Cf. Malamat, A., AS 16, 365 ffGoogle Scholar.

20 See Iraq 30 (1968), 144Google Scholar.

21 Unger, E., Reliefstele Adadniraris aus Saba'a und Semiramis, PKOM 11 (1916)Google Scholar.

22 Cf. Meissner, B.DLZ, 1917, No. 2, Col. 55Google Scholar; Poebel, A., JNES 2 (1943), 82, n. 297Google Scholar.

23 Not pa-la-áš-tu as read by Unger and followed ever since. See IEJ 19 (1969), 46–48Google Scholar.

24 Poebel, A., JNES 2 (1943), 82–83Google Scholar.

25 Forrer, E., MVAeG 20, 3 (1915), 15–16Google Scholar.

26 JCS 12 (1958), 28Google Scholar.

27 The only other occurrence of counting by šattu in the Assyrian historical records is ina 4-te šatte in the annals of Aššur-bel-kala, some 250 years before Adad-nirari (Borger, R., EAK I, 136Google Scholar; cf. JCS 12 (1958), 30Google Scholar). But when the conventional form of annals was stabilized with Adad-nirari II, the use of šattu instead of limmu or palû did not recur until the Saba'a Stele.

28 ARAB I, § 734.

29 Smith, S., CAH III, 27Google Scholar: “… the first three years were not reckoned part of his reign”; Lewy, H., JNES 11 (1952), 264 n. 5Google Scholar; Labat, R. in Fischer Weltgeschichte III, 40Google Scholar; Page, S., Iraq 30 (1968), 147Google Scholar.

30 See. Poebel, A., JNES 2 (1943), 82Google Scholar; and cf. JCS 12 (1958), 28Google Scholar and IEJ 19 (1969), 48Google Scholar. rabîš ašābu cannot mean “to become of age” or “to ascend the throne as an independent successor” (Iraq 30 (1968), 147 n. 26Google Scholar; Or. 38 (1969), 458Google Scholar). Like rabîš epēšu, rabîš qabû, takālu etc., it carries the meaning of “emphatically”, “gloriously”, “magnificently”, “strongly”, “verily”, etc. Cf. the examples given in Schott, A., Vergleiche (MVAeG 30, 165)Google Scholar, and in AHwb, 935–936.

31 See Gilmor, J., The English Historical Review 2 (1887), 98–99, 729–731CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and most recently Eilers, W., Semiramis, (1971)Google Scholar (= Öster. Ak. d. Wiss. Phil. Hist. Klasse. Sitzungsberichte 274/2). [Schramm's, W. important study “War Semiramis assyriche Regentin?” (Historia 21 (1972), 513–521)Google Scholar came to my attention when the present article was already in press. On the question of the alleged regency of Semiramis, his views are very close to ours.]

32 In Neo-Babylonian personal names dIGI.DU (= PALIL) stands for Nergal. See now von Weiher, E., Der Babylonische Gott Nergal (AOAT, 11; 1971), 93–97Google Scholar. The question is whether it should be read (I)gištu, Palil or Nergal in Neo-Assyrian personal names of the ninth and eighth centuries. Still, it should be pointed out that the existence of a god dIGI.DU—separate from Nergal—is evidenced in Assyrian vassal treaties: (a) Weidner, E.AfO 8 (1932/1933), 22, rev. VI, 19Google Scholar: dIGI.DU a-lik mahri. Nergal (dUGUR) comes in l. 12 (b) ABL 1105 (a NB copy of a NA vassal treaty) rev. 15 ff.: Adad, Ninurta, Nergal (dUGUR), Zababa, dIGI.DU, Ṣarpanitum, Nana, Ištar. Another possible occurrence is in the vassal treaty of Esarhaddon: Wiseman, D. J., Iraq 20 (1958), 67, l. 519CrossRefGoogle Scholar (= Borger, R., ZA 54 (1961), 191CrossRefGoogle Scholar). We are leaving open, at this point, the question of how to read dIGI.DU and have followed provisionally the conventional Babylonian reading. Cf. also: Speiser, E. A., AS 16, 389Google Scholar; Weipert, M., ZDMG, Suppl. I (1968), 211, n. 94Google Scholar; Postgate, J. N., Iraq 32 (1970), 33Google Scholar.

33 Page, S., Iraq 30 (1968), 152–153Google Scholar.

34 AAA 20 (1933), 133Google Scholar; re-edited now in Postgate, J. N., Neo-Assyrian Royal Grants and Decrees (1969), 115–117Google Scholar.

35 Also, on a votive mace (Assur 10274, unp.) written in 775, the year of the second limmu-ship of Nergal-ereš, Hindanu is not mentioned. The lands enumerated are: Ruṣapi, Laqe and Suhi (Weidner, E., AfO 13 (1941), 318Google Scholar).

36 I R 35, 1Google Scholar; KB I, 190–192Google Scholar; ARAB I, § 738.

37 ARAB I, §§690, 692 (= Michel, E., WO 3 (1964), 152 ff.Google Scholar). Cf. also ARAB I, §§ 703 and 709.

38 KB I, 202: 9–12 and above, p. 142Google Scholar.

39 PKB, n. 1359.

40 Or 39 (1970), 448Google Scholar.

41 Oppenheim, A. L., Ancient Mesopotamia (1964), 189Google Scholar. Cf. also Tadmor, H., “Introductory Remarks to a New Edition of the Annals of Tiglath-pileser III” (Proc. Isr. Ac. Sc. and Hum. II/9 (1967), n. 52Google Scholar.