Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-x5gtn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-03T22:00:49.011Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Excavations at Nineveh: The Halzi Gate1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

Diana Pickworth
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The University of California Expedition to Nineveh excavated at the Halzi Gate in 1989 and 1990. The gate proved to be one of Nineveh's larger defensive gates and a scene of chaos and destruction. Tower 4 to the south of the gate was of irregular masonry, having been hastily rebuilt. The juxtaposition of a rough tower directly beside the fine ashlar masonry of the rest of the curtain wall of the gate appears to reflect a political instability that prevailed during the declining years of Assyrian rule. The late reconstruction of Tower 4 contrasts with the earlier attention to detail seen in building work of Sennacherib's reign (704–681 BC), when smoothly dressed orthostats lined the lower walls of the gate's large inner court and sophisticated waterproof membranes of bitumen-soaked reeds protected the mud-brick superstructures. Buried beneath the pavement in the corners of the court were apotropaic foundation figurines. Within the only partially excavated outer entrance passage at least twelve individuals died, perhaps while defending the city or trying to escape from it, as a stallion and a rider lay at the eastern limit of the gate passage. Within the reduced width of the gate passage were eight adult males, four adolescents and four children including one infant. Weaponry was found throughout the area and the scattered bodies lay where they had fallen. The associated small finds, which had not been looted, included silver jewelry, bronze personal items, stamp seals and a composite necklace.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 67 , Issue 1: Nineveh. Papers of the XLIXe Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, Part Two , Spring 2005 , pp. 295 - 316
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 2005

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

1

The University of California Expedition to Nineveh was directed by Professor David Stronach. I would like to thank him for the invitation to participate in all seasons of the excavation as both an excavator and photographer. I also thank him for his encouragement to present this brief interim report on the work conducted at the Halzi Gate in 1989 and 1990 as well as for asking me to publish Nineveh II. The Small Finds (forthcoming).

References

Barnett, R. D. n.d.: The Assyrian Place Reliefs and their Relation to the Sculpture of Babylonia and Persia. Batchworth Press, London.Google Scholar
Black, J. and Green, A. 1992: Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia. An Illustrated Dictionary, The British Museum Press, London.Google Scholar
Collon, D. 2001: Catalogue of the Western Asiatic Seals in the British Museum: Cylinder Seals V, Neo Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian Periods. The British Museum Press, London.Google Scholar
Green, A. 1983: Neo-Assyrian Apotropaic Figures, Iraq 45, 87–100, Pl. XII.Google Scholar
Maxwell-Hyslop, K. R. 1971: Western Asiatic Jewellery c. 3000–612 B.C. Methuen and Co., London.Google Scholar
Madhloum, Tariq A. 1966: in Dr Faisal el-Wailly's Foreword, (2) Nineveh, Sumer 22, c.Google Scholar
Madhloum, Tariq A. 1967: Excavations at Nineveh. A Preliminary Report (1965-1967) Sumer 23, 76–9, Pls. I and XIII.Google Scholar
Madhloum, Tariq A. 1968: Nineveh. The 1967-1968 Campaign, Sumer 24, 45.Google Scholar
Madhloum, Tariq A. 1969: Nineveh. The 1968-1969 Campaign, Sumer 25, 43–58.Google Scholar
Madhloum, T. and Mahdi, Ali 1972: Nineveh. Historical Monuments in Iraq 1. Directorate General of Antiquities Baghdad (Arabic).Google Scholar
Madhloum, T. and Mahdi, Ali 1976: Nineveh. Historical Monuments in Iraq 1. Directorate General of Antiquities Baghdad (English).Google Scholar
Parker, B. 1961: Administrative Tablets from the North-West Palace, Nimrud, Iraq 23, 15–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parpola, S. 1970: Neo-Assyrian Toponyms (AOAT 6). Verlag Butzon & Berker, Kevelaer, Neukirchen-Vluyn.Google Scholar
Reade, J. E., 2002: Ninive (Nineveh). Reallexikon der Assyriologie 9 (5–6), 388–433. Berlin/New York.Google Scholar
Reade, J. E., 2002a: The Ziggurat and Temples of Nimrud, Iraq 64, 135–217.Google Scholar
Scott, L. M. and MacGinnis, J. 1990: Notes on Nineveh, Iraq 52, 63–73.Google Scholar
Stronach, David 1989: When Assyria Fell: New Light on the Last Days of Nineveh, Mâr Šipri 2 (2), 1–2.Google Scholar
Stronach, David 1994: Village to Metropolis: Nineveh and the Beginning of Urbanism in Northern esopotamia, in Mazzonni, S. (ed.), Nuove fondazioni nel Vicino Oriente antico: Realtà e ideologia (Seminari di orientalistica 4, Pisa, 85–114.Google Scholar
Stronach, David 1997: Notes on the Fall of Nineveh, in Parpola, S. and Whiting, R. M. (eds.), Assyria: Proceedings of the 10th Anniversary Symposium of the Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project, Helsinki, Sept. 7–11, 1995, Helsinki, 307–24.Google Scholar
Stronach, D. and Lumsden, S. 1992: UC Berkeley's Excavations at Nineveh. Biblical Archaeologist 55, No. 4, 227–33.Google Scholar
Sulaiman, A. 1971: Adab al-Rafadan 1, 45–97.Google Scholar
Thompson, R. Campbell 1929: A Century of Exploration at Nineveh, Luzac and Co., London.Google Scholar
Wiggermann, F. A. M. 1992: Mesopotamian Protective Spirits: The Ritual Texts (Cuneiform Monographs 1). Styx, Groningen.Google Scholar