Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-sxzjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T06:18:53.066Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Sennacherib's northern Assyrian canals: New insights from satellite imagery and aerial photography

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

Jason Ur
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In discussions of the agricultural economies of ancient Mesopotamia, scholars commonly make a sharp distinction between intensive irrigation in the south and extensive rain-fed farming in the north (Weiss 1986; Bagg 2000: 283). In popular as well as academic publications Babylonia is strongly associated with canals, and when one thinks of large state-sponsored initiatives the massive integrated network of canals built by the Sasanian rulers of southern Mesopotamia (Adams 1978) normally springs to mind first. However, since the mid-nineteenth century archaeology and epigraphy have documented the great irrigation schemes of the Neo-Assyrian kings. The inscriptions of Sennacherib in particular refer proudly to his great network of canals, and often describe them in the context of luxurious gardens and parks. The inscriptions make mention of the waters' use for vegetable garden plots and, less frequently, for grain fields above and below Nineveh.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 67 , Issue 1: Nineveh. Papers of the XLIXe Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, Part Two , Spring 2005 , pp. 317 - 345
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.)

References

Adams, Robert McCormick 1978 Strategies of Maximization, Stability, and Resilience in Mesopotamian Society, Settlement, and Agriculture. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 122: 329–35.Google Scholar
al-Amin, M. 1948 Archaeological Discoveries in the North of Iraq. Sumer 4: 180–219 (Arabic Section).Google Scholar
Altaweel, Mark 2004 The Roads of Ashur and Nineveh. Akkadica 124: 221–8.Google Scholar
Bachmann, W. 1927 Felsreliefs in Assyrien: Bawian, Multai und Gundük. 52. Wissenschaftliche Veröffentlichung der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft. J. C. Hinrichs'sche Buchhandlung, Leipzig.Google Scholar
Bagg, Ariel M. 2000 Assyrische Wasserbauten: Landwirtschaftliche Wasserbauten im Kernland Assyriens zwischen der 2. Hälfte des 2. und der 1. Hälfte des 1. Jahrtausends v. Chr. Baghdader Forschungen 24. Philipp von Zabern, Mainz am Rhein.Google Scholar
Beaumont, Peter, Blake, Gerald H. and Wagstaff, J. Malcolm 1988 The Middle East: A Geographical Study. Halsted Press, New York.Google Scholar
Boehmer, Rainer Michael 1997 Bemerkung bzw. Ergänzungen zu Ǧerwan, Khinis und Faidhi. Baghdader Mitteilungen 28: 245–9.Google Scholar
Brinkman, J. A. 1995 Reflections on the Geography of Babylonia (1000–600 B.C.). In Neo-Assyrian Geography, Liverani, M. (ed.), pp. 19–29. Quaderni di Geografia Storica 5. Università di Roma “La Sapienza”, Rome.Google Scholar
Brunner, U. and Haefner, H. 1986 The Successful Floodwater Farming System of the Sabeans, Yemen Arab Republic. Applied Geography 6: 77–86.Google Scholar
Buringh, P. 1960 Soils and Soil Conditions in Iraq. Republic of Iraq, Ministry of Agriculture, Baghdad.Google Scholar
Casana, Jesse 2003 The Archaeological Landscape of Late Roman Antioch. In Culture and Society in Late Roman Antioch, Huskinson, J. A. R. and Sandwell, B. (eds.), pp. 102–25. Oxbow, Oxford.Google Scholar
Dalley, Stephanie 1994 Nineveh, Babylon and the Hanging Gardens: Cuneiform and Classical Sources Reconciled. Iraq 56: 45–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dalley, Stephanie 2001–2002 Water Management in Assyria from the Ninth to the Seventh Centuries BC. Aram 13–14: 443–60.Google Scholar
Davey, Ch. J. 1985 The Negub Tunnel. Iraq 47: 49–56.Google Scholar
Day, Dwayne A., Logsdon, John M. and Latell, Brian (eds.) 1998 Eye in the Sky: The Story of the CORONA Spy Satellites. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington and London.Google Scholar
Fernea, Robert A. 1970 Shaykh and Effendi: Changing Patterns of Authority among the El Shabana of Southern Iraq. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
Finkelstein, Jacob J. 1953 Cuneiform Texts from Tell Bilia. Journal of Cuneiform Studies 7: 111–76.Google Scholar
Frahm, Eckart 1997 Einleitung in die Sanherib-Inschriften. Archiv für Orientforschung Beiheft 26. Institut für Orientalistik, Universität Wien, Vienna.Google Scholar
Jacobsen, Thorkild and Lloyd, Seton 1935 Sennacherib's Aqueduct at Jerwan. Oriental Institute Publications 24. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Kennedy, David 1998 Declassified Satellite Photographs and Archaeology in the Middle East: Case Studies from Turkey. Antiquity 72: 553–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lehner, Mark 1997 The Complete Pyramids. Thames & Hudson, London.Google Scholar
Luckenbill, Daniel David 1924 The Annals of Sennacherib. Oriental Institute Publications 2. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Lumsden, Stephen 2000 On Sennacherib's Nineveh. In Proceedings of the First International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, Matthiae, P., Enea, A., Peyronel, L. and Pinnock, F. (eds.), pp. 815–34, Rome.Google Scholar
Oates, David 1968 Studies in the Ancient History of Northern Iraq. British Academy, London.Google Scholar
Oded, Bustenay 1979 Mass Deportations and Deportees in the Neo-Assyrian Empire. Ludwig Reichert Verlag, Wiesbaden.Google Scholar
Parpola, Simo 1987 The Correspondence of Sargon II, Part I: Letters from Assyria and the West. State Archives of Assyria 1. Helsinki University Press, Helsinki.Google Scholar
Philip, G., Dononghue, D., Beck, A. and Galiatsatos, N. 2002 CORONA Satellite Photography: An Archaeological Application from the Middle East. Antiquity 76: 109–18.Google Scholar
Powell, Marvin A. 1989 Maße und Gewichte. Reallexikon der Assyriologie und vorderasiatischen Archäologie 7: 457–519.Google Scholar
Reade, Julian 1978 Studies in Assyrian Geography, Part I: Sennacherib and the Waters of Nineveh. Revue d'assyriologie et d'archéologie orientale 72: 47–72, 157–80.Google Scholar
Reade, Julian 1983 Assyrian Sculpture. British Museum, London.Google Scholar
Reade, Julian 1998 Some Assyrian Representations of Nineveh. Iranica Antiqua 33: 81–94.Google Scholar
Reade, Julian 2000 Ninive (Nineveh). Reallexikon der Assyriologie und vorderasiatischen Archäologie 9: 388–433.Google Scholar
Reade, Julian 2002 Shiru Maliktha and the Bandwai Canal System. In Of Pots and Plans: Papers on the Archaeology and History of Mesopotamia and Syria Presented to David Oates in Honour of his 75th Birthday, Werr, L. al-Gailani, Curtis, J., Martin, H., McMahon, A., Oates, J. and Reade, J. (eds.), pp. 309–18. Nabu Publications.Google Scholar
Safar, Fuad 1946 Sennacherib's Project for Supplying Arbil with Water. Sumer 2(2): 50–2.Google Scholar
Safar, Fuad 1947 Sennacherib's Project for Supplying Erbil with Water. Sumer 3(1): 23–5.Google Scholar
Scott, M. Louise and John MacGinnis 1990 Notes on Nineveh. Iraq 52: 63–73.Google Scholar
Shukri, A. 1954 Rock Sculptures in the Mountains of North Iraq. Sumer 10: 86–93 (Arabic Section).Google Scholar
Stronach, David 1994 Village to Metropolis: Nineveh and the Beginnings of Urbanism in Northern Mesopotamia. In Nuove fondazioni nel Vicino Oriente antico: Realtà e ideologia, Mazzoni, S. (ed.), pp. 85–114. Giardini, Pisa.Google Scholar
Stronach, David 1995 Notes on the Topography of Nineveh. In Neo-Assyrian Geography, Liverani, M. (ed.), pp. 161–70, Rome.Google Scholar
Stronach, David and Lumsden, Stephen 1992 UC Berkeley's Excavations at Nineveh. Biblical Archaeologist 55: 227–33.Google Scholar
Thompson, R. Campbell and Hutchinson, Richard Wyatt 1929 A Century of Exploration at Nineveh. Luzac & Co., London.Google Scholar
Ur, Jason A. 2002 Settlement and Landscape in Northern Mesopotamia: The Tell Hamoukar Survey 2000–2001. Akkadica 123(1): 57–88.Google Scholar
Ur, Jason A. 2003 CORONA Satellite Photography and Ancient Road Networks: A Northern Mesopotamian Case Study. Antiquity 77: 102–15.Google Scholar
Weiss, Harvey 1986 The Origins of Tell Leilan and the Conquest of Space in Third Millennium Mesopotamia. In The Origins of Cities in Dry-Farming Syria and Mesopotamia in the Third Millennium B.C., Weiss, H. (ed.), pp. 71–108. Four Quarters, Guilford.Google Scholar
Wilkinson, T. J. 1993 Linear Hollows in the Jazira, Upper Mesopotamia. Antiquity 67: 548–62.Google Scholar
Wilkinson, T. J. 1998 Water and Human Settlement in the Balikh Valley, Syria: Investigations from 1992–1995. Journal of Field Archaeology 25: 63–87.Google Scholar
Wilkinson, T. J. 1999 Holocene Valley Fills of Southern Turkey and Northwestern Syria: Recent Geoarchaeological Contributions. Quaternary Science Reviews 18: 555–71.Google Scholar
Wilkinson, T. J. 2003 Archaeological Landscapes of the Near East. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilkinson, T. J. and Barbanes, Eleanor 2000 Settlement Patterns in the Syrian Jazira During the Iron Age. In Essays on Syria in the Iron Age, Bunnens, G. (ed.), pp. 397–422. Ancient Near Eastern Studies Supplement 7. Peeters, Leuven.Google Scholar
Wilkinson, T. J. and Tucker, D. J. 1995 Settlement Development in the North Jazira, Iraq. Aris & Phillips Ltd, Warminster.Google Scholar
Wilkinson, T. J., Ur, Jason A. and Casana, Jesse 2004 From Nucleation to Dispersal: Trends in Settlement Pattern in the Northern Fertile Crescent. In Side-by-Side Survey: Comparative Regional Studies in the Mediterranean World, edited by Cherry, J. and Alcock, S., pp. 189–205. Oxbow Books, Oxford.Google Scholar
Zimanski, Paul E. 1985 Ecology and Empire: The Structure of the Urartian State. Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization 41. Oriental Institute, Chicago.Google Scholar