PAPERS ON ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE LEIDEN MUSEUM OF ANTIQUITIES

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ISBN 978-90-8890-496-7

ISBN: 978-90-8890-496-7

Sidestone Press

edited by

L.P. Petit & D. Morandi Bonacossi

Symbol of Beauty and Power

‘Well, as for Nineveh, skipper, it was wiped out long ago. There’s not a trace of it left, and one can’t even guess where it was’ (Lucian, 2nd century AD).

Nineveh, the once-flourishing capital of the Assyrian Empire, has fascinated writers, travellers and historians alike since its complete annihilation by allied forces in 612 BC. It was said to have been a great and populous city with 90-km walls, stunning palaces and colossal statues of pure gold. Since 1842 archaeologists have been investigating the ruins of Nineveh, which are located on the eastern banks of the river Tigris, near the modern Iraqi city of Mosul. The hundreds of thousands of objects that have been collected tell an intriguing story of life and death in a remarkable Mesopotamian city.

The edited volume Nineveh, the Great City contains more than 65 articles by international specialists, providing the reader with a detailed and thorough study of the site of Nineveh. It describes the history of the city, the excavations and the dispersed material culture that can today be appreciated in more than 100 museums and institutes around the world. Special attention is paid to the endangered heritage of Nineveh, which recently faced destruction for the second time in its history.

This lavishly illustrated volume is intended to appeal to readers interested in culture and heritage, as well as to students and professional academics.

NINEVEH, THE GREAT CITY

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Source reference:Petit, Lucas P. & Morandi Bonacossi, Daniele (eds) 2017: Nineveh, the Great City. Symbol of Beauty and Power, Papers on Archaeology of the Leiden Museum of Antiquities 13, Leiden (Sidestone Press).

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© 2017 Rijksmuseum van Oudheden; the individual authors

PALMA: Papers on Archaeology of the Leiden Museum of Antiquities (volume 13)

Published by Sidestone Press, Leiden www.sidestone.com

Imprint: Sidestone Press

Lay-out & cover design: Sidestone PressPhotograph cover:

Detail of a relief showing King Ashurbanipal on a horse. Nineveh, Iraq; N Palace, Room S; 645–635 BC; gypsum; H 165.1 cm, W 116.8 cm; British Museum, London (1856,0909.48/BM 124874). © The Trustees of the British Museum.

ISBN 978-90-8890-496-7 (softcover)ISBN 978-90-8890-497-4 (hardcover)ISBN 978-90-8890-498-1 (PDF e-book)

Contents

Contributors 11

Nineveh, the Great City. Symbol of Beauty and Power 15Lucas P. Petit and Daniele Morandi Bonacossi

Part I: Nineveh, Famous but Lost

1. Nineveh, Famous but Lost 27Daniele Morandi Bonacossi

2. Nineveh in the Cuneiform Sources 29John MacGinnis

3. Nineveh in Biblical, Ancient Jewish and the Earliest Christian Traditions 32Jürgen K. Zangenberg

4. Nineveh in Classical Literature 39Menko Vlaardingerbroek

5. Nineveh in Western Art 44Jan de Hond

6. Early Travellers and Nineveh 50Paolo Matthiae

Part II: Investigating Nineveh: a Great Adventure

7. Investigating Nineveh: a Great Adventure 57Lucas P. Petit

8. The Topography of Nineveh 58Jason Ur

9. French Research at Nineveh 63Ariane Thomas

10. The British Museum Excavations at Nineveh 69John Curtis

11. Austen Henry Layard 74Frederick Mario Fales

12. The Curse of the Tigris River 78Lucas P. Petit

13. Archaeology, Politics and Espionage 80Frederick Mario Fales

14. Max Mallowan and Agatha Christie Mallowan in Nineveh 84David Stronach

15. Gertrude Bell and the Monuments of Nineveh 87Lisa Cooper

16. Iraqi Excavations at Nineveh 91John MacGinnis

17. The Nergal Gate: a Calamitous History 94Layla Salih

18. Italian Research in the Nineveh Region: Archaeological Investigation and Cultural Heritage Protection and Management 98Daniele Morandi Bonacossi

Part III: From Prehistory to the Arrival of the Neo-Assyrian Kings

19. From Prehistory to the Arrival of the Neo-Assyrian Kings 107Daniele Morandi Bonacossi

20. The Prehistoric Roots of Nineveh 109Marco Iamoni

21. The Ninevite 5 Culture at Nineveh 113Elena Rova

22. NinevehintheSecondMillennium BC: the Birth of an Assyrian City 118Aline Tenu

Part IV: Neo-Assyrian Nineveh: the Largest City in the World

23. Neo-Assyrian Nineveh: the Largest City in the World 125Lucas P. Petit and Daniele Morandi Bonacossi

24. Neo-Assyrian Town Planning 127Mirko Novák

25. Water for Assyria: Irrigation and Water Management in the Assyrian Empire 132Daniele Morandi Bonacossi

26. The Rural Landscape of Nineveh 137Daniele Morandi Bonacossi

27. The Neo-Assyrian Kings in Nineveh 142Bradley J. Parker

28. The Palaces of Nineveh 147David Kertai

29. The Production and Use of Reliefs 153Paolo Matthiae

30. Sennacherib’s Quarries and the Stones of the Southwest Palace Decoration 158Pier Luigi Bianchetti

31. (De)colouring Ancient Nineveh using Portable XRF Equipment 160Dennis Braekmans

32. Nineveh in the Assyrian Reliefs 167Davide Nadali

33. Nineveh and Neo-Assyrian Trade: an Active Hub with Far-Flung Contacts 170Diederik J.W. Meijer

34. Nineveh and Foreign Politics 174Giovanni-Battista Lanfranchi

35. Sennacherib 179Carlo Lippolis

36. Sennacherib’s Nineveh and the Staging of Atmosphere 184Stephen Lumsden

37. Sennacherib’s Palace Garden at Nineveh, a World Wonder 188Stephanie Dalley

38. The Lachish Reliefs 192David Ussishkin

39. Ashurbanipal and the Lion Hunt Reliefs 198Pauline Albenda

40. Language and Writing in Nineveh 201Jan Gerrit Dercksen

41. Intellectual Life in Nineveh 205Eckart Frahm

42. The Library of Ashurbanipal 208Jeanette C. Fincke

43. Aramaic Epigraphs in Nineveh 212Frederick Mario Fales

44. Demons, Deities and Religion 213Barbara N. Porter

45. Ištar of Nineveh 217John MacGinnis

46. Apotropaic Figures in Nineveh 219Carolyn Nakamura

47. Music in Nineveh 224Theo J.H. Krispijn

48. The Last Days of Assyrian Nineveh: a View from the Halzi Gate 228David Stronach

49. TheSackofNinevehin612 BC 243Marc Van De Mieroop

Part V: Nineveh after the Destruction in 612 BC

50. NinevehaftertheDestructionin612 BC 251Daniele Morandi Bonacossi

51. Nineveh in the Achaemenid Period 253John Curtis

52. Graeco-Parthian Nineveh 256Rocco Palermo

53. Nineveh and the City of Mosul 260Hikmat Basheer Al-Aswad

54. Monitoring Damage to Iraqi Archaeological and Cultural Heritage: the Case of Nineveh 265A. Bianchi, S. Berlioz, S. Campana, E. Dalla Longa, D. Vicenzutto and M. Vidale

55. Deir Mar Behnam: the Destruction of Iraq’s Christian Heritage 270Bas Lafleur

56. Rekrei: Crowdsourcing Lost Heritage 275Matthew Vincent and Chance Coughenour

57. Building a 3D Reproduction of the Southwest Palace of Sennacherib 278Boris Lenseigne and Naphur van Apeldoorn

Part VI: The Material Culture of Nineveh

58. The Material Culture of Nineveh 285Lucas P. Petit

59. The Material Culture of Nineveh in France 287Ariane Thomas

60. The Material Culture of Nineveh in Italian Collections 293Daniele Morandi Bonacossi

61. Nineveh in the United Kingdom 298Paul Collins

62. Nineveh in Berlin 303Lutz Martin

63. The Material Culture of Nineveh in Belgium and the Netherlands 309Lucas P. Petit and Bruno Overlaet

64. The Material Culture of Nineveh in Collections in the United States 313Michael Seymour

65. Nineveh, Lady Charlotte Guest and The Metropolitan Museum of Art 317Yelena Rakic

66. The Iraq Museum in Baghdad 321Carlo Lippolis

67. The Material Culture of Nineveh in Turkish Collections 324Ayşe Tuba Ökse, with contributions from Zeynep Kızıltan and Gülcay Yağcı

Abbreviations 331

References 333

Concordance of Museums and registration numbers 349

Index 353

57part ii: investigating nineveh: a great adventure

7. Investigating Nineveh: a Great Adventure

Lucas P. Petit

When Paul-Émile Botta’s (1802-1870) spade hit the site of Kuyunjik in December 1842, little did he know that this marked a new era in the discipline of archaeology: the beginning of controlled excavations in the Middle East (although it is debatable whether the word ‘controlled’ can justifiably be applied to archaeology at this time). Having found ‘nothing but bricks and insignificant fragments’, he moved shortly afterwards to the site of Khorsabad (ancient Dur-Šarukkin). Despite this intermezzo, Nineveh, including the strategic settlement mounds of Kuyunjik and Nebi Yunus, did not have to wait long for new devotees. The spectacular material from Khorsabad that the public could admire in Paris evoked great pride and enthusiasm in France, but also feelings of rivalry in Great Britain; the British wanted a similar collection. In 1844, the British archaeolo-gist Austen Henry Layard (1817-1894; fig. 7.1) was given permission to start fieldwork on the Assyrian site of Nimrud, which he believed to be ancient Nineveh. He revised his opinion shortly after he started extensive excavation work on Kuyunjik in 1849, exposing the immense treasures of Sennacherib’s palace. This had to be ancient Nineveh. It brought him fame and recognition, but only a few years later – after an unsuccessful attempt to excavate Babylon – he transferred the Nineveh project to his younger partner, Hormuzd Rassam (1826-1910). The British Museum continued to explore the immense site of Nineveh until Reginald Campbell Thompson (1876-1941) left the site in 1932.

Quarrels over Nineveh marked the continuing rivalry between France and Great Britain; in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, archaeological excavations became deeply interwoven with politics and international disputes. Although hampered by shipping accidents, local problems and sickness, archaeologists continued to unravel Nineveh’s history. The focus of the investigations shifted from object-oriented studies in the nineteenth century towards a more historical-based project by Thompson and Max Mallowan (1904-1978), the husband of Agatha Christie. After World War II, talented Iraqi archaeologists – backed by their own Iraqi Department of Antiquities – continued to explore the ancient remains at Nebi Yunus and Kuyunjik, and managed to save the site from modern construction works by restoring the impressive ancient walls and towers. Foreign expeditions to the site were rare, with one exception being the project directed by David Stronach (1931) of the University of California between 1987 and 1990. At the Halzi Gate, this American team uncovered a battleground with multiple victims, probably the last survivors of Nineveh before its total destruction in 612 BC.

Exploring the site of Nineveh was and still is an adventure for both Western and local scholars. In the past, many of these explorers were politically engaged or instructed by their home country to survey the position on the ground. Nineveh, strategically located close to the important city of Mosul, became not only a battleground for archaeologists, but was also the site of disputes between France and Great Britain in the nineteenth century, the territorial division of the Middle East, the construction of the Baghdad railway and, more recently, the destruction of its heritage by ISIL.

Figure 7.1 Austen Henry Layard at Nineveh. Drawing by Solomon Caesar Malan, 1850.