5.1 INTRODUCTION

There are three main types of royal Assyrian records. The “Annals” record important events in the life of the king in chronological order down to the year of the composition of the annals. The second type is “the Display Inscriptions” which record events according to a geographical or typological rather than chronological order. To the third type belong the “Eponym Chronicles” that list events in chronological order, each year being designated by the name of a particular official.

This chapter includes a study of the relevant inscriptions of Shalmaneser III that are mostly of the Annals type. Chapter 6 then gives the relevant inscriptions of Adad-nirari III, mostly of the Display type. Chapter 7 offers a consideration of some Eponyms. After these short introductions to the different texts, a commentary on and the translation of the relevant passages is given in Chapter 8.

5.2 KURKH MONOLITH (RIMA 3.11–24 (A.0.102.2); COS 2.261–4)

Two columns engraved on a monolith (large stone stele) found at Kurkh (south-eastern Turkey) bearing the image of the king and divine symbols record Shalmaneser's annals till his sixth regnal year. The inscription provides a detailed record of the 853 BCE battle against the coalition of the “twelve” at Qarqar (ii. 89b–102). The account of year 853 BCE is the most detailed and propagandistic of all of Shalmaneser's inscriptions narrating the events of his sixth regnal year (Younger 2007: 250). The text ends suddenly after the narration of the battle of Qarqar.