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Some Inscribed Horse Troughs of Sennacherib

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

J. D. A. (P.) MacGinnis
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Extract

In the course of research undertaken with M. Louise Scott in Mosul and Baghdad in early 1987 I had the great privilege of making the acquaintance of Sd. Mohammed Ali Mustafa, who went out of his way to help us in all that he could, and whose wonderful knowledge and generosity we shall always remember. Among the material which he unearthed for us were photographs of inscribed stone troughs from Nineveh and his own copies of their inscriptions.

These troughs came to light in 1954, when a section of the ancient city walls of Nineveh just North of the mound of Nebi Yunus was destroyed. At that time Mohammed Ali Mustafa was already involved in work at Nineveh and was able to carry out an emergency investigation. Unfortunately, there is no map surviving which shows the exact location of the troughs, but an examination of photographs taken at the time (Plate XXI, in which latter note especially the “pagoda” roof in the background to the left: this still stands) and of the area as it now appears, along with consideration of details provided by Mohammed Ali Mustafa, allows us to fix the position of the troughs just within the walls at the place marked on Fig. 1. The error is not likely to be more than 15 metres up or down the length of the walls.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 51 , 1989 , pp. 187 - 192
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1989

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References

1 Unless the “inscribed large stone reservoir” found in the last century in the course of excavations to build the minaret of the mosque at Nebi Yunus and mentioned by Rassam, (Ashur and the Land of Nimrod (1897, repr. 1971) p. 302–3)Google Scholar refers to something similar; note also the drinking trough built out of the stretch of the city wall below the western end of Kuyunjik, (Iraq 34 (1972), p. 143Google Scholar).

2 Budge, E. A. WallisAssyrian Sculptures in the British Museum: Reign of Ashurnasirpal (1914)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, Pl. XIV. 1.

3 King, L. W.Bronze Reliefs from the Gates of Shalmaneser (1915)Google Scholar, Pls. LXXII, LXXIII.

4 See Turner, G., Iraq 32 (1970), p. 68–85CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and especially p. 72.

5 We hope to offer this for publication in a future edition of Sumer.

6 But the fact that there are no coherent limestone remains visible in the immediate vicinity does not argue the case either way, as one would expect these to have been robbed out by the local inhabitants just as happened to much of the stone (and mud) part of the main city wall of the ancient city. However, one may still contest whether it is likely, if Sennacherib had built a whole new stables compound, that he would have relegated the commemorative inscription to the horses' troughs.

7 See the article by Davies, Dr. in Journal of Semitic Studies 34 (1989)Google Scholar.