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Israel Museum Studies in Archaeology Volume 8 · 2016‒2017 Israel Museum Studies in Archaeology Volume 8 • 2016‒2017

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Israel Museum Studies in Archaeology Volume 8 · 2016‒2017 Israel Museum Studies in Archaeology Volume 8 • 2016‒2017 Israel Museum Studies in Archaeology Volume 8 · 2016‒2017 Israel Museum Studies in Archaeology Volume 8 • 2016‒2017 An annual publication of The Samuel and Saidye Bronfman Archaeology Wing, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem This volume was made possible by The Montgomery Securities and Friends Endowment Fund of the Israel Museum Additional support was provided by Dr. David and Jemima Jeselsohn, Zurich Editor: Silvia Rozenberg Associate editors: Shirly Ben-Dor Evian, Debby Hershman English editor: Miriam Feinberg Vamosh Advisory Board: Tallay Ornan, Rina Talgam, Haim Goldfus Design adaptation: Batya Segal Original design concept: Masha Pozina Printed by Elinir Digital Print, Petah Tikva All correspondence and papers for publication should be addressed to: The Editor Israel Museum Studies in Archaeology The Israel Museum, Jerusalem P.O.B. 71117, Jerusalem 9171002 Israel E-mail address: [email protected] ISSN 1565-3617 © The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, 2017 All rights reserved Front cover: Bronze candelabra and lamps from a Byzantine hoard, 6th century CE Back cover: Bezel design of a bronze signet ring from a Byzantine hoard, 6th century CE (drawn from the positive) Contents Yigal Bloch and Laura A. Peri 2 I Placed My Name There: The Great Inscription of Tukulti-Ninurta I, King of Assyria, from the Collection of David and Cindy Sofer, London Rachel Caine Kreinin 57 “Divine Reflexivity”: a Case Study of Greco-Roman Egyptian Terracotta Figurines from the Collection of the Israel Museum, Jerusalem Orit Peleg-Barkat, Hillel Geva and 74 A Monumental Herodian Ionic Capital Ronny Reich from the Upper City of Jerusalem Ronny Reich 89 Addendum 1: Where was the Capital Incorporated? Orit Peleg-Barkat, Hillel Geva 91 Addendum 2: A Monumental Herodian Ionic Capital from the Royal Stoa? – a Reply to Ronny Reich Tali Sharvit 97 A Marble Sphinx Statue from Horvat Omrit Moshe Fischer, Arie Nissenbaum and 116 Appendix: Yannis Maniatis Marble Analysis of the Omrit Sphinx Karni Golan, Haim Goldfus and 117 Why Hide? – Hoarding in Late David Mevorah Antiquity in View of a Byzantine Hoard from Israel Bruno Callegher 162 A Hoard of Byzantine Folles (ca. 610 CE) within a Hoard of Bronze Objects: Some Hypotheses 170 Information for Contributors 171 Abbreviations Fig. 1 The Great Inscription of King Tukulti-Ninurta I, obverse (above) and reverse (below). Courtesy of David and Cindy Sofer, London. Photo © Christie’s Images Limited (2014) I Placed My Name There: he inscription discussed here (fig. 1) is the only version to have survived The Great Inscription of intactT of the earliest and longest inscription of Tukulti-Ninurta I (c. 1241–1206 BCE), Tukulti-Ninurta I, King of Assyria, a fascinating Assyrian monarch whose from the Collection of figure and name, “My trust is (in the god) Ninurta,” may have been the inspiration David and Cindy Sofer, London for the biblical Nimrod (Genesis 10:8–12).1 Carved on both sides of an alabaster slab in the shape of a large horizontal tablet inscribed in Akkadian in cuneiform script, Yigal Bloch the inscription was probably placed in a wall University of Haifa or floor of the building the construction of which it commemorates – the new palace Laura A. Peri that the king built in Assur, Assyria’s capital at the time. The Israel Museum, Jerusalem Generously on loan to the Israel Museum from the Collection of David and Cindy Sofer, London, on the occasion of the Museum’s 50th anniversary, celebrated in 2015, the inscription has been on display since then in the Ancient Near East section of the Neighboring Cultures Gallery in the Samuel and Saidye Bronfman Archaeology Wing. It was purchased at Christie’s, London, in the auction on October 1st, 2014.2 The inscription, comprising eight columns of text, constitutes the most complete exemplar of what is known as the Great Inscription of Tukulti-Ninurta I. It was first published in German in 1989 by the late biblical scholar and Egyptologist Manfred Görg.3 This publication was intended to supplement what was at the time the most complete edition of the inscription, published by Albert K. Grayson in 1987. Grayson’s edition reconstructed a composite text of only six columns, with some lacunae, based on 17 exemplars.4 Reviews of Grayson’s edition by several scholars included corrections to Görg’s readings of the additional exemplar.5 A new German translation of this exemplar, along with an analysis of its grammatical, lexical and stylistic features, was published IMSA 8 • 2016–2017: 2–55 3 in 2007 by Michael P. Streck.6 Finally, public in nature: either religious edifices, another study of the inscription, including such as temples and ziggurats (stepped a new transliteration, a transcription and a temple towers), or secular construction new German translation, has been recently projects, such as palaces, storehouses, for- published by Claus Wilcke.7 tifications, and waterworks.9 This article presents an updated The earliest Mesopotamian building transliteration of the inscription from the inscriptions are in Sumerian – the language Akkadian, accompanied by an English of southern Mesopotamia – and date to translation and a commentary, prepared the mid-3rd millennium BCE.10 When by Yigal Bloch.8 These are preceded by the Akkadians, and subsequently the a succinct survey of Mesopotamian royal Babylonians and the Assyrians, began building inscriptions – exemplified by to write in their own languages – in the artifacts from the Israel Museum cuneiform second half of the 3rd millennium BCE collection, some of which were previously and the first half of the 2nd millennium unpublished – and by an appraisal of King BCE, respectively – they too produced Tukulti-Ninurta I of Assyria and his legacy. building inscriptions, initially following the In addition, several brief excursuses focus on Sumerian tradition but eventually develop- the main topics of the inscription’s content. ing their own.11 This Mesopotamian custom These amply illustrated supplements, also influenced other literate Ancient Near prepared by Laura A. Peri, are intended to Eastern cultures, which similarly developed place the inscription in its cultural context distinct traditions, producing building and to shed light on the great importance of inscriptions in their native languages.12 Mesopotamian royal inscriptions as invalu- Building inscriptions make up the able sources of information on the ancient largest part of the Mesopotamian royal culture from which the world revealed in epigraphic corpus, which also includes texts the Bible emerged. commemorating military victories (triumphal inscriptions usually carved on figurative Mesopotamian Building Inscriptions steles and rock-reliefs) and cultic offerings na [ša-k]in i-na 4narê (na4.rú.a) (dedicatory formulas inscribed on artifacts 13 ka-lu ma-na-ah-ti offered by the king to a deity). However, “[He] set all his labors on it was not uncommon for triumphal inscrip- a tablet of stone” tions to include references to the king’s The Epic of Gilgamesh I:10 (after George 1999, 1) building enterprises, and for building inscriptions to mention royal achievements Tukulti-Ninurta’s Great Inscription – carved other than construction operations.14 The on a stone tablet designated in the text as narû main purpose of royal inscriptions was to (see below) – follows a long Mesopotamian commemorate the king’s name and deeds. tradition of texts that marked property and This ancient custom of immortalizing royal commemorated building enterprises. These names and exploits through written vehicles were written in cuneiform script on a variety gave birth to the first historical records.15 of artifacts and architectural elements. The Mesopotamian royal inscriptions inscriptions were produced on behalf of the often included the king’s statement that rulers responsible for building or repairing he “placed” (g˜ar in Sumerian, šakānu in the respective structures, which were mainly Akkadian)16 his written name, or simply his 4 Y. Bloch and L. A. Peri: The Great Inscription of Tukulti-Ninurta I name (Sumerian mu, Akkadian šumu), on a Building inscriptions were intended Fig. 2 Brick fragment from victory monument erected in a conquered mostly for deposition, buried in foundations the palace of Tukulti- land, a statue installed in a temple, or a or other structural parts of a building. Others, Ninurta I stamped with the label “Palace of building record set in an edifice. This as the Great Inscription of Tukulti-Ninurta Tukulti-Ninurta, king Mesopotamian idiom – “to place one’s name,” I, were intended for display, embedded in of the universe, son of Shalmaneser, king of namely, to proclaim dominion or ownership walls and floors. Numerous duplicates of a the universe” by means of an inscription – is echoed single building inscription were inscribed Fig. 3 in the Bible, for example in Deuteronomy on as many objects and placed through- Elamite brick with a 12:11: “the site where the Lord your God out the building. Copies were also kept in dedicatory inscription will chose to establish (literally, to place) archives to be further used as models.21 The His name.”17 texts were perhaps also recited in public The building inscriptions are of three ceremonies. Accordingly, their audience main types, though at times the distinctions comprised, officially, the gods invoked in are not quite rigid:18 ownership markers, the inscriptions, and future kings who were usually short labels mentioning the builder’s expected to preserve the inscriptions and and the building’s name (for example, “Palace the buildings they commemorated. Non- of […]”; figs. 2,19 25 and n. 76); dedications officially, the audience also comprised a to the deities for whom the structures were wider range of literate and illiterate people, built (fig. 3);20 and lengthy commemora- among them members of the royal court, tions of a king’s name and achievements. including scribes, foreign dignitaries, local The latter type is exemplified by the Great populace and even enemies and conquered Inscription of Tukulti-Ninurta I.
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