Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets, &C. in the British

CUNELFORM TEXTS FBOM BABYLONIAN TABLETS, &c., IN THE With 50 Plates qf Cuneijbrm Texts and 4 Collot,zjpe l'lutes. PRINTED BY ORDER OF TEIE TRUSTEES. SOLD AT THE BRITISH bIUSEUI'I; AND AT LONGMAXS Sr Co., 39, PATERNOSTER ROW; HERNriKU QUARITCH, 11, GRATTOX STREET, NEW HONI) STKLiKT; ASHER & Co., 14, BEDFORD STREET, COVENT G.kI<l)EN; AND HENRY EKOWDE, OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, AMEN COHNEK, LONUON. [ALL RIGNTS RESERVED..] LOXDON : HARRlSON AXD SONS, PXIV'L'ERS IN OXlllUARY TO 111s MAJESTY, ST. MAKIIK'S 1.dx6. Part XXVI of " Cuneiform Texts from Babylonia13 Tablcts, etc." contains tcxts from three baked clay cylinders and twenty-six tablets, the greater number of which are here published for the first time. The first thirty-seven plates are devoted to the text of a recently acquired cylinder (Lo. 103000) of Sennacherib, king of Assyria rrom K.C. 705 to B.C. 681. It is the longest inscription of Sennacherib chat has yet been recovered, containing two hundred and fifty-three lines rnorc than the famous " Taylor Cylinder." The new information of a historical character which it affords, is of the greatest importance, and concerns two campaigns which the Assyrian army undertook in the years B.C. 698 and B.C. 695. The former was an cxpeditior~ into Cilicia, and the text relates, from the Assyrian point of view, events of which details have hitherto only reached us froin the fragmentary narratives oF Greeli historians. A great part of the cylinder is taken up with a very full accou~ltof the i~nprove~nentswhich Sennacherib carried out in the city of Nincvch, including interesting details of the size uf the city, and of the royal palace, and new i~ifor~natio~lconcerning the sources from which Sennacherib increased the water-supply oi thc city. Rut the most important information from a topographical point of view is that co~lcerningthe city wall and its gates. IIere, for the first time, wc are furnished with a list of the names of the fifteen gates of Nineveh, together with notes as to their relative positions. The new cylinder was probably found it1 thc structure of the wall of Nineveh, beside one of the principal city-gates. The last section of this part contains the texts of a numbcr of Astrological Explarmtory Lists, forming a suppleme~ltto the Explanatory Lists of Gods already awivcn in Parts XXIV and XXV. The introduction to the plates, and thc tra~lslatio~lsand copies are the tvorli of Mr. L. W. King, B'l.A., F.S.A., Assistant in the Department. E. A. WALLIS BUDGE. DEPARTMENTOF E,GYPIIANAND ASSYRIANANTIQUITIES, BI~IT~SHMUSEUM. i\ia'embe~ ~zdk,1go9. I The Cylinder No. 103000 arid its relatioii to the other Cylinder- lnscriptioris of Sc~~nacf~eril,...... , ... ... § 2. Sennaclierib's Esp~ditio~iiof H.C. 698 and B.C. 695, and the Cilician Campaign, accordi~~gto Alexander Polyl~istor and Nbyclenus ...... ... ... , . ... ... $ 3. Scl~~lacheril-r'sImprove~nerits in Ninc\:eli; the City's Sgstcrn or Fortikcation, and its Fifteen Gates ...... ... ., . 5 4. 'Translatioli of thc Uuilding-inscription on Cyli~iderNo. 103ow PLATE. 1-39 INTRODUCTION. INSCRIPTIONS OF SENNACHERIH (PLATES 1-39). $ I. THECYLINDER No. 103000 AND ITS RELATION TO THIS OTIIEK CYLINDER- INSCRIPTIONS OF SENNACEIERIB. The inscription of Sennachcrib, No. 103000, published in plates 1-37, is talien from an octagonal cylinder of baked clay, on which are inscribed rccords of his earlier military campaigns, and of the rebuilding and fortification of the city of Nineveh: It is dated in the month of Ab, in the eponymy of Ilu-ittia, the governor of Damascus, all:! gives an account of Sennacherib's principal achievcmcnts up to the summer of the year B.C. 694. The text records two campaigns of Seni~aclicrib,which have been omitted from his later cylinder-inscriptions, not because they were con~paratively unimportant, but mcrcly because Sennacheril> himself took no active part in them. The object of thc first of these, which toolt placc in B.C. 698, was to put down a rcvolt of Ioilian scttlcrs in Tarsus and the coastal regions of Cilicia, in which the local Assyrian govcrr~orof Illubri~also took part ; and it was reildered necessary by their blocking thc Ciliciari road, and holding up all traffic along this important commercial route. Thc impor~anccof the campaign is attested hy the accoui~tsof it which have heel1 preserved from thc worlts of Greek historians. The Arnmenian version or the Chronicles of Eusebius includes extracts from the histories of Alcxandcr Polyhistor and Abydenus bearing on this campaign ; and both thesc were in all probability ultinlately derived from Berossus. The accuracy of Rerossus as a historian is ag-ain attested by the Assyrian monuments. The other subject on which the new cylinder afCords important informatio~lis the topography of Nineveh. I11 addition to giving details with regard to the great size of the city and royal palace, as rebuilt by Sennacherib, the text records the erection of the inner and outer walls of thc city, and enunlerates the names and positions of thc fiftcen city-gates. In fact, the cylinder was inscribed with thc special purpose of commcmorati~lg the coml~letion of the city-wall, and was utidoubtcdly buried in a portion of its structure, probably behind a colossal bull which flanked the entrance of onc of the great gates. Before discussing- the historical and topographical points on which the new text throws light, it will bc well to describe briefly the principal cylinders of Sennacherih, already possessed by the British Museum, and to indicate their relation to the text which has recently been added to the collection. The historical cylinders of Sennacherib, which have hithcrio been published, fall naturally into two classes, distinguished from one another by their outward form as well as by their contents. While illany are of a barrel-shape, i~iscribedwith long lines of text running horizontally from end to end of the cylinder, others are in the forin of hexagonal or octagonal prisms, standing upright and bearing on each face a colu~nllof text. The reason Tor the cnlployn~cntof two forms of cylind~rmay be inferred fro111 the nature of their teats. 'l'hc barrel-cylinders da.te iron1 the earlier years of Sennacherit~'sreign, arid. so long as his tnilital-y cxpcditions were few in number, their surface afforded sufficient spacq for the roy;~lrecords. When, however, in the course of years it was Found necessary to add accounts oi later campaigns, the barrel form of cylin~lcrproved inadoquatc. Space could have been found by cutting CI~LVIIthe description or Sennachcrih's palacc ;it Nineveh, which hullis so 1x1-g-elyin the earlier texts. But work upon the palace still continued, and the ~cndcncywas rather to illcrease thr lengtli of the architectural sections in ;Ln ;Ittempt to chronicle the latest additions and improven~entsto the building. Thus a different fortn of cylinder u7as adopted which gave additional space for thc. narrative. Of the carlier form of cylinrlcr we possess two pl.incipa1 types, reprcscnted by the so-called " Bellino " and '' Rassam " Cylinders. The first of these was found at Kuyunjik by Mr. C. 1. Rich, who frorn the year 1808 until his death in 1821 was the Hon. East India Company's Resident ;it Baghdad. It is datcd in the year B.C. 702, and gives an account ol Scntiacherib's first two campaigns, \ehich he cot~d~~ctedin H.C. 703, and the following year, against Babylon and the Icassites and other peoples on the eastern frontier of Assyri:~; it also fiirnishcs an account of thc work undertaken up to that titne on thc ncrv palace at P4incvch.l Very similar is the " Rassarn Cylinder," also barrel-shaped, which was acquil-cd in 1880, in the course of excavations undertaken by the British Museunl on the site of Sennacherib's palace at Kuyunjilc. It is rlated in B.C. 700, and carries down the account of Sennacherib's reign, two years later than the Uellino text ; thus it includes the record of Sentlacberib's third campaign, which he conducted against Phoenicia and Palestine in s.c. jor, and talies into account the work upon the palace, which had been continued in the in~crval.~ 'Tbc principal representative of the later form of record is the best litlown of all Sennacherib's tcxts. This is the fanlous '. Taylor Cylinder," a large llexagonal prism, which was found at Nchi Yunus by Col. J. E. Taylor in 1830,~and some t\vei~t~-fivcycars latcr was acquired by the British R/Iuseum. It is datcd in the year B.C. 691, and givcs an account of the first eight campaigns of Sennachcrib, and of the buildi~igof the '. Bit liutalli," or Royal Arn~ouryat Nineveh, the site of which is now marlied by the mound and village of Nelji Yun~is.~In contrast to the earlier texts, it is mainly concerned with the military expeditions of the king ; 1 For K. 1680, the " Uellino Cylindcr," st!e the Rahylnnian Room, Case H, No. 5, lixhib. No. 22502. The popular name is derived from the facsimile of the text which Ucllino supplicd to Grotefend, by ~rhurnit was first puhlishcd. liar tlic text, .Tee T.ayard, " Inscriptions in the Cuneiform Character," platc 63 f. ; and Smith at7d Sayce, "History of Sennachcrib," pp. I T., 24 TT., 43 ff., 140 ff. f.( see alsn Rt,uld, "(:atatogne of thc Cuneirorm Tahlets in the Iiuyunjil< (:ollectiun," p. 330 f. 2 For the LLRassam(:yiindcrJ' (80-7-19, I), see tile Babyloniarr Room, Casc H, No.

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