RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Assyria
is not so clear; the United States has done nothing. Consequently expeditions from the United States have to rely upon private enterprise. 9. Obsta- It is a pity that some great fund is not cles in Ex- available that shall make appeal for cavating. special resources unnecessary : the result would be more thorough work and not the kind which looks for spectacular effects and leaves on the ground material as valuable as that recovered. (2) Governmental. This is in the shape either of refusal or delay, at the Sublime Porte, to grant permission to dig, or at the field in the case of bigoted or obstinate pashas. The only remedy in the former case is timely application supported by suitable diplomatic effort. If the pasha on the ground is inclined to interpose obstructions, the display of a firman should be sufficient. (3) Popular. The suspicion and superstition of the Arabs can be overcome only by the exercise of great patience and diplomacy. Their confidence once gained, the Arabs are loyal to their employers, as is amply proved by experience. The assistance of one trained in dealing with them is, however, a necessity. (4) Natural. The ruins of the country and of its system of irrigation, the resulting stretches of marshes with their miasmatic fevers, the heat of the sun, and the scorching winds and dust-storms, are obstacles which can not be overcome. Their effects may be palliated by proper precautions, which, unfortunately, the excavator too often neglects in the ardor of his pursuit of knowledge.
IV. The Cities: According to the best reading of Gen. x, 11 (R. V. margin), " out of Shinar went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir, and Calah, and Resen." By excepting from these Rehoboth-Ir (which is now regarded as a mistake for Rehoboth-Nina, either the place where Mosul now is, or the " open places," i.e., " squares," of Nineveh itself), and by adding Asshur, Arbela, and Dur-Sharrukin, a list of the known cities belonging to Assyria proper is completed.
Asshur, the modern Kalah-Shergat, on the west side of the Tigris, rather below the middle point of the places where the Upper and i. Asshur. the Lower Zab join the Tigris, was the chief city of Assyria until the reign of Asshur-bel-kala, son of Tiglath-Pileser I, c. 1090 b.c. It never attained as frequent mention or description as Nineveh in contemporary records, though the inscriptions record the frequent rebuilding and repair of the great temple of Asshur which bore the name of E-karsag-kurkurra. That it was eclipsed by its rival Nineveh is due perhaps to two causes: (1) The more healthful and pleasant situation of the latter; and (2) The location of Asshur in the zone of danger from Babylonian attack. But the return of quite late kings to it as their capital shows the hold the old city had upon the sentimental regard of those rulers.
Nineveh (Assyr. Nina or Ninua; Hebr. Ninweh or Nineweh ; LXX, Nineui), the modern Kouyunjik on the north and Nebbi Yunus on the south of the Choser, named probably, like the southern city of the same name, from Nin, daughter of Ea and identified with Ishtar of Nineveh, stood on the
left bank of the Tigris, about twenty miles north of the confluence of the Upper Zab with the Tigris. Its walls enclosed about 1,800 acres, and were about seven and one-half miles in circumference (approximately two miles square). Herodotus describes them as being 380 feet high and 80 feet thick, though in all probability the height given is an exaggeration; but Layard's plans make them, at one of the principal gates, where they were doubtless reinforced, 110 feet thick. The gates were flanked with towers
for their defense. The eastern wall 3. Nineveh, was protected by a moat filled with
water from the Choser. The time and circumstances of the founding of the city are unknown, though its Semitic origin seems implied by its name. The last datum is not quite conclusive, since it might have been pre-Semitic and renamed by its Semitic possessors. As it lay on the Indo- Mediterranean caravan route, its early origin and importance are assured. Gudea (see Babylonia, VI, 3, § 3) left an inscription referring to the building of a temple in Nineveh which may (and probably does) refer to the Babylonian city. Similarly precarious is the identification of the Assyrian Nineveh with the one mentioned by Dungi, second kingof Ur(c.2700 B.C.), as the place where he built a temple to Nergal. The fact that Shalmaneser I made gifts to such a temple in Nineveh does not, considering the diffusion of the worship of Nergal, make the identification secure. The conjecture of Jeremias that it once belonged to a kingdom called Kisshati has little to support it. About 1450 B.C. it was possibly under control of the (Hittite?) state of Mitanni, since Tushratta, king of Mitanni, lent an image of Ishtar of Nineveh to the contemporary Pharaoh. It is named twice in the Amarna Tablets (q.v.), both times in connection with Ishtar. The first Assyrian who made his residence there was Asshur-bel-kala, mentioned above. It was neglected for a number of centuries, and finally under Sennacherib was made perhaps the richest and best adorned city of the times. He tore down the old palace and built a double one, one part in the Assyrian style and one in the Syrian. He also conducted thither a water-supply drawn from the upper reaches of the Choser. Esarhaddon and Asshurbanipal added great structures, and it became the foremost city of the world, a great center of commerce and enormous wealth. Under the last-named king, it became a repository also of Babylonian culture.
Calah (Assyr. Kalhu) was the city next in importance, really a suburb of Nineveh, twenty miles
south, in the fork of the Upper Zab 3. Calah. and the Tigris. It was apparently
founded by Shalmaneser I (c. 1300 b.c.) and used as his capital in place of Asshur. It was then neglected until the time of Asshurnasirpal (c. 880 B.C.), who rebuilt it, fortified it with a massive wall, brought a water-supply from the Zab, and made of it a garden city, adorned with foreign trees and shrubbery. His palace was one of great beauty, and the bas-reliefs found there by Layard, George Smith, and Rassam are in the British Museum. Shalmaneser II built another palace, one of the adornments of which was the famous
Assyria