Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-wq484 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-27T04:51:22.364Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Foreign Chariotry and Cavalry in the Armies of Tiglath-Pileser III and Sargon II

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

Stephanie Dalley
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The purpose of this paper is to present several pieces of evidence concerning Samarians, Urartians and Nubians, most of them in the royal army of Sargon II, following the fall of Samaria in 722 B.C. and its submission to Assyria. The main evidence is new, and comes from a small group of administrative cuneiform tablets, conveniently labelled Horse Lists, which have been published as Nos. 99-118 in volume III in the series Cuneiform Texts from Nimrud (CTN III) edited by Stephanie Dalley and J. N. Postgate. The new evidence has drawn attention to certain passages in the royal inscriptions of Sargon, for which a few new readings, interpretations and deductions are here offered that throw some light on the treatment of Samaria and its people by Sargon. The new evidence can also be used to highlight two groups of men whose equestrian talents were imported and put to good use at the heart of the Assyrian royal army.

The material that has been assembled comes chiefly from the reign of Sargon II, but has a wider timespan than a single reign, for in many respects Sargon (721–705) can be shown to have followed the example of his illustrious predecessor Tiglath-Pileser III (744–727) ; and the evidence from texts continues down into the reign of Ashurbanipal. One aim of the study has been to break through the stereotyped phrases of Assyrian royal records, to show that in fact the Assyrians did not rule through tribute, booty and forcible deportation alone; they imported horses from Egypt by trade, and they employed foreign advisers and expert officers in their army. Another aim is to show in one respect how the royal inscriptions can be complemented with various legal and administrative records, and to demonstrate the value that each kind of source has for the other; published tablets from Nineveh, Nimrud and Tell Halaf have contributed supporting evidence to the better known, formal accounts of campaigns.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 47 , 1985 , pp. 31 - 48
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1985 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 The Tablets from Fort Shalmaneser, British School Archaeology in Iraq, 1984.Google Scholar

2 Thanks are due to Dr. Moorey for reading an early draft, for helpful comments, and for help in finding pertinent articles and books ; and to J. D. Hawkins for of useful discussion of certain passages in Sargon's inscriptions.

3 Many of the names recur in legal and administrative tablets from Sargon's reign; details are given in CTN III.

4 See Parpola, S., in Assyrian Royal Inscriptions: New Horizons, Orientis Antiqui Collectio XVII, ed. Fales, F. M., chart 3 following p. 134.Google Scholar

5 Details are given in CTN III, ch. 2 and commentary on 108. It is possible that this ambiguity is true only in the 8th century.

6 The latter spelling is not elsewhere attested to my knowledge. The sign ia may also be read as iu.

7 First published by Segal, J. B., Iraq 19 (1957)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; commented on by Albright, W., BASOR 149 (1958), 33–6Google Scholar and Naveh, J., Maarav 2/2 (1980), 163 ff.Google Scholar

8 Loud, and Altman, , Khorsabad II, Chicago 1938, 69 and 104.Google Scholar

9 Thureau-Dangin, , Huitième Campagne, TCL 3 (1912), 22 line 132.Google Scholar

10 Muscarella, O. (ed.) Ladders to Heaven, German version 1981, 135–6.Google Scholar

11 Levine, L., Two neo-Assyrian stelae from Iraq. Royal Ontario Museum Occasional Paper 23, 1972, 25 ff.Google Scholar

12 Tadmor, H., The Campaigns of Sargon II of Assur, JCS 12 (1958)Google Scholar—in two parts.

13 See Kitchen, K., The third intermediate period in Egypt, 1973, 373–5.Google Scholar

14 Grayson, A. K., Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles, 1975, 73.Google Scholar

15 Chicago Assyrian Dictionary H, 173.

16 Muscarella, op. cit., 135 lines 5–6.

17 Grayson, op. cit., 73.

18 See J. D. Hawkins, Reallexikon der Assyriologie, s.v. Hamath.

19 Thureau-Dangin, , RA 30 (1933), 55 line 7Google Scholarof face C, and see Wäfler, M., Mcht-assyrer Darstellungen, AOAT 26 (1975). 135 n. 691.Google Scholar

20 Borger, R., Das Ende des Ägyptischen Feldherrn Sib'e, JNES 19 (1960)Google Scholar; Kitchen, op. cit., 373, n 743. In neo-Assyrian the word would be rā'û.

21 Tadmor, op. cit., 38-9.

22 Lie, , Annals of Sargon, 22 lines 121–3.Google Scholar

23 Kitchen, op. cit., 143 ff. and 376.

24 Lie, op. cit., lines 15–16; Winckler, , Keilschrifllexle Sargons, 100 lines 24–5.Google Scholar

25 It is hard to see how this could apply to deportees to Samaria, as suggested apparently by Tadmor and Cogan; see Oded, B., Mass deportations, Wiesbaden 1979, 56 n. 103.Google Scholar

26 See CAD, sub inu.

27 Translation quoted from the CAD.

28 Lie, , Annals, 6 line 17.Google Scholar

29 Gadd, C. J., The prism inscriptions of Sargon, Iraq 16 (1954), 179–82.Google Scholar

30 This restoration would be instead of [ahameš] which was previously restored entirely on interpretation of the context. Read the whole passage as: [lú sa]-me-ri-na-a-a ša itti LUGAL [ālik pāni]-ia ana la epēš ardūti u la našê bilti [ibbalkitū/ikpudū] ikmilūma ēpušū tāhazu.

31 Since gamālu is never used in this sense or construction elsewhere, it is probably better to take the verb as kamālu (ik-mi-lu for ig-mi-lu), although this reading likewise has no exact parallels.

32 Shalmaneser V is referred to by Sargon in the Borowski stela as rūbu ālik pāniya.

33 Hawkins, RlA, s.v. Jau-bi'di.

34 Various views are summarized by Coldstream, J. N., Greek Geometric Pottery, 1968, 305–6.Google Scholar

35 See CTN III, ch. 2 p. 32.Google Scholar

36 Littauer, M. A. and Crouwel, J. H., Wheeled vehicles and ridden animals in the ancient Near East, Leiden 1979.Google Scholar

37 Op. cit., 134–5.

38 Op. cit., 124, 136 and 142; see also Jettmar, K., Art of the Steppes, 1967, 212 f.Google Scholar A new study by Spruytte, J., La conduite du cheval chez l'archer assyrien, Plaisirs Equestres 129 (1983), 66–71 Google Scholar, describes such a system of reining; thanks to Dr. Crouwel for this reference.

39 See von Soden, Akkadisches Handwörterbuch, sub pethallu.

40 The distinction is given by AHw., loc. cit.

41 See CTN III, ch. 2 p. 34.Google Scholar

42 Luckenbill, , ARAB, § 611.Google Scholar

43 ARAB, § 575 and §663.

44 ARAB, § 726.

45 ARAB §46.

46 It is not possible to pick out personal names from Hamath and Carchemish with any reliability in the Horse Lists.

47 CTN III, No. 99 § E.

48 Mallowan, , Nimrud and its Remains II, 474, 476 and 556.Google Scholar

49 Orchard, J. J., Equestrian bridle-harness ornaments. Ivories from Nimrud I/2, 1967.Google Scholar

50 I Kings 22: 39.

51 None of the very few inscriptions published from ivories appears to be related to the time of Sargon; see Mallowan, op. cit., 594-9.

52 Lie, , Annals, 12 line 75Google Scholar; ARAB II, § 8.Google Scholar

53 ARAB II, § 55.Google Scholar

54 ARAB II, § 55.Google Scholar

55 Gadd, , Iraq 16, 179 line 33.Google Scholar

56 CTN III No. 101. i. 6.Google Scholar

57 E.g Ashurnasirpal II; Grayson, , Assyrian Royal Inscriptions, § 584.Google Scholar

58 ARAB II, § 64.Google Scholar

59 ARAB II, § 58.Google Scholar

60 ARAB II, § 55.Google Scholar

60a Winter, I., Metropolitan Museum Journal 11 (1976), 52, n. 108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

61 Parker, B., Economic tablets from the temple of Mamu at Balawat, Iraq 25 (1963), 89 f.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

62 Parker, op. cit., 93.

63 The eponym for 693 also held office in 688; but the earlier date is preferable because of the connexions with texts firmly dated 694 B.C.

64 The edition used for these texts is that of Kohler and Ungnad, , Assyrische Rechtsurkunden, Leipzig 1913.Google Scholar

65 CAD M/2, 216b “tutor”. The word is attested in the Middle Assyrian lawcode with the specific meaning “foster father”.

66 Borger, R., Die Inschriften Asarhaddons, AfO Beiheft 9 (1967), 40 Google Scholar: ša ahhēya rabûti ahūšunu ṣehru.

67 Nadbi-Yau, mukil appāti “rein-holder” in 709 B.C. according to ADD 234 was probably a Samarian; but we cannot be certain that he was not a Hamathite.

68 Levine, op. cit., 40 line 44.

69 Published by Johns, in AJSLL 42 (1925), 265.Google Scholar

70 As well as Nergal-sarru-usur the two texts have the witness Ululaya in common.

71 Thureau-Dangin, , TCL 3, lines 170–3Google Scholar; my own translation.

72 II Chronicles 1: 16–17.

73 Weidner, , AfO 14 (1941–1944), 42 line 10, and 44 n. 14.Google Scholar But we agree with Tadmor, , IEJ 11 (1961), 143 ff.Google Scholar and Garelli, , Hommage … Dupont-Sommer, 1971, 37–48 Google Scholar, and Kitchen, , Third Intermediate Period, 143 f.Google Scholar, while noting the reservations of Wäfler, op. cit., 171.

74 ARAB II, § 778.Google Scholar

75 Taxation and Conscription, Studia Pohl: Series Maior 3, Rome 1974, 11 and n. 1.Google Scholar

76 S. Parpola, Letters of Assyrian Scholars, no. 29, and in commentary volume AOAT 5/2, note on p. 33.Google Scholar

77 Lie, , Annals, 80 line 17Google Scholar; and comments of Salonen, , Hippologica, Helsinki 1956, 87.Google Scholar

78 Postgate, op. cit., 117–18, and collation in Governor's Palace Archive, 11; the letter was written by Marduk-remanni who was governor of Kalhu around 716 and was succeeded by Ashur-bani before the end of Sargon's reign.

79 Wilson, J. V. Kinnier, Cuneiform Texts from Nimrud I, 138 Google Scholar; detailed results of collation are given in CTN III, 22.Google Scholar

80 Chronology and historical outline follow Kitchen, The third intermediate period, especially 142–4; and in Revue d'Egyptologie 34 (1982–1983).Google Scholar

81 Wiseman, D.J., Iraq 18 (1956), 126 rev. 15′–16′.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

82 Dunham, , El Kurru, Harvard 1950, No. 17.Google Scholar

83 Reisner, , Tombs of the Egyptian 25th dynasty at El Kurruw, Sudan Notes and Records II (1919), 252–4.Google Scholar

84 Illustrated in W. Stevenson Smith, Art and Architecture of ancient Egypt, Pls. 173B and 174B.

85 Reisner op. cit., loc. cit.

85a Breasted, , Ancient Records of Egypt IV, § 850.Google Scholar

85b Op. cit., § 876–7.

86 See in particular Kitchen, Rev. d'Egyptologie 34, 66 n. 38.

86a Layard, , Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon, London 1853, 156.Google Scholar

87 Gadd, , Iraq 16 (1954), 179 col. iv lines 46–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

88 Nimrud and its Remains II, 211.Google Scholar

89 Dunham, El Kurru, Nos. 15 and 17.

90 Stevenson Smith, op. cit., 242.

91 Op. cit., 239.

92 Tallqvist, , Assyrian Personal Names, 119.Google Scholar

93 Possibly the eponym of 659 B.c.

94 AfO 17 (1954–196). 119.Google Scholar

94a P. Albenda, Observations on Egyptians in Assyrian Art, Bulletin of the Egyptological Seminar 4 (1982), 532. I am grateful to Dr. Collon for the reference.

94b Nimrud and its Remains II, 392.Google Scholar

95 Wiseman, , Iraq 18 (1956), 126.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

96 Gadd, , Iraq 16 (1954), 179 ll. 46–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Tadmor, , JCS 12 (1958), 34.Google Scholar

97 AHw., 1315 a.

98 Parker, , Iraq 23 (1961), 30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

99 Op. cit., 46.

100 Op. cit., 15.

101 Postgate, , Governor's Palace Archive (CTN II), 149 with note to line 5.Google Scholar

102 Kroll, S., Zur Pferdehaltung in Urartu, AMI Ergänzungsband 6 (1979), 169–70.Google Scholar No such building has yet been found in Assyria.

103 Jettmar, K., Art of the Steppes, 1967, 43.Google Scholar