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The Negūb Tunnel

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

Christopher J. Davey
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Extract

It is evident from Assyrian records, reliefs and present features in the landscape that Neo-Assyrian kings devoted considerable effort toward the construction of canals to irrigate the environs of their capital cities. The water delivered by these installations would have changed the appearance of the Assyrian countryside by facilitating the growing of luxuriant gardens which not only provided Assyrians with exotic fruits and pleasant living conditions but also demonstrated their king's mastery of nature. One example of this activity is the Negūb Tunnel.

The author visited Negūb in September 1977 to undertake a survey of the tunnel and its immediate area. He is most grateful to the Director of Antiquities of Iraq for permission to complete the fieldwork and for the facilities that were made available. Manhal Jabur the Director of the Nineveh Expedition and Inspector for Mosul Antiquities is to be especially thanked as is Salim Younis who represented the State Organization for Antiquities and Heritage and who bore the discomforts of the work. The visit was made possible by a grant from the British School of Archaeology in Iraq which is gratefully acknowledged as is the assistance of Professor Oates and of Nicholas Postgate, then Director of the British Archaeological Expedition in Iraq. The invaluable help of Ismael Hussain Hijara during the fieldwork was also appreciated.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 47 , 1985 , pp. 49 - 55
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1985 

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References

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8 Mainly shoq, , Prosopis Farcta, a spinous or prickly shrub which grows in alluvial soils, especially those with shallow ground water in areas such as depressions around wells, river valleys on alluvial plains and by canals. See Townsend, C. C. & Guest, E., Flora of Iraq, Vol. III, Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform, Republic of Iraq (Baghdad, 1974), 38–42 Google Scholar.

9 See note 8.

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