Nineveh
Cities and Landscapes- Long term
history of the city, its orchards and
Sennacherib’s Nineveh
Assyrian capitol as central place
 Funneling of resources to Central place
 “complex hierarchy of farmsteads, hamlets,
villages, regional, and provincial
centres…capital city at the pinnacle” (Barbares)
 High places and fortifications only at
administration points—Tell Beydar survey
Transformation of the population
geography
– Movement of political power base
of empire to northern cities (Kalhu,
Khorsabad, Nineveh)
• Optimal region for combination of
rainfall, irrigation, natural resources
and defenses
– Assyrian conquest and
resettlement repopulating
countryside and new cities
• Cities densely populated with people
from conquered regions.
• Unfortified small settlements in low places—
undefendable, at mercy of government
– Possibly very intentional--Letter from official to Sargon II: ”the
people living on the mounds should come down and build at the
bottom; should the ten fortified towns in the desert come down
as well?” (Barbares) Disarmament and defortification of noncentral loci—concentration of power.
Shift to the North
• Landscape of
Northern
Mesopotamia:
– “gently rolling plains,
pasturelands, and
rugged hills, watered
by perrenial rivers and
spring rains… able to
support large
populations…
(Barbares)
Layout of Nineveh
• Nineveh was huge!
• 750 Hectares (1875
acres)
• Absorbed by the
modern Iraqi city of
Mosul
Promontories
• Kouyunjik
– Main Citadel
• Nebi-Yunus
– Secondary, military
citadel “armory” or
“arsenal”
• Eastern Terrace
– Perspectival vantage
point
– Gardens?
Eastern Terrace
– Nineveh had a new kind of urban space found in no
other Mesopotamian city: the Eastern Terrace.
• “The inclusion of the high eastern terrace within the walls,
a feature unknown at Nimrud and Khorsabad, introduced
an unprecedented third urban space, and viewpoint. The
eastern terrace offered a new urban view which was
different from the high view of the citadel or temple
platform, and from the more common, low horizontal or
upward-looking view of most urban dwellers at
monuments and raised platforms.” –(Lumsden’s
Production of Space at Nineveh)
• Eastern Terrace provided
sweeping views of city and
was open to the public,
unlike Kouyunjik citadel
(palace/administrative
functions)
• Use of Eastern Terrace
unclear: possibly day-today movement of people,
marketplace, ceremonial?
• Possibly watered by high
level aqueduct as part of
Sennacherib’s gardens
and orchards
EASTERN
TERRACE
• This new, different perspective of city led to new
perspectives in artwork. Both offered residents of
Nineveh a new way to experience their city: a panoramic,
more cohesive and understandable view.
• For centuries, reliefs were portrayed from lower
viewpoint, action was all on ground-level.
– 2 horizontal registers, raised band of inscription dividing them.
– All figures stuck to this “ground line” and depth shown by
overlapping figures, often of all different sizes.
• In Sennacherib’s new style, action and figures were shown within a
landscape, viewed from a bird’s eye view.
– Distant figures are higher up and off the “ground line”
– More complex landscapes & more figures, all seen from above, NOT eyelevel.
– Central inscription band is gone; minimal overlapping
• All these elements combined to make a more naturalistic style attempting
to portray depth more than predecessors.
• May have made little sense at first to people (used to older style reliefs);
but with the eastern terrace it made sense (put into context).
– Sennacherib’s Reliefs: limestone slabs with reliefs
lined 70 rooms of the palace.
• Scenes show quarrying, transporting, and carving of
stone into massive colossi human-headed bulls, along w/
military themes (shown here: siege of Lachish).
• Represented from a more “bird’s eye view” than all
previous reliefs; showed more perspective than ever
before
• More naturalistic style
shows in other artwork, as
well: a 5th leg removed
from bull statues guarding
major doorways of palace
• Biggest were 20 ft. tall & 4050 tons
• The quarrying of the stone
for them, along w/ transport
& carving, was subject of
reliefs in E & N walls of
inner throne-room court of
Sennacherib’s Royal
Palace, located on the main
citadel, the Kouyunjik.
Kouyunjik
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Royal citadel at Nineveh
About 40 hectares in area
Palaces at periphery of citadel with temples at center
Temple and Ziggurat to Ishtar centrally located,
rebuilt by Assurnasipal II and Sargon II
• Sennacherib’s palace on the southwest corner of the
mound
Sennacherib’s “Palace Without rival at
Nineveh”
• Built between
701 B.C.E. and
690 B.C.E.
• 242 meters wide
Documentation of Palace Construction
• Intimate connection between the
funneling of resources to the capital from
military campaigns and the growth of the
palace
• Foundation cylinders describe military
campaigns interleaved with building
accounts
–4 cylinders from Rassam’s
excavations dated to 700 B.C.
contain annals of Sennacherib’s
first three military campaigns
and a palace building account:
“a palace of ivory, maple,
boxwood, mulberry, cedar,
cypress, and spruce, the ‘Palace
without a Rival,’ for my royal
abode”—Presumably a text
from around the foundation of
the palace, borrowing from his
father Sargon
• “Taylor Prism”
inscribed in 690
or 691 has all
eight military
annals and
account of the
completion of
the palace
(Height:38.5cm)
• Around 694 B.C.E., mixed annalistic,
summary and building accounts were inscribed
on the palace’s gateway colossi, with five
military campaigns and a palace length of 700
cubits in 694 updated to six military
campaigns and a palace length of 914 cubits in
the following year.
Bull Colossi
Bull Colossi
• Large numbers produced for
city gates, palace, and
armory
• Sennacherib’s largest were
about 20 ft square and forty
or fifty tons
• Commemorated in palace
inscriptions, and in
extensive reliefs showing
the quarrying and transport
of the stone for their
construction
Quarrying and iron
tools
Moving
colossi
Stone and Quarries
• Unlike Lower Mesopotamia, there is an abundance of stone in
Upper Mesopotamia, thus, the landscape supported extensive
stone construction
• Tastiate “across the Tigris” for white limestone, used in colossi
construction; floating colossi across the Tigris only possible
during spring floods: Sennacherib accounts in detail as his
predecessors source for this stone
• Limestone quarry known near Bavian, at the head of Aqueduct
Sennacherib completed in 691.
• Bavian quarry may be the new quarry on the east bank of the
Tigris that Sennacherib opened, “near Nineveh, in the district
of Balatai”, replacing Tastiate as source of white limestone for
colossi construction: assumed to be about 35 Kilometers
upriver of modern Mosul
Bavian (Balatai) Quarry
• May be the quarry on the
east bank of the Tigris
that Sennacherib opened,
“near Nineveh, in the
district of Balatai”,
replacing Tastiate as
source of white
limestone for colossi
construction: assumed to
be about 35 Kilometers
upriver of modern Mosul
Distant Quarries
• Stone from Mt. Nipur, (Judi Dagh) near modern Cizre,
Turkey—Sennacherib’s fifth campaign (697 B.C.E.) with a
surface like grains of “mottled barley”
• Stone from Kapridargila, “on the border of Til-Barsip”, to the
west, possibly “close-grained magnesian limestone” in room
LIII
• Gishnugallu stone from Mt. Ammanana, possibly AntiLebanon range NW of Damascus. Presumably precious highquality alabaster traditionally used for inlaying weapons, but
found in sufficient quantities by Sennacherib to construct
colossi with.
Judi Dagh quarry relief
Water
• “citadel unit always located laterally along the
city wall overlooking the river” (Barbanes)
• Possible high level aqueduct to Eastern Terrace
Many Gardens and Orchards
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Agricultural
Horticultural
King’s Pleasure gardens
Botanical
Zoological
Medical
Sacred
Watered by aqueducts
“Above the city and below the city I laid out
parks. The wealth of the mountain and all
lands, all the herbs of the land of Hatti, myrrh
plants, among which fruitfulness was greater
than their natural habitat, all kinds of
mountain-vines, all fruits of all lands, herbs
and fruit bearing trees I set out for my
subjects” -Sennacherib
“Hanging Gardens of Babylon”
• Actually located at Nineveh
• One of the “7 Wonders” of the ancient world
Hanging Gardens?
• Probably situated
between Sennacherib’s
palace and the Khosr
River
• Or as the “Eastern
Terrace”
King’s Pleasure Gardens
• The King and his wife
dine in the garden
Ambassu--Botanical and zoological
gardens
• North of the Adad
gate, NE of the city
• Plants and animals
from all regions of
the empire
• Hunting areas
Conceptual Elements of Garden
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Fertility
King as gardener and hunter
Taming and recreating the natural world
Vertical situation of palace, flanked by lush
gardens
• The charismatic character of the King, chosen
by the gods to tame the world
Halzi Gate
• 70m protruding east façade single point
of entry at the center, built at a slight
angle to connect to bridge over adjacent
moat
• 22 orthostats with inscriptions referring
to construction of Nineveh
• 2 intact courtyard foundation boxes
contained clay figurines—one of a
lahmu and one of a lion-headed man,
protective in intent.
• 8 towers of varying quality construction
presumably from hurried repairs in gate
for protection (unsuccessfully) after
initial military attacks (probably around
614B.C.)
• gates narrowed to 2m keep out troops;
heavy blocking stone placed in entrance
• Halzi Gate: southernmost entry point to fortified
eastern wall; attacked simultaneously with Adad Gate
in extreme north in the summer of 612 B.C.
• Over 12 skeletons of fallen soldiers at gate, left how they died
• Arrowhead in leg, spearhead and dagger in skeleton
• Probably some looting, but valuable objects were still with them:
string of carnelian and lapis lazuli, other jewelry
• This drew soldiers to opposite ends of
city wall, then attacked middle area
where river meets city
– Sennacherib’s extensive waterworks system
used for gardens and orchards was used
against him.
• Huge flooding: contemporary and
biblical accounts say the palace was
“dissolved”
• City fell to coalition of Medes and
Babylonians in summer 612 B.C. after a
three month siege
• “Sennacherib’s palace was pillaged and
burned; the upper story collapsed into
the lower and the ‘Palace Without Rival’
lay buried and forgotten for nearly two
and a half millennia.” (Russell’s Bulls for
the Palace and Order in the Empire).