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Goliers Nineveh Their walls and doorways were lined with sculptured reliefs, many of which are now in the Louvre, Paris, and the British Museum, London (including Ashurbanipal's famous Lion Hunt reliefs, now in the British Museum). Sennacherib's palace comprised at least 80 rooms; the throne room suite, now partially restored, still contains some of its bas-reliefs depicting scenes of conquest. Archives of cuneiform tablets were found in both palaces, but the library of Ashurbanipal forms an unrivaled epigraphic source for current knowledge of Mesopotamian history. One of the greatest treasures of ancient Mesopotamia,the Babylonian Flood story; The E-mashmash
temple, dedicated to the goddess Ishtar, also stood on Kuyunjik; its series
of superimposed structures, dating back to the 3d millennium BC, were
maintained by successive rulers of Assyria and survived until at least AD
200. The imperial arsenal, built by Sennacherib's successor Esarhaddon (r.
680-669 BC), stands largely unexcavated at Nebi Yunus, a mound on the city
wall 1.6 km (1 mi) south of Kuyunjik. It is still covered by modern
buildings, among them a mosque reputed to contain the tomb of Jonah. Nineveh
was first surveyed in 1820; intermittent excavation by various expeditions
took place from 1842 to 1931; more recent work, including some restoration,
has been undertaken by the Iraq Department of Antiquities. Kate
Fielden Bibliography:
Goodspeed, George S., A History of the Babylonians and the Assyrians
(1978); Hancock, Percy S.
P., Mesopotamian Archaeology (1912;
repr. 1977);
Olstead, Albert T., History of Assyria (1923;
repr. 1975);
Thompson, R. Campbell, and Hutchinson, Richard W., A Century of
Exploration at Nineveh (1929)
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Nineveh, the capital of
ancient ASSYRIA, lies on the left bank of the Tigris River opposite
present-day Mosul, Iraq. Prehistoric occupation of the site dates back to at
least the 6th millennium BC. Holding an important position on the main river
crossing in the fertile northern Mesopotamian plain but only intermittently
governed by local rulers, Nineveh was dominated in the 3d millennium BC by
the Agade and Ur empires and in the 2d millennium by the Mitanni and Kassite
empires. With the rise of Assyrian power in the late 2d millennium, the city
became a royal residence and was finally established as the capital by King SENNACHERIB
(r. 704-681 BC), who replanned the city and built for himself a magnificent
palace. Sacked (612 BC) by the Medes, Nineveh declined,
although occupation of the site continued through the Seleucid and Parthian
periods until medieval times.
