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Late Assyrian Temple Furniture from Tell Al Rimah

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

Joan Oates
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Extract

One of many distinguished contributions to Near Eastern archaeology made by Professor Sir Max Mallowan has been the investigation of Late Assyrian Nimrud. Thus it would seem fitting to dedicate to him this small note on a type of object previously unidentified in Assyria, from Late Assyrian Rimah.

The Late Assyrian settlement at Tell al Rimah was of a provincial nature and in no way comparable with contemporary cities in the Tigris valley. That it was a centre of some local importance, however, can be seen from the fittings of a shrine built about 800 B.C. high on the north-west side of the central tell, and cut into the ruins of the great temple and high terrace that had dominated the town a thousand years earlier; the discovery and description of these buildings has been reported in previous numbers of this journal. Undoubtedly the outstanding single find from the later shrine is the limestone stele of Adadnirari II I (Iraq 30, Plate XXXVIII). In addition, beside the doorway leading to the cella were found in situ two limestone orthostats, each in the shape of a lion's head spitting out the blade of a dagger (Iraq 30, Plate XXXVII). Scars in the black plaster above them suggested that they had originally supported engaged pilasters. A second pair of similar orthostats was also recovered in debris outside the temple doorway. These discoveries together with a number of small votive offerings found in the cella have been described in the earlier report. Th e purpose of this article is to publish several pottery objects, in particular a group of large “offering stands”, which were also found in the cella and represent a type apparently well-known in the third and second millennia B.C. but not previously recovered in a Late Assyrian context.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 36 , Issue 1-2 , October 1974 , pp. 179 - 184
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1974

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References

1 Oates, D., Iraq 1965–1970Google Scholar; a full description of the Late Assyrian shrine and its contents can be found in Iraq 30 (1968), 122–33Google Scholar.

2 R. F. S. Starr, Nuzi, Pls. 54:C; 115:D.

3 Inter alia, E. Porada, Corpus of Ancient Near Eastern Seals, Pierpont Morgan Library, 701, 801; Moortgat, A., Vorderasiatische Rollsiegel (1966), 591, 748Google Scholar; L. W. King, Bronze Reliefs from the Gates of Shalmaneser, Pl. I; R. D. Barnett, Assyrian Palace Reliefs, Pls. 90, 98.

4 Safar, F., Sumer 13 (1957), Fig. 4 (Arabic section)Google Scholar; Moortgat, op. cit., 655, shows the flaming altar very clearly.

5 Layard, A. H., Nineveh and its Remains II (1849), 468Google Scholar.

6 Layard, A. H., Nineveh and Babylon (1853), 360Google Scholar.

7 Oates, D., Iraq 19 (1957), 27CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Mallowan, M. E. L., Nimrud and its Remains I, 234Google Scholar.

8 A second altar undoubtedly stood at the entrance to the actual sanctuary in the Nabu temple (see plan, Iraq 19 (1957)Google Scholar, Plate II); the probable position of the Rimah altar is indicated by an irregularity in the pavement on the axis of the outer doorway of the shrine, approximately in line with the faces of the flanking towers, as in the Nabu temple at Nimrud.

9 H. G. May, Material Remains of the Megiddo Cult (OIP 26), Pl. XIX: P582.

10 R. A. S. Macalister, Gezer, Pl. CVI: 6, tomb 142.

11 A. Rowe, The Four Canaanite Temples of Beth-Shan, Pls. XIV–XVII, LVIII–LXII; H. G. May, op. cit., Pls. XIX–XX.

12 J. B. Pritchard, Ancient Near East in Pictures, no. 583.

13 H. G. May, op. cit., Pl. XX, and Fig. 7.

14 Speiser, E. A., MJ 23 (1933), Pl. LXIIIGoogle Scholar; E. A. Speiser, Tepe Gawra I, Pl. XXX; Fig. 205; R. F. S. Starr, Nuzi, Pls. 115: C, 114:D, F (upside-down); a number of examples including Plate XXIXc come from Rimah; TR. 5030 from the Nuzi destruction level, Area G (Rimah), is very like the Billah stand.

15 E. Porada, op. cit., 949, 950, 970.

16 Porada, E., “Seal Impressions of Nuzi,” AASOR 24 (1947)Google Scholar, Pl. LIV: 813; Professor Porada tells me this seal is of the time of Tarmitilla (third generation Nuzi).

17 Nuzi, Pl. 115:B; Gawra, Pl. XXX, Fig. 205.

18 Nuzi, Pl. 113:A.

19 Nuzi, p. 440 and Pls. 113:B, 115:A.

20 Nuzi, Pl. 114:E.

21 W. Andrae, Die archaischen Ischtar-Tempel in Assur (WVDOG XXXIX), Taf. 18–20; P. Delougaz, Pottery from the Diyala Region (OIP 63), Pl. 45:d; 65:39, 40; S. Langdon, Kish IV, Pl. I, also p. 15, n. 1; Moortgat, A., Tell Chuera (1965), Abb. 32, 7Google Scholar; Frankfort, H., OIC 20, Pl. IGoogle Scholar.

22 Delougaz, op. cit., Pl. 70:a–d.

23 Delougaz, op. cit., Pl. 69, Pl. 45:h, p. 81.

24 A. Salonen, Die Hausgeräte der Alien Mesopotamier II, Gefässe, Taf. LXXXIX.

25 Delougaz, op. cit., Pl. 45: c, e.

26 Delougaz, op. cit., Pls. 24, a, 172; an earlier sherd from this type of vessel is shown on Pl. 17, d.

27 Inter alia, Andrae, W., WVDOG XXXIX, 41 ff.Google Scholar; H. Frankfort, Studies in Early Pottery of the Hear East I (RAI Occ. papers 6; 1924), 127 ff.

28 Stele of Ur-Nammu from Ur, cf. Parrot, A., Sumer, 228–9Google Scholar; cf. also A. Moortgat, The Art of Ancient Mesopotamia, Pl. 210; stele of Gudea, cf. G. Contenau, Manuel d'arch. orientals, II, 737.

29 Cf. Parrot, A., Sumer, 282–3Google Scholar.

30 Iraq 21 (1959), Plate XXXVII: 55–7Google Scholar.

31 Oates, D., Iraq 30, 130Google Scholar; a saucer lamp of a type known in Syria and Palestine but not at Nimrud, found in a Late Assyrian house at Rimah, also suggests connections with the west.