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XIX. A New Historical Fragment from Nineveh

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

Theophilus G. Pinches
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Extract

The fragment here referred to belongs to Mr. John Quinn, jun., of Liverpool, and was purchased by him from the collection of the late Mr. Boutcher, artist to Mr. W. K. Loftus in Assyria. The height and the width are nearly the same, being about two inches and seven-eighths. Like all the tablets from Nineveh, it is of baked clay, but the colour is much darker than the generality of documents from that site which have not been stained with bitumen, or some other material, in consequence of their 2,500 years' burial in the earth. According to a statement made by the agent who sold it, the fragment, at the time it came into his hands, was covered with grease, which would account for the exceedingly dark brown of the surface. Unfortunately, none of the lines, which number eighteen in all, are complete, about a third only of the middle portion of the longest of them being preserved.

Type
Original Communications
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 36 , Issue 3 , July 1904 , pp. 407 - 417
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1904

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References

page 407 note 1 The usual transcription of the first element, Ninip, is here retained, but Dr. Hrozny gives good reason for supposing that it ought to be Nin-raḫ, or, better, Niri (Nirigi).

page 407 note 2 The Niffer of Layard's Nineveh and Babylon, spelled Niffar by Loftus, Chaldœa and Susiana, and Nufar in American works . The native transcription into European letters is Noufar, showing French influence.

page 408 note 1 The reason of the spaces in this text is doubtful—they may mean that the scribe's original was defective . Those in lines 10, 17, 18, and 24, however, have the usual holes made by the scribe, implying that nothing is wanting.

page 409 note 1 The traces, however, do not suggest , ma, but , ku, or , ur, lik, taš .

page 409 note 2 The name or word here was a short one, the remains suggesting nu and bar, perhaps the name of a god (? Nubar). There seems to be hardly enough room for , Šulmanu-ašarid (Shalmaneser), unless it could be written (as is possible) without the determinative prefix and the phonetic complement ; but if this king be intended, he would be the first of the name, who reigned about 1300 B.C.

page 409 note 3 Traces of or . If the latter, it may be completed , ma.

page 411 note 1 The scribe's copy seems to have been defective—unless we are to take no notice of the wide space after ḫibi, and read the whole, with the next (isolated) character as ḫibir, which seems unlikely .

page 412 note 1 Ancient History from the Monuments of Assyria, by George Smith, S .P.C.K. (1875 or earlier).

page 416 note 1 In the blank spaces in these lines are five small holes, apparently made with the pointed end of a triangular stilus .