The Nimrud Slab, also known as the Calah
Orthostat
This article describes several characteristic architectural elements typical of European megalithic ( Stone Age) structures.
Forecourt
In archaeology, a forecourt is the name given to the area in front of certain types of chamber tomb. Forecourts ...
Slab, is the top half of a "summary inscription" of the reign of
Adad-nirari III
Adad-nirari III (also Adad-narari) was a King of Assyria from 811 to 783 BC. Note that this assumes that the longer version of the Assyrian Eponym List, which has an additional eponym for Adad-nirari III, is the correct one. For the shorter eponym ...
(811 to 783 BC) discovered in 1854 in by
William Loftus in his excavations at
Nimrud
Nimrud (; syr, ܢܢܡܪܕ ar, النمرود) is an ancient Assyrian city located in Iraq, south of the city of Mosul, and south of the village of Selamiyah ( ar, السلامية), in the Nineveh Plains in Upper Mesopotamia. It was a maj ...
on behalf of the ''Assyrian Excavation Fund''.
Ehrlich, p168
/ref>
It is the best known of the inscriptions of Adad-nirari III,
/ref> since it includes a description of early Assyrian conquests in Syria and Palestine
__NOTOC__
Palestine may refer to:
* State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia
* Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia
* Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East J ...
.
The inscription was carved on a gypsum
Gypsum is a soft sulfate mineral composed of calcium sulfate dihydrate, with the chemical formula . It is widely mined and is used as a fertilizer and as the main constituent in many forms of plaster, blackboard or sidewalk chalk, and dr ...
slab, and the surviving part of the inscription is thought to represent the top half of the original slab. The original slab is lost after it was thought to have been left behind in Nimrud. However, a squeeze was taken by Edwin Norris
Edwin Norris (24 October 1795 – 10 December 1872) was a British philologist, linguist and intrepid orientalist who wrote or compiled numerous works on the languages of Asia and Africa. His best-known works are his uncompleted ''Assyrian Dic ...
, which allowed the text to be published by Rawlinson Rawlinson may refer to:
* Sir Alfred Rawlinson, 3rd Baronet (1867–1934), English soldier, aviator and Olympic sportsman
* Alfred Rawlinson (bishop) (1884–1960), Bishop of Derby, 1935–1959
* Edward Rawlinson (1912–1992), Canadian businessman ...
.
The text as translated by Luckenbill as below:[
] subduedfrom the bank of the Euphrates, the land of Hatti, the land of Amurru in its entirety, the land of Tyre, the land of Sidon, the land of Humri, the land of Edom, the land of Palastu, as far as the great sea of the setting sun. I imposed tax and tribute on them.
See also
* Saba'a Stele
* Tell al-Rimah stela
External links
COS 2, 276, 2.114G
The Assyrian Eponym Canon
George Smith, 1875, page 115
References
{{reflist
9th-century BC inscriptions
8th-century BC inscriptions
1854 archaeological discoveries
Assyrian inscriptions
Philistia
Slab
Slab or SLAB may refer to:
Physical materials
* Concrete slab, a flat concrete plate used in construction
* Stone slab, a flat stone used in construction
* Slab (casting), a length of metal
* Slab (geology), that portion of a tectonic plate that i ...