Nineveh

Kuyunjik / Nebi Yunus

Iraq · Nineveh

Ancient cityIntermittent excavation
Approximate period6,000 BCE — 600 CEFrom prehistory onward; especially Neo-Assyrian See on the map ↓

In brief

Nineveh, on the east bank of the Tigris, was the last capital of the Assyrian Empire. Palaces, temples and extensive tablet archives have been uncovered at the excavation site, which includes the mounds of Kuyunjik and Nebi Yunus.

What was found?

  • 1Library of Ashurbanipal tablets

    Cuneiform tablets found in the palaces contain texts on divination, religious practices, and other fields of knowledge. Records on the tablets also provide information about the collection and copying of works.

  • 2Lion hunt reliefs

    Stone reliefs decorating Ashurbanipal's North Palace depict the king's lion hunt. They allow the representation of the ruler in palace art to be examined.

  • 3Sennacherib's Southwest Palace

    The palace Sennacherib commissioned after making Nineveh his capital. Parts of the building later also housed Ashurbanipal's tablet collections.

What does it point to?

At Nineveh, palace architecture, images of rulers, and collections of written knowledge came together within the same administrative milieu. Tablets brought from different Mesopotamian centers and recopied show that knowledge circulated between individuals and cities.

What did it teach us?

  1. Documented that texts were collected, copied, and catalogued in Assyrian palaces.
  2. Showed that palace collections included tablets from different cities and private owners.
  3. Enabled the architecture of the last Assyrian capital and the visual representation of its rulers to be understood through concrete remains.

Images

This painted brick depicts part of a horse and chariot. Nineveh, Neo-Assyrian, 710-612 BCE
SpeakingArch · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Latest news / selected archive

In 2022, stone reliefs dating to Sennacherib's reign and approximately 2,700 years old were found during excavation and restoration work at the Mashki Gate.

Record

Culture
Assyrian
Team / historical
University of Pennsylvania Iraq Heritage Stabilization Program and Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage
Coordinates
36.3594°, 43.1528°

Sources

  1. archeologie.culture.gouv.fr
  2. web.sas.upenn.edu
  3. nationalgeographic.com
  4. en.wikipedia.org
  5. Yale Üniversitesi — Cuneiform Commentaries Project

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12.000

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