Archaeologists have discovered two remarkably well-preserved shrines in an Assyrian temple that was burned in antiquity at the ancient site of Nimrud in northern Iraq. The larger of the shrines contained a stone dais with a cuneiform inscription by King Ashurnasirpal II. The smaller one contained a dais that was severely damaged when the temple burned.
A collaborative team of archaeologists from the Penn Museum and Iraq continued excavating the Ninurta Temple and its Ziggurat this year as part of the museum’s Nimrud Project, one of the cultural heritage protection initiatives of the Iraq Heritage Stabilization Program (IHSP), a program dedicated to safeguarding at-risk archaeological sites and repairing ones damaged by ISIS’ spree of cultural destruction between 2014 and 2017.
The temple was partially excavated in the 19th century by Sir Austen Henry Layard, the first excavator of Nimrud, and in the early 20th century by Sir Max Mallowan, husband of Agatha Christie (see Murder in Mesopotamia), but they just scratched the surface. This year is the third season the Nimrud Project team has been excavating the temple, and they have unearthed artifacts and remains of the temple that shed new light on Assyrian deities and how they were worshipped.
The Ninurta Temple was dedicated to the war god Ninurta, the state deity of the Assyrian Empire. It was looted and burned by the Babylonians (from southern and central Iraq) and Medes (from western Iran) around 614-12 B.C. Even though they deliberately pillaged the riches of the temple and damaged its shrines, the invaders inadvertently preserved many archaeological materials in the burning, and archaeologists have found remains that directly match descriptions of its construction in cuneiform inscriptions. For example, they discovered preserved cedar wood from the Lebanon Mountains, the same wood recorded in an inscription by King Ashurnasirpal II (883-859 B.C.) as having been used in the building of the temple precinct.
According to [Dr. Michael Danti, Program Director of the IHSP], the most intriguing find was a kudurru, a cuneiform-inscribed stone monument in the temple, which dates to 797 BCE and features symbols of important deities. It documents a royal decree granting the governorship of Hindanu, an area located on the Euphrates River at the Syria-Iraq border.
“The Assyrian king Adad-Nerari III (811-783 BCE) assigned this strategic region to a governor named Nergal-Eresh of Rasappa (located west of the Tigris and northwest from Nimrud in the Khabur River region),” Dr. Danti explains. “It strongly emphasizes that no one may refute NergalEresh’s claim to his new territory. It closes with a long list of curses for anyone who breaks the agreement, damages the stela, or removes it from the temple.”
Researchers also found well-preserved clay tablets with cuneiform inscriptions written in Assyrian (a dialect of Akkadian) that reveal details about the temple’s economic activities, such as silver loans and lists of assets, along with a note written in Aramaic—a language and script widely used during the later Assyrian Empire. Other objects recovered during the excavations include a stone bowl set into the brick floor of the shrine, likely used for pouring libations during religious ceremonies, the sculpted head of a griffon, fragments of glazed pottery and stone tablets, carved ivories, and jewelry. The wide range of object types, materials, and artistic styles reflect the burgeoning wealth of the Assyrian Empire and its vast military conquests and trade connections.
