Assyrian Historiography: A Source Study — John Shaqi
Assyrian Historiography: A Source StudyOlmstead, A. T. (Albert Ten Eyck)
History
Assyrian Historiography: A Source Study
Olmstead, A. T. (Albert Ten Eyck)
Assyria -- History -- Historiography; Assyria -- History -- Sources
The last in the series of Annals editions is the Taylor Prism of 690,
generally taken as the standard inscription of the reign, and
substantially the same text is found on seven other prisms.
[Footnote: BM. 91,032, often given in photograph, especially in the
"_Bible Helps_." A good photograph, Rogers, 543;
_Hist_. op. 353. I R. 37 ff. Smith-Sayce, _passim_;
Delitzsch, _Lesestücke_, 54 ff.; Abel-Winckler, 17 ff. Hörnung,
_Das Sechsseitige Prisma des Sanherib_, 1878; Bezold, KB. II. 80
ff., with numbers of the duplicates; Oppert, _Les Ins. Assyr. des
Sargonides_, 41ff.; Menant, 214 ff.; Talbot, RP¹, I. 33 ff.;
Rogers, RP², VI. 80 ff.; Harper, 68 ff. Here also seem to belong the
fragments 79-7-8, 305; K. 1665; 1651; S. 1026, as their text inclines
toward that of the Taylor Prism.] As has already been made evident,
this is of no value for the earlier parts of the reign, since for that
we have much better data, but it ranks well up in its class as
comparatively little has been omitted or changed. Slightly earlier
than the Taylor Cylinder is the Memorial or Nebi Yunus inscription,
now at Constantinople, which ends about where the other does. Here and
there, it has the same language as the Annals group, but these
coincidences are so rare that we must assume that they are due only to
the use of well known formulae. In general, it is an abridgement of
earlier records, though a few new facts are found. But for the second
half of the sixth expedition, the revolt of Babylon, it is our best
source. Not only is it fuller than the Taylor prism, it gives a quite
different account in which it is not the king but his generals who are
the victors. Yet curiously enough, in the seventh expedition the
Taylor cylinder is fuller and better. [Footnote: I R. 43; A. Paterson,
_Palace of Sinacherib_, 3; Smith-Sayce, 7 f., 39 f., 68 f., 86
f., 102 ff., lllff., 127 ff.; Bezold, KB. II. 118 f.; cf. King,
_Cuneiform Texts_, XXVI. p. 10 n. 1. Seen at Constantinople in
1907-1908.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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