Assyrian King List

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The Assyrian King List (AKL) lists the names of the Assyrian kings from their beginnings to 722 BC. Chr. On. Between 911 and 722 BC The AKL can be compared with the eponym list that was used for the period from 911 and 649 BC. Chr. Completely available. For the reign of Shalmaneser IV , Assur-dan III. , Assur-nirari V and Shalmaneser V , the list of kings is largely the only source; also for the reign of Adad-nīrārī III. it is crucial. It was probably first put together during the reign of Šamši-Adad I to legitimize his accession to the throne, and then continued under later rulers.

Lore

There are two Assyrian king lists. One exists in five copies, but all of them have gaps, three of which are very poorly preserved:

  • Khorsabad List 1 (KhKL)
  • Khorsabad List 2 (KhKL)
  • SDAS list (Seventh-day adventist seminary kinglist) ends with the reign of Shalmaneser V (726-722).
  • KAV 21 + 22, goes from Tukulti-Ninurta I. to Tiglat-pileser II.
  • KAV 23 + 24

The second list is only known from a single copy (VAT 9812, Nasouhi 1927 or NaKL). It does not indicate the reigns and has a different order of rulers for the period between Išme-Dagan I and Šu-Ninua .

The lists are based at least partially on older originals that have already been damaged. Sometimes the writers tried to fill in the gaps, but not always with success. Sometimes they also note ḫepi (broken).

Structure and content

The first 17 kings “who lived in tents” appear in two parallel columns with no further details. They are followed by ten kings "who were ancestors". Nothing is known of these rulers either, apart from their names. The next six kings are known from brick inscriptions, so they were determined by the compilers of the list using quasi-archaeological methods. Presumably their order is more or less random, especially since no government dates are known from these first 32 kings to Ilu-šūma . To Ilu-šūma's successor Ērišum I is noted that he ruled ṭuppịšu (presumably: less than a year).

For the later period the king list consists of three columns, the first of which is mostly destroyed. It contains the name of the eponymous official, which can often be added from the list of eponyms. Your office is noted in the second column. From the time of Šamši-Adad I. the reigns of the rulers are also known.

Absolute dating and synchronisms

The absolute dating is based on a solar eclipse in the eponymate of Bur-saggilê under the reign of Assur-dan III. According to astronomical calculations, it took place on June 15, 763. It is also known that Shamschi-Adad I died in the 17th year of the reign of Hammurabi of Babylon , whose government data are not secured.

reliability

The list is certainly unreliable for the time before Šu-ninua and even more so before Šamši-Adad I. Two other kings, Puzur-Sin and Ušpia , are missing. The order is also not always correct, and sometimes the parentage is incorrectly stated. The order of Kings 18-25 may have been reversed. The names of the fathers have been handed down from these rulers. The VAT 9812 list gives other names for the kings between Išme-Dagan I. and Šu-ninua . Reade assumes that this part of the list of several genealogical lists, which may belong to competing dynasties in Assur and Ekallatum , was compiled much later, in the Middle Assyrian period, relatively indiscriminately, perhaps under Aššur-uballit I, ruler 1–26 of the royal list probably represent the genealogy of Shamschi-Adad I, rulers 26–38 are a rival Akkadian tradition from Assur.

Sometimes there is also the suspicion that scribes have incorrectly added names that have been partially destroyed, as in the case of IB.TAR-Sin , which perhaps corresponds to the missing Puzur-Sin.

literature

  • Nadav Na'Aman: Statements of time-spans by Babylonian and Assyrian Kings and Mesopotamian chronology. In: Iraq 46,2, 1984, ISSN  0021-0889 , pp. 115-123.
  • Paul Åström (ed.): High, Middle or Low. Part 3: Acts of an International Colloquium on absolute chronology held at the University of Gothenborg 20th – 22nd August 1987 (= Studies in Mediterranean archeology and literature Pocket-book, 80). Åström, Göteborg 1989, ISBN 91-86098-94-2 .
  • JA Brinkman: Mesopotamian Chronology of the Historical Period. In: A. Leo Oppenheim and others: Mesopotamia. Portrait of a dead civilization. Revised edition, completed by Erica Reiner . University of Chicago Press, Chicago et al. 1977, ISBN 0-226-63186-9 , pp. 335-348.
  • Friedrich Delitzsch : Assyrian reading pieces. 2, 928.
  • H. Gasche et al .: Dating the fall of Babylon. A reappraisal of Second-Millennium chronology. A joint Ghent-Chicago-Harvard project ( Mesopotamian history and environment , Series 2: Memoirs 4). University of Ghent and the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, Chicago IL 1998, ISBN 1-88592-310-4 .
  • Albert Kirk Grayson : Assyrian Royal Inscriptions. Volume 1: From the Beginning to Ashur-resha-ishi I. ( Records of the ancient Near East 1). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1972, ISBN 3-447-01382-6 .
  • Albert Kirk Grayson: Rivalry over rulership at Aššur. The Puzur-Sin Inscription. In: Annual Review of the Inscriptions of Mesopotamia Project 3, 1985, ISSN  0822-2525 , pp. 9-14.
  • Peter Ian Kuniholm et al. a: Anatolian Tree Rings and the Absolute Chronology of the Eastern Mediterranean 2220-718 BC. In: Nature 381, 1996, ISSN  0028-0836 , pp. 780-783.
  • WG Lambert: Tukulti-Ninurta I. and the Assyrian king-list. In: Iraq 38, 1976, pp. 85-94.
  • Albert Ten Eyck Olmstead : The Assyrian Chronicle. In: Journal of the American Oriental Society 34, 1915, ISSN  0003-0279 , pp. 344-368.
  • Julian Reade : Assyrian King-Lists, the Royal Tombs of Ur, and Indus Origins. In: Journal of Near Eastern Studies 60.1, 2001, pp. 1-29.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See the detailed discussion in Rowton 1959.
  2. ^ Albert Kirk Grayson : Assyrian Royal Inscriptions. Volume 1: From the Beginning to Ashur-resha-ishi I. ( Records of the ancient Near East 1). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1972, ISBN 3-447-01382-6 , p. 1.