Dāduša stele

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The Dāduša stele is an image carrier from the early 18th century BC that was found in 1983 while drilling a well at Tell Asmar . It is now in the Iraqi National Museum in Baghdad (IM 95200). The stele bears a four-register representation on its front side, and an Akkadian inscription is carved on its sides. According to this, the stele was consecrated by King Dāduša to the weather god Adad . A special feature is that the inscription relates directly to the pictorial representation, which is rather unusual for ancient oriental steles.

Outer shape

As a result of the drilling work, the stele was damaged with a 10-15 cm wide, top-down destruction on the front. It is made of limestone and is 1.80 m high, 37 cm wide and 18.5 cm deep. The representations on the monument are limited to the upper three-quarters of the stele, while the lower quarter is cone-shaped and was therefore probably inserted into a socket. Their location was probably the temple of the weather god.

Image register

The pictorial representations find a counterpart in the Mardin stele Šamši-Adads I. The uppermost picture register shows a schematic representation of a city, above which three figures are depicted: A triumphant person stands with his left foot on a defeated figure and fetches with a weapon in the right arm to strike. To the right of this is a third person, facing left. There is an astral god symbol above this scene. The second register shows a fight between four male figures, this takes place in a mountainous area indicated by a scale pattern. The third register shows the humiliation and removal of the defeated opponents. In the lowest scene, ten men's heads are shown over a scale pattern; three vultures fly overhead, two of which tamper with their heads.

inscription

The stele is inscribed on the two narrow sides with a total of 220 lines in 17 columns. In it, King Dāduša, son of Ipiq-Adad II , describes his victory over Bunu-Ištar of Arbela . However, Dāduša gave the conquered land to Šamši-Adad I of Ekallatum . The establishment of the city of Dur-Dāduša on the Tigris is also mentioned. The inscription also describes the erection of the stele in the Etemenursag, the temple of Adad , the personal god Dādušas. The usual curse formulas conclude the text.

literature

  • Bahija Khalil Ismaïl; Antoine Cavigneaux: Dāduša's victory stele IM 95200 from Ešnunna. The inscription. In: Baghdader Mitteilungen 34 (2003), 129–156, panels 1–7.
  • Peter A. Miglus : The victory stele of King Dāduša of Ešnunna and its position in the art of Mesopotamia and the neighboring areas. In: Reinhard Dittmann; Christian Eder ; Bruno Jacobs (Ed.), Classical Studies in Dialog. Festschrift for Wolfram Nagel on the completion of his 80th year of life. (= Old Orient and Old Testament 306). Münster 2003, 397-419.
  • Christoph Uehlinger: God or King? Image and text on the old Babylonian victory stele of King Dāduša of Ešnunna , in Michaela Bauks et al. (Ed.), What is man that you think of him? (Psalm 8: 5). Aspects of a theological anthropology. Festschrift for Bernd Janowski on his 65th birthday. Neukirchen-Vluyn 2008, 515-536.
  • Frans van Koppen: Dadusha stele. In: Mark W. Chavalas (Ed.): The Ancient Near East: Historical Sources in Translation. Malden, Mass. 2006, 98-102.