Assyrian Historiography | Page 9

Ann., shows Ann. did not use Kir. through Mon.; Kir.
has 40 as against 50 of the others in II. 111, and 200 for 2000 in II. 115;
proper names such as Tushha for Tushhan show nearness of Mon. to
Kir., but the likeness can hardly be considered striking.] From this, too,
must have been derived the slab which gives a fourth witness for this
section. [Footnote: L. 48 f.]
With this year, 880, the Monolith fails us. But even if we had no other
document, the Annals itself would show us that the year 880 was an
important one in the development of our sources. At the end of the
account for this year, we have a closing paragraph, taken bodily from
the Ninib inscription, which may thus be assigned to 880. This is
further confirmed by the manner in which, this passage in the Annals
abstracts the last lines of the Monolith, [Footnote: Ann. II. 125-135a is
the same as the Ninib inscription l-23a (BM. 30; Budge-King, 209 ff.),
and this in turn is merely a resume of the close of the Monolith.] which
is repeated almost in its entirety at the close of the Annals itself. The

column thus ends a separate document, whose last line, giving a list of
temples erected, seems to go back to one recension of the Standard
inscription, which in its turn goes back to the various separate building
inscriptions.
That the Annals itself existed in several recensions is indicated by the
fact that, while there are no less than at least seventeen different
duplicates of Column I, [Footnote: Le Gac, _Introd._] there are but
seven of II and five of III; that there is one of II only [Footnote: Le Gac,
iii.] and one of III; [Footnote: Ibid. 126 f.] and that there is still another,
in at least three exemplars, in which parts of the Standard and Altar
inscriptions are interpolated between the Ninib invocation and the main
inscription. [Footnote: Ibid, ii; 123 f. (B).]
The year 880 marks also the removal of the capital from Nineveh to
Kalhu, [Footnote: First mentioned as starting point of an expedition in
879, Ann. III. 1.] which indicates that to this year we are to attribute the
majority of the building inscriptions. But, as they are all more or less
identical with the closing section of the Annals, we may best discuss
them in that place. Continuing with the Annals, we now reach a section
where it is the only source. And just here the Annals is lacking in its
most essential feature, an exact chronology, no doubt because the dated
year was not given in the source, though the months are carefully noted!
In the last of the years given in this section, probably 876, we are to
place the various bull and lion inscriptions, which in general agree with
this portion of the Annals. [Footnote: Bulls 76, 77; Lions 809, 841.
Budge-King, 189 ff. Le Gac, 181 ff. Made up of brief attribution to
king, then regular building text, then duplicates of Ann. III. 84 ff.] One
of these bull inscriptions, as well as the text of the great altar, adds a
good bit in regard to the hunting expeditions, which may be dated, so
far as they can be dated at all, to this year. [Footnote: Bull 77;
Budge-King, 201 ff.; Peiser KB. I. 124 f.; Altar, L. 43 ff.; Le Gac, 171
ff.] Here too we must place the Mahir document, [Footnote: V R. 69 f.;
Budge-King, TSBA. VII. 59 ff.; Budge-King, 167 ff. S. A. Strong, RP²,
IV. 83 ff.; Harper, 29 ff.] describing the erection of a temple to that
deity at Imgur Bel, as is shown by the specific reference to a campaign
to the Lebanon for the purpose of securing cedar. The years 875-868

seem to have been years of peace, for the only reference we can
attribute to them is an expedition to the Mehri land for beams to erect a
temple at Nineveh [Footnote: Ann. III. 91 f.] and so to this period we
must assign the Ishtar bowl inscriptions. [Footnote: III R. 3, 10;
Budge-King, 158 ff.; S. A. Strong, RP², II. 95.] Finally, we have the
campaign of 867, the last fixed date in the reign of Ashur nasir apal,
and the reason for compiling the latest edition of the Annals. For this
year, and for this alone, this latest edition has the value of a strictly
contemporaneous document. [Footnote: Ann. III. 92 ff.]
The last section of the Annals consists of the building account, found
also in nearly all the other inscriptions, though naturally here it is in the
form it last assumed. It may be seen in greater or less fulness in the so
called Standard Inscription, [Footnote: L. 1 ff.;