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Records of the Past, 2nd Series, Vol. IV

By A. H. Sayce

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Introduction- Inscriptions of Shalmaneser II

In 1877 Mr. Hormuzd Rassam discovered the remains of some very interesting Assyrian buildings in a small mound called Balawât, about fifteen miles to the east of Mosul and nine miles from the mounds of Nimrûd. They consisted of the enclosure of a palace, within which was a chapel dedicated to Makhir, the god of dreams. The temple had been built and the palace restored by Assur-natsir-pal, who named the place Imgur-Bel. The palace was further embellished by Shalmaneser II, the son of Assur-natsir-pal. He furnished it with two folding gates of great size, each of which was ornamented with seven horizontal bands of bronze. The bronze bands not only ran across the faces of the wooden gates, but also round one side of the bronze posts to which the gates were attached. The bands are covered with repoussé work, representing the various countries and cities conquered by Shalmaneser in the course of his campaigns. Each band contains two lines of such representations; over each of the pictures is an explanatory inscription, and on either side of the band is a border of rosettes. The bronze plates were fastened to the gates by nails driven through the centre of the rosettes.

The inscriptions, so far as they are still legible, have been published and translated by Mr. Pinches in the Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archæology, vii. 1 (1880), and in The Bronze Ornaments of the Palace Gates of Balawât (1880–81). The translation which follows will be found to represent the progress that has been made in Assyrian decipherment since the publication of Mr. Pinches.