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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: NEW-NUM |
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NINEVEH (Heb. m}'?, in classical authors Nivos, Ninus; LXX. Ntsetni, Nnveun: Assyrian Nind or Ninua) , the best known and highly renowned capital of the Assyrian empire. There was a quarter or suburb of the old Babylonian city of Lagash whose name was written in the same way; this may possibly have been the home of those settlers from Babylonia who gave its name to the Assyrian city. The name was carried elsewhere, probably by Assyrian settlers, and we meet with Ninoe in Asia Minor (Th. Noldeke, Hermes, v. 464, n. 2). Philostratus calls a Hierapolis, +j apXaia Nivos but it must not be confounded with the Egyptian Ni-y, Assur-bani-pal NI, the frontier city to the east of Egypt's greatest extension, where Tethmosis (Thothmes) III. hunted elephants, probably situated on the Euphrates. This, however, may be the origin of Ctesias's statement (ap. Diod. ii. 3) that Nineveh stood on the Euphrates; the Arabic geographer Yaqut places a Nineveh on the. lower Euphrates near Babylon, and this may be a colony from the great Nineveh, or possibly the Nina of La gash.The derivation of the name is uncertain. The name Nina was borne also by the goddess Ishtar, whose worship was the special cult of Nineveh, and Ninua may well be a hypocoristicon of Nina. The ideogram for Nineveh, as also for the Lagash city,, is a fish enclosed in the sign for house, possibly indicating a fish-pond, sacred to Ishtar. As the Semitic nunu means a fish, a play upon nunu and Nina ie, suggested, but the name may be pre-Semitic. A derivation from the root ' with a meaning like " lowland " is doubtful, unless we are sure that the name is Semitic, and that the Lagash city also lay low. Nineveh was situated at the N.W. angle of an irregular trapezium of land which lay between the rivers Husur (Khausar, Choser) on the N.W., GOmal on the N.E. and E., Upper Zab on the S.E: and S. and Tigris on the S. and W. In extent this plain is 25 M. by 15 m., and contains the ruins of Nineveh at Kuyunjik and Nebi Yunus, of Dar Sargon at Khorsabad to the N.E. of Calah at Nimrud to the S. as well as of other towns not yet identified. The whole plain has a gradual slope from the low range of Jebel Maqtub and the hill of Ain-es-safra on the N.E. to the Tigris on the S.W. This plain was, for those days, amply protected on three sides by the two rapid broad streams of the Tigris and its tributary Zab, by the hills on the N.E. and the river Gomal at their base. The weak N.W. side was partly covered by the Husur, an impassable flood in winter but easily fordable in summer. The floods caused by the Husur were frequent and destructive, on one occasion sweeping away the palace terrace at Nineveh and exposing the tombs of the kings, on another isolating Khorsabad. A great series of dams was therefore constructed (mapped and described in " Topography of Nineveh," J.R.A.S. xiv. 318 ff.) which controlled the floods and filled the ditches and moats of Nineveh. One of these ditches can be traced over 2 M. with a breadth of 200 ft., and was lined with a rampart on the city side. The city on the river side of the Tigris extended about 2i m., its north wall
wall
inscriptions ), a less closely populated area which extended to and included the site of Khorsabad, before Sargon II. built his city of Dur-Sargon there. Across the Tigris, connected by a bridge, lay an extensive district, probably now replaced by Mosul. As Esarhaddon entered Nineveh, on his triumphal return from Sidon, through Rebit-Ninua, it is probable that this name covered the western suburbs. The walled city formed a sort of Acropolis, and it is difficult to say exactly how far the name of Nineveh should be extended. Few traces of private houses have been found within the walls, but as deeds of sale speak of houses in Nineveh, which were bounded on three sides by other houses, there must have been continuous streets within the area denoted by that name. Great emphasis has been laid on the agreement of a tetrapolis, formed by Nineveh, Khorsabad, Calah and Keramlis, with the dimensions given by Diodorus and with the phrase " an exceeding great city of three days' journey " (Jonah iii. 3). Admitting that this whole area was thickly inhabited and might be regarded by those at a distance as one city, and that the district may well have had a common name, which could hardly be Assur, there is yet no native evidence that Nineveh extended so far. There is no trace of a common wall, each city was as strongly fortified towards the interior as on the outside. Each had its own Iaknu, and the governor of Nineveh stands below the governors of Assur and Calah in official lists. In deeds of sale " the road to Calah " is as often named as the " king's highway " to Arbela
The history of Nineveh is, of course, bound up with that of Assyria in general. Later Assyrian writers professed to carry back its foundation to the creation of the world, but we lack any historical evidence of its age or early history. We may conjecture that it was founded by settlers from Babylonia Nina, and the statement that Nimrod founded it from Babylonia, along with Calah, Rehoboth-Ir and Resen, shows that this opinion was early held. We are, however, still without evidence that this was its first occupation. The mention of Gudea's building a temple for Ishtar in Nina (2800 B.c.) may refer to the Lagash city and an inscription of Dungi, king of Ur (2700 B.c.), said to have been found at Nineveh, might have been carried there by some antiquary king. We reach firm ground with the statement of Khammurabi (2285 B.c.) that he" made the waters of Ishtar to be glorious in Nineveh in 1/-MES-MES," the temple of Ishtar there (Code IV. 6o-62). As he had just spoken of " returning the gracious protecting god to Assur," and spells the name Ni-nu-a, there can be no doubt that Nineveh is meant. Shalmaneser I., in his alkali inscriptions (L. W. King, Records of the Reign of Tukulti-Ninib I. p. 131), c. 1300 B.C., records his restoration of the temple of Ishtar of Nineveh, which had been built by Samsi-Hadad (Shamshi-Adad) and restored once before by Assuruballit. Which Samsi-Hadad (out of six at least) this was, and which Assur-uballit wa are not told; the first of the formername known to us was a contemporary of Khammurabi and, if he built the temple first, Khammurabi may have plundered it and then restored it again; but an even earlier Samsi-Hadad may be meant. Dushratta, king of Mitanni, about 1400 B.C., in the Tell el-Amarna letters offers to send to the king of Egypt an image of Ishtar of Nineveh; from which it has been inferred that Nineveh was then under foreign rule. The same letters mention Shaushbi as goddess of Nineveh. A statue of a female nude figure found at Nineveh bears an inscription showing it to have been in the palace of Assur-bel-kala (1080 L.c.), who is therefore supposed to have resided in Nineveh. Assur-resh-ishi, Mutakkil Nusku and Tiglath-pileser I. restored a temple of Ishtar, probably in Nineveh. Assur-narsin-apli (885 B.C.) restored the temple E-MAS-MAS of Ishtar at Nineveh, but removed his residence to Calah. Shalmaneser II. set out on several of his expeditions from Nineveh, but in the latter part of his reign resided at Calah, and when rebellion broke out under his son Assur-daninapli Nineveh sided with the rebel prince. Sennacherib records that several of his royal ancestors had been buried in Nineveh and they presumably had resided there. At the commencement of his reign Sennacherib found Nineveh a poor place. A storehouse,the ancient and renowned temple, an armoury or storehouse, were the chief
store tanks, or ponds, within the city. He laid out a fine park or Paradise, for pleasure and the chase, to the east of his palaces, and built up a magnificent "triumphal way" sixty-two cubits broad and forbade any householder to encroach upon the street. Sennacherib made Nineveh his court residence and, after his destruction of Babylon and the influx of the enormous booty brought back from his con-quests, it must have been the most magnificent and wealthiest city of the East.Esarhaddon began to rebuild Babylon and so departed from his father's purpose to make Nineveh the metropolis of the empire, but he did not altogether neglect the city. He rebuilt the temple of Assur at Nineveh, and a palace for himself now covered by the Nebi-Yunus mound and so inefficiently explored. Thither Assur-bani-pal brought the rebel Egyptian vassals Necho and Sharru-ludari, the Elamite kings, the booty and captives of his continual conquests. He rebuilt the temples and a palace for himself north of Sennacherib's on the site of the Tatter's harem; which was adorned with extraordinary variety and richness. His sculptures are at the highest range of original and effective delineation in antiquity. Especially is his palace famous for the celebrated library, of which Sennacherib had made a commencement. Tens of thousands of clay tablets, systematically arranged on shelves, contained the classics of the Babylonian literature for which his scribes ran-sacked and copied the treasures of all then known centres of literary life. Very little trace is left of the fortunes of Nineveh during the reigns of the sons of Assur-bani-pal. Nineveh, according to Herodotus, was besieged by Cyaxares and the Medes but saved by Madyes and the Scythians some twenty or more years before the Medes in alliance with Nabopolassar, king of Babylon, finally took it, c. 6o6 B.C. Much conjecture has been lavished upon the varying accounts which have reached us of the capture, but it seems probable that a heavy flood or the besiegers burst the great dam and while thus emptying the moats launched a flood against the west wall on the inside and thus breached the defences. It may be of interest
If, as generally admitted, the ruins of Mespila and Larissa " described " by Xenophon, Anab. 4, 7 sq. were those of Kuyunjik and Nimrud, we may conclude that there was no inhabited city on the spot at the time of the march of the Greeks with Cyrus (cf. Strabo xvi. p. 245). The name of Nineveh (Syriac Ninwe; Arabic Ninawa, Nunawa) continued, even in the middle ages, to be applied to a site opposite Mosul on the east bank of the Tigris, where huge mounds and the traces of an ancient city wall bore witness of former greatness. Copious references to these mentions are collected in Tuch, De Nino Urbe ( Leipzig
A very complete summary of the traditions will be found in Lincke, " Assyrien and Nineveh," in Geschichte and Sage der Mittelmeervolker Hach 607-606. The explorations of Sir A. H. Layard at Kuyunjik (1845-1847 and 1849-1851) definitely located the city, in confirmation of ancient tradition and the identifications of Rich and others. Excavations were carried on by Rawlinson, 1853-1855; H. Rassam, 1854; G. Smith, 1873-1874 and 1876; Rassam again, 1877-1883; E. A. Wallis Budge, 1888-1889; and King, 1902. The enormous mound of Kuyunjik now separated from that of Nebi-Yunus by the deep and rapid Khausar, marks the site of the palace of Sennacherib and Assur-bani-pal. The mound of Nebi-Yunus is crowned by the " Tomb of Jonah," a sacred shrine to the modern inhabitants, and could not be explored; but by sinking a shaft within the walls of a private house, some sculptured slabs were recovered, and the Turkish government later opened out part of a palace of Esarhaddon. Excavations at two of the great city gates showed them to have been erected by Sennacherib. NING-PO (Nixc-Po-Fu, i.e. City of the Peaceful Waves), a great city of China, the principal emporium of trade in the province of Chehkiang, standing
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