# A. The Assyrian (Nineveh) evidence: cuneiform, reliefs, archaeology Research note for the "Hanging Gardens" investigation. Working copies of the raw fetched pages (`raw_A/`, the file names cited below) are not included in this folder. Every quotation below was copied from a fetched file unless it is explicitly marked **[UNVERIFIED]** or **[recollection]**. ## 0. What was fetched, and how to check it | Source | How obtained | Raw file | |---|---|---| | RINAP 3/1 Sennacherib nos. 1, 4, 15, 16, 17, 18, 22, 23; RINAP 3/2 no. 46 (Bull inscription) | Wayback copies of ORACC, `https://web.archive.org/web/2024id_/https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/rinap3/Q00NNNN/`; Sennacherib no. *n* = Q00(3474+*n*), verified for every text used | `raw_A/oracc_rinap3_Q003475.html` (no. 1), `Q003478` (4), `Q003489` (15), `Q003490` (16), `Q003491` (17), `Q003492` (18), `Q003496` (22), `Q003497` (23), `Q003520` (46); parsed text in `*.parsed.txt` | | RINAP 4 Esarhaddon 1 (Nineveh A) | same, `rinap4/Q003230` | `raw_A/oracc_rinap4_Q003230.*` | | RINAP 5/1 Ashurbanipal 11 (Prism A) | same, `rinap5/Q003710` (download cut at 1 MB: cols. i-iv only) | `raw_A/oracc_rinap5_Q003710.*` | | RINAP 3/2 nos. 223-227 (Bavian, Jerwan) | **not obtainable**: Q003697 etc. return 404 in every Wayback year probed; oracc.org resets. Substituted by Luckenbill 1924 and Jacobsen-Lloyd 1935 | `raw_A/wbprobe.log` | | Luckenbill, *The Annals of Sennacherib* (OIP 2, 1924) | archive.org item `oip2_20220624`, OCR text | `raw_A/luckenbill_oip2_djvu.txt` | | Luckenbill, *ARAB* II (1927) | archive.org item `LuckenbillAncientRecordsAssyria02` | `raw_A/luckenbill_arab2_djvu.txt` | | Jacobsen & Lloyd, *Sennacherib's Aqueduct at Jerwan* (OIP 24, 1935) | `https://isac.uchicago.edu/sites/default/files/uploads/shared/docs/oip24.pdf` | `raw_A/jacobsen_lloyd_oip24.pdf`, `.txt` (with `<<>>` = PDF page) | | Dalley & Oleson, "Sennacherib, Archimedes, and the Water Screw", *Technology and Culture* 44.1 (2003) 1-26 | `https://wiki.fysik.dtu.dk/~askhl/files/teknhist/44.1dalley.pdf` | `raw_A/dalley_oleson_2003.pdf`, `.txt` | | Dalley, "Babylon as a Name for Other Cities Including Nineveh", *Proc. 51st RAI* (SAOC 62, 2008) 25-33 | ISAC `saoc62.pdf` | `raw_A/dalley_2008_saoc62_babylon_name.txt` | | Dalley 2013, *The Mystery of the Hanging Garden of Babylon* (OUP) | **only Google Books snippet text** (legacy `books/feeds/volumes` endpoint); quoted as snippets | (not saved as a page) | | Xenophon, *Anabasis* 3.4.7-12 (Brownson, Loeb) | Perseus | `raw_A/perseus_anab_3_4_{7..12}.html` | | British Museum blog, "Paradise on earth: the gardens of Ashurbanipal" (4 Oct 2018) | Wayback | `raw_A/bm_blog_gardens.html` | | BM 124939 | photograph by C. Raddato (Wikimedia Commons), viewed; BM collection site returns 403 | `raw_A/bm124939_raddato.jpg` | | Wikipedia "Nineveh" (for post-612 bibliography only) | wikitext | `raw_A/wiki_nineveh.wikitext` | Sources that could not be opened are listed in section 7 (iii). --- ## 1. Sennacherib's inscriptions (RINAP 3): every relevant passage ### 1.1 The texts and their dates (verified from the fetched RINAP pages unless noted) | RINAP 3 no. | Object | Date | Garden | Water-raising passage | Canal | |---|---|---|---|---|---| | 1 | Rassam Cylinder | 702 (RINAP intro) | 87 | none | 88-90 (Kisiri) | | 4 | Bellino Cylinder | Ayyaru, eponymy of Mitunu (700) (line 95) | 85-88 | none | 85-88 | | 15 | prisms (17 exs.) | 697 | vii 5-13; viii 2'-8' | none | viii | | 16 | prisms (42 exs.) | 696 | vii 12-21; viii 3b-11 | none | vii 81-viii 3; viii 12-28 | | 17 | prisms | Abu, eponymy of Ilu-ittiya (694) | vii 53-57; viii 16-21 | **vii 45-49** | viii 22-45 | | 18 | prisms | 691 | (gate list) | not preserved in fetched portion | - | | 22 | Taylor Prism (BM 91032) / Chicago Prism (A 2793) etc. | Addaru 20, eponymy of Bel-emuranni (691) (vi 84B); Chicago ex.: Du'uzu, eponymy of Gahilu (689) (vi 84A) | vi 36-38 "wonder" only | none | none | | 46 | Bull inscription, BM 118815a-b (+) 118817 (+) 118819 (+) 118821 | undated | 153b-154 | **151b-152** | 154b-157 | | 223 | Bavian rock inscription | 690 (Jacobsen) | - | none | 18 canals; "Sennacherib-channel" | | 224-227 | Jerwan aqueduct inscriptions | with 223 | - | none | aqueduct | RINAP numbering of Bavian (223) and Jerwan (224-227) is from recollection; I could not open those pages **[UNVERIFIED]**. ### 1.2 The palace garden: kirimāḫu tamšīl Amanus Earliest form, Rassam Cylinder (no. 1, 702 BC), lines 86-87, immediately after the wall-slab passage (`raw_A/oracc_rinap3_Q003475.parsed.txt`): > 86 `as-kup-pat NA₄.pi-i-li rab-ba-a-ti da-ád-me na-ki-ri ki-šit-ti ŠU.II-ia qé-reb-ši-in es-si-⸢ḫa⸣ a-sur-ru-ši-in ú-šá-as-ḫi-ra a-na tab-ra-a-ti ú-šá-lik` > "I engraved on large limestone slabs (images of) the enemy settlements that I had conquered. I surrounded their (the palace rooms') lower courses (with them and) made (them) an object of wonder." > 87 `GIŠ.KIRI₆.MAḪ-ḫu tam-šil KUR.ḫa-ma-nim ša gi-mir ŠIM.ḪI.A.MEŠ GURUN ṣip-pa-a-te GIŠ.MEŠ tuk-lat šá-di-i ù KUR.kal-di qé-reb-šú ḫur-ru-šu i-ta-a-šá az-qu-up` > "I planted alongside it (the palace) a botanical garden, a replica of Mount Amanus, which has all kinds of aromatic plants (and) fruit trees, trees that are the mainstay of the mountains and Chaldea, collected inside it." Luckenbill 1924 (OIP 2 p. 97, Bellino Cylinder = his "B1", lines 86-88): "A great park, like unto Mt. Amanus, wherein were set out all kinds of herbs and fruit trees,—trees, such as grow on the mountains and in Chaldea, I planted by its (the palace's) side. That (they might) plant orchards, I subdivided some land in the plain above the city, into plots of 2 PI each, for the citizens of Nineveh, and gave it to them." Jacobsen (OIP 24 p. 33 n. 6) objects to Luckenbill's "fruit trees": "There is, however, no evidence that the sign GURUN:enbu was ever used as a determinative. We must therefore consider the phrase as a status constructus, enib ṣippāte, 'fruits of orchards'." The 694 text (no. 17) vii 53-57 adds cotton (`raw_A/oracc_rinap3_Q003491.parsed.txt`): > vii 53 `GIŠ.KIRI₆.MAḪ-ḫu tam-šil KUR.ḫa-ma-nim` / 54 `ša gi-mir ŠIM.ḪI.A GURUN ṣip-pa-a-te` / 55 `GIŠ.MEŠ tuk-lat KUR-i ù KUR.kal-di` / 56 `a-di GIŠ.MEŠ na-áš SÍG.ḪI.A` / 57 `qé-reb-šú ḫur-ru-šu i-ta-a-šá az-qu-up` > "I planted alongside it (the palace) a botanical garden, a replica of Mount Amanus, which has all kinds of aromatic plants (and) fruit trees, trees that are the mainstay of the mountains and Chaldea, together with cotton trees (lit. 'trees bearing wool'), collected inside it." The same in no. 16 vii 12-21 (`a-di iṣ-ṣu na-áš ši-pa-a-ti`, RINAP note 60) and in the Bull inscription no. 46: 153b-154 (`raw_A/oracc_rinap3_Q003520.parsed.txt`). Sennacherib later distinguishes several plantations. No. 16 viii 3b-11 (696): `i-te-e URU 1 GIŠ.KIRI₆.MAḪ-ḫi 1 GIŠ.KIRI₆ am-⸢ba⸣-si kul-lat ŠIM.ḪI.A KUR.ḫat-ti ... ú-ḫar-ri-šá qé-reb-šú-un e-le-en URU EDIN šá-ab-⸢bur⸣-[ti] GIŠ.GEŠTIN gi-mir GURUN ù GIŠ.se-⸢er⸣-[di] az-qu-up ṣe-ru-uš-[šá]`, "Beside the city, in a botanical garden (one) pānu (in size and) a garden (one) pānu (in size) for a game preserve, I gathered every type of aromatic tree of the land Ḫatti, fruit trees of [all lands], (and) trees that are the mainstay of the mountains and Chaldea. Upstream of the city, on newly tilled so[il], I planted vines, every type of fruit tree, and olive tre[es]." No. 17 viii 16-21 (694): `e-le-en URU ù KI.TA URU ú-še-piš GIŠ.KIRI₆.MEŠ ... ṣe-er šá-ab-bur-ti ša a-ḫa am-ba-si`, "I had gardens cultivated upstream and downstream of the city ... On newly tilled soil, which is beside the game preserve, I planted in great number all (types) of mountain vine, every type of fruit tree from all over the world, (including) spice and olive trees." Observations: (1) the palace garden is always "alongside it (the palace)", `i-ta-a-šá az-qu-up`; no text mentions terraces, vaults, an artificial hill, a roof garden or the citadel mound, and *kirimāḫu* is simply GIŠ.KIRI₆.MAḪ "great garden" (Dalley 2013, snippet: "metaphorically 'great garden' in the sense of important rather than large"). (2) "Replica of Mount Amanus" is formulaic: Esarhaddon reuses it for his own palace garden (section 6). (3) "Object of wonder for all of the people" (`a-na tab-rat kiš-šat UN.MEŠ`) is predicated of the *palace*, not the garden: no. 17 vii 50-52 `si-ḫir-ti É.GAL a-na tab-rat kiš-šat UN.MEŠ ul-la-a re-ši-šá É.GAL šá-ni-na la i-šu-u ni-bit-sa az-kur`, "To be an object of wonder for all of the people, I raised the superstructure of the entire palace. I called it 'The Palace Without a Rival.'" Likewise no. 22 vi 36-38 (Taylor Prism): `ul-tu É.GAL MURUB₄ URU ša NINA.KI a-na ri-mit LUGAL-ti-ia ú-šak-li-lu a-na tab-ra-a-te kiš-šat UN.MEŠ lu-le-e ú-ma-lu-ši`, "after I had completed the palace in the citadel of Nineveh for my royal residence (and) had filled it with luxuriousness to be an object of wonder for all of the people". In no. 1: 86 the wall slabs are made "an object of wonder" (`a-na tab-ra-a-ti`). Dalley's rendering "a Wonder for all Peoples" (Dalley & Oleson 2003 p. 8) is a fair translation of the same words, but the antecedent is the palace. ### 1.3 The water-raising passage (only in the 694 texts and the Bull inscription) I checked nos. 1, 4, 15 (vii 5-13) and 16 (vii 12-21): in all of them the wall-slab sentence is followed directly by the Amanus garden. The bucket/wells passage first appears in no. 17 (694), where RINAP note 48 says vii 45-49 "were probably composed anew for this text and other inscriptions written in 694 ... With regard to vii 45-49, see also Læssøe, JCS 7 (1953) p. 15 and Walker in Curtis, Bronzemaking pp. 116-117." No. 17 vii 45-49 (RINAP 3/1, Grayson & Novotny 2012): > vii 45 `áš-šú u₄-me-šam-ma A.MEŠ di-lu-ti` > vii 46 `da-lum eb-li gu-ḫaṣ-ṣa-a-te ZABAR` > vii 47 `u ḫar-ḫa-ri ZABAR ú-še-piš-ma` > vii 48 `ki-mu-ú ma-ka-a-te giš-maḫ-ḫi ù a-la-mit-ta URUDU` > vii 49 `ṣe-er PÚ.MEŠ uš-ziz É.GAL.MEŠ šá-ti-na ú-šá-lik as-mì-iš` > "In order to be able to draw water by bucket every day, I had bronze wire chains and bronze cables made and, instead of poles, I had tree trunks and date palm(s) of copper placed over wells. I made those palatial halls beautiful." Bull inscription no. 46: 151b-152: `áš-šu u₄-mi-šam-ma A.MEŠ di-lu-ti ⸢da-lum⸣ eb-li gu-ḫaṣ-ṣa-a-ti ZABAR ù ḫar-ḫa-ri ZABAR ú-še-piš-ma ki-mu-ú ma-ka-a-ti giš-maḫ-ḫi ù a-la-mit-ta ṣe-er PÚ.MEŠ uš-ziz`, "In order to be able to draw water by bucket every day, I had bronze wire chains and bronze cables made and, instead of poles, I had tree trunks and date palm(s) placed over wells." Note: no URUDU "copper" here. The passage cannot be read apart from the casting passage that precedes it in the same text (no. 17 vi 80-vii 19), where the same pair of objects is named: > vi 80-88 (RINAP transl.): "Since time immemorial, the kings, my ancestors, created copper statues, replicas of their (own) forms, to be erected in temples, and through their manufacture they had exhausted all of the craftsmen. Through ignorance (and) failure to give thought on the matter, they depleted the oil, wax, (and) wool in their lands for the work they desired." (`Ì.GIŠ iš-ku-ru na-al-ba-áš ṣe-e-ni`) > vi 89-vii 8: "(But) as for me, Sennacherib, the foremost of all rulers, expert in every type of work, regarding large columns of copper (and) striding lion colossi, which none of the kings of the past (who came) before me had cast: with the ingenious mind that the prince, the god Ninšiku, had granted to me (and) taking counsel with myself, I intensively pondered how to perform this work. Then, with my (own) ideas and knowledge, I created a cast work of copper and expertly carried out its artful execution." > vii 9 `ša giš-maḫ-ḫi ù a-la-mit-ta` / 10 `GIŠ meš-re-e 12 UR.MAḪ.MEŠ né-ʾi-ru-ti` / 11 `a-di 12 dALAD.dLAMMA.MEŠ` / 12 `MAḪ.MEŠ ša šuk-lu-lu nab-ni-tu` / 13 `22 MUNUS.ÁB.ZA.ZA-a-te ša ku-uz-ba` / 14 `ul-ṣu ḫi-it-lu-pa bal-tu la-la-a` / 15 `kúm-mu-ru ṣe-ru-uš-šin` / 16 `ki-i ṭè-em DINGIR-ma zi-iʾ-pi ṭi-iṭ-ṭi` / 17 `ab-ni-ma e-ra-a qé-reb-šú áš-tap-pa-ka` / 18 `ki-i pi-ti-iq 1/2 GÍN.TA.ÀM` / 19 `ú-šak-li-la nab-ni-su-un` > "By divine will, I created clay mold(s) of tree trunks and date palm(s), the tree of abundance, (of) twelve raging lions, as well as (of) twelve magnificent bull colossi with perfect features (and) twenty-two sphinxes that are coated in allure (and) charm (and) that have pride (and) exuberance heaped upon them, then I poured copper into it. Just like the cast work of (an object weighing only) a half shekel, I perfected their forms." RINAP note 43 on `1/2 GÍN.TA.ÀM`: Luckenbill, CAD Z p. 87, Russell, Powell and Parpola "believe that 1/2 GÍN.TA.ÀM is a reference to a half-shekel piece. To our knowledge none of these 'half-shekel pieces' have ever been identified in the archaeological record"; Renger, Powell (JESHO 39), Radner and Vargyas "suggest that this statement was intended to illustrate how simple and effective Sennacherib's new casting was"; Frahm (NABU 2005/45) notes `1/2 GÍN` = *zūzu*. Note 42 (on vii 10): GIŠ mešrê "tree of abundance" (Lambert, BWL p. 74 l. 56). Luckenbill's 1924 translation (OIP 2 pp. 109-110, section "IV. A very full record of the improvements in and about the capital (E1) (written in the year 694 B.C.)"), vii 9-19: "Over great posts and cross-bars of wood, 12 fierce lion-colossi together with 12 mighty bull-colossi, complete in form, 22 cow-colossi ...—at the command of the god, I built a form of clay and poured bronze into it, as in making half-shekel pieces, and finished their construction" (and vi 81-88: the earlier kings "drank oil, and wore sheepskins"). For vii 45-50 (OIP 2 pp. 110-111): "That daily there might be abundant flow of water of the buckets, I had copper cables(?) and pails made, and in place of the (mud-brick) pedestals (pillars) I set up great posts and cross-beams over the wells. Those palaces, all around the (large) palace, I beautified; to the astonishment of all nations, I raised aloft its head. 'The Palace without a Rival' I called its name." Same wording in ARAB II §§391-395 and, for the Bull inscription, OIP 2 pp. 117-127 ("V. Undated Bull Inscription (I1)"), lines 38-43 (page number of this passage not verified from the OCR). **Textual variants** (RINAP note 49, verbatim): "URUDU 'copper': Contra Luckenbill, Senn. p. 110 and CAD M/1 p. 143 sub makūtu 1, both exs. 1 and 2 have a-la-mit-ta URUDU; in ex. 2, A. Heidel (Sumer 9 [1953] p. 166) confidently read URUDU with no brackets and on p. 185 noted that the reading was 'unmistakable.' URUDU 'copper,' however, is omitted in ex. 4. M. Worthington (personal communication) suggests emending the text to a-la-mit-ta-te since he suspects that a-la-mit-ta URUDU is a corruption of alamittāte. Moreover, he proposes that URUDU was dropped from some exemplars/texts because the copyists regarded it as nonsensical, without realising that the sign originated as TE, while other scribes kept the sign." The Bull inscription (no. 46: 152) likewise lacks URUDU. Ex. 2 of no. 17 is Heidel's Sumer 9 prism (Iraq Museum; number not verified); I could not confirm which museum numbers exs. 1 and 4 carry **[UNVERIFIED]**. Lexical points I can document from the fetched material: `di-lu-ti` (*dilûtu*) is bucket-drawn water; `eb-li` (*eblu*) "rope"; `gu-ḫaṣ-ṣa-a-te` (*guḫaṣṣu*) "wire chain"; `ḫar-ḫa-ri` (*ḫarḫaru*) RINAP "cable", Luckenbill "pails"; `ma-ka-a-te` (*makûtu*) RINAP "poles", Luckenbill "(mud-brick) pedestals (pillars)", Dalley "shadufs"; `PÚ.MEŠ` (*būrātu*) RINAP "wells", Dalley "cisterns"; `giš-maḫ-ḫi` (GIŠ.MAḪ) RINAP "tree trunks", Luckenbill "great posts", Dalley "great cylinders"; `a-la-mit-ta` RINAP "date palm(s)", Luckenbill "cross-bars/cross-beams", Dalley "alamittu palms" = screw. The CAD entries themselves (M/1 p. 143 *makūtu*; A/1 *alamittu*) were not fetched; the CAD identification of *alamittu* with *Chamaerops humilis* is reported by Dalley & Oleson n. 21 as one that "can now be seen to be incorrect" (`raw_A/dalley_oleson_2003.txt`). ### 1.4 Canals and water supply in the RINAP texts **Kisiri canal (702 ff.)**, no. 1: 88-90: > 88 `áš-šu za-qa-ap ṣip-pa-a-ti A.ŠÀ ta-mir-ti e-le-en URU NIGIDAMIN.TA.ÀM a-na DUMU.MEŠ NINA.KI pil-ku ú-pal-lik-ma ú-šad-gi-la pa-nu-uš-šú-un` — "To plant gardens, I subdivided the meadowland upstream of the city into plots of two pānu each for the citizens of Nineveh and I handed (them) over to them." > 89 `a-na miṭ-ra-a-ti šum-mu-ḫi ul-tu pa-a-ṭi URU.ki-si-ri a-di ta-mir-ti NINA.KI KUR-a ù bi-ru-tú i-na ak-kul-la-te AN.BAR ú-šat-tir-ma ú-še-šir ÍD.ḫar-ru` / 90 `1 1/2 KASKAL.GÍD qaq-qa-ru ul-tu qé-reb ÍD.ḫu-su-ur ma-a-me da-ru-ú-ti a-šar-šá ú-šar-da-a qé-reb ṣip-pa-a-te šá-ti-na ú-šaḫ-bi-ba pat-ti-iš` — "To make (those) planted areas luxuriant, I cut with iron picks a canal straight through mountain and valley, from the border of the city Kisiri to the plain of Nineveh. I caused an inexhaustible supply of water to flow there for a distance of one and a half leagues from the Ḫusur River (and) made (it) gush through feeder canals into those gardens." (*birūtu* "valley" after Frahm, Sanherib p. 45, RINAP note 68 on no. 16; Jacobsen, OIP 24 p. 33 n. 9, notes that the "1 1/2 bēru" of the Rassam text is restored from the Bellino Cylinder; the 694 version, no. 17 viii 27, has `mu-la-a muš-pa-lum` "high ground (and) low ground" and viii 28 `aḫ-ra-a ú-še-šir ÍD.pat-tu`.) **Aqueducts through the wall and a bridge**, no. 16 vii 81-viii 3 (696): `áš-šú mu-ṣe-e ÍD.ḫu-su-ur qé-reb URU ma-lak A.MEŠ e-liš ù šap-liš i-na SIG₄.AL.ÙR.RA KI-i-ri ma-ši-i ti-tur-ri ab-ta-ni šá-pal-šú i-na mé-eḫ-ret KÁ.GAL MURUB₄ URU ...`, "So that there would be outflow from the Ḫusur River in the city (and) the passage of water upstream and downstream, I built aqueducts beneath it (the city wall) with baked bricks, ... opposite the Citadel Gate ... I had a bridge constructed." (Omitted again in no. 17: RINAP note 56.) **The Khosr regulated; Mount Muṣri springs (694)**, no. 17 viii 22-42: `ÍD.ḫu-su-ur ša ul-tu ul-la-a A.MEŠ-šá šu-up-lu ṣab-tu-ma i-na LUGAL.MEŠ-ni AD.MEŠ-ia mám-ma la is-sír-šu-nu-ti-ma i-tab-ba-ku ÍD.ḪAL.ḪAL-ìš`, "The Ḫusur River, whose waters since time immemorial had been deep and which none of the kings, my ancestors, had confined (i.e., made its water flow through a canal) so that they (the waters of the Ḫusur) poured into the Tigris River"; viii 31 `a-na bit-re-e ma-a-me ina GÌR.II mu-uṣ-ri KUR-e ger-ri aṣ-bat-ma`, "I mounted an expedition to search for water at the foot of Mount Muṣri" (Jebel Bashiqa: RINAP note 64, following Jacobsen OIP 24 p. 34 n. 15 against Luckenbill's place name "Bit-rêmâme"); springs found "in front of the cities Dūr-Ištar, Šibaniba, and Sulu ... (Thus) I forever added (them) as an addition to the waters of the Ḫusur River" (viii 33-42). Irrigation: no. 16 viii 24-28 "500 seeded field[s] in the high fields of Nineveh"; no. 17 viii 43-45 `i-na um-ma-a-te ú-šá-áš-qa-a gi-mir ṣip-pa-a-ti i-na EN.TE.NA 1 LIM ŠE.NUMUN.MEŠ ta-me-ra-a-ti e-li URU ù KI.TA URU ú-šá-an-kar šat-ti-šam`, "In summer, I enabled all of the orchards to be irrigated. In winter, I annually had water provided to 1,000 seeded fields in the plains upstream and downstream of the city." Marsh and canebrake with herons, wild boars and roe deer: no. 16 viii 29-40; no. 46: 157-159. **Gate names** (no. 16 vii 34-69, fourteen gates; no. 17 vii 70 `15 KÁ.GAL.MEŠ`; no. 18 vii 10' `18 KÁ.GAL.MEŠ`; RINAP note 50 with the chart on p. 18): the three northern gates in no. 16 vii 55-62 are `dIŠKUR šá-ri-ik ḪÉ.GÁL a-na KUR KÁ.GAL dIŠKUR ša KUR.am-ba-si`, "'The God Adad Is the Provider of Prosperity to the Land': (this is) the Adad Gate, which (leads to) the game preserve"; `dèr-ra mu-šam-qit a-a-bi KÁ.GAL dU.GUR ša URU.tar-bi-ṣi`, the Nergal Gate to Tarbiṣu; `dIGI.SIG₇.SIG₇ mu-šam-me-eḫ ṣip-pa-a-te KÁ.GAL GIŠ.KIRI₆.MEŠ`, "'The God Igisigsig Is the One Who Makes Orchards Flourish': (this is) the Gate of the Gardens" (no. 18 vii 32' `muš-la-lum ša GIŠ.KIRI₆`, "Step Gate of the Gardens"). On the west: `dé-a mu-še-šir kùp-pi-ia KÁ.GAL mas-qé-e`, "'The God Ea Is the One Who Properly Directs (Water Flow into) My Cisterns': (this is) the Mašqû Gate" (no. 16 vii 63; no. 17 vii 94). Igisigsig is the chief gardener of Anu (RINAP note 63). So the gardens and game park adjoined the north side of the city, and a "watering-place" gate lay on the river side. **Bavian (Khinis) inscription, 690 BC** — RINAP 3/2 no. 223 not accessible; Luckenbill OIP 2 pp. 79-80 ("a) The Bavian inscriptions (H3)"), lines 6-13, = ARAB II §§331-332: > "At that time I greatly enlarged the site of Nineveh. Its wall, and the outer-wall thereof, which had not existed before, I built anew, and raised mountain-high. Its fields, which through lack of water had fallen into neglect ... turned their eyes heaven-ward for showers of rain,—(these fields) I watered, and from the villages of Masiti, Banbakabna, Shapparishu, Kar-Shamash-nasir, Kar-nêri, Rimusa, Hata, Dalain, Rêsh-êni, Sulu, Dûr-[Ishtar], Shibaniba, Isparirra, Gingilinish, Nampagâte, Tillu, Alumsusi, the waters which were above the town of Hadabiti, (through) eighteen canals which I dug, I brought (lit. directed their course) into the Khosr River. From the border of the town of Kisiri to the midst of Nineveh, I dug a canal, and brought down those waters therein. Sennacherib-Channel, I called its name. And the surplus of those waters I led out through the midst of Mt. Tas, a difficult mountain, on the border of Akkad [n. 2: 'Or Urartu'] ..." (OCR of the transliteration: `XVIII nârâti u-šaḫ-ra-a a-na libbi Ḫu-su-ur u-še-šir ma-lak-šun ul-tu pa-a-ṭi Ki-si-ri a-di [libbi] Ninua ḫi-ri-ti u-šaḫ-ra-a mê ši-nu-ti u-šar-da-a ki-rib-ša pat-ti Sin-aḫê-eriba at-ta-bi ni-bit-su`.) Jacobsen (OIP 24 pp. 36-39) retranslates and observes that the text lists "four large undertakings: (1) the excavation of eighteen canals, which all joined the Khosr; (2) the canalization of the lower part of the Khosr itself, from Kisiri to Nineveh; (3) the irrigation of Nineveh, the planting of parks and orchards, etc.; (4) the construction of a new canal from Mt. Tas", and that three of the eighteen (Sulu, Dûr-Ishtar, Shibaniba) are "the Mt. Musri system of 694 B.C." The same inscription ends with the sack of Babylon (OIP 2 pp. 83-84, lines c. 51-55; ARAB II §§340-341): "I razed and dumped them into the Arahtu-canal. Through the midst of that city I dug canals, I flooded its site (lit. ground) with water ... I completely blotted it out with (floods) of water and made it like a meadow. At the mouth of the canal which I dug through the midst of the mountain of Tas, I fashioned six great stelas ... Every deed of my hands, which I wrought for the good of Nineveh, I had engraved thereon". Jacobsen (OIP 24 p. 41): "When in 690 B.C. the work drew near its completion, having lasted for a year and three months, Sennacherib sent out two priests ...". **Jerwan inscriptions** (OIP 24 ch. III, pp. 19-23; PDF pp. 35-37). Inscription A, on blocks inside the masonry: *šat Sîn-aḫḫē-erība šar kiššati šar māt Aššur* "Belonging to Sennacherib, king of the world, king of Assyria". Inscription B, the nine-line standard text repeated on every buttress and recess of the north face (all copies collated, "no variations"): > `mdSîn-aḫḫē-erība šar kiššati šar mātAššur a-na šid-di ru-u-qi mê nârḪa-zu-ur ki-lal-la-an mê nârPul-pul-li-ia mê âlḪa-nu-sa mê âlGam-ma-ga-ra mê qup-pa-ni ša šadê ša im-na u šu-me-li ša i-ta-tu-uš-šu eli-ša uš-rad-di pat-tum u-šaḫ-ra-a a-na ta-mir-ti Ninuaki eli na-aḫ-li ḫu-du-du-ti ša abanpi-i-li pi-ṣi-i u-šak-bi-is ti-tur-ru mê šâ-tu-nu u-še-ti-iq ṣi-ru-uš-šu` > "Sennacherib, king of the world, king of Assyria, (says): 'For a long distance, adding to it the waters of the twain Ḫazur River—(namely) the waters of the river Pulpullia—(and) the waters of the town of Ḫanusa, the waters of the town of Gammagara, (and) the waters of the springs of the mountains to the right and left at its sides, I caused a canal to be dug to the meadows of Nineveh. Over deep-cut ravines I spanned (lit., caused to step) a bridge of white stone blocks. Those waters I caused to pass over upon it.'" Inscription C is an abbreviation; Inscription D occurs on c. 200 re-used blocks from an earlier building (Fales & Del Fabbro, *Iraq* 76 [2015] 65-98, abstract only). Note that the destination is again *tamirtu Ninua*, "the meadows/plain of Nineveh", not the citadel. --- ## 2. Competing readings of the water-raising device **RINAP (Grayson & Novotny 2012)**: "instead of poles, I had tree trunks and date palm(s) of copper placed over wells" — i.e. cast copper tree-shaped posts replacing wooden poles over well-shafts, from which water was raised daily by bucket on bronze chains and cables. Note 49 (verbatim) on Dalley: "S. Dalley (HSAO 6 p. 22; and Technology and Culture 44 [2003] pp. 1-26) translates makūtu (pl. makâtu) as 'shaduf.' ... Dalley (Iraq 56 [1994] pp. 52-53; HSAO 6 pp. 22-23; ...) suggests that these are the components of the Archimedes' screw; the gišmaḫḫu is the cylinder and the alamittu is the screw/spiral that draws the water upward through the cylinder. ... This led Dalley (Iraq 56 [1994] pp. 52-53) to the following conclusion: 'There is no question that the ancient Mesopotamians visualised the trunk of the inedible palm-tree alamittu as a spiral, and that the idea was not restricted to a small region. Sennacherib used the word in his inscription along with that for a cylinder. The only water-lifting device to use these components is the Archimedes Screw. Sennacherib was describing the cylinder and screw which are the two component parts of this device, and his engineers invented the so-called Archimedes screw some 400 years before the time of Archimedes.' ... Dalley's identification of gišmaḫḫu and alamittu as the components of the Archimedes' screw is conjectural; for some reservations on her proposal, see for example Bagg, Assyrische Wasserbauten pp. 201-203, 206-207, and 277-279." **Luckenbill 1924**: wooden lifting frames ("great posts and cross-beams over the wells") replacing "(mud-brick) pedestals (pillars)"; "copper cables(?) and pails". **Dalley & Oleson 2003** (`raw_A/dalley_oleson_2003.txt`), Dalley's translation (pp. 7-8): "I created clay molds as if by divine intelligence for great cylinders and alamittu palms, tree of riches; twelve fierce lion-colossi together with twelve mighty bull-colossi which were perfect castings; twenty-two cow-colossi invested with joyous allure, plentifully endowed with sexual attraction; and I poured copper into them over and over again; I made the castings of them as perfectly as if they had only weighed half a shekel each. ... In order to draw water up all day long I had ropes, bronze wires and bronze chains made, and instead of shadufs [makâte] I set up the great cylinders [gišmahhu] and alamittu palms over cisterns. I made those royal lodges look just right. I raised the height of the surroundings of the palace to be a Wonder for all Peoples. I gave it the name: 'Incomparable Palace.' A park imitating the Amanus mountains I laid out next to it ..." (n. 16: "The sequence of sentences is particularly disjointed here"). Argument (p. 8): "gišmahhu, which is the word used for a cylinder (for example, in mathematical problem texts)"; "Dalley has proposed the hypothesis that the term alamittu was used metaphorically to indicate the spiraling helix" (spiral brick columns at Tell al-Rimah, Larsa, Ur, Tell Haddad, Tell Basmusian); the castings "would have weighed 2 or 3 tons". Admissions (pp. 13-14): "There is no other evidence in Assyrian inscriptions for knowledge of the water screw, and no illustrations of water screws in surviving Assyrian relief sculptures"; "neither the inscription nor the visual evidence prove the existence of the water screw in the seventh century B.C. Only the passage in Strabo is early enough and clear enough to carry some authority, and yet there is no guarantee that the water screws he mentions appeared in his source or that the source itself predates Archimedes. The water screws might even have been retrofitted at the gardens after their invention by Archimedes"; Dalley's 1992 crank "is almost certainly wrong". On Bagg (n. 7): "Ariel Bagg, Assyrische Wasserbauten (Mainz, 2000) ... Bagg (201-3, 206-7, 277-79) objects to Dalley's proposal that Sennacherib made use of the water screw largely on the basis that no other early evidence for the device exists." Oleson's own reservation (n. 47): the text "might in fact refer to the shaduf or the compartmented wheel". **Bagg 2000** — the pages themselves were not accessible; his position is known to me only through the two characterisations above (RINAP: "reservations"; D&O: objection "largely on the basis that no other early evidence for the device exists"). Dalley 2013 also cites "Bagg, Assyrische Wasserbauten (2000), 225-6" (Google-Books snippet) on the water supply to Nineveh. **Reade, George, Frahm, Novotny, others** — I could not fetch any review or statement by Reade, George or Frahm. Documented: Novotny (RINAP note 49) calls the screw "conjectural" while adopting "tree trunks and date palm(s)" and "poles"; Reade, *Iraq* 62 (2000) 195-217 ("Alexander the Great and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon") is quoted by Dalley 2013 (snippet) as asserting "without evidence that 'Cyrus evidently restored or maintained the Hanging Gardens, and may even have added to them'", i.e. Reade kept the gardens at Babylon **[rest of Reade 2000: recollection only]**. Ur & Reade ("The Hydraulic Landscape of Nimrud", DASH handle 1/29335964, `raw_A/ur_2005_iraq67.txt`) write that "Assyrian water lifting technology is a subject of some contention, and is still ambiguous at the current state of debate" (n. 53 citing Dalley & Oleson). **My assessment** (not a published view): the two nouns of vii 48 are the two things cast from clay moulds in vii 9, so the passage describes cast copper "great trees" and "*alamittu*-palms" set up over wells; nothing in the wording requires them to be hollow or helical. The purpose is *dilûtu* "bucket-drawn water" and the equipment is ropes, wire chains and cables, which suit bucket-and-pulley lifting from shafts and are awkward for a screw. "Instead of *makâte*" means the copper trees replaced an ordinary wooden support (Luckenbill's "posts and cross-beams", RINAP's "poles"); a shaduf pole is possible but not demonstrated. The wells belong to "those palatial halls", not to the garden. Dalley's screw requires *alamittu* to mean "spiral", which rests on architectural imagery, not on any lexical text. --- ## 3. The reliefs **BM 124939** (North Palace of Ashurbanipal, Room H, panel 9; c. 645-635 BC; 132 x 58 cm — provenance data from a search-engine snippet of the BM record, which I could not open **[partly UNVERIFIED]**). From the Commons photograph (`raw_A/bm124939_raddato.jpg`): upper register, a hillside planted with trees of several species; at the top centre a columned pavilion or portico; to its left a royal stela in an arched niche beside a path leading up; at the right an aqueduct carried on a row of (five visible) arches, from which water channels run down through the garden; below, three rows of Elamite soldiers and chariots moving right (the Til-Tuba/Elamite series). Jacobsen already treated the aqueduct on it as real architecture (OIP 24 PDF p. 16-17, book p. 7-8): "A later aqueduct is pictured on a slab from the palace of Ashurbanipal (British Museum, op. cit. p. 50, No. 92 ...). The latter is built of stone blocks and to judge from the picture had corbeled arches." Dalley & Oleson (p. 13, n. 34 "British Museum no. 124939 ... Albenda, BASOR 224 (1976) 49-72, fig. 4"): "The one relief sculpture that may illustrate the garden itself is a badly damaged panel only 35 percent complete ... Ever since its discovery, attempts have been made to compare details of the garden relief with the descriptions of the Hanging Gardens by Strabo and Diodorus Siculus: an aqueduct brings water into the garden halfway up the slope, and artificial terraces thick with plants are built up on stone vaults ... No water-lifting devices, however, are visible in the surviving portion of the relief." The BM's own blog (2018, `raw_A/bm_blog_gardens.html`) is non-committal: "Even if it isn't the case that the Hanging Gardens were those at Nineveh, they may have inspired later gardens at Babylon and elsewhere." Wikipedia (citing BM 124939 and Or. Dr. IV 77): "One original panel and the drawing of another are held by the British Museum, although neither is on public display." **Original Drawing IV 77** (Layard's drawing of a lost slab from Sennacherib's South-West Palace). I could not view the drawing or a BM record. Dalley 2013 (Google-Books snippets): "relief, now lost, which lined the walls of a room in the South-West Palace. The pillared walkway surmounted by trees ... swing on a rope above the water perhaps prepares to plunge in. On the upper right a hillside is shown with two ..."; "No specific evidence supports the way in which the pillared walkway appears to join an upper storey of the palace just out of sight behind the palace". Dalley & Oleson p. 13: "One of the drawings made of a now missing fragment has recently been recognized as providing further details of the gardens: at the top of a steep slope is a pillared walkway supporting trees growing on the thick roof. This detail is found in the depiction of the gardens by Philo the Paradoxographer" (n. 35: Reade 1978; Dalley, "More about the Hanging Gardens"). Dalley cites Reade, "Assyrian illustrations of Nineveh", *Iranica Antiqua* 33 (1998) 81-94 and Barnett, Bleibtreu & Turner, *Sculptures from the Southwest Palace of Sennacherib* 1 (1998) 84-85 for the drawing (both inaccessible). BM blog: "Drawings of a now lost relief from Nineveh show trees growing on a roofed colonnade, similar to those described in classical accounts of the Hanging Gardens." Amrhein, *Studies in the History of Gardens & Designed Landscapes* 35.2 (2014, DOI 10.1080/14601176.2014.945832) reproduces the drawing as fig. 5 (from the DOI landing page; article not read). **Garden banquet ("Garden Party") relief**, North Palace Room S: Ashurbanipal reclining and the queen seated under a vine arbour, Teumman's head hanging in a tree, mentioned on the BM blog. Its number is usually given as BM 124920; I could not verify this or the number 124922 on the museum site **[UNVERIFIED]**. It shows a pleasure garden but nothing about terraces or water-lifting. **Sennacherib's own garden and marsh reliefs** (South-West Palace, Court VI series): Jacobsen, OIP 24 p. 33 n. 7: "In the Kuyunjik Gallery of the British Museum this park is pictured on slab No. 55, which represents a scene from the construction of the palace at Nineveh"; p. 41 n. 20: "the slab with the stags is the very same as that which shows the swamp and the wild sow (see Layard, Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon, pp. 108-9) ... there can be no doubt that the slab actually pictures Sennacherib's marsh". Modern BM numbers of these slabs not verified. --- ## 4. Archaeology of the Nineveh water system **Jerwan** (Jacobsen & Lloyd 1935, PDF p. 20 = book p. 12): the canal bed platform "is less than 7 meters beneath the pavement over which the canal water flowed. Thus, allowing about 2 meters for the parapet, the over-all height of the structure at the point where the arches occur would be about 9 meters ... As the width of the aqueduct without its buttresses is 22 meters and the total length more than 280 meters, it will be realized what a great mass of masonry is involved. If we assume the blocks of stone to average rather less than 50 centimeters cubed, the number of stones used would be well in excess of two million." Facades "divided by projecting buttresses into fourteen bays"; the arches "were formed merely by corbeling out each course a little beyond the one beneath"; "Our first arch remains standing six courses high"; compared with "the arches of the north viaduct leading to the palace at Knossos" (PDF pp. 22-27). Jerwan carried the Khinis (Gomel) canal across the Wadi Jerwan toward the Khosr; Jacobsen connects it with the fourth, Bavian, phase of 690. **Khinis/Bavian**: the rock inscription and reliefs at the canal head on the Gomel (Bavian text above); the LoNAP project (Morandi Bonacossi) has re-recorded the Khinis monuments; I could not open its reports (`raw_A/khinis_park.pdf` is a stub). **Kisiri canal**: Jacobsen (OIP 24 pp. 33-34) takes the canal as "1 1/2 beru, that is, about 10 miles" (bēru = 10,692 m), locates Kisiri at Tell Inthah near Qayin on the left bank of the Khosr (n. 12: "Kisiri seems to derive from kasāru, 'to dam'"), and argues that a gentler-graded canal meant "it reached Nineveh at a level where it could be used for irrigation ... he utilized it for watering the magnificent park which he had planted near his new palace." His sequence: 702 (Kisiri) -> 694 (Musri springs) -> 690 (18 canals, Khosr canalised Kisiri-Nineveh, Mt Tas/Khinis canal with Jerwan). Modern restatement: Morandi Bonacossi's lecture abstract (Penn/Bryn Mawr, fetched): "Between 703 and c. 688 BCE King Sennacherib created in four stages the 'Northern Assyrian Irrigation System', a ramified network of canals to water Nineveh's extensive hinterland and bring water to his 'Palace without a Rival' and royal parks on the citadel"; Faida: "at least 10 km-long ... Thirteen monumental, sculpted rock panels". Morandi Bonacossi & Qasim, *Iraq* 84 (2022) 43-81 (abstract): 8.6 km canal, ten panels excavated in 2019, attribution to Sargon II or Sennacherib left open. Stampoultzidis, Morandi Bonacossi, Reculeau et al., *Water History* (2024, DOI 10.1007/s12685-024-00348-3) (abstract): hydraulic modelling of the irrigated hinterland, not of the citadel supply. Ur, *Iraq* 67 (2005) 317-345: only the abstract was obtainable ("The inscriptions of Sennacherib in particular refer proudly to his great network of canals, and often describe them in the context of luxurious gardens and parks"); his CORONA-based canal mapping **[recollection]** could not be checked. **Does the water reach Kuyunjik at sufficient height?** Nothing I could fetch demonstrates that any canal reached the top of the citadel. The inscriptions consistently deliver water "to the plain/meadowland (*tamirtu*) of Nineveh" (no. 1: 89; no. 17 viii 29, 38; Jerwan B), "into those gardens" by feeder ditches, through the city wall by aqueducts (no. 16 vii 81-84), and to fields "upstream and downstream of the city". The citadel mound is about 20 m above the plain (Wikipedia, unverified figure). Jacobsen assumes the palace park was watered by the Kisiri canal but says nothing about lifting to the mound; Morandi Bonacossi's abstract asserts water was brought "to his 'Palace without a Rival' and royal parks on the citadel" without saying how. The one Assyrian statement about lifting is vii 45-49: palace water was drawn daily *by bucket* from wells with chains and cables — which, whatever the device, implies that gravity flow to palace level was not available. Dalley 2013 (snippet) speaks of an "aqueduct, its supply to the palace (with appropriate pipes) and its drainage through the lake at the bottom"; I could not see her argument. Reade's reconstructions of the garden's position on Kuyunjik (RA 1978; RlA "Ninive" §11.7, cited at RINAP note 59 as the standard treatment together with Bagg pp. 175-224) were inaccessible **[UNVERIFIED]**. No excavation has identified a garden, terrace or water-lifting installation on Kuyunjik; Dalley 2013 (snippet) notes only that after 612 "on the temple of Nabu, not far from Sennacherib's palace ... wall-panels of Sennacherib and Ashurbanipal had been re-used" (Campbell Thompson & Hutchinson). --- ## 5. Was Nineveh ever called "Babylon"? **Documented in cuneiform (from the fetched sources):** 1. No Sennacherib text fetched calls Nineveh "Babylon" or TIN.TIR; none of the gate names (section 1.4) refers to Babylon, though the habit of ceremonial gate names resembles Babylon's (TIN.TIR V) **[comparison mine]**. 2. Nineveh's plan "designed by the writing of the firmament": no. 4: 62 `tem-me-en-nu da-ru-ú du-ru-uš ṣa-a-ti ša ul-tu ul-la it-ti ši-ṭir bu-ru-ú-me eṣ-rat-su eṣ-ret-ma šu-pu-ú ṣi-in-du-šu`, "the enduring foundation (and) eternal base whose plan had been designed by the stars (lit. 'writing') of the firmament and whose arrangement was made manifest since time immemorial ... the secret(s) of the lalgar (cosmic subterranean water)" (700 BC). Dalley (2008 p. 31) reads this as a hallmark of "cities that belong in the category" of Babylon-equivalents, citing Maul 1997. 3. The Assyrian recension of *Enūma eliš* and the akītu house: Dalley 2008 p. 29: "When Sennacherib rebuilt the temple of the New Year Festival just outside the city of Assur, he described the cosmic battle from the Epic of Creation ... the god Anšar as Aššur had taken the place of Marduk ... Babylon's name is replaced by Bal.til, a name of Aššur ... soil from Babylon was put into the temple of the national god Aššur in his city Assur." The substitution is Assur = Babylon, not Nineveh. An akītu house at Nineveh is discussed by Frahm, "Die akītu-Häuser von Ninive", NABU 2000/66 (cited in Dalley 2013 snippet; not read). 4. Ištar-of-Nineveh had a shrine in Babylon (TIN.TIR IV 32); Arbela is called "the likeness (tamšil) of Babylon" (SAA 3 no. 8); Ištar-of-Nineveh "just like Anšar, she has a beard" (SAA 3 no. 7); Borsippa is "Babylon the Second" in Antagal; Tarsus was rebuilt by Sennacherib "in the likeness of Babylon" according to Berossus (all as cited in Dalley 2008 pp. 25-31; the primary texts were not fetched). 5. The Bavian inscription juxtaposes the watering and repopulation of Nineveh with the flooding of Babylon (quoted in 1.4). Dalley 2008 p. 29: "It has long been recognized that Sennacherib's Bavian Inscription, in relating the sack of Babylon, presents the rebuilding of Nineveh as an antithesis to the destruction of Babylon (Galter 1984; Van De Mieroop 2003, 2004). Just as Babylon was leveled and abandoned ... so Nineveh rose up and was populated." **Dalley's inference:** her 2008 conclusion is deliberately general: "it cannot be considered a sign of hatred or enmity that Babylon lent its name to northern Assyrian cities ... Rather, it is a sign of the enormous prestige of Babylon, and a sign of admiration and emulation that inspired late Assyrian kings to use the name of Babylon for cities in Assyria" (p. 31). The step from "Assyrian cities emulated Babylon; Arbela and Tarsus were called its likeness; Nineveh has Babylonian hallmarks" to "Greek writers' 'Babylon' = Nineveh" is her inference; no cuneiform text equating Nineveh with Babylon by name is cited in the 2008 article, and I found none in RINAP 3 nos. 1-23 or 46. --- ## 6. Esarhaddon, Ashurbanipal, and Nineveh after 612 **Esarhaddon**, Nineveh A (RINAP 4 no. 1, 672 BC), vi 30-34, on the new arsenal palace (Ešgalšiddudua) at Nineveh (`raw_A/oracc_rinap4_Q003230.parsed.txt`): > vi 30 `GIŠ.KIRI₆.MAḪ tam-šil KUR.ḫa-ma-nim šá ka-la ŠIM.ḪI.A` / 31 `ù GURUN ḫur-ru-šú i-ta-a-ti-šá az-qu-up` / 32 `ki-sal-la-šá ma-gal ú-rab-bi-ma tal-lak-ta-šá ma-aʾ-diš` / 33 `ú-rap-piš a-na maš-qit ANŠE.KUR.RA.MEŠ ina qé-reb-e-šá` / 34 `pat-tu ú-še-še-ram-ma ú-šaḫ-bi-ba a-tap-piš` > "I planted alongside it (the palace) a botanical garden, a replica of Mount Amanus, with all kinds of aromatic plants and fruit trees. I greatly enlarged its courtyard and made its approach much wider. I led a canal into it (the park) as a watering place for horses and I made (it) murmur (with running water) like an irrigation ditch." This shows (a) the Amanus formula is a topos, and (b) a second-generation Nineveh palace garden supplied by an open canal at ground level. **Ashurbanipal**: Prism A (RINAP 5/1 no. 11) i 41-46: after the gods enthroned him, "the god Adad released his rains (and) the god Ea opened up his springs. Grain was five cubits high in its furrow ... fruit orchards to be very lush with fruit" (`raw_A/oracc_rinap5_Q003710.parsed.txt`). The North Palace building account (col. x) was cut off by the 1 MB download cap; the BM blog quotes Ashurbanipal (text not identified there): "I planted alongside the palace a botanical garden, which has all types of trees and every fruit and vegetable." Ashurbanipal's garden relief (BM 124939) and Garden Party relief are in section 3. **Nineveh after 612**: Xenophon, *Anabasis* 3.4.10-12 (401 BC; Brownson): "From this place they marched one stage, six parasangs, to a great stronghold, deserted and lying in ruins. The name of this city was Mespila, and it was once inhabited by the Medes. The foundation of its wall was made of polished stone full of shells, and was fifty feet in breadth and fifty in height. Upon this foundation was built a wall of brick, fifty feet in breadth and a hundred in height; and the circuit of the wall was six parasangs. Here, as the story goes, Medea, the king's wife, took refuge ..." (Larisa = Nimrud precedes it, 3.4.7-9). Dalley 2013 (snippet, ch. "Defeat and Revival", p. 192) discusses the names "Larissa and Mespila" ("Larissa was a common Greek word for any citadel but Mespila is found neither ..."). Post-612 occupation (Wikipedia "Nineveh", citing Dalley, *AoF* 20 [1993] 134-147; Reade, *Iraq* 60 [1998] 65-83; Vlaardingerbroek, *Iraq* 66 [2004]): the Cyrus Cylinder's reference to Nineveh is disputed; "evidence of repairs at the temple of Nabu after 612 BC and for the continued use of Sennacherib's palace"; Hellenistic statues and a Greek inscription; Seleucid resettlement; Parthian alterations to the palace. Reade 1998 (abstract): a market town at the Tigris crossing. Nothing shows a garden maintained after 612; Xenophon saw a deserted ruin. --- ## 7. Verification status **(i) Verified against fetched primary sources (transliteration and translation copied from RINAP/ORACC pages, Luckenbill 1924/1927 OCR, Jacobsen-Lloyd 1935 PDF, Perseus):** all quotations from Sennacherib nos. 1, 4, 15, 16, 17, 18, 22, 46 and their RINAP notes 41-64; Esarhaddon 1 vi 30-37; Ashurbanipal 11 i 41-46; dates of nos. 4, 17, 22 (both exemplar dates); the absence of the water-raising passage from nos. 1, 4, 15, 16; the URUDU variant and Worthington's emendation; Luckenbill's translations of the garden, casting, water and Bavian passages; Jacobsen-Lloyd's Jerwan dimensions, corbelling, inscriptions A-C, Kisiri identification, phase sequence and "year and three months"; Xenophon 3.4.7-12. **(ii) Resting on secondary sources actually read:** Dalley's translation, the screw argument and its admitted weaknesses (Dalley & Oleson 2003); Bagg's objection (only as characterised by D&O n. 7 and RINAP note 49); Dalley's "Babylon as a name" argument and all SAA 3 / TIN.TIR / Antagal / Berossus citations (Dalley 2008); BM 124939 description (my reading of the photograph; provenance data from a search snippet); Jacobsen's identification of the aqueduct on the Ashurbanipal slab; Or. Dr. IV 77 (Dalley's statements and the BM blog only); Morandi Bonacossi's four-stage system and Faida (abstracts); Ur & Reade on lifting technology; post-612 evidence (Wikipedia's summary of Dalley 1993 / Reade 1998; Reade 1998 abstract); Dalley 2013 wording (Google-Books snippets only). **(iii) Not accessible / unverified:** RINAP 3/2 nos. 223-227 (numbering, transliteration and Grayson-Novotny translation of Bavian and Jerwan); Bagg 2000 pp. 175-224, 201-203, 206-207, 225-226, 277-279; Reade RA 72 (1978), Iranica Antiqua 33 (1998), Iraq 62 (2000), RlA "Ninive" (hence Reade's proposed location of the garden and his view of Dalley's thesis beyond the one sentence quoted by Dalley); George's or Frahm's reactions; Ur 2005 body; Dalley 1993, 1994 bodies; Foster 2004 body; Frahm, *Sanherib* and NABU 2000/66; CAD entries *makūtu*, *alamittu*, *gišmaḫḫu*; the museum numbers of ex. 1/2/4 of no. 17, of the Garden Party relief (124920?) and of the Court VI marsh/park slabs; the BM record of 124939 and any image of Or. Dr. IV 77; Ashurbanipal's North Palace building account (Prism A col. x); Barnett-Bleibtreu-Turner 1998; Layard, *Discoveries* pp. 108-109 (cited by Jacobsen, not opened); the exact height of Kuyunjik above the plain and any survey datum for the canals near the citadel.