# E. Viggiano 2025 — baked bricks (and bitumen) in Sennacherib's Nineveh

**Source obtained in full.** Ylenia Viggiano, "Displaying Social Dynamics in Clay: The Decorative Use of Baked Bricks in the Upper Parts of Mudbrick Walls in Sennacherib's Building Programs at Nineveh", *Asia Anteriore Antica. Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Cultures* 7 (2025) 87–123, DOI 10.36253/asiana-3351, CC BY 4.0 (Firenze University Press). Working copies of the PDF (9.1 MB, 37 pp.) and of the extracted text are not included in this folder. Page numbers below are the journal's (PDF page n = journal page n + 86).

Author context (from the article's acknowledgements, p. 120, and the FU Berlin visiting-scholar notice, 2026): the paper comes out of her *Scuola di Specializzazione* thesis at Bologna; she is now a PhD candidate at Pisa (supervisors A. D'Agostino, Pisa, and G. Marchesi, Bologna), dissertation "Babylonian and Assyrian Bricks between the Late Bronze and Iron Ages: Evidence from Aqar Quf and Nineveh for a Socio-Economic Perspective on Mesopotamian Building Materials…", working on bricks from the Iraqi-Italian expeditions at Nineveh (N. Marchetti) and Aqar Quf. No other publications of hers were located (the FU Berlin page lists none; searches on Semantic Scholar/Google returned only this article).

**Scope note.** The article is about *decorative* baked-brick coatings on the upper parts of mudbrick walls (an archivolt on the Adad Gate, collapsed brick clusters in gate courtyards and in a small palace in the lower town, Area C). It is not about hydraulic engineering, terraces, vaults or gardens; those topics appear only in her introductory survey of Assyrian brick use (§1, pp. 87–89) and in passing comparanda. It contains **no** mention of the Hanging Gardens, Dalley, Nebuchadnezzar, or the Babylonian *ina kupri u agurri* formula (checked by keyword: "Dalley" 0, "Hanging" 0, "Nebuchadnezzar" 0, "kupru/agurru" 0; "Babylon" occurs only in two book titles, in "Medes and Babylonians", and in "Ur III Babylonian sources").

---

## (a) Which constructions of Sennacherib at Nineveh used baked bricks, where in the building, and whether glazed, inscribed or plain

### Her general frame (Assyria)
- p. 87: "A distinctive feature of Assyrian architecture, which distinguishes the northern Mesopotamian region from its central and southern counterparts, is the limited presence of baked bricks, generally confined to specific parts of buildings."
- p. 88: "Several cases are attested, in southern Mesopotamia, of walls composed of a mudbrick core in association with a baked brick facing, as in the rampart and in the massive of the ziqqurat in Ur (Wolley 1939: 99)." — i.e. she treats the mudbrick-core/baked-brick-facing wall as a *southern* practice.
- p. 88: "The use of baked bricks in Assyria seems to be more recent still and limited to precise architectural elements. Indeed, distinctive features of baked bricks, such as their resistance to erosion, made this material particularly suitable for carrying out tasks linked to the protection of mudbrick structures."
- p. 88: "However, this must be associated to the use of adequate mortars presenting the same mechanical properties – such as lime and gypsum. The absence of these materials, which will appear in later periods (Koldewey 1931: 33-34), probably contributed to the limited extent in the use of baked bricks in architecture (Besenval 1984: 22)."
- pp. 88–89: "From this general overview, it seems clear that baked bricks in Assyria were occasionally adopted in relation to their mechanical properties."
- p. 119: "due to the high cost of production and the minor role played, after all, by baked bricks in Assyrian architecture, a small number of baked bricks kilns was active at the same time. These kilns had to serve all the construction sites in Nineveh." (Kilns: "very little is known about brick kilns from the Neo-Assyrian period. The lack of archaeological evidence may suggest that kilns were temporary structures, provisionally built near construction sites (Sauvage 1998: 24).")

### Nineveh, building by building (as she reports it)
1. **South-West Palace, Kuyunjik (Sennacherib)**
   - Court XIX, King's 1903 re-excavation (p. 89): "he uncovered a collapsed layer containing several baked bricks in association with large amount of mudbrick, stone slabs and carbonized wood. Some of the baked bricks also presented an inscription mentioning the name of Sennacherib (Campbell Thompson and Hutchinson 1929: 59-60)."
   - Trench 1, 1931–32 (p. 89): "he found part of a pavement, made of limestone slabs set up on top of two courses of baked bricks. In correspondence with the north-western portion of the floor, he also uncovered several collapsed baked bricks, some of which with a Sennacherib inscription (Campbell Thompson and Mallowan 1933: 72-74)." "Unfortunately, no morphological information or measurements are available for these baked bricks."
   - Throne-room precinct, Iraqi excavations of the 1960s (p. 118): "two levels of flooring. The lower one was composed of baked bricks measuring 55 cm to a side – thus associable to the S4 type – in some cases also carved with an inscription mentioning the name of Sennacherib (Madhloom 1968: 50)."
   - Her interpretation of the collapsed bricks (p. 117): "Collapsed baked bricks were also found, in fact, inside the South-West Palace, on Tell Kuyunjiq, and inside the ekal mašarti, on Tell Nebi Yunus (Maul and Miglus 2020: 176-180). In both cases, the bricks were found inside or outside the courtyards, not far from the doorways." i.e. decorative bands on the upper parts of courtyard walls — plain (unglazed) bricks, some stamped/inscribed.
2. **Ekal māšarti, Nebi Yunus (Heidelberg 2018–19)** (p. 89): "several collapsed baked bricks are reported from the courtyard (Maul and Miglus 2020: 163-164), while others were unearthed in Room 7 … (Maul and Miglus 2020: 152-154). In both cases, these bricks were associated with fragments of glazed bricks and bitumen. … some of them measure 33x33x9 cm, while others were 55x55x7.5 cm on average. Some of the bricks are also described as having an inscription. In the case of the 33 cm side bricks, the inscription was carved on the short side and mentioned either the building of the wall of the city (Grayson and Novotny 2014: 138-141) or their belonging to the Sennacherib administration, behaving as an ownership mark ('Palace of Sennacherib…'; Grayson and Novotny 2014: 130-134). In the case of the 55 cm side bricks, instead, the inscription was carved on the upper face of the brick, and it contained a reference to the South-West Palace (Grayson and Novotny 2014: 135-137; Maul and Miglus 2020: 176-180)."
3. **Nergal Gate** (pp. 89–90): Layard "reported the presence of collapsed baked bricks around the second set of winged bulls … (Layard 1853: 121-123). Equally, a large amount of collapsed baked bricks is described as it was unearthed inside the one courtyard which preceded the inner passage … (Layard 1849: 144)." Some inscribed with Sennacherib's name. Finch 1948: 14 saw baked bricks still in place "near the top left-hand corner of one of the two winged bulls which flanked the outer passage, flush with the plaster face", which he took as "the usual ornamental 'tail' marking the 'springing' of the arch over the bull, continued on to the return-face"; "some bricks are still well visible, perfectly embedded inside the brickwork for three courses and, apparently, for a thickness corresponding to a single brick" (p. 90).
4. **Šamaš Gate** (p. 90): collapsed baked bricks, "they measure 37x37x12 (Madhloom 1967: 77-78)."
5. **Adad Gate (Area D)** (pp. 99–102, 109): outer façade of the outer passage, "on the upper portion of the mudbrick wall, several rows of baked bricks, partially preserved, were still in place on both sides of the gate, just at the beginning of the arch" (pp. 100–101); "This cluster of baked bricks (D1), which is the only evidence in place that we have of their use in the upper part of mudbrick walls, is not structural. As it is perfectly embedded inside the brickwork for a width corresponding to a single row of bricks, it can therefore be identified as a partial coating of the mudbrick surface" (p. 101). Bricks 45–48 × 7–8 cm, plus 28 and 20 cm lengths (half/rectangular bricks), "set in flat rows as stretchers, with staggered joints" (p. 106). Identified as a plain (unglazed) baked-brick **archivolt** on the Khorsabad model (p. 113). Inner passage also had a baked-brick coating on the upper wall (Suleyman 1971: 76) (p. 109). Collapsed clusters D2, D3: 35×35×10 cm, some inscribed on the short side: "'Palace of Sennacherib, king of the world, king of Assyria'; Grayson and Novotny 2014: 130-131" and "'Sennacherib, king of the world, king of Assyria, built the wall of Nineveh anew'; Grayson and Novotny 2014: 140-141" (p. 109). The hidden face of an orthostat in the courtyard carries: "'Sennacherib, king of Assyria, had the (inner) walls and the outer walls of Nineveh built anew, and made them as high as a mountain' (Grayson and Novotny 2014: 130-132)" (p. 100).
6. **Minor gate, Area N** (pp. 97–99): clusters of collapsed baked bricks in the entrance corridor; "all the baked bricks were square-shaped, except for a limited number of half-bricks. In all cases, their side measured 35 cm and their thickness was of 10 cm on average. A general absence of bitumen was observed. Five bricks presented an inscription on the shortest side, on two lines, which allowed to date them to the reign of Sennacherib" (pp. 98–99). Lower walls faced with alabaster orthostats.
7. **Small palace, Area C (lower town, high-status residence, 7th c.)** (pp. 93–97): "a small palace-like building was partially exposed, constructed on terraces cut into the virgin soil"; "The rooms of the small palace were arranged around three courtyards, all three of them paved with baked bricks" (p. 93); "the presence of a cistern inside L.215, presumably to collect rainwater, and an associated drainage system, useful at driving the collected rainwater outside" (p. 94). Bricks: type S1 35 cm × 8–12 cm, "A general absence of bitumen coating was observed"; type S2 40 cm × 7–8 cm, "On this second type of bricks, the presence of bitumen was occasionally observed, especially on the upper face" (p. 96). "Some of the bricks presented an inscription, carved on the shorter side, on two lines, which mentioned the Palace of Sennacherib. A single brick, from the second courtyard L.1120, had a previously unattested inscription mentioning the Palace of Esarhaddon" (p. 97). Pavements: S2 in L.1120, S1 in L.1985, both in L.215 (p. 111).
8. **Aššur Gate (south side)** (p. 118): "The gate was approached from the south by a baked brick and bitumen ramp, composed of four rows of bricks, measuring 54 cm to a side. The inner passage of the gate was also paved with baked bricks, even if in this case no measures are provided (Anonymous 1981: 185)."
9. **Glazed bricks** at Nineveh: only the Nebi Yunus "fragments of glazed bricks" (p. 89). Her thesis is precisely that Sennacherib, unlike Sargon at Khorsabad, "didn't include the glazed brick archivolt. Instead, he only made use of the unglazed baked brick archivolt, as it is still visible in the Adad Gate" (p. 116); "The use of plain, that is, unglazed and unmoulded, baked bricks is therefore to be considered as an innovation" (p. 114).

Brick typology (p. 109): S1 35 cm/10–12 cm; S2 40 cm/7–8 cm; *S3 45 cm/7–8 cm; *S4 55 cm/7–8 cm; H1–H4 half/rectangular bricks. Comparanda for square bricks of 53–55 cm at Kuyunjik and Nebi Yunus (Maul and Miglus 2020: 176-180) and 47 and 40 cm (Walker 1981: 120-125) (p. 106). Her social reading (p. 118): "while the S1 and S2 type were of common use, the S3 and S4 types were perceived as strictly connected with the idea of kingship".

Not mentioned at all for Nineveh: baked brick in wells, in canal or aqueduct linings, in terraces/substructures, or in the palace platform.

## (b) Every mention of bitumen with baked brick at Nineveh (and her comparanda)
| page | feature | excavation report cited | her wording |
|---|---|---|---|
| 88 | general property | Connan 1997: 6 | "if associated with materials such as bitumen – well known for its impermeability, baked bricks revealed themselves as particularly useful in structures destined to be exposed to water, such as hydraulic infrastructures or outdoor spaces" |
| 88 | bathrooms (Nimrud) | Mallowan 1950: 182-183 | "A well attested practice consisted in coating with baked bricks and bitumen the lower part of those mudbrick walls which were located in indoor spaces connected to the use of water - such as bathrooms. In this case, the baked bricks were set up for a limited number of rows" |
| 88 | courtyard pavements (Khorsabad) | Loud 1936: 124 | "in courtyards baked bricks pavements were generally preferred. Here, the employment of baked bricks was generally associated with bitumen, either as coating or as mortar" |
| 89 | Nebi Yunus, courtyard and Room 7 | Maul and Miglus 2020: 152-154, 163-164 | collapsed baked bricks "associated with fragments of glazed bricks and bitumen" |
| 90 | gate courtyards (inference) | — | "Given the absence of bitumen coating or plaster in association with those bricks, we can assume that the decorative pattern was constituted by the setting-up of the bricks itself, which had to be left uncoated" |
| 92 | method | — | "a great importance was attributed to the presence or absence of bitumen on their surface, which is somehow an indicator of their possible original position inside buildings" |
| 96 | Area C bricks | (her own data) | S1: "A general absence of bitumen coating was observed"; S2 (40 cm): "the presence of bitumen was occasionally observed, especially on the upper face. Lots of these second type bricks were recovered from C1, that is, the pit" |
| 102 (Table 1) | Area C clusters C1 and C13 | — | associated materials "Bitumen"; "Bitumen, animal bones" |
| 98–99 | Area N bricks | — | "A general absence of bitumen was observed" |
| 104 (Table 3) | Area N cluster N5 | — | associated material "Bitumen" |
| 118 | Aššur Gate ramp | Anonymous 1981 (Iraq 43): 185 | "a baked brick and bitumen ramp, composed of four rows of bricks, measuring 54 cm to a side" |

In sum: bitumen at Nineveh appears with baked brick only as a **coating on paving bricks** (courtyards, ramp) and as debris associated with collapsed bricks; she uses the *absence* of bitumen as the diagnostic that the decorative wall bricks were not pavement bricks. No bitumen mortar in walls, terraces or substructures is reported.

## (c) Assyrian baked brick and bitumen in water-related construction generally (her statements and sources)
- Bathrooms: lower wall courses coated with baked bricks and bitumen, few rows only — Mallowan 1950: 182-183 (Nimrud, NW Palace) (p. 88).
- Drains/conduits: "The use of baked bricks is also attested in Assyria in connection with hydraulic infrastructures (Mallowan 1966: 122-123). In fact, the system of pipes and variously sized conduits which had the purpose to distribute and to finally evacuate water inside and outside buildings used to make a large employment of baked bricks. It is the case of the monumental hydraulic network system documented in Khorsabad, in the underground of Palace F, which also presented an underground vault-type roofing entirely made of specifically shaped baked bricks (Place 1867-1870: 272)" (p. 88). Also Khorsabad palace-temple courtyards: "Occasional bricks measuring 50 or 60 cm to a side are reported, but in most cases, they were pierced and therefore served as a drain (Loud and Altman 1938: 14)" (p. 117).
- Courtyard pavements with bitumen coating/mortar — Loud 1936: 124 (p. 88); Area C cistern and drainage in a baked-brick-paved courtyard (p. 94).
- Ramp of baked brick and bitumen at the Aššur Gate — Anonymous 1981: 185 (p. 118).
- Aqueduct: Jerwan is cited only for its **stone corbelled** construction — "Several examples are provided at Khorsabad (Loud and Altman 1938: 56) or at the Jerwan aqueduct (Jacobsen and Lloyd 1935: 10-11; Besenval 1984: 160-161)" (p. 100). No baked brick or bitumen is mentioned for canals, aqueducts, quays or wells anywhere in the article.

## (d) Vaults, arches, terraces, garden substructures; mass masonry in baked brick set in bitumen
- Vaults in baked brick, Assyria: only (i) the Khorsabad Palace F drain "underground vault-type roofing entirely made of specifically shaped baked bricks (Place 1867-1870: 272)" and (ii) tombs: "The use of baked bricks in vaults is also common in Neo-Assyrian tombs, of which several examples were found in Assur (Haller 1954: 161, 174)" (p. 88). She also notes that trapezoidal bricks in 1st-millennium Assyria have "been linked to technical requirements, such as the growing use of vaulted structures" (p. 88, after Sauvage 1998: 147-150).
- Gate vaults at Nineveh are **mudbrick**: the Adad Gate outer entrance has "a barrel-vaulted ceiling of 7 and half m of height. The semicircular arch which generated the barrel vault was made of three radial rows of mudbricks set on edge as rowlocks, separated by a single radial row of flat stretchers" (p. 99); the later narrowing "was built with the technique of the corbelled arch" in mudbrick, whereas corbelled vaults elsewhere "were limited to another architectural material, that is, stone" (Khorsabad, Jerwan) (p. 100). Baked bricks at the springing of the arch are a one-brick-deep decorative archivolt, explicitly "not structural" (p. 101).
- Terraces: the only terrace is Area C, "constructed on terraces cut into the virgin soil" (p. 93) — cut, not built. Nothing on the palace platform/terrace of Kuyunjik, on garden substructures, or on any built terrace in baked brick.
- Mass baked-brick masonry set in bitumen: **not mentioned anywhere**, for Nineveh or Assyria. Her framing is the opposite: baked brick is "generally confined to specific parts of buildings" (p. 87), used for facings, pavements, drains, tomb vaults and decoration, and the lack of lime/gypsum mortars is offered as a reason for its restricted use (p. 88). The one all-baked-brick core she cites is southern (Ur ziggurat/rampart, p. 88).

## (e) Hanging Gardens, Dalley, Nebuchadnezzar, *ina kupri u agurri*
Nothing. No occurrence of "Hanging Gardens", "Dalley", "Nebuchadnezzar", "kupru", "agurru", "garden" (0) or "quay" (0). Koldewey 1931 (Südburg) is cited only for the later appearance of lime/gypsum mortars (p. 88).

## Bearing on the Strabo/Diodorus test
Viggiano gives an up-to-date, excavation-based picture in which Sennacherib's Nineveh uses baked brick (mostly plain, often stamped "Palace of Sennacherib"/"wall of Nineveh") for courtyard pavements (with bitumen coating), a ramp of baked brick and bitumen, thin decorative archivolts and bands on gates and courtyard walls, and (at Nebi Yunus) some glazed bricks; drains and tomb vaults are the only Assyrian baked-brick vaulting she knows. She offers no Assyrian example of a substructure, terrace or vaulted platform built of baked bricks in bitumen, and characterises Assyrian baked-brick use as limited and largely non-structural. That is consistent with the RINAP evidence (file E_rinap3_materials.md): Sennacherib's own terrace is described in courses of (mud)brick on a limestone-and-bitumen bedding, never as *kupru u agurru* masonry.

## Key references to follow (from her bibliography, with the pages she cites)
- Anonymous 1981, Excavations in Iraq 1979-80, *Iraq* 43: 167-198 — p. 185 (Aššur Gate baked-brick-and-bitumen ramp; = Postgate 1981).
- Besenval 1984, *Technologie de la voûte dans l'Orient ancien* — pp. 22 (limits of baked brick), 160-161 (Jerwan corbelling).
- Campbell Thompson & Hutchinson 1929, *A Century of Exploration at Nineveh* — pp. 59-60; Campbell Thompson & Mallowan 1933, *AAA* 20: 71-186 — pp. 72-74 (SW Palace baked bricks, pavement on two brick courses).
- Connan 1997, Le bitume dans l'antiquité, *Bull. A.MI.S.* 22 — p. 6.
- Finch 1948, *Iraq* 10: 9-18 — p. 14 (Nergal Gate bricks in situ).
- Grayson & Novotny 2012/2014 (RINAP 3/1–3/2) — 2014: 130-141 (brick inscriptions, nos. 195ff.? see RINAP file), 2012: 18.
- Haller 1954, *Die Gräber und Grüfte von Assur* — pp. 161, 174 (baked-brick tomb vaults).
- Jacobsen & Lloyd 1935, *Sennacherib's Aqueduct at Jerwan* (OIP 24) — pp. 10-11.
- Koldewey 1931, *Die Königsburgen von Babylon* I — pp. 33-34 (mortars).
- Layard 1849 I: 144; 1853: 121-123 (Nergal Gate).
- Loud 1936, *Khorsabad I* — pp. 1-5 (Gate 7 archivolt), 88, 124 (courtyard paving with bitumen); Loud & Altman 1938, *Khorsabad II* — pp. 14 (pierced bricks as drains), 56.
- Madhloom 1967, *Sumer* 23: 76-79 (Šamaš Gate bricks 37×37×12); 1968, *Sumer* 24: 45-51 — p. 50 (55 cm bricks in throne-room precinct).
- Mallowan 1950, *Iraq* 12: 147-183 — pp. 182-183 (bathroom baked brick + bitumen); 1966, *Nimrud and its Remains* — pp. 122-123 (hydraulic use).
- Maul & Miglus 2020, *ZOrA* 13: 128-213 — pp. 152-154, 163-164, 176-180 (Nebi Yunus bricks, glazed fragments, bitumen).
- Moorey 1994, *Ancient Mesopotamian Materials and Industries* — p. 315.
- Place 1867-1870, *Ninive et l'Assyrie* — pp. 170-183 (gate archivolts), 272 (Palace F drains, baked-brick vault).
- Reade 1979, *BaM* 10: 17-49; Reade 2016, Gates of Nineveh, *SAAB* 22: 39-93 — p. 83.
- Russell 1991, *Sennacherib's Palace without Rival*; Russell 1999, *The Writing on the Wall* — pp. 127-128.
- Sauvage 1998, *La brique et sa mise en œuvre en Mésopotamie* — pp. 24, 49, 63, 147-150.
- Suleyman 1971, *Adab al-Rafidain* 1: 45-97 (Arabic) — p. 76 (Adad Gate inner archivolt).
- Walker 1981, *Cuneiform Brick Inscriptions in the British Museum…* — pp. 120-125 (Sennacherib bricks of 47 and 40 cm).
- Woolley 1939, *Ur Excavations V* — p. 99 (mudbrick core with baked-brick facing at Ur).

## URLs fetched for this file
- OK https://riviste.fupress.net/index.php/asiana/article/view/3351 (landing page, metadata, references)
- OK https://riviste.fupress.net/index.php/asiana/article/download/3351/2504 (PDF)
- OK https://www.geschkult.fu-berlin.de/e/vaa/nachrichten/2026-Ylenia-Viggiano.html (author notice; no publication list)
- Web searches: "Viggiano Displaying Social Dynamics in Clay…"; "Ylenia Viggiano baked bricks Nineveh…"; "Viggiano Ylenia Nineveh mattoni Bologna Marchetti" — all pointed only to the AsiAnA article and the FU Berlin page; researchgate/academia hits not used.