Enemy punishment and the creation of the Assyrian world : Ashurbanipal's Teumman-Dunanu narratives in reliefs, epigraphs, and prisms
This dissertation examines the representation of enemy punishment in prisms, reliefs, epigraphs, and epigraph tablets of the Neo-Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (c. 668-627 BCE). The 'Teumman-Dunanu' narratives which form the basis of this study use the events of military campaigns waged against Elamite king Teumman in 653 BCE, and subsequently against a number of Teumman's allies in southern Babylonia, as a basis to construct narratives about enemy punishment and its role in an ordered Assyrian world. I deal with a small group of sources from the Assyrian city of Nineveh: the reliefs of Room XXXIII of the Southwest Palace, and Rooms I and (to a lesser extent) S1 of the North Palace, Epigraph Text A and fragmentary parallel epigraph texts, and Prism Editions B and A. These sources have received varying degrees of attention, with the Southwest Palace reliefs of Teumman's beheading a particularly well-explored topic. However, I demonstrate that even this well-studied depiction can be understood with greater complexity when read with the other narratives examined here and in the wider context of the theme of 'enemy punishment'. The aim of this study is twofold: 1) to investigate how we should understand the intellectual
Miller, Eva
Neo-Assyrian Empire ; Ancient Near East ; Cuneiform ; Ancient Art ; Assyriology
Enemy punishment and the creation of the Assyrian world : Ashurbanipal's Teumman-Dunanu narratives in reliefs, epigraphs, and prisms. This dissertation examines the representation of enemy punishment in prisms, reliefs, epigraphs, and epigraph tablets of the Neo-Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (c. 668-627 BCE). The 'Teumman-Dunanu' narratives which form the basis of this study use the events of military campaigns waged against Elamite king Teumman in 653 BCE, and subsequently against a number of Teumman's allies in southern Babylonia, as a basis to construct narratives about enemy punishment and its role in an ordered Assyrian world. I deal with a small group of sources from the Assyrian city of Nineveh: the reliefs of Room XXXIII of the Southwest Palace, and Rooms I and (to a lesser extent) S1 of the North Palace, Epigraph Text A and fragmentary parallel epigraph texts, and Prism Editions B and A. These sources have received varying degrees of attention, with the Southwest Palace reliefs of Teumman's beheading a particularly well-explored topic. However, I demonstrate that even this well-studied depiction can be understood with greater complexity when read with the other narratives examined here and in the wider context of the theme of 'enemy punishment'. The aim of this study is twofold: 1) to investigate how we should understand the intellectual
enemy punishment creation assyrian world narrative relief prism examines_representation enemy punishment prism relief tablet neo_assyrian king bce narrative form_basis study use event military_campaign wag king bce subsequently number ally southern basis construct narratives enemy punishment role order assyrian world deal small_group source assyrian city reliefs room southwest palace lesser_extent north palace text fragmentary parallel text prism source receive vary_degree attention southwest palace reliefs particularly well explored topic however_even well_studied depiction understood great complexity read narrative examine wide_context theme enemy punishment aim_study twofold investigate intellectual