Balawat

ܒܝܬ ܠܒܬ
Shown within Iraq
Location	Nineveh Governorate,Iraq
Region	NorthernMesopotamia
Coordinates	36°13′46″N43°24′12″E / 36.22944°N 43.40333°E /36.22944; 43.40333 on
Site notes
Excavation dates	1878, 1956, 1989
Archaeologists	Hormuzd Rassam,M. Mallowan, D.J. Tucker

Balawat (Classical Syriac:ܒܝܬ ܠܒܬ,beṯ labat) is anarchaeological site of the ancient Assyrian city of Imgur-Enlil, and modern village inNineveh Province (Iraq). It lies 25 kilometres (16 mi) southeast from the city ofMosul and 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) to the south of the modernAssyrian town ofBakhdida.

Balawat is the site of the ancientAssyrian city of Imgur-Enlil. The meaning of Imgur-Enlil is "Enlil agreed". Note that there was also a wall in ancientBabylon named Imgur-Enlil.^[1]

The site was excavated in 1878 by archaeologistHormuzd Rassam.^[2][3][4] The site was again excavated byMax Mallowan for theBritish School of Archaeology in Iraq in 1956.^[5] A surface survey was conducted by D. J. Tucker in 1989 for the British Museum. The town walls enclosed an area of around 64 hectares.

The city of Imgur-Enlil was founded by the Neo-Assyrian kingAshurnasirpal II (884-859 BC). It lay 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) up the Derrah river from theTigris, where the city ofKalhu (BiblicalNimrud/Calah) was situated. Imgur-Enlil lay between the major Neo-Assyrian cities ofNineveh andArrapha (modernKirkuk) in the southeast along the royal Neo-Assyrian road. Ashurnasirpal II had already transferred the capital fromAssur to Kalhu, and the foundation of Imgur-Enlil may have been a further step to knit up the Neo-Assyrian empire. Construction at the site continued under Ashurnasirpal II's sonShalmaneser III. The city existed for about two and a half centuries but was, like most Neo-Assyrian cities, sacked and destroyed by theMedes,Babylonians andScythians during the fall of the Neo-Assyrian empire 614-605 BC.

In November 2004, the village had roads constructed by theUnited States Army, which connected the modern Assyrian village to the ancient Assyrian city ofKalhu and the village ofBakhdida (Al Hamdaniyah.) The project was dubbed "Ninewa Village Roads Project" and was funded by the U.S. government. The contract to build the roads was given to the Ashour General Construction Contracting Company and cost $1,120,000.^[6]

Aside from temples and palace buildings, the most important artifacts discovered there were the so-calledBalawat Gates. The gates measured about 20 feet in height and belonged to the temple of Mamu, the god of dreams. These were made up of bronze bands attached through nails to two wooden gates of the palace. The bronze bands depict a sacrifice and war scenes from the campaigns of the Neo-Assyrian kingShalmaneser III (859-824 BC), and were the first depictions of landscape elements (such as trees and mountains) in Assyrian art.^[7]

• List of cities of the ancient Near East

• Billerbeck, A./Delitzsch, F., "Die Palasttore Salmanassars II von Balawat", Erklärung ihrerBilder und Inschriften, BA 6/1, Leipzig, 1908
• J.E. Curtis et al., "The Balawat Gates of Ashurnasirpal II", British Museum Press, 2008,ISBN 978-0-7141-1166-7
• [4]Unger, Eckhard, "Zum Bronzetor von Balawat, Beiträge zur Erklärung und Deutung der assyrischen Inschriften und Reliefs Salmanassars III", Leipzig, Pfeiffer, 1913
• Léonard W. King, "Bronze Reliefs from the Gates of Shalmanezer. King of Assyria BC 860-825", Longman's & Company, 1915
• Seton Lloyd, "Foundations in the Dust", 1947ISBN 978-0500050385
• [5] Theophilus G Pinches and Walter de Gray Birch, The bronze ornaments of the palace gates of Balawat (Shalmaneser II, B.C. 859-825) edited, with an introduction by Walter de Gray Birch ; with descriptions and translations by Theophilus G. Pinches, Society of Great Russell Street, 1902
• [6]Theophilus G Pinches, "The Balawat Gates and Their Relation to Assyrian Art", The American Art Review, vol. 1, pp. 527-535, 1880

• Bronze relief fragment at the Walters Art Museum

• Populated places in Nineveh Governorate
• Archaeological sites in Iraq
• Ancient Assyrian cities
• Tells (archaeology)
• Assyrian communities in Iraq

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• Coordinates on Wikidata
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