Nineveh[a] was an ancient Near Eastern city ofUpper Mesopotamia, located in the modern-day city ofMosul in northernIraq. It is located on the eastern bank of theTigris River and was the capital and largest city of theNeo-Assyrian Empire. Today, it is a common name for the half of Mosul that lies on the eastern bank of the Tigris, and the country'sNineveh Governorate takes its name from it.
It was thelargest city in the world for approximately fifty years until the year 612 BC when, after a bitter period of civil war in Assyria, it wassacked by a coalition of its former subject peoples including theBabylonians,Medes, andScythians. The city was never again a political or administrative centre, but byLate Antiquity it was the seat of an Assyrian Christian bishop of theAssyrian Church of the East. It declined relative to Mosul during theMiddle Ages and was mostly abandoned by the 14th century AD after the massacres and dispersal of Assyrian Christians byTimur.
Its ruins lie across the river from the historical city center of Mosul. The two maintells, or mound-ruins, within the walls are Tell Kuyunjiq andTell Nabī Yūnus, site of a shrine toJonah. According to theHebrew Bible and theQuran, Jonah was a prophet who preached to Nineveh.[1][2][3] Large numbers ofAssyrian sculptures and other artifacts have been excavated from the ruins of Nineveh, and are now located in museums around the world.
Nabī Yūnus is theArabic for "ProphetJonah".Kuyunjiq was, according toLayard, a Turkish name (Layard used the formkouyunjik, diminutive ofkoyun "sheep" in Turkish); known asArmousheeah by the Arabs,[7] it is thought to have some connection with theQara Qoyunlu dynasty.[8]
View of the village of "Nunia" or "Ninive", published byCarsten Niebuhr in 1778Village in Nineveh in 2019
The remains of ancient Nineveh, the areas of Kuyunjiq and Nabī Yūnus with their mounds, are located on a level part of the plain at the junction of theTigris and theKhosr Rivers within an area of 750 hectares (1,900 acres)[9] circumscribed by a 12-kilometre (7.5 mi) fortification wall. This whole extensive space is now one immense area of ruins, roughly a third of these overlaid by the Nebi Yunus suburbs of the city of easternMosul.[10]
The site of ancient Nineveh is bisected by theKhosr river. North of the Khosr, the site is calledKuyunjiq, including the acropolis of Tell Kuyunjiq; the illegal village of Rahmaniye lay in eastern Kuyunjiq. South of the Khosr, the urbanized area is calledNebi Yunus (also Ghazliya, Jezayr, Jammasa), including Tell Nebi Yunus, where are the mosque of the Prophet Jonah, and a palace ofEsarhaddon/Ashurbanipal below it. South of the street Al-'Asady (made byDaesh by destroying swaths of the city walls) the area is calledJunub Ninawah or Shara Pepsi.
Nineveh itself was founded as early as 6000 BC during the lateNeolithic period.Deep sounding at Nineveh uncovered soil layers that have been dated to early in the era of theHassunaarchaeological culture.[11] The development and culture of Nineveh paralleledTepe Gawra andTell Arpachiyah a few kilometers to the northeast. Nineveh was a typical farming village in theHalaf Period.
In 5000 BC, Nineveh transitioned from aHalaf village to anUbaid village. During the Late Chalcolithic period Nineveh was one of the few Ubaid villages in Upper Mesopotamia which became a proto-city. Others includeUgarit,Brak,Hamoukar,Arbela,Alep, and regionallySusa,Eridu,Nippur. During the period between 4500 and 4000 BC it grew to 40 hectares in size.
The greater Nineveh area is notable in the diffusion of metal technology across the near east as the first location outside ofAnatolia to smelt copper. Tell Arpachiyah has the oldest copper smelting remains, and Tepe Gawra has the oldest metal work. The copper came from the mines atErgani.
Beveled rim bowl. Clay, from Nineveh, Late Uruk Period, 3300-3100 BC. British Museum
Nineveh IV became a trade colony ofUruk during theUruk Expansion because of its location as the highest navigable point on the Tigris. It was contemporary with, and had a similar function to,Habuba Kabira on the Euphrates. Finds includedbeveled rim bowls.[12][13]
The regional influence of Nineveh became particularly pronounced during the archaeological period known asNinevite 5, orNinevite V (3000/2900–2600/2500 BC). This period is defined primarily by the characteristic pottery that is found widely throughout Upper Mesopotamia.[14] Also, for the Upper Mesopotamian region, theEarly Jezirah chronology has been developed by archaeologists. According to this regional chronology, 'Ninevite 5' is equivalent to the Early Jezirah I–II period.[15]
Polychrome painted jar, geometric designs and animals, the so-called "Scarlet Ware". From Tell Abu Qasim at Hamrin Basin, Iraq. 2800–2600 BCE. Iraq Museum
Ninevite 5 was preceded by the LateUruk period. Ninevite 5 pottery is roughly contemporary to theEarly Transcaucasian culture ware, and theJemdet Nasr period ware.[14] IraqiScarlet Ware culture also belongs to this period; this colourful painted pottery is somewhat similar to Jemdet Nasr ware. Scarlet Ware was first documented in theDiyala River basin in Iraq. Later, it was also found in the nearbyHamrin Basin, and inLuristan. It is also contemporary with theProto-Elamite period in Susa.
Ninevite 5 can be subdivided into the Early Ninevite 5 (3000-2750 BC) characterized by painted pottery and Late Ninevite 5 (2750-2500 BC) with incised pottery. In southern Mesopotamia, the former is contemporary with ED I-II, while the latter mirrors ED II-IIIA.[16]
In the late 3rd millennium BC Nineveh was part of theAkkadian Empire. While the site was occupied in that period, there was minimal official Akkadian presence there—unlike atAssur which had a much more notable presence. An Akkadian period bronze statue head found at Nineveh was later determined to be a 7th century addition.[17][18]
In the early 2nd millennium BC Nineveh became part of the Kingdom of Upper Mesopotamia during the reign ofShamshi-Adad I (c. 1809–1775 BC), Amorite ruler ofEkallatum.[19][20] It became a center ofworship ofIshtar.[21][22][23]
Artist's impression of a hall in an Assyrian palace fromThe Monuments of Nineveh by SirAusten Henry Layard, 1853
The goddess's statue was sent to PharaohAmenhotep III ofEgypt in the 14th century BC, by orders of the kingTushratta ofMitanni. Nineveh became one of Mitanni's vassals for half a century until the early 14th century BC.
There is a large body of evidence to show that Assyrian monarchs built extensively in Nineveh during the late 3rd and 2nd millennia BC; it appears to have been originally an "Assyrian provincial town". Later monarchs whose inscriptions have appeared on the high city include the Middle Assyrian Empire kingsShalmaneser I (1274–1245 BC) andTiglath-Pileser I (1114–1076 BC), both of whom were active builders inAssur (Ashur).
The HebrewBook of Jonah, which was most likely written between 793 and 758 BC, is an account of the city's repentance and Jehovah's mercy which prevented destruction.
Some of the principal doorways were flanked by colossal stonelamassu door figures weighing up to 30,000 kilograms (30 t); these were wingedMesopotamian lions[25] orbulls, with human heads. These were transported 50 kilometres (31 mi) from quarries at Balatai, and they had to be lifted up 20 metres (66 ft) once they arrived at the site, presumably by aramp. There are also 3,000 metres (9,843 ft) of stoneAssyrian palace reliefs, that include pictorial records documenting every construction step including carving the statues and transporting them on a barge. One picture shows 44 men towing a colossal statue. The carving shows three men directing the operation while standing on the Colossus. Once the statues arrived at their destination, the final carving was done. Most of the statues weigh between 9,000 and 27,000 kilograms (19,842 and 59,525 lb).[26]
The stone carvings in the walls include many battle scenes, impalings and scenes showing Sennacherib's men parading the spoils of war before him. The inscriptions boasted of his conquests: he wrote ofBabylon: "Its inhabitants, young and old, I did not spare, and with their corpses I filled the streets of the city." A full and characteristicset shows the campaign leading up to the siege of Lachish in 701 BC; it is the "finest" from the reign ofSennacherib, and now in the British Museum.[27] He later wrote about a battle inLachish: "AndHezekiah of Judah who had not submitted to my yoke ... him I shut up in Jerusalem his royal city like a caged bird. Earthworks I threw up against him, and anyone coming out of his city gate I made pay for his crime. His cities which I had plundered I had cut off from his land."[28]
At this time, Nineveh comprised about 7 square kilometres (1,730 acres) of land, and fifteen great gates penetrated its walls. An elaborate system of eighteen canals brought water from the hills to Nineveh, and several sections of a magnificently constructed aqueduct erected by Sennacherib were discovered atJerwan, about 65 kilometres (40 mi) distant.[29] The enclosed area had more than 100,000 inhabitants (maybe closer to 150,000), about twice as many asBabylon at the time, placing it among the largest settlements worldwide.
Some scholars such asStephanie Dalley atOxford believe that the garden Sennacherib built next to his palace, with its associated irrigation works, was the originalHanging Gardens of Babylon; Dalley's argument is based on a disputation of the traditional placement of the Hanging Gardens attributed toBerossus, together with a combination of literary and archaeological evidence.[30]
The walls of Nineveh at the time of Ashurbanipal. 645–640 BC.British Museum BM 124938.[31]
The greatness of Nineveh was short-lived. In around 627 BC, after the death of its last great kingAshurbanipal, the Neo-Assyrian Empire began to unravel through a series of bittercivil wars between rival claimants for the throne, and in 616 BC Assyria was attacked by its own former vassals, theChaldeans,Babylonians,Medes, andScythians. In about 616 BCKalhu was sacked, the allied forces eventually reached Nineveh, besieging and sacking the city in 612 BC, following bitter house-to-house fighting, after which it was razed. Most of the people in the city who could not escape to the last Assyrian strongholds in the north and west were either massacred or deported out of the city and into the countryside where they founded new settlements. Many unburied skeletons were found by the archaeologists at the site. The Assyrian Empire then came to an end by 605 BC, the Medes and Babylonians dividing its colonies between themselves.
It is not clear whether Nineveh came under the rule of the Medes or theNeo-Babylonian Empire in 612. TheBabylonian Chronicles concerning the Fall of Nineveh[32] record that Nineveh was "turned into mounds and heaps", but this is literary hyperbole. The complete destruction of Nineveh has traditionally been seen as confirmed by the HebrewBook of Ezekiel and the GreekRetreat of the Ten Thousand ofXenophon (d. 354 BC).[33] There are no later cuneiform tablets in Akkadian from Nineveh. Although devastated in 612 BC, the city was not completely abandoned.[33] Yet, to the Greek historiansCtesias andHerodotus (c. 400 BC), Nineveh was a thing of the past; and when Xenophon passed the place in the 4th century BC he described it as abandoned.[34]
The earliest piece of written evidence for the persistence of Nineveh as a settlement is possibly theCyrus Cylinder of 539/538 BC, but the reading of this is disputed. If correctly read as Nineveh, it indicates thatCyrus the Great restored the temple of Ishtar at Nineveh and probably encouraged resettlement. A number of cuneiformElamite tablets have been found at Nineveh. They probably date from the time of the revival ofElam in the century following the collapse of Assyria.
Archaeologically, there is evidence of repairs at the temple of Nabu after 612 BC and for the continued use of Sennacherib's palace. There is evidence of syncreticHellenistic cults. A statue ofHermes has been found and a Greek inscription attached to a shrine of theSebitti. A statue ofHerakles Epitrapezios dated to the 2nd century AD has also been found.[33]
The city was actively resettled under theSeleucid Empire.[35] There is evidence of more changes in Sennacherib's palace under theParthian Empire. The Parthians also established a municipal mint at Nineveh coining in bronze.[33] According toTacitus, in AD 50Meherdates, a claimant to the Parthian throne with Roman support, took Nineveh.[36]
ByLate Antiquity, Nineveh was restricted to the east bank of the Tigris and the west bank was uninhabited. Under theSasanian Empire, Nineveh was not an administrative centre. By the 2nd century AD there wereChristians present and by 554 it was abishopric of theChurch of the East. KingKhosrow II (591–628) built a fortress on the west bank, and two Christian monasteries were constructed around 570 and 595. This growing settlement was not calledMosul until after theArab conquests. It may have been called Hesnā ʿEbrāyē (Jews' Fort).[35]
In 627, the city was the site of theBattle of Nineveh between theEastern Roman Empire and the Sasanians. In 641, it wasconquered by the Arabs, who built amosque on the west bank and turned it into an administrative centre. Under theUmayyad dynasty, Mosul eclipsed Nineveh, which was reduced to a Christian suburb with limited new construction. By the 13th century, Nineveh was mostly ruins and was subsequently absorbed into Mosul. A church was converted into aMuslim shrine to the prophetJonah, which continued to attract pilgrims untilits destruction by ISIL in 2014.[35] In late Ottoman times, the ashlar masonry of the North Palace of Ashurbanipal was quarried to make for the pilons of the Old Bridge over the Tigris.[37] The modern city of Mosul is occasionally referred to as Nineveh, such as during the operation toretake Mosul in 2016–17.[38]
In theHebrew Bible, Nineveh is first mentioned in Genesis 10:11: "Ashur left that land, and built Nineveh". Some modern English translations interpret "Ashur" in the Hebrew of this verse as the country "Assyria" rather than a person, thus makingNimrod, rather than Ashur, the founder of Nineveh. The discovery of the fifteenJubilees texts found amongst theDead Sea Scrolls has since shown that, according to theJewish sects of Qumran, Genesis 10:11 affirms the apportionment of Nineveh to Ashur.[39]
The Prophet Jonah before the Walls of Nineveh, drawing byRembrandt,c. 1655
According toIsaiah 37:37–38 Nineveh was also the place where Sennacherib died at the hands of his two sons, who then fled to Ararat. The book of the minor prophetNahum is almost exclusively taken up with prophetic denunciations against Nineveh. Its ruin and utter desolation are foretold inNahum 1:14 andNahum 3:19. InNahum 2:6–11 its end was fortold to be strange, sudden, and tragic. According toIsaiah 10:5–19 it was God's doing, his judgment on Assyria's pride. In fulfillment of prophecy, God made "an utter end of the place". It became a "desolation". InZephaniah 2:13–15 the minor prophetZephaniah also predicts its destruction along with the fall of the empire of which it was the capital. Nineveh is also the setting of theBook of Tobit.
TheBook of Jonah (Jonah 3:3 andJonah 4:11), set in the days of the Assyrian Empire, describes it as an "exceedingly great city of three days' journey in breadth", whose population at that time is given as "more than 120,000".Genesis 10:11–12 lists four cities "Nineveh,Rehoboth,Calah, andResen", ambiguously stating that either Resen or Calah is "the great city". The ruins of Kuyunjiq,Nimrud,Karamlesh andKhorsabad form the four corners of an irregular quadrilateral. The ruins of the "great city" Nineveh, with the whole area included within the parallelogram they form by lines drawn from the one to the other, are generally regarded as consisting of these four sites. The description of Nineveh in Jonah likely was a reference to greater Nineveh, including the surrounding cities of Rehoboth, Calah and Resen[40] The Book of Jonah depicts Nineveh as a wicked city worthy of destruction. God sent Jonah to preach to the Ninevites of their coming destruction, and they fasted and repented because of this. As a result, God spared the city; when Jonah protests against this, God states he is showing mercy for the population who, according toJonah 4:11), are ignorant of the difference between right and wrong ("who cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand" and mercy for the beasts in the city.
Nineveh's repentance and salvation from evil can be found in the HebrewTanakh, also known as theOld Testament, and referred to inMatthew 12:41 andLuke 11:32 and MuslimQuran. To this day,Syriac andOriental Orthodox churches commemorate the three days Jonah spent inside the fish during theFast of Nineveh. Some Christians observe this holiday fast by refraining from food and drink, with churches encouraging followers to refrain from dairy products, fish and other meats.
Carsten Niebuhr recorded its location during the 1761–1767Danish expedition. Niebuhr wrote afterwards that "I did not learn that I was at so remarkable a spot, till near the river. Then they showed me a village on a great hill, which they call Nunia, and a mosque, in which the prophet Jonah was buried. Another hill in this district is called Kalla Nunia, or the Castle of Nineveh. On that lies a village Koindsjug."[41] In 1820 the site was explored and described by archaeologistClaudius Rich.[42] In 1842, the French Consul General at Mosul,Paul-Émile Botta, began to search the vast mounds that lay along the opposite bank of the river. While at Tell Kuyunjiq he had little success, the locals whom he employed in these excavations, to their great surprise, came upon the ruins of a building at the 20 km far-away mound ofKhorsabad, which, on further exploration, turned out to be the royal palace ofSargon II, in which large numbers of reliefs were found and recorded, though they had been damaged by fire and were mostly too fragile to remove.[43][44][45]
Bronze lion from Nineveh
In 1847 the young British diplomatAusten Henry Layard explored the ruins.[46][47][48][49] Layard did not use modern archaeological methods; his stated goal was "to obtain the largest possible number of well preserved objects of art at the least possible outlay of time and money".[4] In the Kuyunjiq mound, Layard rediscovered in 1849 the lost palace of Sennacherib with its 71 rooms and colossalbas-reliefs.[50] He also unearthed the palace and famouslibrary of Ashurbanipal with 22,000 cuneiform clay tablets.[51] Most of Layard's material was sent to theBritish Museum, but some was dispersed elsewhere: two large pieces were given toLady Charlotte Guest and these eventually found their way to theMetropolitan Museum.[52]
The work of exploration was carried on byHormuzd Rassam,George Smith and others, and a vast treasury of specimens of Assyria was incrementally exhumed for European museums. Palace after palace was discovered, with their decorations and their sculptured slabs, revealing the life and manners of this ancient people, their arts of war and peace, the forms of their religion, the style of their architecture, and the magnificence of their monarchs.[53][54]
The mound of Tell Kuyunjiq was excavated again by the archaeologists of theBritish Museum, led byLeonard William King, between 1902 and 1904. Their efforts concentrated on the site of the Temple ofNabu where another cuneiform library was supposed to exist. However, no such library was ever found: most likely, it had been destroyed by the activities of later residents.[55]
The excavations started again in 1927, under the direction ofCampbell Thompson, who had taken part in King's expeditions.[56][57][58][59] Some works were carried out outside Kuyunjiq, for instance on the mound of Tell Nebi Yunus, which was the ancient arsenal of Nineveh, or along the outside walls. Here, near the northwestern corner of the walls, beyond the pavement of a later building, the archaeologists found almost 300 fragments of prisms recording the royal annals of Sennacherib, Esarhaddon, and Ashurbanipal, beside a prism of Esarhaddon which was almost perfect.[60]
After theSecond World War, several excavations were carried out byIraqi archaeologists. From 1951 to 1958, Mohammed Ali Mustafa worked the site.[61][62] The work was continued from 1967 through 1971 by Tariq Madhloom.[63][64][65] Some additional excavation occurred by Manhal Jabur from the early 1970s to 1987. For the most part, these digs focused on Tell Nebi Yunus.
The British archaeologist and Assyriologist ProfessorDavid Stronach of theUniversity of California, Berkeley conducted a series of surveys and digs at the site from 1987 to 1990, focusing his attentions on the several gates and the existent mudbrick walls, as well as the system that supplied water to the city in times of siege.[66] The excavation reports are in progress.[67][68]
After Mosul’s liberation from the control of theIslamic State (IS),Peter A. Miglus [de], University of Heidelberg, established a rescue project in 2018, exploring and documenting the intrusive IS tunnels in the Assyrian Military Palace that is located below the destroyed Mosque of the prophetJonah on Tell Nebi Yunus. Archaeological excavations have been conducted since 2019.[69][70] Subsequently, an extensive research project, first under the direction ofStefan M. Maul and now of Aaron Schmidt, University of Heidelberg, developed, focusing also on other areas of Nineveh. At Tell Kuyunjiq, activities started in 2021 with rescue and restoration measures for the destroyed reliefs in the throne room wing of the Southwest Palace. Excavations in the North Palace commenced in 2022. Since 2023, work has also been conducted at the Nergal Gate, which was bulldozed by IS. In the lower town, geophysical surveys were carried out north of Kuyunjiq in 2021 and 2023 in preparation of future research on residential areas.[71]
An Iraqi–Italian Archaeological Expedition by theAlma Mater Studiorum – University of Bologna and the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage (SBAH), led by Nicolò Marchetti, began (with five campaigns having taken place between 2019 and 2023) a project aiming at the excavation, conservation and public presentation of the lower town of Nineveh. Work was carried out in nineteen excavation areas, from the Adad Gate – now completely repaired (after removing hundreds of tons of debris from ISIL's 2016 destructions), explored and protected with a new roof – deep into the Nebi Yunus town. In a few areas a thick later stratigraphy was encountered, but the late 7th century BC stratum was reached everywhere (actually in two areas in the pre-Sennacherib lower town the excavations already exposed older strata, up to the 11th century BC until now, aiming in the future at exploring the first settlement therein).[72] In October 2023 an archaeological park was inaugurated at the site.
Since 2024, an expedition led by Tim Harrison of theISAC at the University of Chicago has taken over from the University of Bologna the investigation of the eastern lower town at Nineveh.
The site is marked by two large mounds, Tell Kuyunjiq and TellNabī Yūnus "ProphetJonah", and the remains of the city walls (about 12 kilometres (7 mi) in circumference), enclosing a vast lower town extensively encroached by modern buildings. The Neo-Assyrian levels of Kuyunjiq have been extensively explored. The other mound,Nabī Yūnus, has not been as extensively explored because there was an Arab Muslim shrine dedicated to that prophet on the site. On July 24, 2014, theIslamic State destroyed the shrine as part of acampaign to destroy religious sanctuaries it deemed "un-Islamic",[73] but also to loot that site through tunneling.
The ruin mound of Tell Kuyunjiq rises about 20 metres (66 ft) above the surrounding plain of the ancient city. It is quite broad, measuring about 800 by 500 metres (2,625 ft × 1,640 ft). Its upper layers have been extensively excavated, and several Neo-Assyrian palaces and temples have been found there. A deep sounding byMax Mallowan revealed evidence of habitation as early as the 6th millennium BC. Today, there is little evidence of these old excavations other than weathered pits and earth piles. In 1990, the only Assyrian remains visible were those of the entry court and the first few chambers of the Palace of Sennacherib. Since that time, the palace chambers have received significant damage by looters and by the removal of the protective roof. Portions of relief sculptures that were in the palace chambers in 1990 were seen on the antiquities market by 1996. Photographs of the chambers made in 2003 show that many of the fine relief sculptures there have been reduced to piles of rubble and a conservation effort ensued. In 2016 Sennacherib's throne room was bulldozed by Daesh and the sculpted fragments were left exposed until 2022.
Winged Bull excavated at Tell Nebi Yunus by Iraqi archaeologists
Tell Nebi Yunus is located about 1 kilometre (0.6 mi) south of Kuyunjiq and is the secondary ruin mound at Nineveh. On the basis of texts of Sennacherib, the site has traditionally been identified as the "armory" of Nineveh, and a gate and pavements excavated by Iraqis in 1954 have been considered to be part of the "armory" complex. Excavations in 1990 revealed a monumental entryway consisting of a number of large inscribedorthostats and "bull-man" sculptures, some apparently unfinished. Following theliberation of Mosul, the tunnels under Tell Nebi Yunus were explored in 2018, in which a 3000-year-old palace was discovered, including a pair of reliefs, each showing a row of women, along with reliefs oflamassu.[74]
Simplified plan of ancient Nineveh showing city wall and location of gatewaysPhotograph of the restoredAdad Gate, taken prior to the gate's destruction byIS in April 2016[75]Eastern city wall andShamash Gate
The ruins of Nineveh are surrounded by the remains of a massive stone and mudbrick wall dating from about 700 BC. About 12 km in length, the wall system consisted of an ashlar stone retaining wall about 6 metres (20 ft) high surmounted by a mudbrick wall about 10 metres (33 ft) high and 15 metres (49 ft) thick. The stone retaining wall had projecting stone towers spaced about every 18 metres (59 ft). The stone wall and towers were topped by three-stepmerlons.
Six of the gateways have been explored to some extent by archaeologists (besides the possibleSin Gate at the north-west end of the site):
Mashki GateMasqi Gate (Arabic: بوابة مسقي Derived from the passive participle of سَقَى saqā, "to give (sb) a drink, to water, to irrigate")[76] was perhaps used to take livestock to water from the Tigris which currently flows about 1.5 kilometres (0.9 mi) to the west. It has been reconstructed in fortified mudbrick to the height of the top of the vaulted passageway. The Assyrian original may have been plastered and ornamented. It was bulldozed along with the Nergal and Adad Gates duringIS occupation.[75] During the restoration project, seven damaged alabaster carvings from the time of Sennacherib were found at the gate in 2022.[77]
Nergal Gate: Named for the godNergal, it may have been used for some ceremonial purpose, as it is the only known gate flanked by stone sculptures of winged bull-men (lamassu).: 30 The reconstruction is conjectural, as the gate was excavated by Layard in the mid-19th century and reconstructed in the mid-20th century. The lamassu on this gate were defaced with a jackhammer byIS forces and the gate was utterly destroyed.[78]
Adad Gate: Named for the godAdad. A roofing above it was begun in the late 1960s by Iraqis but was not completed. The result was a mixture of concrete and eroding mudbrick, which nonetheless does give some idea of the original structure. The excavator left some features unexcavated, allowing a view of the original Assyrian construction. The original brickwork of the outer vaulted passageway was well exposed, as was the entrance of the vaulted stairway to the upper levels. The actions of Nineveh's last defenders could be seen in the hastily built mudbrick construction which narrowed the passageway from 4 to 2 metres (13 to 7 ft). Around April 13, 2016,IS demolished both the gate and the adjacent wall by flattening them with a bulldozer.[79][75] It has been reexcavated (including a 7 m deep stair-well), conservated and presented to the public by the Iraqi-Italian expedition between 2019 and 2023.
Shamash Gate: Named for the sun godShamash, it opens to the road toErbil. It was excavated by Layard in the 19th century. The stone retaining wall and part of the mudbrick structure were reconstructed in the 1960s. The mudbrick reconstruction has deteriorated significantly. The stone wall projects outward about 20 metres (66 ft) from the line of main wall for a width of about 70 metres (230 ft). It is the only gate with such a significant projection. The mound of its remains towers above the surrounding terrain. Its size and design suggest it was the most important gate in Neo-Assyrian times. It is now being excavated by the University of Chicago expedition.
Halzi Gate: Near the south end of the eastern city wall. Exploratory excavations were undertaken here by theUniversity of California, Berkeley expedition of 1989–1990 and again in 2022 and 2023 by the Iraqi-Italian Expedition. There is an outward projection of the city wall, though not as pronounced as at the Shamash Gate. The entry passage had been narrowed with mudbrick to about 2 metres (7 ft) as at the Adad Gate. Human remains from the final battle of Nineveh were found in the passageway.[80] Located in the eastern wall, it is the southernmost and largest of all the remaining gates of ancient Nineveh.[76]
A new gate has been discovered in 2021 to the north of the Shamash Gate and south of the Khosr river (in the area labeled as N by the Iraqi-Italian expedition), next to a spectacular water tunnel running for 42 m under the 31m-thick city wall (area G, excavated in 2020 and 2021).
The site of Nineveh is exposed to decay of itsreliefs by a lack of proper protective roofing, vandalism and looting holes dug into chamber floors.[81] Future preservation is further compromised by the site's proximity to expanding suburbs.
The ailingMosul Dam is a persistent threat to Nineveh as well as the city of Mosul. This is in no small part due to years of disrepair (in 2006, theU.S. Army Corps of Engineers cited it as the most dangerous dam in the world), the cancellation of a second dam project in the 1980s to act as flood relief in case of failure, and occupation byISIL in 2014 resulting in fleeing workers and stolen equipment. If the dam fails, the entire site could be under as much as 45 feet (14 m) of water.[82]
A major threat to Nineveh has been deliberate human actions by ISIL or Daesh, which occupied the area between 2014 and 2017. In early 2015, they first announced their intention to destroy the walls of Nineveh if the Iraqis tried to liberate the city, and they also threatened the destruction of archaeological heritage and artifacts.[83] On February 26, 2015, video footage showsIS smashing statues and artifacts at theMosul Museum.[83] They are believed to have plundered others to sell overseas. The items were mostly from the Assyrian exhibit, which Daesh declaredblasphemous andidolatrous. There were 300 items remaining in the museum out of a total of 1,900, with the other 1,600 being taken to theNational Museum of Iraq inBaghdad for security reasons prior to the 2014Fall of Mosul.[according to whom?] Some of the artifacts sold and/or destroyed were from Nineveh.[84] Just a few days after the destruction of the museum pieces, Daesh terrorists demolished parts of three other major UNESCO world heritage sites,Khorsabad,Nimrud andHatra. In 2016, Daesh effectively destroyed the Adad Gate (along with the adjoining northern city walls, now cleared by the Iraqi-Italian expedition thanks to the support of the Kaplan Fund), as well as the Mashki Gate (along with the eastern fortifications. The Mashki Gate is in the process of being restored).[85] Daesh also called for intensive new housing in the Kuyunjiq part and opened a large road across the southern part of the site (currently known as Al Asady Road).
After the cultural destruction and between 2014-2019, international efforts by archeologists began recording, evaluating and monitoring the damage and destruction inflicted on sensitive archaeological contexts in Nineveh, using satellite-basedremote sensing.[83] The results found that a few high-profile acts of deliberate vandalism were accompanied by much more extensive damage caused by construction and rubbish dumping extending across substantial parts of the site.[83]
Thanks to the activities of the Iraqi-Italian expedition, an archaeological park has been opened at Kuyunjiq since 2023: tourists enter from the Adad gate, subsequently visiting the small Neo-Assyrian palace where the cuneiform library was discovered in 2021, and may then relax in the VW Foundation-fundedKALAM mudbrick information center nearby. The site is still endangered, however, with dumping of debris, illegal settlements and economic activities (such as illegal generators for electricity, pipe companies etc.) as the main threats.
English Romantic poetEdwin Atherstone wrote an epic titledThe Fall of Nineveh.[87] The work tells of an uprising against kingSardanapalus by all the nations that were dominated by the Assyrian Empire. He is a great criminal who had one hundred prisoners of war executed. After a long struggle, the town is conquered by Median and Babylonian troops, led by princeArbaces and priest Belesis. The king then sets his own palace on fire and dies inside together with all his concubines.
^Chisholm, Robert B. Jr. (2009).Handbook on the Prophets. Baker Publishing Group. p. unpaginated.ISBN978-1-58558-365-2. Retrieved2023-02-10.Despite the modern scholarly consensus that the book is fictional
^abLiverani, Mario (2016) [2013],Immaginare Babele [Imagining Babylon: The Modern Story of an Ancient City], translated by Campbell, Alisa, De Gruyter,ISBN978-1-61451-602-6
^abOxford English Dictionary, 3rd ed. "Ninevite,n. andadj." Oxford University Press (Oxford), 2013.
^abc"Nineveh".Encyclopaedia Judaica. Gale Group. 2008.
^Layard, 1849, p.xxi, "...called Kuyunjiq by the Turks, and Armousheeah by the Arabs"
^"Koyundjik",E. J. Brill's First Encyclopaedia of Islam, p. 1083.
^Gut, R.V., "Das Prahistorische Ninive: zur Relativen Chronologie der Fruhen Perioden Nordmesopotamiens", Mainz, 1995
^Gut, R.V., "The signiicance of the Uruk sequence at Nineveh", in J.N. Postgate, (ed.), Artefacts of Complexity. Tracking the Uruk in the Near East, Cambridge, Iraq Archaeological Reports 5, Oxford, pp. 17-48, 2002
^Charvát, Petr, "The Backs of Some Sealings from Nineveh 5", Iraq, vol. 67, no. 1, pp. 391–97, 2005
^M. E. L. Mallowan, "The Bronze Head of the Akkadian Period from Nineveh", Iraq Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 104-110, 1936
^Westenholz, Joan Goodnick, "The Old Akkadian Presence in Nineveh: Fact or Fiction", Iraq, vol. 66, pp. 7–18, 2004
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^Van de Mieroop, Marc, "A history of the ancient Near East ca. 3000-323 BC", John Wiley & Sons, 2024
^Reade, Julian, "The Ishtar Temple at Nineveh", Iraq, vol. 67, no. 1, pp. 347–90, 2005
^Porter, Barbara Nevling, "Ishtar of Nineveh and Her Collaborator, Ishtar of Arbela, in the Reign of Assurbanipal", Iraq, vol. 66, pp. 41–44, 2004
^Ziegler, Nele, "The Conquest of the Holy City of Nineveh and the Kingdom of Nurrugum by Samsî-Addu", Iraq, vol. 66, pp. 19–26, 2004
^Genesis 10:11 attributes the founding of Nineveh to anAsshur: "Out of that land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh".
^abAshrafian, H. (2011). "An extinct Mesopotamian lion subspecies".Veterinary Heritage.34 (2):47–49.
^"The Seventy Wonders of the Ancient World" edited by Chris Scarre 1999 (Thames and Hudson)
^Reade, Julian,Assyrian Sculpture, pp. 56 (quoted), 65–71, 1998 (2nd ed.), The British Museum Press,ISBN9780714121413
^Time Life Lost Civilizations series:Mesopotamia: The Mighty Kings (1995)
^abcdStephanie Dalley (1993), "Nineveh after 612 BC",Altorientalische Forschungen20(1): 134–147.
^Menko Vlaardingerbroek (2004), "The Founding of Nineveh and Babylon in Greek Historiography",Iraq, vol. 66, Nineveh. Papers of the 49thRencontre Assyriologique Internationale, Part One, pp. 233–241.
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^VanderKam, "Jubilees, Book of", in L. H. Schiffman and J. C. VanderKam (eds.),Encyclopedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Oxford University Press (2000), Vol. I, p. 435.
^Barker, Kenneth L.; Burdick, Donald W., eds. (1995).The NIV Study Bible (10th anniversary ed.). Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan. p. 1361.ISBN0-310-92568-1.OCLC33344874.
^[4] Pusey, Edward Bouverie, "The Minor Prophets, with a Commentary, Explanatory and Practical, and Introductions to the Several Books", Volume II, 1888
^[5] Claudius James Rich, "Narrative of a residence in Koordistan, and on the site of ancient Nineveh : with journal of a voyage down the Tigris to Bagdad and an account of a visit to Shirauz and Persepolis - Volume 2", London, 1836
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^[7] Paul Emile Botta, Julius Mohl, "M. Botta's Letters on the Discoveries at Nineveh", Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1850
^[8] Bonomi, Joseph, "Nineveh and its palaces. The discoveries of Botta and Layard, applied to the elucidation of Holy Writ", London : H.G. Bohn, 1857
^[9] A. H. Layard, "Nineveh and Its Remains", John Murray, 1849
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^[11] A. H. Layard, "The Monuments of Nineveh; From Drawings Made on the Spot", John Murray, 1849
^[12] A. H. Layard, "A second series of the monuments of Nineveh", John Murray, 1853
^Russell, John Malcolm, "Layard’s Descriptions of Rooms in the Southwest Palace at Nineveh", Iraq, vol. 57, pp. 71–85, 1995
^Turner, G., "The British Museum’s Excavations at Nineveh, 1846–1855", Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2020ISBN978-90-04-43536-0
^John Malcolm Russell, "From Nineveh to New York: The Strange Story of the Assyrian Reliefs in the Metropolitan Museum & the Hidden Masterpiece at Canford School", Yale University Press, 1997,ISBN0-300-06459-4
^[13] George Smith, "Assyrian Discoveries: An Account of Explorations and Discoveries on the Site of Nineveh, During 1873 and 1874", S. Low-Marston-Searle and Rivington, 1876
^[14] Hormuzd Rassam and Robert William Rogers, "Asshur and the Land of Nimrod", Curts & Jennings, 1897
^[15] Thompson, Reginald Campbell, and Richard Wyatt Hutchinson, "A century of exploration at Nineveh", Luzac, & Company, 1929
^R. Campbell Thompson and R. W. Hutchinson, "The excavations on the temple of Nabu at Nineveh", Archaeologia, vol. 79, pp. 103–148, 1929
^R. Campbell Thompson and R. W. Hutchinson, "The site of the palace of Ashurnasirpal II at Nineveh excavated in 1929–30",Liverpool Annals of Archaeology and Anthropology, vol. 18, pp. 79–112, 1931
^R. Campbell Thompson and R. W. Hamilton, "The British Museum excavations on the temple of Ishtar at Nineveh 1930–31", Liverpool Annals of Archaeology and Anthropology, vol. 19, pp. 55–116, 1932
^R. Campbell Thompson and M. E. L. Mallowan, "The British Museum excavations at Nineveh 1931–32", Liverpool Annals of Archaeology and Anthropology, vol. 20, pp. 71–186, 1933
^[16] Reginald Campbell Thompson, "The prisms of Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal found at Nineveh, 1927-8", Lomdon, 1931
^[17] Mohammed Ali Mustafa, "The Assyrian palace at Nebi Unis", Sumer, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 110–111, 1954
^[18] Muhammad Ali Mustafa, "The discovery of a statue of Hermes at Nineveh", Sumer 10 (2), Arabic section, pp. 280-283, 1954
^Tariq Madhloom, "Excavations at Nineveh: A preliminary report",Sumer, vol. 23, pp. 76–79, 1967
^Tariq Madhloom, "Excavations at Nineveh: The 1967–68 Campaign",Sumer, vol 24, pp. 45–51, 1968
^Tariq Madhloom, "Excavations at Nineveh: The 1968–69 Campaign",Sumer, vol. 25, pp. 43–49, 1969
^Scott, M. Louise, and John MacGinnis, "Notes on Nineveh", Iraq, vol. 52, pp. 63–73, 1990
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^Stronach, David, and Stephen Lumsden, "UC Berkeley's excavations at Nineveh", The Biblical Archaeologist 55.4, pp. 227-233, 1992
^Maul, S. M.; Miglus, P. A.; et al. (2020). "Die Erforschung des ekal māšarti auf Tell Nebi Yunus in Ninive 2018–2019" [Research into the ekal māšarti on Tell Nebi Yunus in Nineveh 2018–2019].Zeitschrift für Orient-Archäologie.13 (published 2021):128–213.ISBN978-3-7861-2860-1.ISSN1868-9078.
^Maul, S. M.; Miglus, P. A.; al-Magasees, A. Q.; et al. (2022). "في موقع تل النبي يونس - نينوى الأثرية ٢٠١٨-٢٠١٩ (ekal māšarti) تنقيبات البعثة الألمانية في القصر العسكري" [Excavations of the German mission in the Military Palace (ekal māšarti) on Tell Nebi Yunus – Archaeological site of Nineveh 2018–2019].Sumer.68:11–80.
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[20] Nineveh at the British Museum's website. Includes photographs of items from their collection.
University of California Digital Nineveh Archives A teaching and research tool presenting a comprehensive picture of Nineveh within the history of archaeology in the Near East, including a searchable data repository for meaningful analysis of currently unlinked sets of data from different areas of the site and different episodes in the 160-year history of excavations
CyArk Digital Nineveh Archives, publicly accessible, free depository of the data from the previously linked UC Berkeley Nineveh Archives project, fully linked and georeferenced in aUC Berkeley/CyArk research partnership to develop the archive for open web use. Includes creative commons-licensed media items.
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