Assyrian Astroglyphs: Lord Aberdeen’s Black Stone and the Prisms of Esarhaddon

Assyrian Astroglyphs:Lord Aberdeen's Black Stone and the Prisms

of Esarhaddon

by Michael Roaf - München, and Annette Zgoll - Leipzig*

Für Dietz Otto Edzardvoller Dank für Inspiration und Humor

Vor rund 70 Jahren schlug David Luckenbill vor, die rätselhaften Symbole auf demSchwarzen Stein des Lord Aberdeen seien in der von Asarhaddon als lumäsu, „Sternbil-der" bezeichneten Schrift geschrieben. Aufbauend auf Ideen von Irving Finkel und Ju-lian Reade (1996) und Jo Ann Scurlock (1997) gelangen wir hier zu einer Interpretationdieser Inschrift als „Asarhaddon, König des Landes Assur, König der vier Weltränder"und erklären die Prinzipien dieser ,astroglyphischen' Schrift und ihre Symbolik.

Introduction

The Black Stone of Lord Aberdeen (Fig. I)1 bears two rows of sym-bols and a cuneiform inscription of the Assyrian king Esarhaddon(680-669), which describes the rebuilding of the city of Babylon afterits destruction by his father Sennacherib (704-681).2 An almost iden-tical sequence of symbols is found on three terracotta prisms, alsobearing inscriptions of Esarhaddon (Fig. 2).3 Here the eight symbols,

* We thank Heather Baker, David Brown, Dominique Collon, Stephanie Dalley, Ur-sula Hellwag, Karen Radner, Julian Reade, Walther Sallaberger, Ursula Seidl, BobWhiting, Claus Wilcke, and Christian Zgoll for information and for useful com-ments on earlier drafts of this article. We are also grateful to Cornelie Wolff forpreparing the illustrations. Except where otherwise stated the figures are based onillustrations in Finkel/Reade (1996) and Labat (1976).

1 The Black Stone is now in the British Museum (WA 91027). See Finkel/Reade (1996,254) for further details. They suggest that, although Rawlinson thought that theBlack Stone came from Nineveh (repeated by Porter 1993b, n. 220 on p. 100), it wasin fact acquired in Babylon.

2 The Black Stone has the inscription identified by Borger (1956) as Babylon D andaccording to Porter (1993b, 170) it probably dates to early in Esarhaddon's reign(after late October 680).

3 Two of the prisms are in the British Museum, a 7-sided prism (BM 78223) withthe inscription Babylon A1+ and a 10-sided prism (BM 78247) with the inscriptionBabylon F (Finkel/Reade 1996, 254-256, Abb. 21 and 23 respectively). The third

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Assyrian Astroglyphs 265

Fig. l. The astroglyphic inscription on Lord Aberdeen's Black Stone.

instead of being in two rows of four as on the Black Stone, werearranged in a circle on the ends of the prisms.4

Among the many different explanations and interpretations of thesesymbols,5 four contributions seem to us extremely important and,

(ibid. Abb. 24) is a 7-sided prism in the Metropolitan Museum in New York (MMA86.11.283). The text has not yet been published but it too is thought to have beenBabylon A (ibid. 256). The dating of these inscriptions of Esarhaddon presents someproblems since some are dated in their colophons to Esarhaddon's accession yearbut include accounts of events that took place later: according to Porter (1993b,170) the 7-sided prisms (BM 78223) probably date to early in Esarhaddon's reign(after late October 680) while the 10-sided prism (BM 78247) is somewhat later,dating to 674 or later.

4 The main difference is that on the prisms, which Finkel/Reade (1996, 254) thoughtwere impressed with the same metal stamp, a palmette is shown instead of the styl-ized tree and a lion is shown instead of the bull, but there are also minor differencesin the forms of the signs on the Black Stone and the prisms.

5 For some of these see Miglus (1994) and Finkel/Reade (1996).

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266 Michael Roaf, Annette Zgoll

Fig. 2. The inscription on the Esarhaddon Prisms.

as we hope to demonstrate, lead to a plausible decipherment. In 1925David Luckenbill suggested that these monuments were those men-tioned by Esarhaddon in the following passage (Borger 1956, 27-8):

lumäsl tamsil sitir sumiya esiq $erussunI carved on them6 constellations, the image/equivalent of (i.e. corresponding to) the

writing of my name

The word lumäsu means constellation7 and therefore the termastroglyph seems to us very appropriate for this script.

6 Esarhaddon also described the materials of which these monuments were made:these were black stone, baked clay, silver, gold, bronze, and five other types of stoneincluding lapis lazuli. The fact that the Black Stone and the prisms were made ofblack stone and baked clay supports Luckenbill's suggestion.

7 Finkel/Reade (1996, 257-8) suggested that lumäsu should be translated as "twin-image" or "replica", as proposed previously for etymological reasons by Lands-berger/Kinnier Wilson (1961, 170-1), but this unnecessarily ignores the clear identi-fication with constellations shown by the textual evidence (CAD L, 245 f. andAHw. 563). For cases where it undoubtedly means constellation see, e. g., KAR307:33 (see Horowitz 1998, 3-4).




Fig. 3. The inscription on glazed bricks of Sargon II.

A second important contribution was made by Cyril Gadd (1948,57.93-95), who proposed that glazed brick panels found in templesbuilt by Esarhaddon's grandfather Sargon II (721-705) were alsoinscriptions written in lumäsu (Fig. 3).8 The longer panels on the facadesof temples in Sargon's capital Dür-Sarrukm bear five signs, the shorteronly three, omitting the second and third signs.9 Since some of the signsoccur both on the monuments of Esarhaddon and on those of Sargon,the number of known signs in the astroglyphic script is only II.10

A thorough study of the Esarhaddon and the Sargon monuments waspublished by Irving Finkel and Julian Reade in this journal in 1996.11

They proposed that both the Sargon and Esarhaddon inscriptions con-tained the name and titles of the Assyrian king and convincingly demon-strated that both the bull and the lion in Sargon's inscriptions can be iden-tified with the king and the fig tree and plough with the land of Assur.12

8 Miglus (1994, 182 and n. 13) wrongly gives priority for this suggestion to ErnstWeidner, who in fact suggested that figures on the ends of prisms of Sargon couldbe in the same script as the Black Stone (1941-44, 48-9).

9 The first of these fa9ades were published by Place/Thomas (1867). Additional exam-ples were found in the American excavations in the 1930s. Other possible copies ofthis inscription were found on fragmentary bronze panels from the temple doorsin Dür-Sarrukm; see Finkel/Reade (1996, 247-8 and 251-3). We will discuss theinscriptions of Sargon in the second part of our study on Assyrian astroglyphs.

10 Finkel/Reade (1996, 247-250, without discussion) chose to include the figures on thesides of the panels as part of the inscriptions and, therefore, recognized 13 differentastroglyphic signs, not 11. We prefer to treat the side panels separately from the signs onthe fagades. Other figures on prisms, bronze panels, and seals may also be signs in theastroglyphic script (Finkel/Reade 1996,246-7 and 251 -3 and below notes 40 and 75).

11 The basic conclusions were already adumbrated in Reade (1995).12 Although their explanations of the specific interpretation of individual signs are not

always satisfactory (see below), this article is a fundamental contribution to theunderstanding of these inscriptions.




In the following year Jo Ann Scurlock (1997) discussed the first sixof the signs on the Esarhaddon inscription and proposed that the firstthree (and not the first four as Finkel and Reade had suggested) repre-sented the name of Esarhaddon. She also revived Luckenbill's earlieridea and proposed that two of the signs (the plough and the stylizedtree) had shapes reminiscent of cuneiform signs.

Astroglyphs 1 to 3. Esarhaddon's name

The first two signs of Esarhaddon's inscription form a scene with ahorned head-dress on a podium and a figure in an attitude of worshipor prayer (Seidl 1989, 116). The third sign is a stylized tree (on theBlack Stone) or a palmette on a stalk (on the prisms). The repetitionof the stylized tree on the podium and as Astroglyph 3 on the BlackStone unites these signs into a single group.

We follow Scurlock's (1997) interpretation of the first three signson the Black Stone as representing the name Esarhaddon (in AkkadianmaAssur-ahu-iddina meaning "the god Assur has given a brother"13)with each sign corresponding to one part of the name. The first signis a horned head-dress on an altar decorated with a stylized tree thatstands for the god Assur, the second is a human figure that stands forahu "brother", and the third is a stylized tree standing as a logogramfor the Akkadian verb nadänu "to give".

Astroglyph 1. Horned head-dress on a podium (Fig. 4).

Horned head-dresses were marks of divinity in Mesopotamia forsome 2000 years before the carving of the Black Stone (Boehmer1972-75, 431-34). Horned head-dresses in Babylonia usually repre-sented the gods Anu and Enlil. In Assyria when a single horned head-dress is shown this can be identified with the god Assur by comparisonwith the gods named in the inscription (Figs. 4e and 4f) (Seidl 1989,116-17; Black/Green 1992, 102).14

The podium is also long attested as a symbol of divinity, which maybe derived from the throne of the god (Seidl 1989, 110-15). Similarpodia to the one shown on the Black Stone were found in the Templeof Istar at Assur (Fig. 4c, Andrae 1935, 57-73; 1977, 157). Normally

13 Esarhaddon was not the eldest son of his father Sennacherib and indeed one of hisinscriptions tells how he came to the throne and states that "among my big brothersI was the youngest" (Borger 1956, 40—41): his name is a statement of this fact.

14 Miglus (1994, 186 and n. 32) suggested an identification with Marduk, because thetext is about Babylon.




\ \UII I I I ) / /

Fig. 4. Horned headdresses and podia.a. The first sign on the Black Stone, b. the first sign on the Esarhaddon Prisms,c. podium of Tukulti-Ninurta I from Assur (after Harper et al. [eds.] 1995, PI. 14 andp. 75), d. podium with horned head-dress on a Babylonian kudurru (after Seidl 1989,Abb. 7 on p. 38), e. horned headdress on a stele of Sargon (after Börker-Klähn 1982,no. 175) and f. three horned head-dresses on podia on a rock relief of Sennacherib at

Bavian (after Börker-Klähn 1982, nos. 189-199).

podia were shown plain or with one or more niches, but sometimesthey have narrative scenes carved on them. The podium with the styl-ized tree is not otherwise attested (for further discussion of the stylizedtree see below). The podium shown on the copies of Esarhaddon'sinscription on the ends of prisms has a more normal niche instead ofthe stylized tree.

The horned head-dress on a podium is a well-known divine symbolin Babylonian art (Fig.4d; Seidl 1989, 116-7; Black/Green 1992,102-03). It was not so common in Assyria. Apart from its use inEsarhaddon's astroglyphic inscriptions it appears on Assyrian monu-ments only as a group of three such symbols on rock reliefs at Bavian




and on stelae of Sennacherib from Nineveh (Börker-Klähn 1982, 207nos. 189-99, here Fig. 4, and 209 nos. 203-04), where they can beidentified with the gods Assur, Ami and Enlil.15

Scurlock's identification of this sign as the god Assur is very con-vincing.

Astroglyph 2. The Assyrian king as worshipper or priest (Fig. 5)

The second figure has traditionally been identified as the Assyrianking (e.g. Seidl 1989, 116). In their study, therefore, Finkel and Reade(1996, 258-59) suggested that the figure could represent the cuneiformsign SAR2

16, since sar is a phonetic value for the cuneiform sign (LUGAL =SAR3) representing the Akkadian word for king (sarru). Combining thiswith the previous sign which they took to represent the god Anu (AN)they proposed that the two signs stood for the name of the god Assur writ-ten with the signs AN.SAR2 instead of the signs a-sur, AS.SUR, or AS. 17

Fig. 5. Worshipping kings.a. The second sign on the Black Stone, b. the second sign on the Esarhaddon Prisms,c. statue of Assurnasirpal II from Nimrud (after Strommenger/Hirmer 1964, pi. 196).

15 Given the well-known tendency of Sennacherib to adopt Babylonian religious, archi-tectural and artistic practices, the horned head-dress on a podium may have beenintroduced into Assyria by Sennacherib. Its use on the Black Stone may reflectEsarhaddon's Babylonianizing tendencies (Porter 1993a, 196).

16 Homophonous cuneiform signs are indicated conventionally by index numbers.17 AN.SAR2 is a scribal conceipt made popular in the reign of Sargon, which associates Assur

with a god who in Babylonia was an ancestor of the god Anu (Beaulieu 1997, 58. 64—65; see also n. 52 and 53 below). AS.SUR might appear to be a phonetic writing of thegod's name, but according to Parpola (1993,207) "the sign AS did not have the phoneticvalue as in Assyrian orthography." The writing AS is an abbreviation of AS.SUR.



Assyrian Astroglyphs 27 1

LU2 §E§ LUGALman brother king

Fig. 6. The Neo- Assyrian forms of the cuneiform signs LU2, SES, and LUGAL.

As we have seen above it is preferable on an Assyrian monumentto take the single horned head-dress to represent the god Assur thanthe god Ami and this was the position taken by Scurlock, who thenproposed to identify the second sign with the second element of Esar-haddon's name.18 Noting that the human figure does not wear thecone-shaped royal crown or the royal diadem, she suggested that thisfigure does not represent the king but a man. The cuneiform sign usedto write "man" (LU2) forms part of one of the signs used to write"brother" (SES) (Fig. 6) and Scurlock suggested that this similaritymight explain why the figure of a man was chosen to represent thesecond element of Esarhaddon's name.

Nevertheless, despite the absence of royal crown or diadem, thisfigure is surely intended to represent the king performing his religiousduties: he has a long "royal" beard, on the Black Stone he wears theroyal ritual shawl (the so-called Schalgewand No. 2)19 and on bothmonuments he carries a mace and extends his finger (ubäna taräsu)"in the classic gesture of an Assyrian king as worshipper that is wellattested in stelae" (Finkel/Reade 1996, 248) (Fig. 7c).20 Since the king

18 Finkel and Reade's suggestion that the first four signs represent the name of Esar-haddon led them to propose a different interpretation of the bull and the lion inEsarhaddon's astroglyphic inscriptions to that on Sargon's. Scurlock's suggestionallows the same interpretation of bull and lion in all the astroglyphic inscriptions(see below under Astroglyph 4).

19 Braun-Holzinger (1994). Reade (1972,92) described this garment as "reserved for useon ritual occasions in the presence of a winged disk or other divine symbols". On theZincirli stele (Börker-Klähn 1982, No. 219) Esarhaddon's crown prince Ashurbanipalis depicted with long beard and diadem but without crown, wearing the royal ritualshawl, but the normal dress of the Assyrian crown prince in the 7th century accordingto Reade (1965,45-48) included a diadem and a long triangular tassel hanging downfrom his belt which is shown on reliefs from Nineveh (Barnett/Bleibtreu/Turner 1998,pis. 478. 496). Reade (1979, 27) has suggested that the Zincirli Stele was the work ofprovincial sculptors who did not understand the correct procedures of the Assyriancourt and so incorrectly carved the folds of the shawl running from top left to bottomright and depicted the crown prince in the king's garment.

20 Magen (1986) mistakenly considered the figure on the Black Stone to be making thegesture appa labänu.




was Esarhaddon, who was the brother given by Assur mentioned inhis name, this image could represent the second part of the name.21

There are at least four monuments22 where the Assyrian kingdressed in the ritual shawl is represented without either crown or dia-dem: Tukulti-Ninurta I and an unnamed Middle Assyrian king on po-dia from Assur (Andrae 1935, Taf. 29-30) and statues of Ashurnasir-pal II and Shalmaneser III from Nimrud (Strommenger 1970, 13-16;Fig. 5c). In three of these cases the king is shown carrying a mace. Inall four cases the king is clearly in a religious setting: on one podiumTukulti-Ninurta stands and kneels in front of a podium on whichstands a religious emblem (Fig. 4c), on the other the king stands be-tween two divine standards held by supernatural beings, the statue ofAshurnasirpal originally stood in the Istar Temple in Nimrud (Fig. 5c)and that of Shalmaneser is dedicated to Adad of Kurbail. It is prob-able, therefore, that despite Scurlock's reservations this figure doesrepresent the Assyrian king carrying out his religious duties.

The Assyrian kings bore several religious titles: the most commonwas issakku "viceregent (of the god Assur)".23 issakku could be writ-ten with the sign PA (Seux 1965, 103)24 and PA is an acrophonic (or

21 Esarhaddon, as other Assyrian kings also did, used the title "foremost", in Akkadianasaredu, which in lexical lists is equated with the sign PAB used to write the word brotherin Akkadian (Nin A-F, All B, Borger 1956,45; and K10220+ vs. 2, Borger 1956, 118).

22 There are a number of other depictions which may show such a scene; e. g. a reliefon the Cudi Dag (Nogaret 1985) shows a figure with long beard, no crown or dia-dem, and a form of the ritual shawl, who may be an Assyrian king, though thediscoverer of the relief suggested that it might be the turtanu (vizier) or a local ruler(Nogaret 1985, 66). Similarly figures with the ritual garment and no royal headgearare shown in Börker-Klähn (1982) nos. 237 and 242 from Assur and Karabur: inthese cases they may be statues since they stand on low pedestals. In other cases theworshipper may be definitely identified as non-royal by the inscription (e.g. thestelae of Bel-Harrän-bel-usur and of Musezib-Samas, Börker-Klähn 1982, nos. 232and 234). The worshippers on the glazed orthostat from Assur (VA 897, Jakob-Rostet al. 1992, 189) and on Börker-Klähn (1982) no. 234 too may not be royal thoughan identification with the king cannot be ruled out.

23 For discussion of the title issakki Assur see Seux (1965), who concluded that the writingSANGA Assur should always be read as issakki Assur in the Late Assyrian period.

24 issakku was more commonly written with the signs PA.TE.SI (= ENSI2). The abbreviatedwriting with the sign PA is attested in the Old Assyrian period. Such abbreviations area characteristic of Late Assyrian orthography as for example AS for AS-SUR and MA forMA.DA "land" and MA.NA "mina", SA for sahurtu "youth", etc. (Hämeen-Anttila 2000,6). A comparable practice of an Assyrian king using logograms not previously attestedin Neo-Assyrian texts is the writing of issakku with the signs NU.ES3 in the inscriptionsof Sargon II (Seux 1965,104-106). These signs were normally used to write the Baby-lonian priestly title nesakku, which was not used by any Assyrian king.




homophonic) writing for PAB (= PA4), a logogram for the word ahu(brother).25

A second religious title, iSippu "purification priest", was used byEsarhaddon, who described himself as "the isippu-pnest, who purifiedthe statues of the great gods, who restored the Assur Temple and re-built Esagila and Babylon".26 In lexical lists the isippu-pnest is equatedwith pasTSu "anointing priest" (MSL 9, 126: 47 and MSL 14, 223 i 6).This title was used by Old Akkadian kings (e. g. RIM E2.1.2: 7), whosetitles and deeds were emulated by Assyrian kings (Westenholz 1997, 2;Lewis 1980, 101-107; Lewy 1971, 734-739), when it was written withthe signs PA4 (= PAB).SES.27 Both PAB and SES were used as logogramsfor the word ahu "brother".28

The representation of the middle part of the name of Esarhaddon as apriest can be compared with Mesopotamian scholarly scribal lore as de-monstrated, for example, in the interpretation of the 50 names of the godMarduk in Enüma elis (Bottero 1977). If the king's name "Assur-has-given-a-brother" is equated on the Black Stone with "Assur-has-given-a-priest-and-king", this is not merely a scribal word game but indicates a deeperreality. Esarhaddon was chosen by the god Assur to be priest and king. It isno accident that he should be so represented on the Black Stone of Esar-haddon, for it is in his role as priest, as servant of the gods, that Esarhaddonundertook the restoration of the temple of Babylon, as the text itself relates.

These suggestions as to how and why the picture of the king couldhave represented the Akkadian word for brother support the inter-pretation of Astroglyph 2 as the second part of Esarhaddon's name.29

25 For examples of acrophony and homophony in cryptographic cuneiform texts seePearce(1982, 3. 58-59).

26 AsBbA 36, Borger (1956, 80). The title was also used by Tukulti-Ninurta I, Tiglath-pileser I, and Ashurnasirpal II (AHw. 395; CAD I-J, 243).

27 The use of a logogram and of a priestly title not previously attested in first millen-nium Assyria is also found in the employment of the logogram NU.ES3 by Sargon II(see n. 24 above).

28 Alternatively the verb pasäsum was normally written in the Late Assyrian periodwith the sign SES2. SES2 is a homophone to SESj, the logogram for ahu, "brother".Karen Radner has suggested to us that the picture of the king might be associatedwith the verb nasäru "guard, protect" which could be written with either of the twosigns PAB and SES (URU3) which were used for writing the word ahu "brother". Al-though various forms of nasäru are associated with the actions of the Assyrian king,none of these seems sufficiently specific to allow an identification with the figuresof the king shown on the Black Stone and the prisms of Esarhaddon.

29 The connection between the king as priest and the Akkadian word for brother viaeither the priestly titles issakku and the equivalence of PA and PA4 (= PAB) or paslsuand the use of an earlier attested writing is less direct than the relationships proposed




Astroglyph 3. Stylized tree (Fig. 7)

The third sign is a stylized tree on the Black Stone and a palmettewith a stalk on the prisms. Although theories about the significanceof the stylized tree (sometimes called the Sacred Tree or the Tree ofLife) are many, such as "a stylized palm tree, a cult object,30 an em-blem of vegetation or 'tree of life', an imperial symbol or a combina-tion of those forms" (Albenda 1994, 123 with references in n. 8, seealso Parpola 1993; Parpola 1997, xxii-xxvn), none of them command

T.DIS

Fig. 7. Stylized Trees.a. The third sign on the Black Stone, b. the third sign on the Esarhaddon Prisms,c. Stylized Tree and kings in Nimrud (after Meuszynski 1981, Taf. 1), d. various forms

of the sign SUM (nadänu), e. the sign AS, and f. the sign DIS.

for the other astroglyphs, but is similar to other learned scribal interpretations of,for example, temple or divine names (e.g. George 1992, 80-81; Bottero 1977).

30 Finkel/Reade (1996, 259) under the mistaken assumption that this figure shouldrepresent the second element of Esarhaddon's name suggested that "urigallu, a kindof sacred pole," was "perhaps a likely name for the Sacred Tree". Since the sign forbrother SES is the same as the sign URIS, they proposed that it might stand for urigallu(normally written ^URIS.GAL). As far as we are aware there is no evidence that therewas any connection between the urigallu and the stylized tree.




general acceptance (Black/Green 1992, 170-71).31 The stylized treewas a particularly common and significant motif in Late Assyrian art,where it had a close association with the king.32 A striking examplewas placed behind the king's throne in the North-West Palace atKalhu, where the king (shown twice) wears the royal Assyrian ritualshawl and holds his right hand in the same gesture of worship as thatof the second figure on the Black Stone (Fig. 7c). The repetition of thestylized tree on the first and third signs on the Black Stone links thefirst three signs, which individually are associated with the god Assurand with the Assyrian kingship, and creates a unity which representsthe name of Esarhaddon.

Scurlock compared the earlier forms of the sign SUM, which is usedas a logogram to write the final part of Esarhaddon's name, to thatof the stylized tree on the Black Stone (Figs. 7a and 7d). Assyrianscribes were well aware of earlier forms of cuneiform signs (Finkel/Reade 1996, 244 with further references). This explanation of why thestylized tree should have been chosen to represent the third elementof Esarhaddon's name seems to us, however, unsatisfactory, becauseon the prisms the third sign is a palmette with a stalk (Fig. 7b) withno resemblance to any form of the sign SUM.

Furthermore the normal associations of the stylized tree in Assyriawere in no way connected with the logogram SUM. It appeared on thewalls of palaces, on the garments of the king, on cylinder seals ofAssyrian officials and clearly had a significance within the sphere ofAssyrian imperial iconography. This symbol — so powerful that it oc-cupied the central positions in the throne room of the Assyrian kingin Kalhu and protected the corners of many rooms of the palaces -surely had more significance in the astroglyphic script than a superfi-cial resemblance to a form of a cuneiform sign which was no longerin current use.

A clear clue to the interpretation of the stylized tree is given on theBlack Stone. It is not only used for Astroglyph 3 but is also present

31 It is often associated by modern scholars with fertility (e.g. Green 1995, 1838),though in Assyria it normally appears in scenes identified as those of purification.

32 Bleibtreu (1980) has collected the examples appearing on Neo-Assyrian reliefs. Par-pola (1993, 167 and n. 31) observed that both the king and the stylized tree wereoften flanked by apkallu-gemzs with purifier and bucket and suggested that "theking is portrayed as the human personification of the Tree" or "conversely, it couldbe argued that the Tree takes the place of the king". If the stylized tree representeda palm tree as proposed by Porter (1993c, 133) and if the palm tree represented theking (as suggested below for Astroglyph 7), the association of the stylized tree andthe king would be strengthened.




on Astroglyph 1 which corresponds to the god Assur. Since this is theonly example of the stylized tree appearing on a podium, it is likelythat it was placed there intentionally to indicate a connection betweenAstroglyphs 1 and 3, and that Astroglyph 3 can be associated with thegod Assur.33 Since the god's name was commonly written with the signAS and the sign AS was used to write the forms of the verb nadänu,there is a clear and ideologically pleasing correspondence between thestylized tree and the third part of Esarhaddon's name.34

Independently Parpola (2000, 32-33) has suggested an equivalenceof the stylized tree with Assur whom he describes as "a single almightygod, Ashur, who transcended human comprehension. Ashur was the'sum total' of all the gods; the equilibrium of divine powers crystallizedin the sacred tree was his manifest 'body'. The garland and filaments sur-rounding the tree symbolized the unity of its multiple divine powers."

Albenda (1994, 132) proposed that the palmette was the essentialpart of the stylized tree motif (though not citing the evidence of theBlack Stone and the prisms that they were interchangeable) and there-fore the use of the different forms on the Black Stone and on theprisms is easily explicable. The palmette on a stalk resembles the singlevertical wedge used both as a determinative for male personal namesand as a sign (DIS) for the number one or unity (Fig. If). In Assyria(according to Parpola 1993, 207) "the horizontal wedge AS not onlyrepresented the basic element of writing but also the basic number,equivalent to DIS." This gives a second way of connecting Astroglyph 3with the the value AS (Fig. 7e):35 as is the case with the plough(Astroglyph 6), the shape of the cuneiform sign is reflected in the form

33 Reade (1979, 46) suggested that "the sacred tree makes a good assur", but aban-doned this idea in his later attempts to decipher the astroglyphic script. York (1972-75, 278) also associated the stylized tree "with ASSur, the national deity, and theking as sacral power".

34 The idea that Astroglyphs 2 and 3 correspond to the cuneiform signs PAB (PA4) andAS may be supported by the fact that in the shorter display inscriptions of Esarhad-don the writing of the last part of his name as PAB.AS is normal. For example, tenof the inscriptions found on bricks in Nineveh and Babylon use this spelling butonly one has the spelling with SES.MU (Babylon N) and none use the sign SUM (Porter1998, 145. 148). On the other hand, rare usages would not be out of place in acryptic astroglyphic inscription (cf. Maul 2000).

35 Parpola (1993, 185) proposed that "... the various spellings of Assur's name can,without difficulty, be interpreted as expressing the idea of the One, Only, or Univer-sal God ..." He interpreted the writing of the name of Assur with the sign AS as"The One" and "The Only One" and that with the signs dAS as "God is One" and"The Only God" (Parpola 1993, 206). Such learned explanations are very much inthe tradition of the secret lore of the Mesopotamian scribes.




of the astroglyph on the monument. Furthermore the vertical wedge(DIS) was used in Esarhaddon's inscriptions to write the word ilu"god",36 and so would be an appropriate way of representing the godAssur.

The fact that in this case the stylized tree and the palmette on astalk are icons for Assur need not mean that whenever they occuron Assyrian monuments they had the same significance.37 Assyriansymbolism was, like the cuneiform script, polysemous with variousdifferent interpretations of the same signs possible. For example, theAssyrian king and the god Assur were often identified and thus thestylized tree in another context might stand for the king.

The interpretation of Astroglyph 2 proposed above that the kingwas depicted as the issakku "viceregent (of the god Assur)" would fitwell with the stylized tree representing the god Assur, for then the twosigns together could also be interpreted as issakki Assur "viceregent ofthe god Assur".

This explanation of the first three signs would surely have beensatisfying to the king. It incorporates a scene of the king as priestbetween two images of the god Assur, which can be interpreted as arendering of the king's name in cuneiform.

Astroglyphs 4 to 6. King of the land of Assyria

Scurlock, accepting Finkel and Reade's identification of the bulland the lion with "king" and the plough with "Assyria", proposedthat Astroglyphs 4, 5, and 6 should correspond to the most importantAssyrian royal title, sar mat AsSur "king of the land of Assyria", whichwas always included in Esarhaddon's titulary.

Astroglyph 4. Bull or lion (Fig. 8)On the Black Stone the fourth sign is a bull, on the prisms a lion

(Figs. 8a and 8b). The same animals appear in the inscription of Sar-

36 Borger (1956, 31) discussed how on bricks of Esarhaddon from Babylon the signsKA2.Dis or KA2.Dis.Dis were used to write the name of the city of Babylon. For furtherexamples of DIS standing for ilu "god" see Pearce (1982, 93 and n. 54 on p. 132).

37 The equivalence of the palmette with the stylized tree shown in these astroglyphicinscriptions may have implications for the interpretation of these motifs when usedin other contexts, but it is unlikely that all examples of palmettes in Assyrian artshould be interpreted as representing the god Assur. Furthermore the presence ofpalmettes in other cultures such as Babylonia, Persia or Greece, where Assur wasnot worshipped, shows that the significance of the palmette in Assyria might bequite different to its significance elsewhere.




Fig. 8. Bulls and lions.a. The fourth sign on the Black Stone, b. the fourth sign on the Esarhaddon Prisms,c. the bull and d. the lion in the Sargon inscription, and e. the Lion constellation andf. the Bull of Heaven depicted on tablets of the Seleucid period (after SAA 7, Figs. 2

and 3).

gon (Figs. 8c and 8d) and Finkel and Reade interpreted them as stand-ing for the king.38 Lions and bulls are equated in a list of synonyms(Malku-sarru V 58 f., see Cassin 1987, 174). According to Finkel/Re-

38 Though they made an alternative suggestion for the bull on the Black Stone, seebelow note 44.




ade (1996, 249) "the lion was a familiar symbol of strength and roy-alty"39 and "the bull, like the lion, was a symbol of virile strength androyalty". They drew attention to the fact that lions were sometimesengraved in front of the Assyrian king's name on glass and stone ves-sels and that lions and bulls were used as brick stamps on Assyrianpalaces. The lion also appears on Assyrian royal seals both with theking and alone.40

According to Heimpel (1987-90, 84; see also Cassin 1987, 169-176 and Seux 1967, 147-148 labbu) "the lion was used in its variousaspects very frequently in Sumerian literature ... as a metaphor forgods and kings", but he also noted that it appears less often in Assyr-ian inscriptions. Several Assyrian kings, however, were described aslions; for example, the following passage appears in several inscrip-tions of Ashurnasirpal II:

"I am king, I am lord, I am praiseworthy, I am exalted, I am important, I ammagnificent, I am foremost, I am a hero, I am a warrior, I am a lion (labbäkü) andI am virile." (RIM A2. AO.101.1 i 32-33, 17 i 34-36)

and Esarhaddon himself included the phrase "fierce lion" (labbu nad*ru) amongst his titles on the Zincirli Stele (Borger 1956, 96-97Vs. 24).41

39 There has been a long connection between lions and kings in Mesopotamia andlions were frequently depicted in the art of ancient Mesopotamia (Braun-Holzinger1987-90). Lions and bulls are the principal beasts associated with the hunting ex-ploits of the Assyrian kings (Heimpel 1987—90). Lions and bulls form an essentialpart of the colossal door guardian figures and columns erected by Assyrian andPersian kings in their palaces and gates. Lions and bulls are shown frequently inNeo-Assyrian art on textiles, metalwork, weapons, jewellery, furniture, etc. (Braun-Holzinger 1987-90). So the association of lions and bulls with royalty is withoutdoubt. Stefan Maul (1995, 397-400) has discussed the ambivalent attitude of Meso-potamian (and particularly Assyrian) kings to lions which on the one hand are seenas a real threat to the good order of the land and on the other hand share character-istics such as bravery, strength, fierceness, etc. with the king. In depictions such asthat of the king fighting a lion on the Assyrian royal seal or on the palace wallreliefs the lion is a worthy (even if always unsuccessful) opponent of the king. Thedichotomy of the good lion (i. e. the king) versus the evil lion (i. e. the king's oppo-nent) is more apparent than significant.

40 Impressions of a large (5.8 by 7.4 cm) stamp seal from Nineveh (Curtis/Reade 1995,189, Herbordt 1992, 136 pi. 19) show a human head, a lion with a hand between itsback legs and a smaller lion above its back. Could this be another example of theAssyrian astroglyphic script?

41 On another occasion a petitioner addressed Esarhaddon's son king Ashurbanipal:"Are you not a lion? (at-ta ul ne-su-u) Y[ou ... issue] the commands for war" (SAA 3,26 rev 5')·




Furthermore the sign PiRiG3 = nesu (lion) may also be used to writesarru (king) as is shown in lexical lists (CAD S/2, 76—77 s.v. sarru\LL: Idu II218; MSL 12, 94:32 pirig.galam, 36 f. nun.pirig).

Perhaps relevant here, since we think that the inscription is in lu-mäsu (constellations), is the fact that the king's star (mullugal) corre-sponds to the star Regulus and is part of the Mesopotamian lion con-stellation (Hunger/Pingree 1999, 273). The bull too appears in the starsas the Bull of Heaven. Both these constellations are illustrated on claytablets of the Seleucid period (Fig. 8e and 8f).42

Kings were frequently described as bulls in Sumerian texts (seeHeimpel 1968: am, wild bull, 87-93, 97-111, gu4, bull: 139-140,143-147, 150, 172). In Akkadian the famous king Gilgames was de-scribed as a wild bull (rlmü) (e. g. Gilgames I 195) as were other rulersand gods.43

An interpretation of the lion or the bull as the king is not controver-sial.44

Excursus: Possible Late Babylonian astroglyphs (Fig. 9)According to Finkel and Reade the astroglyphic inscriptions of

Esarhaddon probably came from Babylon and it is highly likely thatthe Babylonians were aware of lumäsu-wntmg. The sets of symbols inglazed brick on the Neo-Babylonian monuments in Babylon have puz-zled scholars for many years, the bulls and mushussu-dragons on theIstar Gate45 and the lions on the Processional Way. Why should theanimals of Adad, the weather god, and Marduk, the god of Babylon,be represented on the Istar Gate (Fig. 9a) and why should lions, the

42 Lion on VAT 7847 Obv (here Fig. 8e, SAA 8, Fig. 2) and the Bull of Heaven wasdepicted on TCL 6, pi. 91 (here Fig. 80 and VAT 7851 (SAA 8, Figs. 3 and 23). SeeWeidner (1967).

43 See most recently Streck (1999, 174).44 Because they thought the fourth sign formed the final part of Esarhaddon's name,

Finkel/Reade (1996, 259) suggested that the bull stood totum pro pane for "horn"Akkadian qarnu written with the sign SI and that it represented the sign SI3 whichcan be read as SUM (nadänu "to give"), but, since on the prisms a lion took theplace of the bull, this suggestion is not convincing. Of course not every lion or bullrepresented the king. In some contexts lions are associated with the goddess Innin/Inanna/Istar or have a different significance not connected with the king (Black/Green 1992, 118-119, Seidl 1989, 138-140) and bulls are connected with the stormgod Adad and perhaps also with the moon god (Black/Green 1992, 47; Seidl 1989,146; Collon 1993-97).

45 The inscriptions of Nebuchadnezzar refer to bulls and raws/zwssw-dragons in glazedbricks and in the gateways but do not indicate any connection either with Adad orwith the king (VAB 4, 132 vi 5 and 192 Nr. 26:8; PBS 15, 77:18).




QDQ HD ΟΏ ΙΠ)

·-— — — — — — ·.·. — -o ,^ — -* WP

Fig. 9. Possible astroglyphs in Babylon.a. Bull and mushussu on the Istar Gate, b. lion on the Processional Way and c. lionsand other motifs on the Throne Room fagade of the Southern Citadel at Babylon (after

Marzahn 1995, Figs. 12, 3 and 16).

animals of Istar, be present on the Processional Way and the ThroneHall fa?ade of the Southern Citadel (Marzahn 1995, 9 and 22; Figs. 9band 9c)? If one assumes, however, that these were astroglyphic sym-bols, then their presence becomes explicable.46

46 The suggestion of Ursula Seidl that these Babylonian glazed brick lions should beconnected with statues of guardian lions placed in doorways is also possible (Seidl1989, n. 86 on p. 139) and the two interpretations are not necessarily contradictory.




The bull and mushussu-dragon could represent the king and Mar-duk. Such a combination is obviously appropriate for the gatewaywhich was called "the entrance of kingship" (nereb sarruti} "an allu-sion to the passage through it of the procession of the New Year Festi-val, at which both divine and mortal kingship were ritually confirmed"(George 1992, 341). The bull and dragon might be individual iconicsymbols or combined together they could form a phrase such as "Mar-duk (is) the king" and/or "the king (chosen by) Marduk".

Similarly the lions on the Processional Way might refer to the kingand not to Istar. The observer would then be free to decide whetherthe message referred to the human king or to Marduk the divine kingof Babylon. The lions on the Throne Room fa9ade of the SouthernCitadel could then refer to the king also.47

Astroglyph 5. Mountain (Fig. 10)Finkel and Reade (1996, 261) toyed with the idea that Astroglyph 5

was "a direct pictogram representing KUR, land or land(s)" (Fig. lOf),but then preferred the "cryptographic and highly contrived" (1996,244) alternative explanation that it stood for the king (1996, 249).48

Fig. 10. Assyrian hills.a. The fifth sign on the Black Stone, b. the fifth sign on the Esarhaddon Prisms, c. hillsnear Nineveh shown in a relief from the Palace of Sennacherib at Nineveh (after Layard1853, pi. 14), d. and e. archaic forms of the sign KUR, and f. the Neo-Assyrian form of

the sign KUR.

47 The columnar palmettes with volutes on this fagade are reminiscent of the palmettewith a stalk on the Esarhaddon cylinders which was the equivalent of the stylizedtree and represented Assur, the chief god of Assyria: in a Babylonian context, there-fore, they might have represented the chief god of Babylon, Marduk.

48 Finkel/Reade (1996, 259) described how they thought the Assyrians might havecome to this equation as follows: "indirect pun, following KUR = sadü 'mountain',and KUR = ekallu, 'palace' ... The Akkadian word ekallu is loaned from Sumerian




Scurlock was surely right to reject this alternative proposal. The shapeand the scale pattern are matched on depictions of mountains on As-syrian palace reliefs (Fig. lOc) as well as on other Mesopotamian mon-uments. Furthermore Astroglyph 5 is made up of several superimposedarchaic forms of the sign KUR = mätu "land" (Fig. lOd and lOe). Sincethis sign corresponds to the fig tree on Sargon's inscriptions, whichFinkel and Reade (1996, 249) persuasively equated with mätu"land"49, there is no doubt that it represents the word for "land".50

Astroglyph 6. Plough (Fig. 11)

The seeder plough is shown both in Esarhaddon's inscriptions andin Sargon's (Figs, lla-c). Scurlock's (1997) observation that theshape of the seeder plough resembles the cuneiform signs AS and SURused to write Assur is attractive (Fig. lid).51 Another possibility worth

AS SURi>-t>^- A

AN §AR2

Fig. 11. Ploughs and the writing of the word ASSur.a. The sixth sign on the Black Stone, b. the sixth sign on the Esarhaddon Prisms, c. theplough on the Sargon inscription, d. the signs A§ and SUR, e. the signs AN and SAR2, and

f. the signs AN and SAR2 written over the sixth sign on the Black Stone.

E.GAL, literally 'great house', and its use here for the Assyrian king reflects the Egyp-tian title per 'aa, 'great house', i.e. 'Pharaoh'."

49 They stated that the fig tree is an "indirect pun, reading mätu, 'land', following thewriting of MA = tittu, 'fig-tree', and MA = mätu, 'land'." Akkadian mätu was nor-mally written with the logographic sign KUR but the signs KALAM or MA.DA could beused and the writing with the sign MA is attested in lexical lists (CAD M/l, 414) andin Neo-Assyrian texts (Hämeen-Anttila 2000, 6).

50 Although Astroglyph 5 clearly resembles a hill or mountain, several scholars havenoted its similarity to a pile of grain (Luckenbill 1925; Seidl 1989, 127; Miglus 1994,187-8 and note 35), an impression perhaps suggested by the presence of the plough.

51 The suggestion of Finkel/Reade (1996, 250) that a word sum of unknown meaningwas a seeder plough and therefore represented (As)sur is not convincing.




considering is the combination of the signs AN and SAR2, which seemseven closer in shape to the seeder plough shown on the prisms andBlack Stone of Esarhaddon (Fig. lie). The vertical of the AN might beinterpreted as the vertical seeder of the plough and the diagonal SAR2as the blade of the plough (Fig. 110- This writing of the name of thegod Assur with the signs AN.SAR2 is found at the beginning of the reignof Sargon II (Tadmor 1989, 29)52 and is also attested earlier.53

At the same time Finkel and Reade's suggestion that the ploughwas "an indirect pictogram symbolising the ploughed fields typical tothe Assyrian landscape" (Finkel/Reade 1996, 250) is also plausible andprovides additional support for the interpretation of the plough asrepresenting the land of Assur. Such a connection is attested in Assyrianroyal inscriptions: for example, Tiglath-pileser I (RIM A2 A.0.87.1:101-104) wrote "I caused plows to be hitched all over Assyria andpiled up more grain than my forefathers" and similarly Tukulti-Ninur-ta II (RIM A2, AO. 100.5: 132-33) "I hitched up plows in the districtsof my land and piled up more grain than ever before for the needs ofmy land."54

The plough (epinnu) is also attested as a divine symbol (Black/Green 1992, 149; Seidl 1989, 125-128) as well as a constellation.

Astroglyphs 7 and 8. King of the four quarters

The final two signs should also be a title or titles of Esarhaddon.Most of Esarhaddon's titles consist of two parts, the word for king(sar(ru) ) followed by a qualifying word or phrase. The commonest ofthese are sarru rabü "great king", sarru dannu "mighty king", sar kis-sati "king of the universe", and sar kibräti arbai "king of the fourquarters". It is therefore likely that the seventh sign (the palm tree)represented the king and the following sign one of these royal titles.These possibilities are discussed below.

52 In the reign of Sargon the writing AN.SAR2 was only used for the name of the godAssur and not for the name of the land Assur which was normally written as KURAS.SUR or KUR AS, but in the reign of Esarhaddon the form KUR AN.SAR2 is common(see note 17 above). Since the astroglyphic script is based on just such unusual writ-ings, the lack of attestations in the reign of Sargon is not a compelling argumentagainst this explanation.

53 Deller (1987) dated a bead with the writing AN.SAR2 for the god Assur to the reignof Tukulti-Ninurta I (1243-1207).

54 The possible interpretation of the previous sign as a pile of grain (see n. 50) mightalso be relevant in this context.




Astroglyph 7. Palm tree (Fig. 12)Finkel and Reade suggested (1996, 262) that the palm tree repre-

sented "Sumer and Akkad or Babylonia". The palm tree has for thou-sands of years been the most distinctive feature of the Babylonianlandscape and in the Assyrian reliefs the presence of a palm grove isan almost certain sign that the action is taking place in Babylonia(Fig. 12c).55. Accordingly they translated Esarhaddon's title as "kingof the land of Assyria and Babylonia"56 and this was followed by

ΥΤΪ

Fig. 12. Palm trees.a. The seventh sign on the Black Stone, b. the seventh sign on the Esarhaddon Prisms,c. a palm tree near the Babylonian city of Dilbat being cut down by Assyrian soldiers(after Layard 1849, pi. 73), d. the archaic form of the sign GISIMMAR, e. a palm tree ona piece of jewelry found in the tomb of an Assyrian queen at Nimrud (SAA 7. cover),and f. a seal impression inscribed with the name of Darius from Persepolis (after Garri-

son 1996, Fig. 7).

55 Bleibtreu (1980) lists examples of palm trees on the Neo-Assyrian reliefs.56 As an alternative to their preferred suggestion of "Great House" of "Upper" and

"Lower Mesopotamia", which Scurlock showed was most implausible. In Esarhad-don's inscriptions the title sakkanak B bili (governor of Babylon) is three times ascommon as the title sar B bili (king of Babylon). It is theoretically possible that thepalm tree might stand for "(king or governor of) Babylon" and the final sign for"(king of) the universe" or "(king of) the four quarters" with the words for king orgovernor being understood. The recognition that the palm tree stands for king re-moves the necessity for such an unsatisfactory proposal.




Scurlock. Unfortunately, as Finkel and Reade admitted, this title wasnot used by any king of Mesopotamia and so one may well doubtwhether the palm tree was intended to represent Babylonia.

There is, however, another and - in the context of the astroglyphicscript - a more convincing possibility: the signs (gl§)GisiMMAR, whichis the normal way of writing gisimmaru "palm tree", may also standfor the word king (Fig. 12d shows an archaic form of this sign). Sucha reading is found in lexical lists57 and is also found in the colophonto a text of the time of Esarhaddon's father Sennacherib (Borger 1973,171) which reads: [gi]§GisiMMAR KUR aAs-sur "(Sennacherib) king of theland of the god Assur". This equivalence is presumably based on atradition that the date palm was "the king of the trees" as stated inthe Fable of the Willow (BWL 165). This interpretation is comparableto the way that the lion was a metaphor for the king and stood for acuneiform sign which could be read as the Akkadian word for king.58

Excursus: Palm trees on Achaemenid seals

In his publication of the seal impressions from the Persepolis Trea-sury E. F. Schmidt (1957, 8) noted that "the date palm, usually in fruit,is shown either once or twice on all those impressions which bear aroyal name" and commented that it was strange that "the useful palmtree, which gave sustenance to the lowland subjects of the king" wasdepicted instead of a tree more typical of Persia (Fig. 12f). In fact oneor two date palms appear not only on the royal name seals found inthe Treasury but also on all the seals or impressions inscribed with thename and title of an Achaemenid king (Root 1979, 118-122; Stähler1989). Stähler (1989) argued that under the Achaemenids the palm tree

57 See CAD S/2, 76 sub Sarrum (for example, MSL 12, 94:34 and MSL 3, 76:9' and 18').58 Furthermore the Assyrian king was sometimes compared to a tree (Parpola 1993,

n. 32 on p. 167). The palm tree also had other symbolic meanings: it was identifiedwith the goddess Istar as well as being associated with characteristics such as wealthand fertility. For a recent study with further references see von Gemünden (1998)and for an older study see Goodenough (1958, 87-134). By a strange coincidencePart IX of this book which includes the study of the palm tree is entitled "The bull,the lion, the tree, and the crown": the author did not, however, see the first threesymbols as representing the king. On a tablet found in Nineveh a mark looking likea palm tree is described as a sign of good luck (Curtis/Reade 1995, 207 no. 227) andthe word meaning "favourable" (Akkadian damqu) is written with the sign GISIMMAR,since this sign also has the reading SA6, which is the Sumerian word for "favourable".Palm trees are depicted on several pieces of jewelry found in the tomb of an Assyrianqueen in Nimrud (Fig. 12e). Perhaps in this case the palm was intended to indicatean association both with the king and with good fortune.




was a symbol of kingship, largely on the basis of its presence on theseals. The knowledge that in Assyria too the palm tree was associatedwith the king strengthens this proposal.

Astroglyph 8. Four-sided figure (Fig. 13)The identification of this sign has presented many difficulties. Mig-

lus (1994, 188), who reviewed earlier proposals, called it puzzling. Sid-ney Smith (1925, 57) suggested a four-wheeled vehicle, Ursula Seidl(1989, 127) suggested a harrow, but added a question mark to indicatethe uncertainty of such an identification. Peter Miglus (1994, 188) as-sociated the eighth sign with the Mesopotamian constellation ik"field" whose stars form a square, which would fit with the shape ofthis sign and the agricultural nature of the previous signs. Finkel andReade (1996, 260) proposed that this four-sided symbol representedthe sign κι, the determinative suffix for place names. They gave twopossible explanations: first it has "some resemblance to the ground-plan of an Assyrian camp" and second it "may perhaps be looselycompared with the Egyptian hieroglyph for a toponym", but neitherof these is convincing, because Assyrian camps depicted on the palacereliefs are circular or oval and not square and the Egyptian hieroglyphis a circle with an inscribed cross. Scurlock's (1997, 86) suggestion thatthe astroglyph resembled the cuneiform sign κι is not convincing sincethe shapes are quite different.

Fig. 13. Four-sided figures.a. The eighth sign on the Black Stone, b. the eighth sign on the Esarhaddon Prisms,

and c. the sign LiMMU2.

A more compelling interpretation is that the palm tree and thesquare stand for the title "king of the four quarters" (sar kibr ti arbtfior sar kibr t erbetti\ which was used by Mesopotamian kings fromthe Agade period (c. 2300 BC) to the Achaemenid period.59 It was

59 For example, Naram-Sin (Franke 1995,161-64; see also Seux 1967, 305; Zgoll 1997,169 note 703) and Cyrus (5R, 35:20 = VAB 3,4:20, Seux 1967, 308). For a discussionof the meaning see Glassner (1984, 26-29) where he also investigates the differencebetween the titles "king of the four quarters" and "king of the universe".




written with the signs UB.DA.LiMMU2.60 This means "the four (world)corners and sides" with the implicit understanding that this encom-passed the whole of the world.61 It is easy to see how the four-sidedAstroglyph 8 could stand for the second part of this title. It mightalmost be a visual representation of how the Assyrians imagined theworld to be (a sort of Assyrian version of the Babylonian World Map).

The Sumerian words ub and da mean "corner" and "side". This isthe reason why both corners (emphasized with circles) and sides arepresent in Astroglyph 8, rather than just a simple square. At the sametime its square shape resembles the sign LiMMU2 (the number 4) withthe circles indicating the heads of the cuneiform wedges used to writethis sign (Fig. 13c).

In those inscriptions of Esarhaddon containing both the title "kingof the land of Assyria" (sar mat Assur) and the title "king of the fourquarters" (sar kibrati arbtfi) "king of the land of Assyria" precedes"king of the four quarters".62 On the other hand in the inscriptions,which contain the titles "king of the universe" (sar kissati)63 and "kingof the land of Assyria" (sar mat Assur}, "king of the universe" almostalways precedes "king of the land of Assyria".64 And the same is trueof the titles sarru rabü "great king" and sarru dannu "mighty king".The order of the titles in the astroglyphic inscription therefore con-firms that "king of the four quarters" rather than any other title is theintended reading.

60 The Akkadian equivalents exist in various forms: sar kibräti(m) arbä>i(m)lkibräterbetti(m) (Seux 1967, 305-08; GAG § 139i).

61 There is a connection between the Mesopotamian concept of the "four (world) cor-ners" and the four points of the compass (Glassner 1984, 26) and the four winddirections (Horowitz 1998, 204-05, 259).

62 Babylon N, Nimrud D, Nineveh A—F, UrukA and E—G, AsBbA and Borsippa A(restored) (Borger 1956, 30, 36, 39, 54, 73, 77, 80, and 32).

63 Since the title sar kissati "king of the universe" is the second most frequent title(after "king of the land of Assur") used by Esarhaddon, it is tempting to think thatAstroglyphs 7 and 8 might stand for this title. But not only does the order of thetitles argue against this but also there is no convincing reason to connectAstroglyph 8 with kissatu. It is true that some archaic forms of the cuneiform signSAR2, which was often used to write kissatu, are square, but this is oriented at 45°to the square shown in Astroglyph 8 and this association would leave unexplainedthe circles which emphasise the corners of the sign. Furthermore SAR2 is used towrite the number 3,600 and not four, and kissatu is more naturally connected withthe number seven (IMIN), which was also used to write it.

64 In 34 cases out of 35 inscriptions included in Borger (1956). The exception is Baby-lon N (Borger 1956,30).




Conclusions

The appearance of the astroglyphic inscriptionsThese inscriptions were described by Esarhaddon as being written

in /wradsw-writing (astroglyphs), but the reason he described it as suchis not clear in all details.65 It is true that several of the signs are alsoknown Mesopotamian constellations (e. g. the lion, the bull, and theplough) and others may have connections with the heavens. It is plau-sible that astral associations did also exist for all the astroglyphs.66

The ancient Mesopotamian gods "wrote" information about the futurein all sorts of places, which the Mesopotamian experts could read likea text. The same divine messages were written in the heavens, in cli-matic events, on the livers of sacrificial animals, and in many other"natural" phenomena. Erica Reiner has interpreted a cuneiform textas showing that "trees, plants, and stones were associated with zodia-cal signs in late Babylonian texts as they were in Hellenistic Egypt."67

One might therefore conclude that Mesopotamian scholars wouldhave known of links between the astroglyphs and the constellationseven though these are not explicitly recorded in the published cunei-form inscriptions until now.

Another possible connection with the constellations is that some ofthe signs look like the arrangement of wedges in corresponding cunei-form signs (e. g. the plough, and perhaps the palmette and the square)in the same way that the arrangement of stars in a constellation resem-bles the image corresponding to the name.68 Furthermore the appear-ance of the astroglyphs on Sargon's glazed brick inscriptions — yellow

65 There are other terms used in Akkadian, which suggest a relationship between writ-ing and the heavens, for example, sitirti same "writing of the heavens" or sitirtiburume "writing of the firmament" (CAD S/3, 144 sitirtu, 146, 2 sitru and CADB 344, burümü).

66 For example, the palm tree might be connected with the constellation sissinnu "adate palm flower or fruit cluster" (AHw. sissinnu) and Miglus (1994, 189) has sug-gested a possible astral connection of the mountain.

67 She translated the passage as follows: "When you want to ascertain the zodiacalsign in ... stone, plant and tree" (Reiner 1995, 130-31 and note 611 = TCL 6,12).

68 Since cuneiform signs are constructed of a particular arrangement of wedges on atablet and constellations of a particular arrangement of stars in the heaven, thissimilarity is not only applicable to the astroglyphs. Equally the fact that the Sume-rian words mul ormul-an can refer both to a star in the sky and to a cuneiformsign on a tablet (personal communication from Walther Sallaberger) is a feature ofthe cuneiform script and is not specifically associated with the astroglyphic script.




against a dark blue background - is reminiscent of stars in the nightsky.

The name lumäsu does not necessarily imply that every astroglyphicsign corresponded to a constellation, but that there were some corre-spondences and all in all the name sounded suitably esoteric and mean-ingful.69

The astroglyphs exhibit a close similarity with the rows of divinesymbols on carved kudurrus, stone monuments recording land grantsof Babylonian kings from the Kassite to the Neo-Babylonian periods,and have been described as such.70 Indeed several of them also appearon kudurrus, for example, the horned crown on a podium, the lion,the bull, and the plough. Clearly the uninitiated might therefore as-sume that the astroglyphs were symbols of the gods.

The sequence of the signs is also significant. In the case of the Esar-haddon inscription the signs fall into several groups: the first threefigures are a self-contained religious scene of the Assyrian king prayingbefore a podium on which stands a divine headdress, the subsequentfigures indicate the world of wild beasts (lion and bull71), followed byan agricultural scene with the plough and the palm tree. Similarly onthe Temples of Sargon the sequence runs from wild beasts (lion, birdand bull72) to arboriculture (fig tree) and agriculture (plough). In thesecases one can observe an obvious symbolism of the Assyrian king me-diating between the divine and human spheres and exerting controlover the whole range of nature.

The interpretation of the inscriptionsThe interpretation of the astroglyphs on the Black Stone and on

the prisms of Esarhaddon as:"Esarhaddon, king of the land of Assyria, king of the four quarters"

69 Not every Egyptian or Luwian hieroglyphic sign was a sacred symbol, but we donot hesitate to call them hieroglyphs.

70 As Unger (1938, 252) did for the glazed brick panels of Sargon. Hrouda (1965,caption to Taf. 55.5) called the Black Stone Esarhaddon's kudurru. Porter (1993a)discussed the relationship between the Black Stone and kudurrus and concluded thatit "is in many ways almost a kudurru" and is "more reminiscent of contemporaryBabylonian kudurru documents ... than of Assyrian Babylonian inscriptions" (Porter1993a, 197 and 1993b, 100 note 220).

71 Although according to our interpretation the bull is wild since it stands for the king,the uninitiated viewer might interpret the bull as a domestic animal. See Marcus(1977, 86-87. 91) where the different significance of wild and domesticated cattlein the Assyrian royal inscriptions is discussed.

72 See note 71.




does not, of course, exclude the possibility that Assyrian scholarsmight have had alternative readings and alternative explanations tothose proposed here. Indeed a characteristic of Mesopotamian scriballore is that various readings of the same text are both possible andintentional.73

Assyrian astroglyphic script was not the only script that used pic-tures as signs and the Assyrians were certainly aware of the contempo-rary Egyptian, Luwian, and Urartian hieroglyphic scripts and it maywell be that they were an inspiration for the Assyrian astroglyphs, butthe basic principles behind the astroglyphs are different from those ofthe Egyptian script: some signs are fairly obvious symbolic representa-tions (direct or indirect pictograms), while others are derived fromscribal knowledge of the forms of cuneiform signs, from equivalencesbetween Sumerian logograms and Akkadian words, and from literarymetaphors. Such linguistic and visual puns or rebuses are commonlyfound in the Mesopotamian world.74

So far only the names and titles of the Assyrian kings Sargon andEsarhaddon have been recognized as being written in Assyrianastroglyphs, but it may be that other groups of symbols could beastroglyphs.75 We have suggested this for the glazed brick reliefs fromBabylon and the palm trees on Achaemenid royal seals.

An impressive feature of these short inscriptions is the way thatthey can be "read" in different ways and at different levels. At themost mundane the signs can be interpreted as a code correspondingto the cuneiform writing of the names and titles of the Assyrian king.

73 Polysemy was often used by Mesopotamian scribes in literary texts. See for exampleZgoll (1997, 177-8) with more than nine examples in a Sumerian text of 153 lines.Other examples are discussed by Lieberman (1987).

74 For some possible visual puns see Collon (1995), Reade (1995,236, though his explana-tion is not clear). One might also compare the unusual wall painting in Til Barsip of afish apkallu made out of fishes (Thureau-Dangin/Dunand 1936, PL LIII. XXVII b).For literary puns see, for example, Livingstone (1986), Mindlin etal. (eds.) (1987),George (1992), Maul (2000), and Noegel (ed.) (2000).

75 Julian Reade (1995, 236 and Fig. 8) has proposed such an interpretation of a sealin the British Museum. Assyrian royal seals showing the king with a prancing horseor with a rampant stag (Herbordt 1992, Taf. 20.2-3, Taf. 20.1a-b) might also beinterpreted as a writing of a royal name or title: both the horse and stag wereassociated with constellations. Similarly the scorpions and ears of grain on Assyrianseals (Herbordt 1992, Taf. 20.4-5 and 20.8-10), which also have astral connections,might also be connected with the astroglyphic script. Clearly this sort of approachcould lead to further developments in the identification and interpretation of sealdesigns.




At the same time the symbols are reminiscent of constellations (andalso of divine symbols) and therefore link the king with the heavenlyworld of the gods. At a more metaphorical level the choice of signsreflects the characteristics recorded in the royal name and titles (e. g.king as lion or bull, or the bull, plough, palm tree and fig tree repre-senting the animal and plant wealth of his kingdom). Even withoutrealizing that these signs conceal a writing of the name and titles ofthe king, they may be interpreted as symbolic visual images illustratingthe nature of the king, his relationship with his god, and his controlover the animal and plant kingdoms. These different layers of meaningdemonstrate the remarkably sophisticated intellectual abilities of thescholars active at the court of the Assyrian king.

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Documents

Assyrian Astroglyphs: Lord Aberdeen’s Black Stone and the Prisms of Esarhaddon