The Old Akkadian presence in Nineveh: Fact or fiction

Abstract

The goal of this article is to investigate the enigma of the Old Akkadian presence at Nineveh. After reviewing the written and archaeological evidence for such a presence, the lack of evidence at Nineveh will be compared with the comparatively richer testimony of the Old Akkadian occupation at Assur. The thesis of this paper is that Šamši-Adad's claim that Maništušu was the original builder of the temple of Ištar of Nineveh should be regarded as suspect in the absence of any other data to back up his claim. I would like to make it clear that I am not insisting that Nineveh was a desolate site with no inhabitants during the Old Akkadian period. On the contrary, I do believe that it was inhabited at this time, although the evidence is meagre. However, who these inhabitants were is a question that needs to be answered. An official residence or presence of the Old Akkadians at the site seems unlikely, and I hope that I can prove this thesis to you.The previously cited proof of an Old Akkadian presence in Nineveh rests on primary and secondary evidence. The primary evidence said to reflect such a presence implies Old Akkadian texts and objects. However, the Old Akkadian texts consist of a few fragments of two broken stone inscriptions bearing royal dedications of the Old Akkadian king Naram-Sin. The fragments were found in the area of the first-millennium Nabû temple. These dedications apparently recorded Naram-Sin's rebuilding of the Ekur in Nippur and were not concerned with any northern site. Consequently, the original inscriptions, of which these fragments are remnants, were probably brought to Nineveh in the seventh century from Nippur. They were carried there presumably at the same time as the Šulgi foundation document from Kutha and the Warad-Sin inscription from Ur, so they can hardly be used as evidence of an official Old Akkadian residence in Nineveh. Moreover, there is not one reference to the town of Nineveh in Old Akkadian sources.