NINIVE. - Capital city of Assyria. The name of the city is at first Ninuwā, in the middle of the 2nd millennium Ninuwa, but along with this also Ninua and Nina. Only the last two remained in use.
The ruins of the ancient city are found to the northeast of Mosul, today 1.5 km distant from the Tigris, but at that time on the Tigris. The Khoser (Ḥūṣur in Assyrian), a tributary of the Tigris, crosses the ruins. The fortifications of the ancient city form an irregular trapezoid, whose perimeter is over 12 km. On the southern side of the walls two mounds of ruins (= tell) are visible: Kujundjik (750 × 375 × 30 m.) and the Nebi Junus (a little smaller).
The first investigations were made by Cl. J. Rich, who also left an excellent map of the ruins (ca. 1820). In the year 1842-43 P. E. Botta excavated at Kujundjik. Four years later Austen H. Layard took over, who found the "palace NO" of Assurnasirpal II (883-859), a palace of Adadnirari III (809-782), the "central palace" of Theglathpalasar III (745-727) and the "palace SO" of Sennacherib (704-681), in which Assurbanipal (668-626?) had also carried out restorations. He also excavated many sculptures, reliefs, weapons and, in two chambers, a part of the famous cuneiform library of Assurbanipal.
From 1852 to 1854 Hormuzd Rassam found the "northern palace" of Assurbanipal with the splendid reliefs of classical Assyrian art and the other part of Assurbanipal's library with the archive of the Sargonids. In this palace W. K. Loftus continued H. Rassam's excavations and brought to light very beautiful reliefs. The later excavators (G. Smith, H. Rassam, A. W. Budge, L. W. King, R. Campbell Thompson) had rather literary interests, that is, of finding the remains of Assurbanipal's library. Thus many thousands of tablets passed to the British Museum. Finally, between 1927 and 1932 deep excavations were carried out, which yielded unexpected results. The temple of the goddess Ishtar was found, the temple of Nabū (adjacent to the "northern palace" of Assurbanipal), a palace of the 9th century (probably of Sennacherib) with many historical inscriptions and a bronze mask dedicated by King Manishtusu (ca. 2300 B.C.): it is probably the portrait of his father Sargon I (24th century B.C.). The nearby tell Nebi Yunus has to this day not been touched, since on it stand the burial mosque of the prophet Jonah and a village with its cemetery. Only from some underground galleries is the existence of the palaces of Adad-nirari III, Sennacherib and Esarhaddon known. Various prehistoric civilizations succeeded one another at N.: 27.50 m in depth: virgin soil; 27.50-26.00 m: N. I: incised pottery (ca. 3800 B.C.); 26.00-21.30 m: N. II: very beautiful painted pottery with geometric designs in black and red on a yellow ground (ca. 3500 B.C.); 21.30-20.10 m: intermediate layer without culture; 20.10-12.80 m: N. III: handmade, polished pottery, reed huts, first signs of metal, seal impressions; 12.80-7.90 m: N. IV: wheel-made pottery of the Uruk type (ca. 3100 B.C.); 9.90-5.50 m: N. V: pottery with geometric and animal motifs in black and red, impressions of well-cut cylinder seals (ca. 2600 B.C.); 5.50-1.20 m: Assyrian period.
When Sargon I of Akkad (ca. 2350-2300) destroyed the Sumerian hegemony and created an empire that extended from Western Asia to Anatolia, the city of N. also belonged to his kingdom. The first piece of information we have is that his son Manishtusu built a chapel in the temple of the goddess Ishtar of N. After some centuries Shamshi-Adad I of Assyria (2nd half of the 18th century B.C.), a contemporary of Hammurabi, rebuilt the temple of the goddess. Hammurabi himself says in the prologue of his stele (IV: 60-63): "the king who in the city of N., in the temple of Emesmes, made the waters of the goddess Ishtar appear." Of this temple (23.8 × 7.6 m), built of clay bricks on a foundation of stones, the walls still exist to a height of 3 m. Under the (Hurrian) kingdom of Mitanni, King Tushratta (ca. 1400-1370) writes to the pharaoh Amenophis III (1413-1377) of Egypt that the goddess Ishtar of N. had declared herself willing to depart for Egypt, as she had already done in the time of his father (Shuttarna II): let the Pharaoh hold her in high honor and send her back in due time.
After the liberation of Assyria from the dominion of the Hurrians under Ashur-uballit I (1563-1328), the temple of the goddess Ishtar of N. with its ziggurat (= "tower") became the sacred monument most beloved, to which the ceaseless attentions of the Assyrian kings were dedicated. Now palaces of the kings also arose at N. Tiglath-Pileser I (1112-1074) and in part Adad-nirari II (909-889) took up residence at N., although Assur (v.) remained the capital of the kingdom. Ashurnasirpal II (883-859) chose Kalhu as his residence, but he also had a palace at N. (in the center of Tell Kuyunjik). The temple of Ishtar was rebuilt and remained unchanged until the time of Assurbanipal.
Afterward began the golden era for the city, which had become the capital of the kingdom. Sennacherib (704-681) called his magnificently adorned palace (198 x 192 m) "the palace without equal." He surrounded the city with a double belt of fortifications, with 15 gates and tall defensive towers. Within the city he built streets. With a new grandiose system he collected the waters of no fewer than 18 springs from the Gebel Maqlub mountain and brought them into the city. Thus gardens and very rich plantations arose around it. The most splendid work was created by the architects of Assurbanipal (668-626?) in the "northern palace" with the masterpieces of Assyrian sculpture (especially of the king's own hunts). Assurbanipal furthermore restored the sanctuary of the goddess Ishtar and of the god Nabû and made the fortifications even more powerful. A few decades later (612 B.C.) the great city, besieged by the army of the Babylonians and Medes, was reduced to "a mound of ruins and desolation," so much so that not even Xenophon (around the year 400) noticed that he was on the site of the ancient capital of the Assyrian Empire.
In the Bible the city is named in Gen. 10:11-12 (Nimrod) and in the book of the prophet Jonah (1-3). The prophet Nahum describes the wealth, the power and the commerce of N. (2:9 ff.; 3:16 f.) and predicts its end (3:1-7), as does also the prophet Zephaniah (2:13).
Bibliography13 works
Alfredo Pohl