Royal Assyrian Inscriptions: History, Historiography and Ideology

This collection is based on the lectures presented at a conference held on 20 November 2003 honouring Hayim Tadmor, founder of the Department of Assyriology at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. All of the participants were students of Tadmor who have become distinguished researchers and academics in their own right, and who continue to see in him the outstanding teacher who opened up the world of the Ancient Near East to them, shaped their incipient paths and influenced the course of their development. The scholarly subjects discussed herein are those that preoccupied Tadmor, who set new standards for their investigation: royal ideologies, ancient historiography, sources and their treatment, the propaganda disseminated by rulers, and social and ritual issues. Contents: Compositions and Editing, Copying and Transmission in the Inscriptions of Ashurbanipal: Concerning the Ways of the Royal Scribe, by Mordechai Cogan; Fort Sargon (Dur-Sarru-ukin): A Portrait of the Royal Builder, by Victor Avigdor Hurowitz; Esarhaddon, Egypt and Shubria: Politics and Propaganda, by Israel Eph'al; The Winged Disc: A Symbol of Major Deities in the Neo-Assyrian Period, by Tallay Ornan; The Suhu Governors Inscriptions in the Context of Mesopotamian Royal Inscriptions, by Nadav Na'aman; The Nascence and Development of the Department of Assyriology at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, by Hayim Tadmor; History and Ideology in the Inscriptions of Shalmaneser III: An Analysis of the Stylistic Changes in the Assyrian Annals (in English), by Shigeo Yamada.