volume 2 - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian History Workshop

100 City of Tukulti-Ninib I.
and the broken skins replaced by new. Large quantities
of grain were exported from this village to
Baghdad.
We left the village about 6.30 the following morning,
February 28th, and passed the village of Makuk on the
east bank about two hours later. There were several
mounds about two miles from the river, but there was
no sign that they had been excavated. Three hours
later we passed Al-Kayyarah^ (so called because of the
bitumen springs which are near it) on the east bank, and
then for several miles we floated along without seeing
anything of special interest. The country on both
banks was very flat, and every here and there were large
encampments of Arabs. In the early afternoon we
saw several mounds a little to the south of the village
of Tulul 'Akir,' and knowing that we must be near
' See the description of these bitumen springs in the Travels of
Ibn Batutah, vol. ii, p. 134. When the natives wanted bitumen they
set fire to the vapour, as they do to-day, and then cut out the pieces
they needed.
" The ruins here are, according to'Messrs. Andrae and Bachmann,
the remains of the ancient Assyrian city of Kar Tukulti Ninib
-I^lJ "^'W} J tf J^ '-cy< ->f »f , which was built by Tukulti-
Ninib I, King of Assyria, B.C. 1275. They were excavated in the
winter of 1913-14. See the letter of December 13th in Mitt. Deutsch.
Orient-Gesellschafi, 1913, 1914. The rectangular stone tablet of
Tukulti-Ninib I (Brit. Mus., No. 98494), which records the building
of this city, was acquired by L. W. King, and brought to England
in 1906. The text forms a very important historical document, for
it describes how Tukulti-Ninib I defeated Bitiliashu, the Kassite King
of Babylon, and led him captive to his city, and paraded him before
his god. By this conquest Sumer and Akkad became subject to
Assyria. The tablet was probably buried in the foundations of the
wall of the city, and was discovered by natives, who sold it to the
dealers, from whom King acquired it. Here is another example of
the discovery of an ancient site by natives who were digging for
bricks to build their houses with. For the complete text and translation
of the tablet see King, The Inscription of Tukulti-Ninib, London,
1906. Ibn Batutah says (ii, p. 133) that after travelling two days from
Takrit he came to a village called Al-'Akar, on the Tigris. Near it
was a hill on which a castle formerly stood, and at the foot of it was
the " Iron Khan," a well-built edifice with towers. It would seem
that the hill he refers to is Tulul 'Akir.