volume 2 - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian History Workshop

Early History of Nineveh. 5
merchants have told me that, provided the Tigris flowed
close by it as in ancient times, and not a mile and a half
from it as at present, Nineveh would be a far more
convenient place for a frontier market than M6sul.
Indeed, it is probable that the development of Western
Nineveh into the large town which Sapor I called
" Mawsil," was due to the fact that the Tigris removed
itself from the west wall of the city further to the west,
or that one of the arms of the river flowing parallel with
it became the main stream.
The date of the founding of Nineveh is unknown,
but it is probable that a town or city always occupied
both banks of the Khusur river near its junction with the
Tigris. At a very early period some ruler of Babylonia
took possession of the primitive town and enlarged it,
and arrogated to himself the title of " founder of Nineveh."
There is little doubt that the city of Nineveh is older than
the city of Ashur. As more than one great Babylonian
ruler {e.g., Gudea and Dungi) restored temples at Nineveh
between 3000 and 2500 B.C., the city must have possessed
considerable importance at that early period. A little
before or after 2000 B.C. the great Babylonian lawgiver.
King Khammurabi, carried out works of restoration in
" Ni-nu-a ki," as he calls the city in the introduction to
his Code of Laws,^ and brought the country of Assyria
under his domination. In the fifteenth century before
Christ the goddess Ishtar of Nineveh declared her intention
of going to Egypt, the land that she loved, and
Tushratta, King of Mitani, sent a statue of her to Amenhetep
III, and entreated the goddess to protect himself
and the King of Egypt for a hundred thousand years.''
Shalmaneser I, about B.C. 1300, rebuilt Ishtar's temple at
Nineveh, and we may assume that during the next six
centuries the kings of Assyria maintained it. The shrine
of the goddess seems to have been the one important thing
in the city. About 1080 B.C. Ashur-bel-kala, a son of
^ j:^ 4r ]] '^> col. iv, line 60 (ed. de Morgan, Paris, 1902,
pis. 4, 5 ;
ed. Harper, pi. 6).
^ See Tdl el-Amarna Tablets in the British Museum, p. xlii.