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252 KAREN RADNER
(modern Tell Shemshara), dating to the reign of Samsi-Addu of Ekallatum, reported an alliance of Lullubian
kings marching against URU.Ar-ru-ni-im.KI in order to besiege the city: 62 this reference to a rich settlement
in the foothills of the Zagros mountain range fits the profile of the later Musasir well.
What, then, about suggestions to look for Musasir outside of the Sidikan area, perhaps closer to Lake
Urmia? Only recently, the results of the excavations which have been conducted since 2005 under the direction
of Bahman Kargar and Reza Heidari at Rabat Tepe, a settlement site some 15 km north-east of the town
of Sardasht (36° 09b N, 45° 29b E) in the Iranian province of Western Azerbaijan, have given rise to the
hypothesis – voiced by Reza Heidari in various press releases – that the Iron Age remains encountered at this
site may be the ruins of Musasir; it is to be hoped that the finds, which include wall paintings and glazed
bricks, will soon be published 63 , especially the cuneiform inscriptions inscribed on various bricks. Until then,
Heidari’s hypothesis must be treated with great caution; I personally am not inclined to consider Rabat Tepe
a likely candidate for identification with Musasir.
Fig. 17.06. The temple at Musasir: Eugène Flandin’s drawing of Slab 4 in Room XIII of Sargon’s palace at Dur-Sarrukin
(reproduced from Botta 1849: pl. 141).
Sargon famously plundered the sanctuary of Haldi and his consort Bagbartu in 714, an act celebrated both
in his official statements 64 and in the architectural decoration of the most prominent Assyrian buildings: the
facade of the Assur temple was covered with glazed bricks that illustrated Sargon’s Eighth Campaign 65 and the
same subject was chosen for the stone reliefs displayed on the walls of his palace at Khorsabad (Fig. 17.06) 66
62 Eidem & Læssøe 2001: 134-136 no. 63 ll. 20-21: a-na URU.Ar-ru-ni-im.KI la-wi-im 21 it-ta-al-ku ‘They have marched off to besiege
Arrunum.’ Or should we emend the place name to URU.Ar-di ! -ni-im.KI?
63 See for now Hassanzadeh 2006 (with map) who places the finds within the Mannean cultural horizon and Kargar & Binandeh 2009,
who also see Rabat as Mannaean and do not accept the identification with Musasir.
64 Most prominently in the already mentioned Letter to Assur: Sg 8: 309-414; note also the Eponym Chronicle’s entry for 714 BC:
[a-na KUR.Ur-a]r-†i URU.Mu-Òa-Òir Hal-di-a ‘Against Urartu, Musasir and Haldi’ (Millard 1994: 47, 60).
65 Weidner 1926; cf. Mayer 1980: 21-22.
66 The original (Room XIII, Slab 4) is mostly lost and we must rely on Eugène Flandin’s drawing (Botta 1849: pl. 141; Albenda 1986:
pl. 133) which is frequently reproduced, e.g. in this article as well as in Boehmer 1993-97: 449 Abb. 5, Salvini 1995: 95 Abb. 2, Lanfranchi
& Parpola 1990: II.