Temple of Nabû of the ḫarû at Assur

In the Assyrian religious capital of Assur, Assyria’s penultimate king, Sîn-šarra-iškun (626–612 BC), had a new temple for the god Nabû built, since that god’s place of worship was at the start of his reign inside the temple of the Assyrian Ištar. Egidrukalamasumu — whose Sumerian ceremonial name means “House Which Bestows the Scepter of the Land”) and which is based on the Nabû of the ḫarû temple at Babylon — was  constructed on a vacant plot of land, which concealed the ruins of earlier, long-abandoned Ištar temples. The new temple’s plan was modelled on that the Nabû temple at Kalhu (Nimrud). It took several years to complete the work and, once it was finished, the statues of the god of scribes and his wife Tašmētu were ushered into the temple during a grand ceremony in the course of which prize bulls and fat-tailed sheep were presented as offerings. Although Sîn-šarra-iškun claims to have made Egidrukalamasumu “shine like daylight,” no details about that temple’s sumptuous decoration are recorded in the extant texts of Assyria’s penultimate king. We do know, however, that he dedicated to the temple (inscribed) reddish gold kallu-and šulpu-bowls for Nabû, a silver spoon (itqūru) for Tašmētu, and musukkannu-wood offering tables (paššuru) for the goddesses Antu and Šala.