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Dur-Sharrukin

a Pleiades place resource

Creators: M. Roaf, T. Sinclair, S.E. Kroll, St J. Simpson
Contributors: R. Talbert, Carolin Johansson, W. Röllig, Jamie Novotny, Tom Elliott, H. Kopp, DARMC, Ryan Horne, Jeffrey Becker, Sean Gillies, B. Siewert-Mayer, Rune Rattenborg, Francis Deblauwe, Eric Kansa
Copyright © The Contributors. Sharing and remixing permitted under terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License (cc-by).
Last modified Dec 23, 2023 01:51 PM — History
Dūr-Šarrukīn (“Fort Sargon”), modern Khorsabad, became the capital of the Assyrian Empire during the reign of the eighth-century-BC ruler Sargon II (r. 721–705 BC). According to the Assyrian Eponym Chronicle, the foundations of the city were laid in 717 BC and the city itself was completed in early 706 BC, one year before Sargon was killed on the battlefield. Sargon’s newly-constructed, rectangular-shaped capital, which he modelled on the general plan on Babylon, was abandoned upon his death in 705 BC; his son and successor Sennacherib (r. 704–681 BC) made Nineveh Assyria’s principal administrative center.

https://pleiades.stoa.org/places/874458

36.50661765, 43.23141415

findspot, place of finding, settlement, archaeological site

Barrington Atlas: BAtlas 89 F4 Dur-Sharrukin

The construction of Dūr-Šarrukīn is recorded in Assyrian royal inscriptions and royal correspondence. According to an Akkadian text written on numerous clay cylinders, Sargon II (r. 721–705 BC) states that he built his new capital on the site of a town called Maganuba,“which was situated like a tower at the foot of Mount Muṣri, a mountain (rising) above the spring and (on) the outskirts of Nineveh” (Frame, RINAP 2 Sargon II 43). In that same inscription, the Assyrian king states that he “reimbursed the owners (of the expropriated fields) with silver and bronze, the price for the (expropriated) fields of that town being in accordance with the (original) purchase documents (of those fields).”

Archaeological work, which can be verified from satellite imagery, has shown that Dūr-Šarrukīn was rectangular in shape (1800×1700m), covering an area of ca. 300 hectares. Between the city’s founding in 717 BC and its inauguration in 706 BC, Sargon’s workmen constructed the city’s inner and outer walls (Aššur-mušalbir-palê-šarri-ēpišīšu-nāṣir-ummānīšu and Ninurta-mukīn-temmēn-ālišu-ana-labār-ūmē-rūqūti respectively), six royal residences (including Sargon own palace Egalgabarinutukua, which also housed chapels of the deities Ea, Sîn, Ningal, Adad, Šamaš, and Ninurta), a ziggurat, and a temple dedicated to the god Nabû. Nearly all of the aforementioned buildings were constructed inside the main citadel, which abutted the northwest wall and which was accessed via two gates. The armory (ēkal māšarti; “Palace F”), however, was constructed in the lower town, along the southern stretch of the southwest wall. Sargon’s inscriptions record that he also had a botanical garden created, which he boasted was “a replica of Mount Amanus, in which were gathered every kind of aromatic plant from the land Ḫatti (Syria) (and) every type of fruit-bearing mountain tree” Frame, RINAP 2 Sargon II 9).

The Barrington Atlas Directory notes: Khorsabad IRQ


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M. Roaf, T. Sinclair, S.E. Kroll, St J. Simpson, R. Talbert, Carolin Johansson, W. Röllig, Jamie Novotny, Tom Elliott, H. Kopp, DARMC, Ryan Horne, Jeffrey Becker, Sean Gillies, B. Siewert-Mayer, Rune Rattenborg, Francis Deblauwe, and Eric Kansa, 'Dur-Sharrukin: a Pleiades place resource', Pleiades: A Gazetteer of Past Places, 2023 <https://pleiades.stoa.org/places/874458> [accessed: 22 December 2024] 

            {{cite web |url=https://pleiades.stoa.org/places/874458 |title=Places: 874458 (Dur-Sharrukin) |author=Roaf, M., T. Sinclair, S. Kroll, St J. Simpson |accessdate=December 22, 2024 3:22 am |publisher=Pleiades}}