By strengthening the country and increasing her
resources they enabled Arik-den-ilu 's great-grandson, Tukulti-Ninib I,
to achieve the conquest of Babylon itself. Concerning Tukulti-Ninib's
reign and achievements an interesting inscription has recently been
discovered. This is now preserved in the British Museum, and before
describing it we may briefly refer to another phase of the excavations
at Sherghat.
[Illustration: 396.jpg Stone Object Bearing a Votive Inscription of
Arik-den-ilu.]
An early independent King of Assyria, who reigned about B.C.
1350. Photograph by Messrs. Mansell & Co.
The mounds of Sherghat rise a considerable height above the level of
the plain, and are to a great extent of natural and not of artificial
formation. In fact, the existence of a group of high natural mounds at
this point on the bank of the Tigris must have led to its selection
by the early Assyrians as the site on which to build their first
stronghold. The mounds were already so high, from their natural
formation, that there was no need for the later Assyrian kings
to increase their height artificially (as they raised the chief
palace-mound at Nineveh), and the remains of the Assyrian buildings of
the early period are thus only covered by a few feet of debris and not
by masses of unburnt brick and artificially piled up soil.
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