Bearing an inscription of
Tukulti-Ninib I]
King of Assyria, about B. C. 1275.
Thence it was removed by the hands of modern Arabs, and it is now
preserved in the British Museum, where the characters of the inscription
may be seen to be as sharp and uninjured as on the day when the Assyrian
graver inscribed them by order of the king.
In the account of his first campaign, which is preserved upon
the memorial tablet, it is stated that the peoples conquered by
Tukulti-Ninib brought their yearly tribute to the city of Ashur. This
fact is of considerable interest, for it proves that Tukulti-Ninib
restored the capital of Assyria to the city of Ashur, removing it from
Calah, whither it had been transferred by his father Shalmaneser I. The
city of Calah had been founded and built by Shalmaneser I in the same
way that his son Tukulti-Ninib built the city of Kar-Tukulti-Ninib, and
the building of both cities is striking evidence of the rapid growth
of Assyria and her need of expansion around fresh centres prepared for
administration and defence. The shifting of the Assyrian capital to
Calah by Shalmaneser I was also due to the extension of Assyrian power
in the north, in consequence of which there was need of having the
capital nearer the centre of the country so enlarged. Ashur's recovery
of her old position under Tukulti-Ninib I was only a temporary check to
this movement northwards, and, so long as Babylon remained a conquered
province of the Assyrian empire, obviously the need for a capital
farther north than Ashur would not have been pressing.
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