Karen, please tell me how do we even know about the rebellion against the frail old King Shalmaneser III? >> Well, there are a few sources that deal with this period. Not as many as with the move to Kalhu, but the most important one is this one. It's a stele commissioned by Shalmaneser's eventual successor, his son, Shamshi-Adad V, and it was found in Kalhu. It's dedicated to the god Ninurta. And Ninurta is the young hero, the warrior, and is a deity with whom the Assyrian king is very closely associated. Because very prominently of course, the king usually is the commander of the army. Shalmaneser, in his old age, was not. He had delegated these tasks to his general, Shamshi-ilu, and Shamshi-Adad, in a sense, is making a point here. He is very much able to command his forces, and the stele details the military campaigns, that he conducted in the first couple of years of his reign. So there is an inscription on the back of the stele, a cuneiform inscription, we can't see it here, because this only shows the front. But there is this inscription, it runs across the back of the stele, and I'll read some of it to you. I'll read the bit that deals, after introducing the king as pious servant of the gods of Assyria, and after introducing him as the son of Shalmaneser, and grandson of Ashurnasirpal II. He says when Ashur-da'in-apla, at the time of Shalmaneser III, his father, acted treacherously by inciting insurrection, uprising, and criminal acts, caused the land to rebel and prepared for battle. At that time, the people of Assyria, great and small, he won over to his side, and made them take a binding oath. He caused the cities to revolt, and made ready to wage war and to battle. The cities are, then a long list, all together, 27 cities with their fortresses, which had rebelled against Shalmaneser, King of the Four Quarters. My father sided with Ashur-da'in-apla. But by the command of the great gods, my lords, I subdued them. So the inscription makes the point that there was this other son of Shalmaneser, Ashur-da'in-apla, who rebelled against the father, while Shalmaneser was still alive. And he enjoyed the support of 27 cities of Assyria, among them, Nineveh, Assur, and several of the really, really important centres of the empire. But not Kalhu, Kalhu is not mentioned. And Kalhu clearly stayed loyal to the crown, loyal to the aged, frail king, probably led by the Commander-in-Chief at the time, Shamshi-ilu who is really the opponent of Ashur-da'in-apla. The inscription doesn't tell us how Shamshi-Adad subdued his brother's forces. But it's very much pitched, of course, as a struggle between the two brothers. And the eunuch, the general Shamshi-ilu is not mentioned at all, as is to be expected. It is interesting that there is an account of this succession crisis at all. But, of course, we've said that this went on for many years, and was something that kept the entire empire busy. And Ashur-da'in-apla, of course, enjoyed tremendous support, yeah? So in this stele, it's not just the inscription that is important, but the figure of the king, the way he represents himself is equally important. >> Can you please tell me a little bit about the necklace that he is wearing? >> Yeah, that's precisely one of these details that stand out here. The depiction of the king is pretty much standard. He is shown to be the king by wearing the insignia of royal power, so that's the crown, this high hat with a ribbon wound around it. A ribbon that then falls down the back of the king's head. And he also has a scepter in his right hand. The scepter is a weapon; at the same time, it's a mace. And this would be a wooden stick with a stone or metal top. And you can, of course, smash someone's head in with this. But the king here wears it as an emblem of his royal power. And this is precisely the origins of the European scepters. So these are pretty standard, but this necklace stands out. That's something that is unique really to this representation. And the shape that is hanging down from the necklace, we'd probably call it a Maltese Cross, because the Maltese Order uses this as its symbol. But in Assyrian times, this is very much the symbol of the crown prince. And it's interesting to see that Shamshi-Adad, who is here of course the king, wears a necklace that is associated with being the crowned prince. And it's surely linked to the account concerning the rebellion of Ashur-da'in-apla. So in a sense, he's claiming, very much, that he, and only he, was ever meant to be the legitimate successor of his father Shalmaneser. It may mean that in the very last days of Shalmaneser, he was then appointed crown prince when Ashur-da'in-apla had revealed himself to be a rebel against the crown. So every detail here is meaningful. >> Well, the other thing that I'm noticing in this stele, are these interesting-looking figures up here, can you tell me about those? >> Yeah, well, the king is raising his hand in prayer, in this typical gesture, and the symbols are the symbols of the deities that he's praying to and they are the gods of the heavens, basically. So starting from here, the star stands for the goddess Ištar, who is identified both with the evening and the morning star. Both of those, of course, being the planet Venus. And this planet is a very, very good choice to represent this very complex deity, who in the Assyrian mind, has both a female and a male side. Which is then signified by the evening and the morning star, yeah? So then we've got a stroke of lightning, doesn't really look the way we would draw it, or a child would draw a stroke of lightning. But if you look at how lightning appears in nature, it's pretty close. And that stands for the weather god, Adad, he was especially important in the northern regions with the mountains, where weather is all important. Then, the next one here is the moon god, Sin, so it's the moon crescent which appears like a boat. And that's pretty much how the moon crescent also appears in the night sky in the Middle East. Not standing on it's side, but floating on the sky like a boat. And then it's the sun god, Šamaš. There is a round disc, the solar disc, with wings made out of feathers. If you squint at the sun, then you will sometimes see something that pretty much looks like this. So when we draw the sun, then it would be with these rays coming out of the central disc and to the Assyrian mind, these are feathers, okay? And then the last symbol that's one of these hats with the pairs of cow horns, we've talked about those. That symbol can stand for a number of deities. In this context, I would say it's meant to stand for the god of the sky, Anu. So we've got five astral deities, Ištar, planet Venus, the weather god, Adad, Sin, the moon god, Šamaš, the sun god, and Anu, the god of heaven. And Shamshi-Adad is worshiping precisely these five on this stele.
