BROWSE RECORD

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SITE ID - NAME :  B5 Balawat
ANCIENT NAME :  Imgur Enlil
OTHER NAME :  -
LOCATION :  North Iraq, Mosul
CHRONOLOGY :  Early Historic
PERIOD CODE :  12
DESCRIPTION :  A 60 ha walled Neo-Assyrian town with a 3 ha citadel near the Upper Zab river. Re-founded by the king Assurnasirpal II as a 'country retreat'. Work in the 1880's (digging tunnels...) revealed the so-called Balawat bronze doors in a temple dedicated to Mamu, the god of dreams. The depictions on the doors narrate and illustrate military campaigns of Assurnasirpal I and his successor Shalmaneser III. In the 1950's Mallowan found at least two more pairs of similarly ornamented gates from the time of an earlier king, Ashunasirpal II (883-559 BC). The Mamu temple contained a small archive with clay tablets.
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