Sennacherib's Prism
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- This article is about the clay prism found in Nineveh; for the optical Taylor prism, see Glan-Taylor prism.
Sennacherib's Prism or Taylor prism is a hexagonal baked clay prism, containing six paragraphs of cuneiform written Akkadian. The text was translated by Daniel David Luckenbill. The Akkadian text, along with a translation into English is available in his book: "THE ANNALS OF SENNACHERIB" D.D. Luckenbill 1924, University of Chicago Press.
It was discovered among the ruins of Nineveh, ancient capital of the Assyrian Empire. It stands 38.0 cm high by 14.0 cm wide, and was created during the reign of Sennacherib (689 BC). The prism was discovered by Colonel Taylor in 1830 in the ruins of Sennacherib's palace at Nineveh, now in northern Iraq. It was purchased from Colonel Taylor's widow in 1850 by the British Museum.[1] A copy, known as the Oriental Institute prism and also called the Sennacherib Prism, was purchased by JH Breasted from a Baghdad antiques dealer in 1919 and given to the [Oriental Institute, Chicago], where it now resides.[2]
The six faces of the prism are inscribed with the annals of Sennacherib himself, the Assyrian king who had besieged Jerusalem in 701 BC during the reign of king Hezekiah. It is one of three accounts discovered so far which have been left by the Assyrian monarch of his campaign against Israel and Judah.
[edit] References
- ^ (http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/me/t/the_taylor_prism.aspx)
- ^ (http://www.kchanson.com/ANCDOCS/meso/sennprism1.html)
[edit] External links
- Sennacherib's Hexagonal Prism
- Sennacherib's Prism - translation
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