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Balawat

ܒܝܬ ܠܒܬ
Shown within Iraq
Location	Nineveh Governorate, Iraq
Region	Northern Mesopotamia
Coordinates	36°13′46″N 43°24′12″E / 36.22944°N 43.40333°E / 36.22944; 43.40333 on
Site notes
Excavation dates	1878, 1956, 1989
Archaeologists	Hormuzd Rassam, M. Mallowan, D.J. Tucker

Balawat (Classical Syriac: ܒܝܬ ܠܒܬ, beṯ labat) is an archaeological site of the ancient Assyrian city of Imgur-Enlil, and modern village in Nineveh Province (Iraq). It lies 25 kilometres (16 mi) southeast from the city of Mosul and 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) to the south of the modern Assyrian town of Bakhdida.

Ancient name

Balawat is the site of the ancient Assyrian city of Imgur-Enlil. The meaning of Imgur-Enlil is "Enlil agreed". Note that there was also a wall in ancient Babylon named Imgur-Enlil.

History of archaeological research

The site was excavated in 1878 by archaeologist Hormuzd Rassam. The site was again excavated by Max Mallowan for the British School of Archaeology in Iraq in 1956. A surface survey was conducted by D. J. Tucker in 1989 for the British Museum. The town walls enclosed an area of around 64 hectares.

Occupation history

The city of Imgur-Enlil was founded by the Neo-Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II (884-859 BC). It lay 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) up the Derrah river from the Tigris, where the city of Kalhu (Biblical Nimrud/Calah) was situated. Imgur-Enlil lay between the major Neo-Assyrian cities of Nineveh and Arrapha (modern Kirkuk) in the southeast along the royal Neo-Assyrian road. Ashurnasirpal II had already transferred the capital from Assur to Kalhu, and the foundation of Imgur-Enlil may have been a further step to knit up the Neo-Assyrian empire. Construction at the site continued under Ashurnasirpal II's son Shalmaneser III. The city existed for about two and a half centuries but was, like most Neo-Assyrian cities, sacked and destroyed by the Medes, Babylonians and Scythians during the fall of the Neo-Assyrian empire 614-605 BC.

Post U.S.-Iraq War construction

In November 2004, the village had roads constructed by the United States Army, which connected the modern Assyrian village to the ancient Assyrian city of Kalhu and the village of Bakhdida (Al Hamdaniyah.) The project was dubbed "Ninewa Village Roads Project" and was funded by the U.S. government. The contract to build the roads was given to the Ashour General Construction Contracting Company and cost $1,120,000.

Material culture

Aside from temples and palace buildings, the most important artifacts discovered there were the so-called Balawat Gates. The gates measured about 20 feet in height and belonged to the temple of Mamu, the god of dreams. These were made up of bronze bands attached through nails to two wooden gates of the palace. The bronze bands depict a sacrifice and war scenes from the campaigns of the Neo-Assyrian king Shalmaneser III (859-824 BC), and were the first depictions of landscape elements (such as trees and mountains) in Assyrian art.

See also

• List of cities of the ancient Near East

References

1. Al-Rawi, Farouk N. H. (1985). "Nabopolassar's Restoration Work on the Wall "Imgur-Enlil" at Babylon". Iraq. 47: 1–13. doi:10.2307/4200228. ISSN 0021-0889. JSTOR 4200228. S2CID 191498691.
2. Hormuzd Rassam, "Excavations and discoveries in Assyria", In: Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, vol. 7, pp. 37-58, 1882
3. Theophilus G. Pinches, " The bronze gates discovered by Mr. Rassam at Balawat", In: Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, vol. 7, pp. 83-118, 1882
4. Hormuzd Rassam and Robert William Rogers, Asshur and the land of Nimrod, Curts & Jennings, 1897
5. Oates, David (1974). "Balawat (Imgur Enlil): The Site and Its Buildings". Iraq. 36 (1/2): 173–178. doi:10.2307/4199984. ISSN 0021-0889. JSTOR 4199984. S2CID 192082396.
6. "Ninewa Village RoadsProject" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2006-05-16. Retrieved 2006-05-13.
7. Tucker, D. J. (1994). "Representations of Imgur-Enlil on the Balawat Gates". Iraq. 56: 107–116. doi:10.2307/4200388. ISSN 0021-0889. JSTOR 4200388.

Further reading

• Billerbeck, A./Delitzsch, F., "Die Palasttore Salmanassars II von Balawat", Erklärung ihrerBilder und Inschriften, BA 6/1, Leipzig, 1908
• J.E. Curtis et al., "The Balawat Gates of Ashurnasirpal II", British Museum Press, 2008, ISBN 978-0-7141-1166-7
• Unger, Eckhard, "Zum Bronzetor von Balawat, Beiträge zur Erklärung und Deutung der assyrischen Inschriften und Reliefs Salmanassars III", Leipzig, Pfeiffer, 1913
• Léonard W. King, "Bronze Reliefs from the Gates of Shalmanezer. King of Assyria BC 860-825", Longman's & Company, 1915
• Seton Lloyd, "Foundations in the Dust", 1947 ISBN 978-0500050385
• Theophilus G Pinches and Walter de Gray Birch, The bronze ornaments of the palace gates of Balawat (Shalmaneser II, B.C. 859-825) edited, with an introduction by Walter de Gray Birch ; with descriptions and translations by Theophilus G. Pinches, Society of Great Russell Street, 1902
• Theophilus G Pinches, "The Balawat Gates and Their Relation to Assyrian Art", The American Art Review, vol. 1, pp. 527-535, 1880

External links

• Bronze relief fragment at the Walters Art Museum

v t e Nineveh Plains in Nineveh Governorate, northern Iraq
Main settlements	Al-Hamdaniya District Qaraqosh Bartella Karamlesh Bashiqa Bahzani Tel Kaif District Tel Keppe Alqosh Batnaya Tesqopa Baqofa Sharafiya Bozan Khatarah Shekhan District Ain Sifni Dashqotan Qasrok Ba'adra
Religious sites	Christian Chaldean Catholic Church Rabban Hormizd Monastery (640) Mar Oraha Monastery (6th century) Tomb of Prophet Nahum Syriac Catholic Church Mar Behnam Monastery (4th century) Syriac Orthodox Church Mar Mattai Monastery (363) Monastery of Saint John of Dailam (7th century) Yazidis Lalish (1414)
Archaeological sites	Balawat Shibaniba Nimrud Dur-Sharrukin Tell Arpachiyah Tepe Gawra
See also	Peshmerga Nineveh Plain Protection Units Nineveh Plain Forces Qaraqosh Protection Committee Dwekh Nawsha

• Populated places in Nineveh Governorate
• Archaeological sites in Iraq
• Ancient Assyrian cities
• Tells (archaeology)
• Assyrian communities in Iraq