Meaning “Fortress of Sargon,” a new capital of the Assyrian Empire built in the last years of the eighth century b. c. by King Sargon II. The city was located about 7 miles (11km) northeast of the modern Iraqi city of Mosul. Dur-Sharukkin (modern Khorsabad) was surrounded by an imposing brick defensive wall some 46 feet (14m) thick and 39 feet (12m) high and covered about 1 square mile (2.6 sq. km). The corners of the square marked out by the walls pointed to the north, south, east, and west.
One of the city’s outstanding structures was Sargon’s palace, which he claimed was “without rival.” His inauguration inscription, which has survived, reads, “For me, Sargon, who dwells in this palace, may he [the god Ashur] decree as my destiny, eternal life.” The palace originally featured more than two hundred rooms grouped around three large courtyards, and the entrances were guarded by giant stone, winged bulls. The interior walls of the palace are still covered with magnificent relief sculptures depicting Sargon’s military exploits. There are so many panels of reliefs that if they were laid end to end they would stretch for nearly a mile (1.6km)! The city also had a number of temples and shrines, the most important of which was dedicated to Nabu, god of literacy and wisdom.
The first modern excavations of Dur-
Sharukkin were conducted by archaeologists Paul Emile Botta and Victor Place in the 1840s and the 1850s, during the golden age of Assyriology. A later expedition to the site mounted by the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute between 1929 and 1934 uncovered the so-called Khorsa-bad King List, a list of the names and lengths of the reigns of Assyria’s rulers from about 2200 b. c. down to Sargon’s day.
See Also: Botta, Paul Emile; Sargon II; sculpture
World History
