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264 KAREN RADNER
Shalmaneser III of Assyria (858-824 BC) deemed a visit to worship at the ‘Tigris source’ so important that he
had his army take a detour on its march back from inner Anatolia to Assyria in 852 BC; he and his predecessor
Tiglath-pileser I (1114-1076 BC) are known to have sacrificed at the ‘Tigris source’ and both had inscriptions
and images fashioned at the site. 175 Furthermore his visit was illustrated in an exceptional double register
depiction on the Balawat Gates (Fig. 17.09).
Fig. 17.09. The Tigris Grotto depicted on Band X of the Balawat Gates of Shalmaneser III.
Drawn by Cornelie Wolff.
Assyrian practice and the fact that the Tigris was considered a major deity in the Hurrian world lead us
to conclude that the ‘Tigris source’ was as famous and important a sanctuary as the temples of Haldi at Musasir
and of the storm god at Kumme. It may be significant, then, that Esarhaddon composed a Letter to Assur,
detailing the invasion of Subria, just as Sargon had done after the capture of Musasir and the looting of Haldi’s
temple, the only other well-known example of this text genre. Esarhaddon’s text is broken where we expect
the account of the invasion of Subria, but the spoils taken from that country are later given to the gods of
Assyria, and at least part of these riches must have originated from Subrian sanctuaries.
Is it coincidence that both the sack of Musasir and the invasion of Subria are reported to Assyria’s divine
overlord in a Letter to Assur, or is this the direct result of the underlying similarities between the cases – an
existing alliance with Assyria, secured by a treaty, broken; a sanctuary sacred to and frequented by the Assyrians
violated – that may have required the composition of such an account which one might then interpret
as a defence statement forwarded to the divine court of law which decided the fate of all according to the
Mesopotamian world view? How we see this matter influences how we judge the significance of Sargon’s and
Esarhaddon’s actions in Musasir and Subria – and the importance of the ancient Hurrian cult centres in the
wider world.
175 For the Assyrian reliefs and inscriptions from the ‘Tigris source’ see the contributions of Radner and Schachner in Schachner (Hrsg.)
2009.