Nineveh was an ancient Near Eastern city of Upper Mesopotamia, located in the modern-day city of Mosul in northern Iraq. It is located on the eastern bank of the Tigris River and was the capital and largest city of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, and potentially the wealthiest city in the ancient world. Today, it is a common name for the half of Mosul that lies on the eastern bank of the Tigris, and the country's Nineveh Governorate takes its name from it.
It was the largest city in the world for approximately fifty years until the year 612 BC when, after a bitter period of civil war in Assyria, it was sacked by a coalition of its former subject peoples including the Babylonians, Medes, and Scythians. The city was never again a political or administrative centre, but by Late Antiquity it was the seat of a bishop of the Church of the East. It declined relative to Mosul during the Middle Ages and was mostly abandoned by the 14th century AD after the massacres and dispersal of Assyrian Christians by Timur.
Its ruins lie across the river from the historical city center of Mosul. The two main tells, or mound-ruins, within the walls are Tell Kuyunjiq and Tell Nabī Yūnus, site of a shrine to Jonah. According to the Hebrew Bible and the Quran, Jonah was a prophet who preached to Nineveh. Large numbers of Assyrian sculptures and other artifacts have been excavated from the ruins of Nineveh, and are now located in museums around the world.
The location of Nineveh was known, to some, continuously through the Middle Ages. Benjamin of Tudela visited it in 1170; Petachiah of Regensburg soon after.
Name The English placename Nineveh comes from the Latin and the Koine Greek Nineuḗ () under influence of the Biblical Hebrew Nīnəweh (),Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd ed. "Ninevite, n. and adj." Oxford University Press (Oxford), 2013. from the Akkadian ( Ninâ) or . The city was also known as Ninuwa in Mari; Ninawa in Aramaic; Ninwe (ܢܝܢܘܐ) in Syriac;"Nineveh - ܢܝܢܘܐ", https://syriaca.org/place/144 and Ninawa () in Arabic.
Nabī Yūnus is the Arabic for "Prophet Jonah". Kuyunjiq was, according to Layard, a Turkish name; Layard used the form kouyunjik, the diminutive of koyun ("sheep") in Turkish. Kuyunjiq was also known as Armousheeah by the ArabsLayard, 1849, p.xxi, "...called Kuyunjiq by the Turks, and Armousheeah by the Arabs" and it is thought to have some connection with the Qara Qoyunlu dynasty..
Geography
The remains of ancient Nineveh, the areas of Kuyunjiq and Nabī Yūnus with their mounds, are located on a level part of the plain at the junction of the Tigris and the Khosr Rivers within an area of circumscribed by a fortification wall. This whole extensive space is now one immense area of ruins, roughly a third of these overlaid by the Nebi Yunus suburbs of the city of eastern Mosul.Geoffrey Turner, "Tell Nebi Yūnus: The ekal māšarti of Nineveh", Iraq, vol. 32, no. 1, pp. 68–85, 1970
The site of ancient Nineveh is bisected by the Khosr river. North of the Khosr, the site is called Kuyunjiq, including the acropolis of Tell Kuyunjiq; the illegal village of Rahmaniye lay in eastern Kuyunjiq. South of the Khosr, the urbanized area is called Nebi Yunus (also Ghazliya, Jezayr, Jammasa), including Tell Nebi Yunus, where are the mosque of the Prophet Jonah, and a palace of Esarhaddon/Ashurbanipal below it. South of the street Al-'Asady (made by Daesh by destroying swaths of the city walls) the area is called Junub Ninawah or Shara Pepsi.
History Neolithic Nineveh itself was founded as early as 6000 BC during the late Neolithic period. Deep sounding at Nineveh uncovered soil layers that have been dated to early in the era of the Hassuna archaeological culture.Kuyunjiq / Tell Nebi Yunis (ancient: Nineveh) colostate.edu The development and culture of Nineveh paralleled Tepe Gawra and Tell Arpachiyah a few kilometers to the northeast. Nineveh was a typical farming village in the Halaf Period.
Chalcolithic Ubaid period In 5000 BC, Nineveh transitioned from a Halaf village to an Ubaid village. During the Late Chalcolithic period Nineveh was one of the few Ubaid villages in Upper Mesopotamia which became a proto-city. Others include Ugarit, Brak, Hamoukar, Arbela, Alep, and regionally Susa, Eridu, Nippur. During the period between 4500 and 4000 BC it grew to 40 hectares in size.
The greater Nineveh area is notable in the diffusion of metal technology across the near east as the first location outside of Anatolia to smelt copper. Tell Arpachiyah has the oldest copper smelting remains, and Tepe Gawra has the oldest metal work. The copper came from the mines at Ergani.
Uruk period
Nineveh IV became a trade colony of Uruk during the Uruk Expansion because of its location as the highest navigable point on the Tigris. It was contemporary with, and had a similar function to, Habuba Kabira on the Euphrates. Finds included beveled rim bowls.Gut, R.V., "Das Prahistorische Ninive: zur Relativen Chronologie der Fruhen Perioden Nordmesopotamiens", Mainz, 1995Gut, R.V., "The signiicance of the Uruk sequence at Nineveh", in J.N. Postgate, (ed.), Artefacts of Complexity. Tracking the Uruk in the Near East, Cambridge, Iraq Archaeological Reports 5, Oxford, pp. 17-48, 2002
Early Bronze Age Ninevite 5 period Following the Late Uruk period, the regional influence of Nineveh became particularly pronounced. This period is known as Ninevite 5, or Ninevite V (3000/2900–2600/2500 BC) and is defined primarily by the characteristic pottery that is found widely throughout Upper Mesopotamia.Ian Shaw, A Dictionary of Archaeology. John Wiley & Sons, 2002 p. 427 Also, for the Upper Mesopotamian region, the Early Jezirah chronology has been developed by archaeologists. According to this regional chronology, 'Ninevite 5' is equivalent to the Early Jezirah I–II period.Polish-Syrian Expedition to Tell Arbid 2015
Ninevite 5 pottery is roughly contemporary to the Early Transcaucasian culture ware, and the Jemdet Nasr period ware. Iraqi Scarlet Ware culture also belongs to this period; this colourful painted pottery is somewhat similar to Jemdet Nasr ware. Scarlet Ware was first documented in the Diyala River basin in Iraq. Later, it was also found in the nearby Hamrin Basin, and in Luristan. It is also contemporary with the Proto-Elamite period in Susa.
Ninevite 5 can be subdivided into the Early Ninevite 5 (3000-2750 BC) characterized by painted pottery and Late Ninevite 5 (2750-2500 BC) with incised pottery. In southern Mesopotamia, the former is contemporary with ED I-II, while the latter mirrors ED II-IIIA.Charvát, Petr, "The Backs of Some Sealings from Nineveh 5", Iraq, vol. 67, no. 1, pp. 391–97, 2005
Akkadian period In the late 3rd millennium BC Nineveh was part of the Akkadian Empire. While the site was occupied in that period, there was minimal official Akkadian presence there—unlike at Assur which had a much more notable presence. An Akkadian period bronze statue head found at Nineveh was later determined to be a 7th century addition.M. E. L. Mallowan, "The Bronze Head of the Akkadian Period from Nineveh", Iraq Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 104-110, 1936Westenholz, Joan Goodnick, "The Old Akkadian Presence in Nineveh: Fact or Fiction", Iraq, vol. 66, pp. 7–18, 2004
Middle Bronze In the early 2nd millennium BC Nineveh became part of the Kingdom of Upper Mesopotamia during the reign of Shamshi-Adad I (c. 1809–1775 BC), Amorite ruler of Ekallatum. Ziegler, Nele, and Adelheid Otto, "Ekallatum, Samsi-Addu’s capital city, localised", Entre les fleuves–III. On the Way in Upper Mesopotamia: Travels, Routes and Environment as Basis for the Reconstruction of Historical Geography 30, pp. 221-252, 2023Van de Mieroop, Marc, "A history of the ancient Near East ca. 3000-323 BC", John Wiley & Sons, 2024 It became a center of worship of Ishtar.Reade, Julian, "The Ishtar Temple at Nineveh", Iraq, vol. 67, no. 1, pp. 347–90, 2005Porter, Barbara Nevling, "Ishtar of Nineveh and Her Collaborator, Ishtar of Arbela, in the Reign of Assurbanipal", Iraq, vol. 66, pp. 41–44, 2004Ziegler, Nele, "The Conquest of the Holy City of Nineveh and the Kingdom of Nurrugum by Samsî-Addu", Iraq, vol. 66, pp. 19–26, 2004
Late Bronze Mitanni period The goddess's statue was sent to Pharaoh Amenhotep III of Egypt in the 14th century BC, by orders of the king Tushratta of Mitanni. Nineveh became one of Mitanni's vassals for half a century until the early 14th century BC.
Middle Assyrian period The Assyrian king Ashur-uballit I reclaimed it in 1365 BC while overthrowing the Mitanni Empire and creating the Middle Assyrian Empire (1365–1050 BC).Genesis 10:11 attributes the founding of Nineveh to an Asshur: "Out of that land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh".
There is a large body of evidence to show that Assyrian monarchs built extensively in Nineveh during the late 3rd and 2nd millennia BC; it appears to have been originally an "Assyrian provincial town". Later monarchs whose inscriptions have appeared on the high city include the Middle Assyrian Empire kings Shalmaneser I (1274–1245 BC) and Tiglath-Pileser I (1114–1076 BC), both of whom were active builders in Assur (Ashur).
Iron Age Neo-Assyrian period During the Neo-Assyrian Empire, particularly from the time of Ashurnasirpal II (ruled 883–859 BC) onward, there was considerable architectural expansion. Successive monarchs such as Tiglath-pileser III, Sargon II, Sennacherib, Esarhaddon, and Ashurbanipal maintained and founded new palaces, as well as temples to Sîn, Ashur, Nergal, Shamash, Ninurta, Ishtar, Tammuz, Nisroch and Nabu.
Sennacherib's development of Nineveh
It was Sennacherib who made Nineveh a truly influential city (), as he laid out new streets and squares, and built within it the South West Palace, or "palace without a rival", the plan of which has been mostly recovered and has overall dimensions of about . It had at least 80 rooms, many of which were lined with sculpture. A large number of cuneiform tablets were found in the palace. The solid foundation was made out of limestone blocks and mud bricks; it was tall. In total, the foundation is made of roughly of brick (approximately 160 million bricks). The walls on top, made out of mud brick, were an additional tall.
Some of the principal doorways were flanked by colossal stone lamassu door figures weighing up to ; these were winged Mesopotamian lions or bulls, with human heads. These were transported from quarries at Balatai, and they had to be lifted up once they arrived at the site, presumably by a ramp. There are also of stone Assyrian palace reliefs, that include pictorial records documenting every construction step including carving the statues and transporting them on a barge. One picture shows 44 men towing a colossal statue. The carving shows three men directing the operation while standing on the Colossus. Once the statues arrived at their destination, the final carving was done. Most of the statues weigh between ."The Seventy Wonders of the Ancient World" edited by Chris Scarre 1999 (Thames and Hudson)