This paper examines stylistic changes and variants in the Assyrian annalistic texts written in the ninth century B. C. and discusses their historical-ideological background.
Toward the end of the second millennium B. C., Assyrian scribes started to compose royal inscriptions in various annalistic styles. In the beginning of the ninth century B. C., each campaign record included in the text was dated by a
limmu, i. e. a year eponym, by which every year was named in Assyria from the Old Assyrian period onward. Annals in the
limmu-dating style reached their most mature form with the Annals of Ashurnasirpal II.
The first four annalistic texts of his son, Shalmaneser III, were composed in a similar form, using the
limmus. After that, however, the royal historiographer produced annals in a new style, with one campaign recounted each year with the heading:
ina x
palêya “in my xth regnal year.” This style, probably invented under the influence of the Babylonian dating system, emphasizes the king's unremitting yearly activities.
Composing annals in this style, however, encountered difficulties, when revised versions were compiled towards the end of Shalmaneser's reign. First, the deeds of the king's commander had to be inserted into the texts in order to fill the record in years in which the commander lead the army in place of the king, who could not do it in person. Thus, the royal annals deviated from the essential form of solely recounting the
res gestae of the king. Secondly, the chronological ambiguity in the concept
palû, which originally means “turn, ” not “a year, ” caused some defective chronological presentations in later years of the reign. These difficulties were overcome by the invention of still another type of annals in the reign of Shamshi-Adad V, in which each campaign account was headed by
ina x
girriya “in my xth campaign.”
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