Category Archives: Assyriology

The secrecy of ancient oriental sciences has often been assumed without any attempt to investigate the foundation for such a hypothesis. There exist indeed examples of “cryptographic” writing both in Egypt and Mesopotamia. The Cenotaph of Seti I, for instance, contains cryptographic passages in the mythological inscriptions which are written around the sky goddess. SomeContinue reading “Ancient Secrets?”

In my second campaign, I marched quickly against Babylon which I was set upon conquering. Like the onset of a storm I swept, (and) like a fog I enveloped it. I laid seige to that city; with mines and siege engines, I personally took it—the spoil of his mighty men, small and great. I leftContinue reading “The Fall of Babylon”

I’ve completed going through Andreas Fuchs’ Inschriften Sargons II. aus Khorsabad for information relevant to the Bīt-PN study in progress. The information has been added to my pdf file of the raw data, here. I’ve also taken a quick first stab at organizing the data in another file, here. The important thing to notice isContinue reading “Progress on Bīt-PN research”

I’ve made some minor corrections, some additions, and done a little other editing on the bitpn.pdf file, which contains all examples of usage of the Bīt-PN(GN) phrase in Assyrian royal inscriptions from 1114-727 BC. I’m awaiting a copy of the Fuchs book of Sargon’s inscriptions still, but will add those when it arrives. I similarlyContinue reading “Corrections/additions”

I’ve updated my notes file with information from the inscriptions of Tiglath-Pileser III. I’ve also altered the format, hopefully making it easier for reading. And though I will continue to collect evidence and present analyses here soon, and most likely eventually publish the final result, I thought a preliminary summary was in order. The evidenceContinue reading “Further on Bīt-PN usage”

As I mentioned in a comment on a post chez Chris Heard, I’ve been compiling instances of the Assyrian usage of the phrase “House of …” in reference to territories and their associated rulers, of which we have much more information than in the case of the Aramaic usage. The importance of the Assyrian evidenceContinue reading “Further on “House of …” usage”

Joe and Jim are at it again, over the Tel Dan Stele. I can’t resist. I have to point out some issues that it seems both sides of the argument are perhaps either unaware of, or have forgotten. (I haven’t yet gotten and read a copy of George Athas’ book on the Tel Dan Stele,Continue reading ““House of David” and BYTDWD”