Oath On The Platform: 2,700 Year Old Temple At Tayinat Had Royal Loyalty Oath Prominently Displayed

Heritage Key ^ | Thursday, October 14, 2010 | Owen Jarus

[SunkenCiv]

A team of researchers -- excavating a 2,700 year old temple at the ancient city of Tayinat in southeastern Turkey -- have discovered evidence that its inhabitants prominently displayed a tablet which bore a pledge of loyalty to the heir of an Assyrian king... Professor Tim Harrison of the University of Toronto... leads the Tayinat excavations. The city itself was built on the Amuq plain, on the Orontes River near the modern day Syrian border... a sort of crossroads that connected Anatolia, Mesopotamia and the Levant -- allowing Tayinat to flourish. The Assyrian Empire conquered it in 738 BC, with a governor being appointed to oversee it. The temple itself is about 12 meters by six meters in size. It pre-dates the conquest and was taken over at the same time as the city.

The oath declares that the city's governor, and possibly other citizens, would recognize Ashurbanipal as the heir to the throne of the Assyrian Empire, after his father's (king Esarhaddon's) death. Nearly identical oaths have been found at the site of Nimrud in modern day Iraq. "You shall protect him in country and in town, fall and die for him. You shall speak with him in the truth of your heart, give him sound advice loyally, and smooth his way in every respect," the oaths read. "The presence of the oath tablet at Tayinat affirms Ashurbanipal's claim that his father caused all the people of Assyria, great and small, to take the oath," said team epigrapher Professor Jacob Lauinger of John Hopkins University. The tablet appears to have been created on the 18th day of the 2nd month of the year 672 BC.

[SunkenCiv]

full title is "The Oath On The Platform -- 2,700 Year Old Temple At Tayinat Had Royal Loyalty Oath Prominently Displayed".

[SunkenCiv]

· GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach · · join list or digest · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post a topic · subscribe ·
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[Outlaw Woman]

...inhabitants prominently displayed a tablet which bore a pledge of loyalty to the heir of an Assyrian king... Professor Tim Harrison...

Wow..they had incredibly modern & plain sounding names back then didn't they?? And the title of Professor no less.. I'm stuned

[GeronL]

Good timing with the Israeli oath thang going on

[Does so]

We’d call it, “Statement of Mission” today.

[bunkerhill7]

The First King of Tayinat, AssyurObamabulsit, is buried here.

[wildbill]

It’s good to be a king.

[SunkenCiv]

Not queen, not duke, not prince.

[SunkenCiv]

Asshatindonesikenyan is is descendant.

[SunkenCiv]

;’)

[SunkenCiv]

This is new coverage for something from last year, so that’s probably part of what’s going on.

[SunkenCiv]

To da moon! ;’)

[Outlaw Woman]

:)

[wildbill]

If you’re a duke, all you can do is put ‘em up. And a prince of a guy is just an also ran, servicable as the second banana. Only Barney Frank can be a queen and a king maker at the same time.

But It’s always good to be the king.