A. Kirk Grayson and Jamie Novotny's The Royal Inscriptions of Sennacherib, King of Assyria (704–681 bc), Part 2 is the fourth volume in the Royal Inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian Period series (RINAP), which continues the Assyrian sub-series of the now defunct Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia project (RIMA) under the direction of Grant Frame at the University of Pennsylvania. The aim of the RINAP project is to publish all known royal inscriptions from the reigns of Tiglath-pileser III, Shalmaneser V, Sargon II, Sennacherib and Esarhaddon (i.e. covering the period 744–669 bc). Grayson and Novotny's book completes the edition of the official inscriptions of Sennacherib, the first part of which was published by the same authors in 2012. In doing so it provides a much-needed, up-to-date English-language edition of the official inscriptions (some previously unpublished) of this important Neo-Assyrian ruler, famed particularly for his extensive building activities, notably in his new royal capital, Nineveh – a city whose destruction at the hands of ISIS has been the sad subject of recent news headlines. Sennacherib's siege of Jerusalem earned him notoriety in the Old Testament, to which Grayson and Novotny's volumes provide a valuable Assyrian counterpoint.
The volume includes 195 texts from Sennacherib's reign, as well as twenty-six further inscriptions which have been tentatively attributed to the king. Also included are two inscriptions belonging to Sennacherib's wife, Tašmētu-šarrat, and (perhaps) his mother which, although brief, represent a welcome addition to the corpus of sources relating to royal women, who enjoyed an increasingly prominent role during this period. The vast majority of the texts come from Assyria's most prominent cities: Sennacherib's capital, Nineveh, the religious centre of Aššur, and the city of Kalhu, which had served as royal capital until the end of the eighth century bc and remained an important provincial centre under Sennacherib. A smaller group of texts comes from other cities and sites within Assyria and Babylonia, a region with which Sennacherib had a particularly turbulent relationship. The texts edited in the book cover a broad range, from the more familiar monumental inscriptions on colossi and stone reliefs, and foundation documents such as cylinders and prisms, to clay copies or drafts of royal texts, and short epigraphs inscribed on a variety of media. The edition of each text includes a general introduction, a catalogue of exemplars, and a commentary with further information and notes. While not always exhaustive (and not intended to be), the bibliography accompanying each item is extensive, up-to-date and clearly presented, with helpful notes indicating the nature of the publication (e.g. photo, copy, edition). An accompanying CD-ROM provides full scores (i.e. complete transliterations) of those texts which are known from multiple exemplars, but variants are also included in the body of the book.
Like the other publications in the RINAP series, the book's purpose is not to provide detailed analysis or synthesis, but, rather, an accessible text edition compiled to the highest scholarly standard. Its appeal to a broad audience, from specialist scholars and students to the interested lay public, is aided by the innovations introduced by the RINAP project to the original format of the RIMA series, the most important of which is the addition of a generous introduction designed to supply context for the texts within. Over the course of thirty pages, Grayson and Novotny provide an overview of the different types of inscribed objects and their functions, together with information about Sennacherib's military and building activities, his family, succession arrangements and death. The result is a highly engaging and informative introduction to the material which goes beyond the merely descriptive: the section on “Clay tablets”, for instance, uses a discussion of draft texts to shed light on the life of the inscriptions in antiquity, such as the way in which royal texts were composed by scribes for approval by the king, their evolving form, or the way in which such inscriptions were treated by subsequent rulers. By drawing attention to the complex and often problematic nature of royal inscriptions, and the processes which shaped them, Grayson and Novotny raise important historiographical questions which have implications for the way in which we interpret these official texts.
Figures are used to good effect throughout the volume and will be particularly appreciated by non-specialist readers. Maps and plans provide useful geographical context, and illustrations of the inscribed objects or their reconstructions help to emphasize the physicality of the inscriptions, which can be all too easily lost in a pure text edition.
Like those of previous RINAP publications, Grayson and Novotny's text editions have been made available online (accessible from the project's homepage at http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/). The online publication, however, is more than just a duplicate of the edited inscriptions: while the book contains full indices of proper names (personal, topographical and divine), the online corpus is fully lemmatised, making it possible to search the Akkadian original and the English translation of all the published texts. As such, the online edition not only widens access beyond the traditional academic audience but provides an invaluable companion to the print volume, particularly for anyone working closely with these texts.
In conclusion, The Royal Inscriptions of Sennacherib, King of Assyria (704–681 bc), Part 2 is a highly accomplished yet accessible edition which will prove extremely useful to scholars and non-scholars alike.
