Just like his father Esarhaddon, Ashurbanipal rebuilt Ekur ("House, Mountain"), the temple of the god Enlil at Nippur.[151] Moreover, he restored the Egigunû, the temple on top of Enlil's ziggurat, together with some part of its cella Eḫursaggalama ("House, Skillfully-Built Mountain" or "House Stepped Mountain).[152] Numerous stamped and inscribed bricks attest to the renovations. Work on the ziggurat temple was carried out since its enclosure wall (igāru) had become old and eroded, perhaps due to water damage.[153] Since Ashurbanipal refers to himself as "the king of the land of Sumer and Akkad" in an Akkadian inscription written on a clay cylinder recording the renovation of that sacred building, the work at Nippur was probably carried out at a time when there was no separate king of Babylon, or at least not one acknowledged by the text's composer(s).[154] Thus, Ashurbanipal probably sponsored the work sometime after the suppression of the Šamaš-šuma-ukīn rebellion (652–648). The pro-Assyrian governor (šandabakku) of Nippur, Enlil-bāni, assuming he was still in office at the time, might have overseen the work on Ashurbanipal's behalf.[155]
It is possible that Ashurbanipal might have also worked on Nippur's city wall, but that project is not attested in the extant textual record.[156]
[151] Asb. 258–261. For Esarhaddon's Nippur inscriptions, see Leichty, RINAP 4 pp. 260–270 Esarhaddon 128–132. For Ekur's building history, see George, House Most High p. 116 no. 677.
[152] George, House Most High p. 92 no. 373 and pp. 100-101 no. 480; and Sjöberg, Temple Hymns p. 50. For a study of Ashurbanipal's work on the ziggurat, see Clayden and Schneider, Kaskal 12 (2015) pp. 349–382. Asb. 258 (lines 15–19) gives the impression that Egigunû was the ziggurat, but it is more likely only the temple on top of it, as A.R. George (House Most High p. 92 no. 373) has already suggested. Moreover, Egigunû might be a noun (with É as a preceding determinative for a building), rather than a ceremonial name; see, for example, CAD G pp. 67–70 sub gigunû. Thus, one might read Asb. 258 line 15 as É.gi-gu-nu-ú ziq-qur-rat NIBRU.KI, "the sacred building of the ziggurat of Nippur," instead of é-gi-gu-nu-ú ziq-qur-rat NIBRU.KI, "Egigunû, the ziggurat of Nippur." It is unclear what part of Eḫursaggalama Ashurbanipal had repaired since the reading of the relevant passage in Asb. 261 (line 10) is uncertain and differs in the known copies of the text.
[153] The known exemplars of Asb. 261 are both well-head bricks, which means that they were intended to be used in a round well or conduit. This might support the notion that the ziggurat and its sacred temple had sustained damage from water. On the conduit built by Ashurbanipal on the northeast façade of the ziggurat, see Clayden and Schneider, Kaskal 12 (2015) pp. 364–365 and 367.
[154] Asb. 258 (line 10). On the date, see the commentary to that text, as well as Clayden and Schneider, Kaskal 12 (2015) p. 354. As noted by G. Frame (RIMB 2 p. 220), the work could have been carried out during the rebellion, but that would be highly unusual since Babylonia was in turmoil.
[155] For details on this important man, see Frame, Babylonia p. 121; Cole, SAAS 4 pp. 54–55; Weszeli, PNA 2/1 p. 519 sub Illil-bāni no. 2; and Reynolds, SAA 18 p. XXXII.
[156] This wall was built on top of the Ur III city wall. Only one or two courses of this five-meter-thick wall have survived. For details, including its attribution to Ashurbanipal, see Gibson, Zettler, and Armstrong, Sumer 39 (1983) pp. 177 and 184–189.
Jamie Novotny
Jamie Novotny, 'Nippur', RINAP 5: The Royal Inscriptions of Ashurbanipal, Aššur-etel-ilāni, and Sîn-šarra-iškun, The RINAP/RINAP 5 Project, a sub-project of MOCCI, 2023 [http://oracc.org/rinap/rinap5/RINAP53Introduction/BuildinginBabylonia/Nippur/]