Given the numerous building activities that Ashurbanipal, Aššur-etel-ilāni, and Sîn-šarra-iškun, as well as Sîn-balāssu-iqbi of Ur (on behalf of Ashurbanipal), sponsored in the Assyrian heartland and in Babylonia, it is no surprise that over 150 inscribed/stamped bricks of these men are now found in museum collections all over the world, especially in the British Museum (London) and the Vorderasiatisches Museum (Berlin), or were copied or photographed by archaeologists shortly after their discovery in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.[57] At present, twenty-three different brick inscriptions are known from Aššur and Kalḫu in Assyria, and Babylon, Dilbat (modern Deilam), Dūr-Kurigalzu (modern Aqar Quf), Mê-Turān (modern Tell Ḥaddād), Nippur, and Ur in Babylonia. The bricks vary in size and shape (usually square or rectangular, but occasionally well-head, that is, bricks used in the construction of round wells and conduits). The text is sometimes stamped and sometimes inscribed by hand on the face and/or the edge of the brick.[58] The inscriptions from Assyria (reigns of Aššur-etel-ilāni and Sîn-šarra-iškun)[59] are always in Akkadian, using Neo-Assyrian script. The texts from Babylonia (reigns of Ashurbanipal and Aššur-etel-ilāni), however, are sometimes in Akkadian and sometimes in Sumerian,[60] and the script is either contemporary Neo-Babylonian, archaizing Neo-Babylonian (which is modelled on Old Babylonian monumental script), or a mixture of contemporary and archaizing Neo-Babylonian sign forms.[61] The inscriptions vary in length, from three to sixteen lines of text. All of the Babylonian brick inscriptions are dedicatory in nature, that is, they are addressed to the deity whose temple, shrine, sanctuary, or ziggurat was being restored.[62] For example, Asb. 248 reads:
The brick inscriptions from Assyria, on the other hand, are commemorative labels.[63] The short texts denote ownership, but also add a brief statement about the building in whose structure the bricks are incorporated. For example, Ssi 13 reads:
[57] Asb. 247–251, 256–257, 259–261, and 2008–2018; Aei 1, 4–5; and Ssi 13–14. The exact number of extant bricks is unknown since the actual number of bricks bearing Asb. 257 has never been published/recorded in scholarly publications.
[58] At times, the text might be inscribed within an area that has been impressed, thus, providing a border for the text. In some scholarly literature these inscriptions are usually described as stamped, rather than, more accurately, as inscribed.
[59] No inscribed bricks of Ashurbanipal from Assyria are presently known. All of that king's brick inscriptions come from Babylonia.
[60] Asb. 247–250 and 256–257 (Babylon, Dūr-Kurigalzu, and Mê-Turān) and Aei 4 (Dilbat) are in Akkadian. Asb. 251, 259–261, and 2008–2018 (Babylon, Nippur, and Ur) and Aei 5 (Nippur) are in Sumerian.
[61] Asb. 247–250, 256–257, and 2008–2018 (Babylon, Dūr-Kurigalzu, Mê-Turān, and Ur) and Aei 4 (Dilbat) are in contemporary Babylonian script. Asb. 259–261 (Nippur) are in archaizing Babylonian script. Asb. 251 (Babylon) and Aei 5 (Nippur) have mixed sign forms.
[62] Grayson, Orientalia NS 49 (1980) pp. 156–157.
[63] Grayson, Orientalia NS 49 (1980) pp. 155–156.
Jamie Novotny
Jamie Novotny, 'Bricks', 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/SurveyofInscribedObjects/Bricks/]