NEO ASSYRIAN ASHURNASIRPAL/BANQUET STELE

Abstract

Assyrian kings gave great feasts after important events such as feasts, victories and city openings. In addition to the Assyrian people, ambassadors from the surrounding countries were also invited to these feasts. The banquets given at the city openings could be more crowded than the others. II. Asurnasirpal started a reconstruction activity to move the capital of the kingdom from Nineveh to the City of Kalhu (Nimrud). It is not clear exactly at what stage of these development activities an opening ceremony was held.

A stele describing how this banquet ceremony organized by the king was held was found in its original location in the North West Palace. Although there is no banquet scene on the stele, the inscription on it mentions the banquet. According to the inscription on the stele, the king organized the richest banquet ceremony of the period with a great participation in honor of the opening of the city. From the discovery of the banquet stele in the Kalhu North West Palace in 1951 to the present day, there have been different opinions about the texts written on it. There is no consensus among the researchers about the date of the banquet, the food given and whether the number of participants is real. In the study, while researching the information about this feast, some inaccurate inferences made by western researchers on numerical data were also emphasized. For this reason, the accuracy of the information on the stele will be discussed from a different perspective, taking into account the Near East culture.