- Museum number
- 90850
- Description
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Limestone boundary-stone: consists of a massive rectangular block, or pillar, of limestone, with a broken top. It is now mounted upon a plinth, into which it is let about 3/4 in. The face of the stone (Face A) has been sculptured with emblems in low relief, arranged in three registers; there is room for a fourth register, a space of about 9 in. in height having been left blank at the base of the stone, below the third register. The field of the three registers has been cut away to a uniform depth, leaving the original surface of the stone within the outline of the emblems; details on the surface of the emblems have then been indicated roughly with bored holes. Emblems include; First register: (1) Crescent, (2) Solar disc, (3) Eight-pointed star, (4) Lamp, (5) Walking bird, (6) Eagle-headed mace,4 (7) Lion-headed mace, (8) Sitting dog, (9) Scorpion, and (10) Reversed yoke, standing on a shrine. Second register: (11) Bird on perch, (12) Lightning-fork supported by ox, couchant, (13) Spear-head, supported by horned dragon, couchant, and (14) Wedge, supported by horned dragon, couchant, before a temple-tower. Third register: (15) Horned serpent, whose body stretches across the whole width of the stone at the bottom of the register, (16) Turtle, (17) Ram-headed crook above the goat-fish, and (18) Winged dragon, treading on the hinder part of the serpent. The two maces or standards, Nos (6) and (7), are represented rising from the plain band which divides the first register from the second. Interior portions of the two lower stories of tne temple-tower have been cut away, so that the wedge and the dragon should stand out in relief. This gives the lowest storey of the tower an appearance of having arched openings in it. It should, of course, be solid like the other stories, the apparent openings being merely due to the exigencies of the engraver. The base of the crook is partly cut away from the tail of the goat-fish, but the two clearly form a single group. The back of the stone (Face B) is engraved with the three columns of text, which record the grant of land to Marduk-zakir-shumi. The top of the stone on this side was very broken before the engraving, and the engraver has accordingly fitted the columns of his text to the available space. The two sides of the stone have also been rubbed down and faced to take inscriptions or sculptures, but they have been left blank, possibly because of their imperfect surface, especially on the left-hand side of the stone. Three columns of cuneiform text record deed of gift recording a grant of eighteen and two thirds gan of corn-land, in the province of Engur-Ishtar, by Marduk-aplu-iddina I to Marduk-zakir-shumi, a provincial governor and high official. The land was situated on the bank of the Tigris and was in the district of the town of Dur-zizi. Three high officials, including the governor of Engur-Ishtar, assisted at the transfer of the property.
- Dimensions
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Height: 91.44 centimetres
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Thickness: 30.48 centimetres
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Width: 50.80 centimetres
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
- The stone was found on the western bank of the Tigris opposite Baghdad, and was acquired for the British Museum by George Smith during the expedition he undertook to Nineveh, in 1873-74, for the proprietors of the 'Daily Telegraph'.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
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Exhibited:
Babylonian Room (1892 Guide)
- Condition
- Incomplete.
- Acquisition notes
- Recorded as having been purchased in Baghdad.
- Department
- Middle East
- BM/Big number
- 90850
- Registration number
- DT.383
- Additional IDs
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Miscellaneous number: 99 (exhibition number)
