Talk:Nineveh

Past Questions and Remarks

It will probably be easier to start fresh in a heading section, and introduce as much of this text as can be used nowadays. Anyone want to start? Wetman 23:40, 2 Mar 2004 (UTC)

The article states that after 610 BC Nineveh was wiped from existence, yet in AD 627 there was a "Battle of Nineveh". This needs explanation. -RomeW 09:21, 12 Feb 2005 (UTC)

"A large part of tablets...."  ?? So, does this mean ----- a large number of tablets?? a large percentage of the tablets found?? A large group of tablets?? Confusing, and the later references to the clay tablets and library don't clear things up well. Probably would benefit from a rewrite, i.e. Wetman above. WBardwin 11:07, 27 Feb 2005 (UTC)

--

"It was buried out of sight, and no one knew its grave. It is never again to rise from its ruins. Nineveh was a place of worship" - This looks like mythical poetry (and very poorly written), rather than an encyclopedia article. :( Sciolus

The article is updated! --JFK 10:33, 13 January 2006 (UTC) WHAT'S THE CORRECT DISTANCE FROM THE BANKS OF THE MEDITERANIAN SEA TO NINEVAH - ON THE STRAIGHT LINE. I WANT TO KNOW THIS JUST TO FIND OUT HOW FAR THE BIG FISH SPAT OUT. --

You are asking in completely the wrong place, at any event, you seem to have misread Jonah 3:1-3. Til Eulenspiegel (talk) 22:38, 25 September 2012 (UTC)

Why can I not download this and the Babylon posts...when I try to download Nineveh it reads as follows: ! Package polyglossia Error: The current roman font does not contain the Syriac 208.119.147.138 (talk) 17:37, 12 June 2015 (UTC)stba

How do you pronounce Nineveh? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.20.12.73 (talk • contribs) . on 17.02.2006

It is pronounced in the Assyrian languge as "Nin-ew-Wah." Some Assyrians pronouce it as "Nin-Veh." Either prounciation is correct although the second one is more popular. User: Nineveh 209

Population figures

It is difficult and sometimes even impossible to rank the world´s top five largest cities in ancient times. The Chandler list [1] is based on some very general assumptions. --JFK 12:45, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

It is believed that Nineveh was the largest city in the world from 668 to 612 BC.[2]

Removed until verified. --JFK 11:38, 12 May 2006 (UTC)

those dates are far too specific, but it is fair to say that it was among the largest cities in Antiquity, and to give a rough estimate of its size. dab (ᛏ) 18:59, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

In Jonah 4:12 the population is 120,000 people

And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”DrSalted (talk) 04:01, 3 February 2015 (UTC)

Actually the reference in the Bible to the population count is "But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left" That is more than 120,000 people who are young enough not to really understand their left side from their right side. IE: children. It is not specified exactly how old this is and it might vary person to person. So the population would be a bunch more than this.

The Holy Bible: New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1984), Jon 4:11.וְ Thebiblenerd (talk) 00:40, 22 August 2024 (UTC)

3 days journey?

It says that three days' journey would equal 60 miles. I think that is way too far.Steve Dufour 05:18, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

The biblical section isn't sourced. Maybe the three days' journey could be understood differently. Even as 3 days from the place where the fish vomited Jonah onto dry land. But that's just one guess. The section might be more interesting if it had secondary sources about the biblical references to Nineveh.Springatlast (talk) 19:43, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

"Hamitic Assyrians" map

There's no evidence the "Ancient Israelites" ever considered the Assyrians Hamitic in any way, apart from some stretchy interpretations of one verse, Genesis 10:11, that have appeared in relatively modern times. I don't object to the map appearing, considering the work that was put in it, but it needs attrib. for NPOV. Til Eulenspiegel (talk) 17:21, 30 March 2008 (UTC)

I also think the map is out of place for this article and should be removed. Kristamaranatha (talk) 19:28, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

"Hamitic"? Do the same people talk of "Mohamedans" and "Chinamen" and peruse the rotogravure section of a Sabbath, one wonders. --Wetman (talk) 23:29, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

proposed additions

The following could be worked into the text. sources for this include: Time Life Lost Civilizations series: Mesopotamia: The Mighty Kings. (1995) and "The Seventy Wonders of the Ancient World" edited by Chris scarre 1999 (Thames and Hudson) If any one wants to work it in that would be fine or if anyone has any sugestions as to how and where I should do it I'll consider it when I do it. A little redundancy may need to be removed.

The Palace of Sennacherib in Ninevah was built aproximately 702-693 BCE
The citadel walls surrounding the palace were about 12 kilometers long. The wall system consisted of an ashlar stone retaining wall about 6 m. high surmounted by a mudbrick wall about 10 m. high and 15 m. thick. The stone retaining wall had projecting stone towers spaced about every 18 m. The stone wall and towers were topped by three-step merlons.

The Palace was approximately 503 by 242 meters. The solid foundatiion was made out of limestone blocks and mud bricks; it was 22 meters tall. This is a total of about 2.68 million cubic meters (about 160 million bricks). The walls on top were made out of mud brick they were an additional 20 meters tall. It included 120 colossal door figures weighing upto 30 tons. These include many Winged lions or Bulls with a mans head. These were transported 30 miles from Quaries at Balatai and they had to be lifted up 65 feet once they arrived at the site presumably by a ramp. There are also 9880 feet of carved stone panels. Carved stone reliefs include a drawings of them moving one of the colossal statues. They include picture records every step including carving the statues and transporting them on a barge. One picture show 44 men towing a colossal statue. The carving shows 3 men directing the operation while standing on the Colossus. Once the statues arrived at there final destination the final carving was done. Most of the statue weigh between 10 and 30 tons. A modern experimiment required 180 men to tow a 10 ton clossus on easter Island in the 1950's

The stone carvings in the walls include many battle scenes, impalings and scenes showing his men parading the spoils of war before Sennacherib. He also bragged about his conquests, He wrote the following about Babylon "It's inhabitants, young and old, I did not spare, and with their corpses I filled the syreets of the city." He later wrote about a battle in Lachish "And Hezekiah of Judah who had not submitted to my yoke...him I shut up in Jeruselum his royal city like a caged bird. Earthworks I threw up against him, and anyone coming out of his city gate I made pay for his crime. His cities which I had plundered I had cut off from his land."

In January 681 He came to a sudden death. One version of his death claims he was killed by his own son another claims he was killed when a colossal statue fell on him and it was interpretted by some that the gods sought divine retribution. Zacherystaylor (talk) 08:29, 12 September 2008 (UTC) I added this to the site. It contridicted the dimensions already on the site but there was no source for those measurements and the translation was wrong so I replaced it with the new numbers. That is the only existing part I changed. If there are any concerns I'll respond. Zacherystaylor (talk) 03:47, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

You might add your sources for the figures.

--Wetman (talk) 00:03, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Illustrations

The illustrations with text in the image uploaded by User:Fredarch look as if they'd been scanned from a publication. Do we have a copy violation here?--Wetman (talk) 00:03, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Accuracy in regard to Nimrud Page

The Nimrud entry states that the same archaeological findings occurred there, and were erroneously labeled "Nineveh." Is this true? There is no mention of the possible confusion here.~~Klvalens~~ — Preceding unsigned comment added by Klvalens (talk • contribs) 10:14, 15 July 2013 (UTC)

ISIS and Nineveh

So I added a small paragraph regarding ISIS blowing up some of Nineveh's walls under the topic "Threats to Nineveh" one day ago. Then one person later removed the information, citing a Twitter post. Yet that post cannot be confirmed as it simply stated Nineveh was not damaged, without any citation.

In her own words, "My source, a professional archaeologist who drove round the walls this morning, is entirely credible" "Report just in from #Mosul archaeologist: walls of #Nineveh still intact, 9am Iraqi time today. "No trace of damage or exploding at all" "Reliable eye-witness report from professional archaeologist I've worked with for 25 years. You know better?" https://twitter.com/Eleanor_Robson/status/561246788410437632

Who do you trust?
A citation from some random rag quoting anonymous sources or a Professor of Ancient Near Eastern History at University College London and Chair of Council at The British Institute for the Study of Iraq citing a professional archaeologists? DrSalted (talk) 03:36, 3 February 2015 (UTC)

This was just a rumour that didn't receive much coverage in media therefore I removed it. Recent photos from an Arabic-language news website show the walls intact ([3])--Kathovo talk 16:57, 7 February 2015 (UTC)

BBC link. 86.14.159.189 (talk) 20:00, 26 February 2015 (UTC)

OOH OOH! I know the answer to this! <spoiler>Neither! Twitter isn't a reliable source.</spoiler> — LlywelynII 10:35, 17 June 2015 (UTC)

IPA

My vote, as always with fairly established names, is to leave this for Wiktionary to sort out. That said, it's always possible people who don't go to Sunday School might show up to this page and pronounce it something along the lines of "9-vuh", so I can see its use. If we're doing IPA, though, we need to be thorough and include both of the major pronunciations. — LlywelynII 10:25, 17 June 2015 (UTC)

Etymology

I'm deferring to the lack of further info at OED and this article's previous "uncertain" status, but this source seems to feel it's now well established that (a) the Akkadian pronunciation was (originally?) Nūnu and (b) that its namesake was the specific river goddess Ninâ, apparently subsequently conflated as "Ishtar of Nineveh". Is this something people now feel certain about? — LlywelynII 10:29, 17 June 2015 (UTC)

Alt names

I like them and think all the ones we have are justified. We could also use:

• the Egyptian names in hieroglyphics
• the Babylonian and Akkadian names in cuneiform
• Roman transliteration of the Syriac boxes
• the Arabic name (if it's different) or script (if it's the same as the Hebrew or Farsi)

 — LlywelynII 10:38, 17 June 2015 (UTC)

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Abandoned or not, contradictory claims

On the one hand, the article says:

ЫYes, to the Greek historians Ctesias and Herodotus (c. 400 BC), Nineveh was a thing of the past; and when Xenophon passed the place in the 4th century BC he described it as abandoned.[24]

a few sentences later it says:

The library of Ashurbanipal may still have been in use until around the time of Alexander the Great.

This claim is unsourced and it would contradict the first claim given that Alexander lived in the second half of the 4th century. --Johannes Rohr (talk) 13:24, 22 November 2021 (UTC)

Daesh housing plans?

Under the topic "Threats to the site", the last sentence of the last paragraph states "Daesh also called for intensive new housing in the Kuyunjiq part and opened a large road across the southern part of the site (currently known as Al Asady Road)." What is the source for this claim? Jjosiff (talk) 12:22, 26 June 2024 (UTC)