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DĀDUŠA'S STELA AND THE VEXED QUESTION OF IDENTIFYING THE MAIN ACTORS ON THE RELIEF

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 September 2017

Robert Rollinger
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Abstract

This contribution deals with the famous stela of king Dāduša of Ešnunna (c. eighteenth century b.c.). The monument testifies to a correlation of text and image that is unique in the Ancient Near East. However, recent scholarship still disagrees on the identification of the three main actors in the top register of the stela. The paper discusses in detail the philological and epigraphic evidence and their larger contexts. It concludes that the slaying figure to the left standing on the defeated king of Qab(a)rā is Adad and the figure to the far right is the pious king of Ešnunna paying reverence to his god who guaranteed victory over his enemy.

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Type
Research Article
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IRAQ , Volume 79 , December 2017 , pp. 203 - 212
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 2017 

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