Temple of Ištar (Emašmaš) at Nineveh
Creators: name: Maynard, Glynnis
Publisher: name: Database of Religious History (DRH)
Year: 2023

description: The temple of Ištar is located atop the Kouyunjik mound of ancient Nineveh, which is bounded by the Tigris river to the west and surrounded by the modern city of Mosul in Northern Iraq. By the second millennium BCE, it was referred to as Emašmaš. It is possible this name may in fact refer to a group of structures containing shrines to various deities in the immediate vicinity of the main temple. There is also a ziggurat dedicated to Ištar thought to be located southwest of Emašmaš complex. According to ŠamšiAdad I (r.1808-1776 BCE), a temple was first built to Ištar in Nineveh by the Akkadian ruler Maništušu, which he then rebuilt on a monumental scale. There is limited archaeological evidence of earlier structures dated to the 3rd millennium BCE beneath the large platform Šamši-Adad built his new temple upon, one of which could have been built by Maništušu. From this point the temple entered into a long history of continued use, with many subsequent phases of reconstruction and renovation. These phases are wellattested for the Middle Assyrian and Neo-Assyrian periods, where foundation inscriptions, bricks and wallpegs found in the main temple area name and/or describe the building efforts of multiple kings, in particular: Aššur-uballiṭ I (r.1363-1328 BCE), Shalmaneser I (r.1263-1234 BCE), Tukulti-Ninurta I (r.1233-1197 BCE), Aššurnaṣirpal II (r. 883-859 BCE), Sennacherib (r.704-681 BCE), and Aššurbanipal (r. 668-631 BCE). There may have been earlier Old Assyrian/Babylonian and Mittani presence at Kouyunjik as well, but it is unclear to what extent Nineveh was directly incorporated into these polities. Limited cuneiform records and archaeological evidence do exist pertaining to activities at Nineveh from these periods; for instance, Hammurapi of Babylon mentions his pious works in Emašmaš on his famous stele. Depending on who controlled Nineveh at the time, the goddess occupying the temple may have been equated with Šauška, a Hurrian goddess (early 2nd millennium BCE), Mullissu, the wife of Aššur (Neo-Assyrian period), or with Sumerian Inana or Ninlil. As the daughter of Sîn and sister to Šamaš, Ištar is a main goddess of the Mesopotamian pantheon, with roles in war, fertility/sex, and nature. The temple itself is not fully excavated due to surface erosion on its eastern side, and understanding its stratigraphy is quite difficult, considering that areas of the temple proper had been demolished and rebuilt at variable depths throughout its history. In general, the temple was a rectangular building built upon a mudbrick platform, containing an inner and outer courtyard, the outer of which was bounded by a series of rooms on its northwest, southwest, and southeast sides. Its main entrance is thought to be from the northwest via a monumental gate flanked with stone statues of lions, which are the attribute animal of Ištar. As collateral damage in the collapse of the Neo-Assyrian empire in 612 BCE, the temple was extensively burned, its fragmented materials used for building later structures on the site