Overview

Almost every modern Assyriologist becomes acquainted with the text of Sennacherib's annalistic clay prism inscriptions, which recount eight campaigns, at a relatively early stage of their studies. The primary text is the clay prism acquired by J.H. Breasted from an antiquities dealer in Baghdad in 1920 and published by D. Luckenbill in 1924. This prism is housed in the Oriental Institute in Chicago and is therefore traditionally known as the ""Chicago Prism."" However, if one considers this text from a historical perspective, specifically within the context of the history of Assyrian royal inscriptions as a genre, it does not stand at the beginning, but rather near the end of this development. While it is a text read early in the context of Assyriological studies today, it emerged relatively late in the macro-context of ancient Near Eastern history. The annals of Assyrian kings are a typical example of traditional literature: texts of predecessors are intensively received in texts of successors and shape them literarily. Furthermore, the royal inscriptions essentially form a ""stream of tradition"" encompassing numerous other texts. To understand and appreciate them, one must recognize the references, often hidden in subtle turns of phrase, that point to further texts, as such references (as in all literature of every era) are constitutive of meaning. The aim of this study is to contribute to a better understanding of the Sennacherib Annals within their cultural-historical context by exploring their intertextual connections. The focus on the 19 lines of the prologue to the Chicago Prism is based on several factors. Firstly, the prologue is the section of the text in which the intertextual references to other texts and traditions are most dense. Secondly, it is also the section that not only stands out compositionally but also prepares the subsequent account of the war and construction, functioning, in a sense, as a hermeneutic lens for the other sections. And finally, it appears to be the only part of Sennacherib's annalistic prism inscriptions that has been used as a school text.

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