A Stele of Sargon II at Tell Tayinat

Abstract

The delivery of a basalt fragment to the Hatay Arkeoloji Müzesi by a farmer who had found it at Tell Tayinat drew our attention to four other basalt fragments inscribed with cuneiform from Tell Tayinat that are currently in the collection of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. Our study of the five basalt fragments has identified them as pieces of a hitherto unrecognized stele of Sargon II. In this article, we describe the fragments; explain why they derive from a single monumental stele; edit the cuneiform text inscribed on the fragments; discuss reasons for attributing the stele to Sargon II; and, finally, consider why Sargon II may have erected it at Tell Tayinat.