Burnt Palace at Kalhu
palace · 1600 BC – 2099 AD
The Burnt Palace, which was destroyed by fire when Kalhu fell to anti-Assyrian Babylonian and Median forces in 612 BC, has the longest building sequence yet identified at Nimrud (biblical Calah). This royal residence, which was constructed in the southeast quarter of the citadel, had at least nine phases of occupation between the Middle Assyrian and Hellenistic Periods. The so-called Burnt Palace was rebuilt/renovated three times during the ninth to seventh centuries BC and it might have temporarily served as a royal residence during the reign of Sargon II (r. 721–705 BC), while that Assyrian king was building his new capital Dūr-Šarrukīn. An immense collection of burnt ivories (the ‘Loftus ivories’) was discovered in and near the throne room in 1954–55; these are now in the British Museum (London).
- Coordinates
- 36.09689, 43.32966
- Also known as
- Burnt Palace (en), South-East Palace (en)
- Dating
- attested
Sources
- Pleiades: A Gazetteer of Past Places · CC BY 3.0Pleiades: A Gazetteer of Past Places (CC BY 3.0)