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The Banquet Stele of Assurnasirpal II
Artifact: Stele
Provenience: Nimrud
Period: Neo-Assyrian (ca. 911-612 BC)
Current location: British Museum, London
Text genre, language: Royal inscription; Akkadian
CDLI page
Description: The Banquet Stele of Assurnasirpal II records the ninth century Neo-Assyrian king's renovation of the city of Kalhu (modern-day Nimrud), which he made his capital. It boasts of the lavish palace and gardens he built, the restoration of temples, and the resettlement and rejuvenation of surrounding towns. The 'banquet' moniker derives from its most unique claim: that in 879 BC, Assurnasirpal II celebrated his new capital with a lavish feast at which he served 69574 people–male and female, local and foreign envoy–with an obscene amount of meat, poultry, vegetables, and alcohol. This number seems impossibly high, and was likely a typically bombastic royal exaggeration. All the same, this is good evidence that luxurious mass public feasting was one possible feature of royal events. (Eva Miller, University of Oxford)
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