Sargon II in the Mahidasht: New Evidence from Quwakh Tapeh, Kermanshah

Abstract

The eastward expansion of Assyria, richly narrated in official inscriptions and supported by corollary materials such as letters from the royal correspondence and oracular enquiries, remains in archaeological terms hugely under-explored. Over the past few years, however, this has begun to change and a succession of recent discoveries is starting to give us an increasingly more detailed picture of the imprint of Assyrian rule in this sector of the Empire. The two fragments of a monumental stele of Sargon II published here, excavated at the site of Quwakh Tapeh in the Mahidasht Plain, are an example of just the sort of find that is ushering in a new era in our understanding of the Assyrian presence in western Iran.