Were the Assyrians at Ecbatana?

International Journal of Kurdish Studies, Jan, 2002 by I.N. Medvedskaya

The initial seat of the rebellion should most probably be sought in the western part of the Hamadan plain. The localisation of Saparda allows us to extend the limits of the area involved in the revolt. Being a part of Harhar, it may be located at its border on the south. If the place-name in query No. 51 is to be read Saparda instead of Sandu, as Diakonoff suggested (46), then these areas were connected through a mountain pass blocked on the side of Harhar by the town of Kilman. Saparda was bordering on the following lands: in 716 B.C. it is described in the annals as laying between the countries of Sikris and Uriakku (47), in the text of the stele as not far from Kurabli and Sikris (48); in 715 B.C. it is mentioned as laying between Sikris and Upparia (49); in 714 B.C.--between Zakruti and Kanzabakani (50). Of the lands enumerated, Zakruti had already become an Assyrian possession under Tiglathpileser III. It was apparently the westernmost of the lands enumerated, bordering directly upon Harhar ("from Harhar I departed ... I entered Zakruti" (51)). Uriakku lay probably to the south-west or to the south of Saparda bordering on Ellipi. Sikris and Upparia were the easternmost.

In 716 B.C. Sargon departed from Sikris, went through several lands and entered Upparia before Bustus; Sargon names Sikris as a part of the land of the Medes (52). These lands were not included into the province of Harhar after the uprising of 715; Sikris and Upparia are missing in the list of tributaries of 714 B.C. (53). Under Esarhaddon, Sikris was also not a part of Harhar; Assyrian troops were sent there from Bit-Kiri and Saparda to collect tribute (No. 65). The mention of Bustus could provide a key helping to establish the location of the lands enumerated. From Upparia, through the mountain pass of the same name, between the lofty mountains Pattashshun and Darue, Sargon entered the plain, "against the cities of Bustus." It is the only case when both the mountain pass and the plain are given particular mention in the itinerary of the 716 B.C. campaign (54). Taking into account the location of Harhar between the Asadabad pass and Sahneh, it is possible to believe that Sargon was describing the entrance to Malayer-Jowkar, a plain to the south of Hamadan (55). In this case, the countries between Saparda and Upparia should correspond to the territories in the valley of the Gamasiab River, between Nehavand and the road to Tuissarkan, and to the eastern foothills from which one enters the Malayer-Jowkar plain.

The suggested location of Saparda and Bit-Kiri is confirmed by the logic of the stratagems employed by the rebels. The queries of Esarhaddon contain the names of several fortresses besieged by them. Besides the siege of Kishesim (No. 43), the rest are connected with the rebels' advance to Harhar: Kilman on the border between Saparda and Harhar (No. 51), Subara on the border of Saparda (No. 48), Sissirtu in Harhar, on the border with Ellipi (Nos. 77-78) (56). The rebels' most urgent task was to cut the main Assyrian communication line in the Zagros in order to isolate the province of Harhar from which the road to Media could be controlled. To some extent the pattern of the Elamite conquest of the Great Khorasan Road was thus repeated.