Calah
1:
CALAH (PLACE) [Heb kālaḥ (כָּלַח)]. In Gen 10:11–12 it is narrated that Nimrod, who was “a mighty hunter,” began his kingdom at Babel (Babylonia) and then went into Assyria where he built cities, among them Nineveh and Calah. This is the only specific reference in the Bible to one of the four great cities of ancient Assyria. Nevertheless, because of this greatness and because Assyrian armies marched from Calah against the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, a brief description and history of Calah are essential. For a fuller description, see MESOPOTAMIA, HISTORY OF (HISTORY AND CULTURE OF ASSYRIA).
The ancient site of Calah was strategically located from an economic and military point of view. It was on the E bank of the Tigris just N of the point where the Upper Zab River flows into the Tigris. From a military point of view this meant that Calah was protected on all but the N flank. From an economic point of view, the site was in the very center of the Assyrian heartland, a region where a rich agricultural economy flourished.
The biblical association of Nimrod with the city Calah has been preserved until modern times in the sense that the medieval and modern name of the site is Nimrud. While native tradition preserved in Arabic literature never forgot the correct identification of the ancient site Calah, it was only in the 19th century that Europeans recognized where the city had been. In fact there was some confusion among Europeans, and Sir Austen Henry Layard, the first excavator of Nimrud, actually thought the site was the location of Nineveh. This error was eventually corrected and his startling discoveries were then viewed in their proper historical context. Since Layard’s time, various archaeological expeditions, both Iraqi and foreign, have excavated at this site. Among these was the British expedition led by Sir Max Mallowan during the 1950s and 1960s. Many of the artifacts discovered were removed to the British Museum in London and the museum in Mosul (Nineveh) but there are still numerous Assyrian stone reliefs to be seen in a museum at the site itself. Of the four great cities of Assyria, the others were ASSHUR, NINEVEH, and ARBELA. In contrast to the other three, Calah was of no significance in the 3d and 2d millennium b.c. It was singled out for importance only in the 9th century b.c. when Assurnasirpal II chose it as his capital. Assurnasirpal totally transformed the insignificant village into a metropolis which was suitable to be the center of the empire he created. The chief god of Calah was Ninurta, the god of war, and Assurnasirpal had an enormous temple and ziggurrat (a temple tower) erected in this god’s honor. He also built a splendid palace, the so-called Northwest Palace, for his residence. Many other temples were erected and a huge wall surrounded the city for defense. The waters of the Upper Zab River were partially diverted by an intricate aqueduct in order to provide irrigation inside the walls.
The extensive building program of Assurnasirpal II was continued by his immediate successors and Calah remained the administrative center of Assyria until about 700 b.c. At that time other cities were chosen as capitals, and eventually Nineveh became the chief city. When the Assyrian Empire fell at the end of the 7th century b.c., the site of Calah was abandoned and there has been no major settlement there ever since. See RLA 5: 303–23.
Bibliography
Mallowan, M. E. L. 1966. Nimrud and Its Remains. 2 vols. London.
———. 1978. The Nimrud Ivories. London.
Reade, J. E. 1982. Nimrud. Pp. 99–112 in Fifty Years of Mesopotamian Discovery, ed. J. Curtis. London.
A. Kirk Grayson
Freedman, D. N. (1996, c1992). The Anchor Bible Dictionary (1:807). New York: Doubleday.
2:
Calah — one of the most ancient cities of Assyria. “Out of that land he [i.e., Nimrod] went forth into Assyria, and built Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir, and Calah, and Resen” (Gen. 10:11, R.V.). Its site is now marked probably by the Nimrud ruins on the left bank of the Tigris. These cover an area of about 1,000 acres, and are second only in size and importance to the mass of ruins opposite Mosul. This city was at one time the capital of the empire, and was the residence of Sardanapalus and his successors down to the time of Sargon, who built a new capital, the modern Khorsabad. It has been conjectured that these four cities mentioned in Gen. 10:11 were afterwards all united into one and called Nineveh (q.v.).
Easton, M. (1996, c1897). Easton's Bible dictionary. Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.
3:
CALAH One of the ancient capital cities of Assyria built by Nimrod (Gn 10:11–12). Calah is the ancient name for modern Nimrud, which is located 24 miles (38.6 kilometers) south of Nineveh on the east bank of the Tigris River. It was excavated by Henry Layard from 1845 to 1849 and by the British School of Archaeology in Iraq from 1949 to 1964. The site was occupied from prehistoric times down to the Hellenistic period.
Excavations at Calah revealed a large ziggurat and temples dedicated to Ninurta and Nabu. A large citadel constructed by Shalmaneser I in the 13th century bc and a palace built by Ashurnasirpal II (883–859 bc) were also uncovered there. Palaces of Shalmaneser III (858–824 bc) and Esarhaddon (680–669 bc) were partially cleared. Among other notable discoveries from the city is the black obelisk of Shalmaneser III, which is presently in the British Museum. The monument is important to biblical studies because of its record of tribute paid by King Jehu of Israel to the Assyrians.
Tiglath-pileser III (745–727 bc) and Sargon II (721–705 bc) launched their attacks on Israel and Judah from Calah. Sargon captured Samaria. Tiglath-pileser was involved with Judah when Ahaz formed a coalition with him against Israel and Syria (Is 7:1–17). Calah was eventually destroyed by the Babylonians and Medes in 612 bc.
Elwell, W. A., & Comfort, P. W. (2001). Tyndale Bible dictionary. Tyndale reference library (249). Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House Publishers.
4:
CA´LAH (kaʹla). An ancient city of Assyria built by Nimrod (which see) or by people from his country (Gen. 10:11). Shalmaneser I (c. 1280–60 b.c.) made this place famous in his day. By the time of the great conqueror Ashurnasirpal II (883–59 b.c.) the site had fallen into decay. But this eminent warrior chose Calah as his capital. At this site, now represented by the mound of Nimrud, the young Assyriological pioneer Austen Henry Layard began his excavations in 1845. At the very outset of these diggings the splendid palace of Ashurnasirpal II was discovered with colossal winged man-headed lions guarding the palace entrance. In a small temple nearby a statue of Ashurnasirpal II was found in a perfect state of preservation. Numerous inscriptions of the king also came to light. Calah remained the favorite haunt of Assyrian kings for a century and a half. Here Layard recovered the famous Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III in 1846, which, among other captives, portrays Jehu of Israel (c. 842–15 b.c.) bringing tribute to his Assyrian overlord. M. E. L. Mallowan led a dig at Calah for the British School of Archaeology in Iraq from 1949 to 1961. He completed excavation of Ashurnasirpal’s magnificent palace, covering six acres. This is now the best preserved of Assyrian royal dwellings. He also discovered and largely excavated Shalmaneser’s great fort, eighteen acres in size, which lay just inside the five-mile circuit of the city wall at its SE edge. This is the most extensive military installation yet discovered in ancient Assyria. Calah was the staging ground from which the Assyrians launched their attack on Samaria, and to Calah Sargon II brought the booty and captives after the fall of Samaria (723/2 b.c.).
Valuable antiquities from Calah are housed in the British Museum in London, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the University Museum at Philadelphia, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. m.f.u.; h.f.v.
bibliography: M. E. L. Mallowan, Nimrud and Its Remains, 2 vols. (1966); D. Dates, Studies in the Ancient History of Northern Iraq (1968).
Unger, M. F., Harrison, R. K., Vos, H. F., Barber, C. J., & Unger, M. F. (1988). The new Unger's Bible dictionary. Revision of: Unger's Bible dictionary. 3rd ed. c1966. (Rev. and updated ed.). Chicago: Moody Press.
5:
CALAH. The Assyrian state and provincial capital on the E bank of the River Tigris c. 35 km S of Nineveh (Assyr. Kalhu, mod. Tell Nimrud). Deep soundings show that it was founded by migrants from Sumer (Gn. 10:11–12). Excavations by the British in 1845–8 (Layard), 1948–63 (Mallowan and Oates), Iraqis and others (1969–80) have traced its use from prehistoric to Hellenistic times.
Rebuilt by Shalmaneser I (c. 1250 bc), it was redeveloped as the military capital of the Assyrian Empire by Ashurnasirapli II. His inauguration ceremony in 879 bc was attended by 69,574 persons (the Banquet Stela, ANET3 pp. 558–560, cf. 1 Ki. 8:62–66). The city’s prominence was for a time displaced by Dūr-Sharrukēn (Khorsabad) under Sargon II. It fell to the Babylonians in 614 bc.
Discoveries include the Arsenal from which the Assyrian armies, under Shalmaneser III (Black Obelisk) and his successors, attacked Israel and Judah, and where the booty was stored. The palaces of Ashur-nasir-apli, Shalmaneser, Tiglath-pileser and Esarhaddon yielded many inscriptions, including vassal-treaties, library and archive texts. The royal tombs of queens were rich in gold jewellery, the sculptured palace walls and pieces of ivory-decorated furniture illustrate court life. Weapons and metal objects from the citadel and outer city barracks illustrate military and religious life. Large buildings include the temples of Nabu and Ninurta.
Bibliography. M. E. L. Mallowan, Nimrud and its Remains, 1965; J. M. Postgate, ‘Kalhu, Reallexikon der Assyriologie 5, 1980, pp. 303–323. d.j.w.
Wood, D. R. W., Wood, D. R. W., & Marshall, I. H. (1996, c1982, c1962). New Bible Dictionary. Includes index. (electronic ed. of 3rd ed.) (155). Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press.
6:
Calah (kayʹluh; Akkadian Kalkhu; Arabic Birs Nimrud), a city on the eastern bank of the Tigris River, about twenty miles south of modern Mosul and ancient Nineveh in northern Iraq. Since the first excavations in 1849 by A. H. Layard, further excavations, including those directed by M. E. L. Mallowan, have been carried out intermittently until 1974. Layard wrongly identified the site as Nineveh, perhaps due to the biblical attribution of the building of Nineveh to the hunter Nimrod as well as Calah (Gen. 10:11-12). Nimrod is listed as a descendant of Cush (Gen. 10:8; 1 Chron. 1:10). In Mic. 5:5, the geographic term ‘Nimrod’ appears in parallelism with Assyria. The city was founded in the thirteenth century b.c. by Shalmaneser I (1274-1245 b.c.) during a period of extensive building and expansion in Assyria.
At the beginning of his reign, Ashurnasirpal II (883-859 b.c.) moved his capital to Calah from Nineveh. His rebuilding program included a partially subterranean canal, a city wall, a palace of brick faced with stone, and elaborate low-reliefs depicting religious ceremonies and battle and hunting scenes. At this time, the palace covered about 6 acres. From the northwest section of the palace were found numerous fragments of ivory furniture inlay and decorative plaques carved in the Phoenician style.
The Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III (858-824 b.c.), which depicts Jehu, son of Omri, submitting to the Assyrian king, was found at Calah. Other important records include the governor’s archives, dealing with provincial administration during the reign of Tiglath-pileser III (747-727 b.c.) and the southeastern area, called Fort Shalmaneser, from which were also recovered many ivory fragments. L.E.P.
Achtemeier, P. J., Harper & Row, P., & Society of Biblical Literature. (1985). Harper's Bible dictionary. Includes index. (1st ed.) (149). San Francisco: Harper & Row.
7:
Calah (Heb. kālaḥ; Akk. kalḫu)
The capital of the Assyrian Empire during much of the Iron Age; located at modern Nimrûd near the confluence of the Tigris and Zab rivers, ca. 35 km. (22 mi.) S of Nineveh (Tell Kuyunjik). The city was located on the banks of the Tigris. Excavations revealed that the city was inhabited from the early 3rd millennium b.c.e. onward. It is first mentioned in written documents of the 13th century. From the slight evidence from the late Middle Assyrian period it can be inferred that Kalḫu functioned as a provincial capital in that period. In the early 9th century Assurnasirpal II rebuilt and extended the city to make it the capital of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, with a number of palaces and temples. Kalḫu was located in an agricultural area in the Assyrian heartland. As a political and religious center the city also was a scribal center that housed its own library. The city functioned as the place where the army was assembled before campaigns, even after Sargon II moved the capital to Dur-sharruken. In the final years of Esarhaddon Kalḫu again functioned as a capital for a short time.
No deportation of Israelites to Kalḫu is mentioned in Assyrian inscriptions. Israelite personal names in Neo-Assyrian inscriptions, however, give evidence that after the conquest of Samaria Israelites were brought to Calah to function in the Assyrian army.
Calah is identified as one of the cities built by the heroic hunter Nimrod after he moved from Babel to Assur (Gen. 10:11–12). The Table of Nations does not supply trustworthy historical information on primeval history, but seems to reflect relations from the Neo-Assyrian Empire at its summit.
Bibliography. B. Becking, The Fall of Samaria. Studies in the History of the Ancient Near East 2 (Leiden, 1992), 73–87; M. E. L. Mallowan, Nimrud and Its Remains (London, 1966).
Bob Becking
Freedman, D. N., Myers, A. C., & Beck, A. B. (2000). Eerdmans dictionary of the Bible (209). Grand Rapids, Mich.: W.B. Eerdmans.
