Kurkh Monolith
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The Kurkh Monolith is an Assyrian document that contains the Battle of Qarqar at the end. The Monolith stands some 2.2 metres tall and roughly covers years one through six of the reign of Assyrian King Shalmaneser III, although the fifth year is missing. Most scholars believe that the scribe who wrote the Monolith was sloppy and have pointed out a number of possible errors in the text, like the identification of Byblos as Que.
The Monolith mainly deals with campaigns Shalmaneser made in western Mesopotamia and Syria, fighting extensively with the countries of Bit-Adini and Carchemish. By the end of the Monolith comes the text of the Battle of Qarqar, where an alliance of twelve kings fought against Shalmaneser at the Syrian city of Qarqar. This alliance, featuring eleven kings, was led by Irhuleni of Hamath and Hadad-Ezer of Damascus with a considerable force led by King Ahab of Israel. The Monolith is also the first time that the Arabs make an appearance in world history, fielding a contingent containing camels led by King Gindibu.
[edit] Scribal Errors and disputes
As mentioned earlier, there are a number of issues surrounding the written words contained in the Monolith, mostly surrounding the text of the Battle of Qarqar. For example, the scribe lists one city as "Gu-a-a", which some scholars believe refers to Que. However, H. Tadmor believes that this is actually a mistake, with "Gu-a-a" being the incorrect spelling of "Gu-bal-a-a", which is Byblos. Other scholars also point out that it is more logical to assume that Shalmaneser fought Byblos instead of Que because it would make more geographic sense- since the other kings of the area are nations to the south and west of Assyria it would make more sense for a nation in that area- Byblos- to fight at Qarqar than it would for a city that is not from the area (Que, which is in Cilicia). The other issue with regards to spelling is "Musri", which is Akkadian for "march". Tadmor says that the actual Musri people had been conquered by the Assyrians in the 11th century BC, and thus believes that any future reference to "Musri" must be "Egypt", although some scholars dispute this.
The other major error in the text is the assertion that Assyria fought "twelve kings". Casual readers will note that the Monolith in fact lists eleven, but some scholars have attempted to say that there really is a missing king, stemming from the description of "Ba'sa the man of Bit-Ruhubi, the Ammonite". One scholar suggests that the two entities be split into "Bit-Ruhubi" (Beth-Rehob, a state in the Trans-Jordan) and "Ammon", one of Israel's traditional enemies. However, "twelve kings" is a literary device for any kind of alliance, so it is quite possible that the scribe here was employing a literary device and did not in fact miss a king.
