Each of these editions ends with the account of some important
campaign, the need of writing up which was the reason for the
collection of the events of previous years which were not in
themselves worthy of special commemoration. The first of these is the
one which ends with the famous battle of Qarqara in 854. This has come
down to us in a monumental copy which was set up at Kirkh, the ancient
Tushhan, and which has been named the Monolith inscription. [Footnote:
III R 7f; Rasmussen, cf.; 2 ff. Photograph, Rogers, 537; _Hist_.,
op. 226. Amiaud-Scheil, _passim_; Peiser, KB. I. 15off. Menant,
105 ff.; Sayce, RP¹, III. 83 ff.; Scheil, RP squared, IV. 55 ff.; Craig,
_Hebraica_, III. 201ff.; Harper, 33 ff.; cf. Jastrow,
AJSL. IV. 244 ff.] For the events of 860-854, then, we need go no
further than this, for it is strictly contemporaneous with the events
it describes. No actual errors can be pointed out in it, a seeming
distortion of the chronology being due simply to the desire of the
scribe to indicate the unity of two campaigns, carried out in
different years, but against the same country. [Footnote: II. 66.] How
moderate are its numbers is shown by comparing its 14,000 killed at
Qarqara with the 20,500 of the Obelisk, the 25,000 of the Bulls, and
the 29,000 of the recently discovered statue from Ashur. As we shall
see below, it is correct in giving no campaign for 855, though the
Bulls inscription, written a generation later, has not hesitated to
fill the gap. This is the only edition which seems to be entirely
original and a comparison with those which are in large part
compilations is favorable to it in every way. In fact, the oft
repeated reproach as to the catalogue nature of the Shalmaneser
writings, is due to the taking of the Obelisk as a fair sample,
whereas it stands at the other extreme, that of a document almost
entirely made up by abridgement of other documents, and so can hardly