Pazarcık Stele
The Pazarcık Stele is an Assyrian monument which functioned as a boundary stone erected by the Assyrian kings to demarcate the border between their client kingdoms of Kummuh and Gurgum. The reverse and obverse of the stele have been inscribed in the Akkadian language in different times.
In 805 BCE, as reported on the Pazarcık Stele, Kummuh king Ušpilulume (Šuppiluliuma) asked for the assistance of the Assyrian king Adad-nirari III against the a coalition of eight kings led by Ataršumki of Arpad. Adad-nirari apparently travelled with his mother Šammuramat, defeated the alliance at Paqarhubuna, and established the border between Kummuh and Gurgum at Pazarcık.
In 773 BCE, the same boundary was re-established by Assyrian general (turtanu) Šamši-ilu acting on behalf of Assyrian king Shalmaneser IV.
Further reading
- Edwin Clifford-Coupe, Settling a boundary dispute, Ancient Warfare vol. v-4, pp. 10–12, 2011.
- Zaccagnini, C. 1993, Notes on the Pazarcik Stela., State Archives of Assyria Bulletin 7 (1993), 53-72.