The prominence given to Nebo, the god of Borsippa, during the reign of Adad-nirari IV is highly significant.  He appears in his later character as a god of culture and wisdom, the patron of scribes and artists, and the wise counsellor of the deities.  He symbolized the intellectual life of the southern kingdom, which was more closely associated with religious ethics than that of war-loving Assyria.

A great temple was erected to Nebo at Kalkhi, and four statues of him were placed within it, two of which are now in the British Museum.  On one of these was cut the inscription, from which we have quoted, lauding the exalted and wise deity and invoking him to protect Adad-nirari and the lady of the palace, Sammu-rammat, and closing with the exhortation, “Whoso cometh in after time, let him trust in Nebo and trust in no other god”.

The priests of Ashur in the city of Asshur must have been as deeply stirred by this religious revolt at Kalkhi as were the priests of Amon when Akhenaton turned his back on Thebes and the national god to worship Aton in his new capital at Tell-el-Amarna.

It would appear that this sudden stream of Babylonian culture had begun to flow into Assyria as early as the reign of Shalmaneser III, and it may be that it was on account of that monarch’s pro-Babylonian tendencies that his nobles and priests revolted against him.  Shalmaneser established at Kalkhi a royal library which was stocked with the literature of the southern kingdom.  During the reign of Adad-nirari IV this collection was greatly increased, and subsequent additions were made to it by his successors, and especially Ashur-nirari IV, the last monarch of the Middle Empire.  The inscriptions of Shamshi-Adad, son of Shalmaneser III, have literary qualities which distinguish them from those of his predecessors, and may be accounted for by the influence exercised by Babylonian scholars who migrated northward.

To the reign of Adad-nirari belongs also that important compilation the “Synchronistic History of Assyria and Babylonia”, which deals with the relations of the two kingdoms and refers to contemporary events and rulers.

The legends of Semiramis indicate that Sammu-rammat was associated like Queen Tiy with the revival of mother worship.  As we have said, she went down to tradition as the daughter of the fish goddess, Derceto.  Pliny identified that deity with Atargatis of Hierapolis.[466]

In Babylonia the fish goddess was Nina, a developed form of Damkina, spouse of Ea of Eridu.  In the inscription on the Nebo statue, that god is referred to as the “son of Nudimmud” (Ea).  Nina was the goddess who gave her name to Nineveh, and it is possible that Nebo may have been regarded as her son during the Semiramis period.