MUSASIR

also spelled Musri, or Mussassir ancient city probably located near the upper Great Zab River between Lake Urmia and Lake Van in what is now Turkey. Musasir was particularly important during the first half of the 1st millennium BC and is known primarily from reliefs and inscriptions of the Assyrian king Sargon II, who captured it in 714. According to the inscription, Sargon first plundered the palace storerooms of Urzana, king of Musasir, and then seized the even richer contents of the temple of the god Haldi. Sargon's list, which describes the confiscated treasure in detail, is especially valuable for a study of the artistic and cultural development of the region. In addition, Sargon's relief portrays the Musasir temple, which scholars now believe is the oldest known temple with a pediment and a colonnadeelements that were widely used in Anatolia but apparently foreign to Mesopotamian temple architecture.