Abstract

Paddira Iron Age fortified city located in the upper Diyala/Zagros region in the northeastern Mesopotamian–northwestern Iranian borderlands. The city fell to the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III during his campaign in the region in his sixteenth regnal year (843) (*RIMA 3: 40). Shalmaneser refers to the city as a possession of Ianziburiash, ruler of Allabria (q.v.). In 827 a man of Paddira called Artasari paid tribute to Shalmaneser’s commander-in-chief Dayyan-Ashur while the latter was campaigning in the region (*RIMA 3: 70), thus saving Paddira from a further Assyrian attack. Shalmaneser’s son and successor Shamshi-Adad V calls Paddira a city of the Nairi lands; it is one of the places cited by him in describing the furthest reaches of Assyria (*RIMA 3: 183).