Bronze votive tablet belonging to King Esarhaddon and his mother Zacuto
A bronze votive tablet representing the Assyrian king Esarhaddon and his mother Zakoto worshiping in the Temple of Marduk in Babylon / on display in the Louvre Museum
Zakoto or (Pure) is one of the most famous Assyrian women. She was the wife of King Sennacherib, King of Assyria from 705-681 BC. She was at first his slave, then he admired her, married her, and made her the first woman in Assyria. She was the mother of King Esarhaddon, who inherited power after the death of his father. Sennacherib and Ashurbanipal's grandmother. Esarhaddon was influenced by her and had several sculptures with her. He had great respect for her. Not much is known about her origin. There are those who say that she was one of the captives sent by Hezekiah, king of Judah, to Assyria. There are those who say that its origin is Babylonian, given that Esarhaddon was influenced by the city of Babylon, so he resided there, but the most likely possibility, according to what researchers say, is that it is from the Harran region between Turkey and Syria, given that it had another name, which was Zukoto, and this name is of Hittite origin from that region.
The text written on the tablet commemorates the rebuilding of the city of Babylon and the return of the statue of the god Ea to the temple of the god Marduk. Sennacherib had burned and destroyed Babylon and taken the statue of the god Ea in the first year of his rule, around the year 705 BC. However, his son Esarhaddon rebuilt it under the influence of his mother, Queen Zakoto (the meaning of her name is pure/pure), who was keen on rebuilding her original city (Babylon). ), who is the royal wife of Sennacherib, the daughter-in-law of Sargon (II), the mother of Esarhaddon, and the grandmother of Ashurbanipal. She was mentioned in many letters as the mother of the king or the queen mother, and these letters covered multiple topics, the most important of which were religious matters and political matters.
Source: websites