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Assyrian Art and Architecture (Art History)

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  1. Introduction
  2. Assyrian art and architecture has been the subject of scholarly interest, analysis, and debate since the mid-19th century when archaeological excavations began to reveal physical evidence of this vanished civilization. Initially viewed as historical documents for illuminating the world of the Hebrew Bible, late-20th- and early-21st-century work has utilized current art historical theory to explore multiple levels of meaning expressed in the layout of buildings, as well as the form of objects and their associated visual imagery. It is clear that Assyrian art and architecture is inseparable from Mesopotamian studies in general. Both the cultural background of earlier periods in northern Mesopotamia and the parallel history of Assyria’s southern and western neighbors, Babylonia and Syria, are intimately linked and highly relevant to Assyrian cultural practices of all kinds. The Oxford Bibliographies article Babylonian Art and Architecture is essential reading for introducing the broader study of ancient Mesopotamian visual culture, as well as the fields of archaeology and ancient history that an understanding of Assyrian art and architecture depends on. “Assyrian” here denotes northern Iraq in the period, extending from the 14th to the 7th century BC, during which the cities of Ashur (alternate spelling: Assur), Nimrud (ancient Kalhu), Khorsabad (ancient Dur-Sharrukin), and Nineveh were the successive political capitals of the region. The nature and extent of Assyrian culture and its influence beyond the Assyrian heartland, especially during the period c. 900–610 BC when Assyria came to dominate the entire Near East both militarily and politically, is a matter of continuing investigation. The entire period is literate, and detailed historical information is available.
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  4. Assyrian Art and Society
  5. The study of ancient Assyrian visual culture depends on an understanding of the fields of archaeology and ancient history. Any study of the subject requires an introduction to a social, cultural, and material context different from any modern comparator. As well as general surveys of the imagery and media seen in Mesopotamian art, therefore, this section provides a critical reading dealing with a different approach than our contemporary systems of visual interpretation and engagement investigating how the images, their significance, and their power were understood in their ancient context. A useful starting point is Frankfort 1996, an updated version of the author’s original 1954 publication. Other surveys, such as Moortgat 1969 and Parrot 1961, are useful for placing Assyrian art in a broader context of Mesopotamian art; however, their approaches are somewhat dated. Aruz, et al. 2014 provides a modern review of key artefacts and situates Assyrian art in the context of its Western neighbors. A significant development in the interpretation of ancient Mesopotamian art is reflected in the work of Bahrani 2003, which applies 21st-century theory to the imagery.
  6.  
  7. Aruz, Joan, Sarah Graff, and Yelena Rakic, eds. Assyria to Iberia: At the Dawn of the Classical Age. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2014.
  8.  
  9. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  10.  
  11. A catalogue of an exhibition that surveys the art of the 1st millennium BC, focusing on the interaction between societies. Places Assyria in the context of neighboring cultures, especially with those of the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean, with essays on the history and art of the period.
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  14.  
  15. Bahrani, Z. The Graven Image: Representation in Babylon and Assyria. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003.
  16.  
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  18.  
  19. Innovative, theoretically informed study of representation in ancient Mesopotamian art. Considers the functions and meanings of images in society, their production, and magical and religious roles. Particularly important for its discussion of ancient Mesopotamian concepts of the image as an active participant in the world, and the perceived supernatural powers and properties of representations.
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  21. Find this resource:
  22.  
  23. Frankfort, Henri. The Art and Architecture of the Ancient Orient. 5th ed. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1996.
  24.  
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  26.  
  27. Influential survey of ancient Near Eastern art and architecture. Compartmentalized approach with Mesopotamia at the center and therefore dated in its approach but nonetheless remains essential reading in its revised edition.
  28.  
  29. Find this resource:
  30.  
  31. Groenewegen-Frankfort, H. Arrest and Movement: An Essay on Space and Time in the Representational Art of the Ancient Near East. London: Faber & Faber, 1951.
  32.  
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  34.  
  35. For its time, this was a groundbreaking examination of the formal representation of space and time in the art of Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Crete. Interprets the art’s significance as an issue of cultural rather than aesthetic necessity.
  36.  
  37. Find this resource:
  38.  
  39. Moortgat, Anton. The Art of Mesopotamia: The Classical Art of the Near East. London and New York: Phaidon, 1969.
  40.  
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  42.  
  43. First published as Die Kunst des alten Mesopotamien: Die klassische Kunst Vorderasiens. Translated from the German by Judith Filson. A broad survey of Mesopotamian art with some interesting coverage of the Middle Assyrian material rarely included in comparable studies.
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  46.  
  47. Parrot, André. Nineveh and Babylon: The Arts of Mankind. London: Thames and Hudson, 1961.
  48.  
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  50.  
  51. The partner volume to Babylonian Art and Architecture: Sumer: The Dawn of Art (1960), this book captures the full sweep of Assyrian art from the 13th to 7th century BC, as well as the later Neo-Babylonian and Achaemenid periods. Especially useful for color reproductions of the wall paintings from the Assyrian provincial center of Til Barsip (see Thureau-Dangin and Dunand 1936, cited under Palace and Temple Architecture).
  52.  
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  54.  
  55. Middle Assyrian Period
  56. Although the city of Ashur (alternate spelling is “Assur”) has its origins in the 3rd millennium BC (see Harper, et al. 1995), it was during the 14th century BC that it became the center of a significant kingdom that expanded through military action to dominate north Mesopotamia and eastern Syria. During this so-called Middle Assyrian Period, approximately 1400–1000 BC, Assyria interacted with other powerful states including Egypt, Babylonia, and Hittite Anatolia. A distinctive Assyrian art emerged that drew on local imagery as well as traditions from both west and south. Ashur was excavated by German archaeologists led by Walter Andrae in the early 20th century, resulting in exceptional holdings for the site in the Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin. The excavations focused on the monumental architecture, as outlined in Andrae 1977. The art of the period is discussed with some overlap of objects and commentary in Harper, et al. 1995 and Aruz, et al. 2008. Important Middle Assyrian monuments that inform our understanding of later Assyrian art are discussed by Pittman 1996 and Reade 2000, while Matthews 1990 provides a valuable survey of the period’s cylinder seals. Beyond Ashur, the significant Middle Assyrian foundation of Kar-Tukulti-Ninurta is explored by Dittmann 1997.
  57.  
  58. Andrae, Walter. Das wiedererstandene Assur. 2d rev. ed. Munich: Beck, 1977.
  59.  
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  61.  
  62. Originally published in 1938, Andrea’s survey of his excavations at Assur from 1903–1914 was revised by Hrouda who returned to the site in 1990.
  63.  
  64. Find this resource:
  65.  
  66. Aruz, Joan, Kim Benzel, and Jean M. Evans, eds. Beyond Babylon: Art, Trade, and Diplomacy in the Second Millennium B.C. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2008.
  67.  
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  69.  
  70. Surveys the art of the 2nd millennium BC, focusing on the interaction between societies. Includes significant objects from the Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin, alongside contextual material and essays on the history and art of the period.
  71.  
  72. Find this resource:
  73.  
  74. Dittmann, Reinhard. “Kar-Tukulti-Ninurta.” In The Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East. Edited by Eric M. Meyers, 269–271. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997.
  75.  
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  77.  
  78. Reliable summary and bibliography of the excavations at Kar-Tukulti-Ninurta by the latest excavator of the site, including a revised analysis of earlier excavations.
  79.  
  80. Find this resource:
  81.  
  82. Harper, Prudence O., Evelyn Klengel-Brandt, Joan Aruz, and Kim Benzel, eds. Assyrian Origins: Discoveries at Ashur on the Tigris. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1995.
  83.  
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  85.  
  86. An excellent introduction to Middle Assyrian art setting it within the context of earlier periods. The catalogue presents highlights from the Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin, alongside contextual material and essays on the history and art of the period.
  87.  
  88. Find this resource:
  89.  
  90. Matthews, Donald M. Principles of Composition in Near Eastern Glyptic of the Later Second Millennium B.C. Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis 8. Universitätsverlag, 1990.
  91.  
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  93.  
  94. Based on the author’s PhD dissertation, this is an analysis of Middle Assyrian cylinder seals. Argues that the cultural transition of the Late Bronze Age occurred as early as the 14th century BC.
  95.  
  96. Find this resource:
  97.  
  98. Pittman, Holly. “The White Obelisk and the Problem of Historical Narrative in the Art of Assyria.” The Art Bulletin 78 (1996): 334–355.
  99.  
  100. DOI: 10.2307/3046178Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  101.  
  102. An interpretation of the relief decoration of this important monument from Nineveh (now in the British Museum) showing the key themes of later Assyrian wall reliefs in an arrangement suggested by the author to reflect palace wall paintings that do not survive archaeologically.
  103.  
  104. Find this resource:
  105.  
  106. Reade, Julian E. “Das Kultrelief aus Assur.” Mitteilungen der deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft 132 (2000): 105–112.
  107.  
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  109.  
  110. Analysis of a monumental relief found abandoned in pieces in a well at Ashur. Now in the Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin, the carved image is interpreted as a representation of the god Ashur, and is one of the earliest surviving Assyrian stone reliefs.
  111.  
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  113.  
  114. Neo-Assyrian Period
  115. From the 9th to the end of the 7th century BC, the kingdom of Assyria expanded through military conquest to dominate much of the Near East. The achievements of the Assyrian kings were glorified in building projects in successive capital cities: Nimrud, Khorsabad, and Nineveh. A distinctive Assyrian style is found on wall reliefs, metalwork, ivories, paintings, ceramics, seals, and jewelry. Although a consistent theme of the imagery was the glorification of the king as the embodiment of perfect kingship achieved through the support of the gods, details and the focus of the content changed over time, reflecting the growth of the empire, the adoption of ideas from beyond Assyria, and developments in the ideology of kingship. The influence of Babylonian cultural and intellectual achievements was especially important. Assyrian governor’s palaces were built in provincial centers; excavated examples include wall reliefs and paintings showing scenes familiar from the royal centers, in both local and Assyrian styles. The impact of Assyrian architecture and art within and beyond the empire is the subject of continuing investigation, especially the role of portable objects in its transmission and reception.
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  117. History of Discovery
  118. The fact that the first excavations of Neo-Assyria sites were undertaken on an enormous scale by European diplomats and adventurers during the mid-19th century when the region was part of the Ottoman Empire meant that their discoveries played a role in international politics. The subsequent dispersal of finds to museums, institutions, and private individuals during the 19th and early 20th centuries has had a profound impact on how the ancient architecture and art has been interpreted (see also Original Drawings and Reintegrating the Reliefs). Khorsabad was first excavated by French archaeologists, specifically Paul Émile Botta from 1843–1844 and Victor Place from 1852–1855, with a selection of the carved stone slabs they uncovered being sent to the Louvre Museum, Paris. Excavations by Austen Henry Layard between 1845 and 1851, and continued by Hormuzd Rassam, at Nimrud and Nineveh furnished the British Museum with much of its Assyrian collections. Layard 1849 and Layard 1853 remain important for understanding the social and political context of the excavations. Larsen 1996 is a superb account of the crucial period of mid-19th-century Anglo-French cultural rivalry focused on the palaces of Assyria, while Russell focusses on one group of reliefs that found their way to New York. Bahrani, et al. 2011 is noteworthy for bringing Ottoman perspectives to the fore. Chevalier 2002 gives a broader perspective on French archaeological activity in the region.
  119.  
  120. Bahrani, Zainab, Zeynep Çelik, and Edhem Eldem, eds. Scramble for the Past: A Story of Archaeology in the Ottoman Empire, 1753–1914. Istanbul: Garanti Kültür A. Ş, 2011.
  121.  
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  123.  
  124. Published in association with the 2011–2012 SALT Galata exhibition. This substantial edited volume begins to redress a major imbalance in the history of the field, namely the shortage of studies considering Ottoman perspectives on the early excavations in Mesopotamia.
  125.  
  126. Find this resource:
  127.  
  128. Chevalier, Nicole. La recherche archéologique fançaise au Moyen-Orient 1842–1947. Paris: Éditions Recherche sur les Civilisations, 2002.
  129.  
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  131.  
  132. Less about the individuals and sites and more about the politics, external and internal, that led to French archaeological involvement in the Near East in the mid-19th century. French-language history of French excavation and research.
  133.  
  134. Find this resource:
  135.  
  136. Larsen, Mogens Trolle. The Conquest of Assyria: Excavations in an Antique Land, 1840–1860. London and New York: Routledge, 1996.
  137.  
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  139.  
  140. First published as Sunkne Paladser: Historien om Orientens Opdagelse (Copenhagen: Gyldendalske Bokforlag, 1994). A compelling history of English and French excavations in Assyria, covering especially the work of Austen Henry Layard but including Paul-Émile Botta, Christian and Hormuzd Rassam, Henry Rawlinson, and others. Covers the twenty years that witnessed the first European excavations in northern Iraq.
  141.  
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  143.  
  144. Layard, Austen Henry. Nineveh and its Remains. 2 vols. London: John Murray, 1849.
  145.  
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  147.  
  148. Layard was the Englishman employed by the British Ambassador in Constantinople to undertake excavations at Nimrud in 1845. His finds were so extensive that the British government took over funding, and he became an agent of the British Museum where the majority of his finds were sent. Layard was a skilled recorder, and although these books are largely travelogues that describe the time, they remain important sources of information about his discoveries.
  149.  
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  151.  
  152. Layard, Austen Henry. Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon; with Travels in Armenia, Kurdistan and the Desert: Being the Result of a Second Expedition Undertaken for the Trustees of the British Museum. London: John Murray, 1853.
  153.  
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  155.  
  156. Includes a full account of Austen Henry Layard’s travel and exploration in Assyria and Babylonia. As in the case of Nineveh and its Remains, much of the value of Layard’s account today lies in in his description of his journey and of contemporary Ottoman Iraq. Nonetheless this has important information about the timetable of discovery and the sequence of finds.
  157.  
  158. Find this resource:
  159.  
  160. Oates, Joan, and David Oates. Nimrud: An Assyrian Imperial City Revealed. London: British School of Archaeology in Iraq, 2001.
  161.  
  162. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  163.  
  164. This authoritative account, written by two of the excavators of Nimrud in the second half of the 20th century, traces its history and excavation. The volume includes finds that had not previously been published and one of the most complete accounts in English so far of the discoveries by Iraqi archaeologists of the tombs of Assyrian queens (see Hussein and Suleiman 2000, cited under Jewelry and Personal Adornment).
  165.  
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  167.  
  168. Russell, J. E. From Nineveh to New York: The Strange Story of the Assyrian Reliefs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Hidden Masterpiece at Canford Manor. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1997.
  169.  
  170. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  171.  
  172. An account of a number of reliefs from Nimrud and Nineveh transported to England by Henry Layard for display at his cousin’s home, many of which eventually entered the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
  173.  
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  175.  
  176. Conferences and Collected Essays
  177. A number of conferences and volumes of essays have provided detailed studies of specific sites and archaeological collections. Articles investigating reception, architecture, stone reliefs, and portable objects are explored for each of the principal Assyrian capitals. Caubet 1995 focuses on Khorsabad, while Collon, et al. 2008 and Cohen and Kangas 2010 address Nimrud, and Nineveh is the subject of Collon and George 2005. Cheng and Feldman 2007 contains essays inspired by the work of the distinguished Ancient Near Eastern scholar Irene Winter and includes studies of Assyrian reliefs. Brown and Feldman 2014 explores innovative approaches to Ancient Near Eastern art history more generally but with a number of articles focused on the Neo-Assyrian period.
  178.  
  179. Brown, Brian A., and Marian H. Feldman, eds. Critical Approaches to Ancient Near Eastern Art. Boston and Berlin: De Gruyter, 2014.
  180.  
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  182.  
  183. A range of articles representing a cross-section of the field of contemporary Ancient Near Eastern art history, theoretical and methodological approaches to archaeological evidence and critically examine the historiography of the discipline itself. Relevant essays include those by Watanabe, Gansell, Ornan, Collins, Kertai, and Shafer.
  184.  
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  186.  
  187. Caubet, Annie, ed. Khorsabad, le palais de Sargon II, roi d’Assyrie: Actes du colloque organisé au musée du Louvre par le Services culturel les 21 et 22 janvier 1994. Paris: Louvre, 1995.
  188.  
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  190.  
  191. Explores the history of discovery, reception, and modern interpretation of the monuments from Khorsabad now in the Louvre Museum, Paris.
  192.  
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  194.  
  195. Cheng, Jack, and Marian H. Feldman, eds. Ancient Near Eastern Art in Context: Studies in Honor of Irene J. Winter by Her Students. Leiden, The Netherlands: Koninklijke Brill, 2007.
  196.  
  197. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  198.  
  199. Topics by twenty contributors include palatial and temple architecture, royal sculpture, gender in the Ancient Near East, and interdisciplinary studies that range from the 4th millennium BC to modern ethnography with a significant number of essays devoted to Assyria that reflect contemporary scholarship in the field.
  200.  
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  202.  
  203. Cohen, Ada, and Steven E. Kangas, eds. Assyrian Reliefs from the Palace of Ashurnasirpal II: A Cultural Biography. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 2010.
  204.  
  205. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  206.  
  207. Focuses on the excavation and reception of Assyrian reliefs from Nimrud. The reliefs held by the Hood Museum are particularly fine examples, and the volume has high-quality photographs of them.
  208.  
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  210.  
  211. Collon, Dominique, and Andrew George, eds. Nineveh: Papers of the XLIXe Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, London, 7–11 July 2003. 2 vols. London: British School of Archaeology in Iraq, 2005.
  212.  
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  214.  
  215. The XLIXe Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale convened in London to celebrate the British Museum’s quarter millennium. On the museum’s behalf excavations were conducted at Nineveh intermittently for more than eighty years, from 1847 to 1932. The proceedings of RAI forty-nine comprise a wide range of papers on Nineveh and form a significant academic resource for future research on the city itself and the civilization that built it.
  216.  
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  218.  
  219. Collon, Dominique, Henrietta McCall, and John E. Curtis, eds. New Light on Nimrud: Proceedings of the Nimrud Conference 11th–13th March 2002. London: British School of Archaeology in Iraq, 2008.
  220.  
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  222.  
  223. Publishes thirty-four papers by international and Iraqi experts given at a conference on Nimrud at the British Museum in 2002. Excavations at the important Assyrian capital city of Nimrud have continued intermittently since 1845. Many aspects of the excavations and the various finds and inscribed material from Nimrud are considered in this volume, with particular attention being paid to the tombs of the queens and their contents discovered in 1989–1990.
  224.  
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  226.  
  227. Palace and Temple Architecture
  228. As elsewhere in Mesopotamia, Assyrian cities were dominated by mud brick palaces and temples, often on an enormous scale. These buildings have generally received greater attention, both in excavation and subsequent study, than ordinary residential areas. The publications in this section address the architecture of specific royal capitals uncovered during 20th-century excavations (analysis of architectural discoveries of earlier excavators are covered by publications in other sections, especially Reintegrating the Reliefs). Thus Loud, et al. 1936 and Loud and Altman 1938 describe excavations at Khorsabad by the Oriental Institute, Chicago, while Mallowan 1966 focuses on Nimrud. Beyond the capitals, Thureau-Dangin and Dunand 1936 reports on the excavations of an Assyrian governor’s palace in Syria. Broader approaches to the role and significance of palace and temple architecture are undertaken by Winter 1993 (Mesopotamia as a whole), and Kertai 2015 investigates the architectural context of three Neo-Assyrian palaces. The influence and significance of foreign architectural traditions in Assyria is questioned by Reade 2008.
  229.  
  230. Kertai, David. The Architecture of Late Assyrian Royal Palaces. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.
  231.  
  232. DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198723189.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  233.  
  234. An analysis of the arrangement of spaces in all the important royal palaces of the major centers of the Neo-Assyrian Empire: Ashur, Nimrud, Khorsabad, and Nineveh. A valuable comparative approach.
  235.  
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  237.  
  238. Loud, Gordon, and Charles B. Altman. Khorsabad, Part II: The Citadel and the Town. Oriental Institute Publication 40. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1938.
  239.  
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  241.  
  242. Together with Volume 1, this features reports of the excavations at Khorsabad conducted by the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago between 1928 and 1935. A division of finds, as was standard practice at this time, led to many objects and reliefs, including fragments of a colossal winged bull being sent to Chicago.
  243.  
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  245.  
  246. Loud, Gordon, Henri Frankfort, and Thorkild Jacobsen. Khorsabad, Part I: Excavations in the Palace and at a City Gate. Oriental Institute Publication 38. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1936.
  247.  
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  249.  
  250. The first report on the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago’s excavations at Khorsabad. Sargon II’s throne room, six palace temples, the temple of Nabu, and the residences of the grand vizier and other high officials were identified.
  251.  
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  253.  
  254. Mallowan, Max E. L. Nimrud and its Remains. 2 vols. London: Collins, 1966.
  255.  
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  257.  
  258. An account, in the style of Layard’s earlier reports, of excavations undertaken by the British School of Archaeology in Iraq between 1949 and 1963. Several areas of the Acropolis were explored. From 1958 the focus shifted to the so-called Fort Shalmaneser, which produced extensive collections of carved ivories that were subsequently divided largely between the Iraq Museum, the British Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum, New York (see Carved Ivories).
  259.  
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  261.  
  262. Reade, J. E. “Real and Imagined ‘Hittite Palaces’ at Khorsabad and Elsewhere.” Iraq 70 (2008): 13–40.
  263.  
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  265.  
  266. A discussion of the so-called bit hilani and the influence of cultures to the west of Assyria on royal architecture.
  267.  
  268. Find this resource:
  269.  
  270. Thureau-Dangin, F., and M. Dunand. Til-Barsip. Paris: P. Geuthner, 1936.
  271.  
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  273.  
  274. The ancient site of Tell Ahmar in Syria was the capital city of the Aramean kingdom of Bit Adini. It was renamed Kar-Shalmaneser on its conquest by Shalmaneser III in 856 BC. This is the report of the French expedition to the site between 1929–1931. The Neo-Assyrian period occupation is represented by an extensive “governors’” palace with wall paintings with scenes similar to those known from stone reliefs at Nimrud, Khorsabad, and Nineveh.
  275.  
  276. Find this resource:
  277.  
  278. Turner, Geoffrey. “The State Apartments of Late Assyrian Palaces.” Iraq 32.2 (1970): 177–213.
  279.  
  280. DOI: 10.2307/4199901Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  281.  
  282. A survey of the general characteristics of Late Assyrian palace planning and a comparative analysis of the types of “state apartments.” It remains essential reading on the subject.
  283.  
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  285.  
  286. Winter, Irene J. “‘Seat on Kingship’/‘A Wonder to Behold’: The Palace as Construct in the Ancient Near East Palace.” Ars Orientalis 23 (1993): 27–55.
  287.  
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  289.  
  290. A survey of the physical evidence for palaces in Mesopotamia with a focus on their role in the study of authority and rule: the palace as both a physical and mental construct. The coverage of Assyrian palaces is especially interesting.
  291.  
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  293.  
  294. Palace Sculpture
  295. The first extensive use of wall reliefs was in the so-called Northwest Palace of Ashurnasirpal I (883–859 BC). Here, the lower walls of significant rooms and courtyards were adorned with panels of gypsum (known today locally as “Mosul Marble”) carved in low relief. The carved imagery focused on ritual and supernatural figures and scenes of the king engaged in hunting and warfare, some of which were organized as narratives. This subject matter and iconography may have derived in part from earlier traditions in wall paintings, glazed tiles, and carved stone objects, such as obelisks. The use of wall panels, however, may have originated to the west of Assyria, among the city states of Syria, which were coming increasingly within the political orbit of Assyria at this time. More than a century later, Tiglath-pileser III (745–727 BC) reintroduced the use of wall reliefs at Nimrud in the Central Palace. Wall panels remain a significant feature of the principal palaces of succeeding kings: Sargon II (721–705 BC) at Khorsabad, Sennacherib (704–668 BC) at Nineveh, and Ashurbanipal (669–c. 630 BC) at Nineveh. During the late 8th and 7th centuries BC, the content of the reliefs expanded in detail to include depictions of the physical landscape and the markers of ethnicity of non-Assyrians, including their physiognomies. Religious images became less explicit and scenes of battle and their aftermath predominate with many depicting specific historical events (albeit carefully selected versions) often arranged as narratives around the walls of individual rooms. Governors’ palaces were also sometimes decorated with stone reliefs carved with comparable scenes of military celebrations and royal animal hunts. The reliefs were part of a wider decorative scheme including wall paintings, glazed tiles, as well as portable objects such as furniture and probably textiles. The following publications provide introductions to the history of the recovery and reception, as well as the original context of the Assyrian relief panels together with discussions of the techniques of production and subject matter—many supported by high-quality photographs. Based on the British Museum collections, Reade 1998 and Collins 2008 offer general overviews, while Curtis and Reade 1995 incorporates the reliefs into a broader discussion of the Neo-Assyrian period along with coverage of other forms of Assyrian art, including metalwork and seals. Paley 1976 introduces the Assyrian reliefs in Brooklyn. Reade 1979 and Albenda 1998 provide more detailed analysis of the styles and content of the reliefs across collections.
  296.  
  297. Albenda, Pauline. Monumental Art of the Assyrian Empire: Dynamics of Composition Styles. Monographs of the Ancient Near East, Vol. 3.1. Malibu: Undena, 1998.
  298.  
  299. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  300.  
  301. Identifies five basic stylistic principles: activity, symmetry, triangularity, and dimensionality, in which human activity is situated in space and time. A valuable contribution to the analysis of composition across the variety of themes represented in the reliefs.
  302.  
  303. Find this resource:
  304.  
  305. Collins, Paul. Assyrian Palace Sculptures. London: British Museum, 2008.
  306.  
  307. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  308.  
  309. High-quality photographs of details from selected Assyrian reliefs in the British Museum arranged historically by ruler, looking at changes over time in the content and presentation. Includes general surveys of the architectural context, meaning and reception of the reliefs.
  310.  
  311. Find this resource:
  312.  
  313. Curtis, John E., and Julian E. Reade, eds. Art and Empire: Treasures from Assyria in the British Museum. London: British Museum, 1995.
  314.  
  315. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  316.  
  317. Catalogue of a traveling exhibition, consisting of Assyrian sculpture and other artifacts that give a rounded picture of Assyrian civilization. Authored by curators in the British Museum, short essays cover the sculptures as well as topics including magic and religion, portable objects of stone, ivory and metal, administration, and literature and science.
  318.  
  319. Find this resource:
  320.  
  321. Paley, S. M. King of the World: Ashur-nasir-pal II of Assyria, 883–859 B.C. New York: Brooklyn Museum, 1976.
  322.  
  323. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  324.  
  325. Based on the author’s PhD dissertation, the book focuses on twelve reliefs from the Northwest Palace at Nimrud now in the Brooklyn Museum.
  326.  
  327. Find this resource:
  328.  
  329. Reade, Julian E. “Assyrian Architectural Decoration: Techniques and Subject-Matter.” Baghdader Mitteilungen 10 (1979): 17–49.
  330.  
  331. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  332.  
  333. Written by one of the world’s leading experts on Assyrian reliefs, this is among the earliest publications to address the content of sculptures across the Neo-Assyrian period and remains essential reading.
  334.  
  335. Find this resource:
  336.  
  337. Reade, Julian E. Assyrian Sculpture. 2d ed. London: British Museum, 1998.
  338.  
  339. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  340.  
  341. Overview of Assyrian palace sculpture, including discussion of the 19th-century excavations of the Assyrian capitals, the production of Assyrian reliefs and their function in the decorative schema of palaces, and the iconography of the sculptures. Illustrated material is drawn from the collections of the British Museum.
  342.  
  343. Find this resource:
  344.  
  345. Original Drawings
  346. Although some of the earliest archaeological photography was undertaken by excavators in Assyria, the standard method of recording finds in the 19th century was in line drawings. These remain the primary source for understanding the context of the finds. With the removal of carved panels from the palace walls and their distribution to museums and private collections around the world, these drawings were and continue to be extremely important sources for not only determining the original positions and sequences of the carved slabs (see Reintegrating the Reliefs) but also as records of reliefs that have been subsequently damaged or lost. The excavations at Khorsabad were recorded in extraordinary detail and published in a series of high-quality volumes: Botta and Flandin 1846–1850 and Place 1867–1879. The wall reliefs discovered at Nimrud and Nineveh were published by Layard 1849 and Layard 1853. Digital versions of many of the drawings held in the British Museum are available to view via their collections online.
  347.  
  348. Botta, Paul Emile, and Eugene Flandin. Monument de Ninive, in 5 Volumes. Paris: Imprimerie nationale, 1846–1850.
  349.  
  350. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  351.  
  352. Although the title refers to Nineveh, these sumptuously produced volumes funded by the French government record the finds of Botta at Khorsabad with superbly detailed drawings by Flandin.
  353.  
  354. Find this resource:
  355.  
  356. Layard, Austen Henry. The Monuments of Nineveh from Drawings Made on the Spot. London: John Murray, 1849.
  357.  
  358. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  359.  
  360. Layard’s drawings of his discoveries together with those of artists accompanying him were published in two large volumes, this one with a hundred plates. The drawings are mostly of the sculptures, but also there are some small objects. The British Museum applied to the treasury for the costs but was rejected. Subscribers eventually ensured that the publisher’s costs were met.
  361.  
  362. Find this resource:
  363.  
  364. Layard, Austen Henry. A Second Series of the Monuments of Nineveh. London: John Murray, 1853.
  365.  
  366. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  367.  
  368. The follow-up volume to The Monuments of Nineveh, this one with seventy-one plates.
  369.  
  370. Find this resource:
  371.  
  372. Place, Victor. Nineve et l’Assyie, in 3 volumes. Paris: Imprimerie impériale, 1867–1879.
  373.  
  374. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  375.  
  376. With Botta’s departure from Khorsabad in 1844, Victor Place resumed excavations between 1852 and 1855. His finds are recorded in the same the high quality as with Monument de Ninive, since the French government continued to support the publication.
  377.  
  378. Find this resource:
  379.  
  380. Reintegrating the Reliefs
  381. From the early 20th century it had become apparent that in order to understand the original arrangement of the reliefs it was necessary to relocate in drawings and print those that had been dispersed to museums and private collections around the world during the previous century. This allowed questions to be asked relating to the function and compositional arrangements of the imagery. The process of reintegrating this scattered evidence has occupied scholars for much of the 20th century and is to some extent an ongoing process. The first significant attempt to bring the reliefs together in one publication was Gadd 1936, and this work remains an important resource. Much work has been undertaken on the Northwest Palace at Nimrud, gathering together the known reliefs and suggesting their original arrangements: Barnett 1976, Meuszyński 1981, Paley and Sobolewski 1987, and Paley and Sobolewski 1992. Other palaces at Nimrud are treated by Barnett and Falkner 1962. Albenda 1986 focuses on Khorsabad and the reliefs from the enormous Southwest Palace at Nineveh are brought together by Barnett, et al. 1998.
  382.  
  383. Albenda, Pauline. The Palace of Sargon, King of Assyria: Monumental Wall Reliefs at Dur-Sharrukin, from Original Drawings Made at the Time of Their Discovery in 1843–1844 by Botta and Flandin. Paris: Éditions recherche sur les civilisations, 1986.
  384.  
  385. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  386.  
  387. A discussion of the discoveries of Botta at Khorsabad and an attempt to locate dispersed fragments and recontextualize them by relating them to the drawings of Flandin (Monument de Ninive, 1846–1850).
  388.  
  389. Find this resource:
  390.  
  391. Barnett, Richard D. Sculptures from the North Palace of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh (668–627 B.C.). London: British Museum, 1976.
  392.  
  393. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  394.  
  395. A large, unwieldy volume with photographs that reflect the age of publication. Despite these drawbacks, it gathers all the relevant reliefs together, and these are presented at the end of each section in their original order.
  396.  
  397. Find this resource:
  398.  
  399. Barnett, Richard D., Erika Bleibtreu, and Geoffrey Turner, with contributions by Dominique Collon. Sculptures from the Southwest Palace of Sennacherib at Nineveh. 2 vols. London: British Museum, 1998.
  400.  
  401. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  402.  
  403. Definitive publication of the sculptures from Sennacherib’s Southwest Palace. A catalogue in two parts: photographs of entire slabs as well as details. Also has descriptions of the reliefs made by Henry Layard, together with translation of cuneiform captions and introductory essays, of which Turner’s analysis of the palace architecture is especially important. Sculptures still in Iraq are not included.
  404.  
  405. Find this resource:
  406.  
  407. Barnett, Richard D., and Margarete Falkner. The Sculptures of Assur-nasir-apli (883–859 B.C.) Tiglath-pileser III (745–727 B.C.) Esarhaddon (681–669 B.C.) from the Central and South-West Palaces at Nimrud. London: Trustees of the British Museum, 1962.
  408.  
  409. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  410.  
  411. The Central Palace was erected late in the reign of Tiglath-pileser III, who revived the use of stone relief decoration. Many of these carved panels were removed probably with the intention of reworking for use in the Southwest Palace of Esarhaddon: thus, the surviving evidence is fragmentary. An attempt is made to restore them to their original sequence even though the context is largely lost.
  412.  
  413. Find this resource:
  414.  
  415. Gadd, Cyril J. The stones of Assyria: The surviving remains of Assyrian sculpture, their recovery, and their original positions. London: Chatto and Windus, 1936.
  416.  
  417. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  418.  
  419. Divided into two parts, the first provides an account of the 19th century European excavators; the second a catalogue of relief panels in private and public collections organized to explain their original placement in the royal palaces.
  420.  
  421. Find this resource:
  422.  
  423. Meuszyński, J. Die Rekonstruktion der Reliefdarstellungen und ihrer Andordnung im Nordwestpalast von Kalhu (Nimrud). (Raume: B.C.D.E.F.G.H.L.N.P). Mainz am Rhein, Germany: Philipp von Zabern, 1981.
  424.  
  425. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  426.  
  427. This catalogue together with Paley and Sobolewski 1987 and Paley and Sobolewski 1992 describes all known relief fragments from the Northwest Palace at Nimrud and suggests their original sequence in detailed drawings alongside a concordance of current locations. A vital resource for any study of the art and architecture of this building.
  428.  
  429. Find this resource:
  430.  
  431. Paley, S. M., and Richard P. Sobolewski. The Reconstruction of the Relief Representations and their Positions in the Northwest-Palace at Kalhu (Nimrud) II. (Rooms: I.S.T.Z, West-Wing). Mainz am Rhein, Germany: Philipp von Zabern, 1987.
  432.  
  433. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  434.  
  435. This catalogue together with Meuszyński 1981 and Paley and Sobolewski 1992 describe all known relief fragments from the Northwest Palace at Nimrud and suggest their original sequence in detailed drawings alongside a concordance of current locations. A vital resource for any study of the art and architecture of this building.
  436.  
  437. Find this resource:
  438.  
  439. Paley, S. M., and Richard P. Sobolewski. The Reconstruction of the Relief Representations and Their Positions in the Northwest-Palace at Kalhu (Nimrud) III. (The Principal Entrances and Courtyards). Mainz am Rhein: Philipp von Zabern, 1992.
  440.  
  441. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  442.  
  443. This catalogue together with Meuszyński 1981 and Paley and Sobolewski 1987 describe all known relief fragments from the Northwest Palace at Nimrud and suggest their original sequence in detailed drawings alongside a concordance of current locations. A vital resource for any study of the art and architecture of this building.
  444.  
  445. Find this resource:
  446.  
  447. Critical Interpretations
  448. Descriptions of the scenes carved on the Assyrian reliefs, as well as those that appear in palace wall paintings, bronze door decoration, and carved ivories have traditionally been interpreted as having mimetic and propagandistic functions, a selected historical reality intended to intimidate and astonish the viewer. The images are thus understood as visual representations of royal ideology: the successful fulfillment of the king’s religious obligation to extend the lands of the national god Ashur and a means of glorifying the ruler as the embodiment of perfect kingship. Early-21st-century work, however, has begun to probe other levels of meaning embedded in the imagery. There is, for example, much symbolism that was drawn from a shared Babylonian-Assyrian religious and magical tradition. Attempts have begun to be made to understand how the techniques, subject matter, narrative composition, space, scale, and significance of the sculptures operated within an Assyrian worldview. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries scholarship has increasingly moved away from a linguistic paradigm where text is privileged over image to a materiality of visual culture. This section highlights a selection of topics that have attracted particular attention.
  449.  
  450. Assyrians and Non-Assyrians
  451. Foreigners/non-Assyrians appear in Assyrian art as both adversaries and as the bearers of tribute to the king. They play a significant role in the narrative of royal ideology. Among the earliest of such visual representations, from the reign of Ashurnasirpal II, foreignness is marked using stereotypes of costume and hairstyles; however, by the reign of Ashurbanipal, it is shown through specific geographic landscapes associated with homelands, and there is an interest in the details of material culture and distinct physiognomies. The important question of whether our concepts of race and ethnicity are meaningful in the context of Mesopotamia is discussed by Bahrani 2006. The role of these visual markers in reflecting the expansion of the Assyrian Empire as well as developments in politics and self-definition are explored by Nadali 2005, with a focus on the composition of the Assyrian army. Brown 2014 explores the political context of ethnicities, and Feldman 2014 develops a groundbreaking theory about the effective use of style in Assyrian art. Cifarelli 1998 investigates postures and gestures of carved figures as possible indicators of the inferiority of non-Assyrians.
  452.  
  453. Bahrani, Zainab. “Race and Ethnicity in Mesopotamian Antiquity.” World Archaeology 38.1 (2006): 48–59.
  454.  
  455. DOI: 10.1080/00438240500509843Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  456.  
  457. The author argues that race and ethnicity are discursive concepts that are historically and culturally variable. The ancient Mesopotamian conception of otherness was not articulated in terms of biology or of linguistic groups. Based on the premise that alterity is formulated in and through representation.
  458.  
  459. Find this resource:
  460.  
  461. Brown, Brian A. “Culture on Display: Representations of Ethnicity in the Art of the Late Assyrian State.” In Critical Approaches to Ancient Near Eastern Art. Edited by Brian A. Brown and Marian H. Feldman, 515–542. Boston and Berlin: De Gruyter, 2014.
  462.  
  463. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  464.  
  465. Identifies in the representations of non-Assyrians a suite of features that points to a recognition of ethnic identities in the Assyrian Empire, as well as a desire to use them in political contexts. It is argued that these ethnic distinctions in the royal artwork were intimately tied up with the political and demographic changes in the empire.
  466.  
  467. Find this resource:
  468.  
  469. Cifarelli, Megan. “Gesture and Alterity in the Art of Ashurnasirpal II.” Art Bulletin 80 (1998): 210–228.
  470.  
  471. DOI: 10.2307/3051230Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  472.  
  473. This essay suggests that images of non-Assyrian people—created for an audience that was largely Assyrian, male, and elite—use a visual language that identified intercultural difference with intracultural transgression. Non-Assyrians were depicted with postures and gestures that carried negative connotations that positively reinforced Assyrian identity and power structures.
  474.  
  475. Find this resource:
  476.  
  477. Feldman, Marian H. Communities of Style: Portable Luxury Arts, Identity, and Collective Memory in the Iron Age Levant. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2014.
  478.  
  479. DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226164427.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  480.  
  481. A novel and exciting exploration of the use of a consistent style by the Assyrian state as a strategy for both maintaining memory of conquest over non-Assyrians and for neutralizing their potential threat.
  482.  
  483. Find this resource:
  484.  
  485. Nadali, Davide. “The Representation of Foreign Soldiers and their Employment in the Assyrian Army.” In Ethnicity in Ancient Mesopotamia: Papers Read at the 48th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, Leiden, 1–4 July 2002. Edited by Wilfred H. van Soldt, 222–244. Leiden, The Netherlands: Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije oosten, 2005.
  486.  
  487. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  488.  
  489. An analysis of the visual record for the ethnic composition of the Assyrian army during the 7th century BC, identifying the role and identity of non-Assyrian soldiers.
  490.  
  491. Find this resource:
  492.  
  493. Kingship and Imperial Ideology
  494. The king was the fulcrum of the Assyrian state and developments in the ideology of kingship were directly connected with the growth of the empire. The changing nature of Assyrian ideology as reflected in royal art has been the subject of a number of recent studies. The visual imagery appears to show a shift from scenes in which the king is supported by the gods and supernatural sprits to one in which he adopts divine-like properties. This development is addressed specifically by Ornan 2014. The mythological and heroic aspects of the reliefs that underpin royal ideology are surveyed by Collins 2014 and explored for specific details in the Northwest Palace reliefs by Ataç 2010 and Porter 2010, which focus on the role of supernatural images and their relation to court scholars. The political dimensions of the carved scenes on the reliefs is surveyed by Radner 2010, especially in relation to royal succession and marriage, while Reade 1979 and Winter 2010 highlight the role of Assyrian art as propaganda, raising questions about the audience of the reliefs and their representation of specific historical events. Thomason 2005 highlights how the collecting of luxury objects and materials contributed significantly to the formation of royal identity.
  495.  
  496. Ataç, Mehmet-Ali. The Mythology of Kingship in Neo-Assyrian Art. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
  497.  
  498. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  499.  
  500. The chapters explore different aspects of the representation of animals, the king, and supernatural figures (largely from the Northwest Palace at Nimrud) to argue that the images mask a complex philosophical rhetoric developed by court scholars who were their primary audience.
  501.  
  502. Find this resource:
  503.  
  504. Collins, Paul. “Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Violence: Warfare in Neo-Assyrian Art.” In Critical Approaches to the Ancient Near East. Edited by Brian Brown and Marian Feldman, 619–644. Boston and Berlin: De Gruyter, 2014.
  505.  
  506. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  507.  
  508. Overview of some of the current approaches for analyzing the images of warfare in Assyrian art, arguing that they reflect at one level a mythological and heroic nature of Assyrian kingship.
  509.  
  510. Find this resource:
  511.  
  512. Ornan, Tally. “A Silent Message: Godlike Kings in Mesopotamian Art.” In Critical Approaches to Ancient Near Eastern Art. Edited by Brian A. Brown and Marian H. Feldman, 569–595. Boston and Berlin: De Gruyter, 2014.
  513.  
  514. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  515.  
  516. A survey of the use of implicit and indirect methods to convey the godlike image of the king. It places Assyrian kingship (both Middle and Neo-Assyrian) in the context of the longer Mesopotamian history.
  517.  
  518. Find this resource:
  519.  
  520. Porter, Barbara N. “Decorations, Political Posters, Time Capsules, and Living Gods.” In Assyrian Reliefs from the Palace of Ashurnasirpal II: A Cultural Biography. Edited by Ada Cohen and Steven E. Kangas, 143–158. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 2010.
  521.  
  522. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  523.  
  524. A consideration of the human and winged figures depicted in association with the king on the wall panels from the Northwest Palace at Nimrud, in particular their relationship to the apkallus of ritual texts and the so-called sacred tree, said to have a symbolic relationship with the date palm.
  525.  
  526. Find this resource:
  527.  
  528. Radner, Karen. “Assyrian and Non-Assyrian Kingship in the First Millennium BC.” In Concepts of Kingship in Antiquity. Edited by Giovanni B. Lanfranchi and Robert Rollinger, 15–24. History of the Ancient Near East/Monographs 11. Padova, Italy: SARGON Editrice e Libreria, 2010.
  529.  
  530. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  531.  
  532. Assyrian kingship as viewed from within Assyria with attention to the ideology and practicalities of royal succession alongside the place of Assyrian kingship in the wider world; special consideration is given to the role of Babylon and the policy of securing interstate relationships with dynastic marriages of the 7th century BC.
  533.  
  534. Find this resource:
  535.  
  536. Reade, Julian E. “Ideology and Propaganda in Assyrian Art.” In Power and Propaganda. Edited by Mogens Trolle Larsen, 329–343. Mesopotamia 7. Copenhagen: Akademisk Forlag, 1979.
  537.  
  538. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  539.  
  540. One of the first explorations of the role of Assyrian reliefs as a projection of self-image, identified as national rather than imperial. Also there is a discussion of the incorporation of foreign elements into the imagery. Although later publications have investigated these aspects in more detail, this remains a fundamental survey.
  541.  
  542. Find this resource:
  543.  
  544. Thomason, Allison K. Luxury and Legitimation: Royal Collecting in Ancient Mesopotamia. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2005.
  545.  
  546. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  547.  
  548. An exploration of the relevance that luxury objects held in Mesopotamia, including an examination of the textual references as a way of defining the reasons for collecting.
  549.  
  550. Find this resource:
  551.  
  552. Winter, Irene J. “Art in Empire: The Royal Image and the Visual Dimensions of Assyrian Ideology.” In On the Art of the Ancient Near East: Of the First Millennium B.C.E. Vol. 1. Edited by Irene J. Winter, 7–108. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2010.
  553.  
  554. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  555.  
  556. Led the investigation of the relationship between text and image and the parallels between structure and content in the presentation of royal ideology. Although the question of a direct relationship between the two has been subsequently questioned, this remains a decisive study.
  557.  
  558. Find this resource:
  559.  
  560. Landscape
  561. As with representations of foreigners, landscape plays a crucial role in defining the world beyond the Assyrian realm that was understood as both potentially abundantly exotic and a region to be tamed. The growth and changing nature of empire was expressed through detail of physical landscape and vegetation and animals depicted in the reliefs. Ritual claims by the Assyrian state to distant places are the subject of a study by Harmanşah 2007, and the political ideology it expressed highlighted by Marcus 1995 and Thomason 2001. The royal journey across the varied landscapes is interpreted as a ritual act in itself by Shafer 2014.
  562.  
  563. Harmanşah, Ömür. “‘Source of the Tigris’: Event, Place and Performance in the Assyrian Landscapes of the Early Iron Age.” Archaeological Dialogues 14.2 (2007): 179–204.
  564.  
  565. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  566.  
  567. Assyrian kings Tiglath-pileser I (1114–1076 BC) and Shalmaneser III (858–824 BC) carved “images of kingship” and accompanying royal inscriptions at the site of Birkleyn in eastern Turkey, a remote but politically contested region. This paper investigates the making of these monuments as a complex performative place-event, illustrating Assyrian rhetoric of kingship.
  568.  
  569. Find this resource:
  570.  
  571. Marcus, Michelle I. “Geography as Visual Ideology: Landscape, Knowledge and Power in Neo-Assyrian Art.” In Neo-Assyrian Geography. Edited by Mario Liverani, 193–202. Rome: University of Rome, 1995.
  572.  
  573. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  574.  
  575. Investigates the role played by representations of terrain in articulating Neo-Assyrian rhetoric of rule through metaphors of topographical mastery and possession.
  576.  
  577. Find this resource:
  578.  
  579. Shafer, Ann. “The Assyrian Landscape as Ritual.” In Critical Approaches to Ancient Near Eastern Art. Edited by Brian A. Brown and Marian H. Feldman, 713–739. Boston and Berlin: De Gruyter, 2014.
  580.  
  581. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  582.  
  583. A reading of the visualization of landscape for its own sake: the journey undertaken by the king across the landscape viewed as a celebration of cosmic balance but also a ritual undertaken to achieve it.
  584.  
  585. Find this resource:
  586.  
  587. Thomason, Allison Karmel. “Representations of the North Syrian Landscape in Neo-Assyrian Art.” BASOR 323 (2001): 3–26.
  588.  
  589. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  590.  
  591. Suggests that the landscape of north Syria as represented in reliefs from Nimrud, Khorasabad, and Nineveh was a lush and bountiful world. Five themes of representation are identified that expressed a political ideology that the landscape was a necessary and beneficial addition provided by Assyrian kings for the prosperity of the empire.
  592.  
  593. Find this resource:
  594.  
  595. Narrative
  596. Many Assyrian representations, especially in the wall reliefs, can be distinguished from earlier Near Eastern examples by their combination of sequence, action, and historical particularity. The narrative aspect of Assyrian art is clear in both the textual and visual accounts of war and the hunt. Among the earlier investigations of such narrative compositions the work of Reade 1979 in reconstructing the decorative schemes of Assyrian palaces and Winter 2010 and Winter 1983, exploring the relationship of text and image, remain fundamental to all later studies. Pittman 1996 (cited under Middle Assyrian Period) investigates the origins of narrative form in the visual arts of the Middle Assyrian period but for the Neo-Assyrian period, Russell 1998 and Lumsden 2004 address the Northwest Palace at Nimrud, while the wall reliefs at Nineveh are explored by Russell 1991 (Southwest Palace) and Watanabe 2014 (North Palace).
  597.  
  598. Lumsden, Stephen. “Narrative Art and Empire: The Throneroom of Assurnasirpal II.” In Assyria and Beyond: Studies Presented to Morgens Trolle Larsen. Edited by Jan G. Dercksen, 359–386. Leiden, The Netherlands: Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten, 2004.
  599.  
  600. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  601.  
  602. Argues that the narrative reliefs do not occur in a linear sequence and that the centering of the conclusion is part of a shared literary and visual code; the pictorial representations are thus understood to be informed by writing (and, by association, language).
  603.  
  604. Find this resource:
  605.  
  606. Reade, Julian E. “Narrative Composition in Assyrian Sculpture.” Baghdader Mitteilungen 10 (1979): 52–110.
  607.  
  608. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  609.  
  610. Fundamental survey of narrative aspects of the imagery on reliefs across all major Assyrian palaces.
  611.  
  612. Find this resource:
  613.  
  614. Russell, John M. Sennacherib’s Palace without Rival at Nineveh. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991.
  615.  
  616. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  617.  
  618. Investigates the meaning and political function of the Southwest Palace. Combines discussions of the context of inscriptions in the palace with reconstructions of its physical appearance and analyses of the principles by which the subjects of Sennacherib’s reliefs were organized to express meaning.
  619.  
  620. Find this resource:
  621.  
  622. Russell, John M. “The Program of the Palace of Assurnasirpal II at Nimrud: Issues in the Research and Presentation of Assyrian Art.” American Journal of Archaeology 102.4 (1998): 655–715.
  623.  
  624. DOI: 10.2307/506096Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  625.  
  626. Wide-ranging analysis of the organization and content of the reliefs from the Northwest Palace at Nimrud including the use of narrative to express a four-fold Assyrian ideology of military success, service to the gods, divine protection, and Assyrian prosperity.
  627.  
  628. Find this resource:
  629.  
  630. Watanabe, Chikako E. “Styles of Pictorial Narratives in Assurbanipal’s Reliefs.” In Critical Approaches to Ancient Near Eastern Art. Edited by Brian A. Brown and Marian H. Feldman, 345–370. Boston and Berlin: De Gruyter, 2014.
  631.  
  632. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  633.  
  634. Identifies within the 7th century BC reliefs of Ashurbanipal two distinctive compositional arrangements termed “linear” and “centric” that were used to define narratives from the point of view of the time and place at which the represented events occurred.
  635.  
  636. Find this resource:
  637.  
  638. Winter, Irene J. “The Program of the Throne-room of Assurnasirpal II.” In Essays on Near Eastern Art and Archaeology in Honor of Charles Kyrle Wilkinson. Edited by Prudence O. Harper and Holly Pittman, 15–31. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1983.
  639.  
  640. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  641.  
  642. An influential paper that inspired a number of studies emphasizing a relationship between text and image as parallel or complementary forms for representing the same event. During the late 20th and early 21st centuries there was a shift from a linguistic paradigm where text is privileged over image to a materiality of visual culture, which has challenged some of the conclusions.
  643.  
  644. Find this resource:
  645.  
  646. Winter, Irene J. “Royal Rhetoric and the Development of Historical Narrative in Neo-Assyrian Reliefs.” In On the Art of the Ancient Near East: Of the First Millennium B.C.E. Vol. 1. Edited by Irene J. Winter, 3–70. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2010.
  647.  
  648. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  649.  
  650. First published in Studies in Visual Communication 7 (1981), this groundbreaking analysis of the narrative reliefs in the throne room of the Northwest Palace at Nimrud. Considers the relationship of text to image and the organization of the space.
  651.  
  652. Find this resource:
  653.  
  654. Religion and Ritual
  655. The representation of ritual as well as the magical properties of the images themselves are relatively new subjects of investigation. Although every scene in some way reflected ritual—since wars, hunts, building, and celebrations all reflected the glory of the gods whose agent on earth was the king—the following studies highlight both the role of religion within Assyrian society and the potential performative qualities of the reliefs. Reade 2005 provides a comprehensive list of scenes of ritual, and Magan 1989 interrogates the content to define the role of the king. The magical and performative nature of the reliefs is discussed by both Nylander 1999 and, in a heavily theoretically informed study, Bahrani 2008. Noegel 2007 stresses the relationship between ritual, myth, and violence. Holloway 2002 offers a contentious reading of the evidence to suggest that religion underpinned military expansion.
  656.  
  657. Bahrani, Zainab. Rituals of War: The Body and Violence in Mesopotamia. Brooklyn, NY: Zone, 2008.
  658.  
  659. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  660.  
  661. Drawing on the philosophies of Derrida, this is not a study of military practice itself but an exploration of the conceptions and beliefs about war in Mesopotamia. Bahrani moves between Mesopotamian divination practices and the function of writing and visual art to provide a stimulating and provocative series of essays.
  662.  
  663. Find this resource:
  664.  
  665. Holloway, Steven. Aššur Is King! Aššur Is King! Religion in the Exercise of Power in the Neo-Assyrian Empire. Leiden, The Netherlands: E.J. Brill, 2002.
  666.  
  667. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  668.  
  669. A contentious idea that the military expansion of Assyria was driven by religious imperialism with the expected outcome that subjugated people would accept the national god Ashur as their king (for an alternative reconstruction see, e.g., Fales 2010, cited under Warfare).
  670.  
  671. Find this resource:
  672.  
  673. Magan, Ursula. Assyrische Königsdarstellungen, Aspekte der Herrschaft: ein Typologie. Baghdader Forschungen 9. Mainz, Germany: P. von Zabern, 1989.
  674.  
  675. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  676.  
  677. Identifies fourteen types or iconographies of royal-representations in Neo-Assyrian art: the king appears as hunter, builder, worshipper, cultic actor, and shepherd, and takes a variety of roles as commander of the army.
  678.  
  679. Find this resource:
  680.  
  681. Noegel, Scott B. “Dismemberment, Creation, and Ritual: Images of Divine Violence in the Ancient Near East.” In Belief and Bloodshed: Religion and Violence across Time and Tradition. Edited by James Wellman, 13–27. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2007.
  682.  
  683. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  684.  
  685. Links the images of violence to a mythological dimension tied to the imposition of order over chaos as mirrored in Mesopotamian myths.
  686.  
  687. Find this resource:
  688.  
  689. Nylander, Carl. “Breaking the Cup of Kingship. An Elamite Coup in Nineveh?” Iranica Antiqua 34 (1999): 71–83.
  690.  
  691. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  692.  
  693. The deliberate and calculated damage to the reliefs of Assurbanipal are argued to be the product of Elamite revenge for the king’s harsh dealings with Elam and his mutilation of Elamite royal images and that the banquet scene was, at least in part, inspired and appropriated from Elam. The ritual and performative nature of the event is highlighted by Bahrani 2008.
  694.  
  695. Find this resource:
  696.  
  697. Reade, Julian E. “Religious Ritual in Assyrian Sculpture.” In Ritual and Politics in Ancient Mesopotamia. Edited by Barbara Nevling Porter, 7–61. New Haven, CT: American Oriental Society, 2005.
  698.  
  699. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  700.  
  701. A review of the visual representations of rituals in the palace reliefs. Topics treated include kings performing rituals, sacrifices, processions, and military camp ceremonies.
  702.  
  703. Find this resource:
  704.  
  705. Warfare
  706. Warfare and its aftermath are significant themes in Neo-Assyrian art, but it is limited to specific media and contexts, most famously as stone reliefs and metalwork. These images have been probed by Nadali 2005 for details of military equipment, tactics and organization, while Reade 1976 relates specific scenes to historical events recorded in the royal inscriptions. Fales 2010 provides the most up to date survey of text and images. Useful surveys are covered by Dezsö 2006 and Reade 1972.
  707.  
  708. Dezsö, Tamás. The Assyrian Army I/1–2. The Structure of the Neo-Assyrian Army. Budapest: Eötvös University Press, 2006.
  709.  
  710. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  711.  
  712. A detailed synthesis of representations of the Assyrian army investigating the infantry (archers, spearmen, slingers), cavalry and chariotry. It covers the three major groups of sources that can be employed in the reconstruction of the Assyrian army: (1) the written (cuneiform) sources, (2) the pictorial evidence (palace reliefs and wall-paintings), and (3) the archaeological evidence (arms and armor).
  713.  
  714. Find this resource:
  715.  
  716. Fales, Federick Mario. Guerre et paix en Assyrie: Religion et impérialisme. Les Conférences de l’École Pratique des Hautes Études. Paris: Cerf, 2010.
  717.  
  718. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  719.  
  720. Written by a major specialist on the Assyrian empire, this study offers a comprehensive survey of Assyrian military activity and its historical consequences. Using the available textual and visual evidence, from official accounts to everyday documents and carved reliefs, Fales explores whether Assyria should be defined as a fully militaristic society and attempts to rehabilitate the Assyrians as innately aggressive. An English version is forthcoming.
  721.  
  722. Find this resource:
  723.  
  724. Nadali, Davide. “Assyrians to War: Positions, Patterns and Canons in the Tactics of the Assyrian Armies in the VII Century B.C.” In Studi in onore di Paolo Matthiae presentati in occasione del suo sessantacinquesimo compleanno. Edited by A. Di Ludovico and Davide Nadali, 167–207. CMAO 10. Rome: Università degli studi di Roma “La Sapienza,” 2005.
  725.  
  726. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  727.  
  728. Argues that the designers of reliefs in the Southwest Palace at Nineveh reproduced historical events, detailing components of the Assyrian army and the strategic systems applied in each battle.
  729.  
  730. Find this resource:
  731.  
  732. Reade, Julian E. “The Neo-Assyrian Court and Army: Evidence from the Sculptures.” Iraq 34 (1972): 87–112.
  733.  
  734. DOI: 10.2307/4199938Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  735.  
  736. One of the first attempts at analyzing the content of the reliefs and remains essential reading isolating principal categories of Assyrians shown in the sculptures and other official monuments. Written for the benefit of non-specialists, with suggestions and speculations on status and titles.
  737.  
  738. Find this resource:
  739.  
  740. Reade, Julian E. “Sargon’s Campaigns of 720, 716, and 715 BC: Evidence from the Sculptures.” JNES 35 (1976): 95–104.
  741.  
  742. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  743.  
  744. The analysis of a series of wall reliefs at Khorsabad and their associated captions to investigate how far they reflect historical military campaigns recounted in Sargon’s royal inscriptions and other texts.
  745.  
  746. Find this resource:
  747.  
  748. Wall Paintings and Glazed Bricks
  749. Alongside wall reliefs, paintings and glazed bricks were used for palace decoration. Paintings were used either instead of sculpted slabs or were associated with them (on the wall above). Glazed bricks were used to decorate outer spaces such as courtyards and architectural elements such as archways, gates, and external doors—probably because they were more resistant to the elements, and their glaze could catch the sunlight. Examples of wall paintings have been found at a number of principal royal palaces as well as governor’s palaces (see, e.g., Thureau-Dangin and Dunand 1936, cited under Palace and Temple Architecture). Nadali 2006 discusses Fort Shalmaneser (built by Shalmaneser III and refurbished by Esarhaddon), which was adorned with both paintings and glazed bricks but not stone reliefs.
  750.  
  751. Albenda, Pauline. Ornamental Wall Painting in the Art of the Assyrian Empire. Cuneiform Monographs, Vol. 28. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2005.
  752.  
  753. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  754.  
  755. A description and analysis of some of the key paintings, especially those from Til Barsip. Her dating of some of the paintings has been questioned by Winter’s review of P. Albenda, Ornamental Wall Painting in the Art of the Assyrian Empire (Leiden: Brill, 2005).
  756.  
  757. Find this resource:
  758.  
  759. Nadali, Davide. “Esarhaddon’s Glazed Bricks from Nimrud: The Egyptian Campaign Depicted.” Iraq 68 (2006): 109–119.
  760.  
  761. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  762.  
  763. An analysis of glazed bricks discovered by Layard in Fort Shalmaneser at Nimrud dating from Esarhaddon’s renovation of the palace in the 7th century BC and depicting a battle with Egyptians.
  764.  
  765. Find this resource:
  766.  
  767. Nadali, Davide. “Assyrian High-Relief Bricks from Nineveh and the Fragments of a Royal Name.” Iraq 70 (2008): 87–104.
  768.  
  769. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  770.  
  771. Molded glazed bricks found by R. Campbell Thompson between 1927 and 1930 between the temples of Nanu and Ishtar on Kuyunjik were interpreted as examples of rebus writing and dated to the reign of Esarhaddon.
  772.  
  773. Find this resource:
  774.  
  775. Reade, Julian E. “A Glazed-Brick Panel from Nimrud.” Iraq 25.1 (1963): 38–47.
  776.  
  777. DOI: 10.2307/4199730Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  778.  
  779. Describes the techniques of manufacture, installation, and visual contents of a large panel formed from over three hundred glazed bricks recovered in a courtyard of Fort Shalmaneser at Nimrud.
  780.  
  781. Find this resource:
  782.  
  783. Russell, John M. “Some Painted Bricks from Nineveh, A Preliminary Report.” Iranica Antiqua 34 (1999): 85–109.
  784.  
  785. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  786.  
  787. Excavations in 1990 of the western end of the Southwest Palace revealed a meter-thick layer of destruction fill full of fragments of Assyrian glazed bricks that originally belonged to a decorated wall. They make a significant contribution to a little known form of decoration at this specific palace.
  788.  
  789. Find this resource:
  790.  
  791. Portable Objects
  792. In earlier studies, portable objects have been often labeled as minor arts and considered separately from the “major arts” of painting and sculpture. Much work has focused on identifying specific workshops of object types that are classified by material and style with an interest in their role as markers of social and political status. Although the following sections are divided by this traditional approach, it should be noted that recent scholarship, especially Thomason 2014, has begun to question the division between “minor” and “major” art with an interest in the role of portable objects within intercultural contact as well as the relationships between portable and non-portable works of art with texts, architecture, and other archaeological and ethnographic materials.
  793.  
  794. Thomason, Allison K. “The Impact of the ‘Portable’: Integrating ‘Minor Arts.’” In Critical Approaches to Ancient Near Eastern Art. Edited by Brian A. Brown and Marian H. Feldman, 133–157. Boston and Berlin: De Gruyter, 2014.
  795.  
  796. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  797.  
  798. A critique of the dichotomies of major versus minor arts or art versus craft and a well-argued case for adopting “portable objects/works of art” as terms more meaningful for understanding the significance of small-scale objects in the ancient Near East.
  799.  
  800. Find this resource:
  801.  
  802. Carved Ivories
  803. Among the objects recovered from Nimrud in the 19th century, and extensively discussed by Barnett 1975, were carved pieces of ivory that represented the surviving fragments of inlaid wooden furniture. Many more examples of ivories were excavated in the period 1949–1963 and subsequently, especially from the storerooms of Fort Shalmaneser as documented by Herrmann, et al. 2004, and the Northwest Palace. More recent discoveries are described by Safer and Al-Iraqi 1987. A vast amount of this furniture had probably arrived in Assyria as booty or tribute from states to the west of Assyria; the ivory carvings that adorned them have been classified as north Syrian and Phoenician styles (for furniture see Herrmann 1996, cited under Metalwork). The Assyrians themselves generally used flat sheets of ivory to decorate their furniture, which was largely fashioned from metal and probably restricted in use to the royal court. Assyrian ivories from Nimrud are catalogued by Mallowan and Davies 1970. These are incised with scenes comparable with those known from the palace reliefs though with a preference for images of rituals and celebratory banquets and processions rather than warfare. Gansell 2014 explores the use of carved ivories for defining ancient notions of beauty.
  804.  
  805. Barnett, R. D. A Catalogue of the Nimrud Ivories: With Other Examples of Ancient Near Eastern Ivories in the British Museum. 2d ed. London: Trustees of the British Museum, 1975.
  806.  
  807. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  808.  
  809. Compiled before the Second World War, this is the first significant attempt to categorize ivories based on those in the British Museum. Covers the ivories found by Henry Layard and William Kennet Loftus including those from the Burt Palace that are not included in the later publication series Ivories from Nimrud (1949–1963).
  810.  
  811. Find this resource:
  812.  
  813. Gansell, Amy Rebecca. “Images and Conceptions of Ideal Feminine Beauty in Neo-Assyrian Royal Contexts, c. 883–627 BCE.” In Critical Approaches to Ancient Near Eastern Art. Edited by Brian A. Brown and Marian H. Feldman, 391–420. Boston and Berlin: De Gruyter, 2014.
  814.  
  815. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  816.  
  817. Innovative study investigating ideals of women embodied in elite Neo-Assyrian contexts in order to recover ancient notions of beauty from visual sources. Utilizes ivory figurines as well as sculpture, seals, and jewelry.
  818.  
  819. Find this resource:
  820.  
  821. Herrmann, Georgina, Helena Coffey, and Stuart Laidlaw. The Published Ivories from Fort Shalmaneser, Nimrud: A Scanned Archive of Photographs. London: British School of Archaeology in Iraq, 2004.
  822.  
  823. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  824.  
  825. Thousands of ivories were found in a palace at Nimrud known as Fort Shalmaneser and this volume is intended to supplement the published catalogues (Ivories from Nimrud (1949–1963)) for rapid identification with object number and find spot.
  826.  
  827. Find this resource:
  828.  
  829. Ivories from Nimrud (1949–1963). Vols. 1–7. London: British Institute for the Study of Iraq, 1967–2013.
  830.  
  831. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  832.  
  833. More than six thousand carved ivories from Fort Shalmaneser excavated between 1957 and 1963 are published in a series of volumes with commentary and black and white photographs. The major assemblage is in the Phoenician tradition, but among them are ivories carved in Assyrian style (see Mallowan and Davies 1970). Ivories found by various excavators from Austen Henry Layard in the 19th century to the Iraqi Department of Antiquities and Heritage are published as Volume 6.
  834.  
  835. Find this resource:
  836.  
  837. Mallowan, Max, and Leri Glynne Davies. Ivories From Nimrud (1949–1963) Fascicule II: Ivories in Assyrian Style. London: British School of Archaeology in Iraq, 1970.
  838.  
  839. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  840.  
  841. Catalogue of 204 ivory fragments carved in an Assyrian style with discussions of the subject matter and stylistic criteria.
  842.  
  843. Find this resource:
  844.  
  845. Safer, F., and M. S. Al-Iraqi. Ivories from Nimrud. Baghdad: State Organization of Antiquities & Heritage, 1987.
  846.  
  847. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  848.  
  849. Max Mallowan found some superb ivories during his excavations in the Northwest Palace, many recovered from the sludge at the bottoms of two wells (Ivories from Nimrud (1949–1963), Volume 1). Unfortunately, it was at the time too dangerous to empty the third well. This was only achieved in 1975 by the Iraqi Department of Antiquities and Heritage, who found and published the finest ivories ever discovered in the Ancient Near East. Text in Arabic.
  850.  
  851. Find this resource:
  852.  
  853. Jewelry and Personal Adornment
  854. Personal adornment also includes Seals. Maxwell-Hyslop 1971 remains the foundational work devoted to this area. Hussein and Suleiman 2000 provides a survey of the remarkable finds from the Queens’ tombs at Nimrud. Much has also been done on particular pieces and genres in exhibition catalogues (see, e.g., Aruz, et al. 2014, cited under Assyrian Art and Society).
  855.  
  856. Hussein, Muzahem M., and Anner Suleiman. Nimrud: A City of Golden Treasures. Baghdad: Directorate of Antiquities and Heritage, 2000.
  857.  
  858. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  859.  
  860. Account by the excavators of four royal tombs discovered between 1988–1990 under the floors of the Northwest Palace at Nimrud (see also Oates and Oates 2001, cited under Neo-Assyrian Period: History of Discovery). The sarcophagus in these so-called Queens’ tomb chambers each contained hundreds of items including jewelry, vessels, ornaments, seals, and other goods belonging to Yaba, Queen of Tiglathpileser III; Banitu, Queen of Shalmanasser V; and Atalia, Queen of Sargon II.
  861.  
  862. Find this resource:
  863.  
  864. Maxwell-Hyslop, K. R. Western Asiatic Jewellery c. 3000–612 B.C. London: Methuen, 1971.
  865.  
  866. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  867.  
  868. The major history of ancient Near Eastern jewelry, covering Mesopotamia, Iran, Anatolia, and the Levant. Remains the primary reference work in this important area of Near Eastern art.
  869.  
  870. Find this resource:
  871.  
  872. Metalwork
  873. Assyria had a thriving metalworking industry superior to any contemporary state in the region and produced large quantities of sophisticated bronze and ironwork that was of high technical quality and sometimes elaborately decorated. Metal was used to produce vessels, furniture, and decorative elements, as well as supply the army with equipment (weapons and horse trappings). John Curtis is the leading expert on Assyrian metalwork; he provides a general survey in Curtis 1988, with a more detailed analysis of objects in Curtis 2012. Among the most significant metalwork from Assyria with narrative imagery are the embossed and chased bronze bands from gates at Balawat, described and illustrated by King 1915 and Curtis and Tallis 2008. Herrmann 1996 represents a collection of conference papers on furniture in Mesopotamia and includes information about Assyrian examples.
  874.  
  875. Curtis, John E. “Assyria as a Bronzeworking Centre in the late Assyrian Period.” In Bronzeworking Centres of Western Asia c. 1000–539 B.C. Edited by John Curtis, 83–96. London: Kegan Paul International, 1988.
  876.  
  877. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  878.  
  879. Corrects an assumption that Assyria was not a major center of bronze production. Relates the discoveries (furniture and horse trappings) at Nimrud to the details in Assyrian reliefs. Also discusses a number of bronze objects in Assyrian style found outside Assyria (e.g., on Samos).
  880.  
  881. Find this resource:
  882.  
  883. Curtis, John E. An Examination of Late Assyrian Metalwork. Oxford: Oxbow, 2012.
  884.  
  885. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  886.  
  887. Publication of the author’s PhD thesis. It makes available for the first time a vast amount of previously unpublished metalwork, much it from Nimrud, excavated by Henry Layard between 1845 and 1851 and then by the British School of Archaeology in Iraq between 1949 and 1963. An essential reference work.
  888.  
  889. Find this resource:
  890.  
  891. Curtis, John E., and Nigel Tallis, eds. The Balawat Gates of Ashurnasirpal II. London: British Museum, 2008.
  892.  
  893. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  894.  
  895. Publishes fully for the first time images of two pairs of gates that Ashurnasirpal erected at Balawat (ancient Imgur-Enlil). The bronze bands that adorned these gates were decorated with scenes of war, hunt, and tribute. One set excavated by Hormuzd Rassam in 1878, the second pair, discovered by Max Mallowan in 1956.
  896.  
  897. Find this resource:
  898.  
  899. Herrmann, Georgina, ed. The Furniture of Western Asia, Ancient and Traditional: Papers of the Conference Held at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London, June 28 to 30, 1993. Mainz, Germany: Verlag Philipp von Zabern, 1996.
  900.  
  901. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  902.  
  903. Conference papers covering furniture of all materials from the 4th millennium BC to the present (with some inevitable gaps). Assyrian metal furniture and decoration are explored alongside that of neighboring cultures (Phoenicia, Urartu, and Elam).
  904.  
  905. Find this resource:
  906.  
  907. King, Leonard W. Bronze Reliefs from the Gates of Shalmaneser, King of Assyria B.C. 860–825. London: Trustees of the British Muserum, 1915.
  908.  
  909. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  910.  
  911. Discovered in 1878 by Hormuzd Rassam at the site of Balawat and now in the British Museum, sixteen embossed and chased strips of bronze that decorated palace gates (eight on each side). Scenes with cuneiform captions show military action, celebratory processions, and scenes of ritual and tribute. Curtis and Tallis 2008 clarified the arrangement of the bands on the gates.
  912.  
  913. Find this resource:
  914.  
  915. Seals
  916. Cylinder seals, carved with a design that rolled over clay gives an image in reverse, were the dominant seal of Mesopotamia from the end of the 4th millennium BC until their replacement by stamp seals in the mid-1st millennium. Distinctive designs of the middle Assyrian period are covered by Matthews 1990 (cited under Middle Assyrian Period). Collon 2005 is authored by a leading scholar of Mesopotamian glyptic, and her introduction to the subject is invaluable. Her catalogue of the British Museum’s seal collection represents one of the most comprehensive collections outside of Iraq. Another important collection is represented by the Pierpont Morgan Library catalogued by Porada 1948. Other significant collections that have been catalogued include Buchanan 1966. Collections of Assyrian period stamp seals have received less study, an exception being Moorey and Buchanan 1988. The so-called Assyrian Royal Seal used by government officials is discussed in Nadali 2009–2010.
  917.  
  918. Buchanan, Briggs. Catalogue of Ancient Near Eastern Seals in the Ashmolean Museum: Cylinder Seals. Vol. 1. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1966.
  919.  
  920. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  921.  
  922. Catalogue of 1116 cylinder seals and sealings (impressions) in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, covering the period approximately 3000–300 BC. Although the Neo-Assyrian seals are not extensive, the collection includes some significant examples. Seals acquired after 1966 are described in an article by Moorey in the journal Iraq (Volume 40, 1978).
  923.  
  924. Find this resource:
  925.  
  926. Collon, Dominique. Catalogue of the Western Asiatic Seals in the British Museum. Cylinder Seals V. Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian Periods. London: British Museum, 2001.
  927.  
  928. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  929.  
  930. The relevant volume of a catalogue series covering the British Museum’s Near Eastern cylinder seal collection. The equally extensive stamp seal collection has not been published though many are available to view on the British Museum website online.
  931.  
  932. Find this resource:
  933.  
  934. Collon, Dominique. First Impressions: Cylinder Seals in the Ancient Near East. London: British Museum, 2005.
  935.  
  936. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  937.  
  938. Updated version of the 1987 original. Insightful, expert introduction to the study of cylinder seals, based on collections worldwide. The best starting point for an understanding of changes through time and the range of subject matter employed in ancient Mesopotamian seals including a chapter on 1st millennium examples.
  939.  
  940. Find this resource:
  941.  
  942. Moorey, P. R. S., and Briggs Buchanan. Catalogue of Ancient Near Eastern Seals in the Ashmolean Museum. Vol. III, The Iron Age Stamp Seals (c. 1200–350 BC). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988.
  943.  
  944. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  945.  
  946. One of the few stamp seal collections including Neo-Assyrian examples that have been published as a group. It provides a full commentary on the seals most widely used in the Near East from about 1200 BC to the time of Alexander the Great.
  947.  
  948. Find this resource:
  949.  
  950. Nadali, Davide. “Neo-Assyrian State Seals: An Allegory of Power.” State Archives of Assyria Bulletin 18 (2009–2010): 215–244.
  951.  
  952. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  953.  
  954. A study of the seal used by senior administrators of the Assyrian state from the 9th to 7th centuries BC. Often erroneously described as “royal seal,” these stamp seals (of which only impressions are known) depicts the Assyrian king confronting a rearing lion as a symbol of power and authority.
  955.  
  956. Find this resource:
  957.  
  958. Porada, E. Corpus of Ancient Near Eastern Seals in North American Collections I, the Pierpont Morgan Library Collection. New York: Pantheon, 1948.
  959.  
  960. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  961.  
  962. Major seal collection catalogued by Edith Porada, the leading scholar of cylinder seals of her generation. Exactly 1157 seals form the core of the library’s collection including a large number of Neo-Assyrian examples. Subsequent to publication some 270 cylinder seal were added to the collection, many of which are available to view on the Morgan Library website online.
  963.  
  964. Find this resource:
  965.  
  966. Winter, Irene J. “Le Palais imaginaire: Scale and Meaning in Neo-Assyrian Cylinder Seals.” In On the Art of the Ancient Near East: Of the First Millennium B.C.E. Edited by Irene J. Winter, 109–162. Vol. 1. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2010.
  967.  
  968. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  969.  
  970. First published in Images as Media: Sources for the Cultural History of the Near East and the Eastern Mediterranean (1st Millennium BCE), edited by Christoph Uehlinger, 51–88 (Fribourg, Switzerland: Fribourg University Press, 2000). Questions the relationship between similar imagery found in monumental wall reliefs and in miniature carvings on cylinder seals, highlighting important issues about function, goals, and audiences of their visual display.
  971.  
  972. Find this resource:
  973.  
  974. Text
  975. Images carved on stone reliefs or metal decorations are often associated with royal inscriptions that accompany the images directly or indirectly on palace and temple foundation deposits. Possible correlations between the historical content of these texts and images is addressed by Reade 1979 (cited under Palace Sculpture) and Winter 2010 (cited under Critical Interpretations: Kingship and Imperial Ideology). A different approach to the relationship is explored by Bahrani 2003 (cited under Assyrian Art and Society). Major projects that provide up-to-date transliterations and translations of all the royal inscriptions and underpin these debates are Grayson 1987–1996 and Frame 2011–2014. In addition to the royal inscriptions, a vast correspondence between the Assyrian king and his officials survives in the form of cuneiform tablets. The Assyrian Empire Builders project covers the correspondence from the reign of Sargon II, drawing on the work of the Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project (State Archives of Assyria) project that covers the whole of the Neo-Assyrian period and includes literary and scientific texts represented by libraries of tablets recovered from the palaces at Nineveh (for a useful introduction to this corpus of material see Curtis and Reade 1995, cited under Palace Sculpture).
  976.  
  977. Assyrian Empire Builders.
  978.  
  979. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  980.  
  981. The correspondence between Sargon II and his administrators is the largest text corpus of this kind known from Antiquity and provides insight into the mechanisms of communication between the top levels of authority in the Assyrian Empire. This website presents these letters together with resources and materials for their study and on their historical and cultural context.
  982.  
  983. Find this resource:
  984.  
  985. Frame, Grant, ed. Royal Inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian Period Project (RINAP). Winona Lake, IL: Eisenbrauns, 2011–2014.
  986.  
  987. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  988.  
  989. Numerous royally commissioned texts were composed between 744 BC and 669 BC, a period during which Assyria became the dominant power in western Asia. Over six hundred inscriptions are known today. The volumes published to date in this series cover the reigns of Tiglath-Pileser III, Shalmaneser V, Sennacherib, and Esarhaddon. The transliterations and translations in the volumes are also available via the University of Pennsylvania Museum website.
  990.  
  991. Find this resource:
  992.  
  993. Grayson, Albert Kirk, ed. Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1987–1996.
  994.  
  995. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  996.  
  997. The forerunner of the RINAP series publishes in transliteration and translation the royal inscriptions of Assyrian rulers of the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC (to 1115 BC) and in two volumes those of the early 1st millennium BC (1114–859).
  998.  
  999. Find this resource:
  1000.  
  1001. Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project (State Archives of Assyria).
  1002.  
  1003. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1004.  
  1005. Started in 1986, this is a long-term undertaking to collect all published and unpublished Neo-Assyrian texts into an electronic database. Published volumes divided into a number of series addressing specific topics, themes and periods. Some of the translations and transliterations are available online.
  1006.  
  1007. Find this resource:
  1008.  
  1009. “Public” Monuments
  1010. Assyrian royal images were located outside palace and temple buildings and as freestanding sculptures, obelisks, and stele. The stele could be freestanding or carved onto rock faces. The standard image was that of the standing king in profile associated with symbols of the gods and a carved inscription. Obelisks have been recovered from the environment of palaces and may have had a more limited audience. They are carved with scenes similar to those known from the palace wall reliefs and depict the king hunting, at war, and undertaking ritual acts. Rock reliefs are the subject of studies by Ornan 2007, who focuses on sculptures of Sennacherib, while Shafer 2007 and Harmanşah 2007 (cited under Landscape) explore carvings created at the political borders of the Assyrian Empire. All these works stress the religious and ritual nature of the images and their creation. Stele as political monuments in the eastern Mediterranean are addressed by Porter 2000 and Radner 2010. Reade 1975 and Reade 1980 investigate the dating and purpose of obelisks excavated from within the palace complexes of Nimrud and Nineveh. See Pittman 1996 (cited under Middle Assyrian Period) for another reading of the White Obelisk.
  1011.  
  1012. Ornan, Tally. “The Godlike Semblance of a King: The Case of Sennacherib’s Rock Reliefs.” In Ancient Near eastern Art in Context: Studies in Honor of Irene J. Winter by her Students. Edited by Jack Cheng and Marian H. Feldman, 161–178. Leiden, The Netherlands, and New York: Brill, 2007.
  1013.  
  1014. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1015.  
  1016. Assyrian kings were increasingly depicted with divine-like properties. One pictorial device for this is argued to be the depiction of the ruler alongside and close to a major god in anthropomorphic shape. Assyrian rock reliefs dated to the reign of Sennacherib, located in northern Assyria and associated with the irrigation systems built by this king are the focus of this innovative study.
  1017.  
  1018. Find this resource:
  1019.  
  1020. Porter, Barbara N. “Assyrian Propaganda for the West: Esarhaddon’s Stelae for Til Barsip and Sam’al.” Ancient Near Eastern Studies Supplement 7 (2000): 143–176.
  1021.  
  1022. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1023.  
  1024. King Esarhaddon commissioned three large stone steles around 671 BC, each showing the king with small captives (the rebellious king of Sidon and the crown prince of Egypt), standing or kneeling at his feet. A revealing analysis of the text and images carved on the stele highlights the deliberate shaping of differing content for the two cities, one a faithful ally, the other a city of doubtful loyalties.
  1025.  
  1026. Find this resource:
  1027.  
  1028. Radner, Karen. “The Stele of Sargon II of Asyria at Kition: A Focus for an Emerging Cypriot Identity?” In Interkulturalität in der Alten Welt: Vorderasien, Hellas, Ägypten und die vielfältigen Ebenen des Kontakts. Edited by Robert Rollinger, Birgit Gufler, Martin Lang, and Irene Madreiter, 429–449. Wiesbaden, Germany: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2010.
  1029.  
  1030. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1031.  
  1032. Intended to mark the edge of the official existing world from the viewpoint of the king of Assyria, the paper argues that the monument came to acquire a meaning commemorating a joint prestigious undertaking by several local Cypriot rulers and may have played a role in the emergence of pan-Cypriot identities.
  1033.  
  1034. Find this resource:
  1035.  
  1036. Reade, Julian E. “Aššurnasirpal I and the White Obelisk.” Iraq 37 (1975): 129–150.
  1037.  
  1038. DOI: 10.2307/4200012Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1039.  
  1040. A convincing case is made for dating this important monument, the earliest stone relief showing scenes known from the Neo-Assyrian palaces wall panels. The White Obelisk was most probably set up by Ashurnasirpal I shortly after the events which it records, about 1050 BC.
  1041.  
  1042. Find this resource:
  1043.  
  1044. Reade, Julian E. “The Rassam Obelisk.” Iraq 42 (1980): 1–22.
  1045.  
  1046. DOI: 10.2307/4200113Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1047.  
  1048. A proposed reconstruction of a fragmentary obelisk of Ashurnasirpal II. Excavated at Nimrud by a British Museum expedition in 1853. The carvings on the Rassam Obelisk, though framed in distinct registers and panels, were part of one decorative scheme that showed the Assyrian king receiving tribute.
  1049.  
  1050. Find this resource:
  1051.  
  1052. Shafer, Ann Taylor. “Assyrian Royal Monuments on the Periphery: Ritual and the Making of Imperial Space.” In Ancient Near Eastern Art in Context: Studies in Honor of Irene J. Winter by Her Students. Edited by Jack Cheng and Marian H. Feldman, 133–160. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2007.
  1053.  
  1054. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1055.  
  1056. Eschewing a purely political aim for the monuments, this article proposes an understanding of royal stele and rock reliefs as the foci of ritual activity. Through image making and ritual performance, Assyrian kings not only marked territorial conquest but engaged a highly charged symbolic field of space, tradition, and legitimacy.
  1057.  
  1058. Find this resource:
  1059.  
  1060. Ancient and Modern Reception
  1061. For 2000 years, until the decipherment of the ancient records in the 19th and 20th centuries, Mesopotamia and Assyria were known only through foreign sources. These can be divided into two broad traditions: biblical and classical. The former focused on the military brutality, while the latter emphasized oriental luxury and decadence, often conflating Assyria with Babylonia. The transmission of Babylonian and Assyrian knowledge via the classical world and later Arab scholarship is an ongoing field of study. Bahrani 2001 looks specifically at the influence of colonial attitudes on Mesopotamian studies. Dalley 2013 attempts to unravel sources pertaining to the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Bohrer 2003 addresses the Neo-Assyrian period and its legacy and reception in art and culture during the 19th century while McCall 1998 provides a broader historical overview of ancient Mesopotamia in the visual and performing arts. More recent reception of Assyria is investigated by Nimrud: Materialities of Assyrian Knowledge Production. In contrast, Gunter 2009 provides a stimulating study of the reception of Neo-Assyrian imagery in the ancient world.
  1062.  
  1063. Bahrani, Zainab. “History in Reverse: Archaeological Illustration and the Reconstruction of Mesopotamia.” In Historiography in the Cuneiform World: Proceedings of the XLVe Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale. Edited by Tzvi Abusch, Paul-Alain Beaulieu, John Huehnergard, Peter Machinist, and Piotr Steinkeller, 15–28. Bethesda, Maryland: CDL, 2001.
  1064.  
  1065. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1066.  
  1067. Contends that the development of the discipline of Mesopotamian archaeology and its discursive practices during this time cannot be isolated from the colonialist enterprise. Nor can it be divorced from the general Western historical narrative of the progress of civilization—heavily dependent on a discourse of Otherness.
  1068.  
  1069. Find this resource:
  1070.  
  1071. Bohrer, Frederick. Orientalism and Visual Culture: Imagining Mesopotamia in Nineteenth-century Europe. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
  1072.  
  1073. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1074.  
  1075. A survey and analysis of the full range of visual culture reflecting the reception of the arts of ancient Mesopotamia, considered in the different national contexts and class and gender in 19th-century Europe.
  1076.  
  1077. Find this resource:
  1078.  
  1079. Dalley, Stephanie M. The Mystery of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.
  1080.  
  1081. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1082.  
  1083. Argument for an Assyrian origin for Greek accounts of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Combines cuneiform textual evidence, with evidence from art and archaeology for major feats of water engineering in Sargon and Sennacherib’s remodeling of the landscapes around Khorsabad and Nineveh. Dalley’s argument remains controversial.
  1084.  
  1085. Find this resource:
  1086.  
  1087. Gunter, Ann C. Greek Art and the Orient. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
  1088.  
  1089. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1090.  
  1091. A groundbreaking discussion of the methods of cultural transfer, emulation, and adaptation between the Greek and Assyrian world.
  1092.  
  1093. Find this resource:
  1094.  
  1095. McCall, Henrietta. “Legacy and Aftermath.” In The Legacy of Mesopotamia. Edited by Stephanie M. Dalley, 183–213. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.
  1096.  
  1097. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1098.  
  1099. Detailed account of ancient Mesopotamia’s reception and representation in European culture, taking in literature, art and theatre. Gives a sense of the recurring themes in reception, and is particularly strong in its coverage of ancient Mesopotamia on the stage.
  1100.  
  1101. Find this resource:
  1102.  
  1103. Nimrud: Materialities of Assyrian Knowledge Production.
  1104.  
  1105. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1106.  
  1107. An online resource that traces the biographies of inscribed artifacts from their manufacture and use to their excavation at Nimrud as well as their current location to develop understanding of the processes by which the ancient past is understood and reconstructed by academic research, and its reception by the general public.
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