Neighbors through Imperial Eyes: Depicting Babylonia in the Assyrian Campaign Reliefs: Hic Sunt Dracones: Creating, Defining, and Abstracting Place in the Ancient World

Michael Seymour

doi:10.1515/janeh-2017-0022

Article

Neighbors through Imperial Eyes: Depicting Babylonia in the Assyrian Campaign Reliefs

Hic Sunt Dracones: Creating, Defining, and Abstracting Place in the Ancient World

Published/Copyright: May 17, 2018

Published by

Become an author with De Gruyter Brill

Submit Manuscript Author Information Explore this Subject

From the journal Journal of Ancient Near Eastern History Volume 4 Issue 1-2

Abstract

The Neo-Assyrian campaign reliefs are rich sources for understanding Assyrian ideas of empire, geography, and Assyria’s relationship to the wider world. They are also exceptions: the format of the later Assyrian campaign reliefs is in several respects so unusual in ancient Near Eastern art as to demand explanation. Not the least of the campaign reliefs’ unusual qualities is the extensive and often detailed depiction of foreign landscapes and people. This paper examines one instance of this phenomenon: the particular case of depictions of Babylonia and the far south in Assyrian campaign reliefs. Studies of the textual sources have done much to draw out the complex cultural and political relationship between Assyria and Babylonia in the eighth, seventh, and sixth centuries B.C., revealing tensions between an identification with the cities of the south and their venerable temples on the one hand, and the undeniable political and strategic problems posed by Babylonian rebellions against Assyrian rule on the other. It is argued that the campaign reliefs attempt to resolve this tension by presenting conquest and pacification as accomplished facts, and Babylonia’s abundance as an Assyrian imperial possession. It is also suggested that one function of the reliefs was to process historical victories into a larger, ahistorical image of Assyrian imperial success.

Keywords: Assyria; campaign reliefs; Nineveh; Babylonia; royal image; palace sculptures

Acknowledgements

I thank Gina Konstantopoulos for organizing the excellent Hic Sunt Dracones workshop and the editing of these articles for publication. Parts of this essay were begun in the course of work on the symposium volume Assyria to Iberia: Art and Culture in the Iron Age, and I am grateful to my colleagues in the Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art for their support and constructive feedback as my thinking on the campaign reliefs developed. I was also fortunate to have the opportunity to discuss some of these ideas at a workshop held as part of the 62nd Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, “What can images do that words can’t?” organized by Marian Feldman and Stephanie Langin-Hooper. I am grateful to them and the other participants in that session for their ideas and comments, and parts of my discussion of landscape in the campaign reliefs’ format in this essay are drawn from that paper.

References

Al-Fouadi, A.-H.A.1969. Enki’s Journey to Nippur: The Journeys of the Gods. Ph.D. dissertation. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania.Search in Google Scholar

Aruz, J., S.B. Graff, and Y. Rakic (eds.). 2014. Assyria to Iberia at the Dawn of the Classical Age. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.Search in Google Scholar

Ataç, M.-A. 2013. The Changing Approaches to History in the Neo-Assyrian Palace Reliefs. Pp. 596–610 in Time and History in the Ancient near East: Proceedings of the 56th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale at Barcelona 26–30 July 2010, ed. L. Feliu, J. Llop, A.M. Albà and J. Sanmartín. Winona Lake, in Eisenbrauns.10.5325/j.ctv1bxgzf2.53Search in Google Scholar

Attinger, P. 1984. Enki et Nin[h]ursa[g]a. Zeitschrift für Assyriologie 74: 1–52.10.1515/zava.1984.74.1.1Search in Google Scholar

Bahrani, Z. 2003. The Graven Image: Representation in Babylonia and Assyria. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.10.9783/9780812206777Search in Google Scholar

Bahrani, Z. 2014. The Infinite Image: Art, Time and the Aesthetic Dimension in Antiquity. London: Reaktion.Search in Google Scholar

Barnett, R.D. 1976. Sculptures from the North Palace of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh (668–627 B.C.). London: British Museum Press.Search in Google Scholar

Barnett, R.D., E. Bleibtreu, and G. Turner. 1998. Sculptures from the Southwest Palace at Nineveh 2 vols. London: British Museum Press.Search in Google Scholar

Barnett, R.D. and M. Falkner. 1962. The Sculptures of Aššur-naṣir-apli II (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: British Museum Press.Search in Google Scholar

Benetti, M. and C. Lippolis. 2011. Osservazioni sui codici di rappresentazione visiva nei rilievi di Sennacherib. Pp. 79–112 in The Sennacherib Wall Reliefs at Nineveh, ed. C. Lippolis Monografie di Mesopotamia 15; Centro Richerche Archeologiche e Scavi di Torino per il Medio Oriente e l’Asia, Missione in Iraq 5. Florence: Le Lettere.Search in Google Scholar

Benito, C.A. 1969. “Enki and Ninmah” and “Enki and the World Order”. Ph.D. dissertation. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania.Search in Google Scholar

Bidmead, J. 2002. The Akītu Festival: Religious Continuity and Royal Legitimation in Mesopotamia. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press.Search in Google Scholar

Borger, R. 1988. König Sanheribs Eheglück. Annual Review of the Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia Project 6: 5–12.Search in Google Scholar

Borger, R. 1996. Beitrage zum Inschriftenwerk Assur banipals: die Prismenklassen A, B, C = K, D, E, F, G, H, J und T sowie andere Inschriften. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Search in Google Scholar

Brinkman, J.A. 1973. Sennacherib’s Babylonian Problem: An Interpretation. Journal of Cuneiform Studies 25(2): 89–95.10.2307/1359421Search in Google Scholar

Brinkman, J.A. 1983. Through a Glass Darkly: Esarhaddon’s Retrospects on the Downfall of Babylon. Journal of the American Oriental Society 103: 35–42.10.2307/601858Search in Google Scholar

Cole, S.W. 1997. The Destruction of Orchards in Assyrian Warfare. Pp. 29–40 in Assyria 1995: Proceedings of the 10th Anniversary Symposium of the Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project, Helsinki, September 7–11,1995, ed. S. Parpola and R.M. Whiting. Helsinki: The Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project.Search in Google Scholar

Collins, P. 2004. The Symbolic Landscape of Ashurbanipal. Notes in the History of Art 23(3): 1–6.10.1086/sou.23.3.23206845Search in Google Scholar

Collins, P. 2006. Trees and Gender in Assyrian Art. Iraq 68: 99–107.10.1017/S0021088900001182Search in Google Scholar

Curtis, J.E. and N. Tallis (eds.). 2008. The Balawat Gates of Ashurnasirpal II. London: British Museum Press.Search in Google Scholar

Dickson, K. 2007. Enki and Ninhursag: The Trickster in Paradise. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 66(1): 1–32.10.1086/512211Search in Google Scholar

Feldman, M.H. 2011. Assyrian Representations of Booty and Tribute as a Self-Portrayal of Empire. Pp. 135–150 in Interpreting Exile: Displacement and Deportation in Biblical and Modern Contexts, ed. B.E. Kelle, F.R. Ames and J.L. Wright. Ancient Israel and Its Literature 10. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature.Search in Google Scholar

Feldman, M.H. 2014. Communities of Style: Portable Luxury Arts, Identity, and Collective Memory in the Iron Age Levant. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.10.7208/chicago/9780226164427.001.0001Search in Google Scholar

Finkel, I. and M. Seymour (eds.). 2008. Babylon: Myth and Reality. London: British Museum Press.Search in Google Scholar

Frahm 1994. Die Bilder in Sanheribs Thronsaal. Nouvelles assyriologiques brèves et utilitaires 55.Search in Google Scholar

Frame, G. 1992. Babylonia 689–627 B.C.: A Political History. Leiden: Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten.Search in Google Scholar

Frame, G. 2008. Babylon: Assyria’s Problem and Assyria’s Prize. Journal of the Canadian Society for Mesopotamian Studies 3: 21–31.Search in Google Scholar

Frame, G. 2013. The Political History and Historical Geography of the Aramean, Chaldean, and Arab Tribes in Babylonia in the Neo-Assyrian Period. Pp. 87–122 in Arameans, Chaldeans, and Arabs in Babylonia and Palestine in the First Millennium B.C., ed. A. Belejung and M.P. Streck Leipziger Altorientalische Studien 3. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.10.2307/jj.30625916.7Search in Google Scholar

Galter, H.D., L.D. Levine, and J.E. Reade. 1986. The Colossi of Sennacherib’s Palace and Their Inscriptions. Annual Review of the Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia Project 4: 27–32.Search in Google Scholar

Graff, S.B. 2016. The Art of the Elephant and Its Consequences. Pp. 194–203 in Assyria to Iberia: Art and Culture in the Iron Age, ed. J. Aruz and M. Seymour The Metropolitan Museum of Art Symposia. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.Search in Google Scholar

Gragg, G.B. 1973. The Fable of the Heron and the Turtle. Archiv Für Orientforschung 24: 51–72.Search in Google Scholar

Grayson, A.K. and J. Novotny. 2014. The Royal Inscriptions of Sennacherib, King of Assyria (704–681 BC), Part 2 The Royal Inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian Period (RINAP) vol. 3 (2). Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns.Search in Google Scholar

Hurowitz, V.A. 2003. The Mesopotamian God Image, from Womb to Tomb. Journal of the American Oriental Society 123: 147–157.10.2307/3217848Search in Google Scholar

Jeffers, J. 2011. Fifth-Campaign Reliefs in Sennacherib’s “Palace without Rival” at Nineveh. Iraq 73: 87–116.10.1017/S0021088900000097Search in Google Scholar

Kaelin, O. 1999. Ein assyrisches Bildexperiment nach ägyptischem Vorbild. Zu Planung und Ausführung der „Schlacht am Ulai“ Alter Orient und Altes Testament 266. Münster: Ugarit-Verlag.Search in Google Scholar

Kertai, D. 2015. The Architecture of Late Assyrian Royal Palaces. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198723189.001.0001Search in Google Scholar

King, L.W. 1915. Bronze Reliefs from the Gates of Shalmaneser, King of Assyria, B.C. 860–825. London: British Museum Department of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities.Search in Google Scholar

Kose, A. 2013. Himmelsgott, König, Tempelgemeine: die Nachblüte der altorientalischen Stadt Uruk in der Seleukidenzeit. Pp. 320–329 in Uruk: 5000 Jahre Megacity, ed. N. Crüsemann, M. Van Ess, M. Hilgert and B. Salje. Petersberg: Imhof.Search in Google Scholar

Kramer, S.N. and J. Maier. 1989. Myths of Enki, the Crafty God. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Search in Google Scholar

Laato, A. 1995. Assyrian Propaganda and the Falsification of History in the Royal Inscriptions of Sennacherib. Vetus Testamentum 45: 198–226.10.1163/1568533952581324Search in Google Scholar

Levine, L.D. 1982. Sennacherib’s Southern Front: 704–689 B.C. Journal of Cuneiform Studies 34: 28–58.10.2307/1359991Search in Google Scholar

Lippolis, C. (ed.). 2011. The Sennacherib Wall Reliefs at Nineveh. Monografie di Mesopotamia 15; Centro Richerche Archeologiche e Scavi di Torino per il Medio Oriente e l’Asia, Missione in Iraq 5. Florence: Le Lettere.Search in Google Scholar

Luckenbill, D.D. 1926. Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia Volume 1: Historical Records of Assyria from the Earliest Times to Sargon. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Search in Google Scholar

Machinist, P. 1984–1985. The Assyrians and Their Babylonian Problem: Some Reflections. WissenschaftskollegzuBerlin. Jahrbuch: 353–364.Search in Google Scholar

Nadali, D. 2006. Percezione dello spazio e scansione del tempo. Studio della composizione narrativa del rilievo assiro di VII secolo a.C. Contributi e Materiali di Archeologia Orientale 12. Rome: Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza,”.Search in Google Scholar

Nadali, D. 2007. Ashurbanipal against Elam: Figurative Patterns and Architectural Location of the Elamite Wars. Historiae 4: 57–91.Search in Google Scholar

Novotny, J. and C.E. Watanabe. 2008. After the Fall of Babylon: A New Look at the Presentation Scene on Assurbanipal Relief BM ME 124945–6. Iraq 70: 105–126.10.1017/S0021088900000899Search in Google Scholar

Oppenheim, A.L. 1985. The Babylonian Evidence of Achaemenian Rule in Mesopotamia. Pp. 529–587 in The Cambridge History of Iran, Volume 2: The Median and Achaemenian Periods, ed. I. Gershevitch. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CHOL9780521200912.011Search in Google Scholar

Parpola, S. 1995. The Construction of Dur-Šarrukin in the Assyrian Royal Correspondence. Pp. 47–77 in Khorsabad, le palais de Sargon II, roi d’Assyrie. Actes du colloque organisé au musée du Louvre par le Service culturel les 21 et 22 janvier 1994, ed. A. Caubet. Paris: Documentation française.Search in Google Scholar

Pittman, H. 1996. The White Obelisk and the Problem of Historical Narrative in the Art of Assyria. The Art Bulletin 78: 334–355.10.2307/3046178Search in Google Scholar

Porter, B.N. 1993. Images, Power, and Politics: Figurative Aspects of Esarhaddon’s Babylonian Policy. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society.10.70249/9798893980950Search in Google Scholar

Porter, B.N. 2003. Intimidation and Friendly Persuasion: Re-evaluating the Royal Propaganda of Ashurnasirpal II. Eretz-Israel 27. Hayim and Miriam Tadmor Volume: 180–191.Search in Google Scholar

Porter, B.N. 2009. Noseless in Nimrud: More Figurative Responses to Assyrian Domination. Pp. 201–220 in Of God(s), Trees, Kings, and Scholars: Neo-Assyrian and Related Studies in Honour of Simo Parpola, ed. M. Luukko, S. Svärd and R. Mattila Studia Orientalia 106. Helsinki: The Finnish Oriental Society.Search in Google Scholar

Radner, K. 2000. How did the Neo-Assyrian King Perceive His Land and its Resources? Pp. 233–246 in Rainfall and Agriculture in Northern Mesopotamia: Proceedings of the Third MOS Symposium, Leiden, May 21–22, 1999, ed. R. M. Jas. Publications de l’Institut historique-archéologique néerlandais de Stamboul 88. Leiden: Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten.Search in Google Scholar

Radner, K. 2010. Gatekeepers and Lock Masters: The Control of Access in Assyrian Palaces. Pp. 269–280 in Your Praise Is Sweet: A Memorial Volume for Jeremy Black from Students, Colleagues and Friends, ed. H.D. Baker, E. Robson and G. Zólyomi. London: British Institute for the Study of Iraq.Search in Google Scholar

Radner, K. 2012. The Seal of Tašmetum-Tašmetum-šarrat, Sennacherib’s Queen, and Its Impressions. Pp. 687–698 in Leggo!: Studies Presented to Frederick Mario Fales on the Occasion of His 65th Birthday, ed. G.B. Lanfranchi, D.M. Bonacossi, C. Pappi and S. Ponchia. Leipziger Altorientalische Studien 2. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.10.2307/jj.30625915.49Search in Google Scholar

Reade, J.E. 1967. Two Slabs from Sennacherib’s Palace. Iraq 29: 42–48.10.2307/4199821Search in Google Scholar

Reade, J.E. 1970. The Accession of Sinsharishkun. Journal of Cuneiform Studies 23: 1–9.10.2307/1359277Search in Google Scholar

Reade, J.E. 1972. The Assyrian Court and Army: Evidence from the Sculptures. Iraq 34: 87–112.10.2307/4199938Search in Google Scholar

Reade, J.E. 1979. Narrative Composition in Assyrian Sculpture. Baghdader Mitteilungen 10: 52–110.Search in Google Scholar

Reade, J.E. 1983. Assyrian Sculpture. London: British Museum Press.Search in Google Scholar

Reade, J.E. 2005. The Ishtar Temple at Nineveh. Iraq 67(1): 347–390.10.1017/S002108890000142XSearch in Google Scholar

Reade, J.E. 2011. The Evolution of Assyrian Imperial Architecture: Political Implications and Uncertainties. Mesopotamia 46: 109–125.Search in Google Scholar

Reed, S. 2007. Blurring the Edges: A Reconsideration of the Treatment of Enemies in Ashurbanipal’s Reliefs. Pp. 101–130 in Ancient Near Eastern Art in Context: Studies in Honor of Irene J. Winter by Her Students, ed. J. Cheng and M.H. Feldman. Culture and History of the Ancient Near East 26. Leiden and Boston: Brill.Search in Google Scholar

Rost, P. 1893. Die Keilschrifttexte Tiglat-Pilesers III 2 vols. Leipzig: E. Pfeiffer.Search in Google Scholar

Russell, J.M. 1987. Bulls for the Palace and Order in the Empire: The Sculptural Program of Sennacherib’s Court VI at Nineveh. The Art Bulletin 69: 520–539.10.1080/00043079.1987.10788457Search in Google Scholar

Russell, J.M. 1991. Sennacherib’s Palace Without Rival at Nineveh. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.Search in Google Scholar

Russell, J.M. 1999. The Writing on the Wall: Studies in the Architectural Context of Late Assyrian Palace Inscriptions. Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns.10.1515/9781575065045Search in Google Scholar

Schachner, A. 2007. Bilder eines Weltreichs. Kunst- und kulturgeschichtliche Untersuchungen zu den Verzierungen eines Tores aus Balawat (Imgur-Enlil) aus der Zeit von Salmanassar III, König von Assyrien Subartu 20. Turnhout: Brepols.Search in Google Scholar

Seymour, M. J. 2016. The Empire in the Palace: Campaign Reliefs in the Southwest Palace at Nineveh and an Assyrian Microcosm. Pp. 65–80 in Assyria to Iberia: Art and Culture in the Iron Age, ed. J. Aruz and M. Seymour The Metropolitan Museum of Art Symposia. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.Search in Google Scholar

Shafer, A. 2007. Assyrian Royal Monuments at the Periphery: Ritual and the Making of Imperial Space. Pp. 133–159 in Ancient Near Eastern Art in Context: Studies in Honor of Irene J. Winter, ed. J. Cheng and M.H. Feldman. Culture and History of the Ancient Near East 26. Leiden and Boston: Brill.Search in Google Scholar

Tadmor, H. 1994. Inscriptions of Tiglath-Pileser III King of Assyria. Critical Edition with Introductions, Translations, and Commentary. Jerusalem: The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities.Search in Google Scholar

Thomason, A.K. 2001. Representations of the North Syrian Landscape in Neo-Assyrian Art. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 323: 63–96.10.2307/1357592Search in Google Scholar

Walker, C.B.F. and M. Dick. 2001. The Mesopotamian Mīs pî Ritual. State Archives of Assyria Literary Texts 1. Helsinki: The Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project.Search in Google Scholar

Watanabe, C.E. 2004. The “Continuous Style” in the Narrative Scheme of Assurbanipal’s Reliefs. Iraq 66. Nineveh. Papers of the 49th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, Part One: 103–14.10.1017/S0021088900001698Search in Google Scholar

Watanabe, C.E. 2014. Styles of Pictorial Narratives in Assurbanipal’s Reliefs. Pp. 345–367 in Critical Approaches to Ancient Near Eastern Art, ed. B.A. Brown and M.H. Feldman. Boston and Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.10.1515/9781614510352.345Search in Google Scholar

Waters, M. 2013. Elam, Assyria, and Babylonia in the Early First Millennium BC. Pp. 478–492 in The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Iran, ed. D.T. Potts. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199733309.013.0018Search in Google Scholar

Weaver, A.M. 2004. The “Sin of Sargon” and Esarhaddon’s Reconception of Sennacherib: A Study in Divine Will, Human Politics and Royal Ideology. Iraq 66. Nineveh: Papers of the 49th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, Part One: 61–66.10.1017/S0021088900001649Search in Google Scholar

Winter, I.J. 1983. The Program of the Throneroom of Assurnasirpal II. Pp. 15–31 in Essays on Near Eastern Art and Archaeology in Honor of Charles Kyrle Wilkinson, ed. P.O. Harper and H. Pittman. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.Search in Google Scholar

Winter, I.J. 2003. Ornament and the Rhetoric of Abundance in Assyria. Eretz-Israel 27. Hayim and Miriam Tadmor Volume: 252–264.Search in Google Scholar

Winter, I.J. 2009. What/When Is a Portrait? Royal Images of the Ancient near East. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 153(3): 254–270.Search in Google Scholar

Zadok, R. 2011. The Babylonia-Elam Connections in the Chaldean and Achaemenid Periods (Part One). Tel Aviv 38: 120–143.10.1179/033443511x12931017059387Search in Google Scholar

Published Online: 2018-5-17

Published in Print: 2018-6-26

You are currently not able to access this content.

Articles in the same Issue

https://doi.org/10.1515/janeh-2017-0022

Keywords for this article

Assyria; campaign reliefs; Nineveh; Babylonia; royal image; palace sculptures