Assyrian art

ISBN 978-619-176-205-7

This monograph is on the topic of my successfully defended PhD dissertation. The book examines the royal authority and ideology in the early Neo-Assyrian Empire (934–745 B.C.). Its aims can be summarized as follows:
1. Study of the reign of each Assyrian king of the period, his military and political actions, including the dynamics of contacts with the countries of the region, the goals pursued by him; and – for whom applicable – the relevant internal affairs and building activities.
2. Study of the Assyrian royal ideology in the context of certain motives, beliefs, and suggestions attested in the sources. 
3. Concluding observations on and synthesis of the exercise of authority, which led to the historical processes and political contacts in combination with the motives, beliefs, and suggestions of the Assyrian royal ideology.

ABSTRACT: The following 58 questions follow the documentary (no.6),  PBS: The Lost Gardens of Babylon (60 minutes) (2014; 60 min.). The question sheet aids in furnishing a summary of the documentary's coverage and sequence of specific topics. A very good documentary detailing Stephanie Dalley's theory about the later traditions concerning the "(Hanging) Gardens of Babylon " as reflecting an actual origin and location in King Sennecherib's garden at Nineveh, over 100 years earlier (ca. early 7th century BCE) and at a site much further to the north (i.e., at Sennecherib's palace at Nineveh, in Assyria, versus in Nebuchadnezzar II's palace at Babylon). WEB LINK: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/the-lost-gardens-of-babylon-watch-the-full-episode/1203/.  The documentary introduces some of the traditions and evidence concerning the location and date of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, and proceeds to Dalley's research and theories for equating it with an earlier garden built by Sennacherib beside his palace at Nineveh: This earlier garden is attested from diverse evidence in the British Museum (e.g., a cuneiform prism; palace wall panels), publications on earlier excavations at Nineveh, recent visits to and assessments of key sites in Iraq (e.g., Khinis; Jerwan; Nineveh), plus consultation with other specialists (e.g., Dr. Jason Ur: using Corona satellite imagery analysis and landscape interpretation). A very enjoyable documentary showing features and issues in both Ancient and modern Iraq.

The Lake Urmia region in northwest Iran is one often overlooked not only in terms of Syriac studies, but also when it comes to Eastern Christianity and especially art and architecture — not the least because many western scholars have found the area to be inaccessible.

Prior to the First World War this region was an Assyrian Christian cultural centre and, especially from the 1830s onwards, it witnessed an unprecedented renaissance in terms of original cultural and literary output. Indeed, the Urmia region stands out as one where the Assyrians were sufficiently numerous and well off enough to develop excellent skills as stonecutters, copyists, and builders — especially from the sixteenth century onwards.

A common generalisation has been that the Assyrians of Urmia, being for the most part rural agriculturalists and members of the largely aniconic Church of the East, were thus devoid of any serious kind of artistic expression. Despite this misconception, evidence does exist in the form of tombstone art, manuscript miniatures and architecture, whether religious or domestic, all of which may be seen as forms of visual expression comparable to that of their neighbours. Although much of the older material has not survived due to constant wars, pogroms and conflict in the area, enough still remains to warrant serious study. This is important in reconstructing a yet poorly documented and little-studied part of Middle Eastern art history.

This is the catalogue of an exhibition that was intended to be shown in Bukan and Tehran. The exhibition is of 51 glazed polychrome bricks from the Mannaean site of Qalaichi near Bukan in Western Iran that were returned from Switzerland to Iran in December 2020. The bricks were looted and exported from Iran in the 1980s. The bricks, dating from the 8th century BC, have a wide variety of painted motifs, such as winged lions and bulls with human heads, mythological figures, birds of prey, deer and floral or geometric designs. The bricks are an important source of information for the art of Mannaea, and show there was much Assyrian influence but with a local interpretation.

Le catalogue proposé ici ne se veut en aucun cas exhaustif, cependant la variété des objets présentés permet de saisir la richesse et la multiplicité de formes que peuvent prendre les amulettes de Pazuzu. Pour une vision plus complète de ces amulettes, je ne peux que recommander l’excellent Pazuzu: Archäologische und philologische Studien zu einem altorientalischen Dämon (Ancient Magic and Divination, Vol. 4) de Niels HEEßEL, étude approfondie disposant d’un catalogue analysé publiée en 2002 par Brill-Styx.

The Lake Urmia region in northwest Iran is one often overlooked not
only in terms of Syriac studies, but also when it comes to Eastern Christianity
and especially art and architecture – not the least because many western
scholars have found the area to be inaccessible. Prior to the First World War
this region was an Assyrian Christian cultural centre and, especially from the
1830s onwards, it witnessed an unprecedented renaissance in terms of original
cultural and literary output. Indeed, the Urmia region stands out as one
where the Assyrians were sufficiently numerous and well off enough to develop
excellent skills as stonecutters, copyists, and builders – especially from the sixteenth century onwards.

"Sargon Donabed provides a comprehensive overview of the modern Assyrian story, merging emic and etic perspectives of their struggle to attain sovereignty over the past century and beyond. His work offers both an informative source for Assyrian ethnic history and an alternative reading for Mesopotamian regional history as a whole." -- Nabil Al-Tikriti, University of Mary Washington

"In telling the story of modern Assyrian responses to a history of tragedy, Sargon Donabed helps us understand them as actors in their own right. He thereby rewrites Iraqi history from the perspective of the oppressed. No longer may we ignore the plight of this misunderstood minority." -- Paul S. Rowe, Trinity Western University

The most fundamental ceremony of a Neo-Assyrian temple was the presentation of offerings to the gods in the form of divine meals (naptanus), the principal components of which were food, drink, and aromatics. A range of portable works of art facilitated the preparation and serving of these goods: ritualized butchering was performed on altars, food was laid out on offering tables, liquid offerings were placed in libation vessels, and aromatics were placed on incense burners. These portable works of art were crafted of similarly valued and visually appreciated materials as the divine image before which they stood—exotic woods, light-colored stone, and precious metals—the sensorial aspects of which materially and conceptually would have commanded attention within the low-lit inner chamber of the temple. Concurrently the smell of aromatics from the incense burners and of the food offerings would have filled the enclosed space, while the recitation of lamentations and prayers, and the performance of songs provided a soundtrack to the experience. Neo-Assyrian texts speak to the material and sensorial characteristics of the divine meal; as it is said in an inscription of Sin-šarru-iškun, ušēpišma itquru kaspi ebbi ana qurrube naptan šēri u līlâti maḫar ilūtiša (“he had a bowl of shining silver made to serve the naptanu of the morning (and) of the evening to her (Tašmētu’s) divinity”)(AfO 16 306: 19). Visual imagery compliments the textual sources, adding a spatial and contextual understanding to this practice, as well as active participants, for example the libation scenes from Shalmaneser III’s Balawat Gates and Aššurbanipal’s lion hunt reliefs in the North Palace. In this paper I argue that it was the strategically assembled, culturally valued corpus of sensory phenomena of the divine meal that marked this ceremony as something “other,” as ritualized practice fit for the dwelling place of a god within this particular cultural and social context, that is to say, the elite sphere of the Neo-Assyrian Empire.

Simpson, E., ed. The Adventure of the Illustrious Scholar: Papers Presented to Oscar White Muscarella. Leiden: Brill, 2018.

The Adventure of the Illustrious Scholar: Papers Presented to Oscar White Muscarella, edited by Elizabeth Simpson, is a Festschrift celebrating the career of one of the foremost archaeologists of the ancient Near East. Oscar Muscarella is a former curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and a formidable scholar who has excavated at sites in Turkey, Iran, and the United States. He has published eight books and nearly 200 articles, excavation reports, and reviews on topics ranging from the arts of antiquity and the importance of connoisseurship, to the difficulties of dating and the problems of forgeries, the looting of ancient sites, and the antiquities trade. The forty-seven contributors are experts in the areas of Muscarella's interests and are major scholars in their fields. This volume constitutes an unusual, important, and timely addition to the archaeological and art historical literature.

Le musée du Louvre compte parmi ses collections une plaque de conjuration en bronze contre la terrible Lamaštu, démone redoutée dans toute la Mésopotamie et au-delà. Si l’objet est exceptionnel à plus d’un égard, il n’est pas typique des nombreuses autres amulettes de conjuration du Ier millénaire av. J.-C. qui présentent toutes les mêmes caractéristiques dans leur forme, leur matière, mais aussi leur iconographie. Cette plaque fait en effet partie d’un groupe typologique qui ne comporte que six exemplaires tous répartis dans des musées différents. Ils ont pour particularité d’introduire dans leur composition l’apotropaïon le plus populaire en ces temps : Pazuzu, le roi des démons.

Josephus nailed Solomon's ff969/968 accession!: Hiram's Solomonic Temple contract in ff969/968 by Josephus' Tyrian, Greek, & Roman dating, confirms Thiele's 2005-2015 corrected chronology


Valerius Coucke's 1928-published near-dating of Tyrian King Hiram's fall-to-fall (ff) 969/968 12th year Solomonic Temple construction contract was one year late (ff968/967) only due to his misreckoning as May (sic.) 1207 BC the Parian Marble's correct ca. June 1208 BC fall of Troy. This latter was by Justin quoting Trogus (18.3) 1 year after the ca. June 1209 founding of Tyre, which in turn by Josephus quoting Meander (Ag. Ap. I.18) was 241 years before Hiram's 12th year 1 Kings 5:1 contract with Solomon to build his Temple ca. June 1209 - 241 = spring/summer 968 BC (ff969/968). Just here David died by my 2005-2015 correction of the Coucke/Thiele/McFall/Young chronology by its wholesale 3 years later offset up to Uzziah's death. Thus: {[June 1208 fall of Troy] - 1 = June 1209 refoundation of Tyre} + 241 years until Hiram's 12th year Temple contract = June 968 = spring/summer ff969/968 1 Kgs. 5:1 accession of Solomon.

The Fig. 1 Tyrian kings chronology based on Josephus' copy of Meander's Tyrian King List using only Athenian, Tyrian, and Roman records, validates Coucke's method and confirms its result by use of my chronology: Hiram's certain ff969/988 12th year start of Solomon's Temple project invalidates the Coucke/Thiele/McFall/Young version of Thiele's chronology because by it Hiram was 2 years dead when required to receive Solomon's 1 Kgs. 9:10-14 20th year construction bonus (E, 8/19). By the Thiele chronology's unavoidable 1 Kgs. 6:1 Temple assembly start, that bonus fell in Solomon's 24th year, while by my chronology's 1 Kgs. 5:1 start, it fell 2 years before Hiram's death in Solomon's 20th (sec. 2.3). A tiny wrinkle in Assyrian chronology (701 BC, E 11/19) misled Thiele to corrupt his internal biblical chronology to make it absolute.

Coucke failed to follow through in developing his near-solution to its full potential for unlocking the entire Dead Sea Scrolls-based Masoretic Text's chronology, or at least its Hebrew kings foundation as Thiele nearly did by 1943, independently of Coucke. But Coucke provided corroborating independent results anticipating Thiele's better work, further refined by Leslie McFall (1991) and R. C. Young (2003).

Dating Hiram's Temple contract with Solomon
Tyrian kings chronology synchronized to & confirming my correction of Thiele in 20 pages:

Valerius Coucke's 1928-published near-dating of Tyrian King Hiram's fall-to-fall (ff) 969/968 12th year Solomonic Temple construction contract was one year late (ff968/967) only due to his misreckoning as May (sic.) 1207 BC the Parian Marble's correct ca. June 1208 BC fall of Troy. This latter was by Justin quoting Trogus (18.3) 1 year after the ca. June 1209 founding of Tyre, which in turn by Josephus quoting Meander (Ag. Ap. I.18) was 241 years before Hiram's 12th year 1 Kings 5:1 contract with Solomon to build his Temple ca. June 1209 - 241 = spring/summer 968 BC (ff969/968). Just here David died by my 2005-2015 correction of the Coucke/Thiele/McFall/Young chronology by its wholesale 3 years later offset up to Uzziah's death. Thus: {[June 1208 fall of Troy] - 1 = June 1209 refoundation of Tyre} + 241 years until Hiram's 12th year Temple contract = June 968 = spring/summer ff969/968 1 Kgs. 5:1 accession of Solomon.

The Fig. 1 Tyrian kings chronology based on Josephus' copy of Meander's Tyrian King List using only Athenian, Tyrian, and Roman records, validates Coucke's method and confirms its result by use of my chronology: Hiram's certain ff969/988 12th year start of Solomon's Temple project invalidates the Coucke/Thiele/McFall/Young version of Thiele's chronology because by it Hiram was 2 years dead when required to receive Solomon's 1 Kgs. 9:10-14 20th year construction bonus (E, 8/19). By the Thiele chronology's unavoidable 1 Kgs. 6:1 Temple assembly start, that bonus fell in Solomon's 24th year, while by my chronology's 1 Kgs. 5:1 start, it fell 2 years before Hiram's death in Solomon's 20th (sec. 2.3). A tiny wrinkle in Assyrian chronology (701 BC, E 11/19) misled Thiele to corrupt his internal biblical chronology to make it absolute.

Coucke failed to follow through in developing his near-solution to its full potential for unlocking the entire Dead Sea Scrolls-based Masoretic Text's chronology, or at least its Hebrew kings foundation as Thiele nearly did by 1943, independently of Coucke. But Coucke provided corroborating independent results anticipating Thiele's better work, further refined by Leslie McFall (1991) and R. C. Young (2003).

This study of items of adornment articles excavated between 1988 and 1990 from the Nimrud tombs in Iraq illuminates the multicultural aspects and imperial implications of Neo-Assyrian royal dress during the eight and ninth centuries BCE. These spectacular finds also attest to the significance of royal women as embodiments of imperial fashion and, in turn, of the empire itself. The adornment ensembles incorporated elements of different styles, which I categorize as “Royal Assyrian,” “Near Eastern,” “Intercultural,” and “Composite. Just as the Neo-Assyrian palace asserted imperialism through quotations of and allusions to foreign culture, these categories of royal fashion would have contributed to the rhetoric of imperialism as they, too, materialized imperial networks of power and diplomacy.

Six articles by leading scholars on the culture of the Assyrian world pay homage to Paolo Matthiae, known internationally for the discovery of the site of ancient Ebla in Syria. The articles deal with different aspects of Assyrian culture, with innovative and sometimes unexpected points of view, including its reception in the modern world.
‘Moving on from Ebla, I crossed the Euphrates’ collects six articles by leading international scholars on the culture of the Assyrian world as a homage to Paolo Matthiae on the occasion of his 80th birthday. Paolo Matthiae is known internationally for the discovery of the site of ancient Ebla in Syria, but he also wrote groundbreaking books and scientific contributions about the Assyrians, predominantly from an art historical perspective. The articles deal with different aspects of this culture, with innovative and sometimes unexpected points of view, including the reception of some elements of the Assyrian culture in the contemporary world.

Contents
Foreword – Davide Nadali, Lorenzo Nigro and Frances Pinnock ;

Publications on Assyria – Paolo Matthiae ;

The Progress of Research on the Sculptures of Ashurbanipal – Julian Edgeworth Reade ;

La réception des Assyriens, avant et après l’invention pionnière de Khorsabad par Paul-Emile Botta – Ariane Thomas ;

The Architectural in Betweenness of Assyrian Reliefs: On Cues and Settings of Architectural Decoration – David Kertai ;

Assyria, Where Are You? A Striking Gap in the Reception of the Ancient Near East in Western Popular Culture – Dominik Bonatz ;

‘I opened eight gates’: Revisiting the Identification of Dūr-Šarrukīn’s City Gates – Jamie Novotny ;

Masculinity and the Hunt in the State Arts of the Assyrian Empire – Omar N’Shea

Восьмой том альманаха «Scripta antiqua. Вопросы древней истории,
филологии, искусства и материальной культуры» посвящен памяти
выдающегося историка и филолога Сергея Ремировича Тохтасьева
(1957–2018). В статье представлены статьи по истории и филологии Древнего Востока, истории древнего Причерноморья и варварской периферии античного мира. Рассматриваются актуальные вопросы древней истории на основе археологии, глиптики, эпиграфики и нумизматики, анализа письменных источников и скульптуры. В научный оборот вводятся данные по истории науки о древности.
Том ориентирован на широкий круг читателей, интересующихся
древней историей и филологией Древнего Востока и античного мира, специалистов-историков и филологов.

Abstract: This paper deals with those Urartian columns which were uncovered by the local people in the village of Mdjeser during activities of construction or cultivation in the last four decades. In addition, some notes about the architecture of the city of Muṣaṣir depicted on one of the reliefs in the palace of Sargon II at Khorsabad are given, as well as notes concerning the weather and topography of that area and its effect on the ancient and modern architecture. On the basis of this evidence I add some notes concerning the probable location of Muṣaṣir/Ardini and of the temple of Haldi.

Nach dem Aufstieg Assyriens zur Großmacht in der 2. Hälfte des 2. Jahrtausends v.Chr. wurde der Gott Assur nicht nur für das Wohl der gleichnamigen Stadt verantwortlich, sondern auch für das ganze Land. Damit einhergehend nahm der Assur-Tempel eine zentrale Rolle in der Konzeption des gesamten Reiches ein und wurde Assyriens Ort der Herrschaftslegitimation. Zugleich war er das größte und wichtigste Heiligtum der Stadt Assur. Der Assur-Tempel zeichnet sich durch eine sehr lange Baugeschichte aus. Die frühesten Hinweise auf ein Heiligtum in diesem Gebiet stammen aus dem 3. Jahrtausend v.Chr., sein Ende fand er erst im Jahr 614 v.Chr. bei der Zerstörung der Stadt.
Der Band umfasst die erste vollständige Auswertung der gesamten Grabungsdokumentation. Enthalten ist neben der Neubearbeitung des Architekturbefundes auch ein Katalog aller Funde aus dem Assur-Tempel. Auf dieser Grundlage bietet die Arbeit neue Erkenntnisse über den Aufbau des Tempels und die Nutzungsdauer des Heiligtums sowie eine funktionale Analyse der Tempelräume und ihres Inventars.

Fostered by the Assyrian military campaigns into Syria, Anatolia, and towards the Mediterranean coast, the Assyrian political and cultural impact naturally grew in time during the early first millennium B.C. in these areas. However, besides the obvious military occupation of peripheral territories and the imposition of Assyrian rule in these conquered regions, Assyrian influence simultaneously spread through other, much more tranquil means.
Local sculptures and reliefs discovered in Western Syria and Southeastern Anatolia display various grades of Assyrian inspiration. Yet, Assyrian iconography and style is not confined to images of local rulers – always more prone to Assyrian royal imagery – but can be detected in representations of local deities and private funerary stelae, too. These provide clear examples of elite emulation, a phenomenon that is well attested in the case of countries or political entities in asymmetrical power relations. This paper follows the appearance of Assyrian artistic traits in Western Syria and Southeastern Anatolia and considers these changes in front of the political background.