Academic literature on the topic 'Assyrian reliefs'
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Journal articles on the topic "Assyrian reliefs"
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Seymour, Michael. "Neighbors through Imperial Eyes: Depicting Babylonia in the Assyrian Campaign Reliefs." Journal of Ancient Near Eastern History 4, no. 1-2 (June 26, 2018): 129–62. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/janeh-2017-0022.
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AbstractThe 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.
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Cheng, Jack. "The Horizontal Forearm Harp: Assyria's National Instrument." Iraq 74 (2012): 75–87. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0021088900000279.
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A horizontal harp, strung with seven to nine strings and usually decorated with a finial in the shape of a human forearm, is likely to have been a symbol of the Neo-Assyrian state. Various features distinguish this musical instrument from contemporary Elamite harps, and from other harps in Mesopotamian history. The horizontal forearm harp was the most frequently depicted musical instrument on Neo-Assyrian palace reliefs and bronze doors; pairs of male Assyrians play the harp for the king in official duties of state or cult. The decorative forearm sometimes wears the rosette bracelet associated with royalty. Consideration of the iconographic significance of the forearm suggests possible Neo-Assyrian attitudes toward music.
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DeGrado, J. "KING OF THE FOUR QUARTERS: DIVERSITY AS A RHETORICAL STRATEGY OF THE NEO-ASSYRIAN EMPIRE." Iraq 81 (September 30, 2019): 107–25. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/irq.2019.8.
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Recent studies of cultural interaction in the Assyrian empire have focused on the process of assimilation and the production of alterity. In this article, I argue that Assyrian royal rhetoric goes beyond emphasizing simple difference, instead using depictions of cultural diversity to demonstrate the truly universal nature of the empire. I elucidate this rhetoric by comparison the world fairs of the 19th and early 20th-centuries. These fairs advanced European imperialism by allowing visitors to explore the vast extent of empire. I argue that the enumeration of exotic tribute in Assyrian texts and the iconographic depiction of foreigners on reliefs similarly served to concretize Assyrian power. Unlike modern European empires, however, Assyrians did not consider ethnicity to be constitutive of citizenship. Thus, while the Assyrian approach to diversity was certainly instrumentalizing, it was also inclusive of cultural difference. In this respect, the Assyrian understanding of human diversity shares much in common with the way the empire treated other types of difference, ranging from topographic variation to biodiversity. From the imperial vantage point, each of these elements had the potential to be tamed in a way that highlighted the control of the king over the four quarters of the world.
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Mitchell, T. C. "Camels in the Assyrian Bas-Reliefs." Iraq 62 (2000): 187. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/4200489.
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Ornan, Tallay. "Expelling demons at Nineveh: The visibility of benevolent demons in the palaces of Nineveh." Iraq 66 (2004): 83–92. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0021088900001674.
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As has been shown and extensively dealt with in early and more recent scholarship, Neo-Assyrian palatial wall reliefs went through many thematic changes throughout their two hundred and fifty years of existence. One of their conspicuous traits was a gradual abandoning of magical-religious subject matters, represented by protective supernatural beings, in favour of larger and more detailed historical compositions — mostly of a belligerent nature — revealing, for the first time in antiquity, a truer sense of narrative display. As the narrative-historical themes were rightly considered to be an innovative and prominent contribution of Assyrian imagery to the history of art, extensive efforts have been devoted to the study of these compositions within the context of Assyrian palaces.In the present contribution I intend, however, to concentrate on the “losing” side of Assyrian palatial decoration, namely to focus on the visibility of apotropaic fantastic creatures rendered on wall reliefs and to offer some explanation for their gradual expulsion from the pictorial display of the Assyrian palace. Following Porada, in this essay these hybrids are called demons, in accordance with the Greek term daimon. Benevolent demons appear already in early ninth-century Neo-Assyrian wall reliefs, both in temples, as shown by a small number of slabs from the Ninurta Temple at Nimrud, and much more commonly in palaces, in particular within the North-West Palace.
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Guralnick, Eleanor. "Neo-Assyrian patterned fabrics." Iraq 66 (2004): 221–32. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0021088900001807.
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AbstractThe patterns used to decorate Neo-Assyrian fabrics are known mainly through their use in the arts. Stone bronze and ivory sculptures and wall paintings incorporate decorations, sometimes enhanced with a variety of colours. The patterns for which we have evidence varied through time and in response to the use the fabric served. The secondary nature of the evidence allows only inferences on the techniques used to create the decorative patterns, but not certain knowledge. At Nineveh the subtlest distinctions in fabric patterning on stone relief survive. At Nimrud the most complex symbolic motifs are used as fabric decorations. At Til Barsip the most varied and colourful patterns are seen. At Khorsabad stone reliefs with colour-enhance patterns survive. The consistency with which some decorations are used exclusively for the king's garment suggests that there may be a symbolic value for a few decorative patterns.
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Thomason, Allison Karmel. "The Sense-scapes of Neo-Assyrian Capital Cities: Royal Authority and Bodily Experience." Cambridge Archaeological Journal 26, no. 2 (February 3, 2016): 243–64. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0959774315000578.
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This study approaches the material world of the Neo-Assyrian period in Mesopotamia from the theoretical and methodological standpoint of the field of sensory archaeology. Analysis of relevant royal inscriptions, administrative tablets, bas-reliefs and artefacts excavated from the palaces in the Assyrian capital cities of Nimrud, Khorsabad and Nineveh demonstrates that the Assyrian kings and their courtly advisors participated in activities of biopolitics. The study identifies several phenomena and features of the Assyrian world, including palaces that served as sensorial envelopes, commensal feasts, travelling processions, water-control projects and libation rituals that the Neo-Assyrian royal authority deployed in attempts to control sensory experiences. At the same time, the study reconstructs the sensory experiences of Assyrian bodies as they passed through royally curated structures and landscapes.
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Watanabe, Chikako E. "The “continuous style” in the narrative scheme of Assurbanipal's reliefs." Iraq 66 (2004): 103–14. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0021088900001698.
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As we walk through the Assyrian galleries in the British Museum, we may observe curious depictions amongst Assurbanipal's reliefs. A scene from the king's lion hunt, for example, shows a lion emerging from a cage, a lion being shot by an arrow in the back and dashing forward in anger, and a lion leaping at the king (Fig. 1). Our eyes follow these images naturally, from right to left, as a series of movements that conclude on the left of the scene. It was E. Unger who first observed this characteristic feature and named it kinematographische Erzählungsform. J. Reade also noted it in his study of narrative composition in Assyrian sculpture, where the style is called the “strip-cartoon effect”. It appeared sporadically throughout the Neo-Assyrian period but became prominent under Assurbanipal. The identification of these animals as the same lion is established by a text on the far left, beyond this scene. This part of the relief only survives in the form of a drawing. It shows the king grasping the lion by the throat and thrusting a sword into the animal's stomach. The epigraph states that a lion was released from a cage in order to be shot with arrows by the king. The lion did not die, however, so he stabbed it with an iron dagger in order to kill it.
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Braun-Holzinger, Eva A. "DARSTELLUNGEN DER SUḪÄER UND WEITERER NACHBARN DER ASSYRER IM 9. JH. 1. TEIL." Iraq 80 (September 25, 2018): 35–62. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/irq.2018.12.
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Representations of foreigners in their strange attire have a long tradition in the Ancient Near East. While the Assyrian Empire was expanding during the early first millennium BC, the Assyrian kings ‒ with the help of skilled and even inspired craftsmen – attached a growing importance to the differentiation of their near neighbours and people further away. The palace reliefs of Assurnaṣirpal were of excellent craftsmanship, the garments, the hair-styles, the beards and the surrounding landscape were carefully rendered, quite often in every minute detail. Through these details the meaning of the ‘images’ became fully understandable to the well informed Assyrian viewer. Foreign people were not merely enemies, they were people in their own right.
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Chow, Caleb T. "SWORD CARRY IN THE ART OF ASHURNASIRPAL II: DISPLAYS OF DIVINE AUTHORITY." Iraq 82 (July 14, 2020): 73–93. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/irq.2020.1.
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This paper explores the meaning behind the two methods of sword carry depicted in the iconography of Ashurnasirpal II. While the sword is regarded as a prestigious weapon tied to the owner's identity, the implications of how such an understanding of the sword in the Neo-Assyrian Empire might further delineate the underlying messages of the palace reliefs of Ashurnasirpal II remain unaddressed in secondary literature. As a result, through a combination of a cognitive analysis in regards to the significance of the sword's appearance in Neo-Assyrian texts and iconography as well as an analysis of visual formulas in the palace reliefs of Ashurnasirpal II as identified by Mehmet-Ali Ataç, this paper argues that the visual representation of the sword is intended to communicate not only the wielder's power and wealth but also the wielder's exercise or restraint of divine authority based on the carry method displayed.
Dissertations / Theses on the topic "Assyrian reliefs"
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Yazdeen, Qaisar khalat. "Les bijoux à l'époque néo-assyrienne (934-609 av.J.-C.) : typologie, matériaux et fabrication, iconographie et symbolique." Thesis, Lyon, 2020. http://www.theses.fr/2020LYSE2004.
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L’empire néo-assyrien est un royaume né en Mésopotamie. À partir de 934 av. J.-C., le royaume assyrien est devenu l’un des États les plus puissants du Proche-Orient ancien. L'empire néo-assyrien est devenu le troisième empire le plus puissant du monde antique après la conquête des royaumes de Babylone, d’Urartu, l’Elam et l'Egypte. Il a donc dominé la Mésopotamie, l’Asie Mineure, le Caucase, l’Egypte et la Méditerranée Orientale. Cet empire a continué jusqu'à la chute de sa capitale Ninive qui tombe aux mains des Babyloniens et des Mèdes en 612 av. J.-C. L'empire néo-assyrien a laissé de nombreux monuments et artefacts, qui ont aidé les archéologues à étudier les bijoux assyriens. Cette thèse traite des bijoux à l’époque néo-assyrienne. Elle présente la typlogie, mais aussi les matériaux utilisés et la fabrication des bijoux. Elle présente aussi l’iconographie et la symbolique des bijouxThe neo-assyrian Empire is a kingdom that arose in Mesopotamia. From 934 BC, Assyrian kingdom was one of the most powerful states of the Ancient Near East. The neo-assyrian empire became the third most powerful empire in the ancient world after the conquest of the kingdoms of Babylon, Urartu, Elam and Egypt. This empire dominated the Mesopotamia, the Asia Minor, the Caucasus, Egypt and the Eastern Mediterranean. This empire continued until the fall of its capital Nineveh in by the Babylonians and The Medes in 612 BC.The neo-Assyrian empire left many cultural monuments and artifacts, which helped archaeologists to study Assyrian jewelry. This thesis deals with the jewelry of neo-assyrian period. It presents the typology but also the materials used and the manufacture of jewels. This work show also iconography and symbolism of jewels
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Baldwin, Stephanie. "Bit by bit : an iconographic study of horses in the reliefs of the Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II (883 - 859 BC)." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/86362.
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Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2014.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The focus of this study is to investigate the role that horses played in the Ancient Near East, specifically during the reign of the Neo-Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II (883-859BC). By studying nine of the reliefs from the North-West Palace at Nimrud, the function of horses with regard to warfare during that time was explored. The analysis included an examination of all horses and equine tack, which consists of chariots, bridles, bits, breastplates and decorations. The reliefs are studied by using Erwin Panofsky’s Theoretical Scheme, which allows for three stages of analysis. Each of the reliefs is examined as a whole, in order to place the relief in context, followed by a detailed breakdown of the horses, specifically their body language, as well as their tack and the function thereof. It was found that the Assyrians used the horses’ body language to help set the tone of the relief, as the horses would display aggressive body language when under attack and relaxed body language when not under attack, for example reliefs showing parades or military camps. It was also noted that the horses of the enemies were illustrated in such a way as to show the prowess of the victorious Neo-Assyrian army. It was found that horses were instrumental in warfare as well as depicting status and rank within the military structures.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die fokus van hierdie studie is om die rol wat perde in die Ou Nabye Ooste gespeel het, te ondersoek, spesifiek tydens die bewind van die Neo-Assiriese koning Ashurnasirpal II (883-859 v.C.). Deur nege van die reliëfs van die Noordwes-Paleis by Nimrud te bestudeer, is die funksie van perde met betrekking tot oorlogvoering gedurende daardie tyd ondersoek. Die analise sluit ’n ondersoek van alle perde en perdetuig in, wat uit waens, tome, stange, borsplate en versierings bestaan. Die reliëfs word bestudeer deur Erwin Panofsky se Teoretiese Skema, wat vir drie fases van ontleding voorsiening maak, te gebruik. Elkeen van die reliëfs word as ’n geheel ondersoek, ten einde die reliëf in konteks te plaas, gevolg deur ’n volledige uiteensetting van die perde, spesifiek hul lyftaal, asook hul tuie en die funksie daarvan. Daar is gevind dat die Assiriërs die perde se lyftaal gebruik het om die toon van die reliëf te help stel. Die perde sou aggressiewe lyftaal vertoon wanneer hulle aangeval word en ontspanne lyftaal wanneer hulle nie aangeval word nie, byvoorbeeld reliëfs wat parades of militêre kampe wys. Daar is ook opgemerk dat die perde van die vyande op so ’n wyse geïllustreer is om die dapperheid/vaardigheid van die oorwinnende Neo-Assiriese leër te toon. Daar is gevind dat perde instrumenteel in oorlogvoering was asook dat hulle status en rang binne die militêre strukture uitgebeeld het.
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Hasan, Bekas. "Les bas-reliefs rupestres des montagnes du Kurdistan (Irak) : (IIIème millénaire avant J.C..- IIIème siècle après J.C.)." Thesis, Lyon, 2019. http://www.theses.fr/2019LYSE2030/document.
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Cette étude concerne les bas-reliefs rupestres des montagnes du Kurdistan irakien, notamment ceux découverts dans les trois provinces de Dohuk, Erbil et Sulaymaniyeh.Les bas-reliefs sont une source importante de données sur les sociétés du Proche-Orient ancien. Ils sont des témoignages d’idéologies, de croyances, de cérémonies et de rituels anciens. Nous avons pris en compte une large période depuis le début de l’âge du Bronze jusqu’au 3e siècle après J.-C. Cela concerne un corpus d’étude de 132 objets dont 43 bas-reliefs du Kurdistan irakien. Les bas-reliefs étaient aussi un moyen de satisfaire le désir d'immortalité des gouvernants ; une partie de ces bas-reliefs représentent une iconographie royale avec des scènes de guerre et de victoire sur les ennemis, de couronnement royal, la mise en place des projets d’irrigation, d’autres concernent des événements religieux.L’analyse des bas-reliefs a été effectuée à partir d’observations réalisées sur le terrain et l’étude de la bibliographie existante afin de mieux connaître les causes de leur création. Nous disposons de mesures précises, de photos et de schémas de ces bas-reliefs, élaborés de façon exhaustive et similaire, ce qui permet ensuite de les comparer avec d'autres vestiges archéologiques bien datés. Nous les avons traité sur les plans technique et artistique, en étudiant l’iconographie, les décors, les personnages, les vêtements, les armes et les symboles divins que l’on retrouve sur ces œuvres. Cette analyse détaillée des éléments figurés et des scènes de ces reliefs est très utile pour connaitre leur contexte historique qui étaient encore mal connues, en raison du grand nombre d’avis contradictoires émis par les précédents chercheurs.Nous retraçons à travers ces bas-reliefs une fresque de l’histoire du Kurdistan irakien qui va de 3000 avant J.-C à 300 ans après J.-CThis study concerns the rock reliefs of the mountains of the Kurdistan (Iraq), including those discovered in three provinces of Dohuk, Erbil and Sulaymaniyeh.The reliefs are an important source of data concerning the societies of the Ancient Near East. They have been used as evidence of former ideologies, beliefs, ceremonies and rituals. We have taken in account a large period from the early Bronze Age until the 3rd century after AD. This concerns a corpus of study including 132 objects which 43 low-reliefs found in the Iraqi Kurdistan. The reliefs were also a way to satisfy the desire for immortality of previous rulers; some of these reliefs represent a royal iconography with scenes of war and victory on the enemies, royal coronation, the implementation of projects of irrigation; others relate to religious events.The analysis of the low-reliefs was conducted from observations of the field and by the study of the previous bibliography to have a better knowledge of the causes of their creations. We have a description of these reliefs with accurate measurements, photos, and drawing, done with exhaustive and similar methods, which then allows them to compare with other well dated archaeological evidence. Then we have dealed with these reliefs on technical and artistic level, by studying their iconography, the decors, the characters, the clothes, the weapons and the divine symbols found on these works. This detailed analysis of the figuredelements and sceneries of these reliefs is very useful to know their historic context that were still not wellknown, because of the large number of conflicting opinions from the previous researchers.We track through these low-reliefs a fresco of the Iraqi Kurdistan history that goes from 3000 BC to 300 years after AD
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Gillmann, Nicolas. "Les représentations architecturales dans l'iconographie néo-assyrienne." Université Marc Bloch (Strasbourg) (1971-2008), 2008. http://www.theses.fr/2008STR20021.
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Depuis les trente dernières années, les bas-reliefs néo-assyriens ont fait l’objet de diverses études iconographiques dont bien peu traitaient directement des représentations d’architecture. Le but de cette thèse est donc de recenser toutes les représentations d’architecture connues dans l’iconographie néo-assyrienne en vue d’en faire l’analyse systématique. Notre méthodologie s’articulera autour de deux axes : d’une part une étude iconographique consacrée à l’interprétation de la documentation sur le plan de la sémantique de l’image et de l’analyse des conventions iconographiques (1ère et 2ème parties) ; d’autre part, une analyse archéologique de cette iconographie sera entreprise, dans le but de confronter l’architecture représentée et l’architecture réelle (3ème partie). Il s’agira d’estimer la fiabilité des représentations architecturales néo-assyriennes, permettant ainsi de savoir dans quelle mesure l’archéologue peut fonder d’éventuelles reconstitutions de monuments ruinés sur ces représentationsSince the last thirty years, the Assyrian reliefs were the subject of several iconographical studies, but only a few of them dealt with architectural representations specifically. The purpose of this thesis is to list all the architectural representations known by us, in order to analyse them both from an iconographical and archaeological point of view. The first part of this study will be devoted to a semantic interpretation of the neo-Assyrian iconography, and the second to an analysis of the iconographical rules followed by the Assyrian craftsman. In the third part, the author intends to estimate the degree of reliability of the neo-Assyrian architectural representations, by comparing as far as possible real with depicted architecture. Henceforward, it becomes possible to know in what extent the archaeologist can base his future reconstructions of ruined monuments on the Assyrian reliefs
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Ranieri, Leandro Penna. "Concepções de corpo na Assíria do primeiro milênio AEC: entre materialidade e textualidade." Universidade de São Paulo, 2018. http://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/8/8138/tde-23112018-123812/.
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O objetivo desta pesquisa é examinar e compreender as concepções de corpo na Assíria do fim do século VIII e do século VII AEC, a partir da análise de fontes palacianas imagéticas e textuais. As primeiras são compostas pelos relevos dos palácios dos reis Senaqueribe (704- 681) e Assurbanipal II (669-627) em Nínive (no atual nordeste do Iraque). As segundas são Inscrições Reais, Tratados e Juramentos, Cartas e textos literários, sendo que todos esses gêneros têm como eixo de produção os palácios assírios. Os relevos são placas de pedra com esculturas em baixo relevo, que foram utilizadas nas paredes dos palácios assírios a partir do final do segundo milênio AEC. Esse uso foi continuado por todo o período denominado Neoassírio ou Tardo Assírio (934-610 AEC), expondo imagens de pessoas, animais, plantas, paisagens e arquiteturas. A configuração desses elementos figurativos expressa cenas de narrativas espaciais por meio de imagens. A disposição orquestrada dos relevos nas paredes dos palácios evidencia potenciais modos de percepção das imagens pela movimentação nos ambientes palacianos. A recorrência da expressão do corpo nos relevos suscita uma perspectiva atenta à materialidade, à relação entre as imagens do corpo e aos modos de percepção e contato com esses objetos no período. A presença constante de expressões corporais em textos neoassírios também constitui um tratamento ao corpo através da linguagem. Considerando a complementaridade entre fontes imagéticas e escritas no período e o fato de as concepções de corpo poderem estar expressas em textos e imagens, qual é o lugar e o uso do corpo neste período? Como o corpo aparece nos relevos e textos palacianos? Quais aspectos materiais dos relevos constituem os indícios da concepção de corpo? Como as imagens do corpo e as expressões corporais escritas indicam suas concepções?The aim of this research is to examine and comprehend the conceptions of the body in Assyria at the end of the 8th and 7th centuries BCE, from the analysis of palatial images and texts. The visual sources are composed by the reliefs of the kings of Sennacherib (704-681) and Assurbanipal II (669-627) in Nineveh (present-day northern of Iraq). The written sources are Royal Inscriptions, Treaties and Oaths, Letters and literary texts. All these texts had the Assyrian royal palaces as production axis. The reliefs are stone plaques with bas-relief sculptures, which were used on the walls of the Assyrian palaces from the end of the second millennium BCE. This use was continued throughout the period called Neo-Assyrian or Late Assyrian (934-610 BCE), exposing images of people, animals, plants, landscapes and architectures. The configuration of these figurative elements expresses scenes of spatial narratives through images. The orchestrated arrangement of the reliefs on the walls of the palaces shows potential ways of perception of the images by the movement in the palatial environments. The recurrence of the body expression in the reliefs evokes an attentive threefold perspective: on the materiality, the images of the body and the modes of perception and contact with these objects in that period. The constant presence of body expressions in Neo-Assyrian texts also constitutes a way to treat body through language. Considering the complementarity between visual and written sources in the Neo-Assyrian period and the fact that body conceptions can be expressed in texts and images, what is the status and use of the body in this period? How does the body appear in the reliefs and palatial texts? What are the material aspects of the reliefs? How do body images and written body expressions indicate their conceptions?
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Barron, Amy E. "Late Assyrian Arms and Armour: Art versus Artifact." Thesis, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/1807/24677.
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The present study was intended as a new approach to the study of the military equipment of the Late Assyrian period which has traditionally relied upon the pictorial representations of the palace reliefs. By examining extant artifacts from the first millennium in their own right, with the reliefs merely serving to contextualize them, a truer understanding of Assyrian arms and armour can be gathered. This is necessary because the artwork only provides us with a filtered view of the real world, the reliefs are as much works of propaganda as of history. The approach taken here is to first examine the existing weapons typologically, and then to evaluate whether such weapon types appear to be accurately represented in contemporary artwork. Textual sources are also used where they can aid in the discussion.
Five categories of arms and armour were studied: swords and daggers, spearpoints, shields, armour and helmets. The quality and quantity of the items in these categories varied significantly, providing for a much better representative sample of some items than others. Further questions concerning the possible ritual, rather than military, use of some of the existing artifacts were raised. However, the main conclusions reached were that the reliefs suffer not only from a propagandistic viewpoint which sometimes obscures the reality of Assyrian warfare, but that they also suffer from artistic license and spatial restraints, the difficulties in representing three-dimensional objects in a two-dimensional manner, the possible unfamiliarity of the artists with changing military technology and methods of construction, and finally, our inability to understand artistic short-hand for what were commonplace objects to the contemporary viewer. These have led to misunderstanding both as to the dating and chronological changes in weaponry, and also to the tactics used by the Late Assyrian military. This study of the artifacts themselves reveals a more mundane, utilitarian, and conservative military force which shows both a basic homogeneousness throughout the empire, and the myriad tiny variables of an army on the move drawing weapons and troops from many regions.
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Langendorfer, Breton Adam. "Who builds Assyria : nurture and control in Sennacherib's Great Relief at Khinnis." Thesis, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/2152/ETD-UT-2012-05-5839.
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Located in an isolated gorge in Iraqi Kurdistan, the Neo-Assyrian rock reliefs at Khinnis are unusual for their size, shape, and subject matter. The most striking of these is the enormous Great Relief, the largest single Assyrian sculpture in existence, which depicts a pair of gods attended by the duplicated figure of the Assyrian king. Both the Great Relief and the other sculptures of the Khinnis site were carved on the orders of Sennacherib (r. 705-688 BCE), to commemorate the canal head he constructed there. The Great Relief itself was positioned over the exact juncture wherein the waters of the river Gomel were canalized and sent on their way towards Nineveh, designated by Sennacherib as Assyria’s new imperial capital, irrigating fields and orchards along the way.
In this thesis I examine the composition and iconography of the Great Relief, both in the context of Sennacherib’s irrigation programs and the inscription carved at the Khinnis site. This inscription contains a curiously bifurcated account of both Sennacherib’s civil works in Assyria and his brutal sack of Babylon in 689. In both cases, Sennacherib emphasizes his ingenious technical ability to manipulate water for the benefit of the Assyrian state, either through the creative irrigation of the Assyrian heartland and the new capital, or the destructive flooding and leveling of Babylon. I argue that the dichotomy presented by these activities, a dualism of “nurture and control” through technical expertise, is a persistent theme throughout the rhetoric of Sennacherib’s inscriptions and reliefs. Through a close analysis of the Khinnis inscription, the Assyrian tradition of landscape sculpture, and the emblematic and narrative strategies employed in palatial relief programs, I argue that the Great Relief at Khinnis is an emblematic image of the dualistic ideology of Sennacherib’s reign. Ultimately, the Great Relief stands as a carefully devised visual statement about the nature of state power, consciously created by Sennacherib to signal his conceptual re-founding of the Assyrian empire.text
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Pretorius, Johan. "Weapons, warfare and skeleton injuries during the Iron Age in the Ancient Near East." Diss., 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/27556.
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Due to the nature of war, persons are killed with various types of weapons.
Throughout the history of humanity, weapons were used in this regard and these
weapons left injuries on the victims that are distinguishable. The type of force
conveyed by the ancient weapons effected injuries that enable modern-day
bioarchaeologists to extrapolate which weapons caused which injuries. The
Assyrians depicted their wars and battles on reliefs. An analysis of these depictions,
with an extrapolation of the lesions expected in skeletal remains, could contribute to
better understanding of the strategies of war in ancient times. This dissertation will
discuss how the evaluation of human remains in comparison to Assyrian reliefs may
contribute to the chronological knowledge of war and warfare in the Iron Age Ancient
Near East – especially at Lachish. A discourse of the approaches available to
researchers regarding access to data in the forensic bioarchaeological field will be
presented.Biblical and Ancient Studies
M.A. (Biblical Archaeology)
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Kellner, Ronel. "Historical methodology of Ancient Israel and the archive as historical a priori in the discourses of the Lachish reliefs." Diss., 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/22676.
Full textAbstract:
The archive as a site of ‘knowledge retrieval’* has long been the exemplary domain of astute historical inquiry. Following the recent ‘historic turn’* to address the politics of knowledge in the broader human and historical sciences, rather than its function as a site of ‘knowledge retrieval’*, I will reflect on the function of the archive as a site of ‘knowledge production’* in the writing of the histories of ancient Israel. Aligned within the conversations among historians and archivists and the new archival turn, the research will endeavour to offer a contribution to the debate on the topic of historical methodology of ancient Israel in the disciplines of Biblical Archaeology and History of ancient Israel. I will argue that an examination into the function of the archive as historical a priori in a study of the discourses on the Lachish reliefs in the disciplines discloses the practical and theoretical tenets that converge to construct knowledge on the Lachish reliefs and hence also knowledge on ancient Israel. The research will contend that a bounded formation of knowledge on the Lachish reliefs has evolved in the disciplines since the nineteenth century that is along the British imperial archival grain.
* Terminology from Stoler, A L 2002. Colonial Archives and the Arts of Governance: On the Content in the Form, in Hamilton C, Harris, V, Taylor, J, Pickover, M, Reid, G & Saleh, R (eds) 2002. Refiguring the Archive. Cape Town: David Philip, 83-102.Biblical and Ancient Studies
MA (Biblical Archaeology)
1 online resource (xii, 194 leaves) ; illustrations (some color), maps
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Freitas, Beatriz Catarina Tralhão. "Poder, Guerra e Performatividade nos baixos-relevos palacianos do Império Neo-Assírio (séculos IX-VII a.C.)." Master's thesis, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/10362/75219.
Full textAbstract:
Durante o I milénio a.C., a Assíria constituiu-se como o poder com maior extensão
territorial até então, afirmando-se como uma grande potência no Médio Oriente Antigo.
Para consubstanciar e impor o seu domínio sobre diversos territórios usufruiu de
instrumentos de natureza político-militar e diplomática que, em conjunto com os registos
textuais e visuais, difundiam um discurso que procurava refletir uma realidade unívoca.
A ideologia assíria que assentava, em grande medida, na legitimação real e na notoriedade
do exército proporcionou o desenvolvimento de uma arte oficial onde a figura do
governante se assumia enquanto elemento de coesão política, religiosa, étnica e cultural.
A relevância do rei e a materialização de um modo de conceber o mundo tinham no
palácio o seu expoente máximo. Enquanto manifestação do poder real, a construção do
palácio, incluindo o seu programa decorativo, foram entendidos como propaganda
política ou um meio de persuasão. Partindo da explanação destes conceitos teóricos
pretendemos demonstrar que, embora possamos ter essa interpretação, a função dos
baixos-relevos que constituíam o palácio não se limitava a este propósito.
Como tal, o presente trabalho procura analisar o poder das imagens e o consequente
carácter demiúrgico que partiam da reivindicação de um poder universal para agirem e
perdurarem no tempo. A performatividade da imagética neo-assíria advinha de um
relacionamento dialético, físico ou ritual, entre objeto e espectador que permitia que a
presença e o poder do rei se efetivassem com a sua imagem.During the first millennium BCE, Assyria was constituted as the power with greater territorial extension until then, affirming itself with great supremacy in the Ancient Middle East. In order to consolidate and impose its domination over several territories, Assyria used political-military and diplomatic instruments which together with textual and visual registers spread a discourse that sought to reflect an univocal reality. The assyrian ideology, which was largely based on the royal legitimacy and notoriety of the army, provided the development of an official art in which the king became an element of political, religious, ethnic and cultural cohesion. The importance of the ruler and the materialization of a way of conceiving the world had its maximum exponent in the palace. As a manifestation of royal power the construction of the palace, including its decorative program, was understood as political propaganda or as a mechanism of persuasion. Starting from the explanation of these theoretical concepts, we intend to demonstrate that although we may interpret this way the function of the bas-reliefs that constituted the palace wasn’t limited to this purpose. Therefore, this dissertation will analyze the power of images and the demiurgical character that initiated from the claim of a universal power to act and to pervail in time. The performativity of the neo-assyrian imagery came from a physical or ritual dialectical relationship between object and spectator that allowed the presence and power of the king to take effect through his image.
Books on the topic "Assyrian reliefs"
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Porter, Barbara N. Assyrian bas-reliefs at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art. [Brunswick, Me.]: The Museum, 1989.
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Russell, John Malcolm. From Nineveh to New York: The strange story of the Assyrian reliefs in the Metropolitan Museum and the hidden masterpiece at Canford School. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press in association with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1997.
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Museum, British. Assyrian sculpture. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1999.
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British Museum. Assyrian sculpture. 2nd ed. London: British Museum Press, 1998.
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Lisa, Baylis, and Marshall Sandra, eds. Assyrian palace sculptures. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2009.
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Albenda, Pauline. Monumental art of the Assyrian Empire: Dynamics of composition styles. Malibu: Undena Publications, 1998.
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The mythology of kingship in Neo-Assyrian art. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
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Ataç, Mehmet-Ali. The mythology of kingship in Neo-Assyrian art. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
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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: Editions Recherche sur les civilisations, 1986.
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Harrelson, Sam. Asia Has Claims Upon New England: Assyrian Reliefs at Yale. Yale University Art Gallery, 2006.
Find full textBook chapters on the topic "Assyrian reliefs"
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Osborne, James F. "On the Edge of Empire." In The Syro-Anatolian City-States, 126–64. Oxford University Press, 2020. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780199315833.003.0004.
Full textAbstract:
This chapter borrows from middle-ground studies and related hybridity theory to argue that the Syro-Anatolian Culture Complex (SACC) was on an equal cultural footing with its much more politically powerful neighbor, the Neo-Assyrian Empire. Although Assyria would come to conquer most of SACC by about 700 BCE, for several centuries the two entities influenced one another culturally, an influence that is visible in their cultural products like wall reliefs and monumental statuary. In several cases, these reliefs and statues deliberately fused elements from both places to produce newly significant products, often in ways that emphasized Syro-Anatolian cultural priority even in the face of political domination. Beyond the fusion of iconographic tropes in isolated artworks, this chapter surveys the archaeological record of Syro-Anatolian cities that continued in use past the Assyrian conquest, demonstrating that in nearly all cases these cities’ architectural traditions were unmolested even while new Assyrian buildings were constructed, such that these cities themselves became hybrid entities of Assyrian and Syro-Anatolian cultural production.
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Gillmann, Nicolas. "Tradition and Innovation in the Neo-Assyrian Reliefs." In Tradition and Innovation in the Ancient Near East, 267–76. Penn State University Press, 2015. http://dx.doi.org/10.5325/j.ctv1bxgx2w.26.
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Gillmann, Nicolas. "Tradition and Innovation in the Neo-Assyrian Reliefs." In Tradition and Innovation in the Ancient Near East, 267–76. Penn State University Press, 2015. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/9781575063584-024.
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Silbergeld, Jerome. "Trading Places: An Introduction to Zoomorphism and Anthropomorphism in Chinese Art." In The Zoomorphic Imagination in Chinese Art and Culture. University of Hawai'i Press, 2016. http://dx.doi.org/10.21313/hawaii/9780824846763.003.0001.
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Zoomorphism: by whatever name, it has been a part of the human imagination and the visual arts throughout our history, from Egyptian and Assyrian reliefs to Donald Duck, Wile E. Coyote, Pogo Possum, and Maus. The word itself means more than one thing, as does its correlate, anthropomorphism. Its early use involved attributing animal characteristics to deities, as with the Egyptian jackal-headed funerary god Anubis, the composite Chinese ...
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Ataç, Mehmet-Ali. "The Changing Approaches to History in the Neo-Assyrian Palace Reliefs." In Time and History in the Ancient Near East, 595–610. Penn State University Press, 2013. http://dx.doi.org/10.5325/j.ctv1bxgzf2.53.
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Ataç, Mehmet-Ali. "The Changing Approaches to History in the Neo-Assyrian Palace Reliefs." In Time and History in the Ancient Near East, 595–610. Penn State University Press, 2013. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/9781575068565-051.
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Wagner–Durand, Elisabeth. "Visualizing and Evoking the Emotion Fear in and through Neo–Assyrian Orthostat Reliefs." In Proceedings of the 10th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, Volume 1, edited by M. Luciani, 563–76. Harrassowitz, O, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvcm4f86.47.
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"Chapter One. Royal Rhetoric And The Development Of Historical Narrative In Neo-Assyrian Reliefs." In On Art in the Ancient Near East Volume I, 1–70. BRILL, 2009. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/ej.9789004172371.i-640.5.
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Fagan, Brian. "Beginnings." In From Stonehenge to Samarkand. Oxford University Press, 2006. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780195160918.003.0004.
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The intoxicating fascination of archaeology and ancient ruins comes not from a melancholy romanticism brought on by shattered towers and collapsing walls, but from what the English novelist and traveler Rose Macaulay called “the soaring of the imagination into the high empyrean where huge episodes are tangled with myths and dreams; it is the stunning impact of world history on its amazed heirs. . . . It is less ruin-worship than the worship of a tremendous past.” Macaulay herself was an indefatigable traveler in search of the ghosts of the past. She looked at far more than the serried columns of the Parthenon in Athens or the ruins of Roman Palmyra. Her travels took her to sites that required imagination as well as some specialized knowledge. “Nineveh and Babylon . . . are, in fact, little more than mounds.” Macaulay was not the first to articulate this. The nineteenth-century English archaeologist Austen Henry Layard wrote of the “stern, shapeless mound rising like a hill from the scorched plain, the stupendous mass of brickwork occasionally laid bare by winter rains.” He was an archaeologist of energy and vast imagination, intoxicated with the grandeur of the Assyrian bas-reliefs on Nineveh’s palace walls—human figures, gods, kings, warriors, human-headed lions. Nineveh captivated the Victorians. “Is not Nineveh most delightful and prodigious?” wrote one young lady to her brother in India. “Papa says nothing so truly thrilling has happened in excavations since they found Pompeii.” Layard and others wrote books about the mighty palaces that once dazzled the ancient world. Inevitably, the tourists came to wander through the tunnels that Layard’s workers had carved into the city’s mounds. Inevitably, too, many of them succumbed to fever, recovering to remember an exotic underground world they had seen in their delirium. Today, you must rely on your restless imagination amid bare heaps of earth, desert on every side. You inescapably remember the words of the Old Testament prophet Zephaniah as you tread on twenty centuries of Assyrian history: “And he will stretch out his hand against the north, and destroy Assyria, and will make Nineveh a desolation, and dry like a wilderness. . . . How is she become a desolation, a place for beasts to lie down in!”
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Shafer, Ann. "The Present in Our Past: The Assyrian Rock Reliefs at Nahr El-Kalb and the Lessons of Tradition." In Tradition and Innovation in the Ancient Near East, 491–500. Penn State University Press, 2015. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/9781575063584-044.
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