The White Obelisk and the Problem of Historical Narrative in the Art of Assyria

Pittman, Holly

doi:10.2307/3046178

Cited by 32 publications

(7 citation statements)

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“…However, the more elaborated, explicitly elaborated, narrative compositions appear generally later, during the Neolithic, as well in Sahara or in Spanish Levant with scenes of war and hunt. In Bronze Age Ancient Oriental art, narration is well known and stud-ied in monumental (reliefs) and minor arts (silverware, seals) of la ter times, and it frequently corresponds to texts [Gillmann 2007;Guterbock 1957;Kantor 1957;Perkins 1957;Pittman 1996]. In our case, the Çatalhöyük "narration" seems to some extent analogous to the Spanish Levante hunts, and to the Eurasian rock art .…”

Section: Bronze Agementioning

confidence: 63%

Measuring Harmony With Algebra: Collected Papers in Memory of Yakov Abramovich Sher

Chugunov¹

2021

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Сборник посвящён памяти выдающегося российского археолога Якова Абрамовича Шера (1931–2019). Большинст- во публикуемых статей связано с анализом первобытного и древнего изобразительного искусства, изучение которого всегда было доминантой исследовательских интересов Я. А. Шера и являлось основным направлением его научной деятельности. Книга предназначена для археологов, историков, искусствоведов, музейных работников.

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Section: Bronze Agementioning

confidence: 63%

Measuring Harmony With Algebra: Collected Papers in Memory of Yakov Abramovich Sher

Chugunov¹

2021

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“…39 While there is an ongoing debate as to the date of this monument, primarily ascribed to either Ashurnasirpal I or Ashurnasirpal II, I will include it in my discussion of the Middle Assyrian material as recent scholarship has leaned in this direction. See Pittman 1996, apud Reade 1975 Ashurnasirpal's thirty-two bands from the doors to his palace and to the temple of Mamu at Balawat, only Band MM ASH II L2 preserves a landscape containing the scale pattern. 40 It depicts the Assyrian king and his troops riding in chariots and on horses as they assault enemy troops and converge on a central mound covered with scales, on which enemy soldiers are resisting the Assyrian advance.…”

Section: Representation Of Mountainous Vs Non-mountainous Regionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…39 While there is an ongoing debate as to the date of this monument, primarily ascribed to either Ashurnasirpal I or Ashurnasirpal II, I will include it in my discussion of the Middle Assyrian material as recent scholarship has leaned in this direction. SeePittman 1996, apud Reade 1975, for Ashurnasirpal I, contra Sollberger 1974. More recently, Frahm gave a paper at the 2008 meeting of the Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale where he argued for a date under Ashurnasirpal I in light of new textual evidence.…”

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confidence: 99%

Fifth-campaign Reliefs in Sennacherib's “Palace without Rival” at Nineveh

Jeffers¹

2011

Iraq

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Scholars had once assumed that all of the relief programmes in Sennacherib's “Palace Without Rival” at Nineveh depicted events solely from his first three military campaigns. In 1994, however, E. Frahm successfully reconstructed a heavily damaged epigraph from the throne room specifically identifying the city of Ukku as the topic of the relief programme on Slabs 1–4 of this room's western wall. We know from Sennacherib's annals that Ukku was a target of the king's fifth campaign, aimed at enemies to the north of the Assyrian heartland in the Zagros mountain range. I have therefore re-examined the palace reliefs in order to identify other fifth-campaign programmes that have previously been overlooked. In this article, I argue that Rooms XXXVIII and XLVIII, in addition to the images on the western wall of the throne room, contain representations of Sennacherib's fifth campaign. With this identification substantiated, I then explore the typological aspects of these fifth-campaign programmes to classify their visual features.

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“…Even those defeated and imprisoned in the nets of Eannatum of Lagash and of Sargon I of Akkad are depicted as either struggling, whole, naked bodies or as a melee of limbs and heads, having been torn to pieces by vultures: Borker-Klahn 1982, pp. 132;Pittman 1996;Andrae 1935, pp. 17b,d, 18c,d;Moortgat 1969, p. 43, PI.…”

Section: The "Head Of the Enemy" In The Sculptures From The Palaces Omentioning

confidence: 99%

“…60-5, 179-80, PI. 132;Pittman 1996;Andrae 1935, pp. 60-7, PL 29 represented, at least in the remains of the sculptures in his official seat of Nimrud.…”

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The “head of the enemy” in the sculptures from the palaces of Nineveh: An example of “cultural migration”?

Dolce¹

2004

Iraq

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The choice of this subject originates from the fact that the area of research to which I have been devoting myself recently includes the figurative cultures of Mesopotamia and Syria in the Early Dynastic and the Early Syrian periods, specifically in the field of war. Some of the data resulting from this research focus on the representation of the “head of the enemy”, which appears repeatedly in the documentation of the second millennium BC in Syria but so far seems to be absent in contemporary Mesopotamia. Despite the evident difference between the forms of representation from these two areas, I perceived in the figurative cycles of the Neo-Assyrian reliefs not only the recurrence of this theme but also the intentional display of severed heads, which reaches its climax in the numerous examples from the South-West Palace in Nineveh. My first aim is, therefore, to suggest a plausible approach towards identifying the origin of the display of “severed heads”, previously absent from Mesopotamian scenes of warfare, in the visual communication of the Neo-Assyrian period. My second aim is to offer an interpretation which may help shed light on ideological, cultural and anthropological aspects essential to the Neo-Assyrian political programme and its visual representation.

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The White Obelisk and the Problem of Historical Narrative in the Art of Assyria

Cited by 32 publications

References 0 publications

Measuring Harmony With Algebra: Collected Papers in Memory of Yakov Abramovich Sher

Measuring Harmony With Algebra: Collected Papers in Memory of Yakov Abramovich Sher

Fifth-campaign Reliefs in Sennacherib's “Palace without Rival” at Nineveh

The “head of the enemy” in the sculptures from the palaces of Nineveh: An example of “cultural migration”?

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