From Sennacherib's Bronzes to Taharqa's Feet: Conceptions of the Material World at Nineveh

Author(s): Allison Karmel Thomason

Source: Iraq, Vol. 66, Nineveh. Papers of the 49th Rencontre Assriologique Internationale, Part
One (2004), pp. 151-162
Published by: British Institute for the Study of Iraq
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4200570 .
Accessed: 14/02/2011 04:25

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless
you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you
may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.

Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at .
http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=bisi. .

Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed
page of such transmission.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

British Institute for the Study of Iraq is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to
Iraq.

http://www.jstor.org
 151

FROM SENNACHERIB'SBRONZESTO TAHARQA'SFEET:

CONCEPTIONSOF THE MATERIALWORLD AT NINEVEH
By ALLISONKARMELTHOMASON*

EdwardSaid arguedthat since the beginningof westerncivilizationthere has been a conception

that the rulersof the East, the famed "Orientaldespots",were decadent,obsessedwith luxury,
and consumedby the collectingof objects(1978: 119, 203). The trope of the decadentOrientis
deeply embeddedin the westernimagination.In the Louvre Museumin Paris sits a masterpiece
of French Romantic painting, The Death of Sardanapalus,by Eugene Delacroix (Fig. 1). The
painting depicts an Oriental despot, the mythical Ninevite king Sardanapalus,recliningwith
emotional detachmenton a great bed amidst the chaotic destructionof his harem, palace, and
empire.He wears a golden crown and earringsand his robe falls in great folds aroundhis hefty
body. Extragarments,which he does not need to wear but whichhe neverthelesspossesses,swirl
voluminouslyaround his figure. His vast bed, puffy and soft, is richly adornedwith red cloth.
The pleasuresof his life, includingthe women of his consummatelyavailableharem,are wasted
at the murderoushandsof his mutinouspalaceslaves.Aroundhis bedroomlie the preciousobjects
of his palaceservice:goldenewersand cups;lyresand textiles;and jewelleryand horse trappings.
If we peal back the layers of meaningthat this paintingholds in its swaths of colour and light,
we can begin to comprehendthe humanfascinationwith objects.
The paintingdepictedthe French(and Western)view of the stereotypicalOrient,and as such
it reinforcedWesternnotions of Orientaldecadenceand sensualismin orderto denigratea worthy
militaryopponent,the OttomanEmpire,and justify Frenchimperialexpansion(Said 1978: 119;
Porterfield1998: 117; Bahrani2003: 57-8). As an Orientalisttrope of luxury and decadence,
Sardanapalusis surroundedby preciousobjectsthat are absurdlyneglectedand wasted.
The painting of Sardanapalusstands as a fascinatinglaunchingpoint for learningabout the
valueof objectsat Ninevehand in Assyriain general,whichis the focusof this study.Sardanapalus'
home, the city of Nineveh,and representationsof it from the Old Testamentlaid the foundations
for a Westerntrope of the decadentOrient. In the book of Jonah, Nineveh's vast greatnessis
pitied and punished by the Hebrew god. The book of Nahum juxtaposes Nineveh's material
wealthwith its eventualdoom: "Plunderthe silver!Plunderthe gold! Thereis no end of treasure
or wealthof everypreciousthing. Desolate!Desolation and ruin!"(Nah 2: 9-10). Of course,the
trope of the decadentNineveh constructedin the Old Testamentand the works of literatureand
art that it influencedinformsan understandingof Westernconceptionsof the Orient.However,
it does little to advance an understandingof native Mesopotamianperceptionsof their own
materialworld. By examininghow the Assyriankings envisionedtheir objects at Nineveh and
elsewhere, I explore how conceptions of luxury objects and their collection were important
componentsof Assyrianroyal culture.With this approach,I wish to move away from representa-
tions of Nineveh as a decadentplace, and move towardsan understandingof the relevancethat
luxuryobjectsheld in Assyriain general,and in particularfor Assyrianroyal identity.
What is it about objects, and especiallyabout masses or collectionsof objects that holds our
awe and feeds our disdain?At the heart of this projectis the fundamentalprincipleof material
culturetheory,that objectsare centralactorsin humansocieties.As humanbeings,we createour
own subjectivitythroughobjects(Baudrillard1984:7). Conversely,objectsare performativeand
activelyconstitute,affect, and work to change human identitiesand social relationships(Miller
1987;Cziksentmihalyiand Rochberg-Halton1981;Riggins, ed. 1994). By exploringthe various
meanings,or "regimesof value"that objectsgarnerand help to constructwe may understandthe
individualsand societies through which the objects circulate(Appadurai 1986:4). The objects
depicted, discussedand tangibly collected in Assyria were inherentlycentral to royal identity
construction,standing in tandem with the images on reliefs, architecturalfeatures, and royal

* Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.

Iraq LXVI(2004)= RAI 49/1 (2005)

152 ALLISON KARMELTHOMASON

l~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~l

Fig. 1. The Death of Sardanapalus by Eugene Delacroix, 1827-8 (? Reunion des Musees
Nationaux/Art Resource, NY).

festivals and decrees that filled the landscape. By exploring the relevance that ancient objects
garnered in the construction of Assyrian royal identity, we might understand conceptions of the
material world from a Mesopotamian perspective, rather than from the perspective of the
Orientalist imagination.'
There is so much attention to the material world in Neo-Assyrian cultural production that
attempting to understand conceptions of it can at first be overwhelming. Therefore, rather than
analyse every single textual or pictorial reference to objects or every piece of material culture
excavated, I have chosen to focus on particular case studies of objects that can illuminate Neo-
Assyrian conceptions of the material world using a variety of methodologies and approaches.

Consumingpassions: Pleasure and quality in Assyria

The first case study derives its method from a recent spate of research for the Classical world,
which has recognized a "geography of luxury" that permeated Classical descriptions of their
consumable environment (Davidson 1998; Dalby 2002). In the Roman Empire, certain geographic
locales became known for the outstanding quality of their perishable exports, which were therefore
connected with pleasure-giving sensory experiences. Like the gourmets of our day, no respectable
elite Roman could afford to leave out Persian peaches or Syrian pears from a banquet for invited
guests (Dalby 2002: 252). Simpson has shown that in the Sasanian world, Persian royalty developed
a "highly sophisticated Court cuisine where conspicuous consumption was the norm, not only of
quantity but also variety, and doubtless served with great ceremony and ostentatious use of table
wares" (2003: 351). The first piece of evidence that comes to mind when we think of how the

1 For a similar approach to Mesopotamian material culture, see Bahrani 2001: 141-79.
 FROM SENNACHERIBS BRONZES TO TAHARQAS FEET 153

Assyriansdecoratedtheir tables and what they served at their banquetsis the famous Banquet
Stele of AshurnasirpalII found at Nimrud.2The items that the king served at the dedicatory
celebrationfor his "joyful"palace,3to whichhe claimsthousandswereinvited,readslike a virtual
laundrylist of domesticand importedfoodstuffs.4At the very end of the passage(Grayson 1991:
293, 153) the text equatesthe wondrousfeast with pleasureand beneficence:"Forten days I gave
[my guests]food, I gave them drink, I had them bathed, I had them anointed.Thus did I honor
them and send them back to their lands in peace and joy (ina sul-me ut ha-de-e)." Earlierin the
BanquetStele, Ashurnasirpalmentionsfood in connectionwith his pleasuregarden,a physical
settingendowedwith pleasantsensoryexperiences:
The canal cascadesfrom above into the gardens.Fragrancepervadesthe walkways.Streamsof water
(as numerous)as the starsof heavenflow in the pleasure(si-ha-te)garden.... Pomegranateswhich are
bedeckedwith clusterslike grapevines ... in the garden... I, Ashurnasirpal,in the delightful(ri-sa-te)
gardenpick fruit(Grayson 1991:290, 50-2).
It is clearfrom the remainderof the inscriptionthat the banquetand the pleasurableconsumables
presentedat it servedin the formationof Ashurnasirpal'sroyal identity,as the meal-goerslisted,
whichincludedforeigndiplomatsand nativeAssyrians,would have directlyexperiencedthe king's
abilityto procurethe goods as well as his generosityin sharingthem.
The kings of Assyriadid not consumeperishablegoods indiscriminately, they wereat times less
gourmand and more gourmet. Royal inscriptionsand archives reveal that items which were
"good", "fine",and "firstquality"(tdbum,damqum,restum)were broughtto the Assyriantable
in orderto pleasethe royal palates.As just a few examples,fromroyal inscriptions,Ashurnasirpal
imports"fineoil" (i.GIS DUG.GA, samnutiibu)from Bit Adini in North Syria,whereasgeneric"oil"
is receivedfrom other cities (Grayson 1991: 199, i 87). Sargon II chooses "wine and honey,
productsof the gleamingsnow-cappedmountains,the best of the landwhichmy handsconquered"
(Fuchs 1994:242, 170, resetu).Babylonwas known in Sennacherib'sday for its "choicestdates"
(Frahm 1997:45, resetesu).Esarhaddonacquired"good oil, honey, red, and white wine, wine of
the shiningmountains"from variousplaces(Borger 1967:20, 9, !dbu).Thereis an abundanceof
correspondingarchivalevidencefrom Nineveh and Nimrud,includinginventoriesof foods given
to templesand diplomats,or consumedby palacepersonnel.The itemslisted rangefrom the very
ordinary,such as sheep, to the exotic, includingpomegranatesand differentaromatics(Fales and
Postgate 1992: 140-63 passim). As a specificexample, an inventoryfrom Nineveh of offerings
made to the Ashur temple refersin separatelines to wine from Izalla in Turkeyand Helbon in
Lebanon(Stronach1996:193;Fales and Postgate 1992:182).
Thereis pictorialcorroborationto these tasty pleasuresfrom reliefsthat decoratedthe walls of
Ninevite palaces. A series of large-scalereliefs from Sennacherib'sSouthwest Palace shows
Assyrianattendantscarryingitems of food, includinglocusts, live game, pomegranates,cakes,
and plants. The figuresproceedalong a sloping passage that led to the receptionrooms of the
palace from an entrance gate (Room LI north), and the images have been interpretedas a
procession of servants bringing food for a triumphalcelebratorybanquet (Russell 1991: 69;
Barnettet al. 1998/I: 123). Throughdetaileddepictionsof the variousconsumables,the images
seem to highlightboth the quantityand diversityof the goods broughtby the servants(Fig. 2).
Perhapsthe most famous banquetscene is from Ashurbanipal'sNorth Palace (often called the
Garden Scene) (Fig. 3). The king dines in his garden, which he entered "with gladness and
rejoicing"(Luckenbill1989:320; Streck1916:88, 104, ina hiddti.MESrT&dte), recliningon an ivory
bed and surroundedby the goods that pleasedhim. He listensto the songs of birdsand lyre music
while the sweet odours of cedar and grapeswaft down from featheredfans. He holds a fragrant
and amour-inducing lotus flowerin his hands.He receivesplattersof food - maybethe ubiquitous
"bude-confections" known from inventories,5and he and his wife sip sweet wine from gold or

2There is a wealth of literatureon AshurnasirpalII's 4 For a discussion of this stele in relation to the Assyrian
Banquet Stele and its inscription.For the most recent diet, see Lion and Michel 2003: 24-31.
translationand a brief discussionof previouswork, see 'E.g. Fales and Postgate 1992: 182. CDA translates budd
Grayson1991:288-93. as "cake?" (2000: 147).
3t.GAL hu-udlib-bi (Grayson1991:292, 102).
154 ALLISON KARMEL THOMASON

Fig. 2. Attendants carrying pomegranates and other food items (BM ANE 124799a/b,
Sennacherib, Sloping Passage LI, Southwest Palace, Nineveh; photograph: Barnett et al. 1998:
P1. 437; reproduced courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum).

Fig. 3. Ashurbanipal banqueting, often called the "Garden Scene" (BM ANE 124920, Room S,
North Palace, Nineveh; photograph: Reade 1978: Fig. 107; reproduced courtesy of the Trustees
of the British Museum).

silver cups.6 Finally, the head of his sworn enemy, Teumman, hangs from a nearby tree. How
vividly this scene invokes Assyrian pleasure for us. Would the scene have indicated over-indulgence
or decadence to an Assyrian? This is doubtful, but certainly the objects in it would have evoked
sensory pleasures, which were also unmistakably linked to the king's power.
The same terse adjectives or brief modifying phrases that hint at Assyrian conceptions of quality
and pleasure also described non-perishable items. A letter to Sargon II that mentions carnelian
brought from the North Syrian city of Kummuh may have referred to two different recognized

'A silver bowl with fluted design, shaped like the vessel
held by the king and queen in the relief, was found at
Nimrud by Mallowan (1966: Fig. 357, p. 429). The style of
the incised frieze along the rim of the vessels led Mallowan
to suggest that this vessel was part of Sargon's loot from
his eighth campaign to Urartu. However, I am grateful to
Professor David Stronach for pointing out to me that in
light of the objects found in the recent excavations of the
queens' tombs at Nimrud, perhaps the cups shown on the
relief were made of gold.
 FROM SENNACHERIBS BRONZESTO TAHARQAS FEET 155

grades of the precious stone, evidenced by the words "good" (SIG5-tU, damqu) and "second best"
(si-ih-li) (Lanfranchi and Parpola 1990: 200). The so-called "Gilgamesh Letter", a schoolboy
exercise written from the epic king Gilgamesh to an imaginary foreign tributary, mockingly
demands tribute in imitation of Assyrian royal demands. Gilgamesh requests "90,000 talents of
iron: pure, excellent, choice, select, scrutinized, precious ..."7 What these phrases in the Neo-
Assyrian texts reveal is a whole world of connoisseurship, and a conception of the daily pleasures
of royalty. Ultimately, through acquisition of exotic or high-quality goods, the kings of Assyria
created identities for themselves as powerful yet selective acquirers and generous providers of
pleasant sensory experiences.

Ekphrasis
If the adjectival phrases describing consumable goods are terse, the next case study demonstrates
a completely different form of discussing objects in the Assyrian royal texts. Towards the latter
part of the empire in particular, there are numerous lengthy passages in the Neo-Assyrian royal
inscriptions that describe in detail single objects. The earliest example occurs in Sargon II's "letter
to Ashur". The inventory of furnishings plundered from the temple to Haldi in Urartu8 and the
corresponding relief from Khorsabad are delectable in their detail. But the most conspicuous
example that I can identify is a tablet from Nineveh that describes an object intended for the
Temple of the New Year's Festival built by Sennacherib for the city of Ashur. Sennacherib's text
records in detail how the temple was furnished, paying close attention to its gates (using
Luckenbill's translation with some emendations by Frahm):
A gate of burnishedcopper,with an axe ... in the workmanshipof the smith-god,by my own artistic
ability,I made, and the imageof Assurwho is advancingto battle [to the midst of Tiamat]as he raises
his bow, ridingin a chariot,bringingon the storm,(and the imageof) Amurru,who rideswith him as
charioteer(holder of the reins)- these I engravedupon that gate at the commandof Shamashand
Adad, as they gave it throughthe oracle.The gods who go before him and after him, those who ride
on chariots,in their battle stations, and their helpersas they are drawn up in line before Assur;the
imageof Tiamatand herbrood,into whosemidstAssur,king of gods, is advancingto battle,I engraved
upon that gate in obedienceto the commandof Shamashand Adad. The rest of the gods who are
advancingon foot, at the commandof Shamashand Adad, I engravedthese. When Assurwas not yet
overpoweringTiamat,but facingbeasts whom Tiamatwas bringingon, how these were advancingon
foot ... I also engravedthereon.9
While Luckenbill described the text from Nineveh as a copy of a foundation inscription, Frahm
has suggested that this is a rather complex and problematic text, and its function is not easily
identifiable.'0 He argues that the tablet from Nineveh was either a traditional foundation inscription
(as Luckenbill assumed), a copy of the inscribed text that was found on the gate itself, or a copy
of epigraphs from the gate. For each of the three possible functions, its preservation at Nineveh
indicates it had been copied directly from the existing inscription, or it served as a draft for a
future inscription. Whichever scenario is correct, it is clear that Sennacherib's description of the
gate is a significant passage in the action of the text and vividly brings alive in the mind's eye of
the listener exactly what the king claims he created it is striking for its visuality." What was
the purpose of the passage, why the attention to such detail and the manner of description? What
can it tell us about conceptions of the material world in Assyria?
Borrowing another approach from the Classical world, I believe that this passage might be
classified as ekphrasis. The word in Greek means literally "to speak out". In the modern world,

7Foster1995:368. the gods and futurekings must have been principleaudi-

8The literatureon this remarkabletext is extensive.For
recent versions and discussions, see Oppenheim 1960:
133-47;Mayer 1983:65-133; and Fales 1991:129-47.
9From Nineveh, K 1356. Luckenbill1924: 140-1 and
1989: 187;Frahm 1997:222-3. The issue of the audience
for royal inscriptionssuch as this is, as Van De Mieroop
has observed,"a thorny one" (1999: 57). The fact that
thereis a copy of the text (and it is in fact the only extant
versionof the text) is significant.It musthavebeenimport-
ant enoughto warrantpreservinga copy,and its subsequent
storageoutsideAshurin the capitalat Nineveh.Certainly
ences for these texts, as they were important"targets"of
ideologicalmessages.Forrecentassessmentsof the audience
of the royalinscriptions,see: Porter1993:106-13;Tadmor
1997:325-38; and Russell 1999:77, 230.
"0Personalcommunication,RAI, July 2003.
" In the reignsof Esarhaddonand Ashurbanipal,there
areseveralsomewhatshorterdescriptionsof templefurnish-
ings that mimicSennacherib's lengthypassage,but they do
not duplicateit in eitherdetail or length.See for example,
Luckenbill1989:288, 389. For a generaldiscussionof these
passages,see also Winter1995:2571.
156 ALLISON KARMELTHOMASON

the word has come to mean a passage in literaturethat describesa work of art, or "verbal
representationof visual representation"(Heffernan 1993). Classical rhetoriciansin antiquity
applied the definitionmore broadly to any act of speech that describeda person, a place, an
event, or a time. The passageoften discussedby the Classicalrhetoricians(such as Theon in the
1st c. AD) as the primarymodel of ekphrasis was the descriptionof the Shieldof Achillesfound
in Homer'sIliad:
First [Hephaestus]beganto make a huge and massiveshield,decoratingit all over. He put a triplerim
roundits edge, brightand gleaming,and hunga silverbaldricfromit. The body of the shieldwas made
of the five layers:and on its face he elaboratedmanydesignsin the cunningof his craft(Greek,iduieisi
prapidessin,"withknowingmind, with ingenuity").(Becker 1995:96-7).
What made this descriptionekphrasis was not the fact it was verbalrepresentationof a work of
art, but the fact that it describedan event, an act of creation- the god Hephaestus'forgingof
the shield (Webb 1999: 11). What was the purposeof ekphrasisin Classicalrhetoric?According
to Ruth Webb (1999: 13), ekphrasiswas distinguishedfrom general descriptionor narration
becauseof its "qualityof vividness",calledenargeiain Greek,its impacton the mind'seye of the
listener.The purposeof ekphrasis,imbuedwith enargeia,was to make the listenerfeel as if he or
she was present at the event or standing in front of the object. This was virtual reality in its
earliest conception. The subjectmatter of the gate in Sennacherib'stext, which depicts Ashur
battlingTiamat(and his replacementof the BabylonianMarduk),playeda role in Sennacherib's
politicalrhetoric,as it symbolizedthe defeat of chaos in general,and the triumphof Assyriaover
Babyloniaunderhis rule."2Pongratz-Leisten (1994: 76) has suggestedthat the imagesrepresented
on the gate (if it existed) might have referredindexicallyor contiguouslyto ritualprocessionsof
the New Year'sFestivalperformedin the plaza in front of the temple.But equallyimportantin
the descriptionis the emphasison how it was created.The ultimatemessageis that the object
arrivedin its finishedform via the capable and powerfulhands of king Sennacherib:"I created
by my own artistic ability (ina niklat Ni-ia usepis)."'3 By making this process as visual as was
possiblethroughwords, Sennacheribbroughtthe listenerto the act of creation.
From other inscriptions,we know that Sennacheribchose to emphasizethis aspect of his
existenceperhapsmore than other kings. His buildinginscriptionsand reliefimagesof his public
worksprojectsat Ninevehand beyondcontainmore detail than his predecessors,and the phrases
"cunninglycrafted"or "with artisticworkmanship"aboundin his texts.'4Why did Sennacherib
choose to emphasizethis aspectof his personor reign?IreneWintersuggeststhatthe incorporation
of descriptionsof craftingprocessesin royal inscriptionsacknowledgedthe perfectioninherentin
not only the objectcreatedby the king, but also in the king'sabilitiesto producesuch an object
(2003: 416-17). PerhapsSennacheribalso meant to distance himself from his predecessors,to
"one-up"them in "kingsmanship"(Russell 1991:250). Or perhapshe personallyenjoyed the
work of artisans, as he claims. Ultimately, by forging copper and silver, by claiming that he
himself crafted the great structures,he was assertinghis ability to create the lived Assyrian
environment(Helms 1983).Thereis an extantexampleof anotherculticobject,in this case crafted
for the Ashur Templeby Sennacheriband relatedto the subjectof the gates, that is the basin
representingApsu, which is now in Berlin.However,we do not have any piece of the gate itself
and we can expect that few in the ancient audiencewould have seen the gate, so the object's
descriptionalone must sufficeto createit in the mind'seye. It conjuresup in our mindsits closest
extant relative,the bronze bands of ShalmaneserIII's gates from Balawator even the image of
a palace faqade with bronze statues from the North Palace at Nineveh (Reade 1999: 56).

1It is essentiallyan epitomeof the Babyloniancreation all craftsmanship ..." These are Luckenbill's phrases as
epic, Enuma Eli! (see Frahm1997:223 and literaturecited). well. Winterhas cautionedthat the term "artistic"should
} Thisis Luckenbill's translation.Pongratz-Leistentrans- not be used in translationof the Akkadiannakalubecause
lates: "nach eigener Idee herstellen/by my own idea I made" the Mesopotamiansdid not have a separatecategoryof
(1994: 209). Pongratz-Leisten's translation,however,does materialculturecalled "art"(1995). She suggestedother
not accountfor the creativeand aestheticqualityinferred English words such as "masterful"or "skillful"should
by the word nikiltu("ingenuity"or "skill" accordingto replace "artistic"in translationsof the Akkadianterm.
CDA: 253). Later, Winterused the Englishwords "masterful,artful,
"See for example,Luckenbill1989: 176 for a lengthy and ingenious"in placeof AkkadiannakIli.(2003:406).
passageon Sennacherib,"firstamong the princes,wise in
 FROM SENNACHERIB S BRONZES TO TAHARQA S FEET 157

I Ni

i's
3p;mo

Fig. 4. Statues of Taharqa found in the entrance to the arsenal of Nebi Yunus (Nineveh;
photograph: after al-Asil 1955: 130).

Sennacherib's description could have conjured up in the mind of the ancient audience member
any of the scores of bronze gates that must have adorned the palaces and temples of Assyria. The
passage, therefore, is not mere aside but is inherently central to the purpose of the royal inscriptions
since it underscored Sennacherib's alchemical creational abilities. Borrowing some phraseology
from Webb (1999: 14), the ekphratic passage "intensified" the building account, bringing the
audience "imaginatively and emotionally" into the act of creation by "calling up the mental
images already stocked in the store-house of memory." As a conception of an object in Assyria,
it performed dynamically in the construction of royal identity.

Egyptomania
Related to the subject of entrances to buildings, the final case study that allows insight into
conceptions of the material world at Nineveh and in Assyria concerns the statues of the 25th
Dynasty Egyptian king Taharqa excavated at the entrance to the arsenal on Nebi Yunus. I have
argued elsewhere15 that Egypt was a site of fascination to the Neo-Assyrian kings, and that its
material culture was collected throughout the period. According to their royal inscriptions, the
kings requested many Egyptian objects as diplomatic gifts or tribute. For example, in a text from
Ashur, Sargon II claims to have received from Egypt, which is described as "a remote region",
"twelve great Egyptian horses their like not to be found in the land of Assyria" (Tadmor 1958:
78; Onasch 1994: 7). Esarhaddon's royal inscriptions recount his defeat of Taharqa and his plunder
of Memphis. The king's army took back to Nineveh a multitude of Egyptian things, including
Taharqa's queen, sons, and daughters, physicians and omen-priests, as well as "twenty great

5 In a paper entitled "Egyptomania in Assyria" presented at the Annual Meetings of the American Schools of Oriental
Research, Broomfield, CO, November, 2001.
158 ALLISON KARMEL THOMASON

Fig. 5. Assyrianrenderingof Phoeniciancarpet (BM ANE 118910,Ashurbanipal,North

Palace, Nineveh;photograph:Reade 1979:Fig. 27; reproducedcourtesyof the Trusteesof
the BritishMuseum).

golden helmets, a golden cobra and snakes" and "cunningly constructed (naklif) vessels of silver,
gold, bronze, ivory and ebony" (Luckenbill 1989: 227; Onasch 1994: 24-6). In Sennacherib's
inscriptions the word niakli?was reserved for his own metal creations, yet in Esarhaddon's, the
compliment was extended to objects created by other cultures.
This interest in describing objects collected from Egypt continued into the reign of Esarhaddon's
son Ashurbanipal. According to his prisms, Ashurbanipal's troops brought back to Nineveh "all
the choice goods" of Taharqa's palace at Thebes, including fine linen and great horses. Later, the
defeated Egyptian princes were forced to send tribute, including "55 royal statues" (Onasch 1994:
94-5). The prize in Ashurbanipal's collection of Egyptian plunder must have been the two tall,
sliratC.MES) made out of electrum that were taken
shining obelisks (literally "tall pillars", tidmimite-
from the temple towers of Tantamanni, Taharqa's successor (Streck 1916: 16,41; Onasch 1994: 123).
While these obelisks have not been discovered at Nineveh, fragments of three statues of Taharqa
were excavated at Nineveh and his scarab was found at Nimrud (Herrmann 1992: No. 178)
(Fig. 4). The statues, whose bases are inscribed with Taharqa's name, were placed prominently in
the entrance gates to the arsenal on Nebi Yunus (Winckler 1976: 24-5; al-Asil 1954; Russell 1998:
241). Other Egyptian artifacts that have been found in Assyria include: a small bronze and gold
statuette of the Egyptian goddess Anukhet, again from the arsenal on Nebi Yunus (al-Asil 1955:
129); a bronze lion weight in Istanbul inscribed by Esarhaddon with the phrase "booty of Egypt
and Kush" (Luckenbill 1989: 285; Borger 1967: 70; Porter 1993: 197); and chance finds of late
Egyptian scarabs and amulets from mostly disturbed contexts throughout Assyria.'6
This relatively short list indicates that there is a lack of Egyptian artifacts preserved at Nineveh,
where one would expect a number of them after the Egyptian campaigns of the later Neo-Assyrian
kings. However, this relative scarcity is perhaps a result of the final fate of the city. During the
sack of 612 BC at the end of the empire, the Egyptian objects, which must have been of gold and

" For examples, see King 1914: 107-9 and Pedersen and Troy 1993: 39.
 FROM SENNACHERIB'S BRONZES TO TAHARQA'S FEET 159

Fig. 6. Relief showing"socialperspective"(BM ANE 124946,Ashurbanipal,North Palace,

Nineveh;photograph:Reade1979:Fig. 102;reproducedcourtesyof the Trusteesof the British
Museum).

other precious metals, would have been looted and melted down. Thus while archaeology can
contribute to the idea that the Assyrians were Egyptophiles, textual evidence attests to numerous
specific artifacts plundered from Memphis and Thebes.
There is also evidence that the Assyrian royal court was receptive to aspects of Egyptian visual
culture and incorporated them into their native art. In fact, the Neo-Assyrian kings seemed to
have preferred to decorate their palaces with Egyptianizing images found in Phoenician art, as
seen in the hundreds of ivory, bronze and other objects excavated, for example, from Nimrud.
The slightest hint of anything Egyptian was perhaps behind the acquisition of the objects.
Conversely, the Assyrian desire for things Egyptian may have created a "tourist market" in which
the Phoenician artisans produced for a specific Egyptophile Assyrian royal audience. The use and
relevance of the furnishings in different artistic styles, especially the ivory objects found at Nimrud,
has been a subject of recent debate. Georgina Herrmann has argued that the ivories carved in
foreign styles from Fort Shalmaneser at Nimrud were never actually "used" by the Assyrian kings,
but rather they were stored away.'7 Instead, she suggests that the Assyrians chose to adorn their
palaces with furniture decorated in the native tradition, as many Assyrian-style ivories were found
in the "reception suite"?(rooms S3-5 ) of Fort Shalmaneser and in the Northwest Palace. I contend
that the stratigraphic situation of the Nimrud royal structures makes it impossible for us to
determine when the ivories were used throughout three centuries of Assyrian occupation of the
site. We can only know that in 612 BC the ivories were left or scattered in particular rooms. I
would also suggest that the ivory objects carved in foreign styles from Nimrud might have been
"used", both in a utilitarian sense as items of furniture or as containers, and in the political sense,
as symbolically important items of booty or tribute. Wicke has argued that the images on at least

17 Herrmannand Millard2003: 392. She argues for a "relativeAssyrian indifferenceto ivory" in the first millenniumBC (399).
160 ALLISON KARMEL THOMASON

(K: 4~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~4

~~~~~~~5i~~~~~~~~~~~V
j, ,--

' ~~~- -X IN~~ ~ '' ~

Fig. 7. Reliefshowingstackingof booty (BM ANE 124954,Ashurbanipal,SouthwestPalace,
Nineveh;photograph:Reade 1979:Fig. 65; reproducedcourtesyof the Trusteesof the British
Museum).

one ivory, a cosmetic palette from Well AJ of the Northwest Palace carved in the North Syrian
style, had an apotropaic and cosmological function (Wicke 2002). Finally, I have argued that at
least the North Syrian style ivories were "used" in a metonymic sense, symbolizing the captured
lands of their origins, which were beneficially brought into the Assyrian fold."8
The issue of whether Egyptianizing ivory objects in the Phoenician style were appreciated by
the Assyrians clearly requires further consideration. However, it is possible to suggest that some
elements of the Egyptian art style were admired by and consequently influenced Assyrian artisans
working on the reliefs in the heartland.19Several well-known threshold reliefs, which depict carpets
with alternating open and closed lotus-bud borders, have been found in Assyria (Fig. 5). Eric
Gubel has argued that these reliefs represent Assyrian renderings of Phoenician carpets woven
with Egyptianizing motifs (2000: 202). Julian Reade has suggested that in the later reigns, the
kings were often depicted as taller than their fellow Assyrians in a form of "social perspective"
borrowed from the Egyptians ( 1979: 343) (Fig. 6). In another artistic paraphrase, items of booty
taken from foes in the reign of Ashurbanipal were stacked in a manner similar to Egyptian scenes
in order to show the accurate number and type of objects collected (Fig. 7).
Clearly, the collecting of Egyptian objects and the interpretation of Egyptian motifs in Assyria
demonstrated that the kings were capable of bringing Egypt into the Assyrian fold. Long a
formidable political and cultural centre, Egypt also might have represented a sort of "high culture",
8 See my doctoral dissertation: '"Capturing the Exotic: to have come into direct contact with Egyptian art. They
Royal Ivory Collecting and the Neo-Assyrian Imagining of could have seen Egyptian motifs either during their sack of
North Syria", Columbia University, 1999. Thebes, or by witnessing the Ramessid rock relief carved in
'9The mechanisms of this transmission are unclear, but Lebanon at Nahr el-Kelb, next to which Esarhaddon sited
as Marian Feldman has recently argued in a paper in the his own royal image.
present volume, there was ample opportunity for Assyrians
 FROM SENNACHERIBS BRONZESTO TAHARQA'SFEET 161

which commandedrespect and perhapseven inspiredemulation, as Marian Feldman has sug-

gested.20Ultimately,the incorporationof Egyptianicainto the Assyrianheartlanddemonstrated
that the kings had a dualisticvision of the distant realmof Egypt, as they presentedthemselves
simultaneouslyas its conquerorsbut also as receptiveto its art.

Conclusion
These three case studies have attemptedto understandconceptionsof the materialworld in
Assyria from a Mesopotamianperspective.Consumablesfrom near and far contributedto the
sensoryexperienceof royaltyin Assyriaand throughanalysisof brief phrasesthat describethem
we can attempt to understandwhat goods signifiedquality and brought pleasureto the kings.
Sennacherib'sdetailedaccount of one object in particular,the gates to the Templeof the New
Year'sFeast at Ashur,a potentialcase of ekphrasispreservedin a remarkabletext from Nineveh,
lends insight into how metaphorsfor crafting in his inscriptionsformulatedhis specific royal
identity.And referencesin inscriptionsand images as well as archaeologicallyattestedEgyptian
objectsdemonstratethe value that certaintypes of exotica held at Nineveh and in Assyria.The
objectsdiscussedin all the case studiesactivelyservedin royal assertionsof powerand legitimacy
by demonstratingthat the kings were discerningacquirersand skillfulcreators.The case studies
paint the picturefor us of an Assyriawhose capitalcities wereindeedfilledwith luxuriousobjects,
but those objectswere not wantonlywastedor decadentlydiscarded.Rather,they were carefully
chosen, vigorouslydepicted,and ideologicallyimportantin the ancientworld of Mesopotamia.

Bibliography
al-Asil, N. 1954. News and Correspondence (with I. E. S. Edwards). Sumer 10: 110-11
al-Asil, N. 1955. News and Correspondence. Sumer 11: 129-32.
Appadurai, A., ed. 1986. The Social Life of Things: Commoditiesin CulturalPerspective. London: Cambridge
University.
Bahrani, Z. 2001. Womenof Babylon: Gender and Representation in Mesopotamia. London: Routledge.
Bahrani, Z. 2003. The Graven Image: Representation in Babylonia and Assyria. Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania Press.
Barnett, R., E. Bleibtreu and G. Turner. 1998. Sculpturesfrom the Southwest Palace of Sennacheribat Nineveh
(2 vols.). London: British Museum Press.
Baudrillard, J. 1984. The System of Collecting. Trans. R. Cardinal. In The Cultures of Collecting, pp. 7-24.
Edited by J. Elsner and R. Cardinal. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Becker, A. 1995. The Shield of Achilles and the Poetics of Ekphrasis. London: Rowman and Littlefield.
CDA. 2000. A Concise Dictionary of Akkadian, 2nd printing. Edited by J. Black, A. George and J. N.
Postgate. Wiesbaden: Harrasowitz Verlag.
Csikszentmihalyi, M. and E. Rochberg-Halton. 1981. The Meaning of Things: Domestic Symbols and the Self.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Dalby, A. 2002. Empire of Pleasures: Luxury and Indulgence in the Roman World. London: Routledge.
Davidson, J. N. 1998. Courtesans and Fishcakes: the Consuming Passions of Classical Athens. London:
St. Martin's.
Fales, F. M. 1991. Narrative and Ideological Variations in the Account of Sargon's Eighth Campaign. In
Ah, Assyria! ... Studies in Assyrian History and Ancient Near Eastern Historiography Presented to
Hayim Tadmor,pp. 129-47. Edited by M. Cogan and I. Eph'al. Jerusalem: Hebrew University Press.
Fales, F. M. and J. N. Postgate. 1992. Imperial Administrative Records, Part I: Palace and Temple
Administration.SAA VII. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press.
Foster, B. 1995. From Distant Days: Myths, Tales and Poetry of Ancient Mesopotamia. Bethesda, MD:
CDL Press.
Frahm, E. 1997. Einleitung in die Sanherib-Inschriften. AfO Beiheft 26. Vienna: Institut fur Orientalisk,
Universitat Wien.
Fuchs, A. 1994. Die Inschriften Sargons II. aus Khorsabad. G6ttingen: Cuvillier.
Gubel, E. 2000. Multicultural and Multimedial Aspects of Early Phoenician art. In Images as Media: Sources
for the Cultural History of the Near East and the Eastern Mediterranean (1st millennium B.C.E.),
pp. 185-213. Edited by C. Uehlinger. OBO 175. Fribourg: Fribourg University Press.
Heffernan, J. 1993. Museum of Words: The Poetics of Ekphrasisfrom Homer to Ashby. Chicago: University
of Chicago Press.
Helms, M. 1983. Craft and the Kingly Ideal: Art, Tradeand Power. Austin: University of Texas Press.

20 In the present volume.

162 ALLISON KARMELTHOMASON

Herrmann, G. 1992. Ivoriesfrom Nimrud V. The Small Collectionsfrom Fort Shalmaneser. London: British
School of Archaeologyin Iraq.
Herrmann,G. and A. Millard.2003. Who Used Ivoriesin the First MillenniumBC? In CultureThrough
Objects: Ancient Near Eastern Studies in Honour of P. R. S. Moorey. Edited by T. Potts, M. Roaf
and D. Stein, pp. 377-99. Oxford:GriffithInstitute.
King, L. W. 1914.Some New Examplesof EgyptianInfluenceat Nineveh.JEA 1: 107-9.
Lanfranchi, G. and S. Parpola. 1990. The Correspondenceof Sargon II, Part II: Letters from the Northern
and NortheasternProvinces.SAA V. Helsinki:Universityof HelsinkiPress.
ancien,
Lion, B., and C. Michel.2003. Un banqueta la cour assyrienne.Banquetset fetes au Proche-Orient
Dossiers d'arche/ologie280: 24-31.
OIP 2. Chicago:Universityof ChicagoPress.
Luckenbill,D. D. 1924. TheAnnalsof Sennacherib.
Luckenbill,D. D. 1989.AncientRecordsof Assyriaand Babylonia(2 vols.), reprint.London:Historiesand
Mysteriesof Man Ltd.
Mayer,W. 1983.SargonsFeldzuggegen Urartu- 714 v. Chr.Text und Ubersetzung.MDOG 115:65-133.
Miller, D. 1987. Material Culture and Mass Consumption.Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Onasch, H. 1994. Die assyrischen EroberungenAegyptens. AAT 27/1. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
Oppenheim,A. L. 1960.Sargon'sLetterto Ashur.JNES 19: 133-47.
Pedersen,0. and R. Troy. 1993.Egyptiansin Nineveh.NABU 2: 39.
Pongratz-Leisten, B. 1994. Ina iulmiIrub: Die Kulttopographischeund ideologische Programmatikder akTtu-
Prozession in Babylonien und Assyrien im 1. Jahrtausend v. Chr. Baghdader Forschungen, Bd. 16.
Mainz:Philippvon Zabern.
Porter, B. N. 1993. Images, Power, and Politics. Figurative Aspects of Esarhaddon's Babylonian Policy.
Philadelphia:AmericanPhilosophicalSociety.
Porterfield, T. 1998. The Allure of Empire: Art in the Service of French Imperialism, 1798-1836. Princeton,
NJ: PrincetonUniversityPress.
Reade, J. 1979. Ideology and Propagandain AssyrianArt. In Powerand Propaganda:A Symposiumon
AncientEmpires.Mesopotamia7, pp. 329-43. Editedby M. T. Larsen.Copenhagen:Akademisk
Forlag.
Reade, J. 1999. AssyrianSculpture.London and Cambridge,MA: Trusteesof the British Museumand
HarvardUniversityPress.
Riggins, S. H., ed. 1994. The Socialness of Things:Essays on the Socio-Semiotics of Objects.Berlin: De Gruyter.
Russell, J. M. 1991. Sennacherib'sPalace Without Rival at Nineveh. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Russell,J. M. 1998. TheFinalSack of Nineveh.New Haven,CT: Yale UniversityPress.
Russell, J. M. 1999. The Writing on the Wall: Studies in the Architectural Context of Late Assyrian Palace
Inscriptions.WinonaLake, IN: Eisenbrauns.
Said, E. 1978. Orientalism.New York:RandomHouse.
Simpson, S. 2003. From Mesopotamiato Merv: ReconstructingPatternsof Consumptionin Sasanian
Households. In Culture Through Objects: Ancient Near Eastern Studies in Honour of P. R. S.
Moorey.Editedby T. Potts, M. Roaf and D. Stein,pp. 347-76. Oxford:GriffithInstitute.
Streck, M. 1916. Assurbanipal und die letzten assyrischen Konige bis zum Untergang Niniveh's. Leipzig:
J. C. Hinrichs.
Stronach,D. 1996. The Imageryof the Wine Bowl: Wine in Assyriain the EarlyFirst MillenniumBC. In
The Origins and Ancient History of Wine, pp. 175-95. Edited by P. McGovern, S. Fleming, and
S. Katz. Philadelphiaand Amsterdam:Gordonand Breach.
Tadmor, H. 1997. Propaganda,Literature,Historiography:Crackingthe Code of the Assyrian Royal
Inscriptions. In Assyria 1995: Proceedings of the j0th Anniversary Symposium of the Neo-Assyrian
Text CorpusProject,pp. 325-38. Edited by S. Parpolaand R. M. Whiting.Helsinki:The Neo-
AssyrianText CorpusProject.
Tadmor, H. 1958. The Campaignsof Sargon II of Assur: A Chronological-HistoricalStudy. JCS 12:
22-40, 77-100.
Van De Mieroop, M. 1999. Cuneiform Texts and the Writingof History. London: Routledge.
Webb,R. 1999.EkphrasisAncientand Modern:The Inventionof a Genre. WordandImage15, No. 1:7-18.
Wicke, D. 2002. Die elfenbeinerneKosmetikpaletteIM 79501: Zwischen Kosmologie und Ornament.
Baghdader Mitteilungen 33: 231-71.
Winckler,E. 1976.Notes. AfO 17:24-5.
Winter,I. J. 1995. Aestheticsin Ancient MesopotamianArt. In Civilizationsof the AncientNear East IV,
pp. 2569-80. Editedby J. Sasson. New York:Scribner's.
Winter,I. J. 2003. Masteryof Materialsand the Valueof SkilledProductionin AncientSumer.In Culture
Through Objects: Ancient Near Eastern Studies Presented to P. R. S. Moorey, pp. 403-21. Edited
by T. Potts, M. Roaf and D. Stein. Oxford:GriffithInstitute.