by
Damien F. Mackey
Ashurnasirpal introduced to Assyria a new style of art
and warfare,
which appears to have been greatly influenced by the Syro-Hittites.
The above relief fragment from the palace of Ashurnasirpal (so-called II) at Nimrud (Calah), is apparently of a type not previously known in
Assyria: https://www.louvre.fr/en/oeuvre-notices/king-ashurnasirpal-ii-883-859-bc-attended-his-shield-bearer
“This
relief from the palace of Nimrud in Assyria is an orthostat, a stone slab which
covered the lower part of a wall of unbaked brick. Though the use of such slabs
is known from 2nd-millennium BC Northern Syria and neo-Hittite Turkey (early
1st millennium BC), it was in the reign of Ashurnasirpal II in the 9th century
BC that this type of architectural decoration was adopted in Assyria”. ….
Ground Warfare: An
International Encyclopedia, Volume 1 (edited
by Stanley Sandler, p. 67) informs us similarly: “Ashurnasirpal’s palace at Kalhu [Calah] exhibits
finished relief sculptures that are influenced by Neo-Hittite and Phoenician
artistic forms”.
More detailed about the Hittite influence upon Assyria at this time is Dr
Andrew Jamieson: https://museumsvictoria.com.au/audio/the-wonders-of-ancient-mesopotamia-lecture-series/edge-of-empire-archaeology-on-the-assyrian-frontier/
Edge of Empire: Archaeology on the Assyrian Frontier
Lecture transcript
…. What the BM [British Museum] excavations uncovered
were the substantial remains including the town defenses, the temples, palaces,
and numerous basalt statues and reliefs with Hittite inscriptions. The chariot
slabs found by Woolley and Lawrence at Carchemish provide a good comparison
with the Assyrian representations for they have very many elements in common.
However, there are also some important differences. In
the Hittite reliefs, there is no integration of the slabs to build a narrative
like that that develops in the Neo Assyrian palace reliefs. This is a key
point, that those reliefs in the exhibition next door figure prominently a
narrative. Have you seen the animations? You can follow the story even if you
can't read the cuneiform inscription. But, in these Hittite examples, that storytelling
is not developed to such an extent.
The fact that Carchemish might have provided the stimulus
for Neo Assyrian artistic activity is not surprising. As I've said, the wealth,
the location, the power of this Neo Hittite state. Now whilst the mechanisms of
transmission in the Carchemish iconography and compositions are complex to
reconstruct, the origins of the physical form are more readily identifiable. Of
course at Carchemish we find, like at Tell Ahmar lions and lion reliefs.
Initially, the Neo Hittite city of Carchemish, was a
dependency of the Hittite kingdom and its culture derived from the Anatolian
central Hittite capital Hattusa. The examples from Carchemish reflect
influences from the traditional Hittite capital there in central Anatolia. In
fact, the lion sculptures represent the clearest link between the Hittite and
the Cyro‑Anatolian examples.
The lion sculptures of Carchemish with their rounded
massive ears, gaping jaws, hanging tongues, and wrinkled noses are faithful
copies of the lion gates at Hattusa. They show the same iconographic and
stylistic details as the carvings from the Assyrian capital. The tradition of
monumental stone sculpture and relief associated with the Neo Assyrian palaces
therefore appears to have originated from a tradition associated with the
Hittite empire on the Anatolian plateau.
The lion gate at Hattusa is certainly the ultimate model
for the monumental guardian figures at the entrances to the Assyrian royal
buildings and the relief slabs decorating their walls. Those Assyrian lamassu
that we associate so strongly, so immediately with Assyria where an idea that
originated from outside. The intermediary between them seems to have been the
reliefs and the figures associated with those states such as Carchemish and
Tell Ahmar.
It's clear that the Neo Assyrian kings were very
consciously incorporating into their own building projects elements which
evoked architectural forms from the west, from the frontier, from Syria and
southeast Anatolia. To conclude, it's often assumed that a political and
administrative center will also be the center of artistic influence and
production, and thus the source of all stimuli where the similarities occur in
the art of its neighbors. The upper Euphrates of north Syria and southeast
Anatolia contributes much to the artistic life of Assyria in a complex process
of mutual interaction.
It is never a question of imposition, in either
direction, Assyria retains its own identity and the development of historical
narrative in relief, as I've mentioned for example, was very much an Assyrian
innovation. But, based on the archaeological evidence it emerges that the
Assyrians drew heavily, heavily from the west, from the frontier. In the course
of this process the Assyrians selected elements or forms from their western
neighbors, states which at the time had already forged their own language of
public display.
[End of quote]
“Those Assyrian lamassu
that we associate so strongly, so immediately with Assyria where an idea that
originated from outside”. I
have previously suggested that their (lamassu)
origins would have been with the Hebrew cherubs. And similarly we read in the
following article, “… these various popular depictions probably came from dim recollections of
the cherubim God had placed at the entrance to the Garden of Eden to guard the
way to the tree of life (Genesis 3:24Genesis 3:24)—angelic creatures …”.
Some contend that the Hebrew krub or
a related Near Eastern term is the origin of the similar sounding Greek
gryps, whence derives the term gryphon or griffin —an
eagle-headed lion. It’s been pointed out that “the human-bodied Hittite griffin
… unlike other griffins, appear[s] almost always not as a fierce bird of prey,
but seated in calm dignity, like an irresistible guardian of holy things”
(Wikipedia, “Cherub”).
The NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible
notes parallels between the biblical cherubim and “the gigantic composite
creatures well known in Assyrian and Babylonian iconographic and glyptic art.
These hybrid creatures protected the
entrance into temples or palaces. The colossal Assyrian composite creatures
unearthed during archaeological excavations provide a fitting example. They
have been excavated at the site of ancient Nimrud, where they guarded the doorways
to the palace of Ashurbanipal II (883-859 BC).
One of these is a winged bull with a human
head; another has the body of a lion” (note on Ezekiel 1:5Ezekiel 1:5).
The same study Bible noted on the cherubim
atop the Ark of the Covenant in Exodus 25: “These sculpted creatures are most
likely winged sphinxes known from a number of other sites throughout the
ancient Near East … Such composite creatures have been found in temples and
shrines and are often arranged as if guarding the entrance. Their purpose seems
to have been protective—to prevent, perhaps only symbolically, unauthorized
individuals from entering space where they were not allowed.
“In the Exodus tabernacle, the creatures
seem to function as protectors of Yahweh’s presence. They are the last barrier
between any possible human entrant and the divine presence. It is not out in
front of them but ‘between’ them, says Yahweh, that ‘I will meet with you and
give you all my commands for the Israelites’ (Exodus 25:22Exodus 25:22). It is therefore also significant that winged composite creatures are
found flanking the thrones of kings in the ancient world” (note on Exodus 25:18Exodus 25:18).
As to actual appearance, it’s further
pointed out that “Ezekiel consistently repeats the expression ‘looked like’
(e.g., vv. 4,5,10,22,26,27), indicating his unwillingness to commit himself to
the substantial identity of the seen with the compared. It looked ‘like’ fire,
living creatures, a human being, but these buffer terms indicate that this is
only a ‘vision.’
This is the sort of language regularly used
in reports of dreams and visions” (note on Ezekiel 1:5Ezekiel 1:5).
How do we account for such remarkable
similarities between these mythological creatures from throughout the ancient
Near East and the biblical cherubim? A simple answer is that these various
popular depictions probably came from dim recollections of the cherubim God had
placed at the entrance to the Garden of Eden to guard the way to the tree of
life (Genesis 3:24Genesis 3:24)—angelic creatures that may have been visible to human beings until the
Garden of Eden was later destroyed in the Flood of Noah’s day.
[End of quotes]
Regarding Hittite cavalry tactics influencing Assyrian warfare, I
wrote in my recent article:
Pharaoh Amenhotep III a Solomon like ruler of Egypt. Part
Two: His scarabs found in Ashurnasirpal’s city of Calah
Some Related
Technological and Art Anomalies
Though a
neo-Assyrian king as to dating (C9th BC), there are strong indications that Ashurnasirpal
II was also in fact closely contemporaneous with the early 19th dynasty (c. 1300
BC, conventional dating) and the latter’s Hittite opponents - and by no means, therefore,
was he separated from these by the approximately four centuries that are usually
estimated. Similarities between C9th BC Assyrian art and that of the early Ramessides
(and contemporaneous Hittites) is of course just what one should expect in terms
of this revision. They are reflected in both warfare - particularly in cavalry
tactics
and horsemanship -
and in art. (For more on this, see Chapter 10, p. 250).
….
Here is what Sweeney has noted in regard to the
similarities between Ashurnasirpal’s cavalry tactics and that of the Hittite
opponents of pharaoh Seti I (c. 1294-1279 BC, conventional dates):[1]
“Hittite cavalry are shown in action against Seti I,
and their deployment etc. displays striking parallels with that of the cavalry
belonging to Ashurnasirpal II”. Thus for example the Assyrian horsemen, he
says, “ride bareback, obtaining a firm grip by means of pressing the raised
knees against the horse’s flanks - exactly the method of riding employed by the
Hittites portrayed on the monuments of Seti I and Ramses II”. Again, both the
early neo-Assyrian cavalry and those of the Hittites against whom Seti I
battled, employed the bow as their only weapon. “Even more importantly, they
are used in an identical way tactically: they are invariably used in conjunction
with the chariotry”.
[End of quote]
Even the Assyrian Annals may have been something of an imitation of Hittite ones:
https://uu.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:911519/FULLTEXT01.pdf (P. 8, n. 11): “… the emergence of Assyrian annals can
be linked to the (earlier) development of Egyptian annalistic texts, although a
Hittite influence is more often presumed here (e.g. Goetze 1957). Shared features
are narration in first person of military deeds, chronologically arranged.”
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