A Decorated Bronze Belt from Gargul, Iran

Iran Journal of the British Institute of Persian Studies

ISSN: 0578-6967 (Print) 2396-9202 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rirn20

Megan Cifarelli, Kazem Mollazadeh & Ali Binandeh

To cite this article: Megan Cifarelli, Kazem Mollazadeh & Ali Binandeh (2018): A Decorated Bronze Belt from Gargul, Iran, Iran, DOI: 10.1080/05786967.2018.1505441 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/05786967.2018.1505441

Published online: 02 Aug 2018.

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A Decorated Bronze Belt from Gargul, Iran Megan Cifarelli a, Kazem Mollazadehb and Ali Binandehb aDepartment of Art History, Manhattanville College, Purchase, NY, USA; bDepartment of Archaeology, Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamedan, Iran

ABSTRACT KEYWORDS During the early first millennium BC, the southern Lake Urmia basin in northwestern Iran was in the Northwestern Iran; bronze throes of political, military and cultural upheaval. Its material culture, as exemplified by the finds at belt; Gargul; Iran; Hasanlu; Hasanlu, Marlik and in Luristan, suggests the elite in the area were consumers of fine, locally iconography produced metalwork. This paper discusses the discovery of an artifact that expands our understanding of the material culture of northwestern Iran during the ninth century BC: a decorated bronze belt found at Gargul, Iran. The chance discovery of this belt, which is closely related to a type known only from the most elite contexts at Hasanlu, Iran, provides a hint of the richness and complexity of the entire region. This belt demonstrates that Hasanlu was not the only regional polity wealthy and powerful enough to employ skilled artisans for the creation of sophisticated luxury goods. While the craftsmanship of this belt does not match that of exemplars from Hasanlu, it clearly evidences similarly advanced metallurgical skills, awareness of a range of contemporary and ancient iconographic traditions from the highest reaches of power in Assyria to local sites like Hasanlu, and the means and desire to combine them to aggrandise the bodies and identities of the local elite.

Introduction Sheet Metal Belts During the early first millennium BC, the southern Lake Decorated sheet metal belts made of bronze (copper alloy) Urmia basin was in the throes of political, military and are an artifact class that played a small but important role cultural upheaval. As exemplified by the finds at in elite metalworking and consumption traditions in this Hasanlu, the elite in the area were consumers of fine, region. Metal belts appear to have originated as early as locally produced metalwork.1 Outstanding craftsman- the fourteenth century in the southern Caucasus. In the ship in metal is also well documented in the archaeology Late Bronze Age their use spreads to the Talesh, a region of the broader region through excavations at Marlik and along the Caspian Sea with close cultural links to the in Luristan.2 Contemporary Assyrian royal inscriptions, southern Caucasus. By the early Iron Age, belts are however, mention the metalwork of this part of Iran found in northern Iran, and to a much lesser extent only once. An epigraph accompanying a relief on the Assyria.4 This type of object would become strongly ident- Black Obelisk from Nimrud, made during the reign of ified with the state artistic production of the kingdom of Shalmaneser III (858–824 BC), records bronze vessels Urartu in the eighth and seventh centuries BC.5 West amongst the tribute of the king of Gilzanu of Urartu in central Anatolia, Phrygian tombs yielded (A.O.102.87), a region that has been identified as encom- metal belts of various types, and examples and imitations passing parts of the southern Lake Urmia basin.3 of Phrygian metal belts are found in Greek sanctuaries.6

CONTACT Megan Cifarelli [email protected] 1See for example Dyson, “Problems of Protohistoric Iran”; Winter, A Decorated Breastplate from Hasanlu; Muscarella, Bronze and Iron; de Schauensee, “Northwes- tern Iran as a Bronzeworking Centre.” 2Negahban, Marlik. The Complete Excavation Report; Schmidt, van Loon, and Curvers, The Holmes Expedition to Luristan. 3See Reade, “Hasanlu, Gilzanu, and Related Considerations,” for the identiﬁcation of the Assyrian toponym “Gilzanu” with the region in the southern Lake Urmia basin. While this association has been generally accepted, the locations of Assyrian toponyms such as Hubuskia are far less secure, see Radner, “Between a Rock and a Hard Place,” especially footnote 1. 4Moorey and Ryder, “Some Ancient Metal Belts”; Rubinson, “Urartian (?) Belts and Their Antecedants”; Castelluccia, Transcaucasian Bronze Belts. While images on Assyrian reliefs from the ninth-eighth century BC are cited as evidence for the Assyrian use of armored metal belts, e.g. Calmeyer, “Gürtel”; Moorey and Ryder, “Some Ancient Metal Belts,” 85, the only examples of belts found at an Assyrian site were two metal strips excavated by Layard in Room AB of the Northwest Palace in Nimrud, see Layard, Nineveh and Babylon, 59; Curtis, An Examination of Late Assyrian Metalwork, 199, pl. XCIV. 5Moorey and Ryder, “Some Ancient Metal Belts”; Seidl, “Urartu as a Bronzeworking Centre”; Kellner, Gürtelbleche aus Urartu; Zimansky, “Urartian Material Culture as State Assemblage”; Curtis, “Urartian Bronze Belts”; Seidl, Bronzekunst Urartus. 6Vassileva, “The Belt of the Goddess”; Vassileva, “First Millennium BC Ritual Bronze Belts”; Vassileva, “Early Bronze Fibulae and Belts from the Gordion Citadel Mound”. © 2018 British Institute of Persian Studies 2 M. CIFARELLI ET AL.

Relatively few belts have been discovered through docu- The Gargul belt consists of nine fragments of bronze mented excavations in northern Iran.7 Fragments of 15 sheet (Figure 3). Reconstructed, its fragments add up to a metal belts were discovered in burials at Marlik, length of ca. 95 cm, much longer than the belts found at accompanied by extraordinarily wealthy grave goods.8 At Hasanlu and Marlik, the average length of which are ca. Hasanlu excavators discovered approximately 94 belts or 60 and ca. 50 cm, respectively.14 Its body is 9.5 cm wide, belt fragments, three of which were found in elite, mili- and it has a 15 cm diameter medallion “buckle” which is tarised, male burials termed “Warrior Graves.”9 It is evi- a decorative element rather than a fastening device. A dent at Hasanlu that imported belts from the southern tapered terminal emerges from the medallion and ends Caucasus region spurred the development of belts pro- in a hook. Between the hook at the very end and the duced in local styles during Period IVb (1050–800 BC) at tapered terminal is a slightly thicker section that appears the site, including studded belts that imitate South Cauca- to be cast. This element cradles the narrow end of the sian style belts in the local decorative vernacular, and elabo- tapered section in much the same manner that a crescent rately embossed and chased examples (Figure 1).10 Beyond shaped sword guard holds a blade. The sheet of metal Hasanlu and Marlik, a single gold belt was excavated by the that constitutes the body of this belt is quite smooth Japanese mission to Dailaman,11 and finally, an undeco- and uniform with no obvious seams. Its decoration rated metal strip was found at the waist of an individual includes both embossed figures and chased details. buried in Tomb A6 of the so-called “Zagros Graveyard” Small perforations around the edges of the belt and in Kurdistan, dated to the seventh century BC.12 medallion likely functioned to attach the metal sheet to a leather substrate. The opposite end of the strip is finished in a rounded shape. The last 10 cm section of The Gargul Belt the belt at this end is undecorated, perhaps providing space for a fastener of some type, although there are To this corpus of belts in northern Iran we add the no evident perforations for attachment. The salient fea- recent, accidental discovery of a unique and nearly intact tures of this belt–a long strip with embossed and chased belt, found in fragments in 2009 at the village of Gargul decoration, a medallion with a diameter at least 1.5 times in the Lajan district of Piranshahr, in the Western Azer- the width of the belt, a tapering terminal ending in a baijan province of Iran (Figures 2 and 3). This site lies hook–are shared by three of the belts found in elite con- approximately 39 km from Hasanlu in the mountainous texts in Level IVb at Hasanlu.15 margins of the Solduz plain, a region where other tombs have been discovered recently.13 A local farmer digging in an area that had previously been looted came upon The Decoration of the Gargul Belt the belt along with some beads in what appears to have been a grave, and brought the belt to local heritage The majority of the surface of the Gargul Belt displays officials. It was subsequently given to the Urmia embossed and incised decoration (Figures 3–6). The Museum. This paper discusses the iconography of the cast “guard” between the hook and tapered terminal is belt and its relationship to Assyrian imagery and to the marked with fluid rows of deep linear grooves. The artistic production of its much nearer neighbour, tapered terminal that emerges from this element is cov- Hasanlu, as well as its significance for the material ered by a reticulated pattern of scales with incised double culture of the region. outlines and tiny circles within (Figure 4). This pattern

7Castelluccia, Transcaucasian Bronze Belts,10–12. 8Negahban, Marlik. The Complete Excavation Report,19–25. 9Rubinson, “Urartian (?) Belts and Their Antecedants”; Danti and Cifarelli, “Iron II Warrior Burials at Hasanlu, Iran”; Cifarelli, “Masculinities and Militarization at Hasanlu, Iran”; Cifarelli, Castelluccia, and Dan, “Copper Alloy Belts from Hasanlu.” Most of the metalwork from Hasanlu remains unpublished, aside from a few targeted studies of particular artifact types or materials, see e.g. Pigott, The Question of the Presence of Iron; Winter, A Decorated Breastplate; Muscarella, Bronze and Iron; de Schauensee, Northwest Iran as a bronzeworking centre; Pigott, The Emergence of Iron at Hasanlu; Thornton and Pigott, Blade-Type Weap- onry of Hasanlu; Fleming, Nash, and Swann, “The Archaeometallurgy of Period IVB Bronzes at Hasanlu”; de Schauensee, Furniture Remains and Furniture Ornaments. 10Cifarelli, Castelluccia, and Dan, “Copper Alloy Belts from Hasanlu.” 11Egami, Fukai, and Masuda, Dailaman I, pl. 32, no. 2; pl. 75, n. 36; Castelluccia, Transcaucasian Bronze Belts, 11. 12Amelirad, Overlaet, and Haerinck, “An Iron Age Zagros Graveyard,” Pl. 2. 13Khanmohammady, “An Iron Age Tomb in Bayazid Abad.” 14Rubinson, Urartian (?) Belts and their Antecedants; Castelluccia , Transcaucasian Bronze Belts,10–12. The original length of the Gargul belt is diﬃcult to estimate due to its fragmentary nature and does not include the terminal hook. 15Winter, A Decorated Breastplate; de Schauensee, Northwest Iran as a bronzeworking centre; Danti and Cifarelli, Iron II Warrior Burials at Hasanlu, Iran; Cifarelli, Castelluccia, and Dan, “Copper Alloy Belts from Hasanlu.” HAS58-450 (University Museum 59-4-113) and HAS58-244 (University Museum 59-4-158) were found in the destruction of the elite residence BBIW, and HAS64-288 (UM65-31-726) was in the wealthiest burial excavated at the site, Warrior Burial SK493a. The decoration of the Hasanlu examples, particularly the medallions, is distinct from the Gargul example. Each of the Hasanlu medallions features a high relief scene of protome-headed lions paired with other animals, crafted in a style that is characteristic of the ﬁnest artistic production of Hasanlu (and Marlik). IRAN 3

Figure 1. Metal Belts from Hasanlu, Iran. HAS59-262 (MMA60.20.21a-d); HAS59-232 (Tehran Museum); HAS64-288 (UM65-31-726) Cour- tesy of the Penn Museum. resembles the enduring ancient Near Eastern visual con- Eastern glyptic as far back as the fourth millennium vention for depicting mountains, well known in Near BC.16 Perhaps more importantly, this pattern appears

16Mountainous landscapes indicated by a scaled pattern occur in proto-Elamite glyptic of the fourth millennium BC, see Amiet, La glyptique Mésopotamienne archaïque, nos. 457 and 537, as well as in Mesopotamian during the third millennium, see the Early Dynastic wall plaque depicting Ninhursag found at Tello (Louvre AO 276) and numerous Akkadian cylinder seals, e.g. Collon, First Impressions, nos. 103, 105. Examples of second millennium depictions of mountains are gathered in Stein, “Winged Disks and Sacred Trees at Nuzi.” 4 M. CIFARELLI ET AL.

larger and more robust than the figure on the right, and wears more elaborately decorated clothing. The “sacred tree” between the figures has a tall, narrow trunk, six fronds arranged symmetrically at its top with a possible seventh frond at the centre, and is surrounded by ribbons of water and clusters of fruit in much the same fashion as the sacred trees surmounted by winged disks that appear in the Neo-Assyrian royal imagery of the ninth century BC (Figure 8(a,b)).19 Of course, the iconography of the sacred tree and its attend- ants juxtaposed with a winged disk is not original to the Neo-Assyrian visual repertoire. It is present in Middle Assyrian glyptic and can be traced to late court imagery at Nuzi, where it carries the inflection of the highland culture of the Hurrians.20 The juxtaposition of figures Figure 2. Map of the region. (often winged or otherwise supernatural), sacred trees and winged disks is known as well from slightly later Urartian art, although Urartian “sacred trees” are gener- 17 on seal impressions from Hasanlu, and is nearly iden- ally more stylised and less tree-like than this example,21 tical to a design element appearing on the Hasanlu Gold and the winged disks above them are more rarely Bowl (Figure 7). According to Edith Porada, the scales on peopled.22 This imagery appears in the more immediate the Gold Bowl indicate the rocky cavern in the moun- neighbourhood of Gargul at Hasanlu, where a cylinder tains from which Ullikummi, the stone monster, seal and a seal impression found in Period IVb contexts 18 emerges. feature two versions of mythological figures flanking the The terminal connects seamlessly to the medallion, sacred tree and winged disk. One features kneeling which, positioned in the centre of the wearer’s body, is bearded genies and the other scorpion-tailed, human the most visually prominent section of the belt when headed genies.23 worn. Its imagery is therefore of paramount importance The overall composition of this scene on the Gargul to the iconography of the belt decoration. Concentric Belt, and particular aspects such as the forked ribbons embossed lines divide the medallion into two circular (rays? blessings?) that issue forth from the winged disk visual fields–a double line surrounds the circumference deity, closely resemble mid-late ninth-century BC Assyr- of the medallion and a single line separates the central ian cylinder seals, at least one of which belonged to an circular field from the outer ring of imagery (Figure 4). official (Figure 8(b)).24 In imagery from Assyria itself, The central scene depicts two human figures flanking a however, the flanking figures are generally either “sacred tree” motif, which is surmounted by a right- crowned kings or supernatural figures (apkallu, winged facing, diminutive figure within a winged disk. The genies, etc.). When bareheaded human males approach human figures appear to be male. They appear without the sacred tree, they are usually accompanied by attend- headdresses and are wearing shin length, wrapped gar- ants.25 While the scene on the Gargul Belt medallion ments with fringed borders. Their right hands are raised does not precisely reproduce the Assyrian seal iconogra- in greeting, and with their left hands they touch or hold phy, the seals can perhaps provide a terminus post quem streamers that are emitting from the winged disk and in the late ninth century BC for the Gargul belt. which terminate in two-forked lightning bolts. The The outer ring of the medallion features scenes of left-hand figure is perhaps bearded, appears to be slightly humans and animals in opposition (Figures 3(A) and 4).

17Marcus, Emblems of Identity and Prestige, 127–8, no. 81, Fig. 103, Pl. 25. 18Porada, “Notes on the Gold Bowl and Silver Beaker from Hasanlu.” 19For more comprehensive treatments and bibliographies of the “Assyrian Sacred Tree” (AST) as an iconographic motif, see Albenda, “Assyrian Sacred Trees in the Brooklyn Museum”; Porter, Trees, Kings and Politics; Giovino, The Assyrian Sacred Tree; and Karlsson, Relations of Power in Early Neo-Assyrian State Ideology,64–72, particularly fn. 65. 20Stein, “Winged Disks and Sacred Trees at Nuzi,” 574–7. 21Çevik, “On Urartian Priests,” 237. 22E.g. van Loon, Urartian Art, Pl. VIIb. 23Marcus, Emblems of Identity and Prestige, no. 62, 81. These are the seal HAS62-1022 (Tehran Museum) and the sealing HAS64-324 (Tehran Museum). Both were found in Room 5 of the temple BBII on Hasanlu’s citadel, fallen from the second story. 24Collon, First Impressions, no. 341. 25Ibid., nos. 340, 345. IRAN 5

Figure 3. Drawing: The Gargul Belt, P. Ghadernejad with additions by C. Coss, Courtesy of the Urmia Museum.

Figure 4. Photograph: Detail of the Gargul Belt, Courtesy of the Urmia Museum. Figure 5. Photograph: Detail of the Gargul Belt, Courtesy of the Urmia Museum. At the bottom of the field, two human figures in knielauf position brandish spears and hold rounded, lunate genies attending a sacred tree (Figure 9).27 The human shields (slightly more than semicircular) in outstretched figures in the outer ring of the Gargul Belt medallion arms. A lion and a large horned goat confront the human may serve as guardians of the sacred tree ritual taking figures, and the rest of the field is filled with additional place in the centre, set in the mountainous environment goats, winged goats and lions, two of which face each suggested by the decoration on the terminal. other at the top. While it is possible to read this scene The horizontal body of the belt is bordered at the top independently of the central field, there is a lengthy ico- and bottom with an incised guilloche pattern (Figures 3 nographic tradition in both Mitanni and Middle Assyr- (A–E), 5, 6). The use of the guilloche as a decorative ian glyptic of scenes in which hunters and apparently element is widespread throughout the ancient Near lions are depicted protecting the sacred tree from aggres- East, and this example resembles most closely the style sive goats, often in mountainous landscapes.26 A similar of the borders of the elegantly decorated vessels in pre- tension between the threats to the sacred tree and its pro- cious metals from Marlik, the Gold Bowl from Hasanlu, tection is evident as well in the visual culture of Hasanlu, four belts found in the Period IVb levels at Hasanlu, and where fragments of a low relief Egyptian blue vessel a fragment of what appears to have been a belt found on depict juxtaposed scenes of rampant goats leaping on a the surface at Ziwiye in 1960 by members of the Hasanlu sacred tree growing on a mountain, and bird-headed expedition.28 Directly within the guilloche borders is a

26Stein, “Winged Disks and Sacred Trees at Nuzi,” suggests that these “sacred trees” may in fact be cannabis, a plant she argues played a critical role in religious rituals that produced enlightenment, depicted as the winged sun disk. Protecting the “tree” from consumption by the goats, who are emboldened by eating the foliage, would therefore be a sacred responsibility. 27Several fragments of this vessel (or vessels) were discovered in 1960 (HAS60-269 location unknown) and 1964 (HAS64-611 and 832 in the Tehran Museum) in the destruction of a second-ﬂoor storeroom (Room 7a) in the temple BBII. In addition, the Hasanlu Project purchased a joining fragment at nearby Naqadeh in 1968, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MMA 69.66). 28Negahban, Marlik. The Complete Excavation Report, pl. XI–XIII, Porada, “Notes on the Gold Bowl and Silver Beaker from Hasanlu”; Winter, “The Hasanlu Gold Bowl”; Cifarelli, Castelluccia, and Dan, “Copper Alloy Belts from Hasanlu”; Dyson, “Archaeological Scrap,” 36 (Ziwiye). Regarding the extensive corpus of metalwork that has been, over the years, attributed to Ziwiye as a ﬁnd spot, as Oscar Muscarella, “Ziwiye,” has pointed out, there is no evidence than any of these 6 M. CIFARELLI ET AL.

Figure 6. Photograph: Detail of the Gargul Belt, Courtesy of the Urmia Museum.

Figure 8. a. Relief from the Palace of Ashurnasirpal II, Rm. B, panel 23, (BM 124531), © Trustees of the British Museum, b. Carnelian Seal of Mushezib-Ninurta from Tarbisu (Sherif Khan), (BM 89135) © Trustees of the British Museum.

Figure 7. Detail, the Hasanlu Gold Bowl, HA58-469 (Tehran Museum) Courtesy of the Penn Museum. pointed cap and brandishing a spear (?) or arrow at the tail of the bull. A second, similarly sized and capped human figure walks behind him carrying a spear or secondary bordering motif consisting of lightly and irre- arrow with its point up. The rectangular object project- gularly incised alternating triangles. The pendant tri- ing upward from the shoulder of the second figure is angles are plain, the complementary triangles are each likely meant to represent a quiver.30 filled with three large embossed dots. A line of very The narrow horizontal registers display scenes of small punched dots separates the border from the pictor- hunting and animal contests. The upper register shows ial field. a total of seven human figures, and the lower register The decoration on the horizontal body of the belt is eight (Figure 3(B,C,D)).31 These figures face forward divided vertically into two main visual fields. The first and backward, and all but the three at the right-most of these is immediately adjacent to the medallion, end of each register engage animals. At this right end about 25 cm in length, and its larger scale figures of each register, three small human figures carrying encompass the full height of the belt (Figure 3(B)). The spears, shields, a bow and arrow and unidentified objects second field is divided by a guilloche band into two approach from the left (Figure 3(B)). Behind this group narrow, horizontal registers, with commensurately smal- are figures facing the opposite direction, raising their ler figures in each (Figures 3(C,D), 5 and 6). The larger shields as if to ward off approaching lions (Figures 3(C, scale scene adjoining to the medallion features an animal D), 5, and 6). Behind these lions are aggressive human contest with a lion rearing up on its hind legs to attack a figures with raised shields and arms held up to throw humped bull with its head lowered (Figure 3(B)). A large spears. This unusual composition suggests that the bird, perhaps an eagle or vulture, lands on the bull’s figures behind the lions are driving them toward the 29 back. Behind the bull is a human figure wearing a tall other humans, as is the case in the lion-hunting images

objects was ever excavated at that site, and in fact when aggregated there are far too many such objects to have emerged from the bronze container described in the earlier reports. 29Birds of many types appear on South Caucasian belts, and in at least one case a bird is shown on the back of a larger animal, see Castelluccia, Transcaucasian Bronze Belts, no. 266. 30As is the case in ivories from Hasanlu, see Muscarella, The Catalogue of Ivories from Hasanlu, Iran,28–9, no. 53. 31The belt is somewhat fragmentary, and it is possible that not all the figures have been preserved. IRAN 7 from the Throne Room of the Northwest Palace of Despite its iconographic complexity, the overall quality Ashurnasirpal II (879–853 BC). The use of shields and of craftsmanship of the Gargul Belt is somewhat crude rela- spears in addition to bows and arrows in a non-royal tive to similar objects from Hasanlu. If we compare, for hunting scene is somewhat unusual, as these are weapons example, the execution of the human and animal figures that are more closely associated with warfare. Prey ani- on the Gargul Belt to those appearing on a group of bronze mals depicted in these registers include lions, humped plaques with scenes of archers and heraldic lions found at bulls (?), goats and winged goats. While the animals Hasanlu (Figure 11),36 the Gargul figures appear cursorily are primarily engaged with the human figures, in one drawn, poorly proportioned and clumsily positioned. Simi- instance a lion is shown attacking a goat, and in another larly, the incised depictions of animals on a belt from a lion appears to pursue a goat. At the far-left end, dec- Hasanlu show gracefully executed contours with delicately oration in each register terminates in a stylised plant or incised details (Figure 1(C)), while the chased contours on bud, and the remainder of the belt is undecorated. the Gargul Belt are thicker and less fluid (e.g. Figure 5). In Nine of the fifteen figures hold, in outstretched arms, fact, stylistic attributes of figures depicted on the Gargul shields of the same sort depicted in the outer ring of the Belt–in particular the use of rows of thick, hatched lines medallion, some with the addition of spikes, clearly indi- to define edges and internal contours as seen in the body cated by incised lines, projecting from their convex sur- of a lion (Figure 5)–align with wood and ivory carving tra- faces. The lunate form of the shields depicted in the ditions exhibited bylocal style ivories fromHasanlu (Figure Gargul Belt is quite different from those seen in the 12),37 suggesting that the Gargul artisans may have been local artistic production at Hasanlu during Period IVb more familiar with those crafts. The herringbone pattern (1050–800 BC) and on metalwork from South Caucasia, in the wings of the winged disk above the tree in the medal- both of which depict shields as being entirely circular.32 lion of the Gargul belt, too, resembles herringbone pat- Spiked shields appear but briefly in Assyrian monumen- terned wings on Hasanlu ivories.38 It is important to tal art. They show up for the first time on palace reliefs point out, however, that at Hasanlu these chunky incisions from the reign of Ashurnasirpal II, continue in smaller are not the primary mode of surface articulation as they are scale reliefs from the reign of Shalmaneser III (Figure on the Gargul belt, but are most often accompanied by 10), and then disappear entirely from the corpus of Assyr- more complex linear treatments and patterns. ian imagery.33 This small but significant detail may con- The high quality of local artistic production at tribute to a terminus post quem for the Gargul Belt. Hasanlu is attributable in large part to a lengthy tradition This imagery of conflict among humans, wild animals at the site of collecting and preserving imported and and domestic animals–more broadly classed as cosmic locally made objects in temple treasuries and inventories. contests or ritual performances34 – continues and per- At Hasanlu, these objects provide a nearly inexhaustible haps amplifies the iconography of the medallion. As a supply of models from which artisans and elite patrons whole, the imagery on this belt seems to refer to control forged the local visual culture.39 While certain features over potential threats to the divine and human order, of the Gargul Belt–particularly the streamers emitting and protection of some iteration of a sacred-tree ritual. from the winged disk and the spiked shields– suggest This belt, then, provides one of a myriad of variants on that the artisans may have been familiar with Assyrian the ancient Near Eastern theme of the care and attention monumental and (more likely) portable art, its lack of to the sacred tree. While there are as many interpret- artistic refinement suggests less expertise and direct ations of this type of scene as there are exemplars35,it exposure to Mesopotamian models than was the case is generally agreed that this imagery pertains to the at Hasanlu. The deviations from standard Mesopota- maintenance of divine order by rulers, a subject that mian iconography on the belt – the use of shields in ani- would have been appropriate for use by the local elite mal confrontations and the non-royal figures interacting at Gargul. with the sacred tree–further demonstrate that the

32Muscarella, The Catalogue of Ivories from Hasanlu, Iran, 54, 58, 64, 70; Castelluccia, Transcaucasian Bronze Belts, 82, ﬁg. 135a, b. 33De Backer, The Neo-Assyrian Shield, 48. In addition to appearances in monumental art, a miniature gold plaque depicting a soldier holding a spiked shield was excavated in the Northwest Palace at Nimrud “under the threshold of a niche in the south wall of Passage P” (Mallowan, Nimrud and Its Remains, p. 121; Curtis, An Examination of Late Assyrian Metalwork, 199, pl. XCIII). These shields conform to De Backer’s, “Hérisson, Type B,” 47–54, which disappears from Assyrian reliefs after the reign of Shalmaneser III. 34Root, “Animals in the Art of Ancient Iran,” 172–3. 35Giovino, The Assyrian Sacred Tree. 36de Schauensee, “Furniture Remains and Furniture Ornaments,” 31–3, ﬁg. 1.18–1.19. These plaques are HAS62-1054 (UPM63-5-177) and 62-1060 (MMA 63.109.3). 37E.g. Muscarella, The Catalogue of Ivories from Hasanlu, Iran, e.g. 73, 140–1, 144, 146, 183, 156, 183. 38Particularly Muscarella, The Catalogue of Ivories from Hasanlu, Iran, 136, 140–1. 39Cifarelli, Castelluccia, and Dan, “Copper Alloy Belts from Hasanlu.” 8 M. CIFARELLI ET AL.

Figure 9. Excavation drawing, egyptian blue vessel from Hasanlu. Reconstructed from HAS60-629 (unknown); 64–611 and 832 (Tehran Musem) Courtesy of the Penn Museum. artisans of the Gargul belt were not slavishly reproducing Assyrian imagery. Rather, it would seem that, as was the case at Hasanlu, the local elite and craftspeople at Gargul drew upon the complex intercultural heritage of North- western Iran – an environment in which the material cultures of the South Caucasus, Iran and northern Meso- potamia interacted to produce a new, locally signiﬁcant, visual culture. As a local product distinct from South Figure 10. Detail, Bd. II, Bronze Gate of Shalmaneser, Balawat Caucasian, Urartian and Assyrian traditions, this belt is (BM 124659) © Trustees of the British Museum. a rare survivor of a culture (Mannean?) that is not yet well understood.

Dating Without precise contextual information, the date of the Gargul Belt can only be suggested based on stylistic and iconographic features, in light of historical information. The similarity of the forked streamers that emit from Figure 11. Drawing, Bronze Plaques, Hasanlu, HAS62-1054 – the winged disk deity on the Gargul belt and those (UPM63-5-177) and 62 1060 (MMA 63.109.3) Courtesy of the Penn Museum. found on the seal of an Assyrian oﬃcials from the mid-late ninth century BC suggest a date within that timeframe. The spiked shields carried on the Gargul belts found in the Period IVb (1050–800 BC) at belt, seen elsewhere only in the art of Ashurnasirpal Hasanlu. As that site was destroyed by Urartian forces II (883–859 BC) and Shalmanser III (858–824 BC), around 800 BC, that date provides a terminus ante occupy the same chronological window, suggesting a quem for the Hasanlu examples, which are, to our terminus post quem in the latter half of the ninth cen- knowledge, the only excavated exemplars of this belt tury BC. The construction of the sheet metal belt–with type.40 It seems likely, then, that the belt in question a tapering, hooked terminal, a circular medallion, a was produced in the last half of the ninth century horizontal body bordered by a guilloche, and perfor- BC, although the ﬁrst part of the eighth century BC ations for attachment to a substrate–clearly link it to is certainly possible.

40A belt in the collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts has a similar central medallion with a scene featuring a sacred tree attended by two winged genies, surmounted by a winged disk and surrounded by concentric rings of animals and may be related to these belts. While numerous features of this belt align with the courtly art of Urartu as well as Assyrian monumental imagery, it is unprovenanced and thus of limited utility for comparison, see Peck, “A Decorated Bronze Belt in the Detroit Institute of Arts.” IRAN 9

find, and M. Safi, who cleaned and conserved it in 2010. Thanks are due to Richard Zettler of the University of Pennsyl- vania Museum and Michael Danti, ASOR-CHI, for permission to study and publish the Hasanlu material, and to Celina Coss, for her additions to the drawing. Finally, we are grateful to Ste- phan Kroll, Karen Rubinson and John Curtis who read drafts of this paper, and offered valuable corrections and advice.

Disclosure statement No potential conﬂict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID Megan Cifarelli http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2054-5118

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