Women of Ivory as Embodiments of Ideal Feminine Beauty in the ancient Near East during the First Millennium BCE A dissertation presented by Amy Rebecca Gansell to The Department of History of Art and Architecture in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the subject of History of Art and Architecture Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts May 23, 2008 1 © 2008 – Amy Rebecca Gansell All rights reserved. 2 Professor Irene Winter Amy Rebecca Gansell Women of Ivory as Embodiments of Ideal Feminine Beauty in the ancient Near East during the First Millennium BCE ABSTRACT This thesis identifies and explores aspects of ideal feminine beauty embodied in first millennium BCE Levantine ivory sculptures of women. A corpus of two hundred and ten works, which were examined firsthand, is the subject of interdisciplinary analysis. In Part I, the ivory sculptures are studied through traditional visual and art historical methods. Also, in order to add precision to visual observations and to reveal information not evident through visual investigation alone, a collaborative quantitative analysis of the figures’ characteristics, attributes, and proportions is pursued. In Part II, with the aim of interpreting the meaning and cultural significance of the ivory sculptures and the ideal feminine beauty that they represented, comparative materials are introduced. Archaeological, textual, and ethnoarchaeological evidence are presented as in-roads to the ancient visual record. Comparative study illuminates cultural conceptions of beauty during the first millennium BCE and stimulates new ways of looking at and thinking about the ivories. Overall, this thesis hopes to demonstrate the significance of representations of women (and living women themselves) in the ancient Near Eastern experience. Most excavated Levantine ivory objects derive from northern Mesopotamian, Neo-Assyrian royal contexts, where they (and the women they depicted) were appreciated as attractive, 3 if not exotic. The idealized women represented in ivory would have played a unique and essential role in the visual experience of the court and are likely to have been compared to living queens. Comparative records indicate that the beauty of the ivory women may have referred to human fertility, among other positively coded traits. Mirroring the significance of the living queens, this thesis proposes that Levantine ivory sculptures of women displayed in Neo-Assyrian palaces may have contributed to an ideology of dynastic vitality and regeneration through the representation of ideal feminine beauty. 4 CONTENTS Title page i Copyright ii Abstract iii Contents v Acknowledgments vii Dedication ix List of Abbreviations x List of Figures xi Chapter 1: Introduction 1 PART I: THE IVORIES Chapter 2: The Corpus 23 Chapter 3: Visual Analysis of the Ivories 48 Chapter 4: Quantitative Analysis of the Ivories 68 Chapter 5: Other Visual Media 90 5 PART II: COMPARATIVE MATERIALS Chapter 6: Archaeological Evidence of Ideal Feminine Beauty 129 Chapter 7: Textual Evidence of Ideal Feminine Beauty 163 Chapter 8: Ethnoarchaeological Evidence of Ideal Feminine Beauty 232 Chapter 9: Conclusion 274 Bibliography 290 Appendix A: Map of the ancient Near East 337 Appendix B: Example of quantitative data collection sheet 338 Appendix C: Raw values and ratios tested 342 Appendix D: Categorical features tested 345 Illustrations 347 6 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This thesis is indebted to many people, foremost among whom is my advisor, Irene Winter. Her encouragement, humor, support, knowledge, and creativity have seen this project through from conception to end. My dissertation committee chair, David Roxburgh, offered keen insight, advice, and was especially patient and optimistic throughout the process. Jerry Cooper contributed rigorous philological guidance as well as stimulating suggestions and criticisms. I would also like to thank Hugo van der Velden, Chair of my department, for his interest in this thesis and for facilitating administrative matters. A number of other professors and scholars have contributed to various stages of this work. My understanding of the ivories was advanced through conversations with Georgina Herrmann, Dirk Wicke, Christoph Uehlinger, Eric Gubel, Annie Caubet, Claudia Suter, Marian Feldman, Elena Scigliuzzo, and Alicia Walker. Quantitative research would not have been possible without the collaboration of Tian Zheng, Irene Tamaru, Aleks Jakulin, and, especially, Chris Wiggins, whose interest, creativity, and energy underlie much of what is presented in Chapter 4. Philological guidance was contributed by Piotr Steinkeller, John Huehnergard, Peter Machinist, and Ann Weaver. Also, I offer special thanks to John Russell and Michelle Marcus, my college professors, who introduced me to the art and culture of the ancient Near East in the first place. This thesis required the support of many museums, which granted me access to their ivory collections. I am grateful to the following institutions and individuals: The Aleppo National Museum, Syria; Susan Walker at The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 7 U.K.; Andrea Wähnig at Das Badisches Landesmuseum, Karlsruhe, Germany; Phil Watson at the Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, U.K.; Christopher Walker, Jonathan Tubb, Dominque Collon, and John Curtis at The British Museum, London; Annie Caubet, Elisabeth Fontan, and Alain Duclot at The Louvre, Paris; John Prag at the Manchester Art Museum, U.K.; Joan Aruz, Kim Benzel, and Shawn Osborne at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Lawrence Berman at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Anne Taylor at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge, U.K.; Raymond D. Tindel at The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago; and Ralf-B. Wartke at Das Vorderasiatische Museum, Berlin. I am also grateful to Pamela Magrill and Oskar Kaelin for their assistance helping me navigate British museum collections and to Marwan Matermawi who helped in many kind ways to facilitate my visit to the Aleppo Museum. Field research in the Middle East also relied on the support of many individuals. I thank my translators, travel companions, hosts, and drivers: Tony and Georgette Khouri, Joseph Malki, Marwan and Hanan Materwani, Bacel Moqaw, and Ahmad Shadeh. Funding for travel expenses and support during the writing process was provided by the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture, G. Sinopoli Memorial Grant for Research in the Near East, Harvard University, the Jens Aubrey Westengard Fund, and The Whiting Foundation. 8 For Poppy Gansell, who introduced me to artifacts. 9 ABBREVIATIONS AB Art Bulletin AcSum Acta Sumerologica AfO Archiv für Orientforschung AfOB Archiv für Orientforschung Beiband AJA American Journal of Archaeology AnSt Anatolian Studies AOAT Alter Orient und Altes Testament BaghM Baghdader Mitteilungen BASOR Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research BM The British Museum CAD The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago ErIs Eretz-Israel IM Iraq National Museum JAOS Journal of the American Oriental Society JBL Journal of Biblical Literature JCS Journal of Cuneiform Studies JNES Journal of Near Eastern Studies JRGZM Jahrbuch des Römisch-Germanischen Zentralmuseums MFA Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MMA The Metropolitan Museum of Art NABU Nouvelles assyriologiques brèves et utilitaires OBO Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis OIP Oriental Institute Publications RA Révue d’assyriologie et archéologie orientale RlA Reallexikon der Assyriologie und Vorderasiatischen Archäologie SAA State Archives of Assyria SAAB State Archives of Assyria Bulletin SAAS State Archives of Assyria Studies SAOC Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization Source Source: Notes in the History of Art UF Ugarit-Forschungen VAM Das Vorderasiatische Museum WVDOG Wissenschaftliche Veröffentlichungen der Deutschen Orient- Gesellschaft ZA Zeitschrift für Assyriologie 10 LIST OF FIGURES (All unspecified dates are BCE.) 1.1) The Death of Sardanapalus; oil on canvas by Eugène Delacroix; France; 1827; h. 392 cm, l. 496 cm; Louvre, R.F. 2346 (Bohrer 2003, p. 54, fig. 7) 1.2) The Babylonian Marriage Market; oil on canvas by Edwin Long; England; 1875; h. 172.5 cm, l. 304 cm; Royal Holloway Collection, University of London, A.R.A 1876, R.A. 1881 (Bohrer 2003, p. 197, fig. 46) 1.3) The “Mona Lisa of Nimrud” on the cover of the Illustrated London News, August 16, 1952 1.4) The “Mona Lisa of Nimrud” restored; ivory; Nimrud; 9th-8th c.; h. 16 cm; Iraq, museum number not known, excavation number ND 2250 (Mallowan 1966, pl. II) 1.5) The “Ugly Sister;” ivory; Nimrud; 9th-8th c.; h. 18.8 cm; MMA 54.117.2 (Mallowan 1966, fig. 73) 2.1) Diagram of a tusk showing its capacity to yield sculptures (Caubet and Gaborit- Chopin 2004, p. 15, fig. 2) 2.2) Ivory bed or chair-back restored from individual relief panels; Nimrud; 8th c.; overall h. 60 cm, w. 76 cm; IM 62722 (Mallowan and Herrmann 1974, pl. I, fig. 1) 2.3) Large walnut chest with mother-of-pearl inlay representing cypress trees; Damascus; 19th c. CE (Kalter, “Urban Handicraft,” 1992, p. 73, fig. 130) 2.4) Stone relief portraying the transportation of ivory furniture as booty to the royal palace; Khorsabad, façade L, slabs 26-27; 721-705 BCE; h. 27.7 cm, w. 46.5 cm; sculpture now lost, original drawing in the Bibliothèque de l’Institut de France (Albenda 1986, pl. 47) 2.5) Detail of the Black Obelisk portraying the transportation of elephant tusks; Nimrud; 858-824 BCE; total h. of obelisk 197.85 cm, w. 45.08 cm; BM 118885 (Börker-Klähn 1982, no. 152B) 2.6) Mycenaean-style ivory relief portraying a bare-breasted woman; Minet el-Beida, Syria; 13th c.; h. 13.7 cm, w. 11.5 cm; Louvre, AO 11601 (Caubet and Gaborit-Chopin 2004, p. 63, fig. 67) 2.7) Ivory cosmetics dish with female heads in the round; Assur; 14th-13th c.; h. 3 cm, w. 7.6 cm; VAM, Ass 1100 (Harper et al. 1995, p. 87, fig. 49) 11 2.8) Ivory relief portraying a sphinx; Nimrud; 9th-8th c.; h. 12.4, w. 6.9; IM 65190 (Herrmann, The Small Collections, 1992, pl.