Zurich Open Repository and Archive University of Zurich Main Library Strickhofstrasse 39 CH-8057 Zurich www.zora.uzh.ch Year: 2003 Trees, Kings, and Politics: Studies in Assyrian Iconography Porter, Barbara Nevling Abstract: The essays collected in this volume (two previously unpublished) examine ways in which the kings of ancient Assyria used visual images to shape political attitudes and behavior at the royal court, in the Assyrian homeland, and in Assyria’s vast and culturally diverse empire. The essays discuss visual images commissioned by Assyrian kings between the ninth and seventh century B.C., all carved in stone and publicly displayed - some on steles erected in provincial cities or in temples, some on the massive stone slabs lining the walls of Assyrian palaces and temples, and one on top of a stone bearing an inscription granting privileges to a recently conquered state. Although the essays examine a wide assortment of images, they develop a single hypothesis: that Neo-Assyrian kings saw visual images as powerful and effective tools of public persuasion, and that Assyrian carvings were often commissioned for much the same reason that modern politicians arrange ”photo opportunities” - to shape political opinion and behavior in diverse and not always cooperative populations by means of publicly displayed, politically charged visual images. Although there is increasing agreement among Assyriologists and art historians that Assyrian royal stone carvings were created and displayed at least in part for their political impact on contemporaries, there is still considerable debate about the effectiveness of visual imagery asa political tool, about the message each particular image was designed to convey, and about the audiences these images were meant to influence. These are the problems the essays collected here confront. Fourof the essays focus on a group of enigmatic, widely varied images often lumped under the misleading rubric, ”the Assyrian sacred tree.” The essays collected here consider the Northwest Palace of Assurnasirpal II as the setting for one important group of these images; the implications of the scene in which winged figures flank the ”tree” image and touch it with bumpy oval objects; the proposal advanced by Simo Parpola that some Assyrians understood the image to represent the Assyrian king as ”perfect man”; and the function of the scene showing the ”tree” with winged figures as an Assyrian response to a haunting sense of time as destroyer. Other essays in the volume explore the political implications of the images carved on the object known as ”The Black Stone of Esarhaddon”; the potential for visual images to undermine the political agenda they were intended to support; the adaptation of similar images to carry different political messages; and the role of visual imagery in an Assyrian propaganda that presented messages of both intimidation and friendly persuasion. Posted at the Zurich Open Repository and Archive, University of Zurich ZORA URL: https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-149818 Monograph Published Version Originally published at: Porter, Barbara Nevling (2003). Trees, Kings, and Politics: Studies in Assyrian Iconography. Fribourg, Switzerland / Göttingen, Germany: Academic Press / Vandenhoeck Ruprecht. Porter Trees, Kings, and Politics ORBIS BIBLICUS ET ORIENTALIS Published by Othmar Keel and Christoph Uehlinger in collaboration with Susanne Bickel on behalf of the Department of Biblical Studies of the University of Fribourg Switzerland, the Egyptological Seminar of the University of Basel, the Institute of Ancient Near Eastern Archaeology and Languages of the University of Berne, and the Swiss Society for Ancient Near Eastern Studies TheAuthor Barbara N. Porter (1946) is an independent scholar specializing in the history and culture of ancient Assyria. She is a research associate of the Harvard Semitic Museum and is the founder and director of the Casco Bay Assyriological Institute, which holds occasional conferences on con­ troversial topics in ancient Near Eastern history and joins other organiza­ tions in projects focusing on the history, geography and culture of the ancient Near East. She received a B.A. degree in history of religion from Swarthmore College in 1968 a·nd a Ph.D. in ancient history with a con­ centration in Assyriology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1987. Her first book, Images, Power,, and Politics: Figurative Aspects of Esarhad­ don's Babylonian Policy (Philadelphia: The American Philosophical Soci­ ety, 1995) was joint winner of the Society's John Frederick Lewis Prize for 1995. After organizing a conference in 1997 on «The Many and the One, Unity and Diversity: Concepts of the Divine in Ancient Assyria, Israel, Egypt, and Greece, » Dr. Porter edited and contributed to the conference proceedings, entitled One God or Many? Concepts of Divinity in the Ancient World, Transactions of the Casco Bay Assyriological Institute 1 (Casco Bay Assyriological Institute: Chebeague Island, Maine, 2000). The author of numerous articles on Mesopotamian religion, politics, texts, and iconography, she is currently editing a collection of essays on the interactions of ritual and politics and preparing for a second confer­ ence. She and her husband, a marine designer, live on an island off the coast of Maine. Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis 197 Barbara Nevling Porter Trees, Kings, and Pol itics Studies in Assyrian lconography Academic Press Fribourg Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht Göttingen Publication subsidized by the Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences and the Fribourg University Council Camera-ready text submitted by the author © 2003 by Academic Press Fribourg / Paulusverlag Fribourg Switzerland Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht Göttingen Printed by: Paulusdruckerei Fribourg Switzerland ISBN 3-7278-1449-7 (Academic Press Fribourg) ISBN 3-525-53054-4 (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht) ISSN 1015-1850 (Orb. biblicus orient.) Digitalisat erstellt durch Florina Tischhauser, Religionswissenschaftliches Seminar, Universität Zürich A J. et P. Bottero - pour leur courage, leur intelligence, et leur humanite Contents Acknowledge1nents .................................................................................. V List of Illustrations ............ ................................. ................................... VII Abbreviations ................ ......................................................................... IX Introduction ............................................................................................ XI Assyrian Bas-reliefs at Bowdoin College .................................................. 1 Sacred Trees and Date Palms ................................................... ................ 11 The Meaning of the Assyrian Tree Image ................................................ 21 Seasonal Time and Etemity in Ancient Assyria ........................................ 31 Co11quest or Kudun·lJS? ............................................................................ 39 Image as En·or ......................................................................................... 4 7 Assyrian Propaganda for the West ........................................................... 59 Intimidation and Friendly Persuasion .... ................................................... 81 Sources of the Illustrations .......................................................................... 99 Index ..................................................................................................... 103 Acknowledgements lt is my pleasant task here to thank the many people who have helped me as I prepared these essays and wrestled to assemble them into a coherent and readable book. I am grateful, first of all, to Profs. Othmar Keel and Christoph Uehling­ er for inviting me to prepare the book for inclusion in their series Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis, and for their encouragement and advice as I threaded my way through the complexities of tuming a collection of essays into a finished book. I remain indebted to Prof. Lawrence E. Stager, Director, and Prof. Piotr Steinkeller, Curator of the Cuneiform Collections, for naming me a Re­ search Associate of the Harvard Semitic Museum, providing me with re­ search facilities and opportunities for collegial interaction that have been invaluable. I am also grateful to Dr. Joseph Greene, Assistant Director, and Dr. James Armstrong, Assistant Curator, for their unfailing help in every project I have undertaken. lt is a pleasure to thank the American Philosophical Society for their grant supporting my travel to Germany and Syria in 1997, enabling me to complete the research on which the essay on Sam'al and Til Barsip is based. I owe warm thanks to Dr. Evelyn Klengel-Brandt, then Director of the V orderasiatisches Museum, Berlin, and to her staff, for making me wel­ come there and providing every facility for my research. I am also grateful to Prof. Dr. Sultan Muhesen, then Director General of Antiquities and of Museums of the Syrian Arab Republic, to Mr. Wahid Khayata, Director of the Syrian National Museum at Aleppo, and to the staff of the museum and of the Department of Antiquities, for granting me access to the museum's collections and to the site of Til Barsip, and for their hospitality and ready help. I am especially grateful to Mr. Anwar Abdel Ghafour, photographer for the Aleppo Museum, for arranging on short notice to make the new photographic studies of the Esarhaddon TiLBarsip steles published here. I would like to offer my warmest thanks to Profs. Guy