Page 107 - The Art & Architecture of the Ancient Orient_Neat

PART one: MESOPOTAMIA

Heie the populace gathered on important occasions; from here religious processions and
military expeditions set forth. Here the people could find a last refuge if the town should
be invaded. The broad ramp leading from the square to the palace enabled war-chariots
to reach the city’s fortifications and to proceed over it to any point where
an enemy
might succeed in scaling them.
The palace (Figure 30)5 resembles in general plan those of other kings which arc only
partially known. The triple entrance, at the top of the ramp, was again guarded by
demons and genii and led into a large court (xv), each side of which measured 300 feet.
On the right were offices and service quarters, on the left three large and three smaller
temples, planned on the same lines, but on a smaller scale than the Nabu temple, which
we shall presently discuss. Behind this great court, but accessible through a single pas­
sage only (vii) , were the king’s residential apartments. The state rooms were beyond it,
grouped round a small square court (vi) with the great Throne Room on the right
(vii). Foreign embassies and other groups or individuals received in audience would
approach through the large court (vni) and pass between the demonic guardians
(Figure 31) into the royal presence. The walls surrounding the court were revetted with
stone orthostats showing the king and his courtiers over life size (Plate 96). It is clear that
they achieved an impression which was thoroughly calculated. The Assyrian kings had
aimed for generations at striking terror into neighbouring people, or subjects inclined
to rebellion, by a ruthless cruelty which, they hoped, would ultimately establish peace.
It was in keeping with their policy that petitioners, ambassadors, or vassals, awaiting
an audience, should end their passage through a splendid structure before these long
rows of images. By their size, their impassivity, their exclusive orientation towards the
sovereign, the reliefs could not fail to make the visitor aware of the king’s immense
power and his own impotence. Once admitted through one of the three doors, die
petitioner stood in the brilliantly painted hall (Plate 95; Figure 37), with the throne
before a huge monolithic orthostat built into the narrow wall on the left. The throne
base was likewise of stone, carved with a relief showing Sargon standing in his war
chariot above the bodies of the slain while soldiers pile up pyramids of heads before him.

Since the ritual duties of the king of Assyria exceeded those of any of his predeces­
sors,6 and his function as mediator between society and the gods was most exacting, it
was convenient (if nothing else) that temples should form part of the palace complex.
The Ziggurat which stood behind these shrines may have served all six of them; there is
no reason for us to connect it with one rather than another. It showed, when discovere
rnn vears ago, a character entirely different from that of the temple towers of southern
Mesopotamia. There were actually three stages, and part of the fourth was preserved
/p. re 32). Each t*iem was eigkteen ket ancl decorated with recesses, eac wa
ainted a different colour: the lowest white, the next black, the third red, an tie our 1

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