Page 119 - The Art & Architecture of the Ancient Orient_Neat

PART one: MESOPOTAMIA
draughtsmen undertook the
expression of complicated situations without any hesitation,
When a situation can be rendered by mere juxtaposition, the result is quite unequivocal’
in plate 923 we see two scenes from the campaign of 858 b.c. The upper register shows
the Phoenician city of Tyre, securely situated on a rocky island oft'the coast, sending
tribute ashore to placate the king who was subjecting the mainland population. A text
describes this campaign as follows: ‘The upper cities of the land of Amurru and the
Western Sea I overwhelmed like mounds in die track of a storm. The tribute of the
kings of the sea coast I received. Along the coast of the wide sea I marched righteously
and in triumph.’32 In the lower strip the army leaves camp (shown empty, on the left,
with its towered wall) to capture the city ofKhazazu, an inland settlement.
Plate 92B shows only part of the scene. The porters, who are depicted in the upper
strip as wading in from the boats where they have taken their load, continue along this
band for an equal space beyond what is shown; they are headed by Assyrian officials.
Shalmaneser has descended from his chariot and awaits them under a sunshade. The gifts
consist of bronze cauldrons, trays containing other valuable objects, and bales of goods.
In the lower strip, too, the movement towards the right continues beyond the fragment
which we have illustrated. Again the king is shown dismounted, and now waits under
a portable tent to receive the captives from Kliazazu. ‘Two thousand eight hundred of
their fighting men I slew; fourteen thousand six hundred I carried away as prisoners/
Our illustration shows well how the sense of forward movement is maintained through­
out the design; the line of porters, like die rows of prisoners, falls in, as it were, with the
march of the army which appears here in the lower register. At no point does an incident
interrupt the continuity of the campaign, except once, in a most curious and original
scene (Plate 91). The subject is the discovery of the sources of the river Tigris. The text
reads: T entered the sources of the river; I offered sacrifices to the gods; my royal image
I set up,’ and on the Black Obelisk (Plate 93) the event is commemorated a little more
fully:

In the seventh year of my reign I marched against the cities of Khabini of Til-Abni. Til-Abni,
his stronghold, together with the cities round about it, I captured. I marched to the source of
the Tigris, the place where the water comes forth. I cleansed the weapon of Assur therein; I
took victims for my gods; I held a joyful feast. A mighty image of my majesty I fashioned; the
glory of Assur, my lord, my deeds of valour, all I had accomplished in the lands, I inscribed
thereon and I set it up there.
The scene on the section of the band fitting on to the left of our plate is described by
L. W. King33 as follows (it refers to the lowest strip):

f / of in fen try cavalry, and chariots advances up the left bank of the shadow stream. The

illustration takes up the tale. A ram and a bull are brought for sacn-
At this point our indicated according to an immemorial convention, namely by
fice. The mountains are
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