Page 125 - The Art & Architecture of the Ancient Orient_Neat

PART one: MESOPOTAMIA
ghost-like, m the grouping of the actual figures (Plates 104-5). We shall start, h
owever,
with a discussion of plate 103 which may count as a prelude to both.
First of all it must be noted that the use of a larger surface for the rendering of a single
episode has no decorative significance, but serves only the cause of narrative. Plate 103
merely shows the lower half of an orthostat, which exhibits in its upper half three more
registers with a separate episode. This episode, and the one illustrated, arc continued over
two more orthostats to the left, and the aspect of the wall as a whole has no aesthetic
appeal and lacks unity. It offers merely a vast number of figures bound in their horizontal
strips.44
The event which we illustrate is the capitulation of Susa, the Elamite capital. It is quite
deserted, the population has gone forth to submit to the Assyrians, who arc shown
farther to the left on this wall. In the upper left-hand corner appear the last men of a long
row kissing the eardi before die victors. But in the strip below, the main body of Elam­
ites appears in front of the chariot shown in the plate. Note that the seated charioteer,
too, makes the gesture of submission; but the groom needs his hand to hold a spirited
horse and a mule. Below women and children leave the city, preceded by a mixed band
of musicians. One or two of the women make gestures of despair, but most of them, and
all the children, clap dieir hands, indicating no doubt that they sing to the tune of the
instruments. The third inevitable element of an oriental procession of this kind is repre­
sented by the foremost harpist and by the lute-player; they are pervaded by the rhythm
of their music and fall into a dance-step. The whole scene is edged by the kind of strip
which appears in the middle of some of Sennacherib’s reliefs (Plate I02a) : it shows the
river Kerkha carrying the carcasses of horses, slain Elamites, and their equipment down­
stream.
The city is named in cuneiform characters; it is shown with its river and moat, its
citadel (on the left) and its individual houses and town-wall. Between this wall and the
river there seems to be a suburb with houses placed among palm-groves and gardens.
From a palm-grove on the river-banks the procession of non-combatants emerges, and
it is a pity that damage to the stone prevents us from seeing whether the topographical
situation was further clarified. As regards the composition, the strip containing the city
is the most important one. Beyond it, on the left, the two processions of Elamites end,
and there the Assyrian commander and his chariots form a pendant to die city in a group
occupying the whole height of the strip.
This gradation of the surface into main and subsidiary strips rendering a single episo e
is used most effectively by Assurbanipal’s designer. In plate 107 the city of Hamaan is
destroyed. Assyrian soldiers wielding picks and crowbars break down the towers. Tim­
bers and bricks fall down, and fire has been put to the main gate and other parts of the
fortifications. Another group of soldiers marches down the lull carrying a variety o
1 r • one recognizes weapons and copper cauldrons. The Assyrian bringing up t le rear
l u rnmmandSed the two Elamites to carry Iris share. The question arises here, more
— Tlv than anywhere else* whether the observation of a phenomenon of per-
insistently ^hatever degree of isolation, in the rendering of the road, or whether
Stag .ow“ as *. -faS—d- ■» * —9“ f *■ d— “

96