Page 195 - The Art & Architecture of the Ancient Orient_Neat

PART TWO: THE PERIPHERAL
REGIONS
ting of the Assyrian kings. They built palaces with guardian figures - lions bulls or
monsters - at the gates, and orthostats decorated with reliefs. This is true of die
Whc« Hitcice hieroglyphs - »d p,c™bly <l,c Mo-E»«,pc»£££ %£&
-'““isnot» TTi “ T ? "'dl “ ftho!C locilidc! the Aramaeaiu
It is not possible to distinguish between the art employed by the two groups nor
is there any sign of artistic activity before the ninth century, the time of Assyrian ascend­
ancy m the Levant. Tins hegemony was definitely established in the battle of Karkar
(853 b.c.), when Shalmaneser III defeated a coalition led by Adadidri (Ben-Hadad) of
Damascus and Ahab of Israel. Five years earlier the Aramaeic prince of Zin^irli, the
Hittitc prince of Hama, and several others had been subjected. Many of the princes who
offered submission were taken to Assyria and later reinstated as vassals. Meanwhile they
had come to know Assyrian ways, not only on the battlefield, but also in the royal
capital, and the emergence of north Syrian art was due to their desire to equip them­
selves — within the limits set to subject princes - with the paraphernalia of royalty. It is
significant that Kaparu of Guzana (Tell Halaf) and Kilamuva of Sam’al (Zin^irli) com­
memorated the construction of their palaces with the phrase * What my fathers did not
accom plish I did achieve’.6 Once it is realized that the whole of north Syrian art of the
first millennium b.c. represents a fresh start, made more or less simultaneously - and
with the varying resources of local talent - in a number of places, the attempts to fill the
gap between 1200 and S50 b.c. with transitional works can be abandoned. The monu­
ments never called for such attempts, which were made in accordance with a precon­
ceived idea of continuity between north Syrian and imperial Hittite art.7
It was, then, under the stimulus of Assyrian examples that north Syrian art arose, and
it flourished most in the reigns of kings who had come to terms with the Assyrians and
were allowed a limited degree of independence and most of its trappings. When, sooner
or later, such rulers aspired to effective freedom, they were destroyed, Assyrian military
governors took command, and there was no further production of north Syrian art.
The influence of Assyrian art on the Levant can be divided into two phases: a distant
influence in the ninth century, and a direct one in die eighth. About 743 b.c. Tiglath-
pilesar III began to consolidate the Assyrian dominion over Syria. He garrisoned im­
portant centres and built himself palaces, where he stayed when passing through the
region, and which at all times reminded die natives of their overlord and his power. Such
palaces have been found at Til Barsip, Arslan Tash, and Tell Tayanat. We have seen, for
instance, that the palace at Til Barsip contained painted friezes closely resembling the
sculptured dados of Khorsabad (p. 92). Thus the Syrians became not merely ac­
quainted, but familiar with Assyrian art, since it was on view in their own country.
Hence vassals like Barrekub of Zin^irli and his contemporaries at Carchemish and Sakje-
f?euzi could surround themselves with derivative splendour. The north Syrian wor s
made before and after the beginning of the reign ofTiglathpilesar III ^e qmte disnnc^
The later sculptures not only render Assyrian themes; they render them in ^ Assyrian
nner The Hons guarding the gates at the Assyrian palace of Arslan Tash« find then
ma™parts at Zin?irh and Sakjfgeuzi (Plate 155). The bull-guardians’ recuratCar-
■
Ch Ssh 10 AH these sites have orthostats decorated with rows of striding soldiers

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