Page 271 - The Art & Architecture of the Ancient Orient_Neat

NOTES
Egypt, where scarabs of the Middle Kingdom show
splendid spiral designs which were ultimately 4. Frankfort, Cylinder Seals, plate iii(a).
derived from Crete. 5. Andrac, Coloured Ceramics from Assur, plate 8.
p. 61 46. Room 46, and Court 31; Syria, xvm (1937), 6. Frankfort, Cylinder Seals, 20S ff., 275-S.
A
326. 7. Andrac, Das wicdercrstchcndc Assur, plate 51 a.
;'
47. Op.cit., 328 ff. The analogies with Tell Asn lar 8. Andrac, Coloured Cc ram ics from Assur, plates
and Khorsabad prove that this was the king’s 6-8.
throne room, and that the base was not intended to 9- The glazed orthostats and brick panels were
carry a god’s statue, as Parrot thinks (Syria, xvm also found here.
(T937)i 7°)- Moreover, the room lacks the seclusion 10. In a forthcoming book Dr Helene J. Kantor
of a sanctuary, and the base has two sets of steps present a thorough study of the history of plant
leading up to it at either end, an arrangement ornaments in the Ancient Near East.
common to Assyrian (and Egyptian) throne bases, n. See Annual of the British School of Archaeology
but not known in temples. The symmetrical at Athens, xxxvu (i93^~7)» 106-22.
arrangement of the steps served not only the pur­ 12. Sidney Smith, Early History of Assyria, 123. p (
pose of mounting the dais, but also the grouping of 13. E. Porada, The Collection of the Pierpent
dignitaries in a seemly manner around the throne
Morgan Library (Corpus of Ancient Near Eastern
during audiences and other functions. The fact that Seals in North American Collections, vol. 1), no.
the statue of plate 62 was found here is irrelevant; 956.
the palace was sacked and its contents scattered
14. The Ziggurat at Khorsabad, with its winding p.
through the ruins. The statue represents, moreover, ramp, cannot be considered typical, since it stood
a minor goddess.
i within the precincts of the palace (Figure 32).
48. There arc a few exceptions: the seal of 15. Syria, xx (1937), plate i. F*“
Uishuilia of Eshnunna shows the theme of the stele of
16. It is of secondary importance diat the outer
Naramsin (Frankfort, Lloyd, and Jacobsen, The entrance on the west is not in the central axis ot
Gimilsin Temple and the Palace of the Rulers at Tell
court and cclla. The shifting of entrance out of the
Asmar (Chicago, 1940), 215, figure 100).
central axis served as a safety measure in many
buildings of this and other periods; it presented an
CHAPTER 5 obstacle to surprise attacks which otherwise might
penetrate to the heart of a building in the rush of the
p. 62 1. Sidney Smith, Alalakh and Chronology, 21-5.
first onslaught.
p. 63 2. Iraq, Supplement, 1944; Supplement, 1945;
17. The evidence comes from the Assur temple ot
and vm, 1946, 73-93.
3. See above pace 21 the city of Assur which was built by Shamsi-Adad I,
„ o . / & \ . . the contemporary of Hammurabi (sec W. Andrac,
4. Syria, xx 1939), plate 1. unedererstehende Assur, 85, figure 4r), where the
5. rster vorl. Bericht ... Uruk-Warka (Abh. foundations of the two entrances and the stairs
Preuss. Akad. dcr Wiss. (1929), Phil.-Hist. Kl. no. leading to them arc preserved.
7, 30-8. ^ interesting feature of the Temple of Assur
6. But Kurigalzu’s temple at Ur conforms, but at Kar Tukulti-Ninurta is the great hall to which the
p. 64
for one detail, the placing of the door of the cclla, northern entrance gives access. It has niches at
to the plan usual in southern Mesopotamia since the either end. Subsidiary deities were worshipped
Third Dynasty of Ur. See p. 53, and n. 19 (p. 241). here, and it is possible that the great Marduk of
7. W. J. Hinke, A new Boundary Stone of Nebu- Babylon was one of them. Tukulti-Ninurta I con-
chadnczzar J (Philadelphia, 1907). quered Babylon and demolished its fortifications m
the course of a conflict with its Kassitc ruler. This
meant that Marduk had withdrawn his protection
CHAPTER 6 from the city. His statue was taken to Assyria,
which could be supposed to profit from such power
1. This is called the Old Assyrian Period, in
P- 65 but it was placed in the temple ot
contrast with the phase now under discussion, the as was ]cft to it;
Middle Assyrian Period. the state-god Assur. Aini-Aitait Tempel F-'*
2. See above. 19. See W. Andrac, Dcr
7 Sidney Smith, Early History of Assyria (Lon- (W.V.D.O.G. No. 10). The reconstruction pu
don, 192&), 122 ff, lished in that volume has since been discarded by
p. 66
243