Page 71 - The Art & Architecture of the Ancient Orient_Neat

PART ONE: MESOPOTAMIA
deep, for the Sumerian and Akkadian tongues arc not even distantly related. The first is
agglutinative, the latter inflectional, and vehicles of thought so utterly diverse in struc­
ture point to an equally profound contrast in mentality.5 When, therefore, Akkadians
adopted Sumerian civilization, they were bound to make a change even where they
merely wished to copy. And sometimes they made an intentional change; for instance,
they used the Sumerian script for writing the Akkadian language. It is significant that
this was done not only in official inscriptions but also in business documents, indicating
I
that the new dynasty represented a numerous and important section of the populace. It
is also significant that contemporary texts never treat Sargon’s rule as a foreign domina­
tion. His accession marked a shift in the relative importance of two elements of the
settled population of the land. There was no break in continuity. Sargon’s rise to power
conformed with an established pattern. In the past, too, usurpers or energetic local rulers
had sometimes dominated large parts of the country. But Sargon’s unification proved
more permanent precisely because the established political structure of Sumer had no
traditional compelling force for the Akkadians. These latter did not necessarily think of
dominion in terms of the city-state. Among other Semitic-speaking people - the He­
brews, Aramaeans, and Arabs - the bond of blood, of family, clan, or tribe, has always
been stronger than all others. The Akkadians may well have held a conception of mon­
archy in which loyalty to the ruler, as tribal chief, replaced the purely local, civic loyal­
ties of the Sumerian cities, and the extent and structure of any political unit coincided
with the area held by the tribe.
Sargon and his successors took measures which pointedly disregarded the local units
and aimed at strengthening the bonds between the king and his followers; personal
loyalty rather than local patriotism was now to sustain the State. Under Sargon’s grand­
son, Naramsin, governors of cities styled themselves ‘slaves of the king*, who himself
assumed a title - King of the Four Quarters (of the Universe) - which proclaimed him
the potential ruler of the whole earth.
It is precisely this new conception of kingship which is expressed in the works which
we shall now describe (Plates 42-4). They possess a secular grandeur without precedent
in Mesopotamia. The bronze head, miraculously preserved in a rubbish-heap at Nine­
veh,6 is three-quarters life size. The hair is bound in the manner ofEannatum (Plate 34)
and the fashion goes back to Protoliteratc times (Figure 7A), a clear instance of the sur­
vival of Sumerian tradition. It is plaited, wound round the head, and gathered in a chig­
non at the back, while a gold diadem supports the plait. The fine but elaborate treatment
of hair and beard makes a splendid setting for the smooth face and noble mouth. The
eyes were inlaid with costly stones which have been gouged out. The tip of the nose was
flattened by a fall.
Even the most realistic works of Early Dynastic times (Plates 21-5) seem but tentative
approaches to the rendering of physical substance which has been triumphantly achieved
in this bronze head. Notice, in profile, how the eye is set in its socket; the shaping of the
upper lip; the nostril and the temple; the surety of touch; the infinite play of surface. It
is true that the bronze head and the small Early Dynastic works in stone are not strictly
comparable. But an Akkadian stone head from Bismaya (Plate 41) differs from the earlier
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