The Neo-Assyrian Court and Army: Evidence from the Sculptures

Abstract

The Late Assyrian sculptures are somewhat difficult to use as a historical source. They are widely scattered, with the compositions split up, and modern studies have been mainly concerned with artistic developments or the material culture of the Assyrians. Those who are reasonably familiar with the subject-matter, moreover, are inclined to forget that what may seem self-evident to them is not necessarily so to others, and have tended to concentrate on the elucidation of specific points rather than on more general studies. The one major exception is the work of Billerbeck and Delitzsch on Shalmaneser's Balawat gates, and there are articles on the army by J. Hunger, and on large-scale figures by L. Heuzey, which remain of fundamental value, but it may be worth seeing what can be learnt from a new approach. In this article, therefore, which is written for the benefit of non-specialists and necessarily incorporates much that is already known, I have attempted to isolate the principal categories of Assyrian shown in the sculptures and other official monuments. One should not press evidence of this nature too far, as the sculptures like the annals are propaganda and represent only what the rulers of Assyria wished us to remember; the subject-matter is also affected by stylistic considerations. There is nonetheless, at all times, a mass of information which must bear some positive relationship to the truth.