Assyrian Art Research Articles

AN UNUSUAL FLOWER AMONG THE TRADITIONAL ANTHEMION IN SMINTHEION: ARUM MACULATUM

Anthemion frieze in Greek and Roman architecture consists of lotus and palmette flowers, whose origins are based on Egyptian and Assyrian art. Compared to the classical and Hellenistic architectural samples, there is much more variety in the architectural decorations of the Roman period, apart from the lotus-palmette. The reason for this diversity in decoration stems from the idea of Rome to emphasize the local and to increase the richness in decoration. During this period, the change in the arrangement of the lotus-palmette shows itself with the different arrangement and style of the lotus and palmettes on the same structure. In this thought, which aims to create richness instead of uniformity, decorations can either increase or decrease in size or be adorned in high relief or shallow, depending on where they are used. Vivid specimens that show the highest quality of workmanship and are pleasing to the eye are preferred in visible areas. Anthemion decoration has been widely used in the Hellenistic triple arrangement since the Augustus period and the Julius-Claudian period. In the Traian and Hadrian Periods, a return to the classical style of the Augustus period was made, and the triple arrangement became fashionable again. One example that adds a new type to this traditional lotus-palmette (anthemion) frieze is the Smintheion frieze block fragment. Here, the arum maculatum is placed instead of the lotus flower between the alternating open and closed palmettes seen in the most common anthemion decoration. Arum maculatum and arum species have been used in the treatment of some diseases since ancient times to find healing and continue to be used today. The fact that this plant is the most powerful and showy plant that survived around Gülpınar-Smintheion must have had a great impact on people. Arum is a plant that impresses people with its external appearance and leaves different implications with its sexual connotation. At the same time, it is different from other plants in that it contains both male and female flowers and its physical structure. Due to this structure, it attracts insects to itself and makes extraordinary fertilization. The appearance of the plant and its use in the field of health caused it to be named differently. The depiction on the frieze block in Smintheion must be related to the healing properties of Apollo

Political power and authority in the art of sculpture in the new Assyrian era (911-612 BC)

The Assyrians are considered one of the Semitic peoples who inhabited the northeastern part of Mesopotamia at the beginning of the third millennium BC. They were able to establish a sprawling empire. In building the civilization of Mesopotamia. This research came to present a picture of the aspect of the nature of the Assyrian system of government related to the supremacy of kings and their military activities through the art of sculpture, which is one of the Assyrian art that reflects the political and military conditions of the modern Assyrian empire for the period from 911 (-612 BC). The art of modern Assyrian sculpture was distinguished by the diversity of its subjects, and it represented an official imperial art, and most of its artistic scenes were devoted to dealing with the political aspect and expressing the personality of the king and his authority, displaying their military activities and depicting their victories on the fronts of fighting against their enemies. The souls of their enemies and how they deal with their opponents. Several models of various sculpted scenes dealing with themes of politics and military campaigns throughout the vast Assyrian Empire from 911-612 BC were displayed.

Серебряная протома быка из кургана № 2 группы «Караван» близ Люботина

The article studies the silver bull protome found in mound no. 2 of “Karavan” group near the town Lubotyn, Kharkiv region (Seversky Donets basin). For the first time, all protome fragments are published and their graphic reconstruction is carried out. It is proved that the item in question was part of a rhyton. Morphological analysis of the rhyton makes it possible to date it to the late 7th — early 6th centuries BC. The iconographic and stylistic analysis allows us concluding that this rhyton is one of the earliest in the series of rhyta which later became widespread in the Achaemenid Empire. It has been suggested that the place of its production was Western Iran — historical Media or Elam — where Assyrian art had a significant influence on local cultural traditions. Many considerations are expressed about the cult of the bull in the Scythian culture of the Archaic period.

ON THE HISTORY OF SCYTHIAN POLE-TOPS STUDY

Metal pole-tops of the 7th—4th centuries BC is one of the most wander materials associated with the tribes of the Eastern and Central Europe of the Scythian Age. However, opinions on their function are diverse. Now the pole-tops have a rather general name reflecting the purpose of these objects only approximately. Nevertheless, the study of these artifacts allow us to distinguish three periods: the first (1850—1940s), the second (1950—1980s) and the third (from the 1990s to the present).
 The first period (1950—1980s) begins with the excavations by I. E. Zabelin of steppe aristocratic barrows. In such barrows as Krasnokutsky, Slonovskaya Bliznitsa, Chertomlyk, a lot of Scythian pole-tops have been discovered. Thanks to localization of the finds in the burials I. E. Zabelin was able to suggest the function of these objects. He believed that the pole-tops could be the decoration of carts, nomadic tents on a chariot.
 The period is associated with the works of A. S. Lappo-Danilevsky, E. Minns, I. I. Tolstoy and N. P. Kondakov, J. Hampel, P. Reinicke, L. Marton et al. The result was summed up in the research of M. I. Rostovtsev. He supports the idea of a funerary vehicle and connects the origin of the finds with Hittite and Assyrian art, Transcaucasian tombs.
 In the second period (1950—1980s) there is a noticeable intensity of research on Scythian pole-tops, systematization of artifacts and the use of new approaches to the study. The typology proposed at this time is still used in research now. Almost all finds known at the end of the 70s were systematized in the paper by E. V. Perevodchikova. Different approaches were used in order to interpret the meaning of the pole-tops: as a part of the drawbar of a chariot (V. V. Shleev), shamanic musical instruments (K. Bakai), as the embodiment of the idea of a world tree which marks the ritual space (E. V. Perevodchikova, D. S. Raevsky). V. A. Ilyinskaya considered these artifacts to be multifunctional. The study of the chemical composition of the metal by T. B. Bartseva is important, since it demonstrates the existence of several production centers and sheds light on the origin of the finds.
 In the third period (from the 1990s to the present) the issue of the functional purpose and origin of the Scythian pole-tops was clarified. The scholars consider them the indicators, marking the arrival of Scythians in North Caucasus and North Pontic region (V. I. Klochko, V. Yu. Murzin, A. Yu. Alekseev, S. A. Skory, D. S. Grechko). T. V. Ryabkova connects the origin of the spherical pole-tops with the eastern territories considering these finds to be purely nomadic. N. L. Chlenova, M. M. Pogrebova, M. Castelluccia, R. Dan lead the line of origin of Scythian pole-tops from the rattles of Iran and Transcaucasia.
 The study of the technology of making bronze finds and their designs shows that they were cast on a lost wax model or in bivalve molds. In the interpretation of the function of Scythian pole-tops in the period of the 1990s—2010s the researchers depending on the context of discovery correlate these objects from burials with carts (Yu. V. Boltryk) or wooden poles that limited the ritual space for sacrifices (A. R. Kantorovich, V. R. Erlikh). H. Parzinger and S. Hasanov associate their use with shamanism.
 Thus, the history of the study of Scythian pole-tops made it possible to highlight topical issues. These are the origin and function, improvement of typology using new methods, clarification of chronology, correlation of the distribution of finds with key events in history in Eastern and Central Europe during the Scythian Age.

Pinecone or date palm male inflorescence – metaphorical pollination in Assyrian art

The following contribution focuses on Assyrian stone reliefs depicting winged figures holding a bucket and reaching a cone-shaped object toward a stylized tree. Ever since the discovery of the reliefs, the cone-shaped object was considered as either a conifer cone or a date palm male inflorescence used in the symbolic pollination of the stylized tree, derived from the date palm. Utilizing the visual material combined with textual evidence and based on the importance of the date palm as economic resource that gave rise to a plethora of meanings, religious, royal and popular, I shall argue that the scene refers to the artificial pollination of the tree.

Between East and West

Abstract Taking cue from Dmitry Sarabyanov’s seminal publications on the Stil Modern and turn-of-the-century Russian visual culture, the present article resituates Mikhail Vrubel’s œuvre “between East and West” by demonstrating that the artist moved beyond the narrowly circumscribed nationalist agenda typically attributed to the work he produced at the Abramtsevo and Talashkino artistic colonies. In addition to indigenous sources, Vrubel also assimilated a number of external artistic influences such as Jugendstil, medieval Gothic and Renaissance ceramics, Japanese and Chinese porcelain, and Egyptian and Assyrian art. Through a close analysis of Vrubel’s orientalist paintings, as well as his cycle of folkloric works such as Mikula Selyaninovich and the Volga (1896), I demonstrate that his aesthetic program crossed multiple boundaries: geographical, temporal, material, and institutional. Through a complex renegotiation of the global and the local, the past and the present, and the traditional and contemporary, Vrubel arrived at a strikingly modernist visual syntax, which paved the way for an entire generation of avant-garde artists such as Mikhail Larionov, Natalia Goncharova, Kazimir Malevich, Aleksandr Rodchenko, Liubov Popova, Vladimir Tatlin, and Naum Gabo, among others. Using Vrubel as a case study, this article thus proposes to rethink the opposing binary categories of avant-gardism and revivalism, historicism and innovation, Orientalism and Occidentalism, regionalism and cosmopolitanism, as they have been applied to the trajectory of modern Russian art—a set of ostensibly fixed dichotomies that Dmitry Sarabyanov had repeatedly and successfully challenged in his own work.

À propos du mouvement dans les bas-reliefs néo-assyriens

Concerning movement in Neo-Assyrian reliefs, no study has been undertaken yet in order to deal specially with this question. The author tried in this paper to examine this subject, by comparing Assyrian art with both Greek and Egyptian arts. The purpose of these comparisons is to emphasize the uniqueness of Assyrian works in the rendering of movement. It also refers to some currents of contemporary art in order to show the originality of Assyrian art in the field of dynamics.

Visual Formula and Meaning in Neo-Assyrian Relief Sculpture

Neo-Assyrian relief sculpture is characterized by a distinctive network of visual formulas that functions almost like script, analogous to the hieroglyphic nature of Egyptian art. This quality of Assyrian art has not been studied thoroughly by scholars, who have mostly concentrated on visual narrative. On examination, it appears that the formulaic communication system of Assyrian art constitutes a highly sophisticated semiotic program that references important philosophical and religious concepts pertaining to Assyrian kingship. The art of Ashurnasirpal II can be seen as the apogee of the use of this semiotic, which takes different forms in the arts of later Assyrian kings.

Trees and gender in Assyrian art

The question of identifying cultural symbolism of any period is tortuous without textual or verbal evidence. It is particularly difficult when dealing with an ancient society removed by thousands of years and vast distance in space. Such is the case when interpreting the art of Mesopotamia. Occasionally, textual references help to illuminate possible meanings of imagery. More often than not we are left with nothing but our own culturally conditioned perceptions to explain what we see. However, alternative readings suggested by gender studies raise new ways of approaching familiar scenes. In a recent article I argued that the appearance of a fruiting date palm in the so-called “Garden Party” relief of Ashurbanipal (r. 668–631 BC) from the North Palace at Nineveh helped to situate the scene within a queen's garden. Despite the fact that the climate in Assyria is unfavourable for date-palm cultivation, the image of the tree, closely associated with a goddess, symbolized the feminine space of the garden. I would like to take this proposal further and suggest that the fruiting date palm is a marker of femininity in other images from ancient Iraq and, in addition, that the conifer tree can appear as a symbol of masculinity.

Nineveh to Thebes and Back: Art and Politics between Assyria and Egypt in the Seventh Century BCE

In 671 BCE, Esarhaddon advanced south from the Levant and attacked Egypt, sacking Memphis. About seven years later, in response to repeated Kushite uprisings and following an initial campaign into Lower Egypt, Ashurbanipal's army reinvaded Egypt, marching as far as Thebes where, according to Assyrian accounts, the temples and palaces were looted and their treasures brought back to Nineveh. The Assyrians had been in conflict with Egypt for some time, but these clashes had always taken place in Western Asia, where the two states fought for control and influence over the small Levantine kingdoms. Not until Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal did Assyria penetrate into the heart of Egypt, attacking its two traditional capitals of Memphis and Thebes. This period of intensified antagonism, along with its consequence — increasingly direct contact with Egyptian culture — brought into greater focus Assyria's relationship to the Egyptian imperial tradition. I would like to propose here that Assyrian royal ideology, as expressed in art, developed in part out of an awareness of and reaction to the great imperial power of New Kingdom Egypt, in particular that of the Ramesside period of the thirteenth and early twelfth centuries. Indeed, it is more the reaction against Egyptian tradition that seems to have stimulated what we understand as characteristic and distinctive of Assyrian art, but at the same time, even these elements may owe some inspiration to Egypt. In this way, the New Kingdom Egyptian empire served as both precedent and “other” for Assyria, which began to develop its own imperialist ideology during the contemporaneous Middle Assyrian period.

Nineveh to Thebes and back: Art and politics between Assyria and Egypt in the seventh century BCE

In 671 BCE, Esarhaddon advanced south from the Levant and attacked Egypt, sacking Memphis. About seven years later, in response to repeated Kushite uprisings and following an initial campaign into Lower Egypt, Ashurbanipal's army reinvaded Egypt, marching as far as Thebes where, according to Assyrian accounts, the temples and palaces were looted and their treasures brought back to Nineveh. The Assyrians had been in conflict with Egypt for some time, but these clashes had always taken place in Western Asia, where the two states fought for control and influence over the small Levantine kingdoms. Not until Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal did Assyria penetrate into the heart of Egypt, attacking its two traditional capitals of Memphis and Thebes. This period of intensified antagonism, along with its consequence — increasingly direct contact with Egyptian culture — brought into greater focus Assyria's relationship to the Egyptian imperial tradition. I would like to propose here that Assyrian royal ideology, as expressed in art, developed in part out of an awareness of and reaction to the great imperial power of New Kingdom Egypt, in particular that of the Ramesside period of the thirteenth and early twelfth centuries. Indeed, it is more the reaction against Egyptian tradition that seems to have stimulated what we understand as characteristic and distinctive of Assyrian art, but at the same time, even these elements may owe some inspiration to Egypt. In this way, the New Kingdom Egyptian empire served as both precedent and “other” for Assyria, which began to develop its own imperialist ideology during the contemporaneous Middle Assyrian period.

Earless in Nineveh: Who Mutilated "Sargon's" Head?

Previous articleNext article No AccessEarless in Nineveh: Who Mutilated "Sargon's" Head?Carl NylanderCarl Nylander Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by American Journal of Archaeology Volume 84, Number 3July 1980 The journal of the Archaeological Institute of America Views: 6Total views on this site Citations: 2Citations are reported from Crossref Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.2307/504709 Views: 6Total views on this site Citations: 2Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright © 1980 by the Archaeological Institute of America. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article: Paul Collins THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE INDIVIDUAL ENEMY IN ASSYRIAN ART, Source: Notes in the History of Art 25, no.33 (Sep 2015): 1–8.https://doi.org/10.1086/sou.25.3.23207999 James D. Breckenridge Again the "Carmagnola", Gesta 20, no.11 (Oct 2015): 1–7.https://doi.org/10.2307/766821

Gleanings from Unpublished Ancient Seals

This seal (fig. 1) was acquired in 1924 by the Mus6e du Louvre (Ao. 9048). It is a scaraboid of reddish brown and white agate, measuring 24 x 18 mm. It has two decorated registers. In the larger, upper register two youthful Egyptianizing figures are depicted facing each other. Each of them holds in one hand a scepter surmounted by two feathers; the other hands are raised in adoration or salutation. They are clad in short kilts with long robes indicated in outline only. Behind each figure there is an ankh symbol. In the lower register there is a couchant, roaring lion with raised tail, well carved and extremely impressive in its couchant position. Unlike the Egyptianizing figures described above, the lion reflects the forceful naturalism of Assyrian art as rendered on the famous Shemac seal from Megiddo and several other contemporary seals. Above the lion there is a triangular device; it could be merely a space-filler but may have some symbolic meaning. This type of composition is reminiscent of that found on ivory panels at Nimrud (compare Mallowan 1966: II, figs. 393-94). The inscription is engraved at the top of the seal:

Chariots of Early Greece

T O understand the harnessing of chariots in early Greece is no slight problem. Actual fragments are few and inconsistent, graphic representations difficult to interpret. In the course of prolonged and sometimes discouraging efforts to identify a curious bronze attachment (P1. 91, c, d) I have had occasion to review the field, including the magnificent Exekias krater from the North Slope of the Athenian Acropolis (P1. 92, c). Though my conclusions are tentative, they are offered here among the contributions in honor of the distinguished excavator of the krater, Oscar Broneer, on his eightieth birthday. Given only a few actual harness fixtures, one finds the plethora of vase illustrations of Geometric through black-figured styles quite bewildering. The fact that the most important parts of the apparatus must be placed where the yoke joins the shaft decrees that they be partially concealed by the bodies of horses. The art grammar of archaic times with its requirement that important objects or parts of objects appear complete in their most striking vi'ew (as, in the case of a man, with legs spread irn profile and chest in full front) makes for further difficulty, as when a round rein guide is viewed from the side. The best comprehensive studies of artists' renditions of chariots were offered by Helbig and Leaf in the 80's of the past century.1 Though ingenious and in many respects correct, their interpretations suffered from the effort to equate the Homeric description of a mule cart in Iliad, XXIV, 11. 266 ff., with paintings of racing chariots and battle chariots on vases from Geometric through black figured and with Mycenaean and Assyrian art as well. Today, using our numerous available illustrations from sculpture, vase painting and the minor arts, we can more optimistically face the realities of varied harness types. For, indeed, there had to be more than one way of hitching a quadriga or a biga. Certain parts recur inevitably: traces, yoke, collars, perhaps belts and cushions, shaft, a cord or strap (called the ~vyo8EOr,poz in Homer) connecting the top of the chariot with the shaft's end,2 raising it to the height of the

Balawat (Imgur Enlil): The Site and Its Buildings

The discovery at Balawat of the famous Bronze Gates of Assurnaṣirpal II and Shalmaneser III by Hormuzd Rassam in 1878 was a landmark in the history of Assyrian art, but provoked little curiosity about the history and character of the site itself. This was due in part to the pronouncement of Wallis Budge, who visited the site in 1889 and later declared, “From every point of view it seemed unlikely that Shalmaneser would have set up such a wonderful monument as the ‘Gates’ in an out-of-way place like Tell Balawat … there is no room on the mound for a temple, still less for a temple and palace, however small… Mr. H. Rassam may have obtained from Tell Balawat the plates and the coffer, etc., which he sent home, but if he did the natives must have taken them there”. Hilprecht, writing in 1903, accepted Rassam's statement without question, although he soundly condemned both the morality and the method of his excavations. But Budge's authority created a doubt that lingered long among scholars who were not field archaeologists. The 3rd. edition of the British Museum Guide to the Babylonian and Assyrian Antiquities (1922) refers to the gates as “said to have been found at Tell Balawat”. A visit to the mound in 1942 by Professor Seton Lloyd, then Adviser to the Directorate General of Antiquities in Iraq, convinced him of the truth of Rassam's account, but it was not until 1956 that Professor Mallowan sought direct confirmation by excavation.

The Date of the Neo-Hittite Enclosure in Karatepe

The dating of the Neo-Hittite enclosure in Karatepe, discovered about twenty years ago by H. Th. Bossert and his Turkish colleagues, forms a problem of primary importance, the solution of which could have deep repercussions on wide fields of study. Even though Azitawadda, the builder and ruler of Karatepe, has left a relatively long bilingual inscription, it lacks the direct and conclusive evidence which might have proved its dating. It is not surprising, then, that several scholars differ widely on the date of Karatepe.The dating generally accepted today is the one put forward by Bossert in 1948, who proposed that Karatepe was built, and Azitawadda reigned, during the second half of the eighth century B.C. This dating is mainly based on three arguments each of a different kind: firstly, it was assumed that “Awrikku king of the Dannunites” (Á-wa+ri-ku-s of the Hittite hieroglyphic inscription), whom Azitawadda mentioned as his benefactor, must be identified with “Urikki of Que” who, as related in the annals of Tiglath-Pileser III, paid a tribute to Assyria probably in 738 B.C. Secondly, a palaeographical analysis of the script of Azitawadda's Phoenician text indicated that the letters are of a rather “developed” and late type, a fact which points to as late a date as possible for this inscription. Thirdly, the artistic style of the reliefs seemed to be late, and as argued by E. Akurgal, to be much influenced by Assyrian art.

A Fragment of a Gold Appliqué from Ziwiye and Some Remarks on the Artistic Traditions of Armenia and Iran during the Early First Millennium B. C.

Previous articleNext article No AccessOriental Institute Museum Notes, No. 11A Fragment of a Gold Appliqué from Ziwiye and Some Remarks on the Artistic Traditions of Armenia and Iran during the Early First Millennium B. C.Helene J. KantorHelene J. Kantor Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Journal of Near Eastern Studies Volume 19, Number 1Jan., 1960 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/371552 Views: 3Total views on this site Citations: 4Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1960 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Sheler Amelirad, Eghbal Azizi Kani Koter, Iron Age Cemetery From Iranian Kurdistan, Iran 59, no.11 (Jul 2019): 57–76.https://doi.org/10.1080/05786967.2019.1633240Sheler Amelirad A STUDY OF IVORY AND BONE PLAQUES FROM ZIWIYE IN THE SANANDAJ MUSEUM, Iraq 81 (Oct 2019): 11–21.https://doi.org/10.1017/irq.2019.6R. D. Barnett Urartu, (Aug 1982): 314–371.https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521224963.009John Boardman, N. G. L. Hammond The Cambridge Ancient History, 1 (Mar 2008).https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521234474

Narration in Anatolian, Syrian, and Assyrian Art

bolism. With the paradoxical love of opposites which characterizes all phases of Mesopotamian art, both principles seem always to be present in the minds of the Babylonian artists, with the preference usually for the culmination method.' Continuous style in the Wickhoff sense, with repetition of one figure through a series of scenes, occurs in a simple form in the late Early Dynastic age (in prehistoric times if it is permissible to include the stela of fig. 3 with its two figures of the lionhunter), and is well worked out in the Ur-Nammu stela (fig. 12). The subjects narrated in Babylonia are generally religious; if secular, they are associated with divine help and human dependence on it. Divine and human are seen quite on the same plane, the meeting of man and god being depicted in a manner as matter-of-fact and convincingly real as if the artists had seen it take place. As in the Babylonian lit rature, so also in its art the gods are conceived in thoroug ly human form. With this the history of narrative art in Babylonia ceases. From this point on the init ative in the field of art as in most others in the Land of the T o Rive s is taken over by Assyria.

An Early Greek Pandore

THE origin and history of the pandore and lute in the Near and Middle East is a perennial attraction to musicologists. Especially interesting is its emergence in Greece, where its Oriental origin is ackowledged. It has been surmised that the word πανδορα is derived from the Sumerian pandur or pantur (“little bow”), and it may be perfectly true that in primeval times the pandore would have evolved from a “musical bow”. Still, no such words have come down to us in Sumerian which actually indicate an instrument of music. On the other hand, a somewhat similar class of instrument is to be found to-day in the Ạrmenian pandir, the Georgian panturi, and the Ossetic fandur. Strange to say Nicomachus (a.d. second century) actually wrote ϕανδονρα The pandore itself is delineated in eastern art remains much earlier than in Greece. It occurs on a Nippur plaque (c. 1700), on Egyptian wall paintings (c. 1570), and in later Susian, Cappadocian, Hittite, and Assyrian Art remains. The earliest examples from Greece have been those of the fourth century b.c., as shown in the art remains from Mantineia and Tanagra, both possessing, seemingly, a narrow periform sound-chest and a long neck. A century later, the name πανδορα occurs in Euphorion, who spent most of his life in Syria.

A Cylinder Seal from Syria

SIR LEONARD WOOLLEY found last year at Al Mina in the surface soil an interesting cylinder seal. It is published, but without comment, in J.JS. I938, pl. xv. It is now in the British Museum, numbered I26064(Plate I, 2). It is of whitish chalcedony, il inches high. The design, which is marred by a chip in the middle, falls into three parts and represents a scene of worship. In the left of the impression is a large figure of a worshipper; in the centre, a kneeling man upholding a winged deity; and on the right, a shrine before which the other two actions are imagined happening. Above are various divine symbols. In most respects the style and the details are those of Assyrian art of the ninth or eighth century B.C. The shrine, flanked by protecting towers, conforms to the presumed exterior of some Assyrian temples.I The two symbols on each battlement are divine standards which often appear in Assyrian scenes of worship.2 The winged eagle-headed figures on either side are easily matched at Nimrud. The god inside standing on a monster occurs in a somewhat similar scene on a seal A 686 in the Louvre.3 So, too, with the divine symbols and figures above: the god in the fringed circle, probably Ea, the seven dots or sibitti, the wedge of Nabu, the winged central figure of Ashur,4 with flowing 'streamers', the spear of Marduk, the ninepointed star, and on the left, below, the goat standing on the palmette,5 and the worshippers are all quite normal in Assyrian art, with one exception: the nine-pointed star here contains the figure of a male god, yet recalls that of Ishtar in Assyria. Again, there seem to be few parallels in Assyrian art to the winged deity upheld by a kneeling man, though it occurs on seals.6 The type is related to that on a sculpture from Tell Halaf in North Syria, where there is a similar 'kneeling' man with hands raised between two other men standing upright.7 A cylinder in the Louvre, A 95I,8 probably from the same area, has the subject in the same form. The ankh and the bucranium in the background of the shrine make it clear that we have to do with a provincial work from Syria or Phoenicia. These symbols are current in Syrian seals from the second millennium, if not before. And the bird, apparently a hawk, which perches on a papyrus flower with the