{"id":1586,"date":"2017-07-02T16:45:33","date_gmt":"2017-07-02T16:45:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-ncc-zeliart\/?post_type=chapter&p=1586"},"modified":"2018-07-03T01:59:59","modified_gmt":"2018-07-03T01:59:59","slug":"assyrian-art-an-introduction","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-ncc-zeliart\/chapter\/assyrian-art-an-introduction\/","title":{"raw":"Assyrian Art: An Introduction","rendered":"Assyrian Art: An Introduction"},"content":{"raw":"
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Map of the Neo-Assyrian Empire and its expansions.<\/h4>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n
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A Military Culture<\/h3>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n
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The Assyrian empire dominated Mesopotamia and all of the Near East for the first half of the first millennium, led by a series of highly ambitious and aggressive warrior kings. Assyrian society was entirely military, with men obliged to fight in the army at any time. State offices were also under the purview of the military.<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n
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Ashurbanipal\u00a0slitting the throat of a lion from his chariot (detail),\u00a0Ashurbanipal Hunting Lions<\/em>, gypsum hall relief from the North Palace, Ninevah, c. 645-635 B.C.E., excavated by H. Rassam beginning in 1853 (British Museum)<\/h4>\r\n
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Indeed, the culture of the Assyrians was brutal, the army seldom marching on the battlefield but rather terrorizing opponents into submission who, once conquered, were tortured, raped, beheaded, and flayed with their corpses publicly displayed. The Assyrians torched enemies' houses, salted their fields, and cut down their orchards.<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n
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Luxurious Palaces<\/h3>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n
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As a result of these fierce and successful military campaigns, the Assyrians acquired massive resources from all over the Near East which made the Assyrian kings very rich. The palaces were on an entirely new scale of size and glamor; one contemporary text describes the inauguration of the palace of Kalhu, built by Assurnasirpal II (who reigned in the early 9th century), to which almost 70,000 people were invited to banquet.<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n
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Lion pierced with arrows (detail), Lion Hunts of Ashurbanipal (ruled 669-630 B.C.E.), c. 645 B.C.E., gypsum,Neo-Assyrian, hall reliefs from Palace at Ninevah across the Tigris from present day Mosul, Iraq (British Museum)<\/h4>\r\n
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Some of this wealth was spent on the construction of several gigantic and luxurious palaces spread throughout the region.\u00a0The interior public reception rooms of Assyrian palaces were lined with large scale carved limestone reliefs which offer beautiful and terrifying images of the power and wealth of the Assyrian kings and some of the most beautiful and captivating images in all of ancient Near Eastern art.<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n
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