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Aššurnaṣirpal I and the White Obelisk

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

J. E. Reade
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Extract

It is usually possible to date an inscribed Assyrian sculpture without hesitation to the reign of a specific king, but there are two, both found about the same time in the centre of ancient Nineveh, which have aroused considerable controversy. One of them, the Broken Obelisk, after various adventures, now seems to have settled down in the reign of Aššur-bel-kala. The other is BM 118807, the White Obelisk (hereafter WO).

Pinches originally ascribed the WO to the reign of Aššurnaṣirpal II, and this view seems to have prevailed until Unger, in a 1928 lecture and afterwards in the first full publication of the monument, opted for Aššurnaṣirpal I. Forrer accepted this, but Assyriologists generally were not convinced: while Gadd reserved judgement, Landsberger came out firmly for Aššurnaṣirpal II; he was followed by Borger and, more tentatively, by Guterbock and Schramm. Most archaeologists with an interest in iconography, however, including Hrouda, Nagel, Moortgat, Boehmer, and Madhloom, while not necessarily insisting on the ascription to Assurnasirpal I in person, refused to accept that a king as late as Aššurnaṣirpal II could possibly have been responsible for it. Of those who were willing to follow Landsberger, only Frankfort, who probably would not have claimed any great familiarity with Assyrian work, did so without reservation. Akurgal admitted to doubts, and Mallowan argued that the WO might have been produced by a distinctively old-fashioned school of sculptors at Nineveh, not otherwise attested. I myself attempted to reconcile the conflicting parties by suggesting that the sculptures were considerably older than the inscription, and I am told that the same idea had occurred independently to Calmeyer. Other scholars, both Assyriologists and archaeologists, doubtless expressed their opinions here and there, before 1974, and will forgive me for failing to mention them.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 37 , Issue 2 , Autumn 1975 , pp. 129 - 150
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1975

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References

1 EAK I, 138–42Google Scholar.

2 Guide to the Kuyunjik Gallery (1883), 112–21Google Scholar, written by T. G. Pinches. This and footnotes 3–20 will be treated as an adequate means of reference to the work of various scholars whose names occur repeatedly throughout the text of this article.

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8 AJA 61 (1957), 67Google Scholar: “probably” Aššurnaṣirpal II.

9 EAK II (1973), 48–9Google Scholar: “die historischen Fakten sprechen also eher für als gegen eine Zuweisung an Anp. II”.

10 Hrouda, B., Iraq 25 (1963), 155–6CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Die Kulturgeschichte des assyrischen Flachbildes (1965), 43, 114Google Scholar; Vorderasien I, Mesopotamien, Babylonien, Iran und Anatolien (1971), 239, n. 10Google Scholar: “Zuweisung nicht ganz sicher”.

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19 A glance through some obvious sources produces the following. For Aššurnaṣirpal I or the eleventh century: Parrot, A, Nineveh and Babylon (1961), 35Google Scholar; Strommenger, E., The Art of Mesopotamia (1964; original German 1962), 43Google Scholar; North, R., Or NS 37 (1968), 229Google Scholar; Barnett, R. D., Assyrian Palace Reliefs (British Museum guide, 1970), 41Google Scholar; and Orthmann, W., Untersuchungen zur späthethitischen Kunst (1971), 158–9Google Scholar. For ASSurnasirpal II: Parpola, S., Neo-Assyrian Toponyms (1970), xviiiGoogle Scholar; Munn-Rankin, J. M., Iraq 36 (1974), 170, n. 8CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Postgate, J. N., Taxation and Conscription in the Assyrian Empire (1974), 170Google Scholar. Uncommitted: Pritchard, J. B., The Ancient Near East in Pictures (1954), 324Google Scholar; and Tadmor, H., JCS 12 (1958), 30, n. 69Google Scholar. In Iraq 34 (1972), 88Google Scholar, I referred to what I thought was Weidner's view; on checking the reference, however, I regret to say that I can find no mention of the White Obelisk at all. See also Calmeyer, P., Reliefbronzen in babylonischem Stil, 12, n. 4Google Scholar, and Archäologische Mitteilungen aus Iran, N.F. 7 (1974), 76 f. and n. 126 f.Google Scholar; Dr. Calmeyer, who kindly read this article in typescript, regards the White Obelisk sculptures as earlier than Aššurnaṣirpal II. Ellis, R. S., JAOS 95 (1975), 90 ff.Google Scholar, reserves judgement. My own article was written in July, 1974. The most important contribution since that date has been the paper read at the Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale (Göttingen, 1975) by W. von Soden. I understand that von Soden, in criticizing the Assurnasirpal II ascription, relied mainly on epigraphic details of the kind to which Unger also called attention. See the section below, entitled “The Text: Miscellaneous Criteria”. See also below, p. 150.

20 Iraq 36 (1974), 231–8CrossRefGoogle Scholar, Plates XLI-XLVIII.

21 Sollberger's translation, which he emphasises is “only tentative”, is reproduced without change from Iraq 36 (1974), 235–6Google Scholar, but I have separated the sections on different sides of the WO, and corrected one error in the bracketing.

22 The word is šu-a-tu; it is the first in the line. The end of the previous line is chipped, and there might perhaps have been space for a governing noun.

23 Pinches did, however, wish to detach lines 29–33 (or more probably 30–33) from the remainder of side D, and put them after line 8.

24 Pinches describes the apex of the WO as having three steps, and says that the inscription began “seemingly” on the second step of side D; if this is what he meant, he too must have thought there might be traces of writing above line 12 on side D.

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