History of Ancient Art

by Franz von Reber

In the year 1845, Layard obtained, through Sir Stratford Canning, then ambassador to Turkey, the necessary means for the English government to take part in the promising undertaking. He at first directed his attention to Nimrud, a hill of ruins about a day’s journey south of Mosul, the great size of which promised the existence of important remains. An immense terrace platform was there found to have supported a number of palaces, several of which were excavated, the more valuable sculptures and other objects of interest being transported to the British Museum. At Nimrud were discovered the most ancient and the most modern of Assyrian buildings known—namely, the northwestern palace, temple, and tower built by Assur-nazi-pal shortly after 885 B.C., as well as the Temple of Assur-ebil-ili, presumably the last Assyrian king, dating to about 610 B.C. Besides these, there were the southeastern and central palaces built by Shalmaneser II. after 860, the latter having been restored by Tiglath-pileser II., from 745 to 727, as Sargon rebuilt the northwestern palace after 722; and, finally, there was the southwestern palace of Esar-haddon, from 681 to 668 B.C. The city itself (Calah) corresponded in grandeur and extent with the palace terrace. It was founded by Shalmaneser, and long rivalled Nineveh, especially after its reconstruction by Assur-nazi-pal.

It is now beyond a doubt that the chief capital of the country is buried beneath the hills of Coyundjic and Nebbi-Jonas, the latter so called from a Mohammedan chapel to the prophet Jonah which traditionally marks the site of Nineveh. Both these mounds of ruins were examined by Layard. In the southwestern palace of Coyundjic, built by Assur-bani-pal, from 668 to 626 B.C., was discovered the most extensive among these dwellings of Oriental despots. The most elaborate of Assyrian palaces was the northern one of this site, built by Assur-bani-pal about 640 B.C., a monarch who devoted certain chambers of the southwestern palace, originally erected by his grandfather, to the reception of inscribed clay tablets—an inexhaustible wealth for the study of Assyrian history, of which hardly a third part seems to have been recovered intact. In Nebbi-Jonas were found traces of the palaces of Vulnirari III., from 812 to 783; of Sennacherib, from 705 to 681; and of Esar-haddon, from 681 to 668 B.C. The line of the city walls, still recognizable among the hills of rubbish, is shown by the plan at Fig. 43. These fortifications could hardly have enclosed the entire city, and it is probable that only the inner town, with the palaces and public buildings, was thus protected, and that the dwelling-houses of the many inhabitants formed suburbs which extended far around the enclosed centre, gradually losing themselves in gardens and groves of date-trees, as is the case with modern capitals of the East. The comparatively small walls of Babylon, at variance with the report given by Herodotos, lead to the same conclusion in regard to that city.

The ruins of Calah-Shergat, situated about 100 kilometers down the stream from Nineveh, are identified with Assur, the oldest capital of the land, which maintained its pre-eminence until Nineveh, in the fourteenth century B.C., became the great centre of power. Reson is thought to be recognized in the ruins of Selamiyeh, lying between Nimrud and Nineveh, and Erbil in Arbola. These sites have not been sufficiently examined to be of direct importance in the history of art.

It is plain from the ruins already mentioned that the dwellings of the kings took the most prominent place among the creations of Assyrian architecture. The despotic element had in Mesopotamia the same superiority as the hierarchy in Egypt: in the former country the palace was as much in the foreground as was the temple in the latter. In ancient Chaldæa the two elements, and consequently the two classes of monuments, were more equally represented. Still, in most points of view, the relation of Chaldæan and Assyrian architecture is very close, and the differences arose chiefly from the superior material at the builders’ disposal in Upper Mesopotamia. The terraces of Assyria, like those of Chaldæa, were solidly constructed of sun-dried bricks and stamped earth, but the neighboring mountains provided stone for the complete revetment of these masses with quarried blocks. Carefully hewn slabs existed upon the terrace platform of Sargon’s palace, and upon the substructure of the pyramid of Nimrud, while there was rough Cyclopean stone-work employed in the construction of the city walls at Kisr-Sargon. The facing of brightly glazed tiles and stucco-paintings, universal in Chaldæa, is restricted upon Assyrian masonry of the same brick materials to the upper part of the wall, the lower half being sheathed and protected by sculptured slabs of alabaster. The appearance of the whole gained greatly by this change, the revetment of reliefs in place of the painted figures giving a more imposing and durable character to the walls. The palace architecture of Assyria is best exemplified by the plan of the royal dwelling of Kisr-Sargon (Fig. 44), the isolated position and clear disposition of which are adapted to show the general character of these structures. The platform terrace consisted of two divisions, the broader (P) being inside the limits of the city fortifications, while the remainder (T) projected beyond them. A double flight of steps (A) led to the chief portal (B), ornamented by gigantic winged human-headed bulls, which here not only stood on the sides of the passage itself, as at all principal entrances, but laterally upon the front walls, within and without. These figures are among the most characteristic creations of Assyrian art; they will be treated more in detail in the following consideration of the sculpture of the country. The triple gateway opened into the first and largest enclosed court (C). Upon the left of this, one narrow passage led to the chambers of the harem, which were ranged around six smaller courts (D to H). Upon the right of the first enclosure were the household offices (J), with eight courts and numerous halls, magazines, kitchens, cellars, stables, etc. The side opposite the chief entrance was formed by the private apartments of the monarch (M) and by the great hall of the palace—a group of chambers not presenting its chief front to the first court (C), with which it was connected only by subordinate entrances—but to a second enclosure of almost equal extent (K), which may be regarded as the chief open space of the royal dwelling. An inclined ascent (R) led to the right wing of the inner terrace, by which the king, approaching in a chariot or borne by attendants in a sedan-chair, could enter his seraglio without passing the first court (C) or the entrance to the household offices (J). The encroaching line of the city wall (P) made it impossible for the portal to the second court (S) to be arranged in the central axis of that enclosure; but strict symmetry of plan was not adopted even when there were no such obstacles. The inner apartments of the king were entered by a magnificent triple gateway (L) from the court of the seraglio; these were, in certain measure, regularly planned, being so grouped around a smaller court (M) that oblong halls, as long as this was square, were upon three of its sides. The hall upon the south opens into a number of intricate chambers, probably used as baths, sleeping-apartments, and rooms for the immediate body-guards of the king and for the temporary families of the harem. Upon the north a wing was added to the building, projecting almost to the outer border of the terrace, and dividing this (T) into a northern and a western court. The addition was the most richly ornamented portion of the entire palace; it was probably here that the halls of reception were placed. The walls of other parts of the seraglio were reveted upon their lower part with sculptured slabs of alabaster; but this treatment was not elsewhere so freely applied, nor was it as richly decorated as in this northwestern wing. In the first hall, which is 35 m. long and 10 m. broad, the walls are ornamented with continuous scenes representing, as in a procession, the homage and punishment of prisoners-of-war. In other rooms and in smaller courts these reliefs, divided by a band of cuneiform inscriptions, are of smaller dimensions and less pretentious execution, though of marked interest as forming, with their copious inscriptions, chronicles of historical events.