LATER ASSYRIAN EMPIRE After the Assyrian kingdom had recovered from the strain im posed by the Aramaean invasion of the southern and eastern lands, Ashurnasirpal II. and Shalmaneser III. founded the future Assyrian empire by conquests east, north and west in the 9th century. Art and literature were cultivated, and political developments created the prototype of all oriental monarchies. The use of iron, which had been casually known at the beginning of the second millennium or earlier, had become regular from the end of the i 2th century; bronze had almost entirely replaced copper for decorative use. It is rarely possible to mistake an Assyrian object throughout the remainder of their history. Architecture.—The planning of new cities, the complete recon struction of old sites, was commonly undertaken. Sometimes this entailed considerable engineering feats, such as the sinking of piles in the Tigris, in order to secure more ground. Sites were made into rectangular shapes, or a series of rectangular shapes, as is illustrated by Khorsabad, Sargon's city. A notable feature was the laying out of parks and plantations for the use of citizens. City walls were of great breadth, and strongly fortified; towers were placed at intervals of about i oof t., and at Ashur, Shalmaneser III. built an inner wall (from his time a permanent feature of defensive fortifications) 65f t. away from the outer wall, 23 f t. thick, in such a manner that it completely commanded the outer wall. Walls were sometimes built on stone foundations, consisting of large rectangular limestone blocks. The battlements were an inverted T shape, and were frequently decorated with attached rosettes. Columns with capitals of the most varied kinds were used, and some were fluted; occasionally they stood upon a base resting on the back of a colossal lion or bull. Gateways were generally formed by colossal monsters or lions, which would sup port very heavy lintels and superstructures. Various words for architectural ornament are used in the description of the buildings, but these cannot yet be certainly interpreted; apart from the frieze of sculptured stone blocks, askuppu, there was a "belt" of decoration, nibikhu, and some rectangular form called pasqi, "bri dles." It is possible that there was external as well as internal ornament. Assyrian architecture was considerably influenced in the construction of porticos by the Hittite constructions, called bit hilani by the Amorites, that were common in North Syria.
Bas-relief.—Assyrian kings decorated the interior walls of their palaces with bas-reliefs cut from a soft alabaster obtained in great quantities near Mosul. There are two series from Ashurnasir pal's palace at Calah, the modern Nimrud, the one devoted to representations of a sacred ritual in which the king took part, perhaps at the New Year. The second depicts scenes from his campaigns. The first series is larger and more coarsely cut than the second; and the importance of such religious subjects dimin ished greatly, so that later kings invariably preferred battle scenes. The bas-reliefs of Shalmaneser III. also vary in quality; those on the "black obelisk" are small panels, and the mason was engaged on an unusually small surface which has restricted his style ; but the re pousse reliefs on the bronze bands from the gates found at Balawat, giving a panorama of the expeditions in Arme nia and Syria, are masterly. Round-topped stelae with repre sentations of the king adoring the symbols of the great gods, the sun, the moon, and the evening star, before which an altar was generally placed, were fashionable in the 9th and 8th centuries. The bas-reliefs of Tiglathpileser III. are generally poorly exe cuted, but display the details of military costume ; the theme of animals grazing was also introduced in his time. In the reign of Sennacherib, an attempt to link up the walls of a room into a single scene led to compositions such as the siege of Lachish, or the conveyance of colossal bulls, otherwise unexampled. The per fection of the art was reached in the reign of Ashurbanipal; close study of animal forms, variety in the treatment of the human figure to avoid the doll-like appearance common previously, and a broader spacing make most of the reliefs from his palace, e.g., the lion hunt, the Arabian war, the royal feast, superior to any other Assyrian work. An interesting example of a sculptor's terra-cotta model for a bas-relief, very finely finished, throws some light on the technique.
Sculpture in the Round.—Very few sculptures in the round are extant. The finest is a statuette representing Ashurnasirpal II. bareheaded, holding a nail-studded crook (?) and a mace, with the arms tight to the side and the feet together ; there is no at tempt to represent the folds of the drapery or the modelling of the figure beneath. The stark simplicity is more probably due to the intention of the artist than to inability. A colossal statue, perhaps intended for Shalmaneser III., for many years in situ at Nimrud, reproduces the conventional modelling of the face. Seated statues of Shalmaneser III. and of the god Nabu recall in their lumpish treatment the Gudea statues and mark no advance in technique. Animal heads, on the other hand, were treated realistically; a white limestone head of a lion and an ivory head of a bull, both perhaps protomae, are examples of the finest work in this kind ever produced.
Metal Work.—The best extant metal work of the late As syrian period has been found at Wan, the ancient capital of the kingdom of Urartu, on the shore of Lake Wan. Realistic bronze bulls' heads, a figure of a god in the Assyrian style, couching sphinxes with inlaid human heads (now lost), a snake monster with inlaid black and white roundels, and a model of a wall with a gateway, apertures for archers, towers and battlements, may be cited as typical; the finest individual object is a round shield, quartered, with repousse figures of animals. Some authorities would see in Armenia the centre from which such work was in spired elsewhere, and the commencement of a style continued in Achaemenian Persia. The subject is, from the archaeological point of view, very complicated ; a part of the same, or a similar, model of a wall was found at Nimrud, and the Assyrian style of the objects is not to be doubted. The treasure of bronze bowls from Nimrud can be more readily assigned to a source free from pure Assyrian influence; the subjects are treated in a mixed Egyptian and Western Asiatic style only possible in Phoenicia. Metal casting underwent an improvement of some kind in the time of Sennacherib, and colossal figures were made for his palace at Nineveh.
The hoard from Nimrud, which dates probably from the late 8th century, includes a number of ivory plaques from the sides of toilet boxes, and feet from small pieces of furniture; there are also a number of beads in a peculiar style. Some of these pieces are purely Assyrian in theme and treatment ; others are as clearly Phoenician. A certain number remain that cannot easily be assigned. The trade in these ivory boxes was very exten sive ; good examples have been found at Ur.
Stone Vessels.—The ornamentation of the handles of stone vases and the decoration of the sides of votive cups was common. Handles generally take the form of animal heads ; battle-scenes or religious subjects of the conventional kind were cut in bas-relief on the cups. Some flat libation vessels are decorated with ducks' or swans' heads, and other vessels are copies of the Egyptian types of the period.
There is one glass vessel extant bearing the inscription of Sargon II. ; it must therefore have been made in the second half of the 8th century. The glass is of a distinctive, very heavy kind, and a few other specimens probably belong to the Assyrian era. There was a work called "the Gate of the Furnace" in Ash urbanipal's library giving instructions for the making of glaze and glass. Opaque glass beads were not uncommon.
In the loth century, before kings were rich enough to provide sufficient stone for the great friezes, painted bricks or orthostats decorated their palaces. The scenes are treated in the same manner as the reliefs, the colours applied are conventional and were not closely connected with the natural object. Various techniques were employed. It should be remem bered that some of the stone friezes when excavated retained traces of the original colour, and in some instances the paint em ployed would seem to have been similar to that used on the bricks.
The native glazed ware is roughly made, and the manner of glazing resembles that of the late Kassite age in Babylonia. A number of ornate pots with palmette and geometrical decoration are more carefully made for royal use ; the ornament is in part derived from Egypt. Occa sionally animal figures, especially goats, and sacred trees, are intro duced. This ware is the finest yet known in Babylonia and Assyria, and may be partly derived from Hittite work, but the designs are not closely related.
From the earliest times a great profusion of terra-cotta figurines and plaques are found in Babylonian and Assyrian temples. Their purpose is obscure and their artistic value generally small. Some of them, such as masks of the demon of sickness, Pazuzu, must have been used as amulets on houses, for they are pierced for suspension. In the late Assyrian age ritual texts inform us of the use to which a whole series typical of this period were put under the floors of certain rooms in temples to drive away pestilence and sickness of various kinds. Such figures and plaques were made of terra-cotta or of copper, and were buried in brick boxes beneath the thresh old, or at stated positions in relation to the sick man's bed. Human figures carrying holy-water pots, or metal staves, and wearing metal belts and miniature daggers, others with a fish-skin over head and back; monsters with human forms, animal or bird heads and bovine hind-quarters, snakes, doves, dogs, dragons, apes, boats, priests and lion-headed men carrying daggers aloft are the common types. Such types reappear on friezes more espe cially in 9th century Assyria and in earlier examples from Meso potamia and Syria, and all are derived from Babylonian mythol ogy; but as these figures are characteristic of the Assyrian age, it is probable that the ritual development involved dates from this period. An extant text also describes the postures in which certain gods and semi-divine figures should stand, and as numerous terra-cottas; e.g., of the goddess suckling a child, or of the mon sters called Lakhmu and Lakhamu, correspond to this description, it may be that these also were considered apotropaic.
Assyrian amulets frequently take the form of an oblong tablet of stone, with a projection pierced for threading on to a necklace. These are inscribed with incantations generally addressed to the gods, or demons of sickness. Those most common are addressed to Lamashtu, a female monster who wanders the streets at night rendering maidens sterile and men impotent ; these are generally carved with a relief showing the monster, suckling dogs or hyenas, being carried away by a boat across the river, the potency of the representation being due to a course of reason ing common in "sympathetic magic." A much favoured amulet at all times was the head of Pazuzu, a demon of sickness associated with the south-west wind ; this bearded, lined face was made in bronze, in stone, in semi-precious stones such as lapis lazuli and carnelian, and in clay, and was worn round the neck, on the prin ciple that sickness would avoid the place where he already was. Every kind of bead had an amuletic significance, though not all of their potent functions are yet known. One ritual lays down the rules for threading various kinds of stone on particular threads to avoid Lamashtu, to secure child-birth, or the like. The pomegranate shape was thought to promote sexual strength, and special significance must have attached to the pot-shape, and to the "eyes" of banded agate.
The cylinder continued to be the only seal in use until the 7th century, when another type was introduced, the cone shape, with rounded top, pierced, perhaps for fastening on to rings. The free style and linear treatment of the earlier cutting was abandoned, and a formal style, of great precision and a minute delicacy recalling the Agade seals. Religious subjects, such as the worship of gods or the sacred tree, and amuletic themes, predominate, but hunting scenes with no religious reference were favoured, and in them there is the same excellence in the treat ment of the human form as marks the friezes. Only one seal extant shows a battle scene, and that appears to have been cut in commemoration of the campaign against the Aribi under Ashur banipal. The use of the drill, towards the end of the 9th century, did not have any disastrous effects until the close of the Assyrian era, but the commencement of the decline of the art, owing to the schematization of forms into circles with narrow channels con necting them must be dated to the 7th century.
Owing to the perishable character of iron the remains are very scanty, and bronze objects prepon derate. The tools are generally of simple types; chisels, saws, knives and sickles. Chains, and meshed chain work were discov ered at Nimrud, and the excavators thought the latter was part of some chain-armour, which is hardly probable. The weapons show a considerable diversity in shapes, and it is not certain that this diversity is due to a difference in period; arrow-heads some times have tangs, sometimes not, the straight dagger and the scimitar were both used, the hafting of lanceheads was particu larly varied. Of metal articles used for dress, pins and fibulae of a simple kind were common. Harness from Sennacherib's stables shows the common forms of bits and cheek-pieces. For furniture, a bronze facing on iron was popular. The arms and legs of chairs were ornamented, and the lion's or bull's head or claw or hoof was commonly used on them. On buildings, metal heads were used as gargoyles or as a roof decoration.
The habit introduced by the Amorites into Babylonia of burying the dead beneath the floors of houses was practised throughout Assyrian history and may account for the constant spread of city sites. The tombs of Ashurnasirpal II. and of Shamshi-Adad V., in oblong stone coffins, in well built cellars, yielded no objects of importance ; this may be due to tomb robbery, but probably no considerable tomb furniture was customary in Assyria. Ashurbanipal speaks of the sacred rites per formed for ancestors, and says that he restored customs long neg lected; the rites intended were perhaps no more than a symbolical breaking of bread and libation of water.
The inscriptions buried in foundations were made upon (I) cones of the Babylonian type, sometimes with large painted knobs intended to protrude from the wall ; (2) upon rectangular stone slabs, buried in the corners of the buildings; (3) on small rectangular tablets of metal, gold, silver, copper and lead ; (4) on hollow terra-cotta barrel cylinders, inscribed across the length; (5) on prisms, with five to ten sides, inscribed across the narrow faces, in columns. At the foundation of all buildings some fat, oil and other vegetable products were dedicated.
Tablets in Babylonia were commonly kept in stone jars, and the first library arranged on a systematic principle seems to have been formed in the reign of Ashurbanipal, though the col lection of tablets began in the reign of Sargon. The tablets were arranged on shelves ; where a work required several tablets, index lists enumerating the first lines formed, with the help of the catch lines given on each numbered section, a reference index, and tabs hanging down on straws gave the general title of each work. There were two libraries, one in the temple of Nabu and the other in the palace. The system probably grew up slowly, and some of the tablets found in the city of Ashur seem to have belonged to such a library system.
—The organization of the army depended on a divi sion into "bands," "fifties" and "tens," and was raised apparently by a census taken in provincial districts from time to time accord ing to estates; an example of such a census for the district of Harran is extant. Originally the army was simply a militia, called out when required either for military purposes or the labours of the corvee on royal buildings ; but from the time of Tiglathpileser III. onwards the formation of a standing army ("the royal troops," "the turtan's troops" and so forth) can be traced. Conquered prov inces were immediately required to provide contingents; mer cenaries were not employed, as in Egypt. The priests had a part to play; a Babylonian army of the time had a soothsayer to march before it. The liability to serve was not confined to one class, and all who were liable might provide substitutes. For men of the poorest class, there were regulations providing for the support of their dependents for a reasonable period after their capture. In the second millennium, armies consisted simply of chariotry and infantry ; in the 9th century cavalry was added as an independent arm, and from the 8th century a body of specially trained men acted as pioneers, for road building, mining under besieged for tresses, and so forth. Siege engines were first introduced in the II th century; heavy battering rams on wheeled carriages, scaling ladders, and ramps were regularly used, and the Assyrians were unusually successful in this kind of warfare. River-crossing was effected by building bridges of boats. Permanent ring-camps were constructed and used as bases for different columns. The armour of the period was simple ; the helmet was a pointed conical shape, to which in the age of Ashurbanipal a crest, borrowed from the peoples of Asia Minor, was added, round shields were carried in action, and strong reed constructions used for cover in siege operations.
An elaborate court ceremonial surrounded the Assyrian king, whereas the administration of the old Baby lonian kings had been simple and direct ; it became difficult for the suppliant to reach the king, the privilege of every subject, because the monarch was surrounded by powerful officials in whose hands all executive power lay. The principal official in the second millennium had been the ummanu, the royal clerk or scribe who communicated the king's orders in writing. From the 9th century onwards the chief officer appears to have been the turtan, the commander of the army, whose functions in the 8th century had to be duplicated, for there was a turtan of the right and a turtan of the left. The king's chamberlain, sukkallu, perhaps fulfilled the old duties of the ummanu, and corresponded to a Persian vizier. Another military and civil officer, the rab saris or rab sutris, "the chief of those at the king's head" (as he reclined on a couch at his audiences), appears in the biblical account of Sennacherib's siege of Hezekiah, and was perhaps in charge of the king's personal attendants. A treasurer, rab danibe, sealed the gold and silver received and could veto the issue of it in certain cases. The pro vincial governors, saknu or urasu, were under the empire assisted by subordinate district officers, the bel paklzati; the raising of military levies, the finding of men for the corvee and the exaction of taxes was the work of the zabil kuduri. The Assyrians made notable developments in methods of government, the full extent of which have not yet been appreciated.
The only account of the attainments of an As syrian youth is the panegyric of his own accomplishments by Ashurbanipal, but that forms a compendium of the ideal attributes of the most cultured man of his time. "I, Ashurbanipal, under stood the wisdom of Nabu ; all the art of tablet writing of every kind of clerk, I acquired their understanding. I learnt to shoot the bow, ride horses, and chariots, and to hold the reins." And again, "Marduk, the wise one of the gods, presented me with information and understanding as a gift. Nabu the scribe, granted me all the understanding of his wisdom as a present. Enurta and Nergal made me virile and strong, of incomparable force. I under stood the craft of the wise Adapa, the hidden secrets of all the scribal art ; in heavenly and earthly buildings I read and pondered, in the meetings of clerks I was present, I watched the omens (taken from the liver of sacrificial victims), I explained the heaven with the learned priests, recited the complicated multiplications and divisions which are not immediately apparent. The beautiful writings in Sumerian that are obscure, in Akkadian that are diffi cult to bear in mind, it was my joy to repeat. . . . I mounted colts, rode them with prudence so that they were not violent; I drew the bow, sped the arrow, the sign of the warrior. I flung the quivering javelins like short lances. I held the reins like a chari oteer, so that I made all the wheels revolve (a reference to the mechanical difficulties caused by friction). I directed the `weaving' of reed shields and breastworks like a pioneer. I had the learning that all clerks of every kind possess when their time of maturity comes. At the same time I learnt what is proper for lordship, I went my royal ways." On the methods of training little light has yet been thrown.
A marked feature of the time was an interest in the history and literature of the past. Texts con cerning the exploits of Sargon of Agade were collected, and ex planations of the geography of his time, not always trustworthy, drawn up ; a map to illustrate them was drawn in Babylon in the 8th or 7th century. At Ur the Assyrian governor in his restora tion of the town came across some early Sumerian texts, which were translated into the language of the time and exhibited in the temple.
The policy of transporting large bodies of pop ulation from their native district to other provinces, and the extensive settlement of new cities in Assyria itself, always followed by Assyrian kings, led to a cosmopolitan social life, not only in Nineveh but in the other great cities of the empire. Egyptian prisoners brought with them the manners and objects of their own country. Aramaeans were numerous, and official letters or commercial notes were sometimes written in the Aramaic alpha bet. Marriages of Assyrian princesses with Scythian chiefs were arranged. The general result was that a uniform level of civiliza tion was spread over western Asia at this time. The increase of the proportion of slaves to free must have been very marked; though the status of the slave was no different from that of chat tels, in relative well-being the slave was in a better position often than the poor Assyrian, and freemen not uncommonly sold them selves or their children into slavery. The position of the women was peculiar; though closely secluded, they might in individual cases be prominent in public affairs. For a number of years Assyria was ruled by a queen-regent, Sammuramat, from whose name the Semiramis of Greek stories may derive. Ladies of the noble class were occasionally empowered to act as provincial governors, gakintu; and court intrigues of the usual oriental kind centred about the harem. An important feature of civil life was due to the guild organizations of various classes of craftsmen, for these lived in special quarters of the cities.
