The Writing on the Wall: Studies in the Architectural Context of Late Assyrian PalaceInscriptions by John Malcolm RussellReview by: Benjamin R. FosterJournal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 121, No. 4 (Oct. - Dec., 2001), pp. 702-703Published by: American Oriental SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/606540 .

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Journal of the American Oriental Society 121.4 (2001) Journal of the American Oriental Society 121.4 (2001)

Nergal-dannu, a fuller, for a whole year for wages. He is also referred to in many other texts from Uruk. For instance, accord-

ing to No. 73, a certain man undertook to make 3,400 bricks and deliver them to Samas-ah-iddin in his house (cf. also YOS

6, 104). In another case, a weaver was to provide four garments for the same man in return for five shekels of silver (YOS 6, 91). Finally, YOS 6, 32 records the distribution of food portions to

carpenters, jewelers, bronzesmiths, architects, and other arti- sans of the Eanna temple for two months. Among these work-

ers, Samas-ah-iddin is also mentioned as recipient of 1 kurru 2

pdn 3 sut (270 1) of barley. It is reasonable to conclude from this that he was employed in the Eanna and that in at least one case he hired another fuller to perform his obligations to the temple for a whole year.

No. 67 is a joint business partnership agreement (barranu), according to which two individuals received a loan of two minas of silver from a third person in order to conduct busi- ness together. They were both responsible for the repayment of the loan and also agreed to share equally in the profit. It is worth noting that one of them was a scribe himself and that the document itself was written by him. No. 102 is a work contract, under the terms of which two slaves belonging to different in- dividuals were ordered by their owners to mold and bake bricks

together for a month. In No. 65, two persons assume the obligation to bring a

debtor to the Eanna temple at the appointed time and hand him over to the estate manager of the temple, or else to pay five mi- nas of silver. No. 11 records the lease of a boat with a capacity up to 180 kurru by a private person to the Eanna for a rent of 61/2 shekels of silver for a month. The contract contains a stipu- lation that if the capacity should be short of the given amount, compensation should be made (see also No. 12).

As far as I can judge, the volume under review contains no errors, except perhaps the following statement. According to the editor, No. 1 is the only document in which several scribes of Eanna "are attested in this capacity at the same time" (p. 3). If I understand this assertion correctly, it cannot be accepted: see, e.g., Analecta Orientalia 9, 15:29-30 and YOS 7, 7:27-28

(both from the early Achaemenid period), where four individu- als also known from many other texts are attested as "scribes of Eanna." Indices are compiled extremely accurately, and I have noticed only one omission from the index of geographical names-Uruk in No. 13:13 is not included. We must be grateful to Dr. P.-A. Beaulieu for his enormous labor in producing this volume of high-quality hand copies of cuneiform tablets which make a substantial contribution to our knowledge of the eco- nomic and social history of Babylonia in the sixth century B.C.

Nergal-dannu, a fuller, for a whole year for wages. He is also referred to in many other texts from Uruk. For instance, accord-

ing to No. 73, a certain man undertook to make 3,400 bricks and deliver them to Samas-ah-iddin in his house (cf. also YOS

6, 104). In another case, a weaver was to provide four garments for the same man in return for five shekels of silver (YOS 6, 91). Finally, YOS 6, 32 records the distribution of food portions to

carpenters, jewelers, bronzesmiths, architects, and other arti- sans of the Eanna temple for two months. Among these work-

ers, Samas-ah-iddin is also mentioned as recipient of 1 kurru 2

pdn 3 sut (270 1) of barley. It is reasonable to conclude from this that he was employed in the Eanna and that in at least one case he hired another fuller to perform his obligations to the temple for a whole year.

No. 67 is a joint business partnership agreement (barranu), according to which two individuals received a loan of two minas of silver from a third person in order to conduct busi- ness together. They were both responsible for the repayment of the loan and also agreed to share equally in the profit. It is worth noting that one of them was a scribe himself and that the document itself was written by him. No. 102 is a work contract, under the terms of which two slaves belonging to different in- dividuals were ordered by their owners to mold and bake bricks

together for a month. In No. 65, two persons assume the obligation to bring a

debtor to the Eanna temple at the appointed time and hand him over to the estate manager of the temple, or else to pay five mi- nas of silver. No. 11 records the lease of a boat with a capacity up to 180 kurru by a private person to the Eanna for a rent of 61/2 shekels of silver for a month. The contract contains a stipu- lation that if the capacity should be short of the given amount, compensation should be made (see also No. 12).

As far as I can judge, the volume under review contains no errors, except perhaps the following statement. According to the editor, No. 1 is the only document in which several scribes of Eanna "are attested in this capacity at the same time" (p. 3). If I understand this assertion correctly, it cannot be accepted: see, e.g., Analecta Orientalia 9, 15:29-30 and YOS 7, 7:27-28

(both from the early Achaemenid period), where four individu- als also known from many other texts are attested as "scribes of Eanna." Indices are compiled extremely accurately, and I have noticed only one omission from the index of geographical names-Uruk in No. 13:13 is not included. We must be grateful to Dr. P.-A. Beaulieu for his enormous labor in producing this volume of high-quality hand copies of cuneiform tablets which make a substantial contribution to our knowledge of the eco- nomic and social history of Babylonia in the sixth century B.C.

M. A. DANDAMAYEV ORIENTAL INSTITUTE, SAINT PETERSBURG

M. A. DANDAMAYEV ORIENTAL INSTITUTE, SAINT PETERSBURG

The Writing on the Wall: Studies in the Architectural Context

of Late Assyrian Palace Inscriptions. By JOHN MALCOLM RUSSELL. Mesopotamian Civilizations, vol. 9. Winona Lake, Ind.: EISENBRAUNS, 1999. Pp. xii + 348, illus. $52.50.

Assyrian palaces and their inscriptions have been the sub-

jects of intense scrutiny since the nineteenth century. This book is the first attempt to bring the two together, including all the relevant evidence from Assurnasirpal II through Assurbanipal. Russell tries systematically to reconstruct the exact placement of every royal inscription that was incorporated in the fabric of an Assyrian palace from this period, such as thresholds, doors, colossi, and the fronts and backs of relief panels. This proved a difficult task. Assyriologists and historians are used to reading the inscriptions in composite editions with little more than a

general sense that they were displayed somewhere in a palace. Even scientific publications of the texts routinely omit their

findspots, and the texts they present may in fact be artificial conflations or arrangements of material that was deployed dif-

ferently in its original context (for example, Shalmaneser III, pp. 74f., 82). Students of art and architecture have often left the texts aside as a separate, specialized agenda.

Russell has expended considerable effort to identify every inscription and where it was found, so The Writing on the Wall is, in the first instance, a rich and detailed handbook for any- one interested in Assyrian commemorative inscriptions. Much new information has been culled from unpublished excavators' notes and on the scene in Iraq. One could say furthermore that A. H. Layard emerges as a far more thorough excavator and re- corder than recent histories of archaeology portray him; more detailed information concerning what he found is available in his notes, drawings, and papers than for some excavations more

recently carried out on the same structures. For the philologist, the book is a mine of collations and suggestions, and even the occasional editio princeps-for example, the Esarhaddon ar- senal inscription (p. 146) and a new Sennacherib inscription (p. 134) from a copy made in 1854(!). (In this text, perhaps the

phrase essis usepis should be rendered to reflect a sense "built in a new way" rather than "built anew"-would not Sennach- erib here stress the novelty of his work rather than present it as a reconstruction?).

Fascinating as all this proves to be, Russell offers the reader a lot more, what amounts to a full-scale inquiry into the Assyr- ian creative process. Here Assurnasirpal broke new ground and set a standard for his immediate successors, while Sennacherib and Assurbanipal in particular essayed new approaches built on the experience of their predecessors. The particular issue in this

inquiry was how the Assyrian designers coordinated a pictorial program with written material. Their initial solution was end-

lessly repeated formulae, sometimes even partial texts fitted onto selected surfaces. Captions and epigraphs were tried, above, across, or within reliefs. The texts and images might comple- ment each other or might not seem to us coordinated at all, as

The Writing on the Wall: Studies in the Architectural Context

of Late Assyrian Palace Inscriptions. By JOHN MALCOLM RUSSELL. Mesopotamian Civilizations, vol. 9. Winona Lake, Ind.: EISENBRAUNS, 1999. Pp. xii + 348, illus. $52.50.

Assyrian palaces and their inscriptions have been the sub-

jects of intense scrutiny since the nineteenth century. This book is the first attempt to bring the two together, including all the relevant evidence from Assurnasirpal II through Assurbanipal. Russell tries systematically to reconstruct the exact placement of every royal inscription that was incorporated in the fabric of an Assyrian palace from this period, such as thresholds, doors, colossi, and the fronts and backs of relief panels. This proved a difficult task. Assyriologists and historians are used to reading the inscriptions in composite editions with little more than a

general sense that they were displayed somewhere in a palace. Even scientific publications of the texts routinely omit their

findspots, and the texts they present may in fact be artificial conflations or arrangements of material that was deployed dif-

ferently in its original context (for example, Shalmaneser III, pp. 74f., 82). Students of art and architecture have often left the texts aside as a separate, specialized agenda.

Russell has expended considerable effort to identify every inscription and where it was found, so The Writing on the Wall is, in the first instance, a rich and detailed handbook for any- one interested in Assyrian commemorative inscriptions. Much new information has been culled from unpublished excavators' notes and on the scene in Iraq. One could say furthermore that A. H. Layard emerges as a far more thorough excavator and re- corder than recent histories of archaeology portray him; more detailed information concerning what he found is available in his notes, drawings, and papers than for some excavations more

recently carried out on the same structures. For the philologist, the book is a mine of collations and suggestions, and even the occasional editio princeps-for example, the Esarhaddon ar- senal inscription (p. 146) and a new Sennacherib inscription (p. 134) from a copy made in 1854(!). (In this text, perhaps the

phrase essis usepis should be rendered to reflect a sense "built in a new way" rather than "built anew"-would not Sennach- erib here stress the novelty of his work rather than present it as a reconstruction?).

Fascinating as all this proves to be, Russell offers the reader a lot more, what amounts to a full-scale inquiry into the Assyr- ian creative process. Here Assurnasirpal broke new ground and set a standard for his immediate successors, while Sennacherib and Assurbanipal in particular essayed new approaches built on the experience of their predecessors. The particular issue in this

inquiry was how the Assyrian designers coordinated a pictorial program with written material. Their initial solution was end-

lessly repeated formulae, sometimes even partial texts fitted onto selected surfaces. Captions and epigraphs were tried, above, across, or within reliefs. The texts and images might comple- ment each other or might not seem to us coordinated at all, as

702 702

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Reviews of Books

with Tiglath-Pileser III. In some cases, text and image may have derived independently from a common source, but with different choices of what to include (p. 121). Russell shows that the story to be told was read to the king, and, after his approval, the reliefs and texts were planned to convey what he wished. This vindicates the effort of von Soden, in an interesting if out- of-date study, to show the imprint of the royal personality on commemorative inscriptions (Herrscher im alten Orient [Ber- lin: Springer Verlag, 1956], including essays on Assurnasirpal II, Tiglath-Pileser III, Sargon II, Esarhaddon, Sennacherib and

Assurbanipal). The reliefs were executed before the inscrip- tions, so in some instances Russell can show that the texts were updated after the reliefs had been done and worked into the space allotted. There are many other variables than these: scribes originally forced texts to fit spaces, then apparently com-

posed them to fit spaces, and ultimately planned some spaces to hold texts already composed. Russell faces squarely baffling problems: why some inscriptions were regularly carved on the backs of slabs, except for Tiglath-Pileser III, who apparently did not know this was the norm (p. 211), or on invisible parts of engaged colossi. In all the palaces, priority lay with the im-

ages and the text supplemented the images, proclaimed their

ownership, or identified certain of their features. Indeed, the texts seem to have begun as primarily marks of ownership and

only later were their possibilities of interacting with the pictures appreciated; yet, at the end, the coordinated texts were presented separately and the reliefs were intended to present the message in and of themselves in a broader background, free of registers and marks of ownership, though with helpful epigraphs.

The developing association, then separation of annalistic narratives from the relief programs and their restriction to

prisms, cylinders, and other non-architectural forms, and result-

ing shrinkage of texts on the reliefs to brief guides to certain

scenes, raises interesting questions for the reader that Russell has not only provided the data for but is willing to discuss in some detail. Considered in connection with the "general state- ments" found on doorsills and monumental entryway colossi, the development, expansion, then separation of verbal narrative offers us a unique opportunity to see how Assyrian artists and

designers made their choices and even allows us to speculate as to why. To the many lines of argument that make Russell's book such interesting reading, I offer a modest proposal. Perhaps by the time of Sennacherib the designers and their master were well aware that a palace was seldom used for its original pur- pose beyond a lifetime or two. Assurnasirpal no doubt imagined his work standing for generations and constructed for himself a kind of diorama of his res gestae in which it was important his name be recalled constantly. He was right to the extent that his

palace was still in use 150 years later (p. 97). His name would be remembered even if, as it may have turned out, the events

portrayed were not self-evident from the reliefs. But Sennach- erib, and especially Esarhaddon, would have known full well the fate that awaited most palaces. Therefore with him and his

successors, perhaps the designers worked from a premise that the events of the reign would be well known to the viewer, so the reliefs and the texts associated with them could be a selec- tion of episodes and details, rather than the more comprehen- sive narrative experimented with earlier, just as a presentation of the American revolution to Americans might highlight specifics, in preference to informing a viewer who knew noth-

ing of it. By Assurbanipal's time, any designer would have known that there was little likelihood of the palace serving as such beyond the lifetime of its builder. Therefore the complete narrative was placed in a context where an excavator or pillager of materials might find it, whereas the relief program was for

contemporaries who brought with them at least a basic idea of what had happened in recent years; otherwise, they would prob- ably not be in the palace at all. Therefore the key to the later de-

signers' strategies was what knowledge they thought the viewer would bring with him, which was deemed far more extensive in

Assurbanipal's time than in Tiglath-Pileser III's; in the seventh

century, with the examples of Sargon II's and other palaces be- fore him, no builder could realistically expect anyone to have access to an unmolested relief program centuries hence, only to the historical documents. As Russell himself suggests, the later relief programs resemble cinema more than long-term com- memoration for the benefit of the wholly uninformed of later times. The point is not to narrate ex nihilo but to represent "cur- rent events" to those who knew them. More explicit guidance awaited future generations elsewhere, in the inscriptions on

clay. In this reading, the general doorway and colossi texts be- come statements of the minimum information the person actu-

ally entering the room was supposed to bring in with him: the

title, author, and contents or the credits and mise-en-scene of

who, where, and when. One cavil: throughout the book, Russell assumes that few

viewers of these images in their original context could read the

inscriptions carved, painted, or glazed on the walls and floors around them. In fact, no one knows whether or not those with access to centers of power, such as these palace chambers and halls, could read. These compositions were certainly not for mass indoctrination but were aimed at a crucial elite, present and future. Perhaps too much has been made of the difficulties of reading the Akkadian inscriptions.

The Writing on the Wall includes tables, checklists, and

bibliography, creative analysis and discussion plainly and mod-

estly set forth, and an overall lively sense of inquiry and appre- ciation of these extraordinary structures that will compel the reader to think about them and their inscriptions afresh, even if what remains of them are but sad scraps of once magnificent achievements.

BENJAMIN R. FOSTER

YALE UNIVERSITY

703

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