#apkallu

Behold the king, Ashur-nasir-pal II, the imperial monarch in his new palace in his new capital of Nimrud! After hundreds of years of famine, widespread governmental instability, and marauding armies challenged the ruling powers, there followed the rise of the Neo-Assyrian empire.  

Imagine for a moment that you are a diplomat from another kingdom coming to bring tribute to the king of the Neo-Assyrians. You arrive in a bustling city, filled with new buildings and the sounds of people going about their day. You wind your way from the lower town, up the hill to the upper town, and through the palace gates. The sounds from the city below grow quieter as you enter the cool stone palace chambers, where you are greeted by walls covered in ornate, colorful images that seem to move in the dim torchlight. How might you feel as you move through such a space? What type of person do you think the king you’re about to meet might be?

The Neo-Assyrian armies - with their famed horse drawn chariots, archers, and infantry - controlled the major trade routes and dominated the surrounding states in Babylonia, western Iran, Anatolia, and the Levant.  Ashur-nasir-pal II (883-859 BCE) restored political power and wealth to Assyria and launched a major building program accompanied by significant artistic activity. This building program, which resulted in the brand new capital city at Nimrud, included the monumental Northwest Palace. The mudbrick walls of this palace, completed in 879 BCE, were decorated with massive carved alabaster panels like this one, transforming the interior with images of the king, divinities, magical beings and sacred trees - all originally brightly colored in black, white, blue, red. 

Look closely at this relief. How would you describe these two figures? How do they compare to each other? 

On this relief we see an idealized image Ashur-nasir-pal II and one of his divine attendants, known as apkallu in the Akkadian language and sometimes called “genies” today. We can tell that the figure on the left is the king because of his distinctive garments: he wears a conical cap with a small peak as a symbol of his office and his status as a warrior.  He holds a bow in his left hand to symbolize his earthly authority and a ceremonial offering bowl in his right hand to symbolize his relationship to the gods. The narrative action of the relief unfolds as the stalwart king marches across the surface of the reliefs to make an offering to the sacred tree, an ancient symbol associated with divine power, fertility, and the ability to bestow life.  He is attended by the apkallu, whom we can identify from his human body and large wings. This apkallu, like many others that would have been seen on the palace walls, holds a ceremonial bucket. Notice the ritual knives tucked into the garments of both the apkallu and the king.

Running horizontally across the figures in the relief is a text which reinforces the importance of the visual message: the glorification of the royal image and the iconography of kingly power.  This inscription is known as the “Standard Inscription” because nearly all the royal reliefs contain it. The script is cuneiform, which is a highly stylized, wedge-shaped form of writing that began in Mesopotamia around 3100 BCE.  The language is Akkadian, which served as the language of international diplomacy in the ancient Near East at this time. 

The text begins: 

I am Ashur-nasir-pal the obedient prince, the worshiper of the Great Gods, the fierce dragon, the conqueror of all cities and mountains to their full extent, the king of rulers who tames the dangerous enemies, the [one] crowned with glory, the [one] unafraid of battle, the relentless lion, who shakes resistance, the king of praise, the shepherd, protection of the world, the king whose command blots out mountains and seas…

Translation from Samuel M. Paley, The King of the World: Ashur-nasir- pal IIof Assyria 883–859 B.C. [New York: The Brooklyn Museum, 1976] 

The Neo-Assyrians feature prominently in the prophetic books of the Hebrew Bible as the avengers of a straying Israel.  In 722 BCE the Assyrians did finally conquer the kingdom of Israel.  From its expansion in the ninth century BCE to its defeat by the Babylonians and the Medes, Neo-Assyria was one of many opulent cultures that flourished in that part of the world in the ancient world.

Think about buildings that communicate power in your communities. How are they decorated? What types of power do they convey? Share your thoughts with us and explore the palace of Ashur-nasir-pal and the arts of the ancient Assyrians II in our online collection.