The Art of Ancient Iran, Pre-Islamic
Cultures

Notes for Chapter Five

2. For a discussion of the removal of the Ningal statue, see D. O. Edzard, Die 'sweite Zwischenzeit' Babylonians [Wiesbaden, 1957], p. 57.

3. For a discussion of these statues, see E. Strommenger, 'Das Menschenbild in der altmesopotamischen Rundplastik von Mesilim bis Hammurapi,' Baghdader Mitteilungen I [1960], pp. 72-74.

4. For a summary of the relations between Elam and Mesopotamia from the end of the third millennium B.C. to the beginning of the second, see Hinz, 'Persia . . .' [op. cit. in note IV/1], pp. 12-20; for the imports from Susa to Mesopotamia, see op . cit., p. 4. For the exports of barley and oil from Mesopotamia to Elam, see Leemans, op. cit. in note I/7, p. 116. The shrinking of trade can be deduced from the evidence presented by Leemans, especially p. 175.

5. The probable oral nature of the local business and legal practices in Susa was discussed by L. Oppenheim in a study of the legal records from Susa and their relations to records from northern Mesopotamia, from the Hurrian town of Nuzi, and from Assur; see 'Der Eid in den Rechtsurkunden aus Susa,' Wiener Zeitschrift für die kunde des Morgenlandes XLIII [1936], pp. 242-262.

6. R. Labat, 'Elam, c. 1600-1200 B.C., ' CAH II/XXIX [1963], pp. 4-6, stressed the ethnic changes which occurred in Elam toward the end of the First Dynasty of Babylon, in the seventeenth and sixteenth centuries B.C., and pointed to the likelihood of a considerable proportion of Hurrians among the newcomers.

7. The division into an Old, Middle, and Neo-Elamite period is based on a terminology suggested by H. H. Paper for Elamite texts; see his 'Elamite Texts from Tchogha-Zanbil,' JNES XIV [1955], p. 44. Paper merely made this suggestion for Middle Elamite texts, suggestng the use of Old Elamite for the 'proper names and isolated words and phrases embedded in Akkadian and Sumerian texts from Susa and elsewhere' before the beginning of Elamite literature. The term Neo-Elamite is introduced here, paralleling the general use of terms Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian.

8. A large group of Old Elamite cylinders was published by Delaporte, Louvre I, Pl. 34:2-10, which show the motif of a worshipper before an enthroned deity, with a vessel, an offering table, or a bird between the figures; Pl. 34:11-15, 17-21, and Pl. 35:1, 2, which are also Old Elamite but different in theme. Old Elamite cylinders with various themes were also published by M. Rutten in Revue d'Assyriologie XLIV [1950], Pl. IV: 35, Pl. V: 37, 40-51, Pl. VI: 52-54, 56.

9. For a discussion of imprints of Elamite style on tablets from Nuzi, see E. Porada, 'The Origin of Winnirke's Cylinder Seal,' JNES V [1946], pp. 257-259.

10. The discussion of the cylinder seals from Tchoga Zanbil and the drawings of a few examples are excerpted from a manuscript on this material which I am preparing for publication at the invitatin of R. Ghirshman. Drawings of cylinders from Susa were made by Paul Lampl after impressions which I was able to make at the Louvre with the kind permissin of A. Parrot. The dates of Untashgal and other Elamite things are given according to G. G. Cameron, History of early Iran [Chicago, 1936], pp. 230-231. R. Labat in 'Elam,' CAH, II/XXIX, pp. 3-13 and inside back cover, does not commit himself to absolute dates for the length of the rulers' reigns.

11. The Neo-Elamite relief from Susa showing a prince wearing headgear of a pointed type is best reproduced in Encyclopédie photographique de l'art I, p. 274, where it is erroneously dated in the end of the second millennium B.C. The correct date: 653-648 B.C., for Addahamiti-Inshushinak, the king represented, is given by Debevoise in JNES I [1942], p. 84.

12. That this was indeed the intention of the seal-cutter and not the representation of figures bound by the water-courses, as one might also think, is proved by the representation on a gold bowl in the Archaeological Museum, Teheran, reproduced in Archaeology 17 [Autumn 1964], p. 200.

13. For Proto-Elamite abbreviated animal forms, see Amiet, Glyptique, Pl. 32, Fig. 516; Pl. 35, Fig. 550.

14. What we call here bitumen is referred to as rock-asphalt in C. Singer et al., A History of Technology I [Oxford University Press, New York, London, 1954], p. 256, caption to Fig. 161.

15. The leg of an object with an ibex, Plate 8 above, was published by De Mecquenem in a drawing in MDPXXIX [1943], p. 111, Fig. 83:4. The animal-shaped legs of a bitumen basin from Susa, EncyclopÚdia photographique de l'art I, p. 248 C, show how the leg here reproduced was probably attached to a vessel. The bowl, Plate 8 below, was published in MDP XXV [1934], Pl. XII: 1. De Mecquenem said about it [op. cit., p. 211] that it was found 'A l'intérieur du sarcophage... pour l'utime purification des mains du mort . . . ' I have deduced from this statement that the object was found between the hands of the skeleton.

16. For a reconstruction of the vessel, see OIG 20 [1936], p. 100, Fig. 79.

17. This route seems to have been used even by Babylonian merchants when political disturbances interfered with the passage of valuable goods through central Mesopotamia; see Leemans, op. cit. [in note I/7], p. 171.

18. The falcon was published in MDP XXV [1934], p. 210, Fig. 53:3. The blue inlays, unfortunately, seem to have disappeared between the summer of 1960, when I saw them and photographed the object which was then still intact, and the summer of 1962 when they were no longer there. I was told that the objects in the hall had been moved about a great deal and we may presume that the inlays were lost at that time. The inlays were referred to as enamel by the the excavator, but they seemed to me to be of the powdery blue composition called 'Egyptian blue', described by F. R. Matson in Persepolis II, pp. 133-135. A small head which was found in the same group of graves as the falcon was made of the same composition; see ibid., Fig. 53:14.

19. See especially the rings [C. L. Wooley, The Royal Cemetary [Ur Excavations II, 1934], Pl. 138, U. 10878, U. 9778] but also a circular penant [ibid., Pl. 133, U. 8565] and even the silver hair ornaments inlaid with gold, sheel, lapis lazuli and red limestone [Pl. 136, text p. 240] which are decorated in this technique.

20. The jewellery was published in MDP XXIX [1943], p. 15, Fig. 12, and dated by Le Breton in the time of Susa Cb [Iraq XIX, 1957, p. 109, Fig. 27]. This date seems to have been based on the position of the tomb rather than on its contents, which should be studied more carefully before one can be certain of their date.

21. Unfortunately irregular lines were scratched on our plate; the regular pattern of the original is rendered in the drawing MDPXXV [1934], p. 210, Fig. 53:15.

22. Similar cords transposed into bronze are seen on bronze hammers, of which one has an inscription of King Shulgi of the Third Dynasty of Ur [c. 2097-2051 B.C.]; see J. Deshayes, 'Marteaux de bronze iraniens,' Syria XXXV [1958], p. 287, Fig. 3, bottom. The silver head from Susa was considered by De Mecquenem to be the head of a staff; see 'Têtes de cannes susiennes en métal,' Revue de'Assyriologie XLVII [1953], pp. 79-82. A drawing was reproduced on p. 81, Fig. 2:3.

23. A Cylinder of Mitannian style with an Elamite inscription is in the collectin of M. Foroughi and will be published in 1966 in Iranica Antique.

24. See especially the report on the excavations at Tchoga Zanbil in Arts asiatiques VIII [1961], pp. 251-254, where the ingenious installations for a reservoir are discussed.

25. For a summary in English of the architecture of Tchoga Zanbil, see Labat in 'Elam...,' CAH II/XXIX [1963], pp. 17-22. Labat writes the name of the founder of Tchoga Zanbil as Untash-[d] GAL; see ibidl, p. 9 and note 1. I have adopted this writing for the same reasons that he gives in the cited note, but have simplified the name in the text for smoother reading to Untashgal.

26. For the 'postament' with niches, see Ghirshman in Arts asiatiques II [1955], p. 172, Fig. 11, and pp. 176-177.

27. For the description of the 'royal gate,' see Ghirshman in Arts asiatiques IV [1957], pp. 116-119.

28. For the restoration of the bull by Mme. Ghirshmann, see Arts asiatiques VI [1959], pp. 279-280

29. For a description of these 'offering tables' and the other elements of the cultic installations here described, see Ghirshman in Arts asiatiques IV [1957], pp. 120-122.

30. For Ghirshman's description of the tombs at Tchoga Zanbil, see Arts asiatiques VI [1959], pp. 272-278. For the plan of the palace of Adad Nirari I with the royal sepulchres, see C. Preusser, Die Pálaste in Assur [WVDOG] 66, 1955], Pl. 4. For Sennacherib's inscription on a brick of the royal sepulchre at Assur, see D. D. Luckenbill, The Annals of Sennacherib [OIP II, 1924], p . 151, XIII.

31. De Mecquenem made this suggestion in Vivre et Penser, 3éme série, which corresponds to Revue Biblique 52 [1945], p. 141. P . Amiet kindly drew my attention to this article.

32. For the publication of the model by J. E. Gautier, see 'Le "Sit-Samsi" de Silhak In Susinak,' MDP XII [1911], pp. 143-151. [Note: Accents are not correctly placed in the Title of this article.]

33. The statue of Napirasu was described by G. Lampre, MDP VIII [1905], pp. 245-250. For an enlarged detail of the hands, see Parrot, Sumer, p. 323, Fig. 399.

34. The head of an Elamite was published as Pre-Achaemenid in Survey IV, Pls. 105, 106. I. M. Diakonov was the first to recognize that the head belonged to the early art of Iran; see 'On an Ancient Oriental Sculpture' [English summary of an article in Russian], Musée de l'Ermitage, trav. du départment oriental IV [Leningrad, 1947] [Gosudarstvennyi Ermitazh; Trudy Otdela Vostoka], pp. 117-118. Diakonov made a careful comparison of the stylization of the beard with those of other sculptures, mostly Mesopotamian, and pointed to the close relation which exists with the stylizations of the Akkad period. In view of the tendency of Iranian art to retain earlier traits over many centuries, I think that a date for the head after the Akkad period, in the middle of the second millennium B.C., is possible.

35. A rendering of the eyes with the lower lid rising perceptibly at the outer end, to create the impression of sightly oblique position, is also seen in the head of a bearded Elamite of clay from Susa, juxtaposed with a photograph of the bronze head by Parrot in Sumer, pp. 330, 331, Figs. 406 and 407.

36. The dedication of a golden statue of the king can be found amog the names of years from the reigns of the Babylonian kings Ammidiatna [c. 1684-1647 B.C.] and Samsuditana [c. 1626-1595 B.C.]; See Unger, 'Daten-listen,' in Ebeling-Meissner, Reallexikon der Assyriologie II, p. 189: 245 [Ammiditana], and JNES XIV [1955], p. 156: XI/21 and perhaps XI/23 [Samauditana]. The formula which mentions a statue of gold and of silver [Unger, op. cit., p. 192:288] probably was due to an error on the part of one of the modern translators of the text; see J. J. Finkelstein in Journal of Cuneiform Studies XIII [1959], p. 47:k.

37. For the description of the Inshushinak deposit and of the deposit in the vicinity; the gold statuette and associated finds, see MDP VII [1905], pp. 61-130 and 131-136.

38. This statement is found in the article in Vivre et Penser, cited in note V/31, p. 141.

39. The lion's head of the whetstone is not unlike that of the axe from Tchoga Zanbil [well reproduced in Godard, L'art de l'Iran, Fig. 14], despite the more rounded forms of the latter.

40. In an article entitled 'Archaische Zügelringe; zur Auflösung der Gattung "Luristanbronzen", 'to be published in the Festschrift for A. Moortgat, P. Calmeyerattempts to place all rein-rings of similar shape, including our Plate 13, in the third millennium B.C.' Without stratigraphic proof for a survival of earlier types into later periods, my argument for a later date cannot be pressed.

41. For the fragmentary figures of Napirasu, her mother and her consort in the upper register of the stele, see EncycopÚdie photographique de lÍart I, p . 270 C, also Vanden Berghe, Archéologie, Pl. 102c.

42. We find in the human-headed bulls of a bitumen vase from Susa, Encyclopédie photographicque de l'art I, p. 255, A, a profile related to that of the demon on the stele of Untashgal. Again inhabitants of the mountain regions may have been in the mind of the artist who carved these creatures of primeval strength recumbent among the characteristic Elamite pine-trees growing on mountains.

43. We can do no more here than point to the possibility of the survival of early iconograhical features in later literary concepts. Detailed comparisons, however, can be made only by scholars who have first-hand knowledge of the late literary texts .

44. The relief in th central panel was placed in the Guti period and the processionof figures was considered to have been made earlier by N. C. Debevoise in 'Rock Reliefs in Ancient Iran,' JNES I [1942], p. 78. Herzfeld placed the relief in the time of Gudea; see Iran, p. 188. Some indications, however, seem to point to a later date, for example, the hair style of the enthroned god, which seems to resemble that of warriors on a bronze relief of the late second millennium B.C.; see Encyclopdeie photographique de l'art I, p. 275. Though the latter relief is not inscribed, it is nevertheless probably that it was set up by Shilhak Inshushnak about 1130 B.C. in the temple of Inshushinak at Susa; see R. Labat, 'Elam and Western Persia, c. 1200-1000 B.C.,' CAH II/XXXII [1964], p. 17. Vanden Berghe, who followed the dating of earlier writers in Archéologie, p. 58, states in Iranica Antiquea III/1 [1963], p. 32 [note 3 continued from p. 31] that the central scene is much older than the procession of figures, which he tentatively dates in the eighth century B.C.

45. See the reference to the relief of 'Addahamiti-Inshushinak' in note V/11.

46. Naqia, the mother of Esharhaddon [680-669 B.C.], is represented with such a crown in Parrot, Assyria, p. 118, Fig. 133. The wife of Ashurbanipal, Ashusharrat, was shown with such a crown in the so-called Garden Scene reproduced by Frankfort, Art and Architecture, Pl. 114, and on her stele; for the latter, see Andrae, Die Stelenreihen in Assur [WVDOG 24, 1913], p. 7, Fig. 3 and Pl. X, stele I.

47. We differentiate here between faience, a composite material consisting of a body or core 'of finely powdered quartz grains cemented together by fusion with small amounts of an alkali or lime or both,' and earthenware in which the body contains clay. Both are glazed but earthenware objects have to have a sliceous covering to which the glaze can adhere. The quotation about the composition of faience was taken from J. F. S. Stone and L. C. Thomas, 'The Use and Distribution of Faience in the Ancient East and Prehistoric Europe,' Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society N.S. XXII [1956], pp. 37-84, especially p. 38.

48. Especially interesting are the doors, found at Tchoga Zanbil, which were decorated with glass rods; see Ghirshman, Arts asiatiques III [1956], p. 169, Fig. 8. De Mecquenem found one hundred kilos of such rods without recognizng how they had been used; see MDP XXIII [1953], Pl. B:1 and pp. 52-53, Fig. 20:1,2.

49. For the sculptures from Nuzi, see R. F. S. Starr, Nuzi [Cambridge, 1937], Pls. 110: A and 111; for an analysis of the glaze, see ibid., pp. 523-525. For the bull from Tchoga Zanbil, see note 28 above.

50. The earliest glazed bricks dated with any certainty are the orthostates of Tukulti Ninurta II [890-884 B.C.]; see W. Andrae, Coloured Ceramics from Ashur [Berlin, 1925], Pls. 7, 8.

51. It will be interesting to see whether this colour was produced by copper compounds as in Egypt or by cobalt, which was available in Persia; see A. L ucas, Ancient Egyptian Materials and Industries, 4th ed. revised by Y. R. Harris [London, 1962], p. 189.

52. To the same time, the reign of Kutir-Nahhunte after 1160 B.C., belong the brick reliefs, conveniently reproduced by Parrot, Sumer, p . 329, Fig. 405.

53. The fragment of the horned animal, Fig. 44, which I believe to come from a late tile, is shown in the reproduction [MDP I [1900], Pl. VI, upper left] with a strong yellow colour like Plate 14 below, which I consider an earlier tile.

54. Ivory boxes which resemble the Elamite faience jars in shape are represented among the Nimrud invories; see R. D. Barnett, a Catalogue of the Nimrud Ivories [British Museum, London, 1957], Pls. XVI-XXIV. The small ivory head with the diadem of rosettes and double lotus-blossoms was published in ILN [Aug. 16, 1952], p. 255, Figs. 8, 9. It is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, acc. no. 54.117.8. Perhaps the rosettes and the lotus-petals placed above and below a double band are derived from Hittite hieroglyphs with an auspicious meaning. This would help to explain the frequent occurence and longevity of the motif, especially its use on the crown of Darius at Bisutun, Fig. 85.

55. An undecorated situla was found at Hasanlu in a context of the ninth century B.C. Perhaps this means that the situlae decorated with repoussÚ were later. Mme. Maliki, who published the finest situla so far known, gave numerous reasons for dating the piece in the twelfth to tenth centuries B.C. and proposed to see in the situlae a group of objects from Luristan which extends over several centuries; see 'Situle à scène de banquet,' Iranica Antiqua I [1961], pp. 21-41. I am inclined to call the situla Elamite and to date it in the ninth or eighth century B.C. on the basis of the hair style of the principal male figure, which differs from that of King Marduknadinahhe cited by Mme. Maliki. Moreover, I do not know of another example of the empty honeycomb pattern of the figure's robe, which should be dated before the first millennium B.C.

56. The point that bronze shields were 'for ritual and show,' leather for use, was demonstrated by J. M. Coles in ILN [March 2, 1963], pp. 299-301.