(piano music)
-Ancient Mesopotamia is often credited as the
cradle of civilization, that is, the place where
farming and cities began.
It makes it seem so peaceful, but this was
anything but the case.
In fact, it was really a series of civilizations
that conquered each other.
-We're in a room in the Louvre filled with
sculpture from the Assyrians, who controlled
the ancient Near East from about 1000 BCE
to around 500 BCE.
-And these sculptures in particular come from
the palace of Sargon the 2nd, and we're carved
at the height of Assyrian civilization in
the 8th century BCE.
-So this is modern day Khorsabad.
-In Iraq.
-And various Assyrian kings established palaces
at different cities.
So there were palaces at Nimrid and Assur
before this, and after there'll be
a palace at Nineveh, but these sculptures come
from an excavation from modern day Khorsabad.
-The most impressive sculptures that survive
are the guardian figures that protected the city's
gates, and protected the gates of the citadel itself.
That is, the area within which were both the temple
and the royal palace.
-So at each of these various gates, there were
guardian figures that were winged bulls with
the heads of men.
-We think they were called Lamassu.
-As figures that stood at gateways, they make sense.
They're fearsome, they look powerful.
They could also be an expression of the power
of the Assyrian king.
-They are enormous, but even they would have
been dwarfed by the architecture.
They would have stood between huge arches.
In fact, they had some structural purpose.
It's interesting to note that each of these
Lamassu are actually carved out of a monolithic
stone, that is, there are no cuts here.
These are single pieces of stone, and in the
ancient world, it was no small task to get these
stones in place.
-Well, and apparently, there were relief carvings
in the palace that depicted moving these massive
Lamassu into place.
So it's important to remember that the Lamassu
were the gateway figures, but the walls of the
palace were decorated with relief sculpture
showing hunting scenes and other scenes
indicating royal power.
-This is a Lamassu that was actually a guardian
for the exterior gate of the city.
It's in awfully good condition.
-Well my favorite part is the crown.
It's decorated with rosettes, and then double
horns that come around toward the top center,
and then on top of that, a ring of feathers.
-It's really delicate for such a massive
and powerful creature.
The faces are extraordinary.
First of all, just at the top of the forehead,
you can see kind of incised wavy hair that comes
just below the crown, and then you have
a connected eyebrow.
-And then the ears are the ears of a bull
that wear earrings.
-Actually quite elaborate earrings.
-Well the whole form is so decorative.
-And then there's that marvelous, complex
representation of the beard.
You see little ringlets on the cheeks of the face,
but then as the beard comes down, you see
these spirals that turn downward, and then
are interrupted by a series of horizontal bands.
-And then the wings too form this lovely decorative
pattern up the side of the animal, and then
across it's back.
-In fact across the body itself there are ringlets
as well, so we get a sense of the fur of the beast.
And then under the creature, and around the legs,
you can see inscriptions in cuneiform.
-Some of which declare the power of the king.
-And damnation for those that would threaten
the king's work, that is, the citadel.
-What's interesting too is that these were meant
to be seen both from a frontal view and
a profile view.
-Well if you count up the number of legs,
there's one too many.
There are five.
-Right, two from the front, and four from the side,
but of course, one of the front legs overlaps,
and so there are five legs.
-What's interesting is that when you look at the
creature from the side, you actually see that
it's moving forward, but when you look at it
from the front, those two legs are static
so the beast is stationary.
And think about what this means for a guardian
figure at a gate.
As we approach, we see it still, watching us
as we move, but if we belong, if we're friendly,
and we're allowed to pass this gate, as we move
through it, we see the animal itself move.
-And then we have this combination of these
decorative forms that we've been talking about
with a sensitivity to the anatomy of this
composite animal.
His abdomen swells, and his hindquarters move
back, and then we can see the veins, and muscles,
and bones in his leg.
-So there really is this funny relationship
between the naturalistic and the imagination
of the sculpture.
-And the decorative, but all speaking to the
power, the authority of the king and the fortifications
of this palace, and this city.
-They are incredibly impressive.
It would be impossible to broach the citadel
without being awestruck by the power
of this civilization.
(piano music)