(jazz music)
Dr. Zucker: We're in the British Museum in London
and we're looking at a series of magnificent low reliefs.
Dr. Harris: These show a very dramatic lion hunt
and it's the king of Assyria who is killing the lions.
Dr. Zucker: The Assyrians emerged in Mesopotamia
before 1,000 BCE, but increased their power
and by the time these reliefs were made
in the seventh century BCE, the Assyrians
were dominant and really at the height
of their civilization.
Dr. Harris: The Assyrians had several royal palaces
and several capital cities.
Ninevah, Nimrud, and Khorsabad.
The scenes that we're looking at now
are from the royal palace in Ninevah.
Dr. Zucker: These would have decorated a hallway.
You would have walked through the scene
and we're seeing different moments in time.
Dr. Harris: Assyrian kings decorated their palaces
with these low reliefs depicting battle scenes,
hunting scenes.
These all speak to the power of the Assyrian kings,
but this particular set of reliefs is especially naturalistic
and dramatic.
These are considered masterpieces
of Assyrian sculpture.
Dr. Zucker: It's a lion hunt.
It's important to understand the symbolism.
The lions, which were native to Mesopotamia and,
actually, a slightly smaller species that is now extinct,
were symbols of the violence of nature
and the king killing the lions.
By the way, there was a law that said only the king
could kill lions.
The king killing lions was an important symbolic act
that spoke of the king keeping nature at bay,
keeping his city safe.
Dr. Harris: Even though we see the king killing
lions here, he is killing them in an arena.
He's not killing them out in the wild.
Dr. Zucker: Let's move through the story.
On one side of the hallway, we see the king readying
for the hunt.
Dr. Harris: We can identify the king
because of the particular crown that he wears
and he's also larger than the other three figures
who are helping him to get ready for the hunt.
We see one figure with reigns pulling the horses,
two other figures turning in the same direction
as the king.
On the left hand side it's obviously been damaged.
Dr. Zucker: I'm really taken with the horses.
Dr. Harris: Well, the horses are represented
so much more naturalistically.
Dr. Zucker: Especially if you look at the musculature
of the face, of the eyes.
There's tremendous detail.
Dr. Harris: And emotion.
They look as though they're resisting getting bridled
for this hunt.
Dr. Zucker: We can see one of those bridles
being tightened and we can see two other figures
trying to steady the horses.
All of this is taking place within an enclosed space
and we can see other attendants that are holding
a barrier of some sort to pen in these animals.
Dr. Harris: Now they're represented below the scene
with the king, but we're meant to understand them
as being around the king.
We have human figures who,
although they're striding forward, there's a formality
to their poses, but strangely, a informality, I think,
to the horses.
Dr. Zucker: We'll see that also in the representation
of the lions, who are represented quite distinctly
from the greater sense of formality
that the king displays or his attendants display.
We have this division between man and the control
of man and then nature and its wildness.
As we move to the middle of the panels,
we see a very different scene.
We've pulled back, our view is more distant,
and we see figures much smaller now.
We see a hill with lots of figures on it.
Dr. Harris: And at the very top what seems to be
a monument to the king, showing itself a relief of a hunt
with a king in a chariot slaying lions,
so it's a representation of a representation of the hunt.
Dr. Zucker: It's a relief of a relief.
I love that.
Dr. Harris: This scene does feel chaotic.
Figures gesturing in different ways,
climbing in different ways, some looking back,
some looking forward.
Dr. Zucker: They seem to be hurrying up the hill.
They may be fleeing, they may be trying to grab
a better position to watch the hunt from,
these may be spectators.
We think we're seeing men and women, but in fact,
this is so old part of this is guesswork.
Dr. Harris: Of course, this would have been much easier
to read in the palace where the relief was painted.
Dr. Zucker: These were painted very brightly, in fact.
They really would have stood out.
As we move to the right, we come to the arena
for the hunt itself.
We can see that the lions will be held in place
by a double row of soldiers that have shields and spears
and then inside that, to ensure that the lions
don't even get that far, there's another row of soliders
with mastiffs.
They're holding spears and those dogs will make sure
that the lions don't pass.
Dr. Harris: And although these figures are represented
one on top of one another, we're meant
to understand them as being in rows in depth in space.
Dr. Zucker: I love the representation of the dogs.
You can see them straining against the leash.
Dr. Harris: We have to walk to the other end now
to see how the lions have entered the arena.
We see another double row of the king's guard
and then we see a child releasing
a very menacing looking lion into the lion hunt.
Dr. Zucker: So this is a completely fabricated hunt.
It is controlled.
We see the king on chariot.
He's shooting an arrow.
We see the arrow airborne and then, of course,
we see the lions dying all around us.
Dr. Harris: Wounded, pierced, some on the ground,
some leaping up, represented with such sympathy.
Dr. Zucker: The variety is incredible,
the detail is incredible.
You'll notice that the king is in some danger.
There is a lion that was wounded, but is coming back
to attack, but his assistants are taking up the rear.
Dr. Harris: This all speaks to the power, the authority
of the king over nature and representing that power
to his people.
(jazz music)