Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-gtxcr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-18T05:46:17.673Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Two steles of Sargon: iconology and visual propaganda at the beginning of royal Akkadian relief

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

Lorenzo Nigro
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Sargon's accession to the throne and the subsequent submission of Mesopotamia to Akkadian sovereignty were accompanied by a strong propaganda campaign, the first such cultural enterprise to go beyond the limits of a single city-state, the echoes of which are reflected in various sources. Being a usurper, Sargon devoted a large part of his propaganda to legitimizing his authority, on the one hand by stressing the continuity between Early Dynastic and Akkadian sovereignty and, on the other, by celebrating the religious legitimacy of Akkadian kingship (Liverani 1966: 21–4). Due to these political purposes, pictorial art achieved a central role in Sargonic propaganda (Amiet 1972: 97) as it was addressed to distinguished social groups deeply involved in the Akkadian political system (Foster 1993: 26–9; Westenholz 1993: 161). At the level of official art, royal relief became a functional medium for conveying ideological messages, as is attested by the exceptional findings at Susa and by written sources such as the copies of inscriptions on monuments erected in temples. Two steles kept in the Louvre testify to the strict links established between ideological purposes and visual media during the founding phase of the Akkadian empire.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 60 , 1998 , pp. 85 - 102
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1998

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Al-Fouadi, A. H., and Madhloom, T. A. 1976. Bassekti Statue with an Old Akkadian Royal Inscription of Naram-Sin of Agade: Sumer 32, pp. 63–75.Google Scholar
Amiet, P. 1972. Les statues de Manishtusu, roi d'Agadé: RA 66, pp. 97–109.Google Scholar
Amiet, P. 1976. L'art d'Agadé au Musée du Louvre, Paris, Édition des Musées Nationaux.Google Scholar
Amiet, P. 1985. Altakkadische Flachbildkunst: In Orthmann, W. (ed.), Propyläen Kunst Geschichte 18, Berlin, Philipp von Zabern, pp. 193–7.Google Scholar
Barrelet, M.-Th. 1959. Notes sur quelques sculptures mésopotamiennes de l'époque d'Akkad: Syria 36, pp. 20–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barrelet, M.-Th. 1970. Peut-on remettre en question la «Restitution matérielle de la Stèle des Vautours»?: JNES 29, pp. 233–58.Google Scholar
Barrelet, M.-Th. 1974. La «figure du roi» dans l'iconographie et dans les textes depuis Ur-Nanshe jusqu'à la fin de la 1ere dynastie de Babylon: In Garelli, P. (ed.), Le palais et la royauté. Actes de la XIXe RAI, Paris, P. Geuthner, pp. 27–138.Google Scholar
Boehmer, R. M. 1965. Die Entwicklung der Glyptik während der Akkad-Zeit (Untersuchungen zur Assyriologie und Vorderasiatischen Archäologie 4), Berlin, Walter de Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Börker-Klähn, J. 1982. Altvorderasiatische Bildstelen und vergleichbare Felsrelief (Baghdader Forschungen 4), Mainz am Rhein, Philipp von Zabern.Google Scholar
Collon, D. 1982. Catalogue of the Western Asiatic Seals in the British Museum. Cylinder Seals II. Akkadian–Post Akkadian–Ur III Periods, London, British Museum Publications.Google Scholar
Collon, D. 1990. Near Eastern Seals, London, British Museum Publications.Google Scholar
Cooper, J. S. and Heimpel, W. 1983. The Sumerian Sargon Legend: JAOS 103, pp. 67–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooper, J. S. 1986. Sumerian and Akkadian Royal Inscriptions I, New Haven, The American Oriental Society.Google Scholar
Cooper, J. S. 1990. Mesopotamian Historical Consciousness and the Production of Monumental Art in the Third Millennium B.C.: In Gunter, A. C. (ed.), Investigating Artistic Environments in the Ancient Near East, Washington, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Smithsonian Institution, pp. 39–51.Google Scholar
Dolce, R. 1978. Gli intarsi mesopotamici dell'epoca protodinastica (Serie archeologica 23), Roma, Istituto di Studi del Vicino Oriente.Google Scholar
Edzard, D. O. 1968–1969. Die Inschriften der altakkadischen Rollsiegel: AfO 22, pp. 12–20.Google Scholar
Frankfort, H. 1939. Cylinder Seals. A Documentary Essay on Art and Religion of the Ancient Near East, London.Google Scholar
Foster, B. R. 1982. Umma in the Sargonic Period (Memoirs of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences 20), Hamden Ct., Archon Books.Google Scholar
Foster, B. R. 1985. The Sargonic Victory Stele from Telloh: Iraq 47, pp. 15–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foster, B. R. 1993. Management and Administration in the Sargonic Period: In Liverani, M. (ed.), Akkad. The First World Empire. Structure, Ideology, Traditions (History of the Ancient Near East Studies 5), Padova, Sargon srl, pp. 25–39.Google Scholar
Gelb, I. J. and Kienast, B. 1990. Die altakkadischen Königinschriften des Dritten Jahrtausends v. Chr. (Freiburger Altorientalische Studien 7), Stuttgart, Franz Steiner Verlag.Google Scholar
Groenewegen-Frankfort, A. H. 1951. Arrest and Movement: an Essay on Space and Time in the Representational Art of the Ancient Near East, London, Faber and Faber.Google Scholar
Hauptmann, R. 1991. Ein akkadzeitliches Relieffragment aus Ḫafāǧī: MDOG 123, pp. 149–56.Google Scholar
Harrah, A. 1988. La tête en pierre trouvée à Assur: Akkadica 58, pp. 27–32.Google Scholar
Heimpel, W. 1982. A First Step in the Diorite Question: RA 76, pp. 65–7.Google Scholar
Klengel-Brandt, E. 1993. Die Rekonstruktion einer altakkadischen Königsstatue aus Assur: MDOG 125, pp. 133–41.Google Scholar
Kupper, J. R. 1971. Les inscriptions triomphales akkadiennes: Orlens Antiquus 10, pp. 91–106.Google Scholar
Langdon, S. 1924. Excavations at Kish I, Paris, P. Geuthner.Google Scholar
Liverani, M. 1966. Sargon di Akkad (I protagonisti della storia universale 57). Milano.Google Scholar
Liverani, M. 1988. Vicino Oriente. Storia, Società, Economia. Roma-Bari, Laterza.Google Scholar
Liverani, M. 1993. Model and Actualization. The Kings of Akkad in the Historical Tradition: In Liverani, M. (ed.), Akkad. The First World Empire, Structure, Ideology, Traditions (History of the Ancient Near East, Studies 5), Padova, Sargon srl, pp. 41–67.Google Scholar
Matthiae, P.et al. (eds.) 1995. Ebla. Alle origini della civiltà urbana, Milano, Electa.Google Scholar
Michalowski, P. 1983. History as a Charter. Some Observations on the Sumerian King List: JAOS 103, pp. 237–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moortgat, A. 1969. The Art of Ancient Mesopotamia. The Classical Art of the Near East, London and New York, Phaidon.Google Scholar
Nagel, W. and Strommenger, E. 1968. Reichsakkadische Glyptik und Plastik im Rahmen der mesopotamisch-elamischen Geschichte: Berliner Jahrbuch für Vor- und Frühgeschichte 8, pp. 137–202.Google Scholar
Nassouhi, E. 1924. La stèle de Sargon l'Ancien: RA 21, pp. 65–78.Google Scholar
Nigro, L. 1992. Per un'analisi formale dello schema compositivo della Stele di Naram-Sin: Contributi e Materiali di Archeologia Orientale 4, pp. 61–100.Google Scholar
Nigro, L. in press. Visual Role and Ideological Meaning of the Enemies in the Royal Akkadian Relief: Actes de la 43e RAI, Prague 1–5 07 1996, Prague.Google Scholar
Perkins, A. 1957. Narration in Babylonian Art: AJA 61, pp. 51–9.Google Scholar
Pomponio, F. 1994. Re di Uruk, «re di Kiš»: Rivista degli Studi Orientali 68, pp. 1–14.Google Scholar
Porada, E. 1960. Note on the Sargonic Seal, Ur 364: Iraq 22, pp. 116–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Potts, D. T. 1986. Booty of Magan: Orlens Antiquus 25, pp. 271–85.Google Scholar
Roberts, J. J. M. 1972. The Earliest Semitic Pantheon. A Study of the Semitic Deities Attested in Mesopotamia before Ur III, Baltimore and London, John Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Scheil, V. 1908. Inscription de Šarru-ukîn: Mémoires de la Délégation en Perse X, Paris, P. Geuthner, pp. 4–8.Google Scholar
Starr, R. F. 1941. A Rare Example of Akkadian Sculpture: AJA 45, p. 81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Strommenger, E. 1971. Mesoptamische Gewandtypen von der Frühsumerishcen bis zur Larsa-Zeit: Acta Praehistorica et Archaeologica 2, pp. 37–55.Google Scholar
Tallon, F. 1993. Statue royale anonyme provenant du Temple d'Inshushinak à Suse: Studi Micenei ed Egeo- Anatolici, 31, pp. 103–10.Google Scholar
van Dijk, J. 1969. Les contacts ethniques dans la Mésopotamie et les syncrétisme de la religion sumérienne: In Hartman, S. S. (ed.), Syncretism. Based on Papers Read at the Symposium on Cultural Contact, Meeting of Religions, Syncretism held at Åbo on the 8th–10th of September, 1996 (Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis 3), Stockholm, Almquist and Wiksell, pp. 171–206.Google Scholar
Westenholz, A. 1970. Berutum, damtum, and Old Akkadian KI.GAL. Burial of Dead Enemies in Ancient Mesopotamia: AfO 23, pp. 27–31.Google Scholar
Westenholz, A. 1979. The Old Akkadian Empire — Contemporary Opinion: In Larsen, M. T. (ed.), Power and Propaganda. A Symposium on Ancient Empires (Mesopotamia 7), Copenhagen, Akademisk Vorlag, pp. 107–24.Google Scholar
Westenholz, A. 1993. The World View of Sargonic Officials: In Liverani, M. (ed.), Akkad. The First World Empire. Structure, Ideology, Traditions (History of the Ancient Near East, Studies 5), Padova, Sargon srl, pp. 157–69.Google Scholar
Winter, I. J. 1985. After the Battle is Over: the Stele of the Vultures and the Beginning of the Historical Narrative in the Art of the Ancient Near East: In Kessler, H. L. and Simpson, M. Shreve (eds.), Pictorial Narrative in Antiquity and the Middle Ages (Studies in the History of Art (16), Washington, National Gallery, pp. 11–32.Google Scholar
Winter, I. J. 1987a. The Disk of Enheduanna, the Beginning of the Office of EN-Priestess and the Weight of Visual Evidence: In Durand, J.-M. (ed.), La femme dans le Proche-Orient antique, Compte rendu de la XXXIIIe Recontre Assyriologique Internationale (Paris, 7–10 Juillet 1986), Paris, Éditions Recherche sur les Civilisations, pp. 189–201.Google Scholar
Winter, I. J. 1987b. Legitimation of Authority through Image and Legend: Seals Belonging to Officials in the Administrative Bureaucracy of the Ur III State: In Gibson, McG. and Biggs, R. D. (eds.), The Organization of Power. Aspects of Bureaucracy in the Ancient Near East (Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilizations 46), Chicago, The Oriental Institute, pp. 69–93.Google Scholar