Marian H. Feldman
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780226105611
- eISBN:
- 9780226164427
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226164427.003.0004
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Asian and Middle Eastern History: BCE to 500CE
The chapter proposes that practicing a consistent style, distinct from the varied stylistic practices of the Levant, helped to bolster Assyrian state consolidation as a community of culturally ...
More
The chapter proposes that practicing a consistent style, distinct from the varied stylistic practices of the Levant, helped to bolster Assyrian state consolidation as a community of culturally conversant courtiers. It first articulates the traits that have defined an Assyrian state style, considering aspects of homogeneity across media, technique, scale, and context. Then a case study of images of booty and tribute highlights the oppositional nature of the Assyrian style that defines itself chiefly in contrast to others. The strong, coherent, and consistent style produced by the Assyrian state was part of an active strategy for maintaining a memory of conquest over the vanquished Other, at the same time neutralizing the Other so it could no longer threaten Assyria. Thus the rendering of otherness acted to establish norms of “being Assyrian” through a process of stylistic Assyrianization that emptied the Other of its own stylistic identity. The controlled and orderly nature of the Assyrian style further suggest an underlying allusion to cosmogonic myths of creation, in particular that of Enuma Elish, such that the creation of an Assyrian world through a pervasive style coextends with the divine world and cosmic order.Less
The chapter proposes that practicing a consistent style, distinct from the varied stylistic practices of the Levant, helped to bolster Assyrian state consolidation as a community of culturally conversant courtiers. It first articulates the traits that have defined an Assyrian state style, considering aspects of homogeneity across media, technique, scale, and context. Then a case study of images of booty and tribute highlights the oppositional nature of the Assyrian style that defines itself chiefly in contrast to others. The strong, coherent, and consistent style produced by the Assyrian state was part of an active strategy for maintaining a memory of conquest over the vanquished Other, at the same time neutralizing the Other so it could no longer threaten Assyria. Thus the rendering of otherness acted to establish norms of “being Assyrian” through a process of stylistic Assyrianization that emptied the Other of its own stylistic identity. The controlled and orderly nature of the Assyrian style further suggest an underlying allusion to cosmogonic myths of creation, in particular that of Enuma Elish, such that the creation of an Assyrian world through a pervasive style coextends with the divine world and cosmic order.
