Assyria, Babylon and Persia

Three great empires followed in the Near East. The Assyrians ruled from palaces in northern Mesopotamia in the 800s and 700s BC. The Neo-Babylonians rebuilt Babylon in the 500s BC. Then the Persians built an empire from Egypt to India and a ceremonial capital at Persepolis. Each used art to show the ruler's power to everyone who came to the palace.

A pair of lamassu from the palace of Ashurnasirpal II at Nimrud, 883 to 859 BC. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Looking closely: The lamassu. A lamassu is a protective spirit with a bearded man's head, a horned crown, eagle wings and the body of a lion or bull. Pairs of them, carved in huge stone blocks, flanked palace doorways. Look at the legs. From the front, the creature stands still on two legs. From the side, it strides forward on four. To make both views complete, the sculptors gave it five legs. The carving is crisp and patterned: curls of beard and hair, rows of feathers.

Key idea

Assyrian palaces were guarded by lamassu; Babylon's Ishtar Gate glowed with blue glazed brick; Persepolis shows rows of gift bearers from every part of the Persian Empire.

Why it works

The five legs answer a question about viewpoints. A guardian at a door is seen first from the front as you approach and then from the side as you pass. The sculptors chose to make each view correct rather than to make one physical animal, the same choice of clarity over a single viewpoint you will see in Egyptian art.

The Ishtar Gate of Babylon, about 575 BC, rebuilt from the excavated bricks in the Pergamon Museum, Berlin.

Looking closely: The Ishtar Gate. King Nebuchadnezzar II built this gate in the inner wall of Babylon. Its bricks were molded in relief and glazed deep blue, with rows of yellow-and-brown animals striding across: bulls for the storm god Adad and dragons for Babylon's god Marduk, while lions lined the walls of the Processional Way that led to it. Glaze is glass fused onto fired clay, so the colors did not fade. German archaeologists excavated the bricks between 1899 and 1917, and the gate was rebuilt in Berlin, partly from originals and partly with new bricks.

The Apadana stairway reliefs, Persepolis, Iran, about 515 to 465 BC. A photograph of the 1800s.

Looking closely: The stairway at Persepolis. Darius I began Persepolis around 518 BC. Along the stairs of his great audience hall, the Apadana, file after file of men in different dress climb in low relief, carrying gifts: vessels, cloth, animals. They are delegations from the peoples of the empire, separated by carved trees. No one fights; everyone brings something. The message is order and harmony under the king. Persepolis was burned after Alexander the Great captured it in 330 BC.

Worked example: Count the legs

Seen from the side, a lamassu has four legs walking. Seen from the front, it has two standing. How many legs are carved in all?

From the front you see the two front legs.
From the side you see four legs, and one of them is a front leg you already counted.
So the side adds three more: 2 + 3 = 5.

Answer: Five legs.

Common mistake

Thinking a lamassu has four legs. Many have five, so they look complete from the front and from the side. Check by counting from each viewpoint.

Assyria, Babylon and Persia

Practice

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Sources and further reading