The King's Head

Our reading assignment this week was the Introduction and Chapter One of Rituals of War by Zainab Bahrani. The introduction begins by defining war, and explaining its role in Mesopotamian society. Bahrani explains that the ancient Mesopotamians considered the art of war as an “art of civilization” (9). He goes on to discuss how different types of art reflect military accomplishments. The last part of the introduction gives a quick summary of each chapter in the book. The first chapter, “The King’s Head,” studies a wall panel from Ashurbanipal’s Nineveh palace. The panel is usually referred to as the Battle of Til-Tuba relief, and is now held in the British Museum in London (17). The author spends the majority of the chapter focusing on this work of art, which depicts an Assyrian victory over the Elamites. The chapter then chronicles the movement of the defeated Elamite king’s severed head on the relief, and examines similar works of art. The chapter also compares the depictions of the battle to the historical account. Bahrani attempts to ascertain the significance of the decapitated head’s repeated and cryptic appearance in said works (17).

Later in the chapter different types of omens that were regarded with importance in ancient Mesopotamia are mentioned. I found the number of omens associated with the moon interesting. Observing different types of eclipse could signify plagues, diminished economy, the curing of illness, flood, the death of the King, the destruction of civilizations, and various other predictions. Other types of omen included body growths and dreams. These omens are interesting because previously with the Assyrians in The Age of Empires by Francis Joannes, we had mainly discussed the observations made of sacrificed lambs’ livers to make predictions.