J.E. Curtis & N. Tallis (ed.). The Balawat Gates of Ashurnasirpal II.

J.E. Curtis & N. Tallis (ed.). The Balawat Gates of Ashurnasirpal II. J.E. CURTIS & N. TALLIS (ed.). The Balawat gates ofAshurnasirpal II. xx + 264 pages, 62 b&w & colour plates, 102figures, 10 tables, 1 diagram. 2008. London: British Museum British Museum,the national repository in London for treasures in science and art. Located in the Bloomsbury section of the city, it has departments of antiquities, prints and drawings, coins and medals, and ethnography. Press;978-0-7141-1166-7 hardback 50 [pounds sterling]. This important and generously illustrated volume publishes in fullfor the first time two pairs of Neo-Assyrian wooden gates decorated withfigurative and inscribed bronze bands from the reign of Ashurnasirpal II(883-859 BCE BCEabbr.1. Bachelor of Chemical Engineering2. Bachelor of Civil EngineeringBCEAbbreviation for befor e the Common Era. ). The book opens up unparalleled access to these richprimary sources for Assyrian history, royal ideology, art and materialculture. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] John Curtis The name John Curtis might refer to: John Curtis (died 1813), English Member of Parliament for Wells 1782–1784 and Steyning 1791–1794 John C. Curtis, American Civil War soldier and Medal of Honor recipient and Nigel Tallis of the Department of the Middle Eastat the British Museum edited the volume with contributions by RichardBarnett, Leri Davies, Irving Finkel, Marjorie Howard, Edmund Sollbergerand Christopher Walker. This wealth of expertise results in a wonderfulresource and shows the timescale and scope of the British Museum'swork on these gates. The current editors felt that it was imperative topublish them in full as soon as possible and to put important, basicmaterial in the public domain. Both pairs of gates were discovered at the small Assyrian site ofImgur-Enlil, mod ern Balawat, in northern Iraq. The site lies 16kmnorth-east of Kalhu, modern Nimrud, which Ashurnasirpal remodelled as anew Assyrian imperial capital. One pair of gates, about 4m high, wasdiscovered in a palace of Ashurnasirpal in 1878 by Hormuzd Rassam Hormuzd Rassam (1826 – 16 September, 1910) was an Assyrian Assyriologist and traveller who made a number of important discoveries, including the stone tablets that contained the Epic of Gilgamesh, the worlds oldest literature. and isnow on display in the British Museum. The other pair was found in atemple of the god Mamu in 1956 during a British School of Archaeology inIraq The British School of Archaeology in Iraq is the only body in Britain devoted to research into the ancient civilizations and languages of Mesopotamia.The School was founded in 1932 as a memorial to the life and works of Gertrude Bell. excavation directed by Max Mallowan Sir Max Edgar Lucien Mallowan, CBE (6 May, 1904–19 August, 1978) was a prom inent British archaeologist, specialising in ancient Middle Eastern history, and the second husband of the novelist Dame Agatha Christie. . After conservation and studyat the British Museum, the temple gate bands were displayed in the MosulMuseum in Iraq. Tragically, large parts of these bands were looted inApri1 2003 and are lost. Thus, the only full record of the appearance ofthe temple bands is found in this book. Ashurnasirpal's son and successor, Shalmaneser III Shalmaneser III (Šulmānu-ašarēdu, "the god Shulmanu is pre-eminent") was king of Assyria (859 BC-824 BC), and son of the previous ruler, Ashurnasirpal II[1]. , erected asimilar pair of wooden and bronze palace gates at Imgur-Enlil. Thesewere also discovered by Hormuzd Rassam in 1878 and can be seen in theBritish Museum, accompanied by a dramatic reconstruction.Shalmaneser's gates have been well known through publication since1902 and this book means that his father's gates can now besimilarly appreciated. The available evidence about Ashurnasirpal's gates isthoroughly presented by the editors, using both text and illustration.Eight bands chased and embossed with figurative scenes and cuneiform cuneiform(kynē`ĭfôrm)[Lat.,=wedge-shaped], system of writing developed before the last centuries of the 4th millennium B.C. inscriptions decorated each gate leaf and all 32 bands are illustratedand published in detail. The royal themes of warfare, receiving captivesand tribute, and hunting lions and bulls were employed. The bands werearranged in a decorative scheme and the diminishing diameter of the gateposts, originally tree trunks, remains diagnostic. Bronze edging stripswere also inscribed. After Richard Barnett's original introduction in Chapter 1,John Curtis gives a very useful summary of the Balawat excavations anddiscoveries in Chapter 2. The textual heart of the book is a pair ofchapters, Chapter 3 on the palace gates and Chapter 4 on the templegates. Each chapter is packed with invaluable material from a range ofcontributors as follows: introduction; technical description orexcavation; arrangement of the bands and content matter; description ofthe gates; and inscribed edging strips. A comparison of the two sets of bands by John Curtis and NigelTallis in Chapter 5 significantly reveals that hunting scenes and filesof captives occur only on the palace gates. John Curtis investigatesbronze gate overlay in Mesopotamia in Chapter 6 as a final contextualstudy. Five appendices add rich documentary material, drawing on lettersof Hormuzd Rassam and others, registered finds and samples, as well asinscribed material, from the British School of Archaeology in Iraqexcavations, and Ashurnasirpal's stone inscriptions from the site. Valuable though the chapters and appendices are, much of thebook's impact lies in its illustrations. Justifiably occupying morethan half the volume, they give a very thorough visual cover age of bothpairs of gates. The four colour plates and 161 monochrome figures,plates and diagrams include many excellent photographs and drawings thatare published for the first time. Particular gratitude is owed toMarjorie Howard who prepared the drawings of both pairs of gates. From excavation to full publication 130 years have elapsed forAshurnasirpal's palace gates and 52 years for those from the MatouTemple, so this book is a very welcome corrective. Taking a holisticapproach holistic approachA term used in alternative health for a philosophical approach to health care, in which the entire Pt is evaluated and treated. See Alternative medicine, Holistic medicine. , the editors present a wide range of evidence with expertise,thoroughness, and clarity. Given Iraq's recent turbulent history,including the looting of large parts of the temple bands, it isespecially important that these gates are finally published in full. FRANCES REYNOLDS Oriental Institute, University of O xford, UK (Email: frances.reynolds@orinst.ox.ac.uk)