(_A_) SHELL-ENGRAVING
The art of engraving on shell in Mesopotamia dates back to the earliest
days of Sumerian civilization. The most ancient of these engravings are
executed on shells with rough surfaces, of which those of the oyster
seem to have been the most popular.
Some of the fragments recovered are clearly shaped and fashioned for
inlaying purposes, while others, of curved shape, can be fitted together
and once formed part of an engraved and delicately moulded vase or cup.
Some time later mother-of-pearl became the popular material among
engravers, who used it to great advantage. Mother-of-pearl is
undoubtedly more effective and striking than ordinary shell, but it has
its disadvantages and drawbacks, for it is both brittle and scaly, and
in consequence of this the engraver seems to have been compelled from
the necessity of the case to confine himself to the use of flat blades
or flakes when employing this material.
[Illustration: FIG. 78.—(Louvre) Cat., p. 389.]
[Illustration: FIG. 79.—_Déc. en Chald._, Pl. 46, 4.]
One of the most ancient specimens of the shell-engraver’s art as yet
discovered is that reproduced in Fig. 78. This fragment is convex in
form and a truncated triangle as regards its shape. A lion is seen in
the act of strangling a bull; with one of his fore-legs he is grasping
his victim round the neck, and the other is thrown around and over the
bull’s back, while he is burying his teeth in the bull’s neck. The
general style to which this engraving conforms, the full-face view of
the lion, the act in which he is engaged, and the combined vigour and
crudeness which characterize this production, vividly recall the
mace-head of Mesilim, king of Kish (cf. Fig. 26). The comparison between
the two is so striking that we can hardly be wrong in assigning this
engraved shell to approximately the same period, i.e. to the time before
Ur-Ninâ, the founder of the first dynasty of Lagash. It was discovered
at Tellô in the neighbourhood of Eannatum’s well and is just under three
inches in height. In Fig. 79[138] we have another fragment of a very
archaic shell-engraving; a human-headed and streaky-bearded bull is
being attacked by a lion-headed eagle; the shell itself is extremely
thin, and the engraving very delicate, but the design itself as well as
the mode of its execution both testify to its great age. The shell work
of the time of Ur-Ninâ and his successors is well illustrated in Fig.
80. We have here a sketch of a man bearing a net; the man is
clean-shaven and bald, and his face is of precisely the same type as
that so frequently represented on the sculptures of Ur-Ninâ’s time. His
only clothing is a short “kaunakes” skirt, the fringe of which is
portrayed in the fashion characteristic of the earliest Sumerian works
of art. In his right hand he carries a battle-axe, while with his left
he holds the ends of two sticks from which is slung the net or basket
already referred to. This small relic was found in the same
neighbourhood as the preceding, and is just under two inches high.
Another interesting specimen of Sumerian shell-engraving is published by
Mr. L. W. King in the _Proceedings of the Society of Biblical
Archæology_, 1910, pp. 243-5. It represents a bearded hero embracing an
ibex. It is worthy of note that the hero’s dress does not consist in the
Sumerian skirt, but in a loin-cloth. Probably the finest example of
early Babylonian shell-work is that reproduced in Fig. 81; the leaping
kid is wonderfully realistic both in form and attitude and has clearly
been studied from nature. Of the mother-of-pearl work of a somewhat
later date we have a good example in Fig. 82. Here Gilgamesh is depicted
in standing posture holding in either hand one of the long “staves” seen
elsewhere, and specifically on the famous green steatite vase of Gudea
(cf. Fig. 90). Gilgamesh is portrayed full-face and has the long
vertically streaked beard so frequently seen on the cylinder-seals. This
fragment is just under two and a half inches in height, and emanated
from the same place. The engraved oblong mother-of-pearl plaques would
appear to have been used for the decoration of the handles of knives or
daggers.
[Illustration: FIG. 80.]
[Illustration: FIG. 81. (Musée du Louvre)]
[Illustration: FIG. 82. Cat., pp. 393, 401.]
[Illustration: FIG. 83. (After Layard.)]
In Fig. 83 we have one of the best preserved and most interesting
specimens of later shell-work in Mesopotamia. This fragment was
discovered at Warka (Erech), but is clearly Assyrian in style: the
elaborately caparisoned horses remind us strikingly of the horses
sculptured in relief on the palace walls of Ashur-naṣir-pal at Nimrûd
(Calah), while the floral decoration betrays Egyptian influence and
recalls the carved ivories which were found amid the débris of that
king’s palace. The ruined mounds of Assyria herself have yielded but few
specimens of the shell-engraver’s art, and those that have been
recovered are for the most part Phœnician in workmanship and Egyptian in
conception, sphinxes and lotus-plants assuming the most prominent part
in the decoration. The discovery of engraved shells of apparently a yet
later date was among the many interesting results attending the German
excavations at Babylon; a number of these shells were found on the floor
of a building of Nebuchadnezzar, some of which showed Egyptian influence
and were decorated with lotus ornaments. Shell was thus used for various
decorative purposes, but in early times it sometimes served as a
material for the fashioning of even so utilitarian an object as a seal,
as we have already had occasion to remark.
(_B_) IVORY-WORK
[Illustration: FIG. 84.]
Unlike shell, which could be readily picked up on the shores of the
Persian Gulf by the inhabitants of the earliest centres of civilization
in Lower Mesopotamia, many of which were doubtless seaports in those
days, ivory was only procurable elsewhere, and it was not till the
dwellers in the valley extended their power outside that they were able
to command a supply of this more precious substance, ivory forming one
of the principal materials exacted by the later Assyrian kings from
their various vassal princes. A large collection of carved ivories
discovered in Ashur-naṣir-pal’s palace at Nimrûd (Calah) affords us the
desired opportunity for studying the ivory work of the period, and for
ascertaining the proficiency to which that art was brought by the
artists of that day. What strikes one instantly, and with overwhelming
force, about the little group of carved ivories in Pl. XXXII is their
pronounced Egyptian appearance, a sure and certain indication of the
intimate relation which must have subsisted between Egypt and Assyria at
this period. In the top right-hand corner we have the head of a woman,
represented full-face and with an Egyptian head-gear: the head is set
within the frame of a narrow window, from which it looks out over a
balcony supported by pillars. In the centre we have the fragment of a
similar head, below which there is a bull’s head. In the top left-hand
corner we have an ivory plaque upon which is figured an Egyptian king in
standing posture, grasping a lotus plant about his own height with his
left hand. The plant rests upon a stand, the top of which is shaped
volute-wise and resembles the capitals of the columns on the bas-relief
from Sippar (cf. Pl. XIV). Below on the left is a carved ivory sphinx,
which in style and character is clearly neither Assyrian nor Babylonian.
But the most interesting specimen in this group is the carved ivory
panel in which two women are seated opposite each other on either side
of a cartouche surmounted by a disc and feathers. The cartouche contains
Egyptian hieroglyphs which may be read “Uben Shu,” the meaning of which
would be “The Sun god riseth,” or the “Rising Sun”: the inside of this
cartouche is gilded, and the characters within are inlaid. The
feathers, which are likewise inlaid, are the emblem of Maat, the god of
truth, and the disc is of course emblematic of the sun. The two women
are obviously Egyptian, their head-dresses, the folds in their garments
and their general attitude all alike testifying to their Egyptian
origin, while beneath their seats, which consist of low-backed chairs,
there is the “ankh” sign, the meaning of which is “life.” This sign,
misnamed “crux ansata,” or “cross with a handle,” has needless to say
nothing whatsoever to do with the Christian symbol; it probably
represented a girdle, that which used to be regarded as a handle being
that part of the girdle which encircled the waist, the long stem being
the loose ends, and a girdle as encircling the vital parts would not
unnaturally symbolize life, and in picture-language come to signify it.
The two seated figures have one hand raised in token of adoration before
the sacred emblems in the middle, while in their other hands they firmly
grasp a sceptre. Below we have seven more fragmentary specimens of
ivory-work, all of which were discovered amid the ruins of the same
palace and betray a strong foreign influence. The deductions which these
little ivory carvings justify our making in regard to the foreign
affairs of Assyria at this period, are rendered certainties by the
evidence afforded by the bronze bowls dealt with in the chapter on
Metallurgy.
[Illustration: _PLATE XXXII_
_Photo. Mansell_ _British Museum_
CARVED IVORY PANELS, FROM NIMRÛD]
It must not however be supposed that all the ivories discovered in
Assyria are the work of Egyptian or Phœnician artists. Some, of which a
good specimen is seen in Fig. 84, are as Assyrian in style and
conception as any palace bas-relief. The ivory panel here reproduced is
just five inches high. The subject is a familiar one—a four-winged
mythological being crowned with a horned cap, with the right hand
extended in the performance of some religious ceremony, and carrying a
basket in the left hand. Not only is the motif entirely Assyrian in
character, but the workmanship and manner of execution bears the
unmistakable hall-mark of Assyria. The aggressive masculinity of the
arms and legs, the folds, arrangement and style of the garments as well
as the hair and strongly depicted beard, are all exactly paralleled in
the figures so often seen on the stone sculptures of the period. On
either side of the panel in which this mythological creature is
enshrined there is a scroll-work device which was employed in Babylonia
as early at all events as the time of Entemena of Lagash, while his feet
stand upon a line of the rosettes which appear so frequently as a
decorative accessory in Assyrian works of art. The lower part of this
panel is filled in with circular and volute-shaped devices, and at the
bottom of all we have another line of rosettes. Among the various
subjects carved on the other ivory panels emanating from the ruins of
the same palace the following may be mentioned as of especial interest:
a hero slaying a lion, some Assyrians gathering fruit, and
Ashur-naṣir-pal accompanied by deities and attendants.
These ivory panels from Nimrûd were as we have seen, in many cases
inlaid[139] with lapis lazuli and gilded, and they were probably used to
decorate and embellish thrones, or other stately articles of furniture,
and in this connection we not unnaturally think of the great throne
which Solomon built for himself, which is said to have been made of
ivory and overlaid with the best gold (cf. 1 Kings x. 18) as also of the
ivory palace erected by Ahab.