The history of the world is the history of violence.
Assassin’s Creed
The cultural phenomenon of violence is dealt with by various studies.1 Violence and memories of violence can also be visually depicted in the material imagery.2 Laura Battini argues that the psychological effects of images should not be underestimated. Images of blood, decapitation, destruction, siege, and deportation arouse emotions and are recorded in the brain.3 Many graphic images of violence from our day and age substantiate this, especially in the mass media. The very graphic scenes of violence from the ancient records discussed in this essay are not intended to bombard the reader with gory details but to argue that ancient rulers used such images to impress and even to intimidate: to show their power, to serve as a warning, and to demand obedience.4
Images of war and violence in the ancient Near East are discussed by Zainab Bahrani and in a collected volume edited by Battini.5 While such images are familiar from the ancient empires of Egypt and Mesopotamia, this essay considers less well-known material from the Iron Age city-states of southeastern Anatolia and the northern Levant—namely, Samʾal and Carchemish—and compares it with other material from this region as well as from other parts of the ancient world.6
Scenes of war and violence formed part of the decorations of the palaces inside Assyrian cities, but such scenes are found on the walls and gates of the Levantine city-states, which were decorated with orthostat reliefs.7 King Katuwas of Carchemish (ca. 880 BCE) himself called attention to these features: “I adorned these gates with orthostats. They were very expensive.”8 Cities played a paramount role in the shaping of memory, as argued by Ömür Harmanşah.9 The orthostats served not simply as components of an outstanding architectural ensemble, but as personified powerful agents who bolstered the king’s sociopolitical power. Moreover, their cultural power and their social significance are not at all tied solely to the pictorial and textual narratives inscribed on them; their efficacy derives precisely from their materiality, their architectonic disposition in the form of a prestigious technology.10
Figure 6.1
Map with first-millennium BCE sites discussed in the essay
Designed by the author and drawn by Liani Swanepoel
Marina Pucci applied the same idea to the city of Samʾal:
Every scene seems to be “functional” to the gate structure and emphasizes from different points of view one single general concept, i.e. establishing the status quo, reinforcing the identity, supporting the identification with the local dynasty, showing the established order—all elements which are essential for newborn city states to affirm their own existence and the relevance of the town wall not only as a border between town and country, but also as a border between “states,” between us and the others.11
In the next two sections, the iconographic material from Carchemish and Samʾal will be examined, followed by a comparative section discussing material from the Levantine sites of Tell Tayinat, Til Barsip, and Tell Halaf as well as material from other parts of the ancient world.
1 Carchemish
Carchemish was a very important city on the west bank of the Euphrates River, with a history that goes back to the Early Bronze Age (ca. 2500 BCE); later it was the seat of Hittite rule in this region.12 In the early first millennium BCE (Iron Age), it was one of the largest cities in the region, covering nearly 100 hectares. In the upper town was the temple of the storm god, and on the southeast side was a 36 meter long outer wall dubbed the “Long Wall of Sculpture” due to a cycle of figurative imagery found on its orthostats. The orthostats were not found in situ but scattered and fragmented, and the wall had to be reconstructed in order to interpret the function of the motifs.13 The fourteen orthostats are made of alternating black basalt and white (painted) limestone in order to give the effect of lighter and darker pieces; they were set on limestone blocks 1.35 meters high, with eye-catching central motifs reflecting a certain “chromatic rhythm,” as Alessandra Gilibert described them.14 The scenes represent a 13 meter long triumphal procession of soldiers and chariots15 headed by a procession of divine beings, at least as reconstructed by J. David Hawkins.16
Between the war scenes depicting soldiers and charioteers there is an inscription of King Suhis II (late tenth century BCE).17 This is the res gestae of the king, commemorating his victories.18 One section in the inscription might relate to the victory over the enemy shown in the imagery: “I destroyed the city … and before him I brought a trophy.”19 The original material (fig. 6.2A) shows scenes of soldiers with enemies; the warriors wear short skirts and plumed helmets with shields on their backs, spears pointing downwards.20 Gilibert calls the walking posture an “epitome of dignity and strength.”21 There are conquered enemies. The first one is kneeling in front of the warrior, and another is grabbed by the head and perhaps stabbed with the spear. The other warrior is holding the severed head of an enemy in his hand.
Figure 6.2a–b
Carchemish Long Wall of Sculpture, warriors with enemies and chariot with enemy
Image: Hittite Monuments,
Below the hieroglyphic Luwian inscription of King Suhis (fig. 6.3) there is a decoration showing three bearded heads and sixteen hands—presumably the severed heads and hands of defeated enemies.22
Figure 6.3
Carchemish Long Wall of Sculpture, inscription of King Suhis
Image: Hittite Monuments,
Then there are the chariot scenes, of which four depictions were found (fig. 6.2B): a driver and a warrior armed with a bow, and under the horses the defeated enemy in various positions and pierced with arrows.23
2 Samʾal
Samʾal (Zincirli) in southern Turkey was a city of approximately 40 hectares.24 The southern city gate and the outer citadel gate were decorated with orthostats showing relief scenes dated to the tenth century BCE.25 The processions shown are shorter than those found at Carchemish. The remains of the southern gate show two horse riders.26 One scene shows a warrior on horseback armed with a sword and very small bow, holding the severed head of an enemy in his left hand (fig. 6.4). The citadel gate with its orthostats dates to a later period. A simplified plan shows that the motifs reflect the divine and human worlds: on the right a procession of deities, on the left hunting and war scenes.27 One scene is that of a chariot (fig. 6.5); the chariot has six-spoked wheels and is decorated with a lion’s head at the back and a griffon head on the chariot pole, with a javelin at the back of the chariot. There is a driver with a whip and an archer, and under the horses is a naked defeated enemy warrior with arrows sticking in his body.
Figure 6.4
Samʾal Southern Gate, horse rider with enemy’s head
Image: Von Luschan, Ausgrabungen III, pl. XXXIVc
Figure 6.5
Samʾal Citadel Gate, chariot with enemy under horses
Image: Hittite Monuments,
So far, this study has focused on material from Carchemish and Samʾal showing images of the enemy’s severed head and the enemy under a chariot. These two topics will now be compared with material from other sites.28
3 Comparative Material
3.1 The Severed Head of the Enemy
Orthostats from Carchemish show “macabre parades of dead and dying enemies” and a soldier with the head of an enemy (fig. 6.2A).29 At Samʾal there is a rider holding an enemy’s head (fig. 6.4). Cutting off the head of an enemy is also well-known from other sources, such as the biblical story of David and Goliath (1 Sam 17:51–54), where David cut off Goliath’s head and later took it to Jerusalem. The Philistines also cut off Saul’s head (1 Sam 31:9–10).30 Rita Dolce addresses in detail the motif of decapitation in the ancient Near East; she argues that cutting off someone’s head was a distinctive act, not comparable to other types of mutilation, and therefore charged with a special symbolic and communicative significance.31 “Losing your head” conveyed total defeat. The severed head was a “coveted object,” a trophy. Dolce shows that the motif of beheading reaches far back in the history of Western Asia, going back as far as prehistoric times at Çatalhöyük, where paintings of headless corpses depict not ancestors but defeated enemies.32
Figure 6.6
Inlay from Ebla, soldier holding severed heads
Image: IPIAO, fig. 245. Courtesy of Silvia Schroer
Limestone inlays from Ebla in northern Syria show soldiers holding large heads by the hair, part of some victory parade (fig. 6.6). Staying closer to Carchemish and Samʾal in time and space, there is first a scene from the gateway of Tell Tayinat (eighth century BCE) depicting soldiers holding the heads of enemies by the hair, as at Ebla. But the heads are different, being smaller than those of the soldiers, and the bodies to which the heads belonged are still shown (fig. 6.7). There are fragments of enemy heads from Til Barsip, also held by the hair.33 The depiction of heads alone at Carchemish (fig. 6.3) can be compared with the stela of Dadusha of Eshnunna, which shows battle scenes on the upper registers and heads attacked by birds on the lower register.34 This is again a motif that goes far back in history, as on the famous Stela of the Vultures from the Early Dynastic III period in Mesopotamia.35
Figure 6.7
Tell Tayinat Gateway, soldiers holding severed heads
Image: Gerlach, “Tradition–Adaptation–Innovation,” 244, pl. 5. Courtesy of Iris Gerlach
Neo-Assyrian palace reliefs contain many scenes showing decapitation of the enemy and severed heads.36 Severed heads are piled up next to other booty or held high as trophies of victory. The Balawat Gates depict soldiers chopping off hands and feet, and heads are displayed on the city on the right, as described in the inscriptions of Ashurnasirpal II: “I cut off some their arms [and] hands; I made one pile of the living [and] one of heads. I hung their heads on trees around the city.”37 Most famous and detailed in its depiction and descriptions is what Dominik Bonatz calls “Ashurbanipal’s headhunt.”38 A series of reliefs (with inscriptions) depict the defeat of the Elamite king Teumman at the river Ulai and how he literally lost his head. The head is then taken away in a chariot to Assyria and hung on a tree as a trophy while Ashurbanipal is at a banquet.39
Two examples from Egypt might suffice. The Narmer palette (ca. 3000 BCE) shows defeated enemies with severed heads between their legs.40 New Kingdom reliefs show the counting of the severed hands of the enemy, or, as the text informs us: “total hands: 12,660.”41
3.2 The Enemy under the Chariot Horses
The second motif to be discussed is the depiction of the enemy under the chariot horses, which occurs at Carchemish and Zincirli (figs. 6.2B and 6.5) but also at other sites.42 From Tayinat, which is south of Zincirli, there is a huge figure under the chariot and horse, and it is not naked, very much in contrast to the other figures beneath the horses pulling chariots. He is shown lying on his back with his arms in the air.43
Further to the east, a cruder relief (ca. tenth century BCE) from the small orthostats of Tell Halaf (eastern wall of tower IV) shows a chariot scene with an enemy lying face down under the horse.44 The chariot has six-spoked wheels, and there is a driver and a warrior who is not firing an arrow, but holding some weapon over his shoulder. Going further back in the history in the Levant, there is a seal impression of Ishqi-Mari from Mari which shows a seated ruler and people fighting, and in the lower right part there is a wagon (not yet a chariot in the true sense of the word) with two pairs of wheels and an enemy under the belly of the horse. There is even a severed head on the wagon.45
Ivories from Late Bronze Age Megiddo show the enemy under the horses of the charging chariots (fig. 6.8). Such scenes go back to Egyptian scarabs like one from Tell el-Farʿah [South] and again going back to seal amulets in Egypt from the time of Thutmose I (ca. 1490 BCE). The pharaoh is shown in a chariot running down the enemy.46 The right side of the exterior of a chariot of Thutmose IV shows the pharaoh as a much larger figure riding over and smashing the chariots of the Asiatic enemy on the battlefield. Arrows pierce both the Asiatic enemy soldiers and the horses.47
Figure 6.8
Chariots with enemies
Image: Loud, Megiddo Ivories, pl. 32. Courtesy of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago
The amount of comparative material from Western Asia is large, and only a few examples will be mentioned here. On the so-called Standard of Ur, the lower register of the war panel shows four wagons, each with four wheels. Beneath the equids are naked enemy soldiers lying prone on the ground.48 The nudity of the enemies signifies that they are “degraded, deprived of identity, and impotent.”49 The bleeding wounds are unique in the depictions of chariots driving over enemies. One unclear scene from the Old Hittite period has the enemy lying under a chariot.50
The motif of a chariot driving over a defeated enemy in scenes of war became popular during the Neo-Assyrian Empire (935–609 BCE) as depicted on palace reliefs. One scene from the bronze bands of the Balawat Gates of Shalmaneser III shows an enemy under the horses that are pulling a chariot. To the right, a second one is falling, while a third is being knocked over by the horses.51 A relief of Ashurnasirpal II from Nimrud-Kalhu shows a prostrate enemy with two arrows driven quite deep into his body in a way not yet encountered.52 A text by King Sennacherib describes such actions as follows: “The wheels of my war chariot, which lays criminals and villains low, were bathed in blood and gore. I filled the plain with the corpses of their warriors like grass.”53
4 Conclusions
These images of the severed heads of the enemy and the enemy lying under the horses clearly emphasize that the enemy has been totally defeated. In all these instances, the body of the enemy plays a key role, as it does in collective memories of violence.54 The images served as symbols of victory, the severed heads as trophies, all indicating the power of the king.
These images were part of a common iconography of violence and power throughout the ancient Near East. In this regard, the earliest scenes of a king defeating the enemy goes back to the Egyptian Narmer palette (ca. 3000 BCE), which already shows the topos of the severed heads of the enemy. The kings of the Neo-Assyrian Empire (ca. 800–600 BCE) used images of violence in their palace reliefs with the motifs of severed heads and enemy under the chariot horses to a scale unsurpassed so far. The relationship and reciprocal influence between the North Syrian material imagery and what is found in the Neo-Assyrian palaces is a complex issue.55 As far as the intended audience of scenes of assumed brutality in the Neo-Assyrian material is concerned, Bagg cautions us to look at the context where the reliefs and other monuments were placed and to whom the scenes were visible.56
Although the imagery was universal, such images at Carchemish and Samʾal were purposefully placed on walls and gates to be observed by the public when they entered the city and as they moved around in open and public spaces. Such imagery must have had a psychological impact on the observers.57 In the case of Carchemish, the scenes were on the Long Wall of Sculpture as part of a victory procession or parade, and the two cases at Samʾal come from the main gate and the upper citadel gate.58
Kings of this region built cities and used reliefs as “narrative pictures,” as visual propaganda to influence observers as part of a collective memory.59 This collective memory shaped these societies but also played a role with regard to the future.60 When later generations walked through the gates of the cities or along the walls and observed the scenes on the orthostat reliefs of the kings of the past, they observed the visual message of the great victorious deeds of the early kings. In this way, the scenes of violence discussed above became part of a collective memory. The political elites constructed what they wanted the memory of events to be through acts of remembrance and erasure, thereby manipulating historical memory.61 Or, as a text by King Katuwas of Carchemish puts it:
I wasted the lands, and I brought the trophies inside, and I came up glorified from those lands.62
See, e.g., Zimmermann, Gewalt; Zimmermann, Extreme Formen; and Fagan et al., Cambridge World History.
Nadali, “Representations” emphasizes the importance not only of the content but also of the context—i.e., where the material was found. He also highlights the significance of visual media.
Battini, “Consented Violence,” 338.
Yadin, Art, 356 describes these monuments as somewhat crude but vivid depictions of ancient warfare.
Bahrani, Rituals and Battini, Making Pictures.
Osborne, Syro-Anatolian City States.
Orthostats are upright standing stones; see Harmanşah, Cities, 157–162 and Harmanşah, “Upright Stones.”
Payne, Iron Age Hieroglyphic Luwian Inscriptions, 68.
Harmanşah, Cities.
Harmanşah, “Upright Stones,” 83.
Pucci, “Founding and Planning,” 70.
Hawkins, “Karkamiš”; Marchetti, “Karkemish”; and Marchetti, Karkemish. For the material imagery, see Gilibert, Syro-Hittite Monumental Art, 19–54, 159–190; Günaydin, Karkamiš; Orthmann, Untersuchungen, 29–44, 497–517, pls. 20–37; and Özyar, “Architectural Relief Sculpture,” ch. 1.
Aro, “Art and Architecture,” 315; Gilibert, Syro-Hittite Monumental Art, 31–34; Günaydin, Karkamiš, 43–45, figs. 14–18; Hawkins, “Building Inscriptions”; Woolley, Excavations, 164–167, pls. 29, 31; Orthmann, Untersuchungen, 500–503, pls. 23–25; and Özyar, “Architectural Relief Sculpture,” 76–87.
Gilibert, Syro-Hittite Monumental Art, 33.
Orthmann, Untersuchungen, 418 calls it a “parade.”
Hawkins, “Building Inscriptions,” fig. 4.
Gilibert, Syro-Hittite Monumental Art, 164 (Carchemish 17) and Hawkins, Corpus, 1:88, pls. 6–7.
Orthmann, “Stone Sculpture,” 527.
Hawkins, Corpus, 1:88 § 9–10. I.e., a “successful military engagement” as in Hawkins, Corpus, 1:106 § 13.
See Gilibert, Syro-Hittite Monumental Art, 163–164 (Carchemish 13 and 14–16, respectively).
Gilibert, Syro-Hittite Monumental Art, 31 n. 72.
Ussishkin, “On the Dating,” 188. On connecting the heads and hands with the offences against the storm god in the inscription, see Hawkins, “Building Inscriptions,” 111. On the severed heads, see also Gilibert, Syro-Hittite Monumental Art, 110, 112.
Gilibert, Syro-Hittite Monumental Art, 164–165 (Carchemish 18–22) and Orthmann, “Stone Sculpture,” fig. 289.
For a city plan, see Gilibert, Syro-Hittite Monumental Art, pl. 2.
See von Luschan, Ausgrabungen. For the material imagery, see Cornelius, “Material Imagery”; Gilibert, Syro-Hittite Monumental Art, 55–96, 191–221; Herrmann, “Appropriation and Emulation”; Mazzoni, “Gate”; and Orthmann, Untersuchungen, 59–75, 537–550, pls. 55–66.
von Luschan, Ausgrabungen II, fig. 24, pl. X; Pucci, “Founding and Planning,” fig. 2.; and esp. von Luschan, Ausgrabungen III, fig. 96, pl. XXXV and Gilibert, Syro-Hittite Monumental Art, fig. 25, 192 (Zincirli 5).
Mazzoni, “Gate”; von Luschan, Ausgrabungen II, pl. XIII; von Luschan, Ausgrabungen III, 209; and Pucci, “Founding and Planning,” figs. 3–5 and esp. von Luschan, Ausgrabungen III, fig. 102, pl. XXXIX and Gilibert, Syro-Hittite Monumental Art, figs. 27–28, 30, 33 (plans), with 194–195 (Zincirli 12–13).
See Orthmann, Untersuchungen on chariot scenes (398–402) and processions of warriors (412–418).
Gilibert, “Religion and Propaganda,” 148 n. 62.
See the essay by Stephen Germany in this volume. On this motif in the Hebrew Bible, see further 2 Sam 4:7, 12 and 16:9. On other forms of the mutilation of enemy bodies, see LeMon, “Cutting”; Minunno, “La mutilation”; and Trimm, Fighting, 346–367.
Dolce, “ ‘Head’ ”; Dolce, “ ‘Losing One’s Head’: Some Hints”; Dolce, “Losing One’s Head” in the Ancient Near East; and Nadali, “Representations,” 638–641.
Dolce, “ ‘Losing One’s Head’: Some Hints,” 46–47, fig. 5.3.
Orthmann, Untersuchungen, pls. 54b–c.
Dolce, “ ‘Losing One’s Head’: Some Hints,” fig. 5.11.
Dolce, “ ‘Losing One’s Head’: Some Hints,” fig. 5.10.
Dolce, “ ‘Losing One’s Head’: Some Hints,” figs. 5.4 and 5.7 and Radner, “High Visibility Punishment,” fig. 3.
Grayson, Assyrian Royal Inscriptions, 2:201.
Bonatz, “Ashurbanipal’s Headhunt.” See also the works by Rita Dolce in the bibliography, as well as Miller, “Getting”; SooHoo, “Violence”; Nadali, “Battle”; and Goldstein and Weissert, “Battle.”
See Goldstein and Weissert, “Battle,” figs. 268, 271 and Nadali, “Battle,” fig. 255.
IPIAO, fig. 134.
Muhlestein, “Violence,” fig. 10. For decapitation, see fig. 3 and Edgerton and Wilson, Historical Records, 13–14.
Some of the material will be published in Cornelius and van Dijk-Coombes, “Over My Dead Body,” including more figures of such scenes.
Orthmann, Untersuchungen, pl. 52F.
Moortgat, Tell Halaf, pl. 41B.
Beyer, “Some Observations,” fig. 1.4.
Keel, “Kanaanäische Sühneriten,” fig. 12 and Keel, Corpus, fig. 712.
Keel, “Kanaanäische Sühneriten,” fig. 13.
Hansen, “Art,” 44–47.
Hansen, “Art,” 46.
Schachner, “Gedanken,” fig. 1.
Schachner, Bilder, pl. 13.
Meuszyński, Die Rekonstruktion, pl. 2B.
Grayson and Novotny, Royal Inscriptions, 183.
Bahrani, Rituals (with the subtitle The Body and Violence) and Di Paolo, “War Remembrance,” 153–155.
See the views discussed by Aro, “The Origins of the Artistic Interactions.”
Bagg, “Where is the Public?”
Pace Battini, “Consented Violence,” 338.
Gilibert, Syro-Hittite Monumental Art, 108.
Nadali, “Power of Narrative Pictures.”
Di Paolo, “War Remembrance”; Gilibert, “Religion and Propaganda”; Günaydin, Karkamiš; Nadali, “Monuments”; and Nadali, Envisioning. Rulers also reused monuments as a manipulation of memory; on this, see Herrmann, “Reuse” and Harmanşah, Cities.
For this reason, the Mesopotamians did not memorialize their own war dead or admit military defeat; see van de Mieroop, “Review,” 322.
Payne, Iron Age Hieroglyphic Luwian Inscriptions, 72 (emphasis mine).
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