DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1118#0203
ARSLAN TASH AND NIMRtJD IVORIES COMPARED 555
Ishtar under her old warlike aspect, while beneath it a small attendant Also con-
holds a pail and cup for her refreshment. In later Syro-Phoenician Art we ^ed
can again detect evidences of a similar religious association. Its frequent Syrian
repetition on ring-stones and signets may itself be taken to imply a protec- ° dess'
tive virtue, indeed in the case of a parallel design on a scaraboid depicting
a doe suckling- its fawn, the owner has added the words 'Astart 'ozzi—Astarte
is my strength (or ' salvation ')} In another case, the Cow and Calf is anti-
thetically repeated—as on the Minoan ring (Fig. 515)—on each side of a
fioure of Thoth,2 whose sanction had a special appropriateness in the sealing
of letters.
On the other hand, though the group as seen on Syro-Phoenician
handiwork—often with a papyrus setting—was, in part at least, derived
from Nilotic sources, it clearly points to Minoan influences. In addition to
the parallel religious attributions, a correspondence with the Cretan bovine
types as often seen on seal-stones has been noted in the repeated folds
of the skin of the neck, absent on the Egyptian models. But the remarkable
carvings, found in a building outside the Assyrian Palace, at Arslan Tash,
near the upper Euphrates, have supplied higher and more artistic standards
of comparison.
Who, looking at the Arslan-Tash specimen,here reproduced in Fig. 516,3 A.rsla"
and the head of a similar ivory cow from Nimrud set by it in Fig. 517, ivories,
can doubt its ultimate attachment to the same natural school that produced by
the beautiful faience reliefs of the Temple Repositories at Knossos?* In Minoan
types,
particular may be noted the similarity presented by the loose-limbed young
animal, so realistically rendered in the faience relief—here reproduced in
Fig. 518 5—to that of the Arslan Tash ivory (Fig. 516) and to another from
Nimrud shown in Fig. 519.
One of the Arslan Tash ivories bears an Aramaean inscription, from
which we know that it was presented by Hazael, King of Damascus,' the con-
temporary of Salmanasar III, in the latter half of the Ninth Century B.C. Assyrian
But the Arslan Tash ivories themselves, with fine reliefs of the cow and from
calf and equally beautiful designs of the feeding deer, must be regarded as
De Ridder, Cat. tic Clercq, No. 2510 (PI. les plis de l'encolure.' Equally suggestive of
XVII), and cf. Clermont-Ganneau, Sccaux et Minoan models are the exquisite reliefs of the
Cachets, 16, pp. 22, 23. fallow deers {pp. cit., PI. XXXVI, Figs. 61,
Cat. de Clercq, vii, No. 2799, p. 267. 62).
M. Thureau-Dangin, in his excellent * See P. of M., i, p. 510 seqq.
remarks on the Syro-Phoenician versions of ■ lb., p. 512, Fig. 369.
tins motive, observes (Arslan 'lash, pp. 125, ' Thureau-Dangin, Arslan Tash, p. 135
t2u)'On remarquera stir tons ces exemples seqq.
Nimrud.
Ishtar under her old warlike aspect, while beneath it a small attendant Also con-
holds a pail and cup for her refreshment. In later Syro-Phoenician Art we ^ed
can again detect evidences of a similar religious association. Its frequent Syrian
repetition on ring-stones and signets may itself be taken to imply a protec- ° dess'
tive virtue, indeed in the case of a parallel design on a scaraboid depicting
a doe suckling- its fawn, the owner has added the words 'Astart 'ozzi—Astarte
is my strength (or ' salvation ')} In another case, the Cow and Calf is anti-
thetically repeated—as on the Minoan ring (Fig. 515)—on each side of a
fioure of Thoth,2 whose sanction had a special appropriateness in the sealing
of letters.
On the other hand, though the group as seen on Syro-Phoenician
handiwork—often with a papyrus setting—was, in part at least, derived
from Nilotic sources, it clearly points to Minoan influences. In addition to
the parallel religious attributions, a correspondence with the Cretan bovine
types as often seen on seal-stones has been noted in the repeated folds
of the skin of the neck, absent on the Egyptian models. But the remarkable
carvings, found in a building outside the Assyrian Palace, at Arslan Tash,
near the upper Euphrates, have supplied higher and more artistic standards
of comparison.
Who, looking at the Arslan-Tash specimen,here reproduced in Fig. 516,3 A.rsla"
and the head of a similar ivory cow from Nimrud set by it in Fig. 517, ivories,
can doubt its ultimate attachment to the same natural school that produced by
the beautiful faience reliefs of the Temple Repositories at Knossos?* In Minoan
types,
particular may be noted the similarity presented by the loose-limbed young
animal, so realistically rendered in the faience relief—here reproduced in
Fig. 518 5—to that of the Arslan Tash ivory (Fig. 516) and to another from
Nimrud shown in Fig. 519.
One of the Arslan Tash ivories bears an Aramaean inscription, from
which we know that it was presented by Hazael, King of Damascus,' the con-
temporary of Salmanasar III, in the latter half of the Ninth Century B.C. Assyrian
But the Arslan Tash ivories themselves, with fine reliefs of the cow and from
calf and equally beautiful designs of the feeding deer, must be regarded as
De Ridder, Cat. tic Clercq, No. 2510 (PI. les plis de l'encolure.' Equally suggestive of
XVII), and cf. Clermont-Ganneau, Sccaux et Minoan models are the exquisite reliefs of the
Cachets, 16, pp. 22, 23. fallow deers {pp. cit., PI. XXXVI, Figs. 61,
Cat. de Clercq, vii, No. 2799, p. 267. 62).
M. Thureau-Dangin, in his excellent * See P. of M., i, p. 510 seqq.
remarks on the Syro-Phoenician versions of ■ lb., p. 512, Fig. 369.
tins motive, observes (Arslan 'lash, pp. 125, ' Thureau-Dangin, Arslan Tash, p. 135
t2u)'On remarquera stir tons ces exemples seqq.
Nimrud.