DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5253#0121
GATES FROM BALAWAT.
89
About fifteen miles east of Mosul, in the mound called Balawat, those re-
markable plates of bronze were found, which, known as the "Gates of Balawat,"
are now in the British Museum.126 These bronze plates, beaten out to repre-
sent scenes from the life of Shalmaneser II., who reigned between 859 and 825
B.C., show us the battles, triumphs, cruelties, and devotions of this king, in mul-
titudinous small figures. All these are accompanied by explanatory inscrip-
tions, so badly crowded together, and careless in work, as to seem intended
more for ornament than reading. One of the most interesting scenes is that
where a sculptor, with hammer and chisel, is carving the image of the king in
: ^^*5S'
~y* vv
^y\j ■mm
the rock, while another stands by to direct. The inscription reads, "-From the
sources of the river Tigris I descended, victims to the gods I sacrificed, an
image of my majesty I caused to be set up." Here we have a valuable explana-
tion of figures, sculptured as triumphal monuments on the mountain sides of
Koordistan, and found even as far as remote Syria, at the mouth of the Nahr-
el-kclb, near Beyrout.
The chief significance of these gates, however, lies in the principle of in-
crustation they embody. Their bronze bands were merely coverings, which ran
at intervals across the wooden surfaces of two enormous folding-doors, thus at
once hiding and ornamenting the wood. The stone sculptures in Assyria are
often slavish imitations of such incrustation in metal. On a fragmentary obelisk
of white calcareous stone, now in the British Museum, according to the inscrip-
89
About fifteen miles east of Mosul, in the mound called Balawat, those re-
markable plates of bronze were found, which, known as the "Gates of Balawat,"
are now in the British Museum.126 These bronze plates, beaten out to repre-
sent scenes from the life of Shalmaneser II., who reigned between 859 and 825
B.C., show us the battles, triumphs, cruelties, and devotions of this king, in mul-
titudinous small figures. All these are accompanied by explanatory inscrip-
tions, so badly crowded together, and careless in work, as to seem intended
more for ornament than reading. One of the most interesting scenes is that
where a sculptor, with hammer and chisel, is carving the image of the king in
: ^^*5S'
~y* vv
^y\j ■mm
the rock, while another stands by to direct. The inscription reads, "-From the
sources of the river Tigris I descended, victims to the gods I sacrificed, an
image of my majesty I caused to be set up." Here we have a valuable explana-
tion of figures, sculptured as triumphal monuments on the mountain sides of
Koordistan, and found even as far as remote Syria, at the mouth of the Nahr-
el-kclb, near Beyrout.
The chief significance of these gates, however, lies in the principle of in-
crustation they embody. Their bronze bands were merely coverings, which ran
at intervals across the wooden surfaces of two enormous folding-doors, thus at
once hiding and ornamenting the wood. The stone sculptures in Assyria are
often slavish imitations of such incrustation in metal. On a fragmentary obelisk
of white calcareous stone, now in the British Museum, according to the inscrip-