The Expression of Ideology in Levantine Submission Scenes: The Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III as Feasting in a Neo-Assyrian Context

Summary

Cultural appropriation of Levantine feasting forms by Neo-Assyria was an expression of agency that effectively subsumed, subverted and captured the dynamic of traditional Levantine polities. For those, the feast had represented an act of royal legitimation depicted iconographically by the figure of a king drinking from a cup. The rise of the Neo-Assyrian empire and the prominent appearance of this image, particularly in the 9th century BCE, deserves consideration as a probable co-opting of this ideological trope, but now directed toward the Assyrian ruler. The Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III provides a case in point. Here, one panel represents the figure of Shalmaneser III, standing and drinking a cup before the figure of Jehu, prostrated in submission. I will argue that this monument performs an affective function that recalls at once the Levantine tradition while also redirecting its ideological focus. Understanding the monument then involves acknowledging the junction between its materiality, historical context and the referent .

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage