Narām-Sîn stele
The Narām-Sîn-Stele is a victory stele of the Akkadian King Narām-Sîn . It is one of the most famous works of ancient oriental art and is now in the possession of the Louvre in Paris (inventory number: Sb 4 ).
history
The stele was originally placed in Sippar , the city of the sun god Šamaš . About 1000 years later it was carried off to Susa as spoils of war by Šutruk-Napunte II , who plundered Sippar . Another inscription in Elamite was added and the stele was dedicated to the god Inšušinak . It was found in Susa in 1898, shortly before the Codex Hammurapi stele was discovered, during an excavation under the direction of Jacques de Morgan .
description
The two meter high stele made of red sandstone was built between 2260 and 2223 BC. BC originated. An inscription in Akkadian language , which is now only fragmentarily preserved, was attached, which glorified a victory by Narām-Sîn over the mountain people of the Lullubeans .
In terms of art history, some innovations are understandable in this stele. In contrast to older steles, such as the vulture stele , the events shown are shown in a dynamic sequence and not in registers separated by bars. For the first time, the landscape of the event is also included. The way the king is depicted is also new.
So on the stele Narām-Sîn can be seen oversized, wearing a crown of horns and thereby deifying himself . It is noticeable that the crown of horns with the protruding horns is more reminiscent of Syrian depictions than of the depictions common in southern Mesopotamia with numerous pairs of adjacent horns. He stands on two dead enemies. Another falls down an abyss next to it; another falls to the ground, hit by an arrow. In front of Narām-Sîn there is a representation of a mountain on which the inscription is attached. Above it are astral symbols of his protective gods. The Akkadian army is armed here with axes, javelins and bows and arrows. It is led by two standard-bearers, which is a kind of box characters wear. The clothing of the enemies is also reminiscent of the later depictions of Median warriors in Neo-Assyrian representations.
literature
- Pierre Amiet : L'art d'Agadé au musée du Louvre , Paris 1976, pp. 29–32.
- Pierre Amiet: Old Akkadian flat art , in Propylaea Art History XVIII, pp. 196–197, plate 104.
- Agnès Benoit: Art et archeology. Les civilizations du Proche-Orient Ancien , Paris, 2007, pp. 260-261.
- Irene J. Winter: On Art in the Ancient Near East II, Boston 2010, pp. 85-149.