The Tower of Babel with British Museum curator Irving Finkel Video Lecture

(jazz music)
Dr. Zucker: We're in the
British Museum in London
and we're looking at a series
of magnificent low reliefs.
Dr. Harris: These show a
very dramatic lion hunt
and it's the king of Assyria
who is killing the lions.
Dr. Zucker: The Assyrians
emerged in Mesopotamia
before 1,000 BCE, but
increased their power
and by the time these reliefs were made
in the seventh century BCE, the Assyrians
were dominant and really at the height
of their civilization.
Dr. Harris: The Assyrians
had several royal palaces
and several capital cities.
Ninevah, Nimrud, and Khorsabad.
The scenes that we're looking at now
are from the royal palace in Ninevah.
Dr. Zucker: These would
have decorated a hallway.
You would have walked through the scene
and we're seeing
different moments in time.
Dr. Harris: Assyrian kings
decorated their palaces
with these low reliefs
depicting battle scenes,
hunting scenes.
These all speak to the
power of the Assyrian kings,
but this particular set of
reliefs is especially naturalistic
and dramatic.
These are considered masterpieces
of Assyrian sculpture.
Dr. Zucker: It's a lion hunt.
It's important to
understand the symbolism.
The lions, which were
native to Mesopotamia and,
actually, a slightly smaller
species that is now extinct,
were symbols of the violence of nature
and the king killing the lions.
By the way, there was a
law that said only the king
could kill lions.
The king killing lions was
an important symbolic act
that spoke of the king
keeping nature at bay,
keeping his city safe.
Dr. Harris: Even though
we see the king killing
lions here, he is
killing them in an arena.
He's not killing them out in the wild.
Dr. Zucker: Let's move through the story.
On one side of the hallway,
we see the king readying
for the hunt.
Dr. Harris: We can identify the king
because of the particular
crown that he wears
and he's also larger than
the other three figures
who are helping him to
get ready for the hunt.
We see one figure with
reigns pulling the horses,
two other figures turning
in the same direction
as the king.
On the left hand side it's
obviously been damaged.
Dr. Zucker: I'm really
taken with the horses.
Dr. Harris: Well, the
horses are represented
so much more naturalistically.
Dr. Zucker: Especially if
you look at the musculature
of the face, of the eyes.
There's tremendous detail.
Dr. Harris: And emotion.
They look as though they're
resisting getting bridled
for this hunt.
Dr. Zucker: We can see
one of those bridles
being tightened and we
can see two other figures
trying to steady the horses.
All of this is taking place
within an enclosed space
and we can see other
attendants that are holding
a barrier of some sort
to pen in these animals.
Dr. Harris: Now they're
represented below the scene
with the king, but we're
meant to understand them
as being around the king.
We have human figures who,
although they're striding
forward, there's a formality
to their poses, but strangely,
a informality, I think,
to the horses.
Dr. Zucker: We'll see that
also in the representation
of the lions, who are
represented quite distinctly
from the greater sense of formality
that the king displays or
his attendants display.
We have this division
between man and the control
of man and then nature and its wildness.
As we move to the middle of the panels,
we see a very different scene.
We've pulled back, our
view is more distant,
and we see figures much smaller now.
We see a hill with lots of figures on it.
Dr. Harris: And at the
very top what seems to be
a monument to the king, showing
itself a relief of a hunt
with a king in a chariot slaying lions,
so it's a representation of
a representation of the hunt.
Dr. Zucker: It's a relief of a relief.
I love that.
Dr. Harris: This scene does feel chaotic.
Figures gesturing in different ways,
climbing in different
ways, some looking back,
some looking forward.
Dr. Zucker: They seem to
be hurrying up the hill.
They may be fleeing, they
may be trying to grab
a better position to watch the hunt from,
these may be spectators.
We think we're seeing men
and women, but in fact,
this is so old part of this is guesswork.
Dr. Harris: Of course, this
would have been much easier
to read in the palace where
the relief was painted.
Dr. Zucker: These were painted
very brightly, in fact.
They really would have stood out.
As we move to the right,
we come to the arena
for the hunt itself.
We can see that the lions
will be held in place
by a double row of soldiers
that have shields and spears
and then inside that,
to ensure that the lions
don't even get that far,
there's another row of soliders
with mastiffs.
They're holding spears and
those dogs will make sure
that the lions don't pass.
Dr. Harris: And although
these figures are represented
one on top of one another, we're meant
to understand them as being
in rows in depth in space.
Dr. Zucker: I love the
representation of the dogs.
You can see them straining
against the leash.
Dr. Harris: We have to
walk to the other end now
to see how the lions
have entered the arena.
We see another double
row of the king's guard
and then we see a child releasing
a very menacing looking
lion into the lion hunt.
Dr. Zucker: So this is a
completely fabricated hunt.
It is controlled.
We see the king on chariot.
He's shooting an arrow.
We see the arrow airborne
and then, of course,
we see the lions dying all around us.
Dr. Harris: Wounded,
pierced, some on the ground,
some leaping up, represented
with such sympathy.
Dr. Zucker: The variety is incredible,
the detail is incredible.
You'll notice that the
king is in some danger.
There is a lion that was
wounded, but is coming back
to attack, but his assistants
are taking up the rear.
Dr. Harris: This all speaks
to the power, the authority
of the king over nature
and representing that power
to his people.
(jazz music)