What is depicted here is the magic of representation itself, as a process of referentiality.
This kind of ‘image magic’ was fundamental to Babylonian ritual and religious
practices.
A votive portrait is an image that represents the worshipper in an act of prayer
before the god for all time. Because, according to the Mesopotamian system of belief,
the image was a valid substitute for the person, a place in which the essence of the
represented person was manifest, the votive portrait became a double of the individual
represented and could become a form of presence, a substitute, praying in place of
that person, for all time (Bahrani 1995 , 2003 ). The referential process that is under-
scored in the imagery of this votive sculpture was essential for ritual in Babylonian
religion. Image making was, therefore, a necessary part of religious beliefs and social
rituals in Babylonia. Visual images were able to effect change in their own right, and
did not simply reflect, or depict, the world of the Babylonians, but took part in the
creation of that Babylonian world.
THE BOUNDARY STONEThe genre or category of monument known as Kassite Kudurru to archaeologists is
one that is associated with the Kassite dynasty of Babylonia (fifteenth–twelfth centuries).
This categorisation is in fact problematic, however. A variety of objects have been
categorised as Kudurru in museums around the world and in popular books on
Mesopotamian art and archaeology, yet the majority of these artefacts were made after
the end of the Kassite dynasty (Brinkman 1980 – 1983 ; Seidel 1980 – 1983 , 1989 ;
Slanski 2003 ). It is therefore best to refer to the monuments in question as Babylonian
Kudurru stones.
The term Kudurru is an ancient one (CAD vol. 8 : 495 ). It is a term usually
translated as boundary stone. But the grouping of a number of objects under this
genre is a result of the working method of modern scholarship. The Kudurrus
(Aakkadian plural is Kudurreti or Kadaru) are polished boulders of an irregular
cylindrical shape, ranging from about 30 – 70 cm in height, carved in relief all the
way around with symbols or sacred objects. They are usually made of a hard stone
such as black basalt or limestone, or of diorite, and are carved with cuneiform texts
and numerous symbols of the gods. These stones seem to record decrees of land to
officials by the Babylonian king. The standard iconography of the reliefs consists of
the deity symbols and, in several examples, images of the people involved in the land
grant; namely, the ruler and the recipient of the land.
The Kudurrus are described as boundary stones, yet they have not been uncovered
by archaeologists in locations that can lead to any conclusions about their use as
boundary markers in fields. The Kudurrus have been discovered only in the south of
Iraq and are thus a Babylonian type of monument. A large number of the Babylonian
Kudurrus were taken as war booty from Babylonia to Iran and were, therefore,
discovered in a secondary context, in Susa (Harper et al. 1992 : 178 – 182 ). Furthermore,
it has been argued that the surfaces of the Kudurru stones, even those that have been
found in Babylonia, do not appear to have been exposed to the elements for any
extended amount of time. This condition of the surfaces has led scholars to conclude
that the Kudurrus must have been placed in temples, where they stood as copies of
boundary stones that were placed outdoors, in fields.
— Zainab Bahrani —