of heavy stone—a striking contrast to the
brick architecture of Mesopotamia—the
walls and towers of the Hittites effectively
protected them from attack. Symbolically
guarding the gateway (FIG. 2-18) to the
Hattusa citadel are two huge (seven-foot-
high) lions. Their simply carved forequar-
ters project from massive stone blocks on
either side of the entrance. These Hittite guardian beasts are early ex-
amples of a theme that was to be echoed on many Near Eastern gates.
Notable are those of Assyria (FIG. 2-21), one of the greatest empires of
the ancient world, and of the reborn Babylon (FIG. 2-24) in the first
millennium BCE. But the idea of protecting a city, palace, temple, or
tomb from evil by placing wild beasts or fantastic monsters before an
entranceway was not unique to the Near Eastern world. Examples
abound in Egypt, Greece, Italy, and elsewhere.
NAPIR-ASU OF ELAMTo the east of Sumer, Akkad, and
Babylon was Elam, which appears in the Bible as early as Genesis
10:22. During the second half of the second millennium BCE, Elam
reached the height of its political and military power. At this time the
Elamites were strong enough to plunder Babylonia and to carry off
the stelae of Naram-Sin and Hammurabi (FIGS. 2-13and 2-17) and
display them as war booty at their capital city, Susa.
In the ruins of Susa, archaeologists discovered a life-size bronze-
and-copper statue (FIG. 2-19) of Queen Napir-Asu, wife of one of
the most powerful Elamite kings, Untash-Napirisha. The statue
weighs 3,760 pounds even in its fragmentary and mutilated state, be-
cause the sculptor, incredibly, cast the statue with a solid bronze core
inside a hollow-cast copper shell. The bronze core increased the cost
of the statue enormously, but the queen wished her portrait to be a
permanent, immovable votive offering in the temple where it was
found. In fact, the Elamite inscription on the queen’s skirt explicitly
asks the gods to protect the statue:
He who would seize my statue, who would smash it,
who would destroy its inscription, who would erase
my name, may he be smitten by the curse of [the gods],
that his name shall become extinct, that his offspring
be barren....This is Napir-Asu’s offering.^1
Napir-Asu’s portrait thus falls within the votive tra-
dition going back to the third-millennium BCEEsh-
nunna figurines (FIG. 2-6). In the Elamite statue, the
Mesopotamian instinct for cylindrical volume is again
evident. The tight silhouette, strict frontality, and firmly
crossed hands held close to the body are all enduring
characteristics common to the Sumerian statuettes. Yet
within these rigid conventions of form and pose, the
Elamite artist managed to create refinements that must
2-18Lion Gate, Hattusa (modern
Boghazköy), Turkey, ca. 1400 bce.
The Hittites conquered and sacked Babylon
around 1595 BCE. Their fortified capital at
Boghazköy in Anatolia had seven-foot-tall
stone lions guarding the main gateway
(compare FIGS. 2-21and 4-19).
2-19Statue of Queen
Napir-Asu, from Susa,
Iran, ca. 1350–1300 bce.
Bronze and copper,
4 2 –^34 high. Louvre,
Paris.
This life-size bronze-
and-copper statue of
the wife of one of the
most powerful Elamite
kings weighs 3,760
pounds. The queen
wanted her portrait to
be an immovable
votive offering in a
temple.have come from close observation. The sculptor conveyed the femi-
nine softness of arm and bust, the grace and elegance of the long-
fingered hands, the supple and quiet bend of the wrist, the ring and
bracelets, and the gown’s patterned fabric. The loss of the head is es-
pecially unfortunate. The figure presents a portrait of the ideal
queen. The hands crossed over the belly may allude to fertility and
the queen’s role in assuring peaceful dynastic succession.1 ft.44 Chapter 2 THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST