their rule of much of the Middle East. Made from marble
and limestone, these friezes were placed along the walls of
temples and palaces, in throne rooms and hallways, and in
staircases and reception halls.
One of the largest groups of wall reliefs survived at
monumental buildings raised by King Ashurnasirpal II (r.
884–859 b.c.e.) at the royal city of Nimrud. In these hori-
zontal slabs the king is shown hunting, battling, and win-
ning victories with the blessing of the gods. Foreigners are
shown humbly bearing tribute, while inscriptions recount the
king’s name and titles and his many conquests. In all these
works the sculptors achieved great detail in clothing and in
the rendering of faces and limbs. Assyrian artists also cel-
ebrated the kings’ achievements with freestanding obelisks
(large pillars), which were decorated on all sides, and marked
their conquests with carvings in natural rock located at the
physical limits of the empire.
Monumental sculpture and reliefs also survived at the pal-
ace of Sargon II at Khorsabad and of Sennacherib (who reigned
from 704 to 681 b.c.e.) at Nineveh, the last Assyrian capital.
Archaeologists of the 19th century uncovered nearly two miles
of wall reliefs within 70 diff erent rooms at Sennacherib’s enor-
mous palace, which was burned by a conquering army and
then buried by new construction that took place in the follow-
ing centuries. Th e subjects, as in the other Assyrian sites, were
processions of tribute and military campaigns, with inscrip-
tions on the walls recounting the victories of the king.
Under the later Assyrian kings, wall paintings replaced
friezes in stone in many monuments and public buildings.
Colored pigments were mixed and applied to whitewashed
plaster on interior spaces, while glazed and painted bricks
were used on exterior surfaces. Th ese paintings depicted
hunting and battle scenes, royal parades and processions,
symbols of the king and the gods, mythological beasts, and
various repeated geometric and abstract designs. Th e Ishtar
Gate, an entrance to the city of Babylon, dates to about 575
b.c.e. and was built during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II.
Th e gate was made of tiles fi red in a deep blue glaze and deco-
rated with bas-reliefs of bulls and dragons. A Processional
Way, which began at the gate and led to the city’s royal palace,
showed a series of lions carved in relief.
PERSIAN DYNASTIES
Th e Achaemenid Dynasty of Persia conquered Mesopota-
mia in the sixth century b.c.e. Th e Achaemenids claimed
to be the heirs of the mighty Assyrians and drew on the
monumental style of Assyria in their palaces and temples.
At the palace of Susa, built by the Achaemenid King Dar-
ius I, artists rendered human-headed lions underneath a
winged disk in bas-relief on the palace walls, made from
glazed, multicolored bricks. At Persepolis large friezes de-
picted processions of courtiers and men bearing tribute to
the king. Colossal animals—bulls and griffi ns and other
mythological beasts—were carved in stone or cast in bronze
to guard the entrances to the palace.
In 331 b.c.e. the Macedonian general Alexander the
Great defeated King Darius III of Persia at the Battle of
Guagemela. Alexander died in Babylon a few years later,
but his victory over the Achaemenid ruler ushered in the
Seleucid Dynasty, founded by his general Seleucus. Th e
Seleucids reigned for less than a century in Mesopotamia,
while the gods and myths of the Greek world were taken
up by the region’s sculptors and metal engravers. Very few
complete work s of a r t sur v ived, as scu lptures in bronze were
later melted down and their scarce metal recovered for new
works. Seals of the time showed Greek gods and Seleucid
rulers as well as important symbols such as the anchor and
horse head, the personal emblem of Seleucus.
Th e Parthians overthrew the Seleucid Dynasty in the
middle of the third century b.c.e. Th ey were followed by the
Sassanian Dynasty, which was established in 224 b.c.e. and
endured until the Islamic conquest of Mesopotamia in 633
c.e. Th e palace at the Sassanian capital city of Ctesiphon in
central Mesopotamia is best known for elaborate decora-
tion in stucco on the interior walls. Colorful fl oor mosaics
found in Sassanian palaces portrayed women dancing, mak-
ing music, and weaving garlands. Th e art of metalsmithing
also reached a zenith during the dynasty, which left behind
no paintings and very few portraits in sculpture, while life-
like portraits of the rulers, imitating a style introduced by the
Macedonians, were created for coins of the realm. Sassanian
artists mastered the art of detailed engraving in a variety of
techniques, including chasing, embossing, and cloisonné
enameling, applied to silver and gold cups, bowls, ewers,
plates, and dishes. Th ey used as their subjects the royal ban-
quets, hunting scenes, and mythical beasts that were ancient
traditions in Mesopotamia. Th e elaborate, repeated designs
and borders of Sassanian art in stone and metal had a strong
infl uence on subsequent Islamic art. Sassanian artistic style
also traveled to the Byzantine Empire, which survived the fall
of Rome in Eastern Europe and Asia Minor, and to central
Asia and China.ASIA AND THE PACIFIC
BY KIRK H. BEETZ
INDIAN PAINTING
Th e earliest paintings in India are probably ones found on
large stones and rock faces, mostly in central India, in the re-
gion of the city of Bhopal. Th ey depict humans and animals
and are all thought by archaeologists to have been painted
aft er 5500 b.c.e. Th e earliest ones show people as stick fi g-
ures wearing only loincloths and animals that sometimes
have abstract designs on their bodies. Th e humans appear
to be hunting the animals with spears and bows and ar-
rows. Later rock paintings show humans riding horses and
wielding swords and shields. Th e innards of animals are
sometimes depicted, a style also found in rock paintings in
faraway Borneo and Australia.100 art: Asia and the Pacific