The Medes were an ancient Iranian people who spoke the Median language and who inhabited an area known as Media between western and northern Iran. Around the 11th century BCE, they occupied the mountainous region of northwestern Iran and the eastern region of Mesopotamia located around Hamadan (Ecbatana). Herodotus reports the Medes played a determining role in the fall of the Assyrian Empire and "could" have formed an empire at the beginning of the 7th century BCE that lasted until the 550s BCE. It was originally thought they competed with the kingsoms of Lydia and Babylonia for hegemony. However, the Medes left no written account of their history. Archaeologists have had to rely upon foreign sources such as the Assyrians, Babylonians and Greeks for Median history, instead, as well as a few Iranian archaeological sites, which are believed to have been occupied by Medes. Some scholars have gone so far as to suggest a Median kingdom as a political entity never existed at all, even though it was reported to have been conquered by Cyrus the Great in 549 BCE.
Materials found at Tepe Nush-i Jan, Godin Tepe, and other archaeological sites located in the area known as Media, together with Assyrian reliefs, show the existence of urban settlements in Media in the first half of the 1st millennium BCE which had functioned as centers for the production of handicrafts and also of an agricultural and cattle-breeding economy.
From the 10th to the late 7th centuries BCE, the western parts of Media fell under the domination of the vast Neo-Assyrian Empire that imposed Vassal Treaties upon the Median rulers, and also protected them from predatory raids by marauding Scythians and Cimmerians. During the reign of Sinsharishkun (622–612 BCE), the Assyrian empire, which had been in a state of constant civil war since 626 BCE, began to unravel and subject peoples, such as the Medes ceased to pay tribute.
Neo-Assyrian dominance over the Medians came to an end during the reign of Median King Cyaxares, who, in alliance with King Nabopolassar of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, attacked and destroyed the strife-riven Neo-Assyrian empire between 616 and 609 BCE. The newfound alliance helped the Medes to capture Nineveh in 612 BC, which resulted in the eventual collapse of the Neo-Assyrian Empire by 609 BCE. The Medes were subsequently able to establish their Median Kingdom (with Ecbatana as their royal capital) beyond their original homeland and had eventually a territory stretching roughly from northeastern Iran to the Kızılırmak River in Anatolia.
Artwork from this period was heavily influenced by the Neo-Assyrians but scholars hesitate to associate it specifically to the Medians due to the swiftly changing alliances of various tribes, clans, and regional groupings of western Iran at the time. Winged creatures or deities with human heads reflected Assyrian influence as well as sculptures depicting bulls or lions. Scholars believe Assyrian graphically detailed works of violence were meant to advertise the power of the empire and its rulers and to intimidate their enemies. Often precisely rendered animal carvings and statues were viewed as protective forces containing religious significance.
Lions regularly appear in Assyrian art. In ancient days, the Asiatic lion (slightly smaller than the African) roamed the Near East. To hunt the lions was a kingly activity of great importance. Famous carved reliefs of lion hunts show King Ashurbanipal hunting lions in an arena, sometimes from a chariot. The lion was also important as a symbol of the goddess Ishtar, the Queen of Heaven, one of the two most important deities in the Assyrian pantheon. - Metropolitan Museum of Art
A lion was thought to be a symbol of the Neo-Assyrian King Sargon II during the Neo-Assyrian period as well.
Bulls are another common motif in Assyrian art. The bull was more than just an important food source. Sumerian and Akkadian traditions describe the Bull of Heaven, which features in a conflict between Ishtar and Gilgamesh in the Epic of Gilgamesh. The bull remained an important symbol in Assyrian and other Mesopotamian cultures. It also was combined with human, lion, and avian traits to form mythical creatures. - Metropolitan Museum of Art
Triangular compositions featuring two rampant wild animals over a third creature, often a domesticated one, occur on Mesopotamian cylinder seals of the thirteenth century B.C.E., one of which shows two rampant lions sparring over a bull. But the motif is uncommon in later Mesopotamian art until it reappears again in the art of western Iran between the ninth and the seventh centuries B.C.E. The motif of a single lion attacking a bull is visible on the remains of Persepolis but its use appears to end there.
Pre-Achaemenid Silver and Gold Vessel in the Form of a Lion Attacking a Bull, Silver and gold, 8th-6th century B.C.E. at the Miho Museum in Kyoto, Japan |
Pre-Achaemenid Silver and Gold Vessel in the Form of a Hero and a Winged Bull Ibex, Silver and gold, 8th-6th century B.C.E. at the Miho Museum in Kyoto, Japan |
Pre-Achaemenid Silver Rhyton with Ibex Protome and Appliques, Silver and electrum, 8th-6th century B.C.E., at the Miho Museum in Kyoto, Japan |
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