Kingship in time and space in the Northwest Palace, Nimrud

Abstract

• The wall reliefs of Neo-Assyrian palaces have been investigated for relationships between text and image, their historiographical significance and affective properties. The sculptured images and associated inscriptions projected the power and authority of Assyrian kingship through representations of the achievements of individual rulers and their connections with royal ancestors and the gods who promoted and sustained them. This was part of a body of values, traditions and knowledge shared within the Assyrian courtly and im-perial community, a unifying ideology which challenged those who would defy it with consequences in the form of conquest and incorporation. These monuments were experienced as part of the theatre of kingship in architectural spaces where the business of empire took place. They also participated, however, within the rituals of kingship that evoked the agency of the gods. Here I argue that the text and images worked together to establish an active relation-ship between the king and a mythical past and a perfect future, thereby ensur-ing Assyrian kingship was timeless.