This volume presents the publication of two pairs of gates set up by the Assyrian King Ashurnasirpal II (884–859 BC) at the site of Balawat, ancient Imgur-Enlil, 16 km northeast of Nimrud, 27 km southeast of Mosul, in northern Iraq. The first pair were excavated by Hormuzd Rassam in 1878 and come from a palace of the king; these are now in the British Museum. The second pair come from a temple of the god Mamu and were excavated by Max Mallowan in 1956; these are now in the Mosul Museum though sadly many pieces were looted in 2003. A third pair of gates from Balawat set up by Ashurnasirpal's son Shalmaneser III (858–824 BC) and discovered by Rassam are also now in the British Museum. These were first published in 1905 and are well known.
The surviving pieces consist of long bands or strips of bronze which were mounted on wooden doors. They have embossed and chased decoration showing scenes of warfare, the presentation of tribute and the hunting of lions and bulls. The volume under consideration publishes these decorations and their highly important accompanying cuneiform epigraphs in the form of both line drawings and photographs of the originals. Each pair of gates consisted of 16 bronze bands (8 each side). They covered both the door leaves and the doorposts, and careful reconstruction of the sequence of strips has demonstrated that the posts tapered towards the top. Both sets have tribute bearers and scenes of warfare but the palace gates show in addition scenes of hunting and files of captives which are missing on the set from the temple of Mamu.
The project of publishing these gates was initiated by R. D. Barnett, Keeper of the Department of Western Asian Antiquities in the British Museum from 1955 to 1974. Barnett never finished this work and it was taken up by Curtis and Tallis using the drawings made by Marjorie Howard (which are superb) and with contributions by Sollberger, Walker, Finkel and Davies. The introduction which Barnett prepared is however published in full, and rightly so. In addition to some reflections on the importance of gates in ancient Mesopotamian on the psychological and mythical level, Barnett also gives an excellent technical description of the different parts of these gates, how they were constructed and how they operated. There follows a section by Curtis on the site of Balawat, reviewing the results of archaeological activity there and the strategic significance of the location. Curtis draws attention to the fact that Balawat lay at the effective junction of three major roads and also to the significance of the temple of Mamu, the god of dreams: the interpretation of dreams figured importantly in the assessment of omens undertaken at the outset of military campaigns. In this context it is of no little interest that a series of dream omens was among the texts found at Nebi Yunus, the arsenal mound on Nineveh, in the 1950sFootnote 1.
The actual pieces are presented beautifully with photographs and drawings on opposing pages. A clever innovation is the icon at the top of each page showing the position of each strip in the reconstructed sequence. In addition to the strips there are numerous fittings that belonged to the ensemble – bronze pivot casings, bolt casings, holdfasts and finials. The authors also present material from Khorsabad, Assur, Nineveh and Tel Haddad. The volume is full of interesting details. A couple of scenes show the facades of Assyrian buildings flanked by winged bulls (pp. 169, 185) and a number show duck-headed Phoenician boats (pp. 165, 167, 181). One strip depicts Imgur-Enlil itself, with the king standing in front of the town receiving tribute (p. 174). The lines of bearers (pp. 135, 137, 163, 169, 175, 179, 181, 189) carrying cauldrons illustrate perfectly the many entries in the annals of Ashurnasirpal where he records these among the booty and tribute from his campaigns. Correlation of the images on the gates with passages in the annals should indeed be a source of fruitful research in the future.
As mentioned, many of the scenes depicted on the strips are identified by accompanying epigraphs. These are transliterated and translated in full. The edging strips where the two doors met in the middle were also inscribed. The fragments are quite corroded but the signs come out wonderfully in the x-ray photographs (p. 262). These inscriptions are reconstructed and edited by Sollberger in the case of the palace gates (p. 46), and Finkel in the case of the gates from the temple of Mamu (p. 70). Finkel also presents an edition of the stone tablet found by Mallowan in his excavations (p. 94): it had been assumed that this was a duplicate of the inscriptions on two tablets found in a coffer by Rassam in the temple of Mamu but this proves to be not the case.
In conclusion, this is a volume of genuine importance. It publishes a corpus of highly important and highly interesting material in exemplary manner. The authors and editors deserve the respect and gratitude of the entire Mesopotamian community. It is a fundamental contribution to the discipline which will be of lasting value.
