Jenseits von Stil und Ikonographie. Späthethitische Einflüsse auf das assyrische Wandrelief

It has long been mantained that the Neo-Assyrian cycles of wall reliefs had their origins in the monumental tradition of the Syro-Anatolian city-states of the earlier Iron Age. However, attempts to track down this influence either in style or in iconography proved arduous and unconvincing. This paper argues that such attempts shoud be dismissed and that the Syro-Hittite influence in Assyrian art and architecture is better sought in the reproduction of a situational context, i.e., into the monumental display of images and inscriptions on a large scale as a communicative strategy per se. It is suggested here that during military campaigns in Northern Syria the Assyrian elite gained first-hand experience of how monumentality could be deployed as a powerful backdrop for festivals and rituals, and thus set out to reproduct the same effect at home, in Assyrian style and with Assyrian visual content.