Performance and Power

Zincirli: Context (Bachhuber 2018)

-formerly known as Sa’mal

-Annexed by the Assyrians

-King Gabbar consolidated power in region at end of 10th Century BCE, anti-Assyrian

-Kulamuwa (5th in lineage) engaged in diplomatic relations w/ Assyrians, new era of subordinance

-urban projects embraced both Hittite heritage and Assyrian present and future

Zincirli South Gate: Evidence (Herrmann 2017)

-reliefs at South Gate older than similar ones at nearby Citadel Gate

-imagery and craftmanship rougher and clunkier

-both gates mix of Assyrianizing elements and earlier Hittite traditions

-AMS Bayesian modeling of carbon dating of charcoal confirmed older age of South Gate, predating Gabbar lineage

Zincirli South Gate: Implications (Bachhuber 2018)

-Recycling and reuse common across Syro-Hittite sites: blocks of different sizes, recutting of blocks, disorder in iconographic programs, mixtures of styles

-may have served to create a sense of continuity with Hittite past espec as increasingly incorporated into Assyrian sphere of influence

-many items during Kulamuwa’s reign thought to be 200-500 years older than their secondary contexts

-reshaped public’s perception of social memory, heritage and legitimacy of claims to power

Zincirli Lions: Evidence (Bachhuber 2018)

-Five portal lions found in semi-circular formation in large pit near gate to upper citadel

-ritually burned (large quantities of carbonized reed)

-intact ceramics next to bodies of some of the lions, as is typical of Syro-Hittite mortuary practices

-has been described as a “funeral pyre”, treated like humans

-similar situation at Inneres Burgthor, Carchemish where inscription on lion says said to represent the king himself (Obsorne 2013)

Zincirli Lions: Implications

-reverence for such monuments as animate beings (Osborne 2013)

-performance of rendering the past “dead”, ushering in new era with new rulers

-at same time show respect for such works, treating them the way they would an ancestor

-break from past and continuity with local memory

Lion’s gate at Arslantepe (Osborne 2013)

-large royal statue buried with broken hands and face buried in human like way, rolled onto its back

-associated with period of Assyrian conquest

-originally stated may have “fallen” forward, but later (2014) asserted that was intentional mutilation that may have served to symbolically deprive them of their animacy

-similar burials of mutilated statured at Zincirli and Malatya (Bachhuber 2018)

Maya Region (Yoffee 2005)

-Maya region: city-states

-however no political independence, economic self-sufficienty, ethnic homogeneity (sometimes considered requirements of city-state)

-Emerged Pre-Classic

-Sometimes conquered each other: Calakmul and Tikal at times both controlled quite a few cities in the area

Caracol: Context (Houk 2015)

-on high plateau in present-day Belize near border of Guatemala

-large city

-carved monuments and hieroglyphs

-peak years Late Preclassic (70 CE) to final form in 680 CE

Caracol’s Sacbeob (Houk 2015)

-Sacbe, plural sacbeob– “white road”/raised paved road built by the Maya civilization

-Dendritic system linking surrounding settlement to monumental epicenter

-intersite causeways with other independent cities

-huge labor investment as was Caracol’s water infrastructure and terrace agriculture

Caracol: Political Emulation (Houk 2015)

-similarities in how many Maya city-states constructed eg public north and southern south

-constructed places to resemble locales of established stature to enhance political aura

-Caracol: similarities with other powerful cities in area like Calakmul

-draw from past: followed Late preclassic triadic temple form

-Phenomenon elsewere: Cyrus the Great of Parsa drew from Babylonian monumentality and gods to legitimize his rule by coopting/”restoring” existing shrines (Heinz and Feldman 2006)

Monuments as power (Yoffee 2005)

States made natural through central symbols maintained by elites who constituted the cultural and administrative core of the state

Caracol and the performance of power (Houk 2015)

-entire region connected with monumental center through sacbeob network

-Symbolic egalitarianism through public access to monumental centers, similar pottery assemblages between elites and commoners

-Angkor Wat: periphery connected to monumental epicenter with major buildings, religious art, monumentality, etc (Pottier and Fletcher 2022)

Infrastructure: Power or Practicality?

-Means of networking rural hinterlands to urban places, control of institutions of production and consumption (Yoffee 2005)

-Caracol: used to foster “Caracol identity” (Houk 2015)

-Counterexample: Indus Valley where egalitarian/no centralized authority (Green 2021)

Pitfalls in interpreting the past (Houk 2015)

-”higher level meaning” of worldview and cosmology and urban planning not present in Mayan texts

-eg idea of heavens=up, north=up

-bird’s eye view not how people would experience it, hard to tell

-Yoffee (2005): tendency for imposition of modern terminology and ideology onto leaders and societies of the past

Zincirli II Orthostat (Herrmann 2017)

-combines influences from Zincirli I with strong resemblance/copies of images from orthostats at Karkemish

-served to strengthen political legitimacy as Karkemish was the regional authority of the time

Late Uruk society and continuing importance of kinship (Ur 2014)

-3rd millennium BCE texts reference continuing role of kinship: term for palace translates directly to “great house,” selection of officialls through kinship ties

-temple structures and other architecture of the elite in Uruk’s ceremonial centers follow a tripartite structure resemblant to traditional houses from the period but on larger scale

-rather than break from past social structures more se the transformation of preexisting ideologies like the patrimonial household

-household metaphor extended to include kings as heads of metaphorical “household” (the city)

Temples, social roles, and power (Ur 2014)

-urbanization process enabled development of new social roles for elites based in ideology and management rather than direct contributions to economic productivity (eg “religious figures”)

-new forms of justification for such roles through associations between themselves and the gods

White Temple complex (Algaze 2013)

-Anu Precinct of Uruk

-massive tripartite structure dedicated to god Enlil

-took estimated 1500 workers working 10 hours per day 5 years to build

Temples and ideology (Yoffee 2005)

-imposition of ideology into the spatial environment through ritual spaces, temples, and monuments

-symbol of the immense wealth of the state

-ultimately served to integrate new urban populations into a shared institutionalized framework

Uruk Vase (Bahrani 2002)

-found in level III of the Eanna precinct in Uruk, dates to before 3000 BCE

-argues reference of vase’s iconography to the ritual of the Sacred Marriage attests to performative and symbolic, rather than literal, nature of this ‘marriage'

-depicts a symbolic performance of marriage between divine female and human male, means of assuring the fertility of the land, recurring marriage that happens every spring

-process of sacred marriage and birth of heir surely theatrical rather than actual b/c can’t time female fertility

Differentiation and Integration (Yoffee 2005)

-differentiation: process through which which social groups become dissociated from each other through social stratification and dynamics of domination and subordination

-integration: way in which diverse, stratified urban populations integrated into a shared institutional framework through imposition of ideology into the spatial environment eg ritual spaces, temples, and monument

Caracol’s Monumental Center (Houk 2015)

-number of large public plazas

-Caana: massive elaborate palace with minimum 71 rooms, 6 tiers

-ball court

-several pyramids

-royal tombs

-peaked Late Classic Period

large manmade structures that are commemorative or elsewise symbolic in nature

monumental buildings

Way in which diverse, stratified urban populations are integrated into a shared institutional framework through imposition of ideology into the spatial environment eg ritual spaces, temples, and monument

Integration (Yoffee 2005)

Caana at Caracol (Houk 2015)

-elaborate palace compound

-over 70 rooms

-very tall

-grouped into four palace units and integrated with three summit temples

-functioned as residential palace for the kings of Caracol

Tell Brak Monumental Level 20 Building (Oates et al. 2006)

-massive entrance with towers on either side

-enormous doorsill consisting of a single piece of basalt (not native)

-to north large cleared area

-earliest Mesopotamian example of a secular monument: no relationship to typical religious plan found throughout Mesopotamia

-possible economic function

-large collection of stamp sealing, may be symbol of “kingship”, used to signify ownership and control

Taosi Observatory (He 2018)

-massive altar, thought to be to the celestial cult

-dates to Middle Period

-arc-shaped columns: may be means of calendrical observation

-destroyed in Late Taosi by making it into pond, yin-yang of sun/fire and water to neutralize it

Intellectual Culture at Taosi (He 2018)

-argue intellectual culture contributed to reinforce royal identity and the throne

-settlement pattern may have been based on traditional cosmology

-also included area of the ancestral lord with royal cemeteries, altar of heaven

-astronomy and calendar making crucial for re-enforcing soft political power and political legitimacy (symbolic control, cultural unification, time-governed obedience)