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Representations of Imgur-Enlil on the Balawat Gates1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

D. J. Tucker
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Extract

This paper reviews the circumstances surrounding the discovery of the three sets of Late Assyrian bronze gates on Tell Balawat (Imgur-Enlil). Attention is drawn to the strategic importance of the site in the light of recent investigations at Balawat. Architectural aspects of the elevation view of Imgur-Enlil depicted on the Mamu Temple gate erected by Assurnasirpal II are discussed in terms of the possibilities and problems in attempting to correlate graphically the elevation view with plan views of unidentified square enclosures on the campaign gates of Shalmaneser III. The logical graphical transposition from elevation to plan view and the narrative context suggest that three square empty enclosures are representations of Imgur-Enlil.

The discovery by Hormuzd Rassam of two bronze-clad gates of Assurnasirpal II (883–859 B.C.) and his successor Shalmaneser III (858–824 B.C.) in 1878 added a new dimension to the knowledge of the art of Assyria (Rassam, 1880/82: 1897: 200–20). However, it was not until the mid-twentieth century that Tell Balawat was accepted as the true provenance of the gates and firmly put on the Assyrian map as the site of the town of Imgur-Enlil (Lloyd, 1947: 173).

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 56 , 1994 , pp. 107 - 116
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1994 

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Footnotes

1

This paper has developed from a survey of Balawat made by the author in 1989. The surface survey was conducted under the umbrella of the British Museum expedition to Nimrud and Balawat directed by Dr John Curtis. I am grateful for comments from Drs J. Curtis, M. D. Roaf and St. John Simpson who kindly read an earlier draft of this paper.

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