The Balawat Gates are three sets of decorated bronze bands that had adorned the main doors of several buildings at Balawat (ancient Imgur-Enlil), dating to the reigns of

Ashurnasirpal II Ashur-nasir-pal II (transliteration: ''Aššur-nāṣir-apli'', meaning " Ashur is guardian of the heir") was king of Assyria from 883 to 859 BC. Ashurnasirpal II succeeded his father, Tukulti-Ninurta II, in 883 BC. During his reign he embarked ...

(r. 883–859 BC) and

Shalmaneser III Shalmaneser III (''Šulmānu-ašarēdu'', "the god Shulmanu is pre-eminent") was king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from the death of his father Ashurnasirpal II in 859 BC to his own death in 824 BC. His long reign was a constant series of campaig ...

(r. 859–824 BC). Their extensive use of

narrative art Narrative art is art that tells a story, either as a moment in an ongoing story or as a sequence of events unfolding over time. Some of the earliest evidence of human art suggests that people told stories with pictures. Although there are some ...

depicting the exploits of Assyrian kings has cemented their position as some of the most important surviving works of art of the

Neo-Assyrian Empire The Neo-Assyrian Empire was the fourth and penultimate stage of ancient Assyrian history and the final and greatest phase of Assyria as an independent state. Beginning with the accession of Adad-nirari II in 911 BC, the Neo-Assyrian Empire grew t ...

, comparable to the extensive

Assyrian palace reliefs Assyrian sculpture is the sculpture of the ancient Assyrian states, especially the Neo-Assyrian Empire of 911 to 612 BC, which was centered around the city of Assur in Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) which at its height, ruled over all of Mesopota ...

. When the Neo-Assyrian Empire fell in 614-612 BC, Balawat was destroyed. The wooden elements of the gates decomposed, leaving only the bronze bands (some of which were badly damaged). The remains of two sets of gates can be found in the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It documen ...

's collection, those from the Temple of Mamu are housed in the

Mosul Museum The Mosul Museum ( ar, متحف الموصل) is the second largest museum in Iraq after the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad. It was heavily looted during the 2003 Iraq War. Founded in 1952, the museum consisted of a small hall until a new bui ...

. Small sections of the Shalmaneser bronze door bands are also in the Louvre Museum at the

Walters Art Museum The Walters Art Museum, located in Mount Vernon-Belvedere, Baltimore, Maryland, United States, is a public art museum founded and opened in 1934. It holds collections established during the mid-19th century. The museum's collection was amassed ...

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was ...

Fragments of Bands from a Gate
art.thewalters.org, retrieved 11 December 2013 and in the

Istanbul Archaeology Museums The Istanbul Archaeology Museums ( tr, ) are a group of three archaeological museums located in the Eminönü quarter of Istanbul, Turkey, near Gülhane Park and Topkapı Palace. The Istanbul Archaeology Museums consists of three museums: #Arc ...

Description

Contemporary inscriptions suggest that the gates at Balawat near

Nimrud Nimrud (; syr, ܢܢܡܪܕ ar, النمرود) is an ancient Assyrian city located in Iraq, south of the city of Mosul, and south of the village of Selamiyah ( ar, السلامية), in the Nineveh Plains in Upper Mesopotamia. It was a maj ...

were made of

cedar Cedar may refer to: Trees and plants *''Cedrus'', common English name cedar, an Old-World genus of coniferous trees in the plant family Pinaceae *Cedar (plant), a list of trees and plants known as cedar Places United States * Cedar, Arizona * ...

. They were not hinged as they opened by turning massive pine pillars which were decorated with bronze and turned in stone sockets. Archaeologists believe that the gates were originally 6.8 metres high and these estimates have been used to create full size reconstructions of the gates at the British Museum. The gates in the British Museum were discovered in 1878 by local archaeologist

Hormuzd Rassam Hormuzd Rassam ( ar, هرمز رسام; syr, ܗܪܡܙܕ ܪܣܐܡ; 182616 September 1910), was an Assyriologist and author. He is known for making a number of important archaeological discoveries from 1877 to 1882, including the clay tablets tha ...

. Rassam was the first Assyrian archaeologist. By the time of their discovery the wood had already rotted away and only remnants of the decorated bronze bands remained. The eight bands on each door would have been over 285 feet long in total and they decorated and strengthened the outer face and door post of each door. 265 feet of the bands are in the British Museum whilst 2 feet are at the Walters Museum in Baltimore. The variety of the images gives archaeologists an insight into the life, technology and civilisation at that time.Bronze band from the gates of the palace of Shalmaneser III
British Museum, accessed 11 December 2013 The pictorial information is supplemented by inscriptions which give further information. The bands describe an important religious discovery in 852 BCE when King

found the source of the River Tigris at the Tigris tunnel. This was a very important event because the rivers were thought to be deities. The pictures also show the workmen carving walls to represent their King in the way that he would approve. Carvings can still be seen in East Turkey of markings made by Shalamaneser's workers to the south west of

Lake Van Lake Van ( tr, Van Gölü; hy, Վանա լիճ, translit=Vana lič̣; ku, Gola Wanê) is the largest lake in Turkey. It lies in the far east of Turkey, in the provinces of Van and Bitlis in the Armenian highlands. It is a saline soda lake, ...

. Possibly the most important pictures are the ground plans of nearby buildings as these restored the reputation of Rassam who discovered the gates. Following the gates discovery there was a lot of debate about whether these gates were found here and whether Rassam had given an accurate account. It was argued that these were an important find in a minor place and these gates must have come from a more important nearby city like Nineveh. However excavations at the site have revealed that pictures on the gates agree with evidence on the ground which provides proof that the gates were indeed at Balawat, Balawat was important, the gates were here and Rassam had been telling the truth. Rassam felt that the credit for many of his other discoveries had been taken by senior British Museum staff. In 1893 Rassam had sued the British Museum keeper

E. A. Wallis Budge Sir Ernest Alfred Thompson Wallis Budge (27 July 185723 November 1934) was an English Egyptologist, Orientalist, and philologist who worked for the British Museum and published numerous works on the ancient Near East. He made numerous trips ...

in the British courts for both slander and libel. Budge had written to the trustees of the museum saying that Rassam had used "his relatives" to smuggle antiquities out of Nineveh and had only sent "rubbish" to the

. The elderly Rassam was upset by these accusations and when he challenged Budge he received a partial apology and retraction that the High court considered "insincere" and "ungentlemanly". Rassam took the matter to court and he was fully supported by the judge but not by the jury.

Three sets of gates

Two sets of Balawat Gates were commissioned in

's reign and one set in his son, Shalmanser III's reign. The first set was discovered by Hormuzd Rassam in 1878 and now resides in the

. Along with these gates, a limestone

coffer A coffer (or coffering) in architecture is a series of sunken panels in the shape of a square, rectangle, or octagon in a ceiling, soffit or vault. A series of these sunken panels was often used as decoration for a ceiling or a vault, also ...

was found containing two inscribed marble tablets of Ashurnasirpal II. The inscriptions on this coffer described the foundation of a temple equipped with bronze gates dedicated to Mamu, the Assyrian god of dreams. The second set of gates originated from the Temple of Mamu. These gates were excavated by

Max Mallowan Sir Max Edgar Lucien Mallowan (6 May 1904 – 19 August 1978) was a prominent British archaeologist, specialising in ancient Middle Eastern history. He was the second husband of Dame Agatha Christie. Life and work Born Edgar Mallowan in Wands ...

in 1956 and are now located in the

, though many pieces were looted in 2003. The third set of gates, which were set up by Ashurnasirpal II's son, Shalmaneser III, were discovered by Hormuzd Rassam in 1878. Shalmaneser III's gates are also located in the British Museum. The third set of gates were published in 1905. The gates belonging to Shalmaneser III were discovered at the small Assyrian site of Imgur-Enlil. Some of the Balawat Bronze Bands at Mosul Museum survived the looting in the wake of the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Nevertheless,

Destruction of Mosul Museum artifacts The destruction of Mosul Museum artifacts became publicly known on February 26, 2015, when the group known as ISIL released a video showing their destruction. Mosul Museum The Mosul Museum, opened in 1952, is the second largest museum in Iraq, with ...

further occurred in 2015 because of a terrorist attack. Some of the details of the aftermath have been described based on a video. The full documentation of all these Bronze Bands is available in a 2008 publication by the British Museum.

Eckhard Unger Eckhard Unger (Landsberg an der Warthe, 11 April 1884 – 24 July 1966) was a German assyriologist. Unger who was the curator of the Istanbul museum described the remains of Balawat Gates that are still in the Istanbul Museum. Unger was fully aw ...

who was the curator of the Istanbul museum described the remains of Balawat gates that are still in the Istanbul Museums. Unger was fully aware that the major parts of the gates were in London and Paris and he was able to visit both locations and discuss them with the respective curators.Zum Bronzetor von Balawat, Beiträge zur Erklärung und Deutung der assyrischen Inschriften und Reliefs Salmanassars III
Eckhard Unger, retrieved 4 September 2014

Embossed scenes

The surviving pieces of all three sets of gates consist of long bands or strips of bronze, which were mounted on wooden doors. They were embossed and inlaid with chased decoration showing scenes of

warfare War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

, the presentation of tribute and the

hunting Hunting is the human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products (fur/ hide, bone/tusks, horn/antler, e ...

of lions and bulls. Each pair of gates consisted of 16 bronze bands (8 each side). All of the bronze bands were arranged in a decorative scheme. The

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...

edging strips on the doors were also inscribed. The gates commissioned by Ashurnasirpal II are decorated in single register with an embossed and engraved figurative scene on the top and the bottom, which are bordered with palmettes. Beyond these borders are a second pair of outer borders, which include decorative rosettes.Britishmuseum.org The bronze bands covered both doors and the doorposts. Careful reconstruction of these gates demonstrates that the doorposts were tapered towards the top and the bands also reduced in size.The Balawat Gates of Ashurnasirpal II by J. E. Curtis; N. Tallis
Review by: Sarah C. Melville, Journal of the American Oriental Society ,Vol. 129, No. 3 (July–September 2009), pp. 552-554, Published by: American Oriental Society, retrieved December 2013

Gallery

File:Detail of an embossed scene on bronze plate showing Shalmaneser III in a chariot and Assyrian archers. From a Balawat gate, Iraq, 859-824 BCE. Ancient Orient Museum, Istanbul.jpg, Detail of an embossed scene on bronze plate showing Shalmaneser III in a chariot and Assyrian archers. From a Balawat gate, Iraq, 859-824 BCE. Ancient Orient Museum, Istanbul File:Detail of an embossed scene on bronze plate showing Assyrian army attacking a city. From a Balawat gate, Iraq, 859-824 BCE. Ancient Orient Museum, Istanbul.jpg, Detail of an embossed scene on bronze plate showing Assyrian army attacking a city. From a Balawat gate, Iraq, 859-824 BCE. Ancient Orient Museum, Istanbul File:Detail of an embossed scene on bronze plate showing armed men carrying booty. From a Balawat gate, Iraq, 859-824 BCE. Ancient Orient Museum, Istanbul.jpg, Detail of an embossed scene on bronze plate showing armed men carrying booty. From a Balawat gate, Iraq, 859-824 BCE. Ancient Orient Museum, Istanbul File:Detail of an embossed scene on bronze plate showing Assyrian war chariots. From a Balawat gate, Iraq, 859-824 BCE. Ancient Orient Museum, Istanbul.jpg, Detail of an embossed scene on bronze plate showing Assyrian war chariots. From a Balawat gate, Iraq, 859-824 BCE. Ancient Orient Museum, Istanbul

Notes

References

Theophilus G Pinches and Walter de Gray Birch, The bronze ornaments of the palace gates of Balawat (Shalmaneser II, B.C. 859-825) edited, with an introduction by Walter de Gray Birch ; with descriptions and translations by Theophilus G. Pinches, Society of Great Russell Street, 1902 *Curtis, J.E., and Tallis, N. (eds.) 2008. The Balawat Gates of Ashurnasirpal II, British Museum Press (with R.D. Barnett, L.G. Davies , M.M. Howard, and C.B.F. Walker). *Léonard W. King, Bronze Reliefs from the Gates of Shalmanezer. King of Assyria BC 860-825, Longman's & Company, 1915

External links

Bronze relief fragment at the Walters Art Museum
{{British Museum Middle Eastern sculptures in the British Museum Assyrian art and architecture Sculpture of the Ancient Near East Gates Collection of the Istanbul Archaeology Museums