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Meridian Magazine : : Home

Old Testament Art at the Time of the Assyrian Conquest of Israel
By Bonnie Oswald,
BFA, MA

Israel, living in wickedness and idolatry, was warned by prophets Elijah, Elisha, and Hosea, to repent or face conquest. Prophets and Kings from Judah offered help, and invited them to return to the temple in Jerusalem. These offers they scorned, becoming ripe for destruction.

The Assyrians viciously brought that destruction.


Reconstruction of Nineveh

As we read in the Old Testament of the Assyrians conquering Israel and much of Judah, it is easy to visualize these people as they were pictured at the time in the palaces of the Assyrians. Nineveh is a rich
trove of art showing the Assyrian kings and captives majestically portrayed in magnificent bas reliefs. Assyrian art is instantly recognizable because of the pictures of raw strength.  Everyone is shown heavily muscled, even the animals.


King Assurbanipal decked out for the hunts. British Museum.


Assyrian God from Nineveh wall relief. Note the muscular legs in this figure, typical of Assyrian Art.   Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

Captives were treated particularly harshly. The Geneva Convention was not in the thought process of the Assyrians, who believed in spreading fear among the surrounding enemies. By about 900 BC, Assyria was becoming a fierce war machine, dominating the Near East for 300 years until they were conquered by the Babylonians. Centuries of warfare — as the predominant aspect of their culture — hardened them into a brutal people.

In the temples and palaces, rich with militaristic art, there are no happy scenes of banquets, dancing, feasting, or happy family scenes. All Assyrian art is centered on power.

Tilgath Pileser (also known in the Old Testament as Pul) reigned from 745-727 BC. He warred against
Syria and advanced along the Mediterranean, subjugating Phoenicia and Gaza. He conquered Israel in 721 BC, removing the Israelites, and advanced on Judah. Palace art shows captives and vassals paying tribute to the kings.


Tilgath
Pileser (Pul), shown in court in his palace, from an artist's reconstruction from a bas relief.  8th C. BC, Louvre

Kings’ sport was shooting lions while riding in chariots. Dying lions and lion hunts figure prominently in palace art. While people were depicted with little emotion, animals were shown with great sensitivity, as we see in this excellent relief of a dying lioness.


Dying Lioness, limestone, 650 BC, British Museum

Someday, when we get the scriptures from the Ten Tribes, it will be interesting to hear the stories associated with the hardships they suffered under the Assyrians.


Israelite prisoners being marched out of Israel by Assyrian soldiers. Note dead Israelites at left. From Bas Relief at Nineveh.

After the defeat of Israel, the Assyrians advanced on Judah, moving south, and conquering as they went. Watch fires were set that could be seen from one city to another, so the next city in line could see what was the state of the battle.

One of the most poignant archaeological finds related to this period is an ostracon from Lachish. Ostracon were broken pieces of fired clay or pottery. Relatively indestructible,
they were used as message pads.

The Lachish Ostracon #4, found in the ruins of Lachish, ends a long message with the sad words, "and let my Lord know that we are watching for the signal fires of Lachish... for we cannot see Azekiah." Azekiah had been defeated, Lachish was next, and the giant Assyrian siege ramp is still visible. The message was never sent.


Ostracon
#4 from Lachish.

After defeating Lachish, the Assyrians moved on Jerusalem in 701 BC, and laid siege to the city. They were smitten by a plague (probably bubonic) and woke up all "dead corpses." (2 Kings 18, 19.) The king, Sennacherib, returned to Assyrian, abandoning Jerusalem, where he was assassinated by two of his sons while worshiping in the Assyrian temple.

Assyrians transplanted conquered peoples to other areas in their large kingdom, rendering them relatively helpless and disoriented. Their leadership was destroyed, and they were in unfamiliar areas, under guard. Other captive peoples were moved into their vacated lands. Some original Israelites were undoubtedly still in the area of
Israel, having evaded capture. Mixed with the newly transplanted people brought by the Assyrians, they intermarried and mixed religious beliefs, absorbing elements of both.

When Judah was allowed to return under the Persians they scorned these people with their false religious practices, as they were despised at the time of Christ. They became known as the Samaritans.

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© 2006 Meridian Magazine.  All Rights Reserved.

About the Author:

Bonnie Lach Oswald was born and raised in Salt Lake, graduating with a BFA from the Univeristy of Utah and an MA from Brigham Young University. Her degrees were in art. She completed the research for her thesis in Boston, where she attended New England Conservatory of Music and sang in the Boston Opera. She sang in the Tabernacle Choir. She was an art director at Jordan Marsh in Boston, ZCMI in Salt Lake and City of Paris in San Francisco. She met her husband, Stephen, in Berkeley California and they have 2 boys and a girl and 3 grandsons. They now reside in Sandy Utah.

She is involved with art and graphic design, sculpture, and singing and grandkid-sitting.
She has taught art and art history at Brigham Young University, Ohlone College in California, and Salt Lake Community College. She has had several books published, including the illustrations for the testing books for the Utah Board of Education grades Pre-K through 6th grade, and is currently working on several others, including one on the Art of the Peoples of the Old Testament.

She currently teached Gospel Doctrine in Sandy Utah Willow Creek First Ward.

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