Paul Collins

The British Museum, Middle East, Keeper

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Papers by Paul Collins

Kingship in Space and Time at the Northwest Palace, Nimrud

Ancient Near Eastern Weltanschauungen in Contact and in Contrast. Rethinking Ideology and Propaganda in the Ancient Near East, 2022

The wall reliefs of Neo-Assyrian palaces have been investigated for relationships between text an... more The wall reliefs of Neo-Assyrian palaces have been investigated for relationships between text and image, their historiographical significance and affective properties. The sculptured images and associated inscriptions projected the power and authority of Assyrian kingship through representations of the achievements of individual rulers and their connections with royal ancestors and the gods who promoted and sustained them. This was part of a body of values, traditions and knowledge shared within the Assyrian courtly and imperial community, a unifying ideology which challenged those who would defy it with consequences in the form of conquest and incorporation. These monuments were experienced as part of the theatre of kingship in architectural spaces where the business of empire took place. They also participated, however, within the rituals of kingship that evoked the agency of the gods. Here I argue that the text and images worked together to establish an active relationship between the king and a mythical past and a perfect future, thereby ensuring Assyrian kingship was timeless.

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Some thoughts on the Assyrian ivories from the Temple of Nabu at Nimrud

Ivories, Rock Reliefs and Merv: Studies on the Ancient Near East in Honour of Georgina Herrmann, 2022

Excavations in a throne room in the Temple of Nabû at Nimrud uncovered ivory plaques carved in an... more Excavations in a throne room in the Temple of Nabû at Nimrud uncovered ivory plaques carved in an Assyrian-style. These appeared to be part of the temple furniture that had been deliberately burnt at the end of the Assyrian empire. The incised imagery includes processions of foreign tributaries interpreted as Iranians, specifically Medes. Alongside the ivories were found fragments of cuneiform documents containing oaths of loyalty to Assyria sworn by Iranians. This suggested a relationship between ivories and tablets and their symbolic destruction by the Medes. The ivories, which can be dated to the ninth century BC, are better understood as showing Syrian tributaries and a direct connection with the temple throne room and the treaty documents can be discounted. Nevertheless, the objects were probably brought together, perhaps from Iran itself, for their obliteration in a sacred space closely associated with Assyrian kingship.

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Were There Sumerians?

Ancient Near East Today, Vol X, No. 2, 2022

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Touch Me! / Don't Touch Me! Sensing Mesopotamia through touch in museums

Sensing the Past. Detecting the Use of the Five Senses in Ancient Near Eastern Contexts. Proceedings of the Conference held in Rome, Sapienza University, June 4th, 2018, 2020

format_quoteMuseums influence cultural understanding; they should convey historical significance of touch in ancient societies to enhance visitor engagement.format_quote

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Museums as Vehicles for Defining Artistic Canons: The Case of the Ancient Near East in the British Museum

Testing the Canon of Ancient Near Eastern Art and Archaeology , 2020

The modern Western encounter with the ancient Near Eastern canon has been mediated largely by mus... more The modern Western encounter with the ancient Near Eastern canon has been mediated largely by museums. Indeed, for the vast majority of specialists and nonspecialists alike the material remains of the ancient Near East are accessible firsthand only through museums. This point is significant because it is now recognized that museum exhibitions and displays have an important role in the formation of disciplinary knowledge. This essay considers the ways in which the British Museum, London, has historically presented and thereby potentially shaped and reiterated canons of ancient Near Eastern art and archaeology, and how it was received and shaped in turn by the nonspecialist visitor. The British Museum has been selected because of its significant collections but also for its long institutional history that reflects changing approaches to display and interpretation.

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'He who saw the Deep': History as Ritual in the Material World of Mesopotamia

Historical Consciousness and the Use of the Past in the Ancient World , 2019

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Narative

A Companion to the Art of the Ancient Near East , 2018

Introduction "Simply put, narrative is the representation of an event or a series of events" (Abb... more Introduction "Simply put, narrative is the representation of an event or a series of events" (Abbott 2008: 13). 1 It is a universal human phenomenon "carried by articulated language, spoken or written, fixed or moving images, gestures, and the ordered mixture of all these substances" (Barthes [1966] 1982: 251). 2 The nature of narrative has been the subject of much debate over the last half century and theorists do not entirely agree on how to define it. Most of them assume that an event alone is sufficient, although others have argued that there needs to be a simultaneous and coordinated presence of both action and character (Altman 2008: 12-17). Crucially, it is the way in which a story (the basic linear elements) is told (the discourse) that characterizes narrative. This process is shaped by who is telling the story and why; its structure (for example, it may or may not have a beginning, middle and end); and the intended audience. Narrative discourse is a way of transforming knowing a story into telling (White 1980: 5). It shapes our lives through the accounts we hear and recount, the texts we read, and the images we observe, ranging from comic strips 3 to digital media and live theater; these sources help affirm, build, and transform cultural traditions and identities. Narrative art may therefore be defined as an account or record of an event told through visual representation. Such images do not simply illustrate or refer to a story; instead, the narrative is carried through the images-that is, understanding the story does not depend on a written text. Yet it is commonplace to assume an intimate relationship between pictorial and Narrative

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Popular Culture and the Ancient Near East: (Re)constructing the Past , 2020

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Casting the Ruins: creating Assyria through plaster and paint

In Context: The Reade Festschrift, 2020

When stone relief panels lining the walls of Neo-Assyrian palaces were uncovered by European expl... more When stone relief panels lining the walls of Neo-Assyrian palaces were uncovered by European explorers in the mid-19th century, the sculptures were fitted into an existing chronological sequence that serialized the artistic progress of civilisation. Yet Victorian reconstructions of the past called for a coherence that such archaeological remains failed to provide on their own. The use of full-scale plaster casts could help to close chronological gaps as well as synchronize works from across cultures. New casting techniques made the diffusion of large building fragments possible and Assyria came to play a significant role in an emerging global history of monuments that could be experienced both spatially and simultaneously. The result was the establishment of a canon of Assyrian sculpture through their reproduction for display in architecture courts across Europe and North America. Casts also allowed for the creation of a synthesized Assyria in which palace exteriors and interiors could be reconstructed in plaster and paint to create a seamless and convincing whole; the earliest example was the Assyrian or 'Nineveh Court' at the Sydenham Crystal Palace (1854-1866), but it took its most fantastic form with the short-lived 'Halls of the Ancients' in Washington DC (1898-1906).

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From Mesopotamia to the Met: Two Assyrian Reliefs from the Palace of Sargon II

Metropolitan Museum Journal, 2012

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'Nineveh in the United Kingdom' in Petit, L.P & D. Morandi Bonacossi (eds), 2017. Nineveh, The Great City, pp. 298-302.

'Well, as for Nineveh, skipper, it was wiped out long ago. There's not a trace of it left, and on... more 'Well, as for Nineveh, skipper, it was wiped out long ago. There's not a trace of it left, and one can't even guess where it was' (Lucian, 2 nd century AD). Nineveh, the once-flourishing capital of the Assyrian Empire, has fascinated writers, travellers and historians alike since its complete annihilation by allied forces in 612 BC. It was said to have been a great and populous city with 90-km walls, stunning palaces and colossal statues of pure gold. Since 1842 archaeologists have been investigating the ruins of Nineveh, which are located on the eastern banks of the river Tigris, near the modern Iraqi city of Mosul. The hundreds of thousands of objects that have been collected tell an intriguing story of life and death in a remarkable Mesopotamian city. The edited volume Nineveh, the Great City contains more than 65 articles by international specialists, providing the reader with a detailed and thorough study of the site of Nineveh. It describes the history of the city, the excavations and the dispersed material culture that can today be appreciated in more than 100 museums and institutes around the world. Special attention is paid to the endangered heritage of Nineveh, which recently faced destruction for the second time in its history. This lavishly illustrated volume is intended to appeal to readers interested in culture and heritage, as well as to students and professional academics.

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D. Chiriu, P.C. Ricci, C.M. Carbonaro, D. Nadali, A. Polcaro, P. Collins, Raman identification of cuneiform tablet pigments: emphasis and colour technology in ancient Mesopotamian mid-third millennium, in Heliyon 3 (2017)

by Andrea Polcaro, Daniele Chiriu, Davide Nadali, and Paul Collins

Cuneiform tablets tell the life and culture of Sumerian people in a sort of black and white tale ... more Cuneiform tablets tell the life and culture of Sumerian people in a sort of black and white tale because of the binary engraving technique. A leading question arises: did Mesopotamian people apply some kind of colour to decorate their tablets or to put emphasis on selected words? Some administrative and literary Sumerian cuneiform tablets of mid-third Millennium B.C. from the site of Kish (central Mesopotamia, modern Iraq) were dug up in twentieth-century and stored at the Ashmolean Museum of the Oxford University. Non-destructive micro-Raman spectroscopy is a powerful technique to detect the presence of residual pigments eventually applied to the engraving signs. Yellow, orange, red and white pigments have been detected and a possible identification has been proposed in this work.

"The Face of the Assyrian Empire" Pp. 42-53 in Assyria to Iberia: Art and Culture in the Iron Age, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Symposia, ed. Joan Aruz and Michael Seymour. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2016