§ V Bronze Metal-Work
Owing to the fact that they lived in a country where stone could not be obtained without great difficulty, the Susians built their houses, palaces, and temples with brick: and it was doubtless due to the same cause that they showed themselves so eager to carry off the stone statues and bas-reliefs that adorned the Chaldæan cities, and which they seized by right of conquest, to embellish their own capital. The same reason will also explain the extraordinary development we find in the metal-working of the Elamites from the earliest times. With them, bronze took the place of stone. They made bronze statues, bronze bas-reliefs, bronze beams, and such was their knowledge and technical dexterity, that we might almost assert without fear of exaggeration, that bronze metal-working was as advanced three thousand years before our era, as it has ever been in modern times.
M. de Morgan brings this to the proof by exhibiting at the Louvre, among his Susian discoveries, a bronze cylinder 14 ft. 3 in. in length, cast in one piece, like a cannon of average calibre, and covered over the whole surface with archaic cuneiform inscriptions, in the name of the Elamite king, Shilhak-in-Shushinak. Another cylinder of the same class, but not quite so long, is larger in diameter.
What can have been the purpose of these colossal tubes, which are cylindrical, except at the ends where they are squared? One of them is inlaid with small gold studs. It is improbable that they were columns; it appears more likely that they were placed horizontally as beams, or railings, intended for the protection of a nation of giants.
Another bronze object not less strange, is a species of altar, or rather a sacrificial table. This also is made in one single casting, 5 ft. 3 in. long, 27½ in. broad, and 12 in. deep. It is pierced like a stone sink, to allow liquids to escape, and round the sides it is decorated with two enormous serpents. There are also five human busts, Atlas-like figures, who support the altar on their powerful shoulders. Unfortunately, this colossal object has been mutilated with unusual fury; it bears many traces of blows from a mallet, and all the protruding parts have suffered. The five Atlas heads have been broken off and have disappeared. The victorious pillagers, it appears, only stopped their vengeance when their strength was exhausted, and when the enormous metal slab, reduced to a shapeless block without projections, resisted all their efforts. A large number of other objects found by M. de Morgan, both in stone and bronze, bear alas! similar traces of the merciless and brutal hatred displayed by the various races which disputed the domination of Elam.
In consequence of this treatment, it is impossible to judge the sacrificial table from the artistic side. For this point of view we must turn to a bronze bas-relief, dated in the reign of Shutruk-Nakhunta, which may be considered the earliest artistic monument, well-preserved in the essential portions, which is also actually Elamite (fig. 250). This bas-relief is damaged at the sides, and pieces have been violently broken off, but a fragment still remains, 3 ft. 3 in. in length, and about 2 ft. in height. The most deeply cut reliefs project about half an inch. “It consists,” says M. de Morgan, “of three superposed registers; the upper one is almost completely destroyed, and only enough remains to enable us to discover the subject depicted on it: these are figures of human beings and of animals. The middle register is rather more than 16 in. in height, and on it are seven figures 14 in. high, walking towards the right. The lower register was greatly neglected and merely contains drawings of birds and trees, worked with the burin....
“The seven personages in the middle register are all alike. The left hand is lowered and holds a bow with a double curve, while the right brandishes a large curved dagger over the head. Behind the right shoulder the quiver can be seen full of arrows, and the strap worn across the breast. They wear large head-dresses, below which hangs their long hair. The beard is worn long, and from their general appearance they appear to belong to the Semitic races. The tunic which covers the body is confined at the waist by a belt, and falls below the knees, open in front. Although they are carefully studied and rendered with tolerably correct proportions, these figures are far from presenting the artistic qualities of the sculptures on the stela of Naram-Sin. They are stiff, too slender, their limbs are lanky, and their feet disproportionately long.
“Notwithstanding these defects, they are superior to Assyrian work, and show that the Elamites possessed artistic instincts to which we are not accustomed among Semitic people of this period.”111
The inscriptions accompanying these figures are in the Elamite language; they are votive, and refer to the building of temples in honour of various divinities.
Thus, possessing no stone for carving bas-reliefs comparable to those of Nineveh, the Susians supplied the deficiency by casting gigantic bas-reliefs in bronze. Their knowledge of metallurgy, which was so marvellously developed, extended yet further: having no means of obtaining great blocks of diorite such as were employed by the Chaldæans for the statue of Gudea at Tello, they demanded of their bronze-founders, statues of that metal, similar to those of their neighbours. They succeeded in producing statues more than life-size at one single casting, in solid bronze.
On entering the Salle Susienne at the Louvre, one’s attention is immediately drawn to the bronze statue of queen Napir-Asu, wife of king Untash-Gal, who reigned B.C. 1500. This statue, of which the head unfortunately is lost, is life-size. With outstretched fingers the queen crosses her hands over the breast, on her wrists there are quadruple bracelets, and on the fourth finger of the left hand she is wearing a ring; the anatomical details of the finger-joints are particularly well rendered. The costume consists of a long fringed robe that falls to the feet. The general outline of the skirt is bell-shaped, and is striped and sprinkled with stars, no doubt intended for spangles worked into the tissue. The bodice is tight-fitting, and shows the outlines of the figure; on the shoulder there is a jewelled fibula, and down the length of the sleeves there are elegant clasps. Finally, a large embroidered shawl is thrown over the shoulders; one end hangs in a point in front, like the enormous wing of some bird. It is, indeed, marvellous that such details could be accurately rendered in a statue of solid bronze, weighing I know not how many tons.
In addition to these gigantic specimens of Elamite bronze-casting, we possess a large number of votive statuettes in bronze as well as utensils of every kind and form. In the foundations of the temple of the god Shushinak, more especially, a number of bronze statuettes were discovered. These represent generally figures of men standing, the hands raised to the body, either holding a bird as though making an offering to the god, or in other instances in the Chaldæan attitude of prayer (fig. 251).
In the example we give here, the figure is holding a bird with both hands, the head is completely shaved as in the diorite statues from the palace of Gudea (see p. 27, fig. 14). In all these instances, the metal-work of Susa is a copy or imitation of Chaldæan sculpture.