Winter, I. J. (1989). North Syrian Ivories and Tell Halaf Reliefs: The Impact of Luxury Goods upon 'Major' Arts. Essays in Ancient Civilization Presented to Helene J. Kantor. A. Leonard, Jr. and B. B. Williams (eds.) Chicago, Oriental Institute: 321-332. (original) (raw)

There are striking similarities in overall style, detail, and subject matter between certain of the early first millennium ivory carvings attributed to North Syrian manufacture and the reliefs from Tell Halaf (ancient Guzana), a site located in the Habur River basin. Ivories of North Syrian type have actually been found in fragments at Tell Halaf itself, as well as at various other sites: Nimrod, Hama, Zincirli, and Hasanlu, to name the most well known. These parallels led Helene Kantor to argue in 1956 that in fact the ivories, and possibly other minor arts, must have served as the models for the stone reliefs of what was essentially a provincial and culturally backward local center. I Such a scenario reverses the usual direction of influence from one medium to another -a direction generally understood as moving from the so-called major arts to socalled minor arts, with scale often determining what is considered "major."2 Nevertheless, I believe a number of factors can be adduced in support of the original hypothesis, and I should like to offer these brief notes as a tribute to the extraordinarily sensitive visual observations and historical perceptions of Helene Kantor, whose work on many aspects of the art of the early first miUennium B.C. laid the foundations for much of my own. t. H. J. Kantor. "Syro-Palestinian Ivories," JNES 15 (1956): 173. following a suggestion made by P. J. Rils, Hama. Fouilles el recherches de la Fondasio« Carlsberg 193/-1938.//. 3: Les Cimit;eres a cremaslon (Copenhagen. 1948), pp. 198f. 2. See, for example, the study of M.-Th. Barrelet, "Etude de glyptique akkadienne,' Orientalia 39 (1970): 213-51, in which she suggests lbat seal engravers of palace and temple workshops would have had direct access to the major monuments of the times. and that specifically cult statuary and reliefs provided the stimulus for certain imagery on Akkadian seals (cf. p. 217). 3. Cf. synopsis in B. Hrouda, "Halaf, Tell." RIA 4 (Berlin, 1972-75), p. 54; cf. also M. von Oppenheim, Tell HaJaf, eine M.u K"ltIU ina iiltesten Mesopotamien (Leipzig, 1931), a popular. narrative account of the excavations and the history of the site; and lbe official excavation reports, Tell Ha/of. vols. I-IV (Berlin, 1943-1962). hrnal campaign seasons were