Abstract
Because of the symbolic and religious importance of cult statues in ancient Mesopotamia, these images were targeted on numerous occasions by invading forces as part of the conquest of a foreign polity. In the case of the Assyrians, triumphant kings would sometimes list cult statues from a newly-conquered city or group as spoils of war, alongside members of the royal family, their subjects, and their precious goods. Such acts of divine deportation are sometimes called “godnapping” in secondary literature. A conspicuous feature in godnapping reports is the paucity of divine names mentioned. Deported cult images are instead simply called “gods” of a foreign king, people, or city. Because godnapping has thus far been studied purely as a political tactic, the omission of names has been ascribed to the Assyrians’ disinterest in or ignorance of non-Assyrian divinities. This study proposes viewing godnapping not through a political lens but rather a religious one, arguing that the Assyrians would certainly have been aware of which cult statues they were deporting, and that they would have considered the non-Assyrian cult images gods in their own right. Focusing upon the religious and inscriptional traditions of the Assyrians, this paper seeks to demonstrate that omitting divine names in deportation accounts may have been purposeful and meant to prevent these gods from seeking retribution. Instead of using the traditional approach of examining the political ramifications for the conquered polity whose gods have been deported, this paper turns instead to the religious and psychological consequences for those who were deporting the gods and exposes the Assyrian perspective of godnapping as presented in their own inscriptions.
Acknowledgments
This article is a modified and expanded version of papers that were presented at the 2013 Deutscher Orientalistentag Conference in Münster and the 2014 American Oriental Society Annual Meeting in Phoenix. I am grateful to Eckart Frahm, Benjamin R. Foster, Daniel Fleming, Seth Richardson, Angelika Berlejung, and Steven Garfinkle for their invaluable comments and advice, and to Sofia Salo and Hanspeter Schaudig for kindly lending me copies of their unpublished manuscripts. I also thank the audience members from the American Oriental Society Annual Meeting for their excellent feedback and suggestions.
Abbreviations
- BIWA
Borger, Rykle, and Andreas Fuchs. 1996. Beiträge zum Inschriftenwerk Assurbanipals: Die Prismenklassen A, B, C = K, D, E, F, G, H, J und T sowie andere Inschriften. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
- CAD
1956–. The Assyrian Dictionary of The Oriental Institute of The University of Chicago. Chicago.
- PNA
Baker, Heather D. and Karen Radner (eds.). 1998–. The Prosopography of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. Helsinki.
- RIMA 2
Grayson, A. Kirk. 1991. Assyrian Rulers of the Early First Millennium BC I (1114–859 BC). Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
- RIMA 3
Grayson, A. Kirk. 1996. Assyrian Rulers of the Early First Millennium BC II (858–745 BC). Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
- RIMB 2
Frame, Grant. 1995. Rulers of Babylonia: From the Second Dynasty of Isin to the End of Assyrian Domination (1157–612 BC). Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
- RINAP 1
Tadmor, Hayim and Shigeo Yamada. 2011. The Royal Inscriptions of Tiglath-
pileser III (744–727 BC) and Shalmaneser V (726–722 BC), Kings of Assyria. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns.
- RINAP 3/1
Grayson, A. Kirk and Jamie Novotny. 2012. The Royal Inscriptions of Sennacherib, King of Assyria (704–681 BC), Part 1. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns.
- RINAP 3/2
Grayson, A. Kirk and Jamie Novotny. 2012. The Royal Inscriptions of Sennacherib, King of Assyria (704–681 BC), Part 2. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns.
- RINAP 4
Leichty, Erle. 2011. The Royal Inscriptions of Esarhaddon, King of Assyria (680–669 BC). Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns.
- SAA II
Parpola, Simo, and Kazuko Watanabe. 1988. Neo-Assyrian Treaties and Loyalty Oaths. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press.
- SAA III
Livingstone, Alasdair. 1989. Court Poetry and Literary Miscellanea. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press.
- SAA XIII
Cole, Steven W. and Peter Machinist. 1998. Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Priests to Kings Esarhaddon and Assurbanipal. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press.
- SAACT X
Novotny, Jamie. 2014. Selected Royal Inscriptions of Assurbanipal. Helsinki: Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project.
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