Fannie and Alan Leslie Center for the Humanities at Dartmouth College

The year 2006 will mark the passage of 150 years since the arrival at Dartmouth of one of the college's most prized possessions in the realm of art and culture: the Assyrian reliefs, currently on display in the Kim Gallery of the Hood Museum of Art. Originally part of the decorative scheme of the so-called "Northwest Palace" of King Ashurnasirpal II (883-859 B.C.E.) in Nimrud, Iraq, six large-scale reliefs depict a ritual performance undertaken by the king. Human and supernatural beings are also in attendance. Scholarly understanding of Assyrian art has increased considerably over time, as its visual, cultural, and historical meanings have been studied from a variety of perspectives and their role as visual propaganda has been recognized.

A symposium co-organized by the Department of Art History and Hood Museum of Art and sponsored by The Fannie and Alan Leslie Center for the Humanities at Dartmouth College, Hood Museum of Art, Department of Art History, Anthropology Department, and Jewish Studies will examine and advance the state of scholarship on the reliefs, the culture from which they derive, as well as their afterlife in Hanover. A highly respected group of speakers will address topics such as the 19th-century British excavations in Iraq, the architecture and outfitting of Ashurnasirpal's palace, the rich iconography of the reliefs and its range of meanings, the reception and history of the reliefs in Hanover, aspects of Mesopotamian art and culture, as well as the current state of archaeological research and antiquities in Iraq. A special installation on the reliefs and other ancient Near Eastern works from the collection will be also on view in the Hood Museum of Art and will include special interactive 3D computer reconstructions that show the reliefs in their original contexts.

This symposium brings to Dartmouth major scholars of Assyrian art and archaeology, including curators of the important British Museum collection from the Palace of Ashurnasirpal, an archaeologist who excavated the palace site, a scholar who worked to protect antiquities in Iraq during the current conflict. It has been organized by Dartmouth art history associate professor Ada Cohen and lecturer Steve Kangas of art history and Jewish studies in consultation with Anthropology Assistant Professor Kamyar Abdi.

• 3 November, Friday, 4:30 p.m. Arthur M. Loew Auditorium
  • Welcome
    Brian Kennedy, Hood Museum of Art
  • Ada Cohen, Department of Art History
  • Keynote Address: THE EARLY EXPLORATION OF ASSYRIA.
    Julian E. Reade, The British Museum
    A reception will follow in Kim Gallery
• 4 November, Saturday, 9:00 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Arthur M. Loew Auditorium
• Morning Session, 9:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
  Moderator: Steven Kangas, Department of Art History and Program in Jewish Studies
  
• THE NORTHWEST PALACE OF ASHURNASIRPAL II (IN THE DIGITAL AGE)
  Sam Paley, University at Buffalo
• BANQUETS, BAUBLES, AND BRONZES: MATERIAL COMFORTS IN THE NEO-ASSYRIAN PALACES
  Allison Karmel Thomason, Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville
• POLITICAL POSTERS, PRAYERS, TIME CAPSULES, AND LIVING GODS: THE MULTIPLE ROLES OF THE HOOD MUSEUM'S ASSYRIAN CARVINGS
  Barbara N. Porter, The Casco Bay Assyriological Institute
• "TIME AND ETERNITY" IN THE NORTHWEST PALACE OF ASHURNASIRPAL II IN NIMRUD
  Mehmet-Ali Atac, Bryn Mawr College
• Afternoon Session, 2:00 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
  Moderator: Susan Ackerman, Department of Religion and Women's and Gender Studies Program
• ATTENDANTS OF THE KING IN THE ASSYRIAN RELIEFS)
  "Paul Collins, The British Museum
• FRANCIS BROWN, THE FIRST AMERICAN ASSYRIOLOGIST: THE DARTMOUTH YEARS
  Kamyar Abdi, Dartmouth College
• THE NORTHWEST PALACE AND NIMRUD TODAY
  John Russell, Massachusetts College of Art

Image credit: The King and Genie: Relief from the Northwest Palace of Ashurnasirpal II at Nimrud, Hood Museum of Art, Gift of Sir Henry Rawlinson through Austin H. Wright, Class of 1830.