The Connection between Spirit and Matter among the Akkad

Head of the Akkadian Ruler Sargon

I. Concept Statement

The work of art to be examined for this paper is the art piece known as the Head of the Akkadian Ruler Sargon, created ca. 2300–2200 BC in bronze and currently housed in the Iraq Museum. The piece reflects the belief of the people of the time that the image of a person could also contain the spirit, essence or presence of the individual it represented. The idea is not really very dissimilar from what today are known and used as voodoo dolls—representations of a person upon whom some sort of malice is inflected through violence committed against the doll. The belief that a representation can somehow be linked to the body and soul of another real, live human being is one that still exists today, just as it did thousands of years ago. Some might mark it as superstition, but the reality is that people seem to have always believed that there is a connection between spirit and matter, and the ancient nature of this belief is revealed in the Head off the Akkadian Ruler Sargon. The piece in its originality represented the identity of Sargon and would have served as an embodiment of his person. After the fall of the Nineveh, the piece was likely abused by Sargon’s enemies in the same way one takes vengeance upon another today by way of a voodoo doll. With the Akkadian Head, its ears were cut off, its beard ends demolished, its nose flattened, and its left eye gouged out. The violence committed against this head shows that belief in the relationship between spirit and matter was strong among the ancient people of Nineveh and Babylon. I want to research this idea more deeply in order to understand the connection between culture, beliefs about spirituality, and art.

II. Outline/Thesis

The sources I want to use for this paper include the following:

“Art: Royal Portrait Head (“Head of Sargon the Great”).” Annenberg Learner, 2020.

https://www.learner.org/series/art-through-time-a-global-view/portraits/royal-portrait-head-head-of-sargon-the-great/

“Art of Akkad: An Introduction.” Khan Academy, 2020.

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ancient-art-civilizations/ancient-near-east1/akkadian/a/art-of-akkad-an-introduction#:~:text=Head%20of%20an%20Akkadian%20Ruler&text=This%20image%20of%20an%20unidentified,lips%20and%20a%20wrinkled%20brow.

“Art of Akkad and Ur.” Lumen Learning, 2020.

https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-arthistory1/chapter/art-of-akkad-and-ur/

“Head of a Ruler.” Met Museum, 2020.

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/329077

“Nineveh (Late Dynastic Period - The Imperial Akkadian Period), Temple of Ishtar :

Bronze cast head of ruler, Imperial Akkadian II-III.” Australian National University, 2020. https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/handle/1885/201458

The thesis of this paper is that the Head of the Akkadian Ruler Sargon is both a work of art and an artifact that reveals the cultural belief of the ancient people of Nineveh and Babylon in the connection between spirit and matter. This paper will employ close visual analysis of the Head of the Akkadian Ruler Sargon, describing how the form of the work relates to the cultural belief of the spirit being possessed by the matter that represents the actual man.

The outline for this paper will follow this structure:

I. Introduction

a. What can the examination of ancient art reveal?

b. Art represents the culture and beliefs of the people who create it.

c. It is an expression of the spirit of the times.

d. Even art that is destroyed or attacked can tell something.

e. Thesis statements

II. Visual description of the Head of the Akkadian Ruler Sargon

a. Depiction of Head

b. What it is made of

c. Who made it

d. Why it was made

e. What it represents

III. How the form relates to the culture beliefs of the ancient people

a. The belief of the people that spirit and matter were related and connected

b. The belief that rulers were godlike

c. The belief that by attacking the representation of one it would be like attacking the ruler

d. A contrary opinion of the Head’s identity

IV. What the intentional damage of the Head suggests

a. The belief in the connection between spirit and matter was strong

b. It relates to the same belief today regarding the use of voodoo dolls to inflict pain on one’s enemies

c. Ancient art of this kind had utility in governance and was not simply created for aesthetic value

V. Conclusion

a. Restate thesis

b. Reiterate the main points and close out the essay

III. First Rough Draft

What can the examination of ancient art reveal? Art represents the culture and beliefs of the people who create it. It is an expression of the spirit of the times. Even art that is destroyed or attacked can tell something. The work of art to be examined for this paper is the art piece known as the Head of the Akkadian Ruler Sargon, created ca. 2300–2200 BC in bronze and currently housed in the Iraq Museum. The piece reflects the belief of the people of the time that the image of a person could also contain the spirit, essence or presence of the individual it represented. The idea is not really very dissimilar from what today are known and used as voodoo dolls—representations of a person upon whom some sort of malice is inflected through violence committed against the doll. The belief that a representation can somehow be linked to the body and soul of another real, live human being is one that still exists today, just as it did thousands of years ago. Some might mark it as superstition, but the reality is that people seem to have always believed that there is a connection between spirit and matter, and the ancient nature of this belief is revealed in the Head off the Akkadian Ruler Sargon. The piece in its originality represented the identity of Sargon and would have served as an embodiment of his person. After the fall of the Nineveh, the piece was likely abused by Sargon’s enemies in the same way one takes vengeance upon another today by way of a voodoo doll. With the Akkadian Head, its ears were cut off, its beard ends demolished, its nose flattened, and its left eye gouged out. The violence committed against this head shows that belief in the relationship between spirit and matter was strong among the ancient people of Nineveh and Babylon. To understand the connection between culture, beliefs about spirituality, and art, one can use the Head of the Akkadian Ruler Sargon as a way to see into the ancient world and connect it to the modern world. The thesis of this paper is that the Head of the Akkadian Ruler Sargon is both a work of art and an artifact that reveals the cultural belief of the ancient people of Nineveh and Babylon in the connection between spirit and matter. This paper will employ close visual analysis of the Head of the Akkadian Ruler Sargon, describing how the form of the work relates to the cultural belief of the spirit being possessed by the matter that represents the actual man.

The Head of the Akkadian Ruler Sargon is made of bronze but has a golden hue and its features and carefully crafted rendering give it a life-like realism that indicates the humanity of the ruler. The brow is wrinkled to reflect the concern of the ruler for his people; the beard and its locks are long and flowing, each curl on one side of the head represented in perfect symmetry with the curl on the other side. The symmetrical design across the entire head is such that one could draw a line down the center between the eyes and through the nose and fold the ends over and it would overlay perfectly. The symmetrical aspect of the Head indicates a cultural order and adherence to a structured way of life. The structure also gives the Head a royal appearance and a noble bearing. In its original state the Head was attached to a bronze body, but it has since been severed. The Head, therefore, would have been part of a life-size replica of Sargon (“Art: Royal Portrait Head (“Head of Sargon the Great”). Who made it is unknown, but it is presumed that it was made to be a life-size statue of Sargon, and that it was made to serve as a permanent representation or embodiment of his authority in power. Whereas today, statues are made to honor people, the culture of the Akkad was such that the people believed the spirit of the ruler could be embodied in the ruler’s likeness made of earthly materials. Thus, the original work would have had significant utility as a tool of governance.

To understand why it was made it is also important to understand the politics of the region at the time. At around 2200 BC, when the work was made, the Akkad and the Ur fought over the region around the Euphrates. Sargon helped to conquer the region and centralize its government (“Art of Akkad: An Introduction”). In doing so, he established himself and his family as powerful rulers. The statue of Sargon to which the Head belonged likely held important spiritual significance, which probably explains why it was later attacked when the dynasty established by Sargon fell to the Ur (“Art of Akkad and Ur”).

The form of the Head relates to the culture beliefs of the ancient people in that it is not just a representation of a hero but rather the embodiment of the hero’s spirit. One can perhaps better understand it in modern terms by looking at the way various sci-fi films tell stories about people prolonging their lives by injecting their minds into computer programs or into avatars that allow them to continue on even after their own body has died. The same idea is evident in this ancient culture: the powerful ruler Sargon was believed to have given his soul in some way to this life-like statue. There are other artifacts from this time and region that indicate that portraits in bronze were made (“Head of a Ruler”). However, what distinguishes the Head of the Akkadian Ruler Sargon from other works of art and artifacts that have survived is the fact that the Head has been deliberately abused and vandalized. Violence has been done to the head the way an enemy might visit violence upon a foe in real life. The ears of the Head are not just missing—they have been cut off. The nose has been flattened; the ends of the beard have been “plucked,” and the left eye has been gouged out and the cheek below the right eye bruised and roughed up. Moreover, the Head has been severed from the body and the body likely destroyed. All of this is evidence that the Head was deliberately damaged by someone and that the likeness of Sargon was attacked in this way so as to prevent his spirit or life from having any power over the people who supplanted his dynasty. Just as enemies of the state used to be hung, drawn and quartered, and heads put on pikes (this is something that has occurred in many cultures—from the most primitive to the most advanced throughout time), the enemies of Sarkad abused his likeness and probably put the severed Head on display someway, indicating that the former ruler was no longer in power.

Not all researchers agree with this interpretation, however. At the Australian National University it is argued that the Head is actually a depiction of a different ruler because of the hair style. For instance, the researchers there note that, “first, because this hair style appears on a stele of Naram-Sin as well, secondly, because its mature Akkadian style suggests a later date,” the (“Nineveh (Late Dynastic Period - The Imperial Akkadian Period), Temple of Ishtar: Bronze cast head of ruler, Imperial Akkadian II-III”). However, this interpretation does not change the fact that the Head as it now appears has been deliberately damaged, and the best explanation for that damage is that there existed a strong cultural belief in the connection between spirit and matter. Even if the Head was not a representation of the likeness of Sargon, it represented some ruler whose enemies detached it from its body and then set about abusing it. The animosity shown to the Head surely was not random but rather illustrates the lengths to which the people of the ancient world would go to ensure that one’s foes were properly defeated.