Curly-Haired Heroes and the Legacy of Akkadian Seals

Abstract

Cylinder seals potentially played a key role in the visual legacy of Akkadian kingship, but the post-Akkadian history of one Akkadian seal motif, the contest scene, suggests that cylinder seals were not major instruments of image-based responses to and recollections of Akkadian kingship. Instead, the seals’ abundance and accessibility prevented a strict monopolization of their imagery by kings and other agents of cultural memory. Foremost, the colossal lion-wielding heroes from the Neo-Assyrian palace of Sargon II at Khorsabad do not use imagery from Akkadian seals to allude to the historical Akkadian kings, but instead represent a timeless cosmos at home in the Assyrian visual tradition. The tendency to view the Khorsabad heroes as royal figures derives in part from nineteenth-century associations with a legendary king, Gilgamesh.