Allusions and Illusions

The visual legacy of Akkadian kingship in Mesopotamia was the product of a series of individual engagements with Akkadian images and memories that collectively suggest a shift over time from direct engagement with Akkadian models to mediated access to Akkadian models. Beyond consolidating the ideas presented in earlier chapters, chapter 6 opens up further lines of inquiry into the relationship between cultural memory and images in the ancient Near East. First, memories of the Akkadians in Hittite Anatolia raise the possibility of a visual legacy in Hittite art. Second, the Akkadian legacy is compared to the legacy of the Ur III kings. In the latter, a set of late Neo-Assyrian “basket-bearer” steles display interpictorial links to Ur III foundation figures.