This saucer lamp, dating from around 612 BC, was excavated from the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud in modern-day northern Iraq. Lamps of this type were used by filling the upper saucer with oil and burning the end of a wick placed in its spout, with its other end resting in the oil. After its discovery in 1958, it was transferred to UCL's Institute of Archaeology, yet was never accessioned into its official collection.
Image
Fact File
| Object Category | Assyrian Pottery |
| Collection | Institute of Archaeology |
| Accession Number | N/A (labelled ND.6668) |
| Dimensions | 7.4 cm high |
| Geographic Region | Nimrud, northern Iraq |
| Estimated Date | 612 BC |
Biography
This lamp was excavated from an Assyrian military fort, named Fort Shalmaneser, in the southeast corner of the city of Nimrud. Named after Shalmaneser III, the Assyrian king between 858-824 BC, the fort acted as the royal residence and property repository for Shalmaneser and his descendants. It was built as a military defence, with ‘barrack-like regularity’ across the structure of its internal buildings, and ‘ramparts which protected it from assault even on the cityward side’.
Yet the year 612 BC saw the violent sacking of presumably every city across Assyria, including Nimrud, by the invading Babylonian army, during which the fort was invaded and looted. Immediately following the raid, squatters moved back into the abandoned buildings, and ‘appear to have eked out a miserable existence there’, but the history of the site post-612 BC is unclear. The particular room in which the lamp was found appears to have been a general storeroom; the lamp itself displays no burn marks, meaning that it is likely to never have been used.
When brought back to London some time between 1958 and 1970, the lamp was never accessioned into the exhibited collection of UCL's Institute of Archaeology. The are many possible reasons for this, the most likely being that it was simply not unique or well-crafted enough to merit inclusion into a visible exhibit. Such lamps are common in excavations of the area, and were even noted by this lamp's discoverer, Joan Oates, to be of a 'common type' within Fort Shalmaneser itself.
This lack of official recognition is in its own way a form of loss; although rediscovered after centuries of burial, this lamp was not afforded the possibility of a second, academic life in its new home. It is hoped that, as a result of this project, the importance of deeper research into the contextual role and provenance of this object has been illuminated, and perhaps sufficient grounds have even been provided to warrant its accession into UCL's collection.
Ancient Assyrian folk music
Gender
It is interesting to consider the notion of gender in relation to this object and its discovery. Joan Oates is described by Mallowan in his excavation report as merely having ‘assisted’ her husband David Oates, despite being an eminent archaeologist in her own right; her role was to oversee ‘the conservation of antiquities’, as well as to make a record of the pottery.
This common delegation of more passive, secondary roles such as recording and cataloguing to women in the field of archaeology was perhaps as a result of social ‘gender norms’ causing women to be perceived in ways ‘which did not overlap with either the image of archaeology or its real demands’; women were thus often dissuaded from partaking in the digging and excavation work itself, thought to be unsuited to such a masculine environment. Over fifty years later, archaeology has undeniably become far more inclusive of female archaeologists; but, as Alison Wylie argues, the discipline cannot claim to hold a socio-politically equal, ‘feminist’ stance until it is influenced by a ‘critical mass’ of women who understand and work to combat the ingrained gender biases that have structured archaeology thus far.
Are there any connotations which we are tempted to attach to this lamp? In previous centuries, lamps such as this one might have been assumed to belong to the domestic, 'feminine' realm of the household; or perhaps its association with the military world may have caused its discoverers to consider it as a 'masculine' object. Either way, impressions of this type are often a construct of our twenty-first century perspective. It is important that we take care to avoid the assumption that objects carry any kind of inherent gender bias, or that objects that might appear to our modern gaze as existing in gendered opposition (such as swords versus jewellery) were ever actually viewed or used this way. By actively trying to recognise and avoid this kind of bias, we can stand to learn more about the original meaning of the object in question.
Nimrud & ISIS
This object has recently suffered a blow of loss from a different perspective. In a move that has been condemned by Director-General of Unesco Irina Bokova as 'the destruction of humanity's cultural heritage', early March 2015 saw the bulldozing of the city of Nimrud by the terrorist group ISIS. The archaeological ruins of the city, once the capital of the most powerful empire on Earth, was looted and razed to the ground by Islamic State militants, who allegedly claim that the statues and carvings represent the strictly forbidden practice of idolatry.
This lamp, isolated irrevocably in many ways from its original context, now represents a much larger proportion of Assyria's remaining accessible heritage. Once perhaps a negligible item among many, the apparent total destruction of its place of origin gives it, arguably, a far greater cultural value, especially within the context of its collection. Perhaps this devastating act will lead to recognition of the inherent value of each and every ancient artifact, no matter how small.
References and Further Reading
British Museum, 1999. Shalmaneser III, king of Assyria (858-824 BC). [online] Available at: <http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/article_index/s/shalmaneser_iii,_king_of_assyr.aspx>
Curtis et al., eds., 2002. New Light On Nimrud: Proceedings of the Nimrud Conference 11th–13th March 2002. [online] Available at: <http://www.bisi.ac.uk/sites/bisi.localhost/files/Curtis_et_al_New_Light_On_Nimrud.pdf>
Hays-Gilpin, K., 2000. Feminist Scholarship in Archaeology. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 571, pp.89-106.
Mallowan, M. E. L., 1959. The excavations at Nimrud (Kalhu). Iraq, 21(2),pp.93-97.
Oates, D., 1959. Fort Shalmaneser: an interim report. Iraq, 21(2), pp.98-129.
Oates, D., and Oates, J., 2001. Nimrud, An Assyrian Imperial City Revealed. London: British School of Archaeology in Iraq.
Shaheen, K., 2015. 'Outcry over Isis destruction of ancient Assyrian site.' The Guardian. [online] Available at: <http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/06/isis-destroys-ancient-assyrian-site-of-nimrud>
Sørensen, M. L., 2000. Gender Archaeology. Cambridge: Polity.
Wylie, A., 1997. The Engendering of Archaeology: Refiguring Feminist Science Studies. Osiris, 12(2), pp.80-99.
Zamazalová, S., 2015. Fort Shalmaneser, the royal arsenal. [online] Available at: <http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/nimrud/ancientkalhu/thecity/fortshalmaneser/index.html>