1944.1.51

Collection type

Object

Description

Line drawing showing an Assyrian depiction of deities surrounding the 'tree of life' (date-palm tree)

Long description

Large line drawing by Alfred Robinson, made for Edward B. Tylor's study of 'The Winged Figures of the Assyrian and Other Ancient Monuments' (concerning the artificial fertilization of the date-palm tree in ancient times), showing an Assyrian depiction of deities gathered around the 'sacred tree' or 'tree of life' (identifed as a date-palm tree)

Geographical reference

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Europe > Northern Europe > United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Cultural groups

English

Person

Maker Alfred Robinson (signed)

Field collector Edward Burnett Tylor

PRM source Edward Burnett Tylor

Date / Period

Date made: 1889-06/1890 Archaeological period: Assyrian

Date collected

By June 1890

Acquisition information

Donated: 1917 Found unentered: 01/1944

Materials and processes

Material Paper Plant, Material Pigment, Process Drawn, Process Painted

Object numbers

Accession number: 1944.1.51

Research and responses

This is a large line drawing by Alfred Robinson, made for Edward B. Tylor's study of 'The Winged Figures of the Assyrian and Other Ancient Monuments' (concerning the artificial fertilization of the date-palm tree in ancient times), showing an Assyrian depiction of deities gathered around the 'sacred tree' or 'tree of life' (identifed as a date-palm tree). The drawing was made by Alfred Robinson (signed 'Alf. Robinson, del./ OXFORD') as an illustration to be reproduced (as an engraving) in Edward B. Tylor, 'The Winged Figures of the Assyrian and Other Ancient Monuments', Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, (1890), between pp.382 and 383, plate III, figure 14. Tylor begins his article: 'The following observations have arisen out of the preparation of one of my Gifford Lectures delivered before the University of Aberdeen during the past winter. In examining the nature of Spiritual Beings as defined and represented in the religions of the world, I was led to examine with more care than heretofore the class of Winged Spirits, and especially those quasi-human forms on the Assyrian monuments whose importance in the history of religious art has been lately coming into view': Tylor, 'The Winged Figures of the Assyrian and Other Ancient Monuments', p.383. He later writes: 'Having now considered these points of evidence separately, it remains to apply them to those pictorial groups fortunately preserved in the figures decoration of royal robes, where the whole argument is, so to speak, summed up (Plate III, fig. 15). There the winged deities with cone and bucket not only approach the sacred palm-tree, but are bringing into contact the male and female inflorescences, and the scene of fertilization is complete./ On the question with what motive this scene was so continually represented, some remarks may now be made. The winged sun, adopted from Egypt into Assyria, continues to hold on the Assyrian monuments the same dominance over scenes of religious significance which belongs to it in Egyptian sculptures and paintings. That it was not transferred as a mere ornament, but with meaning and purpose, may be clearly seen in a sculptured group of which the copy published by Layard is here reproduced (Plate III, fig. 14). Here the winged sun is held by ropes in the hands of two kneeling figures. These are obviously the two deities who are seen from a different point of view on the inscribed stone belonging to the shrine of Samas, the Sun-god of Sippara, now in the British Museum. It has been described by Mr. Teho. G. Pinches, who argument is hardly open to doubt, that the beings holding the sun with their ropes (which I may incidentally remark end in conventional palm-heads) are the guides or directors of the sun, who keep him in his straight path. In the group we are now examining they hold the sun over the date-palm, doubtless to ripen it, while behind them stand the two winged figures with cone and bucket ready to fertilize it. The whole scene, which with more or less variation is repeated on cylinders in the British Museum and elsewhere, had obviously a well-understood signficance in Assyrian nature-worship, of which at least the practical theme seems apparent, doubtful as its full religious// significance may be': Tylor, 'The Winged Figures of the Assyrian and Other Ancient Monuments', pp.389-390. [PG 20/01/2014]

Associated publications

This image has been published in Edward B. Tylor, 'The Winged Figures of the Assyrian and Other Ancient Monuments', Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, (1890), between pp.382 and 383, plate III, figure 14. [PG 20/01/2014]

Search terms: Picture and Graphic Art, Drawing, Painting