William Blake's Nebuchadnezzar. © Tate, London 2008
Exhibition Review – Babylon: Myth or Reality on show at the British Museum until March 15 2009.
British Museum's Babylon: Myth and Reality provides a definitive guide to Ancient Iraq’s capital city, the centre of an empire that would stretch from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean.
As an area of history that has been manipulated for political, religious and artistic ends, you couldn’t be blamed if your knowledge of this subject is somewhat hazy. This show should shed light on both the fact and the fiction.
The curators have expertly chosen to include art, poetry, audio tracks, and accessible, concise explanations to ignite our interest in the ancient architectural relics. By evoking the imagination as well as the mind, the scholars are able to reconstruct a vanished civilization.
The focus is on the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II (605-562BC) and then his successors, ending in 539BC when the Persian king Cyrus invaded the city, bringing the Babylonian empire to an end.
The Tower of Babel; 1595 by Lucas van Valckenborch. © Mittelrhein-Museum Koblenz
The initial exhibit is the world’s earliest map from the 6th century, on unbaked clay. A barrel and tablet of stone engraved with praise for the chief God Marduk and Nebuchadnezzar himself, whose hubris, like so many powerful men, manifested itself in the belief that power would last forever.
A tablet reveals a school lesson exercise copied from a curriculum with teacher’s notes on the back providing a human connection with this age gone by.
But this merely whets the appetite. Next you will see artistic impressions and a reconstruction on a 100:1 scale of the Processional Way and Ishtar Gate.
On opposite walls, in rich orange and turquoise, are partial copies of the reliefs on the sides on the monumental walls. These are of lions and more imaginatively, the wonderful sounding mushhushshu, a mythical composite beast; a dragon with a terrifying snake’s head, eagle’s talons and a lion’s torso with striding legs.
These creatures were sacred to Marduk and were thought to ward off evil spirits. One inscription reads: “I cast seven bronze savage mushhushshus, who splatter enemies and foes with deadly venom.”
The Map of the World; sixth century BC clay tablet. © The Trustees of the British Museum
Sublimely, you can buy a velvet version of the totemic beast for the Christmas tree in the shop.
Turning a corner you can see the only evidence that the legendary Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, actually existed. The tablet of stone lists plants and vegetables hanging in the garden with intriguing names such as the ‘slave girl’s buttock’.
Alongside this, are many artistic and architectural interpretations of the gardens as well as practical queries as to how it would be watered – a device, usually attributed to Archimedes in the third century, was probably used here centuries before.
Much of what we know about the gardens and the Tower of Babel, sometimes included in the Seven Wonders of the World list, comes from the ancient Greek authors, so absolute fact is difficult to determine.
On the walls are excerpts from the Old Testament reminding us of Nebuchadnezzar’s reputation as the embodiment of evil. This whitewashes his complex character: the pioneering ambitious leader who created the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and built the Tower of Babel also invaded the rebellious state of Judea twice with the second time changing the course of history by destroying the temple and enslaving the Jewish people.
Fall of the Tower of Babel; 1547 by Cornelis Anthonisz. © The Trustees of the British Museum
The fall of Babylon to Cyrus, King of Prussia, has become a symbol of the hubris of mankind. Contrary to popular belief, this was not down to Nebuchadnezzar but to his absent and errant son.
The wonders and ultimate destruction of Babylon have delighted the artistic imagination. Key works exhibited are William Blake’s Nebuchadnezzar, John Martin’s Belshazzar’s Feast, and several important 16th century Flemish and Dutch Tower of Babel paintings, including a powerful apocalyptic one by Lucas van Valckenborgh.
From the Musée d’Orsay there is a newly acquired and highly revealing study by Degas for Semiramis construisant Babylone which tells of another colourful character, the semi-legendary Assyrian Queen Semiramis who, as it goes, built Babylon and on a whim chose soldiers to be her lovers only to have them beheaded in the morning.
Whereas other shows have shied away from the controversial connection, the curators have made the brave and right decision to look at the role of Babylon in modern times.
While Rastas see Babylon as a paradigm for western oppression and Zion for all those who have been enslaved and misplaced, the show gently presents both sides of the argument: many Jews made better lives for themselves in a forward-thinking civilization and chose to stay after being liberated. This explains why up until recently, there have been a large amount of Jews in Iraq.
Dragon Relief; sixth century BC. © Olaf M. Teßmer / SMB-Vorderasiatisches Museum Berlin
There are explorations of the romanticised concept of Babylon in modern art and music and comparisons are drawn with the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, who brutally seized power over the modern Iraq built on the ruins of Babylon.
Hussein tried to substantiate his position by associating himself with his country's rich past. At the end of the exhibition you see slightly comic images that set his rotund image in chariot races and in profile on coins alongside Nebuchadnezzar himself.
Lacking perhaps the splendour of treasures of the British Museum’s previous shows, The First Emperor or Hadrian, what works here is the weaving together of art, literature, archaeology and imagination. Myth and reality collide creating a show that is rich, informative and enjoyable.
Admission to the exhibition is £8 for adults and £5 for concessions.
