Critiques Regarding Bicameral Mentality in Ancient History – 3.3
3.3. Jaynes’s claim of the king kneeling before an empty throne of Tukulti-Ninurta is incorrect. (Simon McCarthy-Jones)
Critique: Jaynes’s claim of the king kneeling before an empty throne of Tukulti-Ninurta is incorrect. First, it is an altar, not a throne, and second, it contains a either a clay tablet with a stylus or a hinged writing board, rather than being empty. This, according to Finkle, can be understood to represent the Nabu, the god of writing. (McCarthy-Jones)
Response: A response to this has already been written by Bill Rowe in Gods, Voices, and the Bicameral Mind. Rowe writes:
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In the summer of 1995 the Tukulti altar was part of an exhibition of ancient Assyrian artifacts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Robert Steven Bianchi, Chief Curator of the Gandur Foundation for Art, writing a review for Minerva magazine said: “Among the most enigmatic objects in the exhibition is a cult pedestal of the god Nusku, who was both a god of light and an intercessor, praying in this case on behalf of king Tukulti-Ninurta I (1243-1207 B.C.).” Bianchi goes on to say that, “Some interpret the object on the pedestal as the two leaves of a shrine’s door; others as a rod or ray of Nusku’s against a background of some sort; and others still as a stylus and tablet on which the king’s fate is to be recorded.”
The inscription at the base of the altar suggests a representation of the god Nusku. It reads, in part:
“Cult platform of the god Nusku, chief vizier of Ekur, bearer of the just scepter, courier of the gods Assur and Enlil, who daily repeats the prayers of Tukulti-Ninurta, the king …”
However, referring to the alter as a socle, the archaeologist Oscar White Muscarella commented that “… it remains unclear just what is depicted on the socle … Whatever is represented, however, it is not a deity itself but rather a symbol.”
In an essay on the continuities between Babylonian and Assyrian art, the archaeologist Henri Frankfort says: “But it is different in the case of the altar of Tukulti-Ninurta I. … The relief on the front shows a rite performed before the very object it decorates. The king bearing a scepter is first shown as he approaches, then as he kneels before the altar, carved with the emblem of the god Nusku. The almost intimate meeting between king and god which was depicted on steles from the time of Gudea down to that of Hammurabi is not considered possible in Assyria. Both in art and literature the gods appear withdrawn from the world of men …”
The gods have withdrawn from the world of men. Their symbolic stand-ins appear on carvings instead of direct representations. And even these are now acting as couriers to even more abstract and remote gods.
Before the weakening of the voices by writing at about 2500 B.C.E., Jaynes tells us that there was no hesitancy regarding what to do, and thus no need for prayer or intermediaries. But as civilizations became more complex toward the end of the third millennium, we see evidence of personal and household gods that act as go-betweens with higher city or state gods. And by the end of the second millennium a dramatic change occurs. “First, the major gods disappear from such scenes, even as from the altar of Tukulti-Ninurta. There then occurs a period where the individual’s personal god is shown presenting him to the god’s symbol only.”
McCarthy-Jones has rightly called our attention to the ambiguity regarding what is depicted on Tukulti’s altar. But in focusing on this detail he overlooks the point that Jaynes is making. Whether it is an empty throne or an empty writing board, the message is the same, the gods have left us, and now we must implore, kneel, and pray to them to discover their will. (Rowe, 2016, pgs. 72-75)
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To this I would add the following, which again emphasizes the theme of departed gods replaced by symbols. Harper, et al. (1995) note that
The human figures make it clear that the socle or what rests on it, or possibly the ensemble, is being worshipped. But it remains unclear just what is depicted on the socle. Interpretations suggest that a door of a temple is represented; or that the rod is the bright rod of Nusku; or that, inasmuch as something about fate is preserved in the inscription, the rod is a stylus, the rectangle a tablet, and thus it is there to record the king’s fate. Whatever is represented, however, it is not a deity itself but rather a symbol. …
Previously a king in prayer before a deity depicted on a relief or a cylinder seal was shown walking, and this is the first time in such a portrayal that he is represented kneeling. Moreover, representations of the symbol of a deity, rather than the deity itself, as the object of worship seems to occur first in this period. Supporting this view are two contemporary Assyrian seal impressions from Ashur that depict socles exactly like the present example (see cat. no 68). Depicted above the socle on one of the seals is a seated dog, the symbol of the goddess Gula, and flanking the other are symbols of Ea. (p. 113)
Bahrani (2003) also provides a somewhat Jaynesian-sounding interpretation of the image:The tablet and stylus object, whether or not it is a tablet and stylus … stands as an enigma in the Tukulti-Ninurta relief. … [I]n our relief Tukulti-Ninurta awaits the signs … Tukulti-Ninurta’s gaze is directed at the blank tablet and gestures at it as if it were a void in the real, an opening or space in the real through which the representation … can appear. (p. 200)
Summary: Interpretations of the object depicted vary, and include an altar, a seat (“nemedu”) (Langin-Hooper, 2014), throne, and cult pedestal. The altar, seat, throne, or cult pedestal has been interpreted as either being empty, showing a door to a shrine or temple, or containing a tablet, rod, or stylus. The notion that it contains a stylus representing the god Nabu contradicts the text beneath the image, which indicates it belongs to the god Nusku. The image remains open to a great deal of interpretation and conjecture and the exact meaning is far from settled. What is widely agreed upon is also what is most relevant to Jaynes’s theory: that, as noted by Harper and others, this is the first time in history that we see “representations of the symbol of a deity, rather than the deity itself.” This corresponds with written accounts from the same time period of being neglected by the gods and the gods departing.
Learn about about Julian Jaynes’s theory by reading our latest book, Conversations on Consciousness and the Bicameral Mind: Interviews with Leading Thinkers on Julian Jaynes’s Theory.