You are on page 1of 4
Acta Orientalia 2008: 69, 303-358. shi © 201 Printed in Norway ~ all rights reserved ACTA ORIENTALIA ISSN 0001-6483 BOOK REVIEWS Mariana Giovino: The Assyrian Sacred Tree. A History of Interpretations, Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis 230. Fribourg: Academic Press; Gottingen: Vandenhoek & Ruprecht, 2007. 242 pp. ISBN 978-3-7278-1602-4, 978. '25-53028-3. The book under review here is a welcome reminder that scienti research is always grounded in cultural historical contexts and that academic writings both influence the transmission of knowledge and generate new knowledge. Interpretations are shaped by the cultural and intellectual traditions of a discipline and, at the same time, mirror contemporary trends as well as ideological and social changes. Academic disciplines tend to develop questions of their own, some of which become recurrent themes. One of the recurrent themes in Ancient Near Eastern Studies is the nature and symbolism of the Assyrian ‘sacred tree’, also known as the ‘tree of life’, ‘tree of fortune’ and ‘tree of abundance’; abbreviated to AST in the book. The book is based on Mariana Giovino’s doctoral dissertation presented at Michigan University, Ann Arbor in 2004. The author sets her agenda in the introduction by clarifying that she will be focusing on the pre- iconographic and iconographic renderings of the AST and stating that, in her opinion, the AST represents a constructed cult object (p. 3-5). The book is divided into four parts and eighteen chapters. Part I, Nineteenth-century interpretations of the AST (chapters 1- 6; p. 9-58), discusses the various theories that have been elaborated about the AST during the 1800s. This was a time when the Bible was used as the main source of knowledge to Western scholars interested in the ancient Near Fast. I shall come back to this point later. The line of scholars investigating the AST begins with Austen Henry Layard who introduced the notion of the ‘tree of life’ and maintained that the 304 BOOK REVIEWS AST was the tree from the Garden of Eden. These ideas were to influence all further research and interpretations. Pre-iconographic and iconographic approaches to the AST were concerned with analogies and the migration of symbols between different cultures. Specialists found similarities between the AST and the ashérah or Maypole and presented various hypotheses about the type of tree depicted. Thus, the AST was identified as a date palm, a pomegranate tree, a cedar tree and other kinds of trees that grow in the region. The author goes on to examine the theory of fertilization and of the social significance of date palms developed by Edward Tylor, as well as the role of the cherubims and winged genies and the utensils held by the latter such as cones and buckets, which were thought to have apotropaic virtues. To conclude this part, she looks into the question of the climate in northern Iraq and the probabilities of having date palms growing there. Part II, The date-palin theory since 1900s (chapters 7-13; pp. 61 141), addresses an important issue in scientific research in general, namely the ways and reasons some theories gain authority while others are cast aside. It explicates that the fertilization theory of Tylor became self-evident and a growing number of scholars used it without questioning its foundation and other primary sources. In the twentieth century many researchers were interested in establishing patterns, creating archetypes, studying similarities and exploring the symbolic meaning of visual representations. The AST has been a favourite object of study, and the tree has been perceived as symbolizing life, fortune or abundance. The winged genies, bulls, lions, human-headed bulls or bird-headed humans, namely kuribu and keriib, were gradually freed from their associations to Biblical cherubims. Instead, these figures, as well as the apkallu or sages, are now understood as types of guardians. This. the author tells us. might bring about new interpretations about their relation to the AST (pp. 137-141). In Part Ill, The cult object theory since 1900 (chapters 14-16; pp. 145-173), Giovino gives a detailed historiography of the AST as a cult object. She begins by discussing the theories comparing the AST with the Jewish ashérah and the ancient Egyptian djed-pillar, that is, objects taken to symbolize the omphalos or centre of the world. These theories bring to mind Mircea Eliade’s notion of the axis mundi, which are common to many cultures worldwide. But the author does BOOK REVIEWS 405 not push her analysis further in that direction. She points out that recent studies have turned away from the fertilization theory of Tylor and tend to consider the AST as an ‘object of construction’ such as columns and poles used in the design and ornamentation of royal architectural complexes. Part IV, Artificial trees in the archaeological record (chapters 17— 18; pp. 177-201), argues that the AST is a constructed cult object and compares the representations of the AST and different kinds of artificial trees in the form of decorated columns and other archi tectural devices adorning the facades of temples. The Conclusion is more an opening for further research than a final point, and one has to hope that others will want to take up this task. In it the author emphasizes that her main purpose in setting up the historiography of interpretations related to the AST was to find out the identity of the object represented by the AST and that she was less interested in finding out what the cult object signified (p. 197). Actually, the AST may have been different things at the same time: date palm, fertility symbol and a constructed cult object. A bibliography, index, list of figures and 107 illustrations are found at the end of the book. This is an important book and is not merely of interest for specialists in the field. It is also highly relevant for other disciplines such as history of religion, history of ideas and archaeology. By investigating the historiography of interpretations the author shows that scientific research is built on the insights and theories of those who have preceded us in the field. Academic writings constitute a mosaic of texts that are periodically re-evaluated, integrated into new frameworks and transformed in order to produce new scholarship. Seen in the perspective of intertextuality and of academic ‘longue durée’, it becomes clear, for instance, that Tylor and his successors stood in a long chain of scholars and intellectuals who brought different and differing insights to the subject. It is a pity, however, that the author concentrates only on the Western history of interpretations and does not include ‘indigenous’ views in her analysis. Didn't intellectuals from the Middle East and neighbouring regions contribute to the AST debate? If not, why not? Did they just follow the mainstream hypothesis or did they provide different understandings of the AST? Accounting for their views would in my

You might also like