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The Solar Eclipse and the Substitute King (2017)

Sarah Graff, associate curator in the Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art, reveals a surprising ancient Assyrian ritual, routinely performed at the time of a solar eclipse, that involved the creation of a temporary substitute king.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of John D. Rockefeller Jr., 1932 (32.143.13) «Excitement, curiosity, and the fear of an irresistible impulse to look directly at the sun were all common responses to this month's total solar eclipse. If a prediction was especially dire, priests could conduct specific rituals to help mitigate or cancel the disastrous event portended in the omens, by appeasing the gods or directing their destructive force to another target. Young Damqi was a member of the native Babylonian elite, the son of the chief administrator of the temples of the great holy city of Babylon.

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