Levantine ‘I Am’ monuments and
their monumentality
Bar-Rakib’s palace inscriptions
fall into a category of Levantine monumental inscriptions labeled ‘I Am’
monuments. These monuments have been assigned to various textual genres, but
they are united by their use of the ‘I Am’ formula, a unique development in
Levantine monumental discourse. The ‘I Am’ formula was used almost exclusively
within the Levant and is attested perhaps just under 100 times in inscriptions
dating from between 1500 BC and 200 BC. In addition to its limited geographical
and historical deployment, the ‘I Am’ formula is also significant enough a
marker to justify labeling a type of inscription with it because of its
function. The ‘I Am’ formula that headed these inscriptions actually conjured
up the imagined speaker in the minds of the monuments’ users by means of
deictic projection. That is, the use of the deictic element ‘I’ without a
speaker present outside of the monument, triggered the users to imagine an
encounter with the monument’s implied speaker (Hogue 2019b). The formula thus
reified the primary function of these monuments, which was to conjure up their
implied speaker before their target audience. This allowed the conjured agent
to interact with his monument’s users in their imaginations, to make demands of
them, and ultimately to reshape their identities by proposing a particular
narrative of cultural memory as well as particular social roles and rules for
them to fulfill (Sanders 2009: 118; Hogue 2019b: 339; 2019c: 81). This was the
primary meaning afforded by Levantine ‘I Am’ monuments: the conjuration of the
implied speaker and the social formation he proceeded to propose. Furthermore,
the formula did not accomplish this merely as a textual element but also in
special relationship to visual and spatial elements of the monument.
The function of ‘I Am’ monuments
can be briefly illustrated by the statue of Idrimi, a Syrian king who set up a
new dynasty at Alalaḫ in the Late Bronze Age. Dating to 15th century BC city of
Alalaḫ, the statue of Idrimi is the oldest known example of a Levantine ‘I Am’
monument. The statue conjures up the presence of Idrimi in two obvious ways.
First, the opening ‘I Am’ statement deictically projected the speaker into the
minds of the text’s readers and/or hearers (Hogue 2019b: 327). Second, the
statue itself was likely perceived as a substitute or coextensive constituent
of the person, rather than as a mere representation (Aro 2013: 236; Bahrani
2003: 121–48; 2014: 43). While different mechanisms of conjuration can be
described here, the statue and its inscription were a single monument. Text and
image functioned as two dimensions of a single functional artifact. Idrimi is a
particularly good example of this because the ‘I Am’ statement was carved along
the statue’s mouth, suggesting that it was meant to be understood as the direct
speech of the statue. The placement of the text thus united its function with
that of the image. While the original placement of the statue is impossible to
determine, the condition of the statue and its findspot suggest that it was
‘given an honorable burial’ by the denizens of Alalaḫ after it was destroyed by
an invading army (Longman 1991: 60–1). This ritual response demonstrates that
those burying the monument treated it as though it were a person because it was
a means of conjuring up Idrimi. A little over 100km north of Alalaḫ and over
700 years later, Bar-Rakib’s ‘I Am’ monuments present a sophisticated
development of this tradition stretching back to Idrimi. (Timothy Hogue, “In
the Midst of Great Kings: The Monumentalization of Text in the Iron Age Levant,”
Manuscript and Text Cultures 1 [2022]: 17-18)
