ABSTRACT
The act of decapitation itself can be perceived in some eloquent images as a formal execution already in the third millennium bc. Decapitation is nonetheless a procedure frequently adopted on the field of battle, judging from the epigraphical and other sources. One significant feature connected to display stands out particularly clearly in the images from Tell Tayinat, where the heads exhibited are smaller than those of the soldiers, certainly in line with the prevalent conventions adopted in the reliefs from the Neo-Assyrian capitals. In the Eblaite work, the oversized heads – again held up by the hair for display – indicate the high status of the decapitated enemies, a quality that enhances the prestige of the victors. More specifically, the Eblaite documentation on this theme centres on the repeated exhibition of the severed heads of the defeated, held up by the hair or heaped in baskets.
