Decapitação e exibição do inimigo como discurso e exercício de poder no império neoassírio

In military or venatory contexts of violence, decapitation is a startling atrocity with a mostly symbolic and semiotic purpose. An act of propaganda, element of rituals or sign of triumph, the appropriation of an enemy’s severed head – a crucial visible component identity and self – acts as a powerful synecdoche that manifests its physical defeat and the ruin of everything he stands for to the victor. In this work are presented a few reflections concerning the role of the caput hostis as discoursive instrument of political power in Assyria during the 1st millennium BCE, establishing some of the different meanings produced by several modes of textual and visual expressions.