Civilizations of the Ancient Near East
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Assyrian Bronze Sphinx from Nineveh, part of the Ashurbanipal exhibition at the British Museum, London
British Museum London
The royal lion hunt
Assyrian, about 645-635 BC
From Nineveh, North Palace, Room C, panels 13-15
The king, with his high distinctive hat, races round the arena in his chariot, shooting arrows at a succession of lions; one arrow, in mid-air, follows a wounded lion. Meanwhile attendants with spears, in the king's chariot, ward off another wounded lion that is attacking from behind.
This Assyrian relief comes from the royal palace in Nimrud and is made of alabaster. The area in the middle of the piece looks like it is damaged, from this distance, but it is actually an area covered writing (in cuneiform) about the king Ashurnasirpal II, reigning 883-859 BC. He built Nimrud as a new capital of the Assyrian kingdom (in Assyrian called Kalḫu).
Now on display at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.
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Do not use without permission.
Lamassus, a human-headed lion (right) and a human-headed bull (left), from the North-West Palace of Ashurnasirpal II at Nimrud, in modern-day Nineveh Governorate, Iraq. 9th century BC.
British Museum
London (England/ United Kingdom).
winged and bearded genies with various attributes
New Assyrian Period, c. 870 BC, Nimrud, North-West Palace of Ashurnasirpal II
Staatliches Museum Ägyptischer Kunst, München, Deutschland / State Museum of Egyptian Art, Munich, Germany
Alabaster palace relief (883-859 BCE), Neo-Assyrian period
Kingdom of Gods and Demons. Mesopotamia 1000-500 BCE,
Museum of Fine Arts
Property of National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen
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Hermitage, Saint Petersburg, Russia, 2019
In the early 1860s, on the imperial command of Alexander III, eight stone reliefs that had once adorned the palaces of the Assyrian kings Ashurnasirpal II (9th century BC) and Tiglath-Pileser III (mid-8th century BC) in Kalhu, and that of Sargon II (late 8th century BC) in Dur-Sharrukin were purchased for the imperial museum from antiquaries in London and Paris.
Assyrian carving circa 860 BC.
Two winged female spirits flank an image of the Tree of Life.
British Museum, London.
The palace reliefs were fixed to the walls of royal palaces forming continuous strips along the walls of large halls. The style apparently began after about 879 BC, when Ashurnasirpal II moved the capital to Nimrud, near modern Mosul in northern Iraq. Thereafter, new royal palaces, of which there was typically one per reign, were extensively decorated in this way for the roughly 250 years until the end of the Assyrian Empire. There was subtle stylistic development, but a very large degree of continuity in subjects and treatment.
Compositions are arranged on slabs, or orthostats, typically about 7 feet high, using between one and three horizontal registers of images, with scenes generally reading from left to right. The sculptures are often accompanied with inscriptions in cuneiform script, explaining the action or giving the name and extravagant titles of the king. Heads and legs are shown in profile, but torsos in a front or three-quarters view, as in earlier Mesopotamian art. Eyes are also largely shown frontally. Some panels show only a few figures at close to life-size, such scenes usually including the king and other courtiers, but depictions of military campaigns include dozens of small figures, as well as many animals and attempts at showing landscape settings.
Campaigns focus on the progress of the army, including the fording of rivers, and usually culminates in the siege of a city, followed by the surrender and paying of tribute, and the return of the army home. A full and characteristic set shows the campaign leading up to the siege of Lachish in 701; it is the "finest" from the reign of Sennacherib, from his palace at Nineveh and now in the British Museum. Ernst Gombrich observed that none of the many casualties ever come from the Assyrian side. Another famous sequence there shows the Lion Hunt of Ashurbanipal, in fact the staged and ritualized killing by King Ashurbanipal of lions already captured and released into an arena, from the North Palace at Nineveh. The realism of the lions has always been praised, and the scenes are often regarded as "the supreme masterpieces of Assyrian art", although the pathos modern viewers tend to feel was perhaps not part of the Assyrian response.
There are many reliefs of minor supernatural beings, called by such terms as "winged genie", but the major Assyrian deities are only represented by symbols. The "genies" often perform a gesture of purification, fertilization or blessing with a bucket and cone; the meaning of this remains unclear., Especially on larger figures, details and patterns on areas such as costumes, hair and beards, tree trunks and leaves, and the like, are very meticulously carved. More important figures are often shown larger than others, and in landscapes more distant elements are shown higher up, but not smaller than, those in the foreground, though some scenes have been interpreted as using scale to indicate distance. Other scenes seem to repeat a figure in a succession of different moments, performing the same action, most famously a charging lion. But these were apparently experiments that remain unusual.
The king is often shown in narrative scenes, and also as a large standing figure in a few prominent places, generally attended by winged genies. A composition repeated twice in what is traditionally called the "throne-room" (though perhaps it was not) of Ashurbanipal's palace at Nimrud shows a "Sacred Tree" or "Tree of Life" flanked by two figures of the king, with winged genies using the bucket and cone behind him. Above the tree one of the major gods, perhaps Ashur the chief god, leans out of a winged disc, relatively small in scale. Such scenes are shown elsewhere on the robe of the king, no doubt reflecting embroidery on the real costumes, and the major gods are normally shown in discs or purely as symbols hovering in the air. Elsewhere the tree is often attended to by genies.
Women are relatively rarely shown, and then usually as prisoners or refugees; an exception is a "picnic" scene showing Ashurbanipal with his queen. The many beardless royal attendants can probably be assumed to be eunuchs, who ran much of the administration of the empire, unless they also have the shaved heads and very tall hats of priests. Kings are often accompanied by several courtiers, the closest to the king probably often being the appointed heir, who was not necessarily the oldest son.
The enormous scales of the palace schemes allowed narratives to be shown at an unprecedentedly expansive pace, making the sequence of events clear and allowing richly detailed depictions of the activities of large numbers of figures, not to be paralleled until the Roman narrative column reliefs of the Column of Trajan and Column of Marcus Aurelius.
The palace reliefs were fixed to the walls of royal palaces forming continuous strips along the walls of large halls. The style apparently began after about 879 BC, when Ashurnasirpal II moved the capital to Nimrud, near modern Mosul in northern Iraq. Thereafter, new royal palaces, of which there was typically one per reign, were extensively decorated in this way for the roughly 250 years until the end of the Assyrian Empire. There was subtle stylistic development, but a very large degree of continuity in subjects and treatment.
Compositions are arranged on slabs, or orthostats, typically about 7 feet high, using between one and three horizontal registers of images, with scenes generally reading from left to right. The sculptures are often accompanied with inscriptions in cuneiform script, explaining the action or giving the name and extravagant titles of the king. Heads and legs are shown in profile, but torsos in a front or three-quarters view, as in earlier Mesopotamian art. Eyes are also largely shown frontally. Some panels show only a few figures at close to life-size, such scenes usually including the king and other courtiers, but depictions of military campaigns include dozens of small figures, as well as many animals and attempts at showing landscape settings.
Campaigns focus on the progress of the army, including the fording of rivers, and usually culminates in the siege of a city, followed by the surrender and paying of tribute, and the return of the army home. A full and characteristic set shows the campaign leading up to the siege of Lachish in 701; it is the "finest" from the reign of Sennacherib, from his palace at Nineveh and now in the British Museum. Ernst Gombrich observed that none of the many casualties ever come from the Assyrian side. Another famous sequence there shows the Lion Hunt of Ashurbanipal, in fact the staged and ritualized killing by King Ashurbanipal of lions already captured and released into an arena, from the North Palace at Nineveh. The realism of the lions has always been praised, and the scenes are often regarded as "the supreme masterpieces of Assyrian art", although the pathos modern viewers tend to feel was perhaps not part of the Assyrian response.
There are many reliefs of minor supernatural beings, called by such terms as "winged genie", but the major Assyrian deities are only represented by symbols. The "genies" often perform a gesture of purification, fertilization or blessing with a bucket and cone; the meaning of this remains unclear., Especially on larger figures, details and patterns on areas such as costumes, hair and beards, tree trunks and leaves, and the like, are very meticulously carved. More important figures are often shown larger than others, and in landscapes more distant elements are shown higher up, but not smaller than, those in the foreground, though some scenes have been interpreted as using scale to indicate distance. Other scenes seem to repeat a figure in a succession of different moments, performing the same action, most famously a charging lion. But these were apparently experiments that remain unusual.
The king is often shown in narrative scenes, and also as a large standing figure in a few prominent places, generally attended by winged genies. A composition repeated twice in what is traditionally called the "throne-room" (though perhaps it was not) of Ashurbanipal's palace at Nimrud shows a "Sacred Tree" or "Tree of Life" flanked by two figures of the king, with winged genies using the bucket and cone behind him. Above the tree one of the major gods, perhaps Ashur the chief god, leans out of a winged disc, relatively small in scale. Such scenes are shown elsewhere on the robe of the king, no doubt reflecting embroidery on the real costumes, and the major gods are normally shown in discs or purely as symbols hovering in the air. Elsewhere the tree is often attended to by genies.
Women are relatively rarely shown, and then usually as prisoners or refugees; an exception is a "picnic" scene showing Ashurbanipal with his queen. The many beardless royal attendants can probably be assumed to be eunuchs, who ran much of the administration of the empire, unless they also have the shaved heads and very tall hats of priests. Kings are often accompanied by several courtiers, the closest to the king probably often being the appointed heir, who was not necessarily the oldest son.
The enormous scales of the palace schemes allowed narratives to be shown at an unprecedentedly expansive pace, making the sequence of events clear and allowing richly detailed depictions of the activities of large numbers of figures, not to be paralleled until the Roman narrative column reliefs of the Column of Trajan and Column of Marcus Aurelius.
British Museum London
Assyrian wall relief
645â635 BC, Reign of Ashurbanipal
From the North Palace, Nineveh, northern Iraq
This panel shows the Assyrian army attacking the Egyptian city of Memphis and commemorates the final victory of King Ashurbanipal over King Taharka in 667 BC. The gypsum panel was originally painted for the interior walls of King Ashurbanipal's palace at Nineveh. At the top,
Assyrians storm the fortress, trying to set fire to the gate and undermine the walls. Nubian soldiers, recognisable by the Single upright feathers on their heads, are being marched off as prisoners. Egyptian civilian prisoners are shown as a group with two children on a donkey. Below
is the River Nile With fish and crabs.
Assyrians in Duhok province marked the 6769th Babylonian Assyrian New Year on Monday.
The Akitu festival marks the rebirth of nature in the spring, securing the life and future of the people for the coming year.
Traditionally a twelve-day festival, it begins on the first new moon after the spring equinox and is dedicated to the rebirth of Marduk and his victory when he created the world out of chaos.
In Akitu, the king is reminded of his humility and role as a servant dedicated to caring for his people by being stripped of his regalia and struck in the face by the head priest.
Akitu is one of the oldest recorded religious festivals in the world.
كوردستان، بلداً محب الحیاة، وطناً رمزاً للسلام و تعایش الادیان والاقوام، وفغراً للاجيال.
نبارك يوم العید الكلدانین و الاشورین.
Human-headed winged bull and winged lion (lamassu), Neo-Assyrian, Ashurnasirpal II; 883–859 B.C.
Mesopotamia, Nimrud (ancient Kalhu)
Alabaster (gypsum); H. 10 ft. 3 1/2 in. (313.7 cm)
From the ninth to the seventh century B.C., the kings of Assyria ruled over a vast empire centered in northern Iraq. The great Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II (r. 883–859 B.C.) undertook a vast building program at Nimrud, ancient Kalhu. Until it became the capital city under Ashurnasirpal, Nimrud had been no more than a provincial town.
The new capital occupied an area of about nine hundred acres, around which Ashurnasirpal constructed a mudbrick wall that was 120 feet thick, 42 feet high, and five miles long. In the southwest corner of this enclosure was the acropolis, where the temples, palaces, and administrative offices of the empire were located. In 879 B.C. Ashurnasirpal held a festival for 69,574 people to celebrate the construction of the new capital, and the event was documented by an inscription that read: "...the happy people of all the lands together with the people of Kalhu—for ten days I feasted, wined, bathed, and honored them and sent them back to their home in peace and joy."
The so-called Standard Inscription that ran across the surface of most of the reliefs described Ashurnasirpal's palace: "I built thereon [a palace with] halls of cedar, cypress, juniper, boxwood, teak, terebinth, and tamarisk [?] as my royal dwelling and for the enduring leisure life of my lordship." The inscription continues: "Beasts of the mountains and the seas, which I had fashioned out of white limestone and alabaster, I had set up in its gates. I made it [the palace] fittingly imposing." Such limestone beasts are the human-headed, winged bull and lion pictured here. The horned cap attests to their divinity, and the belt signifies their power. The sculptor gave these guardian figures five legs so that they appear to be standing firmly when viewed from the front but striding forward when seen from the side. These lamassu protected and supported important doorways in Assyrian palaces.
Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC.
A closer look at the Archers on the right side of the Assyrian carved stone relief ‘Attack on an Enemy Town’. Note the enemy soldiers impaled on stakes at top left here
This was part of the "Assyria: Palace Art of Ancient Iraq" Exhibition of masterworks on loan from the British Museum. It was found in the Central Palace in Kalhu (Nimrud), and dates from the reign of Tiglath-pileser III, circa 730-727 BC.
Los Angeles; July 2021
Shalmaneser III (the god Shulmanu is pre-eminent) 893/891-c.824 BCE, was the son of Ashurnasirpal II (r.883–859 BCE) and king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire (r.858-824 BCE).
Archaeological Museum, Istanbul; Inventory #4650
Wall decoration from King Ashurbanipal's North Palace, Nineveh, Mesopotamia (Iraq: 36.359444, 43.152778)
PB120020 Anx2 Q90 1200h f25
The base of the fortress of Tel Kudadi / Tel Qudadi looking north, Tel Aviv. The Iron Age fortress of Tel Kudadi, located at the mouth of the river Yarkon, was built by the invading Assyrians as one of a series of Assyrian fortresses that were built along the coasts of Phoenicia and the Land of Israel from the end of the 8th century BCE.
A Lamassu is a protective deity, often depicted with a bull or lion's body, eagle's wings, and human's head. A less frequently used name is shedu which refers to the male counterpart of a lamassu. In art, lamassu were depicted as hybrids, winged bulls or lions with the head of a human male. They are generally attributed to the ancient Assyrians.
Pergamon Museum
Berlin (Germany)
Assyrians in Duhok province marked the 6769th Babylonian Assyrian New Year on Monday.
The Akitu festival marks the rebirth of nature in the spring, securing the life and future of the people for the coming year.
Traditionally a twelve-day festival, it begins on the first new moon after the spring equinox and is dedicated to the rebirth of Marduk and his victory when he created the world out of chaos.
In Akitu, the king is reminded of his humility and role as a servant dedicated to caring for his people by being stripped of his regalia and struck in the face by the head priest.
Akitu is one of the oldest recorded religious festivals in the world.
كوردستان، بلداً محب الحیاة، وطناً رمزاً للسلام و تعایش الادیان والاقوام، وفغراً للاجيال.
نبارك يوم العید الكلدانین و الاشورین.
يتحدث عن الحضارات.. العرب لم يقومو ببناء الحضارات فقط الاكدي والبابلي والاشوري والميدي.. وهؤلاء ليس بعرب..
Prisoners being unloaded from boat and marched right through palm groves with cattle. Assyrian, 640 - 620BC, Nineveh, South West Palace, reign of Ashurbanipal, gypsum. British Museum, London,
Пленници, слизащи от лодки, минават през полета с палми и добитък. Асирия, 640–620 пр. Хр., Ниневия, Югозападния дворец.
Assyrians in Duhok province marked the 6769th Babylonian Assyrian New Year on Monday.
The Akitu festival marks the rebirth of nature in the spring, securing the life and future of the people for the coming year.
Traditionally a twelve-day festival, it begins on the first new moon after the spring equinox and is dedicated to the rebirth of Marduk and his victory when he created the world out of chaos.
In Akitu, the king is reminded of his humility and role as a servant dedicated to caring for his people by being stripped of his regalia and struck in the face by the head priest.
Akitu is one of the oldest recorded religious festivals in the world.
كوردستان، بلداً محب الحیاة، وطناً رمزاً للسلام و تعایش الادیان والاقوام، وفغراً للاجيال.
نبارك يوم العید الكلدانین و الاشورین.
يتحدث عن الحضارات.. العرب لم يقومو ببناء الحضارات فقط الاكدي والبابلي والاشوري والميدي.. وهؤلاء ليس بعرب..