Reliefs

Carved stone, and the most spectacular material in the archive. The Assyrian palace orthostats above all: the lion hunts, the siege of Lachish, Ashurnasirpal's winged genii, the Black Obelisk, the Stele of the Vultures, the victory stele of Naram-Sin, the Hammurabi stele, and the lamassu that guarded the gates. Read them knowing what they are: royal self-documentation, carved by the people making the claims, which is why Assyria reads as uniquely violent when its neighbours simply left no comparable record of themselves.

Part of Mesopotamia

104 moments in this segment.

1. 2000 BC - Plaque. 2000 to 1600 BC, from Nippur. Assyrian palace reliefs record conquest in detail, but their reputation for unique brutality is an artefact of asymmetric self-documentation. The Assyrians carved their campaigns in stone and their neighbours did not. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Rogers Fund, 1959.
2. 2000 BC - Openwork plaque with figures. 2000 to 1600 BC. Assyrian palace reliefs record conquest in detail, but their reputation for unique brutality is an artefact of asymmetric self-documentation. The Assyrians carved their campaigns in stone and their neighbours did not. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Gift of Mrs. Elias S. David, in memory of Elias S. David, 1984.
3. 2000 BC - Plaque of Humbaba. 2000 to 1600 BC. Assyrian palace reliefs record conquest in detail, but their reputation for unique brutality is an artefact of asymmetric self-documentation. The Assyrians carved their campaigns in stone and their neighbours did not. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Gift of Mrs. Elias S. David, in memory of Elias S. David and Edward S. David, 1974.
4. 2000 BC - Molded plaque: bull-men flanking a tree trunk surmounted by a sun disc. 2000 to 1600 BC. Assyrian palace reliefs record conquest in detail, but their reputation for unique brutality is an artefact of asymmetric self-documentation. The Assyrians carved their campaigns in stone and their neighbours did not. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Rogers Fund, 1932.
5. 900 BC - Furniture plaque carved in relief with sphinx. 9th to 8th century BC, from Nimrud (ancient Kalhu). Assyrian palace reliefs record conquest in detail, but their reputation for unique brutality is an artefact of asymmetric self-documentation. The Assyrians carved their campaigns in stone and their neighbours did not. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Rogers Fund, 1964.
6. 900 BC - Incised horse frontlet carved into the shape of a flowering, volute palmette tree. 9th to 8th century BC, from Nimrud (ancient Kalhu). Assyrian palace reliefs record conquest in detail, but their reputation for unique brutality is an artefact of asymmetric self-documentation. The Assyrians carved their campaigns in stone and their neighbours did not. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Rogers Fund, 1960.
7. 900 BC - Cloisonné furniture plaque with a figure holding a sword. 9th to 8th century BC, from Nimrud (ancient Kalhu). Assyrian palace reliefs record conquest in detail, but their reputation for unique brutality is an artefact of asymmetric self-documentation. The Assyrians carved their campaigns in stone and their neighbours did not. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1967.
8. 900 BC - Furniture or cosmetic box plaque carved in relief with a striding bull. 9th to 8th century BC, from Nimrud (ancient Kalhu). Assyrian palace reliefs record conquest in detail, but their reputation for unique brutality is an artefact of asymmetric self-documentation. The Assyrians carved their campaigns in stone and their neighbours did not. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Rogers Fund, 1964.
9. 900 BC - Champlevé furniture or cosmetic box plaque with a griffin and a floral frieze. 9th to 8th century BC, from Nimrud (ancient Kalhu). Assyrian palace reliefs record conquest in detail, but their reputation for unique brutality is an artefact of asymmetric self-documentation. The Assyrians carved their campaigns in stone and their neighbours did not. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Rogers Fund, 1960.
10. 900 BC - Border strip. 9th to 8th century BC, from Nimrud (ancient Kalhu). Assyrian palace reliefs record conquest in detail, but their reputation for unique brutality is an artefact of asymmetric self-documentation. The Assyrians carved their campaigns in stone and their neighbours did not. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Rogers Fund, 1958.
11. 900 BC - Plaque in the form of a tree. 9th to 8th century BC, from Nimrud (ancient Kalhu). Assyrian palace reliefs record conquest in detail, but their reputation for unique brutality is an artefact of asymmetric self-documentation. The Assyrians carved their campaigns in stone and their neighbours did not. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Rogers Fund, 1958.
12. 900 BC - Furniture plaque carved in relief with a striding, falcon-headed winged sphinx supported by two kneeling figures. 9th to 8th century BC, from Nimrud (ancient Kalhu). Assyrian palace reliefs record conquest in detail, but their reputation for unique brutality is an artefact of asymmetric self-documentation. The Assyrians carved their campaigns in stone and their neighbours did not. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Rogers Fund, 1964.
13. 883 BC - Relief panel. 883 to 859 BC, from Nimrud (ancient Kalhu). Assyrian palace reliefs record conquest in detail, but their reputation for unique brutality is an artefact of asymmetric self-documentation. The Assyrians carved their campaigns in stone and their neighbours did not. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Gift of John D. Rockefeller Jr., 1932.
14. 883 BC - Human-headed winged bull (lamassu). ), ca. 883 to 859 BC, from Nimrud (ancient Kalhu). A lamassu, the human-headed winged bull that guarded Assyrian palace gateways. Several were carved with five legs, so the figure reads as standing when seen from the front and as walking when seen from the side. The Nergal Gate lamassu at Nineveh was destroyed in 2015. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Gift of John D. Rockefeller Jr., 1932.
15. 800 BC - Plaque carved in relief with sphinx trampling figure. 8th to 7th century BC, from Nimrud (ancient Kalhu). Assyrian palace reliefs record conquest in detail, but their reputation for unique brutality is an artefact of asymmetric self-documentation. The Assyrians carved their campaigns in stone and their neighbours did not. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Rogers Fund, 1964.
16. 800 BC - Plaque fragment. 8th to 7th century BC, from Nimrud (ancient Kalhu). Assyrian palace reliefs record conquest in detail, but their reputation for unique brutality is an artefact of asymmetric self-documentation. The Assyrians carved their campaigns in stone and their neighbours did not. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Rogers Fund, 1958.
17. 800 BC - Openwork furniture plaque with a "woman at the window". ", ca. 8th century BC, from Nimrud (ancient Kalhu). Assyrian palace reliefs record conquest in detail, but their reputation for unique brutality is an artefact of asymmetric self-documentation. The Assyrians carved their campaigns in stone and their neighbours did not. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Rogers Fund 1959.
18. 725 BC - Relief plaque. 8th to 7th century BC, probably from Ashur (modern Qal 'at Sherqat). Assyrian palace reliefs record conquest in detail, but their reputation for unique brutality is an artefact of asymmetric self-documentation. The Assyrians carved their campaigns in stone and their neighbours did not. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Rogers Fund, 1951.
19. 721 BC - Panels of a writing board. 721 to 705 BC, from Nimrud (ancient Kalhu). Southern Mesopotamia has no stone, no metal ore and almost no timber. Lapis lazuli came from Badakhshan in Afghanistan, carnelian from the Indus, copper from Oman. Trade is not a footnote to this material, it is a precondition. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Rogers Fund, 1954.
20. 604 BC - Processional Way, Babylon - Google Art Project-x1-y1. 604 BC. The Ishtar Gate of Nebuchadnezzar II's Babylon, glazed brick with lions, aurochs and the mushhushshu dragon of Marduk. The reconstruction in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin is assembled from excavated fragments shipped out by Robert Koldewey's expedition, so the most famous view of Babylon is in Germany.
21. 604 BC - Processional Way, Babylon - Google Art Project-x0-y1. 604 BC. The Ishtar Gate of Nebuchadnezzar II's Babylon, glazed brick with lions, aurochs and the mushhushshu dragon of Marduk. The reconstruction in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin is assembled from excavated fragments shipped out by Robert Koldewey's expedition, so the most famous view of Babylon is in Germany.
22. 604 BC - Processional Way, Babylon - Google Art Project-x0-y0. 604 BC. The Ishtar Gate of Nebuchadnezzar II's Babylon, glazed brick with lions, aurochs and the mushhushshu dragon of Marduk. The reconstruction in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin is assembled from excavated fragments shipped out by Robert Koldewey's expedition, so the most famous view of Babylon is in Germany.
23. 604 BC - Processional Way, Babylon - Google Art Project. 604 BC. The Ishtar Gate of Nebuchadnezzar II's Babylon, glazed brick with lions, aurochs and the mushhushshu dragon of Marduk. The reconstruction in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin is assembled from excavated fragments shipped out by Robert Koldewey's expedition, so the most famous view of Babylon is in Germany.
24. 604 BC - Processional Way, Babylon - Google Art Project-x1-y0. 604 BC. The Ishtar Gate of Nebuchadnezzar II's Babylon, glazed brick with lions, aurochs and the mushhushshu dragon of Marduk. The reconstruction in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin is assembled from excavated fragments shipped out by Robert Koldewey's expedition, so the most famous view of Babylon is in Germany.
25. 1906 - Black Obelisk, Jewish delegation to Shalmaneser III. The Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III, ninth century BC, from Nimrud. It carries what is generally identified as the earliest surviving depiction of an Israelite king, named as Jehu son of Omri, making it a rare point where the Assyrian record and the biblical narrative touch on a named individual.
26. 1909 - Restitution matérielle de la Stèle des Vautours. (a cast or replica, not the original object). The Stele of the Vultures, roughly 2450 BC, recording Eannatum of Lagash's victory over Umma. It is among the earliest surviving narrative reliefs and one of the earliest depictions of organised warfare. Louvre, from Girsu.
27. 2010 - Burney Relief lions. The Burney Relief, also called the Queen of the Night, an Old Babylonian terracotta plaque of a winged goddess. Its authenticity was doubted for decades after it surfaced on the market and is now generally accepted. Whether the figure is Ishtar, Ereshkigal or Lilith is unresolved.
28. 2010-11-15 - Le code d'Hammurabi - Musée du louvre. The Louvre presents the Code of Hammurabi stele, Sb 8, about 2.25 metres of stone carrying roughly 282 provisions. It is not the oldest law collection: the Code of Ur-Nammu precedes it by about three centuries, and Ur-Nammu prescribes fines where Hammurabi prescribes mutilation.
29. 2011-09-30 - Victory Stele of Naram-Sin. The Victory Stele of Naram-Sin, Louvre Sb 4, showing the Akkadian king ascending a mountain over his enemies wearing the horned crown of divinity. Like the Hammurabi stele it was carried to Susa as Elamite booty, which is why it was excavated in Iran.
30. 2012-04-02 - Ishtar gate and Processional Way. The Ishtar Gate and Processional Way of Babylon, built under Nebuchadnezzar II. The glazed brick lions, bulls and mushhushshu dragons were moulded in relief and fired, and the surviving fabric was reassembled in Berlin.
31. 2013 - Lion Ishtar gate IAM inv88.144. The Ishtar Gate of Nebuchadnezzar II's Babylon, glazed brick with lions, aurochs and the mushhushshu dragon of Marduk. The reconstruction in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin is assembled from excavated fragments shipped out by Robert Koldewey's expedition, so the most famous view of Babylon is in Germany.
32. 2013 - Relief of a winged supernatural deity from Ashur-nasirpal II's Northwest Palace at Kalhu (Nimrud) 04. Nimrud, ancient Kalhu, capital under Ashurnasirpal II and the site of the Northwest Palace, the Nimrud ivories and the queens' tombs found by the Iraqi archaeologist Muzahim Mahmud Hussein between 1988 and 1990, a discovery usually left out of Western tellings. It was bulldozed in 2015, and it was the real catastrophe of that year, more than the Mosul Museum video.
33. 2013-07-08 - Spring 2013 - "The Part and the Whole: An Assyrian Synecdoche" by Lindsay Oxx, Class of 2014. An Assyrian synecdoche, on reading a relief fragment as a whole. Most museum Assyrian reliefs are cut sections of much longer wall schemes.
34. 2013-08-08 - Ashurbanipal hunting lions. Smarthistory examines Ashurbanipal hunting lions from the North Palace at Nineveh. The dying lioness panel is the most reproduced image in Assyrian art; the hunt was a staged royal ritual in an enclosure rather than a wild pursuit.
35. 2013-09-04 - Gallery 32 - Removing the Assyrian Frieze. Removing an Assyrian frieze from a gallery at Birmingham Museums. Moving reliefs weighing several tonnes is itself a significant conservation operation.
36. 2013-09-18 - How the dizzying repetition of these Assyrian reliefs gives them hyperreality | Art, Explained. The Met on the repetition in Assyrian palace reliefs. Registers of near-identical figures were designed to be walked past, so the effect accumulates along a wall rather than resolving in one view.
37. 2013-09-30 - Why the brick lions that protected the streets of Babylon feel alive | Art, Explained. The Met on the glazed brick lions of Babylon's Processional Way. Each lion was assembled from many moulded bricks, so the design had to be planned across the whole wall before firing.
38. 2013-12-02 - The Lachish Reliefs. 's carving of the 701 BC siege shows the assault ramp, the siege engines and the deportation of the population, and the same campaign appears in 2 Kings from the other side.
39. 2014 - Burney, or the Queen of the Night, relief inside a display case. The British Museum, London. The Burney Relief, also called the Queen of the Night, an Old Babylonian terracotta plaque of a winged goddess. Its authenticity was doubted for decades after it surfaced on the market and is now generally accepted. Whether the figure is Ishtar, Ereshkigal or Lilith is unresolved.
40. 2014 - Relief A - Palace of Sargon II, Khorsabad - Oriental Institute Museum, University of Chicago - DSC07508. Exhibit in the Oriental Institute Museum, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA. This work is old enough so that it is in the public domain. Photography was permitted in the museum without restriction. Assyrian palace reliefs record conquest in detail, but their reputation for unique brutality is an artefact of asymmetric self-documentation. The Assyrians carved their campaigns in stone and their neighbours did not.
41. 2014 - Relief A, section 1 of 3 - Palace of Sargon II, Khorsabad - Oriental Institute Museum, University of Chicago - DSC07512. Exhibit in the Oriental Institute Museum, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA. This work is old enough so that it is in the public domain. Photography was permitted in the museum without restriction. Assyrian palace reliefs record conquest in detail, but their reputation for unique brutality is an artefact of asymmetric self-documentation. The Assyrians carved their campaigns in stone and their neighbours did not.
42. 2014 - Relief A, section 1 of 3 detail - Palace of Sargon II, Khorsabad - Oriental Institute Museum, University of Chicago - DSC07514. Exhibit in the Oriental Institute Museum, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA. This work is old enough so that it is in the public domain. Photography was permitted in the museum without restriction. Assyrian palace reliefs record conquest in detail, but their reputation for unique brutality is an artefact of asymmetric self-documentation. The Assyrians carved their campaigns in stone and their neighbours did not.
43. 2014 - Room 7 relief 4 - Palace of Sargon II, Khorsabad, Neo-Assyrian period, 721-705 BC, alabaster - Oriental Institute Museum, University of Chic. 07627. Exhibit in the Oriental Institute Museum, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA. This work is old enough so that it is in the public domain. Photography was permitted in the museum without restriction. Assyrian palace reliefs record conquest in detail, but their reputation for unique brutality is an artefact of asymmetric self-documentation. The Assyrians carved their campaigns in stone and their neighbours did not.
44. 2014 - Men leading horses, probably from Mushki - Corridor 10 relief, Palace of Sargon II - Oriental Institute Museum, University of Chicago - DSC0. 7589. Corridor 10 relief from the Palace of Sargon II. Exhibit in the Oriental Institute Museum, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA. This work is old enough so that it is in the public domain. Photography was permitted in the museum without restriction. Assyrian palace reliefs record conquest in detail, but their reputation for unique brutality is an artefact of asymmetric self-documentation. The Assyrians carved their campaigns in stone and their neighbours did not.
45. 2014-09-30 - Digital Reconstruction of the Northwest Palace, Nimrud, Assyria. A digital reconstruction of the Northwest Palace at Nimrud from the Met. The reliefs were originally painted, and the throne room's carved slabs are now scattered across museums worldwide.
46. 2015-01-12 - Transcendent Occultation of the Divine in Neo-Babylonian Art. On the divine in Neo-Babylonian art. Neo-Babylonian religious imagery avoids depicting gods in human form far more than Assyrian art does, using symbols instead.
47. 2015 - DSC 8215 (53676364861). The Lion Hunt reliefs from Ashurbanipal's North Palace at Nineveh, seventh century BC. The Assyrian reputation for unique brutality is largely an artefact of asymmetric self-documentation: they carved their conquests and their hunts in stone and their neighbours did not.
48. 2016 - Victory stele of Naram-Suen (31064823690). The Victory Stele of Naram-Sin, roughly 2250 BC, now in the Louvre. Naram-Sin took the divine determinative before his name and is shown wearing the horned crown of divinity, a specific and datable claim to godhood visible on the object itself. The stele was later carried off to Susa as loot by the Elamites, an ancient displacement long predating the modern ones.
49. 2016 - Ancient Assyria Bas-Relief of Lion Hunt, Nimrud, 883-859 BC. The Lion Hunt reliefs from Ashurbanipal's North Palace at Nineveh, seventh century BC. The Assyrian reputation for unique brutality is largely an artefact of asymmetric self-documentation: they carved their conquests and their hunts in stone and their neighbours did not.
50. 2016 - Ashurbanipal wall relief, 7th century BC, from Nineveh, the British Museum. The Lion Hunt reliefs from Ashurbanipal's North Palace at Nineveh, seventh century BC. The Assyrian reputation for unique brutality is largely an artefact of asymmetric self-documentation: they carved their conquests and their hunts in stone and their neighbours did not.
51. 2016 - Alabaster Bas-Relief of Armed Soldiers & Musicians, from a ramp between the Royal Palace & the Temple of Ishtar, Nineveh, Iraq, reign of Sen. 704-681 BC (28087395474). Pergamon Museum, Berlin, Germany. Complete indexed photo collection at WorldHistoryPics.com. Assyrian palace reliefs record conquest in detail, but their reputation for unique brutality is an artefact of asymmetric self-documentation. The Assyrians carved their campaigns in stone and their neighbours did not.
52. 2016 - Ishtar Gate of Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon, reconstructed with original bricks at the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, 575 BC (28671623836). The Ishtar Gate of Nebuchadnezzar II's Babylon, glazed brick with lions, aurochs and the mushhushshu dragon of Marduk. The reconstruction in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin is assembled from excavated fragments shipped out by Robert Koldewey's expedition, so the most famous view of Babylon is in Germany.
53. 2016 - Striding Bull from Ishtar Gate of Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon, reconstructed with original bricks at the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, 575 BC . (28626248331). The Ishtar Gate of Nebuchadnezzar II's Babylon, glazed brick with lions, aurochs and the mushhushshu dragon of Marduk. The reconstruction in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin is assembled from excavated fragments shipped out by Robert Koldewey's expedition, so the most famous view of Babylon is in Germany.
54. 2016 - Lion-hunt scene of Ashurnasirpal II, from Nimrud, 9th century BC, the British Museum. Nimrud, ancient Kalhu, capital under Ashurnasirpal II and the site of the Northwest Palace, the Nimrud ivories and the queens' tombs found by the Iraqi archaeologist Muzahim Mahmud Hussein between 1988 and 1990, a discovery usually left out of Western tellings. It was bulldozed in 2015, and it was the real catastrophe of that year, more than the Mosul Museum video.
55. 2016 - Assyrian king Ashurbanipal, detail of a lion-hunt scene from Ninevah, Iraq. British Museum. The Lion Hunt reliefs from Ashurbanipal's North Palace at Nineveh, seventh century BC. The Assyrian reputation for unique brutality is largely an artefact of asymmetric self-documentation: they carved their conquests and their hunts in stone and their neighbours did not.
56. 2016 - Lion-hunt scene of Ashurbanipal, 7th century BC, from Nineveh, the British Museum. The Lion Hunt reliefs from Ashurbanipal's North Palace at Nineveh, seventh century BC. The Assyrian reputation for unique brutality is largely an artefact of asymmetric self-documentation: they carved their conquests and their hunts in stone and their neighbours did not.
57. 2017-05-22 - The Law Code Stele of King Hammurabi. The law code stele of Hammurabi at the Louvre. Many Assyriologists, following F. R. Kraus, read it as royal apologia advertising the king as just rather than as applied statute, since surviving court records do not cite it; others hold it had real force.
58. 2017 - Neo-Assyrian archaeological Halamata reliefs overlooking modern-day Duhok, Kurdistan Region of Iraq 11. Assyrian palace reliefs record conquest in detail, but their reputation for unique brutality is an artefact of asymmetric self-documentation. The Assyrians carved their campaigns in stone and their neighbours did not.
59. 2017 - Neo-Assyrian archaeological Halamata reliefs overlooking modern-day Duhok, Kurdistan Region of Iraq 15. Assyrian palace reliefs record conquest in detail, but their reputation for unique brutality is an artefact of asymmetric self-documentation. The Assyrians carved their campaigns in stone and their neighbours did not.
60. 2017 - Neo-Assyrian archaeological Halamata reliefs overlooking modern-day Duhok, Kurdistan Region of Iraq 19. Assyrian palace reliefs record conquest in detail, but their reputation for unique brutality is an artefact of asymmetric self-documentation. The Assyrians carved their campaigns in stone and their neighbours did not.
61. 2017 - Neo-Assyrian archaeological Halamata reliefs overlooking Nohadra, modern-day Duhok, Kurdistan Region of Iraq 25. Assyrian palace reliefs record conquest in detail, but their reputation for unique brutality is an artefact of asymmetric self-documentation. The Assyrians carved their campaigns in stone and their neighbours did not.
62. 2018 - Code of Hammurabi-Sb 8-IMG 7753-gradient. The Code of Hammurabi, roughly 1754 BC on the middle chronology, carved on a diorite stele now in the Louvre. It is not the oldest law code: the Code of Ur-Nammu precedes it by about three hundred years, and Ur-Nammu prescribes fines where Hammurabi prescribes mutilation, so the civility-over-time story runs backwards. An eye for an eye is a minority of the 282 provisions and is class-stratified, retaliation between equals and cash for everyone else.
63. 2018 - Code of Hammurabi-Sb 8-IMG 7774-black. The Code of Hammurabi, roughly 1754 BC on the middle chronology, carved on a diorite stele now in the Louvre. It is not the oldest law code: the Code of Ur-Nammu precedes it by about three hundred years, and Ur-Nammu prescribes fines where Hammurabi prescribes mutilation, so the civility-over-time story runs backwards. An eye for an eye is a minority of the 282 provisions and is class-stratified, retaliation between equals and cash for everyone else.
64. 2018 - 20180506 112854-siege-of-lachish. The Lachish reliefs from Sennacherib's Southwest Palace at Nineveh record the Assyrian siege of the Judaean city of Lachish in 701 BC. They are an unusual case where an event is documented by the attacker in stone, by the defeated side in text, and in the archaeology of the site itself.
65. 2018 - Gypsum Relief of Gardens of Nineveh, North Palace, Nineveh, Iraq, 645-635 BC. Assyrian palace reliefs record conquest in detail, but their reputation for unique brutality is an artefact of asymmetric self-documentation. The Assyrians carved their campaigns in stone and their neighbours did not.
66. 2018 - Detail. Stele of Limu, of Anu-Bel-Ilani, Middle Assyrian Period, 13th century BCE. From Assur, Iraq. Ancient Orient Museum, Istanbul. Assyrian palace reliefs record conquest in detail, but their reputation for unique brutality is an artefact of asymmetric self-documentation. The Assyrians carved their campaigns in stone and their neighbours did not.
67. 2019-01-28 - Assyria vs Elam: The battle of Til Tuba. The Til Tuba reliefs from Nineveh, showing the Assyrian defeat of Elam, read as a continuous narrative sequence. The royal annals and the palace carvings are propaganda instruments rather than neutral records: numbers are formulaic, defeats are omitted, and the king wins personally.
68. 2019-03-09 - Stone Reliefs of Ashurnasirpal II -- Archaeology Studio 034. The stone reliefs of Ashurnasirpal II from the Northwest Palace at Nimrud. The winged genii with bucket and cone appear repeatedly, apparently performing a purification rite whose details are not fully understood.
69. 2019-05-07 - Ashurbanipal at Nineveh -- Archaeology Studio 039. Ashurbanipal at Nineveh and the art of his North Palace. An archive that shows only the flaying and impalement scenes reproduces Assyrian propaganda; the same reign produced the Nineveh library.
70. 2019 - Nasiriyah Victory Stele of Naram-Sin, from Mesopotamia, Iraq, c. 2300 BCE. Iraq Museum. The Victory Stele of Naram-Sin, roughly 2250 BC, now in the Louvre. Naram-Sin took the divine determinative before his name and is shown wearing the horned crown of divinity, a specific and datable claim to godhood visible on the object itself. The stele was later carried off to Susa as loot by the Elamites, an ancient displacement long predating the modern ones.
71. 2019 - Two lamassus at the Iraq Museum in Baghdad, from the North-West Palace, Nimrud, Iraq. A lamassu, the human-headed winged bull that guarded Assyrian palace gateways. Several were carved with five legs, so the figure reads as standing when seen from the front and as walking when seen from the side. The Nergal Gate lamassu at Nineveh was destroyed in 2015.
72. 2019 - Ashurbanipal's Garden Feast, Neo-Assyrian, 7th century BC, painted urethane resin cast from plaster cast from original in British Museum - S. 01721 (a cast or replica, not the original object). Assyrian palace reliefs record conquest in detail, but their reputation for unique brutality is an artefact of asymmetric self-documentation. The Assyrians carved their campaigns in stone and their neighbours did not.
73. 2019 - Front Panel, Throne Dais of Shalmaneser III at the Iraq Museum. The Iraq Museum in Baghdad. The widely reported figure of 170,000 items lost in 2003 is wrong: it came from a miscommunication by the first crews on the scene plus empty cases whose contents curators had removed before the First Gulf War. The accurate figure is around 15,000 items, of which roughly 6,000 had been recovered as of 2009.
74. 2019 - Shalmaneser III, detail of glazed wall panel from Fort Shalmaneser, Iraq Museum. The Iraq Museum in Baghdad. The widely reported figure of 170,000 items lost in 2003 is wrong: it came from a miscommunication by the first crews on the scene plus empty cases whose contents curators had removed before the First Gulf War. The accurate figure is around 15,000 items, of which roughly 6,000 had been recovered as of 2009.
75. 2019 - Shalmaneser III greets Marduk-zakir-shumi, detail, front panel, Throne Dais of Shalmaneser III at the Iraq Museum. The Iraq Museum in Baghdad. The widely reported figure of 170,000 items lost in 2003 is wrong: it came from a miscommunication by the first crews on the scene plus empty cases whose contents curators had removed before the First Gulf War. The accurate figure is around 15,000 items, of which roughly 6,000 had been recovered as of 2009.
76. 2019 - Throne dais of Shalmaneser III from Fort Shalmaneser, Iraq Museum. The Iraq Museum in Baghdad. The widely reported figure of 170,000 items lost in 2003 is wrong: it came from a miscommunication by the first crews on the scene plus empty cases whose contents curators had removed before the First Gulf War. The accurate figure is around 15,000 items, of which roughly 6,000 had been recovered as of 2009.
77. 2019 - South Face, East End, Throne Dais of Shalmaneser III at the Iraq Museum in Baghdad. The Iraq Museum in Baghdad. The widely reported figure of 170,000 items lost in 2003 is wrong: it came from a miscommunication by the first crews on the scene plus empty cases whose contents curators had removed before the First Gulf War. The accurate figure is around 15,000 items, of which roughly 6,000 had been recovered as of 2009.
78. 2019 - Detail, Glazed Wall Panel from Fort Shalmaneser at Nimrud. The Iraq Museum in Baghdad. The widely reported figure of 170,000 items lost in 2003 is wrong: it came from a miscommunication by the first crews on the scene plus empty cases whose contents curators had removed before the First Gulf War. The accurate figure is around 15,000 items, of which roughly 6,000 had been recovered as of 2009.
79. 2019 - Behistun relief. The Behistun inscription, carved for Darius I around 520 BC in Old Persian, Elamite and Babylonian. It is the Rosetta Stone of cuneiform, and the comparison is fair. Old Persian was cracked first because it is nearly alphabetic, and Akkadian was cracked afterwards using it as the key.
80. 2019 - Detail. Stele of king Ashurnasirpal II, from Assur, Iraq. 8th century BCE. Pergamon Museum. Limestone stele of the Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II, 883-859 BCE. From From the Rows of Stelae (Stelenreihen) at Assur (Ashur), Iraq. Pergamon Museum, Berlin, Germany. Assyrian palace reliefs record conquest in detail, but their reputation for unique brutality is an artefact of asymmetric self-documentation. The Assyrians carved their campaigns in stone and their neighbours did not.
81. 2019 - The Assyrian gallery at the Iraq Museum. A lamassu, the human-headed winged bull that guarded Assyrian palace gateways. Several were carved with five legs, so the figure reads as standing when seen from the front and as walking when seen from the side. The Nergal Gate lamassu at Nineveh was destroyed in 2015.
82. 2019 - Stele of Adad-bel ukin, governor of Libbi-ali, Kar-Tukulti-Ninurta, Ekallatum, Itu, and Ruqahu. From Assur, Iraq. 780 BCE. Pergamon Museum. Detail (showing the cuneiform inscription) of the gypsum stele of Adad-bel ukin, governor of the cities of Libbi-ali (Assur), Kar-Tukulti-Ninurta (modern Tulul ul Aqar), Ekallatum, Itu, and Ruhaqu. From the Rows of Stelae (Stelenreihen) at Assur, Iraq. 780 BCE. Pergamon Museum, Berlin, Germany. Assyrian palace reliefs record conquest in detail, but their reputation for unique brutality is an artefact of asymmetric self-documentation. The Assyrians carved their campaigns in stone and their neighbours did not.
83. 2019 - Ashteroth 1. This is an Assyrian wall panel of the people of Ashteroth in Bashan, Gilead in ancient Israel being exiled to Assyria in 730/727 BC by Tiglath-pileser. It is in the Assyrian section of the British Museum in London. Ashtaroth is written in cuneiform on the top. Assyrian palace reliefs record conquest in detail, but their reputation for unique brutality is an artefact of asymmetric self-documentation. The Assyrians carved their campaigns in stone and their neighbours did not.
84. 2019 - Ashteroth. This is an Assyrian wall panel of the people of Ashteroth in Bashan, Gilead in ancient Israel being exiled to Assyria in 732/727 BC by Tiglath-pileser III (2 Kings 15:29). It is in the Assyrian section of the British Museum in London, UK.
85. 2019 - Ashteroth 3. This is an Assyrian wall panel of the people of Ashteroth in Bashan, Gilead in ancient Israel being exiled to Assyria in 730/727 BC by Tiglath-pileser. It is in the Assyrian section of the British Museum in London. Assyrian palace reliefs record conquest in detail, but their reputation for unique brutality is an artefact of asymmetric self-documentation. The Assyrians carved their campaigns in stone and their neighbours did not.
86. 2020 - Jewish delegation to Shalmaneser III on the Black Obelisk, circa 840 BCE. The Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III, ninth century BC, from Nimrud. It carries what is generally identified as the earliest surviving depiction of an Israelite king, named as Jehu son of Omri, making it a rare point where the Assyrian record and the biblical narrative touch on a named individual.
87. 2020 - Stele of the Vultures in the Louvre Museum (enhanced composite). The Stele of the Vultures, roughly 2450 BC, recording Eannatum of Lagash's victory over Umma. It is among the earliest surviving narrative reliefs and one of the earliest depictions of organised warfare. Louvre, from Girsu.
88. 2020-12-15 - Art Up Close at the BCMA: Episode 5 | The Assyrian Reliefs and Repatriation. Bowdoin College on its Assyrian reliefs and the repatriation question. Nimrud panels reached small American colleges through nineteenth-century missionary networks, and the same dispersal is why they survived 2015.
89. 2020-12-26 - From the Court at Nimrud to the Halls of Bowdoin: Assyrian Art and its American Receptions. From the court at Nimrud to the halls of Bowdoin, on Assyrian art and its American reception. Victorian and American readings of the reliefs were shaped by the biblical framing of Assyria in Nahum, Isaiah and 2 Kings.
90. 2021-02-09 - Assyria: Power and Propaganda
91. 2021-05-06 - Middle East, Black Obelisk of King Shalmaneser III (Stop 211, Room 6). The Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III, BM 118885, described in British Sign Language in Room 6. Its second register shows a figure captioned as Jehu son of Omri bringing tribute, the earliest depiction identified with a named ruler of Israel.
92. 2021-05-06 - Middle East, Balawat Gates of King Shalmaneser III (Stop 212, Room 6). The Balawat Gates of Shalmaneser III in Room 6, described in British Sign Language. The bronze bands run in narrow registers and read as a continuous campaign narrative.
93. 2021 - Pergamon Museum Lion hunt 8122. Detail of a royal lion's hunt. A notice in the museum explains the lion hunt, here by King Ashurnasirpal II, at once showed a king as a protector of cattle-herders outside the city walls and as vanquishing hostile forces threatening the worldly order. Alabaster, Nimrud, 9th century BC.
94. 2021-06-16 - Make Your Own Mesopotamian Monument/Haz tu propio monumento mesopotámico. A Harvard workshop on making your own Mesopotamian monument. Royal monuments combined image and inscription so that the object made a claim in two registers at once.
95. 2021-11-09 - The Beauty and Power of Assyrian Queens. A Getty lecture on Assyrian queens. The Nimrud queens' tombs, found by Muzahim Mahmud Hussein in 1989, produced the Treasure of Nimrud, gold that survived 2003 in a flooded Central Bank vault.
96. 2022-01-31 - Conservation of Assyrian Palace Reliefs at the Brooklyn Museum
97. 2022-05-27 - Virtual Soleiman Lecture: From Palace to Cosmos—Assyrian Reliefs and the Construction of Empire. An Art Institute of Chicago lecture on Assyrian reliefs and the construction of empire. The palace was a machine for representing the king, and the carvings are its argument.
98. 2022-09-26 - Art Break: Uncovering Color in Ancient Assyrian Sculpture. A Getty session on uncovering colour in ancient Assyrian sculpture. The reliefs now read as plain stone but carried paint, and traces survive in protected areas of the carving.
99. 2023 - Assyrian relief sculpture of gazelles (53410610531). The Lion Hunt reliefs from Ashurbanipal's North Palace at Nineveh, seventh century BC. The Assyrian reputation for unique brutality is largely an artefact of asymmetric self-documentation: they carved their conquests and their hunts in stone and their neighbours did not.
100. 2023-06-16 - The aftermath of immigration in the art of the Neo-Assyrian period. The aftermath of deportation in the art of the Neo-Assyrian period. Mass deportation was real and systematic, and modern scholarship increasingly reads it as labour allocation and population engineering rather than extermination.
101. 2023-07-11 - Balawat Gates – Archaeology Studio 139. The Balawat Gates of Shalmaneser III. The bronze bands are embossed with campaign scenes in narrow registers and are among the few surviving Assyrian works in metal at scale.
102. 2025-01-23 - The Black Obelisk. 118885, found by Layard at Nimrud in 1846. Its registers show tribute from five regions, and one figure is captioned as Jehu son of Omri, which ties Assyrian record-keeping to a name known from the Hebrew Bible.
103. 2025-09-14 - Assyrian Reliefs Tell the Story of an Empire. Assyrian reliefs read as the story of an empire, from the Getty. The annals and the carvings are state instruments: the point was to make submission look preferable to resistance.
104. 2026 - 01930 Jødiske fanger, assyrisk billede. The Lachish reliefs from Sennacherib's Southwest Palace at Nineveh record the Assyrian siege of the Judaean city of Lachish in 701 BC. They are an unusual case where an event is documented by the attacker in stone, by the defeated side in text, and in the archaeology of the site itself.