4/27/2016
(42) Assyrian Sculpture | Assyrian | Ancient Near East | Art of the ancient Mediterranean | Khan Academy
Assyrian Sculpture
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Protective Spirit Relief from the North-West Palace of Ashurnasirpal II,
883-859 B.C.E., Neo-Assyrian, alabaster, 224 x 127 x 12 cm
(extant), Nimrud (ancient Kalhu), northern Iraq © Trustees of the British
Museum. One of a pair which guarded an entrance into the private
apartments of Ashurnasirpal II. The figure of a man with wings may be
the supernatural creature called an apkallu in cuneiform texts. He wears
a tasselled kilt and a fringed and embroidered robe. His curled
moustache, long hair and beard are typical of figures of this date. Across
the body runs Ashurnasirpal's "Standard Inscription," which records some
of the king's titles.
Although Assyrian civilization, centred in the fertile Tigris
valley of northern Iraq, can be traced back to at least the
third millennium B.C.E., some of its most spectacular
remains date to the first millennium B.C.E. when Assyria
dominated the Middle East.
Ashurnasirpal II
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Ashurnasirpal II
The Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II (883-859 B.C.E.)
established Nimrud as his capital. Many of the principal
rooms and courtyards of his palace were decorated with
gypsum slabs carved in relief with images of the king as
high priest and as victorious hunter and warrior. Many of
these are displayed in the British Museum.
Statue of Ashurnasirpal II, Neo-Assyrian, 883-859 B.C.E., from Nimrud
(ancient Kalhu), northern Iraq, magnesite, 113 x 32 x 15 cm
(The British Museum)
This rare example of an Assyrian statue in the round was placed in the
Temple of Ishtar Sharrat-niphi to remind the goddess Ishtar of the king's
piety. Ashurnasirpal holds a sickle in his right hand, of a kind which gods
are sometimes depicted using to fight monsters. The mace in his left
hand shows his authority as vice-regent of the supreme god Ashur. The
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carved cuneiform inscription across his chest proclaims the king's titles
and genealogy, and mentions his expedition westward to the
Mediterranean Sea.
Ashurnasirpal II, whose name (Ashur-nasir-apli) means,
"the god Ashur is the protector of the heir," came to the
Assyrian throne in 883 B.C.E. He was one of a line of
energetic kings whose campaigns brought Assyria great
wealth and established it as one of the Near East's major
powers.
Ashurnasirpal mounted at least fourteen military
campaigns, many them were to the north and east of
Assyria. Local rulers sent the king rich presents and
resources flowed into the country. This wealth was
ploughed into impressive building works undertaken in a
new capital city created at Kalhu (modern Nimrud). Here
a citadel mound was constructed and crowned with
temples and the so-called North-West Palace. Military
successes led to further campaigns, this time to the west,
and close links were established with states in the
northern Levant. Fortresses were established on the
rivers Tigris and Euphrates and staffed with garrisons.
By the time that Ashurnasirpal died, in 859 B.C.E.,
Assyria had recovered much of the territory that it had
lost around 1100 B.C.E. as a result of the economic and
political problems at the end of the Middle Assyrian
period.
Relief panels
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Relief panels
Later kings continued to embellish Nimrud, including
Ashurnasirpal II’s son, Shalmaneser III who erected the
Black Obelisk depicting the presentation of tribute from
Israel.
The Siege and Capture of the City of Lachish in 701 B.C.E., panel 8-9,
South-West Palace of Sennacherib, Nineveh, northern Iraq, NeoAssyrian, c. 700-681 B.C.E., alabaster, 182.880 x 193.040 cm (The
British Museum)
Part of a series which decorated the walls of a room in the palace of King
Sennacherib (reigned 704-681 B.C.E.). The Assyrian soldiers continue
the attack on Lachish. They carry away a throne, a chariot and other
goods from the palace of the governor of the city. In front and below them
some of the people of Lachish, carrying what goods they can salvage,
move through a rocky landscape studded with vines, fig and perhaps
olive trees. Sennacherib records that as a result of the whole campaign
he deported 200,150 people. This was standard Assyrian policy, and was
adopted by the Babylonians, the next ruling empire.
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During the eighth and seventh centuries B.C.E. Assyrian
kings conquered the region from the Persian Gulf to the
borders of Egypt. The most ambitious building of this
period was the palace of king Sennacherib (704-681
B.C.E.) at Nineveh. The reliefs from Nineveh in the
British Museum include a depiction of the siege and
capture of Lachish in Judah.
The Dying Lion, panel from the North Palace of Ashurbanipal, c. 645
B.C.E., Neo-Assyrian, alabaster, 16.5 x 30 cm, Nineveh, northern Iraq
© Trustees of the British Museum. Part of a series of wall panels that
showed a royal hunt. Struck by one of the king's arrows, blood gushes
from the lion's mouth. There was a very long tradition of royal lion hunts
in Mesopotamia, with similar scenes known from the late fourth
millennium B.C.E.
The finest carvings, however, are the famous lion hunt
reliefs from the North Palace at Nineveh belonging to
Ashurbanipal (668-631 B.C.E.). The scenes were
originally picked out with paint, which occasionally
survives, and work like modern comic books, starting the
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story at one end and following it along the walls to the
conclusion.
The Assyrians used a form of gypsum for the reliefs and
carved it using iron and copper tools. The stone is easily
eroded when exposed to wind and rain and when it was
used outside, the reliefs are presumed to have been
protected by varnish or paint. It is possible that this form
of decoration was adopted by Assyrian kings following
their campaigns to the west, where stone reliefs were
used in Neo-Hittite cities like Carchemish. The Assyrian
reliefs were part of a wider decorative scheme which also
included wall paintings and glazed bricks.
The reliefs were first used extensively by king
Ashurnasirpal II (about 883-859 B.CE..) at Kalhu
(Nimrud). This tradition was maintained in the royal
buildings in the later capital cities of Khorsabad and
Nineveh.
© Trustees of the British Museum
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