King Tiglatpileser III in a segment cut from one of the stone panels decorating his Central Palace at Kalhu. British Museum.
(Source: ucl.ac.uk)
Assyrian relief at British Museum
Assyrian tribute bearer with a oryx, a monkey and wearing a leopard skin
Assyrian
Made from ivory
Neo-Assyrian, 8Th century B.C.
Found in Mesopotamia, Nimrud
Source: The Metropolitan Musem
Clay Tablet from the time of Ruler Ashurbanipal
648 BC
Late Babylonian
(Source: The British Museum)
(via devillady255)
“This small ceramic figure probably represents a Mesopotamian goddess, perhaps Lilith (the Judaic-Christian Adam’s first wife) or Ishtar (a “mistress of animals” type). This identification can be made because of the animal legs and tail that appear below the fully formed human head and torso. Recent research indicates that the Assyrians associated this hybrid form with female demons, the Lilitu. These demons attacked women and children as well as preyed sexually upon men (much like the succubi).
Because this work is most likely a votive figure that would be purchased by a pilgrim as an offering to a holy site or temple, it is most likely that of a goddess.
The female figurine is made of clay that was pressed into a mould, but the legs and tail were shaped by hand. If you look closely at the legs, you will notice finger prints made by the artist, probably while applying the iron oxide slip (the red color loosely applied on the object).”
Assyrian Tablet with Cuneiform Writing, in four pieces, the inscription features the name of Assurbanipal. Made of limestone, and dates to between 669 and 626 BC (Neo-Assyrian).
Courtesy & currently located at the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, USA.
Plaque for protection against the female demon Lamashtu, Neo-Assyrian, 934-612 BC, made of bronze.
Intended to be hung over the patient’s bed, this plaque afforded protection from the terrible female demon Lamashtu, who appears on the front. She was believed to cause many illnesses. Her husband Pazuzu, shown on the back, is invoked to persuade her to go away and thus speed the patient’s recovery. (x)
Courtesy & currently located at the Louvre, France. Photo taken by Rama.
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The Ivory carved head seen at the left is from Nimrud and dates to the late Assyrian period, around 720 BC. It was originally thought to be stolen, but was later found in the Museum, so survives today. She has been nicknamed the “Mona Lisa of Nimrud”.
Her hair has been painted black, and the artwork is originally believed to have been attached to a piece of furniture. (Perhaps a throne for a Queen? “
Pair of Winged Deities, c. 874-860 BC Assyrian (Iraq), Reign of Ashurnasirpal II (883–859 BC).
The Northwest Palace of Ashurnasirpal II (reigned 883–859 b.c.) at Nimrud (ancient Kalhu) is the earliest of the surviving royal residences of the Assyrian kings, lavishly decorated with monumental gateway figures and reliefs, whose discovery in the mid-nineteenth century created a sensation throughout the Western world.
First uncovered by the pioneer British traveler and archaeologist Austen Henry Layard in 1845, the Northwest Palace consisted of a series of long, narrow rooms grouped around large courtyards. Seven-foot-high stone slabs that lined the walls of many of the rooms were carved with elaborate narrative, mythological, and ritual scenes in low-relief. The greatest and most original artistic achievement of the Assyrians, these images and accompanying inscriptions record the kings’ military campaigns and testify to their prowess as warriors and hunters as well as their sanctity as the representatives of the Assyrian pantheon on earth. One of the most recurrent and potent images on these reliefs is the depiction of a magic purification or protective ritual, in which winged griffin-demons (apkallu, “sages”) or winged anthropomorphic deities, holding ritual “buckets” and pinecone-shaped objects, flank a “Sacred Tree” that they sprinkle with holy water or pollen.
The Kimbell’s pair of winged deities are fragments of two such full-length figures enacting this magic ritual, sprinkling or pollinating the central tree motif. As such, each figure would originally have held a bucket in his left hand and a cone in his right. The deities, marked as divine by their wings and horned helmets, are conceived in the image of the monarch, reflecting his facial features, stance, and physical strength. Their exaggerated musculature and luxuriant, tightly curled hair and beards suggest something of the king’s vainglorious power and virility. These reliefs come from a room that may have been used by the king for ritual ablution. (x)
Courtesy & currently at the Kimbell Art Museum, Texas. Photo taken by FA2010
