Southwest Palace Relief with Warriors Marching Through Stream

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Southwest Palace Relief with Warriors Marching Through Stream

Place of OriginNineveh, Assyria (Mosul, Iraq)

Date704-681 BCE

Dimensions12 1/8 × 14 3/4 × 1 1/4 in. (30.8 × 37.5 × 3.2 cm)

Mediumalabaster, gypsum

ClassificationSculpture

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number

1921.83

Not on View

DescriptionFragment of a wall relief showing a continuous procession of warriors. This fragment shows two bearded soldiers in pointed Assyrian helmets and belted tunics, holding spears and shields, with daggers hung in scabbards on their sides. Around them, a watery landscape with two fish (and the tail of a third one in the upper left edge) suggests that they are marching through a stream. The curved features on the upper right represent a hilly land mass.

Label TextThis relief fragment, excavated in 1850, originates from the Southwest Palace of Sennacherib in Nineveh (modern Mosul, Iraq), one of the great architectural feats of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. Sennacherib was a Neo-Assyrian king who ruled from 704 to 681 BCE. He is known for his ambitious military campaigns, especially against Babylon and Judah, and for his invasion of Jerusalem, which is famously described in both Assyrian records and the Bible. Sennacherib relocated the capital of the Assyrian Empire to Nineveh, where he undertook grand building projects, including the construction of his palace, often called the “Palace Without Rival.” The relief depicts two Assyrian warriors marching through a wide stream. It was part of a larger narrative panel that illustrated scenes of military campaigns and conquests. This particular fragment shares stylistic affinities with slabs from Chamber V (Room XXXVIII) of the palace, and may belong to slab 13. The two reliefs 1921.83 and 1921.84 were purchased on the London art market in 1921 , reportedly from the personal collection of Austen Henry Layard, the archaeologist who led the excavations at Nineveh on behalf of the British Museum in London.Published ReferencesGodwin, Blake-More, "Reliefs from the Palace of Sennacherib," Art in America, vol. 10, no. 6, Oct. 1922, p. 281-2, repr. p. 280.

Barnett, Richard David, Erika Bleibtreu, Geoffrey Turner, and Dominique Collon. Sculptures From the Southwest Palace of Sennacherib At Nineveh. London: British Museum Press 1998, p. 108, no. 462. Turner, Geoffrey. The British Museum’s Excavations at Nineveh, 1846–1855 . Edited by John Malcolm Russell. Leiden: Brill, 2020, p.313.