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Human-Headed Winged Bull
Stone Relief of a Human-Headed Winged Bull
This alabaster relief depicts the lamassu the winged bull guardian of the palace of king Ashurnasirpal of Assyria. His palace was located at ancient Kalhu (Nimrud).MET
Excerpt
Human-headed winged bull and winged lion (lamassu),
883–859 B.C.; Neo-Assyrian period, reign of Ashurnasirpal II
Excavated at Nimrud (ancient Kalhu), northern Mesopotamia
Alabaster (gypsum); H. 10 ft. 3 1/2 in. (313.7 cm)
Gift of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., 1932 (32.143.1-.2)
Description
"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" -
MET
"In the year that Tartan came unto Ashdod, (when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him,) and fought against Ashdod, and took it;" - Isaiah 20:1
Copyright © 2001 The Metropolitan Museum of Art - MET