wall panel; relief

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Object Type: wall panel; relief
Museum number: 124772
Description: Gypsum wall-panel relief showing Phoenician ship: a Mediterranean galley being rowed down the Euphrates; shields are suspended on the upper deck. The alternation of hatching and plain surface suggests that two different materials are intended. The ram is apparently lashed to the hull, if the incisions represent rope. The clearly marked line on the hull running below the lower or inner bank of oars may be an outrigger. There is something wrong with the number of oars, which is odd. By the point of the ram, a bird seems to be carrying off a fish.
Authority: Ruler: Sennacherib
Cultures/periods: Neo-Assyrian
Production date: 705BC-681BC
Findspot: Excavated/Findspot: South West Palace (Nineveh), Room VII, panel 11.
Materials: gypsum
Dimensions: Height: 66.04 centimetres; Width: 100.33 centimetres
Curator's comments: Layard's description of Room VII (R): 'On the northern side of the great hall the portal formed by the winged bulls, and the two smaller doorways guarded by colossal winged figures, into a chamber one hundred feet by twenty-four, which opened into a further room of somewhat smaller dimensions. In the first, a few slabs were still standing, to show that on the walls had been represented some warlike expedition of the Assyrian king, and, as usual, the triumphant issue of the campaign. The monarch, in his chariot, and surrounded by his bodyguards, was seen receiving the captives and the spoil in a hilly country, whilst his warriors were dragging their horses up a steep mountain near a fortified town, driving their chariots along the banks of a river, and slaying with the spear the flying enemy'. (Layard, 1853, p. 229).; The cast is listed as available in the British Museum Facsimile Service 'Catalogue of Replicas from British Museum collections' (n.d.), in the series "Assyrian Bas-Reliefs". A modern cast was displayed in the "Transport" section of the displays at the opening of the Millennium Dome in 2000.
Bibliographic references: Barnett, Bleibtreu & Turner 1998a / Sculptures from the Southwest Palace of Sennacherib at Nineveh (195b); Smith 1938d / Assyrian Sculptures in the British Museum from Shalmaneser III to Sennacherib (p. 16, pl. XL); Birch 1883 / Guide to the Kouyunjik Gallery (pp. 48-9, no. 2); Ball 1899a / Light from the East, or the witness of the monuments (p. 196); Budge 1914 / Assyrian Sculptures in the British Museum, Reign of Ashur-nasir-pal, 885-890 B.C (pl. 40); Paterson A 1915a / Assyrian sculptures, palace of Sinacherib [sic] (p. 4, pl. 11); Meissner 1920a / Babylonien und Assyrien (vol. 1, Abb. 120); Hall H R 1928a / Babylonian and Assyrian Sculpture in the British Museum (pl. XXXIII:1); Gadd 1936b / The Stones of Assyria: the surviving remains of Assyrian sculpture, their recovery, and their original positions (pp. 163, 226); Pritchard 1969a / The Ancient Near East in Pictures Relating to the Old Testament (pp. 31, 253, fig. 106); Barnett & Lorenzini 1975 / Assyrian Sculptures in the British Museum (pl. 66); Lorenzini, de Maigret & Fozzati 1980 / Gli Assiri - La scultura dal regno di Ashurnasirpal II. al regno di Assurbanipal (p. 78, no. 28); De Graeve Chr 1981 / The Ships of the Ancient Near East (c. 2000-500 BC) (p. 68, pl. XLII, no. 88a); Reade 1983b / Assyrian Sculpture (p. 40, fig. 57); Layard A H 1853a / Discoveries in the ruins of Nineveh and Babylon, with travels in Armenia, Kurdistan and the desert (p. 229)
Location: On display (G9)
Exhibition history: 2018-2019 8 Nov-24 Feb, London, BM, I am Ashurbanipal, king of the world, king of Assyria
Subjects: boat/ship; landscape; arms/armour; bird; fish
Associated places: Topographic representation of: River Euphrates
Acquisition name: From: Sir Austen Henry Layard
Acquisition date: 1851
Department: Middle East
BM/Big number: 124772
Registration number: 1851,0902.30
Additional IDs: Miscellaneous number: NG.2 (ex)
Conservation: Treatment: 18 Nov 1994; Preparing panel for exhibition: 17 Aug 2018

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