Bronze band from the gates of the palace of Shalmaneser
III
Balawat (ancient Imgur-Enlil), northern Iraq
Neo-Assyrian, 858-824 BC
Tablets inform us that the gates at Balawat (one days march to
the north-east of Nimrud) were made of fragrant cedar wood; they
were hung on huge cedar-wood trunks capped with bronze and turned
in stone sockets. The gates were perhaps around 6.8 metres high.
When they were discovered in 1878 by Hormuzd Rassam, the wood had
completely rotted, leaving the bronze fragments now in the Museum.
Eight bands were fixed to the outer face of each door, and there is
a great variety in the details of the subject-matter and in the
workmanship.
The upper register of this band shows Shalmaneser in the first
full year of his reign (858 BC), receiving tribute from the cities
of Tyre and Sidon, wealthy Phoenician trading ports on the
Mediterranean coast. The Phoenicians, distinguished by their
pointed caps, ferry goods across from their island fortress. The
man and woman staying on the island are probably the Phoenician
king and queen. King Shalmaneser holds a bow and arrow as symbols
of the conqueror, and a courtier holds a parasol over him.
In the lower register the Assyrians are attacking from the
right. The town of Hazazu in Syria has been set on fire and the
prisoners are escorted into the presence of the king.
L.W. King, Bronze reliefs from the gates (London, Trustees of the British Museum, 1915)
J.E. Curtis and J.E. Reade (eds), Art and empire: treasures from (London, The British Museum Press, 1995)