stela
- Museum number
- 131124
- Description
-
Basalt stela of Adad-Nirari III: this fragmentary stela shows, in relief, the king in an attitude of worship in front of divine symbols. The king has his right hand raised, as if he had just snapped his fingers; this is a standard gesture of worship. In his left hand he holds the mace symbolic of authority. The symbols are, from top to bottom, a crude version of the winged disc of Shamash, the sun; a rosette or star symbol representing Ishtar or the planet Venus, goddess of the human passions expressed in love and war; and the thunderbolt of the weather god Adad.
There is an inscription at the bottom of the fragment.
- Production date
- 805BC-800BC
- Dimensions
-
Height: 82.50 centimetres
-
Thickness: 14.50 centimetres
-
Width: 50 centimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Inscription subject
royal
- Curator's comments
- Monuments of this kind were erected inside and outside temples, and rock carvings often showed the same scene. Their presence was an assertion of Assyrian hegemony.
The rough style of carving and the type of stone point to the provincial origin of this piece. It was probably erected by Nergal-eresh, who was for many years governor of the region where it was found.
Bibliography:
A. R. Millard & H. Tadmor, Adad-nirari III in Syria, ‘Iraq’ 35 (1973), 57-64.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited:
2019-2020 9 Dec-29 Mar, St Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum, I founded therein my royal palace. Monuments of Assyrian art from the collection of the British Museum
2008-2009 21 Sept-4 Jan, Boston, MFA, 'Art and Empire'
2007 2 Apr-30 Sept, Alicante, MARQ Museum, 'Art and Empire'
2006 1 Jul-7 Oct, Shanghai Museum, 'Art and Empire'
- Acquisition date
- 1881
- Acquisition notes
- See Trustees Minutes 1868-79 p. 1214 and 1880-81 pp. 1538 and 1560. Also Trustees Original Papers 1881, p. 3182
- Department
- Middle East
- BM/Big number
- 131124
- Registration number
- 1881,0721.1