- Museum number
- 124801,b
- Description
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Gypsum wall-panel depicting the Battle of Til-Tuba (Battle of the River Ulai) in relief: in the lower register, the Assyrians are attacking from the left. The two armies are clearly distinguished by their equipment. The Assyrian cavalry and some of the infantry have pointed helmets and wear scale-armour above the belt; most of them carry spears and shields, as do other infantrymen in crested helmets, and there are lightly armed archers with headbands. They tend to operate in pairs, with an archer protected by a spearman. The Elamites are nearly all lightly armed archers, with headbands tied at the back; their quivers are decorated with palmettes. Some of them are riding carts drawn by donkeys or mules. It is clear that, once the heavily armed Assyrians have forced their way through the Elamite lines, the Elamites cannot operate effectively at close quarters. They stumble back down the side of the mound, and their retreat turns into a rout, which ends as they are driven into the River Ulai. The growing chaos is graphically reflected in the overall arrangement, with the largely horizontal lines of figures losing coherence as they move right, and the river stopping them dead as it cuts across the scene from top to bottom.
Within the battle, critical incidents are picked out, forming an internal sequence of events like a strip-cartoon operating independently of the general progress of the battle. This sequence starts near the centre of the composition, with the crash of the chariot carrying the Elamite king, Teptihubaninsushnak, known to the Assyrians as Teumman, together with his son Tammaritu. Teumman is distinguished by his royal hat and fringed robe; Tammaritu is dressed like the other Elamites. The two are thrown out of the chariot, and Teumman's hat falls off, revealing his receding hairline.
The upper register is missing.
- Production date
- 660BC-650BC
- Dimensions
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Height: 204 centimetres
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Thickness: 17.30 centimetres
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Width: 175 centimetres
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
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In set with 1881,0226.1 (BM.12135).
In set with 1881,0204.6 (BM.135122).
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The Battle of Til-Tuba (or the River Ulai), showing the Assyrians defeating the Elamites of southern Iran, is arguably the finest large-scale composition in Assyrian art. Though the beginning of the battle is lost, the rout of the Elamite army on three adjoining panels forms essentially a complete unit on its own. This was one of a series of about ten compositions, recounting the story of an entire campaign, which lined the walls of a room in Sennacherib's palace but were actually carved for Ashurbanipal. The carvings are described in several clay tablets, which enable us to restore the entire decorative scheme in principle. Some of the incidents in the battle are also described in captions cut on the sculptures themselves, but the tablets give additional details which help to explain what is happening. The battle scene occupies the lower half of these three panels; the upper half, less well preserved, shows a review of prisoners deported after the campaign.
The date of Ashurbanipal's war with Teumman is uncertain, with suggestions ranging from 663 to 653 BC. It was the first of a series of wars which culminated in the destruction of the ancient Elamite capital city of Susa. When Nineveh was destroyed in 612 BC, there were men who still recognised the scenes depicted in this composition.
The panel is carved in a fossiliferous limestone, not the standard gypsum. The stone was brought by Sennacherib down the Tigris from the Judi Dagh, near Cizre in modern Turkey, where he had observed it on campaign. Several Assyrian kings note with pride their imports of unusual materials such as this.
- Bibliographic references
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Barnett, Bleibtreu & Turner 1998a / Sculptures from the Southwest Palace of Sennacherib at Nineveh (381b-383b)
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Curtis & Reade 1994a / Tesoros de asiria en el Museo Britanico: Arte e Imperio (21)
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Curtis & Reade 1995a / Art and empire: treasures from Assyria in the British Museum (22)
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Paterson 1901-11 / Assyrian Sculptures (12 parts) (pls. XVVIV-LXXV, CIV-CV)
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Curtius 1913 / Die antike Kunst (pp. 280, 282)
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Paterson A 1915a / Assyrian sculptures, palace of Sinacherib [sic] (pls. 62-4) (1+2+3; left edge of slab 1 missing)
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Meissner 1920a / Babylonien und Assyrien (vol. I, Abb. 41) (slab 3)
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Hall H R 1928a / Babylonian and Assyrian Sculpture in the British Museum (pl. XLI:1) (detail)
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Müller 1928-9 / Die Raumdarstellung der altorientalischen Kunst (pl. XIX:2) (slab 3)
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Gadd 1936b / The Stones of Assyria: the surviving remains of Assyrian sculpture, their recovery, and their original positions (pp. 180-1)
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Frankfort H 1954a / The art and architecture of the Ancient Orient (pp. 97-8, pls. 104-5)
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Barnett & Foreman 1959 / Assyrian Palace Reliefs and their Influence on the Sculptures of Babylonia and Persia (pp. 30-31, pls. 118-27, 130-33)
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Yadin 1963 / The art of warfare in Biblical lands in the light of archaeological discovery (pp. 443-4)
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Nagel 1967 / Die neuassyrischen Reliefstile unter Sanherib und Assurbanaplu (pls. 14, 15:2) (details)
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Barnett 1970 / Assyrian Palace Reliefs in the British Museum (pl. X) (detail)
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Barnett & Lorenzini 1975 / Assyrian Sculptures in the British Museum (pls. 138-51) (details)
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Orthmann 1975 / Der alte Orient (p. 323m pls. 236-7)
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Wäfler 1975 / Nicht-Assyrer neuassyrischer Darstellungen (pls. 15:2, 19:1) (details)
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Lorenzini, de Maigret & Fozzati 1980 / Gli Assiri - La scultura dal regno di Ashurnasirpal II. al regno di Assurbanipal (pp. 121-5, nos. 59-63) (details)
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Reade 1979a / Assyrian architectural decoration: techniques and subject-matter (pls. 17-18, 24b)
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Reade 1983b / Assyrian Sculpture (pp. 61-4, figs 91-3)
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Layard A H 1853b / A second series of the monuments of Nineveh; including bas-reliefs from the palace of Sennacherib and bronzes from the ruins of Nimroud, from drawings made on the spot, during a second expedition to Assyria (pls. 45-6)
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Reade 1976 / Elam and the Elamites (pp. 99-100, pl. 21, 2;)
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Reade 1979c / Narrative Composition in Assyrian Sculpture (pp. 96-101, 107.)
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British Museum 2011a / Splendours of Mesopotamia (pp.138-41, cats 111-13)
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
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Exhibited:
2018-2019 8 Nov-24 Feb, London, BM, I am Ashurbanipal, king of the world, king of Assyria
2014 - 2015 22 Sep - 5 Jan, New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 'Assyria to Iberia at the Dawn of the Classical Age'
2013 - 2014 22 June - 6 Jan, Toronto, Royal Ontario Museum, 'Mesopotamia, Inventing Our World'
2013: 30 Jan-13 May, Museum of History, Hong Kong, 'The Wonders of Ancient Mesopotamia'
2012: 4 May-7 Oct, Melbourne Museum, 'The Wonders of Ancient Mesopotamia'
2011 28 March-26 June, Abu Dhabi, Manarat Al Saadiyat, 'Splendours of Mesopotamia'
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'
- Associated events
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Associated Event: Battle of Til-Tuba
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Associated Event: Battle of the River Ulai
- Acquisition date
- 1851
- Department
- Middle East
- BM/Big number
- 124801,b
- Registration number
- 1851,0902.8.b
- Additional IDs
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Miscellaneous number: 45 (Old Nimrud Gallery No.)
