relief

Please enable JavaScript in your web browser to get the best experience.

Object Type
Museum number: 124911
Description: Gypsum wall panel relief; carved in low relief; Sennacherib watches the capture of Lachish. He sits on a throne and watches as prisoners are brought before him and executed. A tent is behind him; there is a chariot in the foreground and bodyguards stationed around. The king's face has been deliberately damaged in antiquity. The relief bears two cuneiform inscription.
Authority
Cultures/periods
Production date: 700BC-692BC
Excavator/field collector: Excavated by: Hormuzd Rassam; Excavated by: William Kennett Loftus; Excavated by: John George Taylor; Excavated by: Sir Henry Creswicke Rawlinson
Findspot: Excavated/Findspot: South West Palace (Nineveh), Room XXXVI Panel 12
Materials
Technique
Dimensions: Height: 251.46 centimetres; Thickness: 15 centimetres; Width: 177.80 centimetres
$Inscriptions
Inscription subject
Curator's comments: In set with BM.124904-124915 (all 1856,0909.14). In set with BM.124850-124857 (all 1856,0909.15).; 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".
Bibliographic references: Barnett, Bleibtreu & Turner 1998a / Sculptures from the Southwest Palace of Sennacherib at Nineveh (435c); Paterson 1901-11 / Assyrian Sculptures (12 parts) (pl. LXIX) (detail); Paterson A 1915a / Assyrian sculptures, palace of Sinacherib [sic] (pls. 74-5, 78); Budge 1922a / A guide to the Babylonian and Assyrian antiquities. (p. 49, pl. 19); Frankfort H 1954a / The art and architecture of the Ancient Orient (pls. 371, 374) (parts); Barnett 1958a / The Siege of Lachish (pls. 31A, 32A) (details); Barnett 1970 / Assyrian Palace Reliefs in the British Museum (pls. IV-V); Barnett & Lorenzini 1975 / Assyrian Sculptures in the British Museum (pls. 76-7, 80) (details); Reade 1979b / Ideology and propaganda in Assyrian art: a symposium on ancient empires (fig. 1); Lorenzini, de Maigret & Fozzati 1980 / Gli Assiri - La scultura dal regno di Ashurnasirpal II. al regno di Assurbanipal (pp. 85-6, nos. 33a-b) (details); Ussishkin 1982 / The Conquest of Lachish by Sennacherib (pp. 77, 89); Reade 1983b / Assyrian Sculpture (p. 51, fig. 73) (detail); Magen 1986 / Assyrische Königsdarstellungen, Aspekte der Herrschaft : eine Typologie (p. 160); Russell 1991 / Sennacherib's Palace Without Rival at Nineveh (p. 125, fig. 66) (detail); Collon 2010a / Getting it wrong in Assyria: Some bracelets from Nimrud (pp.155-56, fig.8) (on the bracelets); MacGregor 2010 / A History of the World in 100 Objects (21 (part))
Location: On display (G10a/sA)
Exhibition history: Exhibited: 2010-2011, London, BM/BBC, 'A History of the World in 100 Objects'
Subjects: war; king/queen; prisoner; charioteer/chariot; execution
Associated names
Associated places: Topographic representation of: Lachish
Associated events: Associated Event: Siege of Lachish
Acquisition date: 1856
Department: Middle East
BM/Big number: 124911
Registration number: 1856,0909.14
Additional IDs: Miscellaneous number: AS.28 (ex)
Conservation: Treatment: 17 Jun 2001; Treatment: 09 Jan 2018

Free entry

Opening hours