obelisk

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Object Type
Museum number: 118898
Title: Object: Broken Obelisk
Description: Limestone obelisk known as 'the broken obelisk'; carved panel (damaged and restored) shows the king, in front of the symbols of two gods, holding two pairs of prisoners on a leash; inscription.
Authority
Cultures/periods
Production date: 11thC BC
Excavator/field collector
Findspot: Excavated/Findspot: Kouyunjik, Central Palace, near the Ishtar temple
Materials
Technique
Dimensions: Thickness: 41 - 65 centimetres; Height: 63 centimetres
$Inscriptions
Curator's comments: This is the earliest known Assyrian obelisk.
Bibliographic references: Rassam H 1897a / Asshur and the Land of Nimrod (9); Budge & King 1902a / Annals of the kings of Assyria (pl. on p. li); Paterson 1901-11 / Assyrian Sculptures (12 parts) (pl. LXIII); Smith S 1928a / Early History of Assyria (pl. XVII); Gadd 1936b / The Stones of Assyria: the surviving remains of Assyrian sculpture, their recovery, and their original positions (123); Frankfort H 1954a / The art and architecture of the Ancient Orient (pl.73a); Strommenger E & Hirmer M 1962a / Funf Jahrtausende Mesopotamien (pl. 188, bottom, n.126); Ornay T 2007a / Who is holding the lead rope? The relief of the Broken Obelisk; Curtis 2007a / The Broken Obelisk; Grayson, RIMA 2 / Assyrian Rulers of the Early First Millennium BC, I (1114-859 BC) (RIM.A.0.89.7)
Location: Not on display
Condition: Limestone encrustation removed with a vibrotool in 1968/69
Subjects: king/queen; prisoner
Acquisition date: 1856
Acquisition notes: Discovered by Rassam mid-August 1853 at a "locality about half-way between Sennacherib's palace and that of Assur-bani-pal"; designated by C. Hodder as from "Centre Palace" in Or.Dr. VI, 33; exact findspot marked as "portion of obelisk" on plan based on drawing by W. Boutcher (BM Add.MS.21258B) which was published in 'Trans. Soc.Bib.Arch.' VII (1882), opp. p. 37 where discovery wrongly credited to Loftus. Shipped from Basra to Bombay on the Acbar in March 1854; from Bombay to London on the Merchantman, arriving London February 1855
Department: Middle East
BM/Big number: 118898
Registration number: 1856,0909.59

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