Facebook
sprite-icon-instagram
Twitter
sprite-icon-wechat
Weibo
X
sprite-icon-youtube
sprite-icon-accessible
Group 3
sprite-icon-arrow
sprite-icon-audio-description
sprite-icon-calendar
sprite-icon-camera
UI/Chevron/Large/Black
sprite-icon-chevron
Artboard 1
sprite-icon-copyright
sprite-icon-data
sprite-icon-download
sprite-icon-grid
sprite-icon-image
i
sprite-icon-list
sprite-icon-magazine
sprite-icon-maximise
sprite-icon-museum
sprite-icon-osd-minus
sprite-icon-osd-plus
Group 6
sprite-icon-pin
sprite-icon-plus
sprite-icon-print
Fill 1
sprite-icon-share
sprite-icon-shop
sprite-icon-tag
sprite-icon-tea
sprite-icon-ten-percent-tag
Artboard 1
sprite-icon-wallet
sprite-icon-zoom
Skip to main content
Please enable JavaScript in your web browser to get the best experience.
Menu
Main navigation
Visit
Toggle Visit submenu
Back
to previous menu
—
Visit
—
Visit
—
Family visits
—
Group visits
—
Audio app
—
Out-of-hours tours
—
Tours and talks
—
Object trails
—
Accessibility
—
Food and drink
—
Late opening on Fridays
—
Museum map
Exhibitions and events
Collection
Toggle Collection submenu
Back
to previous menu
—
Collection
—
Collection
—
Collection online
—
Galleries
—
Blog
—
The British Museum podcast
Learn
Toggle Learn submenu
Back
to previous menu
—
Learn
—
Learn
—
Schools
—
Communities
—
Adult learning
—
Young people
Membership
Toggle Membership submenu
Back
to previous menu
—
Membership
—
Membership
—
Members' events
—
Young Friends
—
Existing Members
—
Visiting as a Member
Support us
Toggle Support us submenu
Back
to previous menu
—
Support us
—
Donate
—
Corporate support
—
Become a Patron
—
Supporter case studies
—
Become a Volunteer
—
Existing Patrons
—
Leave a legacy
—
American Friends of the British Museum
Secondary navigation
Shop
Search
Donate
Hide menu
statue
Object Type
statue
Museum number
124963
Description
Limestone statue of a woman; carved; a cuneiform inscription on the back states that the King erected it for the enjoyment of the people. Much of the surfaces are lost but the details of the pubic hair are carefully carved.
Authority
Ruler:
Ashur-bel-kala
Cultures/periods
Middle Assyrian
Production date
11thC BC
Excavator/field collector
Excavated by:
Hormuzd Rassam
(1853)
Findspot
Excavated/Findspot:
Kouyunjik
, Central Palace, near the Ishtar temple
Materials
limestone
Technique
carved
Dimensions
Height:
93 centimetres
(figure to mount)
Height:
19 centimetres
(mount to start of object)
Width:
25 centimetres
(figure above ankles)
Width:
34 centimetres
(figure at hips)
Width:
48 centimetres
(figure at shoulder)
Width:
28 centimetres
(figure at waist)
Width:
35.50 centimetres
(mount)
Depth:
30 centimetres
(figure at chest/rump)
Depth:
26.50
(mount)
$Inscriptions
Curator's comments
Originally set up in the temple of Ishtar. This is the only known Assyrian statue of a naked woman, and may represent Ishtar in her role as the goddess of love
Bibliographic references
Gadd 1936b / The Stones of Assyria: the surviving remains of Assyrian sculpture, their recovery, and their original positions
(p.124)
Hall H R 1928a / Babylonian and Assyrian Sculpture in the British Museum
(XI)
Budge & King 1902a / Annals of the kings of Assyria
(152)
Reade 1993a / Hormuzd Rassam and his discoveries
(p.47, fig.10)
Curtis 1995d / Later Mesopotamia and Iran: Tribes and Empires 1600-539 BC (Proceedings of a Seminar in memory of Vladimir G. Lukonin)
(pl. 6)
(wrongly cited as 124693)
Grayson, RIMA 2 / Assyrian Rulers of the Early First Millennium BC, I (1114-859 BC)
(RIM.A.0.89.10)
Location
On display
(G55/dc13)
Exhibition history
Exhibited: Assyrian Room
Condition
Reverse is badly abraded; missing the head
Subjects
deity
Associated names
Named in inscription:
Ashur-bel-kala
Representation of:
Ishtar
(?)
Acquisition date
1856
Acquisition notes
Discovered by Rassam in 1853, close to the 'Broken Obelisk' (118898) and "in the same ditch"; recorded by C. Hodder in Or.Dr.VI,xlvii; 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
124963
Registration number
1856,0909.60
Conservation
Treatment
: 28.01.1993