Neo-Assyrian wall panel
- Gallery: Room 8
- Culture: Neo-Assyrian
- Date: 728BC
- Object type: wall panel, relief
- Materials: gypsum
- Museum number: 118933
- Museum: The British Museum
- Collection record: British Museum website
- Image © The Trustees of the British Museum, shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence.
Listen to the free audio guide
About this object
Before you is a Neo-Assyrian wall panel carved from gypsum. The artwork depicts two richly detailed scenes. In the upper part, a group of Assyrian soldiers moves across the relief. Among them stands a man with a round shield and dagger, his tunic decorated with intricate square patterns. Nearby, an archer and dagger-wielding warrior are dressed in elaborate garments. Above them appears a man anointing a tree—an unusual, small-scale ritual scene possibly set at a distance.
The lower register shows King Tiglath-pileser III. He stands triumphantly, placing his foot on an enemy’s neck. The king is richly adorned with a high crown, bracelets, and symbols of important deities like the crescent of the moon god Sin. An inscription in cuneiform, detailing his campaign in Iran, once lined the panel. You can read this inscription in the British Museum and in historical Assyriology publications.
This panel, from the Palace at Nimrud, captures the grandeur and violence of Assyrian rule.
See it in person
Neo-Assyrian wall panel is on display in Room 8 at the British Museum on Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, London — free to enter. Choose British Museum on audioguide.london and take a photo of it to hear this free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
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