Neo-Assyrian wall panel
- Gallery: Room 10a
- Culture: Neo-Assyrian
- Date: 700BC-692BC
- Object type: wall panel, relief
- Materials: gypsum
- Museum number: 124909
- 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
This is a Neo-Assyrian wall panel carved from gypsum, created around 700 to 692 BC. Before you is a sculpted relief that depicts a group of prisoners in a rocky landscape filled with vines, fig trees, and olive plants. The prisoners seem to be moving in procession, their fate linked to the rebellion they were thought to have caused.
This powerful scene was carved into the walls of the South West Palace in Nineveh, in present-day Iraq. The detail shows the artistic skill and narrative strength of Assyrian artists, who often used relief carvings to document military victories and punishments.
While the original comes from Nineveh, a cast of it is available through the British Museum's collection of replicas. Look closely—each figure and plant contributes to a vivid record of history and conquest from the ancient Near East.
See it in person
Neo-Assyrian wall panel is on display in Room 10a 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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