Relief of a winged bull
- Audio guide stop: 217
- Gallery: Room 9
- Culture: Neo-Assyrian
- Date: 700BC-692BC
- Object type: wall panel, relief
- Materials: gypsum
- Museum number: 124820
- 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 gypsum wall panel relief showing a winged bull from the time of Sennacherib’s palace. The bull, still in rough form, is being moved on a sledge, pulled by prisoners of war. You’ll notice four overseers, two with trumpets, watching and directing from the top of the colossus.
On the left, a king stands in his hand-drawn chariot. Some figures clear rocks, while others pull a long lever to help shift the heavy load at key moments. Below, men use buckets attached to arm-like devices to raise water and divert a stream.
This relief captures the intense labor and planning involved in moving massive stone for ancient Assyrian palaces. The image preserves the original stone best near the bottom, where the heat of a later fire destroyed much of the upper part.
See it in person
Relief of a winged bull is on display in Room 9 at the British Museum on Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, London — free to enter. Choose British Museum on audioguide.london and type its audio guide stop number, 217, from the gallery label, or take a photo of it, to hear this free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
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