A small segment of a much larger scene arranged in three horizontal registers, this relief illustrates a tense moment during a lion hunt. While Ashurbanipal (668– 631 BC), the son of Esarhaddon (shown on the massive stele at the center of our gallery), strikes a fatal blow to one leaping lion, his spare horse is attacked by another. The multiple arrows in the attacker suggest that it had been left for dead and was not expected to rise. The king survived and appears elsewhere with his hunting trophies. In other scenes, the king hunts wild donkeys (onagers) and gazelle.
Nineveh (modern Kuyunjik, Iraq) North Palace, Room S, Slab 12-14
Assyrian, mid-7th century BC
Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East 1891.3.37
Modern painted resin cast of plaster copy of British Museum, London original 124874-6
Photogrammetry by Zhejiang University and Mohamed Abd elaziz
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