Lamassu: Did you mean...?

Ancient Israelite art traditions are evident especially on stamps seals, ivories from Samaria, and carvings, each with motifs connecting it to more general artistic traditions throughout the Levant. Ancient Israel, and therefore its art...

A pair of human-headed and winged-bulls (lamassu), stood on either side of a gate at one of the citadel walls at Khorsabad. Two human-headed and winged protective spirits or genies stand behind the bulls; those divine figures are about to...

Persepolis was the capital of the Persian Achaemenid Empire from the reign of Darius I (the Great, r. 522-486 BCE) until its destruction in 330 BCE. Its name comes from the Greek Perses-polis (Persian City), but the Persians knew it as Parsa...

In the year 330 BCE Alexander the Great (l. 356-323 BCE) conquered the Achaemenid Persian Empire following his victory over the Persian Emperor Darius III (r. 336-330 BCE) at the Battle of Gaugamela in 331 BCE. After Darius III's defeat...

Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people. (Karl Marx, Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right). When it comes to religion, many people...

The Poor Man of Nippur (c. 701 BCE) is a Babylonian poem on the themes of the obligations of hospitality and revenge for an undeserved injury. A poor man of the city of Nippur feels mistreated when he visits the mayor and then goes to great...

This is one of the few surviving sculptures from the palace which Esarhaddon left unfinished at his death. Neo-Assyrian era, circa 670 BCE. From the south-west palace at Nimrud, Mesopotamia, Iraq. (The British Museum, London)

This fragment of a human-headed winged-bull, from Tiglath-pileser III's palace, is carved in low-relief like a wall panel. There is a marked contrast with the colossal figures in very high relief, of both earlier and later periods. Assyrian...

This bas-relief is part of a series of reliefs which depict the formation and transport of a colossal winged-bull (Lamassu) for the palace of the Assyrian king Sennacherib. In this relief, the king stands in a rickshaw (a royal chariot which...

Colossal statue of a winged lion from the North-West Palace of Ashurnasirpal II, Nimrud (ancient Kalhu), modern-day Iraq. Neo-Assyrian Empire, c. 883-859 BCE. This is one of a pair of guardian figures that flanked one of the entrances...