Statue of Ashurnasirpal II

Illustration

Jan van der Crabben
by Trustees of the British Museum
published on 26 April 2012
Statue of Ashurnasirpal II Download Full Size Image

Statue of Ashurnasirpal II from Nimrud (ancient Kalhu), modern-day northern Iraq, Neo-Assyrian Empire, 883-859 BCE.

This statue of King Ashurnasirpal II (883-859 BCE) was placed in the Temple of Ishtar Sharrat-niphi. It was designed to remind the goddess Ishtar of the king's piety. It is made of magnesite and stands on a pedestal of a reddish stone. These unusual stones were probably brought back from a foreign campaign. Kings often boasted of the exotic things they acquired from abroad, not only raw materials and finished goods but also plants and animals.

The king's hair and beard are shown worn long in the fashion of the Assyrian court at this time. It has been suggested that the Assyrians used false hair and beards, as the Egyptians sometimes did, but there is no evidence for this.

Ashurnasirpal holds a sickle in his right hand, of a kind which gods are sometimes depicted using to fight monsters. The mace in his left hand shows his authority as vice-regent of the supreme god Ashur. The carved cuneiform inscription across his chest proclaims the king's titles and genealogy, and mentions his expedition westward to the Mediterranean Sea.

The statue was found in the nineteenth century by Henry Layard, the excavator of the temple.

Remove Ads
Advertisement

Cite This Work

APA Style

Museum, T. o. t. B. (2012, April 26). Statue of Ashurnasirpal II. World History Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://www.worldhistory.org/image/528/statue-of-ashurnasirpal-ii/

Chicago Style

Museum, Trustees of the British. "Statue of Ashurnasirpal II." World History Encyclopedia. Last modified April 26, 2012. https://www.worldhistory.org/image/528/statue-of-ashurnasirpal-ii/.

MLA Style

Museum, Trustees of the British. "Statue of Ashurnasirpal II." World History Encyclopedia. World History Encyclopedia, 26 Apr 2012. Web. 22 Feb 2025.

Membership