Assyria (14th c. to 612 B.C.)

	1. Altar of Tukulti-Ninurta I (1244-1208 B.C.), in Ashur. The god, Nusku, is represented here on the altar as a symbol rather than in anthropomorphic form, which is considered an important feature of emerging Assyrian culture.
	2. Middle Assyrian seal impression showing a king or demi-urgos hunting ostriches. 13th c. B.C. Pierpont Morgan Library, New York. Assyrian culture is associated with a revitalization of Mesopotamian cylinder seal design.
	3. Detail from a mural in the Governor's Palace at Til Barsip (Tell Ahmar) on Middle Euphrates (under Tiglath-Pileser III, 744-727 B.C.) Aleppo Museum. Administrative reformer, he built Assyria as dominant military power.
	4. Fresco detail from Til Barsip Governor's Palace, on the Euphrates in Syria, under Tiglath-Pileser III. Frescoes functioned like reliefs to represent imperial ideology, typically military campaigns, hunting scenes and winged genii. Aleppo Museum, Syria.
	5. An ivory head, perhaps a part of furniture, found in a well beneath the Northwest Palace at Nimrud. Details are stained a darker color. Late 8th c. 16 cm. tall. Directorate-General of Antiquities, Baghdad. This offers a nice contrast with severe imperial art.
	6. Relief of winged god receiving jpgt-bearers. From Palace of Sargon II (d. 705) at Khorsabad. 3 m. tall. Reliefs are a major Assryian art form. This example shows an aesthic movement toward hierarchical formality. Sargon built a new capital, Khorsabad, just north of Ninevah, but it was abandoned after his death.
	7. One of a pair of monolithic hybrid collosi lamassu guardian figures typically found at Assyrian gateways and palaces, at citadel gate, Khorsabad. Iraq Museum, Baghdad. Hypernaturalistic fifth leg gives the figures two aspects.
	8. Stone of Esarhaddon. Memorial relief on black basalt. Ca. 676 B.C. 21.5 cm. British Museum, UK. Inscribed with an account of Esarhaddon's restoration of Babylon. At top, the sacred tree and a horned crown on an altar. Below a Bablylonian plough with seed drill.
	9. Sandstone stele commemorating Assurbanipal's rebuilding of Esaglila temple, Babylon. Ca. 672. The king carries the materials for ritual moulding of first brick. 37 cm. tall. British Museum, UK. Babylon was the Assyrian base of power and foreign expeditions.
	10. Map showing the expansion of the Assyrian Empire in 7-6th century. After Seton Lloyd, The Archaeology of Mesopotamia (Thames and Hudson, 1984).