Day 8 - Assyrian Cuneiform Bas-Relief (8166461908)

Assyrian Cuneiform Bas-Relief (Acc. 35525)
This is a detail from an Assyrian cuneiform slab measuring 163.3x83.8cm. This is a fragment of a two register bas-relief. There are nineteen lines of cuneiform text separating the register. This detail is from the lower part of the slab, depicting a winged Assyrian deity (or genie) holding a pine cone. The cuneiform inscription is formulaic and in honour of the King, Assur-nasir-pal II of Assyria. This dates the piece to 883-859 BC.
It is considered that this was once part of King Assurnasirpal II's Northwest Palace at Kalhu (modern day Nimrud).
The cuneiform inscription reads;
"Palace of Ashurnasirpal, great king, strong king, king of the universe, king of Assyria, son of Tukulti-Ninurta (II), great king, strong king, king of the universe, King of Assyria, son of Adad-narari (II) (who was) also great king, strong king, king of the universe, and king of Assyria; valiant man who acts with the support of Assur, his lord, and has no rival (5) among the princes of the four quarters, the king who subdued (the territory stretching) from the opposite bank of the Tigris to Mount Lebanon ..."
There is a reference to this artifact in S.M. Paley's 1976 publication "King of the World: Ashur-nasir-pal II of Assyia 883-859 B.C." (NY: Brooklyn Museum) P. 70;
"... Reade has discovered the existence of a similar slab in one piece - the upper register is almost completely missing - with a nineteen line inscription in the Manchester Museum, that relief must be assigned to Room S slab 26 ..."
This places in 'Room S' in the king's palace, adjacent to the throne room (Room Y).
During the 19th and early 20th centuries, Europeans excavated sites all over the world and took their discoveries back to their own countries.

This piece was donated to the Manchester Museum in 1926 by Mr Edwin K Hilton and Mrs Stephens, in memory of Mrs John Cooke Hilton. They were related, by marriage, to the collector Mr J.M. Hyslop, who claims to have acquired it when Sir Austen Henry Layard and Sir Henry Creswicke Rawlinson, both pioneers of Middle Eastern Archaeology, were working in Iraq.