In Iraq, the remains of the ancient city of Nineveh continue to deliver crucial testimonies to the religious and political organization of the Assyrian Empire. Recently, a team from the University of Heidelberg, led by Professor Aaron Schmitt, uncovered a monumental bas-relief in the old hall of the throne of King Ashurbanipal. This sculpted work, dated from the 7th century BC, represents the sovereign surrounded by two major deities, Ashur and Ishtar, an unprecedented iconography in the official representations of the Assyrian palaces.
A king and gods in stone
It was in the heart of the North Palace of Nineveh, now located in Mosul, that the team has therefore uncovered an exceptional relief. It is sculpted on a stone slab 5.5 meters long, three meters high and weighing approximately 12 tonnes. This massive bas-relief was lying hidden in the throne of the Ashurbanipal king. It is the last great sovereign of the Assyrian Empire, which reigned from 669 to 631 BC. J.-C.
Beyond its impressive dimensions, this relief is distinguished by its strategic positioning and its probable function within the palace. Placed in a niche directly opposed to the main entrance to the throne room, it was not intended to be simply decorative. Its location suggests a strong symbolic significance. It welcomed visitors as soon as they arrived in the most sacred space of royal power. The king appears literally supervised by the major deities. This rare configuration seems to underline the divine origin of its authority. Unlike the many hunting or military campaigns scenes found in Assyrian art, here, the message is spiritual and institutional.
This type of composition also highlights the ideological role of the image in the architecture of Assyrian power. The absence of any narrative story gives way to static imaging, but codified. It must affirm the legitimacy of the king before the elites or the foreign emissaries. The choice of Ashur and Ishtar, tutelary gods of the Empire and the capital, strengthens this reading. As for the secondary supernatural figures, their presence probably indicates a protective function, inscribed in Mesopotamian ritual beliefs.
An enigma buried for centuries
The team has digitally reconstituted the whole thanks to a 3D model, differentiating the elements found of the missing parts. In fact, the fragmentary state of the relief testifies to a complex posterior history, still poorly understood. Archaeologists found the pieces in a carefully filled pit, dug behind the original niche. This operation is not trivial. It implies a voluntary, methodical human intervention, and located several centuries after the construction of the bas-relief. The researchers date this action from the Hellenistic period, probably between the 3rd and the 2nd century BCE. Either well after the fall of Nineveh in 612 BC. When the city was destroyed by a Babylonian and Mède coalition.
This dating is based in particular on stratigraphic layers and on the architectural context of the deposit. However, the motivations for this burial remain completely obscure. No source allows to know today whether this gesture had a destructive, religious or simply conservatory aim. Professor Aaron Schmitt underlines that knowledge on the Hellenistic occupation of Nineveh still remain too incomplete to interpret these acts with certainty. He also recalls that this period is rarely discussed in classic excavation countryside. They often focus on more spectacular imperial periods.
Several hypotheses therefore remain open. Was it an attempted protection of sculpture in the face of an imminent danger? Or of a symbolic gesture of rejection of a bygone power? In the absence of clear traces of voluntary destruction or iconoclastic erasure, the idea of a conservative burial prevails for the moment. This gesture paradoxically allowed the preservation of a single artifact, which remained intact for more than two millennia under the sediment layers.
An unprecedented discovery in Assyrian art
According to Professor Aaron Schmitt, the exceptional character of this discovery is based on the explicit inclusion of major deities in a palatial scene. So far, the Assyrian reliefs documented in the palaces of Nineveh or Khorsabad represented the sovereigns in military, ritual or hunting contexts. We often see the king defeating lions or receiving tributes, sometimes accompanied by winged geniuses or religious symbols. But never identifiable gods such as Ashur or Ishtar. “” It is the first time that such a representation has been attested in the official Assyrian art Schmitt says in several interviews.
© © Aaron Schmitt
Fragment of the relief discovered. © Aaron Schmitt
The choice to include Ashur, the National God of the Empire, and Ishtar, central figure of the Mesopotamian Pantheon, alongside the Ashurbanipal King is part of a clear logic. From an iconographic point of view, this reflects a deliberate will to stage sovereignty as directly based on divine approval. This hieratic composition evokes a visual theophany. It is a visible or sensitive manifestation of a divinity to human beings. Here the king then appears as the depositary of a sacred power. The context of the Throne hall, symbolic heart and politics of the palace, strengthens this reading.
Professor Stefan Maul, co-director of the Heidelberg-Nineveh project, sees it as an illustration of Ashurbanipal's need to strengthen his authority. Especially in a period marked by successive tensions on internal borders and dynastic rivalries. The work would thus participate in a visual political discourse intended to reaffirm the cosmic and dynastic order through art.
A public restitution in preparation
The “Heidelberg Nineveh” project, carried out by the University of Heidelberg under the coordination of Professor Stefan Maul, continues an ambitious scientific and heritage approach. Since 2022, the field teams have concentrated their research on the central sector of the Kuyunjik mound. It corresponds to the old north palace of Nineveh. One of the current priorities is the reconstruction of the relief in its original location, in coordination with the State Board of Antiquities and Heritage (SBAH). This restitution will give back to the work its initial spatial and symbolic function. But also to make it accessible to the public on its historic site.
The realization of a 3D model by Michael Rummel is an essential tool to guide the restoration work. Ultimately, this reconstruction will allow visitors to better understand the architectural arrangement and the visual message carried by this work.
© © MICHAEL R US
3D model of the relief. Discoveries in dark gray, reconstruction in light gray. King Assurbanipal is represented in the center, surrounded by the god Assur (left) and Ishtar (right). They are both followed by a fish genius and a character support for raised arms. © Michael Rımmel
This relief, by its rarity and its state of conservation, deeply renews the understanding of the role of images in the exercise of Assyrian power. It highlights the complexity of interactions between royal authority, divine representations and staging of power in palatial space. He finally recalls that despite centuries of excavation, Nineve has not delivered all of his secrets.
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