Assyrian Reliefs from the Palace of Ashurnasirpal II: A Cultural Biography

The well-known narrative images of the Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II (883–859 B.C.E.) at war and at the hunt are discussed frequently in studies of ancient Near Eastern art. By comparison, the iconic reliefs depicting the ruler, his genies, and the “sacred tree,” which are repeated over and over within the decorative scheme of Ashurnasirpal’s palace in Nimrud, part of modern-day Iraq, are less studied and imperfectly understood by scholars. This volume of collected essays on the reliefs at D…