Fragments of Bands from a Gate

During the Neo-Assyrian period (911-612 BCE), royal artists frequently depicted major military conquests. These two bronze fragments originally belonged to a 21 foot high wooden gate of a temple at Balawat, just northeast of the capital, Nimrud. Together with nearly 265 feet of narrative strips from the same gate now in the British Museum, they illustrate in intricate detail the numerous military campaigns of King Shalmaneser III.

In one fragment, Assyrian soldiers carry logs as they march through a hilly, forested landscape. A separate scene to the right depicts three Assyrian officials, clasping their hands in respect.

In the other, Syrian porters in long robes and conical hats carry tribute to the Assyrian camp. They bring items for which Syria was famous: wine in skin bags; trays, possibly bearing ivory tusks; and heavy rolls of wool, probably dyed purple. The inscription at the top labels these as gifts from the coastal Phoenician cities of Tyre and Sidon.

Inscription

Provenance

Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object.

Hormuzd Rassam, by 1902, [mode of acquisition unknown] [54.2335A=Rassam Na; 54.2335B=Rassam Nb]. Joseph Brummer, Paris and New York, by 1925, by purchase [Brummer inv. no. P822]; Sale, Brummer Auction, New York, 1949, Part II, p. 19, no. 85; Walters Art Museum, 1949, by purchase.