Ancient Replicas - Relief of Slaves in a Quarry

Walls and Towers
Decorative Items

Assyria

Alabaster lion from entrance to temple of Ninurta at Nimrud, reign of Ashurnasirpal II (883-859 BC)
Assyrian Lion

Winged bull with human head, from the palace of Sargon II at Khorsabad
Winged Bull Guardian

Tiglath-Pileser III Fragment of a gypsum tablet from the palace of Nimrud.
Tiglath-Pileser III

Sargon II

Relief of Siege Scene with Battering-Ram and Impaled Bodies, gypsum, Palace of Tiglath-pileser III
Battering Ram

Relief depicting the siege of a fortified city
Siege Relief

Detail of Hebrew captives playing music, from Lachish, wandering through a mountain forest, accompanied by an Assyrian warrior carrying a club
Hebrew Captives

Relief of Ashurbanipal Stabbing Lion With Sword
King Stabbing Lion

Ashurbanipal Feasting

Tiglath-Pileser in Chariot

Relief of Slaves in a Quarry
Forced Quarry Labor

Winged Lamassu

Winged human-headed bull colossus from Khorsabad
Human Headed Bull

Hero Grasping Lion

Sargon and High Official

The Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III
The Black Obelisk

Sennacherib's Prism

Assyrian Soldier 1

Assyrian Soldier 2

Babylon

The Striding Lion on the Ishtar Gate of Babylon
The Striding Lion

Weld-Blundell Prism

Relief of Slaves in a Quarry, alabaster, South-West Palace of Sennacherib (704-681 BCE), Court VI, Nineveh, w: 74 cm.
From the Neo-Assyrian Period, 1000 BCE - 612 BCE
Found in Nineveh
Covered in lecture on Oct 5th, 2004
Detail of a larger relief. Slaves in distinctive hats and dress are seen carrying stones from a quarry in baskets and dumping them at left under the supervision of Assyrian soldiers. The soldiers alternate between spear carriers with shields and archers. The central part of this relief (not shown) depicts stone-cutters working on a large stone for colossal statuary to decorate the Southwest Palace of Sennacherib.

This alabaster relief was found in the palace of Sennacherib. It illustrates how the Israelite prisoners were assembled into gangs and forced to perform heavy labor. They are clothed in short skirted garments and are carrying heavy loads of rocks.

"So they left all the commandments of the LORD their God, made for themselves a molded image and two calves, made a wooden image and worshiped all the host of heaven, and served Baal. And they caused their sons and daughters to pass through the fire, practiced witchcraft and soothsaying, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke Him to anger.

Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel, and removed them from His sight; there was none left but the tribe of Judah alone. . And the LORD rejected all the descendants of Israel, afflicted them, and delivered them into the hand of plunderers, until He had cast them from His sight. For He tore Israel from the house of David, and they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king. Then Jeroboam drove Israel from following the LORD, and made them commit a great sin. For the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they did not depart from them, until the LORD removed Israel out of His sight, as He had said by all His servants the prophets. So Israel was carried away from their own land to Assyria, as it is to this day."
- 2 Kings 7:20-23