Assyria: Nimrud, Room 7

Carved figures once lined rooms in the Northwest Palace at Nimrud. In Rooms 7 and 8, panels from that building bring you close to the images Ashurnasirpal II placed around his court. He was an Assyrian king whose palace stood in what is now northern Iraq. The reliefs include military campaigns, royal hunting and ritual activity with protective beings. Their repeated figures and bands of detail were part of a larger arrangement along palace walls. A single panel rewards close attention, but its scale also belonged to a room where the king received people and conducted affairs. Follow one action across the carving before reading the whole scene. These Nimrud displays concern Ashurnasirpal II. The lion hunts associated with Ashurbanipal, a later Assyrian king, belong to the Room 10 galleries.