Lion Hunt of Ashurbanipal

For over a millennium before these reliefs, it seems that the killing of lions was reserved in Mesopotamia for royalty, and kings were often shown in art doing so. There may have been a religious dimension to the activity. A surviving letter on a clay tablet records that when a lion entered a house in the provinces, it had to be trapped and taken by boat to the king. The Asiatic lion, today only surviving in a small population in India, is generally smaller than the African variety, and much later records show that their killing at close quarters, as depicted in the reliefs, was not an impossible feat. When the sword is used, it seems likely that, as in relatively recent times, the actual technique was that "the lion-killer wrapped his left arm in a huge quantity of goats'-hair yarn or tent-cloth" and tempted the lion to attack this, while the sword in the right hand despatched him. This padded defence is never depicted. More often, the king shot arrows at the lion; if these failed to stop him and he leapt, the huntsmen close beside the king used their spears. An earlier king, Ashurnasirpal II (r. 883–859), who had erected other lion hunt reliefs in his palace at Nimrud some 200 years before, boasted in inscriptions of about 865 BC that "the gods Ninurta and Nergal, who love my priesthood, gave me the wild animals of the plains, commanding me to hunt. 30 elephants I trapped and killed; 257 great wild oxen I brought down with my weapons, attacking from my chariot; 370 great lions I killed with hunting spears". Ashurnasirpal is shown shooting arrows at lions from his chariot, so perhaps this was a more conventional hunt in open country, or is also in an arena. In the later reliefs captured lions are released into an enclosed space, formed by soldiers making a shield-wall. Some are shown being released from wooden crates by an attendant in a smaller crate sitting on top, who lifts up a gate. The lions may sometimes have been raised in captivity. Ashurnasirpal II, in an inscription boasting of his zoo, stated: "With my fierce heart I captured 15 lions from the Zagros Mountains and forests. I took away 50 lion cubs. I herded them into Kalhu (Nimrud) and the palaces of my land into cages. I bred their cubs in great numbers." == Palace reliefs ==

There are some two dozen sets of scenes of lion hunting in recorded Assyrian palace reliefs, most giving the subject a much more brief treatment than here. Neo-Assyrian palaces were very extensively decorated with such reliefs, carved in a very low relief on slabs that are mostly of gypsum alabaster, which was plentiful in northern Iraq. Other animals were also shown being hunted, and the main subject for narrative reliefs was the war campaigns of the king who built the palace. Other reliefs showed the king, his court, and "winged genie" and lamassu protective minor deities. Most palace reliefs occupied the walls of large halls, with several rooms in sequence. But the lion hunt scenes in the North Palace come from more than one space; mostly from relatively narrow passageways, leading off the larger rooms. They are not complete. Some also were originally on the upper floor, though they had fallen down to below ground level by the time they were excavated. == Scenes ==

Some of the lion hunt reliefs occupy the whole height of the slab; like most narrative Assyrian reliefs the scenes of military campaigns from the same palace are mostly divided into two horizontal registers. The single register scenes show three large scenes from one side of a corridor. The arena of shields is shown, with a crowd of people either climbing a wooded hill for a good view, or getting away from this dangerous activity. At the top of the hill is a small building carrying a scene showing the king lion-hunting. The king makes ready in his chariot, the horses held by grooms. Huntsmen with large mastiff dogs and spears wait within the arena for any lion that comes too close to the shield-wall. In the large scene with the king hunting in his chariot, a total of 18 lions is shown, mostly dead or wounded. The other side of the corridor had similar scenes with the royal chariot in action shown twice. Another group of reliefs, some originally located on the upper floor and some in a small "private gate-chamber", are set out in three registers with a plain strip between them, with the figures much smaller. Some scenes are repeated, but not exactly, between the two groups. The lions released from cages charging at the king on foot are from here, and also the king pouring a libation onto the collected bodies of the dead lions. Some of this group are in Paris, and others were recorded in drawings but lost. These include scenes showing the king hunting lions and other animals in the wild; gazelles are beaten towards the king, hiding in a pit with bow and arrow. In one scene, the same lion is shown three times close together: exiting his cage, charging towards the king, and leaping up at him, somewhat in the manner of a modern strip cartoon. File:P1050552 (5022050256).jpg|Relief of Ashurbanipal hunting a Mesopotamian lion, from the Northern Palace in Nineveh, as seen at the British Museum File:Ashurbanipal hunts a lion. Bas-relief from his north palace at Nineveh, Iraq. 7th century BC. The Pergamon Museum.jpg|Lion-hunting scene of Ashurbanipal. Alabaster bas-relief from the North Palace at Nineveh, Neo-Assyrian, reign of Ashurbanipal, 668–627 BC. Pergamon Museum. File:Assyrian king Ashurbanipal on his horse thrusting a spear onto a lion’s head. Alabaster bas-relief from Nineveh, dating back to 645-635 BCE and is currently housed in the British Museum, London.jpg|Ashurbanipal on horseback spearing a lion. Alabaster bas-relief from Nineveh, 645–635 BCE. File:Sculpted reliefs depicting Ashurbanipal, the last great Assyrian king, hunting lions, gypsum hall relief from the North Palace of Nineveh (Irak), c. 645-635 BC, British Museum (16535807958).jpg|An attendant releases a lion from its cage. File:Sculpted reliefs depicting Ashurbanipal, the last great Assyrian king, hunting lions, gypsum hall relief from the North Palace of Nineveh (Irak), c. 645-635 BC, British Museum (16101120334).jpg|Wounded lion File:Sculpted reliefs depicting Ashurbanipal, the last great Assyrian king, hunting lions, gypsum hall relief from the North Palace of Nineveh (Irak), c. 645-635 BC, British Museum (16722183731).jpg|Wounded lioness File:Sculpted reliefs depicting Ashurbanipal, the last great Assyrian king, hunting lions, gypsum hall relief from the North Palace of Nineveh (Irak), c. 645-635 BC, British Museum (16535870558).jpg|Dead lion File:The Royal lion hunt reliefs from the Assyrian palace at Nineveh , about 645-635 BC, British Museum (12254719435).jpg|Lions behind the king's chariot File:British Museum - Room 10 (16676659245).jpg|Huntsmen carrying dead lions away File:British Museum - Room 10 (16675647262).jpg|Chariot horses File:Sculpted reliefs depicting Ashurbanipal, the last great Assyrian king, hunting lions, gypsum hall relief from the North Palace of Nineveh (Irak), c. 645-635 BC, British Museum (16101123614).jpg|The wooded hill, with the shield-wall at right == See also ==