The Palace of Tiglath-Pileser III

Abstract

Tiglath-Pileser III's palace at Nimrud is the only building, among those discovered by Layard in the last century, so far to have received the thorough treatment by modern scholars which they all deserve. Barnett and Falkner's handsome publication brings together almost all the information now available, and the supplementary remarks which follow could hardly have been made without it. It does not seem to be generally known that the legs of two figures from the vicinity of the palace are still visible in position at Nimrud. One set belonged to a bull facing west (Plate XVIII a ), and the other to a lion facing east (Plate XVIII b ); both are inscribed with the remains of Ashurnaṣirpal II's standard inscription. The figures were probably winged and human-headed; like the bulls and lions outside Ashurnaṣirpal's throneroom, they clearly stood back to back on a facade buttress, to one side of a central door. There is, however, a narrow space between them, and this must have been occupied, as in the palaces of Sargon and Sennacherib, by the figure of a genie: obviously the one found, in just such a position, by Rassam. As Rassam's genie faces left, towards the west, the other buttress of the facade, with a genie facing right, should also have been situated in that direction. This supposition would at least make sense of the way in which the three free-standing monuments in the area were arranged: Ashurnaṣirpal's fragmentary “obelisk” will have been placed directly in front of the central door of the facade, Shalmaneser's “Black Obelisk” will have been added outside the eastern side-door, and the statue of a courtier found to the east will have been in a less imposing position further along the wall.