FLOOR.] 
NIMROUD CENTRAL SALOON. 
97 
mound, which is believed to have been constructed by Essar- 
haddon, the son and successor of Sennacherib, towards the 
beginning of the seventh centurj^ B.C., with materials obtained, 
in a great measure, from the spoliation of the palaces erected 
in other parts of Nimroud by the earlier Assyrian dynasty. 
The most important object in this group is a large bas-relief, divided 
horizontally into two tiers, the upper representing the evacuation of a 
* city, and the lower an Assyrian monarch in his chariot. The inscrip- 
tion, of which a part exists on this slab, and the remainder was upon 
others adjoining it, recorded the receipt of tribute from Menahem, King 
of Israel, and thus indicates that this sculpture was executed for 
Tiglath-Pileser II., though subsequently transferred by Essar-haddon 
to his own palace. 
Adjoining this is a colossal head of a human-headed bull, on a larger 
scale than any yet brought to Europe, and supposed to be of the time 
of Essar-haddon himself. 
Against the two central pilasters stand two statues excavated by 
Mr. Rassam in the South-eastern edifice of Nimroud, each representing 
the god Nebo, and bearing an inscription to the effect that it was made 
by a sculptor of Nimroud at the order of Vul-nirari (a king who 
reigned about B.C. 780), and of his wife Sammuramat, who is supposed 
to be the original of the somewhat mythical Semiramis of the Greek 
atid Roman writers. 
On the opposite, or Western side of the room, are some 
bas-reliefs discovered by Mr. Layard in the ruins of the Central 
«ditice at Nimroud, which are supposed to be intermediate in 
date between the ruins already referred to and those of the 
great edifice at the North-west quarter of the mound. The 
subjects are chiefly military. 
To the left, or Southern side of the passage from the Hellenic 
Room, is seen the evacuation of a captured city, in which (as well as 
in the bas-relief immediately above) the various quadrupeds introduced 
are portrayed with great fidelity and spirit, the sculptor, as usual in 
Assyrian art, exhibiting greater power in the treatment of animal sub- 
jects than of the human form. 
On the other side of the passage are three representations of sieges, 
in which the mounds thrown up by the besiegers, their battering-rams, 
and archers masked by loop-holed screens, evince their military skill, 
whilst the three impaled captives, on one of the slabs, give equal 
■evidence of their cruelty. 
Above these are two heads, known from the inscription on the left- 
hand slab to represent Tiglath-Pileser II. and an attendant. 
In the centre of the room stands one of the most important his- 
torical monuments which have been recovered from Assyria, an obelisk 
in black marble, found near the centre of the great mound. It is 
n 
