ASSYRIAN TRANSEPT. 
155 
found in an isolated quarter, where it had been left in ancient times, 
in the course of removal to another situation. It is here placed oppo¬ 
site some similar subjects from Chamber B. It represents a lion- 
hunt : an armed personage in a chariot, accompanied by a charioteer, 
is drawing his bow on some object in front, upon a lost slab ; beneath 
the horses’ feet lies a lion pierced with arrows. The sculpture is 
highly elaborated, and of considerable merit. At the back is an in¬ 
scription, of which a cast (36'^) is placed above. 
The next three slabs are from a chamber marked I in Mr. Layard’s 
plan. 
37 a. Two winged male figures, in double-horned caps, kneeling 
beside a mystic tree, apparently in the act of adoration. The feet of 
the figures, both in this and the other two slabs, are bare. 
37 h. Two winged female figures, in double-horned caps, and with 
richly-decorated collars, standing beside a similar tree, and holding 
necklaces. This slab stood originally under No. 37 a. 
38. Two eagle-headed and winged figures standing beside the tree, 
with sacrificial fir-cones and baskets. Above this was a slab similar to 
No. 37 a. and the pair thus formed was repeated all round the re¬ 
mainder of the chamber. 
39, 40. Two large slabs, forming one subject with a third, which 
has not been recovered. To the left is the symbolical tree, and part 
of the wing of a figure on the missing slab ; to tl.e right is the king, 
wearing a collar of mystical ornaments, and standing between two 
winged and eagle-headed figures, each holding the fir-cone and basket. 
41. A winged figure, with double-horned cap, and richly-em¬ 
broidered dress, standing with the fir-cone and basket in the usual 
posture of adoration. 
The South door leads to the 
ASSYRIAN TRANSEPT. 
The first, or Western compartment of this Room, contains the 
remainder of the monuments of Ashurakhbal I. 
Facing the visitor, on entering, is a high insulated slab of limestone, 
arched at the head, and sculptured or engraved all round. In front, 
within a raised border, is a mezzo-rilievo figure of the king, standing 
apparently in a religious attitude, his right hand raised, and in his 
left a mace: he is attired in the sacrificial robe, and has a collar 
decorated with mystical ornaments: above him are various sacred 
symbols. The unsculptured area of the panel, and the sides and back 
of the slab, are covered with a long and finely-cut inscription, com¬ 
prising an invocation to the Assyrian gods, and a chronicle of the 
King’s conquests. The lower part of the stone has suffered both from 
fire in ancient times, and more recently from water. Immediately in 
front stands a triangular altar, which was originally so placed before 
the high slab. These objects were found outside one of the entrances 
to the small Temple of the God of War. 
Against the pilasters, on either side of the room, are two colossal 
human-headed, winged, and triple-horned lions, which originally 
flanked the portal of a chamber in the North-West Edifice; the back- 
