Dying for Eternity in the Lion Hunts of Ashurbanipal


Fascinating lecture at the British Museum examining the lion reliefs from Nineveh some of which are included in the current I am Ashurbanipal.

The lecture was given by Paul Collins from the Ashmolean Museum. He started by describing the two palaces at Nineveh and looking at where these reliefs were situated. He then went on to describe them in detail with excellent slides and then to try to unpick what they might mean. He compared the very formal looking king with the naturalist lions and pointed out that the hunt was taking place in a formal space not in the wild. He related this to the Assyrian creation myths where the gods overcome chaos and bring peace and stability. The king is therefore showing himself as overcoming the chaos of wild life and building a stable empire.

I was lovely to be able to leave the lecture and go to see the reliefs which were left in the normal museum galleries and then to do the exhibition. The lecture certainly shed light on the exhibition which I’ll review in the next entry. I love the crispness of these reliefs and the wonderful lions, sadly dying in rather horrid ways.


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