Discovery and Contents

The Lachish reliefs are plaster panels that lined the walls of a small inner chamber (Room 26) of the southwest palace of Sennacherib at Nineveh. They date to 700–699 bc, when construction began on the palace (Russell, “Sennacherib’s Lachish Narratives,” 72). The British diplomat Sir Austen Henry Layard, who discovered the reliefs between 1847 and 1851, described them as the best preserved of all of the bas-reliefs in the palace (Layard, Discoveries, 125–29). Most of the pictures are well-preserved and bear captions, but any cuneiform text that may have been at the top of the slabs is missing. The slabs were taken to the British Museum in 1852.

Layard reported that 14 slabs were in the room, but he omitted the first four in his sketches. These slabs were not taken to Britain and thus have not been preserved. The numbering system of the slabs operates left to right. Their contents are as follows:

• Slabs 1–4 include images of horsemen and chariots and likely depict the arrival of the Assyrian army at Lachish (Layard, Discoveries, 149).

• Slabs 5 and 6 depict ranks of Assyrian spearmen, slingers, and archers.

• Slabs 7 and 8 depict the actual siege of the city. They contain images of siege engines protected by soldiers and archers, as well as defenders who fight and die atop the walls. These slabs also depict people fleeing the city through a door in the walls. The right side of the city has been captured, and some captives are impaled on stakes.

• Slabs 9 and 10 depict two processions of captives, including families with their chattel, carts, oxen, and camels. The women and girls in the images wear long garments and cloaks that hang from the head. Some of the men wear long garments and have bare heads and short beards. Others wear short tunics similar to the Assyrian soldiers, along with small turbans with flaps over the ears and short beards. The reliefs also contain images of prisoners being flayed and executed, as well as images of booty, including weapons, incense stands, and a ceremonial mace.

• Slab 11 depicts Sennacherib on a throne receiving the captives and booty. The throne is of the same style depicted elsewhere in the palace. Sennacherib’s face has been destroyed, as have his bracelets, which depicted symbols of his rule. This was presumably done when he was assassinated. A caption identifies him as Sennacherib and identifies the city being besieged. A tent behind Sennacherib bears the caption, “Tent of Sennacherib king of Assyria.” Chariots, horses, and bodyguards are in the foreground.

• Slab 12 continues the depictions of the chariots, horses, and bodyguards from the foreground of slab 11.

• Slabs 13 and 14 depict the Assyrian camp, which includes a horizontal camp road. Priests offer sacrifices on an altar above the line of the road on the left side of the camp.

In the background of all the slabs are hills and vegetation, including fig trees, olive trees, pomegranate trees, palms, and grape vines. These probably represent the main crops of the region.

The layout of the slabs emphasizes the actual siege of Lachish, since slabs 7 and 8 are directly opposite the doorway into the room and are the first thing people see upon entering the room (Russell, “Sennacherib’s Lachish Narratives”, 58–59, 68). Slab 1 was on the entrance wall and left of the doorway; slabs 2–4 were on the left wall of the room; slabs 10–12 on the right wall; and slabs 13–14 on the entrance wall and right of the doorway. In order to view the story of the slabs, viewers were required to look immediately left after they entered and then around the room in a clockwise direction.

The caption above Sennacherib’s image indicates that Sennacherib was present at the siege of the city and succeeded in capturing the city: “Sennacherib, king of the world, king of Assyria, sat in a nēmedu-throne and the booty of Lachish (Lakitsu) passed in review before him” (Russell, Sennacherib’s “Palace Without Rival”, 276). Other inscriptions indicate that this occurred during his third campaign, ca. 701 bc.

In terms of the style of the artwork, Russell notes that Sennacherib shifted from bas-reliefs that contained two horizontal registers to a single floor-to-ceiling register, which conveys an impression of his grandeur and ability in conducting war (Russell, Sennacherib’s “Palace Without Rival”; Russell, “Sennacherib’s Lachish Narratives”).