| This relief from a royal palace in Nimrud from around 875-860 BC shows a typical Assyrian protective spirit. The winged eagle-headed spirit, originally one of a pair that reached out and touched the "sacred tree", carries a tree cone, or "purifier". The "sacred tree", partly preserved on the extreme left, possibly represents the fertility of the land. The majority of reliefs in the palace were designed to ensure the well-being and prosperity of the palace's inhabitants and Ashurnasirpal's kingdom. ? The Trustees of the British Museum (2012). |
