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Analysis Of Sennacherib's Reliefs Of The Southwest Palace At Nineveh

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The Court VI reliefs of the Southwest Palace at Nineveh (fig. 1) are the only instance of an Assyrian king depicting the construction and transportation of lamassu statues. Unsurprisingly, these unique depictions of engineering achievement come from Sennacherib, whose administrative policies focused heavily on technological and societal advancements. Despite Assyria’s supposedly highly militaristic society and political foundation, Sennacherib’s heightened interest in rebuilding the Assyrian heartland, advancing the engineering prowess of his empire, and apparent disinterest in conquest makes him a figure misunderstood both in the past and in modern scholarly work.
In this paper, I aim to examine how Sennacherib’s palatial wall reliefs and texts, with a specific focus on Court VI, represent Sennacherib’s engineering prowess. I start by analyzing the problems that plagued Assyria upon Sennacherib’s ascension to power. Next, I study how Sennacherib used engineering and innovation in his texts and royal imagery. Following this analysis, I examine the Court VI wall reliefs and how their imagery represents Sennacherib as the all-powerful force in Assyrian politics. After, I investigate Sennacherib’s ideology toward the balance of military and …show more content…

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