The kill of the hunt

La preda della caccia
Type: 
Sculpture
Year: 
Neo-Assyrian Empire, reign of Ashurbanipal (668-627 B.C.)
Material and technique: 
Limestone
Origin: 
From northern Mesopotamia, Nineveh (Kuyunjik), North Palace
Inventory: 
Inv. MB 49

This scene, in which two servants are carrying a deer tied to a pole, is the only known fragment from one of the panels of hunting scenes – royal hunts for large wild animals, and hunts for smaller animals – that decorated the great Room S in the North Palace. The panels had been intended for the Louvre but were lost in an accident on the Tigris River in May of 1855.
Hunts for lions and other wild beasts in general were reserved solely to the king, because they alluded to the eternal struggle against the forces of chaos. Hunts for smaller quarry – gazelles, deer and so on – were open to princes and dignitaries.

Masterpieces of the hall