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Lot Essay
This relief preserves the leg of an Assyrian solider who holds the head of a decapitated enemy by his long hair. It has been suggested that the head may be that of King Teumman of Elam, who was defeated by Ashurbanipal in the Battle of Ulai in 653 B.C. Teumman appears with similarly long hair in the famous “Garden Party” or “Banquet Scene” relief from Room S of the North Palace, now in the British Museum, which depicts Ashurbanipal feasting among the trophies of his victory (inv. no. 1856,0909.53, see no. 56 in G. Brereton, ed., I am Ashurbanipal, King of the World, King of Assyria). Many of the reliefs from the North Palace are poorly preserved, and as this relief has hitherto not been connected to any larger fragments, it is not possible to know the actual identity of the decapitated. Scenes where a procession of soldiers present anonymized heads as war booty to an Assyrian king are also known, and it is possible that this relief comes from that context.
An inscription on the back of the relief illuminates its modern history: “Nineveh, presented to GH Judd by H.M Consul of Mosul, October 1900.” Rev. George Henry Judd was an English missionary, Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, and amateur photographer. Judd traveled to Egypt, Iran, and Iraq in the late 19th-early 20th century and acquired a small collection of ancient art, including a Mesopotamian Shell Inlay donated to the British Museum by him in 1910 (inv. no. 103242). A Greco-Persian Blue Chalcedony Scaraboid, a Group of Egyptian Stone and Glazed Compositions Scarabs and Amulets, and an Egyptian Polychrome Cartonnage Panel were sold by his heirs at Christie’s, London, on 13 October 2008.
In an undated discussion on this relief, the preeminent scholar on Neo-Assyrian architecture, Geoffrey Turner (1941-2018), relates that the British Consul in Mosul in October 1900 was likely Nimod Rassam. His uncle, Hormuzd Rassam (1826-1910), discovered Ashurbanipal’s North Palace in December 1853 while serving as an agent for the British Museum.
An inscription on the back of the relief illuminates its modern history: “Nineveh, presented to GH Judd by H.M Consul of Mosul, October 1900.” Rev. George Henry Judd was an English missionary, Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, and amateur photographer. Judd traveled to Egypt, Iran, and Iraq in the late 19th-early 20th century and acquired a small collection of ancient art, including a Mesopotamian Shell Inlay donated to the British Museum by him in 1910 (inv. no. 103242). A Greco-Persian Blue Chalcedony Scaraboid, a Group of Egyptian Stone and Glazed Compositions Scarabs and Amulets, and an Egyptian Polychrome Cartonnage Panel were sold by his heirs at Christie’s, London, on 13 October 2008.
In an undated discussion on this relief, the preeminent scholar on Neo-Assyrian architecture, Geoffrey Turner (1941-2018), relates that the British Consul in Mosul in October 1900 was likely Nimod Rassam. His uncle, Hormuzd Rassam (1826-1910), discovered Ashurbanipal’s North Palace in December 1853 while serving as an agent for the British Museum.