Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
(See “British Museum—Assyria” map,
here
.)
Long before Saddam Hussein, Iraq was home to other palace-building, iron-fisted
rulers—the Assyrians.
Assyria was the lion, the king of beasts of early Middle Eastern civilizations. These
Semitic people from the agriculturally challenged hills of northern Iraq became traders
and conquerors, not farmers. They conquered their southern neighbors and dominated the
Middle East for 300 years (c. 900-600
B.C.
).
Their strength came from a superb army (chariots, mounted cavalry, and siege en-
gines), a policy of terrorism against enemies (“I tied their heads to tree trunks all around
the city,” reads a royal inscription), ethnic cleansing and mass deportations of the van-
quished, and efficient administration (roads and express postal service). They have been
called the “Romans of the East.”
Two Human-Headed Winged Lions
These stone lions guarded an Assyrian palace (11th-8th century
B.C.
). With the strength of
a lion, the wings of an eagle, the brain of a man, and the beard of ZZ Top, they protected
the king from evil spirits and scared the heck out of foreign ambassadors and left-wing
newspaper reporters. (What has five legs and flies? Take a close look. These quintupeds,
which appear complete from both the front and the side, could guard both directions at
once.)