Lion Hunt of Ashurbanipal: Assyria's Greatest Palace Reliefs

The Lion Hunt of Ashurbanipal is a series of carved stone reliefs made around 645–635 BC for the North Palace of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal at Nineveh, in what is now northern Iraq. The panels show the king killing lions from his chariot, on horseback and on foot, in scenes of remarkable realism. Now displayed in the British Museum, they are widely regarded as the finest achievement of Assyrian art.

Background: kings and lions

Royal lion hunting was an ancient tradition in Mesopotamia. Kings had been shown killing lions since at least the late 4th millennium BC, and earlier Assyrian rulers such as Ashurnasirpal II had lion hunts carved in their palace at Nimrud in the 9th century BC.

In Assyrian thought the king was the shepherd of his land and the guardian of order against chaos. The lion, a real danger to herds and villages, stood for the wild forces outside civilisation. By killing lions, the king showed that he could protect his people and that the gods supported him.

Ashurbanipal (reigned 669–c. 631 BC) used this image more than any of his predecessors. His inscriptions describe lions multiplying in the countryside and threatening people and livestock, and present the hunts as a royal duty.

The North Palace at Nineveh

Ashurbanipal built a new palace, now called the North Palace, on the mound of Kuyunjik at Nineveh, probably in the 640s BC. Its walls were lined with panels of gypsum, a soft stone often called Mosul marble, carved in low relief and originally painted.

The lion hunt reliefs decorated several rooms and passages. Other panels in the same palace showed military campaigns, while Ashurbanipal’s victory over Elam at the Battle of Til-Tuba was shown in reliefs in the older South-West Palace nearby.

What the reliefs show

The best-known sequence shows a hunt in an arena. Lions are released from wooden cages by an attendant who stands protected in a small box. Soldiers with shields and spears form a ring to keep the animals inside, while spectators gather on a hill beyond.

The king appears in his chariot, shooting arrows and stabbing lions that leap at the wheels. In other scenes he fights on foot, grasping a rearing lion and running it through with a sword. The final scenes show Ashurbanipal pouring a libation, an offering of liquid, over the dead lions, accompanied by musicians, and dedicating the kill to the gods.

The animals are carved with striking anatomical accuracy. Lions are shown leaping, collapsing, bleeding and dying, each in a different pose. The most famous is the so-called dying lioness, shot through with arrows and dragging her paralysed back legs as she roars. Many viewers find the suffering of the animals more memorable than the triumph of the king.

Discovery

The North Palace was found in 1853–54 by Hormuzd Rassam, an archaeologist from Mosul working for the British Museum. Working at night in an area that had been assigned to French excavators, his team uncovered rooms lined with the lion hunt reliefs. In the same palace Rassam found thousands of clay tablets that became part of the Library of Ashurbanipal.

The reliefs were cut into sections and shipped to London. They have been on display in the British Museum since the 19th century and featured prominently in the museum’s 2018–2019 exhibition “I am Ashurbanipal: king of the world, king of Assyria”.

Meaning and interpretation

Historians read the lion hunt as political theatre. The staged arena hunt, with captive lions, crowds and ritual offerings, was a public ceremony that displayed royal power to the court and to the gods.

The reliefs were carved late in Ashurbanipal’s reign, after his wars against Babylon and Elam. Some scholars see them as a statement that the king who had crushed his human enemies was also master of nature. Short cuneiform captions on some panels record the king’s own words claiming the hunts.

Lions in ancient Mesopotamia

The animals in the reliefs are Asiatic lions, the same subspecies that survives today only in the Gir Forest of western India. In antiquity they ranged across the Near East, including the river valleys and marshes of Mesopotamia.

Lions remained in Iraq long after Assyria fell. They became increasingly rare in modern times and are generally thought to have died out there in the early 20th century. The reliefs are therefore also a valuable record of an animal that has vanished from the region, carved by artists who had clearly watched lions closely.

The sculptors distinguished males with heavy manes from lionesses, and showed the animals’ muscles, veins and wounds in detail. This attention to the body of the lion contrasts with the more formal, stylised treatment of the human figures, including the king himself.

Timeline

• 9th century BC: Ashurnasirpal II’s palace at Nimrud includes earlier lion hunt reliefs.
• 669 BC: Ashurbanipal becomes king of Assyria.
• c. 645–635 BC: North Palace at Nineveh is built and decorated with the lion hunt reliefs.
• 612 BC: Nineveh is sacked and the palace burned; the reliefs are buried in the ruins.
• 1853–1854: Hormuzd Rassam excavates the North Palace and its reliefs.
• 1850s: Panels are shipped to London for the British Museum.
• 2018–2019: The British Museum holds its major exhibition on Ashurbanipal.

Why it matters

The Lion Hunt of Ashurbanipal shows Assyrian art at its peak, combining propaganda with close observation of animals in motion. Buried when Nineveh fell in 612 BC, the panels survived to give modern viewers a direct image of how Assyria’s last great king wished to be seen.