The Lachish reliefs are a series of 12 massive wall reliefs that decorated the walls of the palace of the Assyrian king Sennacherib in Nineveh and describe the conquest of Lachish by the Assyrians in 701 BC. The reliefs were discovered by the British archaeologist Austen Henry Layard in 1845 during the excavations he conducted in Nineveh (today near the city Mosul in Iraq). It is said “Sennacherib, king of the world, king of the land of Assyria, sat on a throne and the spoils of the city of Lachish passed before him.”
At the beginning of the research there was a dispute as to whether the mentioned city is indeed Lachish, but today this opinion is accepted by all researchers. There is a dispute among scholars as to whether the craftsman who made the reliefs saw with his own eyes the conquest of Lachish. There are researchers who believe that the artist was indeed present at the site and designed the reliefs according to the angle at which he stood during the break into the city. Another opinion is that although the artist was not present at the scene, he was based on verbal descriptions of the battle. A third opinion holds that the artist did not intend to depict Lachish at all, but rather Jerusalem, but since Jerusalem was not conquered, he added the name of Lachish in the inscription above the king’s head.
The reliefs have not only enriched our understanding of the fighting methods of the Assyrian army, but also of the form of defense of the cities attacked by the Assyrians, as well as of the clothing and appearance of the inhabitants of the Kingdom of Judah in the 8th century BC.
Sources:
A. H. Layard, Discoveries Among the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon with Travels in Armenia, Kurdistan, and the Desert: Being the Result of a Second Expedition Undertaken for the Trustees of the British Museum, New York 1853.
A. H. Layard, Nineveh and Its Remains, with an Account of a Visit to the Chaldæan Christians of Kurdistan, and the Yezidis, or Devil-Worshippers; and an Inquiry into the Manners and Arts of the Ancient Assyrians – Vol. I, London 1849
C. Uehlinger, ‘Clio in a World of Pictures–another Look at the Lachish Reliefs from Sennacherib’s Southwest Palace at Nineveh’, in: L. L. Grabbe (ed.), ‘Like a Bird in a Cage’ – The Invasion of Sennacherib in 701 BCE, London and New York 2003, pp. 221-305.
3D model of Lachish relief