Enlarge Image
Winged Genie Fertilizing a Date Tree, 884-860 B.C.E.
Assyrian
Geographic Origin: Nimrud
Limestone
7 feet 7 1/4 inches x 5 feet 11 1/4 inches (231.78 x 180.98 cm)
Purchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust, 40-17
Location: Gallery P3
One of the largest kingdoms of the ancient Near East was the Assyrian Empire. At the height of its power in the seventh century B.C.E., the Assyrian Empire stretched from modern-day Iran to Egypt and eastern Turkey.
This large relief comes from the palace of King Ashurnasirpal II in Nimrud, the ninth-century b.c.e. capital of Assyria. Located about 200 miles north of Baghdad, Iraq, the palace was large enough to hold five football fields. Our relief comes from a room near the king’s throne. It and many other reliefs lined the brick walls of the palace.
In this highly symbolic work, a winged genie holds in his raised right hand a cluster of male flowers and shakes them over a highly stylized date palm tree on our right. This action fertilizes the tree so that it can grow nutritious dates.
Although the process of artificially fertilizing date trees was well known, the relief indicates that the bearing of such rich fruit was regarded as an awesome manifestation of the power of the gods. Divine forces continually help King Ashurnasirpal II by making the world bountiful for him and his subjects. Date trees are represented here in part because they provided Assyrians with nutritious fruits that were easily preserved; they were even used for making alcoholic beverages.
The winged creature also serves to magically guard the king’s palace.
A cuneiform inscription that runs in a broad band across the middle of the relief describes King Ashurnasirpal II: “prince, glorious, worshiper of the great gods, conqueror of cities, devouring the wicked, shaking the mountains and seas.”
Learn more about the unusual role of camels in the history of this relief
