Relief

Thanks to two donors, Röhsska Museum was able to make a unique acquisition in 1931: two glazed tile reliefs were bought from Staatliche Museum in Berlin, a lion and a dragon, originally from the German excavations in Babylon. In Sweden, these are the sole representatives old the ancient Babylonians’ artistic culture.

It was initially assumed that the lion relief at Röhsska Museum was one of the original 120 lions on the processional avenue to the Marduk Temple in Babylon. However, it later became apparent that Röhsska Museum’s lion is from the façade to Nebuchadnezzar II’s throne chamber (604-562 BC). The biggest difference between the lions from the throne chamber and those from the processional avenue is that the former have upright tails and the latter have them lowered. The lion symbolises the Assyrian-Babylonian goddess Ishtar, identified with the Sumerian Inanna, and the dragon was the holy animal of the god Marduk. The reliefs both measure 181 x 114 cm and are made of tiles about 32.5 cm in length that are laid lengthwise.