Stone panel from the Central Palace of Tiglath-pileser III

This alabaster panel decorated the mud-brick walls of the Central Palace of the Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser III. The scene shows an Assyrian 'tank', a siege engine on wheels, in front of a captured town in southern Iraq. The 'tanks' also provided platforms from which archers could shoot at close range. The surface was probably leather, and were presumably moved by men, as animals might panic. To the left stand three Assyrian officials. The figure with a sword may be dictating information to the two men, both eunuchs, who are taking records of spoil. One holds a rectangular object which was presumably a clay tablet on which cuneiform was written; the other holds a scroll. It used to be thought that the latter was a scribe writing in the Aramaic language but he may actually be a war artist, illustrating the events about which his colleague is writing. The records they kept were available as notes to the palace sculptors. War-artists probably belonged to the relatively small group of Assyrians who could read and write. Even kings were usually illiterate.