Human-headed Winged Bull (Lamassu) from the Palace of Sargon II
Unknown · c. 721-705 BC
Guardians of this size were made to be met on foot, and the Cour Khorsabad was built around them so that visitors would enter a gateway much as an Assyrian courtier did. Sargon II founded a brand new capital, Dur-Sharrukin, the Fortress of Sargon, on virgin ground north east of Nineveh, and lined its doorways with colossal lamassu: protective spirits with the body of a bull, the wings of an eagle, and the bearded head of a king wearing a horned tiara, the Mesopotamian sign of divinity. They were apotropaic, meant to turn back evil and impress ambassadors in the same gesture.
Each figure was carved from a single block of gypsum alabaster soft enough to work with iron tools yet fine enough to hold crisp detail in the curls of the beard, the feathering of the wings and the rosettes of the diadem. The famous trick is the leg count. Look from the front and the bull stands solidly on four legs; step to the side and it strides forward on four again, because the sculptor gave it five in total, with an extra foreleg hidden by the corner of the block. Between the legs runs a cuneiform inscription of Sargon's titles and a curse on anyone who damages the palace.
Paul-Émile Botta uncovered the site in 1843 and 1844, and Victor Place continued there between 1852 and 1854. Shipping the giants down the Tigris was brutal work: this one was sawn into six slabs for the journey and reassembled in Paris, and other pieces of the expedition sank in the river near Qurna in 1855 and were never recovered. The court also holds plaster casts of reliefs left behind, so originals and replicas stand side by side.
Did You Know? The bull has five legs so that it looks correct both head on, standing still, and in profile, striding forward.
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