Relief panel ca. 883–859 Assyrian This panel from the Northwest Palace at Nimrud (ancient Kalhu) depicts a winged supernatural figure. Such figures appear throughout the palace, sometimes flanking either the figure of the Assyrian king or a stylized "sacred tree." The reliefs were painted, but today almost none of the original pigment survives. However, the reliefs themselves retain incredible detail, including intricate incised designs on many of the figures’ figure depicted on the panel is eagle-headed and faces left, holding in his left hand a bucket and in his right hand

Relief panel ca. 883–859 Assyrian This panel from the Northwest Palace at Nimrud (ancient Kalhu) depicts a winged supernatural figure. Such figures appear throughout the palace, sometimes flanking either the figure of the Assyrian king or a stylized "sacred tree." The reliefs were painted, but today almost none of the original pigment survives. However, the reliefs themselves retain incredible detail, including intricate incised designs on many of the figures’ figure depicted on the panel is eagle-headed and faces left, holding in his left hand a bucket and in his right hand a cone whose exact nature is unclear. One suggestion has been that the gesture, sometimes performed by figures flanking a sacred tree, is symbolic of fertilization: the "cone" resembles the male date spathe used by Mesopotamian farmers, with water, to artificially fertilize female date-palm trees. It does seem likely that the cone was supposed to hold and dispense water from the bucket in this way, but it is described in Akkadian as a "purifier," and the fact that figures performing this gesture are also shown flanking the king suggests that some purifying or protective meaning is present. The figure is richly dressed, with jewelry including a collar whose front bead appears pomegranate-shaped, a further collar with pendant tassel, armlets with animal-head terminals, and bracelets, one artificially reversed so that the large central rosette symbols, associated with divinity and perhaps particularly with the goddess Ishtar, are visible on both. Although we cannot know how these elements were originally painted, excavated parallels include elaborate jewelry in gold, inlaid with semi-precious stones. The figure carries three knives, tucked into a belt with their handles visible at chest level, and one of these is also tree represents no real plant, and the form in which it is depicted varies within Neo-Assyrian art. The tree is generally thought to be a symbo

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