Bas-reliefs as a source for Neo-Assyrian history

Bas-reliefs are undoubtedly an important source for the reconstruction and evaluation of the Neo-Assyrian culture, including art-historical perspectives, political considerations, and all kinds of indirect information that can be gathered from the images in Assyrian palaces and open air spaces. In this respect, the constant presence of royal images inside the main buildings of the Assyrian cities and the strategic open public spaces strengthens the importance of the political, religious and, more generally, cultural value of pictures in the Assyrian world, as a tradition inherited from the past in both Mesopotamia and Syria. In fact, the Assyrian kings and their entourage of magnates and scholars deeply emphasized the creation and presence of images in the context of their daily life with a proper monumentalization of art and the invention of codified visual languages and vocabulary.