Image Details

The British Museum

Escorted by an Assyrian soldier, the residents of a fortified town named Astartu (usually identified as Ashtaroth, located north of the Sea of Galilee) abandon their home and, with sacks of possessions slung over their shoulders, head into exile. Livestock, too, are driven out of the town (note the rams at top right). The scene is part of an alabaster relief from the palace of Tiglath-pileser III (745–727 B.C.E.) in Nimrud, modern Iraq. Tiglath-pileser was one of three Neo-Assyrian monarchs who oversaw the deportations of thousands of Israelites to Assyria and its dominions.