Ashurnasirpal II child Shalmaneser III
Balawat Gates
The Balawat Gates, or the Balawat Bronze Bands are three sets of decorated bronze bands that had adorned the main doors of several buildings at Balawat (ancient Imgur-Enlil). Two of them date to the reign of Ashurnasirpal II. The third set of the Bronze Bands depicts the exploits of his son Shalmaneser III.After the Neo-Assyrian Empire fell and Balawat was destroyed, the wooden elements of the gates decomposed, but most of the bronze bands still survive, and can be found in various museums. The gates were originally 6.8 metres high.The gates were first discovered by the Iraqi archaeologist Hormuzd Rassam on a British Museum expedition in 1878. They were found in the doorway of the king's palace. That set of the Balawat Bronze Bands is now on permanent display in London. The second set of the Bands was excavated by Sir Max Mallowan in 1956 in the Temple of Mamu, the Mesopotamian goddess associated with dreams. It was on display in the Mosul Museum in Iraq, but is now largely missing because of the looting in the wake of the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Nevertheless, the documentation of these Bands is available in a 2008 publication by the British Museum. Destruction of Mosul Museum artifacts further occurred in 2015 because of a terrorist attack.
These sets include 32 bands of figurative scenes embossed on bronze, also including cuneiform inscriptions. They provide a wealth of historical and art-historical information about the ninth century BC Assyria and surrounding region.
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