Bas-relief from Palace of Tiglath-Pileser III

This Assyrian relief of a city under siege comes from the palace of Tiglath-Pileser III at Nimrud. English archaeologist and diplomat Sir Austen Layard unearthed it during a mid-19th-century excavation. Two Assyrian soldiers mounting a ladder at the left attack the fortifications; one spears a man on a turret as an ally of the victim throws down stones. Two other soldiers are falling from the towers of the upper and lower gates on the right.