Panel with a striding lion from Babylon

What you see

What you see

A rectangular relief panel, 99.7 by 230.5 cm, with a striding lion. The medium is recorded as "Ceramic, glaze". According to the museum's description, because stone is rare in southern Mesopotamia, molded glazed bricks were used for building, and Babylon "became a city of brilliant color"; relief figures in white, black, blue, red and yellow decorated the city's gates and buildings. The description concerns the city as a whole and does not list the colours of this panel. This page has no photograph: the museum has a photograph of the panel, which the record marks as public domain, and it is not included in this round. Source 1.

What the record says

The record dates the panel "ca. 604-562 BCE", gives the period as "Neo-Babylonian" and the culture as "Babylonian", and in the geography field "Mesopotamia, Babylon (modern Hillah)". According to the description, the most important street in Babylon was the Processional Way, leading from the inner city through the Ishtar Gate to the Bit Akitu, or "House of the New Year's Festival". The Ishtar Gate, built by Nebuchadnezzar II, was decorated with figures of bulls and dragons, and north of the gate the roadway was lined with glazed figures of striding lions. The lion, the animal associated with Ishtar, goddess of love and war, "served to protect the street", and its repeated design guided the ritual processions from the city to the temple. The record does not say where along the street this panel stood. Source 1.

Placement on the timeline

The record's date range is identical to the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II as the description gives it, 604-562 B.C.: it is a date by reign, not a date from a layer or a laboratory test. The record names the period "Neo-Babylonian", and the whole range lies inside the site's Neo-Babylonian period (626/612-539 BCE), so the panel is assigned to it by the period name in the source. Source 1.

Where it is now

Held by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, record 31.13.2, "Fletcher Fund, 1931". According to the provenance in the record, it was excavated in 1902 under the direction of R. Koldewey on behalf of the German Oriental Society, ceded in 1926 to the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Vorderasiatisches Museum, in the division of finds, and purchased from that museum in 1931. On 24 October 2026 the record page stated "Not on view", although the gallery field in the record's data still carries the number 176; check the museum's site before a visit. Source 1.