What are Assyrian wall reliefs?
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To introduce pupils to the purpose and context of ancient Assyrian wall reliefs, as well as to learn about a specific object from the museum's collection that appears on the web site.
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| Map of Assyria, plan of the palace, print out of the line drawing of the Siege of Lachish wall relief. |
| Whole group discussion |
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Relief |
Discuss how people decorate their walls. Talk about paint and particularly wall-paper. Show the pupils some pictures of Assyrian wall reliefs.
Use the map. Show the children where Assyria and Nineveh are on the map and discuss the fact that the palace was built there by an Assyrian king.
Explain to the children that the palace was built from thousands of mud bricks and that the wall reliefs which they are looking at are made of slabs of stone. Explain that the stone slabs were set into the mud brick walls and carved using metal chisels.
Show pupils the line drawings of the siege of Lachish relief and ask them to share what they see.
Discuss what the purpose of wall reliefs was, and what type of scenes appear in wall reliefs.
Close the discussion by explaining to the children that the palace was set on fire by an invading army and that the reliefs were damaged when the roof fell in.
see: Palaces
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