Hormuzd Rassam

When Layard returned to England in 1851 to become a politician, Rassam took over as director of the excavations at Nineveh.

He discovered the palace of Ashurbanipal and the famous lion-hunt reliefs.

Rassam also excavated the nearby site of Balawat where he found the bronze decoration from wooden gates guarding entrances to a palace and temple.
 
 

Modern reconstruction of the
Balawat Gates of Shalmaneser III.