---
title: Alabaster relief, Assyrian troops storming a citadel, from Nineveh (reign of Sennacherib)
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/relief-sennacherib-storming-citadel-nineveh-704bce/
description: 'A carved wall panel: above, a fortified wall with crenellated towers is attacked by archers and soldiers on ladders; below, a file of figures walks away.'
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

**Content note:** An Assyrian palace relief of troops storming a fortified city, with a file of figures below; Assyrian royal reliefs and texts record killing, mutilation and deportation, shown as carved, with the historical context and scholarly dispute on the regime page. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was)

[![Alabaster relief, Assyrian troops storming a citadel, from Nineveh (reign of Sennacherib)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/relief-sennacherib-storming-citadel-nineveh-704bce.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/relief-sennacherib-storming-citadel-nineveh-704bce.jpg)

# Alabaster relief, Assyrian troops storming a citadel, from Nineveh (reign of Sennacherib)

A carved wall panel: above, a fortified wall with crenellated towers is attacked by archers and soldiers on ladders; below, a file of figures walks away. Only the Assyrian side's success is shown, and the siege is arranged as a finished victory, which is how the palace series presented the king's wars.

## Text on the object

Checked for printed text

No printed or legible text on this panel as photographed; the surface shows carved figures and architecture only.

Assyrian reliefs often carry short cuneiform epigraphs; none is visible in the Met's photograph.

[← Persepolis, Apadana staircase relief: a figure with an animal from a procession of delegations, early fifth century BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/persepolis-apadana-delegate-relief-500bce/) [Egyptian alabaster jar inscribed with the name of Xerxes the Great in four languages (Old Persian, Elamite, Babylonian, Egyptian), 486 to 466 BCE →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/xerxes-jar-four-languages-486bce/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Fragments of the Abydos king list from Ramesses II's temple, in the British Museum: rows of royal cartouches](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/abydos-king-list-ramesses-ii-temple-british-museum/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer)
- [Behistun (Bisotun) rock relief and trilingual inscription of Darius I: the king, two attendants and the bound rebel leaders beneath the winged figure of Ahuramazda](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/behistun-relief-darius-and-rebels-521bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Card stacking, Name-calling, Testimonial). Content note: Shows bound captives before the king, and the inscription records the mutilation and public execution of rebel leaders, as the king's own account.
- [Tomb of Darius I at Naqsh-e Rustam: the king in relief beside his inscription DNa, c. 490 BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dna-inscription-darius-i-naqsh-e-rustam-490bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Testimonial, Card stacking)
- [Line drawing of the Great Kadesh battle relief on the walls of the Ramesseum, from Breasted's History of Egypt](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kadesh-relief-ramesseum-breasted-drawing-1275bce/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer). Content note: A drawing of an Egyptian royal battle relief showing Hittite soldiers and horses killed and drowned, as the king's monument presented the battle; it is a one-sided image made by the winning side's own account.
- [Persepolis, Apadana staircase relief: a figure with an animal from a procession of delegations, early fifth century BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/persepolis-apadana-delegate-relief-500bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Card stacking, Manufactured consensus)
- [Colour lithograph of the Latin text of the Res Gestae Divi Augusti on the wall of the temple of Roma and Augustus at Ancyra, with the heading in large letters (Perrot, Guillaume and Delbet, 1872)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/lithograph-res-gestae-ancyra-heading-0014/) (Roman Empire · 0014 · Card stacking, Glittering generalities)
- [Silver denarius of Vespasian, reverse IVDAEA with a trophy of arms and a seated mourning woman](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/denarius-vespasian-judaea-capta-0070/) (Roman Empire · 0070 · Card stacking). Content note: A Roman victory coin showing a mourning female figure as the personification of the conquered province of Judaea after the Roman suppression of the Jewish revolt; shown as struck, with the historical context on the regime page.
- [Relief on the Arch of Titus, Rome: soldiers carrying the menorah and other spoils from the Temple at Jerusalem in a triumphal procession](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/relief-arch-of-titus-spoils-of-jerusalem-0081/) (Roman Empire · 0081 · Card stacking). Content note: A Roman state relief commemorating the capture of Jerusalem in 70, showing soldiers in a triumphal procession carrying the Temple's menorah and other spoils; shown as it stands, with the historical context on the regime page.