Striding Lion, a wall relief made from polychrome glazed, fired bricks, is one of the most iconic objects on display at the

Royal Ontario Museum The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) is a museum of art, world culture and natural history in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is one of the largest museums in North America and the largest in Canada. It attracts more than one million visitors every year ...

, Toronto. It came from Babylon, Iraq, and dates to the time of

Nebuchadnezzar II Nebuchadnezzar II, also Nebuchadrezzar II, meaning "Nabu, watch over my heir", was the second king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, ruling from the death of his father Nabopolassar in 605 BC to his own death in 562 BC. Often titled Nebuchadnezzar ...

(605-562 BCE), king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire. Striding Lion is one of many such reliefs that decorated the walls of the palace's ceremonial hall and very similar to the lions that line the processional way from the

Ishtar Gate The Ishtar Gate was the eighth gate to the inner city of Babylon (in the area of present-day Hillah, Babil Governorate, Iraq). It was constructed by order of King Nebuchadnezzar II on the north side of the city. It was part of a grand walled proce ...

to the temple of Marduk. A large group of such figures is part of the Processional Way leading to the

, a centrepiece display of the

Pergamon Museum The Pergamon Museum (; ) is a Kulturdenkmal , listed building on the Museum Island in the Mitte (locality), historic centre of Berlin, Germany. It was built from 1910 to 1930 by order of Emperor Wilhelm II, German Emperor, Wilhelm II and accordi ...

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

. Other panels were sold by Berlin, such as the Panel with striding lion in New York.

Description

The relief measures 122 cm (height) by 183 cm (width) by 8 cm (depth).Striding Lion. #25 of 66 images with description provided on the Royal Ontario Museum website

retrieved February 25, 2013. Several of the bricks are stamped with the inscription: "Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, the first born son of

Nabopolassar Nabopolassar (, meaning "Nabu, protect the son") was the founder and first king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, ruling from his coronation as king of Babylon in 626 BC to his death in 605 BC. Though initially only aimed at restoring and securing ...

, the king of Babylon".

Origin

The ceremonial hall in the palace of Nebuchadnezzar II had a tiled wall decorated with glazed columns, lotus buds and palmettes with lions striding around the base, of which the example in the Royal Ontario Museum is one. From 1899 to 1917,

Robert Koldewey Robert Johann Koldewey (10 September 1855 – 4 February 1925) was a German archaeologist, famous for his in-depth excavation of the ancient city of Babylon in modern-day Iraq. He was born in Blankenburg am Harz in Germany, the duchy of Brunswick ...

led a German expedition that excavated Babylon. The fragments of tile found in the ceremonial hall of the palace, also referred to as the throne room of the Southern Citadel, were taken back to Berlin and painstakingly reassembled, as were the tiles from the Ishtar Gate and Processional Way. In 1937 the Royal Ontario Museum purchased the reconstructed striding lion relief from the State Museums of Berlin.

Production method

Robert Koldewey suggested that the lions, and other reliefs lining the Processional Way, were made using molds taken from a master clay panel, or from a temporary wall with a plaster facing that had been cut down into brick sized segments. Care had been taken to ensure the joints were not too visible and the relief work such as to facilitate removal from a mold. The bricks were then fired in a kiln, and then glazed with the appropriate colours. Marks were made on a tile's upper edge to enable it to be placed in proper sequence when assembled. The system of marks used for assembling the reliefs could be most clearly seen on the tiles from the ceremonial hall because of the way they had fallen after robbers had taken bricks from the wall.

Significance of lion symbolism

Lions were symbolic of royalty because of their strength, and fighting a lion gave a king great prestige. The lion was also the symbol of Ishtar, the goddess of love and war. In her role of the goddess of war she is depicted, bow in hand, on a chariot drawn by seven lions.Guirand, F. 1959. Assyro-Babylonian Mythology, p. 57. In R. Graves (ed.), ''Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology'', pp. 49-72. London: Paul Hamlyn. 57.

Description

Origin

Production method

Significance of lion symbolism

References

Further reading