The Arslan Tash reliefs are bas-reliefs of human figures and animals which adorned the city gates and temple portals of ancient Hadatu; the modern archeological site of Arslan Tash, literally "the Stone Lion".
[1] (Turkish; Arslan - Lion, Taş - Stone) The bas-reliefs may have been carved by different artists in different periods, but an inscription carved across the body of one bull dates the inscription to the reign of Tiglath-Pileser III (745-727 BC) however artistic considerations suggest the conclusion that the reliefs were originally carved sometime between the reigns of Shalmaneser III (858-824 BC) and Sargon II (721-705 BC).
[2] In February 2015, in the Syrian city of Raqqa, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) publicly ordered the bulldozing of a colossal ancient Assyrian gateway lion sculpture from the 8th century BC.
Both statues originated from the Arslan Tash archaeological site.
[4] The destruction was published in the ISIL magazine, Dabiq.