[3] The slabs or orthostats from the North Palace were excavated by Hormuzd Rassam in 1852–1854, and William Loftus in 1854–1855 and most were sent to the British Museum,[4] where they have been favourites with the general public and art historians alike ever since.

[5] The carvings come from late in the period of some 250 years over which Assyrian palace reliefs were made, and show the style at its most developed and finest,[6] before decline set in.

A surviving letter on a clay tablet records that when a lion entered a house in the provinces, it had to be trapped and taken by boat to the king.

The Asiatic lion, today only surviving in a small population in India, is generally smaller than the African variety, and much later records show that their killing at close quarters, as depicted in the reliefs, was not an impossible feat.

Ashurnasirpal II, in an inscription boasting of his zoo, stated: "With my fierce heart I captured 15 lions from the Zagros Mountains and forests.

"[14] There are some two dozen sets of scenes of lion hunting in recorded Assyrian palace reliefs,[15] most giving the subject a much more brief treatment that here.

Other animals were also shown being hunted, and the main subject for narrative reliefs was the war campaigns of the king who built the palace.

But the lion hunt scenes in the North Palace come from more than one space; mostly from relatively narrow passageways, leading off the larger rooms.

The arena of shields is shown, with a crowd of people either climbing a wooded hill for a good view, or getting away from this dangerous activity.

[18] Another group of reliefs, some originally located on the upper floor and some in a small "private gate-chamber",[19] are set out in three registers with a plain strip between them, with the figures much smaller.

[20] In one scene, the same lion is shown three times close together: exiting his cage, charging towards the king, and leaping up at him, somewhat in the manner of a modern strip cartoon.