Detail of incised decoration in the fringed border of Ashurnasirpal II's robe in King and Eunuch Attendant

In many of the rooms of Ashurnasirpal's palace, the figures carved on the stone reliefs wear garments embellished with incised figural, floral, and geometric patterns. While excavating, Austen Henry Layard recognized the importance of these carved decorations and included many of them in his detailed line drawings of the reliefs. His drawings, although idealized, are significant because they provide the only record of some of the reliefs.

The figures carved on the panels from Room G, probably an important audience hall, wear the most elaborately decorated garments. On them the king, shown with his attendants and winged divinities, is robed in a royal garment resplendent with figural representations incised on the shoulder, borders, and hems. Many of these images reproduce scenes on the reliefs themselves: divinities facing trees, the king with his attendants, and scenes of hunting and warfare. Other images incised on his garment show themes common on Assyrian ivories, glyptic art (art relating to engraving or carving especially on precious stones), and metalwork—among them, kneeling goats and running, winged, human-headed creatures. The garments of the divinities and the king's attendants have simpler figural decoration confined to the borders and hems of the robes; the tunic sleeves and neck bands have rows of alternating buds and lotuses or palmettes. In other rooms of the palace, simple geometric patterns of concentric squares, rosettes, and hexagons decorate the garments of figures. The incised figural patterns are organized in symmetrically composed units that occur frequently in varying combinations. Such arrangements suggest that the artist copied the designs from existing patterns. These incised patterns may imitate metal or fabric appliqués that were sewn onto garments or designs that were embroidered on textiles.