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  Reliefs from the Northwest Palace

 
Winged Eagle-Headed Being (Genie); Neo-Assyrian period, reign of Ashurnasirpal II (r. 883–859 B.C.)
Mesopotamia; excavated at Nimrud (ancient Kalhu)
Alabaster (gypsum)
Gift of John D. Rockefeller Jr., 1931 (31.72.3)


Holding a cone or sponge in his right hand and a bucket in his left, this genie is performing a ritual involving the Assyrian sacred tree, which would have been depicted on an adjacent stone slab.

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