Stone Threshold

721 BC - 705 BC
Stone
Khorsabad
140 cm x 190 cm x 10 cm
A17598

Oriental Institute Museum

Stone Threshold

The decoration on this stone threshold (from King Sargon II's palace at Khorsabad) resembles the types of floral motifs that would have been found on textiles such as carpets. These motifs include lotus buds and blossoms and rosettes, arranged in squares. Traces of pigments found on other thresholds of this type indicate that they were painted with bright colors.

Collected by

Gordon Loud (in charge of excavations at Khorsabad)
Excavated by The Oriental Institute 1934-1935



Multimedia

The Ancient City of Khorsabad
Dr. Gil Stein, Director of the Oriental Institute, discusses the importance of the ancient capital city of Khorsabad in this video.

Suggested Readings

Leick, Gwendolyn. A Dictionary of Ancient Near Eastern Architecture. London: Routledge, 1988.

Parpola, Simo. Letters from Assyria and the West: The Correspondence of Sargon II, Part I. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press, 1987.

Reade, Julian. Assyrian Sculpture. London: The British Museum, 1983.