Labels: text | screenshot | font OCR: ROYAL LION HUNT THE HUNTING of big cats in the ancient Near East was a privilege reserved for kings and noblemen. The motif of a king stabbing a lion was adopted as the royal seal of the kings of Assyria, an empire that centered around the rivers Tigris and Euphrates, in modern-day Iraq. Ashurbanipal, king of Mesopotamia (668 BC-c. 627 BC), decorated the walls of his palace in Nineveh beside the Tigris with vivid and imaginative hunting scenes. In this panel the king is seen in his chariot aiming his bow and arrow at a lion. These royal hunts greatly reduced local lion populations, as large numbers were slaughtered at every hunt; Ashurbanipal boasted that he had killed 450 lions in a single hunt. Dead lions were carried to an altar, where offerings were made to them. SEE ALSO
