Image Details

British Museum

Dating to 841 B.C.E., this monument commemorates the military campaigns of the Assyrian king Shalmaneser (859–825 B.C.E.), whose royal seat was Nimrud. Each side bears images of tribute to the king. The second tier down on the side shown here depicts an Israelite king (or his emissary) kneeling before the Assyrian leader. The inscription identifies the figure as “Yaw, son of Omri.” Omri ruled over the northern kingdom of Israel in the early ninth century B.C.E. Yaw is often identified as King Jehu of Israel (c. 841–818 B.C.E.) and sometimes as King Joram of Israel (c. 850–841 B.C.E.), a grandson of Omri. For George Rawlinson (compare with portrait of George Rawlinson), the identification of the later king as a “son of Omri” indicated the accuracy of the description in 1 Kings 16 of Omri as head of a dynasty.