The Tell Halaf reliefs are a collection of roughly 200 beautifully carved orthostats, or decorative stone slabs, discovered at the site of Tell Halaf (biblical Gozan) in northern Syria. The reliefs, which date to the tenth century BCE, originally ornamented the palace of a local ruler, Kapara, and blend Syrian and Neo-Hittite styles. At the time, the city was the center of the small Aramean kingdom of Bit Bahiani. In the late eighth century, the city became a vassal of the Assyrian Empire and was one of the places where Israelite captives were deported after the conquest of Samaria (2 […]
