Irene Winter has shown that as a result of Assyrian expansion in north-Syria monumental architectural form and relief decorations, typically Syrian, were incorporated in Assyrian architecture. Select individual motifs and style were imported, among them the lotus flower. I.J. Winter, “Art as Evidence for Interaction: Relations Between the Assyrian Empire and North Syria,” in H.-J. Nissen, and J. Renger, eds., Mesopotamien und seine Nachbarn, Berliner Beiträge zum Vorderen Orient 1 (Berlin: D. Reimer, 1982), pp. 355–382.