Image Details

Battering rams smashed through walls or gates. After the ninth century B.C., battering rams later became lighter and more mobile, like the ones seen in this relief from the palace of Sargon II at Khorsabad. In this scene, three battering rams roll up steep siege ramps to attack Kisheshlu, a city east of Assyria. The ramps appear to be made of rows of mud-bricks, the principal type of ramp construction in generally stoneless Mesopotamia.