Erich Lessing

King Esarhaddon’s stela, standing 10.5 feet high, portrays the Assyrian monarch (680–669 B.C.E.) raising a cup in his right hand and holding in his left hand a mace and two ropes. Shackled captives are tethered by the ropes. The lefthand captive wears the uraeus serpent, a pharaonic symbol, on his forehead and represents either Pharaoh Tirhakah of Egypt or his son Ushanahuru, both of whom are mentioned in the cuneiform text engraved on the lower half of the stela. The righthand captive is probably King Baal of Tyre. In a treaty in 676 B.C.E., six years before the creation of this stela, Esarhaddon ceded Dor to King Baal, apparently for administrative purposes. Symbols of Assyrian deities appear at upper right, beside Esarhaddon’s head.