Nineveh, North Palace, Room H
London, British Museum (WA 124939)
Alabaster; H 132.08, W 58.41
Neo-Assyrian period: about 650 BC
 
This alabaster relief represents, in one of its detail, a really evocative comparison for the shrine on the top hill of Salut.
Preserved only in the foundations, the shrine was standing on a platform rectangular in shape where six columns were standing, placed into two rows, supporting a roof.
The distinctiveness of such a building in the whole south-eastern Arabia makes very difficult to find precise comparisons.
 
This Assyrian pillared room, built outside the city in the coutryside, seems, however, evocative of the architecture of the building and the chronology would fit very well with the scanty material evidence found in association with the shrine. The building on the relief could be interpreted as a temple or a votive building as suggested by the presence of a stela and an altar. (AP)