Title

The British Museum - Nineveh Sculptures: Locust-bearer, 1857. Creator: Unknown.

Caption

The British Museum - Nineveh Sculptures: Locust-bearer, 1857. Detail of a bas-relief from the South West Palace, the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh, (in modern Iraq). '...bearded men carrying various articles of food, as if ascending the incline into the palace...The baskets containing the fruit are placed on trays carried on the shoulders of two men. The two hindermost servitors carry locusts tied on sticks, as we see cherries at the corners of our streets...Finding this man among the hearers of fruit and game in this passage leading up to the palace, we can have little doubt but that the locusts were intended for the King's table; and thus an indirect testimony is provided by this sculpture of the fact that then, as now, these insects are eaten by the natives of the countries where they abound. Locusts, although "flying, creeping things," were not prohibited by the law of Moses (Leviticus xi. 22)'. From "Illustrated London News", 1857.

Credit line

Photo12/Heritage Images/The Print Collector

Reference

HRM23A76_492

Model release

NA

License type

Rights managed

Available size

5,4Mb (234,7Kb) / 2,9in x 7,1in / 881 x 2141 (300dpi)

Keywords

travel animal food people male job man men wall walls arts country sculpture insect insects art guy occupation British beard museum color profile location British Museum century Britain profession newspapers press bearded locust locusts artefact artifact B&W facial hair tourist attraction servant engraved frieze engraving Iraq Colour 19th century gypsum black & white black and white bas relief B W bas-relief white and black nineteenth century servants tourism The Print Collector 7th century BC Adiabene Assyria Assyrian Illustrated London News Nineveh wood engraving ILN newspaper wall panel Unknown King King Sennacherib Sennacherib 19th-century