Representations of foreigners in their strange attire have a long tradition in the Ancient Near East. While the Assyrian Empire was expanding during the early first millennium BC, the Assyrian kings ‒ with the help of skilled and even inspired craftsmen – attached a growing importance to the differentiation of their near neighbours and people further away. The palace reliefs of Assurnaṣirpal were of excellent craftsmanship, the garments, the hair-styles, the beards and the surrounding landscape were carefully rendered, quite often in every minute detail. Through these details the meaning of the ‘images’ became fully understandable to the well informed Assyrian viewer. Foreign people were not merely enemies, they were people in their own right.

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A chariot drawn by two people, on which the Neo-Assyrian ruler is represented as either sitting on a throne or standing in a “chariot-box”, is attested from Assurnaṣirpal until Assurbanipal. It is deployed on the one hand for short journeys in the immediate environment of the palace or in areas which the king can reach neither by chariot nor on horseback. A similar vehicle is used on seals that contain ritual scenes. Although some details of these seal-scenes showing various reed constructions can be explained through reference to texts, carriages are not mentioned in the ritual texts.