Dogs in ancient Mesopotamia: Assyrian mastiffs and the goddess Gula

Part 1

The mastiffs of the Assyrian lion hunt

The Lion Hunt of Ashurbanipal is a group of Assyrian palace reliefs from the North Palace of Nineveh, now in the British Museum. They show King Ashurbanipal, who reigned from 669 to 631 BC, taking part in a formalized ritual hunt in an arena where captured lions were released from cages for him to kill with arrows, spears, or his sword. The reliefs were made around 645 to 635 BC. One relief shows mastiffs that stood ready to drive back any lion trying to escape the hunt, alongside men carrying nets and stakes.

The lion hunt scenes came from narrow passageways in the palace, and the arena itself was ringed by soldiers with shields, bows, and arrows. Ashurbanipal was not the first Assyrian king to be shown hunting lions this way. An earlier king, Ashurnasirpal II, who reigned from 883 to 859 BC, had erected his own lion hunt reliefs at Nimrud roughly 200 years before and boasted in inscriptions of killing hundreds of lions and other animals. Ashurnasirpal II also described capturing lion cubs and raising them in cages as part of his own zoo. You can still see these reliefs today in Room 10a of the British Museum, where they have been popular with visitors since Hormuzd Rassam and William Loftus excavated them in the 1850s.

Part 2

What the reliefs meant to their original viewers

The hunt was staged, not a chance encounter in the wild. Captured lions were released into an enclosed space formed by a wall of soldiers, and some were let out of wooden crates by an attendant who lifted a gate from above. It is thought that the point of the scenes was not to make viewers pity the lions but to show the animals' raw, dangerous presence and their defeat at the king's hands. The slabs decorated a corridor and a gate-chamber inside the palace, spaces mostly seen by the king, his courtiers, and his visitors rather than the wider public. The mastiffs in these scenes stood ready to drive back any lion trying to escape the hunt.

Part 3

Gula, the goddess shown with a dog

Away from the battle and hunting scenes, Mesopotamian religion had its own connection to dogs through the goddess Gula. Gula, also called Ninkarrak or Ninisina, was the Sumerian goddess of healing and patroness of doctors and medical practice. She is first recorded in the Ur III period, roughly 2112 to 2004 BC, and became one of the most popular deities in ancient Mesopotamia. Her iconography always shows her with a dog, sometimes seated, and surrounded by stars. According to one account, Gula began as an earlier Sumerian deity of dogs named Bau, and people noticed that dogs seemed to heal faster when they licked their own sores, which helped Bau become associated with healing before she became Gula.

Dogs were not just symbols in Gula's worship. The sacred animal of Gula was the dog, and worshippers dedicated a large number of small votive dog figures to her as offerings. Excavations at her sanctuary in the city of Isin uncovered dozens of dog burials, about half of them puppies, placed along the main ramp leading to the temple. It seems that dogs wandered freely within the sanctuary and played a part in the healing rituals performed there.

Part 4

Quick facts

• The Ashurbanipal lion hunt reliefs date to about 645 to 635 BC and are held in the British Museum.
• Mastiffs appear in the reliefs helping to keep escaping lions from getting past the hunt.
• Ashurbanipal reigned as Assyrian king from 669 to 631 BC.
• Gula was the Sumerian goddess of healing and was always shown with a dog.
• Dog burials, including many puppies, have been found at Gula's sanctuary at Isin.