A new trip to the British Museum

I have already reported on my first visit and second visit to the BM. There I scanned the Ashurbanipal relief. I have also been to Berlin and Leiden to scan other fragments of the same relief. This week I returned to the British Museum to scan another piece of the puzzle. Unfortunately, many of the fragments are currently on tour. So I wasn’t able to scan all of them, but what I did scan is fantastic.

What did I scan?

So the piece I scanned is part of a larger relief from the North Palace in Nineveh. I have already scanned four other fragments of the same relief. All the pieces come from Room S of the palace. We believe they belong to a larger relief that tells the story of the defeat of the Elamites. The piece I scanned actually shows Elamite nobles bringing gifts to the Neo-Assyrian king after their defeat.

What is also fantastic is that this piece has a cuneiform inscription at the top. It tells of the princes of Elam bringing food to the Neo-Assyrian king after he has captured them. You can see the inscription very well on the photos. But I am also excited to try out some new ideas with Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) that I have in mind. We’ll see how it works.

What did I not scan?

Unfortunately, many of the pieces that form part of the wider relief are currently on tour. They will not return until 2028. They show various musicians, but also a very large and important final piece of the wider relief. I was really looking forward to seeing that as well, but I guess I will have to wait a bit. It doesn’t matter, I really enjoy going to London and visiting the museum.

So, until I can get back to scan the rest, I want to get a first version of the website up and running. On the website you will have access to all the models I have scanned and additional information. I am really looking forward to creating this and hope to finish it this summer. Based on the website I will try to find more fragments that I may have missed.

What’s the next step?

So the first thing I have to do is post-process the data I took in London. Then I will put it all on the website I am creating and finally publish a long article about it somewhere. This will also be the launch of the website. So hopefully it will all be done by the end of the year.