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Retiring Room Walls
1
Divine Birdman / Sacred Tree:
Repeated image on walls of Retiring Room F
The divine bird-man with date spathes, buckets and abstract, stylized, conventionalized palm tree, the so called "sacred tree" is the image we remember from behind the king's throne and from the wall opposite the central entrance to the throne room. Only the king and the image of the god Assur are missing here. Both are apparently unnecessary. This motif, and no other, is repeated on every wall of room F, a long "retiring room" that divided the throne room from the inner, private courtyard and the kingÕs more ritually oriented apartments. It must, therefore, by virtue of its emphatic repetition alone, represent the central symbol for the king's civic role as the one who through his actions, both military and religious, assures the well-being of the entire kingdom of Assur and its right relation to the gods upon whom all well-being ultimately depends. One could see these images repeated again and again on the walls of Retiring Room F as one walked past the images of divine winged bulls and winged gods in human form that flanked the entranceway to that inner sanctum.
