Brick Panel with a Bull-Man
Unknown · Reign of Shilhak-Inshushinak, c. 1150-1120 BC
A bull-man stands upright on a tall panel of moulded bricks, his horned tiara, curled beard and long tail marking him as a protective spirit, half human and half bull. Each brick was stamped in a mould so that the figure emerges in relief across the whole stack. His hands and forearms, together with the palm tree he guards, belong to a neighbouring panel, since figures and trees alternated along the wall.
The panel decorated the façade of a temple of Inshushinak, the chief god of Susa, built in the twelfth century BC by the kings Kutir-Nahhunte and Shilhak-Inshushinak. Bull-men guarding palm trees alternated with images of the goddess Lama, who led worshippers before the gods. Most of the bull-men carry an inscription across the belly, but this one is uninscribed. Moulded brick façades like this were an Elamite invention that later inspired the glazed brick friezes of Babylon and Persia. The panel was excavated near the palace of Darius at Susa between nineteen thirteen and nineteen twenty one and entered the Louvre through the partage of finds.
Did You Know? Elamite builders made this relief by stamping each brick before firing, then stacking them so the picture lined up across the wall.
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