Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III

The Black Obelisk is a Neo-Assyrian limestone monument created between 827 and 824 BC under King Shalmaneser III of Assyria, who reigned from 858 to 824 BC. Discovered at Nimrud in 1846 by archaeologist Austen Henry Layard and now in the British Museum, it carries twenty relief scenes, five on each side, showing subdued foreign kings bringing tribute and prostrating themselves before the Assyrian ruler, with cuneiform Akkadian inscriptions recording the king's annual military campaigns. One register depicts Jehu, king of Israel, presenting silver, gold and other treasures, the earliest surviving image of a biblical figure and the only known ancient Near Eastern depiction of an Israelite or Judahite monarch. The obelisk's mention of the land of Parsua also provides the earliest known written reference to the Persians.