In the early spring of 1956, a peasant working in the fields enclosed by the town wall of Nimrud, at the foot of the akropolis, on its south-east side, came upon several fragments of a large block of white limestone. The shape of the larger fragments and the circumstance that several fragments were inscribed in cuneiform writing at once made it clear that they formed part of an Assyrian statue. Under the supervision of the guard who looks after the interests of the Iraq Department of Antiquities and the Nimrud Expedition, the fragments were brought to the Expedition House on the tell, where they awaited the arrival of the team of archaeologists who were to conduct the seventh expedition to Nimrud sponsored by the British School of Archaeology in Iraq.

The expedition took the field on March 4th, 1956; and Professor M. E. L. Mallowan, its Director, entrusted me with the publication of the statue inscription. For this permission I acknowledge my sincere appreciation. Publication has been postponed until the present time owing to the circumstance that photographs of the restored statue, now on display in the Iraq Museum, have only recently been made available through the good offices of the Directorate General of Antiquities of the Republic of Iraq. I express my gratitude to the Directorate General for providing me with these photographs.