Ricerc@Sapienza

A few images of queens are preserved from the Neo-Assyrian period, and they all wear a peculiar crown, apparently reproducing a town wall, with square towers. In my contribution, I will take the evidence from relief and glyptics into account, and I will propose some interpretations for this peculiar ornament: what it represented, and why was it adopted by Assyrian queens. I will also try to verify the frequently-proposed hypothesis that the mural crown has a Syrian or Anatolian origin.