An Itinerant Tribute-Bearer’s Head from Sargon II’s Palace at Khorsabad

The article presents an Assyrian relief fragment, representing the bearded male head of a tribute bearer, belonging to an Italian private collection. The relief fragment matches the heads of the foreign tribute-bearers from the lower registers of the Corridor 10 slabs of Sargon II's palace at Khorsabad/Dur-Sharrukin so closely that it seems extremely likely that its original location was in this room of Sargon’s royal palace. The available pieces of information attesting Layard’s rather intense archaeological activity at Khorsabad after Botta’s departure from the site make it very reasonable to assume that he retrieved our head from the area of Corridor 10 by means of surface exploration or excavation during his frequent visits to Khorsabad between 1846 and 1850 and later donated it to the Counts Gozzadini - an Italian politician and archaeologist and his wife - as a token of friendship with the couple and scientific respect for Giovanni Gozzadini’s successful archaeological career.