Doorway creatures: Crises, ideologies and persuasion in the Neo-Assyrian palace

The doors of the Neo-Assyrian palaces were highly guarded by a great variety of protective creatures, whose aspects and characteristics change with time, from the palace of Ashurnasirpal II at Kalhu to the palace of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh. In fact, in each royal palace, doorways receive a different protective treatment and both old and new solutions are introduced in the apotropaic repertoire. This paper focuses on the introduction of new doorway creatures in the royal palaces of Sargon II and Sennacherib and proposes that these new figures were conceived as less direct ways through which an Assyrian king built his self-representation and laid claim to present a new ideology. It is concluded that doorway creatures were used to persuade king’s supporters, such as aristocrats and scholars, to accept the new king.