The headpiece shows an Assyrian king attacking a fortified city (ninth century B.C.). A century before the Empire the Assyrians had already developed powerful appliances for destroying a city wall. The city at the right is protected by walls of sun-dried brick like those of Samal (Fig. 97). The defending archers on the wall are trying to drive away a huge Assyrian battering-ram, mounted on six wheels, which has been rolled up to the wall from the left.  It is an ancient “tank” with its front protected by metal armor plate. It carries a tower as high as the city wall, and Assyrian sharpshooters (archers) in the top of the tower are picking off the defenders of the wall. Within the tank unseen men work the heavy beam of the ram. It is capped with metal and is shown smashing a hole in the city wall, from which the bricks fall out. An observation tower with a metal-covered dome, and holes for peeping out, shields the officer in command as he directs the operation of the machine. In the rear (at the left) is the Assyrian king shooting arrows into the hostile city. He uses a powerful bow, invented in Egypt, which will shoot an arrow with great force from 1000 to 1400 feet, and hence he can stand at a safe distance. This scene, carved on a slab of alabaster, is among the earliest Assyrian palace reliefs which have survived (§ 209), and hence the artist’s childish representation of men as tall as city walls.