A CLOSER LOOK

THE SECRETS OF THE LACHISH RELIEF

What Do We See?

Look closely at the Assyrian Lachish Relief. Panel after panel shows the defeated people of Judah being marched into exile, bound and guarded, or suffering brutal executions. And one detail leaps out: not a single captive is shown with long, straight hair. Every Judean prisoner under armed escort has short, tightly curled woolly hair. The figures impaled on stakes—still rendered with chilling precision—wear the same cropped, curly style. Even the man depicted having his throat cut is shown with short, woolly hair, not the long flowing locks so often imagined in later European art.

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Judah Kneeling Before King Sennacherib

On the Assyrian Lachish Relief, the scene is carved with chilling clarity: the leaders of Judah kneel before King Sennacherib, their hands raised in submission. Above the Assyrian monarch, the inscription is written in cuneiform script, identifying the moment for all time—there is no ambiguity about who kneels before the king. The captives are not anonymous; they are the people of Judah, defeated and recorded in stone by their conqueror.

The Lachish Relief: A Warning in Stone

Carved on the palace walls of Nineveh, the Lachish Relief depicts a moment of terror and conquest. The people of Judah are shown with short woolly hair and distinctly African features—not the long, flowing strands or European faces often imagined in later art. In the scene, their bodies are impaled on stakes and set before the walls of their own city, a brutal warning to those still inside.

The Assyrian artists were meticulous. They captured the hair, the faces, the very identity of the captives in stone. And what remains is undeniable: these were not Europeanized figures, but the men and women of Judah with African features, preserved for nearly 3,000 years as both victims of empire and witnesses to their true identity.

Judah Under Armed Guard

On the Lachish Relief, the people of Judah are shown in a line, their hands raised in surrender as they are marched away under the watch of Assyrian soldiers. The artists made a striking distinction: only the prisoners—those under armed guard—are carved with short woolly hair and unmistakably African features. The Assyrians themselves wear helmets and long ringed beards, but the captives are different, their identity preserved in every curl and contour.

This detail leaves no room for doubt. The captives of Lachish, the tribe of Judah, were remembered in stone not as Europeans, but as a people with African features and tightly coiled hair, forever recorded in the conqueror’s own record of war.

Decapitation at Lachish

One of the most haunting panels of the Lachish Relief shows an Assyrian soldier in the act of decapitating a warrior of Judah. The scene is brutal, but it is also precise—every detail carefully carved by Assyrian artisans. Look closely at the head of the Judean being slain: his short woolly hair is captured in astonishing detail, with the sculptor chiseling nearly a hundred tiny raised bumps across the scalp to represent the coarse, tightly coiled texture.

This was no stylized flourish. The Assyrians recorded what they saw. The hair is not flowing or straight, but dense, cropped, and woolly, a texture long recognized in African depictions across Egyptian, Nubian, and Nok art. In this chilling moment of conquest, the Assyrians unwittingly left behind something more than a record of war—they carved into stone the true appearance of the people of Judah.

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Echoes in Stone: Nubians at Persepolis and Judah at Lachish

When we examine the grand Apadana reliefs at Persepolis—specifically the East Stairs, where subject peoples of the empire bring tribute to the Persian king—one group stands out: the Nubians. Their features, carved with extraordinary precision, reveal a familiar detail. Their hair is represented not as flowing locks or stylized waves, but as short, coarse, tightly curled bumps. The sculptor painstakingly chiseled around 80 small raised knobs across each scalp, a method long associated with the portrayal of African peoples.

What makes this discovery even more compelling is the comparison to the Lachish Relief. In that Assyrian monument of conquest, the men of Judah are also shown with short woolly hair, carved in the same raised-bump technique. In Lachish, the prisoners appear under guard, executed, impaled, or marched into exile—yet every one of them is marked by the same tightly coiled hair. Some even wear short curly beards, but the consistency of the scalp hair is undeniable: dense, short, and woolly, captured in dozens of raised stone curls.

The Persepolis Nubians provide a vital cross-reference. While they appear beardless, their hair texture and style is identical to that of the Judeans at Lachish. The implication is striking: across two empires, separated by geography and culture, artists used the same iconographic language to capture the same physical reality—a people with short, tightly coiled, African-type hair.

This is not artistic coincidence. It is a visual code of identity, repeated in both Mesopotamian and Persian imperial art. At Persepolis, the Nubians bring tribute; at Lachish, the Judeans are led in defeat. But the carved hair unites them in a shared visual tradition, confirming the ethnicity of Judah as recorded by the eyes and hands of ancient conquerors.

The evidence speaks in stone. In Lachish and in Persepolis, in Assyrian palaces and Persian stairways, the same story emerges: the men of Judah bore the short, woolly hair and African features that their conquerors could not ignore—and carved forever into history.

Side-by-Side: Persepolis vs. Lachish

Persepolis (Apadana East Stairs – Nubian Delegation)

The Nubians appear bare-headed, without beards.
Their hair is carved as dense clusters of small raised bumps—about 80 across the scalp—to show short, coarse, woolly hair.
Each bump is rounded and evenly spaced, a painstaking method meant to replicate the tight coil of African hair.

Lachish (Assyrian Palace Relief – Siege of Judah)

The Judean captives are shown under guard, executed, or impaled.
Like the Nubians at Persepolis, they have short woolly hair, carved in rows of tiny raised knots across the head.
In some cases, the detail is so fine that nearly 100 small curls can be counted on a single figure.
Unlike the beardless Nubians, several Judeans also wear short curly beards, but the scalp hair is identical in texture and technique.

The Match
Both reliefs—separated by empire, geography, and context—use the same visual vocabulary: small raised bumps chiselled to represent short, tightly coiled hair. At Persepolis, they identify Nubians; at Lachish, they mark the people of Judah. Together they confirm a consistent artistic truth: the men of Judah were carved with the same hair texture as Africans.

IDENTITY

Similar Characteristics In Art

African Art

Art with short woolly hair depicted using small rounded bantu knot like circles.