Museo de Arte Mead

En 1857, el Amherst College adquirió paneles del palacio de Ashurnasirpal II en Nimrud . En el palacio, construido alrededor del año 879 a. C., las paredes de las salas ceremoniales y los corredores estaban decoradas con monumentales relieves. El rey Ashurnasirpal II aparece en el panel central vistiendo una túnica con flecos y un tocado real. En su mano derecha sostiene una copa poco profunda utilizada para verter ofrendas a los dioses, y en la izquierda, su arco, símbolo de su valentía y poderío militar. El panel central está flanqueado por paneles que representan espíritus protectores alados llamados genios o apkallu (como se les denomina en la antigua lengua acadia).

The cuneiform inscription, written in a dialect of the Semitic language Akkadian, glorifies the military exploits of King Ashurnasirpal II; his special stature among the gods; and the luxury and grandeur of his building program. Ashurnasirpal II conquered new areas to the west of the Assyrian homeland, beyond the Euphrates River. To emphasize his role as a major powerbroker, he moved the administrative capital from its traditional location at Assur to Kalhu, known today as Nimrud. In addition to his palace, he built temples, administrative buildings, and residences. Population estimates for ancient Kalhu at the time of King Ashurnasirpal run as high as 60,000.

British diplomat and explorer Austen Henry Layard (1817–1894) excavated Nimrud in 1845. Dwight Marsh, an American missionary in Mosul, befriended Layard in 1850 and suggested that educational institutions would benefit greatly from having a few of the panels in their collections. During the early 1850s, panels were selected for and shipped to Amherst, Yale, Bowdoin, Dartmouth, and Middlebury as well as various theological seminaries. Amherst College's third president Edward Hitchcock obtained reliefs for Amherst. The twelve-inch thick reliefs were shaved down to about four inches and then cut into squares for easier transport. The total weight of the reliefs is approximately 2 tonnes. They were transported from Nimrud to eastern Mediterranean ports, and then shipped to the United States. When the panels reached Amherst College they were first displayed in the library, but soon were moved to the purpose-built “Nineveh Gallery” attached to the Octagon.

The Rotherwas Room is an English Jacobean-style room currently in the Mead Art Museum, in Amherst College.

It was originally installed in the estate of the Bodenham family called Rotherwas Court, in Herefordshire, England, as part of the country house where the family lived. It was commissioned by Sir Roger Bodenham sometime after 1600 and completed in 1611. Some of the room's most prominent aspects include a carved oak mantelpiece and walnut wall panelling. The room originally functioned as a parlor, where families would dine privately or entertain guests informally.^[1]

En 1945, Herbert L. Pratt legó la habitación a la universidad. Previamente, había estado instalada en su casa neojacobina " The Braes ", en Glen Cove, Long Island. Si bien se conservan los paneles de las paredes y la chimenea de la habitación original, no se han encontrado registros específicos del mobiliario ni del diseño del techo de esta habitación en la casa original de Rotherwas Court.