Frieze of the Transportation of Timber
The frieze of the Transportation of Timber is comprised of five slabs with artworks that have been eloquently carved. Originally, this exceptional artwork was decorated the palace of Assyrian King Sargon II in Khorsabad Mesopotamia which is the present day Dur Sharrukin in Iraq. However, now it is an artifact that is housed in the Louvre Museum in Paris.
The artifact of about ten or so feet in length, has been articulately carved in five pieces of bas-relief, alabaster depicting scenes, each scene carved differently from the other and each captivating and breath-taking than the previous. It was widely known by then that Lebanon was a valuable source of cedars and so the Assyrians imported it from there to build palaces.
The slab carving shows timber being transported via the Phoenician coastline and as it is aptly put in a number of sources, it was pegged that the timber cargo was dropped at the estuary of Orentes River. Legend has it that once dropped at the estuary, other means of transportation may have been river or road, a claim that no one can vouch for it. “…no doubt unloaded at the mouth of the Orentes River…could be transported to Assyria by river or road. (E. Morero, n.d).
In the carving, the sea is shown full of sea creatures swimming in their midst, for example, in the 3rd slab of carving there are fish, merman and a snake. The boats are shown loaded with the logs of timber and three logs being towed behind. In the Second slab of carving, the boats are carved in such a way that they are shown having the bow carved like a head of a horse and the stern carved like the tail fin of a fish. In the 2rd slab, there is a half-human and half-fish (merman) carving. The merman is leading the way in a protective manner.
In the 3rd slab of carving, it is portraying four boats near the shore and they are towing with them their cargo or are loaded with it, while two are carved pulling out of the shore, empty of their cargo, going back in the opposite direction of the loaded boats: going for more timber logs. Three of the boats that have already docked at the shore are shown taking out the load and in the center of the boats, a merman is seen supervising the work protectively. The fourth slab is carved with the image of a turtle and a crocodile, portraying the danger that the sailors had to endure during the transportation of the timber logs.
On the first slab of carving in the image with the full set of panels of the relief wall, it is carved showing a group of men unloading the timber cargo using ropes. On the fifth slab, there is the painting of a merman with a long beard. The merman is holding “himself” on the shoreline using his left hand while his right hand shows a kind of a gesture. The mermaid is in the sea because the area around where the merman is has been carved wavy, portraying the nature of the sea (with waves) while in far edge of the merman, to the right, there is a smooth shoreline carved darkly to depict the end of the shoreline and the start of the land.

References
E. Morero (n.d). Near Eastern Antiquities: Mesopotamia. Retrieved on 26th September 26, 2011 from http://www.louvre.fr/llv/oeuvres/detail_notice.jsp?CONTENT%3C%3Ecnt_id=10134198673225258&CURRENT_LLV_NOTICE%3C%3Ecnt_id=10134198673225258&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=9852723696500800&bmLocale=en#