Editing Alabaster (section)

====Ancient and Classical Near East====
[[File:The Royal lion hunt reliefs from the Assyrian palace at Nineveh, a dying male lion, about 645-635 BC, British Museum (12254756385).jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|Wounded lion, detail from the ''[[Lion Hunt of Ashurbanipal]]'', 7th century BC, [[British Museum]]]]
"Mosul marble" is a kind of gypsum alabaster found in the north of modern [[Iraq]], which was used for the [[Assyrian palace reliefs]] of the 9th to 7th centuries BC; these are the largest type of alabaster sculptures to have been regularly made. The relief is very low and the carving detailed, but large rooms were lined with continuous compositions on slabs around {{convert|7|ft|m}} high. The ''[[Lion Hunt of Ashurbanipal]]'' and military [[Lachish reliefs]], both 7th century BC and in the [[British Museum]], are some of the best known.

Gypsum alabaster was widely used for small [[sculpture]] for indoor use in the ancient world, especially in ancient Egypt and [[Mesopotamia]]. Fine detail could be obtained in a material with an attractive finish without iron or steel tools. Alabaster was used for vessels dedicated for use in the cult of the deity Bast in the culture of the ancient Egyptians, and thousands of gypsum alabaster [[Artifact (archaeology)|artifacts]] dating to the late [[4th millennium BC]] also have been found in [[Tell Brak]] (modern [[Nagar, Syria|Nagar]]), in [[Syria]].<ref>[http://www.metmuseum.org/Works_of_Art/viewOne.asp?dep=3&item=1988.323.8&viewmode=0&isHighlight=1] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051129011651/http://www.metmuseum.org/Works_of_Art/viewOne.asp?dep=3&item=1988.323.8&viewmode=0&isHighlight=1|date=November 29, 2005}}</ref>

In Mesopotamia, gypsum alabaster was the material of choice for figures of deities and devotees in temples, as in a figure believed to represent the deity [[Abu (god)|Abu]] dating to the first half of the 3rd millennium BC, which is kept in New York.<ref>[http://www.metmuseum.org/Works_of_Art/viewOne.asp?dep=3&viewmode=0&item=40%2E156] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050901175655/http://www.metmuseum.org/Works_of_Art/viewOne.asp?dep=3&viewmode=0&item=40.156|date=September 1, 2005}}</ref>