The so-called Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III is one of the most impressive and mysterious artifacts of the ancient state of Assyria, which emerged about 4,500 years ago on the territory of modern Iraq.
Archaeologists excavated it in 1846 on the territory of the city of Nimrud and to this day it remains only one of two fully intact Assyrian obelisks. The height is 198 cm and is carved from black limestone.
This obelisk is an extremely interesting object of study. For example, it is believed to contain the oldest image of a Jew. But we are of course interested in abnormal things, namely the strange ‘hybrids’ of humans and animals that are present in the everyday scenes of the obelisk between ordinary people and ordinary animals.
This obelisk was created in honor of the 31st anniversary of the reign of Shalmaneser III and shows the conquered peoples making various sacrifices to the Assyrian ruler.
Among the sacrifices are all kinds of animals – the most common and depicted quite naturalistically – elephants, camels, lions, horses.
And next to them are bizarre creatures with the body of an animal, and the head and hands of a man. Proponents of the paleocontact theory consider them hybrids, believing that ancient aliens created such monsters either for a specific work or just for fun.
There are only two scenes on the obelisk with these “hybrids”. In one, two people hold two very large ‘hybrids’ on a chain, in the second two ‘hybrids’ are led on short leashes behind an elephant, and in the third ‘hybrid’, a small one, probably a cub. is simply carried by a person on his shoulders, like a tame monkey.
There is a hypothesis that these creatures are actually just monkeys, and not some fantastic hybrids. They say they brought baboons or mandrills captured in Africa as exotic pets as gifts to the Assyrian king.
However, the heads of these creatures are too human; neither baboons nor other large-tailed primates have such round heads with a prominent nose. Then maybe it’s a chimpanzee or a gorilla?
But their noses are also shaped differently and they have no tails, but in the scenes from the obelisk the tails are clearly visible. It is also striking how much these “hybrids” resemble the ancient Egyptian sphinxes. Same hairstyle, same body, similar to a lion’s body.
Judging from these scenes, the “hybrids” could walk on their hind legs and were all shorter than humans. There is no clothing visible, and one has what appears to be fur on the upper body and legs.
Unusual hybrid creatures are regularly found in ancient bas-reliefs and frescoes, as well as in myths and legends of various civilizations. Scientists believe these are simply products of the human imagination.
And that is partly true, because with a lot of imagination one can even imagine a tribe of headless people whose mouths are on their bellies, or people with one big leg with which they shelter from the rain. But some of these images may very well be based on what someone saw with their own eyes, that is, these creatures were completely real.
