Model Clay Dogs from Nineveh

These counterparts of real mastiffs were buried to guard a property from devils and demons. Ritual instructions for making and inscribing them survive on clay tablets. This pack was found beneath a palace doorway at Nineveh. Each is named after a quality required in guard dogs:
Loud is his bark! (black dog).
Bitter of his foe! (blue dog).
Don’t think, bite! (white dog).

Catcher of the enemy! (red dog).
Expeller of evil! (white dog with red spots).
From the North Palace (Room S, door D) at Nineveh, Northern Mesopotamia, Iraq. Neo-Assyrian Peridod, circa 645 BCE. (The British Museum, London)