British Museum group of stone reliefs from the excavations of Max von Oppenheim at Tell Halaf that was purchased in 1920. More material followed from the excavations of Max Mallowan at Chagar Bazar and Tell Brak in 1935–1938 and from Woolley at Alalakh in the years just before and after the Second World War. Mallowan returned with his wife Agatha Christie to carry out further digs at Nimrud in the postwar period which secured many important artefacts for the museum. The collection of Palestinian material was strengthened by the work of Kathleen Kenyon at Jericho in the 1950s and the acquisition in
Old Assyrian Empire Assyrian pantheon in Mesopotamian religion, worshipped mainly in Upper Mesopotamia which constituted old Assyria. Ashur was a deified form of the city of Assur, which dates from c. 2600 BC and was the capital city of the Old Assyrian Empire. During the various periods of Assyrian conquest, such as the Upper Mesopotamian Empire of Shamshi-Adad I (c. 1754 BC – c. 1721 BC) Assyrian imperial propaganda proclaimed the supremacy of Ashur and declared that the conquered peoples had been abandoned by their gods. Ashur did not originally have a family, but as the cult came under the influence of Lower