Figures above and below:

Large sculptures in alabaster, from the gates of the palace of the Assyrian king Sargon II at Dur-Sharrukin, modern Khorsabad (Iraq), dating to the VIII century B.C., and now exhibited in the Louvre Museum, Paris. The images represent the Lamassu, benign and protective deities with the body of a winged bull and human faces, which probably show the features of the king himself.

[Image: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Human_headed_winged_bull_profile.jpg]