These five terracotta guard dog figurines, painted in different colours (white, red, yellow, grey-blue and black) were found under the floor of one of the rooms in the northern palace of Nineveh. Their names written in cuneiform on their sides reveal the qualities expected of them: “Expeller of evil", "Don't think, bite", etc.

(BCE 645 BCE, Nineveh, BM 30005, British Museum).