archaicwonder:

Apkallu from the Fortress of Sargon 

The Apkallu are seven Sumerian sages, demigods who are said to have been created by the god Enki to establish culture and give civilization to mankind. They served as priests of Enki and as advisors or sages to the earliest kings of Sumer before the Gilgamesh flood. They are credited with giving mankind the Me (moral code), the crafts, and the arts.

Apkallu reliefs also appear in Assyrian palaces as guardians against evil spirits, like the modern gargoyle. They are one of the more prominent supernatural creatures that appear in the art of Sargon II (722 – 705 BC). They appear in one of three forms, bird-headed, human-headed or dressed in fish-skin cloaks.

The Fortress of Sargon (Dur-Sharrukin) in modern day Khorsabad, northern Iraq, was the Assyrian capital in the time of Sargon II of Assyria. The fortress or palace was built at the confluence of the Tigris and the Greater Zab rivers. The great city was built entirely in the decade preceding 706 BCE. After the unexpected death of Sargon in battle, the capital was shifted 20 km south to Nineveh by his successor Sennacherib.