The relief that depicts the Assyrian attack on Lachish was uncovered in excavations conducted by Austen Henry Layard. It was displayed in an important room in the palace at Nineveh and is today on exhibit in the British Museum. The events portrayed in it are those that occurred prior to the attack, during it and following the conclusion of the conquest of the city. Some of the reliefs that were exposed in Ancient Assyria, particularly in Khorsabad (Dur-Sharrukin – the residence of Sargon II) and in Nineveh (Sennacherib’s capital) and in a number of other sites, depict battles, the conquest of cities and numerous other subjects from life in the royal court and the Assyrian army. In some of the reliefs details are shown that portray the landscapes where the military activity was conducted and in some there are even hints as to the geographic locations of different cities. Some of the images portrayed in the reliefs are sometimes identified according to the geographic identification of a city and some according to different inscriptions that were carved on the reliefs.
The relief of the Assyrian siege of Lachish contains numerous details. The city depicted in it, despite the many imperfections in it and despite the fact that it is only in the background of the attack itself, is identified beyond doubt by means of an inscription that refers to the city by its Biblical name. The tell of ancient Lachish is identified with a great degree of certainty with the aid of a letter that was exposed in the excavations at Tell ed-Duweir, and in which the name of the city Lachish is noted. It is customary to assume that some of the topographic details and the details of the city gate and its walls, as they were exposed in the excavations at Tel Lachish, are portrayed in the relief.

The artistry of the portrayal in the Assyrian reliefs is extremely schematic and it seems that most of the details that are identified in them do not reflect reality. They suffer from intentional flaws in their proportions and uniform style in the depictions of cities, battles and daily life in the palace. Nevertheless, several details reflect the ancient reality and we can make some use of them in understanding it. The banality which characterized the Assyrian reliefs from the time of Ashurbanipal II until the time of Sargon II changed during the reign of Sennacherib, and it seems that the reliefs from the period of Sennacherib contain numerous details that reflect reality.

The depictions of the army and the Assyrian attack on Lachish contain several tactical aspects and several details that allow us to understand the tactical measures, the deployment of the army in the attack on Lachish, the echelons of combat and the forces participating in them etc.

The descriptions of the images were made in accepted schemes but the tactical and logistical aspects which are portrayed in them are not schematic. They allow us to reconstruct numerous details about the attack, the forces that participated in it, their equipment, their weapons, the composition of the combat teams and their tactical location during the attack. The accuracy of the tactical and military details is not indicative of similar precision in other components in the relief, but one can assume that the tactical details are not random and that the artist portrayed the things as they were, even if he did not understand their significance.