Til Barsib, modern Tell Ahmar, is located in Syria on the east bank of the Euphrates river, close to the Turkish border. With a long settlement history, which dates back to the Ubaid Period (5th millennium BCE), Tell Ahmar is an important archaeological site and especially renowned for its Neo-Assyrian remains. In the Neo-Assyrian period (1st half of the 1st millennium BCE), the palace at Til Barsib was richly decorated with wall paintings in the Assyrian fashion; in total, thirteen of the palace’s rooms were colourfully painted with scenes depicting royal life, with the work probably undertaken in around 744-631 BCE.

Assyrian magnificence and glory were very militaristic, and in this period we see a wholehearted devotion to art concerned with conqueror-kings and wars and hunts. The heavenly deities are rearranged to bring a war-god to supreme position. Campaign follows campaign under successive great monarchs - Sargon II, Sennacherib, Esarhaddon, and finally Ashurbanipal - until even Egypt is conquered; and the exploits of each campaign is meticulously recorded by court artists and scribes. More blood flows in this pictorial art than in any other in world history.

Among the most important deities and the most important goddess in the Mesopotamian pantheon, she is primarily known as the goddess of sexual love but is equally prominent as the goddess of warfare. In her astral aspect, Ištar is the planet Venus, the morning and the evening star.