Openwork furniture plaque with a striding, ram-headed sphinx, Neo-Assyrian, ca. 9th–8th century BCE, Mesopotamia, Nimrud (ancient Kalhu). Ivory, 7.8 x 8 x 0.8 cm. New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, 64.37.7.

A ram-headed sphinx, a fantastic creature drawn from Egyptian art that combines the head of a ram with the body of a winged lion, strides through a landscape of voluted palmettes in this rectangular openwork plaque. This piece was found in a storeroom at Fort Shalmaneser, a royal building at Nimrud that was probably used to store tribute and booty collected by the Assyrians while on military campaign. Ram-headed sphinxes were often depicted in Egyptian art during the time when this ivory was carved by Phoenician artisans. This suggests that Phoenicians, whose home cities were along the eastern Mediterranean coast, were aware of contemporary Egyptian art. The slender proportions of this composite creature’s leonine body are typical of Phoenician ivories, as are several elements drawn from Egyptian art including the pschent crown (the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt), the chevron-patterned apron hanging from the chest, the nemes cloth (a royal, pleated headdress), and the uraeus (a mythical, fire-spitting serpent) that projects from the apron. The plaque is framed on one side by a stylized palmette tree and on the other three by thin strips of ivory. A tenon preserved above the upper edge suggests that the plaque may have been fitted into a frame, likely as part of a piece of furniture. Three holes drilled into the plaque may have originally aided in the attachment of this piece to a frame by means of dowels. Difficult to see, they are visible at the curve of the uraeus, through the plant growing behind the right foreleg, and in the loops of the tail. Like many Phoenician works, the original composition may have been symmetrical, with an identical sphinx facing this one.

Built by the Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II, the palaces and storerooms of Nimrud housed thousands of pieces of carved ivory. Most of the ivories served as furniture inlays or small precious objects such as boxes. While some of them were carved in the same style as the large Assyrian reliefs lining the walls of the Northwest Palace, the majority of the ivories display images and styles related to the arts of North Syria and the Phoenician city-states. Phoenician style ivories are distinguished by their use of imagery related to Egyptian art, such as sphinxes and figures wearing pharaonic crowns, and the use of elaborate carving techniques such as openwork and colored glass inlay. North Syrian style ivories tend to depict stockier figures in more dynamic compositions, carved as solid plaques with fewer added decorative elements. However, some pieces do not fit easily into any of these three styles. Most of the ivories were probably collected by the Assyrian kings as tribute from vassal states, and as booty from conquered enemies, while some may have been manufactured in workshops at Nimrud. The ivory tusks that provided the raw material for these objects were almost certainly from African elephants, imported from lands south of Egypt, although elephants did inhabit several river valleys in Syria until they were hunted to extinction by the end of the eighth century B.C.

Openwork furniture plaque with a grazing oryx in a forest of fronds, Neo-Assyrian, ca. 9th–8th century BCE, Mesopotamia, Nimrud (ancient Kalhu). Ivory, 12.7 x 11.91 x 1.09 cm. New York The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, 58.31.3.

Furniture inlaid with carved ivory plaques was highly prized by the Assyrian kings. During the ninth to seventh centuries B.C., vast quantities of luxury goods, often embellished with carved ivory in local, Syrian, and Phoenician styles, accumulated in Assyrian palaces, much of it as booty or tribute. This object belongs to a group of plaques depicting animals and stylized plants. They were made by master carvers in a delicate openwork technique characteristic of Phoenician ivory carving. However, the style and subjects depicted have close parallels on stone relief sculptures from Tell Halaf, in northern Syria, and a debate exists over which tradition produced these fine panels.

Furniture or cosmetic box plaque carved in relief with a striding bull, Neo-Assyrian, ca. 9th–8th century BCE, Mesopotamia, Nimrud (ancient Kalhu). Ivory, 4.7 x 6.2 x 0.79 cm. New York The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, 64.37.5.

This slightly curved plaque is carved in relief with a striding bull set within thin frames at the upper and lower edges and bordered by a stylized plant on the right. It was found in a storeroom at Fort Shalmaneser, a royal building at Nimrud that was probably used to store tribute and booty collected by the Assyrians while on military campaign. Originally, this piece was probably set in a continuous frieze and attached to other ivory plaques with striding animals. The complete, circular element would have decorated the leg of a table or bed, or served as decoration for a small cosmetic box. The bull’s rear and tail do not survive. Its heavy body fills the empty space of the plaque, a composition characteristic of North Syrian ivories. Two of its legs are carved in the round. Its deeply drilled eye would have been inlaid with colored glass or a semiprecious stone, and the three small holes drilled into the hooves may have also been inlaid.

Built by the Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II, the palaces and storerooms of Nimrud housed thousands of pieces of carved ivory. Most of the ivories served as furniture inlays or small precious objects such as boxes. While some of them were carved in the same style as the large Assyrian reliefs lining the walls of the Northwest Palace, the majority of the ivories display images and styles related to the arts of North Syria and the Phoenician city-states. Phoenician style ivories are distinguished by their use of imagery related to Egyptian art, such as sphinxes and figures wearing pharaonic crowns, and the use of elaborate carving techniques such as openwork and colored glass inlay. North Syrian style ivories tend to depict stockier figures in more dynamic compositions, carved as solid plaques with fewer added decorative elements. However, some pieces do not fit easily into any of these three styles. Most of the ivories were probably collected by the Assyrian kings as tribute from vassal states, and as booty from conquered enemies, while some may have been manufactured in workshops at Nimrud. The ivory tusks that provided the raw material for these objects were almost certainly from African elephants, imported from lands south of Egypt, although elephants did inhabit several river valleys in Syria until they were hunted to extinction by the end of the eighth century B.C.

Head of a female or goddess wearing a necklace, Neo-Assyrian, ca. 9th–8th century BCE, Mesopotamia, Nimrud (ancient Kalhu). Ivory, 13.6 × 8.1 × 5 cm. New York The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, 54.117.2.

This female head was found in a well in the Northwest Palace of Ashurnasirpal, and its warm color is a result of long exposure to the well water or sludge. It is one of the two largest ivory heads known from the ancient Near East. The other, from the same well, is now in the Iraq Museum in Baghdad. The ivory heads were thrown in the well when the palace was sacked, perhaps during the final defeat of Assyria at the end of the seventh century B.C. Originally, they may have been part of statues made from various materials, including gold, wood, and textiles, which are recorded in texts but have not survived intact. Two mortises (square-ended recesses) were cut into the flat rear surface of the ivory for the attachment of separate elements above and below. A small piece of gold inlay survives in the choker-style necklace, and the cavities marking the eyebrows and pupils, now empty, must have been inlaid in contrasting materials as well. The fleshy cheeks and chin are softly modeled, in a striking counterpoint to the otherwise stylized features of the ridged hair, large, staring eyes, and thin mouth set in a line. Broken in antiquity, the nose was repaired by a separate piece attached with a dowel, now missing and revealing a prominent socket. The figure’s features resemble those of Syrian style ivories, which are characterized by large eyes, small chins and full cheeks. Like these Syrian ivories, the nose was probably intended to be quite prominent. It is not known whether the head depicts a woman—perhaps a royal or religious figure—or a deity.

Figure of a man with an oryx, a monkey, and a leopard skin, Neo-Assyrian, ca. 8th century BCE, Mesopotamia, Nimrud (ancient Kalhu). Ivory, 13.5 x 7.6cm. New York The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, 60.145.11.

This statuette group, carved in the round, was found with five other statuettes with similar imagery. The six statuettes were excavated in and just below two arched niches built into the wall of a room at Fort Shalmaneser, a royal building at Nimrud that was probably used to store booty and tribute collected by the Assyrians while on military campaign. Those found just below the niches could have fallen when the palaces were destroyed during the the final defeat of Assyria at the end of the seventh century B.C. Originally, these objects were attached to long ivory plinths and exhibited in the arched niches, perhaps arranged in a procession of foreigners bringing different animals and animal skins as tribute to the Assyrian king. A frontally facing male, striding to the right with his lower body in profile, grasps the horns of an oryx (a species of desert-dwelling antelope) that strides behind him. The male figure’s eyes, necklace, and armlet were carved to receive colored glass or semiprecious stone inlays. He wears a short kilt belted with a long sash, embroidered with decoration including two uraei (mythical, fire-spitting serpents), zig-zags, wavy lines, small squares, rosettes, diamonds, and circles. A monkey, whose fur is rendered with short incisions, sits erect on his left shoulder and grasps his short curly hair. Although his right arm does not survive, it was probably extended to support the elaborately patterned leopard skin draped over his right shoulder.

Cloisonné furniture plaque with two griffins in a floral landscape, Neo-Assyrian, ca. 8th century BCE, Mesopotamia, Nimrud (ancient Kalhu). Ivory, 10.5 x 11.9 x 1.1cm. New York The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, 61.197.1.

This slightly concave, exquisitely carved plaque depicts two addorsed griffins, hybrid creatures with the body of a lion and the head, wings, and talons of an eagle, within a floral landscape now missing its brightly-colored inlays. It was found in a large storeroom at Fort Shalmaneser, a royal building at Nimrud that was probably used to store tribute and booty collected by the Assyrians while on military campaign. A rectangular projection, or tenon, in the center of the upper edge is perforated longitudinally with a dowel hole, suggesting that this piece was originally secured to a frame by means of a dowel and mortise, likely as part of a piece of furniture. The West Semitic letter Heth is inscribed into the reverse of the ivory. Known as a fitter’s mark, this letter would have served as a guide to aid the craftsperson in the piece-by-piece assembly of the original piece of furniture to which this plaque originally belonged. From a central volute in the lower portion of the plaque with two palmettes extending on either side, a large, ovoid volute encircles two back-to-back griffins, their wing feathers and sidelocks meticulously cut into cloisons, walled cells meant to hold inlays, probably of semiprecious stone or colored glass. These hybrid creatures stand in a forest of lotus blossoms and extend their necks upwards to nibble on foliage. The plaque’s symmetrical composition and skillful carving style are characteristically Phoenician, as is the cloisonné technique, especially the treatment of floral stalks formed as alternating solid and inlaid bands.