Object Image

Ivory fragment

This small ivory fragment is rounded in shape and was probably blackened through exposure to fire when the palace complexes at Nimrud were sacked during the final defeat of Assyria at the end of the seventh century B.C. It is incised with overlapping triangles filled with cross-hatched decoration and outlined by a single-line border. A hole drilled through the piece horizontally may have allowed it to be attached to another element by a nail or peg. Carved ivory pieces such as this were widely used in the production of elite furniture during the early first millennium B.C. They were often inlaid into a wooden frame using joinery techniques and glue, and could be overlaid with gold foil or inlai...
c. 8th-7th century B.C.
Ivory
1.4 x 1.8cm
52.23.9
Image and text © Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2019

Where you'll find this

The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Permanent collection