Metropolitan Museum V

Chair back with a tree pattern Ivory, embedded in a modern wood matrix Mesopotamia, excavated at Nimrud (ancient Kalhu), Fort Shalmaneser, Room SW7 Neoassyrian period, Syrian style 8th century BC Expedition of the British School of Archaeology in Iraq. Accession # 59.107.1 This is one of several curved ivory panels from Nimrud that were the backs of beds and chairs. Gathered after the city was first attacked in the late seventh century BC, a large number were stacked in orderly rows in a storeroom where they were buried in the final destruction in 612 BC. Text from the Metropolitan Museum of Art label.

Horse Blinker with a Seated Sphinx Wearing a Uraeus and Sun-Disc Headdress; Neo-Assyrian period, 8th century B.C.; Phoenician style Mesopotamia; excavated at Nimrud (ancient Kalhu), Northwest Palace, well in Room NN Expedition of the British School of Archaeology in Iraq Ivory Rogers Fund, 1954 (54.117.1) Inscribed: Djunen [a Phoenician name] Horse trappings, including frontlets and blinkers such as this one, were represented on Assyrian reliefs. Text from: www.metmuseum.org/explore/anesite/html/el_ane_ivory5.htm

Horse Blinker with an Egyptian-type Wedjat Eye ("Eye of Horus") Ivory Mesopotamia, excavated at Nimrud (ancient Kalhu), Fort Shalmaneser, Room SW 37 Neo-Assyrian period, Phoenician style, 8th century BC Accession # 60.145.4 This is one of a number of ivory and stone objects of distinctive forms that identify them as blinkers placed on either side of a horse's head in order to focus its eyes forward. Text from the Metropolitan Museum of Art label.

Title: Head of a roaring lion Period: Neo-Assyrian Date: ca. 9th–8th century B.C. Geography: Mesopotamia, Nimrud (ancient Kalhu) Medium: Ivory Dimensions: H. 3 3/4 x W. 3 x D. 2 3/4in. (9.5 x 7.6 x 6.9cm) Classification: Ivory/Bone-Sculpture Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1962 Accession Number: 62.269.1 Description: Assyrian-style ivory carving, contrasting with Phoenician- and Syrian-style ivories found at Nimrud, is illustrated by this ferocious lion's head. Assyrian craftsmen also carved subjects that appear on the stone bas-reliefs of the Assyrian palaces on flat ivory panels, including scenes of warfare, processions, and divinities approaching the sacred tree. Text from: www.metmuseum.org/Works_of_Art/collection_database/ancien...

Title: Head of a man Period: Neo-Assyrian Date: ca. 9th–8th century B.C. Geography: Mesopotamia, Nimrud (ancient Kalhu) Medium: Ivory, Egyptian Blue Dimensions: H. 3 7/16 x W. 3 9/16 x D. 2 1/8 in. (8.7 x 9 x 5.4 cm) Classification: Ivory/Bone-Sculpture Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1962 Accession Number: 62.269.2 Text from: www.metmuseum.org/Works_of_Art/collection_database/ancien...

Egyptianizing figures on either side of a tree with a winged disk, 8th–7th century b.c.; Neo-Assyrian Mesopotamia, Nimrud (ancient Kalhu) Ivory H. 4.88 in. (12.4 cm) Rogers Fund, 1962 (62.269.3) 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 plaque, once part of a piece of furniture, is carved in high relief in a typical Phoenician style with Egyptian themes and motifs. Two pharaoh-like figures, standing on either side of a branching tree, wear a version of the double crown of Egypt with the rearing cobra, or uraeus, emblem in front. They also wear a beard, necklace, and pleated short skirt belted at the waist with a central panel decorated with a chevron pattern and uraeus on either side. An ankle-length pleated apron with patterned border falls from behind the figures. Each man holds a ram-headed scepter in his right hand while the figure at left holds a ewer in his left hand; it is unclear what the other man holds. Framed above the scene is a winged sun disk surmounted by a horizontal panel with ten uraei supporting sun disks. Text from: www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/62.269.3

Panel with a male figure grasping a tree; winged sun disk above Ivory Mesopotamia, excavated at Nimrud (ancient Kahlu), Fort Shalmaneser, Room SW 7 Neo-Assyrian period, Syrian style 8th century BC Expedition of the British School of Archaeology in Iraq. Accession # 59.107.6 In contrast to the grand, stylized reliefs that flanked the walls of the palace of Ashurnasirpal II at Nimrud are the delicate ornamental ivories that once adorned royal furniture. Ivory, prized throughout the ancient world, was used extensively at the time of the Assyrian Empire (ca. 883–612 B.C.). The material was valued by craftsmen because it could be carved in such detail. Although modern tastes appreciate the beauty of an ivory surface, these carvings were often covered with gold foil. Many of the ivories found at Nimrud were brought as booty or tribute from the vassal states to the west of Assyria, where elephants were native and ivory carving was a long-established craft. Others were undoubtedly carved in Assyria by craftsmen brought as captives to the capital cities. Contemporary inscriptions record that Ashurnasirpal took "couches of ivory overlaid with gold" from a city on the western Tigris and received tribute of "elephant tusks and ivory thrones overlaid with gold and silver." Thousands of ivory fragments were discovered by the British in their excavations of the ruins of Nimrud. Stripped of their gold covering by invading armies, the ivories themselves were discarded as being of little worth. Syrian-style ivories have been found in Syria—particularly at the site of Arslan Tash—as well as in the Assyrian palaces of northern Mesopotamia. Works in this style include both flat panels used for furniture decoration and such three-dimensional objects as circular boxes and small figures. Syrian-style ivory carving is distinguished by the stocky proportions of the figures, oval faces with small mouths and large eyes, plants with a long wavy stem, and a winged sun disc with pendant volute curls. Unlike the symmetrical compositions of Phoenician ivories, Syrian examples often depict a single figure in profile that completely fills the surface of the plaque. Nude female figures wearing elaborately curled tresses and diadems, sculpted in the round either singly or in groups, are a particularly striking theme. Syrian-style ivories were made primarily during the ninth and eighth centuries B.C. This ivory carving would have been one of a group of similar panels used in the back of a chair. It depicts a bearded man, perhaps a warrior, holding the stem of a lotus plant. Above him, a winged disc provides protection. Text from the Metropolitan Museum of Art label and www.metmuseum.org/Works_of_Art/viewOne.asp?dep=3&view...

Title: Chair back panel with warrior holding lotuses Period: Neo-Assyrian Date: 8th century B.C. Geography: Mesopotamia, Nimrud (ancient Kalhu) Medium: Ivory Dimensions: 11.38 x 2.72 x 0.2 in. (28.91 x 6.91 x 0.51 cm) Classification: Ivory/Bone-Relief Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1959 Accession Number: 59.107.7 On View Text from: www.metmuseum.org/Works_of_Art/collection_database/ancien...

Plaques with Striding Man and Standing Female Ivory Mesopotamia, excavated at Nimrud (ancient Kahlu), Fort Shalmaneser, Room SW 7 Neo-Assyrian period, Syrian style 9th-8th century BC Accession # 58.31.1-.2 Text from the Metropolitan Museum of Art label.

Cloisonne Furniture Plaque with Child Horus Seated on Lotus Ivory Northern Mesopotamia, excavated at Nimrud (ancient Kalhu), Fort Shalmaneser, East Corridor Neo-Assyrian period, Phoenician style, 8th century BC Accession Number: 59.107.16 Text from the Metropolitan Museum of Art label.

Title: Plaque with two kneeling youths supporting a ram-headed sphinx Period: Neo-Assyrian Date: 9th-8th Century BC Geography: Mesopotamia, Nimrud (ancient Kalhu) Medium: Ivory Dimensions: H. 4 x W. 2 1/2 x Th. 7/16 in. (10.1 x 6.3 x 1.1 cm) Classification: Ivory/Bone-Relief Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1962 Accession Number: 62.269.5 On View Text from: www.metmuseum.org/Works_of_Art/collection_database/ancien...

Plaque with Two Winged Sphinxes, each Trampling a Fallen Asiatic Ivory Northern Mesopotamia, excavated at Nimrud (ancient Kalhu), Fort Shalmaneser, Room SW 37 Neo-Assyrian period, Phoenician style, 9th-7th century BC Accession # 61.197.8 Text from the Metropolitan Museum of Art label.

Plaque with Two Winged Sphinxes, each Trampling a Fallen Asiatic Ivory Northern Mesopotamia, excavated at Nimrud (ancient Kalhu), Fort Shalmaneser, Room SW 37 Neo-Assyrian period, Phoenician style, 9th-7th century BC Accession # 61.197.8 Text from the Metropolitan Museum of Art label.

Plaque fragment with a cow and a suckling calf Ivory Northern Mesopotamia, excavated at Nimrud (ancient Kalhu), Fort Shalmaneser, Rooms SW 11/12 Neo-Assyrian period, Syrian style, 9th-8th century BC Accession # 64.37.3 Suckling scenes such as this one are often found in scenes of daily life that emphasize fertility of the land and flocks. The Egyptian hieroglyph with this image means "be joyful." Dozens of similar plaques have been recovered at Nimrud, probably part of an elaborate piece of furniture. Text from the Metropolitan Museum of Art label.

Plaque with a grazing stag Period: Neo-Assyrian Date: ca. 9th–8th century B.C. Geography: Syria, probably from Arslan Tash (ancient Hadatu) Culture: Assyrian Medium: Ivory Dimensions: 2.25 x 4 in. (5.72 x 10.16 cm) Classification: Ivory/Bone-Relief Credit Line: Fletcher Fund, 1957 Accession Number: 57.80.7 Text from: www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/3000...

Title: Striding bull Period: Neo-Assyrian Date: ca. 8th–7th century B.C. Geography: Mesopotamia, Nimrud (ancient Kalhu) Medium: Ivory, gold foil Dimensions: 2.89 x 1.46 x 0.94 in. (7.34 x 3.71 x 2.39 cm) Classification: Ivory/Bone-Sculpture Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1954 Accession Number: 54.117.10 Text from: www.metmuseum.org/Works_of_Art/collection_database/ancien...

Openwork Plaque with a Rampant Goat Eating a Plant Ivory Mesopotamia, excavated at Nimrud (ancient Kalhu), Fort Shalmaneser, Room SW 37 Neo-Assyrian period, Syrian style, 8th century BC Expedition of the British School of Archaeology in Iraq Accession # 61.197.6 Text from the Metropolitan Museum of Art label.

Plaque with a Striding Sphinx Shell Mesopotami, excavated at Nimrud (ancient Kalhu), Fort Shalmaneser, Room NE 26 Neo-Assyrian period, 8th century BC Accession Number: 60.145.9 Text from the Metropolitan Museum of Art label.