Openwork furniture plaque with a falcon-headed figure in a papyrus thicket

This intricately carved, rectangular openwork plaque depicts a falcon-headed figure standing in profile in a papyrus thicket raising one arm with an open palm and holding a scepter in the hand of its other, lowered arm. The motif of a falcon-headed figure is known from Egyptian art where it represents Horus, the Egyptian sky god. 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. Two fragmentary tenons, one preserved above the upper edge and one below the lower edge of this plaque, suggest that this piece may have been fitted into a frame, likely as part of a piece of furniture. The West Semitic letters Pe, Shin, and Resh are inscribed into the reverse of the ivory. Known as fitter’s marks, they would have served as guides to aid the craftsperson in the piece-by-piece assembly of the piece of furniture to which this plaque originally belonged. A latticework background of papyrus blossoms is set within thin, double frames at the upper and lower edges. Each flower was originally inlaid with individually shaped blossoms made of Egyptian blue, a vibrant pigment containing silica, lime, copper, and alkali. The openwork technique and copious inlays are characteristic of Phoenician ivories, as are several elements worn by the falcon-headed figure and drawn from Egyptian art: the pschent crown (the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt), tripartite wig, sleeved shawl, short shendyt kilt, long, open overskirt belted at the waist, and the papyrus and feather scepter topped by a blank cartouche and two crowning feathers. In addition to the papyrus inlays, there are traces of Egyptian blue in the recesses cut into the wig and garment.

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.