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Handle
of a Fly Whisk or Fan; Neo-Assyrian
period, 8th century B.C.; Assyrian
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 (54.117.3)
Fly whisks or fans, frequently represented on Assyrian reliefs, were
used by royal attendants (see King
and Eunuch Attendant).
The scene on this handle depicts two beardless males kneeling in performance
of a ritual before a sacred tree. A mud impression of one side survives,
composed of the sludge from the well where the handle was found.
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