Incised furniture plaque with two ibexes flanking a stylized palmette tree

Two kneeling ibexes, identified as juveniles by their short, curling horns, flank a stylized palmette tree on this rectangular plaque. It was found with several other plaques carved in a similar style at the base of the throne platform in the Throne Room of the Temple of Nabu (the Babylonian god of writing and wisdom) at Nimrud. The location suggests that these ivories may have originally been used to decorate a piece of royal furniture such as a throne. Two dowel holes that pierce the plaque were probably used to fasten it to a frame or other backing that has not survived.

Because they share motifs and images with the monumental stone reliefs that lined the walls of Assyrian palaces, ivories with incised decoration like this one have been attributed to an Assyrian style. Certain details, including the stylized palmette tree, and elaborately incised musculature of these ibexes, recall the animals embroidered on the robes worn by figures in the palace reliefs. Additionally, horned animals flanking a stylized tree also appear on Assyrian glyptic art and glazed ceramics from this period. At Nimrud, Assyrian style ivories have only been found in royal areas such as throne rooms and ceremonial or royal residential suites. The limited distribution of Assyrian ivories suggests that their use and display may have been restricted to the royal court.

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.