Stylus or weaving tool ca. 9th–7th century Assyrian This small worked piece of bone tapers to a sharp point at one end and to a more gradual blunted point at the other. It may have been used as a weaving tool. Previously, it was also thought that this object may have been a stylus, used to write on clay tablets or wax writing boards (for the latter see , b). However, wear patterns on the tip suggest that it was more likely to have been used in weaving. A similar object in the Museum’s collection was excavated at the site of Nippur to the south (). Built by the Assyrian k

Stylus or weaving tool ca. 9th–7th century Assyrian This small worked piece of bone tapers to a sharp point at one end and to a more gradual blunted point at the other. It may have been used as a weaving tool. Previously, it was also thought that this object may have been a stylus, used to write on clay tablets or wax writing boards (for the latter see , b). However, wear patterns on the tip suggest that it was more likely to have been used in weaving. A similar object in the Museum’s collection was excavated at the site of Nippur to the south (). 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 Stylus or weaving tool 324

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