Sphinx subdues youth: Nimrud Ivory from Room SW12 Fort Shalmaneser within the Assyrian city of Nimrud, Iraq, photographed in the Iraq Museum, Baghdad.
Nimrud Ivory from Room SW12 Fort Shalmaneser, the military headquarters within the Assyrian city of Nimrud, northern Iraq, photographed in the National Museum of Iraq, Baghdad. Part of an openwork tenoned panel showing a human-headed, winged sphinx subduing a prostrate youth. Cloisonné: intricate inlays with many traces of blue, red & gold. The sphinx wears a pegged headcloth, the youth an Egyptian-style short pegged wig. Carved ivory plaques & panels decorated many wooden objects such as beds, chairs, jewellery boxes, cup stands, walls & columns. They were collected as gifts, booty & tribute from all over the Assyrian Empire - Egypt, Syria, Phoenicia etc - and, after any gold overlay had been removed, kept in storage 'magazines' at the fort. Most date from the 9th or 8th centuries BC. The piece is high including tenon x wide. The Nimrud Ivories have been catalogued & published by Georgina Herrmann for the British School of Archaeology in Iraq (London), Nimrud Ivories Project. The BSAI is now the British Institute for the Study of Iraq (London) (Gertrude Bell Memorial); its ivories & archive are in the British Museum.
Size: 2604px × 3680px
Location: National Museum of Iraq, Baghdad, Iraq
Photo credit: © Mick Sharp / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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