Panels of a writing board ca. 721–705 Assyrian Recovered from a well in the Northwest Palace at Nimrud, where they had likely been thrown during the sack of the palace in 612 , these two large flat pieces of ivory were used as writing boards. Ridges along one of the long sides of each board mark the attachment points for the hinges that held two or more leaves together. When closed, the smooth outer faces resemble the covers of a book. On the inner sides, a raised edge borders a writing surface cut into the board and roughened with cross-hatched scratches. This surface was filled with

Panels of a writing board ca. 721–705 Assyrian Recovered from a well in the Northwest Palace at Nimrud, where they had likely been thrown during the sack of the palace in 612 , these two large flat pieces of ivory were used as writing boards. Ridges along one of the long sides of each board mark the attachment points for the hinges that held two or more leaves together. When closed, the smooth outer faces resemble the covers of a book. On the inner sides, a raised edge borders a writing surface cut into the board and roughened with cross-hatched scratches. This surface was filled with beeswax, and the scratches allowed the wax to adhere more securely to the smooth ivory. A scribe could then use a pointed stylus to make marks in the wax. Although most texts known from the ancient Near East were written on clay tablets, ivory or wooden writing boards with wax surfaces may have been more common than the limited archaeological finds would suggest. The earliest examples known come from the Uluburun shipwreck, a vessel wrecked off the southwest coast of Turkey around 1300 These two writing boards were made of wood and perhaps used to keep track of the ship’s cargo, like a modern shipping manifest. Writing boards are also shown in Assyrian reliefs, where a pair of scribes is shown in the aftermath of a battle, possibly recording important details such as enemy casualties or drawing up lists of booty (see Assyria to Iberia, p. 49, fig. ). As the examples in the Metropolitan’s collection are ivory, they have survived better than wooden boards, which disintegrate in the soil of Mesopotamia. A total of 16 ivory writing boards were found in the same well in the Northwest Palace, along with some wooden examples. The ivory boards were all the same size and had been originally joined together by hinges, now missing. An outer cover leaf was found with an inscription identifying the series: "Palace of Sargon, king of the world, king of Assyria. He caused Enum

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