Three border strips ca. 9th–8th century Assyrian These narrow strips are decorated with incised rows of connected circles, called a guilloche pattern, set within a border marked by a single line. Carved ivory pieces such as this were widely used in the production of elite furniture during the early first millennium They were often inlaid into a wooden frame using joinery techniques and glue, and could be overlaid with gold foil or inlaid with colored glass or stone pieces to create a dazzling effect of gleaming surfaces and bright colors. The gray color of these strips suggests that

Three border strips ca. 9th–8th century Assyrian These narrow strips are decorated with incised rows of connected circles, called a guilloche pattern, set within a border marked by a single line. Carved ivory pieces such as this were widely used in the production of elite furniture during the early first millennium They were often inlaid into a wooden frame using joinery techniques and glue, and could be overlaid with gold foil or inlaid with colored glass or stone pieces to create a dazzling effect of gleaming surfaces and bright colors. The gray color of these strips suggests that they were damaged by fire during the sack of the Assyrian palace buildings at Nimrud at the time of Assyria’s final defeat in 614 and 612 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,

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