Animal head carved in the round ca. 8th–7th century Assyrian This carved ivory head was found in a storage room in Fort Shalmaneser, a royal building at Nimrud that was used to store booty and tribute collected by the Assyrians while on military campaign. It depicts an animal with a long, narrow snout, mouth open and tongue extended, and large eyes that would have been inlaid with materials in contrasting colors. A tenon at the back of the head would likely have been used to attach the head to the animal’s body, perhaps carved out of another piece of ivory or a different material. Carved

Animal head carved in the round ca. 8th–7th century Assyrian This carved ivory head was found in a storage room in Fort Shalmaneser, a royal building at Nimrud that was used to store booty and tribute collected by the Assyrians while on military campaign. It depicts an animal with a long, narrow snout, mouth open and tongue extended, and large eyes that would have been inlaid with materials in contrasting colors. A tenon at the back of the head would likely have been used to attach the head to the animal’s body, perhaps carved out of another piece of ivory or a different material. 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 to create a dazzling effect of gleaming surfaces and bright colors. The piece may have represented a dog, as the nose resembles that of a canine rather than the broader snout of a sheep or goat, and the deep-set eyes face forward rather than to the sides, indicating the animal was a hunter. Dogs rarely appear in the decoration of the carved ivory furniture and small luxury objects collected by the Assyrian kings. However, dogs are fairly common in the art of ancient Mesopotamia in other contexts, and are shown as a wide range of types, including thick-necked guard dogs wearing collars (see in the Metropolitan’s collection), small dogs with curled tails associated with the healing goddess Gula, and hunting dogs resembling the modern saluki. This ivory head most closely resembles the latter. 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 m

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