fishstickmonkey:fishstickmonkey:The Nimrud ivories are carved ivory plaques and figures dating from
fishstickmonkey:fishstickmonkey:The Nimrud ivories are carved ivory plaques and figures dating from the 9th to the 7th centuries BC that were excavated from the Assyrian city of Nimrud (in modern Ninawa in Iraq) during the 19th and 20th centuries.The ivories mostly originated outside Mesopotamia and are thought to have been made in the Levant and Egypt. They are carved with motifs typical of those regions and were used to decorate high-status items of furniture or transportation. The ivories would have originally been decorated with gold leaf or semi-precious stones, which were stripped from them at some point before their final burial. Many were found at the bottom of wells, having apparently been dumped there during a period of war or unrest. - WikipediaSource: Wikimedia. Photo credits in captions. -- source link