what materials were used to cover the carved ivory in nimrud

Nimrud ivories
An ivory plaque which depicts a lion eating a man, from Nimrud in the British Museum. The plaque still has much of its original gold leaf and paint.
Textile	Elephant ivory[1]
Created	ninth to 7th centuries BC
Period/civilization	Neo-Assyrian
Place	Nimrud
Present location	British Museum, London, National Museum of Republic of iraq, Baghdad, and elsewhere
Identification	1954,0508.1

The Nimrud ivories are a large group of small carved ivory plaques and figures dating from the 9th to the 7th centuries BC that were excavated from the Assyrian urban center of Nimrud (in mod Ninawa in Iraq) during the 19th and 20th centuries. The ivories mostly originated outside Mesopotamia and are idea to have been fabricated in the Levant and Arab republic of egypt, and take frequently been attributed to the Phoenicians due to a number of the ivories containing Phoenician inscriptions.^[2] They are foundational artefacts in the study of Phoenician fine art, together with the Phoenician metallic bowls, which were discovered at the aforementioned time just identified equally Phoenician a few years before. Nevertheless, both the bowls and the ivories pose a meaning challenge every bit no examples of either – or any other artefacts with equivalent features – take been found in Phoenicia or other major colonies (e.g. Carthage, Malta, Sicily).^[three]

Most are fragments of the original forms; in that location are over 1,000 significant pieces, and many more very pocket-size fragments. They are carved with motifs typical of those regions and were used to decorate a variety of high-status objects, including pieces of furniture, chariots and horse-trappings, weapons, and minor portable objects of various kinds. Many of the ivories would have originally been decorated with golden leaf or semi-precious stones, which were stripped from them at some indicate before their final burial. A large group were found in what was plainly a palace storeroom for unused furniture. Many were found at the bottom of wells, having apparently been dumped at that place when the urban center was sacked during the poorly-recorded collapse of the Assyrian Empire between 616 BC and 599 BC.^[4]

Many of the ivories were taken to the United Kingdom and were deposited in (though non owned by) the British Museum. In 2011, the Museum acquired well-nigh of the British-held ivories through a donation and buy and is to put a selection on view. It is intended that the remainder will be returned to Iraq. A significant number of ivories were already held past Iraqi institutions merely many have been lost or damaged through war and looting. Other museums around the globe have groups of pieces.

Description [edit]

The ivories comprise plaques decorated in relief with intricate carvings of sphinxes, lions, serpents, people, flowers and geometric motifs, besides every bit carvings of female person heads and female figurines. They were carved in various locations across the Ancient Near Eastward, including Egypt, modern Syria and Lebanon, with relatively few carved locally.^[5] The ivory used to make these objects would originally take been derived from Syrian elephants which were endemic in the Eye E in ancient times, but by the 8th century BC the Syrian elephant had been hunted close to extinction, and ivory for later objects would take had to be imported from India,^[6] or, more likely, Africa.^[4]

The ivory plaques are thought to have been used to decorate chariots, furniture and horse trappings, and would originally have been covered in gilt leaf or ornamented with semi-precious stones such as lapis lazuli.^[seven] Some pieces all the same preserve remnants of gold leafing. Many were already centuries sometime when put in storage and may have fallen out of fashion by that time. The gilded may accept been removed from the ivories earlier they were put in storage,^[8] or it may have been taken by the Babylonians when they sacked and razed Nimrud in 612 BC.^[7]

Some of the ivories have Phoenician letters engraved on their back, which it is idea may take been used as guides to the assembly of pieces onto the piece of furniture to which the ivories were attached. The presence of Phoenician letters on the ivories suggests that they were the production of Phoenician craftsmen.^[nine]

In addition to plaques, many small ivory carvings of female heads accept been found at Nimrud, most only one or two inches in height, just a few over 5 inches tall. Many of these heads wear a flat cap which is very similar to the flat caps depicted on much before ivories from the Tel Megiddo site in modern Israel.^[10] Some other common carved class establish at Nimrud comprises figurines of two naked females joined back to back, which are thought to accept been used either as handles for fans or mirrors, or as a decorative element on furniture.^[10]

The plaques show a wide diversity of themes, some of which showroom a pure Assyrian fashion,^[half-dozen] and some of which show Egyptian influence, with engravings of Egyptian people or gods, and fifty-fifty Egyptian hieroglyphs. However, the Egyptian themes are often misconstrued, and the hieroglyphs do not grade valid names, so they would seem to exist debased imitations of Egyptian art.^[11]

A far greater number of ivories were found at Nimrud than at any other Assyrian site, and it is idea that they had been brought to Nimrud equally booty or imported as luxury goods from cities on the Mediterranean coast. Some centuries afterward it seems that these objects savage out of way, and were put into storage.^[8]

Discoveries [edit]

"The lady at the window", Sulaymaniyah Museum, Iraq.

Layard (1845) [edit]

The first group of ivories was excavated from the site of the palace of Shalmaneser Iii (ruled 859–824 BC) at the Assyrian capital of Nimrud. The palace was rediscovered in 1845 by Austin Henry Layard, on the very first twenty-four hour period of his excavations; on the 2d day, he made the first discovery of ivories.^[12]

Loftus (1854–1855) [edit]

More ivories were constitute during William Kennett Loftus's excavations in 1854–1855. They were establish in a group of buildings labelled the "Southward-E Palace" or "Burnt Palace"; Loftus described the circumstances of the discovery in a letter to the Journal of Sacred Literature in Feb 1855:

The S.Due east. Palace at Nimroud has merely yielded a big drove of beautiful ivories, relics of a throne or furniture, &c. They have been fitted together past means of rivets, slides, and grooves – a complete Assyrian puzzle, and somewhat dangerous to sit on! Many exhibit traces of gilding and enamel, and were probably broken up for the inlaid gold and jewels with which they were in one case adorned. There is a decided Egypto-Assyrian character nigh the whole collection, perfect Egyptian heads being mixed with Assyrian Bulls and Lions. The heads were very fine indeed. Some of the articles were maces, dagger-handles, or portions of chairs and tables (for we have undoubted evidence of the Assyrians using such.) Figures back to back course a shaft, and back up a bloom-headed capital. There are also boxes, and a vase – all elaborately carved. The Assyrians were adepts in veneering, the layers being highly ornamented with sacred emblems and king of beasts-hunts. Phoenician inscriptions are establish on two of three manufactures. They were found strewed at the lesser of a chamber among wood ashes. They had escaped the flames, but are blackened from lying among smouldering forest. I have got upward a horse-load of objects, and am fitting them together equally fast as possible, preparatory to boiling them in gelatine. The whole room is not yet explored, as the globe must commencement be removed from above. I propose going downwards to-morrow.^[13]

Mallowan (1949–1963) [edit]

The Hall of Nimrud Ivories at the Iraq Museum in Baghdad, Iraq. This hall displays the largest number of Nimrud ivories than whatever other museum.

A supine balderdash, one of the Nimrud ivories found past Sir Max Mallowan, The Sulaymaniyah Museum, Iraq.

Farther discoveries were made between 1949 and 1963 past a squad from the British School of Archaeology in Republic of iraq led by the archaeologist Max Mallowan.^[7] Mallowan constitute thousands of ivories, many of which were discovered at the lesser of wells into which they had apparently been thrown when the metropolis was sacked, either in the turmoil that followed the death of Sargon Two in 705 BC or when Nineveh fell and was destroyed in 612 BC.^[12] Mallowan's wife was the famous British crime novelist, Agatha Christie (1890–1976), who was fascinated with archaeology, and who accompanied her husband on the Nimrud excavations.^[fourteen] Christie helped photograph and preserve many of the ivories found during the excavations, explaining in her autobiography that she cleaned the ivories using a fine knitting needle, an orange stick and a pot of face cream.^[8]

The collection of ivories uncovered by Mallowan were divided betwixt Iraq and Great britain, where they remained at the British School of Archaeology in Iraq (later to become the British Institute for the Report of Iraq) until 1987.^[five] They were so put in storage at the British Museum until 2011, but were non put on brandish.^[8] Many of the Iraqi-held ivories have been lost or damaged. Post-obit the Iraq War 2003 the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad was looted, and many of the ivories kept there were damaged or stolen. Other ivories that were stored in a bank vault in Baghdad were damaged by water when the building was shelled.^[8]

In March 2011, the British Museum purchased i third of the Mallowan ivories (comprising 1,000 complete ivories and 5,000 fragments) from the British Institute for the Study of Iraq for £i.17 million, following a public fundraising entrada that raised £750,000 in six months, and with the back up of grants from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and the Art Fund.^{[viii] [5]} This is the second most expensive buy by the British Museum since the terminate of the Second World War.^{[ citation needed ]}

In improver to the purchase, the British Establish for the Report of Iraq has also donated another third of its collection to the British Museum in recognition of the storage of the collection by the museum over the previous 24 years. It is predictable that the remaining third of the collection will be returned to Iraq sometime in the hereafter.^{[7] [5]} A selection of the ivories will exist put on display at the British Museum from xiv March 2011.^[7]

Oates (1957–1963) [edit]

The largest single ivory find was made between 1957–1963 when a British School squad led past David Oates discovered a room at the Nimrud palace that was dubbed the "ivory room", which had apparently served every bit the main storage centre for ivory objects amassed by the Assyrian kings. Subsequent excavations by the Iraqi Department of Antiquities unearthed still more ivories.^[15]

Other discoveries [edit]

In recent years excavations past the Iraqi Department of Antiquities have unearthed more ivories.^[xv]

• 

  Female head, probably from a statuette, Syrian style

• 

  Female person head, probably from a statuette, Northward Syrian style

• 

  Ram-headed Sphinxes Flanking a Sacred Tree, Phoenician, Cleveland Museum of Art

• 

  Man and Griffin in Combat, Phoenician, Cleveland Museum of Art

• 

  Plaque 8th-7th century BC

• 

  Plaque with plant motif

• 

  Standing man holding branches of lotus flowers.

• 

  Standing human property branches of lotus flowers. The winged god Assur appears above.

• 

  Standing man holding a lotus flower.

• 

  Carved ivory piece of an Egyptian adult female.

Canaanite and Aramaic inscriptions [edit]

ND 10150, the well-nigh detailed Canaanite and Aramaic inscription found in the ivory collection

A number of the ivories contain Canaanite and Aramaic inscriptions – a few contain a number of words, and many more than contain unmarried messages. Some of these were found in the mid-nineteenth century past Layard and Loftus (in particular a knob inscribed "property of Milki-ram " [lmlkrm]), and more were institute in 1961 by Mallowan and Oates. Of the latter, the well-nigh significant finds were excavated in "Fort Shalmaneser" in the southeast of the Nimrud site.^[xvi] Alan Millard published a series of these in 1962; the lawmaking "ND" is the standard excavation code for "Nimrud Documents":^[16]

• ND 10151 - a 9cm label with three letters
• ND 10359 - a triangular plaque from a harness, with three letters
• ND 8184 - a curved strip, with half-dozen letters, and farther smaller fragments
• ND 10150 - the most detailed inscription, on a fragment 9 ten five cm, with 3 lines of fragmented text. This is also known as TSSI I 6, having been published in Gibson'south Textbook of Syrian Semitic Inscriptions
• ND 10304 - an inscribed griffin, with five letters
• ND 10303 - an inscribed griffin, with iii letters

They accept been compared to the Arslan Tash ivory inscription and the Ur Box inscription.^[16]

One of the fragmentary ivories constitute at Nimrud carries the name of Hazael. This was probably king Hazael mentioned in the Bible.^[17]

Collections [edit]

Two pieces in the collection of Birmingham Museum and Fine art Gallery

Ivories from Nimrud are held at a number of institutions across the world:

• British Museum, London, England: half-dozen,000 pieces excavated by Mallowan which were formerly held at the British Found for the Study of Republic of iraq; as well as a number of pieces from other excavations.
• Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery 28 pieces from the British School of Archaeology in Iraq.^[18]
• National Museum of Iraq, Baghdad, Iraq.
• The Sulaymaniyah Museum, Iraqi Kurdistan. This museum houses about 30 pieces, which were excavated by Sir Max Mallowan. All of them are independent within 2 big display cases.
• Metropolitan Museum of Fine art, New York City
• Cleveland Museum of Art
• Erbil Civilisation Museum, Iraqi Kurdistan. The museum houses 3 plaques, which were also excavated by Sir Max Mallowan betwixt 1949 and 1963 CE. All of these plaques are on brandish in Hall 2 of the Museum.
• University of Melbourne, Australia: 3 pieces excavated past Mallowan.^[xix]
• The California Palace of the Legion of Accolade in San Francisco has a group of pieces.^[20]

Catalogues [edit]

The Nimrud Ivories are being published in a series of scholarly catalogues. Many of these are bachelor complimentary online from the British Institute for the Written report of Iraq (BISI): links here.

See also [edit]

• Mona Lisa of Nimrud
• Nimrud lens
• Begram ivories

Notes [edit]

1. ^ "Nimrud Ivories". British Museum. 21 February 2011. Retrieved fifteen March 2011.
2. ^ Richard David Barnett. "The Nimrud Ivories and the Art of the Phoenicians" Iraq, vol. two, no. 2, British Plant for the Study of Iraq, 1935, pp. 179–210, https://doi.org/10.2307/4241579. "The Nationality of the NW. Palace Ivories: That the grouping of ivories was not Assyrian was concluded on their discovery from their Egyptian advent. Francois Lenormant, in the Bulletin archéologique de l'Archives français, No. 6, June 1856, asserted that his father, Charles, had been the starting time to recognize that the pseudo-Egyptian workmanship was in reality Phoenician, whereas Dr. Birch of the British Museum, the ivories' first publisher, had held them for Egyptian work executed in Assyria, or copied there. Posterity, a few dissentients apart, has followed Lenormant, and some wilder misattributions might have been avoided had it been noticed, equally stated above, that in Layard'due south group vii pieces diameter a letter of the alphabet of the Phoenician alphabet, and in that of Loftus were two inscriptions apparently likewise Phoenician. (There seem to be weaker reasons for describing them every bit Aramaic.) Modern work has only enhanced the plausibility of Lenormant'southward view. Other ivories of similar type have been institute at Samaria, the capital letter of Ahab, whose connexions with Tyre were notorious. Again, those institute at Arslan Tash in North Syria, according to a fragment amid them which bore an inscription in what is either Phoenician or Aramaic, were seemingly made and presented by some Phoenician tributaries of Damascus to their overlord. To these points we may add the internal evidence of the religious scenes themselves, which in Part Two of this paper are shown to exist but such as would exist expected in the art of a country and so situated equally Phoenicia. A terminal bespeak of internal detail, in striking confirmation, is that the loggia windows represented on the panels of the 'Woman at the Window' illustrate what is in the Talmud called 'the Tyrian window', 'through which one can put 1's caput', i.e. παρακπύτειν, in contrast to the Egyptian type, through which one could not."
3. ^ Martin, Southward. Rebecca (2017). The Art of Contact: Comparative Approaches to Greek and Phoenician Art. University of Pennsylvania Press, Incorporated. pp. 28, 89. ISBN978-0-8122-9394-four. The two greatest challenges of Phoenician art history are thus highlighted past these critical early discoveries: none of the metal bowls and hardly whatever ivories were found in Phoenicia, and the portable objects that nosotros assign to Phoenician manufacture practice non necessarily share stylistic or iconographic features with one some other or with cloth excavated in Phoenicia. Yet it is almost universally believed that these two genres, metal bowls and carved ivories, mark the inception of Phoenician fine art… While it is tempting to accredit to lack of excavation the problem of discovering the "truthful" Phoenician origins of worked ivory and metal bowls, the idea is probably fantastical. Nosotros accept very piddling direct testify of metal working or ivory working on the mainland. Published areas of the well-excavated Sarepta (Sarafand, Lebanese republic) yielded fewer than ten ivory objects, but three of which are figurative, and not even one scrap of a "Phoenician" metallic bowl. And, as Hans Niemeyer and others bespeak out, neither bowls nor ivories appear in the master colonies, not at Carthage, Republic of malta, Sicily, or elsewhere. Fifty-fifty Markoe, the foremost expert on "Phoenician" metal bowls, admitted regarding those from Assyria, "nosotros simply do not know where these vessels were produced."
4. ^ ^{a b} Metropolitan note
5. ^ ^{a b c d} "Nimrud Ivories". Art Fund. Retrieved 8 March 2011.
6. ^ ^{a b} Frankfort 1970, p. 311
7. ^ ^{a b c d eastward} "Christie ivories to keep prove at British Museum". BBC Online. 8 March 2011. Retrieved 8 March 2011.
8. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Kennedy, Maev (7 March 2011). "British Museum buys Assyrian treasures cleaned by Agatha Christie". The guardian. London. Retrieved 8 March 2011.
9. ^ Frankfort 1970, pp. 311–312
10. ^ ^{a b} Frankfort 1970, pp. 313–314
11. ^ Frankfort 1970, pp. 314–322
12. ^ ^{a b} Fant & Blood-red 2008, p. 113
13. ^ Loftus, Westward.Thou. The Journal of Sacred Literature (ed. J. Kitto), July 1855, p. 492
14. ^ "Agatha Christie and archaeology". British Museum. Retrieved 8 March 2011.
15. ^ ^{a b} Fant & Ruddy 2008, p. 114
16. ^ ^{a b c} Millard, A. R. "Alphabetic Inscriptions on Ivories from Nimrud" Iraq, vol. 24, no. one, 1962, pp. 41–51
17. ^ A. R. Millard, Alphabetic Inscriptions on Ivories from Nimrud. Iraq, Vol. 24, No. one (Spring, 1962), pp. 41-51 (13 pages). https://doi.org/10.2307/4199711
18. ^ Horry, Ruth A (2015). "Conserving Birmingham Museum's Nimrud ivories". Oracc. University of Pennsylvania. Retrieved 19 Dec 2020.
19. ^ "Nimrud Ivories". University of Melbourne. Retrieved 20 March 2011.
20. ^ FAMSF printing release (meet stop)

References [edit]

• Fant, Clyde E.; Reddish, Michael Glenn (2008). Lost Treasures of the Bible: understanding the Bible through archaeological artifacts in globe museums. Wm. B. Eerdmans. ISBN978-0-8028-2881-1.
• Frankfort, Henri (1970) [1954]. The Art and Architecture of the Aboriginal Orient. Pelican History of Art (4th ed.). Yale University Press. ISBN0-300-05331-2.

Further reading [edit]

• Crawford, Vaughn East.; et al. (1980). Assyrian reliefs and ivories in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: palace reliefs of Assurnasirpal Ii and ivory carvings from Nimrud . New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Fine art. ISBN0870992600.

External links [edit]

• Nimrud ivories on the British Museum Flickr stream

teedstarountor65.blogspot.com

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nimrud_ivories

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