Phoenician and North Syrian Ivory Carving in Historical Context: Questions of Style and Distribution

Abstract

The discovery of actual ivory objects more-or-less contemporary with the literary references during excavations of the Assyrian palaces at Nimrud in the mid-nineteenth century thus engendered great excitement. Barnett noted that the Syrian group was more restricted in variety of technique than the Phoenician. Barnett noted that the Syrian group was more restricted in variety of technique than the Phoenician, stating that, tfor example, 'cloisonnee' or inlay work in ivory was probably developed by the Phoenicians, was commonly used by them and only sparingly employed in the Syrian groupt. The impact of the Syrian representation is considerably stronger than the Phoenician. The chapter also presents a list of known collections of ivory carving of the first millennium B.C. in order to assign pieces to their appropriate stylistic families, and then to plot the occurrence of ?Syrian and ?Phoenician works on separate distribution maps.Keywords: Assyrian palaces; Barnett; mid-nineteenth century; north Syrian ivory carving; Phoenician ivory carvings