The Excavations at Nimrud (Kalḫu), 1949-1950 Ivories from the N. W. Palace

Abstract

The most important of the rich and varied pieces of carved ivory discovered at Nimrud during 1949 and 1950 have already been illustrated and discussed in previous numbers of this Journal.1 The photographs which accompany this article, Plates XII-XVIII, illustrate the remainder of what still needed to be published from those two seasons : anything omitted is probably too much mutilated or fragmentary to be worth describing. This material falls into two groups. Plates XII-XV represent the remains of the ivories from Layard's dumps in chamber V of the N.W. Palace, and were found in 1949 together with the beautiful ivory cow shown in Iraq, XIII, Pt. 1, Plate I, Nos. 2, 3 ; Plates XVI-XV?1 represent the few pieces still unpublished from the collection of ivories found in the S.E. wing of the N.W. Palace during 1950. It will be seen that none of these pieces adds substantially to our knowledge of the Nimrud ivories, for none of them is different in style from anything previously discovered, but for the sake of completeness they have deserved illustration. Nor should it be forgotten that some of them may perhaps join with other fragments brought home by Layard a century ago and now in the British Museum. However, it is also evident that each element is but a small fraction of a very much larger whole, and such joins as could be made would not be likely to alter the picture of the already known themes which composed the repertory ?f the ancient ivory work. It may be hoped, none the Jess, that at some future time such disjecta membra will be reassembled, however little they may avail for the complete restoration of what was long ago for the most part destroyed. AH o? the ivory fragments as well as the glass and gold foil shown on Plates XII-XV were found in Layard's filling which overlay the floor of chamber V {cf. Fig. 1 for the location of this room in the N.W. Palace); a few mutilated pieces were also discovered in room W. There can be no certainty about their original position, since they come from earth which the workmen had shovelled back again on Layard's orders for the purpose of protecting the rooms after he had finished digging them. But it is most probable that the majority had in fact come from room V where Layard himself said that he found them : the passage in which he describes the discovery is of interest, cf. Nineveh and its Remains, Vol. 11, p. 8/. The chamber V is remarkable for the discovery, near the entrance a, of a number of ivory ornaments of considerable beauty and interest. These ivories, when uncovered, adhered so firmly to the soil,