Fragment of an Ivory Plaque: Sphinx with Wings and Papyrus
Unknown · Neo-Assyrian period, eighth century BC
A sphinx facing the viewer survives as its wings, part of its hindquarters and two papyrus stems, on a fragment eleven centimetres high. The wings are spread wide with the feathers carved in rows, and the papyrus flowers open at the sides. The head, which the museum takes to have been human and seen full face, is lost. The creature is of Phoenician type, the standard guardian of the ivory furniture of the period. Compare the feathers here with those on the other sphinx fragments in the case; each workshop had its own way of cutting them.
The fragment was found in the courtyard of the Building of the Ivories at Arslan Tash, ancient Hadatu in northern Syria, rather than in room fourteen where most of the furniture lay. Arslan Tash was an Assyrian provincial residence built under Tiglath-pileser the Third, and its ivories are thought to be tribute or plunder from the cities of the west. François Thureau-Dangin excavated the site in 1928; the plaque came to the Louvre in the partage of 1929.
Did You Know? Found in the courtyard rather than the furniture room, this fragment shows how far the broken ivories were scattered when the building was ransacked.
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