Ivory Plaque with Alternating Papyrus Flowers
Unknown · Neo-Assyrian period, eighth century BC
A complete plaque seven centimetres square carries a row of papyrus plants, alternately in flower and in bud, within a frame. Brownish colour remains on the corollas, the stems of the buds and segments of the frame. Turn to the back if the display allows: the craftsman scored preparatory lines with a marking gauge to lay out the mortises that fixed the plaque to its furniture, evidence of careful workshop practice. The design matches the fragment beside it and the two come from the same frieze.
The plaque was found three or four metres south of the traces of a bed in room fourteen of the Building of the Ivories at Arslan Tash, ancient Hadatu in northern Syria, an Assyrian provincial residence. It probably decorated that bed. François Thureau-Dangin excavated the site in 1928 and the finds were shared between Syria and France; this piece came to the Louvre through the partage of 1929. Papyrus friezes like this framed the figured scenes and gave the furniture its Egyptian flavour.
Did You Know? Scored lines on the back, made with a marking gauge, show the carver planning exactly where the plaque would be fixed to the bed.
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