Border strip ca. 9th-8th century B.C. Assyrian This fragment of a narrow strip is decorated with diagonal ridges. Carved ivory pieces such as this were widely used in the production of elite furniture during the early first millennium B.C. They were often inlaid into a wooden frame using joinery techniques and glue, and could be overlaid with gold foil or inlaid with colored glass or stone pieces to create a dazzling effect of gleaming surfaces and bright colors. A round hole was drilled through the strip, and half of another drilled hole can be seen at one end, where the strip was broken in antiquity. These holes may have allowed it to be nailed to a frame for a piece of furniture.Built by the Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II, the palaces and storerooms of Nimrud housed thousands of pieces of carved ivory. Most of the ivories served as furniture inlays or small precious objects such as boxes. While some of them were carved in the same style as the large Assyrian reliefs lining the walls