Border strip ca. 9th-8th century B.C. Assyrian This fragment of a narrow strip is decorated with an incised row of connected circles, called a guilloche pattern. 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. This strip has light horizontal scratches on the back, probably to help the glue join the surface of the ivory to another element made out of wood or ivory.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 of the Northwest P