Furniture element carved in the round with the head of a roaring lion ca. 9th-8th century B.C. Assyrian This fragmentary piece takes the form of the face of a roaring lion. It was found in a storeroom at Fort Shalmaneser, a royal building at Nimrud that was probably used to store booty and tribute collected by the Assyrians while on military campaign. During the final defeat of Assyria at the end of the seventh century B.C., the royal complexes at Nimrud were sacked and burned, and the lion was likely blackened through exposure to fire at this time. The flat back suggests that this piece may have originally been attached to a piece of wooden furniture such as the arm of a chair. The right cheek, eyebrows, and incised muzzle are detailed with incised dots and the eyes are deeply carved for now-lost semiprecious stone or colored glass inlays. A pattern of painted white triangles outlined with raised ribs is preserved on the right side at the back of the face, perhaps to represent a mane.