Furniture plaque carved in relief with a striding, falcon-headed winged sphinx supported by two kneeling figures ca. 9th-8th century B.C. Assyrian This rectangular plaque is carved in high relief and was found in a storeroom at Fort Shalmaneser, a royal building at Nimrud that was probably used to store tribute and booty collected by the Assyrians while on military campaign. Two tenons, preserved above the upper and lower edges, indicate that this piece may have been fitted into a frame, likely as part of a piece of furniture. Two West Semitic letters are inscribed into the ivory: Resh on the obverse of the upper tenon and Zayin on the lower reverse of the plaque. These letters, known as fitters marks, would have served as guides to aid the craftsperson in the piece-by-piece assembly of the original piece of furniture to which this plaque originally belonged. This plaque includes Egyptian elements typically found on Phoenician style ivories, such as the chevron-patterned apron and the