Head and foreleg of a snarling lion ca. 9th-8th century B.C. Assyrian This substantial piece of ivory in the shape of a lions foreparts, carved in the round, was probably part of a piece of elite furniture. Carved ivory pieces like this one 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. The eye socket is hollowed out to receive an inlay in contrasting materials, now lost. The mane is carved as a series of overlapping individual locks, and other details are similarly precisely indicated, such as the bared teeth and the tensed muscles in the foreleg and muzzle. Lions, which were associated with royalty and with the warlike goddess Ishtar, seem to have been frequently depicted in ivory and used as the support for elaborate chairs or thrones. Many large pieces of carved ivory representing the legs or heads of lions