Knob ca. 8th century B.C. Assyrian This is one of a group of ivory knobs found in a storage room in the large building at Nimrud named Fort Shalmaneser by the excavators. Carved ivory was widely used in the production of elite furniture during the early first millennium B.C. Ivory plaques and strips were often inlaid into a wooden frame using joinery techniques and glue. Knobs such as these could have been used to mask dowel holes and nail heads in a finished 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 of the Northwest Palace, the majority of the ivories display images and styles related to the arts of North Syria and the Phoenician city-states. Phoenician style ivories are distinguished by their use of i