Openwork furniture plaque with the head of a feline. Culture: Assyrian. Dimensions: 2.09 x 1.89 x 0.94 in. (5.31 x 4.8 x 2.39 cm). Date: ca. 9th-8th century B.C..Found in a storeroom at Fort Shalmaneser, a royal building at Nimrud that was used to store booty and tribute collected by the Assyrians while on military campaign, this piece depicts the frontal face of a feline wearing a beaded wesekh broad collar flanked by two rising sun-disc crowned uraei (mythical, fire-spitting serpents). This image is drawn from Egyptian art, where the head of a feline can represent both Bastet, the goddess of the city of Bubastis in the Nile Delta, and Sakhmet, the Egyptian goddess of war, disease, and chaos. This plaque has been attributed to the Phoenician style due to its Egyptian-influenced imagery. A tenon projecting from the feline's headdress suggests that this piece was originally fitted into a frame, likely as part of a piece of wooden furniture. Two dowel holes, one drilled into the tenon a