Openwork furniture plaque with sphinx striding through a floral landscape. Culture: Assyrian. Dimensions: 8.74 x 4.53 x 0.75 in. (22.2 x 11.51 x 1.91 cm). Date: ca. 9th-8th century B.C..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, this fragmentary plaque carved in the openwork technique depicts a winged, leonine animal, probably a sphinx, striding to the right. It was probably used to decorate a piece of wooden furniture. Two mortises cut into the preserved edge of the plaque on the right side suggest that the now-missing forepart of this hybrid creature, including its forelegs and head, was attached to the body by tenons. The lower hind legs have broken off. The floral stalks growing behind the sphinx's body and the single palmette preserved below its chest suggest that this hybrid creature was originally depicted striding through a floral landscape. The el