Plaque carved in relief with figure fighting a lion ca. 8th-7th century B.C. Assyrian This trapezoidal ivory plaque was found in a storage room in Fort Shalmaneser, a royal building at Nimrud that was used to store booty and tribute collected by the Assyrians while on military campaign. It depicts a male figure, barefoot and dressed in an Egyptian-style kilt and beaded collar, in combat with a rampant lion. The figure wears a short Egyptian wig and a headdress that resembles the Egyptian double crown. He holds a plant stalk with a lily blossom in his right hand and grasps the lions foreleg with the same hand, while driving a spear through its abdomen with his left, holding the spear awkwardly behind his own body. Plant stalks topped with lily blossoms grow behind each of the two combatants, and one with an additional branch topped by a bud grows in the field between the two. The lion seems to rest a paw on the lily blossom, or perhaps on the shaft of the spear. Its mouth is open in a