Plaque carved in relief with sphinx trampling figure ca. 8th-7th century B.C. Assyrian This curved, 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 human-headed winged sphinx walking to the right, trampling a collapsing figure who seems to be nude, and who raises his head to face right while lifting his left arm, palm facing outward. Three of the sphinxs legs are those of a lion, as is typical, while unusually the left front appears to be a human arm; the sphinx places its human hand atop of head of the collapsed figure it tramples. The sphinx wears an Egyptian-style wig and broad collar necklace, with a headdress in the shape of a compressed disc. Traces of two papyrus plants appear at the left and right edges of the scene, and a raised plain border runs along the top and bottom. Carved ivory pieces such as this were widely