Plaque fragment ca. 8th-7th century B.C. Assyrian This small broken piece of ivory was originally part of a plaque. Carved ivory plaques were widely used in the production of elite furniture during the early first millennium B.C. They were often inlaid into a wooden frame using joinery techniques and glue, and could be overlaid with gold foil or inlaid with colored glass or stone pieces to create a dazzling effect of gleaming surfaces and bright colors. This fragment is made up of thin-walled carved cells, called cloisons, that were filled with colored inlays, although no traces of them remain here. When the royal buildings at Nimrud were sacked during the fall of Assyria in 614 and 612 B.C., looters stripped the gold inlay from the ivory furniture and left the broken pieces behind. This piece was probably part of a flower, which formed the background of many ornately carved inlaid ivories.Built by the Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II, the palaces and storerooms of Nimrud housed thousand