Plaque fragment. Culture: Assyrian. Dimensions: 1.18 x 1.14 x 0.31 in. (3 x 2.9 x 0.79 cm). Date: ca. 8th-7th century B.C..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 whose color has changed over time as the material degraded. The small circular yellow inlays are well preserved. Traces of blue and red color in the cloisons were left by the material that fixed the inlays in place rather than by the inlays themselves. When the royal buildings at Nimrud were sacked during the fall of Assyria in 614 and 612 B.C., looters stri