Plaque with winged bird-headed genie ca. 9th-8th century B.C. Assyrian This strip of ivory was probably blackened through exposure to fire when the palace complexes at Nimrud were sacked during the final defeat of Assyria at the end of the seventh century B.C. At the top edge is a triple border made up of a guilloche (a spiral motif formed by a row of connected circles) flanked above and below by stylized palmettes. Below is an eagle-headed winged figure with human body, similar to those depicted on the Assyrian palace reliefs, such as 32.143.7 in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum. He faces left and holds a bucket in one hand while raising a cone-shaped form in the other. Below his feet is another triple border of palmettes flanking a guilloche. At bottom, a bull is shown facing left, with head down, forelegs bent, and hindquarters raised, above a stylized scale pattern used to represent mountain landscapes in ancient Near Eastern art. The bottom edge of the strip is rounded. C