Osservazioni sugli avori assirizzanti di Nimrud

Abstract

G. Hermann recently republished some Assyrianizing ivory panels from North-West Palace of Nimrud, known as the Rawlinson ivories, showing two elegant young people on either side of a stylized plant, grasping fruits. Hermann’s careful examination reconstructs the various hypotheses regarding their origin, defining them as “Assyrianizing” and proposing that they were made in Urartu. On reconsidering the question, we believe the ivories are probably related to the artistic workshops of Carchemish which, in the final years of independence before Sargon II conquered the kingdom, were strongly influenced by a mutual exchange of attitudes and inspiration with Assyrian Sargonid workshops. Their iconography relates to palatine and religious circles, although we are unable to understand fully their significance or determine the functional use of the artifacts of which the ivories were part.