Plaque fragment with battle scene
Unknown Artist
ca. 9th century BCE
Medium
Ivory
Dimensions
1 3/16 × 3 1/16 × 1/8 in. (2.95 × 7.7 × 0.3 cm)
Classification
Ivory/Bone-Reliefs
Culture & Period
Assyrian · Neo-Assyrian
Department
Ancient Near Eastern Art
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Rogers Fund, 1952
Accession Number
52.23.7
Tags
About this artwork
This fragmentary ivory relief depicts an Assyrian military campaign, showing a chariot with two soldiers amid battle. The central figures are a charioteer holding reins and a bearded archer raising his bow, identifiable as Assyrians by their distinctive clothing and grooming. A spear projects from the chariot's rear platform, near which dangles an enemy soldier's arm, likely from a corpse. Below, a surrendering soldier with a short beard and unusual plumed or spiked helmet stands before horses w...