This sumptuous and beautifully produced book brings together under one volume all the ivories found in the Northwest Palace of Nimrud over the last 160 years in the excavations of Layard, Rawlinson, Rassam, Loftus, George Smith, Mallowan and the excavations of the Iraqi State Board for Antiquities and Heritage. In addition to the material from the Northwest Palace the volume also includes the material from the Central Palace and from the Town Wall Houses. As noted by the authors, the disruptions, depredations and destruction caused by the Gulf Wars means that many of these pieces may never be seen again.

Chapter One sets the scene with an extremely useful examination of the political scene in the near east in the late second and early first millennia bce. The background to the explosion of ivory production in this time period is the reconfiguration of the Levant into a network of independent city states following the collapse of the Hittite Empire and the Egyptian Twentieth Dynasty around 1200 bce. While ivory is listed among the tribute given to Tiglath-Pileser I by Byblos in 1109 bce it was really in the course of the ninth, eighth and seventh centuries that the huge quantities of ivories found their way to Assyria in the form of gifts, tribute and booty. Chapter Two covers the history of excavation with a detailed room-by-room account of the discoveries. Chapter Three deals with the history of the study of the pieces including a review of the terminology and methodology involved. Attention is drawn to the sets of similar pieces - defined by size, shape, subject, style, framing and method of fixing - of which the different groups are constituted, as well as to some of the key elements of iconography (winged discs, crowns, sphinxes, contests scenes) and techniques (inlay, cross-hatching, framing). Fitters marks are discussed and with them the matter of craftsmen and workshops. This paves the way for the subject of Chapter Four, which evaluates the different proposals for the context in which the ivories were produced - palace, bazaar or independent artisans. The range of motifs used by the Levantine workshops turns out to be surprisingly limited and this facilitates a detailed examination of a representative variety of types attested in all traditions. The authors conclude that the ivories were generated by palace-controlled multi-centred production, one point of which was for use in diplomatic gift-exchange. The following chapters then present the individual ivories from these different traditions - Phoenician and Syrian (Chapter Five), North Syrian (Chapter Six) and Assyrian (Chapter Seven). The Phoenician school has a major propensity for incorporating Egyptianising elements and also a separate “ornate” group; harness fittings are one important sub-group of this material. The Syrian school is characterised by the “wig and wing” style group of which women at the window, sphinxes and bridle harnesses are important sub-groups; other style groups in this tradition are the “crown and sceptre” and “beaky-nosed” groups. In the North Syrian School, the repertoire of which was notably expanded by the corpus of ivories from Well AJ, a great many of the motifs are those also found in the Phoenician ivories although there are some additions such as banqueting scenes, animal hunts and musicians. There are innumerable differences in the detail of style and execution but the group is most defined by the “flame and frond” and “round cheek and ringletted” motifs, which the authors demonstrate are likely to have been manufactured in Tell Halaf (Guzana, the capital of the state of Bit-Bahiani) and Zencirli (Sam’al, the capital of the state of Bit-Gabbari) respectively. Fan handles turn out to be a particular product of this group. Assyrian ivories are the smallest of the groups. A great proportion of them are incised on thin panels (a smaller number are modelled) in addition to which there are also writing boards. A particularly interesting set probably comes from the Central Palace dating to the reign of Tiglath-Pileser III. Only 5% of the ivories from Nimrud are in the Assyrian style but the evidence of their find spots - in and around the throne rooms - is that these were the ones which were actually used. The great majority of ivories in the other styles were found in storerooms (notably SW7, SW12, SW37) into which they had probably come as tribute or booty; they may never have actually been used. Another interesting insight is that, contra to modern assumptions, the mainstream users of the ivory artefacts were men. Not only is this suggested by evidence in the reliefs but also almost no ivories were found in the tombs of the princesses in Nimrud (whereas ivory artefacts were found in a male tomb at Tell Halaf). The above chapters are completed with a detailed bibliography after which follows the catalogue proper. This amounts to hundreds of entries, many comprising more than one fragment, and is organised into overall location of discovery - the Great Court, the State Apartments and the Residential Wing. A very useful feature of the written entries is that the great majority are accompanied by thumbnail photographs in addition to which there are numerous line drawings. Appendixes deal with the pieces from Well AJ, from the Central Palace and from the Town Wall Houses, as well as giving a concordance of find numbers, an index of distribution and a list of other objects found with the ivories. After this come the 137 full page black and white plates giving (often multiple) photographs of all the major pieces, a number of which are accompanied by reproductions of the amazingly accurate and convincing water colours prepared by E Prentice in 1848. Finally a selection of colour plates gives wonderful large colour illustrations of some of the more celebrated pieces. Very few of the ivories are inscribed in cuneiform, two notable exceptions being the famous writing boards from Well AB (pp.105–107 with Fig. 40, pl. 14–15; the fitters’ marks are discussed by Millard on pp.148–149) and a pyxis from Well AJ marked as property of the palace of Ashurnasirpal (p. 227, Plate 124). There is also one other pyxis fragment inscribed with a (broken) votive inscription of Shamshi-ilu (p.178). Among the utilitarian artefacts the oblong objects which the authors interpret as erasing knives or scrapers (p. 208) are of particular interest. In conclusion, this is a breathtaking book. To bring together all these ivories excavated by so many different individuals and expeditions over a timeframe which corresponds to the entire history of the discipline of Mesopotamian archaeology is in itself no mean feat. Added to this is the excellent background of the relevant ancient history, the detailed stylistic analysis, the careful entries and the superb drawings and photographs combine to make a truly exemplary work. The authors are owed the deepest gratitude for this quite inspirational achievement.