Ivories from Samaria

Ca. 12,000 pieces of polished or carved ivory were excavated at Samaria, Israel, between 1908 and 1935. They came from the area of the Iron Age palace and can be dated to the 9th to 8th centuries BCE. Despite being in a rather fragmentary state of preservation, the ivories from Samaria are of great significance for the cultural history of Israel, as well as for the still problematic classification of first millennium BCE Levantine ivory carvings. Their attribution to particular kingdoms is difficult, because the vast majority of the production was not found where it was made, but at Nimrud, the Assyrian capital at that time, where to it came as war booty or tribute. The collection from Samaria is the largest after that from Nimrud, and the only substantial one from a Levantine site. Even on very small fragments, motif and engraving technique can usually be identified and stylistically classified.