Herrmann Georgina. Ivories from Room SW 37, Fort Shalmaneser: Plates

British School of Archaeology in Iraq, 1986. — 420 p. — ( Ivories from Nimrud (1949-1963) 4.2).Between the years 1949 and 1963, in the course ofthirteen campaigns, excavations conducted at Nimrud by the British
School of Archaeology in Iraq yielded many thousands of ivories-mostly in a fragmentary condition. The task of
sorting, cleaning, strengthening, repairing, classifying, registering and photographing this vast collection has progressed
slowly and steadily. Meanwhile it has become necessary to decide how best to present the objects for publication.
It is obvious that not every object requires description, for often all that has survived from the original is a splinter;
but it is hoped that eventually everything of importance will be represented. Meanwhile, a selection of over 300 ivories
has been published by M. E. L. Mallowan, in 'Nimrud and its Remains' (2 vols. 1966) in addition to the choice
specimens which have been reproduced in issues of the Journal Iraq and the Illustrated London News. In the
above mentioned big volumes on Nimrud, problems of chronology, style, technique and stratification have been discussed,
but the conclusions to many difficult questions will remain provisional; until the final analysis can be completed
through the exhaustive series of publications which should appear in the course of the next decade. It is to be expected
that as these discoveries become widely known in print and illustration, learned comment and the excavation of related
material elsewhere will widen and deepen our knowledge of the subject.
It seemed to the editors that the best method of publication would be to incorporate the ivories in a series of fascicules
within which the whole of the disparate material could be gradually and systematically classified. As it should be the
duty of every archaeological expedition to record its discoveries with the minimum of delay, it was decided in principle
to prepare for the printing of Catalogue and Plates before the general commentary, which would necessarily be concerned
with historical, artistic and technical discussions.