Engraved Tridacna shell

A decorated Tridacna shell was discovered in a Neo-Assyrian period dwelling in Ashur. These edible molluscs come either from the Red Sea or the Persian-Arabian Gulf. The shell’s decoration with delicate incised drawings shows it to be of Phoenician origin. There is no way of knowing whether it found its way to Ashur as a luxury gift or in the luggage of some foreign woman who resided there. The narrative power and beauty of the depiction are impressive. At the shell’s hinge a female head has been carved in three dimensions, her flowing hair blending in with the two-dimensional image of a fourwinged genius seen from the back.