Furniture Inlay

This diminutive ivory plaque representing a woman's face was originally an inlay in a piece of furniture, probably a bed or couch. Such inlays became particularly common in the Near East during the ninth and eighth centuries B.C.E. and were produced in one of three artistic "schools," in Phoenicia (modern Lebanon), northern Syria, and Assyria (modern Iraq). The Jewish Museum inlay is most likely of the Phoenician school, which combined elements of Egyptian and Near Eastern art in an elegant style. Here, the female figure wears an Egyptian wig, yet the scene in which she is represented has its origins in Near Eastern religious beliefs and practices. Based on other examples with this imagery, the original inlay was larger and included the frame and balustrade of a window. The motif of a woman looking out of a window, known from religious artifacts in Cyprus and Jordan from around the same period, has been associated with the cult of the goddess of love in several ancient Near Eastern cultures. For example, a Mesopotamian goddess, Kilulu, is described as "she who bends out the window." The custom of using virgins in sacred sexual rites was known in Phoenician cults of the goddess Ashtart, and it has been suggested that the motif of the woman at the window depicts the goddess or her representative gazing out provocatively from her chamber. Additionally, the crossed lines on the frontlet of The Jewish Museum ivory are thought to be Ashtart's symbol.
Numerous caches of these types of inlays, some still in the original beds or couches, have been found throughout the Near East and Mediterranean, from Iran to Spain. They were most often discovered in royal palaces and temples or in the graves of the wealthy. Considered highly valuable, they were frequently seized as booty and carted off to distant capitals. A large group of ivory inlays, including one depicting the woman at the window, were found at Samaria, the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel, and date to the same period as The Jewish Museum ivory. It was perhaps the close ties between Phoenicia and King Ahab, who married the Phoenician princess Jezebel, that enabled the acquisition of such expensive items by an Israelite king and his descendants.