Carvings from Ancient Israel

Among the most beautiful items in Israel and neighboring countries were ivory carvings that were used for decorating furniture and for other purposes. The largest assemblage of ivories from Israel, approximately twelve thousand pieces (many of them small fragments) from the ninth to eighth centuries BCE, was found in the royal compound of Samaria, the capital city of the Northern Kingdom. Apart from a few sculptures in the round, the vast majority are partial or complete panels that were inlaid in wooden furniture. Their size ranges from nearly square panels of approximately 1.3 × 1.4 inches (3.3 × 3.6 cm) to rectangular panels of approximately 7 × 1.3 inches (17.8 × 3.3 cm). Most are carved in openwork or solid relief; a small group is inlaid with colored material. They were attached to furniture by tenons and pegs.

Other types of ivory carvings, such as stoppers, handles, spoons, and containers, have been found at other sites. The motifs of the carvings include floral and vegetal designs, geometric shapes, humans, animals and hybrids, and Egyptian deities. In motif and technique, almost all the ivories reflect traditions shared with other parts of the Levant, particularly the regions adjacent to the Northern Kingdom, namely southern Syria and Phoenicia (the latter betraying strong Egyptian influence). Some of these ivories may have come from those areas, but the Samaria finds included the raw material, pieces of unworked elephant tusk, so it seems that most of the Samaria ivories were manufactured there, by either Israelite or itinerant Phoenician or Aramaean artisans. Ivory carvings were prestige goods, made for royalty and the wealthy. The book of Kings refers to Solomon’s ivory throne (1 Kings 10:18) and, notably, to the ivory palace that Ahab built, presumably in his capital, Samaria (1 Kings 22:39). The prophet Amos, addressing the inhabitants of Jerusalem and Samaria, refers to “ivory palaces” and “ivory beds” as symbols of the indulgence and conspicuous consumption of the wealthy (Amos 6:4). The mention of ivory furniture and palaces probably refers to furniture decorated with ivory and to palaces containing such furniture, as shown by the Assyrian king Sennacherib’s mention of ivory-inlaid furniture (as well as raw ivory) that he carried off as booty from Hezekiah’s Jerusalem (see Sennacherib’s Annals: The Campaign against Judah). None of the ivory-inlaid furniture from Israel has survived, but similar furniture has been found elsewhere. What the foreign motifs meant to the carvers or the owners of the ivories is uncertain.

Bone (normally mammalian), used for handles and other utilitarian purposes and as decorative inlays, was sometimes decorated with elaborate carvings. Seashells were made into jewelry and containers, usually in their natural state but sometimes engraved with geometric or figural designs.