tour 26 of 26
Agatha Christie and archaeology
Silver beaker
Each campaigning season the Assyrian army
gathered at the palace and military complex at Nimrud, known today
as Fort Shalmaneser. Mallowan and his team discovered large
quantities of ash and burnt debris there, resulting from the
destruction of Nimrud at the end of the seventh century BC. They
found several small objects and a considerable quantity of pottery
among the remains in the living quarters. These are typical of the
small personal possessions lost by their owners before the palace
was finally abandoned. Fortunately two trophies, this beautiful
silver beaker and a silver bowl decorated with lion's heads
(now in the Iraq Museum, Baghdad) were hidden in a small pit
beneath the floor, and escaped looters. The weight of the soil has,
however, crushed the
beaker.
The beaker has two
bands of gold leaf overlaying incised geometric and floral
decoration on the neck and another at the base. The button or
'nipple' base also forms the centre of a rosette,
the petals of which are also covered with gold
leaf.