Nimrud ivories that followed the death of Sargon II in 705 BC or when Nineveh fell and was destroyed in 612 BC. Mallowan's wife was the famous British crime novelist, Agatha Christie (1890–1976), who was fascinated with archaeology, and who accompanied her husband on the Nimrud excavations. Christie helped photograph and preserve many of the ivories found during the excavations, explaining in her autobiography that she cleaned the ivories using a fine knitting needle, an orange stick and a pot of face cream. The collection of ivories uncovered by Mallowan were divided between Iraq and Britain, where they remained at the British
Pomegranate carved in the round (Metropolitan Museum of Art) Pomegranate carved in the round (Metropolitan Museum of Art) The Metropolitan Museum of Art holds a ivory bead dated to the 8th century B.C. in its collection. The bead is shaped like a pomegranate, and is attributed to the Assyrian Empire. The ivory bead is shaped like a pomegranate, an object commonly depicted in Assyrian art. The reddish color of the bead was not intended; rather, the object is stained as a result of being buried in the ruins of Kalhu. A product of the trade routes of the Bronze Age Civilizations, the ivory used in the making of the