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
Ivory Carved Dashavtar base, covered completely with ivory sheet has the traditional south Indian design of flowers and is decorated with several knobs fixed at the bottom step. Also two pillars support the fence in the background on both sides. The backdrop of the shrine is decorated with perforated ivory screen. These Jaalidar (lattice work) screens are divided in three parts by two small European style columns. An ivory strip on the wooden edges of the steps and base of the shrine depicts the foliage pattern. There are total 10 images, each depicting Lord Vishnu's avatars, carved in ivory. The topmost image is