Samaria Ivories (the 'Ivory House' finds) - Biblical Archaeology Encyclopedia

Overview

Samaria, the northern kingdom's capital, has produced a large body of carved ivory: plaques, panels and fragments that were once inlays on furniture and wall panelling. A few came from the Harvard excavations of 1908-10. The main body came from the Joint Expedition of 1931-35, published by J. W. and G. M. Crowfoot in PEQ (1933) and in Early Ivories from Samaria (Samaria-Sebaste II, 1938). About 500 pieces are counted, and only a small part could be restored.

The motifs are those of the Levantine ivory workshops known from Nimrud and Arslan Tash. One group is Egyptianizing: the child Horus (Harpocrates) on a lotus, Isis and Nephthys, Heh, Horus and Ma'at. The other group has the 'woman at the window', winged sphinxes, winged human figures, lion-and-bull combat and the stylized palmette 'tree'.

'Ivory House' is a modern label taken from 1 Kings 22:39. The Harvard report (1924) already called the second Israelite palace building the 'ivory palace' of Ahab, before the main ivory finds, on the strength of its fine ashlar masonry and its place in the building sequence.

What the evidence shows

About 500 carved ivory pieces from the royal quarter; only a small fraction restorable (Pienaar 2008, citing SS II and Kenyon 1960).
Findspots spread across several areas of the summit (Harvard S2, S4, S7; Joint Expedition Qc, Qk, Qd, Qh, Z, B), not a single sealed room.
Egyptianizing iconography (Harpocrates on lotus, Isis/Nephthys, Heh, Horus with Ma'at) alongside Levantine motifs (woman at the window, winged sphinx, lion and bull).
Same motif repertoire as ivories from Nimrud and Arslan Tash, e.g. the 'woman at the window'.
Reisner-Fisher-Lyon (1924): the second palace was 'naturally identified with the "ivory palace" of Ahab, and the smoothly dressed surfaces ... are sufficient justification for this name' - an identification based on masonry and sequence, not on ivory finds.
No ivory from Samaria carries a royal name; nothing on the objects names Ahab.

Open questions

When were the ivories made and deposited? The Crowfoots (PEQ 1933; Early Ivories from Samaria, 1938) presented them in the context of the Israelite palace and the biblical 'ivory house' of Ahab. Ron E. Tappy (The Archaeology of Israelite Samaria II: The Eighth Century BCE, 2001, ch. 'The Archaeo-Historical Context of the Samaria Ivories', pp. 443-503) re-examined the excavation records and treats the ivories' contexts within the eighth-century material. The objects themselves are not stratigraphically dated; the question turns on which fills and floors they came from.
Whose workshop? Irene J. Winter (Iraq 43, 1981) separated a 'South Syrian' carving style from the Phoenician and North Syrian styles found at Nimrud, which bears on whether the Samaria pieces are imports or local work. D. Barag (Anatolian Studies 33, 1983) proposed using glass inlays to classify and date ninth-eighth century ivories.
Ahab's 'house of ivory' (1 Kgs 22:39) or the later 'houses of ivory' Amos condemns (Amos 3:15; 6:4)? Because the ivories are undated, they fit either text; no find ties them to one king.

Sources

G. A. Reisner, C. S. Fisher and D. G. Lyon, Harvard Excavations at Samaria, 1908-1910, vol. I: Text (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1924) link excavation report
J. W. Crowfoot and G. M. Crowfoot, 'The Ivories from Samaria', Palestine Exploration Quarterly 65/1 (1933): 7-26, doi:10.1179/peq.1933.65.1.7 link excavation report
J. W. Crowfoot and G. M. Crowfoot, Early Ivories from Samaria (Samaria-Sebaste: Reports of the Work of the Joint Expedition in 1931-1933 and of the British Expedition in 1935, No. 2; London: Palestine Exploration Fund, 1938) link editio princeps
Ron E. Tappy, 'The Archaeo-Historical Context of the Samaria Ivories', in The Archaeology of Israelite Samaria, vol. II: The Eighth Century BCE (Leiden: Brill, 2001), 443-503, doi:10.1163/9789004369962_007 link study
Irene J. Winter, 'Is There a South Syrian Style of Ivory Carving in the Early First Millennium B.C.?', Iraq 43/2 (1981): 101ff., doi:10.2307/4200140 link study
D. Barag, 'Glass Inlays and the Classification and Dating of Ivories from the Ninth-Eighth Centuries B.C.', Anatolian Studies 33 (1983): 163-167, doi:10.2307/3642706 link study
D. N. Pienaar, 'Symbolism in the Samaria Ivories and Architecture', Acta Theologica 28/2 (2008), doi:10.4314/actat.v28i2.48882 link study

Corrected from the earlier edition of this page

Old entry says the ivories were uncovered 'in the early 1930s by the American archaeologist J.H.H. St. John'. No such excavator appears in the reports. The Joint Expedition of 1931-35 was directed by J. W. Crowfoot (British), with Kathleen Kenyon and E. L. Sukenik; the ivories were published by J. W. and G. M. (Grace) Crowfoot. A few pieces had already come from the Harvard excavation of 1908-10.
Old entry says they were 'found in situ within the palace's foundations'. The published findspots are spread over at least nine areas of the summit (Pienaar 2008 citing the 1938 plan), and their stratigraphic context is disputed (Tappy 2001).
Old entry describes the motifs as 'floral and geometric patterns'. The repertoire is largely figural: Egyptian deities (Harpocrates, Isis, Nephthys, Heh, Ma'at), sphinxes, winged figures, the woman at the window, lion and bull.
Old entry states the palace 'is believed to have been the residence of King Ahab' and that the ivories 'directly correlate' with 1 Kgs 22:39. No inscription names Ahab; the 'ivory palace' label was given by the Harvard team in 1924 on architectural grounds.
Old entry cites '1 Kings 22:42' and '2 Chronicles 18:10' for the ivory house. Neither verse mentions ivory: 1 Kgs 22:42 is Jehoshaphat's accession, and 2 Chr 18:10 is Zedekiah's iron horns. The ivory texts are 1 Kgs 22:39, Amos 3:15, Amos 6:4 and Ps 45:8.
Old entry gives a firm date 'c. 850 BCE'. The objects are undated; the range discussed runs across the 9th-8th centuries.
Old entry's museum locations (Rockefeller Museum and Israel Museum) could not be confirmed in a published museum record and are omitted.

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