An Assyrian Gypsum Cuneiform Inscription Fragment from the Palace of Assurnasirpal II at Nimrud, reign of Assurnasirpal II, 885-856 B.C.

excavated at Nimrud by Sir Austen Henry Layard, 1845
Feuardent, Paris, 1911
Phil Berg, Los Angeles, 1960s
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1971 [inv. no. M71.73.1B]

Phil Berg, Man Came This Way. Objects from The Phil Berg Collection, catalogue of the exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, March 9th–May 30th, 1971, pp. 18-19, no. 1, illus.
A. Kirk Grayson, Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia: Assyrian Rulers of the 2nd Millennium B.C., vol. 2, Toronto, 1991, p. 270, no. 111 
Samuel M. Paley and Richard  P. Sobolewski, The Reconstruction of the Relief Representations and their Positions in the Northwest Palace at Kalhu (Nimrud) III: The Principal Entrances and Courtyards, Mainz am Rhein, 1992, p. 50

The present fragment was once thought to join with the lower edge of a panel depicting a winged human-headed genius kneeling before the Tree of Life, also formerly in the Phil Berg Collection and Los Angeles County Museum of Art (M71.73.1A);  both panels, which were then mounted and framed together, were separated subsequent to their deaccessioning.

For two other inscription fragments from the Northwest Palace at Nimrud, also formerly in the Phil Berg Collection and Los Angeles County Museum of Art (inv. nos. M71.73.3a-b), see Phil Berg, op. cit., pp. 18-19, nos. 2a-b (Christie’s, New York, December 9th, 2005, nos. 103-104); one is now in the Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University, the other in an American private collection.

For the complete translation of the Standard Inscription of Assurnasirpal II see S. M. Paley, King of the World: Ashurnasirpal II of Assyria 883–859 B.C., New York, 1976, pp. 125–44.

Phil Berg (d. 1983) was a pioneering talent agent in Hollywood. His clients included Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, and Judy Garland.