Introduction; Acknowledgments; THE ASSYRIAN PALACE AND RELIEF CARVING; Chapter One Royal Rhetoric and the Development of H istorical Narrative in Neo-Assyrian Reliefs; Chapter Two Art in Empire: The Royal Image and the Visual Dimensions of Assyrian Ideology; Chapter Three Le Palais imaginaire: Scale and Meaning in the Iconography of Neo-Assyrian Cylinder Seals; Chapter Four Ornament and the "Rhetoric of Abundance" in Assyria; BRONZE AND IVORY/LUXURY GOODS; Chapter Five Phoenician and North Syrian Ivory Carving in Historical Context: Questions of Style and Distribution