The drawings collated in this file all pertain to ivory objects excavated at Mycenae between 1939-1955. The ivory trio 39-165 was a celebrated find excavated in a Mycenaean context (ca. 1450 BCE) at the foot of the north terrace wall that constitutes the northern foundations of the Archaic Temple above. In the same context a plaster head of a male was found, see drawing MCNE-2-3-13-01

The majority of ivories featured in these drawings were excavated in the 1950s outside the citadel in the House of the Oil Merchant (1400-1300 BCE), which transpired to be flanked north and south by further buildings, named after the predominant patterns of ivory carving found within: the House of Shields and the House of Sphinxes. Known collectively as ‘the Ivory Houses’ (over 18,000 ivory fragments were eventually unearthed there), material in other media and Linear B tablets were also discovered.