Adjacent to this valley were such mighty cities and fortresses as Susa in Elam and Harran in upper Mesopotamia, and Carche mish, which the British have partially exca vated within the past five years, with other cities on its western frontier—all evidence of the thrift and permanency of the civilization of 3,000 and 4,000 years, ago.
Architecture.— The buildings of Baby lonia-Assyria were modified architecturally, no doubt, by the character of the material accessible for their construction. Throughout this entire valley the absence of stone led to the use of clay bricks, sun- and kiln-dried, for building material. This, of course, necessitated a plain ness of form that admitted of little exterior decoration. The walls were often built very thick, of sun-dried, with a veneer of kiln-dried, bricks. This veneer was a protection against the ravages of the weather and the depredations of robbers, who could readily dig through a thick wall of merely sun-dried bricks. The strength of a sun-dried brick wall was some times increased by inserting between the courses of bricks, layers of reeds. The entire struc ture was built on an artificially raised mound, primarily to lift the building above the danger of the overflowings of the rivers, but later ap parently because ofthe age-long custom of placing it on an eminence. The entrances to the palaces and temples were usually guarded by great monolithic colossi, human-headed bulls or lions, standing on either side and facing out ward. Within were courts of different sizes that served the royal personages or their at tendants. In immediate connection with each palace or group of royal buildings, particularly in Babylonia, was the tower or temple. It was a structure that towered above everything else, and rose from its base to its summit in a series of stages, sometimes seven, or steps, by which one ascended. On the top of this massive pile one would find the image of the god held in particular reverence, or to whom the tower was dedicated. There are several remains of these sacred structures found in Babylonia to day. Their ability to withstand the ravages of time is due to the hard burnt bricks with which they were constructed. The remains of the tower at Mugheir, the ancient gUr of the was built, according to its present indication, upon a platform 20 feet above the plain ; its base was a parallelogram about 200 feet by 135 feet.
One of the niceties of these constructions was their adaptation to the necessities and com forts of the people. There was an admirable system of drainage, of hydraulics in general. that embodied some of the best principles of modern sanitation. The arch contributed no little to the construction of some of the primi tive royal buildings of the 20th century B.C. (cf. Assn's...).
Sculpture, Engraving, The most pre. cious contents of the temples and palaces were the statues of the gods and kings, respectively. They are the best specimens of the sculpture of the Babylonian-Assyrian peoples. These works of art were often chiseled out of diorite, as those found by the French at Telloh; out of alabaster, as many of the giant colossi, or out of a basaltic rock, or black marble. The sculptors, even as far back as 3000 executed some wonderful work. Even more striking and complicated were their bas-reliefs, found so numerously on the walls of the palaces of the Assyrian kings. In this species of art there is often superb genius displayed in the introduction of many figures, of warriors, war-chariots, cavalry charges, battle scenes, sieges and captures of cities, and divinities of various grades. But in all these representations the modern student must not be disconcerted because of the lack of perspective. This is one of the charac teristics of all early relief work and painting, and must be reckoned with in our study of those times.
Besides the large and imposing works of art, there were numerous small objects that occupied large attention and revealed some real artistic skill. There were the silver vases of the time of Entemena (about 2900 ivory objects showing exquisite workmanship, gold ornaments, cylinder seals reaching back to 4000 B.C., of many precious stones whose intaglio work would be a credit to this day.
method of executing such fine work on the hardest of nrecious stones is still a puzzle to modern engravers. The decorations of Assyr ian and Persian palaces include also painting, though of a kind that reveals more crudeness than the specimens of the engraver's art.