yellow and purplish brown. These glazes are
obviously like the Egyptian, but they are more coarsely prepared and
are always full of bubbles and consequently more or less opaque. Yet
the severe simplicity of the method, the splendid colour effect,
strong yet sumptuous, entitles these productions to a very high rank
among all the world's work in clay and glaze. The "Frieze of the
Archers" now in the Louvre may be mentioned as one of the finest
productions of its kind, and the Louvre and British Museum possess the
finest collections of this early architectural use of glazed and
coloured clay. (See also MURAL DECORATION )

Coming to ordinary pottery we find that in early times well-formed vases
made of good clay, unglazed and unpainted, were made. Small figures of
deities made of the same clay are often found. It is practically the
same terra-cotta as that of the inscribed tablets. None of the forms are
particularly distinctive (see fig. 10). The excavations of the French in
Persia have brought to light at Moussian in Susiana an extremely
interesting painted ware, which belongs to a very early period. The
decoration is usually geometrical. The technique seems to be analogous
to the Mycenaean-Greek (_Firnismalerei_), and the whole effect is very
like that of the Greek, Late Mycenaean or Dipylon pottery. The ware is
buff in colour and fine in texture, with a polished surface. The
decoration is sometimes in polychrome, but usually in the grey-brown
iron-glaze (?) alone. This pottery degenerates later and finally
disappears (20).

[Illustration: FIG. 10.--Assyrian biscuit pottery.]

During the Sargonide period in Assyria (7th century B.C.) we find a
polychrome faience (colours usually white and brown) obviously of
Egyptian origin. It was used, not for vases, but architectonically for
friezes, ornamental bosses, &c. Its origin may be found in Egypt under
the XVIIIth Dynasty, when Egyptian influence extended to the Tigris, and
Babylonia had regular diplomatic relations with Egypt In Asia this
polychrome decoration in glazes continued to be used long after it had
ceased to be made in the country of its origin; the enamelled brick
decoration of Persepolis is the descendant of the glazed inlay
decorations of Tel el-Amarna, Tel el-Yahudiya and Kuyunjik. In the
Sargonide period blue glazed vases occur (see fig. 11) which are
probably of Egyptian origin or are Phoenician imitations of Egyptian
faience.

[Illustr