sites have been
singularly barren of those minor results which flowed so largely
from the Mosopotamian excavations, and have yielded no traces of the
furniture, domestic implements, or wall-ornamentation of the people;
have produced, in fact, no small objects at all, excepting a few
cylinders and some spear and arrow heads, thus throwing scarcely any
light on the taste or artistic genius of the people.

The nearest approach to statuary which we meet with among the Persian
remains are the figures of colossal bulls, set to guard portals,
or porticos, which are not indeed sculptures in the round, but are
specimens of exceedingly high relief, and which, being carved in front
as well as along the side, do not fall very far short of statues. Of
such figures, we find two varieties--one representing the real animal,
the other a monster with the body and legs of a bull, the head of a
man, and the wings of an eagle. There is considerable merit in both
representations. They are free from the defect of flatness, or want of
breadth in comparison with the length, which characterizes the similar
figures of Assyrian artists; and they are altogether grand, massive, and
imposing. The general proportions of the bulls are good, the limbs are
accurately drawn, the muscular development is well portrayed, and the
pose of the figure is majestic. Even the monstrous forms of human-headed
bulls have a certain air of quiet dignity, which is not without its
effect on the beholder; and, although implying no great artistic merit,
since they are little more than reproductions of Assyrian models,
indicate an appreciation of some of the best qualities of Assyrian
art--the combination of repose with strength, of great size with the
most careful finish, and of strangeness with the absence of any approach
to grotesqueness or absurdity. The other Persian reliefs may be divided
under four heads:

(1) Mythological representations of a man--the king apparently--engaged
in combat with a lion, a bull, or a monster; (2) Processions of guards,
courtiers, attendants, or tribute-bearers; (3) Representations of the
monarch walking, seated upon his throne, or employed in the act of
worship; and (4) Representations of lions and bulls, either singly or
engaged in combat.

On the jambs of doorways in three of the Persepolitan buildings, a human
figure, dressed in the Median robe, but with the sleeve thrown back from
the right arm, is represented in the act of killing