_Louvre_); materials hard diorite, dolerite and
basalt as well as limestone: characteristic treatment of eye with
heavily marked brows: elaborate tiaras and head-dresses of female
figures, &c. Very high development. Regular use of cuneiform on clay
tablets and cones (see XV, Figs. 13-15); non-cuneiform character (in
a developed form) still used in brick stamps (XV, Fig. 10) and on
stone monuments. Bricks (XIV, Fig. 4) now rectangular and well made,
either square (14 ins., usually, by 2 1/2 ins. thick) or oblong (11
1/2 x 8 x 2 1/2 ins., or 10 x 5 x 2 1/2 ins.) with stamps or incised
inscriptions of Ur-Engur, Dungi, Bur-Sin, Gudea and other kings (XV,
Fig. 10), from Ur, Shahrein, Telloh, Niffer, &c. Bricks of Bur-Sin
from Shahrein often have inscription-stamps also on the smaller sides
(thickness). Great buildings of crude and baked brick (Telloh, Ur);
temple-towers (ziggurats) of crude brick faced with burnt brick (Ur,
Shahrein, Niffer). Town ruins of Hammurabi's age (Babylon): crude
brick: plans always confused and haphazard. Bitumen still used for
mortar. Burials, contracted, often in double pots (mouth to mouth),
sealed with bitumen. With the bodies are found large numbers of agate
and cornelian beads, unpolished.

Mounds of this period may be recognized by the typical square or
oblong bricks (often with thumb-holes), with stamps of kings' names,
&c., in non-cuneiform characters, or with hand-incised inscriptions
in early cuneiform, made while the clay was wet; clay tablets or
cones inscribed in early cuneiform; copper nails (those with gold-
plated heads found at Shahrein may also date from this time); drab or
black pottery sherds with impressed or incised designs, generally
rough and evidently made with a piece of stick or the thumb-nail;
rough stone quern-slabs with rubbers, grinding and hammer-stones,
&c.; and the burials described above (these, however, also occur in
later times).

IV. LATER BRONZE AGE:
Kassite, Middle Babylonian, and Early Assyrian periods; c. 1800-
1000 B.C.

Characteristics. Stabilization of Babylonian art; typical 'Kassite'
cylinder-seals with straight sides (XIV, Fig. 6); disappearance of
old non-cuneiform character with gradual disuse of Sumerian; early
stone-cut inscriptions in cuneiform (see XV, Fig. 16; an Elamite
inscription). Occasional and rare appearance of glazed pottery
(imitation of Egyptian), and multi-coloured glass; early Assyrian
sculpture (those unversed in minutiae