ive a few details
as to the fashion in which these large openings were set in the walls that
enframed them. As for salient decorative members--or mouldings, to give
them their right name--their list is very short. We shall, however, find
them in some variety in a series of little monuments that deserve, perhaps,
more attention than they have yet received--we mean altars, steles, and
those objects to which the name of _obelisks_ has, with some inaccuracy,
been given. Some of these objects have no little grace of their own, and
serve to prove that what the Chaldaeans and Assyrians lacked was neither
taste nor invention, but the encouragement that the possession of a kindly
material would have given to their genius.

Doorways seem to have been generally crowned with a brick archivolt;
round-headed doors occur oftener than any others on the bas-reliefs, but
rectangular examples are not wanting (see Fig. 43). In the latter case the
lintel must have been of wood, metal, or stone. Naturally the bronze and
timber lintels have disappeared, while in but a single instance have the
explorers found one of stone, namely that discovered by George Smith at the
entrance to a hall in the palace of Sennacherib (Fig. 95). It consists of a
block of richly carved limestone. Its sculptures are now much worn, but
their motives and firm execution may still be admired. Two winged dragons,
with long necks folded like that of a swan, face each other, the narrow
space between them being occupied by a large two-handled vase. Above these
there is a band of carved foliage, the details of which are lost in the
shadow cast by a projecting cornice along the top of the lintel.[296] The
necklace round the throat of the right-hand dragon should be noticed.

It is surprising that stone lintels are so rare, especially as the
corresponding piece, if we may call it so, namely, the sill or threshold,
was generally of limestone or alabaster, at least in the more important and
more richly-decorated rooms.

[Illustration: FIG. 95.--Decorated lintel, 6 feel long and 10 inches high.
British Museum.]

The exploration of the Assyrian palaces has brought three systems of
flooring to light--beaten earth, brick pavements, and pavements of
limestone slabs.[297] In the palace of Sargon nearly every chamber, except
those of the harem, had a floor of beaten earth, like that in a modern
fellah's house. Even the halls in which the painted and sculptured
decoration was most s