, but nevertheless considered at
Angora to be the last word of art. They are imported from Constantinople
together with the basins of the fountains.

In spite of all this, however, some doubts may be felt as to the
destination of the lions found among the Chaldaean ruins. The only monument
there discovered which seems to have certainly belonged to an
architectural decoration is one found by Sir Henry Layard in his too soon
interrupted explorations in the Kasr. It is a fragment of a limestone slab
from the casing of a facade (Fig. 113). The upper parts of two male figures
support a broken entablature beneath which the name of some divinity is
cut.[331]

The chief interest of this fragment lies in the further evidence it affords
of a close connection between the arts of Chaldaea and those of Babylon.
There is nothing either in the costume or features of these individuals
that may not be found in Assyria. The tiara with its plumes and rosettes,
the crimped hair and beard, the baton with its large hilt, are all common
to both countries, while the latter object is to be found on the rocks of
Bavian and as far north as the sculptures of Cappadocia.

[Illustration: FIG. 113.--Fragment from Babylon. British Museum. Height 11
inches, width 9 inches.]

A study of those reliefs in which nothing but purely ornamental motives are
treated, leads us to exactly the same conclusion. Take for instance the
great bronze threshold from Borsippa, of which we have already spoken; the
rosettes placed at intervals along its tread are identical with those
encountered in such numbers in Assyria.

In the extreme rarity of stone in his part of the world the Chaldaean
architect seems to have practically reserved it for isolated statues, for
votive bas-reliefs, for objects of an iconic or religious character, but
nevertheless, we have sufficient evidence to prove that such decorative
sculpture as found a place in the Chaldaean buildings, did not sensibly
differ from that to which Assyria has accustomed us.

From all that we have said as to the distribution of stone, it will be
understood that we must turn to Assyria to obtain a clear idea of the
measures by which buildings of crude brick were rendered more sightly by
ornament in the harder material. We can hardly imagine an Assyrian palace
without those series of bas-reliefs which now line the walls of our museums
much in the same fashion as they covered those of Sargon's and
Sennacherib's pala