Page:A History of Art in Chaldæa & Assyria Vol 1.djvu/187

 CONSTRUCTION. 165 of the arch, why should it any longer be denied that they made use of it to cover their chambers ? It is obvious that a vault would afford a much better support for the weight above than any timber roof. In the course of the explorations, a probable conjecture was changed into complete certainty. The very vaults for which inductive reasoning had shown the necessity were found, if not in place, at least in a fragmentary condition, and in the very rooms to which they had afforded a cover and here we must quote the words of the explorers themselves. In the most deeply buried quarters of the building, the excava- tions were carried on by means of horizontal tunnels or shafts. " I was often obliged," says M. Place, " to drive trenches from one side of the rooms, to another in order to get a clear idea of their shape and arrangement. On these occasions we often met with certain hard facts, for which, at the time, we could give no explana- tion. These facts were blocks of clay whose under sides were hollowed segmentally and covered with a coat of stucco. These fragments were found sometimes a few feet from the walls, some- times near the middle of the rooms. At first I was thoroughly perplexed to account for them. Our trenches followed scrupu- lously the inner surfaces of the walls, which were easily recogniz- able by their stucco when they had no lining of carved slabs. What then were we to make of these arched blocks, also coated with stucco, but found in the centre of the rooms and far away from the walls ? Such signs were not to be disregarded in an exploration where everything was new and might lead to unfore- seen results. Wherever a trace of stucco appeared I followed it up carefully. Little by little the earth under and about the stuccoed blocks was cleared away, and then we found ourselves confronted by what looked like the entrance to an arched cellar. Here and there these portions of vaulting were many feet in length, from four to six in span, and three or four from the crown of the arch to the level upon which it rested. At the first glance the appearance of a vault was complete, and I thought I was about to penetrate into a cellar where some interesting find might await me. But on farther examination this pleasant delusion was dispelled. The pretended cellar came to an abrupt end, and de- clared itself to be no more than a section of vaulting that had quitted its proper place. . . . The evidence thus obtained was