Page:A History of Art in Chaldæa & Assyria Vol 1.djvu/244

 22 A HISTORY OF ART IN CHALD/F.A AND ASSYRIA. the East, his remote descendants were to evolve the architecture of the Byzantine church and the Arab mosque. His archivolts and the pendentives of his vaults always rest upon thick walls, and yet almost every variety of the simple arch or tunnel-vault are to be found among" the ruins of his buildings. Like all the other forms of Assyrian architecture the arch was invented in Chaldaea. The use of small sized materials must have led to its early discovery in that country. But the only arches now standing occur in the better preserved monuments of Assyria. On the other hand the tombs of Lower Chaldaea furnish FIG. 89. Tomb-chamber at Mu^heir ; from Taylor. more than one example of that false, corbelled or off-set vault, that we have already encountered in Egypt. 1 The chamber figured below is taken from the necropolis of Mugheir, formerly " Ur of the Chaldees." It is built of crude brick bound with mud.- The vault is supported by walls sloping upwards and outwards like those of a modern tunnel (Fig. 89). 2 1 Art in Ancient Egypt, vol. ii. p. 82. 1 This chamber is 7 feet long, 3 feet 7 inches wide, and 5 feet high. TAYLOR, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. xv. p. 272.