Page:A History of Art in Chaldæa & Assyria Vol 1.djvu/285

 DECORATION. 26 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. 1 13). The upper parts of two male figures support a broken entablature beneath which the name of some divinity is cut. 1 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 ^^"y- .f . Fragment from Babylon. British Museum. Height II inches, width 9 inches. FIG. 113 latter object is to be found on the rocks of Bavian and as far north as the sculptures of Cappadocia. 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 1 LAYAKD, Discoveries, p. 508.