Page:A History of Art in Chaldæa & Assyria Vol 1.djvu/339

 ORIENTATION AND FOUNDATION CEREMONIES. 3 1 ? discovered in such numbers among the foundations and in the interstices of the structure (Fig. I49). 1 The Mesopotamian builder was not satisfied with relying upon talismans built into the lower part of a building or strewn under the pavements. Taylor ascertained at Mugheir and Loftus at Sinkara that engraved cylinders were built into the four angles of the upper stories. A brick had been omitted, leaving a small niche in which they were set up on end. 2 Profiting by the hint thus given Sir Henry Rawlinson ex- cavated the angles of one of the terraces of the Birs-Nimroud at Babylon, and to the astonishment of his workmen he found the terra-cotta cylinders upon which the reconstruction of the temple by Nebuchadnezzar is narrated exactly at the point where he told them to dig. 3 These 1 As to the notions attached to these cones, whether sprinkled about the foundations of a building, set up in certain sanctuaries, or carried upon the person, an article published by M. LEDRAIN, apropos of an agate cone recently added to the collections of the Louvre, may be read with advantage. Its full title is Une Page de Mythologie semitiqiie (la Philosophic positive, Rente, i4th year, 1882, pp. 209-213). 2 TAYLOR, Notes on the Ruins of Mugeyr (Joiirnal, &c. vol. xv. ; pp. 263, 264). LOFTUS, Travels, &c. p. 247. 3 See the Athenaum for January 20, 1855 (No. 1421), p. 84. "After two months' excavation Colonel Rawlinson was summoned to the work by the information that ... a wall had been found and laid bare to a distance of 190 feet, and that it turned off at right angles at each end, to be apparently carried all round the mound, forming a square of about twenty-seven feet in height, surmounted by a platform. He imme- diately rode to the excavation, examined the spot, where he found the workmen quite discouraged and hopeless, having laboured long and<found nothing. He was now, however, well aware of these facts, and at once pointed out the spot, near the corner, where the bricks should be removed. In half an hour a small hollow was found, from which he immediately directed the head workman to 'bring out the FIG. 147. Bronze statuette. 8j inches high. Louvre.