Page:A History of Art in Chaldæa & Assyria Vol 1.djvu/386

 CHAPTER IV. RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE. i. Attempts to restore the Principal Types. IN spite of all our researches we have not succeeded in finding in the whole of Mesopotamia a real sepulchre, a tomb on which the talent of the architect has been lavished as well as the structural skill of the builder. The Chaldseans and Assyrians made greater efforts when they had to honour a god than when they were called upon to provide a lodging for their dead. Of all the structures they raised, their temples seem to have been the most ambitious in height and in grandeur of proportion though not in extent of ground covered. This the classic writers tell us, and their assertions are confirmed in more than one particular by documents written in the Assyrian language. We can also check their statements to some extent by the study of the monuments themselves or rather of their somewhat scanty remains. We shall seek in vain for ruins that may be compared to those of the Egyptian sanctuaries. The nature of the materials em- ployed in the valley of the Euphrates made the degradation of a building and the obliteration of its lines far more rapid than elsewhere. And yet in many cases the almost formless aspect of structures once so greatly admired, does not prevent those who know how to crossexamine them from restoring many of their former arrangements ; and both in the bas-reliefs and in some very small monuments we find certain sculptured sketches that have been recognized as representing temples. These sketches are very imperfect and very much abridged ; the ruins themselves are confused ; of the Greek and Assyrian texts some are short and vague, others excite our scepticism.