Page:A History of Art in Chaldæa & Assyria Vol 2.djvu/336

 CHAPTER IV. THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS. S i. — Ceramics. Of all the materials put in use by the inhabitants of Mesopo- tamia, clay was the first and by far the most important. Clay furnished the sun-dried bricks of which the great buildings were constructed, the burnt bricks with which the artificial mounds on which those buildings stood were cased, and the enamelled bricks that enabled certain parts to be covered with a rich polychromatic decoration. The figures of the gods and demons they worshipped and the tombs into which they were thrust after death were both made of this same material. It was upon clay that they learnt to write ; it was to slabs of terra-cotta that their kings confided the memory of their victories and acts of devotion, and the private population their engagements and the contracts into which they entered. For thousands of years tablets of clay thus received not only long texts, but those impressions from seals, each one of which represents a signature. While wet and soft, clay readily accepted any symbol that man chose to place upon it ; once it was burnt, those symbols became practically indestructible. Accustomed to employ the unrivalled docility of kneaded earth in so many ways, the Chaldseans must, at a very early date, have used it for domestic purposes, for cooking, for holding grain, fruits, and liquids. Like every one else they must have begun by shaping such utensils with their fingers and drying them in the sun. Few remains of these early attempts have been preserved. The invention of the potter's wheel and firing-oven must have taken place at a very remote period both in Egypt and Chaldaea. The oldest vases found in the country, those taken from tombs at