Page:A History of Art in Chaldæa & Assyria Vol 2.djvu/391

 Instruments of the Toilet and Jewelry. 353 also from a few original specimens that have escaped the general wreck. In the foundations of Sargon's palace, under the massive threshold, were found too, together with a large number of cylinders, the remains of necklaces made up of pierced stones, such as carnelian, red and yellow jasper, brown sardonyx, amethyst, &c, cut into cylinders, polygons, medallions, and into the shapes of a pear and of an olive or date-stone (Fig. 235). This use of precious stones was a survival from the days when pebbles were turned to the same purpose. Earrings were made Figs. 230, 231. — Bronze fork and spoon ; from Smith's Assyrian Discoveries. in the same fashion (Figs. 236, 237). In one of the reliefs we see a eunuch wearing a necklace in which double cones alternate with disks (Fig. 238). The same elements could of course be used for bracelets or armlets, by shortening the wire on which they were strung. From an art point of view such a jewel was quite primitive ; all its beauty lay in the rich colours of its separate stones, among which beads of glass and enamelled earthenware have also been found. vol. it. z z