Shell. Very largely used for decoration; small plaques of nacre often engraved with scenes of men worshipping, &c. (Telloh); tessellated pillars with nacre plaques ('Obeid). Seal–cylinders of shell.
Wood. Rarely survives; small beams plated with copper ('Obeid).
Burials. Pottery coffins with lids, mat burials; bodies contracted; funerary furniture, copper, stone or pottery drinking cups held near mouth: copper weapons, fish–hooks, net weights; beads of agate, lapis, shell (unpolished); colour–dishes, (Fara). (The idea that the Babylonians ever burnt their dead is now discredited; the supposed 'fire–necropoles' at Zurghul, &c., are not substantiated.)
The burials are hard to distinguish from similar contracted interments of later date, except that the furniture is more abundant in early times and mat graves are unusual in later days Mounds of this age may be known by the occurrence on the surface of scraps of oxydized copper, nails, &c.; shell–fragments; undecorated light drab sherds; and the typical small plano–convex bricks.
III. MIDDLE BRONZE AGE. 1. Early Semitic or Akkadian (Sargonid) period; c. 3000–2500 B.C.
Characteristics. Less crude style of art: development of writing (see [XIV], Fig. 1); first inscribed clay tablets of usual style; beginnings of cuneiform, developed from the archaic semi–pictographic character. Bricks still plano–convex; stamped inscriptions begin. Stone maceheads of same type as earlier. Large and well–cut cylinder–seals of fine limestone, lapis, diorite, granite, and shell are characteristic of the period: they are generally of an easily recognizable form (reel–shaped) with sides showing a marked concavity (see [XIV], Fig. 5). The great development of art is shown by the stele of Naram–Sin ( Louvre ) found at Susa. Not many mounds of this period have been dug.
2. Later Sumerian (Gudea) and early Semitic Babylonian (Hammurabi) periods; c. 2500–1800 B.C.
Characteristics. Typical 'Gudea' style of sculpture, in round and relief (Telloh, Louvre ); materials hard diorite, dolerite and basalt as well as limestone: characteristic treatment of eye with heavily marked brows: elaborate tiaras and head–dresses of female figures, &c. Very high development. Regular use of cuneiform on clay tablets and cones (see [XV], Figs. 13–15); non–cuneiform character (in a developed form) still used in brick stamps ([XV], Fig. 10) and on stone monuments. Bricks ([XIV], Fig. 4) now rectangular and well made, either square (14 ins., usually, by 2 ½ ins. thick) or oblong (11 ½ x 8 x 2 ½ ins., or 10 x 5 x 2 ½ ins.) with stamps or incised inscriptions of Ur–Engur, Dungi, Bur–Sin, Gudea and other kings ([XV], Fig. 10), from Ur, Shahrein, Telloh, Niffer, &c. Bricks of Bur–Sin from Shahrein often have inscription–stamps also on the smaller sides (thickness). Great buildings of crude and baked brick (Telloh, Ur); temple–towers (ziggurats) of crude brick faced with burnt brick (Ur, Shahrein, Niffer). Town ruins of Hammurabi's age (Babylon): crude brick: plans always confused and haphazard. Bitumen still used for mortar. Burials, contracted, often in double pots (mouth to mouth), sealed with bitumen. With the bodies are found large numbers of agate and cornelian beads, unpolished.
Mounds of this period may be recognized by the typical square or oblong bricks (often with thumb–holes), with stamps of kings' names, &c., in non–cuneiform characters, or with hand–incised inscriptions in early cuneiform, made while the clay was wet; clay tablets or cones inscribed in early cuneiform; copper nails (those with gold– plated heads found at Shahrein may also date from this time); drab or black pottery sherds with impressed or incised designs, generally rough and evidently made with a piece of stick or the thumb–nail; rough stone quern–slabs with rubbers, grinding and hammer–stones, &c.; and the burials described above (these, however, also occur in later times).
IV. LATER BRONZE AGE: Kassite, Middle Babylonian, and Early Assyrian periods; c. 1800– 1000 B.C.