Fig. 90.—Izdubar. Terra-cotta (Louvre).
Fig. 91—Head of a monster. Terra-cotta (Louvre).
The terra-cotta vases discovered during the excavations in Assyria no doubt denote a real progress when compared with Chaldæan ceramics; but they are still nothing but heavy amphoræ, with or without handles, with a more or less elongated neck and a more or less broadened body, and they could never be compared to any but the most archaic productions of Greece. They are sometimes decorated with brown or yellowish paintings, or with designs in relief, representing floral scrolls, geometrical lines or diapers, but never with anything that reflects the beauty of the Ninevite sculptures. Among them all there are no vases which formed part of the luxuries of a refined civilisation, as the Greek vases did; neither in Assyria nor in Chaldæa have any clay vessels been discovered except vulgar jars and pots. This is, perhaps, the place to notice fragments of two small circular vases of steatite or soapstone discovered at Nimroud and Sherif Khan, near Kouyunjik. They are probably of the age of the Sargonids, and are dedicated to certain deities. The thin walls give these vessels almost the appearance of porcelain, of which Layard supposed them to be, and the figures carved upon them in relief, give them an artistic character which the Assyrians could never impart to their pottery. One of the fragments is engraved by Layard.[44]
