Under none of the princes who reigned at Calah did sculpture show any sensible change of style; but yet, perhaps, in certain passages of the Balawat gates we may recognize the first signs of a tendency that was to become strongly marked under the Sargonids. The field of the relief there contains a far greater number of picturesque and explanatory details than the great bas-reliefs of Nimroud. The campaigns and victories of Shalmaneser II. was the theme put before the sculptor. In order to do it justice he had to carry the spectator into countries of various aspects, and to give their true character to military struggles whose conditions were incessantly changing. He did not think success was to be attained by confining himself to figuring the cities and fortresses besieged and taken by the Assyrian army; he introduced features for the purpose of determining the seat of war. Such accessories were better placed among figures on a small scale than among those surpassing or even approaching life size; and without knowing exactly why, the artist seems to have been warned of this by a secret and delicate instinct. These strips of bronze are ten inches high; each is divided into two horizontal divisions by a narrow band of rosettes, which is also repeated at the top and bottom of each strip. The figures are on an average about three and a half inches high (see Fig. 117 and Plate XII.). [Illustration: FIG. 116.--Stele of Samas-vul II. Height 7 feet 2 inches. British Museum. Drawn by Saint-Elme Gautier.] [Illustration: PLATE XII FROM THE BALAWAT GATES British Museum] Our Plate XII. is an exact copy from a part of the band marked B in the provisional numeration adopted by Dr. Birch.[239] According to the inscription upon it this part of the work commemorates a sacrifice offered by Shalmaneser on the borders of the Lake Van, in Armenia. The figure of the king is not included in our plate, but it contains all the sacred vessels of which he made use for the ceremony. Beginning on the left we find a sort of great candelabrum, a three-legged altar, and two standards upon tripods. Must these be accepted as military ensigns of the same class as that shown in Fig. 46 or as religious emblems of the sun and moon? The question is hardly one for us to discuss. Next comes a stele raised upon a rock, or perhaps carved upon its surface. Other reliefs of the same series show us that Shalmaneser erected these steles in every country he conquered. Further to the right we see soldiers throwing into the lake the limbs of the animals sacrificed. This must be an offering to the deity of its waters, perhaps to Anou, who was believed to reside in rivers and lakes as well as in the sea. The denizens of the lake seize upon the morsels thus put in their way; among them we may recognize a large fish, a tortoise, and a quadruped, that may perhaps be an otter.[240]