There is no doubt that these processes were invented in the southern cities. The oldest of the Warka tombs show that metals were abundant from a very ancient period, and that their use was well understood; but we do not possess any important examples of _repoussé_ work dating from the early days of Chaldæa. It is otherwise with Assyria. The exploration of her palaces has brought to light numerous fragments of ornamental sheathing in bronze; plaques and bands, sometimes curved, sometimes straight, according to the surface to which they were applied, were covered in some cases with mere ornamental designs, in others with numerous figures. Only within the last few years have we learnt to how high a pitch the sculptors of Mesopotamia had carried this art, and how well they understood that the rough form left by the hammer should be completed and defined with the burin and chisel. The most important discovery of the kind was made as recently as 1878, by Mr. Hormuzd Rassam, who found the bronze gates to which we have already more than once alluded, in the mound of Balawat.[138] Shalmaneser II., who built the palace to which these gates belonged, caused his victorious campaigns and his sacrifices to the gods to be represented upon them. We have already reproduced many of these curious reliefs (Vol. I., Figs. 51, 68, 73, 158; and above, Fig. 28); a last example will help to show the facility of the Assyrian artist and the boldness of his rendering of animals and men (Fig. 54). He played with bronze as he did with alabaster; in both his handling was firm and rapid and his modelling at once broad and strongly felt.[139] [Illustration: FIG. 54.--Man driving goats and sheep. From the Balawat gates. British Museum. Drawn by Saint-Elme Gautier.] [Illustration: FIG. 55.--Lion carved in wood. Louvre. Length 4 inches. Drawn by Saint-Elme Gautier.] [Illustration: FIG. 56.--Ivory seal. Louvre. Actual size. Drawn by Saint-Elme Gautier.] [Illustration: FIG. 57.--Ivory tablet in the British Museum. Drawn by Saint-Elme Gautier.]