253. Embroidery on the upper part of the king’s mantle 365 254. Embroidery upon a royal mantle 367 255. Embroidered pectoral 369 256. Detail of embroidery 370 257. Detail of embroidery 370 258. Detail of embroidery 371 259. Detail of embroidery 372 260. Egyptian mirror 387 261. Egyptian mirror 391 TAIL-PIECES, &c. Fore-quarters of a lion, glazed earthenware (Louvre) 77 Standard, from a relief 291 Flower, from a relief 297 Head of a ram, ivory (Louvre) 374 The sacred tree, from a relief 400 Ornament from a royal tiara 404 A HISTORY OF ART IN CHALDÆA AND ASSYRIA CHAPTER I. CIVIL AND MILITARY ARCHITECTURE. § I. _General Character of the Mesopotamian Palace and History of the Excavations._ As every student of Assyro-Chaldæan art has remarked, the best preserved of its monuments are the palaces. They alone are represented by ruins in such a condition that restorations may be successfully attempted, not only so far as their general arrangements are concerned but even in minor details. The preponderant part played by the ruins of palaces in the history of Assyrian architecture is thus acknowledged by all, but it has sometimes been explained by reasons that will not bear examination. “Less religious or more servile than the Egyptians and the Greeks, they made their temples insignificant in comparison with the dwellings of their kings, to which indeed the temple is most commonly a sort of appendage. In the palace their art culminates---there every effort is made, every ornament lavished. If the architecture of the Assyrian palaces be fully considered, very little need be said on the subject of their other buildings.”[1] History contradicts any such theory. The asserted inequality did not exist. The piety of Chaldæans and Assyrians was no less lively and profound than that of the Egyptians. A Seti or a Rameses, the cherished son and visible image of Amen, the prince who became a god after his life was done, was no less powerful and venerable at Memphis and Thebes than were Sargon and Nebuchadnezzar at Nineveh and Babylon.