Observations made on the spot show that the column was worked over from the foundation after its construction, for many bricks with the name of Shutruk-Nakhunta are reversed, and there are others with names of other kings. To obtain more precise information on Elamite architecture and building, we must wait for further discoveries, which will surely not be long deferred. § IV. STONE SCULPTURE. The earliest example of the sculptor’s art found by the de Morgan Mission up to the present time is a Chaldæan stela, transported from Babylonia to Susa as the result of some victory. It is an obelisk of black diorite, similar to the statues discovered by M. de Sarzec at Tello, of pyramidal form with a rectangular base. It measures 4 ft. 3 in. in height. The four faces are covered with cuneiform inscriptions in a language which is a mixture of Sumerian and Semitic. The writing is very fine, inscribed with care and delicacy, and the text comprises not less than 7,600 signs. It refers to a king named Manishtu-Irba, as purchaser of lands in the neighbourhood of Kis, to the north of Babylon. This monument is purely epigraphic, and bears no sculptures, at any rate in its present condition.[106] Another example dates back to the same period, and is also Chaldæan in origin. It is a fragment of sandstone pavement (37 × 17½ inches) on which is sculptured in relief one of those fantastic genii peculiar to Chaldæan mythology. He has a human head, and is standing, holding with both hands the boughs of a sacred tree similar to that represented on the Chaldæan cylinders. The eye is enormous and disproportionate, the nose prominent and arched, the chin retreating: above the mouth there is a small drooping moustache, while the beard, formed at first of small regular curls, divides into a series of straight locks and falls square over the breast. A striped band, finished with an ornament shaped like the ear of an animal, forms the head-dress, and from it a heavy coil or twist of hair falls to the shoulder. There is a pair of immense horns on the top of the head. The body ends at the loins with animal’s feet and a lion’s tail. The style and type of this genius recalls in a striking manner the most archaic of the bas-reliefs of Tello.[107] On other stone reliefs are unfolded before our eyes a convoy of prisoners in chains, or again, the episodes of a siege, the immolation of prisoners, vultures devouring the corpses on a field of battle; on another there is a figure of a god with long twisted beard, and massive shoulders, placidly seated on his throne and receiving the homage of the prince who is under his protection. These scenes, at once expressive and severely simple, are excellent specimens of primitive Chaldæan art as revealed to us at Tello. Imported into Susa by conquest, there is nothing Susian about them. [Illustration: Fig. 246.--Triumphal stela of Naram-Sin.]