It was in the most spacious court of the palace that M. de Sarzec found assembled nearly all the Chaldæan statues which he had transported to the museum of the Louvre. To the number of ten, they are of blackish diorite with a bluish tinge; all are headless and bear inscriptions in the name of Gudea or of Ur-Bau. At the moment of discovery they were lying on the slabs of the court-yard,--on one side those which represent upright figures, on the other the seated statues. A separate head, appearing to belong to one of the statues, was also found in the same courtyard. The other heads were unearthed elsewhere, and it is impossible to say whether they had been removed from the headless statues that we know. All these heads, though exhibiting common characteristics, are distinguished from one another by peculiarities which disclose the surprising skill and the fecundity of the Chaldæan genius at this remote epoch. The man’s head (fig. 14) found in the great courtyard is of life-size, the hair and beard completely shaven, as in certain Egyptian statues. The eyebrows form an exaggerated projection above enormous eyes; the skull is remarkably elongated; the mutilated nose alone prevents us from having the complete type of the Chaldæan race, with its hard features and thick, sensual lips. [Illustration: Fig. 14.--Chaldæan head (Louvre).] [Illustration: Fig. 15.--Chaldæan head (Louvre).] In a neighbouring tell M. de Sarzec found another head of the same size and of an equally interesting type. It is less severe in aspect than the preceding one, but carved with equal skill. The face is round and almost smiling, the chin broad and powerful, the nose flat. The very original head-dress is composed of a woollen cap fitting closely to the head, and furnished with a thick border, which, turning up, forms a sort of crown; the meshes of the woollen tissue are conventionally marked by a number of symmetrical rolls. Even at the present day in Lower Chaldæa the Christian priests of the Chaldæan rite envelop their heads in a turban of black stuff, which allows of a similar arrangement.[18] [Illustration: Fig. 16.--Chaldæan statue (Louvre).] As for the headless statues whether seated or standing, they have all the same characteristics, exhibit an identical type, and are incontestably of the same school of sculpture. Here is a personage seated on a sort of stool not fully carved out; he recalls involuntarily the Greek statues of the sacred way of the Branchidæ at Miletus, and is in the same religious attitude. A cloak without sleeves is crossed over his breast and thrown back over his shoulder; a handsome fringe, delicately [Illustration: Fig. 17.--Chaldæan statue (Louvre).]