The causes which impeded the development of pottery in primitive Chaldæa had the same unhappy influence on Assyrian pottery and on Chaldæan pottery in the age of Nebuchadnezzar. Though a few terra-cottas are fashioned with a certain elegance and present graceful features, their walls are always extremely thick, on account of the friable nature of the clay, and the types created by the modeller are totally wanting in variety. Botta found under the pavement of the courtyards at Khorsabad little cavities containing, besides cylinders and other amulets, terra-cotta statuettes of talismanic character, intended to conjure and drive away the infernal powers. “These statuettes,” says M. Heuzey, “are designed with a remarkably sure hand, in grey clay, which is almost crude, and pitted with small holes, as if it had been mixed with chopped straw or hay, according to the process followed in the manufacture of bricks.”[43] The example which we reproduce represents the hero Izdubar, so often drawn upon the bas-reliefs and cylinders as he is here, that is to say, with curled beard and long hair in ringlets. His countenance is expressive, and shows signs of careful work. The same praise must be given to the head of a fantastic animal, also found at Khorsabad (fig. 91); this head, in whitish clay, is covered with a glaze of a fine bluish green, resembling, and perhaps imitated from, Egyptian pottery; a similar figure of a monster roaring at winged genii appears among the bronze monuments; in both cases the art is realistic, and has rendered ugliness and ferocity with all the force of ideal expression. [Illustration: Fig. 90.--Izdubar. Terra-cotta (Louvre).] [Illustration: Fig. 91--Head of a monster. Terra-cotta (Louvre).]