been found in Chaldæa, like those in Assyria, moulded on one side only in greenish clay, forming remarkable examples of Babylonian art. The chronological position of these figurines is, however, difficult to determine, but they seem to us to be, perhaps, contemporary with Nebuchadnezzar. They represent priests or gods, standing upright in their long robes, with their hands clasped in the attitude of respect; women dressed in fringed garments, carrying a vase upon their breast; nude goddesses, standing upright, and suckling the divine child. One of these last (fig. 93) is, says M. Heuzey, “A purely Asiatic type, the rather full forms of which are modelled with charming truth and rare delicacy; I do not fear to describe it as a little wonder of its kind.”[45] Another and commoner example is the goddess Istar, nude and holding her hands against her breasts, adorned with bracelets and necklaces, with her hair elaborately dressed: this naturalism and immodest freedom in the representation of Istar form a contrast with the ordinary habit of Chaldæo-Assyrian art. This series of figurines is chronologically terminated by the statuettes of the Achæmenid or Parthian epoch, modelled of the same clay, but showing all the characteristics of decadence. The forms are less carefully studied; sometimes Istar, the goddess of Erech, is represented in these figurines of terra-cotta or alabaster, half-reclining on a banqueting couch, like that described by Herodotus in the temple of Bel-Marduk at Babylon; her head is often crowned with the crescent, her proper symbol, in the centre of which a garnet or other sparkling stone is set. In short, these coarse images of the voluptuous goddess condemn at once the art and the manners of the people who produced them. § II. METALS. The art of working in metals, which was already so highly developed among the primitive Chaldæans, reached its apogee under the Sargonids. We find statuettes, bas-reliefs in repoussé, vases and utensils of every sort, weapons and ornaments, so that there is no use of the precious metals, or of iron and bronze, to which they were not put by the industry of Ninevite craftsmen. Among the ruins of Sargon’s palace, objects of iron and bronze, such as hooks, rings, chains, pickaxes, hammers, plough-shares, weapons, fragments of chariots, and tools of all sorts, were picked up. From the strictly artistic point of view, we have already described the wooden pillars plated with overlapping scales of bronze, so as to imitate the bark of the palm tree. [Illustration: Fig. 95.--Gates of Balawat. Restoration.]