Mesopotamian Archaeology: An introduction to the archaeology of Mesopotamia and AssyriaHandcock, Percy S. P. (Percy Stuart Peache)
History
Mesopotamian Archaeology: An introduction to the archaeology of Mesopotamia and Assyria
Handcock, Percy S. P. (Percy Stuart Peache)
Iraq -- Antiquities
Of the remainder, the most interesting are briefly described by Layard
in _Discoveries_, pp. 166 and 167, and illustrated in colours in his
_Monuments_, Series II, Pls. 53-55. One of these (Pl. 54, 7) contains a
picture of four hairless and clean-shaven captives, whose four necks are
bound together by means of a rope, the end of which is held by the
prisoner in front. Two of the prisoners wear white loin-cloths, while
the other two are clad in long white shirts opening in front. As
regards the colours, the ground is a pale blue, and the figures are
yellow. Another fragment of great interest is that reproduced in
_Monuments_, Pl. 54, 12, on which are portrayed two horses, an Assyrian
warrior, and a man holding a dagger. The latter, who is naked with the
exception of a blue loin-cloth, has apparently been wounded or killed in
battle. The background here is olive-green, while the horses are blue.
On another glazed tile (Pl. 54, 13), we see a picture of Assyrian
cavalry, again on a ground of olive-green, but in this case the horses
are yellow, while the trappings are blue. One of these painted bricks
(Pl. 53, 1) presents us with a picture of a blue fish on a yellow
background; the scales of the fish however are coloured white, while on
the same tile there is a man transfixed by two arrows and girded with a
white loin-cloth. On another fragment (Pl. 53, 3), a chariot to which
horses are yoked is being dragged over a naked figure, whose neck has
been pierced by an arrow. A fillet to which is attached a feather,
encircles the man’s head. The horses are blue, their trappings being
white, and the wheels of the chariot are yellow. Below are seen the
heads together with a portion of the shields of two Assyrian soldiers.
The helmets are yellow, but the faces are “merely outlined in white on
the olive-green ground,” while the shields are blue, but are edged with
alternate squares of yellow and blue. All these belong to the same
period, but another fragment was found by Layard (Pl. 53, 6) which
appears to be of earlier date: the background is yellow, but the outline
is black instead of white, while the figures, the heads of which have
been destroyed, are dressed in the same way as the tribute-bearers
bringing a monkey and other offerings to Ashur-naṣir-pal, as portrayed
on bas-reliefs which were taken from the same building. The outer mantle
is blue, the inner being yellow, and the fringes white.
But pottery was also sometimes decorated with colours; thus Captain
Cros, De Sarzec’s successor at Tellô, discovered black pottery with
incised lines filled in with white paste on this site, a style of
pottery well known in Egypt and elsewhere, but not hitherto found in
Babylonia. At Nippur on the other hand pottery painted with green and
yellow stripes was found, while other vases decorated with black and
white discs were also brought to light.
_PLATE XXXIa_
[Illustration: GLAZED BRICK
_(cf. Place, “Ninive,” Pl. 32)_]
_PLATE XXXIb_
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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