god belonging to the Assyrian period, and the work of an Assyrian artist, is seen in Fig. 86, C.[143] This little image was found, together with two other terra-cotta figures, beneath the floor of the court of Sargon’s palace at Khorsabad. Each had been enclosed in a brick capsule as a foundation-amulet, where they remained undisturbed until the spade of Botta brought them once more to light. The figure here reproduced is that of an Assyrian god, while one of the other two was a mythical creature, and the third was a demon, but all three must have been buried for much the same purpose, the god to take care of the positive welfare of the inmates of the palace, the demon to act negatively in warding off evil influences, while they all have their stone counterparts in the bas-reliefs recovered from the ruins of Assyrian palaces. This little image is eight inches high and is made of a greyish clay. The god is clothed in a long robe reaching down to his feet; his head is crowned with a cap encircled by two pairs of horns, and his beard conforms to the usual Assyrian type.[144] Various terra-cotta figures of nude women or goddesses have been recovered from different Babylonian and Assyrian sites, but they are for the most part not earlier than the Parthian period, and their consideration does not therefore fall within the scope of the present volume. There are however exceptions to this generalization, one of the most remarkable being that of a terra-cotta figure also preserved in the Louvre and reproduced in Fig. 86, E.[145] This little model is reported to have been found at Hillah, near Babylon; the place of its discovery was a Greek grave, but it was found in the company of seals and amulets belonging to a much earlier period. The woman, in a standing position, is seen suckling her infant at her breast. The bodies of the mother and her child both exhibit the characteristic fullness of Eastern art, but in spite of this fact, there is a delicacy and refinement, as well as an insight into the charms of human nature such as is seldom seen in the statues and figures of Oriental antiquity. Various terra-cotta figures of nude women were also discovered at Nippur in the strata of Shar-Gâni-sharri and Ur-Engur, while another interesting example of a nude woman or goddess is seen in Fig. 86, D.[146] This little clay figure was discovered during the course of the German excavations at Babylon, a site which has yielded numerous terra-cotta figures of nude women with and without a child; the lower part of the body does not apparently belong to the upper part represented here, but is the broken half of another clay figure; it enables us however to form a better idea of the general appearance of these terra-cottas when complete. Both fragments were recovered in the ruins of the temple of the goddess Nin-Makh, and doubtless formed part of clay miniatures of a stone statue of the goddess, which unfortunately has not yet been brought to light.