Spinning whorls are of stone or burnt clay. The stone whorls are in the form of a flat double convex disc, or a truncated cone, as are also the pottery whorls. Some of the latter have two holes instead of the usual single one, and the spindle must, therefore, have been split below, as the modern Arab spindle frequently is. The whorls of the earlier time often have ornaments or owner’s marks scratched on them. [Illustration: FIG. 176.—Earthenware boat. ] [Illustration: FIG. 177.—Earthenware boats with animal inside. ] Of the whole range of pottery, with the exception of the enamelled vases already described, only very few stand out as worthy of notice owing to superior technique or decoration that would render them fit for more advanced needs and necessities. It appears that all such demands were met by the use of more or less costly stone, as, for example, the fine white alabaster employed for the alabastron. [Illustration: FIG. 178.—Stone vessel. ] [Illustration: FIG. 179.—Basalt bowl for rubbing out grain. ] Storage jars of limestone were of huge dimensions. Bowls, plates, and similar forms of slate, serpentine, and finely-veined marble with delicate and graceful outlines were very numerous. Several vases in schist (Fig. 178), with a flattened base, belong to a very ancient period, possibly prehistoric; they are decorated on the outside with incised lines in imitation of mat-work. There are numerous bowls for rubbing made in basalt, with three strong short feet (Fig. 179), and strong limestone mortars roughly hewn on the outside, but completely smoothed on the inside by use. Like the rice mortars of the present day, they must have been used specially for beating out grain, and required a wooden pestle. It is doubtful whether the limestone pestles found by us were used in these stone mortars. [Illustration: FIG. 180.—Ancient Babylonian rubbing-mill, in use by an Arab. ] [Illustration: FIG. 181.—Prehistoric utensils. ]