We will once more return to the Southern Citadel and examine the Eastern Court. It is paved with Nebuchadnezzar’s bricks, which became chipped and damaged, and was then restored. The level was slightly raised above the old pavement, which was covered with an even wash of asphalt, and on the piled-up material a new flooring was laid of fine tiles almost exactly 50 centimetres square, that bear Nebuchadnezzar’s stamps on one edge. The vertical joints are filled with gypsum mortar and no asphalt is used. Thus the pavement could be sprinkled and kept pleasantly moist, for the burnt tiles absorb the moisture readily while the underlying wash of asphalt prevented its penetrating to the foundations. Whether the walls of the court were left uncovered, or whether they had a coat of plaster, we do not know. We know that the gateways at any rate were decorated with the coloured enamelled bricks with lions, which are found in all the courts. The inner chambers were covered with a fine plaster of pure gypsum laid on over a thicker coating of gypsum. In the chamber of the eastern gateway there is still a piece of this remaining, where the ancient wall is protected by the accumulated earth of the raised level of the floor. [Illustration: FIG. 58.—Base of column, Southern Citadel. ] In the court we found the base of a column (Fig. 58) and a capital of fine white limestone. The base has the same bowl-shaped form and the circular leaf ornament, with a contour of fillets, as the base of Kalach (Nimrud). The capital is severely damaged, but the circular drum can still be recognised, as well as two projecting masses which appear to be the remains of two bulls’ heads, similar to those on the capitals of Persepolis. The fragments lay on a pile of rubbish 1 metre high, and must therefore have been removed here after the palace was destroyed. It is possible that the base belonged to the round circular pedestal in front of the Ishtar Gate near the north-west bastion. In the court itself there is no place whatever for a column. It is in the vaulted building (see p. 99) alone that we can imagine columns to have been used. XIII THE CENTRAL COURT OF THE SOUTHERN CITADEL The central court (M on Fig. 46) is entered by a doorway, similar to the eastern gate. Here, however, both the adjoining rooms have a side-chamber connected with them by a wide opening without any door, and with the large adjoining houses by a door. Here we see clearly the idea of a government bureau. These gateway chambers I am disposed to regard as courts of justice, where the judge occupied the side-chambers, which could only be reached from the house, while the litigants made use of the gateway chambers, which could be reached both from the courts and from the gateways. In the Old Testament the gateways are represented as places for administering justice. We have no proof, however, of a similar use of our gateway chambers.