. The dawn of civilization: Egypt and Chaldaea . ht arm free. The legs are wanting, the left arm and the hair are for themost part broken away, while the features have also suffered ; its distinguishingcharacteristic is a subtlety of workmanship which is lacking in the artisticproducts of a later age. The outline stands out from the background with& rare delicacy, the details of the muscles being in no sense exaggerated : wereit not for the costume and pointed beard, one would fancy it a specimen of 1 This is the vase which was lost in the Tigris (Oppert, Expédition en Mésopotamie, vol. i. p.
. The dawn of civilization: Egypt and Chaldaea . ht arm free. The legs are wanting, the left arm and the hair are for themost part broken away, while the features have also suffered ; its distinguishingcharacteristic is a subtlety of workmanship which is lacking in the artisticproducts of a later age. The outline stands out from the background with& rare delicacy, the details of the muscles being in no sense exaggerated : wereit not for the costume and pointed beard, one would fancy it a specimen of 1 This is the vase which was lost in the Tigris (Oppert, Expédition en Mésopotamie, vol. i. p. 273). 2 Pinches, On Babylonian Art, in the Transactions, vol. vi. pp. 11,12 ; cf. p. 620 of the present work. 3 Discovered and published by Menant (Recherches sur la Glyptique orientale, vol. i. p. 73, et seq.),now in the possession of M. de Clercq (Menant, Catalogue de la Collection de Clercq, vol. i. pl. v.,>fo. 461). Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Menant, Cat. de la Collection de Clercq, vol. i. pl. v., No. 401). 602 ANCIENT Egyptian work of the best Memphite period. One is almost tempted to believein the truth of the tradition which ascribes to Naramsin the conquest of Egypt, or of the neighbouring countries : the conqueredmight in this case have furnished patterns forthe Did Sargon and Naramsin live at so earlya date as that assigned to them by Nabonidos ?The scribes who assisted the kings of thesecond Babylonian empire in their archaeo-logical researches had perhaps insufficientreasons for placing the date of these kingsso far back in the misty past : shouldevidence of a serious character constrain usto attribute to them a later origin, we oughtnot to be surprised. In the mean time ourbest course is to accept the opinion of theChaldaeans, and to leave Sargon and Na-ramsin in the century assigned to them byNabonidos, although from this point they lookdown as from a high eminence upon all therest of Chaldœan antiquity. Excavations havebrought to l
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookidd, booksubjectcivilization
