. The dawn of civilization: Egypt and Chaldaea . ration : as it was necessaryto bring it from a great distance and at considerableexpense, they used it very sparingly, and then merely forlintels, uprights, thresholds, for hinges on which to hangtheir doors, for dressings in some of their state apartments, in cornices orsculptured friezes on the external walls of their buildings ; and even then itsemployment suggested rather that of a band of embroidery carefully dis-posed on some garment to relieve the plainness of the material. Crude brick, 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the seal of two viceg
. The dawn of civilization: Egypt and Chaldaea . ration : as it was necessaryto bring it from a great distance and at considerableexpense, they used it very sparingly, and then merely forlintels, uprights, thresholds, for hinges on which to hangtheir doors, for dressings in some of their state apartments, in cornices orsculptured friezes on the external walls of their buildings ; and even then itsemployment suggested rather that of a band of embroidery carefully dis-posed on some garment to relieve the plainness of the material. Crude brick, 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the seal of two vicegerents of Nipur (cf. Menant,Catalogue de la Collection de M. de Clercq, vol. i. pl. x., No. 86; cf. p. 618, note 2, of the presentvolume). The intaglio, which is of sapphirine chalcedony, measures If iuch in height. The initialvignette, which is also by Faucher-Gudin, represents the figure of a priest or scribe as restoredby M. Heuzey for the Paris Exhibition of 1S89 (cf. Heizey, Les Origines orientales de lart, vol. Lfrontispiece and pl. xi.).. <324 TI1E TEMPLES AND THE GODS OF CHALD2EA. burnt brick, enamelled brick, but always and everywhere brick was theprincipal element in their The soil of the marshes or of theplains, separated from the pebbles and foreign substances which it contained, with water, and assiduouslytrodden underfoot, furnishedthe ancient builders withmaterials of incredible tena-city. This was mouldedinto thin square bricks, eightinches to a foot across, andthree to four inches thick,but rarely larger : they werestamped on the flat side, bymeans of an incised woodenblock, with the name of thereigning sovereign, and werethen dried in the Alayer of fine mortar or ofbitumen was sometimesspread between the courses,or handfuls of reeds wouldbe strewn at intervals be-tween the brickwork to increase the cohesion : more frequently the crudebricks were piled one upon another, and their natural softness and moisturebrought about their rapid agg
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookidd, booksubjectcivilization
