eed, it is
possible that Babylonia was the original home of copper-working, which
spread westward with the civilization to which it belonged. At any rate the
people were famous from an early date for their embroideries and rugs. The
ceramic history of Babylonia and Assyria has unfortunately not yet been
traced; at Susa alone has the care demanded by the modern methods of
archaeology been as yet expended on examining and separating the pottery
found in the excavations, and Susa is not Babylonia. We do not even know
the date of the spirited terra-cotta reliefs discovered by Loftus and
Rawlinson. The forms of Assyrian pottery, however, are graceful; the
porcelain, like the glass discovered in the palaces of Nineveh, was derived
from Egyptian originals. Transparent glass seems to have been first
introduced in the reign of Sargon. Stone as well as clay and glass were
employed in the manufacture of vases, and vases of hard stone have been
disinterred at Tello similar to those of the early dynastic period of
Egypt.

_Social Life_.--Castes were unknown in both Babylonia and Assyria, but the
priesthood of Babylonia found its counterpart in the military aristocracy
of Assyria. The priesthood was divided into a great number of classes,
among which that of the doctors may be reckoned. The army was raised, at
all events in part, by conscription; a standing army seems to have been
first organized in Assyria. Successive improvements were introduced into it
by the kings of the second Assyrian empire; chariots were superseded by
cavalry; Tiglath-pileser III. gave the riders saddles and high boots, and
Sennacherib created a corps of slingers. Tents, baggage-carts and
battering-rams were carried on the march, and the _tartan_ or
commander-in-chief ranked next to the king. In both countries there was a
large body of slaves; above them came the agriculturists and commercial
classes, who were, however, comparatively little numerous in Assyria. The
scribes, on the other hand, formed a more important class in Assyria than
in Babylonia. Both countries had their artisans, money-lenders, poets and
musicians.

The houses of the people contained but little furniture; chairs, tables and
couches, however, were used, and Assur-bani-pal is represented as reclining
on his couch at a meal while his wife sits on a chair beside him. After
death the body was usually partially cremated along with the objects that
had been buried with it. The cemetery adjoin