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4 
Stone imbossed work, representing the surrender of Lachis to Sennachérib
(Roger-Miles). 
 THE BABYLONIAN-ASSYRIAN ORNAMENT. 
long the banks of the Euphrates and Tigris, in the sacred land of Mesopotamia,
and 
under the special influence of these two streams, a characteristic civilis
ation developed itself more than ~ooo years ago — much the same as
the civilisation which was developed in Egypt under the in' fluence of the
Nile. The results of the latest excavations in Tello, Niniveh, Nimroud, Kuyundschik,
Khorsabad, and other places, have afforded proofs of the existence, even
as far back as the 4 th thousand before Christ, of the Sumner, a nonSemitic
people who became afterwards united with the Assyrians. It may therefore
be accepted as certain, that in this 
river valley a civilisation existed which was older than that of Egypt. The
language of the Sumner long after it ceased to exist as a living tongue was
spoken as a dead language by scholars. The Bible itself mentions the colossal
buildings erected by the Babylonian and Assyrian kings at that remote period.
In this particular country, there was such a mixture of peoples, one alternately
~ by another, that the art of the epoch must be regarded as one common to
the people as a whole. The people ' bkemselves appear to have been more of
a sensible and practical, rather than of a poetic turn of mind. They were
at once commercial as well as warlike, keeping material gain and their own
supremacy above all other matters.