They exhibit certain improvements on the architecture of the earlier times, and appear to have been very richly ornamented, at least in parts.

At the same time they contain among their debris remarkable proofs of the small advance which had as yet been made in some of the simplest arts.

Flint knives and other implements, stone hatchets, chisels, and nails, are abundant in the ruins; and though the use of metal is not unknown, it seems to have been comparatively rare.

When a metal is found, it is either gold or bronze, no trace of iron (except in ornaments of the person) appearing in any of the Chaldaean remains.

Zur-Sin, Rim-Sin, and three or four other monarchs of the Sin series, whose names are imperfect or uncertain, may be assigned to the period included between B.C.1700 and B.C.