They have no peculiar merit, being merely repetitions of the forms with which we are familiar from their occurrence on embroidered dresses and on the cylinders.
[Illustration: PLATE 75] The embossed work of the Assyrians is the most curious and the most artistic portion of their metallurgy.

Sometimes it consisted of mere heads and feet of animals, hammered into shape upon a model composed of clay mixed with bitumen.

[PLATE LXXV., Figs.

1, 2.] Sometimes it extended to entire figures, as (probably) in the case of the lions clasping each other, so common at the ends of sword-sheaths (see [PLATE LXXV., Fig.

3]), the human figures which ornament the sides of chairs or stools, and the like.