Probably the most effective ornamentation of this kind was by means of patterns, which are often graceful and striking.

[PLATE LX., 2.] It has been observed that, so far as the evidence at present goes, the use of the column in Assyrian architecture would seem to have been very rare indeed.

In palaces we have no grounds for thinking that they were employed at all excepting in certain of the interior doorways, which, being of unusual breadth, seem to have been divided into three distinct portals by means of two pillars placed towards the sides of the opening.
The bases of these pillars were of stone, and have been found _in situ_; their shafts and capitals had disappeared, and can only be supplied by conjecture.

In the temples, as we have seen, the use of the column was more frequent.

Its dimensions greatly varied.