67 
The brick has impressed upon it an inscription in the arrow- 
headed character. These, like the bricks of Egypt, not only 
afford testimony to the truth of Scripture by their composition of 
straw and clay, but also by the cuneiform inscriptions impressed 
upon them, afford the means of tracing the sites of ancient Mesopo- 
* tamia and Assyria with an accuracy unattainable by any other 
means. The inscription in the present instance corresponds as 
nearly as can be made out with that on a brick of precisely similar 
character deciphered by Sir H. Rawlinson as bearing the name 
of Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon. It is highly probable, there¬ 
fore, that the date of this brick is of the period of Nebuchadnez¬ 
zar’s time. 
23. A terminal figure or caryatide, of terra cotta, from the island 
of Milos, in Greece. 
24. A small terra cotta figure, wanting the head, brought from 
Milos. These small figures were used by the Greeks as orna¬ 
ments, or as their household gods. They are found to have 
been made by the same process as the modern plaster casts ; 
they were frequently coloured in distemper, as in the present 
example. 
25. A bird moulded in terra cotta. Many little figures of animals 
and birds, used as toys, have been found deposited with the 
bodies of children in the tombs of Melos and Athens : this is 
probably an example. 
Nos. 23 to 25. Deposited by Mr. E. T. Stevens. 
26. Two pieces of early British pottery, fragments of urns, from a 
barrow on Salisbury Plain, presented by Dr. Fowler. 
These two pieces represent a large and highly interesting class 
of funeral pottery, found more abundantly in this neighbourhood 
than in any other part of England. No county has produced so 
many and important monuments of its former Celtic inhabitants as 
Wiltshire. A great number of the tumuli or barrows which are 
so plentifully found on our downs were systematically opened some 
years since by Sir R. C. Hoare, and their contents are still pre¬ 
served at Stourliead. The vases are generally of an urn shape, 
with wide open mouths, and tapering at the feet ; the lip is 
bevelled, and overlaps, thus giving them a peculiar form. Their 
style of ornament is of the simplest kind; cords and bands are laid 
round or down the vase before it had undergone the imperfect 
baking—or the pattern is incised with a tool, or pointed piece of 
stick or bone ; the usual ornament is the herring-bone, chiefly 
placed on the bevelled rim or top. As it is impossible, owing to 
their great friability, that they could have been much used for 
domestic purposes, it is probable that they were expressly made for 
sepulchral rites. They are frequently of considerable size, and are 
found in barrows protecting the ashes of the dead ; beads and rude 
personal adornments of the Celtic races are found with them, toge¬ 
ther with flint, stone, and some types of bronze weapons, 
