prisoners on one side and peasants presenting him with gifts on the other. Babylon The conquest of Sumer and Akkad by Babylon marks a turning point in the artistic and political history of the region. The Babylonians took advantage of the abundance of clay in Mesopotamia to create bricks. The use of brick led to the early development of the pilaster and column, as well as of frescoes and enameled tiles. The walls were brilliantly colored, and sometimes plated with bronze or gold as well as with tiles. Painted terra-cotta cones were also embedded in the plaster. The Babylonians often worked with metal. They created functional tools with copper. It is possible that Babylonia was the original home of copperworking, which then spread westward. In addition, the want of stone in Babylonia made every pebble precious and led to a high perfection of the art of gem-cutting. The arts of Babylon also included tapestries, and Babylonian civilization was famous for its tapestries and rugs. Assyria When Babylon began to decline, it was conquered by Assyria, one of its former colonies. Assyria inherited its arts as well as its empire. At first, Assyrian architects and artists copied Babylonian styles and materials. Later, Assyrians began to shake themselves free of Babylonian influences. The walls of the Assyrian palaces were lined with slabs of stone instead of brick and were colored instead of painted as in Chaldea. In place of the bas relief, we have sculpted figures, the earliest examples being the statues from Girsu. No remarkable specimens of metallurgic art from early Assyria have been found, but at a later epoch, great excellence was attained in the manufacture of such jewellery as earrings and bracelets of gold. They also had skilled works using copper. Assyrian pottery and porcelain were graceful. Transparent glass seems to have been first introduced in the reign of Sargon II, like the glass discovered in the palaces of Nineveh - derived from Egyptian originals. Stone, as well as clay and glass, were employed in the manufacture of vases. Vases of hard stone have been disinterred at Tello, similar to those of the early dynastic period of Egypt. Ashurbanipal promoted art and culture and had a vast library of cuneiform tablets at Nineveh. Hittite Hittite art was produced by the Hittite civilization in ancient Anatolia, in modern-day Turkey, and also stretching into Syria during the second millennium BC from