With regard to Assyrian pottery we are in a still greater state of ignorance, in spite of the wealth of material at hand. Large quantities of pottery were brought to light by Botta, Layard and other early excavators, but unfortunately their archæological importance seemed as nothing compared with colossal bulls, sculptured bas-reliefs, or even prosaic clay tablets, and the result of this fortunately bygone apathy is that the site from which they came is sometimes not ascertainable, while on hardly any occasion is it possible to discover the building or immediate locality where they were found.
But the scientific excavations carried on by Koldewey and Andrae at Ashur are calculated to yield more satisfactory results in this connection. These excavations have already thrown light on the early pottery of Assyria, in the discovery of clay vessels decorated with black and red geometrical designs and assigned to the prehistoric period.
Another interesting specimen of Assyrian pottery found on the same site consists in a large round vase decorated about the top and having two handles.[160]
In Pl. XXXIII we have a miscellaneous group of pottery from the ruined mounds of Nineveh, and a similar group from Nimrûd. The pots here displayed show much variation both in size and form, but little more can be said about them. Apart, however, from the complete vessels in clay, a number of fragments of bowls have been recovered bearing inscriptions of kings of Assyria who reigned between 1140-681 B.C. These inscriptions are principally concerned with the various building-operations undertaken during the reign of the king in question. Were these bowls complete they would be of immense importance in arriving at some definite idea as to the shapes and sizes of vases in vogue at the different periods to which they belong. But as fortune or misfortune has it, hardly any of the well-preserved cups and bowls as yet recovered bear any inscription or design at all, and this is one of the great difficulties with which the student of Babylonian and Assyrian pottery has to contend. Sometimes a coloured glaze was applied to the surface of terra-cotta vessels, but to what extent this practice prevailed in early times it is hard to say.