They commonly guard the portals of palaces, and are raised in a bold relief on alabaster slabs.

The writing does not often trench upon the sculpture, but covers all those portions of the slabs which are not occupied by the animal.

It is usually a full account of some particular campaign, which was thus specially commemorated, giving in detail what is far more briefly expressed in the obelisk and slab inscriptions.
[Illustration: PLATE 40] This review of the various kinds of documents which have been discovered in the ancient cities of Assyria, seems to show that two materials were principally in use among the people for literary purposes, namely, stone and moist clay.

The monarchs used the former most commonly, though sometimes they condescended for some special object to the coarser and more fragile material.

Private persons in their business transactions, literary and scientific men in their compositions, employed the latter, on which it was possible to write rapidly with a triangular instrument, and which was no doubt far cheaper than the slabs of fine stone, which were preferred for the royal inscriptions.