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478 History of Art in Antiquity. slabs, which indicated the situation they were to occupy and the pieces they would have next to them. Loftus noticed several such indentations made by the taskmaster.' What heightened the effect of these enamels and added to their resistance are strips or lines in relief which surround the outlines of the design (Fig. 251). The enclosed spaces were painted much in the same way as enamels on metal, the appearance of which they recall. As a rule, the salient strips have shielded the enamel. There are bricks, Flu. 251. — Susa. Enamelled slab. Fragment of archer's robe. Actual size. however, notably a certain number of rosettes, where the colouring matter has fallen off and left nothing but the lines within which it was enclosed. A fair notion may be gained of the tones found on the palette of the enamellist from our Plates XI. and XII. Their number was small, and the absence of red is as conspicuous as in the enamels of Assyrian origin. The ground is invariably a'greenish blue, a colour to which Persia was faithful throughout the Middle Ages. The tone, slightly modified, with just a dash of green in it, reappears in certain details about the figures. It blends excellently well with the yellows and whites, and a dark brown of which the painter made a lavish use. Whether the fact that the whites have changed most should be ascribed to their being less solid, or because they got soiled by long contact with the earth, certain it is that they have in nearly every instance lost ' Loftus, Travels and Researches, p. 398.