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PREFACE
PREFACE
I N every department of science the theories of yesterday are perpetually being displaced by the empirical facts of to-day, though the ascertainment of these facts is frequently the indirect outcome of the theories which the facts themselves dissipate. Hence it is that the works of the greatest scholars and experts have no finality, they are but stepping-stones towards the goal of perfect knowledge. Since the publications of Layard, Rawlinson, Botta and Place much new material has been made acce
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(a) LAND AND PEOPLE
(a) LAND AND PEOPLE
T HE Mesopotamian civilization shares with the Egyptian civilization the honour of being one of the two earliest civilizations in the world, and although M. J. de Morgan’s excavations at Susa the ruined capital of ancient Elam, have brought to light the elements of an advanced civilization which perhaps even antedates that of Mesopotamia, it must be remembered that the Sumerians who, so far as our present knowledge goes, were the first to introduce the arts of life and all that they bring with t
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(b) SKETCH OF BABYLONIAN AND ASSYRIAN HISTORY
(b) SKETCH OF BABYLONIAN AND ASSYRIAN HISTORY
In the early days of Babylonian history, the country was divided up into a number of small principalities or city-states, and the practical realization of the approved truism that “unity is strength” was only attained at a later date. In this respect also, the early history of Babylonian civilization presents a parallel to that of ancient Egypt, where we find the country similarly apportioned out into a series of districts or nomes, which in course of time tended to amalgamate and in fact crysta
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CHAPTER II—EXCAVATIONS
CHAPTER II—EXCAVATIONS
T HE history of the actual excavations properly commences with the first expedition sent out to dig, but there is one scholar who, although he did not excavate on any large scale, was the first to bring cuneiform inscriptions to Europe and on this account deserves special mention. C. J. Rich, born in 1787 at Dijon, was from the early age of nine attracted to the study of Oriental languages, and in course of time made himself master of Hebrew, Persian, Aramaic and Arabic, while he is said to have
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CHAPTER III—DECIPHERMENT OF THE CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS
CHAPTER III—DECIPHERMENT OF THE CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS
T HE first person to bring reports of cuneiform inscriptions to Europe was Pietro della Valle, an Italian belonging to a Roman family of noble birth. In the years 1614-26 he made a journey to Turkey, Egypt, Palestine, Persia and India, and published an account of his travels in 1650, but the first communication of his discovery of cuneiform inscriptions at Persepolis was contained in a letter written from Shiraz and dated October 21st, 1621. Josafat Barbaro at the end of the fifteenth century ha
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CHAPTER IV—CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS
CHAPTER IV—CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS
A LL alphabets and all modes of writing have their ultimate origin in pictures or hieroglyphs, and the cuneiform script offers no exception to this universal rule. When the early pictorial symbols are used to indicate objects and ideas other than the particular object of which the symbol is a representation the accuracy or inaccuracy of the picture becomes a matter of small importance, and an inevitable tendency to sketch the picture in the most speedy manner possible ends finally in the evoluti
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MORTAR
MORTAR
The layers and courses of clay bricks of which the buildings in Mesopotamia were for the most part composed, were cemented together by mud in the earliest times; this clay-mud is generally distinguishable from the bricks which it unites by the difference of its colour. Mud-mortar has been found on some of the earliest sites and in some of the most ancient buildings, while in Assyria it appears to have been the regular form of cement used at all times. In the city of Babylon, strange to say, clay
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STONE
STONE
The use of stone in Babylonia, as a building accessory, although seldom as a fundamental material, dates from the most ancient Sumerian times. A very early example of the use of stone for definitely architectural purposes in Babylonia is afforded by the pavement upon which a building at Lagash, found under the structure of Ur-Ninâ, was erected. The pavement 53 consists of slabs of limestone, three or four feet long, one and a half to two feet broad, and about six inches thick. The door-sockets,
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WOOD
WOOD
Assyria afforded a better supply of wood than Babylonia, the latter country being as poor in wood as it is in stone. The only trees from which beams sufficiently long to be of any use could be obtained, were the poplar and the palm tree. Wood being more perishable than either clay or stone, we naturally do not expect to find the same amount of material evidence of its usage; sufficient however has survived the ravages of time to establish the certainty of its usage in Mesopotamia as a building m
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METAL
METAL
Metal can hardly be said to have been used for purely architectural purposes at all, and when employed seems rather to have been added for the adornment of the more conspicuous parts of the building, than used as an integral part of the structure. There are, however, one or two exceptions to this generalization. The sills were sometimes made of metal in the more luxurious buildings, and a bronze sill measuring 60 × 20 × 3-1/2 inches, with an inscription of Nebuchadnezzar has actually come to lig
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TEMPLES
TEMPLES
It would be quite impossible to give an account of all the temples and palaces in Mesopotamia, excavated during the last sixty years, we must therefore confine ourselves to a brief description of a few of the better explored buildings, which may with reserve be regarded as typical. The temples have not weathered the deteriorating effects of time and climate so well as the palaces, the reason for which is to be found in the fact that, generally speaking, the object of the temple-builder was so fa
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PALACES
PALACES
Other buildings in Babylonia of a more secular character have been preserved in a more satisfactory state than those specifically dedicated to the gods, but the royal palaces themselves have for the most part undergone such a course of reconstruction that it is very difficult to determine the precise form which the original building assumed. Ur-Ninâ has bequeathed to us the remains of an elaborate building which he erected at his royal city Lagash, but it appears to be a storehouse rather than a
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PRIVATE HOUSES
PRIVATE HOUSES
Of the arrangement of private houses in Babylonia we know comparatively little. Taylor excavated a small house of uncertain date at Muḳeyyer, and a plan of some chambers at Abû Shahrein was also made out. The house at Muḳeyyer was erected on an artificial mound of crude brick upon which a pavement of burnt brick was laid, the house itself being built of the same material. The walls were very irregular, but the general plan of the building seems to have been cruciform. The outer layer of bricks w
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THE COLUMN
THE COLUMN
The column never seems to have occupied a prominent position in the history of Mesopotamian architecture, a fact which was again due to the dearth of stone and wood; there is however sufficient evidence to prove that it was certainly not unknown, though it was not very frequently employed. In modern architecture the column forms the main support of arches, but in Babylonian and Assyrian architecture the archivolts and pendentives of the arch are generally supported by thick walls; this fact is t
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THE ARCH
THE ARCH
It has been truly said that the arch was first invented by people whose building materials were of a small size, and however open to objection this generalization may be, it is certainly true in the case of Babylonian architecture, and also in a somewhat lesser degree in that of the later Assyrian architecture. Strabo informs us that “all the houses in Babylonia were vaulted”—διὰ τήν ἀξυλιαν—“because of the dearth of wood,” XVI, 1, 5—but however reliable or unreliable his statement may be, the d
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BAS-RELIEFS
BAS-RELIEFS
The bas-relief was the favourite, and undoubtedly the most successful expression of the artistic genius of both Babylonians and Assyrians from the earliest to the latest times. Their first efforts in this direction were crude indeed, but this is a fault incidental to the beginnings of any art. One of the most ancient bas-reliefs yielded by Babylonian excavations is reproduced in Fig. 25 , A. We have here a representation of a man apparently engaged in some act of worship, or in the performance o
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SCULPTURE IN THE ROUND
SCULPTURE IN THE ROUND
For the study of early Sumerian sculpture in the round, we unfortunately have not much material at hand. As has been already stated, both the Babylonians and Assyrians excelled in bas-relief work rather than in full rounded sculpture, and what they excelled in, that they practised most; in spite of this fact however, both peoples were alive to the superiority of sculpture in the round, but the difficulties involved in producing work of this kind prevented such work being undertaken save for exce
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CHAPTER VII—METALLURGY
CHAPTER VII—METALLURGY
I N the art of working metals the Babylonians showed no small degree of proficiency: evidence has already been given of the way in which metal was made to contribute her share to the perfected work of the architect, as also of its employment as a material whereon the scribe might engrave his comparatively imperishable memorials, but the part which it played in the history of the country’s art, as well as in the growth of her civilization, remains to be considered. The metals which appear to have
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CHAPTER VIII—PAINTING
CHAPTER VIII—PAINTING
“P AINTING” in the ordinary sense of the word to-day, was an art never practised by the dwellers in Mesopotamia: like all Orientals both the Babylonians and Assyrians were fond of gay colours, and they gratified their taste for such in various ways, but as a rule no attempt was made to faithfully represent the objects of nature through the medium of the brush and the employment of colours alone, and the colours which they used on their sculptured reliefs, their stuccoed walls, or their enamelled
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CHAPTER IX—CYLINDER-SEALS[129]
CHAPTER IX—CYLINDER-SEALS[129]
O F the smaller relics of Babylonian and Assyrian antiquity there are none so numerous or so pregnant with interest as the engraved seals which kings and commoners of all periods alike possessed. The universality of their usage in later times is attested by Herodotus (I, 195), who tells us that in his day everyone in Babylonia carried a seal as well as a walking-stick, while abundant evidence of their general use in early times is afforded by the vast quantity of seals discovered in the course o
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(A) SHELL-ENGRAVING
(A) SHELL-ENGRAVING
T HE art of engraving on shell in Mesopotamia dates back to the earliest days of Sumerian civilization. The most ancient of these engravings are executed on shells with rough surfaces, of which those of the oyster seem to have been the most popular. Some of the fragments recovered are clearly shaped and fashioned for inlaying purposes, while others, of curved shape, can be fitted together and once formed part of an engraved and delicately moulded vase or cup. Some time later mother-of-pearl beca
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(B) IVORY-WORK
(B) IVORY-WORK
Unlike shell, which could be readily picked up on the shores of the Persian Gulf by the inhabitants of the earliest centres of civilization in Lower Mesopotamia, many of which were doubtless seaports in those days, ivory was only procurable elsewhere, and it was not till the dwellers in the valley extended their power outside that they were able to command a supply of this more precious substance, ivory forming one of the principal materials exacted by the later Assyrian kings from their various
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CHAPTER XI—TERRA-COTTA FIGURES AND RELIEFS
CHAPTER XI—TERRA-COTTA FIGURES AND RELIEFS
I T were indeed paradoxical if the Babylonian artists had not invoked the aid of the clay, which they employed so readily and extensively not only in their building operations but also for all ordinary writing purposes, in their attempts to represent human and animal life. Undoubtedly this material was not employed for these purposes so frequently as might have been expected, but this is probably due to the comparative fragility of this substance and its consequent inability to withstand the dis
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CHAPTER XII—STONEWARE AND POTTERY
CHAPTER XII—STONEWARE AND POTTERY
S TONE and clay were the two materials from which the Babylonians and Assyrians as a rule manufactured their vases, pots and bowls, though, as we have seen (cf. Fig. 45 ), metal was occasionally used for the purpose. Unfortunately the study of Babylonian and Assyrian pottery has never received the attention which it deserves, while in the earlier excavations carried on in Mesopotamia the importance of these uninscribed relics of the past was not realized, and the omission to observe the particul
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CHAPTER XIII—DRESS, MILITARY ACCOUTREMENTS, ETC.
CHAPTER XIII—DRESS, MILITARY ACCOUTREMENTS, ETC.
T HE full dress of the earliest Sumerians comprised nothing more elaborate than a skirt fastened round the waist and probably made of wool. But the taste for decoration shown by all primitive peoples is evinced by the Sumerians at a very early date, and they seek to relieve the dead monotony of the skirt by edging the bottom with a fringe (cf. Figs. 25 , 52 ), the fringe on the earliest monuments being formed by a series of pointed tags. In the time of Ur-Ninâ, the archaically fringed skirt has
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(A) THE EARLY SUMERIAN PERIOD
(A) THE EARLY SUMERIAN PERIOD
T HANKS to the indefatigable labours of Père Scheil and M. Thureau-Dangin, and to the admirable work of M. Genouillac on Sumerian Society , in which that scholar publishes, translates and comments on many of the early tablets from Tellô, we are able to obtain a very fair idea of the manners and customs of the Sumerians at the time of the first dynasty of Lagash. An investigation of the conditions of any society naturally commences with a brief consideration of the laws, which regulated the proce
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(B) THE KHAMMURABI PERIOD
(B) THE KHAMMURABI PERIOD
The reign of Khammurabi is in some respects the half-way house in the history of Mesopotamian civilization. The king was of course the supreme head of the state, and indeed he was not only “the first gentleman” in Babylonia, but also enjoyed the unique privilege and blessing of being a demigod. The deification of kings was a practice in vogue centuries before the time of Khammurabi, and it was doubtless a practice assiduously cultivated by the kings themselves. Some of the early Semite kings of
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(C) THE ASSYRIAN ERA
(C) THE ASSYRIAN ERA
In Assyrian times the same explicit or implicit regulations in regard to the family seem to have been in force, or tacitly agreed to, as those which obtained in the older Babylonian period. Apparently a man was only expected in the normal way to marry one woman, though it seems probable that in the event of the first wife proving childless it was regarded as quite justifiable and legitimate for a man to take to himself another woman, in view of the desirability of his having an heir. 183 Accordi
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(D) BABYLONIAN AND ASSYRIAN SYMBOLISM
(D) BABYLONIAN AND ASSYRIAN SYMBOLISM
In all religions, whether ancient or modern, material representation forms the connecting link between the natural and the supernatural, the physical and the spiritual. The medium sometimes assumes the shape of an image of a naturally or unnaturally conceived deity, at other times it takes the form of an emblem, astronomical or otherwise, with which the god is associated. We have had abundant evidence of the prominent part played by images in the worship of the Babylonians and Assyrians, and it
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(E) BABYLONIAN ESCHATOLOGY
(E) BABYLONIAN ESCHATOLOGY
Man’s ideas and thoughts are very largely determined by his environment, so too his beliefs regarding the next world have as their material basis and setting the world in which he now lives; the unknown but vaguely guessed at, can only be defined, or rather depicted in terms of the known, the unseen in terms of the seen, heaven in the terms of earth, God in the terms of Man—in short, the doctrine of the Incarnation underlies all religion and all religious systems. As we have already seen, the ea
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A SHORT BIBLIOGRAPHY
A SHORT BIBLIOGRAPHY
Those readers who may desire to enlarge their information on any particular subject referred to in this volume cannot do better than consult the following works. For a history of the excavations, Hilprecht’s Explorations in Bible Lands (T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh), is a most useful book. For further details regarding the excavations at Nippur Peters’ Nippur, or Explorations and Adventures on the Euphrates (Putman) should be consulted, and also Fisher’s Excavations at Nippur (Philadelphia).
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LIST OF THE MORE IMPORTANT KINGS AND RULERS AND A BRIEF CHRONOLOGICAL SUMMARY
LIST OF THE MORE IMPORTANT KINGS AND RULERS AND A BRIEF CHRONOLOGICAL SUMMARY
Urukagina, defeated by Lugal-zaggisi, king of Erech and Sumer Shar-Gâni-sharri, established empire embracing Assyria, Syria and Palestine Dungi, sacks Babylon, exercises suzerainty over Babylonia, extends his sway to Elam Khammurabi, king of Babylon, establishes a powerful kingdom in Babylonia, expels the Elamites who had effected a settlement in Ur and Larsa, restores Shar-Gâni-Sharri’s empire in Palestine and embraces Assyria within the sphere of his influence Kha This dynasty is brought to an
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