Stone 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 particular strata of the mounds in which they were
respectively discovered, as well as in some cases the failure to note
even the sites where they were unearthed, has made anything like a
systematic study of Babylonian and Assyrian pottery a virtual
impossibility.
Various kinds of stone were used as materials for making bowls and vases
from the earliest periods of Mesopotamian civilization. Thus at Nippur
the American excavators unearthed a vase made of sandstone, bearing an
inscription of Utug, patesi or priest-king of Kish, the writing of which
was even more archaic than that on the mace-head of Mesilim, king of
Kish (cf. p. 185, Fig. 26) and, therefore, presumably of an earlier
date; it seems to have been dedicated to En-lil as a thank-offering, an
incidental testimony to the important place which the god of Nippur must
have occupied even at this extremely remote period. So, too, a vase of
white calcite stalagmite, bearing an inscription of Urzage, a king of
Kish belonging to about the same period, was dedicated to En-lil and his
spouse Nin-lil.
Stone vases have similarly been found at Tellô, while the fragments of a
number of stone vases made of white calcite stalagmite and bearing an
inscription of Lugal-zaggisi, the king of Umma who sacked Lagash in the
reign of Urukagina the last king of the first dynasty, were found on the
same site, and we learn from the inscriptions on these vase-fragments
that they were dedicated by Lugal-zaggisi to En-lil at E-kur. A fragment
of an alabaster vase bearing the name of Urukagina is now preserved in
the British Museum, and an onyx vase, dedicated to the goddess Bau, was
discovered in the neighbourhood of Ur-Ninâ’s building, while a large
basalt bowl of Eannatum was found on the same site, and the fragments of
a limestone vase, bearing an inscription of Entemena, a later king of
Lagash, were discovered beneath the temple of En-lil at Nippur. So also
at Jôkha, the site of the ancient city of Umma, fragments of vases and
objects made of stone were brought to light, while at Fâra, the ruined
mounds of which represent one of the earliest sites of Sumerian
civilization in the Babylonian plain, vases and cups made of various
stones including marble were recovered. These were generally of a
simple character, though sometimes they were decorated. But Bismâya,
thanks to the scientific excavations carried on by Harper and Banks for
the University of Chicago, has probably yielded a richer and more varied
harvest of stone pots than any other site in Babylonia. They comprise
bowls, phials, dishes, cups, mugs, and vessels of every conceivable
shape, the tallest measuring about twelve inches in height, and the
largest about twelve inches in diameter, while the thickness of the
walls varies from an eighth of an inch to just under an inch and a
quarter.[147] The stones from which they are made vary almost as much as
their dimensions, and include white marble, yellow marble, alabaster,
yellow limestone, pinkish onyx, porphyry, green porphyry, blue
freestone, soft limestone, and grey sandstone. Hardly any of these
manifold vessels were found complete, but Banks was able to reconstruct
a large number from the fragments that remained. They were all polished;
some were engraved with a comparatively simple design, while others were
elaborately decorated with the figures of men and animals, and some were
inlaid with ivory and precious stones. The inscriptions were few and
fragmentary, the name of the king or the temple mentioned being
otherwise unknown, while the writing is extremely archaic. That part of
the mound in which these stone vase fragments were discovered contains
only the plano-convex bricks characteristic of the old Sumerian period,
which further indicates the extreme antiquity of this large collection
of stone-ware, and indeed stone-ware seems to have been to a great
extent supplanted by the more economical and more easily wrought clay
pottery, at a comparatively early date, as was the case in ancient
Egypt. Most of the vases from Bismâya are circular in shape, though
examples of oval, oblong, square, and shell-shaped vases were also
found. The stone most commonly used was marble, due no doubt to its
comparative softness and adaptability to the chisel. The curvature and
general symmetry of these vases is so perfect that, according to Banks,
a lathe or something answering the same purpose as a lathe, must have
been used. The softer stones at this period were doubtless worked with
flint instruments, as in the case of the earliest cylinder-seals. The
purposes which these vases served must have been as diversified as the
vases themselves. Some appear to have been lamps, others drinking-cups;
some were probably used as water, wine, or oil jars, while others may
have been used as wash-basins; some were used for articles of toilet,
and in one vessel traces of _henna_[148] were still visible in one
compartment and traces of _kohl_ in the other.
[Illustration: FIG. 90, _a_.]
[Illustration: FIG. 89.]
[Illustration: FIG. 90, _b_.]
Of the stone-ware of the early period of Semitic supremacy in the
Euphrates valley, a gracefully curved vase of white marble belonging to
Urumush[149] king of Kish, which was discovered at Nippur during the
course of the excavations carried on by the University of Pennsylvania,
and is now preserved in the Pennsylvania Museum, affords us a good
example; while of the stone-ware of the somewhat later period of
Shar-Gâni-sharri and Narâm-Sin, the Semitic kings of Agade, a white
alabaster “phial” (cf. Fig. 89) discovered at Tellô and bearing the name
of Narâm-Sin is an excellent specimen. It consists in a well-rounded
flask or phial seven and a half inches high, and is inscribed with the
words “Narâm-Sin, King of the four regions.” Another small stone vase of
this king made of marble was acquired by Oppert during the ill-fated
expedition of 1855, the inscription upon which gave the additional
information that the stone from which the vase was made came from Magan,
but this valuable relic shared the fate of the other monuments and
tablets recovered by Fresnel and Oppert, and went down in the Tigris on
May 23rd, 1855.[150]
Many stone vases of the late period of Sumerian supremacy have been
brought to light, but none so interesting or so illuminating as that of
Gudea, patesi of Lagash (cf. Figs. 90 _a_, _b_). This unique vase of
dark green steatite is between eight and nine inches high, and rests
upon a narrow circular base. It is furnished with a very small spout
which could only allow but a small quantity of liquid to pass at a time.
The decoration is of the most elaborate order: two entwined serpents
occupy the central part of the design, their sinuous coils encircled
round a long staff traversing the whole height of the vase, while their
tongues are seen touching the edge of the vase near the embryonic spout.
The serpents are flanked by two strangely composite and highly mythical
creatures which face each other; in the grasp of each is a long spear
provided with a semicircular lateral handle, an exact replica of the
copper weapon discovered by De Sarzec at Tellô,[151] the site where this
vase was also found. These winged monsters have the body and head of a
serpent, and are provided with claws and talons, while their tails find
their fitting termination in the sting of a scorpion; their necks are
encircled with twisted tails, and their head-gears consist in a kind of
horned cap, an indication of the supernatural powers of these
extraordinary monstrosities. But in spite of the highly mythical
character of these creatures, the artist has not lost sight of the
general appearance of the serpent that has, as it were supplied the
material and natural foundation for the unnatural additions which his
imaginative mind has superimposed, the scaly skin of the snake being
portrayed by means of inlaid fragments of marble. The inscription
informs us that this vase was dedicated to the god Nin-gish-zi-da by
Gudea for the prolongation of his life.
Another stone vessel of a somewhat unique character is the dark
alabaster bowl in the Nimrûd Central Saloon of the British Museum; it is
sculptured in relief with a scene of Gilgamesh and Ea-bani wrestling
with lions, but unfortunately it is in a very poor state of
preservation.
[Illustration: FIG. 91.—A, B, C (British Museum, Nos. 93088, 91596,
90952). D (after Clay).]
But the practice of making vases of stone did not cease with the decline
of Babylonian supremacy; the Assyrians imitated their cultural
progenitors in this as in all other matters. The most interesting stone
vase belonging to the Assyrian era is that bearing an inscription of
Sennacherib (cf. Fig. 91, A). It is a kind of amphora though the two
handles are nearly worn away. The shape and proportions of this vase are
very artistic, and the curves well rounded off. In general contour it
somewhat resembles the little glass vase of Sargon, a yet more
remarkable relic of antiquity (cf. Fig. 91, C). Another interesting
example of Assyrian stone-ware is seen in Fig. 91, B; the vase, which is
decorated round the neck, bears the traces of a well-nigh effaced
inscription, and like the small glass vase of this same king is engraved
with a small lion. It is shaped differently from most of the stone vases
of the period, and has a charm and beauty all its own. Various glass
vessels and tubes were recovered from the ruins of Babil, Kouyunjik and
elsewhere, but their date is in nearly all cases an uncertain quantity.
Assyrian and Babylonian glass would appear to have been made in the
ordinary way, i.e. by a mixture of silex or sand with alkalis, while it
was fashioned into the required shape by means of a blow-pipe, and
finished off with a turning machine, of which the marks are sometimes
still visible. This is the case with the little vase of Sargon
illustrated above.[152]
Stone-ware of the late Babylonian period is well illustrated by the
jar-fragment of Nebuchadnezzar (604-561 B.C.) published by W. L. Nash in
the _Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archæology_ (1910, p. 180).
The inscription is very brief and apart from the king’s name only has
the numeral “one,” which was probably followed by a measure, but the
name of the latter is broken away. This stone jar like the Assyrian jars
differs from most of the inscribed vessels of earlier times, which
usually bear a dedicatory inscription, while in shape it is not unlike
the Assyrian jars seen in Fig. 91.
Allusion has elsewhere been made (cf. p. 86) to the marble vase bearing
the name of Xerxes in cuneiform and Egyptian hieroglyphics, but a number
of similar vases and fragments bearing an inscription of this same king
have also been brought to light. One such vase was found by Newton at
Halicarnassus in Asia Minor, the fragments of another being found by
Loftus at Susa, while a third (cf. Fig. 91, D) recently acquired by the
Babylonian Museum of the University of Pennsylvania, is published by
Clay in the _Museum Journal_ (1910, I, p. 6). It bears the royal
inscription of Xerxes the Great written in four different languages,
Persian, Elamite, Babylonian and Egyptian, the last-named being written
in the old hieroglyphics, and the other three in cuneiform. The vase
measures nine and seven-eighths inches in height, and eight and
fifteen-sixteenths inches in diameter.
[Illustration: FIG. 92.—“Pre-Sargonic cup.”
[Illustration: FIG. 93.—“Earliest vase from Nippur.”
(Hilprecht, _Explorations_, p. 407.)]
Although stone-ware appears to have been used more frequently in the
earlier periods of Mesopotamian civilization, it must be not supposed
that terra-cotta pottery was not also used by the ancient Sumerians and
early Semites. A vast quantity of pottery comprising bowls, phials, flat
vases, chalice goblets, oval pots and vessels of every description,
size, shape and form has been recovered from Tellô, Nippur, Fâra and
other recently excavated sites in Babylonia, and indeed so numerous and
so manifold are the vessels in question that only a long and systematic
study of the mass of material now available, as thorough and exhaustive
as that made by Professor Flinders Petrie of Egyptian pottery, would
justify any attempt to classify and date the different specimens. The
earlier excavations in Mesopotamia similarly yielded a large number of
terra-cotta pots and jars, but unfortunately there is so much
uncertainty as to the locality from which many of them came, and even
where that is known, there is generally no means of ascertaining in what
strata they were found—(as is unhappily also the case with a good deal
of the pottery discovered in recent years)—and as they further bear no
inscriptions, any attempted systematization in our present state of
knowledge is inevitably based largely on unproved and unprovable
hypotheses. Two good examples of early pre-Sargonic pottery are seen in
Figs. 92, 93. Both the cup (Fig. 92) and the vase (Fig. 93) were
discovered in the pre-Sargonic strata at Nippur.[153] Many other
interesting specimens of early pottery were discovered on the same site,
some being apparently black in colour, others being red. In a room
beneath the pavement of Narâm-Sin two vases were brought to light which
illustrate the remarkable differences in size and shape exhibited by
early Babylonian pottery, one of these vases being bell-shaped and
having a flat bottom twice as large in diameter as its mouth, while the
other, a little over two feet high and one foot nine inches across the
top, was decorated with a rope pattern.[154]
Among the minor results attending the excavations at Bismâya was the
recovery of a vast number of terra-cotta vases, some entire, others only
fragmentary.[155] They were found in graves, wells, and drains as well
as in the various platforms contained in the mound, and in the plain
itself. Between twenty-five and twenty-six feet below the surface two
large burial urns were discovered, while at a depth of some thirty-four
feet a smaller urn was brought to light. The earliest examples of
pottery were found more than forty-four feet below the surface. In the
larger vases and urns the clay appears to have been mixed with chopped
straw,[156] the clay itself being as a rule of a yellowish brown colour,
but according to Banks, the clay was burnt to a deep brown or black
colour in the earliest times. The wheel seems to have been used at all
periods, though not to the exclusion of hand-made pottery. One of the
pre-Sargonic vases from this site was apparently formed by placing the
clay on a flat surface, which the potter revolved with one hand while
fashioning the clay into the required shape with the other hand; as
Banks suggests, this may have been the origin of the potter’s wheel. The
vessels from Bismâya vary in height from a little over an inch to just
under thirty inches, and they exhibit every conceivable kind of shape.
The surfaces of most of them are plain, but some are decorated with
dots, squares, concentric circles and grooves. Two large vases are
painted with the marks of their makers or owners in black, but these are
regarded by Banks as post-Babylonian. Some of the vases are provided
with covers, the cover of one of the funeral urns consisting in a kind
of dish; sometimes, in the case of vases which were buried, a woven
cloth was fastened over the mouth and sealed with clay. These cloths
have of course long since perished, but the marks of the threads on the
clay are still visible.[157] One vase is shaped like a boat, while
another interesting terra-cotta object discovered on this site is a lamp
terminating in the head of an ox.
Some very unique specimens of Babylonian black pottery with incised
lines filled with white paste were discovered by Capt. Cros at Tellô.
These vases were not only decorated with geometrical designs, but also
with fish, boats, water-fowl and other river scenes.[158] This type of
pottery is of frequent occurrence in the ancient world. It has been
found in Susa on the east, while in the west it penetrated as far as
Spain. Of Babylonian pottery belonging to the Kassite period, mention
should especially be made of three vases discovered by Peters and Haynes
at Nippur. These pots are decorated with green and yellow stripes, and
were enclosed in an urn together with three small boxes, the largest of
which was ornamented with knobs. Along with these articles more than a
hundred discs and crescents pierced for the purposes of suspension, and
mostly coloured black or white, were also found. One of the best
examples of late pottery is the delicately-shaped and well-preserved
amphora discovered by Koldewey at Babylon,[159] but it must probably be
assigned to the Roman period.
_PLATE XXXIII_
[Illustration: POTTERY, FROM NIMRÛD
_Photos. Mansell_ _British Museum_
POTTERY, FROM NINEVEH]
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.
Probably the two most striking pots yielded by the excavations are those
numbered 91941 and 91950 in the British Museum collections. The former
is a large jar nineteen inches high and eighteen and three-quarter
inches in diameter, upon which is portrayed the figure of a man with the
tail of a goat and the claws of an eagle, while the broken remains of
one handle are still preserved. The latter is a six-handled vase two
feet six inches high, on the body of which rude figures and dragon-like
animals are depicted, but both of these vases probably belong to
post-Assyrian times.