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[Illustration: CLAY CYLINDER OF TIGLATH-PILESER I.]
_Present Day Primers_
_Primer of Assyriology_
BY
A. H. SAYCE, LL.D.
PROFESSOR OF ASSYRIOLOGY, OXFORD
AUTHOR OF 'FRESH LIGHT FROM THE ANCIENT MONUMENTS'
'ASSYRIA, ITS PRINCES, PRIESTS, AND PEOPLE,' ETC.
WITH SEVEN ILLUSTRATIONS
THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY
56 PATERNOSTER ROW AND 65 ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD
_First Edition, September, 1894._
CONTENTS
PAGE
CHAPTER I
THE COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE
Geography--Population and Language--The Chaldaeans--The Kassi--
Natural Products--Canals--Architecture--Asphalt and Naphtha--
Character of the Babylonians and Assyrians 7
CHAPTER II
THE DISCOVERY AND DECIPHERMENT OF THE INSCRIPTIONS
The Site of Babylon--The Site of Nineveh--Excavations--The
Decipherment of the Inscriptions--The Decipherment tested--
Sumerian--Vannic--Other Languages--The origin of the
Cuneiform Syllabary--Simplification of the Syllabary 18
CHAPTER III
BABYLONIAN AND ASSYRIAN HISTORY
Different States in Babylonia--The first Empire--The monuments
of Tello--Chronology--The United Monarchy--The rise of Assyria--
Babylon a sacred city--Tiglath-pileser I--The First Assyrian
Empire--The Second Assyrian Empire--The Babylonian Empire--Cyrus
and the Fall of Babylon--Belshazzar--Decay of Babylon 42
CHAPTER IV
RELIGION
The religions of Babylonia and Assyria--Differences between
Babylonian and Assyrian religion--Sumerian religion Shamanistic--
Two centres of Babylonian religion--Semitic influence--The goddess
Istar--Bel-Merodach--Other deities--Sacred books and ritual--The
Priests--The Temples--Astro-theology--Sacrifices and offerings--The
Sabbath--Monotheistic tendency--The future life--Cosmology 80
CHAPTER V
BABYLONIAN AND ASSYRIAN LITERATURE
Aids to the reading of the texts--The libraries--Varieties of
literature--The texts autotypes--Astronomy--Mathematics--Medicine
and law--History and mythology--The Chaldaean epic and the
Deluge--Epic of the Creation 95
CHAPTER VI
SOCIAL LIFE
The Contract-tablets--Married Life--Burial--Slavery--Lowness of
Wages--Property--Taxes--Prices--Usury--The Army--Navy--The
Bureaucracy 109
APPENDIX
Assyrian Measures of Length--Measures of Capacity--Measures of
Weight and Coinage--The Months of the Year 118
Babylonian Kings--Assyrian Kings--High Priests of Assur--Kings
of Assyria 120
Synchronisms between Assyrian and Biblical History 125
The Principal Deities of Babylonia and Assyria 126
A PRIMER OF ASSYRIOLOGY
CHAPTER I
THE COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE
Geography.--The civilizations of Babylonia and Assyria grew up on the
banks of the Tigris and Euphrates. The Tigris was called Idikna and
Idikla in the Sumerian or primitive language of Babylonia, from which
the Semites formed the name Idiklat, by means of the feminine suffix
_-t_. In later times the name was shortened into Diklat, and finally
assimilated by the Persians to the word Tigra, which in their language
signified 'an arrow.' It is from Tigra that the classical name Tigris
is derived. In Genesis (ii. 14), however, the ancient name Idikla,
there written Hiddekel, is still preserved. The Euphrates was called
Pura-nun, or 'great water,' in Sumerian, and was frequently known as
simply the Pura or 'Water,' just as the Nile is known to-day to the
modern Egyptians as simply 'the Sea.' Hence it is often spoken of in
the Bible as 'the River,' without the addition of any other name. From
Pura came the Semitic Purat, with the Semitic suffix _-t_; and Purat,
the Perath of the Old Testament, was changed by the Persians into
Ufratu, with a play upon their own word _u_ 'good.' The Persian Ufratu
is the Greek Euphrates.
The alluvial plain of Babylonia was the gift of the two great rivers.
In the early days of Babylonian civilization they both flowed into the
Persian Gulf. But salt marshes already existed at their mouths, and as
time went on the marshes extended further and further to the south.
What had once been sea became dry land, the silt brought down by the
rivers forming an ever-increasing delta in the north of the Gulf.
To-day the two rivers flow into one channel, and the point where they
unite is eighty miles distant from the present line of coast. The
marshes are called 'the country of Marratu' or 'the salt-sea' in the
inscriptions, a name which reappears as Merathaim in Jer. 1. 21.
One of the oldest of Babylonian cities was Eridu, 'the good city,'
which was originally built on the shore of the Persian Gulf, though
Abu-Shahrein, which now marks its site, is far inland, the sea having
retreated from it for a distance of 100 miles. In early times, however,
it was the chief Babylonian port, and through its intercourse with
foreign countries it exercised a great influence on the culture and
religion of Babylonia. Further to the north, but on the western side of
the Euphrates, was Ur, the birth-place of Abraham, whose ruins are now
called Mugheir or Muqayyar; and still further to the north, but on the
opposite side of the river, were Larsa (probably the Ellasar of Gen.
xiv. 1) now Senkereh, and Uruk or Erech (Gen. x. 10) the modern Warka.
Considerably to the north of these again came Nipur (now Niffer), which
played a leading part in the history of Babylonian religion. Nipur
stood at the spot where the Tigris and Euphrates tended to approach one
another, and northward, in the narrowest part of the territory which
lay between them, were the important cities of Babel or Babylon, Kutha,
and Sippara. Babylon, called Bab-ili, 'the gate of God,' on the
monuments, lay on both sides of the Euphrates, its south-western suburb
being Borsippa. The great temple of Bel-Merodach, called E-Saggila,
rose within it; that of Nebo, the prophet and interpreter of Merodach,
being at Borsippa. E-Zida, the temple of Nebo, is now known as the
Birs-i-Nimrud. Kutha (now Tell-Ibrahim), to the north of Babylon, was
surrounded by vast cemeteries, which were under the protection of its
patron-god Nergal. Sippara, still further to the north, was a double
city, one part of it, the present Abu-Habba, being termed 'Sippara of
the Sun-god,' while the other half was 'Sippara of the goddess Anunit.'
It is in consequence of this double character that the Old Testament
speaks of it as Sepharvaim 'the two Sipparas.'
Northward of Sippara the Tigris and Euphrates again trend apart from
one another and enclose the great plateau of Mesopotamia. To the east
of the Tigris come the mountains of Elam, 'the highlands,' and to the
north of them the Kurdish ranges, which were known to the primitive
Babylonians under the name of Guti or Gutium. At the foot of these
ranges, and northward of the Lower or Little Zab, the kingdom of
Assyria arose. It took its name from its original capital of Assur, now
Kalah-Sherghat, on the western bank of the Tigris, not far to the north
of the junction of the latter river with the Lower Zab. The supremacy
of Assur afterwards passed to Calah and Nineveh, which lay northward
between the Tigris and the Upper or Greater Zab. Calah (now Nimrud) was
close to the junction of the two rivers; Nineveh (now Kouyunjik and
Nebi Yunus opposite Mosul) was built along the bank of the Tigris, the
stream of the Khoser flowing through the middle of it. Some miles to
the north, under the shelter of the hills, Sargon built a palace which
he called Dur-Sargon (the modern Khorsabad), and between Nineveh and
Calah lay Res-eni 'the head of the Spring,' the Resen of Gen. x. 12.
Population and Language.--Babylonia already had a long history behind
it when the kingdom of Assyria first arose. The main bulk of the
Assyrian population was Semitic, and the common language of the country
was Semitic also. But it was otherwise in Babylonia. Here the pioneers
of civilization, the builders of the great cities, the inventors of the
cuneiform system of writing, of astronomy, of mathematics, and of other
arts and sciences, belonged to a non-Semitic race and spoke an
agglutinative language. It is in this language that the earliest
records of the country are written and that the older clay-books were
compiled. For want of a better name scholars have called the language
and people to whom it belonged Accadian or Sumerian, or even
Accado-Sumerian. Accad and Sumer were the names given to the northern
and southern divisions of Babylonia respectively, and as it was in
Sumer that the old race and language lingered the longest, 'Sumerian'
would appear to be the best title to apply to them. Indeed it is
possible that the city of Agade or Accad, from which the district of
Accad seems to have derived its name, was of Semitic foundation. In any
case the Semitic element in Accad was from very early times stronger
than that in Sumer, and consequently the Sumerian dialect spoken in the
north was more largely affected by Semitic influence and the resulting
phonetic decay than was the dialect spoken in the south. Sumerian was
agglutinative, like the languages of the modern Finns or Turks, the
relations of grammar being expressed by suffixes (or prefixes) which
retain an independent meaning of their own. Thus _dingir_ is 'god,'
_dingir-ene_ 'gods,' _dingir-ene-ku_ 'to the gods;' _mu-ru_ 'I built,'
_mu-na-ru_ 'I built it.'
The Semitic dialects of Babylonia and Assyria differed very slightly
from one another, and they are therefore called by the common name of
Assyrian. We can trace the history of Assyrian by means of contemporaneous
monuments for nearly 4,000 years, beginning with the records of Sargon
of Accad (B.C. 3800) and ending with documents of the Parthian epoch.
Assyrian belongs to the northern group of Semitic languages, being more
closely related to Hebrew and Aramaic than it is to Arabic or Ethiopic.
The Chaldaeans.--When the Semites first obtained political power in
Babylonia we do not know. The earliest Semitic empire known to us is
that of Sargon of Accad. Babylon did not become the capital of a united
kingdom till much later, Khammurabi (B.C. 2350) being apparently the
first who made it so. Strictly speaking, it is only after this event
that the name of 'Babylonia' is applicable to the whole country. In the
Old Testament the Babylonians are called Kasdim, a word of uncertain
origin. It is rendered 'Chaldaeans' in the Authorized Version; the
classical Chaldaeans, however, took their name from the Kalda, a tribe
settled in the salt-marshes, of whom we first hear in an inscription of
the twelfth century B.C. One of their princes was Merodach-baladan
(Isaiah xxxix) who made himself master of all Babylonia. It is probable
that Nebuchadrezzar was also of Kalda descent. After the time of
Merodach-baladan the Kalda formed so integral a part of the population
as to give their name to the whole of it in the writings of the Greeks
and Romans, and after the fall of Babylonia, when Babylonian astrologers
and fortune-tellers made their way to the west, 'Chaldaean' became
synonymous with 'diviner.'
The Kassi.--Another element in the Babylonian population consisted of
the Kassi (the Kossaeans or Kissians of the Greeks), who came from the
mountains of Elam. They spoke originally a non-Semitic language, and
gave a dynasty of kings to Babylonia which lasted 576 years and nine
months. The dynasty was reigning in the century before the Exodus when
the cuneiform tablets of Tel el-Amarna were written, and we learn from
them that the Babylonians were at that time called Kassi (or Kasi) in
Canaan.
Natural Products.--The soil of Babylonia was exceedingly fertile. It
was the natural home of the wheat which still grows wild in the
neighbourhood of Anah. Herodotus tells us that 'the leaf of the wheat
and barley is as much as four fingers in width, and the stalks of the
millet and sesame are so tall that no one who has never been in that
country would believe me were I to mention their height.' It was
calculated that grain produced on an average a return of two hundred
for one on the seed sown, the return in favourable seasons being as
much as three hundred. The chief tree of the country was the palm.
Prices were frequently calculated in corn and dates, and the dates
among other uses served to make wine. Though vines seem to have been
grown, most of the grape-wine drunk in the country was imported from
abroad.
Canals.--The whole country was intersected by canals, and carefully
irrigated by means of machines. The canals thus regulated the supply of
water and enabled it to be carried beyond the reach of the rivers. The
two principal canals were called the Nahar-Malcha or Royal River and
the Pallacopas (Pallukat in the inscriptions).
Architecture.--Babylonia was devoid of stone, which had to be brought
from the mountains of Elam or elsewhere. In this respect it offered a
striking contrast to Assyria, where good stone was plentiful. To this
absence of stone may be traced some of the peculiarities of its early
culture. It caused clay to become the common writing material of the
country, the cuneiform characters being impressed with a stylus upon
the tablet while the clay was still moist. It further obliged every
building to be of brick. This led to a great development of columnar
architecture, the wooden columns which supported the roof being
subsequently imitated in brick. The use of brick further led to the use
of stucco and painting. The walls of the Chaldaean houses, as we learn
from Ezekiel (xxiii. 14), were decorated with 'images portrayed with
vermilion,' unlike those of the Assyrian palaces which were lined with
slabs of sculptured alabaster. Assyrian art was, however, borrowed from
that of Babylonia; hence the colouration of the Assyrian bas-reliefs on
stone; hence also the great mounds on which the Assyrian palaces were
built. Such mounds were needful in the flat country of Babylonia where
inundations were frequent; in Assyria they were not required.
Asphalt and Naphtha.--Besides clay, Babylonia also furnishes asphalt
and naphtha. According to Poseidonios the naphtha was partly white,
partly black, the latter being that which was used for lamps. Naphtha
is still found near Hit, 130 miles to the north of Babylon.
Character of the Babylonians and Assyrians.--The contrast between the
physical characteristics of Babylonia and Assyria was paralleled by a
contrast between the characters of their inhabitants. The population of
Babylonia was pre-eminently agricultural and peaceable, that of Assyria
pre-eminently military. Babylonia was the land of letters; in Assyria
the power to read and write was mainly confined to the scribes. Both
Babylonians and Assyrians, however, were keen traders and merchants,
but while 'the cry of the Chaldaeans was in their ships,' the Assyrians
had no taste for the sea. The Babylonians seem to have been a gentler
people, more pious and superstitious; the Assyrians, on the other hand,
had a genius for organization and administrative work. Such differences
may be traced as much to a difference in the conditions under which
they lived as to a difference in race.