frame of life. The fundamental craft of brickwork was carried on to a
vast extent. Every city had its great pile of an artificial hill of
bricks, built in stages to support the temple of its god high above
all. Immense walls surrounded the cities; those of Babylon were some
nine miles around, and are stated to have been 85 ft. high and 340 ft.
thick, surrounded by a moat lined with burnt brick laid in bitumen.
Not only was brickwork used on this great scale in the Babylonian
plain where stone was a luxury, but the force of example was so strong
that the Assyrian, in his highland home, kept up the same scale of
brickbuilding as his teachers, and used brick for his palaces and
temples when stone would have been much more easily available.
In Babylonia, as in Egypt, the supply of material for brickmaking on
a large scale is a serious question. For the great walls of cities,
obviously a surrounding ditch was an advantage; but for the materials
of houses, temples, and ziggurats, great pits had to be dug, or older
buildings pulled down. At Nippur it was found that the later builders
had torn down a long piece of the disused city wall and dug out a great
pit below and around it. So in Egypt the outskirts of every village has
its perilous hole where the bricks are made, which, in course of time,
becomes a stagnant pond, and every ancient temple, with its fortifying
wall, was built out of a large pit at its side which became the sacred
lake of the temple.
[Illustration: A TEMPLE PLATFORM, OR ZIGGURAT, OF BABYLONIA
This restoration of the Temple of Bel at Nippur, from the designs
of Hilprecht and Fisher, gives a good idea of the massive character
of Assyrian architecture. The portion marked (1) consists of a
stage tower with a shrine at top and a long stairway leading
thereto; (2) is the temple proper; (3) house for “honey, cream and
wine”; (4) “place for the delight of Bur-sin”; (5) is the inner
wall and (6) the massive outer walls.
]
A higher branch of building was the use of glazed bricks. In Egypt
the use of glazed tiles for coating walls was boldly carried out in
the earliest dynasties, before 5000 B.C.; but there was no glazing
of the bricks, because in so dry a climate the Egyptian was never
induced to burn his bricks. In the wet and damp of Babylonia, on
the contrary, burnt bricks were usual, and all the facings and main
divisions of structure were in the indissoluble material, which held
together and protected the mass of crude brickwork within it. It was,
however, mainly, or only, in the later times--from the ninth century
onwards--that bricks glazed on the outer face were used for building.
It seems that this was done not so much for utility--like our modern
use of glazed bricks--as for the artistic effect of colours and
designs. The grandest example of such work that is known is the façade
of coloured glazed brick in relief, representing the royal archers,
from Susa of the Persian age, now in Paris, restored from the fragments.
Beside baked brick, pottery was used on a large scale. Great jars
occur in the earliest times, and cylindrical drains of large size,
sufficiently wide for a man to descend in them for repair. In later
times coffins of baked pottery of the Parthian age, and glazed coffins
of slipper shape, dating from the Sassanian period, are very common on
most of the city ruins. Unfortunately, sufficient attention has not yet
been given to the pottery of any age.
[Illustration: A KING’S EMBROIDERIES
This illustrates the richness of the decoration on the breast of an
Assyrian king, whose complete attire is seen in the other picture
on this page.
]
Wood was largely used in the more wealthy ages, but it was always
valuable, as large timber had to be brought from a distance. The great
halls of the palaces were all roofed with timber beams, and panels of
cedar lined the walls where stone was not used. Probably palm trunks
and palm leaves served for ordinary roofing, as in Egypt at present.
CLOTHING. Clothing became far more elaborate than in earlier ages,
and the dominance of the more northern people brought a fuller dress
into customary use. The Assyrian covered the whole body with a tunic
down to the knees, and the upper classes wore a robe to the feet.
Rich embroideries were usual among both Babylonians and Assyrians,
and the splendour of Babylonian garments was spread far in other
lands by trade. The cap was either cylindrical or conical, and the
royal head-dress in Assyria was practically the modern tarbush, which
has again been imposed on the East by the Turk. Sandals were used in
Assyria, and the boot so characteristic of the Hittite was also brought
in from the cold mountainous country. Women wore a long, thin robe
to the feet, covered sometimes by a tunic and a cape. But Ishtar is
always shown in a ribbed dress flounced from top to bottom. This is the
regular women’s dress of the western Semites; and its use, like that of
the beard for the male deities, points to the strong Semitic influence
on the appearance and character of the divinities.
[Illustration: DRESS IN ASSYRIA’S GOLDEN AGE
Rich embroideries were usual among Babylonians and Assyrians, and
the splendour of Babylonian garments was spread far in other lands
by trade. The royal head-dress in Assyria was practically the
modern tarbush, which has again been imposed on the East by the
Turk.
]
The armour of the Assyrian was much the same as that in the early
Sumerian days. The pointed helmet became rather taller, and did not
cover the back of the head. The spear, and the bow and arrow, were
the main weapons as before. The old straight-sided shield was also
used in Assyrian times, but was partly superseded by the round shield
considerably coned. The extension of the kingdom brought in various
auxiliaries, who differed from the older Babylonians. Slingers,
northern horsemen clad in leather, and mountaineers with woodman’s
axes, all added new branches to the army.
[Sidenote: Sculpture 5,000 Years Ago]
ART. The arts were carried to great perfection by the mixed population.
Broadly speaking, the best work is that of the early age of Naramsin
(3750 B.C.), and that of the late age of Ashur-bani-pal (640 B.C.).
Though not so fine, yet probably the Hammurabi sculptures are the
highest between the early and late schools. This would give intervals
of 1,650 and 1,460 years between the successive waves of art, and about
1,450 years more to the glories of Baghdad, a period much like that
found on the Mediterranean, though not coincident with it.
The finest work of Naramsin (3750 B.C.) is his great stele from Susa,
now in Paris. It is remarkably pictorial in style, agreeing in this
with the pieces of a limestone stele representing rows of combatants
from Tello, also in Paris. The figure of the king is lithe, active,
romantic in attitude, the enemies and his soldiers are full of
animation. No Oriental sculpture has had quite the same life in it; and
it recalls the pictorial style of Crete and the later Greek sculpture.
The art of Gudea (3300 B.C.) is more cold and formal, and has not the
same fine sense of proportion; it is distinctly a period of survival
and not of artistic instinct, as seen, for instance, on the limestone
relief in Berlin. The age of Hammurabi (2100 B.C.) shows careful
portraiture, but not the spirit of the earlier age; the work is well
finished, and there was no hesitation in handling materials boldly, as
on the great black stele of the laws, now in Paris. There was a fine
sympathetic treatment in private sculpture, as shown in the beautiful
limestone head of a Sumerian in Berlin [see page 266].
[Sidenote: Fine Later Art]
The last great age was that of the Assyrian Empire. Under
Ashur-nazir-pal (885) the work is fine and severe, but without much
expression. Shalmaneser III. (860) troubled more about history than
about art, and his principal remains are the long records of the black
obelisk and the Balawat gates, which are but clumsy in the forms. Under
Sennacherib (705) there is a breadth of composition, as in the siege
of Lachish, which is worthily aided by a more pictorial style, while
under Ashur-bani-pal (668-626) the art reaches both grace and vigour,
as in the splendid natural scenes of the wild-ass hunt, in the lion
hunt, and in the garden feast with the queen.
[Illustration: GUDEA LED BY A GOD
This shows the Babylonian art at 3300 B.C., inferior to the earlier
style of Naramsin. The original is in Berlin Museum.
]
MECHANICS. The mechanical arts were also greatly developed. The large
size of the buildings, the great quantities of stone transported for
the sculptures, and the immense size of many blocks--the bulls weigh
nearly 50 tons each--all show that there was not only considerable
skill, but also large ideals and directive ability. Layard found that
three hundred men were wanted for drawing his cart bearing the great
bull; and the sledge used by the Assyrians for the transport must have
needed as many, or more. Long levers are represented as having been
used in a very effective manner; but the placing of such great blocks
exactly in the right position required far more ability than the mere
transport. The forms of tools were much in advance of those used by
the Egyptians. As far back as Naramsin, the copper axes were all well
hafted, generally with rings raised round the edges of the haft hole to
strengthen the band and prevent it splitting.
[Illustration: AN ARTISTIC TRIUMPH OF ASSYRIAN SCULPTURE
Under Ashur-bani-pal (668-636 B.C.) Assyrian art reached both grace
and vigour, as is manifest in the splendid natural scene of the
wild-ass hunt, which is here reproduced from the original in the
British Museum.
]
[Sidenote: Modern Tools of Ancient Workers]
The forms of the iron tools are also excellent; and iron seems to have
been common in Assyria at an earlier date than in any other country,
probably from the tenth or twelfth century B.C. Certainly the set of
Assyrian tools left at Thebes by an armourer of Esarhaddon in 670 B.C.,
show that the principles, and even the exact forms, of modern tools
had already been reached. The chisels and rasp have not been improved
since; the saw is the same as the modern Oriental pull-saw, but the
teeth have not an alternate set; the centre-bits and files anticipate
our forms, but have not reached the complete stage. The material of
most of the edge tools is steel, showing that the hardening was then
understood. The cutting of seals in hard stones was an early art, but
it was well maintained, and some of the most beautiful specimens are
the chalcedony cylinders such as that of Sennacherib in London. The
engraving of the inscriptions also shows that cutting in hard stones
was freely done on a great scale; but the writing, being entirely in
straight lines, was much easier to engrave than the figures of natural
objects of the Egyptian signs. Probably emery powder or copper was the
means used, as in Egypt.
[Sidenote: The Books of Babylonia]
The use of an official stamp of guarantee on uniform pieces of silver
was adopted by the time of Nebuchadnezzar, but as this is two centuries
later than Greek coinage it was probably copied from that. In one
respect the Mesopotamian never equalled the Egyptian. The Memphite
school of work had attained to a mechanical accuracy which we can
scarcely gauge; their errors on large pieces of work were only a
matter of thousandths of an inch. But the Mesopotamian never did a
piece of passably square or regular stonework; the inequalities and
skew angles are glaring, even in highly elaborated works of art. The
sense of accuracy was quite untrained, and neither Semite nor Sumerian
show any ability in this line. Egypt, on the contrary, started with
a prehistoric race which excelled in exquisitely true handwork and
dexterous flint flaking, and with the artistic sense of the dynastic
people added, the combination was one of the highest that the world has
seen.
LITERATURE. To give any adequate idea of the literature of Babylonia is
far beyond our scope, and only the main classes of it can be named in
this outline. These were:
1. Theology and Omens. 2. History. 3. Despatches and
Correspondence. 4. Language and Translation. 5. Mathematics. 6.
Astronomy. 7. Geography and Natural History. 8. Medicine.
[Illustration: HOW THE GREAT STATUES WERE MOVED: A CONTEMPORARY RECORD
FROM THE MONUMENTS OF NINEVEH
The large size of the buildings of Assyria, the great quantities
of stone transported for the sculptures, and the immense size of
many blocks--the bulls weighing nearly 50 tons each--all show
that there was not only considerable skill, but also large ideals
and directive ability. Layard found that 300 men were wanted for
drawing his cart bearing the great bull; and the sledge used by the
Assyrians for the transport must have needed as many or more. The
tools used were much in advance of those of the Egyptians.
]
The striking omission is that of literature in the form of tales or
poetry of actual life; there seems, amid all the myriads of tablets,
to be nothing similar to the tales of the various periods of Egypt. We
look in vain for the tales of the magicians, the romances of adventure,
of love, or of history, which restore to us the living view of Egyptian
thought. The Babylonian was severely commercial or scientific, and his
poetical ideas were only developed in his theology; he seems to have
had no play of fancy or taste for the excitement of story-telling.
Similarly in the Middle Ages the “Thousand and One Nights,” though
often referring to Baghdad, are yet tales of entirely Egyptian source
and idea.
[Sidenote: Wonderful Training of Babylonians]
But for his own purposes the Babylonian was well educated from a
literary point of view, and, considering the complexity of his
writing, he was probably better trained than any modern people except
the Chinese. The hundreds of signs which he had to remember had long
lost their pictorial significance, and needed an attentive memory and
long training; yet not only in public documents, but also in private
letters, mistakes are but rarely found. Classification of the signs,
classified lists of words of Sumerian and Semitic, grammatical works,
and reading books were the apparatus used. Even the peasantry and
sometimes the slaves learned to write, and there was hardly more
need of a professional scribe than there is in England to-day. But
this general education belonged to the Sumerian stock, and was much
diminished where the Semite was in the majority, so that in Assyria
only the upper classes could write, and nail-marks of contracting
parties are common. The feeling for literature kept the names of great
writers in remembrance, and the authors of the main religious pieces,
such as the Epic of Gilgames, are still known. The Egyptian, on the
other hand, has not preserved the name of a single author; even Pentaur
was probably only a scribe. The honouring of literature led to the
Assyrian kings amassing great libraries, and to the princes becoming
librarians and secretaries. The copying of ancient tablets for the new
libraries was a large business, carefully planned; and the scribe was
required to exactly state where his original was defective and what
uncertainties existed in the reading. Even private persons sought to
obtain favour by presenting copies of works to the temple libraries.
[Sidenote: Shall We Find an Assyrian State History?]
Of the classes of writings, the religious works are noticed later; the
historical writings are mainly Assyrian, recording the constant wars
with other lands, and the tribute and booty brought from them. That
there was a complete State history is shown by the ready allusions to
the time since certain events had happened. Ashur-bani-pal recounts
1,635 years since the Elamite king had carried off an image. Nabonidus
searched for and found the tablet of Naramsin, which he says had
not been seen for 3,200 years; he recites that there were 800 years
from his time to Shagarakti-buriash, and 700 years from Burnaburiash
to Hammurabi. These references show that we may hope to recover a
complete State history from Assyria, as we may hope yet for a complete
historical papyrus from Egypt.
The despatches and correspondence give full light on detail of politics
and affairs, showing the conditions of various countries; and where
a sufficient number have been preserved together it is possible to
build up a continuous history of a period, as in the case of the
Tellal-Amarna letters. The yearly annals of a reign belong more to the
historical division, and such records of Sennacherib, Ashur-bani-pal,
and others are of the highest value. The private letters give a full
view of the current life; and the business documents, especially
receipts, are the commonest of all records, showing the trade, the law,
and the business of the country in all its fulness.
[Sidenote: Beginning of Astronomy]
The tablets dealing with the Sumerian and Semitic languages together,
and the translations from one to the other, we have noted already. The
mathematical tablets are multiplication tables, lists of multiples of
measures, tables of squares and cubes, and plans with measurements
along the sides, which show the practical use of the science. The
astronomical records were already tabulated in the time of the early
Semitic Empire, Sargon having compiled for his library a work in
seventy-two books, the title of which is rendered “The Observations
of Bel.” The purpose of this was astrological, like the great mass of
short tablets reporting observations of a later date. But the inquiries
involved a considerable familiarity with astronomical movements, and
a mass of records which became of great value to the student. The
astronomical tablets of the Seleucid period are of special value, as
they often contain valuable historical matter.
[Illustration: A KING’S LETTER OF 1400 B.C.
A clay tablet letter from Tushratta, King of Mitani, to Amenophis
III., King of Egypt, announcing the despatch of valuable gifts and
begging Amenophis to send him a large quantity of gold as payment
for expenses incurred by his grandfather in sending gifts to the
King of Egypt, and also as a gift in return for his daughter, a
princess of Mitani, whom Amenophis had married.
]
LAW. In the domain of law the Babylonian had early formulated a code
from the actual working of decisions. Case-made law was his basis, as
in most countries, and abstracts of important cases were carefully
preserved as precedents. No torture was used upon witnesses, and
ample investigation of the right of a case seems to have been usual,
with full cross-examination. High penalties were stipulated for the
infringement of sales or contracts. The status of women was equal to
that of men in the Sumerian, but became inferior in the Semitic law.
Slavery was rather an assignation of labour than a control of the
person, as a slave family could not be separated. Slaves could hold
property, own other slaves, give witness, and were sometimes well
educated. The family union was strong, as inherited land could not be
sold without assent of relatives, and boys and girls alike inherited
intestate property.
The detail of the laws form a long study, but we may here note the main
sections of the great code of Hammurabi, showing the scope of the laws,
and stating the number of enactments.
Witchcraft 2
Legal falsehood 3
Theft 3
Loss 5
Child and slave stealing 7
Robbery 5
Royal messengers and officers 16
Agriculture 24
Accounts 8
Licensed traders 6
Marriage property 19
Women 32
Votaries property 7
Adoption 10
Assault 20
Doctors 13
Builders 6
Shipping 7
Cattle 12
Hire 25, and
Slaves 5
Distraint & deposit 13
Thus the whole scope of an agricultural and commercial community was
well safeguarded, and little doubt left as to general principles and
penalties. All this must have been the product of innumerable cases and
difficulties for two or three thousand years, before such a complete
code was set up.
HISTORY IN MYTHOLOGY. The religion has usually occupied a large part of
the attention and interest given to Mesopotamia; it is comparatively
well known owing to the quantity of documents and representations. Here
we need only mention such points as bear on the general civilisation.
We have already noticed how the purely Sumerian Shamanism, or belief
in the spirit of every object, which needed to be appeased, had been
tinctured by the worship of personal deities of the Semitic neighbours,
and how this influence was shown by borrowing the Semitic beard for
the gods and flounced robe for the goddesses, and occasionally for the
gods. Thus the Semite was the missionary of theism as against animism.
[Illustration: SIR A. H. LAYARD’S EXCAVATORS LOWERING ONE OF THE GREAT
WINGED BULLS FOUND IN NINEVEH
These bulls weighed fifty tons each. Layard found that three
hundred men were necessary to pull the cart on which the bulls were
placed.
]
[Illustration: A CAMP SCENE IN THE DAYS OF NINEVEH’S POWER
The interior of a castle, indicated by a kind of ground-plan with
towers and battlements, is divided into four compartments. In each
is a group of figures, either engaged in domestic occupations or in
preparations for a religious ceremony. The pavilion is supported by
columns, probably of painted wood, and the canopy is adorned with
a fringe of alternate flowers and buds, like the usual Egyptian
border. Beneath the canopy is a groom cleaning a horse with a
curry-comb. A eunuch at the entrance is receiving four prisoners.
Above are two mummers dressed in the skins of lions, while a figure
with a staff appears to be the keeper of these monsters.
]
On the other hand, the civilisation of Babylonia is expressly stated to
have been given by Ea, or Oannes, who rose from the sea of the Persian
Gulf; he passed the day among men, and taught letters and sciences
and arts--the building of cities and temples, and the use of laws and
geometry. Also he showed the uses of seeds and fruits, and softened
and humanised the people, who had lived in a lawless manner like wild
beasts. This full ascription of civilisation to sea immigrants shows
that it cannot be set down as an indigenous growth, or as due to the
Sumerian, or still less to the Semite. The date of this movement is
roughly indicated by Ea, belonging to the city of Eridu; and 5000 B.C.
is the earliest date at which we can suppose the ground of that city
to have been dry land. Such must be taken as the extreme limit of the
early civilisation, and what we find of the early kings of about 4700
B.C. is the first efficient rise of monumental history in the land. All
this is parallel to the early civilisation in Egypt. That also came
in apparently from the Red Sea at about 5800 B.C., as the civilising
movement which changed the prehistoric age to the dynastic. And it
came only a few centuries earlier than the mission of Ea. It may be
possible that there is one common source of a seafaring people for both
civilisations, and, if so, we might look to Hadhramot as being in the
most likely common centre. At least, it is always convenient to explain
the unknown by the unknown.
The nature gods of Apsu and Tiamat, the ocean and the chaos, described
in the first tablet of the Creation series, belong to the primitive
Sumerian. “The waters of these mingled in union, and no fields were
embanked, no islands were seen; when the gods had not come forth, not
one; when they neither had being nor destinies.” And afterward “Evil
they plotted against the great gods.” After an attempt of Anshar
(perhaps the same as the Egyptian Anher, the sky god) to subdue Tiamat
(tablet 2), Marduk, the sun god, gains the victory; and in tablets 3
and 4, the supremacy of Marduk is finally confirmed by all the gods. In
this we seem to have the echoes of a tribal history as in the Egyptian
theology. The Shamanistic worship of a confused host of warring and
malignant spirits, is at last subdued by the worshippers of personal
gods under Semitic influence, and of these the people of the sun god
take in the end the leading place. All of these changes were, however,
long before the political domination of the Semite, which began about
3800 B.C., with Sargon.
[Illustration: A CHASE IN THE DESERT, RECORDED ON THE MONUMENTS OF
NINEVEH
The series of which this bas-relief formed a part appears to
have recorded the conquest by the Assyrians of an Arab tribe or
nation who made use of the camel in war as a beast of burden. This
sculpture belongs to a later period than the bas-relief from the
North-West Palace at Nineveh reproduced below.
]
[Illustration: ROYAL SPORT IN THE DAYS OF ANCIENT NINEVEH