on the north and south sides. The bricks are of the small size (32 × 32
centimetres), and bear no stamp. They are laid in asphalt and reeds and
are crushed and split in every direction. The wall surfaces are daubed
over with asphalt, which also covers the split and damaged portions, and
thus we have ample evidence of the handiwork of the restorer. On the
north side Nebuchadnezzar added to the foundations of the chambers a
strengthening length of rubble wall laid with asphalt and reeds, which
faced the north front for a breadth of about 10 metres. The ancient wall
rises to a height of about 7 metres above zero (see p. 167). Above this
lie the usual 33–centimetre bricks with Nebuchadnezzar’s 4–lined stamp,
also laid in asphalt and reeds, with the border courses laid in mud. In
the lower courses of the later building a number of tiles measuring 44 ×
44 × 6 centimetres are built into the wall, which can be recognised with
certainty as having been previously used as flagstones by the fragments
of gypsum mortar that still adhere to their joints, and show that
Nebuchadnezzar very naturally took up the pavement of Nabopolassar, and
used it in part as material for the walls. His new pavement consists of
ten courses of brick laid in asphalt alone, covered with a layer of
brick rubble, over which paving-stones measuring 38·5 × 38·5 are laid.
Of this pavement, however, we have found little more than a small piece,
which still remains in the southern chambers. This later pavement was
apparently higher than the old one, but 7 metres lower than that in the
great eastern portion. Of the final alterations that brought the whole
up to one and the same level there are only traces, for instance, the
building by which the principal hall adjoining the Western Court (W) was
enlarged.
[Illustration:
FIG. 68.—Space between the Nabopolassar Palace and Citadel wall, on
the south.
]
The ancient palace comes to an end at the squaring line _i_ of Fig. 44.
Originally it extended farther, and the wall that faces west was here
chipped off, when the portion farthest to the west was added. On the
south, on the contrary, the ancient palace wall still stands and is
distinctly escarped (Fig. 68). Here Nebuchadnezzar jointed his brickwork
with a grid-like insertion of beams of poplar wood laid lengthways and
crossways to strengthen it. The foundations of the adjoining chambers
have also a filling of broken brick to the east and of mud brick to the
west.
Of the eastern side nothing is visible except on the north. Here we see
that the pillars of the doors of the three arches of the broad
passage-way do not exist below in the ancient building, as was only to
be expected, as the eastern building was not yet in existence at that
time. Near the corner is a groove forming an expansion joint for the
wall that originally joined it at this place, the fortification wall of
Nabopolassar, which must have united here with the line of the palace
wall. Nebuchadnezzar, however, substituted for it a brick wall of his
own, which he pushed farther to the north.
The north front is in good preservation at this point and is very
remarkable (Fig. 69). It is treated in the stepped or toothed fashion
that we have already met with. As the deviation from the line of the
walls of the building is very considerable, the steps are short, and on
the façade, which is 80 metres long, there are 80 of these vertical
steps, which give a unique appearance, to be met with in no other order
of architecture. The stepped wall rests on a level foundation at the
height at which Nabopolassar’s pavement must originally have been laid.
At the same level a grid of poplar wood is inserted in the brickwork,
and a beam is placed on each long side and another on the short side of
each projection. This can be clearly seen in the photograph. Where the
doorway leads to the passage to the court, the step is made larger in
order to afford convenient space for the door.
[Illustration:
FIG. 69.—North wall of the Nabopolassar Palace.
]
A large part of the ground-plan is still buried under rubbish, which up
to the present time has prevented our gaining a clear idea of the
general arrangement. The entrance from the east consists of a
three-chambered building, which differs somewhat in arrangement from the
usual plan of a gateway building. The towers that are found elsewhere at
the sides of gateways of any importance are absent here. The first room,
which is unusually spacious, affords access to the double house 37 and
38. Two doors lead to the chamber near the court, and two more direct to
the court. At these doors there are still the great stone sockets of the
hinges. Owing to uneven setting they became much distorted, but they
were already in this condition when they were washed over with gypsum
mortar.
The houses of this part of the palace are remarkable for the strength of
their walls and the admirable regularity with which they are laid out.
Court 38 is reached by a passage-way from the Western Court and also by
the wide passage from the Principal Court, the latter through a hall
which, as in the case of 25, 26, and 27, opens with three doors on to
court 38. Between the doors, pillars project from the walls, and
correspond with others on the opposite side. They must have served as
piers to support arches for the ceiling, although it is difficult to
make out clearly what was the object of this structure. In this house,
as in the neighbouring one and in the house farther east, the
irregularity of the floor space has been utilised to form an alcove or
niche, and these rooms may safely be regarded as sleeping chambers. In
one of the doorways we found a statuette of Papsukal, such as we have
elsewhere found only in the temples (Fig. 70).
[Illustration:
FIG. 70.—Statuette of Papsukal in Nabopolassar Palace.
]
At the north-west corner, where, as we have already stated, the palace
is broken off, although it did not end there originally, a hole is cut
from the north low down into the massive brickwork, which contained a
pottery coffin of very unusual size. After it had been inserted the hole
was once more bricked up with Nebuchadnezzar’s bricks. As the outer
fortification wall, which runs parallel and completely concealed the
opening, also dates from the time of Nebuchadnezzar, it is obvious that
the burial must be of his time. The dead man must have been the object
of deepest reverence, and with this his funerary outfit is in entire
agreement. The place had been opened and plundered before we came, but
in the rubbish concealed by the immense sarcophagus we found gold beads,
and also a large number of small gold plates, with a hole by which they
had been sewn on to some material, forming a sumptuous decoration. Most
of them are circular, but with them are some rectangular plates somewhat
larger, which bear moulded representations; a bearded man offering
before the symbol of Marduk, or the gateway of a fortress with towers
and battlements (see Fig. 20). When we consider that only a very small
portion of the outfit has escaped the tomb robbers, we realise that the
body was provided with rich gold ornaments, and arrayed in garments
richly spangled with gold, and that this personage during his lifetime
must have occupied a very conspicuous and important position at the
court of Babylon, our thoughts turn to Nabopolassar, and we almost
wonder whether he himself had not been laid within his palace wall by
his son.
[Illustration:
FIG. 71.—Wall of two-ridged bricks in Southern Citadel.
]
Of the remaining buildings on this side, we have nothing of importance
to communicate owing to the unfinished state of the excavations, nor is
there much to report with regard to the buildings to the south of the
Western Court: only a part of the Great Hall is excavated. We recognise
the additional building, with its wall pushed towards the north. It is
built with the two-ridged bricks of Nebuchadnezzar, and the peculiar
effect of this method of building can here be seen clearly (Fig. 71).
Behind the hall we again find a series of three chambers, all apparently
similar to each other, such as we find behind the great halls of the
Principal and Central Courts. In the chambers next to court 40 are two
circular walled-in wells, and in each case the foundation of the chamber
that contains them is also filled in with rubble brickwork.
XVII
THE FORTIFICATION WALLS TO THE NORTH AND SOUTH OF THE PALACE OF
NABOPOLASSAR.
[Illustration:
FIG. 72.—Door in south wall of Southern Citadel.
]
In the fortification wall south of Nabopolassar’s palace, which has been
excavated to a considerable depth, Nebuchadnezzar’s bricks occur even in
the lower courses, while close by on the east the bricks are unstamped.
There is an opening here in the wall to form an exit for the drain which
runs from the Principal Citadel through the long passage. The three
arched openings (Fig. 72) are very remarkable. They resemble doorways,
but they have no rabbets, such as are usually found in this kind of
archway. The bricks are laid in asphalt and reeds.
[Illustration:
FIG. 73.—South wall of the Nabopolassar Palace, from the west.
]
At about 7 metres above zero, near this old wall another wall begins,
which is also constructed with Nebuchadnezzar’s bricks. It rests on a
projecting smooth foundation, and its towers do not correspond with
those of the lower wall. In order to form a base for this projecting
foundation the space between the palace and the old wall was filled up
with brickwork (Fig. 68), divided into separate blocks, each of which
overlaps its neighbour in stepped fashion. This in a sense forms the
exact contrary of the expansion joint, and the builders must have
calculated that in this case the unequal sinking occurred so completely
and satisfactorily during the course of the building that the whole of
the upper portions might safely be bonded together in one solid mass.
Outside a strengthening kisu is added, which permits of the opening of
the doors, but which cuts off the outlet for the drain (Fig. 73). Where
the later building is joined on, a grid of wooden beams laid at right
angles to each other is inserted. The later building can be easily
recognised on the whole of the southern side, but here it is especially
clear.
[Illustration:
FIG. 74.—Foundation of the fortification wall north of the Southern
Citadel.
]
On the north, in order to support the later fortification wall, a thick
foundation has been laid immediately in front of the palace. The base of
this foundation is arranged on the same principle as on the southern
side, with separate projecting stepped blocks (Fig. 74). Above this
foundation the wall, with its closely set projecting courses, gradually
extended so close to the palace wall that it actually touched it (see
Fig. 69), and farther up, where they have now perished, the two must
have formed one combined wall. From this point the proper towered
fortification wall, which still stretches from here eastwards, may have
continued on the same line. We do not know, however, in which form it
originally extended westward beyond the ancient palace, for here the
foundations, as well as the palace itself, were completely destroyed to
make room for the junction with the western extension.
[Illustration:
FIG. 75.—Drains between wall of Southern Citadel and the mud wall.
]
Along the north front of the palace there is a walled-in drain which
collected the water of the palace and of the top of the fortification
walls, and carried it off to the west (Fig. 75). The level of the
intermediate space between the palace and the mud wall was originally
very deep, but in the course of successive alterations it was gradually
raised in about the same degree as the palace pavement. Fig. 75 shows
the peculiar construction of these drains. Above the low side walls are
placed either plain bricks or moulded bricks of half-moon shape, set
edgeways. Larger drains, such as that of the Principal Court or those in
the Principal Citadel, are roofed over with corbelled courses, but in
these small drains vaulting is obviously avoided. Yet smaller drains
were constructed of two flat brick courses placed together at the lower
edge and closed in with bricks laid flat, thus forming a triangular
section, such as occurs in the north-west corner of Sachn. The top of
the fortification walls is regularly drained by means of vertical
gutters inserted in the towers; if the towers were built of burnt brick,
these gutters are simply carried down inside the towers at a distance of
one brick from the front. This kind of gutter is found in the towers on
the south side of Nabopolassar’s palace, and in the east part of the
north wall. In walls of mud brick, however, it was of course necessary
to construct the gutters of burnt brick, and thus the gutter forms a
vertical shaft inserted in the mud brick building which surrounds it on
three sides (see Fig. 95), while the fourth side lies flush with the
outer wall. We shall meet with this remarkable construction, which often
attains very considerable proportions, both in the inner and outer town
walls, as well as in some of the temples.
XVIII
THE WESTERN EXTENSION
To the west of the palace of Nabopolassar there is an additional
building 40 metres in breadth, the lower courses of which, judging by
the stamps on the bricks, date from the time of Nebuchadnezzar, and the
upper courses from that of Neriglissar. It is the last addition actually
made to the Southern Citadel which concerns it alone. The later
buildings are connected with the Principal Citadel, and include with it
the Southern Citadel, which points to an extension of the whole towards
the north and west (Fig. 76).
[Illustration:
FIG. 76.—Western part of the Southern Citadel.
]
From the first it was intended that this building should be on the same
level as the eastern portion. The foundations, however, are different.
The walls stand on a broadly widened base, and all the chambers are
filled in to the intended pavement level with brickwork. Small deep
spaces are frequently left in this filling near the corners of the
chambers, and perhaps were used in some way in marking out the lines of
the building. Elaborate precautions are taken to guard the west wall
against damp. A high bank was piled up against it which reached almost
to the “moat wall of Imgur-Bel,” and on the north and south was
supported by low walls of brick rubble. In order to insulate the wall it
was washed over with asphalt, and overlaid with plaited matting, on
which bricks were set edgeways. Thus the wall carries, so to speak, a
course of upright bricks in addition to the usual jointing material. The
supporting walls connect with the corners of the palace by grooved
expansion joints.
Of the arrangement of the chambers there is little to report, as here
also the excavations are not far advanced. The northern of the two
gateways is protected by a projecting tower, which had one large doorway
in front and two small ones at the sides, an unusual arrangement, not
found elsewhere in Babylon.
On the south-west corner, in the rubbish, was found the lower part of a
large inscribed 8–sided prism.
XIX
THE PERSIAN BUILDING
The space between the palace and the “moat wall of Imgur-Bel” divides
into two parts, of which the more southern is filled in with a packing
of broken brick in mud. A peculiarity of this packing is that the
horizontal joints of the courses are almost as deep as the bricks
themselves, and this again indicates Persian work, so far as we have
learnt to know it in Susa. The northern portion, on the other hand, was
filled in with sand, supporting a building which for the greater part
has perished, but of which sufficient remains still exist to enable us
to assign it unhesitatingly to the time of the Persian kings.
[Illustration:
FIG. 77.—Apadana of Xerxes in Persepolis.
]
The foundation trenches still exist, containing some scanty remains of
good brickwork, which permit us to recognise a ground-plan of the type
of an apadana, as it appears in the well-known palaces of Persepolis
(Fig. 77), a pillared hall with a pillared fore-hall, flanked, in front,
by two towers. It is remarkable that the distinctive character of this
beautiful type of building should always have been mistaken in a most
unaccountable manner. The reconstructions which have been so widely
circulated even in the most recent handbooks show only the pillars,
while the whole of the surrounding walls and the fronting towers are
omitted. When confronted with such a representation the scholar receives
much the same impression that a naturalist would experience if a boned
turkey were offered him for serious study.
The pavements in the chambers as well as on the square to the north of
the building consist of a flooring of lime mortar and pebbles in three
layers: a coarse thick bottom layer—the festucatio of Vitruvius,—a fine
shallow layer, and lastly a thin overlay of a fine red colour. This is
entirely Greek, and it is a pleasure to meet with this fine coating we
know so well in Athens, in Babylon of the fifth century. There are
remains of a pavement made in exactly the same fashion in the ruins of
Babil, where, according to the parallel inscription to the great
_Steinplatten_ inscription (_K.B._ iii. 2, p. 31), Nebuchadnezzar also
built an _appa danna_.
Among the scanty but varied remains of this building, fragments of a
plinth of black limestone found on the ruins show sufficient cuneiform
signs to enable us to recognise without difficulty the remains of the
name of King Darius (Fig. 78), and bases of columns of the same material
reproduce precisely the forms of the bases of Persepolis (Fig. 79).
Bricks, which like those of Persepolis are not made of clay, but of an
artificial mass of lime mixed with sand, bear representations in
coloured enamels (Fig. 80). Here, as in the enamelled bricks of the
Ishtar Gate, the fields are separated by lines of black glaze. There are
ornaments and figures both flat and in relief, the figures with rich
garments decorated with the woven patterns of the Persian guard of
Persepolis. A woman’s face in white enamel is the only piece of the sort
that we possess up to the present time.
[Illustration:
FIG. 78.—Inscription from the Persian building.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 79.—Base of column from Persian building.
]
We can here recall what Diodorus, whose description was derived from
Ctesias, the body surgeon of King Artaxerxes Mnemon, reports of the
polychrome decorations of the royal castle of Babylon. To begin with, he
quotes (ii. 8) that there were two castles, one on the eastern bank of
the Euphrates, on the modern mound “Babil,” and the other on the western
bank, the modern “Kasr.” He continues:
τοῦ μὲν γὰρ [εἰς τὸ] πρὸς ἑσπέραν κειμένου μέρους ἐποίησε τὸν πρῶτον
περίβολον ἑξήκοντα σταδίων, ὑψηλοῖς καὶ πολυτελέσι τείχεσιν
ὠχυρωμένον, ἐξ ὀπτῆς πλίνθου· ἕτερον δ’ ἐντὸς τούτου κυκλοτερῆ
κατεσκεύασε, καθ’ ὃν ἐν ὠμαῖς ἔτι ταῖς πλίνθοις διετετύπωτο θηρία
παντοδαπὰ τῇ τῶν χρωμάτων φιλοτεχνίᾳ τὴν ἀλήθειαν ἀπομιμούμενα. οὗτος
δ’ ὁ περίβολος ἦν τὸ μὲν μῆκος σταδίων τετταράκοντα, τὸ δὲ πλάτος ἐπὶ
τριακοσίας πλίνθους, τὸ δ’ ὕψος, ὡς Κτησίας φησίν, ὀργυιῶν πεντήκοντα·
τῶν δὲ πύργων ὑπῆρχε τὸ ὕψος ὀργυιῶν ἑβδομήκοντα. κατεσκεύασε δὲ καὶ
τρίτον ἐνδοτέρω περίβολον, ὃς περιεῖχεν ἀκρόπολιν, ἧς ἡ μὲν περίμετρος
ἦν σταδίων εἴκοσι, τὸ δὲ μῆκος καὶ πλάτος τῆς οἰκοδομίας ὑπεραῖρον τοῦ
μέσου τείχους τὴν κατασκευήν. ἐνῆσαν δ’ ἔν τε τοῖς πύργοις καὶ τείχεσι
ζῷα παντοδαπὰ φιλοτέχνως τοῖς τε χρώμασι καὶ τοῖς τῶν τύπων
ἀπομιμήμασι κατεσκευασμένα. τὸ δ’ ὅλον ἐπεποίητο κυνήγιον παντοίων
θηρίων ὑπάρχον πλῆρες, ὦν ἦσαν τὰ μεγέθη πλέον ἢ πηχῶν τεττάρων.
κατεσκεύαστο δ’ ἐν αὐτοῖς καὶ ἡ Σεμίραμις ἀφ’ ἵππου πάρδαλιν
ἀκοντίζουσα, καὶ πλησίον αὐτῆς ὁ ἀνὴρ Νίνος παίων ἐκ χειρὸς λέοντα
λόγχῃ.
The length of the walls are exaggerated about fourfold, and the other
measurements yet more, but the three periboli are easily recognisable,
as we shall see later. The middle one was laid out κυκλοτερῆ, which may
certainly be rendered “annular, enclosed in itself, not open on one
side, like the outer peribolos.” In any case it must not be translated
“circular,” for a circular peribolos is found nowhere in Babylon. In the
central peribolos there were representations of wild animals in
naturalistic colours, which were applied to the bricks while they were
still moist. These are obviously the lions, bulls, and dragons of the
Procession Street and the Ishtar Gate. The central peribolos of Diodorus
enclosed both the Southern and the Principal Citadel. On the walls and
towers in the third peribolos, which can be no other than the Southern
Citadel, there were also representations, coloured to life, of a chase
of wild beasts, in which Ninus and Semiramis themselves took an active
part. On no other site have we found human figures on the brick enamels,
and had there been any, they could hardly have escaped us. We can
scarcely doubt, therefore, that Diodorus was describing the enamels of
the Persian building, and that the white face of a woman is the same
that Ctesias recognised as a portrait of Semiramis. Whether Diodorus
included among the wild animals those on the sides of the gateways of
the other courts of the third peribolos—or, as we now call it, the
Southern Citadel—may remain uncertain; it is a matter of no consequence.
It is, however, a most unusual incident in the history of art, that we
should have been able to recover by excavation at the present day such
works of art described by a celebrated historian of antiquity, and in
the very place where he beheld them.
[Illustration:
FIG. 80.—ENAMELLED ARTIFICIAL BLOCK FROM PERSIAN BUILDING.
]
XX
THE WALLS OF THE FORTIFICATIONS AND QUAYS TO THE WEST AND NORTH OF THE
SOUTHERN CITADEL.
We must now turn to the consideration of the fortifications that are
connected both directly and indirectly with the Southern Citadel. It is
not always easy to gain a clear idea of these structures. In course of
time the walls are displaced, the area enlarged, ancient walls are
demolished, and the whole appearance of the place altered. All this
occurred to a marked extent during the 43 years of Nebuchadnezzar’s
reign. Of the period previous to that we have only the Arachtu wall of
Nabopolassar, and the supporting wall of the Assyrian Sargon north-west
of the palace of Nabopolassar, which are marked A and S on the plan
(Fig. 81). We will first examine those various walls in order to learn
their purport and their extent, and then attempt to realise this
somewhat complicated system of fortifications in its entire aspect and
gradual formation.
[Illustration:
FIG. 81.—The north-west corner of the Southern Citadel.
A1 Arachtu wall of Nabopolassar, 1st period.
A2 Arachtu wall, 2nd period.
A3 Arachtu wall, 3rd period.
ÄG Older moat wall.
B Wells.
G Graves.
GI Moat wall of Imgur-Bel.
NL Northern mud wall.
NP Palace of Nabopolassar.
NS Northern wall of Southern Citadel.
PZ Parallel intermediate wall.
QW Cross wall with outlets for water.
S Sargon wall.
SL Southern wall of mud brick.
VM Connecting wall.
WS Western part of the Southern Citadel.
WV Western outworks of the Southern Citadel.
]
XXI
THE MOAT WALL OF IMGUR-BEL
We began our investigation of the western portion of the Southern
Citadel, so far as we have carried it at present, by cutting a long and
wide trench (Figs. 84, 85), which, in its western part, laid bare the
walls of the western outworks, which in places are remarkably thick.
[Illustration:
FIG. 82.—The moat wall of Imgur-Bel, west of the Southern Citadel.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 83.—Inscribed brick from the moat wall of Imgur-Bel.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 84.—Trench on the west of the Southern Citadel, during
excavation.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 85.—Trench on the west of the Southern Citadel, completely
excavated.
]