Babylonian trough coffins of terra-cotta, either with a separate cover,
or tilted up over the body. The slipper sarcophagus is also naturalised
in Babylon (Fig. 133), which, like many of the trough sarcophagi, has a
beautiful blue glaze, which, however, easily flakes off. The necropolis
in the principal court of the Southern Citadel was full of them. The
shape of the slipper sarcophagus, in which the head of the corpse lay
below an opening which was closed by a separate cover, appears to date
back in Nippur to a very early period. It is evident that a great
variety of types of burial were in use in Babylonia. The long trough
sarcophagi which here in Babylon were first used in Neo-Babylonian
times, and later, with the double-urn coffin and the short high pan
coffin, were already common in Fara (Shuruppak), in the prehistoric
period, only deeper in shape; while the double-urn coffin first appeared
there with the beginning of writing (3000 B.C.). In prehistoric Surgul
the body was burnt with the help of high inverted coffins. Interments in
underground vaults, which are numerous in Assur, occur very rarely in
Babylon, and only under Assyrian domination (?) The methods of burial
and their sequence differ in every town where research has been carried
on. If it appears amazing that burial by burning should have been
practised in Surgul, it must be remembered that up to the present time,
with the exception of the lowest levels of Fara, it is the only
prehistoric site that has been explored in that part of the world. While
the ethnologist and the student of western prehistoric and early culture
possesses a wealth of material to illustrate the development of a few
centuries, in Babylonia the prehistoric period embraces many thousands
of years, and its material is confined to that derived from Surgul and
Fara. From Bismaya, where, according to Banks the excavator, burnt
interments were found, little has yet been gained, and nothing is known
of Telloh in this connection. It also happens that the difference in
time between the periods of these culture strata is very great. At Fara
the upper layer belongs to the period of the beginning of writing in the
fourth or fifth millennium, while the lowest strata 8 or 10 metres lower
down belong perhaps to the tenth. This we can only surmise, we cannot
prove it. Surgul after its time of prosperity apparently lay deserted
for countless centuries, before its occupation in the time of Gudea of
which the scanty remains now lie upon the surface. The interval between
Nebuchadnezzar and Entemena, which is generally regarded as very long,
is, in fact, remarkably short when compared with the duration of the
prehistoric period in Babylonia, the length of which it is at present
impossible for us to estimate. And what do we know of it? Only a few
disconnected strophes from among the great, lengthy, and doubtless
highly didactic epic of the development of Babylonian culture. It is
therefore no wonder that there is a marked, and at present an
incomprehensible difference between the various data. But it is urgently
to be desired that these ancient ruins should be more widely and
actively studied in order to gain the fullest possible elucidation
regarding the long dawn of the development of Babylonian culture, for
what I was able to gain by the excavations at these two sites was
nothing but the result of a mere preliminary reconnoitre.
In the mud-brick houses under the previously mentioned Parthian
building, a bead manufacturer appears to have deposited his raw
material. It lay there in two baskets, of which the structure could be
easily recognised, and included ancient valuables of onyx, lapis lazuli,
agates, rock-crystal, and other stones. We need not here describe them
in detail, some of them are of interest as samples of the temple
treasure of Esagila as it once existed. A strip of lapis lazuli bored
through its length like a gigantic bead, shows the figure of the god
Adad with the feather crown, brandishing the lightning in his right hand
(Fig. 134). With the left he is holding the reins of some fabulous
creature which cowers before him, and another thunderbolt. Three shields
adorned with stars hang one below another suspended by belts from his
girdle. On the piece there is an Assyrian votive inscription of
Esarhaddon, and a Neo-Babylonian supplementary inscription on which the
object is called “treasure of the god Marduk” and “Kunukku of the god
Adad of Esagila.”
[Illustration:
FIG. 134.—Esarhaddon’s Adad kunukku from Esagila.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 135.—Marduk-nâdin-shum’s Marduk kunukku.
]
Even if this were not so named there are other objects that might be
recognised as having formed part of the treasure of Esagila. There is a
similar bar of lapis lazuli dedicated to the god Marduk by an
inscription of the King Marduk-nâdin-shum (_circa_ 850 B.C.). The figure
of Marduk is very finely carved on it (Fig. 135), with a ring and a
kunukku in his left hand, and a boomerang (?) in his right. Before him
lies the sirrush, the dragon of Babylon, already known to us from the
reliefs on the Ishtar Gate, and which here shows both horns. On this god
also three decorative shields are hanging, the lowest adorned with oxen.
The garment on the upper part of the body is beset with stars and the
plinth is marked with the rippled lines of water. Thus Marduk is here
represented as supreme god of the heavens, the earth (sirrush), and of
the water. We may picture to ourselves the golden cultus statue of
Marduk, which, according to Herodotus, was enthroned in Esagila, as
similar to this, but seated.
If the principal statues were of gold others consisted of a combination
of stones of many colours, which we discovered in separate pieces in our
find. The hair was made of separate fragments of lapis lazuli which
formed curls and locks and fitted into each other. The white of the eyes
was represented by the core of a shell, the iris by a conical piece of
stone, which was surrounded by a thin cornet-shaped piece of lapis
lazuli forming a narrow blue line round the iris. For decorating the
garment and the feather crown, the numerous button-shaped discs of onyx
were employed, which are frequently inscribed with dedicatory texts.
They are usually fixed on to the underlay by means of an invisible hole
bored in the top. Numbers of them can easily be recognised on the crown
of Marduk in our illustration. We do not yet know what formed the main
part of such a statue. According to his Bavian inscription, Sennacherib
battered the statues to pieces, and it is quite possible that such
broken-up statues may yet be found in the lowest levels of Esagila.
From a throne, and apparently from the projecting end of the chair back,
comes a thick piece of rock-crystal the size of a hand, bored through
with irregularly disposed holes, to which at some time other separate
ornaments were attached.
All this when considered as a whole may give some idea of the
exceptional splendour of such statues of the divinities.
XXXVIII
THE OTHER PARTS OF THE HILL OF AMRAN IBN ALI
Close to the sacred tomb of Amran, where there is also the cupola of a
private burial, lies the modern Arab cemetery, which stretches out as
far as the western plain. Here a high mud wall called a _Tof_ surrounds
the palm gardens of the village of Djumdjumma. Towards the south the
hill gradually falls away in irregular lines. We have not yet dug there,
but isolated walls of mud brick, which project out of the ground, show
that here also there are ruins of dwelling-houses. On the eastern slope
some excavations undertaken by us yielded dated business tablets of the
time of the Persian kings. Here also the great Nimitti-Bel cylinder was
found which had been removed here, and of which we have already (p. 173
_et seq._) given an account.
XXXIX
TEMPLE “Z”
Opposite Amran on the east there stretch out the low “Ishin aswad” (Fig.
136), as the heaped-up city ruins are called. In the valley between them
lie the ruins of a temple of which we have not yet found the name, and
which we therefore distinguish as “Z.”
[Illustration:
FIG. 136.—Plan of Ishin aswad.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 137.—Ground-plan of temple “Z.”
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 138.—Cella façade in temple “Z.”
]
The temple was built with great regularity (Figs. 137, 138). It is an
accurate rectangle of mud brick, with a kisu of burnt brick, for, like
so many others, it has been heightened. It is divided into two clearly
distinguishable parts: the eastern, intended for the cult with the cella
to the south, in which the postament stood in the niche in the wall; and
the western, which resembled a private house of two courts. Here the
priest, the temple administrator, may have lived. Two gates
distinguished by the towered façade, led, each of them, through a
vestibule into the court in front of the cella. In addition a doorway
gave direct access to the chamber in the north-east corner, where the
public could transact business with the temple officials, without being
forced to enter the enclosed part of the temple. The northern gate was
indicated as the main entrance by the paved site for an altar (Fig.
139). The brick casket at its eastern jamb contained a pottery dove, and
a small piece of pottery with an inscription that has not been
satisfactorily explained hitherto, although it is fairly clearly
written.[4]
Footnote 4:
_Oriental Literaturzeitung_, 1911, No. 7:—
Ungnad translates the inscription: 1. (iṣu) ṣupur iṣṣuri(?) li
(?)-in-ti-ka (?) 2. paan ... -šù(?)-du abulli-šu 3. l[i]-ni’-irat-su
4. mit-gar-śu u(?) ki-bi-su(?) li-in-na(?)[...]. “May the claw of the
bird (?) tear to pieces (?) the countenance of him, who ... his gate,
and may it hold back his breast; him who is favourable to him and
(?) ... may he....”
Peiser translates: 1. ṣupur iṣṣuri lintikā 2. pān nakri šudu abullim
3. linī’ iratsu 4. nuḳarśu u kibīsu linnasiḫ. “May the bird’s claw
press down the countenance of the foe before the door, and check his
breast, may his devastating step be turned away.”
[Illustration:
FIG. 139.—Reconstruction of temple “Z.”
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 140.—Figure of Papsukal from temple “Z”—front view.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 141.—Figure of Papsukal from temple “Z”—back view.
]
Even at the lowest pavement level of 20 centimetres below zero the
temple was in use. Here stood the oldest postament, and below it, as was
to be expected, was the brick casket (simâku) with the statuette of
Papsukal inscribed on its shoulder-blades (Figs. 140, 141). Above this
postament there lay four more pavements divided from each other by
layers of earth, which represent four successive heightenings of the
temple level, carrying it up to 5.84 metres above zero. The slight
raising of half a metre would make scarcely any change in the building,
but when the level was heightened as much as 4 metres at one time, a
heightening of the roof and other rebuilding was unavoidable. At the
same time the former ground-plan was generally retained with such great
care, that at this temple we observed nothing on the walls themselves
resulting from such rebuilding, although we laid them bare to a height
of 9 metres.
The outer circuit shared in this heightening to an equal extent, or, to
speak more accurately, it was the continual heightening of the roads
that lay around it that was the reason for raising the temple. The same
arrangement can be seen to-day in Oriental cities. The newly-built
houses are of course so constructed that the ground floor is on about
the same level as the street. As the latter, however, serves as the
depository of all sorts of rubbish it is not long before the ground
floor is below the street level. In Bagdad, for example, one has always
to step down on entering an old house from the street, and the older the
house the deeper the step. When the building becomes ruinous and
requires rebuilding, the new floor is of course made level with the
street. Part of the rubbish of the destroyed house is used to raise the
level of the house, the rest is thrown into the street. If the houses
are built of burnt brick a large part of the building material can be
re-used, but with houses of mud brick almost the whole of the material
becomes rubbish, which when spread out gradually raises the whole area.
It follows that in the course of hundreds or thousands of years such a
town site must become very considerably higher (see Fig. 154).
It must be taken into consideration that later and more cultured periods
yield higher deposits of rubbish than earlier ones, which are remains of
simpler conditions of life, and of unpretentious dwelling-places. Also
in the course of a long period the rubbish is much more pressed together
by its own weight than in a shorter period, when the process of
compression has not been so prolonged.
Thus in the 1700 years between Nebuchadnezzar and the eleventh century
A.D., Amran rose 21 metres, while at Merkes, as we shall see presently,
the mounds of rubbish, which are also the accumulation of 1700 years,
from the time of Hammurabi 2250 B.C. to Nabonidus 550 B.C., rose only 6
metres. According to this we must reckon on a retrocessive sequence of
the density of the layers, which is expressed in the figures 21 and 6.
While in Amran we must reckon 80 years for every metre of depth of
rubbish, in Merkes every metre represents 280 years. The application of
even an approximately rapid sequence at Fara leads to a height of
antiquity which at first we hesitate to accept, but to which we may have
to accustom ourselves, as geology has accustomed itself to the remote
periods which are now universally accepted for the genesis of certain
strata.
In spite of all these heightenings which were carried on in the temples,
they rarely rose to any considerable height above their surroundings,
and they were always on the same level as the city, in opposition to the
highly placed temples at the zikurrats.
Somewhat to the north of temple “Z” we made a transverse cut through the
narrow back of the mound, and in the mud-brick houses that lay there we
found a number of business and scientific tablets.
XL
EPATUTILA, THE TEMPLE OF NINIB
A short distance to the east of temple “Z,” in the actual Ishin aswad,
lies the temple of Ninib, of which the name Epatutila, according to
Hommel (_Geographie Vorderasiens_, p. 313), means “House of the sceptre
of life” (Bit-ḫaṭ-ṭu-balâṭi).ubalâṭi?] Its principal part was built by
Nabopolassar (Figs. 142, 143).
The somewhat oblique-angled ground-plan shows three entrances which led
into the great court through vestibules, with the usual side-chambers.
In front of the eastern one lay the altar, and opposite it on the other
side of the court was the principal cella, with towered front and two
side cellae. Each cella had its postament for the statue in front of the
wall niche exactly opposite the door. On the north and on the south were
wide gateways, also with towered façades, which must have been placed
there to provide entrance and exit for the festival processions that
passed in front of the cellae.
[Illustration:
FIG. 142.—Plan of Epatutila.
]
From a small secondary court in the north-west corner a long narrow
passage runs behind the cellae to the chamber at the south corner, from
which a concealed entrance appears to have been contrived to the three
cellae, which were themselves connected with each other by doors.
[Illustration:
FIG. 143.—Section of Epatutila.
]
The main flooring, a double layer of 31 × 31–centimetre bricks, lies 2.4
metres above zero, while the walls reach down to 22 centimetres below
zero. Close under this flooring, in the doorways of the cellae, and
merely laid in the sand of the filling, were the foundation cylinders of
Nabopolassar (Fig. 144). In the inscriptions, which are identical,
Nabopolassar says (l. 17): “The Assyrian who since many days had ruled
the whole of the peoples and had placed the people of the land under his
heavy yoke;—I the weak one, the humble one, who reveres the lord of
lords, through the mighty war power of Nabu and Marduk my lords kept
back their foot from the land of Akkad and caused their yoke to be
thrown off. At that time E-pa-tu-ti-la, the temple of Ninib, which (is)
in Šú-an-na-ki, which before me an earlier king had caused to be built,
but had not completed his work, upon the renewing of this temple was my
desire (fixed), I summoned the vassals of Enlil, Šamaš and Marduk,
caused them to bear the allu, laid upon them the dupšíkku. Without
ceasing I caused the work of the temple to be completed. Mighty beams I
laid for its roof, lofty doors I placed in its gateways. This temple I
caused to shine like the sun and for Ninib my lord to glow like the day”
(trans. by Weissbach). There is nothing in the ruins to show how much of
the lower part of the walls should be ascribed to the earlier building
mentioned in this inscription.
[Illustration:
FIG. 144.—Epatutila foundation cylinder of Nebuchadnezzar.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 145.—Figure from brick casket of Epatutila, restored.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 146.—Figure of Papsukal from principal cella postament in
Epatutila.
]
A number of brick caskets lay at each side of the main gateways and in
the entrance of those at the north and south. In them, formed of some
perishable material (wood?) (Fig. 145), there stood figures of which
some remains have been recovered; sword belts with a copper sword, a
silver girdle, small clubs with knobs of onyx still clasped in the
wooden hand, and small copper buckets (situlae). About 1 metre below the
postament of the principal cella stood a well-preserved figure of
Papsukal, the divine messenger, now so well known to us, in his narrow
brick _simâku_ (Fig. 146).
[Illustration:
FIG. 147.—Ruins of Epatutila.
]
After the time of Nabopolassar the floor was three times raised with
Nebuchadnezzar’s bricks to a height of 4.2 metres above zero. At 6
metres above zero the wall ruins end. Here in the rubbish of the ruins
lie the trough sarcophagi of the Seleucid period.
The exterior (Fig. 147), as well as the court, is enriched with plain
towers, while the gateway towers are grooved. At the northern door,
through which the processions passed out, the projection of the towers
is less than in the other two. At the south-east corner, where two
gateways adjoin each other, an additional grooved tower is introduced. A
large vertical gutter, built of 31 × 31 centimetre bricks, in the east
front carried off the rain-water from the roof.
[Illustration:
FIG. 148.—Terra-cotta apes, male and female.
]
Among the terra-cottas found here during the excavations, the most
frequent types are: (1) a bearded figure holding a vase in both hands
(see Fig. 212) and wearing a long frilled garment on the cylindrical
lower part of the body; (2) a nude female figure with arms hanging down
(see Fig. 211); (3) an ape. If the two first represent Ninib and his
consort Gula, the third cella is left for the ape. What part was played
by these creatures in Babylon I will not attempt to discover. It must
have been an important one, for the figures of these squatting apes are
found not only here, but over the whole area in great numbers (Fig.
148). The workmanship varies; some are modelled in the finest and most
realistic manner, others are treated more or less as idols, and many are
practically mere crude upright lumps of clay, in which the figure of an
ape would be unrecognisable were it not possible to compare them with
innumerable examples of somewhat better workmanship.
Beside these types we found a number of small figures of horsemen. The
oldest of these, which date back to the time before Nabopolassar, and of
which several have been found in the temple, are some of them glazed
(Fig. 149); the details are always roughly modelled by hand, and the
rider sits like a lump of clay on the neck of a barely recognisable
horse. Later on these riders were more carefully worked, the horse’s
head was slightly modelled, while the legs remain shapeless stumps, the
rider becomes a long strip sitting across the animal, and only the
bearded head of the rider is produced from a fairly good mould (Fig.
150). He wears a hood, which in one type has the point erect, while in
another it falls on one side, as in the figure of Darius in the mosaic
of Pompeii.
[Illustration:
FIG. 149.—Early horseman, glazed.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 150.—Later horseman, Parthian (?).
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 151.—Woman in covered litter, on horseback.
]
It is only in yet later examples that the complete modelling of both
horse and rider first makes its appearance. The figure of a woman, of
which several examples have been found in the temple, is entirely
analogous both in form and general workmanship. She is carried on a
horse in a covered litter with a semicircular top (Fig. 151). A similar
form of litter is in use in the neighbourhood to-day under the name of
_Ketshaue_.
XLI
THE EXCAVATIONS TO THE NORTH OF THE NINIB TEMPLE
North-east of the Ninib temple we have cut four trenches through the
hill to the plain beyond. Here we found the same strata of private
houses and streets that we shall meet with again in Merkes.
Here, at the depth of the water-level, were some small plano-convex clay
tablets with carefully modelled reliefs of lions, fabulous creatures,
etc., on the flat side, as well as some figures in the round, also
worked with great minuteness. Among these there is a fine bearded head
with the hair tied up in a napkin, as, beside others, it is worn by
Marduk on the piece of lapis lazuli described above. They appear to be
working models for a large statue.
Beside the numerous scantily ornamented pottery vases, there were some
decorated in coloured glazes with concentric lines, rosettes, and
plaited bands (Fig. 152—_Frontispiece_). They come from the lower
levels, which apparently date back to the time of the Assyrian
domination. In one place where rubbish had been thrown, there were
numerous tablets containing business, literary, or scientific
inscriptions. It is possible that they came from the temple and formed
part of the temple library, which, as is generally supposed, every
temple possessed. No systematic storing of inscriptions has yet been
discovered in any temple, including those of Babylon, Khorsabad, and
Assur, all of which have been completely excavated. It is true that
these were buried under a proportionately shallow covering of earth,
while Esagila lay protected under fully 20 metres of untouched
accumulations, and is still unexcavated.
The mound itself proves to be thickly strewn throughout with potsherds,
and the mud-brick walls of the houses lie close below the surface. They
are only thinly covered by a uniform layer of dust. In the plain, on the
contrary, as our trenches at the Ninib temple have shown, the house
ruins lie under a layer more or less high, of drifted sand, and the
surface contains exceedingly few potsherds. All this is explained if we
take the trouble to realise the antecedents of the formation of these
ruins. At the time when the site was deserted and fell into ruins the
surrounding contours were far more marked than they are at present. The
heights were higher and the depths were deeper. The mud-brick walls,
which at first stood out above the soil, crumbled away after they lost
their roofs into dusty heaps of clay, which accumulated against the
walls and covered the pavement higher and higher, while the walls
themselves, so far as they over-topped these heaps, disappeared, and
thus all was levelled to an irregular undulating surface.
[Illustration:
FIG. 153.—Schematic diagram of the transfer of the upper levels (A, B,
left) of a mound of debris to lower-lying region (A, B, on the
right).
]