(Fig. 175). Behind the seat there is a hole through which the smoke of a
pastille concealed within the beaker could ascend and surround the
figure with mystic vapour. Three panther (?) heads on a stake, widening
out in the shape of a foot, as they are often represented on _kudurru_
as symbols of a god, were doubtless intended for some religious purpose,
as well as the bark (Figs. 176, 177) that frequently occurs, and in
which an animal is lying. This latter cannot be identified owing to the
roughness of the workmanship. The vessel is of equal height both at stem
and stern, which end above in two volutes that curve inwards and are
often in the form of human heads. In other, later, types the stem is
often armoured with a ram. The keel is always flat and is certainly
intended for use on terra firma, on which the boats could be dragged by
a cord passed through a hole in the stem, for certainly these
terra-cotta vessels could not float. The bark played a very important
part in the religious ceremonies of the Babylonian, as it did in those
of the Egyptian. It was in them that the gods performed their
processions under Gudea as they did under Nebuchadnezzar. Among many
other divinities, Marduk and Nabu had their sacred barks, to the
furnishing of which Nebuchadnezzar refers in the great _Steinplatten_
inscription (3, 8, and 70). “The furniture of the temple of Esagila I
adorned with massive (?) gold, the Kua-bark with ṣarîr and stones like
the stars of heaven.—The Ḫêtu-canal-bark, the means of conveyance of his
lordship, the bark of the procession of the New Year, the feast of
Babil—its wooden karê, the zarâti which are in it, I caused to be
clothed with tîri šašši and stone” (trans. by Delitzsch). The animal
that lies in these pottery boats must therefore undoubtedly have
represented a sirrush.
Spinning whorls are of stone or burnt clay. The stone whorls are in the
form of a flat double convex disc, or a truncated cone, as are also the
pottery whorls. Some of the latter have two holes instead of the usual
single one, and the spindle must, therefore, have been split below, as
the modern Arab spindle frequently is. The whorls of the earlier time
often have ornaments or owner’s marks scratched on them.
[Illustration:
FIG. 176.—Earthenware boat.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 177.—Earthenware boats with animal inside.
]
Of the whole range of pottery, with the exception of the enamelled vases
already described, only very few stand out as worthy of notice owing to
superior technique or decoration that would render them fit for more
advanced needs and necessities. It appears that all such demands were
met by the use of more or less costly stone, as, for example, the fine
white alabaster employed for the alabastron.
[Illustration:
FIG. 178.—Stone vessel.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 179.—Basalt bowl for rubbing out grain.
]
Storage jars of limestone were of huge dimensions. Bowls, plates, and
similar forms of slate, serpentine, and finely-veined marble with
delicate and graceful outlines were very numerous. Several vases in
schist (Fig. 178), with a flattened base, belong to a very ancient
period, possibly prehistoric; they are decorated on the outside with
incised lines in imitation of mat-work. There are numerous bowls for
rubbing made in basalt, with three strong short feet (Fig. 179), and
strong limestone mortars roughly hewn on the outside, but completely
smoothed on the inside by use. Like the rice mortars of the present day,
they must have been used specially for beating out grain, and required a
wooden pestle. It is doubtful whether the limestone pestles found by us
were used in these stone mortars.
[Illustration:
FIG. 180.—Ancient Babylonian rubbing-mill, in use by an Arab.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 181.—Prehistoric utensils.
]
The hand mill from the earliest period down to the latest consists of a
flat lower stone, usually hollowed by use, and a rubbing stone, which
was rubbed backwards and forwards on it, both of basalt (Fig. 180).
Fragments of these rubbing-mills are found in great numbers on all the
ruined sites of Babylonia, where they are mistaken by inexperienced
observers for the upper parts of stelae with reliefs. Of the circular
revolving mills that are found to-day in almost every Arab house, there
are scarcely any remains in the upper level of Amran. Funnel-shaped
mills, such as the Romans possessed, were apparently unknown. As the
rubbing stone was employed with the mill, so also the rubbing-bowls
possessed small rubbers, which were held in the hand. The lower side of
these show the smoothness that results from use (Fig. 181). Beside these
rubbers there are many stones of much the same size that show marks of
having been used for pounding; many are cubes, and have been used on all
sides, others are discs, and their edges have been used. Not all of
these can be assigned to the historic period.
[Illustration:
FIG. 182.—Prehistoric implements.
]
Some stones with holes bored in them are apparently prehistoric. Some
are certainly mace heads, or something of the sort. Of the palaeolithic
saws of obsidian and of flint, with their nuclei (Fig. 182), which are
spread over the entire prehistoric world with such remarkable
uniformity, various specimens are found, though naturally not so many as
on more ancient sites, Fara or Surgul. In Fara some of these saws were
still in their ancient setting, which consisted of an asphalt backing,
in which they were set on the cutting side, often one after another, in
order to lengthen the implement. In this way it was impossible to use
the fine cutting edge, and in fact the polish acquired by long use
appears only on the toothed edges; but owing to the projection of the
backing the latter could never have cut into anything to a greater depth
than about 1 centimetre. Of neolithic implements only one single
arrow-head has been found, and in Fara and Surgul, so far as I can
remember, no neolithic implements have been found.
[Illustration:
FIG. 183.—Swords, lance-head, and knives in bronze.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 184.—Bronze arrow-heads; prehistoric flint knife and saws.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 185.—Chain of onyx beads from a grave in Merkes.
]
Babylonian weapons are comparatively rare even in the graves. We have
recovered only a few short swords, knives, and flat lance-heads in
bronze (Fig. 183). The arrow-heads alone are very numerous, and they of
course occur far more frequently in the walls of the fortifications than
in peaceful Merkes. They are 3–edged bolts cast in bronze, which were
fixed to a shaft and are often barbed; the edges are sharply ground. The
2–edged, leaf-shaped bolts that were inserted by a tenon into the shaft
belong to a later Parthian (?) period (Fig. 184). There are no clear
traces of slings, unless we accept as evidence of them the smooth
pebbles that are found in groups, and which are certainly well adapted
for such use. In a room of a house at Senkereh large numbers of these
were found placed together, and were obviously selected pebbles of the
right size and shape. Of the great stone projectiles for the later
balistae, we have already spoken (p. 50). A common weapon was the short
mace with a stone knob. It is still in general use among the Arabs
to-day under the name of _hattre_, and is frequently represented on
reliefs and seal cylinders. The same club with an asphalt head is called
_mugwar_ by the Arabs. The form of the head varies, and is sometimes
globular, pear-shaped, egg-shaped, or the like; in some cases they bear
the inscription of their whilom owner. Thus we have the mace head of
Melishiḫu with the inscription, “... to the great ... ra-an, his lord,
has Melishiḫu, the son of Kurigalzu given (it).” Another mace head that
resembles a knot of wood bears the inscription, “mace head (ḫi-in-gi) of
diorite (šu-u) belonging to Uluburariaš, son of Burnaburariaš the king,
the king of the sea land. Whosoever removes this name, and inserts his
name, may Anu, Bel, Ea, Marduk and Belit remove his name!” (trans. by
Weissbach).
[Illustration:
FIG. 186.—Grave deposits of gold, glass, and shell, from Merkes.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 187.—Leg-bones, each with five anklets, from Merkes.
]
The ornaments found (Figs. 185, 186) came mainly from the graves,
although, with some exceptions, they are not furnished very richly. From
the early times onwards the most usual ornaments are rows of beads,
often of considerable length. In the earliest prehistoric times which we
reached at Fara, the Babylonian appears to have been hung round with
beads, somewhat like the wildest tribesmen of Polynesia. Glass, or a
glassy frit, was early in use for beads, but semi-precious stones, such
as agate, onyx, rock-crystal, and amethyst, were principally employed.
At Fara, in the earlier times, the method of polishing them was unknown,
and they were merely ground, but this art rapidly developed under the
Sargonids, and specially in the Neo-Babylonian epoch, to extraordinary
perfection, while the variety and beauty of form is very striking. The
beads are sometimes globular, sometimes discs or slender ellipsoids;
small sheets were often perforated once or several times through the
flat surface, and thus formed a variety of caesurae in the threading of
the separate pieces. Human heads and tiny figures, such as frogs, bulls,
or tortoises, were carved with minute detail in agate and similar
stones. Rings and perforated discs of oyster-shell were popular, and so
were seashells, perforated for threading, ctenobranchia (cowries),
dentalia, and also the siphonal cylinders of the siphoniatae—the latter
more especially at a very early period—and others. Circlets of bronze,
silver, and iron decorated wrists and ankles. In the graves we often
found the lower end of the leg-bones decorated with as many as three or
five pairs (Fig. 187). Ear-rings were generally of gold or silver; the
usual form is either a roll drawn out in narrow wires bent together into
a ring or a boss soldered on to a hook-shaped wire. Elaborate patterns
are rare (Fig. 188); often on one corpse there would be not merely one
or two, but many of the same form, which must surely indicate that they
were deposited in the coffin with the deceased as votive offerings. The
fibula (Fig. 189) for fastening the garments together consists of a
semicircular or angularly bent hoop decorated with a regular series of
transverse rings. The pin fastened at one end and made elastic by
various twists, fits at the other end into a haft shaped like a hand,
and often actually modelled as one. The semicircular form is represented
on the clothing in sculpture, and also on the kudurru, where it forms
the figure of a constellation.
[Illustration:
FIG. 188.—Gold ornaments.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 189.—Bronze fibulae.
]
Finger-rings are not so numerous in the early period, but they begin to
come into common use during the Persian period, when they were used as
seals, and superseded the ancient seal cylinders (Fig. 190).
The form of the seal face, which is also frequently impressed on tablets
of Persian dating, is elliptical or bi-segmental. Animals are most
frequently represented. Those rings, which are generally cast in bronze
and more rarely in silver, consist usually of a small plate, which, when
not engraved as a seal, is set with precious stones, on a plain hoop.
[Illustration:
FIG. 190.—Rings and their seal impressions.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 191.—Cylinder seals and signet with their impressions.
]
The most important form of the Babylonian seal was the cylinder (Fig.
191). In addition to these there were at all periods numerous button
seals, parallelepipeda, and calottes of circular and ellipsoidal forms;
also comparatively early there were scarabs and scaraboids. The
materials used included agate, lapis lazuli, marble, flint, magnetite,
and sea-shell, as well as glass and frit. All seals were bored, in order
that an eyed peg might be fixed into them. If the perforation were long,
as with the seal cylinders, it was worked from both ends, and a slight
projection may be seen inside in the centre. The usual representations
are of divinities and their emblems, heroes and animals in combat with
each other, or with gods and champions. The principal gods are
symbolised thus: Shamash by the sun’s disc, Sin by the new moon, Ishtar
by a star, and here in Babylon more especially, Marduk by a triangle on
a staff, and Nebo by a rod. Ornamentation is extremely rare.
Inscriptions in cuneiform, the name of the owner and his devotion to a
specified god, who is not always necessarily indicated in the
representation, are specially frequent on seal cylinders, while Aramaic
inscriptions are found only on other forms of seals. Owing to the great
number of these objects we can observe the gradual development of art
with delightful clearness. The ancient seal, which reaches back into
prehistoric times, notwithstanding the primitive tools employed, often
shows great vigour of execution. These are merely engraved, but with the
discovery of the wheel and drill the art progressed with the development
of the means of expression, and gradually and steadily rose to its
greatest perfection at the time of the last of the Assyrian and
Babylonian monarchs. In consequence of the overwhelming use of the
wheel, the art then became gradually though not uniformly so
conventionalised that the representations often consist merely of dots
and lines. But even at this stage specimens of astounding artistic merit
are not rare. Glyptic art in Babylon is always in advance of the other
contemporary plastic arts. It is only moulded pottery reliefs that in
any degree keep step with it. Modelling in the round, more especially in
stone, remains markedly behind the contemporary productions of the
stone-cutter. Babylonian plastic art in the round never attained the
excellence of the Greek masterpieces of about the fourth century B.C. In
any case it was gem-cutting that from the beginning was the pioneer of
Babylonian art.
[Illustration:
FIG. 192.—Stone amulets.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 193.—Greek coins in a jar.
]
Representations or reliefs of an apotropaic nature occur on stone
amulets, which must have been hung on sick persons (Fig. 192). They are
small tablets, which bear the representation on one side and an
inscription on the other; at the top a hole is bored to admit a string.
[Illustration:
FIG. 194.—Two vertebrae, a boar’s tusk, and three bone joints prepared
as sword handles.
]
There are no Babylonian coins, although minting commenced in the West,
in Lydia or in Ægina, as early as 700 B.C. The first coins we find in
Babylon, rare though they are, are Graeco-Persian (Darius). The coins of
the time of Alexander are more numerous, and specially those of his
successor Lysimachus (Fig. 193). Parthian, Sassanide, and Arab coins are
found occasionally, especially in Amran. There also a glazed amphora was
found, filled with Arab coins, and still stoppered with a wad plugging;
the contents have not yet been laid out and examined.
The remains that have been found of food and of domestic animals still
require to be studied by experts. Charred grain and date stones are
frequently found. The latter occur absolutely all over the ruins, and in
all the levels of Babylon, as well as of Fara and Surgul. The ancient
Babylonians do not appear to have eaten shell-fish, but on the contrary
we often find fish bones, among them the lower jaw of a carp, such as is
still caught in the Euphrates. Sheep, cattle, poultry, and pigeons are
also not infrequent. The knuckle bones of sheep have survived more
especially, possibly because they were used, as they were by the Romans,
for the well-known game. They are also found cast in bronze. There is
often the boar’s tusk (Fig. 194), which was bored through at one end and
carried as an amulet, perhaps on the horses’ harness. The mongoose
(_Herpestes mungo_), of which the skull is often found, appears to have
been a household pet, as it is at the present day in the neighbourhood.
The fore-leg of a pachyderm, 1.15 metres long, which is almost too large
to be that of an elephant, was found at a great depth, 1.2 metres below
zero, in Merkes (25 _n_). Fragments of ostrich eggs are found
sporadically.
XLIV
THE GRAVES IN MERKES
In Babylon the dead were buried by the fortification walls, in the
streets, and in such parts of the inhabited town as were unappropriated
for dwelling-houses at the time of the burial. They were laid from 1 to
2 metres deep in the ground. The house ruins of an earlier period were
often encroached upon, and where the ancient walls were recognisable the
pit was dug parallel with them; where they were not recognisable the
walls of the ancient house were often cut through by the grave, while
the wall of a later building period once more turned off from the burial
site. If an ancient brick pavement was reached this also was frequently
cut through, and the sarcophagus lay partly above and partly below it.
From such clear cases, against which situations that cannot be made out
can adduce no conclusive evidence, it can be distinctly seen that in
Babylon, at any rate, no interments took place inside inhabited houses.
We have already (p. 219 ff.) seen how various were the methods of burial
at different times, and in the few ruined sites of Babylonia hitherto
excavated. We cannot here enter into all the peculiarities, and we can
only attempt to sketch out the classes of burial that are clear, and
easily distinguishable from each other.
[Illustration:
FIG. 195.—Double-urn burial from Merkes.
]
The lowest levels, of the time of the first Babylonian kings, Hammurabi
and his successors, contain no sarcophagi. The bodies either lay simply
in the earth, or at most were rolled in reed mats or were roughly
surrounded by mud bricks. They were almost always laid out at full
length, and often in an attitude that gives an impression that they were
left in the same place and situation in which they died.
[Illustration:
FIG. 196.—Trough coffin, with lid.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 197.—Trough coffin, opened.
]
Between zero line and about 3 metres above zero, we come almost
exclusively on double-urn burials (Fig. 195). They consist of two
pottery vessels with the mouths joined together, in which the body is
placed in a crouching position, and generally tightly packed. These
double jars, of which one is perforated at the foot end, lie together
horizontally or slightly sloping, never upright, although both vessels
are provided with a broadened end. They are either alone or in groups of
6 or 8 crowded into a small space. Generally close by there is a layer
of ashes, which appears to represent some burial ceremony; in this layer
there are a few brick-built subterranean chambers, with barrel-shaped
vaulting, such as are often found in Asshur. Their great rarity, when
compared with the masses of pottery coffins, shows them undoubtedly to
be foreign to Babylonian usage.
[Illustration:
FIG. 198.—Crouching burial.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 199.—Brick grave from Merkes.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 200.—Anthropoid sarcophagus, north-east of Kasr.
]
Above the double-urn level, at 3 metres above zero, the high pottery
coffins begin, which are shown by isolated finds in the Southern Citadel
to belong undoubtedly to the time of Nebuchadnezzar and earlier. On the
side where the head lay they are angular, the other side is rounded. The
body lies crouched in them, or slightly on one side. These “crouching
burials” were somewhat shallower in the upper levels, so that the body
lay with the knees drawn up on one side, while the upper part of the
body perhaps lay on the back; hence the sarcophagus assumes a bulging
shape at the foot end. It was covered over with a flat or slightly
curved clay cover.
At 4 metres above zero are the shallow, somewhat short, trough-shaped
coffins, in which the body lay at full length, with the knees only
slightly flexed (Figs. 196, 197). The shallow vaulted covering was made
of two pieces that leant against each other in the centre. Generally,
however, the coffin was placed upside down over the body as it lay on
the ground, thus rendering the cover unnecessary. These “crouching
burials” are found as high as 7 metres above zero (Fig. 198).
It is only in the topmost levels of Merkes that the brick-built
sarcophagi are found which we have already mentioned (p. 216) and
assigned to the Graeco-Parthian period (Fig. 199). There is no doubt
that they were usually sunk in the ground. Often, however, the roof is
so carefully built with bricks tilted up cornerwise, and covered over
with gypsum mortar, that we are forced to admit the possibility that
this part at least may in some cases have stood above the ground. The
remains of the wooden coffin that actually enclosed the body have
frequently been found inside the sarcophagus.
[Illustration:
FIG. 201.—Deposits from a coffin.
]
Glazed trough coffins, which were so numerous on the Kasr in the
principal court of the Southern Citadel (p. 102), are almost entirely
absent in Merkes, and so are the slipper and anthropoid coffins. A fine
example of the latter lay on the north-east corner of the Kasr (Fig.
200). The glazed trough coffin must therefore date from a period when
the main part, the wide town area of Babylon, was already completely
abandoned, and only Amran, the Kasr, and Babil were inhabited.
The graves on the whole were not rich in deposits. The deceased
generally retained some of his wonted adornments of necklaces, rings,
fibulae, bracelets, and anklets. Other ornaments, such as ear-rings,
were only occasionally added (Fig. 201). All sorts of pottery vessels
were numerous, especially beakers and bowls. These did not often reach
the coffin uninjured. Even in entirely untouched coffins there are often
large fragments, or broken vessels with some pieces missing. Weapons are
very rarely found, but this is not surprising when we consider the
eminently peaceful character of the householders of Babylon. Seals and
seal cylinders are extremely rare in the coffins. It is obvious that the
seal was not given to the dead man in his grave, but that it was
retained by the heir for further use. Under these circumstances it is
impossible to draw conclusions from the dated character of the seal
impression, as to the date of the document on which the impression is
found, without further evidence.
XLV
THE TERRA-COTTA FIGURES
The number of terra-cottas found in Babylon is enormous. Including very
small fragments, it exceeds 6000. Those of the early Babylonian period
are not so numerous as those of the Middle, the Neo-Babylonian, and
finally of the Graeco-Parthian periods. The style of the latter entirely
supersedes the Babylonian, although the types are on the whole retained.
Any figures modelled by hand are rare. We will here describe the main
characteristics of those that were moulded, of which all that fall
within the same group naturally display a great resemblance to each
other. The great mass of them exemplify only a few types, they are
almost all of them worked merely on one side, and the female figures
greatly exceed the male figures in number.
1. The nude female figures with the hands folded in each other below the
breast we have already (p. 65) observed as probably representing Ninmach
(Fig. 202). The abundant wavy hair falls on the shoulders. She always
wears a necklace of several rows, and has numerous anklets and
bracelets. In the rounded, full-moon countenance we can recognise the
Babylonian standard of beauty which occurs in all female figures. The
type goes back to the early Babylonian period, as is seen in Fig. 203;
here the rolled-up locks, when seen full face, appear like round discs.
[Illustration:
FIG. 202.—Female figure with folded hands (Ninmach?).
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 203.—Woman with folded hands, old Babylonian style.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 204.—Woman and child.
]
2. A nude female figure with a child at her breast (Gula?) also occurs
very frequently. The arrangement of the hair is the same, but the figure
is entirely without ornaments (Fig. 204). This type survived into the
Graeco-Parthian period, but it is then clothed, and a fillet is added to
the hair (Figs. 205, 206).
3. A second rarer figure of a woman and child represents her with her
legs crossed beneath her and sitting on a cushion; the lower part of the
body at least appears to be clothed (Fig. 207).