To the student of architecture it may be surprizing to learn
that the arch, until recently supposed to have been unknown to
the ancients, was frequently employed by the pre-Babylonians
of more than 6,000 years ago. Such an arch, in a poor state of
preservation, was, a few years ago, discovered in the lowest
stratum, beneath the Babylonian city of Nippur. More recently
an arched drain was found beneath the old city of Fara, which
the Germans have excavated in central Babylonia. The city, altho
one of the earliest known, was built upon an earlier ruin, and
provided with an arched drain constructed of small, plano-convex
bricks. It measures about one meter in height, and has an equal
width.
While delving among the ruins of the oldest cities of the world,
we are thus finding that at the time when we supposed that
man was primitive and savage, he provided his home and city
with “improvements” which we are inclined to call modern, but
which we are only reinventing. (Text.)--Prof. EDGAR JAMES
BANKS, _The Scientific American_.
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=Ancient Human Remains=--See PREHISTORIC WOMEN.
=Ancient Masters=--See COMPLIMENT.
=Anesthetics=--See BENEFACTION OF ANESTHETICS.
=Angel Ministers=--See COOPERATION, LACK OF.
=Angel Visitants=--See INDIFFERENCE TO THE GOOD.
=Angels=--See FRIEND, THE SYMPATHETIC.
=Angels Astray=--See RESCUE.