HOW THE PEOPLE LIVED
Babylonia was the land of bricks, Assyria of stone. It was in Babylonia
that the great tower had been built of brick whose head, it was intended,
should ‘reach to heaven.’ The bricks were merely dried in the sun; it
was but rarely that they were baked in the kiln. When it was wished to
give additional solidity to the walls of a building, lighted fuel was
piled up against them, and their surfaces were thus vitrified into a
solid mass. But usually the Babylonian builders were content with the
ordinary sun-dried brick of the country. Naturally it crumbled away in
the course of time, and the brick structure became a mound of shapeless
mud. Nebuchadnezzar tells us how the great Temple of the Seven Planets
of Heaven and Earth at Borsippa, near Babylon, whose ruins are now known
under the name of the Birs-i-Nimrud, and which has often been identified
with the Tower of Babel, had been destroyed before his time by rain and
storm, and neglect to repair its drains. In fact, the plain of Babylonia
was covered with artificial hills formed of the _débris_ of ancient
temples which had been allowed to fall into decay. One of the earliest
names given to it on the monuments is that of ‘the land of mounds.’
No stone was found in the country. If stone was used, as, for instance,
by Nebuchadnezzar in his construction of the quays of Babylon, it had to
be brought from the distant mountains of Elam. Even the smallest stones
and pebbles were highly prized. Hence it was that in Babylonia the art
of engraving seems to have taken its rise. We learn from Herodotus that
every Babylonian carried about with him an engraved seal attached to
his wrist by a cord, and the statement is fully confirmed by the native
monuments. The seal was of cylindrical shape, pierced longitudinally by
a hole through which the cord was passed. When it was needed to be used,
it was rolled over the wet clay which served the Babylonians as a writing
material, and it was regarded as the necessary guarantee of the owner’s
identity. No legal deed or contract was valid without the impression of
the seals belonging to the persons who took part in it; the engraved
stone, in fact, was as indispensable to its owner as his name itself.
In Assyria, on the contrary, clay was comparatively scarce, and stone was
plentiful. Hence, while the temples and palaces of Babylonia were built
of brick, those of Assyria were, at all events in part, built of stone.
The Assyrians, however, had originally migrated from Babylonia, and they
carried with them the tradition of the art and architecture of their
mother-country. Accordingly, while making use of stone they nevertheless
did not altogether forego the use of brick. The walls of Nineveh, in
spite of their height, were constructed of brick, and it was only the
basement of the palaces which was made of stone. We need not be surprised
at this slavish imitation of a style of building which was out of place
in the country to which it was transferred. In another respect the
Assyrians imitated the architecture of Babylonia even more slavishly and
needlessly. This was in the construction of vast platforms of brick, upon
which the temples of the gods and the palaces of the kings were erected.
In Babylonia such platforms were necessary, in order to secure the
edifices upon them from the danger of floods or the inconveniences of a
marshy soil. But in Assyria similar precautions were not required. There
the buildings could have been raised on a foundation of rock, without the
intervention of an artificial platform.
The brick walls of the Babylonian houses were covered with stucco, which
was then adorned with painting. Dados ran around them, whereon were
depicted the figures of men and animals. In the Assyrian palaces the dado
was formed of sculptured slabs of stone, and painted in imitation of
the dados of painted stucco which were usual in Babylonia. The cornices
and other portions of the walls were in the houses of the wealthy often
ornamented with bronze and alabaster, and even gold. At times ivory
was used for the same purpose, as in the ivory palaces of Samaria[7].
The doors more especially were overlaid with bands of bronze, and were
frequently double, the hinges revolving in sockets of bronze. The windows
were protected from the weather by means of curtains of tapestry; and
a flight of steps, open to the air, led to the upper storeys of the
house. The steps opened upon a court around which the sitting-rooms and
bed-chambers were built, the apartments assigned to the women being kept
separate from those of the men.
All these luxuries, however, were confined to the rich and noble. The
mass of the people lived, like their descendants to-day, in mud cabins,
with conical roofs of clay. They had to be content to live on the ground
floor, and to exclude the cold, and rains of winter, not with costly
tapestries, but by making the apertures in the walls which served as
windows as small as possible. It is needless to say that the bronze and
sculpture and painting which adorned the habitations of the wealthy were
unknown in those of the poor.
Even in the houses of the wealthy the furniture was doubtless as scanty
and simple as it is still to-day in the East. Rugs of variegated patterns
were laid upon the floor, and chairs and stools of various shapes and
sizes were used. The stools were generally lofty, so that the feet of
the sitter had to be supported on a footstool. Some of the chairs were
provided with arms.
At times, instead of chairs, couches or divans were employed. The
luxurious Assyrian would even recline on a couch when eating, a habit
which passed from the East to Greece, and from Greece to Rome, so that
in the days of our Saviour it was more customary to ‘recline’ than to
sit at meat. One of the bas-reliefs in the British Museum represents
the Assyrian king Assur-bani-pal lying on a couch while he drinks wine
and feasts after the defeat and death of his Elamite enemy, though his
wife, who participates in the banquet, is seated on a chair. The custom
of reclining at meals was doubtless borrowed by the Assyrians from
Babylonia, since the older native fashion was to seat the guests at a
dinner party on lofty stools on either side of a small table. At night
the wealthier classes slept on bedsteads covered with thick mattresses
or rugs. Poorer people were satisfied with the mattress only, which was
spread upon the ground, and rolled up when no longer needed for use. It
was a bed which could be taken up and carried away, like the ‘beds’ we
read of in the New Testament. All classes alike slept in their ordinary
clothes.
The house of the well-to-do Assyrian or Babylonian was not considered
complete unless it was provided with a garden or plantation, which, it
would seem, was usually planted in front of it. It was well stocked with
trees, among which the palm naturally held a chief place. In warm weather
tables and seats were placed under the shade of the trees, and meals
were thus taken in the open air. Those who could afford to keep slaves
for the purpose employed one of them in waving a large fan, in order to
drive insects away while the meal was being enjoyed. In taking the lease
of a house, the tenant usually agreed to keep the garden in order, and to
replace any trees that might die or be cut down.
The garden was irrigated from one of the numerous canals which
intersected the whole of Babylonia. The rich employed hired labourers
for the purpose; the poor had to irrigate their own plot of ground. The
water was drawn up in buckets and then poured into a number of rivulets
which ran through the garden. Vegetables of all kinds were grown along
the edges of the rivulets, more especially onions and garlic. It would
appear that flowers also were cultivated, at all events in the gardens
of the wealthy, since vases of flowers were placed on the tables at a
banquet.
The costume of the people was as varied as it is in the modern European
world. Old lists of clothing have come down to us which contain as large
an assortment of different dresses and their materials as could be found
in a shop of to-day. Among the materials may be mentioned the _sindhu_,
or muslin of ‘India,’ which is described as being composed of ‘vegetable
wool,’ or cotton, and so bears testimony to an ancient trade between
Chaldea and the western coast of India. Most of the stuffs, however, were
of home manufacture, and were exported into all parts of the civilized
world. It will be remembered that among the Canaanitish spoil found in
the tent of Achan was ‘a goodly Babylonish garment[8].’
In spite of the changes of fashion and the varieties of dress worn
by different classes of persons, the principal constituents of the
Assyrian and Babylonian costume remained the same. These were a hat or
head-dress, a tunic or shirt, and a long outer robe which reached to the
ankles. In early Babylonian times the hat was ornamented with ribbons
which projected before and behind like horns; at a later period it
assumed the shape of a tiara or peaked helmet. The material of which it
was composed was thick and sometimes quilted; the upper classes further
protected their heads from the sun by a parasol, which in Assyria became
the symbol of royal or semi-royal authority. The tunic was of linen or
wool, the latter material being much employed, particularly in cold
weather; it reached half-way down the thigh, and was fastened round
the waist by a girdle. A second tunic was often worn under the first,
doubtless during the winter season.
The long robe or cloak was specially characteristic of the Babylonians.
It opened in front, was usually sleeveless, and was ornamented at the
edge with fringes. In walking it allowed the inner side of the left leg
to be exposed. Not unfrequently the girdle was fastened round it instead
of round the tunic. In Assyria the king sometimes wore over his robe a
sort of chasuble, richly ornamented like the robe itself.
The Babylonian priest was characterized by a curious kind of flounced
dress which descended to the feet, and perhaps was made of muslin. From
immemorial times a goat-skin was also flung over his shoulders, the goat
being accounted an animal of peculiar sanctity. On Babylonian cylinders
and seals a priest may always be at once distinguished by the flounces of
his dress.
The costume of the women differed externally but little from that of the
men—at least when the latter were dressed in their outer robe. The queen
of Assur-bani-pal is depicted in a long unsleeved robe, over which comes
a fringed frock reaching below the knees, and over that again a light
cape, also fringed and patterned with rosettes. On her feet are boots,
and around her head is a crown or fillet representing a castellated
wall, and thus resembling the mural crown of Greek sculpture. Earrings,
bracelets, and a necklace complete her costume.
Earrings, bracelets, and necklaces were also worn by the men. Anklets are
referred to in the inscriptions as well as finger-rings, though the usual
substitute for a finger-ring was the cylinder, which, as has already been
stated, was attached by a string or chain to the wrist.
The Babylonian, at any rate in earlier times, seems ordinarily to have
gone bare-footed. Already in the twelfth century B.C., however, we find
the king[9] wearing a pair of soft leather shoes, and in Assyria sandals
were in use from an early period, the sandal being furnished with a
cap for protecting the heel. The northern conquests of Tiglath-pileser
III and Sargon introduced the laced boot of the inhabitants of the
colder regions in the north. The cavalry, who had hitherto ridden
with bare legs, now adopted high boots, laced in front, and worn over
tightly-fitting breeches of plaited leather. Certain of the foot-soldiers
were also clothed in the same way; while others of them wore the boots
without the trousers. Sennacherib was the first of the Assyrian kings who
discarded the sandal in his own person and substituted for it a shoe,
which like the military boot was laced in front.
It must not be imagined that the robe or even the tunic was always worn.
In fact, the light-armed troops in the Assyrian army were contented
with a simple kilt, which, together with a felt skull-cap, constituted
the whole of their dress. This was also the costume of the Babylonian
labourer when working in the fields, and both Assyrians and Babylonians,
while engaged in manual work or military operations, discarded the long
and inconvenient outer robe. It was only the upper classes who could
afford the luxury of wearing it in every-day life. So, too, the use of a
hat or cap was not universal. Numbers of people were satisfied with tying
up their hair with a fillet or string, even when exposed to the heat of
the sun. At times even the fillet was dispensed with.
The hair of the head was worn long, and the Assyrians distinguished
themselves from their neighbours by dressing and curling both it and
their beards. The fashion must have been derived from the early Semitic
population of Babylonia, since the hero of the great Chaldean epic
is represented on ancient engraved seals with a curled beard. On the
other hand, the practice was unknown to the non-Semitic population of
the country; the sculptured heads, for instance, found at Tel-loth,
which belong to the Accado-Sumerian epoch, are either beardless or else
provided with long uncurled beards which terminate in a point, ‘the
musked and curled Assyrian bull,’ spoken of by Lord Tennyson, being a
Semitic creation. Here, as elsewhere, fashion was determined by physical
characteristics, and it was only among a Semitic people distinguished by
its thick growth of black hair that the art of the hair-dresser could
develop as it did in Semitic Babylonia and Assyria. The comparatively
beardless Sumerians rather encouraged the barber, who accordingly
occupies a conspicuous place in early Babylonian literature.