WRITTEN HISTORY.
It is not generally known that written history extends so far back as to
make worthless the present system of chronology. The mighty empires of
antiquity must have been a mystery to many a thoughtful mind. As far
back as history will carry us we not only behold the world teeming with
her millions of people, but also nations rising and empires crumbling.
Rollin felt the difficulties of the chronology which hampered him. He
says the Assyrian empire was founded by Nimrod eighteen hundred years
after the creation of man, or two hundred and twenty-four years after
the Deluge, or one hundred and twenty-six years before the death of
Noah. Nimrod was succeeded by his son Ninus, who received powerful
succor from the Arabians, and extended his conquests from Egypt as far
as India and Bactriana. Ninus enlarged his capital to sixty miles in
circumference, built the walls to the height of one hundred feet, and so
broad that three chariots could go abreast upon them with ease, and
fortified and adorned them with one thousand five hundred towers two
hundred feet high. After he had finished this prodigious work he led
against the Bactrians one million seven hundred thousand foot, two
hundred thousand horse, besides four hundred vessels well equipped and
provided. After his death, Semiramis, his wife, ascended the throne. She
enlarged her dominions by the conquest of a great part of Ethiopia. Then
she led her army of three million foot and five hundred thousand horse,
besides the camels and chariots of war, into India, where she suffered a
severe defeat. After making these statements, Rollin says, "I must own
I am somewhat puzzled with a difficulty which may be raised against the
extraordinary things related of Ninus and Semiramis, as they do not seem
to agree with the times so near the Deluge: I mean, such vast armies,
such a numerous cavalry, so many chariots armed with scythes, and such
immense treasures of gold and silver; ... and the magnificence of the
buildings, ascribed to them."[91] The difficulties presented to the
modern historian never would have occurred if discredit had not been
thrown on the writings of the ancients.
_Egypt._--The only history of Egypt, written in Greek, was that of
Manetho, a high-priest of Heliopolis, who lived three hundred years
before Christ. Only fragments of this work have been preserved. This
history is taken from the ancient Egyptian chronicles, and records a
list of thirty dynasties reigning in one city. His "thirty-one lists
contain the names of one hundred and thirteen kings, who, according to
them, reigned in Egypt during the space of four thousand four hundred
and sixty-five years."[92] Dr. Buchner says Manetho "calculates for
three hundred and seventy-five Pharaohs a reigning period of six
thousand one hundred and seventeen years, which together with the
present era, makes about eight thousand three hundred and thirty
years."[93] Bayard Taylor makes Manetho assign the first dynasty to
about the year 5000 B. C.[94]
Herodotus says the Egyptians "declare that from their first king (Menes)
to this last mentioned monarch (Sethos), the priest of Vulcan, was a
period of three hundred and forty-one generations; such, at least, they
say, was the number both of their kings and of their high-priests,
during this interval. Now three hundred generations of men make ten
thousand years, three generations filling up the century; and the
remaining forty-one generations make thirteen hundred and forty years.
Thus the whole number of years is eleven thousand three hundred and
forty." The priests "led me into the inner sanctuary, which is a
spacious chamber, and showed me a multitude of colossal statues, in
wood, which they counted up, and found to amount to the exact number
they had said; the custom being for every high-priest during his
life-time to set up his statue in the temple. As they showed me the
figures and reckoned them up, they assured me that each was the son of
the one preceding him; and this they repeated throughout the whole line,
beginning with the representation of the priest last deceased, and
continuing till they had completed the series."[95] From the time of
Sethos, the priest of Vulcan, to the burning of the temple of Delphi,
was one hundred and twenty-two years. The temple was burned B. C. 548.
The period which, then, has elapsed from Sethos to the present (1875) is
two thousand five hundred and forty-five years. Adding this to the time
of Menes we have the whole period covering thirteen thousand eight
hundred and eighty-five years. But if the generation be reduced to
twenty years then the period from Menes to the present is nine thousand
three hundred and sixty-five years.
The recent explorations made by Mariette among the archives of Egypt
have confirmed the testimony of Manetho. The names of the kings, their
order of succession, and the length of their reigns correspond with
Manetho's table. These discoveries not only testify to the great
antiquity of the empire, but also throw light on the nation, its
manners, and customs. There were found stools, cane-bottomed chairs,
work-boxes, nets, knives, needles, toilet ornaments, earthenware, seeds,
eggs, bread, straw baskets, a child's plaything, paint boxes, with
colors and brushes, etc., from three thousand to six thousand years old.
There were also found the jewels of Queen Aah-hotep, who lived 1700 B.
C., consisting of exquisite chains, diadems, ear-rings, and bracelets,
which no modern queen would hesitate to wear.
These statements are still further confirmed by the testimony of
geology. In the year 1850 borings were commenced in the mud deposit of
the Nile. The most important results were obtained from an excavation
and boring made near the base of the pedestal of the statue of Rameses
at Memphis, the middle of whose reign, according to Lepsius, was 1361 B.
C. Assuming with Mr. Horner that the lower part of the platform or
foundation was fourteen and three-fourths inches below the surface of
the ground, or alluvial flat, at the time it was laid, there had been
formed between that period and the year A. D. 1850, or during the space
of three thousand two hundred and eleven years, a deposit of nine feet
four inches round the pedestal, which gives a mean increase of three and
one-half inches in a hundred years. It was further ascertained, by
sinking a shaft near the pedestal, and by boring in the same place, that
below the level of the old plain the thickness of old Nile mud resting
on desert sand amounted to thirty-two feet; and it was therefore
inferred by Mr. Horner that the lowest layer (in which a fragment of
burned brick was found) was more than thirteen thousand years old, or
was deposited thirteen thousand four hundred and ninety-six years before
the year 1850."[96] Other excavations were made on a large scale. In the
first sixteen or twenty-four feet there were dug up jars, vases, pots, a
small human figure in burnt clay, a copper knife, and other articles
entire. When the water soaking through from the Nile hindered the
progress of the workmen, boring was resorted to, and almost everywhere,
and from all depths, even where they sank sixty feet below the surface,
pieces of burned brick and pottery were extracted.[97]
_Troy._--Troy, made immortal by the poem of Homer, has recently been
uncovered to the eye of man, and fresh lustre has been thrown over the
ancient bard. The descriptions of Troy given by Homer, thought to have
been a mere work of imagination, are now shown to be accurate, and also
that he must have been there. For the re-discovery and unearthing of
Troy the world is indebted to Dr. Schlieman. Four buried cities
superimposed one above the other were discovered. The third city, below
the surface, is ancient Troy. The house of Priam, the Scaean gate, the
massive walls and pavements, still remained. In the house of Priam Dr.
Schlieman found a great mass of human bones, among them two entire
skeletons wearing copper helmets, a silver vase, two diadems of golden
scales, a golden coronet, fifty-six golden ear-rings, eight thousand
seven hundred and fifty gold rings, buttons, etc. Immediately beside the
house of Priam, closely packed in a quadrangular space, surrounded with
ashes, and near by a copper key, were a large oval shield of copper, a
copper pot, a copper tray, a golden flagon, weighing nearly a pound,
several silver vases, a silver bowl, fourteen copper lance-heads,
fourteen copper battle-axes, two large two-edged daggers, a part of a
sword, and some smaller articles. The value, by weight alone, of all the
gold and silver found in or near the house of Priam, has been estimated
at twenty thousand dollars. During the excavations, over one hundred
thousand articles were found. Every mark showed that Troy had been
suddenly destroyed. Conflagration, ruin, the implements and the effects
of war were visible. Even the brave warriors who fell while defending
the palace of their king have not yet wholly crumbled into dust.
The four cities may be thus summed up: The topmost stratum is six and
one-half feet in depth and covers the Grecian settlement which was
established about the year 700 B. C. Beneath the Greek masonry are found
the walls of another city, built of earth and small stones, but the
abundance of wood-ashes shows that the city--or the successive
cities--was chiefly built of wood.
The ruins of Troy, next in succession, are from twenty-three and
one-half to thirty-three and one-half feet from the surface, and form a
stratum averaging ten feet in thickness. Troy is supposed to have been
founded about 1400 B. C., and its fall and destruction by fire to have
occurred about 1100 B. C.
Under Troy there is a fourth stratum of ruins, varying from thirteen to
twenty feet in depth. The most remarkable feature of these oldest ruins
is the superiority of the terracotta articles. These vases are of a
shining black, red, or brown color, with ornamental patterns, first cut
into the pottery, and then filled with a white substance. The age of
these ruins "is a matter of pure conjecture, since the vicissitudes of
the city's history--frequent destruction and rebuilding--would have the
same practical effect, or very nearly so, as a long interval of time. We
have anywhere from two to five thousand years before Christ as the date
of the foundation of the _first_ Troy."[98]
_Chaldea._--Berosus, a Chaldean priest of Belus, nearly three hundred
years before Christ, wrote in Greek a regular history of Chaldea, in
nine books. The materials for this work were supplied by the archives
then existing in the Temple of Belus at Babylon. The work was
particularly devoted to a history of the kingdom prior to the beginning
of the Assyrian empire. Fragments of this work have been preserved by
Josephus and Eusebius. After describing the cyclical ages of ten
fabulous kings, he then comes to what he considers true history, and
enumerates one hundred and sixty-three kings of Chaldea, who reigned
successively from the time when the list begins to the rise of the
Assyrian empire, about the year 1237 B. C. Berosus begins with a dynasty
of eighty-six kings, and gives their names, which are now lost. He had
no chronology of their time, but subjected it to a cyclical
calculation. His list, which has so far escaped the lapse of time and
the change of hands, is thus preserved:
First, eighty-six Chaldean kings; history and time mythical.
Second, eight Median kings; during two hundred and twenty-four years.
Third, eleven kings.
Fourth, forty-nine Chaldean kings.
Fifth, nine Arabian kings; during two hundred and forty-five years.
The rulers of the Assyrian empire were next added, as a sixth dynasty.
The blank spaces in the list are doubtless the result of careless
copying, or caused by imperfections in the manuscripts. In order to make
the old kingdom of Chaldea begin about the year 2234 B. C. the first
eighty-six kings of Berosus have been struck out as fabulous, and the
Median dynasty regarded as spurious, and this without any show of
reason, save that it does not agree with the chronology which the
mutilators of history accept.
Investigations which have been made among the ruined cities of Chaldea
have given great weight to the authority of Berosus, and are tending to
the confirmation of his history. In Susiana there was found a Cushite
inscription, mentioned by Rawlinson, in which there is a date that goes
back nearly to the year 3200 B. C. The testimony of the records
disentombed from the ruins, as well as Berosus, contradicts the
prevalent hypothesis that the Magian or Aryan race occupied the country
before the Cushites. These ruins also "confirm Berosus by showing that
Chaldea was a cultivated and flourishing nation, governed by kings, long
previous to the time when the city known to us as Babylon rose to
eminence and became the seat of empire. During that long time there were
several great political epochs in the history of the country,
representing important dynastic changes, and several transfers of the
seat of government from one city to another. Such epochs in Chaldean
history are indicated by the list of Berosus."[99]
By this people, the science of astronomy was well understood.
"Callisthenes, who accompanied Alexander to Babylon, sent to Aristotle
from that capital a series of astronomical observations which he had
found preserved there, extending back to a period of one thousand nine
hundred and three years from Alexander's conquest of the city.... These
observations were recorded in tablets of baked clay.... They must have
extended, according to Simplicius, as far back as 2234 B. C., and would
seem to have been commenced and carried on for many centuries by the
primitive Chaldean people." A lens of considerable power, used for
either magnifying or condensing the rays of the sun, was found at
Babylon, in a chamber of the ruin called Nimroud.[100]
_China._--Litse, an eminent Chinese historian, relates that there were
long periods of time when the Chinese kingdom flourished, the chronology
of which is not preserved, although there is recorded some knowledge of
the rulers. One of these rulers promoted the study of astronomy. Next
come the historical epochs. During the first, astronomy, religion, and
the art of writing were cultivated. This was a great epoch, and ruled by
fifteen successive kings. In the second epoch, agriculture and medical
science were promoted. In the third, the magnetic needle was discovered,
the written characters improved, civilized life advanced, and a great
revolt suppressed. In the fourth and fifth epochs, the descendants of
the previous ruler reigned. Next came the period of Yao and Shin. After
this the period of the "Imperial Dynasties," which began with the
Emperor Yu, who lived two thousand two hundred years B. C. The
historical work of Sse-ma-thi-an narrates events chronologically from
the year 2637 B. C. to 122 B. C.[101]
_Mexico._--It is known that books or manuscripts were abundant among
the ancient Mexicans. There were persons duly appointed to keep a
chronicle of the passing events. Las Casas, who saw the books, says they
gave the origin of the kingdom as well as the founders of the different
cities, and every different thing which transpired that was worthy of
note: such as the history of kings, their modes of election and
succession; their labors, actions, wars, memorable deeds, good or bad;
the heroes of other days, their triumphs and defeats. These chroniclers
calculated the days, months, and years. Nearly all these books were
destroyed at the instigation of the monks, and by the more ignorant and
fanatical Spanish priests. A vast collection of these old writings were
burned in one conflagration by order of Bishop Zumarraga. A few of the
works, however, escaped, but none of the great books of annals described
by Las Casas.[102] Thus Mexico must be left to the archaeologist
unassisted by written history.