Chapter XVI: Part 16

It appears that the use of fine materials was at its height under Mena and Zer. Zer has the largest and best-built tomb, Zet shows the greatest delicacy in work, and Den seems to have had the most showy objects. The changes in about five generations here were much like those in an equal time from Amenhotep I. to III. in the eighteenth dynasty. Then decay markedly set in, and there was no revival until the Pyramid kings. But some development in the use of materials went on; and Zeser, of the third dynasty, is said to have built a stone palace; while Khasekhemui, a generation earlier, had a limestone chamber for his tomb, and carved granite for the door-jambs of his temple, at about 4950 B.C. These instances are the earliest use of stone for construction that are yet known; though as early as the middle of the first dynasty King Den had a pavement of red granite in part of his tomb.

[Sidenote: Age of the Pyramid Builders]

PYRAMID BUILDING. We now approach to the well-known age of the pyramid builders, when the civilisation appears at its highest development in most respects. We shall not deal with this in detail, as it falls into the ordinary historical period which appears elsewhere in this work [see Egypt]. But it may be useful to give the most essential facts of the material civilisation, which may otherwise be lost sight of in the mass of the history.

In stonework the accuracy reached its highest point in the fourth dynasty, when the Pyramid of Khufu was constructed with an average error of less than 1 in 15,000 of length, and even less in angle. The later work fell off from this accuracy; but in the twelfth dynasty the granite sarcophagus of Senusret II. was wrought with an average error in straightness and parallelism of under seven-thousandths of an inch, and an error of proportions between different parts of less than three-hundredths of an inch. There was no attempt to reach this high degree of accuracy in the later work. In sculpture the main character of the work of the Pyramid kings is its dignity and grandeur, representing individualism on the highest plane of abstraction.

The age of the Pyramid builders may be regarded as the height of
Egyptian civilisation. The greatest accuracy in stonework was
reached during the fourth dynasty, when the Pyramid of Cheops, or
Khufu, was constructed with an average error of less than 1 in
15,000 of length, and of even less in angle. In the twelfth dynasty
the granite sarcophagus of Senusret II. was wrought with an average
error in straightness and parallelism of under seven-thousandths of
an inch.
]

[Sidenote: The Great Navy of Egypt]

Under the twelfth dynasty the personality is weaker and the style that of a formal school, highly trained but dependent upon training. In the eighteenth dynasty the vivacity of expression is directed to a purely personal appeal, more of emotion than of character. After that there is nothing but copying, good or bad. The growth of shipping at the early date of Sneferu, the end of the third dynasty, is surprising; and the record that we happen to have shows how much probably went on at other times, there being built, in one year sixty ships of 100 ft. long, in the next year two of 170 ft. long.

METALS. The use of copper is as remote as the beginning of the continuous civilisation in the prehistoric age, about 8000 B.C. It increased in quantity down to the eighteenth dynasty, and it was hardened by using arsenical copper ores, and leaving oxide in it; this, with hammering made it equal to soft steel for working purposes. Rare instances of tin, probably derived from natural mixture in the ore, are known from the third dynasty; but there was no regular use of it until we find pure tin, also known about 1500 B.C. Thence bronze was the main material until Roman times. Iron had been sporadically found in the fourth, sixth, twelfth, and other dynasties, and was known for about 4,000 years before it came into general use in Greek times. This agrees with its having been obtained from native masses rarely discovered, as has been the case in North and South America. Such native iron is the result of volcanic action on iron ore in contact with carboniferous strata. All these conditions exist in Sinai, and hence native iron might be found there. By about 800 B.C. iron was used for knives, but with a handle of bronze cast upon it to save the rarer metal. The iron tools in Egypt from the seventh to fifth century B.C. are all Assyrian or Greek, and it is not till Ptolemaic or Roman times that bronze tools disappear.

The plain strip of copper used for an adze in the early prehistoric
age became in historic times widened at the edge, and had a slight
contraction at the top; but the straight strip was kept up for
7,000 years without any attempt at a haft, simply lashed on to a
bent handle. It is not till about 800 B.C. that any use of a haft
occurs in Egypt, and then only for a hoe. The different dynasties
are indicated in the examples here given.
]

[Sidenote: Oldest Rock Drills]

The forms of tools varied very little. The plain strip of copper, which was used for an adze in the early prehistoric age, became in historic times widened at the edge, and had a slight contraction at the top to assist in binding it on; but the straight strip was kept up for 7,000 years without any attempt at a haft, simply lashed on to a bent handle. It is not till about 800 B.C., or later, that any use of a haft occurs in Egypt, and then only for a hoe; while in Babylonia axes cast with a strong haft were used before 3000 B.C. Nor was a haft used for a hammer--a smooth stone in the hand was the only beating tool; while for striking tools a wooden mallet was used, cut out of a block. The axe began as a plain rectangle of copper, sharp on one edge; projections at the back were added, until they were half as long as the breadth of the axe, but no haft was attempted. The saw was used before the pyramid period; and also the saw and tube drill set with hard stones for cutting granite. Drills for boring vases were usually blocks of stone fed with sand and water, or probably emery for cutting the harder stones. Socketted chisels were an Italian invention in the later Bronze Age, about 900 B.C., and were copied by the Greeks, in iron, about 500 B.C.; but they were never used except under Greek influence in Egypt. Shears are also Western, and were unknown till Greek times in Egypt.

This pyramid was built by King Neterkhet of the third dynasty,
about 4900 B.C.
]

The signary which was used in various early ages is here shown,
as it has been gathered from examples of over 100 signs found in
Egypt. Closely related to these are the early alphabets of Karia
and Spain, the latter alphabet containing over 30 signs. It is from
this prehistoric signary that the present Roman alphabet has been
gradually selected during past ages.
]

GLAZING AND GLASS. The very ancient art of glazing, already used in two colours under Mena, did not take any new form till the eighteenth dynasty, when it was greatly varied by new colours and new applications. Large objects, five feet high, were covered with a single fusing of glaze; minute ornaments, for stitching on garments, blazed with the brightest red, green, blue, or yellow; while whole inscriptions were executed in coloured glaze hieroglyphs, inlaid in the white stone walls. Glass, however, was not made separately until about the time of Tahutmes III., 1500 B.C. There is no earlier example of true glass, nor any representation of working glass. All the truly Egyptian glass was wrought pasty, and never blown.

Blown vases belong entirely to the Roman age and later times. The large blown glass lamps of Arab age, covered with fusible enamel designs, are highly skilled pieces of work. The uses of glass to the Egyptian were mainly for beads, for coloured inlays in wood of shrines or coffins, and for variegated glass vases. The beads were made by winding a thread of glass on a wire; the vases, likewise, were made by modelling on an infusible core, held on a mandrel, and winding coloured glass threads on the body. The inlays were often of one colour, generally deep blue imitating lazuli; but often mosaics were used, made of a bundle of glass threads fused together, drawn out, and then cut off in slices. Such are all of Greek or Roman age. An important use of glass in Roman and Arab times was for weights, and for stamps impressed on glass bottle measures, inscribed with the names of the ruler and the maker.

[Sidenote: Taste of the Times]

Lastly we may note the variations in the nature of the Egyptian literature, as reflecting the civilisation. The earliest tales are those of magical powers, belonging to the pyramid age. Next, in the Middle Kingdom, comes the contrast between town and country, and the tales of adventure in foreign lands. In the New Kingdom the contrasts of character are the main interest, and, in the late tales, the pseudo-historical romance of the great tournament of the Delta, or the antiquarian interests of a priest. These subjects of romance varied as much or more than the actual grammar and language.

This tomb was begun as a square block of masonry, and was enlarged
by successive coats, which are here seen. Then one smooth coating
of sloping blocks was put over all from bottom to top, and so the
first real pyramid appeared in 4700 B.C. The pyramid coating has
been destroyed and only the base remains under the rubbish mounds.
]

ALPHABET. One subject of great European interest should be noted here, as Egypt has thrown much light upon it. The origin of the alphabets of the Mediterranean has been disputed, without historical knowledge of the examples of such signs in early ages. The Egyptian hieratic and the archaic Babylonian signs may have, perhaps, added a few to the Mediterranean signary, but neither source can at all account for it. The alphabet is by no means a clean cut series of 22 signs; it is a very complex tangle of parallel groups of signs in different lands, more or less alike. Of these groups two of the largest are those of Karia and Spain, comprising over 30 signs, and these have many points of peculiarity in common. This is sufficient to show that the fuller alphabet is the original form, from which the shorter lists have been selected. Now, in Egypt there are found scratched on pottery and woodwork over 100 signs, and these comprise the forms of the fuller alphabet. Moreover, these Egyptian examples are found at about 1200 B.C., or only a few centuries before the Karian and Spanish alphabets, again in 3000 B.C., in 5500 B.C., and before 7000 B.C. Of 41 alphabetic signs, 19 occur in 1200-1400 B.C., 32 in 3000 B.C., 27 in 5500 B.C., and 31 in 7000 B.C. As we have not a very large amount of material, the occurrence of from 19 to 32 out of 41 signs is as much as we could expect, as all the 41 occur in one period or another. The early date of these puts all derivation from the subsequent hieroglyphics entirely out of the question. We can as yet only say that a large signary of 40 or more linear forms was in continuous use from before 7000 B.C. downwards, and that these furnish all the forms of the fuller alphabets, those of the short Phœnician and Greek list of later time.

We have now outlined the rise of civilisation in Egypt, apart from the history of the country, which is dealt with separately; and we turn to the other great valley of early civilisation, in Mesopotamia, to compare the resemblances and the differences between the two lands.

W. M. FLINDERS PETRIE

NOTABLE DATES OF ANCIENT CIVILISATION

EGYPT

B.C.

8000 Continuous civilisation of prehistoric age began S.D. 30
7000 Asiatic invasion S.D. 40
5800 Invasion of dynastic race
5500 Mena rules all Egypt S.D. 80
4700 Khufu builds Great Pyramid

4000 Invasion from north
3400 Middle Kingdom, twelfth dynasty
2500 Hyksos invasion, fifteenth dynasty
2250 Second Hyksos movement

1580 New Kingdom, eighteenth dynasty
1380 Tell el Amarna letters
701 Taharqa (Tirhakah)
570-26 Aahmes (Amasis)

BABYLONIA

B.C.

Before
6000 Susa founded

5000 Ea founds Eridu and civilises the land
4700 Earliest monuments of Kings
4500 Urnina
3800 Sargon and Naramsin, Semitic rule
3300 Gudea

2280 Elamites conquer Babylonia
2129 Hammurabi
1572 Kassite dynasty
1380 Burnaburiash
690 Sennacherib
556-38 Nabonaid, fall of Babylon

THE RISE OF CIVILISATION
IN MESOPOTAMIA

BY PROFESSOR FLINDERS PETRIE

The first impression that strikes the reader in passing from the Egyptian to the Mesopotamian civilisation is the lack of that unity and conciseness which makes history in the Nile valley so intelligible, and its problems so well defined.

[Sidenote: Disunion of Early Babylonia]

In place of the well ordered history of Manetho, with its numbered dynasties, and totals stated throughout, there is practically nothing stated before Nabunasir in 747 B.C. The mythological extracts from Berosus, and the list of Ktesias, which cannot be identified with any known facts, give no help in arranging the outlines of the history. In place of the uniform language and writing, which develops without a break during the whole history of Egypt, there is the entire break from Sumerian to Semitic. In place of the continuous importance of Egyptian capitals, there is the change from the principalities to Babylon, and thence to Nineveh. In place of the unified kingdom of the Nile valley, through the whole written history, the greater part of the documentary period is filled with rival principalities, within thirty or forty miles of each other, the tops of whose temples must have been visible over the entire territory of their respective states.

As the general scale of Egypt is so familiar to the modern reader and traveller, it will be well to compare Mesopotamia with that. Babylon was twice as far from the sea as Cairo; and from Babylon to Nineveh was the distance from Cairo to Sohag. Or in other terms, starting from the sea, Babylon was as distant as Oxyrhynchos, Nineveh in place of Thebes, and the highlands of Carchemish, Commagene, and Lake Van were the equivalent of Nubia. The old land of Shumer was just the size of the Delta, and Akkad as large as Middle Egypt. The principalities of Eridu, Lagash, Ur, Erech, and others, were as far apart as those of the Delta--Bubastis, Benha, Sais, or Sebennytos. Indeed, it seems as if this were a natural unit-size of early dominions in a fertile plain.

[Sidenote: The Nile and the Euphrates]

Though the relative age of the beginning of civilisation on the Nile and the Euphrates is yet an uncertain matter, still it is clear that the unification of Egypt long preceded that of Babylonia. The earliest date of the scattered Sumerian kings is about that of the fourth dynasty; the earliest Semitic dynasty--Sargon and Naramsin--was contemporary with the ninth dynasty, and the rise of the dynasties of Babylon is of the later Hyksos age of the sixteenth dynasty.

[Sidenote: Sea-shore Moved 47 Miles]

EUPHRATES VALLEY. The conditions of the Euphrates valley are very different from those of the Nile. On the Egyptian coast the river runs into a strong current in the Mediterranean, which sweeps away its sediment and prevents any continuous growth of the coast. But the Mesopotamian rivers reach the sea-level at the head of a deep bay, the Persian Gulf, and hence there has been a continuous formation of new land at the estuary. The Mesopotamian valley and the Persian Gulf form one long drainage valley gently sloping down to a distance about twenty miles outside Hormuz, where the valley bottom drops suddenly three miles into the floor of the Indian Ocean. The slope of this valley so far as submerged, is about 1 ft. to the mile, and it is probably even less in the Babylonian plain, where sea-shells are found as far up as Babylon. This valley has been filled, and the sea-shore pushed downward, 47 miles in 2,200 years, or 115 ft. yearly, since Spasinus Charax--now Mohammerah--was founded on the shore in the time of Alexander. The account of a sea expedition to Elam by Sennacherib is usually interpreted as showing a more rapid growth; but in the uncertainty how far he went down a channel before entering the Persian Gulf, it is not decisive.

How far back the extension of land has been going on, and whether it was continuous to above Babylon, has not yet been proved. The appearance of the map much suggests that the original drainage bed ended--_i.e._, the valley was submerged--at about the nearing of the two rivers by Sippara, and that all below this is the filling up of the estuary. Should this growth have extended uniformly back so far, it would give limits to the possible ages of cities--5000 B.C. for Eridu, 8000 B.C. for the whole plain of Shumer, 10,000 B.C. for Nippur, and earlier for the site of Babylon. This would bar the southern region from being as old as Memphis, and Eridu was probably open sea when Menes laid out his capital.

This map shows how the Plain of Babylonia has been extended down
by silting since 10,000 B.C. The dotted lines, marked 330 B.C. and
1830 A.D., show the known positions of the coast, as it shifted
by silting up. These give an approximate scale of dating for the
coast-line of earlier ages, which is marked here at each thousand
years.
]

RANGE OF CIVILISATION. In looking for the earliest movements of people that we can trace, it seems that the Semites must have extended from Northern Arabia into Upper Mesopotamia and Assyria. In short, Semitica stretched up to the mountain ranges of Armenia and Media. But the culture was barbaric, and probably they were nomads who had no fixed centres of life or stable organisation which could resist any united movement. At this period the Persian Gulf probably extended as far as Babylon. On their eastern flank were the mountain tribes, in what is known as Parthia and Media, south of the Caspian. How remote is the beginning of civilisation in this region has been found in the last few years. On the north-east extremity of Parthia, in the far end of Hyrcania, stands a group of mounds, near the modern Askabad, not far from the celebrated Turkoman stronghold of Geok Tepe. Here are 14 ft. of town ruins with iron, 15 ft. with copper and lead, about 70 ft. of ruins with wheel-made pottery and domesticated animals, and 45 ft. of remains with only rude hand-made pottery. What ages these represent we cannot judge until the full account by Prof. Pumpelly is issued. But in any case a very long period is involved. If the accumulation is at the rate found in Palestine, 4½ ft. per century, the periods would be perhaps 1,500 years for the wheel pottery, and 1,000 years for the rough pottery, before the beginning of the age of copper.

At the other side of these countries stands the great mound of Susa, with over 80 ft. of ruins. The inscriptions show that about 26 ft. of the height was accumulated between about 4500 and 500 B.C., or in about 4,000 years. Yet before that there is a depth of about 50 ft. comprising three periods. In the upper of these is elementary cuneiform writing on tablets. Below that is a period of rather rough, thick pottery, painted with chequer patterns and closely-crossed lines, of the style common in early Syria and Cyprus. And at the bottom of all is a great quantity of very fine, thin wheel-made pottery of buff tints, with decoration of thin diagonal lines, rows of ostriches, and various patterns all derived from basket-work.

[Sidenote: Measuring the Depths of Time]

If the scale of accumulation of the historic times were to apply here, it would reach back to 12,000 B.C.; but if the far quicker scale found in Palestine applied, it would hardly reach 6000 B.C. In any case we have here evidence of a civilisation apparently much earlier than that of Babylonia, and none of this earliest fine pottery has been found in the great plains. The highland civilisation may have begun as early, or earlier, than that of Egypt; but that of Babylonia started probably later than the North African culture on the Nile. Seeing, then, that there was a very early civilisation at Susa on the west of Media, and that further east on the limits of Parthia we meet another early centre, it is not surprising that the inhabitants of these regions united to spread down into the fertile plain which was created by the growing delta of Mesopotamia. These people belonged neither to the Semite of Arabia nor to the Aryan of Persia and India, but used an agglutinative language of entirely different structure from these others, and most akin to Turkish or Finnish. Having descended from their mountain homes, the people were known as Akkadu, probably meaning “highlanders,” though there are other open derivations. And hence the northern part of the Babylonian plain, next to the Semitic Assyrians, was the land of Akkad; while the southern part, next to the sea, was known by the native Babylonian name of Sumer, or Shumer.

[Sidenote: China’s Links with Babylon]

SUMERIANS. The civilisation of the Sumerians was more akin to that of the Chinese than to western types, especially in its art, its picture writing and devotion to literature, its capacity for town life, and its religious ideas. The cognate origins of the people may well account for this, and some more precise resemblances led Terrien de Lacouperie to the view that Chinese civilisation was an offshoot from the Sumerian stock in its old Parthian home.

The elements of life were well developed by the Sumerians. They were great agriculturists, and wrote works on the main industry of man, much as the Carthaginians wrote standard works prized later by the Romans. They fermented the grape and corn, and had alcoholic drinks. Cattle of all kinds were raised, and prized as stock, which was fed on grass or grain or oilcake. The horse is mentioned first in Semitic times, Abut 2000 B.C. Dates and figs were the principal fruits grown; and, indeed, the date palm seems to have had a far more important place in the civilisation than it did in that of Egypt. Both wool and leather were used for clothing, as might be expected.

[Sidenote: Materials for the Great Buildings]

BUILDING. The main structural industry of the country was that of brickmaking and building. Immense piles of brickwork were made to support the temples, marking clearly the custom of the highlander Akkadi worshipping on the hilltops. The brick _ziggurat_, or five-stepped pyramid, at Nippur was 190 ft. by 128 ft., and about a hundred feet high. The earliest baked bricks are 8·7 in. by 5·6 in. by 2·2 in., and they were enlarged to 12 in. by 7·8 in. by 1·9 in. within the Sumerian age. Toward the close of that time large square bricks were used. Sargon made baked bricks 18 in. square and 3½ in. thick. From the time of Ur-Engur (3200 B.C.) onward the baked bricks were 11 in. or 12 in. square. Beside the baked brick used for pavements, drains, facings, and important work, the great bulk was made up of crude brick as in Egypt. For important purposes, such as store-rooms, the inside of chambers was lined with a coat of bitumen, rendering them damp-proof; and such a lining was used on tanks. Pottery is abundant in all ages, but we still need a study of the pottery such as has been made in Egypt, so that it can be used to date excavations in general. Stands for jars, framed of wood, were used as in Egypt; and also the clay sealings were of the same type in both lands. Stone vases were made to imitate pottery; and this suggests that the highlanders were only using basket-work when they descended into the plain, and therefore did not possess any types of stonework.

There is a fine study of weapons on a carving of Eannatum (4400
B.C.), where spears about 7 ft. long, with blade heads, are
figured. Shields are shown reaching from the neck to the ankles,
straight-sided, used edge to edge as a shield wall by a phalanx of
soldiers. The heads of the men are covered by well-formed peaked
helmets reaching down to the nape of the neck, with nose pieces.
]

TOOLS AND WEAPONS. The common tools were used, such as knives and drills; and great skill was developed in seal engraving upon hard stone cylinders. Of weapons there is a fine study on a carving of Eannatum (4400 B.C.), where spears of about 7 ft. long, with blade heads, are shown; also shields reaching from the neck to the ankles, straight-sided, and used edge to edge as a shield wall by a phalanx of soldiers; while the heads are covered by well-formed peaked helmets, with nose pieces, and reaching down to the nape of the neck. Bows and arrows and daggers were also used; and stone mace-heads, of the pear shape used in Egypt, were important ceremonially, and often bear inscriptions. Woodwork was elaborated with carving, and used for bed-steads and stools, as seen in the seats of the gods figured on seals and tablets.

CLOTHING. Clothing varied a good deal. A primitive custom of nudity when offering to the gods was continued down to the close of the Sumerian age, as shown on the tablet of Ur-en-lil. The kilt was worn with a fringe, not reaching the knee; or it was worn from the waist to the ankles, as by shepherds. A robe over the left shoulder reaching to the knee was used with a deep fringe all down the front edge and round the bottom. A long robe reaching to the ankles is shown on the figures of Gudea. But the most characteristic dress was that of ribbed woollen stuff, much like that of the fifth century B.C. in Greece, as on the Running Maiden. This stuff was worn as a flounced petticoat (Urnina 4500 B.C.), or in a longer form over the left shoulder and down to the ankles, as by Eannatum and Naram-Sin. A splendid flounced cape and long robe of this stuff is shown as worn by Ishtar on the Anubanini rock stele, about 3600 B.C.

SCIENCE AND ART. The system of number, weight, and measure was peculiarly Babylonian. Some people have theorised about all later standards having been derived in various intricate ways from those of Babylon. But it is very unlikely that standards should not arise in different centres, and still more unlikely that the complex derivations should be formed when the whole object would be to maintain a system in common.

[Sidenote: Science in Sumeria]

But there is no question of the great advance of the Sumerian in these matters. The sexagesimal system, which is far more convenient for many purposes than the decimal, and which we still retain for time and for angle, was due to the Sumerian intellect, while the standards of weight, the talent, maneh, and shekel, were also from the same source. And we cannot doubt that the cubit was already in use by a people living in cities and carrying on business.

The style of art was clumsy, owing to the habit of crowding together as much as possible into the space, in order to form the record. The human forms are thick and short, and detail is firmly and perseveringly repeated. It entirely lacks, in its early stages, the spontaneous truth of the early dynastic work in Egypt. At the close of the Sumerian age, under Naramsin, there is a fine bold design in groups of figures, well proportioned, and with good action, recalling curiously the spirit of late Greek work from Praxiteles to the Pergamene warriors. The stages of change cannot yet be distinguished, owing to the scarcity of the dated examples that we have.

[Sidenote: Loss of History]

LITERATURE AND WRITINGS. It is in literature that we know the Sumerian best. Unhappily, other branches of archæology have been neglected, and even destroyed, in the eager search for tablets, and yet more tablets. By the thousand they are found, and hurriedly removed, while the architecture, crafts, and art-history are thrown aside in the process. The hunter for tablets in Babylonia, and for papyrus in Egypt, is a heartless wrecker, without any interests beyond his own line. When so much has been sacrificed for the written record, we must glean all we can from it for the history of the civilisation, as most of the other material that might have been preserved has been sacrificed. The Sumerian language was the sole language of civilisation, until, at about 4000 B.C., the Semite began to conquer and to take part in the advance of the world. Yet the older tongue was by no means extinguished; it held its place as the official religious and literary language, like Latin in Europe. The literature of the world was in Sumerian, and only gradually did the new Semite intruders translate the older works or rise to writing a literature of their own.

The Sumerian literature was for long accompanied by a Semitic translation, like Latin and Saxon gospels; and syllabaries, vocabularies, and grammatical lists were written to teach the Semite the old religious language. Legal documents were drawn up in Sumerian, and it only gradually lost its precedence from 4000 B.C. down to 1600 B.C., when it was almost extinct, being only revived as a literary curiosity in the seventh century B.C.

[Sidenote: How the Semite Made His Notes]

The writing was a pictorial system like the Egyptian hieroglyphics. And so long as the Sumerian used it he clung to the pictorial origin even though obscured by the lineal style of drawing. On papyrus or parchment it is easy to make curved forms, and such were adopted in drawing the signs originally. But on clay, which was the all-available material in the Babylonian plain, impressing lines is far neater than scratching them up; and the handy tool for making impressions was a slip of wood with a square end. Hence all the curves tended to become four or five-sided outlines, and all the detail became built up of little lines tapering off to one end, or “digs” with the corner of the stylus. Yet down to the close of the Sumerian age the forms of the objects can still be discerned, and they are still pictures rather than mere immaterial symbols.

Mansell

THE FINEST EARLY BABYLONIAN ART: TRIUMPH OF KING NARAMSIN, 3750 B.C.

This work, found in Susa, is curiously free and pictorial; it is
unrivalled by any early carvings, and most resembles the action and
spirit of late Greek sculpture. It marks the great period of the
fusion of the Sumerian and Semite.
]

The Semite, however, changed all this. He learned merely the sound values of certain forms, their meaning could not appeal to him, and he built up his words out of these sounds or syllables. He found it inconvenient to write in vertical columns, which was the constant Sumerian habit, and turned his tablet sideways to his hand, so as to make his signs along a horizontal line of writing. Hence these signs became familiar to him on their sides, and as they had to him no pictorial values, the position was indifferent. Lastly, he produced a syllabary of signs written with combinations of four forms of impress, a long line wider at one end, a short line, a tall triangle, and a small equilateral triangle, written in horizontal lines; and each sign was standing on what had originally been its side. The wedge-shaped form of these lines has given rise to the name of wedge-writing, or cuneiform writing for this system.

[Sidenote: The Story of a Language]

The knowledge of this writing survived Greek influence for some four centuries after Alexander, only becoming extinct at the close of the first century of our era. In its long history, double that of the Roman alphabet at present, it had been used for very diverse languages. The Sumerian inventor had handed it on to the Semitic intruder, and he had passed it to the Syrian, the Mitannian, the Hittite, and the Vannic peoples. Probably it had kept its hold in its first home in Elam, where it is found in historic times, and thence it became the writing of Persia, and even of the Parthian, before it became extinct. The variety of languages and the extent of country which it covered is much like the scope of the Roman alphabet in Europe to-day.

LAW AND RELIGION. In matters of law the Sumerian was well advanced. The needs of city life which he had developed necessarily required a full definition of rights and duties. The first law book was that of Ea, the god of civilisation, the Oannes of the later legends of Berosus. The decisions of judges were kept in abstract, and such case-made law served as a body of precedent to guide decisions. The position of women was on a level with that of men; in the Sumerian hymns the woman takes precedence, and one of the great Sumerian divinities was Ishhtar, who became Ashtaroth of Syria, Athtar of Arabia, and hence Hathor of Egypt. In the Semitic system the goddess is but a feeble companion of a god; but Ishtar was the great divinity of war, to whom the kings owed their triumphs, as well as the queen of love, who ruled the course of nature.

_VASES_

_FORK_ _COMB_ _HARP_ _BOW AND ARROW_ _ARROWS_

_STONE_
_CLAY_
_EARLY_
_FISH_ _BIRD_ _AXE_ _VASE_ _LATE_

_EARLY_
_FISH_ _MAN_ _MONTH_ _REED_ _LATE_

THE DECAY OF PICTURE-WRITING

This illustrates the decay of pictures into signs, and shows very
clearly how the cuneiform writing was developed from the earlier
hieroglyphics. It will be noticed that the word originally rendered
by a crude drawing of the object--“fish,” for example--retains even
in its final cuneiform style some resemblance to the tail of a
fish. The cuneiform lettering was necessary to the Babylonians, as
clay was the most abundant material in their land and could best be
marked upon in lines without curves.
]

The religion of the Sumerians was like that of other Turanian races. These peoples have an aversion to the idea of a personal god, to which the Semitic peoples cling. The Samoyede believes in a multitude of local spirits, the Chinese have their impersonal Heaven and the host of gnomes or earth spirits. Thus also the Sumerian thought of all objects as having a _zi_ or spirit, good or evil, which needed to be appeased by the weak or commanded by the sorcery of the strong. Shamanism was the type of religion; and books of exorcisms and magic spells were in permanent use. The importance of the principalities naturally led to their local spirits being of general importance; and hence the political changes brought Sin the moon god of Ur, or Utuki the sun god of Sippar and Larsa, or Marduk of Babylon, into a leading position, and led toward the Semitic type of deities. How far this change was due to the beginning of Semitic influence we cannot now say. Other native gods were less personal, such as Ana the sky, Enlila the earth, and Ea the sea.

The fact that the shaven type of face appears in all the monuments
back to 4500 B.C. indicates that the Sumerians were shaven as they
were the older of the two main races in Babylonia.
]

Men with full beards are not represented on Babylonian monuments
until 3750 B.C.; hence it is clear that such figures represented
people of the Semitic type. This portrait is from a sculpture of
King Hammurabi.
]

TYPES OF RACES. The physical type of the people is shown to us by the early monuments, though we hardly yet know enough of the early history to understand them fully. Two main types stand out entirely apart, the shaven and the full-haired. And when it is seen that the shaven type is that of all the earliest human figures, dating from 4500 B.C. and extending down to even 2100 B.C., while the full-haired type is not found on men before 3750 B.C., it is clear that the shaven is the Sumerian and the bearded is the Semitic type. The remarkable point is that the gods are represented with long hair tressed up and long beards from 4400 B.C.; and as early as we can go back there is never a figure of a beardless god. The reason probably is that personal gods were of Semitic origin, their worship was borrowed, and hence their forms. If so, we must see a large Semitic influence already acting on the earliest known Sumerian art. The variations of type may perhaps lead to some further distinctions. The full, curly, square-ended beard and long hair are usual for the gods, as seen under Eannatum (4400), Urenlil (4000), Gudea (3300), and Hammurabi (2100). The same beard, but with the hair done up into a disc (as on the Tello heads and Hammurabi), is worn by the King Anubanini (3600). The long and rather pointed beard is seen on Naramsin (3750), and Hammurabi (2100). The short, square beard is seen on the god, under Eannatum (4400), and on men about Naramsin’s age [see the seal of Ubilishtar]. The shaven type has a wide face, with a large prominent aquiline nose, best seen in the head from Tello. This type is that of all the human figures on the scenes of Urnina (4500), Eannatum (4400), and Urenlil (4000); and in the figures of the Scribe Kalhi (cylinder, 3750), Gudea (stele, 3300), the heads of the same age from Tello, and the later head of beautiful work at Berlin. The general conclusions may be that the beard was worn and admired by Semites, who elaborated a very full type for the gods; and that the Semitic influx, though ruling under Naramsin at Sippara, north of Babylon, was yet subordinate at the later date of Gudea, in the Sumerian south.

Although the full-haired faces are later in appearing on the
monuments of Babylonia, all figures of gods are shown as possessed
of full beards and a wealth of hair. A familiar example is here
reproduced. It is supposed that the Semitic race in Assyria was the
first to personalise the deities, and hence the resemblance of the
images to the features of the Semites.
]

SEMITIC AGE. We now turn to the later stage of the civilisation, as it flourished under the mixed race of Sumerians and Semites, partaking of the culture of the older race and the higher moral tone of the less advanced people. The Sumerians, as we have noted, had pushed down from the Median highlands into the growing plain of Babylonia, while the earlier Semites remained to the north in Assyria, and to the west in Naharaina and Syria. Sooner or later a fusion was inevitable; as we have seen already, the gods were of a Semitic type at a very early time, and gradually the union took place during three thousand years, until in the later times the product was unified in one strong civilisation which spread its strength far and wide to the Crimea, to Egypt, and to the deserts of Central Asia.

BUILDING. The old skill and abilities found a wide scope in this larger frame of life. The fundamental craft of brickwork was carried on to a vast extent. Every city had its great pile of an artificial hill of bricks, built in stages to support the temple of its god high above all. Immense walls surrounded the cities; those of Babylon were some nine miles around, and are stated to have been 85 ft. high and 340 ft. thick, surrounded by a moat lined with burnt brick laid in bitumen. Not only was brickwork used on this great scale in the Babylonian plain where stone was a luxury, but the force of example was so strong that the Assyrian, in his highland home, kept up the same scale of brickbuilding as his teachers, and used brick for his palaces and temples when stone would have been much more easily available.

In Babylonia, as in Egypt, the supply of material for brickmaking on a large scale is a serious question. For the great walls of cities, obviously a surrounding ditch was an advantage; but for the materials of houses, temples, and ziggurats, great pits had to be dug, or older buildings pulled down. At Nippur it was found that the later builders had torn down a long piece of the disused city wall and dug out a great pit below and around it. So in Egypt the outskirts of every village has its perilous hole where the bricks are made, which, in course of time, becomes a stagnant pond, and every ancient temple, with its fortifying wall, was built out of a large pit at its side which became the sacred lake of the temple.

This restoration of the Temple of Bel at Nippur, from the designs
of Hilprecht and Fisher, gives a good idea of the massive character
of Assyrian architecture. The portion marked (1) consists of a
stage tower with a shrine at top and a long stairway leading
thereto; (2) is the temple proper; (3) house for “honey, cream and
wine”; (4) “place for the delight of Bur-sin”; (5) is the inner
wall and (6) the massive outer walls.
]

A higher branch of building was the use of glazed bricks. In Egypt the use of glazed tiles for coating walls was boldly carried out in the earliest dynasties, before 5000 B.C.; but there was no glazing of the bricks, because in so dry a climate the Egyptian was never induced to burn his bricks. In the wet and damp of Babylonia, on the contrary, burnt bricks were usual, and all the facings and main divisions of structure were in the indissoluble material, which held together and protected the mass of crude brickwork within it. It was, however, mainly, or only, in the later times--from the ninth century onwards--that bricks glazed on the outer face were used for building. It seems that this was done not so much for utility--like our modern use of glazed bricks--as for the artistic effect of colours and designs. The grandest example of such work that is known is the façade of coloured glazed brick in relief, representing the royal archers, from Susa of the Persian age, now in Paris, restored from the fragments.

Beside baked brick, pottery was used on a large scale. Great jars occur in the earliest times, and cylindrical drains of large size, sufficiently wide for a man to descend in them for repair. In later times coffins of baked pottery of the Parthian age, and glazed coffins of slipper shape, dating from the Sassanian period, are very common on most of the city ruins. Unfortunately, sufficient attention has not yet been given to the pottery of any age.

This illustrates the richness of the decoration on the breast of an
Assyrian king, whose complete attire is seen in the other picture
on this page.
]

Wood was largely used in the more wealthy ages, but it was always valuable, as large timber had to be brought from a distance. The great halls of the palaces were all roofed with timber beams, and panels of cedar lined the walls where stone was not used. Probably palm trunks and palm leaves served for ordinary roofing, as in Egypt at present.

CLOTHING. Clothing became far more elaborate than in earlier ages, and the dominance of the more northern people brought a fuller dress into customary use. The Assyrian covered the whole body with a tunic down to the knees, and the upper classes wore a robe to the feet. Rich embroideries were usual among both Babylonians and Assyrians, and the splendour of Babylonian garments was spread far in other lands by trade. The cap was either cylindrical or conical, and the royal head-dress in Assyria was practically the modern tarbush, which has again been imposed on the East by the Turk. Sandals were used in Assyria, and the boot so characteristic of the Hittite was also brought in from the cold mountainous country. Women wore a long, thin robe to the feet, covered sometimes by a tunic and a cape. But Ishtar is always shown in a ribbed dress flounced from top to bottom. This is the regular women’s dress of the western Semites; and its use, like that of the beard for the male deities, points to the strong Semitic influence on the appearance and character of the divinities.

Rich embroideries were usual among Babylonians and Assyrians, and
the splendour of Babylonian garments was spread far in other lands
by trade. The royal head-dress in Assyria was practically the
modern tarbush, which has again been imposed on the East by the
Turk.
]

The armour of the Assyrian was much the same as that in the early Sumerian days. The pointed helmet became rather taller, and did not cover the back of the head. The spear, and the bow and arrow, were the main weapons as before. The old straight-sided shield was also used in Assyrian times, but was partly superseded by the round shield considerably coned. The extension of the kingdom brought in various auxiliaries, who differed from the older Babylonians. Slingers, northern horsemen clad in leather, and mountaineers with woodman’s axes, all added new branches to the army.

[Sidenote: Sculpture 5,000 Years Ago]

ART. The arts were carried to great perfection by the mixed population. Broadly speaking, the best work is that of the early age of Naramsin (3750 B.C.), and that of the late age of Ashur-bani-pal (640 B.C.). Though not so fine, yet probably the Hammurabi sculptures are the highest between the early and late schools. This would give intervals of 1,650 and 1,460 years between the successive waves of art, and about 1,450 years more to the glories of Baghdad, a period much like that found on the Mediterranean, though not coincident with it.

The finest work of Naramsin (3750 B.C.) is his great stele from Susa, now in Paris. It is remarkably pictorial in style, agreeing in this with the pieces of a limestone stele representing rows of combatants from Tello, also in Paris. The figure of the king is lithe, active, romantic in attitude, the enemies and his soldiers are full of animation. No Oriental sculpture has had quite the same life in it; and it recalls the pictorial style of Crete and the later Greek sculpture. The art of Gudea (3300 B.C.) is more cold and formal, and has not the same fine sense of proportion; it is distinctly a period of survival and not of artistic instinct, as seen, for instance, on the limestone relief in Berlin. The age of Hammurabi (2100 B.C.) shows careful portraiture, but not the spirit of the earlier age; the work is well finished, and there was no hesitation in handling materials boldly, as on the great black stele of the laws, now in Paris. There was a fine sympathetic treatment in private sculpture, as shown in the beautiful limestone head of a Sumerian in Berlin [see page 266].

[Sidenote: Fine Later Art]

The last great age was that of the Assyrian Empire. Under Ashur-nazir-pal (885) the work is fine and severe, but without much expression. Shalmaneser III. (860) troubled more about history than about art, and his principal remains are the long records of the black obelisk and the Balawat gates, which are but clumsy in the forms. Under Sennacherib (705) there is a breadth of composition, as in the siege of Lachish, which is worthily aided by a more pictorial style, while under Ashur-bani-pal (668-626) the art reaches both grace and vigour, as in the splendid natural scenes of the wild-ass hunt, in the lion hunt, and in the garden feast with the queen.

This shows the Babylonian art at 3300 B.C., inferior to the earlier
style of Naramsin. The original is in Berlin Museum.
]

MECHANICS. The mechanical arts were also greatly developed. The large size of the buildings, the great quantities of stone transported for the sculptures, and the immense size of many blocks--the bulls weigh nearly 50 tons each--all show that there was not only considerable skill, but also large ideals and directive ability. Layard found that three hundred men were wanted for drawing his cart bearing the great bull; and the sledge used by the Assyrians for the transport must have needed as many, or more. Long levers are represented as having been used in a very effective manner; but the placing of such great blocks exactly in the right position required far more ability than the mere transport. The forms of tools were much in advance of those used by the Egyptians. As far back as Naramsin, the copper axes were all well hafted, generally with rings raised round the edges of the haft hole to strengthen the band and prevent it splitting.

Under Ashur-bani-pal (668-636 B.C.) Assyrian art reached both grace
and vigour, as is manifest in the splendid natural scene of the
wild-ass hunt, which is here reproduced from the original in the
British Museum.
]

[Sidenote: Modern Tools of Ancient Workers]

The forms of the iron tools are also excellent; and iron seems to have been common in Assyria at an earlier date than in any other country, probably from the tenth or twelfth century B.C. Certainly the set of Assyrian tools left at Thebes by an armourer of Esarhaddon in 670 B.C., show that the principles, and even the exact forms, of modern tools had already been reached. The chisels and rasp have not been improved since; the saw is the same as the modern Oriental pull-saw, but the teeth have not an alternate set; the centre-bits and files anticipate our forms, but have not reached the complete stage. The material of most of the edge tools is steel, showing that the hardening was then understood. The cutting of seals in hard stones was an early art, but it was well maintained, and some of the most beautiful specimens are the chalcedony cylinders such as that of Sennacherib in London. The engraving of the inscriptions also shows that cutting in hard stones was freely done on a great scale; but the writing, being entirely in straight lines, was much easier to engrave than the figures of natural objects of the Egyptian signs. Probably emery powder or copper was the means used, as in Egypt.

[Sidenote: The Books of Babylonia]

The use of an official stamp of guarantee on uniform pieces of silver was adopted by the time of Nebuchadnezzar, but as this is two centuries later than Greek coinage it was probably copied from that. In one respect the Mesopotamian never equalled the Egyptian. The Memphite school of work had attained to a mechanical accuracy which we can scarcely gauge; their errors on large pieces of work were only a matter of thousandths of an inch. But the Mesopotamian never did a piece of passably square or regular stonework; the inequalities and skew angles are glaring, even in highly elaborated works of art. The sense of accuracy was quite untrained, and neither Semite nor Sumerian show any ability in this line. Egypt, on the contrary, started with a prehistoric race which excelled in exquisitely true handwork and dexterous flint flaking, and with the artistic sense of the dynastic people added, the combination was one of the highest that the world has seen.

LITERATURE. To give any adequate idea of the literature of Babylonia is far beyond our scope, and only the main classes of it can be named in this outline. These were:

1. Theology and Omens. 2. History. 3. Despatches and
Correspondence. 4. Language and Translation. 5. Mathematics. 6.
Astronomy. 7. Geography and Natural History. 8. Medicine.

The large size of the buildings of Assyria, the great quantities
of stone transported for the sculptures, and the immense size of
many blocks--the bulls weighing nearly 50 tons each--all show
that there was not only considerable skill, but also large ideals
and directive ability. Layard found that 300 men were wanted for
drawing his cart bearing the great bull; and the sledge used by the
Assyrians for the transport must have needed as many or more. The
tools used were much in advance of those of the Egyptians.
]