Babylonia and Assyria

BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA. Geographically as well as ethnologically and historically, the whole district enclosed be tween the two great rivers of western Asia, the Tigris and Eu phrates, forms but one country, a fact recognized by the earliest authorities. It naturally falls into two divisions, the northern be ing more or less mountainous, while the southern is flat and marshy. In the earliest times of which we have any record, the northern portion was included in Mesopotamia (q.v.) ; it was definitely marked off as Assyria only after the rise of the Assyrian monarchy. With the exception of Assur, the original capital, the chief cities of the country, Nineveh, Calah and Arbela, were all on the left bank of the Tigris. The great Mesopotamian plain, the modern El-Jezireh, is about 25o miles in length, interrupted only by a single limestone range, rising abruptly out of the plain, and branching off from the Zagros mountains under the names of Sarazur, Hamrin and Sin jar. The numerous remains of old habitations show how thickly this level tract must once have been peopled. North of the plateau rises a well-watered and undulating belt of country, into which run low ranges of lime stone hills, sometimes arid, sometimes covered with dwarf-oak, and often shutting in, between their northern and north-eastern flank and the main mountain-line from which they detach them selves, rich plains and fertile valleys. Behind them tower the massive ridges of the Niphates and Zagros ranges, where the Tigris and Euphrates take their rise, and which cut off Assyria from Armenia and Kurdistan.

The name Assyria itself was derived from that of the city of Assur (q.v.) or Asur, now Qal`at Sherqat (Kaleh Shergat), which stood on the right bank of the Tigris, midway between the Greater and the Lesser Zab.

In contrast with the arid plateau of Mesopotamia, stretched the rich alluvial plain of Chaldaea, formed by the deposits of the two great rivers by which it was enclosed. The soil was extremely fertile, and teemed with an industrious population. Eastward rose the mountains of Elam, southward were the sea-marshes and the Kalda or Chaldaeans and other Aramaic tribes, while on the west the civilization of Babylonia encroached beyond the banks of the Euphrates, upon the territory of the Semitic nomads (or Suti). Here stood Ur (Muglaeir, more correctly Muqayyar) the earliest capital of the country; and Babylon, with its suburb, Borsippa (airs Nimrod), as well as the two Sipparas (the Sepharvaim of Scripture, now Abu Habba), occupied both the Arabian and Chaldaean sides of the river (see BABYLON). The Arakhtu, or "river of Babylon," flowed past the southern side of the city, and to the south-west of it on the Arabian bank lay the great inland freshwater sea of Nejef, surrounded by red sandstone cliffs of considerable height, 4o m. in length and 35 in breadth in the widest part.

The primitive seaport of the country, Eridu, the seat of the worship of Ea the culture-god, was a little south of Ur (at Abu Slialirain or Nowawis on the west side of the Euphrates). It is now about 13o m. distant from the sea; as about 46 m. of land have been formed by the silting up of the shore since the founda tion of Spasinus Charax (Muhamrah) in the time of Alexander the Great, or some 115 f t. a year, the city would have been in existence at least 6,000 years ago.

The alluvial plain of Babylonia was called Edin, the Eden of Gen. ii., though the name was properly restricted to "the plain" on the western bank of the river where the Bedouins pastured the flocks of their Babylonian masters. A more comprehensive name of southern Babylonia was Kengi, "the land," or Kengi Sumer, "the land of Sumer," for which Sumer alone came after wards to be used. Sumer has been supposed to be the original of the Biblical Shinar; but Shinar represented northern rather than southern Babylonia, and was probably the Sankhar of the Tell el-Amarna tablets. Opposed to Kengi and Sumer were Urra (Uri) and Akkad or northern Babylonia.

The country was thickly studded with towns, the sites of which are still represented by mounds, though the identification of most of them is still doubtful. The latest to be identified are Bismya, between Nippur and Erech, which American excavations have proved to be the site of Udab (also called Adab and Usab) and the neighbouring Fara, the site of the ancient Kisurra. The dense population was due to the elaborate irrigation of the Babylonian plain which had originally reclaimed it from a pestiferous and uninhabitable swamp and had made it the most fertile country in the world. The science of irrigation and en gineering seems to have been first created in Babylonia, which was covered by a network of canals, all skilfully planned and regulated. The three chief of them carried off the waters of the Euphrates to the Tigris above Babylon—the Zabzallat canal (or Nahr Sarsar) gunning from Faluja to Ctesiphon, the Kutha canal from Sippara to Madain, passing Tell Ibrahim or Kutha on the way, and the King's canal or Ar-Malcha between the other two. Thanks to this system of irrigation the cultivation of the soil was highly advanced in Babylonia. According to Herodotus (i. 193) wheat commonly returned two hundred-fold to the sower, and occasionally three hundred-fold. Pliny (H. N. xviii. 17) states that it was cut twice, and afterwards was good keep for sheep, and Berossus remarked that wheat, sesame, barley, ochrys, palms, apples and many kinds of shelled fruit grew wild, as wheat does in the neighbourhood of Anah. (A. H. S., A. N. J. W.) In the history of the civilization of Babylonia there are broad archaeological differences between the following periods (1) the prehistoric age, a period without written historical records, before 3 500 B.C. ; (2) the early Sumerian period, from before 300o B.C. to about 2500 B.C., of which there is a continuous tradition, occa sionally verified and corrected by historical documents; (3) the Agade period, about 2 500 B.C. to 2400 B.C. ; (4) the dynasty of Gutium and the 3rd dynasty of Ur, about 2400-2150 B.C.; (5 ) from the dynasties of Isin and Larsa to the end of the 1st dynasty of Babylon, about 2150-1740 B.C. ; (6) the Kassite dynasty from about 1740-1150 B.C.; (7) the period of Assyrian domination and the new Babylonian empire, lasting down to the capture of Baby lon of Cyrus in 539 B.C.; (8) the Achaemenian period, down to the victory of Alexander over Darius Codomannus; (9) the Seleucid age, merging into the Parthian.

No flint weapons or other remains of a palaeolithic or true neo lithic culture have been found in Babylonia or Assyria, and it is doubtful whether the river valleys were ever inhabited by men unacquainted with the use of metal. The earliest settlements are marked by the use of painted pottery with elaborate geometric designs and of flint weapons of the kind called "chalcolithic," showing the difference of metal types. Painted hand-made pottery has been found in a connection that proves it to be earlier than the historic 1st dynasty of Ur by a not inconsiderable interval at Tall al 'Ubaid, near the city of Ur. At Susa there have been found two distinct classes of this pottery, the one of fine clay, porous and therefore unsuitable for domestic use, in a restricted number of shapes, and always confined to graves, with a decoration that marks the end of a long development ; the other is thick, in ordi nary use, and markedly different in decoration. Three views are held as to the Susa pottery, (1) that the second style developed out of the first, (2) that there was a gap between them, and that the second marks the advent of a different race, (3) that the two styles were at least in part contemporary, and that their difference depends upon the object in view. On other sites, at Bender Bushire, Jamdat Nasr (near Kish), Samarra, Nineveh, Qal'at Shirqat, painted pottery has been found belonging to an early period, but it cannot be proved that it is in all cases con temporary. The differences to be noted may, however, be due to local differences. In general it may be said that everywhere in these two countries a painted pottery age preceded the advent of a Sumerian civilization of the second period.

Painted pottery did not go out of use suddenly in Babylonia ; the last stages are marked by a decrease in the amount of decora tion, and it is then found together with a pottery occasionally plain, sometimes decorated with incised patterns. In this last period writing was already known, since tablets have been found with such pottery; the system of numeration used on these tab lets is not the sexagesimal, which was characteristic of the Sumer ians, though the writing seems closely related with Sumerian.

Besides pottery and flints there are some very roughly made figurines of human beings and animals from the painted pottery period; some jars with handles given the resemblance of human faces, found at Susa and Jamdat Nasr, seem to belong to the end of the period, when plain pottery was more generally used.

The analogy of this painted pottery of Babylonia and Assyria to the early painted wares of Persia, Beluchistan, the Indus valley and even of China has been discussed but no conclusions are as yet agreed upon. The common use of obsidian points to close con nections with Armenia. Sumerian traditions of a time before the Flood may perhaps refer to this civilization. Variant lists of ten kings were given and assigned to the towns of Eridu, Bad-tibira, Larak, Sippar and Shuruppak, while Larsa is included in one list ; the tradition was already well known by 2200 B.C., and is repeated with some differences partly due to textual corruptions, by Bero sus, about 30o B.C. Berosus also related stories about certain creatures which had the bodies and heads of fishes, with human forms below ; these seem to correspond to "the seven wise ones" who, according to Babylonian mythology, instructed man in the use of herbs and in prophylactic measures against disease.

Bas-reliefs.—According to the dynastic lists of Sumerian kings, the 1st dynasty after the Flood ruled at Kish, and from excava tions there some early works of art have been recovered. Frag ments of frieze, consisting of white limestone bas-reliefs on a background of slate, show a king slaughtering his enemies, and men engaged in tending cattle and dairy work. These reliefs appear to be earlier than the series found at Tall al'Ubaid, 4m. W. of Ur, which are certainly dated to the time of the 1st dynasty of Ur, the 3rd dynasty after the Flood ; but the series from there, consisting of shell (tridacna squamosa) and limestone bas-reliefs on a background of a bituminous mixture, are in exactly the same technique and serve to show the earliest form of this kind of work. There are differences in the human forms represented; e.g., at Kish the men wear beards, and apparently wigs; at al'Ubaid they are clean shaven. Other peculiarities, such as the milking of the cows from the rear, have been variously explained as due to the clumsiness of the representation or to tribal customs. Al most contemporary with these inlaid reliefs are the stone bas reliefs on a cylindrical object and on a square plaque from Ur; the latter is notable because it shows a chariot, apparently made of wicker and of wood, covered with an animal skin, drawn either by lions or by composite monsters. The men's dress is also in teresting in that it shows the earliest form of the flounced skirt, a single flounce only appearing, and in the centre is a cod-piece resembling a Highlander's sporran. These reliefs immediately precede in point of time the series of plaques with bas-reliefs from Lagash representing Ur-Nina, an early governor of that city, carrying the brick-basket that marks the founder of a temple, facing his family. The last stage in the development of the bas-relief in this period is represented by the "Stele of the Vul tures" from Lagash, showing the king, Eannatum, leading his phalanx of warriors, armed with lances, shields and helmets, out to battle, attacking the foe, overwhelming his enemies with a net, and burying the dead, in various registers of a stele with a round top. Minor but sometimes excellent bas-reliefs are to be found on large stone mace-heads and stone vases; on the former, ani mal and human subjects are both common; on the latter, animal subjects are generally preferred. In some cases the relief becomes actually carving in the round ; thus, in a vase supported by a hero struggling with bulls surmounted by birds, parts of the male figure stand free from the background.

Drawings.

Closely associated with the bas-reliefs are shell plaques with incised engravings. The shell is sometimes mother of-pearl, the incised lines were always originally filled with a red paint. This art is also represented on a stone plaque from Lagash with an inscription of Ur-Enlil. The scenes represented seem to be invariably religious in intention; animals in vegetation, men pouring libations before deities wearing floral crowns, all have some reference to myth or ritual. Some of the shell plaques have been found at Ur in a position which suggests that they formed part of a gaming-board : the perfect example of such a board actually found has only geometrical patterns, or eyes, on the individual plaques. A fine example of engraving is to be found on the silver vase of Entemena representing the bird Im-dugud seizing lions.

Metal-work.

Bas-reliefs were also at this period made of beaten copper; one example is from al `Ubaid, and the decoration consists of a row of recumbent bulls. The heads are turned out wards, in the round, and affixed separately. They were most probably cast, but some authorities think they were beaten work also. A large example shows a bird holding stags, which had ant lers socketed into the head.

Sculpture in the Round.

Metal figures in the round were also made by the same process on bitumen mixtures. Bulls, lions and other animals were built on to wooden frames; in some cases the figures were simply protomae, in others the animal stood quite free. The heads were sometimes inlaid with jasper tongues, teeth, and shell and lapis lazuli eyes; a golden horn seems to show that various metals were sometimes employed. The carving of stone in the round was far less developed. In the majority of instances the human figure is represented. The earliest type is a cross-legged, naked, seated figure; the body is little more than a hulk, the head is disproportionate to the size of the face. Imme diately after this must be ranked clumsy seated figures, of women fully robed so that only the head and feet are separately carved, or of men, sometimes cross-legged, with the upper body naked. The last stage, which belongs to the period 2600-2500 B.C., was that of the standing figure; the males wear a full flounced skirt, sometimes decorated with an animal tail apparently used as a dagger-sheath, the women are clothed in various styles, some times hooded but never veiled. Various explanations of the manner in which these flounced dresses were put on, and as to the material, have been advanced. It may be that the basis of the cloth was some woven stuff and raw wool twisted into separate hanks was sewn in rows on the cloth. Another view is that a dressed sheepskin was combed, and the wool twisted into the required shape. The statuettes never exceed four feet in height, and seem always to have been placed in temples, to secure the favour of the god. The earliest are cut out of tufa or other volcanic and slightly porous stones, the latest are in hard lime stone and diorite, a development probably due to improvement in tools. The eyes and eyebrows were often inlaid. The proportions of the figure are always squat, and the modelling of the naked body is not attempted. The animal heads in stone very closely resemble the metal heads, and were doubtless imitated from them.

Architecture.

The development of architecture within this period covered many centuries. The earliest building appears to have been simply with wet clay. The use of reeds, which allows of large constructions with rounded tops, was at an early date combined with the use of wooden beams; this wattle building was then used in combination with brick construction. The origin of the form of brick common amongst the Sumerians from 3000 B.C. onwards, a plano-convex shape, is not known ; the walls so built, well mortared with mud, do not present the unusual appear ance that might be expected. Plain brick constructions, in which burnt brick was used for facing walls and foundations, and sun dried bricks for the interior and upper walls, are found as early as the 1st dynasty of Ur. The most marked feature of the walls is the panelling, and it has been plausibly supposed that this derived from wood constructions. Foundations were, as was always necessary in this country, built upwards. First a terrace of hard mud was laid out and built to a not inconsiderable height; this was faced with burnt brick. and in certain cases the bottom courses were of stone, if available. On this platform the building was marked out and foundation walls of sun-dried brick wider than required built up about two or three feet, and surrounded with stamped mud ; on this foundation the building was con structed according to plan. The complete plan of an early build ing has not yet been recovered, but the external decoration of a small temple at al `Ubaid has been found. Stone staircases led up to the terrace. The entrance was guarded by copper protomae of bulls. Before the doorway stood round wooden columns, covered either with beaten copper or with white, red and black tesserae wired on to a bitumen covering of the pillars. The wall was decorated in some way with primitive rosettes in white, red and black; the excavator considers that these objects represented flowers and stood free from the wall. There were three rows of friezes fastened by staples, and animal figures in the round may have stood before the wall. A large relief of special significance may have surmounted the entrance.

Sumerian influence may be found in the early of Ishtar at the city of Ashur, which has been excavated sufficiently to show a forecourt and a cult-room. The type of these early, and rather small buildings probably anticipated the universal scheme in the later periods. Whether inferences as to the general ar rangement of the cult room, which in this case had the statue at the narrow end, the entrance on the wide side, are permissible, is not certain.

Pottery and Stone Vessels.

In this period the only decora tion on the plain buff terra-cotta vessels is incised geometrical patterns, or twisted bands, appliqué. Occasionally small painted circles occur. The distinguishing feature of certain pots is the spout ; when used in temples, these were for libations. The large store-pot for water, of porous clay, was already known. All the pots were turned on a primitive wheel, and are generally care lessly made ; from this time forward in Babylonia there are but few variations in the shapes, which were s dictated by particular uses and adhere to simple forms. The stone pots were often carved, frequently pointed like inverted cones, and generally dedicated as temple furniture.

Burial Customs.

The most various methods of interment were practised, but it has proved impossible to distinguish the various forms by any broad principles. The characteristic feature is the selection of burial grounds outside the city walls. Inhuma tion was universal ; various attempts have been made to prove cremation, but in all the instances the burning may have been accidentally caused by some rite of purification, and there is no sufficient evidence to establish a general custom. Sometimes the body was interred in a pit, sometimes it was surrounded with matting; occasionally a clay coffin or larnax of a circular or oval shape was used. The body was generally laid on the side, most often in a contracted position to save space, but in various atti tudes. Very rarely brick graves were built, in which case the body was laid at full length ; the distinction probably marks a dif ference in social position. The poorest were buried with a few pots and their personal adornments, beads, paint ; the wealthy, or those connected with the royal family, took with them to their graves their most prized possessions, gaming-boards of shell inlay, gold daggers of filigree work, and other weapons. There is no proof of a cult of the dead.

A single instance of a royal burial has shown that more elabo rate burials were known. A king who must belong to the 1st dynasty of Ur, or to a period not far removed from it, was buried in a coffin in a tomb with two chambers, an outer and an inner. Immediate dependents, or members of the royal family, were placed in the outer tomb, with fairly rich furniture. The inner tomb was found rifled ; it consisted of a limestone structure, with a corbelled vault resting on timbers. Some idea of the rich ness of the burial may be obtained from a burial near; a man of the same period, wearing a golden headdress on which hair, ears and a "chignon" are represented, lay surrounded by his weapons, and by a multiplicity of vessels, mostly in gold, silver and electrum. The purpose of the headdress is obscure, for it is not clear whether it was worn in life or not ; if worn in life, the manner in which it was worn is not certain. The burial is a further proof of the wealth of the early period. An important fea ture is the appearance of the monkey among other amulets in the shape of rams and frogs. The monkey was not native to the country, and must have been known by importation from else where, either Egypt or India.

Seals.

At the time of the 1st dynasty of Ur two forms of seal were equally common—the square or rectangular stamp seal, and the cylinder seal. There is one example of a scaraboid shape, of gold. The stamp seals are engraved with a simple device, such as a scorpion. A peculiar form of the stamp seal is prob ably not to be considered a seal at all ; small models of animals, such as bulls or rams, have sometimes a device on the flat bottom, but these are prophylactic amulets. It has been suggested that the stamp seals are North Syrian in origin, and their use in Sumer is due to northern influence ; but the devices used are all connected with astral symbolism and the like, and are connected with Sumer ian religious conceptions. The cylinder seal also is purely Sumer ian ; it took its form as a bead, and the engraver first chose subjects which gave the bead special magical qualities. The vari ety of the stones used, the general excellence of the workmanship, and the range of subjects and decorative motives are surprising. The commonest theme is the struggle of a mythical hero with animals ; the purpose of the theme was to drive away the demons of sickness, though the connection is obscure. The earliest appear to be the large shell, limestone or marble seals; these must belong to some period before 300o B.C. After that date a long thin shape, frequently carved in two registers, always with scenes that have a direct reference to myths known from later poems, became popular. There is no proof that such seals were at this time used by legal compu!sion on commercial documents; they seem to have been used for jar sealings. The name of the owner, and sometimes the god he served, may be found inscribed on some of them.

Weapons and Tools.

War was a constant occupation, and a great variety of weapons was used. Flint arrow-heads prove the use of the bow, though Eannatum's phalanx is only armed with the lance; throw-sticks and maces occur at the same time as axes, daggers with double and single blades, and scimitars. The gold weapons found in graves were perhaps only ceremonial. Of agricultural implements the only extant specimens are clay sickles, to which possibly saw-edged flints were attached by means of bitumen, and hooks, possibly used to lift scrub for cutting fuel. The important feature of the weapons consists in the advanced metal working. Thus the typical early Sumerian battle axe, which might have a perpendicular or horizontal (adze) blade, was socketed on to the handle, not grafted in, though the simpler type in various patterns (similar to the Egyptian axes of the time) was used at all periods. a Amulets and Jewellery.—The lavish wealth of the time is amply illustrated by the profusion of gold and semi-precious stones used for personal adornment, especially at Ur. Gold figures of rams, frogs and apes were worn for prophylactic purposes; a small golden bull is decorated with a beard to represent the divine power. Lapis lazuli, perhaps from the far east (Hindu Kush), and carnelian were common. A larger form of amulet, common in graves, was the model boat, made of stone, wood or even bitumen ; to these the devils were consigned, that they might be carried away.

Trade and Foreign Relations.

Seals bearing Indian hiero glyphs of a kind found on early seals at Harappa and Mohenjo Daro in the Indus valley have turned up at Susa, Kish and else where ; the designs on these seals are closely connected with Sumerian stamp seals of about 300o B.C. The trade route which brought, together with these seals, Indian merchandise from the Indus valley may have been by sea ; it may also have been by land, as Sumerian objects have been found at Astrabad, and the painted pottery of Sistan resembles prehistoric Sumerian pottery. Egypt was in close trade relationship with Babylonia during the later portion of the pre-dynastic civilization. The great wealth of Ur, and probably of Kish, points to even more extensive trade relations, and it is to be assumed that metals were obtained not only from the Zagros range but also from Cilicia.

Business Documents.

The large number of documents from Lagash at this period deal with the temple offerings and prove that the administration of the town centred about the temple ; the priests not only controlled the temple funds and lands, but seem to have been engaged in all business undertakings.