NEW BABYLONIAN EMPIRE When the Assyrian capital fell after a long war conducted by the Medes, Babylonians and Scythians in 612 B.C., and the last Assyrian resistance at Harran failed in 6o6 B.C., the Chaldaean dynasty founded at Babylon in 625 by Nabopolassar was firmly established. The Chaldaean race first appeared in Babylonia dur ing the troubles caused by the Aramaean invasion ; in religion, per sonal names, and social custom they cannot be distinguished from the older Babylonians, save that they were divided into great tribal stems, with many subdivisions, like the Aramaeans. The new dynasty involved no breach of continuity, but the rise of the Median empire involved new world conditions which can be vaguely traced in archaeological discoveries.
Babylon, which had been partially rebuilt, after the sack by Sennacherib, under Assyrian rule was set out on new lines by Nabopolassar and Nebuchadrezzar II. The massive buildings of this last period are all that have yet been recovered of the central area of the city. The principal feature was the sacred processional way leading through this area and out by the "Ishtar Gate"; along this way, at the New Year festival, every year the image of Marduk was conveyed, ritual acts in a mime taking place at each of the sacred buildings, until the god could be placed on a boat that conveyed him to the festival house, which lay west of the Euphrates, north of the city. The main part of this way was laid with limestone and breccia slabs. The great ziggurat of Babylon dominated the whole site, and it may be that the "hanging gardens" told of by the Greek writers were connected with its stages; the excavators however believe that a vaulted building with an installation for raising water in another part of the temenos was the substructure of the "hanging gardens." This is the first proven example of the vault, apart from the early corbelled vaults of tombs, though some believe that it may be traced in the remains of much earlier periods. Drainage was con ducted by very large brick conduits, to which there were manholes sufficient to allow clearance. Though the kings of this period, especially Nabonidus, always claimed that they restored buildings according to the original plan, there is proof at Ur that they altered the nature of buildings in a way which shows a change in religious worship.
Fortifications were built upon a larger plan than ever before: Nebuchadrezzar constructed a defensive wall and moats east wards from the Euphrates which extended to Opis on the Tigris, and parts of the internal system show the character of these walls. At Ur the temenos wall was extended by a platform suffi ciently large to allow two chariots to pass. The whole temenos was actually referred to as a "fortress building." The extensive use of glaze, semi-precious stones and metal for external decora tion is attested by the inscriptions, and good examples of glazing may be found on every new Babylonian site. The town-site at Babylon, Merkes, gives the impression that the period was poor compared with the richer houses of the early period at Ur. Some curious burials of the period have been found ; an anthropoid sarcophagus at Babylon, and a copper coffin from Ur, riveted in modern fashion, are rare exceptions from the ordinary terra-cotta and plain stone sepulchres.
The art of the large stone bas-relief is not rep resented by any extant examples, and it is even doubtful whether palace rooms were so decorated. There were, however, inde pendent developments. The figures of bulls and certain monsters on the Ishtar gate are in low relief, made of bricks each cast in a separate mould and designed for a special place. This elaborate technique seems to have been invented at this period, and was subsequently imitated by the Persians. Another kind of relief is mentioned in the inscriptions but not exampled by any extant instance; on black-and-white figure-drawings, done with gypsum and bitumen, gold or other metal overlays were applied within the outlines; these overlays must have been beaten. A few small metal plaques with figures in low and very delicate relief belong to this period.
is represented by a few small stone heads of women, perhaps intended for temple votaries. The poverty in bas-relief and sculpture may not be altogether acci dental; the increased use of glazing, and the use of coloured de signs, few of which are now preserved, may have affected public taste and caused the stone relief and sculpture to go out of fashion. It is hardly conceivable that the lack of stone was due to any difficulty in obtaining it, for Nebuchadrezzar, Neriglissar and Nabonidus all had free access to Syria. That there was a general decline in taste and artistic ability is rendered probable by the seals.
The seals in common use were small in diameter and length, generally of poor stones, and are cut with the drill in a sketchy and generally unfinished manner. The cone seal was reduced to a narrow irregular octagon, also badly cut as a rule. The commonest theme was a priest worshipping before a low altar on which stand the emblems of Marduk, a lance-head, and of Nabu, a wedge-shaped object; to these other symbols are occa sionally added. The priest is generally separated from the altar by a low fence or rail. Not all cylinders were intended for com mon use ; some were preserved in temples, and two such belonging to a temple store carved in lapis lazuli depict the gods Marduk and Adad. These are the best examples of New Babylonian seal carving, and the figures are closely connected with the art of the "boundary-stones," they do not approach the Agade, Third Ur or Assyrian seals in merit.
Nebuchadrezzar and his successors were engaged in a desperate rivalry with the Medes, and later with the Persians; in addition to continual political strife, new religious ideas were causing a ferment in the whole world of the time, and some effects of this unrest can be found in Babylonia. Some no longer tolerated the images erected to obscene cults ; thus the men of Erech at the beginning of the 8th century had pulled down a shrine of Ishtar in which there was a figure of the goddess with a team of seven lions, a goddess whose cult is known to have been licentious. Nabonidus engaged in a reconstruction of temples and committed certain acts at the New Year festival which the priests did not hesitate to denounce later as impious. The evidence is not sufficient to allow of any clear ideas being formed upon the exact nature of these religious troubles.
As Assyria had been made a cosmopolitan centre, so Babylonia became the home of many separate and isolated communities. The Jews brought from Palestine by Nebuchad rezzar rose to important positions, and were concerned in large commercial undertakings. Isolated Greeks came to Babylon in search of military adventure. Aramaeans used their own alpha betic script increasingly. A marked feature of the period was the growth of large business houses, confined often to a single family, or rather clan, which must have controlled the fortunes of individ ual cities ; the Egibi family at Sippar, the Murashu family at Nippur, both laid the foundations of their fortune at this period. The administration of temple lands was in the hands of increas ingly powerful officials.
