9. Stones, Minerals, Bricks. Stone and min erals were almost unknown in the alluvial soil. The absence of these was, however, atoned for by the excellent building material that lay to hand in the clay, while the best possible mortar was obtained from the asphalt contained in the numer ous naphtha wells. All the buildings in ancient Babylonia were accordingly constructed of brick. When sandstone, or still harder kinds of stone, such as basalt or diorite, were used (c. g., for statues), they were brought by ship—even in the earliest times—from the territories along the fron tier (Mesopotamia, Elam, Arabia). The same is true of alabaster, marble, gold, silver, copper, tin, iron and lead (Hastings' Bib. Dict.) In the excellence of materials used, and in the perfection of form, texture and solidity, and in the great size of their bricks, the Babylonians have probably never been excelled. The same material was used for the manufacture of books or tablets. These were made even more care fully, and were almost indestructible. For rec ords the ancient world knew nothing their su perior and perhaps nothing equal. The papyrus of ancient Egypt was so fragile and so easily destroyed by either fire or water that it bears no comparison with the brick, which resisted both almost equally well. The clay tablet has pre served through the centuries a vast literature, much of it uninjured, while untold portions of the literature of the more cultured Egyptians have hopelessly perished (Rogers, Hist. of Bab. and Assyr., p. 10. Mounds. No monuments in Babylonia and Chaldma appear to be more decisive of the antiquity and Assyrian origin of sites than the lofty artificial mound of which the present de generate hordes of the tent and the spear narrate so many fabulous tales, but which almost every where present themselves where there are also other strong grounds of presumption of an As syrian or Chaldwo-Babylonian origin. Thus, at Irkah, at Wash. at Teredon, at the Birs Nimrud, the Mujahlibah, El Heimar, etc., these colossal piles are found domineering over the dreary waste, to the uniformity of which they offer a striking contrast, being visible at great distances, and, although thrown by the mirage into strange and contorted shapes, yet they always appear, when seen upon the verge of the horizon, as if possessing colossal dimensions, and produce an effect in point of grandeur which cannot easily be surpassed. Long before the period when man began to erect these feeble semblances of moun tains, a various level of alluvium had been estab lished in the spaces between the rivers, by which in one part the waters of the Euphrates find a higher level than the Tigris, into which they flow at the high season, while at another place the Tigris sends its waters to the Euphrates and re stores the flood by which it had been previously enriched from the 'Great River.' 11. Ethnology and Language. From the account which is found in Gen. x:8, Nimrod, the son of Cush, appears to have founded the king dom of Babylon, and to have been its first sov ereign. In the earliest period the chief race was the Sumerians. This was the people who founded a number of the chief cities, invented the cunei form system of writing, and, in general. may be said to have laid the foundations of culture and civilization in the land. A few inscriptions writ ten in their language have come down to us. Be sides these, we find as early as B. C. 5000 or 6000 distinct traces of a Semitic population, which came from the Northwest (Mesopotamia) and took possession of the civilized settlements founded by the Sumerians. The branch of Semites who first conquered and ruled in Baby lonia received accession from other Semitic peo ples out of Arabia during the early periods. To the Sumerian and Semitic stocks were added, as time went on, yet other peoples from Elam, Me dia and elsewhere, until the people of Babylonia were so completely mixed as to defy all analysis into separate races. It is strange that on the other hand the people of Assyria should suffer compara us ely little from mixture, and should be able to pride themselves upon pure Semitic blood.
"The Semitic Babylonians have the closest re lationship with the other Semites (Hebrews, Arabs and Aramxans), and yet, in opposition to these, they form a special group, as the grammar and lexicon clearly prove. If the Syro-Arabian Semites may be properly designated west Semites, the ancient Egyptian speech, on the other hand, belongs to the east Semitic, or the Bab.-Assyrian branch of Semitic languages. The Egyptians must in the remotest antiquity have emigrated from Mesopotamia to Africa. Apart from con siderations of grammar and the great number of Sumerian loan-words contained in their language (which is otherwise Semitic), this is proved by extensive coincidences between the Egyptian and Babylonian systems of writing, their religion and other branches of culture" (F. Hommel, Hastings'
Bib. Diet.).
12. Kings. In Gcn. xiv Amraphel is cursorily mentioned as king of Shinar. In the reign of Ilezekiah (B. C. 719-69o)-2 Kings xx:12—'13cro dach-baladan, the son of Baladan,' was 'king of Babylon,' and 'sent letters and a present unto Hezekiah, for he had heard that Hezekiah had been sick.' About a hundred ycars later Jeremiah and I labakkuk speak of the in vasion of the Babylonians under the name of the ChaIdxans. and now Nebuchadnezzar appears in the historical books (2 Kings xxiv:t sq.: Jer. xxxvi :9, 27) as head of the all-subduing empire of Babylon. Ez'il-meradaele (2 Kings xxv:27; Jer.
son ol the preceding, is also mentioned as 'king of Babylon.' and with Belshazzar (Dan.
10), the Nabonidus of lierosus, the line of the Chalet:can kings was closed; lie perished in the conquest of Babylon by the M edo-Persians (Dan. v:30, 'and Darius, the Median, took the kingdom.' 13. Chalderans. The domination of the Chal &cans in Babylon has given historians sonic trouble to explain. The ChaIdxans appear to have originally been ri nomadic tribe in the moun tains of Armenia. numbers of whom are thought to have settled in Babylon as subjects, where, having been civilized and grown powerful, they seized the supreme power and founded a Chal dreo-Babylonian empire.
lerodottis has noticed the ChaIdreans as a tribe of priests (i:28) ; Diodorus (i:28) as a separate caste under Ileitis. an Egyptian priest, while the book of Daniel refers to them as astrologers, ma gicians and soothsayers, hut there can be little doubt, as laid down by Gesenius on Isaiah xxiii: 13. that it was the name of a distinct nation; if not, as Hecren (Manual if .Inc. Dist. 28) has maintained, the name of the Northern nomades in general. In connection with Babylonia the Chalik•ans are to he regarded as a conquering nation as well as a learned people; they intro duced a correct method of reckoning time. and began their reign with Nabonassar (13. C' 7.17). The brilliant period of the Chaldrro-ilahylonian empire extended to B. C. 538, when the great city, in accordance with the prophecy of Daniel, was sacked and destroyed.
Babylonia. during this period, was 'the land of the CliaIdaans; the same .is that into which the children of Judah were carried away captive (Jer. xxiv ). which contained Babylon (Ier 1:1 ; Eck :13), was the seat of the king of Babylon (Jer. xxv :12 ). and contained the house of the god of Nebuchadnezzar (Dan.
The profane historians lend their testimony to the same effect. There is another scriptural refer ence to this proud period in the history of the Chaldees, when learned men filled the streets and the temples of Nineveh and Babel : 'Behold the land of the Chaldxans; this people was not, till the Assyrian founded it for them that dwell in the wilderness; they set up the towers thereof, they raised up the palaces thereof, and he brought it to ruin' (Is. xxiii :13).
14. History. (See BABYLON, History; As SYRIA; CHALDEA; ELBA.) 15. Writing, Literature and Art.
The Babylonian wedge-shaped characters, which formed the syllables of the words in the Baby lonian tongue, were originally pictures.
(1) Clay Tablets. When clay tablets were in troduced as writing material, and the stylus was used to form the characters, these pictures became much modified in form, and finally pure syllables, which had little resemblance to theoriginal picture. The Babylonians were essentially calculators, and astronomy, mixed with astrology, occupied a large space in their libraries. This doubtless is what Isaiah refers to in xlvii :13. They kept an ac curate account of the eclipses, equinoxes and other similar occurrences. Theo- year consisted of 12 months of 3o days each, and an intercalary month every six years. Every seventh day was a rest day, on which it was forbidden to do certain things. Each day was lucky or unlucky, and on these days certain things were forbidden. The largest astrological work of the Babylonians was made by Sargon, 380o B. C. It was called the 'Illumination of Bel,' and consisted of seventy tablets. Their observations were made from towers, in quite a modern manlier. They ob served the spots in the sun and knew of comets. Geology and geography were represented among their sciences, as well as natural history. With the exception of the physical sciences, the greater part of our learning was known to the Babylon ians. Much space was given to magic, and to judge by the quantity of this sort of literature, the Babylonians most have lived in constant terror of spirits and demons. As the Babylonian was a trader and a money-lender, there are almost innumerable tablets relating to sales, loans, mar riage dowries, slaves, and all sorts of commercial transactions that can be imagined.