religion of the Assyrians was nearly identical with that of the Babylo nians. It was a gross polytheism, their gods being thousands in number, and each village having its own particular deity. From thousands of theological tablets now in the 'British museum, it is known that each divinity had many names, and some of them as many as fifty titles besides. Again, many deities that are prominent in the Babylonian pantheon are either unknown or occupy a subordinate position in .the Assyrian. Besides, the same gods did not remain equally popular through out. The supreme god was Asshur, probably the deified patriarch. His worship was confined to Assyria. He is generally associated in the inscriptions with .Nin and .2Vergal (2 Kings xvii. 30), who are represented by the man-bull and the man lion. The winged globe, so often seen in the sculptures, from which a figure with a horned helmet shoots his arrows, is supposed to be the emblem of Asshur. Next in rank is the governing triad, answering to the Pluto, Jupiter, and Neptune of the classical mythology; the next group corresponds to JEther, the sun and the moon; then five inferior deities, representing the five planets. Each god is associated with a goddess. Mylitta, or Beltis, is the "queen." The male and female powers of the sun are repre sented in the Scripture phrase, "Adrammelech and Anamelech, gods of Sepharvahn"— that is, of Sippara, a town a few miles above Babylon. was originally an inferior deity, son of Hen, the fish-god; but, under the later Babylonians, we find him monopolizing the greater part of the homage which used previously to be divided among several. Nisroch (2 Kings xis. 37) has not been yet ascertained. Nebo (Isaiah xlvi.) is one of the five planetary gods, and corresponds to Mercury. The systems of notation,'"divisions of time, the planets and stars, animals and metals, divination and astrology, were all more or less closely connected with theology.
Assyrians have been assigned by some ethnologists to the Aryan race, but it is now generally acknowledged that they were a branch of the Semitic family of nations, and therefore were members of the same grand division of the human race as the Syrians, the Phceniciaus with their colonies, the Jews, and the modern. Arabians. In the 20th c. B.C., Semitism, as a distinct ethnic element, appears to have first developed itself. The original races, variously called Scythic, Turanian, or Tatar, appear to have once been spread over the whole space from the Caucasus to the Indian ocean, and from the Mediterranean to the mouths of the Ganges. Their type of language has continued to our time to exist in four fifths of Asia, and in some of the remoter corners of Europe, as among the Finns, Lapps, Turks, and Hungarians. In Mesopotamia, and in the valley of the Nile, where natural advantages induced men early to form settled communities, the rude and inartificial type of language was developed into Hamitism, and afterwards still further improved into Semitism. Then seems to have commenced a series of migrations. Asshur went forth probably at this time from Babylon to A., Abraham and his followers to Palestine, the Joktauian Arabs to Arabia. From these seats, Semitism was afterwards carried to Cyprus, to the southern seaboard countries of Asia Minor, to Carthage, Sicily, Spain. and western Africa.
The traditions of A. indicate a very early connection between Ethiopia, Arabia, and the cities on the Euphrates. Mesopotamia undoubtedly contained a large proportion of Arabians, and this accounts for the fact that Herodotus styles Sennacherib king of the Ara bians and Assyrians. The Chaldtcans, colonies of whom were planted in Armenia by the Assyrian kings, are supposed by sonic to have been a foreign tribe, which had emigrated from the north, and become a priestly caste. But the Akkad race, of which the Chat dxan is a tribe, is with more probability thought to have inhabited Babylonia from the remotest times, and by it the earliest civilization in Mesopotamia was originated. Probably the art of picture-writing was possessed by the Hamitic tribes who lived in the valley of the Nile, and passed eastward to the Euphrates. The Akkad language appears to have been formed before Semitism attained its peculiar development and organiza tion. Long after Semitism had become predominant in Mesopotamia, the Akkad or Chaldrean alphabet continued to be the scientific language in which all the tablets relating to mythology, astronomy, or science, as well as most historical and official records, were written. This alphabet was adopted with certain modifications by the Semitic
tribes, which became predominant in Assyria. The cuneiform characters were elaborated from forms of natural objects, and gradually became phonetic from being symbolic, and for convenience of engraving, assumed the form of arrow-beads, instead of the rounded and flowing forms which are introduced by the use of plastic materials. After the Aryan race had spread inure extensivelyfin western Asia, the Persian monarchs, Ivhen they wished to make any communication to their subjects generally intelligible, found it necessary to publish it in three languages belonging to the principal divisions of human speech; hence the trilingual inscriptions of Behistun, etc., which consist of an Indo-European, a Tartar, and a Semitic column. It is still necessary in many places to employ three tongues, representatives of the three families, Persian, Turkish, and Lenormant, La Langue Primitive de la Clialdee.
Antiquities, Civilization, ete.—T119,.excavations carried on by M. Botta, French consul at Mosul, and by near Mosul, Khorsabad, and Kormjik, have led, as we have partly seen, to very interesting discoveries. The palaces and buildings that have been laid open are full of sculptures, all covered with inscriptions, in deciphering which con siderable progress has been made, and more may be expected. Among the most remarkable monuments now in the British museum are two winged, human-headed lions, 12 ft. high, and as many in length; winged human-headed bulls of similar dimensions with the lions; winged sphinxes; and the famous obelisk of black marble, sculptured on the four sides. On this last are represented a victory, a prisoner prostrate at the feet of the king, and foreign people offering tribute, and leading such animals as the Bactrian camel, elephant, lion, and rhinoceros—animals found only in lands far east of the Tigris. The bas-reliefs are very numerous, exhibiting especially war and hunting. The march, the onset, the pursuit, the siege, the'passage of rivers, the submission and treatment of cap tives, secretaries noting the number of heads taken in battle, and the amount of spoil; the chase of the lion, of the antelope, of the wild ass, and other animals—such are the favorite subjects of the Assyrian sculptor. Nor are they treated in the conventional style of Egypt, but in a manner which, for grace, spirit, correctness, and delicacy of execution, excels everything else known in Asiatic art. The artists sometimes follow modes of representation different from ours; for instance, a bull has five legs given him, in order that from all points of view he may be seen with four; a ladder stands edgeways against a wall, to show it is not a pole. But a truthful impression is always aimed at, and it is this that gives these sculptures their value. The labor bestowed on the careful finish of a priest's dress, and in the tasteful decoration of an article of furniture, proves them to be the work of an ingenious and painstaking people. From the bas-reliefs we gain but little information respecting the private life of the Assyrians. There are a few which represent the foddering of cattle, women riding on mules, etc.
It is natural to expect that Nineveh—a wealthy and luxurious city—imported many of the products of other countries, yet the manufactured goods would mainly be of home production. The jars, bronzes, glass bottles, carved ornaments in ivory and mother-of pearl, engraved gems, bells, earrings, arms, utensils, are of excellent workmanship. The ornaments especially are in good taste, and evince no inconsiderable skill in the working of metals. Transparent glass was not unknown. nor the use of the lens as a magnifying agent. The Assyrians knew the principle of the arch, the use of the lever and' roller, and the construction of aqueducts and drains. In the arts of peace, they appear to have been not inferior to any ancient nation; while their conquests, and the long duration of their empire, suffice to prove their capacity for war.—See Rawlinson's Fire Great Monarchies of the Ancient World, Chaldaa, Assyria, Babylonia, Media, and Persia; and Mr. George Smith's paper read at a meeting of the Biblical arclxwological society, 1872, and the article Babylonia, in the En,ey. Brit., 9th ed.