The One of the marvels of these ancient peoples was their advancement in all that counts for civilization. Their govern ments were monarchical and well organized, with standing armies for their immediate protection. Their civil courts were provided with ample laws for the regulation of society and of trade. Their cities were advantageously built, and sur rounded with walls of a magnitude sufficient to withstand any ordinary attack. Their schools were carefully fostered and occupied a first place in their peaceful life. They cultivated the arts with assiduity and attained a notable de gree of perfection in some lines. Their archi tecture and sculpture, their language and litera ture, are marks of a people high in the scale of Oriental civilization. Of religious ritual and all its accompaniments and organization, we have a detailed description, which exhibits this as a favorite side of that early Sumerian and Semitic life. Their industry and trade activities were such as to place them in the front rank of com mercial peoples. Their amusements and sports were of that adventurous and daring kind that bespeak the virility and strength of charac ter found only among a hardy and vigorous people. Their political and commercial relations with their neighbors were such as mark an ad vanced stage in cordial international affairs. Their methods of warfare, and their treatment of their subjects, while often cruel and in human, were distinguished by a high grade of intelligence, and more than ordinary genius (cf. ASSYRIA).
Natural Resources.— The wasteness and barrenness of modern Babylonia give little in timation of its early resources. Its flora was quite varied and useful. Its plains were plenti fully supplied with fruit trees of various kinds, such as fig-, olive-, date-, palm-, vine- and vari ous nut-trees. On the mountain sides were found the oak, plane and pine trees of different varieties. By cultivation the land produced wheat, barley, sesame, millet, hemp and other cereals and articles of commerce. The date palm was their universal utility article, for from it they seem to have manufactured honey, flour, vinegar, wine and raw material for wickerwork. The reed that grew with such luxuriance on the banks of the rivers and canals was utilized for a number of purposes. It served for build ing huts, weaving mats and for boat-building, and for layering mortar in the construction of walls.
The absence of stone and minerals in the basin of the valley was partially compensated for by their proximity to the mountains on the north and east, though clay bricks, sun-dried and burnt, were always their chief building ma terial. When marble, alabaster, diorite or any of the precious metals were used they were brought either from their mountain borders or from distant lands. Stone was used for colossi, statues, wall decorations, bas-reliefs and some inscriptions. The jewelry, metals were em ployed for making ewelry, ornaments, service able utensils, decorations on buildings and gates and for tablets upon which inscriptions were engraved.
The list of the fauna of the country is made quite complete by the pictures found on the walls of the old palaces and temples, and by the catalogues of names preserved in their litera ture. These reveal to us a great variety of valuable animals. Among them we find the lion, the favorite game hunted by kings, the panther, the wild ox, the fox, the wild boar, wild asses and camels — especially in later periods of his tory. There were also several kinds of gazelles and antelopes that played about on the border hills and mountains. Of domestic animals, there were the horse in later times, the ass, the camel, the cow, sheep, goat and dog. Of wild birds, the inscriptions mention most frequently the eagle and the owl; also the swallow, dove, raven, geese and other waterfowls.
Cities.—There is no more notable index of a great people than the number and magni tude of its great cities. Babylonia-Assyria, through the decipherment of the monuments, is seen to have been well dotted over with pros perous cities. Beginning in the south and pro ceeding northward, we find in that ancient day, Adab, Eridu, Ur, Erech, Larsa, Lagash, Nisin, Nippur, Borsippa, Babylon, Cutha, Sippar and Agade ( !)— all famous cities in the Babylonian kingdoms and empires of -four millenniums ago. The earliest civilization of that valley was cen tred in these cities, most of which seem to have been originally capitals of districts. There are other mounds in considerable quantity that have not been identified, but which doubtless cover still other cities that played an important role in the life of early Babylonia.
As we advance into the territory occupied by Assyria great cities present themselves in a formidable array. The ancient mother city was Assur, located on the right of the Tigris, near the modern Kalot Sherlat, recently excavated by a German expedition. As we pass up the Tigris River of that day the next city of importance that one meets is Calah, or Nimrud, on the left bank of the river, just above the junction with the Tigris of the Upper Zab River. This was a palatial first earthed by Layard, and then by Rassarn, taining at least three royal palaces already mentioned. Off to the east of Calah, on the east bank of the Upper Zab, was Arbela, a city of minor importance. Nineveh, whose mounds stand on the eastern bank of the Tigris opposite the modern Mosul, was a very ancient city. The small stream or river Khosr, passing tween the two great mounds Kuyunjik and Nebi Yunus, that represent the remains of Nineveh, empties into the Tigris. Sargon II (722-705 built for himself at Khorsabad, north of Nineveh, a veritable royal city, the most magnificent building of which was his palace, uncovered by Botta and Place. Its name, Dur-Sargina, °the wall or fortress of Sargonj designates sufficiently its significance for his reign. To the southeast of Nineveh we find another city of especial significance in the reign of Shalmaneser III (858-823 a.c.), Imgur Bel, on the site of the modern Balawat.