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diff --git a/16161.txt b/16161.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..06423f2 --- /dev/null +++ b/16161.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5640 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Seven Great Monarchies Of The Ancient +Eastern World, Vol 1. (of 7): Chaldaea, by George Rawlinson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Seven Great Monarchies Of The Ancient Eastern World, Vol 1. (of 7): Chaldaea + The History, Geography, And Antiquities Of Chaldaea, + Assyria, Babylon, Media, Persia, Parthia, And Sassanian + or New Persian Empire; With Maps and Illustrations. + +Author: George Rawlinson + +Illustrator: George Rawlinson + +Release Date: July 1, 2005 [EBook #16161] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SEVEN GREAT MONARCHIES *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +THE SEVEN GREAT MONARCHIES + +OF THE + +ANCIENT EASTERN WORLD; + + +OR, + + +THE HISTORY, GEOGRAPHY, AND ANTIQUITIES OF CHALDAEA, ASSYRIA + +BABYLON, MEDIA, PERSIA, PARTHIA, AND SASSANIAN, + +OR NEW PERSIAN EMPIRE. + + +BY + +GEORGE RAWLINSON, M.A., + +CAMDEN PROFESSOR OF ANCIENT HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD + + + +IN THREE VOLUMES. + + + + +VOLUME I. + +With Maps and Illustrations + + + +CONTENTS OF VOL. I. + +THE FIRST MONARCHY. + +CHALDAEA. + +CHAPTER I. +GENERAL VIEW OF THE COUNTRY + +CHAPTER II. +CLIMATE AND PRODUCTIONS + +CHAPTER III. +THE PEOPLE + +CHAPTER IV. +LANGUAGE AND WRITING + +CHAPTER V. +ARTS AND SCIENCES + +CHAPTER VI. +MANNERS AND CUSTOMS + +CHAPTER VII. +RELIGION + +CHAPTER VIII. +HISTORY AND CHRONOLOGY + + + + +PREFACE TO FIVE GREAT MONARCHIES. + +The history of Antiquity requires from time to time to be rewritten. +Historical knowledge continually extends, in part from the advance of +critical science, which teaches us little by little the true value of +ancient authors, but also, and more especially, from the new discoveries +which the enterprise of travellers and the patient toil of students are +continually bringing to light, whereby the stock of our information as to +the condition of the ancient world receives constant augmentation. The +extremest scepticism cannot deny that recent researches in Mesopotamia +and the adjacent countries have recovered a series of "monuments" +belonging to very early times, capable of throwing considerable light on +the Antiquities of the nations which produced them. The author of these +volumes believes that, together with these remains, the languages of the +ancient nations have been to a large extent recovered, and that a vast +mass of written historical matter of a very high value is thereby added +to the materials at the Historian's disposal. This is, clearly, not the +place where so difficult and complicated a subject can be properly +argued. The author is himself content with the judgment of "experts," +and believes it would be as difficult to impose a fabricated language on +Professor Lassen of Bonn and Professor Max Miller of Oxford, as to palm +off a fictitious for a real animal form on Professor Owen of London. The +best linguists in Europe have accepted the decipherment of the cuneiform +inscriptions as a thing actually accomplished. Until some good linguist, +having carefully examined into the matter, declares himself of contrary +opinion, the author cannot think that any serious doubt rests on the +subject. + + [Some writers allow that the Persian cuneiform inscriptions have + been successfully deciphered and interpreted, but appear to doubt + the interpretation of the Assyrian records. (See Edinburgh Review + for July, 1862, Art Ill., p. 108.) Are they aware that the Persian + inscriptions are accompanied in almost every instance by an Assyrian + transcript, and that Assyrian interpretation thus follows upon + Persian, without involving any additional "guess-work"] + +The present volumes aim at accomplishing for the Five Nations of which +they treat what Movers and Kenrick have accomplished for Phoenicia, or +(still more exactly) what Wilkinson has accomplished for Ancient Egypt. +Assuming the interpretation of the historical inscriptions as, in +general, sufficiently ascertained, and the various ancient remains as +assigned on sufficient grounds to certain peoples and epochs, they seek +to unite with our previous knowledge of the five nations, whether derived +from Biblical or classical sources, the new information obtained from +modern discovery. They address themselves in a great measure to the eye; +and it is hoped that even those who doubt the certainty of the linguistic +discoveries in which the author believes, will admit the advantage of +illustrating the life of the ancient peoples by representations of their +productions. Unfortunately, the materials of this kind which recent +explorations have brought to light are very unequally spread among the +several nations of which it is proposed to treat, and even where they are +most copious, fall short of the abundance of Egypt. Still in every case +there is some illustration possible; and in one--Assyria--both the +"Arts" and the "Manners" of the people admit of being illustrated very +largely from the remains still extant.--[See Chapters VI. and VII. of the +Second Monarchy] + +The Author is bound to express his obligations to the following writers, +from whose published works he has drawn freely: MM. Botta and Flandin, +Mr. Layard, Mr. James Fergusson, Mr. Loftus, Mr. Cullimore, and Mr. +Birch. He is glad to take this occasion of acknowledging himself also +greatly beholden to the constant help of his brother, Sir Henry +Rawlinson, and to the liberality of Mr. Faux, of the British Museum. The +latter gentleman kindly placed at his disposal, for the purposes of the +present work, the entire series of unpublished drawings made by the +artists who accompanied Mr. Loftus in the last Mesopotamian Expedition, +besides securing him undisturbed access to the Museum sculptures, thus +enabling him to enrich the present volume with a large number of most +interesting illustrations never previously given to the public. In the +subjoined list these illustrations are carefully distinguished from such +as, in one shape or another, have appeared previously. + +Oxford, September, 1862. + + + +PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION. + +In preparing for the press, after an interval of seven years, a second +edition of this work, the author has found it unnecessary to make, +excepting in two chapters, any important or exensive alterations. The +exceptions are the chapters on the History and Chronology of Chaldaea and +Assyria. So much fresh light has been thrown on these two subjects by +additional discoveries, made partly by Sir Henry Rawlinson, partly by his +assistant, Mr. George Smith, through the laborious study of fragmentary +inscriptions now in the British Museum, that many pages of the two +chapters in question required to be written afresh, and the Chronological +Schemes required, in the one case a complete, and in the other a partial, +revision. In making this revision, both of the Chronology and the +History, the author has received the most valuable assistance both from +the published papers and from the private communications of Mr. +Smith--an assistance for which he desires to make in this place the +warmest and most hearty acknowledgment. He is also beholden to a recent +Eastern traveller, Mr. A. D. Berrington, for some valuable notes on the +physical geography and productions of Mesopotamia, which have been +embodied in the accounts given of those subjects. A few corrections +have likewise been made of errors pointed out by anonymous critics. +Substantially, however, the work continues such as it was on its first +appearance, the author having found that time only deepened his +conviction of the reality of cuneiform decipherment, and of the +authenticity of the history obtained by means of it. + +OXFORD, November, 1870. + + + +PREFACE TO THE SIXTH MONARCHY. + +The following work is intended, in part, as a continuation of the ancient +History of the East, already treated by the Author at some length in his +"Five Great Monarchies"; but it is also, and more expressly, intended as +a supplement to the ancient History of the West, as that history is +ordinarily presented to moderns under its two recognized divisions of +"Histories of Greece" and "Histories of Rome." Especially, it seemed to +the writer that the picture of the world during the Roman period, +commonly put before students in "Histories of Rome," was defective, not +to say false, in its omission to recognize the real position of Parthia +during the three most interesting centuries of that period, as a +counterpoise to the power of Rome, a second figure in the picture not +much inferior to the first, a rival state dividing with Rome the +attention of mankind and the sovereignty of the known earth. Writers of +Roman history have been too much in the habit of representing the later +Republic and early Empire as, practically, a Universal Monarchy, a Power +unchecked, unbalanced, having no other limits than those of the civilized +world, engrossing consequently the whole attention of all thinking men, +and free to act exactly as it pleased without any regard to opinion +beyond its own borders. One of the most popular enlarges on the idea--an +idea quite inconsistent with the fact--that for the man who provoked the +hostility of the ruler of Rome there was no refuge upon the whole face of +the earth but some wild and barbarous region, where refinement was +unknown, and life would not have been worth having. To the present +writer the truth seems to be that Rome never was in the position +supposed--that from first to last, from the time of Pompey's Eastern +Conquests to the Fall of the Empire, there was always in the world a +Second Power, civilized or semi-civilized, which in a true sense balanced +Rome, acted as a counterpoise and a check, had to be consulted or +considered, held a place in all men's thoughts, and finally furnished a +not intolerable refuge to such as had provoked Rome's master beyond +forgiveness. + +This Power for nearly three centuries (B.C. 64 - A.D. 225) was Parthia, +after which it was Persia under the Sassanian kings. In the hope of +gradually vindicating to Parthia her true place in the world's history, +the Author has in his "Manual of Ancient History" (published by the +Delegates of the Clarendon Press) placed the Parthians alongside of the +Romans, and treated of their history at a moderate length. But it has +seemed to him that something more was requisite. He could not expect +that students would be able to give Parthia her proper place in their +thoughts unless her history were collected and put forth in a readable +form with some fulness. He has, therefore, employed most of his leisure +during the last two years in writing the present work, which he commends +to students of the later Greek and Roman periods as supplemental to the +modern Greek and Roman histories in which those periods are commonly +studied. + +The Parthian Chronology depends very much upon coins. In preparing this +portion of his work the Author has been greatly indebted to aid kindly +rendered him by M. R. Stuart Poole and Mr. Gardiner of the British +Museum. The representations of coins in the work have been, with one +exception, taken by the Author from the originals in the National +Collection. For the illustrations of Parthian architecture and art he is +indebted to the published works of Mr. Ainsworth, Mr. Ross, the late Mr. +Loftus, and MM. Flandin and Coste. He feels also bound to express his +obligations to the late Mr. Lindsay, the numismatic portion of whose work +on Parthia he has found of much service. + +CANTERBURY, December, 1872. + + + +PREFACE TO SEVENTH MONARCHY. + +This work completes the Ancient History of the East, to which the author +has devoted his main attention during the last eighteen years. It is a +sequel to his "Parthians," published in 1873; and carries down the +History of Western Asia from the third century of our era to the middle +of the seventh. So far as the present writer is aware, no European +author has previously treated this period from the Oriental stand-point, +in any work aspiring to be more than a mere sketch or outline. Very many +such sketches have been published; but they have been scanty in the +extreme, and the greater number of them have been based on the authority +of a single class of writers. It has been the present author's aim to +combine the various classes of authorities which are now accessible to +the historical student, and to give their due weight to each of them. +The labors of M. C. Muller, of the Abbe Gregoire Kabaragy Garabed, and of +M. J. St. Martin have opened to us the stores of ancient Armenian +literature, which were previously a sealed volume to all but a small +class of students. The early Arab historians have been translated or +analyzed by Kosegarten, Zotenberg, M. Jules Mohl, and others. +The coinage of the Sassanians has been elaborately--almost +exhaustively--treated by Mordtmann and Thomas. Mr. Fergusson has +applied his acute and practised powers to the elucidation of the +Sassanian architecture. By combining the results thus obtained with the +old sources of information--the classical, especially the Byzantine +writers--it has become possible to compose a history of the Sassanian +Empire which is at once consecutive, and not absolutely meagre. How the +author has performed his task, he must leave it to the public to judge; +he will only venture to say that he has spared no labor, but has gone +carefully through the entire series of the Byzantine writers who treat +of the time, besides availing himself of the various modern works to +which reference has been made above. If he has been sometimes obliged +to draw conclusions from his authorities other than those drawn by +Gibbon, and has deemed it right, in the interests of historic truth, to +express occasionally his dissent from that writer's views, he must not +be thought blind to the many and great excellencies which render the +"Decline and Fall" one of the best, if not the best, of our histories. +The mistakes of a writer less eminent and less popular might have been +left unnoticed without ill results. Those of an historian generally +regarded as an authority from whom there is no appeal could not be so +lightly treated. + +The author begs to acknowledge his great obligations, especially, to the +following living writers: M. Patkanian, M. Jules Mohl, Dr. Haug, Herr +Spiegel, Herr Windischmann, Herr Mordtmann, Canon Tristram, Mr. James +Fergusson, and Mr. E. Thomas. He is also largely beholden to the works +of M. Texier and of MM. Flandin and Coste for the illustrations, which he +has been able to give, of Sassanian sculpture and architecture. The +photographic illustrations of the newly-discovered palace at Mashita are +due to the liberality of Mr. R. C. Johnson (the amateur artist who +accompanied Canon Tristram in his exploration of the "Land of Moab"), +who, with Canon Tristram's kind consent, has allowed them to appear in +the present volume. The numismatic illustrations are chiefly derived +from Longperier; but one or two have been borrowed from other sources. +For his frontispiece the author is indebted to his brother, Sir Henry +Rawlinson, who has permitted it to be taken from an original drawing in +his possession, which he believed to be a truthful representation of the +great Sassanian building. + +CANTERBURY: December 1875. + + + + + + + + + +THE FIRST MONARCHY. + + + + +CHALDAEA. + + + +CHAPTER I. + +GENERAL VIEW OF THE COUNTRY. + +"Behold the land of the Chaldaeans."--ISAIAH xxiii. 13. + + +The broad belt of desert which traverses the eastern hemisphere, in a +general direction from west to east (or, speaking more exactly, of +W. S. W. to N. E. E.), reaching from the Atlantic on the one hand nearly +to the Yellow Sea on the other, is interrupted about its centre by a +strip of rich vegetation, which at once breaks the continuity of the arid +region, and serves also to mark the point where the desert changes its +character from that of a plain at a low level to that of an elevated +plateau or table-land. West of the favored district, the Arabian and +African wastes are seas of sand, seldom raised much above, often sinking +below, the level of the ocean; while east of the same, in Persia, Kerman, +Seistan, Chinese Tartary, and Mongolia, the desert consists of a series +of plateaus, having from 3000 to nearly 10,000 feet of elevation. The +green and fertile region, which is thus interposed between the "highland" +and the "lowland" deserts, participates, curiously enough, in both +characters. Where the belt of sand is intersected by the valley of the +Nile, no marked change of elevation occurs; and the continuous low desert +is merely interrupted by a few miles of green and cultivable surface, the +whole of which is just as smooth and as flat as the waste on either side +of it. But it is otherwise at the more eastern interruption. There the +verdant and productive country divides itself into two tracts, running +parallel to each other, of which the western presents features not unlike +those that characterize the Nile valley, but on a far larger scale; while +the eastern is a lofty mountain region, consisting for the most part of +five or six parallel ranges, and mounting in many places far above the +level of perpetual snow. + +It is with the western or plain tract that we are here concerned. +Between the outer limits of the Syro-Arabian desert and the foot of the +great mountain range of Kurdistan and Luristan intervenes a territory +long famous in the world's history, and the chief site of three out of +the five empires of whose history, geography, and antiquities it is +proposed to treat in the present volumes. Known to the Jews as +Aram-Naharaim, or "Syria of the two rivers;" to the Greeks and Romans as +Mesopotamia, or "the between-river country;" to the Arabs as Al-Jezireh, +or "the island," this district has always taken its name from the +streams, which constitute its most striking feature, and to which, in +fact, it owes its existence. If it were not for the two great +rivers--the Tigris and Euphrates--with their tributaries, the more +northern part of the Mesopotamian lowland would in no respect differ +from the Syro-Arabian desert on which it adjoins, and which in latitude, +elevation, and general geological character it exactly resembles. +Towards the south, the importance of the rivers is still greater; for of +Lower Mesopotamia it may be said, with more truth than of Egypt, that it +is "an acquired land," the actual "gift" of the two streams which wash +it on either side; being, as it is, entirely a recent formation--a +deposit which the streams have made in the shallow waters of a gulf into +which they have flowed for many ages. + +The division, which has here forced itself upon our notice, between the +Upper and the Lower Mesopotamian country, is one very necessary to engage +our attention in connection with the ancient Chaldaea. There is no +reason to think that the terns Chaldaea had at anytime the extensive +signification of Mesopotamia, much less that it applied to the entire +flat country between the desert and the mountains. Chaldaea was not the +whole, but a part of, the great Mesopotamian plain; which was ample +enough to contain within it three or four considerable monarchies. +According to the combined testimony of geographers and historians, +Chaldaea lay towards the south, for it bordered upon the Persian Gulf; +and towards the west, for it adjoined Arabia. If we are called upon +to fix more accurately its boundaries, which, like those of most +countries without strong natural frontiers, suffered many fluctuations, +we are perhaps entitled to say that the Persian Gulf on the south, the +Tigris on the east, the Arabian desert on the west, and the limit between +Upper and Lower Mesopotamia on the north, formed the natural bounds, +which were never greatly exceeded and never much infringed upon. These +boundaries are for the most part tolerably clear, though the northern +only is invariable. Natural causes, hereafter to be mentioned more +particularly, are perpetually varying the course of the Tigris, the shore +of the Persian Gulf, and the line of demarcation between the sands of +Arabia and the verdure of the Euphrates valley. But nature has set a +permanent mark, half way down the Mesopotamian lowland, by a difference +of geological structure, which is very conspicuous. Near Hit on the +Euphrates, and a little below Samarah on the Tigris, the traveller who +descends the streams, bids adieu to a somewhat waving and slightly +elevated plain of secondary formation, and enters on the dead flat and +low level of the mere alluvium. The line thus formed is marked and +invariable; it constitutes the only natural division between the upper +and lower portions of the valley; and both probability and history point +to it as the actual boundary between Chaldaea and her northern neighbor. + +The extent of ancient Chaldaea is, even after we have fixed its +boundaries, a question of some difficulty. From the edge of the alluvium +a little below Hit, to the present coast of the Persian Gulf at the mouth +of the Shat-el-Arab, is a distance of above 430 miles; while from the +western shore of the Bahr-i-Nedjif to the Tigris at Serut is a direct +distance of 185 miles. The present area of the alluvium west of the +Tigris and the Shat-el-Arab maybe estimated at about 30,000 square miles. +But the extent of ancient Chaldaea can scarcely have been so great. It +is certain that the alluvium at the head of the Persian Gulf now grows +with extraordinary rapidity, and not improbable that the growth may in +ancient times have been even more rapid than it is at present. Accurate +observations have shown that the present rate of increase amounts to as +much as a mile each seventy years, while it is the opinion of those best +qualified to judge that the average progress during the historic period +has been as much as a mile in every thirty years! Traces of +post-tertiary deposits have been found as far up the country as Tel +Ede and Hammam, 10 or more than 200 miles from the embouchure of the +Shat-el-Arab; and there is ample reason for believing that at the time +when the first Chaldaean monarchy was established, the Persian Gulf +reached inland, 120 or 130 miles further than at present. We must +deduct therefore from the estimate of extent grounded upon the existing +state of things, a tract of land 130 miles long and some 60 or 70 broad, +which has been gained from the sea in the course of about forty +centuries. This deduction will reduce Chaldaea to a kingdom of somewhat +narrow limits; for it will contain no more than about 23,000 square +miles. This, it is true, exceeds the area of all ancient Greece, +including Thessaly, Acarnania, and the islands; it nearly equals that of +the Low Countries, to which Chaldaea presents some analogy; it is almost +exactly that of the modern kingdom of Denmark; but it is less than +Scotland, or Ireland, or Portugal, or Bavaria; it is more than doubled +by England, more than quadrupled by Prussia, and more than octupled by +Spain, France, and European Turkey. Certainly, therefore, it was not in +consequence of its size that Chaldaea became so important a country in +the early ages, but rather in consequence of certain advantages of the +soil, climate, and position, which will be considered in the next +chapter. + +It has been already noticed that in the ancient Chaldaea, the +chief--almost the sole-geographical features, were the rivers. Nothing +is more remarkable even now than the featureless character of the region, +although in the course of ages it has received from man some +interruptions of the original uniformity. On all sides a dead level +extends itself, broken only by single solitary mounds, the remains of +ancient temples or cities, by long lines of slightly elevated embankment +marking the course of canals, ancient or recent, and towards the +south--by a few sand-hills. The only further variety is that of color; for +while the banks of the streams, the marsh-grounds, and the country for a +short distance on each side of the canals in actual operation, present to +the eye a pleasing, and in some cases a luxuriant verdure; the rest, +except in early spring, is parched and arid, having little to distinguish +it from the most desolate districts of Arabia. Anciently, except for +this difference, the tract must have possessed all the wearisome +uniformity of the steppe region; the level horizon must have shown itself +on all sides unbroken by a single irregularity; all places must have +appeared alike, and the traveller can scarcely have perceived his +progress, or have known whither or how to direct his steps. The rivers +alone, with their broad sweeps and bold reaches, their periodical changes +of swell and fall, their strength, motion, and life-giving power, can +have been objects of thought and interest to the first inhabitants; and +it is still to these that the modern must turn who wishes to represent, +to himself or others, the general aspect and chief geographical divisions +of the country. + +The Tigris and Euphrates rise from opposite sides of the same +mountain-chain. This is the ancient range of Niphates (a prolongation +of Taurus), the loftiest of the many parallel ridges which intervene +between the Euxine and the Mesopotamian plain, and the only one which +transcends in many places the limits of perpetual snow. Hence its +ancient appellation, and hence its power to sustain unfailingly the two +magnificent streams which flow from it. The line of the Niphates is +from east to west, with a very slight deflection to the south of west; +and the streams thrown off from its opposite flanks, run at first in +valleys parallel to the chain itself, but in opposite directions, the +Euphrates flowing westward from its source near Ararat to Malatiyeh, +while the Tigris from Diarbekr "goes eastward to Assyria." The rivers +thus appear as if never about to meet; but at Malatiyeh, the course of +the Euphrates is changed. Sweeping suddenly to the south-east, this +stream passes within a few miles of the source of the Tigris below Lake +Goljik, and forces a way through the mountains towards the south, +pursuing a tortuous course, but still seeming as if it intended +ultimately to mingle its waters with those of the Mediterranean. It is +not till about Balis, in lat. 36 deg., that this intention appears to be +finally relinquished, and the convergence of the two streams begins. The +Euphrates at first flows nearly due east, but soon takes a course which +is, with few and unimportant deflections, about south-east, as far as +Suk-es-Sheioukh, after which it runs a little north of east to Kurnah. +The Tigris from Til to Mosul pursues also a south-easterly course, and +draws but a very little nearer to the Euphrates. From Mosul, however, +to Samarah, its course is only a point east of south; and though, after +that, for some miles it flows off to the east, yet resuming, a little +below the thirty-fourth parallel, its southerly direction, it is brought +about Baghdad within twenty miles of the sister stream. From this point +there is again a divergence. The course of the Euphrates, which from +Hit to the mounds of Mohammed (long. 44 deg.) had been E.S.E., becomes +much more southerly, while that of the Tigris--which, as we have seen, +was for awhile due south--becomes once more only slightly south of east, +till near Serut, where the distance between the rivers has increased +from twenty to a hundred miles. After passing respectively Serut and El +Khitr, the two streams converge rapidly. The flow of the Euphrates is +at first E. S. E., and then a little north of east to Kurnah, while that +of the Tigris is S.S.E. to the same point. The lines of the streams in +this last portion of their course, together with that which may be drawn +across from stream to stream, form nearly an equilateral triangle, the +distance being respectively 104, 110, and 115 miles. So rapid is the +final convergence of the two great rivers. + +The Tigris and Euphrates are both streams of the first order. The +estimated length of the former, including main windings, is 1146 miles; +that of the latter is 1780 miles. Like most rivers that have their +sources in high mountain regions, they are strong from the first, and, +receiving in their early course a vast number of important tributaries, +become broad and deep streams before they issue upon the plains. The +Euphrates is navigable from Sumeisat (the ancient Samosata), 1200 miles +above its embouchure; and even 180 miles higher up, is a river "of +imposing appearance," 120 yards wide and very deep. The Tigris is often +250 yards wide at Diarbekr, which is not a hundred miles from its +source, and is navigable in the flood time from the bridge of Diarbekr +to Mosul, from which place it is descended at all seasons to Baghdad, +and thence to the sea. Its average width below Mosul is 200 yards, with +a depth which allows the ascent of light steamers, unless when there is +an artificial obstruction. Above Mosul the width rarely exceeds 150 +yards, and the depth is not more in places than three or four feet. The +Euphrates is 250 yards wide at Balbi, and averages 350 yards from its +junction with the Khabour to Hit: its depth is commonly from fifteen to +twenty feet. Small steamers have descended its entire course from Bir to +the sea. The volume of the Euphrates in places is, however, somewhat +less than that of the Tigris, which is a swifter and in its latter +course a deeper stream. It has been calculated that the quantity of +water discharged every second by the Tigris at Baghdad is 164,103 cubic +feet, while that discharged by the Euphrates at Hit is 72,804 feet. + +The Tigris and Euphrates are very differently circumstanced with respect +to tributaries. So long as it runs among the Armenian mountains, the +Euphrates has indeed no lack of affluents; but these, except the Kara +Su, or northern Euphrates, are streams of no great volume, being chiefly +mountain-torrents which collect the drainage of very limited basins. +After it leaves the mountains and enters upon a low country at Sumefsat, +the affluents almost entirely cease; one, the river of Sajur, is +received from the right, in about lat. 36 deg. 40'; and two of more +importance flow in from the left-the Belik (ancient Bilichus), which +joins it in long. 39 deg. 9'; and the Khabour (ancient Habor or +Chaboras), which effects a junction in long. 40 deg. 30', lat. 35 deg. +7'. The Belik and Khabour collect the waters which flow from the +southern flank of the mountain range above Orfa, Mardin, and Nisibin, +best known as the "Mons Masius" of Strabo. They are not, however, +streams of equal importance. The Belik has a course which is nearly +straight, and does not much exceed 120 miles. The Khabour, on the +contrary, is sufficiently sinuous, and its course may be reckoned at +fully 200 miles. It is navigable by rafts from the junction of its two +main branches near the volcanic cone of Koukab, and adds a considerable +body of water to the Euphrates. Below its confluence with this stream, +or during the last 800 miles of its course, the Euphrates does not +receive a single tributary. On the contrary, it soon begins to give off +its waters right and left, throwing out branches, which either terminate +in marshes, or else empty themselves into the Tigris. After awhile, +indeed, it receives compensation, by means of the Shat-el-Hie and other +branch streams, which bring back to it from the Tigris, between Mugheir +and Kurnah, the greater portion of the borrowed fluid. The Tigris, on +the contrary, is largely enriched throughout the whole of its course by +the waters of tributary streams. It is formed originally of three main +branches: the Diarbekr stream, or true Tigris, the Myafarekin River, and +the Bitlis Chai, or Centrites of Xenophon, which carries a greater body +than either of the other two. From its entry on the low country near +Jezireh to the termination of its course at Kurnah, it is continually +receiving from the left a series of most important additions. The chain +of Zagros, which, running parallel to the two main springs, shuts in the +Mesopotamian plain upon the east, abounds with springs, which are well +supplied during the whole summer from its snows, and these when +collected form rivers of large size and most refreshing coolness. The +principal are, the eastern Khabour, which joins the Tigris in lat. 37 +deg. 12': the Upper Zabo which falls in by the ruins of Nimrud: the +Lower Zab, which joins some way below Kileh Sherghat: the Adhem, which +unites its waters half way between Samarah and Baghdad: and the Diyaleh +(ancient Gyndes), which is received between Baghdad and the ruins of +Ctesiphon. + +By the influx of these streams the Tigris continues to grow in depth and +strength as it nears the sea, and becomes at last (as we have seen) a +greater river than the Euphrates, which shrinks during the latter part +of its course, and is reduced to a volume very inferior to that which it +once boasted. The Euphrates at its junction with the Khabour, 700 miles +above Kurnah, is 400 yards wide and 18 feet deep; at Irzah or Verdi, 75 +miles lower down, it is 350 yards wide and of the same depth; at +Hadiseh, 140 miles below Werdi, it is 300 yards wide, and still of the +same depth; at Hit, 50 miles below Hadiseh, its width has increased to +350 yards, but its depth has diminished to 16 feet; at Felujiah, 75 +miles from Hit, the depth is 20 feet, but the width has diminished to +250 yards. From this point the contraction is very rapid and striking. +The Saklawiyeh canal is given out upon the left, and some way further +down the Hindiyeh branches off upon the right, each carrying, when the +Euphrates is full, a large body of water. The consequence is that at +Hillah, 90 miles-below Felujiah, the stream is no more than 200 yards +wide and 15 feet deep; at Diwaniyeh, 65 miles further down, it is only +160 yards wide; and at Lamlun, 20 miles below Diwaniyeh, it is reduced +to 120 yards wide, with a depth of no more than 12 feet! Soon after, +however, it begins to recover itself. The water, which left it by the +Hindiyeh, returns to it upon the one side, while the Shat-el-Hie and +numerous other branch streams from the Tigris flow in upon the other; +but still the Euphrates never recovers itself entirely, nor even +approaches in its later course to the standard of its earlier greatness. +The channel from Kurnah to El Khitr was found by Colonel Chesney to have +an average width of only 200 yards, and a depth of about 18 or 19 feet, +which implies a body of water far inferior to that carried between the +junction with the Khabour and Hit. More recently, the decline of the +stream in its latter course has been found to be even greater. Neglect +of the banks has allowed the river to spread itself more and more widely +over the land: and it is said that, except in the flood time, very +little of the Euphrates water reaches the sea. Nor is this an +unprecedented or very unusual state of things. From the circumstance +(probably) that it has been formed by the deposits of streams flowing +from the east as well as from the north, the lower Mesopotamian plain +slopes not only to the south, but to the west. The Euphrates, which has +low banks, is hence at all times inclined to leave its bed, and to flow +off to the right, where large tracts are below its ordinary level. Over +these it spreads itself, forming the well-known "Chaldaean marshes," +which absorb the chief proportion of the water that flows into them, and +in which the "great river" seems at various times to have wholly, or +almost wholly, lost itself. No such misfortune can befall the Tigris, +which runs in a deep bed, and seldom varies its channel, offering a +strong contrast to the sister stream. + +Frequent allusion has been made, in the course of this description of +the Tigris and Euphrates, to the fact of their having each a flood +season. Herodotus is scarcely correct when he says that in Babylonia +"the river does not, as in Egypt, overflow the corn-lands of its own +accord, but is spread over them by the help of engines." Both the +Tigris and Euphrates rise many feet each spring, and overflow their +banks in various places. The rise is caused by the melting of the snows +in the mountain regions from which the two rivers and their affluents +spring. As the Tigris drains the southern, and the Euphrates the +northern side of the same mountain range, the flood of the former stream +is earlier and briefer than that of the latter. The Tigris commonly +begins to rise early in March, and reaches its greatest height in the +first or second week of May, after which it rapidly declines, and +returns to its natural level by the middle of June. The Euphrates first +swells about the middle of March, and is not in full flood till quite +the end of May or the beginning of June; it then continues high for +above a month, and does not sink much till the middle of July, after +which it gradually falls till September. The country inundated by the +Tigris is chiefly that on its lower course, between the 32d and 31st +parallels, the territory of the Beni Lam Arabs. The territory which the +Euphrates floods is far more extensive. As high up as its junction with +the Khabour, that stream is described as, in the month of April, +"spreading over the surrounding country like a sea." From Hit +downwards, it inundates both its banks, more especially the country +above Baghdad (to which it is carried by the Saklawiyeh canal), the +tract west of the Birs Nimrud and extending thence by way of Nedjif to +Samava and the territory of the Affej Arabs, between the rivers above +and below the 32d parallel. Its flood is, however, very irregular, +owing to the nature of its banks, and the general inclination of the +plain, whereof mention was made above. If care is taken, the inundation +may be pretty equally distrib uted on either side of the stream; but if +the river banks are neglected, it is sure to flow mainly to the west, +rendering the whole country on that side the river a swamp, and leaving +the territory on the left bank almost without water. This state of +things may be traced historically from the age of Alexander to the +present day, and has probably prevailed more or less since the time when +Chaldaea received its first inhabitants. + +The floods of the Tigris and Euphrates combine with the ordinary action +of their streams upon their banks to produce a constant variation in +their courses, which in a long period of time might amount to something +very considerable. It is impossible to say, with respect to any portion +of the alluvial plain, that it may not at some former period have been +the bed of one or the other river. Still it would seem that, on the +whole, a law of compensation prevails, with the result that the general +position of the streams in the valley is not very different now from what +it was 4000 years ago. Certainly between the present condition of things +and that in the time of Alexander, or even of Herodotus, no great +difference can be pointed out, except in the region immediately adjoining +on the gulf, where the alluvium has grown, and the streams, which were +formerly separate, have united their waters. The Euphrates still flows +by Hit and through Babylon; the Tigris passes near Opis, and at Baghdad +runs at the foot of an embankment made to confine it by Nebuchadnezzar. +The changes traceable are less in the main courses than in the branch +streams, which perpetually vary, being sometimes left dry within a few +years of the time that they have been navigable channels. + +The most important variations of this kind are on the side of Arabia. +Here the desert is always ready to encroach; and the limits of Chaldaea +itself depend upon the distance from the main river, to which some branch +stream conveys the Euphrates water. In the most flourishing times of the +country, a wide and deep channel, branching off near Hit, at the very +commencement of the alluvium, has skirted the Arabian rock and gravel for +a distance of several hundred miles, and has entered the Persian Gulf by +a mouth of its own. In this way the extent of Chaldaea has been at times +largely increased, a vast tract being rendered cultivable, which is +otherwise either swamp or desert. + +Such are the chief points of interest connected with the two great +Mesopotamian rivers. These form, as has been already observed, the only +marked and striking characteristics of the country, which, except for +them, and for one further feature, which now requires notice, would be +absolutely unvaried and uniform. On the Arabian side of the Euphrates, +50 miles south of the ruins of Babylon, and 25 or 30 miles from the +river, is a fresh-water lake of very considerable dimensions--the +Bahr-i-Nedjif, the "Assyrium stagnum" of Justin. This is a natural +basin, 40 miles long, and from 10 to 20 miles broad, enclosed on three +sides by sandstone cliffs, varying from 20 to 200 feet in height, and +shut in on the fourth side--the north-east--by a rocky ridge, which +intervenes between the valley of the Euphrates and this inland sea. The +cliffs are water-worn, presenting distinct indications of more than one +level at which the water has rested in former times. At the season of +the inundation this lake is liable to be confounded with the extensive +floods and marshes which extend continuously from the country west of +the Birs Nimrud to Samava. But at other tines the distinction between +the Bahr and the marshes is very evident, the former remaining when the +latter disappear altogether, and not diminishing very greatly in size +even in the driest season. The water of the lake is fresh and sweet, so +long as it communicates with the Euphrates; when the communication is +cut off it becomes very unpalatable, and those who dwell in the vicinity +are no longer able to drink it. This result is attributed to the +connection of the lake with rocks of the gypsiferous series. + +It is obvious that the only natural divisions of Chaldaea a proper are +those made by the river-courses. The principal tract must always have +been that which intervenes between the two streams. This was anciently a +district some 300 miles in length, varying from 20 to 100 miles in +breadth, and perhaps averaging 50 miles, which must thus have contained +an area of about 15,000 square miles. The tract between the Euphrates +and Arabia was at all times smaller than this, and in the most +flourishing period of Chaldaea must have fallen short of 10,000 square +miles. + +We have no evidence that the natural division of Chaldaea here indicated +was ever employed in ancient times for political purposes. The division +which appears to have been so employed was one into northern and southern +Chaldaea, the first extending from Hit to a little below Babylon, the +second from Niffer to the shores of the Persian Gulf. In each of these +districts we have a sort of tetrarchy, or special pre-eminence of four +cities, such as appears to be indicated by the words--"The beginning of +his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad and Calneh, in the land of +Shinar." The southern tetrarchy is composed of the four cities, Ur or +Hur, Huruk, Nipur, and Larsa or Larancha, which are probably identified +with the Scriptural "Ur of the Chaldees," Erech, Calneh, and Ellasar. +The northern consists of Babel or Babylon, Borsippa, Cutha, and Sippara, +of which all except Borsippa are mentioned in Scripture. Besides these +cities the country contained many others,--as Chilmad, Dur-Kurri-galzu, +Ihi or Ahava, Rubesi, Duran, Tel-Humba, etc. It is not possible at +present to locate with accuracy all these places. We may, however, in +the more important instances, fix either certainly, or with a very high +degree of probability, their position. + +Hur or Ur, the most important of the early capitals, was situated on the +Euphrates, probably at no great distance from its mouth. It was probably +the chief commercial emporium in the early times; as in the bilingual +vocabularies its ships are mentioned in connection with those of +Ethiopia. The name is found to have attached to the extensive ruins (now +about six miles from the river, on its right bank, and nearly opposite +its junction with the Shat-el-Hie) which are known by the name of +Mugheir, or "the bitumened." Hereon a dead flat, broken only by a few +sand-hills, are traces of a considerable town, consisting chiefly of a +series of low mounds, disposed in an oval shape, the largest diameter of +which runs from north to south, and measures somewhat more than half a +mile. The chief building is a temple, hereafter to be more particularly +described, which is a very conspicuous object even at a considerable +distance, its greatest height above the plain being about seventy feet. +It is built in a very rude fashion, of large bricks, cemented with +bitumen, whence the name by which the Arabs designate the ruins. + +[Illustration: PLATE 1] + +About thirty miles from Hur, in a north-westerly direction, and on the +other side of the Euphrates, from which it is distant eight or nine +miles, are the ruins of a town, called in the inscriptions Larrak, or +Larsa, in which some of the best Orientalists have recognized at once the +Biblical Ellasar, the Laranchue of Berosus, and the Larissa of +Apollodorus, where the king held his court who sent Memnon to the siege +of Troy. The identification is perhaps doubtful; but, at any rate, we +have here the remains of a second Chaldaean capital, dating from the very +earliest times. The ruins, which bear now the name of Senkereh or +Sinkara, consist of a low circular platform, about four and a half miles +in circumference, rising gradually from the level of the plain to a +central mound, the highest point of which attains an elevation of seventy +feet above the plain itself, and is distinctly visible from a distance of +fifteen miles. The material used consists of the ordinary sun-dried and +baked bricks; and the basement platforms bear the inscriptions of the +same king who appears to have been the original founder of the chief +buildings at Ur or Mugheir. + +[Illustration: PLATE 2] + +Fifteen miles from Larsa, in a direction a little north of west, and on +the same side of the river, are ruins considerably more extensive than +those of either Ur or Larsa, to which the natives apply the name of +Warka, which is no doubt a corruption of the original appellation. The +Erech, or Orech, of the Hebrews, which appears as Huruk in the cuneiform +geographical lists, became known to the Greeks as Orchoe; and this +appellation, probably continuing in use to the time of the Arab conquest, +was then corrupted into Urka or Warka, in which shape the name given by +Nimrod still attaches to the second of his cities. The ruins stand in +lat. 31 deg. 19', long. 45 deg. 40', about four miles from the nearest +bend of the Euphrates, on its left or east bank. They form an irregular +circle, nearly six miles in circumference, which is defined by the traces +of an earthen rampart, in some places forty feet high. A vast mass of +undulating mounds, intersected by innumerable channels and ravines, +extends almost entirely across the circular space, in a direction, which +is nearly north and south, abutting at either end upon the rampart. East +and west of this mass is a comparatively open space, where the mounds are +scattered and infrequent; while outside the rampart are not only a number +of detached hillocks marking the site of ancient buildings, but in one +direction--towards the east--the city may be traced continuously by means +of ruined edifices, mounds, and pottery, fully three miles beyond the +rampart into the desert. The greatest height of the ruins is about 100 +feet; their construction is very rude and primitive, the date of some +buildings being evidently as early as that of the most ancient structures +of either Mugheir or Senkereh. + +Sixty miles to the north-west of these ruins, still on the left or +eastern bank of the Euphrates, but at the distance of thirty miles from +its present course, are the remains of another city, the only Chaldaean +ruins which can dispute, with those already described, the palm of +antiquity. They consist of a number of separate and distinct heaps, +which seem to be the remains of different buildings, and are divided into +two nearly equal groups by a deep ravine or channel 120 feet wide, +apparently the dry bed of a river which once ran through the town. +Conspicuous among the other hillocks is a conical heap, occupying a +central position on the eastern side of the river-bed, and rising to the +height of about seventy feet above the general level of the plain. +Further on in this direction is a low continuous mound, which seems to be +a portion of the outer wall of the city. The ruins are of considerable +extent, but scarcely so large as those at either Senkereh or Warka. The +name which now attaches to them is Niffer: and it appears, from the +inscriptions at the place, that the ancient Semitic appellation was but +slightly different. This name, as read on the bilingual tablets, was +Nipur; and as there can be little doubt that it is this word which +appears in the Talmud as Nopher, we are perhaps entitled, on the +authority of that treasure-house of Hebrew traditions, to identify these +ruins with the Calneh of Moses, and the Calno of Isaiah. + +About sixty-five miles from Niffer, on the opposite side of the +Euphrates, and in a direction only slightly north of west, are the +remains of the ancient Borsippa. These consist of little more than the +ruins of a single building--the great temple of Merodach--which was +entirely rebuilt by Nebuchadnezzar. They have been sometimes regarded as +really a portion of the ancient Babylon; but this view is wholly +incompatible with the cuneiform records, which distinctly assign to the +ruins in question the name of Borsip or Borsippa, a place known with +certainty to have been distinct from, though in the neighborhood of, the +capital. A remnant of the ancient name appears to be contained in the +modern appellation, Birs-Nimrud or Birsi-Nimrud, which does not admit of +any explanation from the existing language of the country. + +Fifteen miles from thence, to the north-east, chiefly but not entirely on +the left or east bank of the Euphrates, are the remains of "Babylon the +Great," which have been so frequently described by travellers, that +little need be said of them in this place. The chief ruins cover a space +about three miles long, and from one to two broad, and consist mainly of +three great masses: the first a square mound, called "Babil" by the +Arabs, lying towards the north at some distance from the other remains; +the second or central mound, a pile called the "Kasr" or Palace; and the +third, a great irregular heap lying towards the south, known as the +"mound of Amram," from a tomb which crowns its summit. The "Kasr" and +"Amram" mounds are enclosed within two lines of rampart, lying at right +angles to each other, and forming, with the river, a sort of triangle, +within which all the principal ruins are comprised, except the mound +called "Babil". Beyond the rampart, towards the north, south, and east, +and also across the river to the west, are various smaller detached +ruins, while the whole ground, in every direction, is covered with +fragments of brick and with nitre, the sure marks of former habitations. + +[Illustration: PLATE 3] + +The other cities of ancient Chaldaea which may be located with an +approach to certainty, are Cutha, now Ibrahim, fifteen miles north-east +by north of Hymar; Sippara or Sepharvaim, which was at Sura, near Mosaib +on the Euphrates, about twenty miles above Babylon by the direct route; +and Dur-Kurri-galzu, now Akkerkuf, on the Saklawiyeh canal, six miles +from Baghdad, and thirty from Mosaib, in a direction a little west of +north. [PLATE III., Fig. 1.] Ihi, or Ahava, is probably Hit, ninety +miles above Mosaib, on the right bank of the river; Chilmad may be +Kalwadha, near Baghdad; and Rubesi is perhaps Zerghul, near the left bank +of the Shat-el-Hie, a little above its confluence with the Euphrates. +Chaldaean cities appear likewise to have existed at Hymar, ten miles from +Babylon towards the east; at Sherifeh and Im Khithr, south and south-east +of Hymar; at Zibbliyeh, on the line of the Nil canal, fifteen miles +north-west of Niffer; at Delayhim and Bisrniya, in the Affej marshes, +beyond Niffer, to the south-east; at Phara and Jidr, in the same region, +to the south-west and south-east of Bismiya; at Hammam [PLATE III., Fig. +2], sixteen miles south-east of Phara, between the Affej and the Shatra +marshes; at Tel-Ede, six miles from Hammam, to the south-south-west +[PLATE IV., Fig. 2]; at Tel-Medineh and Tel-Sifr, in the Shatra marshes, +to the south-east of Tel-Ede and the north-east of Senkereh; at Yokha, +east of Hammam, and Nuffdyji, north of Warka; at Lethami, near Niffer; at +Iskhuriyeh, north of Zibbliyeh, near the Tigris; at Tel-Kheir and +Tel-Dhalab, in the upper part of the alluvium, to the north of Akkerkuf; +at Duair, on the right bank of the Euphrates, south of Hilleh and +south-east of the Birs-Nimrud; at Jeb Mehari, south of the +Bahr-i-Nedjif; at Mal Battush, near Swaje; at Tel-el-Lahm, nine or ten +miles south of Suk-es-Sheioukh, and at Abu Shahrein, in the same +neighborhood, on the very border of the Arabian Desert. Further +investigation will probably add largely to this catalogue, for many +parts of Babylonia are still to some extent unexplored. This is +especially true of the tract between the Shat-el-Hie and the lower +Tigris, a district which, according to the geographers, abounds with +ruins. No doubt the most extensive and most striking of the old cities +have been visited; for of these Europeans are sure to hear through the +reports of natives. But it is more than probable that a number of the +most interesting sites remain unexplored, and even unvisited; for these +are not always either very extensive or very conspicuous. The process +of gradual disintegration is continually lowering the height of the +Chaldaean ruins; and depressed mounds are commonly the sign of an +ancient and long-deserted city. Such remains give us an insight into +the character of the early people, which it is impossible to obtain from +ruins where various populations have raised their fabrics in succession +upon the same spot. + +[Illustration: PLATE 4] + +The cities here enumerated may not perhaps, in all cases, have existed in +the Chaldaean period. The evidence hitherto obtained connects distinctly +with that period only the following--Babylon, Ur or Hur, Larrak or Larsa, +Erech or Huruk, Calneh or Nopher, Sippara, Dur-Kurri-galzu, Chilmad, and +the places now called Abu Shahrein and Tel-Sifr. These sites, it will be +observed, were scattered over the whole territory from the extreme south +almost to the extreme north, and show the extent of the kingdom to have +been that above assigned to it. They are connected together by a +similarity in building arrangements and materials, in language, in form +of type and writing, and sometimes in actual names of monarchs. The most +ancient, apparently, are those towards the south, at Warka, Senkereh, +Mugheir, and Niffer; and here, in the neighborhood of the sea, which then +probably reached inland as far as Suk-es-Sheioukh, there is sufficient +reason to place the primitive seat of Chaldaean power. The capital of +the whole region was at first Ur or Hur, but afterwards became Nipur, and +finally Babel or Babylon. + +The geography of Chaldaea is scarcely complete without a glance at the +countries which adjoin upon it. On the west, approaching generally +within twenty or thirty miles of the present course of the Euphrates, is +the Arabian Desert, consisting in this place of tertiary sand and +gravels, having a general elevation of a few feet above the Mesopotamian +plain, and occasionally rising into ridges of no great height, whose +direction is parallel to the course of the great stream. Such are the +Hazem and the Qassaim, in the country between the Bahr-i-Nedjif and the +Persian Gulf, low pebbly ridges which skirt the valley from the Bahr to +below Suk-es-Sheioukh. Further west the desert becomes more stony, its +surface being strewn with numerous blocks of black granite, from which it +derives its appellation of Hejerra. No permanent streams water this +region; occasional "wadys" or torrent-courses, only full after heavy +rains, are found; but the scattered inhabitants depend for water chiefly +on their wells, which are deep and numerous, but yield only a scanty +supply of a brackish and unpalatable fluid. No settled population can at +any time have found subsistence in this region, which produces only a few +dates, and in places a poor and unsucculent herbage. Sandstorms are +frequent, and at times the baleful simoon sweeps across the entire tract, +destroying with its pestilential breath both men and animals. + +Towards the north Chaldaea adjoined upon Assyria. From the foot of that +moderately lofty range already described which the Greeks call Masius, +and the modern Turks know as Jebel Tur and Karajah Dagh, extends, for +above 300 miles, a plain of low elevation, slightly undulating in places, +and crossed about its centre by an important limestone ridge, known as +the Sinjar hills, which have a direction nearly east and west, beginning +about Mosul, and terminating a little below Rakkah. This track differs +from the Chaldaean lowland, by being at once less flat and more elevated. +Geologically it is of secondary formation, while Chaldaea proper is +tertiary or post-tertiary. It is fairly watered towards the north, but +below the Sinjar is only very scantily supplied. In modern times it is +for nine months in the year a desert, but anciently it was well +inhabited, means having apparently been found to bring the whole into +cultivation. As a complete account of this entire region must be given +in another part of the present volume, this outline (it is thought) may +suffice for our present purpose. + +Eastward of Chaldaea, separated from it by the Tigris, which in its lower +course is a stream of more body than the Euphrates, was the country known +to the Jews as Elam, to the early Greeks as Cissia, and to the later +Greeks as Susis or Susiana. This territory comprised a portion of the +mountain country which separates Mesopotamia from Persia; but it was +chiefly composed of the broad and rich flats intervening between the +mountains and the Tigris, along the courses of the Kerkhah, Kuran, and +Jerahi rivers. It was a rich and fertile tract, resembling Chaldaea in +its general character, with the exception that the vicinity of the +mountains lent it freshness, giving it cooler streams, more frequent +rains, and pleasanter breezes. + +Capable of maintaining with ease a dense population, it was likely, in +the early times, to be a powerful rival to the Mesopotamian kingdom, over +which we shall find that in fact it sometimes exercised supremacy. + +On the south Chaldaea had no neighbor. Here a spacious sea, with few +shoals, land-locked, and therefore protected from the violent storms of +the Indian Ocean, invited to commerce, offering a ready communication +with India and Ceylon, as well as with Arabia Felix, Ethiopia, and Egypt. +It is perhaps to this circumstance of her geographical position, as much +as to any other, that ancient Chaldaea owes her superiority over her +neighbors, and her right to be regarded as one of the five great +monarchies of the ancient world. Commanding at once the sea, which +reaches here deep into the land, and the great rivers by means of which +the commodities of the land were most conveniently brought down to the +sea, she lay in the highway of trade, and could scarcely fail to profit +by her position. There is sufficient reason to believe that Ur, the +first capital, was a great maritime emporium; and if so, it can scarcely +be doubted that to commerce and trade, at the least in part, the early +development of Chaldaean greatness was owing. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +CLIMATE AND PRODUCTIONS. + +"Ager totius Asiae fertilissimus."--PLIN. H. N. vi. 26. + + +Lower Mesopotamia, or Chaldaea, which lies in the same latitude with +Central China, the Punjab, Palestine, Marocco, Georgia, Texas, and +Central California, has a climate the warmth of which is at least equal +to that of any of those regions. Even in the more northern part of the +country, the district about Baghdad, the thermometer often rises during +the summer to 120 deg. of Fahrenheit in the shade; and the inhabitants +are forced to retreat to their _serdabs_ or cellars, where they remain +during the day, in an atmosphere which, by the entire exclusion of the +sun's rays, is reduced to about 100 deg. Lower down the valley, at +Zobair, Busrah, and Mohammrah, the summer temperature is still higher; +and, owing to the moisture of the atmosphere, consequent on the vicinity +of the sea, the heat is of that peculiarly oppressive character which +prevails on the sea-coast of Hindustan, in Ceylon, in the West Indian +Islands, at New Orleans, and in other places whose situation is similar. +The vital powers languish under this oppression, which produces in the +European a lassitude of body and a prostration of mind that wholly unfit +him for active duties. On the Asiatic, however, these influences seem to +have little effect. The Cha'b Arabs, who at present inhabit the region, +are a tall and warlike race, strong-limbed, and muscular; they appear to +enjoy the climate, and are as active, as healthy, and as long-lived as +any tribe of their nation. But if man by long residence becomes +thoroughly inured to the intense heat of these regions, it is otherwise +with the animal creation. Camels sicken, and birds are so distressed by +the high temperature that they sit in the date-trees about Baghdad, with +their mouths open, panting for fresh air. + +The evils proceeding from a burning temperature are augmented in places +under the influence of winds, which, arising suddenly, fill the air with +an impalpable sand, sometimes circling about a point, sometimes driving +with furious force across a wide extent of country. The heated +particles, by their contact with the atmosphere, increase its fervid +glow, and, penetrating by the nose and mouth, dry up the moisture of the +tongue, parch the throat, and irritate or even choke the lungs. Earth +and sky are alike concealed by the dusty storm, through which no object +can be distinguished that is removed many yards; a lurid gleam surrounds +the traveller, and seems to accompany him as he moves: every landmark is +hid from view; and to the danger of suffocation is added that of becoming +bewildered and losing all knowledge of the road. Such are the perils +encountered in the present condition of the country. It may be doubted, +however, if in the times with which we are here concerned the evils just +described had an existence. The sands of Chaldaea, which are still +progressive and advancing, seem to have reached it from the Arabian +Desert, to which they properly belong: year by year the drifts gain upon +the alluvium, and threaten to spread over the whole country. If we may +calculate the earlier by the present rate of progress, we must conclude +that anciently these shifting sands had at any rate not crossed the +Euphrates. + +If the heat of summer be thus fierce and trying, the cold of winter must +be pronounced to be very moderate. Frost, indeed, is not unknown in the +country: but the frosts are only slight. Keen winds blow from the north, +and in the morning the ground is often whitened by the congelation of the +dew; the Arabs, impatient of a low temperature, droop and flag; but there +is at no time any severity of cold; ice rarely forms in the marshes; snow +is unknown; and the thermometer, even on the grass, does not often sink +below 30 deg. The Persian kings passed their winter in Babylon, on +account of the mildness of the climate; and Indian princes, expelled from +the Peninsula, are wont, from a similar cause, to fix their residence at +Busrah or Baghdad. The cold of which travellers speak is relative rather +than positive. The range of the thermometer in Lower Chaldoea is perhaps +100 deg., whereas in England it is scarcely 80 deg., there is thus a +greater difference between the heat of summer and the cold of winter +there than here; but the actual greatest cold--that which benumbs the +Arabs and makes them fall from their horses--is no more than we often +experience in April, or even in May. + +The rainy season of Chaldaea is in the winter time. Heavy showers fall +in November, and still more in December, which sensibly raise the level +of the rivers. As the spring advances the showers become lighter and +less frequent; but still they recur from time to time, until the summer +sets in, about May. From May to November rain is very rare indeed. The +sky continues for weeks or even months without a cloud; and the sun's +rays are only tempered for a short time at morning and at evening by a +gray mist or haze. It is during these months that the phenomenon of the +mirage is most remarkable. The strata of air, unequally heated, and +therefore differing in rarity, refract the rays of light, fantastically +enlarging and distorting the objects seen through them, which frequently +appear raised from the ground and hanging in mid-air, or else, by a +repetition of their image, which is reflected in a lower stratum, give +the impression that they stand up out of a lake. Hence the delusion +which has so often driven the traveller to desperation--the "image of a +cool, rippling, watery mirror," which flies before him as he advances, +and at once provokes and mocks his thirst. + +The fertility of Chaldaea in ancient times was proverbial. + +"Of all countries that we know," says Herodotus, "there is none that is +so fruitful in grain. It makes no pretension, indeed, of growing the +fig, the olive, the vine, or any other tree of the kind; but in grain it +is so fruitful as to yield commonly two hundred-fold, and when the +production is at the greatest, even three hundred-fold. The blade of the +wheat-plant and of the barley-plant is often four fingers in breadth. As +for the millet and the sesame, I shall not say to what height they grow, +though within my own knowledge; for I am not ignorant that what I have +already written concerning the fruitfulness of Babylonia must seem +incredible to those who have not visited the country." Theophrastus, the +disciple of Aristotle, remarks--"In Babylon the wheat-fields are +regularly mown twice, and then fed off with beasts, to keep down the +luxuriance of the leaf; otherwise the plant does not run to ear. When +this is done, the return, in lands that are badly cultivated, is +fifty-fold; while, in those that are well farmed, it is a hundred-fold." +Strabo observes--"The country produces barley on a scale not known +elsewhere, for the return is said to be three hundred-fold. All other +wants are supplied by the palm, which furnishes not only bread, but wine, +vinegar, honey, and meal." Pliny follows Theophrastus, with the +exception that he makes the return of the wheat-crop, where the land is +well farmed, a hundred and fifty-fold. The wealth of the region was +strikingly exhibited by the heavy demands which were made upon it by the +Persian kings, as well as by the riches which, notwithstanding these +demands, were accumulated in the hands of those who administered its +government. The money-tribute paid by Babylonia and Assyria to the +Persians was a thousand talents of silver (nearly a quarter of a million +of our money) annually; while the tribute in kind was reckoned at one +third part of the contributions of the whole empire. Yet, despite this +drain on its resources, the government was regarded as the best that the +Persian king had to bestow, and the wealth accumulated by Babylonian +satraps was extraordinary. Herodotus tells us of a certain +Tritanteechmes, a governor, who, to his own knowledge, derived from his +province nearly two bushels of silver daily! This fortunate individual +had a "stud of sixteen thousand mares, with a proportionate number of +horses." Another evidence of the fertility of the region may be traced +in the fear of Artaxerxes Mnemon, after the battle of Cunaxa, lest the +Ten Thousand should determine to settle permanently in the vicinity of +Sittace upon the Tigris. Whatever opinion may be held as to the exact +position of this place, and of the district intended by Xenophon, it is +certain that it was in the alluvial plain and so contained within the +limits of the ancient Chaldaea. + +Modern travellers, speaking of Chaldaea in its present condition, express +themselves less enthusiastically than the ancients; but, on the whole, +agree with them as to the natural capabilities of the country. "The +soil," says one of the most judicious, "is extremely fertile, producing +great quantities of rice, dates, and grain of different kinds, though it +is not cultivated to above half the degree of which it is susceptible." +"The soil is rich," says another, "not less bountiful than that on the +banks of the Egyptian Nile." "Although greatly changed by the neglect of +man," observes a third, "those portions of Mesopotamia which are still +cultivated, as the country about Hillah, show that the region has all the +fertility ascribed to it by Herodotus." There is a general recognition +of the productive qualities of the district, combined with a general +lamentation over the existing neglect and apathy which allow such gifts +of Nature to run to waste. Cultivation, we are told, is now the +exception, instead of the rule. "Instead of the luxuriant fields, the +groves and gardens of former times, nothing now meets the eye but an arid +waste." Many parts of Chaldaea, naturally as productive as any others, +are at present pictures of desolation. Large tracts are covered by +unwholesome marshes, producing nothing but enormous reeds; others lie +waste and bare, parched up by the fierce heat of the sun, and utterly +destitute of water; in some places, as has been already mentioned, +sand-drifts accumulate, and threaten to make the whole region a mere +portion of the desert. + +The great cause of this difference between ancient and modern Chaldaea is +the neglect of the water-courses. Left to themselves, the rivers tend to +desert some portions of the alluvium wholly, which then become utterly +unproductive; while they spread themselves out over others, which are +converted thereby into pestilential swamps. A well-arranged system of +embankments and irrigating canals is necessary in order to develop the +natural capabilities of the country, and to derive from the rich soil of +this vast alluvium the valuable and varied products which it can be made +to furnish. + +Among the natural products of the region two stand out as pre-eminently +important-the wheat-plant and the date-palm. [PLATE IV., Fig. 2.] +According to the native tradition, wheat was indigenous in Chaldaea; and +the first comers thus found themselves provided by the bountiful hand of +Nature with the chief necessary of life. The luxuriance of the plant was +excessive. Its leaves were as broad as the palm of a man's hand, and its +tendency to grow leaves was so great that (as we have seen) the +Babylonians used to mow it twice and then pasture their cattle on it for +awhile, to keep down the blade and induce the plant to run to ear. The +ultimate return was enormous; on the most moderate computation it +amounted to fifty-fold at the least, and often to a hundred-fold. The +modern oriental is content, even in the case of a rich soil, with a +tenfold return. + +The date-palm was at once one of the most valuable and one of the most +ornamental products of the country. "Of all vegetable forms," says the +greatest of modern naturalists, "the palm is that to which the prize of +beauty has been assigned by the concurrent voice of nations in all ages." +And though the date-palm is in form perhaps less graceful and lovely than +some of its sister species, it possesses in the dates themselves a beauty +which they lack. These charming yellow clusters, semi-transparent, which +the Greeks likened to amber, and moderns compare to gold, contrast, both +in shade and tint, with the green feathery branches beneath whose shade +they hang, and give a richness to the landscape they adorn which adds +greatly to its attractions. And the utility of the palm has been at all +times proverbial. A Persian poem celebrated its three hundred and sixty +uses. The Greeks, with more moderation, spoke of it as furnishing the +Babylonians with bread, wine, vinegar, honey, groats, string and ropes of +all kinds, firing, and a mash for fattening cattle. The fruit was +excellent, and has formed at all times an important article of +nourishment in the country. It was eaten both fresh and dried, forming +in the latter case a delicious sweetmeat. The wine, "sweet but +headachy," was probably not the spirit which it is at present customary +to distil from the dates, but the slightly intoxicating drink called +_lagby_ in North Africa, which may be drawn from the tree itself by +decapitating it, and suffering the juice to flow. The vinegar was +perhaps the same fluid corrupted, or it may have been obtained from the +dates. The honey was palm-sugar, likewise procurable from the sap. How +the groats were obtained we do not know; but it appears that the pith of +the palm was eaten formerly in Babylonia, and was thought to have a very +agreeable flavor. Ropes were made from the fibres of the bark; and the +wood was employed for building and furniture. It was soft, light and +easily worked; but tough, strong and fibrous. + +The cultivation of the date-palm was widely extended in Chaldaea, +probably from very early times. The combination of sand, moisture, +and a moderately saline soil, in which it delights, was there found in +perfection, more especially in the lower country, which had but recently +been reclaimed from the sea. Even now, when cultivation is almost wholly +laid aside, a thick forest of luxuriant date-trees clothes the banks of +the Euphrates on either side, from the vicinity of Mugheir to its +embouchure at the head of the Persian Gulf. Anciently the tract was much +more generally wooded with them. "Palm-trees grow in numbers over the +whole of the flat country," says one of the most observant and truthful +of travellers--Herodotus. According to the historians of Julian, a +forest of verdure extended from the upper edge of the alluvium, which he +crossed, to Mesene, and the shores of the sea. When the Arabian +conquerors settled themselves in the lower country, they were so charmed +with the luxuriant vegetation and the abundant date-groves, that they +compared the region with the country about Damascus and reckoned it among +their four earthly paradises. The propagation of the date-palm was +chiefly from seed. In Chaldaea, however, it was increased sometimes from +suckers or offshoots thrown up from the stem of the old tree; at other +times by a species of cutting, the entire head being struck off with +about three feet of stem, notched, and then planted in moist ground. +Several varieties of the tree were cultivated; but one was esteemed above +all the rest, both for the size and flavor of the fruit. It bore the +name of "Royal," and grew only in one place near Babylon. + +Beside these two precious products, Chaldaea produced excellent barley, +millet, sesame, vetches and fruits of all kinds. It was, however, +deficient in variety of trees, possessing scarcely any but the palm and +the cypress. Pomegranates, tamarisks, poplars, and acacias are even now +almost the only trees besides the two above mentioned, to be found +between Samarah and the Persian Gulf. The tamarisk grows chiefly as a +shrub along the rivers, but sometimes attains the dimensions of a tree, +as in the case of the "solitary tree" still growing upon the ruins of +Babylon. The pomegranates with their scarlet flowers, and the acacias +with their light and graceful foliage, ornament the banks of the streams, +generally intermingled with the far more frequent palm, while oranges, +apples, pears, and vines are successfully cultivated in the gardens and +orchards. + +[Illustration: PLATE 5] + +Among the vegetable products of Chaldaea must be noticed, as almost +peculiar to the region, its enormous reeds. [PLATE V.] These, which +are represented with much spirit in the sculptures of Sennacherib, cover +the marshes in the summer-time, rising often to the height of fourteen or +fifteen feet. The Arabs of the marsh region form their houses of this +material, binding the stems of the reeds together, and bending them into +arches, to make the skeleton of their buildings; while, to form the +walls, they stretch across from arch to arch mats made of the leaves. +From the same fragile substance they construct their _terradas_ or light +boats, which, when rendered waterproof by means of bitumen, will support +the weight of three or four men. + +In mineral products Chaldaea was very deficient indeed. The alluvium is +wholly destitute of metals, and even of stone, which must be obtained, if +wanted, from the adjacent countries. The neighboring parts of Arabia +could furnish sandstone and the more distant basalt; which appears to +have been in fact transported occasionally to the Chaldaean Cities. +Probably, however, the chief importation of stone was by the rivers, +whose waters would readily convey it to almost any part of Chaldaea from +the regions above the alluvium. This we know to have been done in some +cases, but the evidence of the ruins makes it clear that such importation +was very limited. The Chaldaeans found, in default of stone, a very +tolerable material in their own country; which produced an inexhaustible +supply of excellent clay, easily moulded into bricks, and not even +requiring to be baked in order to fit it for the builder. Exposure to +the heat of the summer sun hardened the clay sufficiently for most +purposes, while a few hours in a kiln made it as firm and durable as +freestone, or even granite. Chaldaea, again, yielded various substances +suitable for mortar. Calcareous earths abound on the western side of the +Euphrates towards the Arabian frontier; while everywhere a tenacious +slime or mud is easily procurable, which, though imperfect as a cement, +can serve the purpose, and has the advantage of being always at hand. +Bitumen is also produced largely in some parts, particularly at Hit, +where are the inexhaustible springs which have made that spot famous in +all ages. Naphtha and bitumen are here given forth separately in equal +abundance; and these two substances, boiled together in certain +proportions, form a third kind of cement, superior to the slime or mud, +but inferior to lime-mortar. Petroleum, called by the Orientals _mumia_, +is another product of the bitumen-pits. + +The wild animals indigenous in Babylonia appear to be chiefly the +following:--the lion, the leopard, the hyeena, the lynx, the wild-cat, +the wolf, the jackal, the wild-boar, the buffalo, the stag, the gazelle, +the jerboa, the fox, the hare, the badger, and the porcupine. The +Mesopotamian lion is a noble animal. Taller and larger than a Mount St. +Bernard dog, he wanders over the plains their undisputed lord, unless +when an European ventures to question his pre-eminence. The Arabs +tremble at his approach, and willingly surrender to him the choicest of +their flocks and herds. Unless urged by hunger, he seldom attacks man, +but contents himself with the destruction of buffaloes, camels, dogs, and +sheep. When taken young, he is easily tamed, and then manifests +considerable attachment to his master. In his wild state he haunts the +marshes and the banks of the various streams and canals, concealing +himself during the day, and at night wandering abroad in search of his +prey, to obtain which he will approach with boldness to the very skirts +of an Arab encampment. His roar is not deep or terrible, but like the +cry of a child in pain, or the first wail of the jackal after sunset, +only louder, clearer and more prolonged. Two varieties of the lion +appear to exist: the one is maneless, while the other has a long mane, +which is black and shaggy. The former is now the more common in the +country; but the latter, which is the fiercer of the two, is the one +ordinarily represented upon the sculptures. The lioness is nearly as +much feared as the lion; when her young are attacked, or when she has +lost them, she is perhaps even more terrible. Her roar is said to be +deeper and far more imposing than of the male. + +[Illustration: PLATE 6] + +The other animals require but few remarks. Gazelles are plentiful in the +more sandy regions; buffaloes abound in the marshes of the south, where +they are domesticated, and form the chief wealth of the inhabitants; +troops of jackals are common, while the hyaena and wolf are comparatively +rare; the wild-boar frequents the river banks and marshes, as depicted in +the Assyrian sculptures [PLATE VI., Fig. 1]; hares abound in the country +about Baghdad; porcupines and badgers are found in most places--leopards, +lynxes, wild-cats, and deer, are somewhat uncommon. + +Chaldaea possesses a great variety of birds. Falcons, vultures, kites, +owls, hawks and crows of various kinds, francolins or black partridges, +pelicans, wild-geese, ducks, teal, cranes, herons, kingfishers, and +pigeons, are among the most common. The sand-grouse (Pterocles +arenarius) is occasionally found, as also are the eagle and the +bee-eater. Fish are abundant in the rivers and marshes, principally +barbel and carp, which latter grow to a great size in the Euphrates. +Barbel form an important element in the food of the Arabs inhabiting the +Affej marshes, who take them commonly by means of a fish-spear. In the +Shat-el-Arab, which is wholly within the influence of the tides, there +is a species of goby, which is amphibious. This fish lies in myriads on +the mud-banks left uncovered by the ebb of the tide, and moves with +great agility on the approach of birds. Nature seems to have made the +goby in one of her most freakish moods. It is equally at home in the +earth, the air, and the water; and at different times in the day may be +observed swimming in the stream, basking upon the surface of the tidal +banks, and burrowing deep in the mud. + +The domestic animals are camels, horses, buffaloes, cows and oxen, goats, +sheep, and dogs. The most valuable of the last mentioned are grayhounds, +which are employed to course the gazelle and the hare. The camels, +horses, and buffaloes are of superior quality; but the cows and oxen seem +to be a very inferior breed. The goats and the sheep are small, and +yield a scanty supply of a somewhat coarse wool. Still their flocks and +herds constitute the chief wealth of the people, who have nearly forsaken +the agriculture which anciently gave Chaldaea its pre-eminence, and have +relapsed very generally into a nomadic or semi-nomadic condition. The +insecurity of property consequent upon bad government has in a great +measure caused this change, which render; the bounty of Nature useless, +and allows immense capabilities to run to waste. The present condition +of Babylonia gives a most imperfect idea of its former state, which must +be estimated not from modern statistics, but from the accounts of ancient +writers and the evidences which he country itself presents. From them we +conclude that this region was among the most productive upon the face of +the earth, spontaneously producing some of the best gifts of God to man, +and capable, under careful management, of being made one continuous +garden. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE PEOPLE. + +"A mighty nation, an ancient nation."--JEREM. v. 15. + +That the great alluvial plain at the mouth of the Euphrates and Tigris +was among the countries first occupied by man after the Deluge, is +affirmed by Scripture, and generally allowed by writers upon ancient +history. Scripture places the original occupation at a time when +language had not yet broken up into its different forms, and when, +consequently, races, as we now understand the term, can scarcely have +existed. It is not, however, into the character of these primeval +inhabitants that we have here to inquire, but into the ethnic affinities +and characteristics of that race, whatever it was, which first +established an important kingdom in the lower part of the plain--a +kingdom which eventually became an empire. According to the ordinary +theory, this race was Aramaic or Semitic. "The name of Aramaeans, +Syrians, or Assyrians," says Niebuhr, "comprises the nations extending +from the mouth of the Euphrates and Tigris to the Euxine, the river +Halys, and Palestine. They applied to themselves the name of Aram, and +the Greeks called them Assyrians, which is the same as Syrians(?). +Within that great extent of country there existed, of course, various +dialectic differences of language; and there can be little doubt but that +in some places the nation was mixed with other races." The early +inhabitants of Lower Mesopotamia, however, he considers to have been pure +Aramaeans, closely akin to the Assyrians, from whom, indeed, he regards +them as only separate politically. + +Similar views are entertained by most modern writers. Baron Bunsen, in +one of his latest works, regards the fact as completely established by +the results of recent researches in Babylonia. Professor M. Muller, +though expressing himself with more caution, inclines to the same +conclusion. Popular works, in the shape of Cyclopaedias and short +general histories, diffuse the impression. Hence a difficulty is felt +with regard to the Scriptural statement concerning the first kingdom in +these parts, which is expressly said to have been Cushite or Ethiopian. +"And _Cush begat Nimrod:_ (he began to be a mighty one in the earth; +he was a mighty hunter before the Lord; wherefore it is said, Even as +Nimrod, the mighty hunter before the Lord;) and the beginning of his +kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of +Shinar." According to this passage the early Chaldaeans should be +Hamites, not Semites--Ethiopians, not Aramaans; they should present +analogies and points of connection with the inhabitants of Egypt and +Abyssinia, of Southern Arabia and Mekran, not with those of Upper +Mesopotamia, Syria, Phoenicia, and Palestine. It will be one of the +objects of this chapter to show that the Mosaical narrative conveys the +exact truth--a truth alike in accordance with the earliest classical +traditions, and with the latest results of modern comparative philology. + +It will be desirable, however, before proceeding to establish the +correctness of these assertions, to examine the grounds on which the +opposite belief has been held so long and so confidently. Heeren draws +his chief argument from the supposed character of the language. Assuming +the form of speech called Chaldee to be the original tongue of the +people, he remarks that it is "an Aramaean dialect, differing but +slightly from the proper Syriac." Chaldee is known partly from the +Jewish Scriptures, in which it is used occasionally, partly from the +Targums (or Chaldaean paraphrases of different portions of the Sacred +Volume), some of which belong to about the time of the Apostles. and +partly from the two Talmuds, or collections of Jewish traditions, made in +the third and fifth centuries of our era. It has been commonly regarded +as the language of Babylon at the time of the Captivity, which the Jews, +as captives, were forced to learn, and which thenceforth took the place +of their own tongue. But it is extremely doubtful whether this is a true +account of the matter. The Babylonian language of the age of +Nebuchadnezzar is found to be far nearer to Hebrew than to Chaldee, which +appears therefore to be misnamed, and to represent the western rather +than the eastern Aramaic. The Chaldee argument thus falls to the ground: +but in refuting it an admission has been made which may be thought to +furnish fully as good proof of early Babylonian Semitism as the rejected +theory. + +It has been said that the Babylonian language in the time of +Nebuchadnezzar is found to be far nearer to Hebrew than to Chaldee. It +is, in fact, very close indeed to the Hebrew. The Babylonians of that +period, although they did not speak the tongue known to modern linguists +as Chaldee, did certainly employ a Semitic or Aramaean dialect, and so +far may be set down as Semites. And this is the ground upon which such +modern philologists as still maintain the Semitic character of the +primitive Chaldaeans principally rely. But it can be proved from the +inscriptions of the country, that between the date of the first +establishment of a Chaldaean kingdom and the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, the +language of Lower Mesopotamia underwent an entire change. To whatever +causes this may have been owing--a subject which will be hereafter +investigated--the fact is certain; and it entirely destroys the force of +the argument from the language of the Babylonians at the later period. + +Another ground, and that which seems to have had the chief weight with +Niebuhr, is the supposed identity or intimate connection of the +Babylonians with the Assyrians. That the latter people were Semites has +never been denied; and, indeed, it is a point supported by such an amount +of evidence as renders it quite unassailable. If, therefore the +primitive Babylonians were once proved to be a mere portion of the far +greater Assyrian nation, locally and politically, but not ethnically +separate from them, their Semitic character would thereupon be fully +established. Now that this was the belief of Herodotus must be at once +allowed. Not only does that writer regard the later Babylonians as +Assyrians--"Assyrians of Babylon," as he expresses it--and look on +Babylonia as a mere "district of Assyria," but, by adopting the mythic +genealogy, which made Ninus the son of Belus, he throws back the +connection to the very origin of the two nations, and distinctly +pronounces it a connection of race. But Herodotus is a very weak +authority on the antiquities of any nation, even his own; and it is not +surprising that he should have carried back to a remote period a state of +things which he saw existing in his own age. If the later Babylonians +were, in manners and customs, in religion and in language, a close, +counterpart of the Assyrians, he would naturally suppose them descended +from the same stock. It is his habit to transfer back to former times +the condition of things in his own day. Thus he calls the inhabitants of +the Peloponnese before the Dorian invasion "Dorians," regards Athens as +the second city in Greece when Creesus sent his embassies, and describes +as the ancient Persian religion that corrupted form which existed under +Artaxerxes Longimanus. He is an excellent authority for what he had +himself seen, or for what he had laboriously collected by inquiry from +eye witnesses; but he had neither the critical acumen nor the linguistic +knowledge necessary for the formation of a trust worthy opinion on a +matter belonging to the remote history of a distant people. And the +opinion of Herodotus as to the ethnic identity of the two nations is +certainly not confirmed by other ancient writers. Berosus seems to have +very carefully distinguished between the Assyrians and the Babylonians or +Chaldaeans, as may be seen even through the doubly-distorting medium of +Polyhistor and the Armenian Eusebius. Diodorus Siculus made the two +nations separate and hostile in very early times. Pliny draws a clear +line between the "Chaldaean races," of which Babylon was the head, and +the Assyrians of the region above them. Even Herodotus in one place +admits a certain amount of ethnic difference; for, in his list of the +nations forming the army of Xerxes, he mentions the Chaldaeans as serving +with, but not included among, the Assyrians. + +The grounds, then, upon which the supposed Semitic character of the +ancient Chaldaeans has been based, fail, one and all; and it remains to +consider whether we have data sufficient to justify us in determinately +assigning them to any other stock. + +Now a large amount of tradition--classical and other--brings Ethiopians +into these parts, and connects, more or less distinctly, the early +dwellers upon the Persian Gulf with the inhabitants of the Nile valley, +especially with those upon its upper course. Homer, speaking of the +Ethiopians, says that they were "divided," and dwelt "at the ends of +earth, towards the setting and the rising sun." This passage has been +variously apprehended. It has been supposed to mean the mere division of +the Ethiopians south of Egypt by the river Nile, whereby some inhabited +its eastern and some its western bank. Again it has been explained as +referring to the east and west coasts of Africa, both found by voyagers +to be in the possession of Ethiopians, who were "divided" by the vast +extent of continent that lay between them. But the most satisfactory +explanation is that which Strabo gives from Ephorus, that the Ethiopians +were considered as occupying all the south coast both of Asia and Africa, +and as "divided" by the Arabian Gulf (which separated the two continents) +into eastern and western-Asiatic and African. This was an "old opinion" +of the Greeks, we are told; and, though Strabo thinks it indicated their +ignorance, we may perhaps be excused for holding it that it might not +improbably have arisen from real, though imperfect, knowledge. + +The traditions with respect to Memnon serve very closely to connect Egypt +and Ethiopia with the country at the head of the Persian Gulf. Memnon, +King of Ethiopia, according to Hesiod and Pindar, is regarded by +'Eschylus as the son of a Cissian woman, and by Herodotus and others as +the founder of Susa. He leads an army of combined Susianians and +Ethiopians to the assistance of Priam, his father's brother, and, after +greatly distinguishing himself, perishes in one of the battles before +Troy. At the same time he is claimed as one of their monarchs by the +Ethiopians upon the Nile, and identified by the Egyptians with their +king, Amunoph III., whose statue became known as "the vocal Memnon." +Sometimes his expedition is supposed to have started from the African +Ethiopia, and to have proceeded by way of Egypt to its destination. +There were palaces, called "Memnonia," and supposed to have been built +by him, both in Egypt and at Susa; and there was a tribe, called +Memnones, near Meroe. Memnon thus unites the Eastern and the Western +Ethiopians; and the less we regard him as an historical personage, the +more must we view him as personifying the ethnic identity of the two +races. + +The ordinary genealogies containing the name of Belus point in the same +direction, and serve more definitely to connect the Babylonians with the +Cushites of the Nile. Pherecydes, who is an earlier writer than +Herodotus, makes Agenor, the son of Neptune, marry Damno, the daughter of +Belus, and have issue Phoenix, Isaea, and Melia, of whom Melia marries +Danaus, and Isaea Aegyptus. Apollodorus, the disciple of Eratosthenes, +expresses the connection thus:--"Neptune took to wife Libya (or Africa), +and had issue Belus and Agenor. Belus married Anchinoe, daughter of +Nile, who gave birth to AEgyptus, Danaus, Cepheus, and Phineus. Agenor +married Telephassa, and had issue Europa, Cadmus, Phoenix, and Cilix." +Eupolemus, who professes to record the Babylonian tradition on the +subject, tells us that the first Belus, whom he identifies with Saturn, +had two sons, Belus and Canaan. Canaan begat the progenitor of the +Phoenicians (Phoenix?), who had two sons, Chum and Mestraim, the +ancestors respectively of the Ethiopians and the Egyptians. Charax of +Pergamus spoke of AEgyptus as the son of Belus. John of Antioch agrees +with Apollodorus, but makes certain additions. According to him, Neptune +and Lybia had three children, Agenor, Belus, and Enyalius or Mars. Belus +married Sida, and had issue AEgyptus and Danaus; while Agenor married +Tyro, and became the father of five children--Cadmus, Phoenix, Syrus, +Cilix, and Europa. + +Many further proofs might be adduced, were they needed, of the Greek +belief in an Asiatic Ethiopia, situated somewhere between Arabia and +India, on the shores of the Erythraean Sea. Herodotus twice speaks of +the Ethiopians of Asia, whom he very carefully distinguishes from those +of Africa, and who can only be sought in this position. Ephorus, as we +have already seen, extended the Ethiopians along the whole of the coast +washed by the Southern Ocean. Eusebius has preserved a tradition that, +in the reign of Amenophis III., a body of Ethiopians migrated from the +country about the Indus, and settled in the valley of the Nile. Hesiod +and Apollodorus, by making Memnon, the Ethiopian king, son of the Dawn +(Greek) imply their belief in an Ethiopia situated to the east rather +than to the south of Greece. These are a few out of the many similar +notices which it would be easy to produce from classical writers, +establishing, if not the fact itself, yet at any rate a full belief in +the fact on the part of the best informed among the ancient Greeks. + +The traditions of the Armenians are in accordance with those of the +Greeks. The Armenian Geography applies the name of Cush, or Ethiopia, to +the four great regions, Media, Persia, Susiana or Elymais, and Aria, or +to the whole territory between the Indus and the Tigris. Moses of +Chorene, the great Armenian historian, identifies Belus, King of Babylon, +with Nimrod; while at the same time he adopts for him a genealogy only +slightly different from that in our present copies of Genesis, making +Nimrod the grandson of Cush, and the son of Mizraim. He thus connects, +in the closest way, Babylonia, Egypt, and Ethiopia Proper, uniting +moreover, by his identification of Nimrod with Belus, the Babylonians of +later times who worshipped Belus as their hero-founder, with the +primitive population introduced into the country by Nimrod. + +The names of Belus and Cush, thus brought into juxtaposition, have +remained attached to some portion or other of the region in question from +ancient times to the present day. The tract immediately east of the +Tigris was known to the Greeks as Cissia or Cossaea, no less than as +Elymais or Elam. The country east of Kerman was named Kusan throughout +the Sassanian period. The same region is now Beloochistan, the country +of the Belooches or Belus, while adjoining it on the east is Cutch, or +Kooch, a term standing to Cush is Belooch stands to Belus. Again, Cissia +or Cossaea is now Khuzistan, or the land of Khuz a name not very remote +from Cush; but perhaps this is only a coincidence. + +To the traditions and traces here enumerated must be added, as of primary +importance, the Biblical tradition, which is delivered to us very simply +and plainly in that precious document the "Toldoth Beni Noah," or "Book +of the Generations of the Sons of Noah," which well deserves to be called +"the most authentic record that we possess for the affiliation of +nations." "The sons of Ham," we are told, "were Cush, and Mizraim, and +Phut, and Canaan . . . . And Cush begat Nimrod . . . . And the +beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in +the land of Shinar." Here a primitive Babylonian kingdom is assigned to +a people distinctly said to have been Cushite by blood, and to have stood +in close connection with Mizraim, or the people of Egypt, Phut, or those +of Central Africa, and Canaan, or those of Palestine. It is the simplest +and the best interpretation of this passage to understand it as asserting +that the four races--the Egyptians, Ethiopians, Libyans, and +Canaanites--were ethnically connected, being all descended from Ham; and +further, that the primitive people of Babylon were a subdivision of one +of these races, namely of the Cushites or Ethiopians, connected in some +degree with the Canaanites, Egyptians, and Libyans, but still more +closely with the people which dwelt anciently upon the Upper Nile. + +The conclusions thus recommended to us by the consentient primitive +traditions of so many races, have lately received most important and +unexpected confirmation from the results of linguistic research. After +the most remarkable of the Mesopotamian mounds had yielded their +treasures, and supplied the historical student with numerous and copious +documents bearing upon the history of the great Assyrian and Babylonian +empires, it was determined to explore Chaldaea Proper, where mounds of +less pretension, but still of considerable height, marked the sites of a +number of ancient cities. The excavations conducted at these places, +especially at Niffer, Senkereh, Warka, and Mugheir, were eminently +successful. Among their other unexpected results was the discovery, in +the most ancient remains, of a new form of speech, differing greatly from +the later Babylonian language and presenting analogies with the early +language of Susiana, as well as with that of the second column of the +Achoemenian inscriptions. In grammatical structure this ancient tongue +resembles dialects of the Turanian family, but its vocabulary has been +pronounced to be "decidedly Cushite or Ethiopian;" and the modern +languages to which it approaches the nearest are thought to be the Mahra +of Southern Arabia and the Galla of Abyssinia. Thus comparative philology +appears to confirm the old traditions. An Eastern Ethiopia instead of +being the invention of bewildered ignorance, is rather a reality which +henceforth it will require a good deal of scepticism to doubt; and the +primitive race which bore sway in Chaldaea Proper is with much +probability assigned to this ethnic type. The most striking physical +characteristics of the African Ethiopians were their swart complexions, +and their crisp or frizzled hair. According to Herodotus the Asiatic +Ethiopian: were equally dark, but their hair was straight and not +frizzled. Probably in neither case was the complexion what we understand +by black, but rather a dark red-brown or copper color, which is the tint +of the modern Gallas and Abyssinians, as well as of the Cha'b and +Montefik Arabs and the Belooches. The hair was no doubt abundant; but it +was certainly not woolly like that of the negroes. There is a marked +distinction between the negro hair and that of the Ethiopian race, which +is sometimes straight, sometimes crisp, but never woolly. This +distinction is carefully marked in the Egyptian monuments, as is also the +distinction between the Ethiopian and negro complexions; whence we may +conclude that there was as much difference between the two races in +ancient as in modern times. The African races descended from the +Ethiopians are on the whole a handsome rather than an ugly people; their +figure is slender and well shaped; their features are regular, and have +some delicacy; the forehead is straight and fairly high; the nose long, +straight, and fine, but scarcely so prominent as that of Europeans; the +chin is pointed and good. [PLATE VI., Fig. 2.] + +The principal defect is in the mouth, which has lips too thick and full +for beauty, though they are not turned out like a negro's. We do not +possess any representations of the ancient people which can be distinctly +assigned to the early Cushite period. Abundant hair has been noticed in +an early tomb; and this in the later Babylonians, who must have been +descended in great part from the earlier, was very conspicuous; but +otherwise we have as yet no direct evidence with respect to the physical +characteristics of the primitive race. That they were brave and warlike, +ingenious, energetic, and persevering, we have ample evidence, which will +appear in later chapters of this work; but we can do little more than +conjecture their physical appearance, which, however, we may fairly +suppose to have resembled that of other Ethiopian nations. + +When the early inhabitants of ChaldAea are pronounced to have belonged to +the same race with the dwellers upon the Upper Nile, the question +naturally arises, which were the primitive people, and which the +colonists? Is the country at the head of the Persian Gulf to be regarded +as the original abode of the Cushite race, whence it spread eastward and +westward, on the one hand to Susiana, Persia Proper, Carmania, Gedrosia, +and India itself; on the other to Arabia and the east coast of Africa? +Or are we to suppose that the migration proceeded in one direction +only--that the Cushites, having occupied the country immediately to the +south of Egypt, sent their colonies along the south coast of Arabia, +whence they crept on into the Persian Gulf, occupying Chaldaea and +Susiana, and thence spreading into Mekran, Kerman, and the regions +bordering upon the Indus? Plausible reasons maybe adduced in support of +either hypothesis. The situation of Babylonia, and its proximity to that +mountain region where man must have first "increased and multiplied" +after the Flood, are in favor of its being the original centre from +which the other Cushite races were derived. The Biblical genealogy of +the sons of Ham points, however, the other way; for it derives Nimrod +from Cush, not Cush from Nimrod. Indeed this document seems to follow +the Hamites from Africa--emphatically "the land of Ham"--in one line +along Southern Arabia to Shinar or Babylonia, in another from Egypt +through Canaan into Syria. The antiquity of civilization in the valley +of the Nile, which preceded by many centuries that even of primitive +Chaldaea, is another argument in favor of the migration having been from +west to east; and the monuments and traditions of the Chaldaeans +themselves have been thought to present some curious indications of an +East African origin. On the whole, therefore, it seems most probable +that the race designated in Scripture by the hero-founder Nimrod, and +among the Greeks by the eponym of Belus, passed from East Africa, by way +of Arabia, to the valley of the Euphrates, shortly before the opening of +the historical period. + +Upon the ethnic basis here indicated, there was grafted, it would seem, +at a very early period, a second, probably Turanian, element, which very +importantly affected the character and composition of the people. The +_Burbur_ or _Akkad,_ who are found to have been a principal tribe under +the early kings, are connected by name, religion, and in some degree by +language, with an important people of Armenia, called _Burbur_ and +_Urarda,_ the Alarodians (apparently) of Herodotus. It has been +conjectured that this race at a very remote date descended upon the plain +country, conquering the original Cushite inhabitants, and by degrees +blending with them, though the fusion remained incomplete to the time of +Abraham. The language of the early inscriptions, though Cushite in its +vocabulary, is Turanian in many points of its grammatical structure, as +in its use of post-positions, particles, and pronominal suffixes; and it +would seem, therefore, scarcely to admit of a doubt that the Cushites of +Lower Babylon must in some way or other have become mixed with a Turanian +people. The mode and time of the commixture are matters altogether +beyond our knowledge. We can only note the fact as indicated by the +phenomena, and form, or abstain from forming, as we please, hypotheses +with respect to its accompanying circumstances. + +Besides these two main constituents of the Chaldaean race, there is +reason to believe that both a Semitic and an Arian element existed in the +early population of the country. The subjects of the early kings are +continually designated in the inscriptions by the title of +_kiprat-arbat,_ "the four nations," or _arba lisun,_ "the four tongues." +In Abraham's time, again, the league of four kings seems correspondent +to a fourfold ethnic division, Cushite, Turanian, Semitic, and Arian, +the chief authority and ethnic preponderance being with the Cushites. +The language also of the early inscriptions is thought to contain traces +of Semitic and Arian influence; so that it is at least probable that the +"four tongues" intended were not mere local dialects, but distinct +languages, the representatives respectively of the four great families +of human speech. + +It would result from this review of the linguistic facts and other ethnic +indications, that the Chaldaeans were not a pure, but a very mixed +people. Like the Romans in ancient and the English in modern Europe, +they were a "colluvio gentium omnium," a union of various races between +which there was marked and violent contrast. It is now generally +admitted that such races are among those which play the most +distinguished part in the world's history, and most vitally affect its +progress. + +With respect to the name of Chaldaean, under which it has been customary +to designate this mixed people, it is curious to find that in the native +documents of the early period it does not occur at all. Indeed it first +appears in the Assyrian inscriptions of the ninth century before our era, +being then used as the name of the dominant race in the country about +Babylon. Still, as Berosus, who cannot easily have been ignorant of the +ancient appellation of his race, applies the term Chaldaean to the +primitive people, and as Scripture assigns Ur to the Chaldees as early as +the time of Abraham, we are entitled to assume that this term, whenever +it came historically into use, is in fact no unfit designation for the +early inhabitants of the country. Perhaps the most probable account of +the origin of the word is that it designates properly the inhabitants of +the ancient capital, Ur or Hur-Khaldi being in the Burbur dialect the +exact equivalent of Hur, which was the proper name of the Moon-God, and +Chaldaeans being thus either "Moon-worshippers," or simply "inhabitants +of the town dedicated to, and called after, the Moon." Like the term +"Babylonian," it would at first have designated simply the dwellers in +the capital, and would subsequently have been extended to the people +generally. + +A different theory has of late years been usually maintained with respect +to the Chaldaeans. It has been supposed that they were a race entirely +distinct from the early Babylonians--Armenians, Arabs, Kurds, or Sclaves +--who came down from the north long after the historical period, and +settled as the dominant race in the lower Mesopotamian valley. +Philological arguments of the weakest and most unsatisfactory character +were confidently adduced in support of these views; but they obtained +acceptance chiefly on account of certain passages of Scripture, which +were thought to imply that the Chaldaeans first colonized Babylonia in +the seventh or eighth century before Christ. The most important of these +passages is in Isaiah. That prophet, in his denunciation of woe upon +Tyre, says, according to our translation,--"Behold the land of the +Chaldaeans 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;" or, according to +Bishop Lowth, "Behold the land of the Chaldaeans. This people was of no +account. (The Assyrians founded it for the inhabitants of the desert, +they raised the watch-towers, they setup the palaces thereof.) This +people hath reduced her and shall reduce her to ruin." It was argued +that we had here a plain declaration that, till a little before Isaiah's +time, the Chaldaeans had never existed as a nation. Then, it was said, +they obtained for the first time fixed habitations from one of the +Assyrian kings, who settled them in a city, probably Babylon. Shortly +afterwards, following the analogy of so many Eastern races, they suddenly +sprang up to power. Here another passage of Scripture was thought to +have an important bearing on their history. "Lo! I raise up the +Chaldaeans," says Habakkuk, "that bitter and hasty nation, which shall +march through the breadth of the land to possess the dwelling places that +are not theirs. They are terrible and dreadful; their judgment and their +dignity shall proceed of themselves; their horses also are swifter than +the leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves: and their +horsemen shall spread themselves, and their horsemen shall come from far; +they shall fly as an eagle that hasteth to eat; they shall come all for +violence; their faces shall nip as the east wind, and they shall gather +the captivity as the sand. And they shall scoff at the kings, and the +princes shall be a scorn unto them; they shall deride every stronghold; +they shall heap dust and take it." The Chaldaeans, recent occupants of +Lower Mesopotamia, and there only a dominant race, like the Normans in +England or the Lombards in North Italy, were, on a sudden, "raised" +elevated from their low estate of Assyrian colonists to the conquering +people which they became under Nebuchadnezzar. + +Such was the theory, originally advanced by Gesenius, which, variously +modified by other writers, held its ground on the whole as the +established view, until the recent cuneiform discoveries. It was, from +the first, a theory full of difficulty. The mention of the Chaldaeans in +Job, and even in Genesis, as a well-known people, was in contradiction to +the supposed recent origin of the race. The explanation of the obscure +passage in the 23d chapter of Isaiah, on which the theory was mainly +based, was at variance with other clearer passages of the same prophet. +Babylon is called by Isaiah the "_daughter_ of the Chaldaeans," and is +spoken of as an ancient city, long "the glory of kingdoms," the oppressor +of nations, the power that "smote the people in wrath with a continual +stroke." She is "the lady of kingdoms," and "the beauty of the Chaldees' +excellency." The Chaldaeans are thus in Isaiah, as elsewhere generally +in Scripture, the people of Babylonia, the term "Babylonians" not being +used by him; Babylon is their chief city, not one which they have +conquered and occupied, but their "daughter"--"the beauty of their +excellency;" and so all the antiquity and glory which is assigned to +Babylon belong necessarily in Isaiah's mind to the Chaldaeans. The +verse, therefore, in the 23d chapter, on which so much has been built, +can at most refer to some temporary depression of the Chaldaeans, which +made it a greater disgrace to Tyre that she should be conquered by them. +Again, the theory of Gesenius took no account of the native historian, +who is (next to Scripture) the best literary authority for the facts of +Babylonian history. Berosus not only said nothing of any influx of an +alien race into Babylonia shortly before the time of Nebuchadnezzar, but +pointedly identified the Chaldaeans of that period with the primitive +people of the country. Nor can it be said that he would do this from +national vanity, to avoid the confession of a conquest, for he admits no +fewer than three conquests of Babylon, a "Midian, an Arabian, and an +Assyrian." Thus, even apart from the monuments, the theory in question +would be untenable. It really originated in linguistic speculations, +which turn out to have been altogether mistaken. + +The joint authority of Scripture and of Berosus will probably be accepted +as sufficient to justify the adoption of a term which, if not strictly +correct, is yet familiar to us, and which will conveniently serve to +distinguish the primitive monarchy, whose chief seats were in Chaldaea +Proper (or the tract immediately bordering upon the Persian Gulf), from +the later Babylonian Empire, which had its head-quarters further to the +north. The people of this first kingdom will therefore be called +Chaldaeans, although there is no evidence that they applied the name to +themselves, or that it was even known to them in primitive times. + +The general character of this remarkable people will best appear from the +account, presently to be given, of their manners, their mode of life, +their arts, their science, their religion, and their history. It is not +convenient to forestall in this place the results of almost all our +coming inquiries. Suffice it to observe that, though possessed of not +many natural advantages, the Chaldaean people exhibited a fertility of +invention, a genius, and an energy which place them high in the scale of +nations, and more especially in the list of those descended from a +Hamitic stock. For the last 3000 years the world has been mainly +indebted for its advancement to the Semitic and Indo-European races; but +it was otherwise in the first ages. Egypt and Babylon--Mizraim and +Nimrod--both descendants of Ham--led the way, and acted as the pioneers +of mankind in the various untrodden fields of art, literature, and +science. Alphabetic writing, astronomy, history, chronology, +architecture, plastic art, sculpture, navigation, agriculture, textile +industry, seem, all of them, to have had their origin in one or other of +these two countries. The beginnings may have been often humble enough. +We may laugh at the rude picture-writing, the uncouth brick pyramid, the +coarse fabric, the homely and ill-shapen instruments, as they present +themselves to our notice in the remains of these ancient nations; but +they are really worthier of our admiration than of our ridicule. The +first inventors of any art are among the greatest benefactors of their +race; and the bold step which they take from the unknown to the known, +from blank ignorance to discovery, is equal to many steps of subsequent +progress. "The commencement," says Aristotle, "is more than half of the +whole." This is a sound judgment; and it will be well that we should +bear it in mind during the review, on which we are about to enter, of the +language, writing, useful and ornamental art, science, and literature of +the Chaldaeans. "The child is father of the man," both in the individual +and the species; and the human race at the present day lies under +infinite obligations to the genius and industry of early ages. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +LANGUAGE AND WRITING. + +It was noted in the preceding chapter that Chaldaea, in the earliest +times to which we can go back, seems to have been inhabited by four +principal tribes. The early kings are continually represented on the +monuments as sovereigns over the Kiprat-arbat, or, Four Races. These +"Four Races" are called sometimes the Arba Lisun, or "Four Tongues," +whence we may conclude that they were distinguished from one another, +among other differences, by a variety in their forms of speech. The +extent and nature of the variety could not, of course, be determined +merely from this expression; but the opinion of those who have most +closely studied the subject appears to be that the differences were great +and marked-the languages in fact belonging to the four great varieties of +human speech--Hamitic, Semitic, Arian, and Turanian. + +The language which the early inscriptions have revealed to us is not, of +course, composed equally of these four elements. It does, however, +contain strong marks of admixture. It is predominantly Cushite in its +vocabulary, Turanian in its structure. Its closest analogies are with +such dialects as the _Mahra_ of Arabia, the _Galla_ and _Wolaitsa_ of +Abyssinia, and the ancient language of Egypt, but in certain cases it +more resembles the Turkish. Tatar, and Magyar (Turanian) dialects; while +in some it presents Semitic and in others Arian affinities. This will +appear sufficiently from the following list: + +[Illustration: PAGE 42] + +_Dingir, or Dimir,_ "God." Compare Turkish _Tengri_. +_Atta,_ "father." Compare Turkish atta. _Etea_ is "father" in the +Wolaitsa (Abyssinian) dialect. +_Sis,_ "brother." Compare Wolaitsa and Woratta _isha_. +_Tur,_ "a youth," "a son," Compare the _tur-khan_ of the Parthians + (Turanians), who was the Crown Prince. +_E,_ "a house." Compare ancient Egyptian _e,_ and Turkish _ev_. +_Ka,_ "a gate." Compare Turkish _kapi_. +_Kharran,_ "a road." Compare Galla _kara_. +_Huru,_ "a town." Compare Heb. [--] +_Ar,_ "a river." Compare Heb. [--] , Arab. _nahr_. +_Gabri_, "a mountain." Compare Arabic _jabal_. +_Ki,_ "the earth." +_Kingi,_ "a country." +_San,_ "the sun." +_Kha,_ "a fish"(?). +_Kurra,_ "a horse." Compare Arabic _gurra_. +_Guski,_ "gold." Compare Galla _irerke_. _Guski_ means also "red" and +"the evening." +_Babar,_ "silver," "white," "the morning." Compare Agau _ber,_ Tigre + _burrur_. +_Zabar,_ "copper." Compare Arabic _sifr_. +_Hurud,_ "iron." Compare Arabic _hadid_. +_Zakad,_ "the head." Compare Gonga _toko_. +_Kat,_ "the hand." Compare Gonga _kiso_. +_Si,_ "the eye." +_Pi,_ "the ear." Compare Magyar _ful_. +_Gula,_ "great." Compare Galla _guda_. +_Tura,_ "little." Compare Gonga _tu_ and Galla _tina_. +_Kelga,_ "powerful." +_Ginn,_ "first." +_Mis,_ "many." Compare Agau _minch_ or _mench_. +_Gar,_ "to do." +_Egir,_ "after." Compare Hhamara (Abyssinian) _igria_. + +The grammar of this language is still but very little known. The +conjugations of verbs are said to be very intricate and difficult, a +great variety of verbal forms being from the same root as in Hebrew, by +means of preformatives. Number and person in the verbs are marked by +suffixes--the third person singular (masculine) by _bi_ (compare Gonga +_bi,_ "he"), or _ani_ (compare Galla _enni,_ "he"), the third person +plural by _bi-nini_. + +The accusative case in nouns is marked by a postposition, _ku_, as in +Hindustani. The plural of pronouns and substantives is formed sometimes +by reduplication. Thus _ni_ is "him," while _nini_ is "them;" and +_Chanaan, Yavnan, Libnan_ seem to be plural forms from _Chna, Yavan_ and +_Liban_. + +A curious anomaly occurs in the declension of pronouns.' When accompanied +by the preposition kita, "with," there is a tmesis of the preposition, +and the pronouns are placed between its first and second syllable; e.g. +vi, him''-ki-ni-ta, "with him." This takes place in every number and +person, as the following scheme will show:-- + + 1st person. 2d person. 3d person. + + Sing. _ki-mu-ta_ _ki-zu-ta_ _ki-ni-ta_ + (with me) (with thee) (with him) + + Plur. _ki mi-ta_ _ki zu-nini-ta_ _ki-nini-ta_ + (with us) (with you) (with them) + +N. B.--The formation of the second person plural deserves attention. The +word _zu-nini_ is, clearly, composed of the two elements, _zu,_ "thee," +and _nini,_ "them"--so that instead of having a word for "you," the +Chaldaeans employed for it the periphrasis "thee-them"! There is, I +believe, no known language which presents a parallel anomaly. + +Such are the chief known features of this interesting but difficult form +of speech. A specimen may now be given of the mode in which it was +written. Among the earliests of the monuments hitherto discovered are a +set of bricks bearing the following cuneiform inscription [PLATE VI., +Fig. 3]: + +This inscription is explained to mean:--"Beltis, his lady, has caused +Urukh (?), the pious chief, King of Hur, and King of the land (?) of the +Akkad, to build a temple to her." In the same locality where it occurs, +bricks are also found bearing evidently the same inscription, but written +in a different manner. Instead of the wedge and arrow-head being the +elements of the writing, the whole is formed by straight lines of almost +uniform thickness, and the impression seems to have been made by a single +stamp. [PLATE VII., Fig. 1.] + +[Illustration: PLATE 7] + +This mode of writing, which has been called without much reason "the +hieratic," and of which we have but a small number of instances, has +confirmed a conjecture, originally suggested by the early cuneiform +writing itself, that the characters were at first the pictures of +objects. In some cases the pictorial representation is very plain and +palpable. + + [Etext Editor's Note: the next two pages contain many examples + of heiratic symbols [--] which can be seen only in the html file + or the jpg image <page0044.jpg>] + +[Illustration: PAGE 44] + +For instance, the "determinative" of a god--the sign that is, which marks +that the name of a god is about to follow, in this early rectilinear +writing is [--] an eight-rayed star. The archaic cuneiform keeps closely +to this type, merely changing the lines into wedges, thus [--], while the +later cuneiform first unites the oblique wedges in one [--] , and then +omits them as unnecessary, retaining only the perpendicular and the +horizontal ones [--] . Again, the character representing the word "hand" +is, in the rectilinear writing [--] , in the archaic cuneiform [--] , +in the later cuneiform [--] . The five lines (afterwards reduced to four) +clearly represent the thumb and the four fingers. So the character +ordinarily representing "a house" is evidently formed from the original +--, the ground-plan of a house; and that denoting "the sun" [--] , comes +from [--] , through [--] , and [--] , the original [--] being the best +representation that straight lines could give of the sun. In the case of +_ka,_ "a gate," we have not the original design; but we may see posts, +bars, and hinges in [--] , the ordinary character. + +Another curious example of the pictorial origin of the letters is +furnished by the character [--] , which is the French _une,_ the feminine +of "one." This character may be traced up through several known forms to +an original picture, which is thus given on a Koyunjik tablet [--] . It has +been conjectured that the object here represented is "a sarcophagus." +But the true account seems to be that it is a _double-toothed comb,_ a +toilet article peculiar to women, and therefore one which might well be +taken to express "a woman," or more generally the feminine gender. It is +worth notice that the emblem is the very one still in use among the Lurs, +in the mountains overhanging Babylonia. And it is further remarkable +that the phonetic power of the character here spoken of is _it_ (or +_yat_)the ordinary Semitic feminine ending. + +The original writing, it would therefore seem, was a picture-writing as +rude as that of the Mexicans. Objects were themselves represented, but +coarsely and grotesquely--and, which is especially remarkable, without +any curved lines. This would seem to indicate that the system grew up +where a hard material, probably stone, was alone used. The cuneiform +writing arose when clay took the place of stone as a material. A small +tool with a square or triangular point, impressed, by a series of +distinct touches, the outline of the old pictured objects on the soft +clay of tablets and bricks. In course of time simplifications took +place. The less important wedges were omitted. One stroke took the +place of two, or sometimes of three. In this way the old form of objects +became, in all but a few cases, very indistinct; while generally it was +lost altogether. + +Originally each character had, it would seem, the phonetic power of the +name borne by the object which it represented. But, as this namee was +different in the languages of the different tribes inhabiting the +country, the same character came often to have several distinct phonetic +values. For instance, the character [--] representing "a house," had the +phonetic values of _e, bit,_ and _mal,_ because those were the words +expressive of "a house," among the Hamitic, Semitic, and Arian +populations respectively. Again, characters did not always retain their +original phonetic powers, but abbreviated them. Thus the character which +originally stood for _Assur,_ "Assyria," came to have the sound of _as,_ +that denoting _bil_, "a lord," had in addition the sound of _bi,_ and so +on. Under these circumstances it is almost impossible to feel any +certainty in regard to the phonetic representation of a single line of +these old inscriptions. The meaning of each word may be well known; but +the articulate sounds which were in the old times attached to them may be +matter almost of conjecture. + +The Chaldaean characters are of three kinds-letters proper, monograms, +and determinatives. With regard to the letters proper, there is nothing +particular to remark, except that they have almost always a syllabic +force. The monograms represent in a brief way, by a wedge or a group of +wedges, an entire word, often of two or three syllables, as Nebo, Babil, +Merodach, etc. The determinatives mark that the word which they +accompany is a word of a certain class, as a god, a man, a country, a +town, etc. These last, it is probable, were not sounded at all when the +word was read. They served, in some degree, the purpose of our capital +letters, in the middle of sentences, but gave more exact notice of the +nature of the coming word. Curiously enough, they are retained +sometimes, where the word which they accompany has merely its phonetic +power, as (generally) when the names of gods form a part of the names +of monarchs. + +It has been noticed already that the chief material on which the ancient +Chaldaeans wrote was moist clay, in the two forms of tablets and bricks. +On bricks are found only royal inscriptions, having reference to the +building in which the bricks were used, commonly designating its purpose, +and giving the name and titles of the-monarch who erected it. The +inscription does not occupy the whole brick, but a square or rectangular +space towards its centre. It is in some cases stamped, in some impressed +with a tool. The writing--as in all cuneiform inscriptions, excepting +those upon seals--is from left to right, and the lines are carefully +separated from one another. Some specimens have been already given. + +The tablets of the Chaldaeans are among the most remarkable of their +remains, and will probably one day throw great additional light on the +manners and customs, the religion, and even, perhaps, the science and +learning, of the people. They are small pieces of clay, somewhat rudely +shaped into a form resembling a pillow, and thickly inscribed with +cuneiform characters, which are sometimes accompanied by impressions of +the cylindrical seals so common in the museums of Europe. The seals are +rolled across the body of the document, as in the accompanying figure. +[PLATE VII., Fig. 2.] Except where these impressions occur, the clay is +commonly covered on both sides with minute writing. What is most +curious, however, is that the documents thus duly attested have in +general been enveloped, after they were baked, in a cover of moist clay, +upon which their contents have been again inscribed, so as to present +externally a duplicate of the writing within; and the tablet in its cover +has then been baked afresh. That this was the process employed is +evident from the fact that the inner side of the envelope bears a cast, +in relief, of the inscription beneath it. Probably the object in view +was greater security--that if the external cover became illegible, or was +tampered with, there might be a means of proving beyond a doubt what the +document actually contained. The tablets in question have in a +considerable number of cases been deciphered; they are for the most part +deeds, contracts, or engagements, entered into by private persons and +preserved among the archives of families. + +Besides their writings on clay, the Chaldaeans were in the habit, from +very early times, of engraving inscriptions on gems. The signet cylinder +of a very ancient king exhibits that archaic formation of letters which +has been already noted as appearing upon some of the earliest bricks. +[PLATE VII., Fig. 3.] That it belongs to the same period is evident, +not only from the resemblance of the literal type, but from the fact that +the same king's name appears upon both. This signet inscription--so far +as it has been hitherto deciphered--is read as follows:--"The signet of +Urukh, the pious chief, king of Ur, . . . . High-Priest (?) of . . . . +Niffer." Another similar relic, belonging to a son of this monarch, has +the inscription, "To the manifestation of Nergal, king of Bit-Zida, of +Zurgulla, for the saving of the life of Ilgi, the powerful hero, the king +of Ur, . . . . son of Urukh . . . . May his name be preserved." A third +signet, which belongs to a later king in the series, bears the following +legend: "--_sin, the powerful chief, the king of Ur, the king of the +Kiprat-arbat (or four races) . . . . his seal." The cylinders, however, +of this period are more usually without inscriptions, being often plain, +and often engraved with figures, but without a legend. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +ARTS AND SCIENCES. + +"Chaldaei cognitione astrorum sollertiaque ingeniorum antecellunt." +Cic. _de Div._ i. 41. + +Among the arts which the first Ethiopic settlers on the shores of the +Persian Gulf either brought with them from their former homes, or very +early invented in their new abode, must undoubtedly have been the two +whereby they were especially characterized in the time of their greatest +power--architecture and agriculture. Chaldaea is not a country disposing +men to nomadic habits. The productive powers of the soil would at once +obtrude themselves on the notice of the new comers, and would tempt to +cultivation and permanency of residence. If the immigrants came by sea, +and settled first in the tract immediately bordering upon the gulf, as +seems to have been the notion of Berosus, their earliest abodes may have +been of that simple character which can even now be witnessed in the +Affej and Montefik marshes--that is to say, reed cabins, supported by the +tall stems of the growing plants bent into arches, and walled with mats +composed of flags or sedge. Houses of this description last for forty or +fifty years and would satisfy the ideas of a primitive race. When +greater permanency began to be required, palm-beams might take the place +of the reed supports, and wattles plastered with mud that of the rush +mats; in this way habitations would soon be produced quite equal to those +in which the bulk of mankind reside, even at the present day. + +In process of time however, a fresh want would be felt. Architecture, +as has been well observed, has its origin, not in nature only, but in +religion. The common worship of God requires temples; and it is soon +desired to give to these sacred edifices a grandeur, a dignity, and a +permanency corresponding to the nature of the Being worshipped in them. +Hence in most countries recourse is had to stone, as the material of +greatest strength and durability; and by its means buildings are raised +which seem almost to reach the heaven whereof they witness. In +Babylonia, as it has been already observed, this material was entirely +wanting. Nowhere within the limits of the alluvium was a quarry to be +found; and though at no very great distance, on the Arabian border, a +coarse sandstone might have been obtained, yet in primitive times, before +many canals were made, the difficulty of transporting this weighty +substance across the soft and oozy soil of the plain would necessarily +have prevented its adoption generally, or, indeed, anywhere, except in +the immediate vicinity of the rocky region. Accordingly we find that +stone was never adopted in Babylonia as a building material, except to an +extremely small extent; and that the natives were forced, in its default, +to seek for the grand edifices, which they desired to build, a different +substance. + +The earliest traditions, and the existing remains of the earliest +buildings, alike inform us that the material adopted was brick. An +excellent clay is readily procurable in all parts of the alluvium; and +this, when merely exposed to the intense heat of an Eastern sun for a +sufficient period, or still more when kiln-dried, constitutes a very +tolerable substitute for the stone employed by most nations. The baked +bricks, even of the earliest tines, are still sound and hard; while the +sun-dried bricks, though they have often crumbled to dust or blended +together in one solid earthen mass, yet sometimes retain their shape and +original character almost unchanged, and offer a stubborn resistance to +the excavator. In the most ancient of the Chaldaean edifices we +occasionally find, as in the Bowariyeh ruin at Warka, the entire +structure composed of the inferior material; but the more ordinary +practice is to construct the mass of the building in this way, and then +to cover it completely with a facing of burnt brick, which sometimes +extends to as much as ten feet in thickness. The burnt brick was thus +made to protect the unburnt from the influence of the weather, while +labor and fuel--were greatly economized by the employment to so large an +extent of the natural substance. The size and color of the bricks vary. +The general shape is square, or nearly so, while the thickness is, to +modern ideas, disproportionately small; it is not, however, so small as +in the bricks of the Romans. The earliest of the baked bricks hitherto +discovered in Chaldaea are 11 1/4 inches square, and 2 1/2 inches thick, +while the Roman are often 15 inches square, and only an inch and a +quarter thick. The baked bricks of later date are of larger size than +the earlier; they are commonly about 13 inches square, with a thickness +of three inches. The best quality of baked brick is of a +yellowish-white tint, and very much resembles our Stourbridge or fire +brick; another kind, extremely hard, but brittle, is of a blackish blue; +a third, the coarsest of all, is slack-dried, and of a pale red. The +earliest baked bricks are of this last color. The sun-dried bricks have +even more variety of size than the baked ones. They are sometimes as +large as 16 inches square and seven inches thick, sometimes as small as +six inches square by two thick. Occasionally, though not very often, +bricks are found differing altogether in shape from those above +described, being formed for special purposes. Of this kind are the +triangular bricks used at the corners of walls, intended to give greater +regularity to the angles than would otherwise be attained; and the +wedge-shaped bricks, formed to be employed in arches, which were known +and used by this primitive people. + +The modes of applying these materials to building purposes were various. +Sometimes the crude and the burnt brick were used in alternate layers, +each layer being several feet in thickness; more commonly the crude brick +was used (as already noticed) for the internal parts of the building, and +a facing of burnt brick protected the whole from the weather. +Occasionally the mass of an edifice was composed entirely of crude brick; +but in such cases special precautions had to be taken to secure the +stability of this comparatively frail material. In the first place, at +intervals of four or five feet, a thick layer of reed matting was +interposed along the whole extent of the building, which appears to have +been intended to protect the earthy mass from disintegration, by its +protection beyond the rest of the external surface. The readers of +Herodotus are familiar with this feature, which (according to him) +occurred in the massive walls whereby Babylon was surrounded. If this +was really the case, we may conclude that those walls were not composed +of burnt brick, as he imagined, but of the sun-dried material. Reeds +were never employed in buildings composed of burnt brick, being useless +in such cases; where their impression is found, as not unfrequently +happens, on bricks of this kind, the brick has been laid upon reed +matting when in a soft state, and afterwards submitted to the action of +fire. In edifices of crude brick, the reeds were no doubt of great +service, and have enabled some buildings of the kind to endure to the +present day. They are very strikingly conspicuous where they occur, +since they stripe the whole building with continuous horizontal lines, +having at a distance somewhat the effect of the courses of dark marble in +an Italian structure of the Byzantine period. + +Another characteristic of the edifices in which crude brick is thus +largely employed, is the addition externally of solid and massive +buttresses of the burnt material. These buttresses have sometimes a very +considerable projection; they are broad, but not high, extending less +than half way up the walls against which they are placed. + +Two kinds of cement are used in the early structures. One is a coarse +clay or mud, which is sometimes mixed with chopped straw; the other is +bitumen. This last is of an excellent quality, and the bricks which it +unites adhere often so firmly together that they can with difficulty be +separated. As a gen eral rule, in the early buildings, the crude brick +is laid in mud, while the bitumen is used to cement together the burnt +bricks. + +[Illustration: PLATE 8] + +These general remarks will receive their best illustration from a +detailed description of the principal early edifices which recent +researches in Lower Mesopotamia have revealed to us. These are for the +most part temples; but in one or two cases the edifice explored is +thought to have been a residence, so that the domestic architecture of +the period may be regarded as known to us, at least in some degree. The +temples most carefully examined hitherto are those at Warka, Mugheir, and +Abu-Shahrein, the first of which was explored by Mr. Loftus in 1854, the +second by Mr. Taylor in the same year, and the third by the same +traveller in 1855. The Warka ruin is called by the natives Bowariyeh, +which signifies "reed mats," in allusion to a peculiarity, already +noticed, in its construction. [PLATE VIII., Fig. 1.] It is at once the +most central and the loftiest ruin in the place. At first sight it +appears to have been a cone or pyramid; but further examination proves +that it was in reality a tower, 200 feet square at the base, built in two +stories, the lower story being composed entirely of sun-dried bricks laid +in mud, and protected at intervals of four or five feet by layers of +reeds, while the upper one was composed of the same material, faced with +burnt brick. Of the upper stage very little remains; and this little is +of a later date than the inferior story, which bears marks of a very high +antiquity. The sundried bricks whereof the lower story is composed are +"rudely moulded of very incoherent earth, mixed with fragments of pottery +and fresh-water shells," and vary in size and shape, being sometimes +square, seven inches each way; sometimes oblong, nine inches by seven, +and from three to three and a half inches thick. The whole present +height of the building is estimated at 100 feet above the level of the +plain. Its summit, except where some slight remains of the second story +constitute an interruption, is "perfectly flat," and probably continues +very much in the condition in which it was when the lower stage was first +built. This stage, being built of crude brick, was necessarily weak; it +is therefore supported by four massive buttresses of baked brick, each +placed exactly in the centre of one of the sides, and carried to about +one-third of the height. Each buttress is nineteen feet high, six feet +one inch wide, and seven and a half feet in depth; and each is divided +down the middle by a receding space, one foot nine inches in width. All +the bricks composing the buttresses are inscribed, and are very firmly +cemented together with bitumen, in thick layers. The buttresses were +entirely hidden under the mass of rubbish which had fallen from the +building, chiefly from the upper story, and only became apparent when Mr. +Loftus made his excavations. + +It is impossible to reconstruct the Bowariyeh ruin from the facts and +measurements hitherto supplied to us even the height of the first story +is at present uncertain; and we have no means of so much as conjecturing +the height of the second. The exact emplacement of the second upon the +first is also doubtful, while the original mode of access is +undiscovered; and thus the plan of the building is in many respects still +defective. We only know that it was a square; that it had two stories at +the least; and that its entire height above the plain considerably +exceeded 100 feet. The temple at Mugheir has been more accurately +examined. [PLATE VIII., Fig. 2.] On a mound or platform of some size, +raised about twenty feet above the level of the plain, there stands a +rectangular edifice, consisting at present of two stories, both of them +ruined in parts, and buried to a considerable extent in piles of rubbish +composed of their debris. The angles of the building exactly face the +four cardinal points. It is not a square, but a parallelogram, having +two longer and two shorter sides. [PLATE IX., Fig. 1.] The longer sides +front to the north-east and south-west respectively, and measure 198 +feet; while the shorter sides, which face the north-west and south-east, +measure 133 feet. The present height of the basement story is 27 feet; +but, allowing for the concealment of the lower part by the rubbish, and +the destruction of the upper part by the hand of time, we may presume +that the original height was little, if at all, short of 40 feet. The +interior of this story is built of crude or sun-dried bricks of small +size, laid in bitumen; but it is faced through out with a wall, ten feet +in thickness, composed of red kiln dried bricks, likewise cemented with +bitumen. This external wall is at once strengthened and diversified to +the eye by a number of shallow buttresses or pilasters in the same +material; of these there are nine, including the corner ones, on the +longer, and six on the shorter sides. The width of the buttresses is +eight feet, and their projection a little more than a foot. The walls +and buttresses alike slope inwards at an angle of nine degrees. On the +north-eastern side of the building there is a staircase nine feet wide, +with sides or balustrades three feet wide, which leads up from the +platform to the top of the first story. It has also been conjectured +that there was a second or grand staircase on the south-east face, equal +in width to the second story of the building, and thus occupying nearly +the whole breadth of the structure on that side. A number of narrow +slits or air-holes are carried through the building from side to side; +they penetrate alike the walls and buttresses, and must have tended to +preserve the dryness of the structure. The second story is, like the +first, a parallelogram, and not of very different proportions. Its +longer sides measure 119 feet, and its shorter ones 75 feet at the base. +Its emplacement upon the first story is exact as respects the angles, but +not central as regards the four sides. While it is removed from the +south-eastern edge a distance of 47 feet, from the northwestern it is +distant only 30 feet. From the two remaining sides its distance is +apparently about 28 feet. The present height of the second story, +including the rubbish upon its top, is 19 feet; but we may reasonably +suppose that the original height was much greater. The material of which +its inner structure is composed, seems to be chiefly (or wholly) +partially-burnt brick, of a light red color, laid in a cement composed of +lime and ashes. This central mass is faced with kiln-dried bricks of +large size and excellent quality, also laid, except on the north-west +face, in lime mortar. No buttresses and no staircase are traceable on +this story; though it is possible that on the south-east side the grand +staircase may have run the whole height of both stories. + +According to information received by Mr. Taylor from the Arabs of the +vicinity, there existed, less than half a century ago, some remains of a +third story, on the summit of the rubbish which now crowns the second. +This building is described as a room or chamber, and was probably the +actual shrine of the god in whose honor the whole structure was erected. +Mr. Taylor discovered a number of bricks or tiles glazed with a blue +enamel, and also a number of large copper nails, at such a height in the +rubbish which covers up much of the second story, that he thinks they +could only have come from this upper chamber. The analogy of later +Babylonian buildings, as of the Birs-Nimrud and the temple of Belus at +Babylon confirms this view, and makes it probable that the early +Chaldaean temple was a building in three stages, of which the first and +second were solid masses of brickwork, ascended by steps on the outside, +while the third was a small house or chamber highly ornamented, +containing the image and shrine of the god. [PLATE IX., Fig. 2.] + +[Illustration: PLATE 9] + +In conclusion, it must be observed that only the lower story of the +Mugheir temple exhibits the workmanship of the old or Chaldaean period. +Clay cylinders found in the upper story inform us that in its present +condition this story is the work of Nabonidus, the last of the Babylonian +kings; and most of its bricks bear his stamp. Some, however, have the +stamp of the same monarch who built the lower story and this is +sufficient to show that the two stories are a part of the original +design, and therefore that the idea of building in stages belongs to the +first kingdom and to primitive times. There is no evidence to prove +whether the original edifice had, or had not, a third story; since the +chamber seen by the Arabs was no doubt a late Babylonian work. The third +story of the accompanying sketch must therefore be regarded as +conjectural. + +It is not necessary for our present purpose to detain the reader with a +minute description of the ancient temple at Abu-Shahrein. The general +character of this building seems to have very closely resembled that of +the Mugheir temple. Its angles fronted the cardinal points: it had two +stories, and an ornamented chamber at the top; it was faced with burnt +brick, and strengthened by buttresses; and in most other respects +followed the type of the Mugheir edifice. Its only very notable +peculiarities are the partial use of stone in the construction, and the +occurrence of a species of pillar, very curiously composed. The +artificial platform on which the temple stands is made of beaten clay, +cased with a massive wall of sandstone and limestone, in some places +twenty feet thick. There is also a stone or rather marble, staircase +which leads up from the platform to the summit of the first story, +composed of small polished blocks, twenty-two inches long, thirteen +broad, and four and a half thick. The bed of the staircase is made of +sun dried brick, and the marble was fastened to this substratum by copper +bolts, some portion of which was found by Mr. Taylor still adhering to +the blocks. At the foot of the staircase there appear to have stood two +columns, one on either side of it. The construction of these columns is +very singular. A circular nucleus composed of sandstone slabs and small +cylindrical pieces of marble disposed in alternate layers, was coated +externally with coarse lime, mixed with small stones and pebbles, until +by means of many successive layers the pillar had attained the desired +bulk and thickness. Thus the stone and marble were entirely concealed +under a thick coating of plaster; and a smoothness was given to the outer +surface which it would have otherwise been difficult to obtain. The date +of the Abu-Shahrein temple is thought to be considerably later than that +of the other buildings above described; and the pillars would seem to be +a refinement on the simplicity of the earlier times. The use of stone is +to be accounted for, not so much by the advance of architectural science, +as by the near vicinity of the Arabian hills, from which that material +could be readily derived. + +It is evident, that if the Chaldaean temples were of the character and +construction which we have gathered from their remains, they could have +possessed no great architectural beauty, though they may not have lacked +a certain grandeur. In the dead level of Babylonia, an elevation even of +100 or 150 feet must have been impressive; and the plain massiveness of +the structures no doubt added to their grand effect on the beholder. But +there was singularly little in the buildings, architecturally viewed, to +please the eye or gratify the sense of beauty. No edifices in the world +--not even the Pyramids--are more deficient in external ornament. The +buttresses and the air-holes, which alone break the flat uniformity of +the walls, are intended simply for utility, and can scarcely be said to +be much embellishment. If any efforts were made to delight by the +ordinary resources of ornamental art, it seems clear that such efforts +did not extend to the whole edifice, but were confined to the shrine +itself--the actual abode of the god--the chamber which crowned the whole, +and was alone, strictly speaking, "the temple." Even here there is no +reason to believe that the building had externally much beauty. No +fragments of architraves or capitals, no sculptured ornaments of any +kind, have been found among the heaps of rubbish in which Chaldaean +monuments are three-parts buried. + +The ornaments which have been actually discovered, are such as suggest +the idea of internal rather than external decoration; and they render it +probable that such decoration was, at least in some cases, extremely +rich. The copper nails and blue enamelled tiles found high up in the +Mugheir mound, have been already noticed. At Abu-Shahrein the ground +about the basement of the second story was covered with small pieces of +agate, alabaster, and marble, finely cut and polished, from half an inch +to two inches long, and half an inch (or somewhat less) in breadth, each +with a hole drilled through its back, containing often a fragment of a +copper bolt. + +[Illustration: PAGE 56] + +It was strewn less thickly with small plates of pure gold, and with a +number of gold-headed or gilt, headed nails, used apparently to attach +the gold plates to the internal plaster or wood-work. These fragments +seem to attest the high ornamentation of the shrine in this instance, +which we have no reason to regard is singular or in any way exceptional. + +The Chaldaean remains which throw light upon the domestic architecture of +the people are few and scanty. A small house was disinterred by Mr. +Taylor at Mugheir, and the plan of some chambers was made out at +Abu-Shahrein; but these are hitherto the only specimens which can be +confidently assigned to the Chaldaean period. The house stood on a +platform of sundried bricks, paved on the top with burnt bricks. It was +built in the form of a cross, but with a good deal of irregularity, every +wall being somewhat longer or shorter than the others. The material used +in its construction was burnt brick, the outer layer imbedded in bitumen, +and the remainder in a cement of mud. Externally the house was +ornamented with perpendicular stepped recesses, while internally the +bricks had often a thin coating of gypsum or enamel, upon which +characters were inscribed. The floors of the chambers were paved with +burnt brick, laid in bitumen. Two of the doorways were arched, the arch +extending through the whole thickness of the walls; it was semicircular, +and was constructed with bricks made wedge-shaped for the purpose. A +good deal of charred date-wood was found in the house, probably the +remains of rafters which had supported the roof. + +The chambers at Abu-Shahrein were of sun-dried brick, with an internal +covering of fine plaster, ornamented with paint. In one the +ornamentation consisted of a series of red, black, and white bands, three +inches in breadth; in another was represented, but very rudely, the +figure of a man holding a bird on his wrist, with a smaller figure near +him, in red paint. The favorite external ornamentation for houses seems +to have been by means of colored cones in terra cotta, which were +imbedded in moist mud or plaster, and arranged into a variety of +patterns. [PLATE IX., Fig. 3.] + +[Illustration: PLATE 10] + +But little can be said as to the plan on which houses were built. +[Illustration: PLATE X., Fig. 2. ] The walls were generally of vast +thickness, the chambers long and narrow, with the outer doors opening +directly into them. The rooms ordinarily led into one another, passages +being rarely found. Squared recesses, sometimes stepped or dentated, +were common in the rooms; and in the arrangement of these something of +symmetry is observable, as they frequently correspond to or face each +other. The roofs were probably either flat-beams of palm-wood being +stretched across from wall to wall--or else arched with brick. No +indication of windows has been found as yet; but still it is thought that +the chambers were lighted by them, only they were placed high, near the +ceiling or roof, and thus do not appear in the existing ruins, which +consists merely of the lower portion of walls, seldom exceeding the +height of seven or eight feet. The doorways, both outer and inner, are +towards the sides rather than in the centre of the apartments--a feature +common to Chaldaean with Assyrian buildings. + +Next to their edifices, the most remarkable of the remains which the +Chaldaeans have left to after-ages, are their burial-places. While +ancient tombs are of very rare occurrence in Assyria and Upper Babylonia, +Chaldaea Proper abounds with them. It has been conjectured, with some +show of reason, that the Assyrians, in the time of their power, may have +made the sacred land of Chai the general depository of their dead, much +in the same way as the Persians even now use Kerbela and Nedjif or Meshed +Ali as special cemetery cities, to which thousands of corpses are brought +annually. At any rate, the quantity of human relics accumulated upon +certain Chaldaean sites is enormous, and seems to be quite beyond what +the mere population of the surrounding district could furnish. At Warka, +for instance, excepting the triangular space between the three principal +ruins, the whole remainder of the platform, the whole space within the +walls, and an unknown extent of desert beyond them, are everywhere filled +with human bones and sepulchres. In places coffins are piled upon +coffins, certainly to the depth of 30, probably to the depth of 60 feet; +and for miles on every side of the ruins the traveller walks upon a soil +teeming with the relics of ancient, and now probably extinct, races. +Sometimes these relics manifestly belong to a number of distinct and +widely separate eras; but there are places where it is otherwise. +However we may account for it--and no account has been yet given which +is altogether satisfactory--it seems clear, from the comparative +homogeneousness of the remains in some places, that they belong to a +single race, and if not to a single period, at any rate to only two, +or, at the most, three distinct periods, so that it is no longer very +difficult to distinguish the more ancient from the later relics. Such +is the character of the remains at Mugheir, which are thought to contain +nothing of later date than the close of the Babylonian period, B. C. +538; and such is, still more remarkably, the character of the ruins at +Abu-Shahrein and Tel-el-Lahm, which seem to be entirely, or almost +entirely, Chaldaean. In the following account of the coffins and mode of +burial employed by the early Chaldaeans, examples will be drawn from +these places only; since otherwise we should be liable to confound +together the productions of very different ages and peoples. + +[Illustration: PLATE 11] + +The tombs to which an archaic character most certainly attaches are of +three kinds-brick vaults, clay coffins shaped like a dish-cover, and +coffins in the same material, formed of two large jars placed mouth to +mouth, and cemented together with bitumen. The brick vaults are found +chiefly at Mugheir. [PLATE XI., Fig. 1.] They are seven feet long, three +feet seven inches broad, and five feet high, composed of sun-dried bricks +imbedded in mud, and exhibit a very remarkable form and construction of +the arch. The side walls of the vaults slope outwards as they ascend; +and the arch is formed, like those in Egyptian buildings and Scythian +tombs, by each successive layer of bricks, from the point where the arch +begins, a little overlapping the last, till the two sides of the roof are +brought so near together that the aperture may be closed by a single +brick. The floor of the vaults was paved with brick similar to that used +for the roof and sides; on this floor was commonly spread a matting of +reeds, and the body was laid upon the matting. It was commonly turned on +its left side, the right arm falling towards the left, and the fingers +resting on the edge of a copper bowl, usually placed on the palm of the +left hand. The head was pillowed on a single sun-dried brick. Various +articles of ornament and use were interred with each body, which will be +more particularly described hereafter. Food seems often to have been +placed in the tombs, and jars or other drinking vessels are universal. +The brick vaults appear to have been family sepulchres; they have often +received three or four bodies, and in one case a single vault contained +eleven skeletons. + +[Illustration: PLATE 12] + +The clay coffins, shaped like a dish-cover, are among the most curious of +the sepulchral remains of antiquity. [PLATE XI., Fig. 2; PLATE XII., +Fig. 1.] On a platform of sun-dried brick is laid a mat exactly similar +to those in common use among the Arabs of the country at the present day; +and hereon lies the skeleton disposed as in the brick vaults, and +surrounded by utensils and ornaments. Mat, skeleton, and utensils are +then concealed by a huge cover in burnt clay, formed of a single piece, +which is commonly seven feet long, two or three feet high, and two feet +and a half broad at the bottom. It is rarely that modern potters produce +articles of half the size. Externally the covers have commonly some +slight ornament, such as rims and shallow indentations, as represented in +the sketch (No. 1). Internally they are plain. Not more than two +skeletons have ever been found under a single cover; and in these cases +they were the skeletons of a male and a female. Children were interred +separately, under covers about half the size of those for adults. Tombs +of this kind commonly occur at some considerable depth. None were +discovered at Mugheir nearer the surface than seven or eight feet. + +The third kind of tomb, common both at Mugheir and at Telel-Lahm, is +almost as eccentric as the preceding. Two large open-mouthed jars (a and +b), shaped like the largest of the water-jars at present in use at +Baghdad, are taken, and the body is disposed inside them with the usual +accompaniments of dishes, vases, and ornaments. [PLATE XII. Fig. 2.] +The jars average from two and a half feet to three feet in depth, and +have a diameter of about two feet; so that they would readily contain +a full-sized corpse if it was slightly bent at the knees. + +Sometimes the two jars are of equal size, and are simply united at their +mouths by a layer of bitumen (dd); but more commonly one is slightly +larger than the other, and the smaller mouth is inserted into the larger +one for a depth of three or four inches, while a coating of bitumen is +still applied externally at the juncture. In each coffin there is an +air-hole at one extremity (c) to allow the escape of the gases generated +during decomposition. + +Besides the coffins themselves, some other curious features are found in +the burial-places. The dead are commonly buried, not underneath the +natural surface of the ground, but in extensive artificial mounds, each +mound containing a vast number of coffins. The coffins are arranged side +by side, often in several layers; and occasionally strips of masonry, +crossing each other at right angles, separate the sets of coffins from +their neighbors. The surface of the mounds is sometimes paved with +brick; and a similar pavement often separates the layers of coffins one +from another. But the most remarkable feature in the tomb-mounds is +their system of drainage. Long shafts of baked clay extend from the +surface of the mound to its base, composed of a succession of rings two +feet in diameter, and about a foot and a half in breadth, joined together +by thin layers of bitumen. [PLATE XII., Fig. 3.] To give the rings +additional strength, the sides have a slight concave curve and, still +further to resist external pressure, the shafts are filled from bottom to +top with a loose mass of broken pottery. At the top the shaft contracts +rapidly by means of a ring of a peculiar shape, and above this ring are a +series of perforated bricks leading up to the top of the mound, the +surface of which is so arranged as to conduct the rain-water into these +orifices. For the still more effectual drainage of the mound, the +top-piece of the shaft immediately below the perforated bricks, and also +the first rings, are full of small holes to admit any stray moisture; +and besides this, for the space of a foot every way, the shafts are +surrounded with broken pottery, so that the real diameter of each drain +is as much as four feet. By these arrangements the piles have been kept +perfectly dry; and the consequence is the preservation, to the present +day, not only of the utensils and ornaments placed in the tombs, but of +the very skeletons themselves, which are seen perfect on opening a tomb, +though they generally crumble to dust at the first touch. + +The skill of the Chaldaeans as potters has received considerable +illustration in the foregoing pages. No ordinary ingenuity was needed to +model and bake the large vases, and still larger covers, which were the +ordinary receptacles of the Chaldaean dead. The rings and top-pieces of +the drainage-shafts also exhibit much skill and knowledge of principles. +Hitherto, however, the reader has not been brought into contact with any +specimens of Chaldaean fictile art which can be regarded as exhibiting +elegance of form, or, indeed, any sense of beauty as distinguished from +utility. Such specimens are, in fact, somewhat scarce, but they are not +wholly wanting. Among the vases and drinking vessels with which the +Chaldaean tombs abound, while the majority are characterized by a certain +rudeness both of shape and material, we occasionally meet with specimens +of a higher character, which would not shrink from a comparison with the +ordinary productions of Greek fictile art. A number of these are +represented in the second figure [PLATE XIII., Fig 2], which exhibits +several forms not hitherto published-some taken from drawings by Mr. +Churchill, the artist who accompanied Mr. Loftus on his first journey; +others drawn for the present work from vases now in the British Museum. + +[Illustration: PLATE 13] + +It is evident that, while the vases of the first group are roughly +moulded by the hand, the vases and lamps of the second have been +carefully shaped by the aid of the potter's wheel. These last are formed +of a far finer clay than the early specimens, and have sometimes a slight +glaze upon them, which adds much to their beauty. + +In a few instances the works of the Chaldaeans in this material belong to +mimetic art, of which they are rude but interesting specimens. Some of +the primitive graves at Senkareh yielded tablets of baked clay, on which +were represented, in low relief, sometimes single figures of men, +sometimes groups, sometimes men in combination with animals. A scene in +which a lion is disturbed in its feast off a bullock, by a man armed with +a club and a mace or hatchet, possesses remarkable spirit, and, were it +not for the strange drawing of the lion's unlifted leg, might be regarded +as a very creditable performance. In another, a lion is represented +devouring a prostrate human being; while a third exhibits a pugilistic +encounter after the most approved fashion of modern England. It is +perhaps uncertain whether these tablets belong to the Chaldaean or to the +Babylonian period, but on the whole their rudeness and simplicity favor +the earlier rather than the later date. + +[Illustration: PLATE 14] + +The only other works having anything of an artistic character, that can +be distinctly assigned to the primitive period, are a certain number of +engraved cylinders, some of which are very curious. [PLATE XIV., Fig. 1] +It is clearly established that the cylinders in question, which are +generally of serpentine, meteoric stone, jasper, chalcedony, or other +similar substance, were the seals or signets of their possessors, who +impressed them upon the moist clay which formed the ordinary material for +writing. They are round, or nearly so, and measure from half an inch to +three inches in length; ordinarily they are about one-third of their +length in diameter. A hole is bored through the stone from end to end, +so that it could be worn upon a string; and cylinders are found in some +of the earliest tombs which have been worn round the wrist in this way. +In early times they may have been impressed by the hand; but afterwards +it was common to place them upon a bronze or copper axis attached to a +handle, by means of which they were rolled across the clay from one end +to the other. The cylinders are frequently unengraved, and this is most +commonly their condition in the primitive tombs; out there is some very +curious evidence, from which it appears that the art of engraving them +was really known and practised (though doubtless in rare instances) at a +very early date. The signet cylinder of the monarch who founded the most +ancient of the buildings at Mugheir, Warka, Senkareh, and Niffer, and who +thus stands at the head of the monumental kings, was in the possession of +Sir R. Porter; and though it is now lost, an engraving made from it is +preserved in his "Travels." [PLATE XIV., Fig. 2.] The signet cylinder +of this monarch's son has been recently recovered, and is now in the +British Museum. We are entitled to conclude from the data thus in our +possession that the art of cylinder-engraving had, even at this early +period, made considerable progress. The letters of the inscriptions, +which give the names of the kings and their titles, are indeed somewhat +rudely formed, as they are on the stamped bricks of the period; but the +figures have been as well cut, and as flowingly traced, as those of a +later date. It was thought possible that the artist employed by Sir R. +Porter had given a flattering representation of his original, but the +newly recovered relic, known as the "cylinder of Ilgi," bears upon it +figures of quite as great excellence: and we are thus led to the +conclusion that both mechanical and artistic skill had reached a very +surprising degree of excellence at the most remote period to which the +Chaldaean records carry us back. + +[Illustration: PLATE 15] + +It increases the surprise which we naturally feel at the discovery of +these relics to reflect upon the rudeness of the implements with which +such results would seem to have been accomplished. In the primitive +Chaldaean ruins, the implements which have been discovered are either in +stone or bronze. Iron in the early times is seemingly unknown, and when +it first appears is wrought into ornaments for the person. Knives of +flint or chert [PLATE XIV., Fig. 3], stone hatchets, hammers, adzes, and +nails, are common in the most ancient mounds, which contain also a number +of clay models, the centres, as it is thought, of moulds into which +molten bronze was run, and also occasionally the bronze instruments +themselves, as (in addition to spear heads and arrow-heads) hammers, +adzes, hatchets, knives, and sickles. It will be seen by the engraved +representations that these instruments are one and all of a rude and +coarse character. [PLATE XV.], [PLATE XVI.] The flint and stone knives, +axes, and hammers, which abound in all the true Chaldaean mounds, are +somewhat more advanced indeed than those very primitive implements which +have been found in a drift; but they are of a workmanship at least as +unskilled as that of the ordinary stone celts of Western and Northern +Europe, which till the discoveries of M. Perthes were regarded as the +most ancient human remains in our quarter of the globe. They indicate +some practical knowledge of the cleavage of silicious rocks, but they +show no power of producing even such finish as the celts frequently +exhibit. In one case only has a flint instrument been discovered +perfectly regular in form, and presenting a sharp angular exactness. +The instrument, which is figured [PLATE XVI., Fig. 2], is a sort of long +parallelogram, round at the back, and with a deep impression down its +face. Its use is uncertain; but, according to a reasonable conjecture, +it may have been designed for impressing characters upon the moist clay +of tablets and cylinders--a purpose for which it is said to be +excellently fitted. + +[Illustration: PLATE 16] + +The metallurgy of the Chaldaeans, though indicative of a higher state of +civilization and a greater knowledge of the useful arts than their stone +weapons, is still of a somewhat rude character, and indicates a nation +but just emerging out of an almost barbaric simplicity. Metal seems to +be scarce, and not many kinds are found. There is no silver, zinc, or +platinum; but only gold, copper, tin, lead, and iron. Gold is found in +beads, ear-rings, and other ornaments, which are in some instances of a +fashion that is not inelegant. [PLATE XVI., Fig. 3.] Copper occurs +pure, but is more often hardened by means of an alloy of tin, whereby it +becomes bronze, and is rendered suitable for implements and weapons. +Lead is rare, occurring only in a very few specimens, as in one jar or +bottle, and in what seems to be a portion of a pipe, brought by Mr. +Loftus from Mugheir. [PLATE XVII., Fig. 1.] Iron, as already observed, +is extremely uncommon; and when it occurs, is chiefly used for the rings +and bangles which seem to have been among the favorite adornments of the +people. Bronze is, however, even for these, the more common material. +[PLATE XVII, Fig. 2.] It is sometimes wrought into thin and elegant +shapes, tapering to a point at either extremity; sometimes the form into +which it is cast is coarse and massive, resembling a solid bar twisted +into a rude circle. For all ordinary purposes of utility it is the +common metal used. A bronze or copper bowl is found in almost every +tomb; bronze bolts remain in the pieces of marble used for tesselating; +bronze rings sometimes strengthen the cones used for ornamenting walls; +bronze weapons and instruments are, as we have seen, common, and in the +same material have been found chains, nails, toe and finger rings, +armlets, bracelets, and fish-hooks. + +[Illustration: PLATE 17] + +No long or detailed account can be given of the textile fabrics of the +ancient Chaldaeans; but there is reason to believe that this was a branch +of industry in which they particularly excelled. We know that as early +as the time of Joshua a Babylonian garment had been imported into +Palestine, and was of so rare a beauty as to attract the covetous regards +of Achan, in common with certain large masses of the precious metals. +The very ancient cylinder figured above must belong to a time at least +five or six centuries earlier; upon it we observe flounced and fringed +garments, delicately striped, and indicative apparently of an advanced +state of textile manufacture. Recent researches do not throw much light +on this subject. The frail materials of which human apparel is composed +can only under peculiar circumstances resist the destructive power of +thirty or forty centuries; and consequently we have but few traces of the +actual fabrics in use among the primitive people. Pieces of linen are +said to have been found attaching to some of the skeletons in the tombs; +and the sun-dried brick which supports the head is sometimes covered with +the remains of a "tasselled cushion of tapestry;" but otherwise we are +without direct evidence either as to the material in use, or as to the +character of the fabric. In later times Babylon was especially +celebrated for its robes and its carpets. Such evidence as we have would +seem to make it probable that both manufactures had attained to +considerable excellence in Chaldaean times. + +The only sciences in which the early Chaldaeans can at present be proved +to have excelled are the cognate ones of arithmetic and astronomy. On +the broad and monotonous plains of Lower Mesopotamia, where the earth has +little upon it to suggest thought or please by variety, the "variegated +heaven," ever changing with the hours and with the seasons, would early +attract attention, while the clear sky, dry atmosphere, and level horizon +would afford facilities for observations, so soon as the idea of them +suggested itself to the minds of the inhabitants. The "Chaldaean +learning" of a later age appears to have been originated, in all its +branches, by the primitive people; in whose language it continued to be +written even in Semitic times. + +We are informed by Simplicius that Callisthenes, who accompanied +Alexander to Babylon, sent to Aristotle from that capital a series of +astronomical observations, which he had found preserved there, extending +back to a period of 1903 years from Alexander's conquest of the city. +Epigenes related that these observations were recorded upon tablets of +baked clay, which is quite in accordance with all that we know of the +literary habits of the people. They must have extended, according to +Simplicius, as far back as B.C. 2234, and would therefore seem to have +been commenced and carried on for many centuries by the primitive +Chaldaean people. We have no means of determining their exact nature or +value, as none of them have been preserved to us: no doubt they were at +first extremely simple; but we have every reason to conclude that they +were of a real and substantial character. There is nothing fanciful, or +(so to speak) astrological, in the early astronomy of the Babylonians. +Their careful emplacement of their chief buildings, which were probably +used from the earliest times for astronomical purposes, their invention +of different kinds of dials, and their division of the day into those +hours which we still use, are all solid, though not perhaps very +brilliant, achievements. It was only in later times that the Chaldaeans +were fairly taxed with imposture and charlatanism; in early ages they +seem to have really deserved the eulogy bestowed on them by Cicero. + +It may have been the astronomical knowledge of the Chaldaeans which gave +them the confidence to adventure on important voyages. Scripture tells +us of the later people, that "their cry was in the ships;" and the early +inscriptions not only make frequent mention of the "ships of Ur," but by +connecting these vessels with those of Ethiopia seem to imply that they +were navigated to considerable distances. Unfortunately we possess no +materials from which to form any idea either of the make and character of +the Chaldaean vessels, or of the nature of the trade in which they were +employed. We may perhaps assume that at first they were either canoes +hollowed out of a palm-trunk, or reed fabrics made water-tight by a +coating of bitumen. The Chaldaea trading operations lay no doubt, +chiefly in the Persian Gulf; but it is quite possible that even in very +early times they were not confined to this sheltered basin. The gold, +which was so lavishly used in decoration, could only have been obtained +in the necessary quantities from Africa or India; and it is therefore +probable that one, if not both, of these countries was visited by the +Chaldaean traders. + +Astronomical investigations could not be conducted without a fair +proficiency in the science of numbers. It would be reasonable to +conclude, from the admitted character of the Chaldaeans as astronomers, +that they were familiar with most arithmetical processes, even had we no +evidence upon the subject. Evidence, however, to a certain extent, does +exist. On a tablet found at Senkareh, and belonging probably to an early +period, a table of squares is given, correctly calculated from one to +sixty. The system of notation, which is here used, is very curious. +Berosus informs us that, in their computations of time, the Chaldaeans +employed an alternate sexagesimal and decimal notation, reckoning the +years by the _soss,_ the _ner,_ and the _sar_--the _soss_ being a term of +60 years, the _ner_ one of 600, and the _sar_ one of 3600 (or 60 +_sosses_). It appears from the Senkareh monument, that they occasionally +pursued the same practice in mere numerical calculations, as will be +evident from the illustration. [PLATE XVIII., Figs. 1, 2.] + +[Illustration: PLATE 18] + +In Arabic numerals this table may be expressed as follows: + +[Illustration: PAGE 66] + +The calculation is in every case correct; and the notation is by means of +two signs--the simple wedge [--] , and the arrowhead [--] ; the wedge +representing the unit, the soss (60), and the sar (3600), while the +arrowhead expresses the decades of each series, or the numbers 10 and +600. The notation is cumbrous, but scarcely more so than that of the +Romans. It would be awkward to use, from the paucity in the number of +signs, which could scarcely fail to give rise to confusion,--more +especially as it does not appear that there was any way of expressing a +cipher. It is not probable that at any time it was the notation in +ordinary use. Numbers were commonly expressed in a manner not unlike the +Roman, as will be seen by the subjoined table. [PLATE XVIII., Fig. 3.] +One, ten, a hundred, and a thousand, had distinct signs. Fifty had the +same sign as the unit--a simple wedge. The other numbers were composed +from these elements. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. + +Chaldaea, unlike Egypt, has preserved to our day but few records of the +private or domestic life of its inhabitants. Beyond the funereal +customs, to which reference was made in the last chapter, we can obtain +from the monuments but a very scanty account of their general mode of +life, manners, and usages. Some attempt, however, must be made to throw +together the few points of this nature on which we have obtained any +light from recent researches in Mesopotamia. + +The ordinary dress of the common people among the Chaldaeans seems to +have consisted of a single garment, a short tunic, tied round the waist, +and reaching thence to the knees, a costume very similar to that worn by +the Madan Arabs at the present day. To this may sometimes have been +added an _abba,_ or cloak, thrown over the shoulders, and falling below +the tunic, about half-way down the calf of the leg. The material of the +former we may perhaps presume to have been linen, which best suits the +climate, and is a fabric found in the ancient tombs. The outer cloak was +most likely of woollen, and served to protect hunters and others against +the occasional inclemency of the air. The feet were unprotected by +either shoes or sandals; on the head was worn a skull-cap, or else a band +of camel's hairs--the germ of the turban which has now become universal +throughout the East. + +The costume of the richer class was more elaborate. A high mitre, of a +very peculiar appearance, or else a low cap ornamented with two curved +horns, covered the head. [PLATE XIX. Fig. 1.] The neck and arms were +bare. The chief garment was a long gown or robe, extending from the neck +to the feet, commonly either striped or flounced, or both; and sometimes +also adorned with fringe. This robe, which was scanty according to +modern notions, appears not to have been fastened by any girdle or +cincture round the waist, but to have been kept in place by passing over +one shoulder, a slit or hole being made for the arm on one side of the +dress only. In some cases the upper part of the dress seems to have been +detached from the lower, and to have formed a sort of jacket, which +reached about to the hips. + +[Illustration: PLATE 19] + +The beard was commonly worn straight and long, not in crisp curls, as by +the Assyrians. [PLATE XIX., Fig. 2.] The hair was also worn long, +either gathered together into a club behind the head, or depending in +long spiral curls on either side the face and down the back. Ornaments +were much affected, especially by the women. Bronze and iron bangles and +armlets, and bracelets of rings or beads, ear-rings, and rings for the +toes, are common in the tombs, and few female skeletons are without them. +The material of the ornaments is generally of small value. Many of the +rings are formed by grinding down a small kind of shell; the others are +of bronze or iron. Agate beads, however, are not uncommon, and gold +beads have been found in a few tombs, as well as some other small +ornaments in the same material. The men seem to have carried generally +an engraved cylinder in agate or other hard stone, which was used as a +seal or signet, and was probably worn round the wrist. Sometimes rings, +and even bracelets, formed also a part of their adornment. The latter +were occasionally in gold--they consisted of bands or fillets of the pure +beaten metal, and were as much as an inch in breadth. + +The food of the early Chaldaeans consisted probably of the various +esculents which have already been mentioned as products of the territory. +The chief support, however, of the mass of the population was, beyond a +doubt, the dates, which still form the main sustenance of those who +inhabit the country. It is clear that in Babylonia, as in Scythia, the +practice existed of burying with a man a quantity of the food to which he +had been accustomed during life. In the Chaldaean sepulchres a number of +dishes are always ranged round the skeleton, containing the viaticum of +the deceased person, and in these dishes are almost invariably found a +number of date-stones. They are most commonly unaccompanied by any +traces of other kinds of food; occasionally, however, besides +date-stones, the bones of fish and of chickens have been discovered, from +which we may conclude that those animals were eaten, at any rate by the +upper classes. Herodotus tells us that in his day three tribes of +Babylonians subsisted on fish alone; and the present inhabitants of Lower +Mesopotamia make it a principal article of their diet. The rivers and +the marshes produce it in great abundance, while the sea is also at hand, +if the fresh-water supply should fail. Carp and barbel are the principal +fresh-water sorts, and of these the former grows to a very great size in +the Euphrates. An early tablet, now in the British Museum, represents a +man carrying a large fish by the head, which may be a carp, though the +species can scarcely be identified. There is evidence that the wild-boar +was also eaten by the primitive people; for Mr. Loftus found a jaw of +this animal, with the tusk still remaining, lying in a shallow clay dish +in one of the tombs. Perhaps we may be justified in concluding, from the +comparative rarity of any remains of animal food in the early sepulchres, +that the primitive Chaldaeans subsisted chiefly on vegetable productions. +The variety and excellence of such esculents are prominently put forward +by Berosus in his account of the original condition of the country; and +they still form the principal support of those who now inhabit it. + +We are told that Nimrod was "a mighty hunter before the Lord;" and it is +evident, from the account already given of the animals indigenous in +Lower Mesopotainia, that there was abundant room for the display of a +sportsman's skill and daring when men first settled in that region. The +Senkareh tablets show the boldness and voracity of the Chaldaean lion, +which not only levied contributions on the settlers' cattle, but +occasionally ventured to attack man himself. We have not as yet any +hunting scenes belonging to these early times; but there can be little +doubt that the bow was the chief weapon used against the king of beasts, +whose assailants commonly prefer remaining at a respectful distance from +him. The wild-boar may have been hunted in the same way, or he may have +been attacked with a spear--a weapon equally well known with the bow to +the early settlers. Fish were certainly taken with the hook; for +fish-hooks have been found in the tombs; but probably they were also +captured in nets, which are among the earliest of human inventions. + +A considerable portion of the primitive population must have been engaged +in maritime pursuits. In the earliest inscriptions we find constant +mention of the "ships of Ur," which appear to have traded with Ethiopia +--a country whence may have been derived the gold, which--as has been +already shown--was so largely used by the Chaldaeans in ornamentation. +It would be interesting could we regard it as proved that they traded +also with the Indian peninsula; but the "rough logs of wood, apparently +teak," which Mr. Taylor discovered in the great temple at Mugheir, belong +more probably to the time of its repair by Nabonidus than to that of its +original construction by a Chaldaean monarch. The Sea-God was one of the +chief objects of veneration at Ur and elsewhere; and Berosus appears to +have preserved an authentic tradition, where he makes the primitive +people of the country derive their arts and civilization from "the Red +Sea." Even if their commercial dealings did not bring them into contact +with any more advanced people, they must have increased the intelligence, +as well as the material resources, of those employed in them, and so have +advanced their civilization. + +Such are the few conclusions concerning the manners of the Chaldaeans +which alone we seem to have any right to form with our present means of +information. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +RELIGION. + +The religion of the Chaldaeans, from the very earliest times to which the +monuments carry us back, was, in its outward aspect, a polytheism of a +very elaborate character. It is quite possible that there may have been +esoteric explanations, known to the priests and the more learned, which, +resolving the personages of the Pantheon into the powers of nature, +reconciled the apparent multiplicity of gods with monotheism, or even +with atheism. So far, however, as outward appearances were concerned, +the worship was grossly polytheistic. Various deities, whom it was not +considered at all necessary to trace to a single stock, divided the +allegiance of the people, and even of the kings, who regarded with equal +respect, and glorified with equally exalted epithets, some fifteen or +sixteen personages. Next to these principal gods were a far more +numerous assemblage of inferior or secondary divinities, less often +mentioned, and regarded as less worthy of honor, but still recognized +generally through the country. Finally, the Pantheon contained a host of +mere local gods or genii, every town and almost every village in +Babylonia being under the protection of its own particular divinity. + +It will be impossible to give a complete account of this vast and +complicated system. The subject is still but partially worked out by +cuneiform scholars; the difficulties in the way of understanding it are +great; and in many portions to which special attention has been paid it +is strangely perplexing and bewildering. All that will be attempted in +the present place is to convey an idea of the general character of the +Chaldaean religion, and to give some information with regard to the +principal deities. + +In the first place, it must be noticed that the religion was to a certain +extent astral. The heaven itself, the sun, the moon, and the five +planets, have each their representative in the Chaldaean Pantheon among +the chief objects of worship. At the same time it is to be observed that +the astral element is not universal, but partial; and that, even where it +has place, it is but one aspect of the mythology, not by any means its +full and complete exposition. The Chaldaean religion even here is far +from being mere Sabaeanism--the simple worship of the "host of heaven." +The aether, the sun, the moon, and still more the five planetary gods, +are something above and beyond those parts of nature. Like the classical +Apollo and Diana, Mars and Venus, they are real persons, with a life and +a history, a power and an influence, which no ingenuity can translate +into a metaphorical representation of phenomena attaching to the air and +to the heavenly bodies. It is doubtful, indeed, whether the gods of this +class are really of astronomical origin, and not rather primitive +deities, whose character and attributes were, to a great extent, fixed +and settled before the notion arose of connecting them with certain parts +of nature. Occasionally they seem to represent heroes rather than +celestial bodies; and they have all attributes quite distinct from their +physical or astronomical character. + +Secondly, the striking resemblance of the Chaldaean system to that of the +Classical Mythology seems worthy of particular attention. This +resemblance is too general, and too close in some respects, to allow of +the supposition that mere accident has produced the coincidence. In the +Pantheons of Greece and Rome, and in that of Chaldaea, the same general +grouping is to be recognized; the same genealogical succession is not +unfrequently to be traced; and in some cases even the familiar names and +titles of classical divinities admit of the most curious illustration and +explanation from Chaldaean sources. We can scarcely doubt but that, in +some way or other, there was a communication of beliefs--a passage in +very early times, from the shores of the Persian Gulf to the lands washed +by the Mediterranean, of mythological notions and ideas. It is a +probable conjecture that among the primitive tribes who dwelt on the +Tigris and Euphrates, when the cuneiform alphabet was invented and when +such writing was first applied to the purposes of religion, a Scythic or +Scytho-Arian race existed, who subsequently migrated to Europe, and +brought with them those mythical traditions which, as objects of popular +belief, had been mixed up in the nascent literature of their native +country, and that these traditions were passed on to the classical +nations, who were in part descended from this Scythic or Scytho-Arian +people. + +The grouping of the principal Chalda an deities is as follows. At the +head of the Pantheon stands a god, Il or Ra, of whom but little is known. +Next to him is a Triad, _Ana, Bil_ or _Belus,_ and _Hea_ or _Hoa,_ who +correspond closely to the classical Pluto, Jupiter, and Neptune. Each of +these is accompanied by a female principle or wife, _Ana_ by _Anat, Bil_ +(or Bel) by _Mulita_ or _Beltis,_ and _Hea_ (or _Hoa_) by _Davkina_. +Then follows a further Triad, consisting of _Sin_ or _Hurki,_ the +Moon-god; _San_ or _Sansi,_ the Sun; and _Vul_ the god of the +atmosphere. The members of this Triad are again accompanied by female +powers or wives,--_Vul_ by a goddess called _Shala_ or _Tala, San_ (the +Sun) by _Gula_ or _Anunit,_ and _Hurki_ (the Moon) by a goddess whose +name is wholly uncertain, but whose common title is "the great lady." + +Such are the gods at the head of the Pantheon. Next in order to them we +find a group of five minor deities, the representatives of the five +planets,--Nin or Ninip (Saturn), Merodach (Jupiter), Nergal (Mars), +Ishtar (Venus), and Nebo (Mercury). These together constitute what we +have called the _principal_ gods; after them are to be placed the +numerous divinities of the second and third order. + +These principal gods do not appear to have been connected, like the +Egyptian and the classical divinities, into a single genealogical scheme: +yet still a certain amount of relationship was considered to exist among +them. Ana and Bel, for instance, were brothers, the sons of Il or Ra; +Vul was son of Ana; Hurki, the Moon-god, of Bel; Nebo and Merodach were +sons of Hea or Hoa. Many deities, however, are without parentage, as not +only Il or Ra, but Hea, San (the Sun), Ishtar, and Nergal. Sometimes the +relationship alleged is confused, and even contradictory, as in the case +of Nin or Ninip, who is at one time the son, at another the father of +Bel, and who is at once the son and the husband of Beltis. It is evident +that the genealogical aspect is not that upon which much stress is +intended to be laid, or which is looked upon as having much reality. The +great gods are viewed habitually rather as a hierarchy of coequal powers, +than as united by ties implying on the one hand pre-eminence and on the +other subordination. + +We may now consider briefly the characters and attributes of the several +deities so far as they can be made out, either from the native records, +or from classical tradition. And, first, concerning the god who stands +in some sense at the head of the Chaldaean Pantheon. + + +IL, or RA. + +The form Ra represents probably the native Chaldaean name of this deity, +while _Il_ is the Semitic equivalent. _Il,_ of course, is but a variant +of _El,_ the root of the well-known Biblical _Elohim_ as well as of the +Arabic _Allah_. It is this name which Diodorus represents under the form +of Elms ('H??oc), 7 and Sanchoniathon, or rather Philo-Byblius, under +that of _Elus_ or _Ilus_. The meaning of the word is simply "God," or +perhaps "the god" emphatically. _Ra,_ the Cushite equivalent, must be +considered to have had the same force originally, though in Egypt it +received a special application to the sun, and became the proper name of +that particular deity. The word is lost in the modern Ethiopic. It +formed an element in the native name of Babylon, which was _Ka-ra,_ the +Cushite equivalent of the Semitic _Bab-il,_ an expression signifying "the +gate of God." + +Ra is a god with few peculiar attributes. He is a sort of fount and +origin of deity, too remote from man to be much worshipped or to excite +any warm interest. There is no evidence of his having had any temple in +Chaldaea during the early times. A belief in his existence is implied +rather than expressed in inscriptions of the primitive kings, where the +Moon-god is said to be "brother's son of Ana, and eldest son of Bil, or +Belus." We gather from this that Bel and Ana were considered to have a +common father; and later documents sufficiently indicate that that common +father was Il or Ra. We must conclude from the name _Babil,_ that +Babylon was originally under his protection, though the god specially +worshipped in the great temple there seems to have been in early times +Bel, and in later times Merodach. The identification of the Chaldaean, +Il or Ra with Saturn, which Diodorus makes, and which may seem to derive +some confirmation from Philo-Byblius, is certainly incorrect, so far as +the planet Saturn, which Diodorus especially mentions, is concerned; but +it may be regarded as having a basis of truth, inasmuch as Saturn was in +one sense the chief of the gods, and was the father of Jupiter and Pluto, +as Ra was of Bil and Ana. + + +ANA. + +_Ana,_ like Il and Ra, is thought to have been a word originally +signifying "God," in the highest sense. The root occurs probably in the +Annedotus and Oannes of Berosus, as well as in Philo-Byblius's Anobret. +In its origin it is probably Cushite: but it was adopted by the +Assyrians, who inflected the word which was indeclinable in the Chaldaean +tongue, making the nominative Anu, the genitive Ani, and the accusative +Ana. + +Ana is the head of the first Triad, which follows immediately after the +obscure god Ra. His position is well marked by Damascius, who gives the +three gods, Anus, Illinus, and Aus, as next in succession to the primeval +pair, Assorus and Missara. He corresponds in many respects to the +classical Hades or Pluto, who, like him, heads the triad to which he +belongs. His epithets are chiefly such as mark priority and antiquity. +He is called "the old Ana," "the original chief," perhaps in one place +"the father of the gods," and also "the Lord of spirits and demons." +Again, he bears a number of titles which serve to connect him with the +infernal regions. He is "the king of the lower world," the "Lord of +darkness" or "death," "the ruler of the far-off city," and the like. The +chief seat of his worship is Huruk or Erech--the modern Warka--which +becomes the favorite Chaldaean burying city, as being under his +protection. There are some grounds for thinking that one of his names +was _Dis._ If this was indeed so, it would seem to follow, almost beyond +a doubt, that _Dis,_ the lord of Orcus in Roman mythology, must have been +a reminiscence brought from the East--a lingering recollection of _Dis_ +or Ana, patron god of Erech (_Opex_ of the LXX), the great city of the +dead, the necropolis of Lower Babylonia. Further, curiously enough, we +have, in connection with this god, an illustration of the classical +confusion between Pluto and Plutus; for Ana is "the layer-up of +treasures"--the "lord of the earth" and of the "mountains," whence the +precious metals are derived. + +The worship of Ana by the kings of the Chaldaean series is certain. Not +only did Shanias-vul, the son of Ismi-dagon, raise a temple to the honor +of Ana and his son Vul at Kileh-Shergat (or Asshur) about B.C. 1830-- +whence that city appears in later times to have borne the name of Telane, +or "the mound of Ana"--but Urukh himself mentions him as a god in an +inscription quoted above; and there is reason to believe that from at +least as early a date he was recognized as the presiding deity at Erech +or Warka. This is evident from the fact, that though the worship of +Beltis superseded that of Ana in the great temple at that place from a +very remote epoch, yet the temple itself always retained the title of +Bit-Ana (or Beth-Ana), "the house of Ana;" and Beltis herself was known +commonly as "the lady of Bit-Ana," from the previous dedication to this +god of the shrine in question. Ana must also have been worshipped +tolerably early at Nipur (Rifer), or that city could scarcely have +acquired, by the time of Moses, the appellation of Calneh in the +Septuagint translation, which is clearly Kal Ana, "the fort of Ana." + +Ana was supposed to have a wife, Anata, of whom a few words will be said +below. She bore her husband a numerous progeny. One tablet shows a list +of nine of their children, among which, however, no name occurs of any +celebrity. But there are two sons of Ana mentioned elsewhere, who seem +entitled to notice. One is the god of the atmosphere, Vul (?), of whom a +full account will be hereafter given. The other bears the name of Martu, +and may be identified with the _Brathy_ of Sanchoniathon. He represents +"Darkness," or "the West," corresponding to the Erebus of the Greeks. + + +ANATA. + +Anat or Anata has no peculiar characteristics. As her name is nothing +but the feminine form of the masculine Ana, so she herself is a mere +reflection of her husband. All his epithets are applied to her, with a +simple difference of gender. She has really no personality separate from +his, resembling Amente in Egyptian mythology, who is a mere feminine +Ammon. She is rarely, if ever, mentioned in the historical and +geographical inscriptions. + + + +BIL, or ENU. + +Bil or Enu is the second god of the first Triad. He is, probably, the +Illinus (_Il-Enu_ or "God Enu ") of Damascius. His name, which seems to +mean merely "lord," is usually followed by a qualificative adjunct, +possessing great interest. It is proposed to read this term as _Nipru,_ +or in the feminine _Niprut,_ a word which cannot fail to recall the +Scriptural Nimrod, who is in the Septuagint Nebroth. The term nipru +seems to be formed from the root napar, which is in Syriac to "pursue," +to "make to flee," and which has in Assyrian nearly the same meaning. +Thus Bil-Nipru would be aptly translated as "the Hunter Lord," or "the +god presiding over the chase," while, at the same time, it might combine +the meaning of "the Conquering Lord" or "the Great Conqueror." + +On these grounds it is reasonable to conclude that we have, in this +instance, an admixture of hero-worship in the Chaldaean religion. +Bil-Nipru is probably the Biblical Nimrod, the original founder of the +monarchy, the "mighty hunter" and conqueror. At the same time, however, +that he is this hero deified, he represents also, as the second god of +the first Triad, the classical Jupiter. He is "the supreme," "the father +of the gods," "the procreator," "the Lord," _par excellence,_ "the king +of all the spirits," "the lord of the world," and again, "the lord of all +the countries." There is some question whether he is altogether to be +identified with the Belus of the Greek writers, who in certain respects +rather corresponds to Merodach. When Belus, however, is called the first +king, the founder of the empire, or the builder of Babylon, it seems +necessary to understand Bil-Nipru or Bel-Nimrod. Nimrod, we know, built +Babylon; and Babylon was called in Assyrian times "the city of +Bil-Nipru," while its famous defences--the outer and the inner wall--were +known, even under Nebuchadnezzar, by the name of the same god.--Nimrod, +again, was certainly the founder of the kingdom; and, therefore, if +Bil-Nipru is his representative, he would be Belus under that point of +view. + +The chief seat of Bel-Nimrod's worship was undoubtedly Nipur (Niffer) or +Calneh. Not only was this city designated by the very same name as the +god, and specially dedicated to him and to his wife Beltis, but +Bel-Nimrod is called "Lord of Nipra," and his wife "Lady of Nipra," in +evident allusion to this city or the tract wherein it was placed. +Various traditions, as will be hereafter shown, connect Nimrod with +Niffer, which may fairly be regarded as his principal capital. Here then +he would be naturally first worshipped upon his decease; and here seems +to have been situated his famous temple called Kharris-Nipra, so noted +for its wealth, splendor, and antiquity, which was an object of intense +veneration to the Assyrian kings. Besides this celebrated shrine, he +does not appear to have possessed many others. He is sometimes said to +have had four "arks" or "tabernacles;" but the only places besides +Niffer, where we know that he had buildings dedicated to him, are Calah +(Nimrud) and Dur-Kurri-galzu (Akkerkuf). At the same time he is a god +almost universally acknowledged in the invocations of the Babylonian and +Assyrian kings, in which he has a most conspicuous place. In Assyria he +seems to be inferior only to Asshur; in Chaldaea to Ra and Ana. + +Of Beltis, the wife of Bel-Nimrod, a full account will be given +presently. Nin or Ninip--the Assyrian Hercules--was universally regarded +as their son; and he is frequently joined with Bel-Nimrod in the +invocations. Another famous deity, the Moon-god, Sin or Hurki, is also +declared to be Bel-Nimrod's son in some inscriptions. Indeed, as "the +father of the gods," Bel-Nimrod might evidently claim an almost infinite +paternity. + +The worship of Bel-Nimrod in Chaldaea extends through the whole time of +the monarchy. It has been shown that he was probably the deified Nimrod, +whose apotheosis would take place shortly after his decease. Urukh, the +earliest monumental king, built him a temple at Niffer; and Kurri-galzu, +one of the latest, paid him the same honor at Akkerkuf. Urukh also +frequently mentions him in his inscriptions in connection with Hurki, the +Moon-god, whom he calls his "eldest son." + + +BELTIS. + +Beltis, the wife of Bel-Nimrod, presents a strong contrast to Anata, the +wife of Ana. She is far more than the mere female power of Bel-Nimrod, +being in fact a separate and very important deity. Her common title is +"the Great Goddess." In Chaldaea her name was Mulita or Enuta--both +words signifying "the Lady;" in Assyria she was Bilta or Bilta-Nipruta, +the feminine forms of Bil and Bilu-Nipru. Her favorite title was "the +Mother of the Gods," or "the Mother of the Great Gods:" whence it is +tolerably clear that she was the "Dea Syria" worshipped at Hierapolis +under the Arian appellation of Mabog. Though commonly represented as the +wife of Bel-Nimrod, and mother of his son Nin or Ninip, she is also +called "the wife of Nin," and in one place "the wife of Asshur." Her +other titles are "the lady of Bit-Ana," "the lady of Nipur," "the Queen +of the land" or "of the lands," "the great lady," "the goddess of war and +battle," and the "queen of fecundity." She seems thus to have united the +attributes of the Juno, the Ceres or Demeter, the Bellona, and even the +Diana of the classical nations: for she was at once the queen of heaven, +the goddess who makes the earth fertile, the goddess of war and battle, +and the goddess of hunting. In these latter capacities she appears, +however, to have been gradually superseded by Ishtar, who sometimes even +appropriates her higher and more distinctive appellations. + +The worship of Beltis was wide-spread, and her temples were very +numerous. At Erech (Warka) she was worshipped on the same platform, if +not even in the same building with Ana. At Calneh or Nipur (Niffer), she +shared fully in her husband's honors. She had a shrine at Ur (Mugheir), +another at Rubesi, and another outside the walls of Babylon. Some of +these temples were very ancient, those at Warka and Niffer being built by +Urukh, while that at Mugheir was either built or repaired by Ismi-dagon. + +According to one record, Beltis was a daughter of Ana. It was especially +as "Queen of Nipur" that she was the wife of her son Nin. Perhaps this +idea grew up out of the fact that at Nipur the two were associated +together in a common worship. It appears to have given rise to some of +the Greek traditions with respect to Semiramis, who was made to contract +an incestuous marriage with her own son Ninyas, although no explanation +can at present be given of the application to Beltis of that name. + + +HEA, or HOA. + +The third god of the first Triad was Hea, or Hoa, probably the Aus of +Damascus. His appellation is perhaps best rendered into Greek by the +[--] of Helladius--the name given to the mystic animal, half man, half +fish, which came up from the Persian Gulf to teach astronomy and letters +to the first settlers on the Euphrates and Tigris. It is perhaps +contained also in the word by which Berosus designates this same +creature--Oannes--which may be explained as _Hoa-ana,_ or "the god Hoa." +There are no means of strictly determining the precise meaning of the +word in Babylonian; but it is perhaps allowable to connect it, +provisionally, with the Arabic Hiya, which is at once life and "a +serpent," since, according to the best authority, there are very strong +grounds for connecting Hea or Hoa with the serpent of Scripture and the +Paradisaical traditions of the tree of knowledge and the tree of life. + +Hoa occupies, in the first Triad, the position which in the classical +mythology is filled by Poseidon or Neptune, and in some respects he +corresponds to him. He is "the lord of the earth," just as Neptune is +[Greek]; he is "the king of rivers;" and he comes from the sea to teach +the Babylonians; but he is never called "the lord of the sea." That +title belongs to Nin or Ninip. Hoa is "the lord of the abyss," or of +"the great deep," which does not seem to be the sea, but something +distinct from it. His most important titles are those which invest him +with the character, so prominently brought out in Oe and Oannes, of the +god of science and knowledge. He is "the intelligent guide," or, +according to another interpretation, "the intelligent fish," "the teacher +of mankind," "the lord of understanding." One of his emblems is the +"wedge" or "arrowhead," the essential element of cuneiform writing, which +seems to be assigned to him as the inventor, or at least the patron of +the Chaldaean alphabet. Another is the serpent which occupies so +conspicuous a place among the symbols of the gods on the black stones +recording benefactions, and which sometimes appears upon the cylinders. +[PLATE XIX., Fig. 3.] This symbol, here as elsewhere, is emblematic of +superhuman knowledge--a record of the primeval belief that the serpent +was more subtle than any beast of the field. The stellar name of Hoa was +Kimmut; and it is suspected that in this aspect he was identified with +the constellation Draco, which is perhaps the Kimah of Scripture. +Besides his chief character of "god of knowledge," Hoa is also "god of +life," a capacity in which the serpent would again fitly symbolize him. +He was likewise "god of glory," and "god of giving," being, as Berosus +said, the great giver of good gifts to man. + +The monuments do not contain much evidence of the early worship of Hoa. +His name appears on a very ancient stone tablet brought from Mugheir +(Ur); but otherwise his claim to be accounted one of the primeval gods +must rest on the testimony of Berosus and Helladius, who represent him as +known to the first settlers. He seems to have been the tutelary god +of Is or Hit, which Isidore of Charax calls Aeipolis, or "Hea's city;" +but there is no evidence that this was a very ancient place. The +Assyrian kings built him temples at Asshur and Calah. + +Hoa had a wife Dav-Kina, of whom a few words will be said presently. +Their most celebrated son was Merodach or Bel-Merodach, the Belus of +Babylonian times. As Kimmut, Hoa was also the father of Nebo, whose +functions bear a general resemblance to his own. + + +DAV-KINA. + +Dav-Kina, the wife of Hoa, is clearly the Dauke or Davke of Damascius who +was the wife of Ails and mother of Belus (Bel-Merodach). Her name is +thought to signify "the chief lady." She has no distinctive titles or +important position in the Pantheon, but, like Anata, takes her husband's +epithets with a mere distinction of gender. + + +SIN, or HURKI. + +The first god of the second Triad is Sin, or Hurki, the moon-deity. It +is in condescension to Greek notions that Berosus inverts the true +Chaldaean order, and places the sun before the moon in his enumeration of +the heavenly bodies. Chaldaean mythology gives a very decided preference +to the lesser luminary, perhaps because the nights are more pleasant than +the days in hot countries. With respect to the names of the god, we may +observe that Sin, the Assyrian or Semitic term, is a word of quite +uncertain etymology, which, however, is found applied to the moon in many +Semitic languages; while Hurki, which is the Chaldaean or Hamitic name, +is probably from a root cognate to the Hebrew _Ur_, "vigilare," whence is +derived the term sometimes used to signify "an angel" _Ir,_ "a watcher." + +The titles of Hurki are usually somewhat vague. He is "the chief," "the +powerful," "the lord of the spirits," "he who dwells in the great +heavens;" or, hyperbolically, "the chief of the gods of heaven and +earth," "the king of the gods," and even "the god of the gods." +Sometimes, however, his titles are more definite and particular: as, +firstly, when they belong to him in respect of his being the celestial +luminary--e.g., "the bright," "the shining," "the lord of the month;" +and, secondly, when they represent him as presiding over buildings and +architecture, which the Chaldaeans appear to have placed under his +special superintendence. In this connection he is called "the supporting +architect," "the strengthener of fortifications," and, more generally, +"the lord of building" (Bel-zuna). Bricks, the Chaldaean building +material, were of course under his protection; and the sign which +designates them is also the sign of the month over which he was +considered to exert particular care. His ordinary symbol is the crescent +or new moon, which is commonly represented as large, but of extreme +thinness: though not without a certain variety in the forms. + +[Illustration: PAGE 81] + +The most curious and the most purely conventional representations are a +linear semicircle, and an imitation of this semicircle formed by three +straight lines. The illuminated part of the moon's disk is always turned +directly towards the horizon, a position but rarely seen in nature. + +The chief Chaldaean temple to the moon-god was at Ur or Hur (Mugheir), a +city which probably derived its name from him, and which was under his +special protection. He had also shrines at Babylon and Borsippa, and +likewise at Calah and Dur-Sargina (Khorsabad). Few deities appear to +have been worshipped with such constancy by the Chaldaean kings. His +great temple at Ur was begun by Urukh, and finished by his son Ilgi--the +two most ancient of all the monarchs. Later in the series we find him in +such honor that every king's name during some centuries comprise the name +of the moon-god in it. On the restoration of the Chaldaean power he is +again in high repute. Nebuchadnezzar mentions him with respect; and +Nabonidus, the last native monarch, restores his shrine at Ur, and +accumulates upon him the most high-sounding titles. + +The moon-god is called, in more than one inscription, the eldest son of +Bel-Ninnod. He had a wife (the moon-goddess) whose title was "the great +lady," and who is frequently associated with him in the lists. She and +her husband were conjointly the tutelary deities of Ur or Hur; and a +particular portion of the great temple there was dedicated to her honor +especially.--Her "ark" or "tabernacle," which was separate from that of +her husband was probably, as well as his, deposited in this sanctuary. +It bore the title of "the lesser light," while his was called, +emphatically, "the light." + + +SAN, or SANSI. + +San, or Sansi, the sun-god, was the second member of the second Triad. +The main element of this name is probably connected with the root _shani_ +which is in Arabic, and perhaps in Hebrew, "bright." Hence we may +perhaps compare our own word "sun" with the Chaldaean "San;" for "sun" is +most likely connected etymologically with "sheen" and "shine." Shamas or +Shemesh, the Semitic title of the god, is altogether separate and +distinct, signifying as it does, the Ministering office of the sun, and +not the brilliancy of his light. A trace of the Hamitic name appears in +the well-known city Bethsain, whose appellation is declared by Eugesippus +to signify "domus Solis," "the house of the sun." + +The titles applied to the sun-god have not often much direct reference to +his physical powers or attributes. He is called indeed, in some places, +"the lord of fire," "the light of the gods," "the ruler of the day," and +"he who illumines the expanse of heaven and earth." But commonly he is +either spoken of in a more general way, as "the regent of all things," +"the establisher of heaven and earth;" or, if special functions are +assigned to him, they are connected with his supposed "motive" power, as +inspiring warlike thoughts in the minds of the kings, directing and +favorably influencing their expeditions; or again, as helping them to +discharge any of the other active duties of royalty. San is "the supreme +ruler who casts a favorable eye on expeditions," "the vanquisher of the +king's enemies," "the breaker-up of opposition." He "casts his motive +influence" over the monarchs, and causes them to "assemble their +chariots and warriors"--he goes forth with their armies, and enables them +to extend their dominions--he chases their enemies before them, causes +opposition to cease, and brings them back with victory to their own +countries. Besides this, he helps them to sway the sceptre of power, +and to rule over their subjects with authority. It seems that, from +observing the manifest agency of the material sun in stimulating all the +functions of nature, the Chaldaeans came to the conclusion that the +sun-god exerted a similar influence on the minds of men, and was the +great motive agent in human history. + +The chief seats of the sun-god's worship in Chaldaea appear to have been +the two famous cities of Larsa (Ellasar?) and Sippara. The great temple +of the Sun, called Bit-Parra, at the former place, was erected by Urukh, +repaired by more than one of the later Chaldaean monarchs, and completely +restored by Nebuchadnezzar. At Sippara, the worship of the sun-god was +so predominant, that Abydenus, probably following Berosus, calls the town +Heliopolis. There can be little doubt that the Adrammelech, or +"Fire-king," whose worship the Sepharvites (or people of Sippara) +introduced into Samaria, was this deity. Sippara is called Tsipar sha +Shamas, "Sippara of the Sun," in various inscriptions, and possessed a +temple of the god which was repaired and adorned by many of the ancient +Chaldaean kings, as well as by Nebuchadnezzar and Nabonidus. + +The general prevalence of San's worship is indicated most clearly by the +cylinders. Few comparatively of those which have any divine symbol upon +them are without his. The symbol is either a simple circle, a quartered +disk a four-rayed orb of a more elaborate character. + +[Illustration: PAGE 83] + +San or Sansi had a wife, Ai, Gula, or Anunit, of whom it now follows to +speak. + +Al, GULA, or ANUNIT. + +Ai, Gula, or Anunit, was the female power of the sun, and was commonly +associated with San in temples and invocations. Her names are of +uncertain signification, except the second, Gula, which undoubtedly means +"great," being so translated in the vocabularies. It is suspected that +the three terms may have been attached respectively to the "rising," the +"culminating," and the "setting sun," since they do not appear to +interchange; while the name Gula is distinctly stated in one inscription +to belong to the "great" goddess, "the wife of the meridian Sun." It is +perhaps an objection to this view, that the male Sun, who is decidedly +the superior deity, does not appear to be manifested in Chaldaea under +any such threefold representation. + +As a substantive deity, distinct from her husband, Gula's characteristics +are that she presides over life and over fecundity. It is not quite +clear whether these offices belong to her alone, or whether she is +associated in each of them with a sister goddess. There is a "Mistress +of Life," who must be regarded as the special dispenser of that blessing; +and there is a "Mistress of the Gods," who is expressly said to "preside +over births." Concerning these two personages we cannot at present +determine whether they are really distinct deities, or whether they are +not rather aspects of Gula, sufficiently marked to be represented in the +temples by distinct idols. + +Gula was worshipped in close combination with her husband, both at Larsa +and Sippara. Her name appears in the inscriptions connected with both +places; and she is probably the "Anammelech," whom the Sepharvites +honored in conjunction with Adrammelech, the "Fire-King." In later times +she had also temples independent of her husband, at Babylon and Borsippa, +as well as at Calah Asshur. + +The emblem now commonly regarded as symbolizing Gula is the eight-rayed +disk or orb, which frequently accompanies the orb with four rays in the +Babylonian representations. In lieu of a disk, we have sometimes an +eight-rayed star and even occasionally a star with six rays only. It is +curious that the eight-rayed star became at an early period the universal +emblem of divinity: but perhaps we can only conclude from this the +stellar origin of the worship generally, and not any special pre-eminence +or priority of Anunit over other deities. + +[Illustration: PAGE 84] + + +VUL, OR IVA + +The third member of the second Triad is the god of the atmosphere, whose +name it has been proposed to render phonetically in a great variety of +ways. Until a general agreement shall be established, it is thought best +to retain a name with which readers are familiar; and the form Vul will +therefore be used in these volumes. Were Iva the correct articulation, +we might regard the term as simply the old Hamitic name for "the air," +and illustrate it by the Arabic _heva,_ which has still that meaning. + +The importance of Vul in the Chaldaean mythology, and his strong positive +character, contrast remarkably with the weak and shadowy features of +Uranus, or AEther, in the classical system. Vul indeed corresponds in +great measure with the classical Zeus or Jupiter, being, like him, the +real "Prince of the power of the air," the lord of the whirlwind and the +tempest, and the wielder of the thunderbolt. His standard titles are +"the minister of heaven and earth," "the Lord of the air," "he who makes +the tempest to rage." He is regarded as the destroyer of crops, the +rooter-up of trees, the scatterer of the harvest. Famine, scarcity, and +even their consequence, pestilence, are assigned to him. He is said to +have in his hand a "flaming sword," with which he effects his works of +destruction; and this "flaming sword," which probably represents +lightning, becomes his emblem upon the tablets and cylinders, where it is +figured as a double or triple bolt. [PLATE XIX., Fig. 4.] Vul again, as +the god of the atmosphere, gives the rain; and hence he is "the careful +and beneficent chief," "the giver of abundance," "the lord of fecundity." +In this capacity he is naturally chosen to preside over canals, the great +fertilizers of Babylonia; and we find among his titles "the lord of +canals," and "the establisher of works of irrigation." + +There is not much evidence of the worship of Vul in Chaldaea during the +early times. That he must have been known appears from the fact of his +name forming an element in the name of Shamas-Vul, son of Ismi-dagon, who +ruled over Chaldaea about B.C. 1850. It is also certain that this +Shamas-Vul set up his worship at Asshur (Kileh-Sherghat) in Assyria, +associating him there with his father Ana, and building to them +conjointly a great temple. Further than this we have no proof that he +was an object of worship in the time of the first monarchy; though in the +time of Assyrian preponderance, as well as in that of the later +Babylonian Empire, there were few gods more venerated. + +Vul is sometimes associated with a goddess, Shala or Tala, who is +probably the Salambo or Salambas of the lexicographers. The meaning of +her name is uncertain; and her epithets are for the most part obscure. +Her ordinary title is sacrat or sharrat, "queen," the feminine of the +common word sar, which means "Chief," "King," or "Sovereign." + + +BAR, NIN, or NINIP. + +If we are right in regarding the five gods who stand next to the Triad +formed of the Moon, the Sun, and the Atmosphere, as representatives of +the five planets visible to the naked eye, the god Nin, or Ninip, should +be Saturn. His names, Bar and Nin, are respectively a Semitic and a +Hamitic term signifying "lord" or "master." Nin-ip, his full Hamitic +appellation, signifies "Nin, by name," or "he whose name is Nin;" and +similarly, his full Semitic appellation seems to have been Barshem, "Bar, +by name," or "he whose name is Bar"--a term which is not indeed found in +the inscriptions, but which appears to have been well known to the early +Syrians and Armenians, and which was probably the origin of the title +Barsemii, borne by the kings of Hatra (Hadhr near Kileh-Sherghat) in +Roman times. + +In character and attributes the classical god whom Nin most closely +resembles is, however, not Saturn, but Hercules. An indication of this +connection is perhaps contained in the Herodotean genealogy, which makes +Hercules an ancestor of Ninus. Many classical traditions, we must +remember, identified Hercules with Saturn; and it seems certain that in +the East at any rate this identification was common. So Nin, in the +inscriptions, is the god of strength and courage. He is "the lord of the +brave," "the champion," "the warrior who subdues foes," "he who +strengthens the heart of his followers;" and again, "the destroyer of +enemies," "the reducer of the disobedient," "the exterminator of rebels," +"he whose sword is good." In many respects he bears a close resemblance +to Nergal or Mars. Like him, he is a god of battle and of the chase, +presiding over the king's expeditions, whether for war or hunting, and +giving success in both alike. At the same time he has qualities which +seem wholly unconnected with any that have been hitherto mentioned. He +is the true "Fish-God" of Berosus, and is fig ured as such in the +sculptures. [PLATE XIX., Fig. 5.] In this point of view he is called +"the god of the sea," "he who dwells in the sea," and again, somewhat +curiously, "the opener of aqueducts." Besides these epithets, he has +many of a more general character, as "the powerful chief," "the supreme," +"the first of the gods," "the favorite of the gods," "the chief of the +spirits," and the like. Again, he has a set of epithets which seem to +point to his stellar character, very difficult to reconcile with the +notion that, as a celestial luminary, he was Saturn. We find him called +"the light of heaven and earth," "he who, like the sun, the light of the +gods, irradiates the nations." These phrases appear to point to the +Moon, or to some very brilliant star, and are scarcely reconcilable with +the notion that he was the dark and distant Saturn. + +Nin's emblem in Assyria is the Man-bull, the impersonation of strength +and power. [PLATE XIX., Fig. 6.] He guards the palaces of the Assyrian +kings, who reckon him their tutelary god, and give his name to their +capital city. We may conjecture that in Babylonia his emblem was the +sacred fish, which is often seen under different forms upon the +cylinders. [PLATE XIX., Fig. 7.] + +The monuments furnish no evidence of the early worship of Nin in +Chaldaea. We may perhaps gather the fact from Berosus' account of the +Fish-God as an early object of veneration in that region, as well as from +the Hamitic etymology of the name by which he was ordinarily known even +in Assyria. There he was always one of the most important deities. His +temple at Nineveh was very famous, and is noticed by Tacitus in his +"Annals;" and he had likewise two temples at Calah (Nimrud), both of them +buildings of some pretension. + +It has been already mentioned that Nin was the son of Bel-Nimrod, and +that Beltis was both his wife and his mother. These relationships are +well established, since they are repeatedly asserted. One tablet, +however, inverts the genealogy, and makes Bel-Nimrod the son of Nin, +instead of his father. The contradiction perhaps springs from the double +character of this divinity, who, as Saturn, is the father, but, as +Hercules, the son of Jupiter. + + +BEL-MERODACH. + +Bel-Merodach is, beyond all doubt, the planet Jupiter, which is still +called Bel by the Mendaeans. The name Merodach is of uncertain etymology +and meaning. It has been compared with the Persian _Mardak,_ the +diminutive of _mard,_ "a man," and with the Arabic _Mirrich,_ which is +the name of the planet Mars. But, as there is every reason to believe +that the term belongs to the Hamitic Babylonian, it is in vain to have +recourse to Arian or Semitic tongues for its derivation. Most likely the +word is a descriptive epithet, originally attached to the name Bel, in +the same way as _Nipru,_ but ultimately usurping its place and coming to +be regarded as the proper name of the deity. It is doubtful whether any +phonetic representative of Merodach has been found on the monuments; if +so, the pronunciation should, apparently, be _Amardak,_ whence we might +derive the Amordacia of Ptolemy. + +The titles and attributes of Merodach are of more than usual vagueness. +In the most ancient monuments which mention him, he seems to be called +"the old man of the gods," and "the judge;" he also certainly has the +gates, which in early times were the seats of justice, under his special +protection. Thus he would seem to be the god of justice and judgment--an +idea which may have given rise to the Hebrew name of the planet Jupiter, +viz. _sedek,_ "justitia." Bel-Merodach was worshipped in the early +Chaldaean kingdom, as appears from the Tel-Sifr tablets. He was probably +from a very remote time the tutelary god of the city of Babylon; and +hence, as that city grew into importance, the worship of Merodach became +more prominent. The Assyrian monarchs always especially associate +Babylon with this god; and in the later Babylonian empire he becomes by +far the chief object of worship. It is his temple which Herodotus +describes so elaborately, and his image, which, according to the +Apocryphal Daniel, the Babylonians worshipped with so much devotion. +Nebuchadnezzar calls him "the king of the heavens and the earth," "the +great lord," "the senior of the gods," "the most ancient," "the supporter +of sovereignty," "the layer-up of treasures," etc., and ascribes to him +all his glory and success. + +We have no means of determining which among the emblems of the gods is to +be assigned to Bel-Merodach; nor is there any sculptured form which can +be certainly attached to him. According to Diodorus, the great statue of +Bel-Merodach at Babylon was a figure "standing and walking." Such a form +appears more often than any other upon the cylinders of the Babylonians; +and it is perhaps allowable to conjecture that it may represent this +favorite deity. [PLATE XIX., Fig. 8.] + + +ZIR-BANIT. + +Bel-Merodach has a wife, with whom he is commonly associated, called +Zir-banit. She had a temple at Babylon, probably attached to her +husband's, and is perhaps the Babylonian Juno (Hera) of Diodorus. The +essential element of her name seems to be Zir, which is an old Hamitic +root of uncertain meaning, while the accompanying _banit_ is a +descriptive epithet, which may be rendered by "genetrix." Zir-banit was +probably the goddess whose worship the Babylonian settlers carried to +Samaria, and who is called Succoth-benoth in Scripture. + + +NERGAL. + +Nergal, the planet Mars, whose name was continued to a late date, under +the form of Nerig in the astronomical system of the Mendaeans, is a god +whose character and attributes are tolerably clear and definite. His +name is evidently compounded of the two Hamitic roots _nir,_ "a man," and +_gala,_ "great;" so that he is "the great man," or "the great hero." He +is the special god of war and of hunting, more particularly of the +latter. His titles are "the king of battle," "the champion of the gods," +"the storm ruler," "the strong begetter," "the tutelar god of Babylonia," +and "the god of the chase." He is usually coupled with Nin, who likewise +presides over battles and over hunting; but while Nin is at least his +equal in the former sphere, Nergal has a decided pre-eminence in the +latter. + +We have no distinct evidence that Nergal was worshipped in the primitive +times. He is first mentioned by some of the early Assyrian kings, who +regard him as their ancestor. It has, however, been conjectured that, +like Bil-Nipru, he represented the deified hero, Nimrod, who may have +been worshipped in different parts of Chaldaea under different titles. + +The city peculiarly dedicated to Nergal was Cutha or Tiggaba, which is +constantly called his city in the inscriptions. He was worshipped also +at Tarbisa, near Nineveh, but in Tiggaba he was said to "live," and his +shrine there was one of great celebrity. Hence "the men of Cuth," when +transported to Samaria by the Assyrians, naturally enough "made Nergal +their god," carrying his worship with them into their new country. + +[Illustration: PLATE 20] + +It is probable that Nergal's symbol was the Man Lion. [PLATE XX.] Nir +is sometimes used in the inscriptions in the meaning of "lion;" and the +Semitic name for the god himself is "Aria"--the ordinary term for the +king of beasts both in Hebrew and in Syriac. Perhaps we have here the +true derivation of the Greek name for the god of war, _Ares,_ which has +long puzzled classical scholars. The lion would symbolize both the +fighting and the hunting propensities of the god, for he not only engages +in combats upon occasions, but often chases his prey and runs it down +like a hunter. Again, if Nergal is the Man-Lion, his association in the +buildings with the Man-Bull would be exactly parallel with the +conjunction, which we so constantly find, between him and Nin in the +inscriptions. + +Nergal had a wife, called Laz, of whom, however, nothing is known beyond +her name. It is uncertain which among the emblems of the gods appertains +to him. + + +ISHTAR, or NANA. + +Ishtar, or Nana, is the planetary Venus, and in general features +corresponds with the classical goddess. Her name Ishtar is that by which +she was known in Assyria; and the same term prevailed with slight +modifications among the Semitic races generally. The Phoenician form was +Astarte, the Hebrew Ashtoreth; the later Mendaean form was Ashtar. In +Babylonia the goddess was known as Nana, which seems to be the Naneea of +the second book of Maccabees, and the Nani of the modern Syrians. No +satisfactory account can at present be given of the etymology of either +name; for the proposal to connect Ishtar with the Greek (Zend _starann,_ +Sanscrit _tara,_ English _star,_ Latin _stella_), though it has great +names in its favor, is not worthy of much attention. + +Ishtar's aphrodisiac character, though it can scarcely be doubted, does +not appear very clearly in the inscriptions. She is "the goddess who +rejoices mankind," and her most common epithet is "Asurah," "the +fortunate," or "the happy." But otherwise her epithets are vague and +general, insomuch that she is often scarcely distinguishable from Beltis. +She is called "the mistress of heaven and earth," "the great goddess," +"the queen of all the gods," and again "the goddess of war and battle," +"the queen of victory," "she who arranges battles," and "she who defends +from attacks." She is also represented in the inscriptions of one king +as the goddess of the chase. + +The worship of Ishtar was wide-spread, and her shrines were numerous. +She is often called "the queen of Babylon," and must certainly have had +a temple in that city. She had also temples at Asshur (Kileh-Sherghat), +at Arbela, and at Nineveh. It may be suspected that her symbol was the +naked female form, which is not uncommon upon the cylinders. [PLATE +XXI., Figs. 1, 2.] She may also be represented by the rude images in +baked clay so common throughout the Mesopotamian ruins, which are +generally regarded as images of Mylitta. Ishtar is sometimes coupled +with Nebo in such a way as to suggest the notion that she was his wife. +This, however, can hardly have been her real position in the mythology, +since Nebo had, as will presently appear, another wife, Varamit, whom +there is no reason to believe identical with Ishtar. It is most probable +that the conjunction is casual and accidental, being due to special and +temporary causes. + +[Illustration: PLATE 21] + + +NEBO. + +The last of the five planetary gods is Nebo, who undoubtedly represents +the planet Mercury. [PLATE XXI., Fig. 3.] His name is the same, or +nearly so, both in Babylonian and Assyrian; and we may perhaps assign it +a Semitic derivation, from the root _nibbah,_ "to prophesy." It is his +special function to preside over knowledge and learning. He is called +"the god who possesses intelligence," "he who hears from afar," "he who +teaches," or "he who teaches and instructs." In this point of view, he +of course approximates to Hoa, whose son he is called in some +inscriptions, and to whom he bears a general resemblance. Like Hoa, he +is symbolized by the simple wedge or "arrowhead," the primary and +essential element of cuneiform writing, to mark his joint presidency with +that God over writing and literature. At the same time Nebo has, like so +many of the Chaldaean gods, a number of general titles, implying divine +power, which, if they had belonged to him only, would have seemed to +prove him the supreme deity. He is "the Lord of lords, who has no equal +in power," "the supreme chief," "the sustainer," "the supporter," "the +ever ready," "the guardian over the heavens and the earth," "the lord of +the constellations," "the holder of the sceptre of power," "he who grants +to kings the sceptre of royalty for the governance of their people." It +is chiefly by his omission from many lists, and his humble place when he +is mentioned together with the really great gods, that we know he was +mythologically a deity of no very great eminence. + +There is nothing to prove the early--worship of Nebo. His name does not +appear as an element in any royal appellation belonging to the Chaldaean +series. Nor is there any reference to him in the records of the primeval +times. Still, as he is probably of Babylonian rather than Assyrian +origin, and as an Assyrian king is named after him in the twelfth century +B.C., we may assume that he was not unknown to the primitive people of +Chaldaea, though at present their remains have furnished us with no +mention of him. In later ages the chief seat of his worship was +Borsippa, where the great and famous temple, known at present as the +Birs-Nimrud, was dedicated to his honor. He had also a shrine at Calah +(Nimrud), whence were procured the statues representing him which are now +in the British Museum. He was in special favor with the kings of the +great Babylonian empire, who were mostly named after him, and viewed him +as presiding over their house. His symbol has not yet been recognized. + +The wife of Nebo, as already observed, was Varamit or Urmit--a word which +perhaps means "exalted," from the root on, "to be lifted up." No special +attributes are ascribed to this goddess, who merely accompanies her +husband in most of the places where he is mentioned by name. + + +Such, then, seem to have been the chief gods worshipped by the early +Chaldaeans. It would be an endless as well as an unprofitable task to +give an account of the inferior deities. Their name is "Legion;" and +they are, for the most part, too vague and shadowy for effective +description. A vast number are merely local; and it may be suspected +that where this is the case the great gods of the Pantheon come before us +repeatedly, disguised under rustic titles. We have, moreover, no clue at +present to this labyrinth, on which, even with greater knowledge, it +would perhaps be best for us to forbear to enter; since there is no +reason to expect that we should obtain any really valuable results from +its exploration. + +A few words, however, may be added upon the subject of the Chaldaean +cosmogony. Although the only knowledge that we possess on this point is +derived from Berosus, and therefore we cannot be sure that we have really +the belief of the ancient people, yet, judging from internal evidence of +character, we may safely pronounce Berosus' account not only archaic, but +in its groundwork and essence a primeval tradition, more ancient probably +than most of the gods whom we have been considering. + +"In the beginning," says this ancient legend, "all was darkness and +water, and therein were generated monstrous animals of strange and +peculiar forms. There were men with two wings, and some even with four, +and with two faces; and others with two heads, a man's and a woman's on +one body; and there were men with the heads and horns of goats, and men +with hoofs like horses, and some with the upper parts of a man joined to +the lower parts of a horse, like centaurs; and there were bulls with +human heads, dogs with four bodies and with fishes' tails, men and horses +with dogs' heads, creatures with the heads and bodies of horses, but with +the tails of fish, and other animals mixing the forms of various beasts. +Moreover there were monstrous fish and reptiles and serpents, and divers +other creatures, which had borrowed something from each other's shapes; +of all which the likenesses are still preserved in the temple of Belus. +A woman ruleth them all, by name Omorka, which is in Chaldee Thalatth, +and in Greek Thalassa (or "the sea"). Then Belus appeared, and split the +woman in twain; and of the one half of her he made the heaven, and of the +other half the earth; and the beasts that were in her he caused to +perish. And he split the darkness, and divided the heaven and the earth +asunder, and put the world in order; and the animals that could not bear +the light perished. Belus, upon this, seeing that the earth was +desolate, yet teeming with productive power, commanded one of the gods to +cut off his head, and to mix the blood which flowed forth with earth, and +form men therewith, and beasts that could bear the light. So man was +made, and was intelligent, being a partaker of the divine wisdom. +Likewise Belus made the stars, and the sun and moon, and the five +planets." + +It has been generally seen that this cosmogony bears a remarkable +resemblance to the history of Creation contained in the opening chapters +of the book of Genesis. Some have gone so far as to argue that the +Mosaic account was derived from it. Others, who reject this notion, +suggest that a certain "old Chaldee tradition" was "the basis of them +both." If we drop out the word "Chaldee" from this statement, it may be +regarded as fairly expressing the truth. The Babylonian legend embodies +a primeval tradition, common to all mankind, of which an inspired author +has given us the true groundwork in the first and second chapters of +Genesis. What is especially remarkable is the fidelity, comparatively +speaking, with which the Babylonian legend reports the facts. While the +whole tone and spirit of the two accounts, and even the point of view +from which they are taken, differ, the general outline of the narrative +in each is nearly the same. In both we have the earth at first "without +form and void," and "darkness upon the face of the deep." In both the +first step taken towards creation is the separation of the mixed mass, +and the formation of the heavens and the earth as the consequence of such +separation. In both we have light mentioned before the creation of the +sun and moon; in both we have the existence of animals before man; and in +both we have a divine element infused into man at his birth, and his +formation "from the dust of the ground." The only points in which the +narratives can be said to be at variance are points of order. The +Babylonians apparently made the formation of man and of the animals which +at present inhabit the earth simultaneous, and placed the creation of the +sun, moon, and planets after, instead of before, that of men and animals. +In other respects the Babylonian narrative either adds to the Mosaic +account, as in its description of the monsters and their destruction, or +clothes in mythic language, that could never have been understood +literally, the truth which in Scripture is put forth with severe +simplicity. The cleaving of the woman Thalatth in twain, and the +beheading of Belus, are embellishments of this latter character; they are +plainly and evidently mythological; nor can we suppose them to have been +at any time regarded as facts. The existence of the monsters, on the +other hand, may well have been an actual belief. All men are prone to +believe in such marvels; and it is quite possible, as Niebuhr supposes, +that some discoveries of the remains of mammoths and other monstrous +forms embedded in the crust of the earth, may have given definiteness and +prominency to the Chaldaean notions on this subject. + +Besides their correct notions on the subject of creation, the primitive +Chaldaeans seem also to have been aware of the general destruction of +mankind, on account of their wickedness, by a Flood; and of the +rebellious attempt which was made soon after the Flood to concentrate +themselves in one place, instead of obeying the command to "replenish the +earth" an attempt which was thwarted by means of the confusion of their +speech. The Chaldaean legends embodying these primitive traditions were +as follows:-- + +"God appeared to Xisuthrus (Noah) in a dream, and warned him that on the +fifteenth day of the month Daesius, mankind would be destroyed by a +deluge. He bade him bury in Sippara, the City of the Sun, the extant +writings, first and last; and build a ship, and enter therein with his +family and his close friends; and furnish it with meat and drink; and +place on board winged fowl, and four-footed beasts of the earth; and when +all was ready, set sail. Xisuthrus asked 'Whither he was to sail?' and +was told, 'To the gods, with a prayer that it might fare well with +mankind.' Then Xisuthrus was not disobedient to the vision, but built a +ship five furlongs (3125 feet) in length, and two furlongs (1250 feet) in +breadth; and collected all that had been commanded him, and put his wife +and children and close friends on board. The flood came; and as soon as +it ceased, Xisuthrus let loose some birds, which, finding neither food +nor a place where they could rest, came back to the ark. After some days +he again sent out the birds, which again returned to the ark, but with +feet covered with mud. Sent out a third time, the birds returned no +more, and Xisuthrus knew that land had reappeared: so he removed some of +the covering of the ark, and looked, and behold! the vessel had grounded +on a mountain. Then Xisuthrus went forth with his wife and his daughter, +and his pilot, and fell down and worshipped the earth, and built an +altar, and offered sacrifice to the gods; after which he disappeared from +sight, together with those who had accompanied him. They who had +remained in the ark and not gone forth with Xisuthrus, now left it and +searched for him, and shouted out his name; but Xisuthrus was not seen +any more. Only his voice answered them out of the air, saying, 'Worship +God; for because I worshipped God, am I gone to dwell with the gods; and +they who were with me have shared the same honor.' And he bade them +return to Babylon, and recover the writings buried at Sippara, and make +them known among men; and he told them that the land in which they then +were was Armenia. So they, when they had heard all, sacrificed to the +gods and went their way on foot to Babylon, and, having reached it, +recovered the buried writings from Sippara, and built many cities and +temples, and restored Babylon. Some portion of the ark still continues +in Armenia, in the Gordiaean (Kurdish) Mountains; and persons scrape off +the bitumen from it to bring away, and this they use as a remedy to avert +misfortunes." + +"The earth was still of one language, when the primitive men, who were +proud of their strength and stature, and despised the gods as their +inferiors, erected a tower of vast height, in order than they might mount +to heaven. And the tower was now near to heaven, when the gods (or God) +caused the winds to blow and overturned the structure upon the men, and +made them speak with divers tongues; wherefore the city was called +Babylon." + +Here again we have a harmony with Scripture of the most remarkable +kind--a harmony not confined to the main facts, but reaching even to the +minuter points, and one which is altogether most curious and interesting. +The Babylonians have not only, in common with the great majority of +nations, handed down from age to age the general tradition of the Flood, +but they are acquainted with most of the particulars of the occurrence. +They know of the divine warning to a single man, the direction to +construct a huge ship or ark, the command to take into it a chosen few +of mankind only, and to devote the chief space to "winged fowl and +four-footed beasts of the earth." They are aware of the tentative +sending out of birds from it, and of their returning twice, but when +sent out a third time returning no more. They know of the egress from +the ark by removal of some of its covering, and of the altar built and +the sacrifice offered immediately afterwards. They know that the ark +rested in Armenia; that those who escaped by means of it, or their +descendants, journeyed towards Babylon; that there a tower was begun, +but not, completed, the building being stopped by divine interposition +and a miraculous confusion of tongues. As before, they are not content +with the plain truth, but must amplify and embellish it. The size of +the ark is exaggerated to an absurdity, and its proportions are +misrepresented in such a way as to outrage all the principles of naval +architecture. The translation of Xisuthrus, his wife, his daughter, and +his pilot--a reminiscence possibly of the translation of Enoch--is +unfitly as well as falsely introduced just after they have been +miraculously saved from destruction. The story of the Tower is given +with less departure from the actual truth. The building is, however, +absurdly represented as an actual attempt to scale heaven; and a storm +of wind is somewhat unnecessarily introduced to destroy the Tower, which +from the Scripture narrative seems to have been left standing. It is +also especially to be noticed that in the Chaldaean legends the whole +interest is made narrow and local. The Flood appears as a circumstance +in the history of Babylonia; and the priestly traditionists, who have +put the legend into shape, are chiefly anxious to make the event redound +to the glory of their sacred books, which they boast to have been the +special objects of divine care, and represent as a legacy from the +antediluvian ages. The general interests of mankind are nothing to the +Chaldaean priests, who see in the story of the Tower simply a local +etymology, and in the Deluge an event which made the Babylonians the +sole possessors of primeval wisdom. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +HISTORY AND CHRONOLOGY. + +"The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and +Calneh, in the land of Shinar."--GEN. X. 10. + +The establishment of a Cushite kingdom in Lower Babylonia dates probably +from (at least) the twenty-fourth or twenty-fifth century before our era. +Greek traditions' assigned to the city of Babylon an antiquity nearly as +remote; and the native historian, Berosus, spoke of a Chaldaean dynasty +as bearing rule anterior to B.C. 2250. Unfortunately the works of this +great authority have been lost; and even the general outline of his +chronological scheme, whereof some writers have left us an account, is to +a certain extent imperfect; so that, in order to obtain a definite +chronology for the early times, we are forced to have recourse, in some +degree, to conjecture. Berosus declared that six dynasties had reigned +in Chaldaea since the great flood of Xisuthrus, or Noah. To the first, +which consisted of 86 kings, he allowed the extravagant period of 34,080 +years. Evechous, the founder of the dynasty, had enjoyed the royal +dignity for 2400 years, and Chomasbelus, his son and successor, had +reigned 300 years longer than his father. The other 84 monarchs had +filled up the remaining space of 28,980 years--their reigns thus +averaging 345 years apiece. It is clear that these numbers are +unhistoric; and though it would be easy to reduce them within the limits +of credibility by arbitrary suppositions--as for instance, that the years +of the narrative represent months or days--yet it may reasonably be +doubted whether we should in this way be doing any service to the cause +of historic truth. The names Evechous and Chomasbelus seem mythic rather +than real; they represent personages in the Babylonian Pantheon, and can +scarcely have been borne by men. It is likely that the entire series of +names partook of the same character, and that, if we possessed them, +their bearing would be found to be, not historic, but mythological. We +may parallel this dynasty of Berosus, where he reckons king's reigns by +the cyclical periods of _sosses_ and _ners,_ with Manetho's dynasties of +Gods and Demigods in Egypt, where the sum of the years is nearly as +great. + +It is necessary, then, to discard as unhistorical the names and numbers +assigned to his first dynasty by Berosus, and to retain from this part of +his scheme nothing but the fact which he lays down of an ancient +Chaldaean dynasty having ruled in Babylonia, prior to a conquest, which +led to the establishment of a second dynasty, termed by him Median. + +The scheme of Berosus then, setting aside his numbers for the first +period, is--according to the best extant authorities, as follows:-- + +Dynasty I. of (?) Chaldaean kings. (?) years. + II. of 8 Median " 234 (?) " + III. " 11 " " 48 (?) " + IV. " 49 Chaldaean " 458 " + V. " 9 Arabian " 245 " + VI. " 45 (?) " 526 " +Reign of Pul (?) +Dynasty VII. of (?) (?) kings (?) + " VIII. " 6 Chaldaean " 87 " + +[Illustration: PAGE 98] + +It will be observed that this table contains certain defects and +weaknesses, which greatly impair its value, and prevent us from +constructing upon it, without further aid, an exact scheme of chronology. +Not only does a doubt attach to one or two of the numbers--to the years, +i.e., of the second and third dynasty--but in two cases we have no +numbers at all set down for us, and must supply them from conjecture, or +from extraneous sources, before we can make the scheme available. +Fortunately in the more important case, that of the seventh dynasty, the +number of years can be exactly supplied without any difficulty. The Canon +of Ptolemy covers, in fact, the whole interval between the reign of Pul +and the close of the Babylonian Empire, giving for the period of the +seventh dynasty 13 reigns in 122 years, and for that of the eighth 5 +reigns in 87 years. The length of the reign of Pul can, however, only be +supplied from conjecture. As it is not an unreasonable supposition that +he may have reigned 28 years, and as this number harmonizes well with the +chronological notices of the monuments, we shall venture to assume it, +and thus complete the scheme which the fragments of Berosus imperfect. + + +[Illustration: PAGE 99] + +This scheme, in which there is nothing conjectural except the length of +the reign of Pul, receives very remarkable confirmation from the Assyrian +monuments. These inform us, first, that there was a conquest of Babylon +by a Susianian monarch 1635 yers before the capture of Susa by +Asshurbanipal, the son of Esarhaddon; and, secondly, that there was a +second conquest by an Assyrian monarch 600 years before the occupation of +Babylon by Esarhaddon's father, Sennacherib. Now Sennacherib's +occupation of Babylon was in B.C. 702; and 600 years before this brings +us to B.C. 1302, within a year of the date which the scheme assigns to +the accession of the seventh dynasty. Susa was taken by Asshur-bani-pal +probably in B.C. 651; and 1635 years before this is B.C. 2286, or the +exact year marked in the scheme for the accession of the second (Median) +dynasty. This double coincidence can scarcely be accidental; and we may +conclude, therefore, that we have in the above table at any rate a near +approach to the scheme of Babylonian chronology as received among both +the Babylonians and Assyrians in the seventh century before our era. + +Whether the chronology is wholly trustworthy is another question. The +evidence both of the classical writers and of the monuments is to the +effect that exact chronology was a subject to which the Babylonians and +Assyrians paid great attention. The "Canon of Ptolemy," which contained +an exact Babylonian computation of time from B.C. 747 to B.C. 331, is +generally allowed to be a most authentic document, and one on which we +may place complete reliance. The "Assyrian Canon," which gives the years +of the Assyrian monarchs from B.C. 911 to B.C. 660, appears to be equally +trustworthy. How much further exact notation went back, it is impossible +to say. All that we know is, first, that the later Assyrian monarchs +believed they had means of fixing the exact date of events in their own +history and in that of Babylon up to a time distant from their own as +much as sixteen or seventeen hundred years; and secondly, that the +chronology which result from their statements and those of Berosus is +moderate, probably, and in harmony with all the knowledge which we obtain +of the East from other sources. It is proposed therefore, in the present +volumes, to accept the general scheme of Berosus as, in all probability, +not seriously in error; and to arrange the Chaldaean, Assyrian, and +Babylonian history on the framework which it furnishes. + +Chaldaean history may therefore be regarded as opening upon us at a time +anterior, at any rate by a century or two, to B.C. 2286. It was then +that Nimrod, the son or descendant of Cush, set up a kingdom in Lower +Mesopotamia, which attracted the attention of surrounding nations. The +people, whom he led, came probably by sea; at any rate, their earliest +settlements were on the coast; and Ur or Hur, on the right bank of the +Euphrates, at a very short distance from its embouchure, was the +primitive capital. The "mighty hunter" rapidly spread his dominion +inland, subduing or expelling the various tribes by which the country was +previously occupied. His kingdom extended northwards, at least as far as +Babylon,--which (as well as Erech or Huruk, Accad, and Calneh) was first +founded by this monarch. Further historical details of his reign are +wanting; but the strength of his character and the greatness of his +achievements are remarkably indicated by a variety of testimonies, which +place him among the foremost men of the Old World, and guarantee him a +never-ending remembrance. At least as early as the time of Moses his +name had passed into a proverb. He was known as "the mighty hunter +before the Lord"--an expression which had probably a double meaning, +implying at once skill and bravery in the pursuit and destruction of wild +beasts, and also a genius for war and success in his aggressions upon +men. In his own nation he seems to have been deified, and to have +continued down to the latest times one of the leading objects of worship, +under the title of Bilu-Nipru or Bel-Nimrod, which may be translated "the +god of the chase," or "the great hunter." + +One of his capitals, Calneh, which was regarded as his special city, +appears afterwards to have been known by his name (probably as being the +chief seat of his worship in the early times); and this name it still +retains, slightly corrupted. In the modern Niffer we may recognize the +Talmudical Nopher, and the Assyrian Nipur which is Nipru, with a mere +metathesis of the two final letters. The fame of Nimrod has always been +rife in the country of his domination. Arab writers record a number of +remarkable traditions, in which he plays a conspicuous part; and there is +little doubt but that it is in honor of his apotheosis that the +constellation Orion bears in Arabian astronomy the title of El Jabbar, or +"the giant." Even at the present day his name lives in the mouth of the +people inhabiting Chaldaea and the adjacent regions, whose memory of +ancient heroes is almost confined to three--Nimrod, Solomon, and +Alexander. Wherever a mound of ashes is to be seen in Babylonia or the +adjoining countries, the local traditions attach to it the name of +Niinrud or Nimrod; and the most striking ruins now existing in the +Mesopotamian valley, whether in its upper or its lower portion, are made +in this way monuments of his glory. + +Of the immediate successors of Nimrod we have no account that even the +most lenient criticism can view as historical. It appears that his +conquest was followed rapidly by a Semitic emigration from the +country--an emigration which took a northerly direction. The Assyrians +withdrew from Babylonia, which they still always regarded as their +parent land, and, occupying the upper or non-alluvial portion of the +Mesopotamian plain, commenced the building of great cities in a tract +upon the middle Tigris. The Phoenicians removed from the shores of the +Persian Gulf, and, journeying towards the northwest, formed settlements +upon the coast of Canaan, where they became a rich and prosperous +people. The family of Abraham, and probably other Aramaean families, +ascended the Euphrates, withdrawing from a yoke which was oppressive, or +at any rate unpleasant. Abundant room was thus made for the Cushite +immigrants, who rapidly established their preponderance over the whole +of the southern region. As war ceased to be the necessary daily +occupation of the newcomers, civilization and the arts of life began to +appear. The reign of the "Hunter" was followed, after no long time, by +that of the "Builder." A monumental king, whose name is read doubtfully +as Urkham or Urukh, belongs almost certainly to this early dynasty, and +may be placed next in succession, though at what interval we cannot say, +to Nimrod. He is beyond question the earliest Chaldaean monarch of whom +any remains have been obtained in the country. Not only are his bricks +found in a lower position than any others, at the very foundations of +buildings, but they are of a rude and coarse make, and the inscriptions +upon them contrast most remarkably, in the simplicity of the style of +writing used and in their general archaic type, with the elaborate and +often complicated symbols of the later monarchs. The style of Urukh's +buildings is also primitive and simple in the extreme; his bricks are of +many sizes, and ill fitted together; he belongs to a time when even the +baking of bricks seems to have been comparatively rare, for sometimes he +employs only the sun-dried material; and he is altogether unacquainted +with the use of lime mortar, for which his substitute is moist mud, or +else bitumen. There can be little doubt that he stands at the head of +the present series of monumental kings, another of whom probably reigned +as early as B.C. 2286. As he was succeeded by a son, whose reign seems +to have been of the average length, we must place his accession at least +as early as B.C. 2326. Possibly it may have fallen a century earlier. + +It is as a builder of gigantic works that Urukh is chiefly known to us. +The basement platforms of his temples are of an enormous size; and though +they cannot seriously be compared with the Egyptian pyramids, yet +indicate the employment for many years of a vast amount of human labor in +a very unproductive sort of industry. The Bowariyeh mound at Warka is +200 feet square, and about 100 feet high. Its cubic contents, as +originally built, can have been little, if at all, under 3,000,000 feet; +and above 30,000,000 of bricks must have been used in its construction. +Constructions of a similar character, and not very different in their +dimensions, are proved by the bricks composing them to have been raised +by the same monarch at Ur, Calneh or Nipur, and Larancha or Larsa, which +is perhaps Ellasar. It is evident, from the size and number of these +works, that their erector had the command of a vast amount of "naked +human strength," and did not scruple to employ that strength in +constructions from which no material benefit was derivable, but which +were probably designed chiefly to extend his own fame and perpetuate his +glory. We may gather from this that he was either an oppressor of his +people, like some of the Pyramid Kings in Egypt, or else a conqueror, who +thus employed the numerous captives carried off in his expeditions. +Perhaps the latter is the more probable supposition; for the builders of +the great fabrics in Babylonia and Chaldaea do not seem to have left +behind them any character of oppressiveness, such as attaches commonly to +those monarchs who have ground down their own people by servile labor. + +The great buildings of Urukh appear to have been all designed for +temples. They are carefully placed with their angles facing the cardinal +points, and are dedicated to the Sun, the Moon, to Belus (Bel-Nimrod), or +to Beltis. The temple at Mugheir was built in honor of the Moon-god, Sin +or Hiuki, who was the tutelary deity of the city. The Warka temple was +dedicated to Beltis. At Calneh or Nipur, Urukh erected two temples, one +to Beltis and one to Belus. At Larsa or Ellasar the object of his +worship was the Sun-god, San or Sansi. He would thus seem to have been +no special devotee of a single god, but to have divided out his favors +very fairly among the chief personages of the Pantheon. + +It has been observed that both the inscriptions of this king, and his +architecture, are of a rude and primitive type. Still in neither case do +we seem to be brought to the earliest dawn of civilization or of art. +The writing of Urukh has passed out of the first or hieroglyphic stage, +and entered the second or transition one, when pictures are no longer +attempted, but the lines or wedges follow roughly the old outline of the +objects in his architecture, again, though there is much that is rude +and simple, there is also a good deal which indicates knowledge and +experience. The use of the buttress is understood; and the buttress is +varied according to the material. The importance of sloping the walls of +buildings inwards to resist interior pressure is thoroughly recognized. +Drains are introduced to carry off moisture, which must otherwise have +been very destructive to buildings composed mainly, or entirely, of crude +brick. It is evident that the builders whom the king employs, though +they do not possess much genius, have still such a knowledge of the most +important principles of their art as is only obtained gradually by a good +deal of practice. Indeed, the very fact of the continued existence of +their works at the distance of forty centuries is sufficient evidence +that they possessed a considerable amount of architectural skill and +knowledge. We are further, perhaps, justified in concluding, from the +careful emplacement of Urukh's temples, that the science of astronomy was +already cultivated in his reign, and was regarded as having a certain +connection with religion. We have seen that the early worship of the +Chaldaeans was to a great extent astral--a fact which naturally made the +heavenly bodies special objects of attention. If the series of +observations which Callisthenes sent to Aristotle, dating from B.C. +2234, was in reality a record, and not a mere calculation backwards of +the dates at which certain celestial phenomena must have taken place, +astronomical studies must have been pretty well advanced at a period not +long subsequent to Urukh. + +Nor must we omit to notice, if we would estimate aright the condition of +Chaldaean art under this king, the indications furnished by his +signet-cylinder. So far as we can judge from the representation, which +is all that we possess of this relic, the drawing on the cylinder was as +good and the engraving as well executed as any work of the kind, either +of the Assyrian or of the later Babylonian period. Apart from the +inscription this work of art has nothing about it that is rude or +primitive. The elaboration of the dresses and headgear of the figures +has been already noticed. It is also worthy of remark, that the +principal figure sits on an ornamental throne or chair, of particularly +tasteful construction, two legs of which appear to have been modelled +after those of the bull or ox. We may conclude, without much danger of +mistake, that in the time of the monarch who owned this seal, dresses of +delicate fabric and elaborate pattern, and furniture of a recherche and +elegant shape, were in use among the people over whom he exercised +dominion. + +The chief capital city of Urukh appears to have been Ur. He calls +himself "King of Ur and Kingi Accad;" and it is at Ur that he raises his +principal buildings. Ur, too, has furnished the great bulk of his +inscriptions. Babylon was not yet a place of much importance, though it +was probably built by Nimrod. The second city of the Empire was Huruk or +Erech: other places of importance were Larsa (Ellasar?) and Nipur or +Calneh. + +Urukh appears to have been succeeded in the kingdom by a son, whose name +it is proposed to read as Elgi or Ilgi. Of this prince our knowledge is +somewhat scanty. Bricks bearing his name have been found at Ur (Mugheir) +and at Tel Eid, near Erech, or Warka; and his signet-cylinder has been +recovered, and is now in the British Museum. We learn from inscriptions +of Nabonidus that he completed some of the buildings at Ur, which had +been left unfinished by his father; while his own bricks inform us that +he built or repaired two of the principal temples at Erech. On his +signet-cylinder he takes the title of "King of Ur." + +After the death of Ilgi, Chaldaean history is for a time a blank. It +would seem, however, that while the Cushites were establishing themselves +in the alluvial plain towards the mouths of the two great rivers, there +was growing up a rival power, Turanian, or Ario-Turanian, in the +neighboring tract at the foot of the Zagros mountain-chain. One of the +most ancient, perhaps the most ancient, of all the Asiatic cities was +Susa, the Elamitic capital, which formed the centre of a nationality that +endured from the twenty-third century B.C. to the time of Darius +Hystaspis (B.C. 520) when it sank finally under the Persians. A king of +Elam, whose court was held at Susa, led, in the year B.C. 2286 (or a +little earlier), an expedition against the cities of Chaldaea, succeeded +in carrying all before him, ravaged the country, took the towns, +plundered the temples, and bore off into his own country, as the most +striking evidence of victory, the images of the deities which the +Babylonians especially reverenced. This king's name, which was +Kudur-Nakhunta, is thought to be the exact equivalent of one which has a +world-wide celebrity, to wit, Zoroaster. Now, according to Polyhistor +(who here certainly repeats Berosus), Zoroaster was the first of those +eight Median kings who composed the second dynasty in Chaldaea, and +occupied the throne from about B. C. 2286 to 2052. The Medes are +represented by him as capturing Babylon at this time, and imposing +themselves as rulers upon the country. Eight kings reigned in space of +234 (or 224) years, after which we hear no more of Medes, the +sovereignty being (as it would seem) recovered by the natives. The +coincidences of the conquest the date, the foreign sovereignty and the +name Zoroaster, tend to identify the Median dynasty of Berosus with a +period of Susianian supremacy, which the monuments show to have been +established it Chaldaea at a date not long subsequent to the reigns of +Urukh and Ilgi, and to have lasted for a considerable period. + +There are five monarchs known to us who may be assigned to this dynasty. +The first is the Kudur-Nakhunta above named, who conquered Babylonia and +established his influence there, but continued to hold his court at Susa, +governing his conquest probably by means of a viceroy or tributary king. +Next to him, at no great interval, may be placed Kudur-Lagamer, the +Chedor-laomer of Scripture, who held a similar position to +Kudur-Nakhunta, reigning himself in Elam, while his vassals, Amraphel, +Arioch, and Tidal (or Turgal) held the governments respectfully of +Shinar (or Upper Babylonia), Ellasar (Lower Babylonia or Chaldaea), and +the Goim or the nomadic races. Possessing thus an authority over the +whole of the alluvial plain, and being able to collect together a +formidable army, Kudur-Lagamer resolved on a expedition up the +Euphrates, with the object of extending his dominion to the +Mediterranean Sea and to the borders of Egypt. At first his endeavors +were successful. Together with his confederate kings, he marched as far +as Palestine, where he was opposed by the native princes, Bera, king of +Sodom, Birsha, king of Gomorrah, Shinab, king of Admah, Shemeber, king +of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela or Zoar. A great battle was fought +between the two confederated armies in the vale of Siddim towards the +lower end of the Dead Sea. The invaders were victorious; and for twelve +years Bera and his allies were content to own themselves subjects of the +Elamitic king, whom they "served" for that period. In the thirteenth +year they rebelled: a general rising of the western nations seems to +have taken place; and in order to maintain his conquest it was necessary +for the conqueror to make a fresh effort. Once more the four eastern +kings entered Syria, and, after various successes against minor powers, +engaged a second time in the valley of Siddim with their old +antagonists, whom they defeated with great slaughter; after which they +plundered the chief cities belonging to them. It was on this occasion +that Lot, the nephew of Abraham, was taken prisoner. Laden with booty +of various kinds, and encumbered with a number of captives, male and +female, the conquering army set out upon its march home, and had reached +the neighborhood of Damascus, when it was attacked and defeated by +Abraham, who with a small band ventured under cover of night to fall +upon the retreating host, which he routed and pursued to some distance. +The actual slaughter can scarcely have been great; but the prisoners and +the booty taken had to be surrendered; the prestige of victory was lost; +and the result appears to have been that the Mesopotamian monarch +relinquished his projects, and, contenting himself with the fame +acquired by such distant expeditions, made no further attempt to carry +his empire beyond the Euphrates. + +The other three kings who may be assigned to the Elamitic dynasty are a +father, son, and grandson, whose names appear upon the native monuments +of Chaldaea in a position which is thought to imply that they were +posterior to the kings Urukh and Ilgi, but of greater antiquity than any +other monarchs who have left memorials in the country. Their names are +read as Sinti-shil-khak, Kudur-Mabuk, and Arid-Sin. Of Sinti-shil khak +nothing is known beyond the name. Kudur-Mabuk is said in the +inscriptions of his son to have "enlarged the dominions of the city of +Ur;" and on his own bricks he bears the title of Apda Martu, which +probably means "Conqueror of the West." We may presume therefore that +he was a warlike prince, like Kudur-Nakhunta and Kudur-Lagamer; and +that, like the latter of these two kings, he made war in the direction +of Syria, though he may not have carried his arms so far as his great +predecessor. He and his son both held their court at Ur, and, though of +foreign origin, maintained the Chaldaean religion unchanged, making +additions to the ancient temples, and worshipping the Chaldaean gods +under the old titles. + +The circumstances which brought the Elamitic dynasty to a close, and +restored the Chaldaean throne to a line of native princes, and +unrecorded by any historian; nor have the monuments hitherto thrown any +light upon them. If we may trust the numbers of the Armenian Eusebius, +the dynasty which succeeded, ab. B.C. 2052, to the Susianian (or +Median), though it counted eleven kings, bore rule for the short space +of forty-eight years only. This would seem to imply either a state of +great internal disturbance, or a time during which viceroys, removable +at pleasure and often removed, governed the country under some foreign +suzerain. In either case, the third dynasty of Berosus may be said to +mark a transition period between the time of foreign subjection and that +of the recovery by the native Chaldaeans of complete independence. + +To the fourth Berosian dynasty, which held the throne for 458 years, +from about B. C. 2004 to B. C. 1546, the monuments enable us to assign +some eight or ten monarchs, whose inscriptions are characterized by a +general resemblance, and by a character intermediate between the extreme +rudeness of the more ancient and the comparative elegance and neatness +of the later legends. Of these kings one of the earliest was a certain +Ismidagon, the date of whose reign we are able to fix with a near +approach to exactness. Sennacherib, in a rock inscription at Bavian, +relates that in his tenth year (which was B. C. 692) he recovered from +Babylon certain images of the gods which had been carried thither +by Merodach-iddin-akhi, King of Babylon, after his defeat of +Tiglath-Pileser, King of Assyria, 418 years previously. And the same +Tiglath-Pileser relates that he rebuilt a temple in Assyria, which had +been taken down 60 years before, after it had lasted 641 years from its +foundation by Shamas-Vul, sun of Ismi-dagon. It results from these +numbers that Ismi-dagon was king as early as B.C. 1850, or, probably a +little earlier. + +The monuments furnish little information concerning Ismidagon beyond the +evidence which they afford of the extension of this king's dominion into +the upper part of the Mesopotamian valley, and especially into the +country known in later times as Assyria. The fact that Shamas-Vul, the +son of Ismi-dagon, built a temple at Kileh-Sherghat, implies necessarily +that the Chaldaans at this time bore sway in the upper region. +Shamas-Vul appears to have been, not the eldest, but the second son of +the monarch, and must be viewed as ruling over Assyria in the capacity +of viceroy, either for his father or his brother. Such evidence as we +possess of the condition of Assyria about this period seems to show that +it was weak and insignificant, administered ordinarily by Babylonian +satraps or governors, whose office was one of no great rank or dignity. + +In Chaldaea, Ismi-dagon was succeeded by a son, whose name is read, +somewhat doubtfully, as Gunguna or Gurguna. This prince is known to us +especially as the builder of the great public cemeteries which now form +the most conspicuous objects among the ruins of Mugheir, and the +construction of which is so remarkable. Ismi-dagon and his son must +have occupied the Chaldaean throne during most of the latter half of the +nineteenth century before our era-from about B.C. 1850 to B.C. 1800. + +Hitherto there has been no great difficulty in determining the order of +the monumental kings, from the position of their bricks in the principal +Chaldaean ruins and the general character of their inscriptions. But +the relative place occupied in the series by the later monarchs is +rendered very doubtful by their records being scattered and unconnected, +while their styles of inscription vary but slightly. It is most +unfortunate that no writer has left us a list corresponding in +Babylonian history with that which Manetho put on record for Egyptian; +since we are thus compelled to arrange our names in an order which rests +on little more than conjecture. + +The monumental king who is thought to have approached the nearest to +Gurguna is Naram-Sin, of whom a record has been discovered at Babylon, +and who is mentioned in a late inscription as the builder, in +conjunction with his father, of a temple at the city of Agana. His date +is probably about B.C. 1750. The seat of his court may be conjectured +to have been Babylon, which had by this time risen into metropolitan +conse quence. It is evident that, as time went on, the tendency was to +remove the seat of government and empire to a greater distance from the +sea. The early monarchs reign at Ur (Mugheir), and leave no traces of +themselves further north than Niffer. Sin-Shada holds his court at +Erech (Warka), twenty-five miles above Mugheir; while Naram-Sin is +connected with the still more northern city of Babylon. We shall find a +similar tendency in Assyria, as it rose into power. In both cases we +may regard the fact as indicative of a gradual spread of empire towards +the north, and of the advance of civilization and settled government in +that direction. + +A king, who disputes the palm of antiquity with Naram-Sin, has left +various records at Erech or Warka, which appears to have been his +capital city. It is proposed to call him Sin-Shada. He constructed, or +rather re-built, the upper terrace of the Bowariyeh ruin, or great +temple, which Urukh raised at Warka to Beltis; and his bricks are found +in the doorway of another large ruin (the _Wuswas_) at the same place; +it is believed, however, that in this latter building they are not in +situ, but have been transferred from some earlier edifice. His reign +fell probably in the latter part of the 18th, century B. C. + +Several monarchs of the Sin series--i.e. monarchs into whose names the +word Sin, the name of the Moon-god, enters as an element--now present +themselves. The most important of them has been called Zur-Sin. This +king erected some buildings at Mugheir; but he is best known as the +founder of the very curious town whose ruins bear at the present day the +name of Abu-Shahrein. A description of the principal buildings at this +site has been already given. They exhibit certain improvements on the +architecture of the earlier times, and appear to have been very richly +ornamented, at least in parts. At the same time they contain among +their debris remarkable proofs of the small advance which had as yet +been made in some of the simplest arts. Flint knives and other +implements, stone hatchets, chisels, and nails, are abundant in the +ruins; and though the use of metal is not unknown, it seems to have been +comparatively rare. When a metal is found, it is either gold or bronze, +no trace of iron (except in ornaments of the person) appearing in any of +the Chaldaean remains. Zur-Sin, Rim-Sin, and three or four other +monarchs of the Sin series, whose names are imperfect or uncertain, may +be assigned to the period included between B.C. 1700 and B.C. 1546. + +Another monarch, and the only other monumental name that we can assign to +Berosus's fourth dynasty, is a certain Nur-Vul, who appears by the +Chaldaean sale-tablets to have been the immediate predecessor of Rim-Sin, +the last king of the _Sin_ series. Nur-Vul has left no buildings or +inscriptions; and we seem to see in the absence of all important +monuments at this time a period of depression, such as commonly in the +history of nations precedes and prepares the way for a new dynasty or a +conquest. + +The remaining monumental kings belong almost certainly to the fifth, or +Arabian, dynasty of Berosus, to which he assigns the period of 245 years +--from about B.C. 1546 to B.C. 1300. That the list comprises as many as +fifteen names, whereas Berosus speaks of nine Arabian kings only, need +not surprise us, since it is not improbable that Berosus may have omitted +kings who reigned for less than a year. To arrange the fifteen monarchs +in chronological order is, unfortunately, impossible. Only three of them +have left monuments. The names of the others are found on linguistic and +other tablets, in a connection which rarely enables us to determine +anything with respect to their relative priority or posteriority. We +can, however, definitely place seven names, two at the beginning and five +toward the end of the series, thus leaving only eight whose position in +the list is undetermined. + +The series commences with a great king, named Khammurabi, who was +probably the founder of the dynasty, the "Arab" chief who, taking +advantage of the weakness and depression of Chaldaea under the latter +monarchs of the fourth dynasty, by intrigue or conquest established his +dominion over the country, and left the crown to his descendants. +Khammurabi is especially remarkable as having been the first (so far as +appears) of the Babylonian monarchs to conceive the notion of carrying +out a system of artificial irrigation in his dominions, by means of a +canal derived from one of the great rivers. The _Nahar-Khammu-rabi_ +("River of Khabbu-rabi "),whereof he boasts in one of his inscriptions, +was no doubt, as he states, "a blessing to the Babylonians"--it "changed +desert plains into well-watered fields; it spread around fertility an +abundance"--it brought a whole district, previously barren, into +cultivation, and it set an example, which the best of the later monarchs +followed, of a mode whereby the productiveness of the country might be +increased to an almost inconceivable extent. + +Khammu-rabi was also distinguished as a builder. He repaired the great +temple of the Sun at Senkereh and constructed for himself a new palace at +Kalwadha, or Chilmad, not far from the modern Baghdad. His inscriptions +have been found at Babylon, at Zerghul, and at Tel-Sifr; and it is +thought probable that he made Babylon his ordinary place of residence. +His reign probably covered the space from about B.C. 1546 to B.C. 1520, +when he left his crown to his son, Samsu-iluna. Of this monarch our +notices are exceedingly scanty. We know him only from the Tel-Sifr clay +tablets, several of which are dated by the years of his reign. He held +the crown probably from about B.C. 1520 to B.C. 1500. + +About sixty or seventy years after this we come upon a group of names, +belonging almost certainly to this same dynasty, which possess a peculiar +interest, inasmuch as they serve to connect the closing period of the +First, or Chaldaean, with the opening portion of the Second, or Assyrian, +Monarchy. A succession of five Babylonian monarchs is mentioned on an +Assyrian tablet, the object of which is to record the synchronous history +of the two countries. These monarchs are contemporary with independent +Assyrian princes, and have relations toward them which are sometimes +peaceful, sometimes warlike. Kara-in-das, the first of the five, is on +terms of friendship with Asshur-bel-nisi-su, king of Assyria, and +concludes with him a treaty of alliance. This treaty is renewed between +his successor, Purna-puriyas, and Buzur-Asshur, the successor of +Asshur-bel-nisi-su on the throne of Assyria. Not long afterwards a third +Assyrian monarch, Asshur-upallit, obtains the crown, and Purna-puriyas +not only continues on the old terms of amity with him, but draws the ties +which unite the two royal families closer by marrying Asshur-upallit's +daughter. The issue of this marriage is a prince named Kara-khar-das, +who on the death of Purna-puriyas ascends the throne of Babylon. But +now a revolution occurs. A certain Nazi-bugas rises in revolt, puts +Kara-khar-das to death, and succeeds in making himself king. Hereupon +Asshur-upallit takes up arms, invades Babylonia, defeats and kills +Nazi-bugas, and places upon the throne a brother of the murdered +Kara-khar-das, a younger son of Purna-puriyas, by name Kurri-galzu, +or Durri-galzu. These events may be assigned with much probability +to the period between B.C. 1440 and B.C. 1380. + +Of the five consecutive monarchs presented to our notice in this +interesting document, two are known to us by their own inscriptions. +Memorials of Purna-puriyas and Kurri-galzu, very similar in their general +character, have been found in various parts of Chaldala. Those of +Purna-puriyas come from Senkereh the ancient Larsa, and consist of bricks, +showing that he repaired the great temple of the Sun at that city which +was originally built by Urukh. Kurri-galzu's memorials comprise bricks +from Mugheir (Ur) and Akkerkuf, together with his signet-seal, which was +found at Baghdad in the year 1800. [PLATE XXI., Fig. 4.] It also appears +by an inscription of Nabonidus that he repaired a temple at the city of +Agana, and left an inscription there. + +But the chief fame of Kurri-galzu arises from his having been the founder +of an important city. The remarkable remains at Akkerkuf, of which an +account has been given in a former chapter, mark the site of a town of +his erection. It is conjectured with some reason that this place is the +Dur-Kurri-galzu of the later Assyrian inscriptions--a place of so much +consequence in the time of Sargon that he calls it "the key of the +country." + +The remaining monarchs, who are on strong grounds of probability, +etymological and other, assigned to this dynasty are Saga-raktiyas, the +founder of a Temple of the male and female Sun at Sippara, Ammidi-kaga, +Simbar-sikhu, Kharbisikhu, Ulam-puriyas, Nazi-urdas, Mili-sikhu, and +Kara-kharbi. Nothing is known at present of the position which any of +these monarchs held in the dynasty, or of their relationship to the kings +previously mentioned, or to each other. Most of them are known to us +simply from their occurrence in a biliugual list of kings, together with +Khammu-rabi, Kurri-galzu, and Purna-puriyas. The list in question +appears not to be chronological. + +Modern research has thus supplied us with memorials (or at any rate with +the names) of some thirty kings, who ruled in the country properly termed +Chaldaea at a very remote date. Their antiquity is evidenced by the +character of their buildings and of their inscriptions, which are +unmistakably rude and archaic. It is further indicated by the fact that +they are the builders of certainly the most ancient edifices whereof the +country contains any trace. The probable connection of two of them with +the only king known previously from good authority to have reigned in the +country during the primitive ages confirms the conclusion drawn from the +appearance of the remains themselves; which is further strengthened by +the monumental dates assigned to two of them, which place them +respectively in the twenty-third and the nineteenth century before our +era. That the kings belong to one series, and (speaking broadly) to one +time, is evidenced by the similarity of the titles which they use, by +their uninterrupted worship of the same gods, and by the general +resemblance of the language and mode of writing which they employ. +That the time to which they belong is anterior to the rise of Assyria +to greatness appears from the synchronism of the later monarchs of the +Chaldaean with the earliest of the Assyrian list, as well as from the +fact that the names borne by the Babylonian kings after Assyria became +the leading power in the country are not only different, but of a +different type. If it be objected that the number of thirty kings is +insufficient for the space over which they have in our scheme been +spread, we may answer that it has never been, supposed by any one that +the twenty-nine or thirty kings, of whom distinct mention has been made +in the foregoing account, are a complete list of all the Chaldaean +sovereigns. On the contrary, it is plain that they are a very incomplete +list, like that which Herodotus gives of the kings of Egypt, or that +which the later Romans possessed of their early monarchs. The monuments +themselves present indications of several other names of kings, belonging +evidently to the same series, which are too obscure or too illegible for +transliteration. And there may, of course, have been many others of whom +no traces remain, or of whom none have been as yet found. On the other +hand, it may be observed, that the number of the early Chaldaean kings +reported by Polyhistor is preposterous. If sixty-eight consecutive +monarchs held the Chaldaean throne between B.C. 2286 and B.C. 1546, they +must have reigned on an average, less than eleven years apiece. Nay, if +forty-nine ruled between B.C. 2004 and B.C. 1546, covering a space of +little more than four centuries and a half--which is what Berosus is made +to assert--these later monarchs cannot even have reigned so long as ten +years each, an average which may be pronounced quite impossible in a +settled monarchy such as the Chaldaean. The probability would seem to be +that Berosus has been misreported, his numbers having suffered corruption +during their passage through so many hands, and being in this instance +quite untrustworthy. We may conjecture that the actual number of reigns +which he intended to allow his fourth dynasty was nineteen, or at the +utmost twenty-nine, the former of which numbers would give the common +average of twenty-four years, while the latter would produce the less +usual but still possible one of sixteen years. + +The monarchy which we have had under review is one, no doubt, rather +curious from its antiquity than illustrious from its great names, or +admirable for the extent of its dominions. Less ancient than the +Egyptian, it claims the advantage of priority over every empire or +kingdom which has grown up upon the soil of Asia. The Arian, Turanian, +and even the Semitic tribes, appear to have been in the nomadic +condition, when the Cushite settlers in Lower Babylonia betook themselves +to agriculture, erected temples, built cities, and established a strong +and settled government. The leaven which was to spread by degrees +through the Asiatic peoples was first deposited on the shores of the +Persian Gulf at the mouth of the Great River; and hence civilization, +science, letters, art, extended themselves northward, and eastward, and +westward. Assyria, Media, Semitic Babylonia, Persia, as they derived +from Chaldaea the character of their writing, so were they indebted to +the same country for their general notions of government and +administration, for their architecture, their decorative art, and still +more for their science and literature. Each people no doubt modified in +some measure the boon received, adding more or less of its own to the +common inheritance. But Chaldaea stands forth as the great parent and +original inventress of Asiatic civilization, without any rival that can +reasonably dispute her claims. The great men of the Empire are Nimrod, +Urukh, and Che-dor-laomer. Nimrod, the founder, has the testimony of +Scripture that he was "a mighty one in the earth;" "a mighty hunter;" +the establisher of a "kingdom," when kingdoms had scarcely begun to be +known; the builder of four great and famous cities, "Babel, and Erech, +and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar," or Mesopotamia. To him +belong the merit of selecting a site peculiarly fitted for the +development of a great power in the early ages of the world, and of +binding men together into a community which events proved to possess +within it the elements of prosperity and permanence. Whether he had, +indeed, the rebellious and apostate character which numerous traditions, +Jewish, Arabian, and Armenian, assign to him; whether he was in reality +concerned in the building of the tower related in the eleventh chapter of +the Book of Genesis, we have no means of positively determining. The +language of Scripture with regard to Nimrod is laudatory rather than the +contrary; and it would seem to have been from a misapprehension of the +_nexus_ of the Mosaic narrative that the traditions above mentioned +originated. Nimrod, "the mighty hunter _before the Lord_," had not in +the days of Moses that ill reputation which attached to him in later +ages, when he was regarded as the great Titan or Giant, who made war +upon the gods, and who was at once the builder of the tower, and the +persecutor who forced Abraham to quit his original country. It is at +least doubtful whether we ought to allow any weight at all to the +additions and embellishments with which later writers, so much wiser +than Moses, have overlaid the simplicity of his narrative. + +Urukh, whose fame may possibly have reached the Romans, was the great +Chaldaean architect. To him belongs, apparently, the conception of the +Babylonian temple, with its rectangular base, carefully placed so as to +present its angles to the four cardinal points, its receding stages, its +buttresses, its drains, its sloped walls, its external staircases for +ascent, and its ornamental shrine crowning the whole. At any rate, if he +was not the first to conceive and erect such structures, he set the +example of building them on such a scale and with such solidity as to +secure their long continuance, and render them well-nigh imperishable. +There is no appearance in all Chaldaea, so far as it has been explored, +of any building which can be even probably assigned to a date anterior to +Urukh. The attempted tower was no doubt earlier; and it may have been a +building of the same type, but there is no reason to believe that any +remnant, or indeed any trace, of this primitive edifice, has continued to +exist to our day. The structures of the most archaic character +throughout Chaldaea are, one and all, the work of King Urukh, who was not +content to adorn his metropolitan city only with one of the new edifices, +but added a similar ornament to each of the great cities within his +empire. + +The great builder was followed shortly by the great conqueror. +Kudur-Lagamer, the Elamitic prince, who, more than twenty centuries +before our era, having extended his dominion over Babylonia and the +adjoining regions, marched an army a distance of 1200 miles from the +shores of the Persian Gulf to the Dead Sea, and held Palestine and Syria +in subjection for twelve years, thus effecting conquests which were not +again made from the same quarter till the time of Nebuchadnezzar, +fifteen or sixteen hundred years afterward, has a good claim to be +regarded as one of the most remarkable personages in the world's +history-being, as he is, the forerunner and proto-type of all those +great Oriental conquerors who from time to time have built up vast +empires in Asia out of heterogeneous materials, which have in a longer +or a shorter space successively crumbled to decay. At a time when the +kings of Egypt had never ventured beyond their borders, unless it were +for a foray in Ethiopia, and when in Asia no monarch had held dominion +over more than a few petty tribes, and a few hundred miles of territory, +he conceived the magnificent notion of binding into one the manifold +nations inhabiting the vast tract which lies between the Zagros +mountain-range and the Mediterranean. Lord by inheritance (as we may +presume) of Eliun and Chaldaea or Babylonia, he was not content with +these ample tracts, but, coveting more, proceeded boldly on a career of +conquest up the Euphrates valley, and through Syria, into Palestine. +Successful here, he governed for twelve years dominions extending near a +thousand miles from east to west, and from north to south probably not +much short of five hundred. It was true that he was not able to hold +this large extent of territory; but the attempt and the success +temporarily attending it are memorable circumstances, and were probably +long held in remembrance through Western Asia, where they served as a +stimulus and incentive to the ambition of later monarchs. + +These, then, are the great men of the Chaldaean empire. Its extent, as +we have seen, varied greatly at different periods. Under the kings of +the first dynasty--to which Urukh and Ilgi belonged--it was probably +confined to the alluvium, which seems then to have been not more than 300 +miles in length along the course of the rivers, and which is about 70 or +80 miles in breadth from the Tigris to the Arabian desert. In the course +of the second dynasty it received a vast increase, being carried in one +direction to the Elamitic mountains, and in another to the Mediterranean, +by the conquest of Kudur-Nakhunta and Chedor-laomer. On the defeat of +the latter prince it again contracted, though to what extent we have no +means of determining. It is probable that Elam or Susiana, and not +unlikely that the Euphrates valley, for a considerable distance above +Hit, formed parts of the Chaldaean Empire after the loss of Syria and +Palestine. Assyria occupied a similar position, at any rate from the +time of Ismi-dagon, whose son built a temple at Kileh-Sherghat or Asshur. +There is reason to think that the subjection of Assyria continued to the +very end of the dynasty, and that this region, whose capital was at +Kileh-Sherghat, was administered by viceroys deriving their authority +from Chaldaean monarchs. These monarchs, as has been observed, gradually +removed their capital more and more northwards; by which it would appear +as if their empire tended to progress in that direction. + +The different dynasties which ruled in Chaldaea prior to the +establishment of Assyrian influence, whether Chaldaean, Susianian, or +Arabian, seem to have been of kindred race; and, whether they established +themselves by conquest, or in a more peaceful manner, to have made +little, if any, change in the language, religion, or customs of the +Empire. The so-called Arab kings, if they are really (as we have +supposed), Khammurabi and his successors, show themselves by their names +and their inscriptions to be as thoroughly proto-Chaldaaan as Urukh or +Ilgi. But with the commencement of the Assyrian period the case is +altered. From the time of Tiglathi-Nin (about B.C. 1300), the Assyrian +conqueror who effected the subjugation of Babylon, a strong Semitizing +influence made itself felt in the lower country--the monarchs cease to +have Turanian or Cushite and bear instead thoroughly Assyrian names; +inscriptions, when they occur, are in the Assyrian language and +character. The entire people seems by degrees to have been Assyrianized, +or at any rate Semitized-assimilated, that is, to the stock of nations to +which the Jews, the northern Arabs, the Aramaeans or Syrians, the +Phoenicians, and the Assyrians belong. Their language fell into disuse, +and grew to be a learned tongue studied by the priests and the literati; +their Cushite character was lost, and they became, as a people, scarcely +distinguishable from the Assyrians. After six centuries and a half of +submission and insignificance, the Chaldaeans, however, began to revive +and recover themselves--they renewed the struggle for national +independence, and in the year B.C. 625 succeeded in establishing a second +kingdom, which will be treated of in a later volume as the fourth or +Babylonian Monarchy. Even when this monarchy met its death at the hands +of Cyrus the Great, the nationality of the Chaldaeans was not swept away. +We find them recognized under the Persians, and even under the Parthians, +as a distinct people. When at last they cease to have a separate +national existence, their name remains; and it is in memory of the +successful cultivation of their favorite science by the people of Nimrod +from his time to that of Alexander, that the professors of astronomical +and astrological learning under the Roman Emperors receive, from the +poets and historians of the time, the appellation of "Chaldaeans." + + + + + +LIST OF AUTHORS AND EDITIONS QUOTED IN THE NOTES. + +ABULPHARAGIUS, Chronicon Syriacum, ed. J. Bruno, Lipsim, 1789. +Agathangelus, Historia Regni Tiridatis, in C. Muller's Fragm. Hist. + Gr. vol. v.,Parisiis, 1870. +Agathias, in the Corpus Script. Hist. Byz. of B. G. Niebuhr, Bonnm, 1828. +Ammianus Marcellinus, ed. Gronovius, Lugd. Bat., 1693. +Analecta Grmca, ed. Benedict., Lutetite Parisioruin, 1688. +Annales de l'Institut Archeologique, Paris, 1828, &c. +Anonymus (continuator of Dio Cassius),in the Fragm. Hist. Gr., + vol. iv., Parisiis, 1851. +Antonini Itinerarium, ed. Parthey et Pinder, Berolini, 1848. +Appianus, Historia Romana, ed. H. Stephanus, Parisiis. 1592. +Aristotle, Ethica Nicomachea, ed.Tauchnitz, Lipsim, 1831. +Arrianus, Exped. Alex., ed. Tauchnitz, Lipsim, 1829. Fragments of, + in the Fragm. Hist.Greec. of C. MUller, vol. iii., Parisiis, 1849. + Historia Indica. in C. Muller's Geographi Minores, Parisiis, 1855-1861. +Asseman, Bibliotheca Orientalis, Romae, 1719-1728. +Athanasius, Opera, ed. Benedict., Parisiis, 1698. +Athenaeus, Deipnosophistw,ed. Schweighmuser, Argentorat., 1801-1807. +Atkinson, Firdausi, in the Publications of the Oriental Translation + Committee, London, 1832. +Augnstinus, Opera, ed. Benedict., Antwerpim, 1700. +Aurelius Victor, Hist. Rom. Breviarium, ed. Pitiscus, Traject. + ad. Rhen., 1696. + +BASILIUS STUs., Opera, ed. Benedict., Peruses, 17,21-17.10. +Behistun inscription, ed. H. C. Rawlinson. in the + Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, vols. X.. xi., &c. +Berosus, in the Fragments Histor. Grmorum of C. Miiller, + vol. ii., Paris, 1847. +Bohlen, Das alte Indien, Konigsberg, 1830. +Botta, Monument de Ninive, Paris, 1850, Bunsen, Chevalier, + Philosophy (if Universal History. London, 1854. +Burton, Dr., Ecclesiastical History of the First Three Centuries, + Oxford,1831. + +CAPITOLINUS. JULIUS, in the Historiai, Augustm Scriptores of Jordan + and Eyssenhardt, Berolini, 1864. +Cedrenus, in the Corpus Script. Hist. Byzant. of B, G. Niebuhr, Bonnm, 1838. +Champagny, Les Caesars du Troisieme Siecle, Paris, 1865. +Chardin, Voyage en Perse. Amsterdam, 1735. +Chronicon Paschale, in the Corpus Script. Hist. Byzant. of + B. G. Niebuhr, Bonnae, 1832. +Cicero, Opera, ed. Ernesti, Londini, 1819. +Claudianus. Opera, in the Corpus Poetarum Latinorum of G. S. Walker, + Loudini, 1865. +Clinton, Fasti Romani, Oxford,1845-1850. +Cosnias Iudicopleustes, Topographia +Christiana, in Montfaucon's Collectio nova Patrons, q. v. +Creuzer, Symbolik and Mythologie, Leipzig, 1819-1821. +Curtius, Quietus. 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