The civilization of Babylonia and Assyria : its remains, language, history, religion, commerce, law, art, and literature

Front matter

5^ f ^Ct

I j

THE CIVILIZATION

Contents

CHAPTKa PAOE3

I. Excavations at Babylonian and Assyrian Sites 1

' II. The Decipherment op the Cuneiform Script ........ 63

Chapter I Excavations At Babylonian And Assyrian Sites

I

The land to wMcli we are led in the exposition of this subject lies thousands of miles away and the time with which we are concerned lies thousands of years -behind us. The question may, therefore, properly be asked, what is our interest in the civilization that flourished in the Euphrates V alley as early, at least, as 3500 years before our era, and that spread northwards into the region lying along the banks of the Tigris as early as 2500 b.g., if not earlier.^

In the case of Babylonia and Assyria, the very remoteness of the theme, of the place, and of the time constitute three reasons why its history, culture, and religion should be of real interest to us, for the past, and

^ See the aecompanying map. Babylonia is the name given to the southern portioDj Assyria to the northern portion. For the oldest period, Sumer and Akkad may be used as designations of the southern and northern sections of the Euphrates Valley, while Chaldea represents an early name for a part of the southern section which, owing to the accidental circumstance that the latest dynasty of Babylonia-— 'the so-called neo-Babylonian period (625 to the advent of Cyrus in 539 b.c.)— «ame from Chaldea, led Roman writers to use this term for the whole region, i.e., for Babylonia and Assyria. Mesopotamia, the land ^ ‘ between the rivers, ’ ^ properly applies only to the section included between the Euphrates and Tigris from their junction northwards. It is, therefore, an inaccurate designation for Babylonia and Assyria, since it does not include the Euphrates Valley.

more particularly tlie remote past, exercises an intense fascination upon us — a fascination due to the conviction, deep-seated within us, that whereas we belong to the present, the past belongs to us. The history of mankmd is a continuous series of links, forming, as Herder phrased it, the golden chain of culture. Each ciii zation as it arises is the heir of the ages that have gone before, every phase of human culture stands in' some connection witli the preceding phase. Our American cii. ilization is an offshoot of European culture to i^ich we have made some contributions. The culture of W estern and Northern Europe represents the extension of Roman civilization. Rome owes its intellectual stmiulus to Greece whose heir she became, and Greek culture, as we know, rests on a substratum of Asiatic influence and embodies elements derived from Egypt and Babylonia as well as from Asia Minor ; and even when we pass to the distant East, the chain is not broken. P ersia looks back to India, as Japan to China. Through Buddhism the connection is established between Chmese and Hindu civilization, and there are good reasons for helievmg that a direct cultural influence came to Chma,_from India at a period even earlier than the introduction of Buddhism, while the evidence, though not yet complete, is increasing which indicates that both the Chmese and Hindu civilizations lie within the sphere of mfluences emanating from such far older cifltural centres as the VaUev of the Euphrates and the ^ alley of the Nile.

In studying the past we are, therefore, in reality studving ourselves, we are concerned with somethmg that is not remote, but on the contrary with somethmg that is quite close to us— with flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone. It is this direct interest in the past as a part of ourselves that underlies the remarkable activity unfolded in Europe and in our own country in the task ol recovering the remains of the past, so long hidden under the soil Evervwhere — in Greece and Italy, in Asia Minor and India, in Palestine and Syria, in Egypt and

Babylonia tbe spade of tbe explorer has been busy^ revealing the vestiges of ancient civilizations— revealing in many cases tbe entirely forgotten annals of mankind and enabling us to replace dimmed traditions by clearly ascertained facts, to sift legend and myths from actual historical occurrence, to reconstruct, in short, the earlier periods of that endeavor of mankind to rise superior to its surroundings which we call intellectual, social and religious progress.

But apart from the antiquity of Babylonia and Assyria, there are certain circumstances which invest the region of the Euphrates and Tigris with a special kind of interest. Time-honored tradition places here not only the beginnings of civilization but also the cradle of the human race. The Garden of Eden is a section of Babylonia, as is sufficiently attested by the express mention of the Tigris and Euphrates as two of the rivers which flowed through the primeval habitation of mankind ; and though the story of Adam and Eve is devoid of any historical value, yet the tradition which assigns the first human pair to Babylonia is of great significance for the prominence which Babylonia must have acquired in the minds of the Hebrews, whose religious traditions are thus indissolubly bound up with Babylonia. Again, even when driven out of the mythical paradise, man does not leave Babylonia. The Valley of Shinar in which all of mankind is represented as being settled at the time of the building of the great tower that should reach to heaven, is merely a designation for the southern portion of the Euphrates Valley,^ while the tower itself was suggested by the zihhiirats or stage-towers, which were a

2 See Miehaelis, A Century of Archeological Discoveries (Translated by Bettina Kalmweiler, N. Y., 1908).

® Sbinar is identical with Sumer — -the original force of which appears to have been the land par excellence. It came in time to be the specific designation of the southern part of the Valley in contrast to Akkad as the designation of the northern portion. See King, History of Sumer and Akkad, pp. 13-15.

characteristic feature of the religious architecture of Babylonia.^ In this story, or rather in the two stories intertwined in the 11th chapter of Genesis, — ^one the building of the city which is given the name of Babylon, and the other the building of the tower® — the significant feature is the tradition which thus ascribed to the Euphrates Valley the distinction of once harboring all mankind in addition to being the cradle of the human race. Where the cradle of the human race stood is still a problem of Ethnology in our days, and is perhaps incapable of solution by scientific methods, but the fact that even to the ancient Hebrews, the region of the Euphrates and Tigris appeared as the one which had been settled from time immemorial favors the hypothesis for which we have other evidence, albeit not conclusive, that a high order of civilization first developed in that region. Its only possible rival is Egypt, and the indications at present are that while the actual beginnings of Egyptian civilization may lie further back than the Euphratean culture, yet Babylonia takes precedence in the unfolding of an advanced form of cultural achievements.

Leaving this question aside for the present and returning to Biblical traditions, it is also of moment to note that the Hebrews traced their wanderings prior to their entrance into Palestine to Babylonia, for Ur of the Chaldees, whence Terah the father of Abram sets out, is a well-known city in Babylonia, and Harran where he sojourned is another city farther to the north. There is no reason to question the correctness of the tradition which traces the Hebrews, or at least one of the groups that afterwards formed the combination known by this designation, back to Babylonia. As a matter of fact we come across traces of the Euphratean civilization at almost every period of Hebrew history. We encounter it

^ See Jastrow, Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia and Assyria, p. 289 seq.

® See an article by the writer on ^‘The Tower of BabeP^ in the Independent, vol. 57 (1905), pp. 822-826.

PLATE II

OUR SHARRUKIN

^Hhorsabad

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SKETCH MAP OF

SHOWING

SITES OF PRINCIPAL CITIES o

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Ancient nsmea.as-NiPPUR.rwos | Modern - - -fjiffer «

APPROXIMATE SCALE

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Samarra

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EKBATANA

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BABYLffiN 1

_BORS|PPA BITS Nimrud

•‘Kefil

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-SHU3HAN

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Shenaf

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liter ^ ^

^ Bismaya v\y^AmSra

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^ Afe(//no

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Abf^ Shahrain

BASRA,

JMohar rom " Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia and Assyria" by Morris Jastrow, Jr., by courtesy of G. P. Putnam s Sons. New York ond Lon

MAP OP BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA

A'ioX .»s<}3 UtM .‘i .(> io -fij .. L .vioiib^J, ehioM v<l '’Ai:-(ieA La* eiuoIvrdc'T ai i>tus . oifciL'Ji k‘ in the language of the Hebrews^ in the codes that grew up among them, in their art and architecture, in their social life, in their political organization, and to a very considerable extent in their religious rites and earlier beliefs.® The Old Testament is fairly saturated with Babylonian culture, and even when we reach the time and days of the New Testament we have not yet passed beyond the sphere of Babylonian influence.

II

A glance at the map will show some of the reasons why civilization developed at so early a period in the Euphrates V alley. The main feature of the region is formed by the two streams that water it— the Euphrates and Tigris— and bring about the high degree of fertility which Herodotus emphasizes.^ Of these rivers, the Euphrates—the correct form of which is Purattu and described in texts as ^'the great river' —is the stream that properly belongs to the southern district or Babylonia, while the Tigris or more properly Idiklat, pictured the rapid " stream, is the river of the northern district or Assyria. Both rivers start in the mountain regions of Armenia/ but they are quite diverse in character. The Euphrates is on the whole a quiet and, in parts, a sluggish stream. It flows along in majestic dignity, and receiving many tributaries on its way while still in the mountains, proceeds first in a westerly direction as though making directly for the Mediterranean Sea but veers suddenly to the southeast, after which it receives only a few tributaries until it is joined by the Tigris in the extreme south. Of its entire length of 1780 miles it

® This subject is fully set forth in the writer Hebrew and Babylonian Traditions (New York, 1914).

is Iiavig9.i)l6 for a short distance only , cataracts forming a hinderanee in the north and, owing to the increasing sluggishness of the stream, sand hanks in the south. As a consequence, it never became at any time an important avenue for commerce, rafts and wicker baskets, coated within and without with bitumen, being the only method of transportation which was possible under such

circumstances. .

The Tigris, though only 1146 miles long, is quite a different stream. After leaving its source in the mountains, it gains steadily in power, forcing its way through rugged clefts. It is joined by numerous tributaries before it reaches the plain, its volume being continually increased so that even when it reaches the alluvial soil of the south, its rapid course is not checked. It flows in a slightly fluctuating southerly direction, advances towards the Euphrates and recedes from it again until at last the two rivers join at Kurna and together pour their waters as the Shatt el- Arab or “Arabic River into the Persian Gulf. The Tigris is navigable from Diarbekr in the north to its junction with the Euphrates. Large rafts can be floated down to Baghdad and small steamers can ascend almost up to Mosul. The Tigris is, therefore, the avenue of commerce for Mesopotamia ^to use the conventional designation for the country and forms the link that connects Babylonia and Assyria through the Persian Gulf with India on the one hand, and Egypt and the Red Sea and the Mediterranean districts on the other. The contrast presented by the two streams is paralleled by the diverse features distinguishing Assyria, the northern section, from Babyloma, the southern section. Assyria, with a length of about 350 miles and a width ranging from 190 to 300 miles, is shut off to the north, northeast, and northwest by mountain ranges and retains for a considerable portion of its extent, and particularly towards the east, a » A total area of some 75,000 squar^iles, or somewhat smaller thxTi the state of Nebraska.

rugged aspect. The Kurdish Mountains run close to the Tigris for some distance below Mosul, though after that the region changes its character. Plains without any break succeed the hills, the soil becomes alluvial and the Tigris and its tributaries, swollen by the rains of winter, regularly overflow their banks and submerge entire districts. As a consequence of this overflow, to which also the united rivers were subject, and which until a canal system was perfected was also a source of danger to life and brought about much destruction, the southern region or Babylonia, with a length of about 300 miles and a maximum breadth of almost 125 miles,*" developed an astounding fertility. According to the statement of Herodotus,” grain yielded a return of “two hundred fold and even up to three hundred fold,” while “the blade of the wheat plant and the barley plant is often four fingers in breadth, and the stalks of the millet and sesame are surprisingly tall.” It would appear, indeed, that Babylonia was the home of cultivated cereals whence wheat and barley were disseminated throughout the ancient world.

The richness of the soil in Babylonia is due to its being a deposit made by the rivers after the overflowing waters during the rainy season have receded. This deposit which is still going on at the average rate of 90 feet per year may in ancient times have proceeded more rapidly, but, at all events, in this increase we have a fairly definite standard by means of which to determine the age of Babylonian settlements through the distance at present separating cities from the Persian Gulf that once lay on or near that great body of water. So, e.g., a city, Eridu, which we know once lay on the Persian Gulf, is now some 130 miles away. Taking 90 feet as the average yearly increase, this would take us back some 7000 years for the period

A total area of about 23,000 square miles, orlibOTt the size of West Virginia.

wlien Eridu still l&y on tlio Persian Gulf. Since it is also known that at one time the Euphrates and Tigris entered the Persian Gulf independently, it follows that the entire district below their present juncture at Kurna is land made during the historical period. The natural conditions, therefore, such as the presence of two rivers that bring about unusual fertility, the fact that one of them is an avenue of commerce from the extreme north to the Persian Gulf, and that this gulf again constitutes a means of access to distant lands, explain why this region should have been at so early a period the seat of a population which took up agriculture as a pui’suit and under conditions which with a niinimum of effort yielded a maxunum of sustenance.

To these conditions there is to be added as a third factor the climate, which, although according to our views intolerable, is not unhealthy and is precisely of the kind suitable for a population that cannot adeo[uately protect itself against cold and inclemency. There are two seasons in Babylonia— a rainy season, which sets in in November and lasts until March or April, when the over-flow of the rivers begins, which reaches its height in May and ceases about the middle of June, and a dry season, which lasts from March to November. The heat during this season becomes excessive according to European ideas, but it is regarded as pleasant by the natives, to whom even the moderate cold of the rainy season is decidedly more vexatious. The ^eater part of the year one can thus live in the open air— an Lpoi-tant item to a people in a primitive state of

culture.

Ill

Next to the antiquity of the civilization of the Euphrates Valley, perhaps the most astonishing fact about it is the disappearance of practically all material traces of this civilization and the loss of detailed knowledge of a period of history extending over a stretch of several thousand years. IJnlll a few generations ago our knowledge of the history and culture of Babylonia and Assyria was limited to references in the Old Testament, and to the accounts in Herodotus, to statements m Josephus and to Ctesias^ and to scattered notices in the writings of various Creek and Latin writers. Comparatively extensive as this material was,^^ it was yet entirely inadequate for forming an estimate of the civilization and for furnishing a historical survey. In contrast to Egypt, no picturesque remains survived to recall to the wanderer the glory of the past. To be sure, the profound impression made upon the ancient world by the achievements of Babylonian and Assyrian rulers, the great military power that they developed, their extensive and remarkable building operations— their temples, palaces and gardens— as well as the wisdom for which the priests became famous— all this never faded out of the memory of the people, but it remained to a large extent an impression unsupported by sufficient details to enable us to do more than draw a very general picture, vague in its outlines and deficient in details, of the civitization unfolded thousands of years ago. Fanciful exaggerations and uncertain traditions took the place of accurate knowledge.

A country that is favorably situated for the early development of culture is also apt to show features that lead to rapid decline— when the decline has once set in. The overflow of the two rivers as it conditioned and promoted the remarkable fertility of the region was also, as has already been intimated, an annual menace and until the introduction of an elaborate canal system, loss of property and life accompanied the overflow, which subnierged entire districts for weeks and even months. The

^^Put together by Niebuhr, Geschichie Assures und BaleVs (Berlin, 1857). See also Cory, Ancient Fragme7its (London, 1832), for a collection of accounts of Babylonia and Assyria from Greek and Latin writers, in part based on a lost work of a ‘‘Chaldean** priest Berosusr — a contemporary of Alexander the Great.

picture unfolded in the first chapter of Genesis, which represents the primeval chaos before the appearance of dry land as a state in which the waters covered everything, was suggested by the phenomenon which was annually witnessed throughout a considerable portion of Babylonia ; and similarly, the thought that all mankind was once annihilated in consequence of a deluge lay near to the minds of a people who witnessed such a destructive event on a small scale every spring.

The neglect into which the canal system naturally fell after the downfall of Assyria and Babylonia brought about an even more lamentable state of affairs than that which existed before its institution, for in a short time the work which generations had been busy in constructing was doomed to destruction. The cities of Babylonia and Assyria fell into decay, the process being hastened by the material that was used in the construction of the buildings. Here again, the existence of so admirable a building material as the clay soil of Babylonia, enabling even untrained workmen to rear huge constructions of burnt and unburnt bricks, facilitated on the one hand the unfolding of culture in the Euphrates Valley, but on the other hand also conduced to the rapid destruction of the buildings. The clay structures had to be constantly repaired and we learn from the cuneiform records of Nebuchadnezzar II, that 45 years of neglect sufficed to reduce a temple to a condition bordering on complete decay. Clay being the only building material for houses, palaces and temples in the south, and the prevailing one in the north (though here stone was also employed in the case of large constructions) , it is easy to imagine what must have happened during the two thousand years that elapsed between the desertion of the Babylonian and Assyrian cities and the effort to recover their remains. The buildings tumbled into shapeless ruins, and the winds sweeping the sands across the plains completed the destruction, and hid even the debris from view. Of the once flourishing cities, one saw only Imge shapeless mounds and yet nature, in thus covering up the work of man, proved to be a merciful destroyer. But for the mounds which formed over the sites of ancient cities, the records of the past would have been entirely swept away or ruthlessly destroyed. Beneath these mounds were safely preserved, as afterwards turned out— priceless documents, inscribed clay tablets and cylinders, monuments and sculptures, by means of which we are now enabled to rewrite the history of Babylonia and Assyria. Monuments and records without number that would long ago have fallen a prey to marauding Arabs who infested the deserted districts were thus kept from certain destruction by the protecting mounds.

The recovery of those remains and the reconstruction of the history, art, the religion and social life, of ancient Babylonia and Assyria, through the study and interpretation of this material was the work largely of the 19th century, which will always be known as the golden age of epochal discoveries in many directions— discoveries that have on the one hand profoundly altered our views of the universe and modified present conditions of life, and that have on the other hand enlarged our knowledge of the past by the recovery of so many pages of the lost annals of mankind.

IV

That the mounds scattered along the Tigris and in the valley of the Euphrates contained ancient remains

Only two ruins in all the district that suggested outlines of buildings peered out above these mounds—one at a place called Sirs Mmrud, and which proved to be the site of the city of Borsippa, near Babylon; the other, still further to the south at Akerkuf— both representing the remains of a stage tower. Both towers were associated by native tradition with the “ Tower of Babel,*' which story, it will be recalled (see p. 4), was suggested by the high stage-towers that formed a characteristic feature of the sacred architecture of Babylonia and Assyria.

could be concluded from tbe potsherds and fragments of bricks and stones with wMcb the surface was in many eases strewn, or which came to view on penetrating a short distance beneath the surface, but the question as to the identification of the settlements that once flourished on the site of those vast rubbish heaps could not be answered by such surface examinations. Tradition that invariably survives after accurate knowledge has disappeared had connected a series of mounds opposite Mosul with the site of Nineveh. One of these mounds bore the name of Nebbi Yunus, i.e., “ the proplmt Jonah,” and a little chapel surmounting it is revered by the natives as the tomb of the prophet who announced the destruction of Nineveh. The tomb is fictitious, but the association of Jonah with Nineveh embodies the recollection of the fact— as was established by excavartiojis — ^that Nebbi Yunus indeed concealed a portion of the great capital of Assyria. In the south, some 40 miles from Baghdad, there was another series of mounds, one of which bore the name of Babil— a recollection of the fact that the great capital of the southern empire once stood there. Such were the clues on which the early travellers and explorers had to work.

In the 16th and 17th centuries these and other mounds in the region began to attract the attention o numerous travellers. Indeed, several centuries previous a famous traveller. Rabbi Benjamin of -^ride a (1160 A.D.) made a brief reference in his itinerary to the ruins of both Babylon and Nineveh. Passing by a number of English travellers, who visited the region during the latter part of the 16th century, we come to the Italian Pietro della VaUe who early m the 17th century made extensive travels in the east, and besides fumisLg a detailed account of the famous rums at Persepolis and copying a specimen of the cuneiform

ITpirst publish^dliri543lirOonstantinopk See M. N. Adler, “The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela” {Jewish Quarterly Beview,

vol. xviii.)

inscriptions tlierCj examined tlie mounds of Babylon and Mugbeir— tbe site of Ur— in the Euphrates Valley. He was tbe first to bring back to Europe a few of tbe inscribed bricks.^® Among tbe travellers of tbe following century whose curiosity was aroused by tbe mounds along tbe Tigris^ and in tbe Euphrates Valley, it is sufficient for our purposes to mention two, (1) the famous Danisb scholar Oarsten Niebuhr,^® to whom we owe tbe definite identification of tbe site of ancient Babylon at the mounds near Hillab, and (2) the Abbe de Beauchamp, who at tbe close of tbe 18tb century specified in a more detailed fashion than any of bis predecessors bad done, the large extent of tbe mounds covering tbe remains of tbe city of Babylon. He also speaks of finding within tbe rubbish heaps enamelled bricks, pieces of cylinders covered with writing, and bits of statuettes.

Tbe desire to put a spade into these mounds after it bad been definitely ascertained that they contained remains of antiquity must have burned strong in tbe breast of tbe traveller who allowed bis fancy to speculate on tbe nature of the treasures bidden for two millenniums.

Attempts on a very small scale were made by an Englishman, Claudius James Eicb, who utilized a residence of about thirteen years in tbe region as tbe resident agent of tbe East India Company, with his bead-quarters at Baghdad, to make a tborougb study of tbe mounds of Babylon and Nineveh as well as of tbe topography of tbe entire region from Baghdad to Mosul. This investigation far surpassed in its results anything that bad previously been done. Eicb^s death in 1821 at tbe early age of thirty-four cut short an activity that included tbe collection of such specimens as be was able to secure from

In Ms “Viaggi’' (Rome, 1650), Pietro della Valle reproduces some of these inscriptions and gives his reasons why they should be read from left to right, in which supposition he was correct.

1® Niebuhr gave a detailed account of his travels in his Reiseheschreibung imch Arabien und andern fumliegenden CopenscratcliiDgs in tiie niouiKis and tlirougli purcliasG from natives who had rummaged them more successfully. Rich’s collections of Babylonian and Assyrian antiquities, though not large in comparison with what was soon to he secured, were valuable by virtue of their varietyrevealing the various kinds of objects buried beneath the mounds. He published accounts of his researches, and after his imtimely death, the antiquities gathered by him, as well as a large collection of oriental manuscripts and coins, were purchased by the British Museinn. In 1827-28 another Englishman, Robert Magnan, also in the employ of the East India Company, in the course of a careful study of many of the moimds in the south, cut trenches into a number of them, chiefly with a view of ascertaining their age and character. Ouite a munber of antiquities were discovered, but such Joradic attempts counted for little. In 1835-37 an impoilant survey of the region of the Euphrates and Tigris was undertaken by the English government, but the credit of having organized the flrst excavating expedition belongs to France.

V

The story of how the palaces and temples of Assyria and Babylonia with their rich and varied contents were brought to view through the -untiring energy of a long series of explorers, is a most fascinating one. Beginning in 1842 with the work of P. E. Botta at the mounds opposite Mosul and continuing to our own days the great museums of Europe and this country — ^more particularly the British Museum, the Louvre, the Berlin Museum, and the Archseological Museum of the Umversity of Pennsylvania, bear witness to the vast mate-

His two Memoirs on the Ruins of Bahylon(honion, 1816-1818) were republished in 1839 by his widow, together with Rich’s diaries and an account of a journey to Persepolis a few years previo^ under the title Narrative of a Residence in Koordistan and on the Site of Ancient Nineveh (London, 1836), 2 vols.

PLATE III

PIG. I, MOUND AND VILLAGE OF KHOSSABAD

F16. 2, BIES NIMRUD, THE SITE OP BORSIPPA rial that has been brought together in the space of seventy years and of which so large a part has now, through publications, been placed at the disposal of students.'®

Botta, appointed consular agent of Prance at Mosul, in 1842, began work late that year on a large mound Kouyunjik on the Tigris opposite Mosul, and which, like the neighboring heap, Nebbi Yunus, covered a portion of the ancient city of Nineveh. Inbeginning excavations at these large mounds it was at first largely guesswork where to dig the first trenches, and it depended upon chance whether one ’s efforts were rewarded with tangible results. Botta worked at Kouyunjik for some months with only moderate success. Inscriptions and bas-reliefs were found, but in a fragmentary condition and nothing that appeared to be particularly striking. He accordingly, in March, 1843, transferred the scene of his operations to a mound Kborsabad, a short distance to the north of Kouyunjik, where he was almost immediately successful in coming upon two mutilated walls covered with sculptured bas-reliefs, accompanied by inscriptions in the ordinary cuneiform character. There could be no question that he had actually come across a portion of an Assyrian building and ere long a* whole series of rooms had been unearthed filled with monuments of the past. The announcement of these discoveries created tremendous excitement, and soon sufficient funds were placed at Botta ’s disposal to enable him to carry on his work on a large scale. An artist, E. Plandin, was dispatched to sketch the monuments that could not be removed and to draw plans of the excavations, By October, 1844, a large portion of the palace— for such the edifice turned out to be— had been excavated, revealing an almost endless succession of rooms, the