A Text-Book of the History of Sculpture

Front matter

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Preface

THE object of this volume is to provide students in schools and colleges with a concise survey of the history of sculpture, so that they may be able to comprehend intelligently the sculpture of the past and the present in the countries with which our own civilization has been and is most intimately connected. It has seemed unnecessary to treat of prehistoric sculpture in general; its connection with the flow of civilization is at present too remote and ill defined. Nor have we entered upon the history of Saracenic, Indian, Chinese, and Japanese sculpture, although all of these have had some influence on European art. The various phases of Oriental art are, from an historical standpoint, in great measure still a mystery to the Western world. This is equally true of the art of the semicivilized nations whose influence once spread so widely upon our own hemisphere. That portion of the general history of sculpture which comes within our survey is itself imperfectly known. In some countries it has been easy to trace the general development of the art; in others, the lack of systematic scientific study still hides from us most important treasures.

The history of sculpture can be studied best with the assistance of casts and photographs. In the absence of the originals, these are preéminently the source upon which we must rely. As these are now within the grasp of every school vi PREFACE.

and college, we have published a brief list indicating where such casts and photographs may best be obtained. In almost every case the illustrations for this volume have been reproduced from photographs taken directly from the original objects. Special acknowledgment is due to the editor of the Series for many helpful suggestions.

ALLAN MARQUAND.

ARTHUR L. FROTHINGHAM, JR.

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY, June 25, 1896.

Table Of Contents

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List oF ILLUSTRATIONS 3 : z . : ; ‘ ; xi

GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY ‘ ‘ 3 : : : F . XV

Chapter I. Egyptian Sculpture

Books RECOMMENDED. For illustration, consult the plates in Prisse d’Avennes’ Histoire de [Art Egyptien. Lepsius, Denkmdaler aus Aegypten und Nubia. Champollion, AZonuments de l' Egypte et dela Nubie. Mariette, Album photographique du Musée de Boulag. Rosellini, J Monument dell’ Ligitto e della Nubia.

For text, consult Budge, Ze Mummy. Edwards, Pharaohs, Fellahs, and Explorers. Erman, Life in Ancient Egypt. Mariette, AZonuments of Upper Egypt. Maspero, Lgyptian Archaology , Guide du Visiteur au Musée de Boulag ; The Dawn of Civilization. Perrot and Chipiez, History of Art in Ancient Egypt. Soldi, La Sculpture Egyptienne. Wilkin- ‘son, AZanners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians,

PHYSICAL AND POLITICAL CONDITIONS, Ancient Egypt consisted of two principalities: the land of the south, or Upper Egypt, extending from the city of Elephantiné, near the first cataract, to Memphis, not far from the modern Cairo; and the land of the north, or Lower Egypt, which stretched from Memphis, widening with the mouths of the Nile, and forming a delta at the Mediterranean. These two principalities represented the consolidation of smaller prehistoric states or nomes, and were themselves united as one nation under the Pharaohs. This country extended along the fertile banks of the winding Nile a distance of seven hundred and thirty-one miles, and it to-day averages in width about nine miles. :

The prehistoric tribes probably became united at a remote date before Menes, after whose reign it is customary to treat of Egyptian history as a series of successive dynasties. These dynasties are sometimes named from the city which served as the capital, and sometimes from the conquering nation which furnished the kings. Historians and Egyptologists differ widely in respect to the dates of the earlier dynasties, but the difference grows less with the later dynasties and disappears when the period of Greek rule is reached. The following table, based upon Manetho, is given by Mariette as an approximate guide :

NUMBER OF DYNASTY. NAME OF DYNASTY. DURATION, DATE B.C. ‘ THINITR, 253 years, 5004 x " joz 47581 Se MemPHITe. 21 4449 x ns 284 4235 § : 284 3 48S 395% oe EvEpHanting, 203 3703 & MEMPHITE. qo days. 3500 § at 142 years. 3500 x HERACLEOPOLITR. 109 3358 a 185‘ 3249 é Tenet at 3064 nr a 453 2851 Sas Xoire, 184 2398 8 q Hyxsos, or Suxprerns. { x 7 f sir 22t4 Lt oe THERAN. 2aqr * 1703 . 174 =" 1462 ss 178 1288 S TANITE. w300C(tw* 1110 RS BunastitF. 170 980 SB TANITE. 89 * 810 x Saite, 6 * 72 & Etnioprian, so | 715 3 Sarre. 138. 665 2 -PERSIAN, rar ** 527 Sarre, ; eee 406 MENDbEsIaAN. a 399 SEBENNYTE. 38 CS 378 aw PERSIAN. 8 * 34° 38 MAcEDONIAN. ae 332 83 GREEK, 275 ** 305 Na Roman, qin * go

At the head of the social organism stood the king, or Pharaoh, an absolute monarch, worshipped as a divinity after he ascended the throne. He was supreme in ecclesiastical as well as civil matters. Below him were the several orders of priests, the governors, scribes, and other civil functionaries, with the generals and officers of the army. ‘These constituted a privileged, hereditary nobility, in whose hands was considerable power, and the ownership of the soil.

Much that remains to us of the sculptures of the Ancient and Middle empires is the result of the patronage of these classes. Architects and sculptors’ were highly esteemed, and the vari- Ous artisans, musicians, and commercial traders had the same legal rights as the tillers of the soil.

According to Herodotos, there were twenty thousand cities in Egypt, representing a total population of over five millions, and there was, therefore, a large mass of the population which could be turned to the construction of public works or to foreign conquest.

RELIGION. ‘The religion of the Egyptians was somewhat analogous to their political organization. Many traces of a prehistoric fetichism dre found, in which different animals, such as the bull, the ibis, the crocodile, were the totems of different tribes. ‘There was also a polytheism, in

FIG. 1.—THE SHEIK-EL-BELED, OR MAYOR OF THE VILLAGE, GIZEH MUSEUM.

which divinities were grouped in triads or enneads, with one divinity as supreme and all powerful. Underlying this was a worship of the powers of nature, especially of the sun, moon, and stars, and a manifest tendency toward organization into a unified system of monotheism or pantheism.

Intimately connected with their social and religious system was the idea of immortality. Each person in a measure reflected the constitution of the social fabric. His body was presided over by a a, which, like a Pharaoh, ruled the body, and was in form its ethereal duplicate. The 4a remained with the mummy in the tomb; it required nourishment, and it was provided with permanent bodily form in the shape of one or more statues of the deceased. The higher elements of personality enjoyed greater freedom. The da, or soul, wandered through the Valley of Shades; the Zou, or intelligence, followed the gods, while the @d, or heart, the 2Aaibit, or shadow, and the rev, or name, awaited the final reunion, when the individual secured his immortality and became a god.

SUBJECTS. The sculpture of the Egyptians was largely connected with the temple and the tomb. The temple was constructed as if it were the tomb or eternal dwelling-place of a divinity whose statue was concealed within a succession of closed halls, opened to view only for a brief interval, when the sun or moon or particular star reached a point on the horizon from which their rays could shine directly upon the innermost shrine. These temple statues were consulted as oracles, but were seldom of imposing size. The art of the sculptor was also employed for wall-reliefs, capitals of columns, colossal figures guarding the pylons, and for long avenues of sphinxes. The scenes upon the temple walls illustrate frequently the piety of kings as well as their foreign conquests. ~

The tombs called for the most extensive use of the sculptor’s art. Here were placed portrait statues of the deceased. Of this nature were many of the statues of Pharaohs, public functionaries, and scribes, and the groups representing a man and his wife. The walls of the earlier tombs resemble an illustrated book of the manners and customs of the people. Here are represented hunting, fishing, and agricultural scenes ; artistic and mercantile pursuits, such as the making of statues,

FIG, 2.—ROYVAL SCRIBE IN THE LOUVRE, ANCIENT EMPIRE, or glass, or metal-ware, or the building of pyramids; women at their domestic duties, or wailing for the dead ; boys engaged in athletic games. Such reliefs indicate a confident belief in the future as an untroubled extension of the present life. At a later period, beginning with the tombs of the New Empire, the gods appear more prominently in scenes of judgment ;

revealing a less certain attitude of mind concerning the happiness of the future state.

The sculptor’s art also lent a charm to the minor objects of domestic and daily use; to household furniture with its rich divans, to tables and chests, and to all forms of metal work and jewelry. Such objects as toilet boxes, mirrors, and spoons assumed forms derived from the floral, animal, or human world. Sacred plants, especially the lotus, were the naturalistic basis for a large and varied series of forms which influenced the decorative art of the entire ancient world.

MATERIALS, METHODS, AND CONVENTIONS. Inthe Nile valley grew the sacred acacia and the sycamore, which furnished the sculptor material for statues and sarcophagi, for thrones and other objects of industrial art. The hillsides on both banks of the Nile, as far south as Edfou, furnished a coarse nummulitic limestone, and beyond Edfou were extensive quarries of sandstone, both of which materials were employed for sculptural as well as for architectural purposes. Near: the first cataract may be still seen the quarries of red granite utilized not only for obelisks, but also for colossal statues, sphinxes, and sarcophagi. Alabaster was quarried at the ancient Alabastron, near the modern village of Assiout. From the mountains of the Arabian desert and the Sinaitic peninsula came the basalt and diorite used by the early sculptors, the red porphyry prized by the Greeks and Romans, and copper. The Nile mud was moulded and baked, and even covered with colored glazes, from the earliest dynasties of Egyptian history. At the same early period we find the Egyptian sculptor handling with skill various imported materials, such as ebony, ivory, gold, silver, and iron.

When the Egyptians wished to give permanence to their sculptures, as, for example, to the statues and sarcophagi of their Pharaohs, they utilized the hardest material, such as basalt, diorite, granite. These materials they handled with no less skill than they did wood and ivory and softer stones.

The fine details were probably executed with instruments of flint. Other implements, made apparently of hardened bronze or iron, were.the saw with jewelled teeth, tubular drills of various kinds, the pointer, and chisel. Statues of hard stone were carefully polished with crushed sandstone and emery ; those of the softer materials were generally covered with stucco and

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FIG, 3.—HYKSOS CHIEF FROM THE FAYOUM. GIZEH MUSEUM, painted, the coloring being applied in an arbitrary or conventional manner.

The wall-sculptures are executed in different modes of relief ;

(t) Bas-relief, in which the figures project slightly in front of the background.

(2) Sunken-relief, in which the background projects slightly in front of the figures.

(3) Outline-relief, in which only the outline of figures is chiselled.

(4) High-relief, in which the figures project strongly from the background.

Almost all the wall-sculptures of the Ancient Empire are in the form of bas-relief; sunken and outline relief are the most common methods during the New Empire. High-rclief is found occasionally in tombs of the Ancient Empire, otherwise it is almost exclusively confined to the New Empire and to such forms as Osiride and Hathoric piers and to wall statues. In its treatment of figures in the round, Egyptian sculpture is limited toa few forms. ‘There is the standing figure, with left foot slightly in advance of the right, the head erect, and the eyes looking straight forward. Variants are formed by changing the pose of the arms. In the seated figures there is the same fixity of the head, body, and lower limbs. Beside these, the kneeling and squatting attitudes frequently occur, with little variation. Statues in the round usually represented the gods, Pharaohs, or civic officials, and were composed with special reference to the preservation of straight lines. ‘The more important monuments were thus limited in type and pose, but a whole series of statues illustrating domestic subjects show freer modes of composition. Little attention was given to grouping. It was usually a mere juxtaposition of two standing or two seated statues, or of one standing and one seated figure. A god and a man, or a husband and a wife, were placed side by side. In family groups the figure of a child was sometimes added. Statues of Isis suckling Horus formed the only prominent exception.

Symbolism usually governed the representations of the gods. When portrayed as human beings they were distinguished by emblems, but they were more frequently represented as composite creatures with animal heads on human bodies. Thus, Horus has the head of a hawk; Anubis, that of a jackal; Khnum, a ram; Thoth, an ibis; Sebek, a crocodile; Isis, a cow; and Sekhet-Bast, a lion or cat. The same method of ‘representation placed a human head upon an animal body and formed fantastic combinations of various creatures, birds, animals, and men.

As the statues represented the permanent body of the iW, Saige = t al bee's edie?

FIG. 4.—RA-HOTEP AND HIS WIFE NEFERT, THIRTEENTH DYNASTY, GIZEIT MUSEUM.

deceased, so the relief-sculptures reproduced the scenes in which his ethereal body might continue to move. They were not intended as mere architectural decorations, but had primarily a recording or immortalizing purpose. ‘They covered the outer and inner walls of temples, the galleries and walls of tombs, without much regard to esthetic considerations or

| fe) HISTORY OF SCULPTURE.

decorative effect. On the exterior walls of temples they were often irregularly disposed over the surface, but in interiors they were arranged in superposed, horizontal rows. They were not pictures, but picture-writing in relief, and were little more than enlarged hieroglyphs. Such being their character, there was little stimulus to the production of artistic compositions.

Relief-composition consisted merely in the arrangement of figures in horizontal lines so as to record an event or depict an action. The principal objects were distinguished from the rest by their size; thus, gods were larger than men, kings than their followers, and the dead than the living. Subordinate actions were juxtaposed in horizontal bands. In other respects there was little regard for unity of effect; and spaces seem to have been filled with figures and hieroglyphs on the principle that decoration abhors a vacuum. In composition of this kind, constructed like sentences, there was little or no need of perspective. Scenes were not represented as they appeared within the field of vision, but their individual components were all brought to the plane of representation, and spread out like writing. A man with head in profile, but eye ex face, with shoulders in full front, but trunk turned three-quarters and legs in profile, is not the picture of a man as he appears to the eye; but as a symbolic representation of a man, it was perfectly clear and intelligible. In the same symbolic way a pond was indicated by a rectangle, the water in it by zigzag lines, while the trees around it projected from the four sides of the rectangle. An army was portrayed with its remoter ranks brought into the plane of representation and superposed in horizontal lines one above the other. Frequently a row of individuals projecting from the spectator was represented along a horizontal line, the nearer figures partly covering the remoter. In & few instances the effects of perspective were suggested, but being foreign to the purposes of Egyptian art they bore no fruit.

Egyptian reliefs were covered with stucco and painted. The

EGYPTIAN SCULPTURE. It colors used were vivid in tone, few in number, and durable -in quality. ‘They were applied in uniform flat masses, juxtamt

FIG. 5.—SETI I. WORSHIPPING. EIGHTEENTH DYNASTY. ABYDOS, posed in striking contrasts. Chiaroscuro and color-perspective lay outside the Egyptian conception of painting. The painting of reliefs served to make the figures more distinct, not more natural. Color was rarely used to suggest rotundity of form, and was applied ordinarily in a purely conventional manner. ‘The faces of men were usually reddish brown, and those of women yellow; but the gods might have faces of any color. Statues of wood or of soft stone were frequently in like manner covered with stucco and painted.

Chapter II. Egyptian Sculpture.—continued

Booxs RECOMMENDED. ‘The books before mentioned ; also, see General Bibliography.

HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT. In spite of wealth of materials and quantity of production, Egyptian sculpture changed so slowly that it is difficult to trace its history. From the very earliest dynasties we find a fully developed art. Sculptors handled readily the hardest stones and cast with much skill in bronze. There is no archaic period to show the struggle by which this mastery was reached. Egypt has not yet enlightened us as to a prehistoric art of her own, nor is it proved that some foreign nation provided her with an art already in its prime. Whatever its origin, the continuity of Egyptian art during the historic period is more marked than its changes. Nevertheless, the modification’ of Egyptian sculpture at different periods may be roughly distinguished.

ANCIENT EMPIRE. The art of the Ancient Empire centred about Memphis, although the Delta, Abydos, the neighborhood of Thebes, and Elephantiné furnish illustrations of some of its later phases. There are no temples remaining from this period; the sculptures come exclusively from tombs. In character these Memphite sculptures were strongly naturalistic when compared with the later products of Egyptian art. ‘The portrait statues are varied and often striking in character, and the wall-pictures depict many scenes from daily life. Generalized or typical forms are not wanting in the very earliest times, as witness the colossal sphinx at Gizeh and the statues of Chephren, builder of the second pyramid. The natural-

|. HISTORY OF SCULPTURE.

istic tendency led to a peculiar treatment of the eye, found in statues of this period, but discontinued in later times. The pupil was represented by a glistening silver nail set in the midst of rock crystal or enamel, while the dark eyelashes were made of bronze. This treatment was followed in the case of statues in limestone, wood, and bronze, but not in the statues made of basaltic rocks. The heads of these early statues seem to indicate a strongly marked Egyptian type, not unmixed in some cases with negroid and other foreign races. The wall-sculptures, and even the hieroglyphs executed in low-relief, were finely carved. The slender type of the human form was not wanting, but short, thickset, muscular bodies were more common. From the fact that many middle-aged men and women were represented, it would seem as if childhood and old age were somehow looked upon as disappearing in the future life. The faces reflect the lives of a peaceful, happy people, to whom future life implied no great change in the mode of existence. MIDDLE EMPIRE. The period called the Middle Empire may be divided into the first Theban period, extending from the eleventh to the fifteenth dynasty, and the Hyksos period, from the fifteenth to the eighteenth dynasty. The centre of government had now shifted from Memphis to. Thebes. The later period of Memphite rule and the first dynasty of the Middle Empire seem to have produced little sculpture of monumental value. But the strong reign of the Usertesens and the Amenemhats of the twelfth dynasty marks a revival of Egyptian art. The sculpture represented in general a continuance of the art of Memphis, but there were already some changes. A desire for colossal statues of Pharaohs began to be felt, and bodily forms were given with slenderer trunks and limbs. The wall-sculptures presented stibjects similar to those of earlier days, but were less individual and natural; and in many cases wal]-paintings were substituted for reliefs. The temple statues from Karnak of the twelfth dynasty indicate that votive offerings of statuary were not uncommon, the fine statue of Sebek-hotep III. of the thirteenth dynasty, in the Louvre, bearing witness to a new departure in the sculptor’s art.

FIG. 6.—RAMESES Il. NINETEENTH DYNASTY. IPSAMBOUL,

This revival of art, which began in the twelfth and continued through the thirteenth dynasty, was checked in the fourteenth and fifteenth dynasties by the invasion of barbarous foreign rulers known as the Hyksos or Shepherd Kings. The ethnological affinities of these Shepherd Kings is an unsettled problem, the Shemitic influences which they introduced being ofiset by their apparently Turanian facial type. The sculptured sphinxes and statues were still executed by Egyptian sculptors, but in the gray or black granite of Hammanat or of the Sinaitic peninsula, instead of the red granite of Assouan. The Hyksos centres of activity were Tanis and Bubastis, their influence being less strongly felt in Upper Egypt. ‘The most striking characteristic of their sculpture was the non-Egyptian cast of countenance, showing small eyes, high check bones, heavy masses of hair, an aquiline nose, a strong mouth with shaven upper lip, and short whiskers and beard.

NEW EMPIRE. The second Theban or early portion of the New Empire included the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth dynasties. Egypt now freed herself from Hyksos rule and extended her empire to Assyria, Asia Minor, and Cyprus in the east and north, and to Nubia and Abyssinia in the south. Numerous large temples were erected, especially during the reign of Seti I. and Rameses II. These furnished a new stimulus to the sculptor’s art. Colossal temples led naturally to colossal statuary. The seated statues of Amenophis III., at Thebes, are fifty-two feet high, those of Rameses II., at Ipsamboul, are seventy feet high, while the standing Rameses at Tanis, according to Mr. Petrie, stood ninety feet high without its pedestal. The slender proportions of the human form which prevailed in the twelfth and thirteenth dynasties were continued and even advanced, especially in the bas-reliefs of the New Empire. The primitive simplicity of dress, characteristic of earlier days, was now replaced by greater richness in personal adornment, and elaborate crowns and highly ornamented garments were not uncommon. Foreign fauna and flora, as well as foreign men and women, were represented more frequently and in far greater variety than in earlier days.

Scenes of warfare and foreign conquest were portrayed, and images of the gods were now abundant. A single small temple at Karnak contained five hundred and seventy-two statues of the goddess Sekhet-Bast, but at ‘Tell-el-Amarna the heretic

FIG. 7.—PTOLEMY CROWNED BY UPPER AND LOWER EGYPT, EDFOU,.

king Khou-en-Aten stimulated his sculptors to break with traditional themes and to portray military reviews, chariot driving, festivals, palaces, villas, and gardens. The school of sculptors now established made itself felt 2

1g. HISTORY OF SCULPTURE.

throughout the reign of Seti I. and Rameses JI. The fine heads of Queen Taia and Horemheb and the remarkable limestone reliefs at Seti’s temple in Abydos may be traced to its influence ; so, also, the beautiful seated statue of Rameses II. in the Museum of Turin. Royal tombs of this period maintained the traditional excellence of relief sculpture, but the demand for carved scenes upon the outer walls of temples was probably too great for the supply of sculptors. At all events, we find here poverty of invention in the subjects and haste in the execution. After the brilliant reign of Rameses II. Egypt lost much of her military spirit, the country was divided, and the decadence of art began. ‘This was a gradual decline, with here and there an upward struggle, as shown, for instance, in the reliefs of the twentieth dynasty at Medinet-Abou.

During the later portion of the New Empire, from the twenty-first to the thirty-second dynasty, the power of Egypt was broken. She yielded now to the Ethiopians, to the Assyrians, and once and again to the Persians. Her seat of empire shifted to Tanis, to Bubastis, to Mendes, to Sebennytos, and for a long time remained at Sais. This period is therefore characterized as the

SAITE PERIOD. Under such shifting conditions it was hardly possible for art to flourish. Sometimes sculptors turned back to Ancient-Empire work for inspiration, and modelled forms which might readily be mistaken for the products of earlier days. Under Psammetichos I. of the twenty-sixth dynasty there was something of an artistic revival. He restored the temples and revived the demand for sculpture and painting. Sculptors again attacked the hardest stones, as though they would prove to the world that their knowledge of technique had not suffered; but the green-basalt statues of Osiris and Nephthys and the Hathor-cow supporting a statuette of the deceased, in the museum at Gizeh, show that the sculptors of the reign of Psammetichos I. were possessed of an artistic sense which preferred effeminate and refined to sharp and vigorous forms. No change in the current of the Egyptian sculpture was produced by the Persian conquest.

GRECO-ROMAN PERIOD. When Egypt became subject to Macedonian rule, her art did not wholly submit to foreign taste. Ptolemaic temples, though characterized by certain changes, especially in the capitals of columns, were not constructed in Hellenic style. Similarly, Ptolemaic statues are still Egyptian. The successors of Alexander become Pharaohs ; they did not convert the Egyptians into Greeks. But the presence of Greek cities in Egypt from the seventh century B.c. made it impossible that Greek and Egyptian types should remain forever separate. It was inevitable that in certain directions a Graeco-Egyptian style should arise; and this was the case.

In architecture even the Caesars continued the restoration of temples in the Egyptian manner, but in sculpture they stimulated a mixed style in which the Egyptian is the retreating and the Greek and Roman the advancing element. Even Christian civilization, under Byzantine rule, failed to subject Egyptian art. ‘The final surrender

FIG. 8.—SARCOPHAGUS OF was made in 638 A.p. to the Moham- PETT-HARSFESE AS THE medans. , ; GODDESS HATHOR, PTOLE- MAIC PERIOD. BERLIN.

EXTANT MONUMENTS. Egyptian sculpture may be best studied in Egypt at the ‘temples of Abydos, Thebes, Edfou, Esneh, Phile, and Ipsamboul ; at the tombs about Memphis, Beni-Hassan, and Thebes, and especially at the Museum of Gizeh. Important collections exist in the Vatican, Rome; the Museo Archeologico, Florence ; the Museo Egizio, Turin; the Royal Museum, Berlin; the Louvre, Paris ; the British Museum, London; the Metropolitan Museum and the Historical Society, New York. Minor collections may be seen in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston ; the University of Pennsylvania Museum, Philadelphia; the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore ; and the Field Columbian Museum, Chicago.

Chapter III. Babylonian Sculpture

Books ReEcoMMENDED. Babelon, Manual of Oriental Antiquities. De Sarzec and Heuzey, Découvertes en Chaldée. Heuzey, Un Palais Chaldéen. Loftus, Travels and Researches in Chaldea and Susiana. Maspero, The Dawn of Civilization. Menant, Collection de Clercg, Catalogue des Cylindres Orientaux ; Recherches sur la Glyptique Orientale. Perrot and Chipiez, Aistory of Art in Chalde@a and Assyria, Rassam, Recent Discoveries of Ancient Babylonian Cities. Reber,. Veber altchaldaische Kunst (in Zettschrift fiir Assyriofogie, 1886). Taylor, in Journal of the Royal Astatic Society, Vol. XV. Ward, Seal Cylinders and Other Oriental Seals (Handbook 12, Metropolitan Museum, New York).

PHYSICAL AND POLITICAL CONDITIONS. The earliest centre of civilization in Western Asia was in the lower part of the valley through which the Tigris and Euphrates take their course before emptying into the Persian Gulf. This civilization was that of Babylonia. Its early history is not nearly as well known as that of Egypt ; we cannot yet say which was the more ancient, though the probabilities seem to be in favor of an antiquity for the culture of western Asia equal to that of Egypt. The situation of Babylonia favored the growth and spread of its influence. The empire of Elam developed by its side along parallel lines ; Assyria was its heir as well as its tival. Their collective civilization, by conquest and influence, moulded the development of Persia, Syria, Phoenicia, Armenia, the Kingdoms of the Hittites, of Upper Mesopotamia, and southeastern Asia Minor.

In Babylonia the population was of mixed race, partly

Shemitic and partly non-Shemitic. The probability is that the Shemites acquired supremacy as early as about 4000 B.c., and maintained it with slight exceptions until the seventeenth century B.c., when the Kosseans, or Kassites, from the eastern mountains established a dynasty in Babylon. The earliest political condition shows us, not a united state, but a number of independent cities. These were divided into two groups, one at the south and one at the north. The principal southern cities were Eridu, the sacred city nearest to the sea; Ur, the largest in the group; Larsa, Erech, Lagash, Mar, and Nisin. To the northern group belong Nippur, Borsippa, Babel or Babylon, Kish, Kutha, Agadhe, and Sippara.

Native traditions indicate the cities nearest to the Persian Gulf as the earliest to become civilized under the influence of Ea, the god of Eridu, the divinity of the sea and of wisdom, half-fish and half-man, who came up out of the waters of the gulf to teach mankind civilization. The two terms, Sumer and Akkad, served in Babylonian literature to designate the two main divisions of the race and land. Chaldzea was the most southern region, and its name came into prominence at about the time when the writers of the Old Testament came into contact with the civilization of Babylonia. The name is not applicable to the whole country, though in some books it is so used. Under the heading ‘‘ Babylonia ’’ we include the entire country.