The History of Antiquity (Vol. 1-6). Duncker Max

The provision of a sufficient supply of water for the land was not neglected by the kings. We have already seen (p. 261) that king Hammurabi boasted to have supplied Sumir and Accad with water for ever. The canal system of Babylonia began about 150 miles above the metropolis.[419] The main object was to protect the plain from the rapid floods of the Euphrates by dams, and to moderate the flow of the inundation. Reservoirs were required to receive the water of the overflow, and preserve it against the time of drought. It was also necessary to carry the water as far as the middle of the plain, which in ordinary years it failed to reach, to form a network of canals to convey water from the Euphrates even when there was no inundation, and finally to dig trenches to remove the water from districts where it lay too long, and to drain the broad marshes on the lower river near the mouth of the Euphrates. From the inscription of Hammurabi, and the numerous remains of dams and canals, we may conclude that the kings of Babylon constructed large and comprehensive works of this kind, which were of use not in agriculture only, but for commerce also. The brief duration of the later restoration of the kingdom could not allow time to complete the greater part of the vast structures and conduits, of which traces and ruins are still in existence. The canal Naarsares, which was carried from the Euphrates above Babylon toward the west, and ran parallel to the stream till within a short distance of the mouth; the canal Pallakopas, which was derived from the main stream 100 miles below Babylon, and emptied into the Chaldæan lakes, in order to convey to them the excess of water from the Euphrates; and three junction canals above Babylon between the Euphrates and Tigris, from which trenches branched off for irrigation, appear to belong to the time of the ancient kingdom (see below). These labours of the princes, the numerous dams and "waters of Babylon," attained their object. Babylonia was a garden where the land brought forth more abundant fruits than in Egypt.

      Very few relics are left of the sculpture of the Babylonians. If we set aside a few sketches on cylinders and seals, we have no means of knowing at first hand the images of their gods. The form of the god Nebo on the cylinder of Urukh has been already mentioned (p. 260). The finished statues cannot have been very different from the images of the Assyrian gods and the statues of Nebo (p. 267). The remains of the ornaments of the friezes in the palaces of Babylon are scarcely to be distinguished from Assyrian sculptures. They are bearded, long-haired heads of serious expression, with tall, upright headdresses. Beyond these only a few figures in clay have been preserved, which are not without a certain truth of nature, though exaggerated, and a rude though powerful lion of stone standing over a prostrate man, from the ruins of Babylon. Whether we regard it as unfinished, or as belonging to the infancy of art, this work is all that we possess of full figures in stone, except a duck, intended for use as a weight (p. 282). The human forms on the numerous seal cylinders are often sketched in rude, childish outlines. On the other hand, the single relief of a king of Babylon hitherto discovered, though massive, is of artistic and neat workmanship. The king wears a long and very richly-adorned robe with close sleeves, which are fastened by bracelets round the knuckles. The robe reaches to the ankles, over which come the richly embroidered shoes. The head is covered by a tall, upright tiara, on which are horses with wings and horns. The king has a bow in his left hand, and two arrows in his right; in his girdle is a dagger. It appears to be an image of Mardukidinakh, the opponent of Tiglath Pilesar I. of Assyria (p. 262). The forms of the animals in the reliefs, and the cylinders, are lively in conception and vigorous in workmanship; they consist of dogs, birds, apes, deer, and antelopes. Humorous sketches of animals in caricature are also found on cylinders, and the earrings and ornaments, found in the ruins, are, in part, of delicate workmanship.

The most remarkable remains in the ruins of Ur and Erech are the tombs. At Ur, outside the wall already mentioned, there is a broad band of sepulchres encircling the ruins of the wall. The tombs are chambers of seven feet in length, three to four feet in breadth, and five feet in height. The roofs are formed by tiles projecting in successive layers over the walls, and thus gradually approaching each other. The floors are also covered with tiles. On the tiles lay a mat of reeds, and on this the corpse was placed, generally turned to the left side, with the head on a brick; the right arm, laid towards the left over the breast, rests the fingers on the edge of a copper saucer. Clay vessels for food and drink are found on the walls. In the ruins of Erech the whole space between the three prominent heaps of ruins and the external walls is filled with tombs, bones, and relics of the dead. The coffins here are receptacles partly oval, made of burnt clay in a single piece, about seven feet long, two and a half broad, and two to three feet high, contracting towards the top; and partly narrow funnel-shaped vessels of clay rounded off at both ends and united in the middle, in which the body was closely fitted. The position of the skeletons and objects round them are the same in the oval coffins as in the brick vaults. As a rule these coffins are not found under the surface, but in raised brick buildings. They lie thickly together, and often in several rows, one upon the other. Relics of weapons, necklaces, and bracelets, gold and silver rings for the fingers and toes, and other ornaments, are found in these sepulchres.[420]

The industry of the Babylonians quickly attained great skill and wide development. They were famous for their weaving in wool and linen. The nations of the West agree in acknowledging the excellence of the cloths and coloured stuffs of Babylonia. Their pottery was excellent and the manufacture active; the preparation of glass was not unknown; the ointments prepared in Babylon were famous and much sought after, and the stones cut there were highly valued. The products of Babylonian skill and industry were first brought to their kinsmen in Syria, who could offer oil and wine in exchange. In the Hebrew scriptures we find Babylonian cloaks in use in Syria before the immigration of the Hebrews into Canaan.[421] How active the commerce between Babylonia and Syria was even before that date is proved by the circumstance that the tribute which in the sixteenth century B.C. was received by Tuthmosis III. from Syria is put down on the inscriptions at Karnak (p. 135) in part in weight by the mina, and in part, when reduced from the Egyptian to the Babylonian weight, gives round sums corresponding to the Babylonian weight, from which the conclusion can be drawn that the imperial Babylonian weight and the Babylonian money weight were already in use in Syria about this time. That the trade mina of the Syrians was the sixtieth part of the heavy (weight) talent of the Babylonians is ascertained; but the heavy and light gold talent, as well as the silver talent of 67⅓ pounds, must, according to these deductions, have been known to the Syrians about this date.[422] Afterwards the Hebrews put their gold shekel, on the basis of the heavy gold talent of Babylon, at the fiftieth part of the mina of this talent. Besides the silver talent of Babylonia, there was also a heavy silver talent of about ninety pounds (44,760 kil.) in use in Syria. This came into existence because in Syria fifteen, and not ten, silver pieces (fiftieths of the mina) were equal to the fiftieth of the heavy gold mina (1⅗ pounds), (p. 285).[423] Along with their weights the Syrians also adopted the cubic measures of the Babylonians.

The rough material required by Babylonian industry was supplied in the first place by the Arabs, who exchanged their animals, skins, and wool for corn and weapons. Wine, and more especially wood, of which there was none in Babylonia, were brought by the Armenians from their valleys in the north down the Euphrates to Babylon.[424] Before 1500 B.C. the commerce of the Arabs brought the products of South Arabia, the spices of Yemen, and even the products and manufactures of India, especially their silks, which reached the coasts of Southern Arabia (see below), to Babylon. The Babylonians required the perfumes of Arabia and India to prepare their ointments. In order to prepare