Chapter 1

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CHALDEA

From the Earliest Times to the Rise of Assyria

(Treated As a General Introduction to the Study of Ancient History)

by

ZÉNAÏDE A. RAGOZIN

Member of the "Société Ethnologique" of Paris; of the "American Oriental Society"; Corresponding Member of the "Athénée Oriental" of Paris; Author of "Assyria," "Media," Etc.

"He (Carlyle) says it is part of his creed that history is poetry, could we tell it right."--EMERSON.

Fourth Edition

London T. Fisher Unwin Paternoster Square

New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons

MDCCCXCIII

TO THE MEMBERS OF

THE CLASS,

IN LOVING REMEMBRANCE OF MANY HAPPY HOURS, THIS VOLUME AND THE FOLLOWING ONES ARE AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED BY THEIR FRIEND.

THE AUTHOR.

IDLEWILD PLANTATION, SAN ANTONIO,

CLASSIFIED CONTENTS.

INTRODUCTION.

I. PAGE MESOPOTAMIA.--THE MOUNDS.--THE FIRST SEARCHERS 1-18

§ 1. Complete destruction of Nineveh.--§§ 2-4. Xenophon and the "Retreat of the Ten Thousand." The Greeks pass the ruins of Calah and Nineveh, and know them not.--§ 5. Alexander's passage through Mesopotamia.--§ 6. The Arab invasion and rule.--§ 7. Turkish rule and mismanagement.--§ 8. Peculiar natural conditions of Mesopotamia.--§ 9. Actual desolate state of the country.--§ 10. The plains studded with Mounds. Their curious aspect.--§ 11. Fragments of works of art amidst the rubbish.--§ 12. Indifference and superstition of the Turks and Arabs.--§ 13. Exclusive absorption of European scholars in Classical Antiquity.--§ 14. Forbidding aspect of the Mounds, compared with other ruins.--§ 15. Rich, the first explorer.--§ 16. Botta's work and want of success.--§ 17. Botta's great discovery.--§ 18. Great sensation created by it.--§ 19. Layard's first expedition.

II.

LAYARD AND HIS WORK 19-35

§ 1. Layard's arrival at Nimrud. His excitement and dreams.--§ 2. Beginning of difficulties. The Ogre-like Pasha of Mossul.--§ 3. Opposition from the Pasha. His malice and cunning.--§ 4. Discovery of the gigantic head. Fright of the Arabs, who declare it to be Nimrod.--§ 5. Strange ideas of the Arabs about the sculptures.--§ 6. Layard's life in the desert.--§ 7. Terrible heat of summer.--§ 8. Sand-storms and hot hurricanes.--§ 9. Layard's wretched dwelling.--§ 10. Unsuccessful attempts at improvement.--§ 11. In what the task of the explorer consists.--§ 12. Different modes of carrying on the work of excavation.

III.

THE RUINS 36-93

§ 1. Every country's culture and art determined by its geographical conditions.--§ 2. Chaldea's absolute deficiency in wood and stone.--§ 3. Great abundance of mud fit for the fabrication of bricks; hence the peculiar architecture of Mesopotamia. Ancient ruins still used as quarries of bricks for building. Trade of ancient bricks at Hillah.--§ 4. Various cements used.--§ 5. Construction of artificial platforms.--§ 6. Ruins of Ziggurats; peculiar shape, and uses of this sort of buildings.--§ 7. Figures showing the immense amount of labor used on these constructions.--§ 8. Chaldean architecture adopted unchanged by the Assyrians.--§ 9. Stone used for ornament and casing of walls. Water transport in old and modern times.--§ 10. Imposing aspect of the palaces.--§ 11. Restoration of Sennacherib's palace by Fergusson.--§ 12. Pavements of palace halls.--§ 13. Gateways and sculptured slabs along the walls. Friezes in painted tiles.--§ 14. Proportions of palace halls and roofing.--§ 15. Lighting of halls.--§ 16. Causes of the kings' passion for building.--§ 17. Drainage of palaces and platforms.--§ 18. Modes of destruction.--§ 19. The Mounds a protection to the ruins they contain. Refilling the excavations.--§ 20. Absence of ancient tombs in Assyria.--§ 21. Abundance and vastness of cemeteries in Chaldea.--§ 22. Warka (Erech) the great Necropolis. Loftus' description.--§ 23. "Jar-coffins."--§ 24. "Dish-cover" coffins.--§ 25. Sepulchral vaults.--§ 26. "Slipper-shaped" coffins.--§ 27. Drainage of sepulchral mounds.--§ 28. Decoration of walls in painted clay-cones.--§ 29. De Sarzec's discoveries at Tell-Loh.

IV.

THE BOOK OF THE PAST.--THE LIBRARY OF NINEVEH 94-115

§ 1. Object of making books.--§ 2. Books not always of paper.--§ 3. Universal craving for an immortal name.--§ 4. Insufficiency of records on various writing materials. Universal longing for knowledge of the remotest past.--§ 5. Monumental records.--§ 6. Ruins of palaces and temples, tombs and caves--the Book of the Past.--§§ 7-8. Discovery by Layard of the Royal Library at Nineveh.--§ 9. George Smith's work at the British Museum.--§ 10. His expeditions to Nineveh, his success and death.--§ 11. Value of the Library.--§§ 12-13. Contents of the Library.--§ 14. The Tablets.--§ 15. The cylinders and foundation-tablets.

CHALDEA.

I.

NOMADS AND SETTLERS.--THE FOUR STAGES OF CULTURE. 116-126

§ 1. Nomads.--§ 2. First migrations.--§ 3. Pastoral life--the second stage.--§ 4. Agricultural life; beginnings of the State.--§ 5. City-building; royalty.--§ 6. Successive migrations and their causes.--§ 7. Formation of nations.

II.

THE GREAT RACES.--CHAPTER X. OF GENESIS 127-142

§ 1. Shinar.--§ 2. Berosus.--§ 3. Who were the settlers in Shinar?--§ 4. The Flood probably not universal.--§§ 5-6. The blessed race and the accursed, according to Genesis.--§ 7. Genealogical form of Chap. X. of Genesis.--§ 8. Eponyms.--§ 9. Omission of some white races from Chap. X.--§ 10. Omission of the Black Race.--§ 11. Omission of the Yellow Race. Characteristics of the Turanians.--§ 12. The Chinese.--§ 13. Who were the Turanians? What became of the Cainites?--§ 14. Possible identity of both.--§ 15. The settlers in Shinar--Turanians.

III.

TURANIAN CHALDEA--SHUMIR AND ACCAD.--THE BEGINNINGS OF RELIGION 146-181

§ 1. Shumir and Accad.--§ 2. Language and name.--§ 3. Turanian migrations and traditions.--§ 4. Collection of sacred texts.--§ 5. "Religiosity"--a distinctively human characteristic. Its first promptings and manifestations.--§ 6. The Magic Collection and the work of Fr. Lenormant.--§ 7. The Shumiro-Accads' theory of the world, and their elementary spirits.--§ 8. The incantation of the Seven Maskim.--§ 9. The evil spirits.--§ 10. The Arali.--§ 11. The sorcerers.--§ 12. Conjuring and conjurers.--§ 13. The beneficent Spirits, Êa.--§ 14. Meridug.--§ 15. A charm against an evil spell.--§ 16. Diseases considered as evil demons.--§ 17. Talismans. _The Kerubim._--§ 18. More talismans.--§ 19. The demon of the South-West Wind.--§ 20. The first gods.--§ 21. _Ud_, the Sun.--§ 22. _Nin dar_, the nightly Sun.--§ 23. _Gibil_, Fire.--§ 24. Dawn of moral consciousness.--§ 25. Man's Conscience divinized.--§§ 26-28. Penitential Psalms.--§ 29. General character of Turanian religions.

APPENDIX TO CHAPTER III. 181-183

Professor L. Dyer's poetical version of the Incantation against the Seven Maskim.

IV.

CUSHITES AND SEMITES--EARLY CHALDEAN HISTORY 184-228

§ 1. Oannes.--§ 2. Were the second settlers Cushites or Semites?--§ 3. Cushite hypothesis. Earliest migrations.--§ 4. The Ethiopians and the Egyptians.--§ 5. The Canaanites.--§ 6. Possible Cushite station on the islets of the Persian Gulf.--§ 7. Colonization of Chaldea possibly by Cushites.--§ 8. Vagueness of very ancient chronology.--§ 9. Early dates.--§ 10. Exorbitant figures of Berosus.--§ 11. Early Chaldea--a nursery of nations.--§ 12. Nomadic Semitic tribes.--§ 13. The tribe of Arphaxad.--§ 14. Ur of the Chaldees.--§ 15. Scholars divided between the Cushite and Semitic theories.--§ 16. History commences with Semitic culture.--§ 17. Priestly rule. The _patesis_.--§§ 18-19. Sharrukin I. (Sargon I) of Agadê.--§§ 20-21. The second Sargon's literary labors.--§§ 22-23. Chaldean folk-lore, maxims and songs.--§ 24. Discovery of the elder Sargon's date--3800 B.C.--§ 25. Gudêa of Sir-gulla and Ur-êa of Ur.--§ 26. Predominance of Shumir. Ur-êa and his son Dungi first kings of "Shumir and Accad."--§ 27. Their inscriptions and buildings. The Elamite invasion.--§ 28. Elam.--§§ 29-31. Khudur-Lagamar and Abraham.--§ 32. Hardness of the Elamite rule.--§ 33. Rise of Babylon.--§ 34. Hammurabi.--§ 35. Invasion of the Kasshi.

V.

BABYLONIAN RELIGION 229-257

§ 1. Babylonian calendar.--§ 2. Astronomy conducive to religious feeling.--§ 3. Sabeism.--§ 4. Priestcraft and astrology.--§ 5. Transformation of the old religion.--§ 6. Vague dawning of the monotheistic idea. Divine emanations.--§ 7. The Supreme Triad.--§ 8. The Second Triad.--§ 9. The five Planetary deities.--§§ 10-11. Duality of nature. Masculine and feminine principles. The goddesses.--§ 12. The twelve Great Gods and their Temples.--§ 13. The temple of Shamash at Sippar and Mr. Rassam's discovery.--§ 14. Survival of the old Turanian superstitions.--§ 15. Divination, a branch of Chaldean "Science."--§§ 16-17. Collection of one hundred tablets on divination. Specimens.--§ 18. The three classes of "wise men." "Chaldeans," in later times, a by-word for "magician," and "astrologer."--§ 19. Our inheritance from the Chaldeans: the sun-dial, the week, the calendar, the Sabbath.

VI.

LEGENDS AND STORIES 258-293

§ 1. The Cosmogonies of different nations.--§ 2. The antiquity of the Sacred Books of Babylonia.--§ 3. The legend of Oannes, told by Berosus. Discovery, by Geo. Smith, of the Creation Tablets and the Deluge Tablet.--§§ 4-5. Chaldean account of the Creation.--§ 6. The Cylinder with the human couple, tree and serpent.--§ 7. Berosus' account of the creation.--§ 8. The Sacred Tree. Sacredness of the Symbol.--§ 9. Signification of the Tree-Symbol. The Cosmic Tree.--§ 10. Connection of the Tree-Symbol and of Ziggurats with the legend of Paradise.--§ 11. The Ziggurat of Borsippa.--§ 12. It is identified with the Tower of Babel.--§§ 13-14. Peculiar Orientation of the Ziggurats.--§ 15. Traces of legends about a sacred grove or garden.--§ 16. Mummu-Tiamat, the enemy of the gods. Battle of Bel and Tiamat.--§ 17. The Rebellion of the seven evil spirits, originally messengers of the gods.--§ 18. The great Tower and the Confusion of Tongues.

VII.

MYTHS.--HEROES AND THE MYTHICAL EPOS 294-330

§ 1. Definition of the word Myth.--§ 2. The Heroes.--§ 3. The Heroic Ages and Heroic Myths. The National Epos.--§ 4. The oldest known Epic.--§ 5. Berosus' account of the Flood.--§ 6. Geo. Smith's discovery of the original Chaldean narrative.--§ 7. The Epic divided into books or Tablets.--§ 8. Izdubar the Hero of the Epic.--§ 9. Erech's humiliation under the Elamite Conquest. Izdubar's dream.--§ 10. Êabâni the Seer. Izdubar's invitation and promises to him.--§ 11. Message sent to Êabâni by Ishtar's handmaidens. His arrival at Erech.--§ 12. Izdubar and Êabâni's victory over the tyrant Khumbaba.--§ 13. Ishtar's love message. Her rejection and wrath. The two friends' victory over the Bull sent by her.--§ 14. Ishtar's vengeance. Izdubar's journey to the Mouth of the Rivers.--§ 15. Izdubar sails the Waters of Death and is healed by his immortal ancestor Hâsisadra.--§ 16. Izdubar's return to Erech and lament over Êabâni. The seer is translated among the gods.--§ 17. The Deluge narrative in the Eleventh Tablet of the Izdubar Epic.--§§ 18-21. Mythic and solar character of the Epic analyzed.--§ 22. Sun-Myth of the Beautiful Youth, his early death and resurrection.--§§ 23-24. Dumuzi-Tammuz, the husband of Ishtar. The festival of Dumuzi in June.--§ 25. Ishtar's Descent to the Land of the Dead.--§ 26. Universality of the Solar and Chthonic Myths.

VIII.

RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY.--IDOLATRY AND ANTHROPOMORPHISM.--THE CHALDEAN LEGENDS AND THE BOOK OF GENESIS.--RETROSPECT 331-336

§ 1. Definition of Mythology and Religion, as distinct from each other.--§§ 2-3. Instances of pure religious feeling in the poetry of Shumir and Accad.--§ 4. Religion often stifled by Mythology.--§§ 5-6. The conception of the immortality of the soul suggested by the sun's career.--§ 7. This expressed in the Solar and Chthonic Myths.--§ 8. Idolatry.--§ 9. The Hebrews, originally polytheists and idolators, reclaimed by their leaders to Monotheism.--§ 10. Their intercourse with the tribes of Canaan conducive to relapses.--§ 11. Intermarriage severely forbidden for this reason.--§ 12. Striking similarity between the Book of Genesis and the ancient Chaldean legends.--§ 13. Parallel between the two accounts of the creation.--§ 14. Anthropomorphism, different from polytheism and idolatry, but conducive to both.--§§ 15-17. Parallel continued.--§§ 18-19. Retrospect.

PRINCIPAL WORKS READ OR CONSULTED IN THE PREPARATION OF THIS VOLUME.

BAER, Wilhelm. DER VORGESCHICHTLICHE MENSCH. 1 vol., Leipzig: 1874.

BAUDISSIN, W. von. STUDIEN ZUR SEMITISCHEN RELIGIONSGESCHICHTE. 2 vols.

BUDGE, E. A. Wallis. BABYLONIAN LIFE AND HISTORY. ("Bypaths of Bible Knowledge" Series, V.) 1884. London: The Religious Tract Society. 1 vol.

---- HISTORY OF ESARHADDON. 1 vol.

BUNSEN, Chr. Carl Jos. GOTT IN DER GESCHICHTE, oder Der Fortschritt des Glaubens an eine sittliche Weltordnung. 3 vols. Leipzig: 1857.

CASTREN, Alexander. KLEINERE SCHRIFTEN. St. Petersburg: 1862. 1 vol.

CORY. ANCIENT FRAGMENTS. London: 1876. 1 vol.

DELITZSCH, Dr. Friedrich. WO LAG DAS PARADIES? eine Biblisch-Assyriologische Studie. Leipzig: 1881. 1 vol.

---- DIE SPRACHE DER KOSSÄER. Leipzig: 1885 (or 1884?). 1 vol.

DUNCKER, Max. GESCHICHTE DES ALTERTHUMS. Leipzig: 1878. Vol. 1st.

FERGUSSON, James. PALACES OF NINEVEH AND PERSEPOLIS RESTORED. 1 vol.

HAPPEL, Julius. DIE ALTCHINESISCHE REICHSRELIGION, vom Standpunkte der Vergleichenden Religionsgeschichte. 46 pages, Leipzig: 1882.

HAUPT, Paul. DER KEILINSCHRIFTLICHE SINTFLUTBERICHT, eine Episode des Babylonischen Nimrodepos. 36 pages. Göttingen: 1881.

HOMMEL, Dr. Fritz. GESCHICHTE BABYLONIENS UND ASSYRIENS (first instalment, 160 pp., 1885; and second instalment, 160 pp., 1886). (Allgemeine Geschichte in einzelnen Darstellungen, Abtheilung 95 und 117.)

---- DIE VORSEMITISCHEN KULTUREN IN ÆGYPTEN UND BABYLONIEN. Leipzig: 1882 and 1883.

LAYARD, Austen H. DISCOVERIES AMONG THE RUINS OF NINEVEH AND BABYLON. (American Edition.) New York: 1853. 1 vol.

---- NINEVEH AND ITS REMAINS. London: 1849. 2 vols.

LENORMANT, François. LES PREMIÈRES CIVILISATIONS. Êtudes d'Histoire et d'Archéologie. 1874. Paris: Maisonneuve et Cie. 2 vols.

---- LES ORIGINES DE L'HISTOIRE, d'après la Bible et les Traditions des Peuples Orientaux. Paris: Maisonneuve et Cie. 3 vol. 1er vol. 1880; 2e vol. 1882; 3e vol. 1884.

---- LA GENÈSE. Traduction d'après l'Hébreu. Paris: 1883. 1 vol.

---- DIE MAGIE UND WAHRSAGEKUNST DER CHALDÄER. Jena, 1878. 1 vol.

---- IL MITO DI ADONE-TAMMUZ nei Documenti cuneiformi. 32 pages. Firenze: 1879.

---- SUR LE NOM DE TAMMOUZ. (Extrait des Mémoires du Congrès international des Orientalistes.) 17 pages. Paris: 1873.

---- A MANUAL OF THE ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE EAST. Translated by E. Chevallier. American Edition. Philadelphia: 1871. 2 vols.

LOFTUS. CHALDEA AND SUSIANA. 1 vol. London: 1857.

LOTZ, Guilelmus. QUÆSTIONES DE HISTORIA SABBATI. Lipsiae: 1883.

MAURY, Alfred L. F. LA MAGIE ET L'ASTROLOGIE dans l'antiquité et en Moyen Age. Paris: 1877. 1 vol. Quatrième édition.

MASPERO, G. HISTOIRE ANCIENNE DES PEUPLES DE L'ORIENT. 3e édition, 1878. Paris: Hachette & Cie. 1 vol.

MÉNANT, Joachim. LA BIBLIOTHÈQUE DU PALAIS DE NINIVE. 1 vol. (Bibliothèque Orientale Elzévirienne.) Paris: 1880.

MEYER, Eduard. GESCHICHTE DES ALTERTHUMS. Stuttgart: 1884. Vol. 1st.

MÜLLER, Max. LECTURES ON THE SCIENCE OF LANGUAGE. 2 vols. American edition. New York: 1875.

MÜRDTER, F. KURZGEFASSTE GESCHICHTE BABYLONIENS UND ASSYRIENS, mit besonderer Berücksichtigung des Alten Testaments. Mit Vorwort und Beigaben von Friedrich Delitzsch. Stuttgart: 1882. 1 vol.

OPPERT, Jules. L'IMMORTALITÉ DE L'AME CHEZ LES CHALDÉENS. 28 pages. (Extrait des Annales de Philosophie Chrètienne, 1874.) Perrot et Chipiez.

QUATREFAGES, A. de. L'ESPÈCE HUMAINE. Sixième edition. 1 vol. Paris: 1880.

RAWLINSON, George. THE FIVE GREAT MONARCHIES OF THE ANCIENT EASTERN WORLD. London: 1865. 1st and 2d vols.

RECORDS OF THE PAST. Published under the sanction of the Society of Biblical Archæology. Volumes I. III. V. VII. IX. XI.

SAYCE, A. H. FRESH LIGHT FROM ANCIENT MONUMENTS. ("By-Paths of Bible Knowledge" Series, II.) 3d edition, 1885. London: 1 vol.

---- THE ANCIENT EMPIRES OF THE EAST. 1 vol. London, 1884.

---- BABYLONIAN LITERATURE. 1 vol. London, 1884.

SCHRADER, Eberhard. KEILINSCHRIFTEN und Geschichtsforschung. Giessen: 1878. 1 vol.

---- DIE KEILINSCHRIFTEN und das Alte Testament. Giessen: 1883. 1 vol.

---- ISTAR'S HÖLLENFAHRT. 1 vol. Giessen: 1874.

---- ZUR FRAGE NACH DEM URSPRUNG DER ALTBABYLONISCHEN KULTUR. Berlin: 1884.

SMITH, George. ASSYRIA from the Earliest Times to the Fall of Nineveh. ("Ancient History from the Monuments" Series.) London: 1 vol.

TYLOR, Edward B. PRIMITIVE CULTURE. Second American Edition. 2 vols. New York: 1877.

ZIMMERN, Heinrich. BABYLONISCHE BUSSPSALMEN, umschrieben, übersetzt und erklärt. 17 pages, 4to. Leipzig: 1885.

Numerous Essays by Sir Henry Rawlinson, Friedr. Delitzsch, E. Schrader and others, in Mr. Geo. Rawlinson's translation of Herodotus, in the Calwer Bibellexikon, and in various periodicals, such as "Proceedings" and "Transactions" of the "Society of Biblical Archæology," "Jahrbücher für Protestantische Theologie," "Zeitschrift für Keilschriftforschung," "Gazette Archéologique," and others.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.