Chaldea: From the Earliest Times to the Rise of Assyria

Part 1

CHALDEA

From the Earliest Times to the Rise of Assyria

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

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.

Part 2

CHALDEA.

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.

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.

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