ORIENTAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE LIBRARY ACCESSION Ho. $ s- ^-.cA CAli No. 2»>\ » X1^^^^^3)^ SRI VENKATISWARA UNIVERSITY TIRUPATI CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS LONDON : Fetter Lane NEW YORK The Macraillan Co. BOMBAY, CALCUTTA and MADRAS u,Lt:d. The Macmillan, Co. of Canada, Ltd, TOKYO Maruzen-Kabushiki-Kaisha ; All rights te&etved THE CAMBRIDGE ANCIENT HISTORY EDITED BY J. B. BURY, M.A., F.B.A. S. A. COOK, LITT.D. F. E. ADCOCK, M.A. 4448 VOLUME I EGYPT AND BABYLONIA TO 1580 B.C. SECOND EDITION CAMBRIDGE AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS 1928 FIRST EDITION 1923 SECOND EDITION 1924 .J REPRINTED 1928 |fi!W^l>r* V&M8Y 4 v ~ '••- «'•*"" 3PJRINTEI) IN GREAT BRITAIN PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION Cambridge Ancient History is designed as the first part JL of a continuous history of European peoples. The last part, the Cambridge Modern History^ has long since been complete, and the middle section, the Cambridge Medieval History^ is in course of publication, Starting with the remote and dim beginnings, upoh which some new rays of light fall every year, the Ancient History will go down to the victory of Constantine the Great in A»D. 324, the point at which the Medieval lakes up the story, -The history of Europe begins outside Europe* Its civilization is so deeply indebted to the older civilizations of Egypt and south-western Asia that for the study of its growth the early history of those lands is more important than the barbarous life which Celts, Germans, and others lived within the limits of Europe* Europeans, who wish to follow the history of their own development from its origins, must first of all become acquainted with the civilizations of Egyptian, Sumerian, Hittite, Semitic and other peoples of north-eastern Africa and south-western Asia, and therefore our first volume is concerned mainly with these peoples, Behind the civilizations of Babylon and Egypt lies a vast and still little known tract of time during which man was gradually toiling up towards that relatively high stage of civilization he had reached when he first appears to us in his written records* The discoveries which have rewarded the geologists, geographers, *md anthropologists of the last few decades have made it feasible to attempt a reconstruction of the story of man in Europe and its environs throughout those prehistoric millenniums. The story of the land-masses prior to the formation of the present con- tinental system can in some measure be written down and its significance apprehended. It is not out of place to recall -that the written history of one of the peoples of Palestine, which represents only the unscientific ideas of an Dearly age, was up to very recent 1|mes thought by learned tfaejx to furnish an authentic account of the beginnings of the earth and the 'human race, £ To-day a large though scattered mass of geological and archado^ logical facts supplies us with a little genuine knowledge p^Sit our ancestors were doing and making at a time wheii; ift£a and water and climate differed appreciably from what th^^te how, a time long anterior to that once commonly thougfit to be the date VI PREFACE of the creation of the universe itself. To ignore what is now known, little as it is and precarious as it may be, about palae^- lithic and early neolithic man, would be indefensible in a work which aims at explaining how Europe came to be what it is to-day. The activities of the palaeolithic age have helped to build modern Europe, and its effects persist; individuals of 'Ami- gnacian' descent, physically true to type, are among us stilL The first two chapters of this volume, by Professor Myres, show how the story of primitive man may be read by his latest descendants, and how the darkness before the 'dawn of history* may be illuminated by a brilliant interpreter. Chapter m, on the history of Exploration and Excavation, is designed to give the reader some notion of the arduous, qjid some- times romantic, work of a century which has revolutionized cmr knowledge of the Near East, In an account, necessarily brief, of archaeological discoveries in Egypt, Mesopotamia, Syria, the Hittite and Aegean areas, and Cyprus, the writer, Professor Macalister, shows how archaeological data have been classified and interrogated, and how unknown scripts have been deciphered and forgotten languages recovered. It seemed desirable to state the fundamental chronological problems which face the historian in regard to the early history of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Palestine, and Greece; to show how archaeological and historical evidence have been co-ordinated; and in the case of conflicting systems of chronology to explain which has been adopted and why. Chapter iv will help the reader who is not familiar with prehistoric research to understand how it has been possible to frame a definite chronological scheme, especially when the data, as in the case of Crete, are purely archaeological, Thus the first four chapters are preliminary. In chapter v Dr S. A* Cook gives a general account of the Semitic area, famous as a stepping-stone between three continents and as the home of three great religions. This chapter is a prelude to the later history of the Semites* It describes generally the mind of the Semite as revealed in his beliefs and practices, in his history and his treat- ment of history, while it tells what is known about the early history of Syria and Palestine down to the close of the Hyks ix), while the his- torical events, and the historical sources, the administration and PREFACE vn the social conditions., of these two kingdoms, are dealt with by Dr H, R. Hall (chapters vn and vm). Three chapters (x to xn) on the earlier period of Babylonian history, by Professor Langdon, include an account of the interest- ing culture of ancient Susa and a discussion of the problem of the Sumerian invaders, and portray the history of the notable con- querors Sargon and Naram-Sin, in what may be called the Golden Age of the Sumerians. Mr Campbell Thompson (chapters xin to xv) continues the story, and also contributes a full description of the Golden Age of the Semitic Babylonians — the age of Hammurabi and his Code of Laws, the discovery of which (in the winter of 1901—2) threw a brilliant light on the character of society in that part of the Near East, four thousand years ago. * Ifi the chapter (xvi) on early Egyptian and Babylonian Art Dr HalPs wide knowledge of ancient art and his familiarity with the collections in the British Museum have enabled him to illustrate the aesthetic temperaments of the peoples concerned, to discriminate the periods of artistic freshness and decline, and to throw light on the difficult problems of borrowing and foreign influence. The Editors regret that it was impossible to provide illustrative plates without unduly increasing the price of the volume; but in the Bibliography to this chapter the reader will find references to illustrated books. Finally, Mr Wace has contributed the chapter on the early civilization of Aegean lands. Thirty years ago the chapter would have been a blank, because there was absolutely nothing to say. One of the finest triumphs of archaeological research has Jbeen the discovery in Crete of a wonderful and unsxispected civilization in contact with Egypt and Asia. This ancient meeting of ea$ft and west offers problems which unite the classical and the Sepiitic scholar, the Egyptologist and the student of 'Bible-lands/ \ Our first volume, then, while it contains a survey of the &arly history of a large network of inter-related lands, down to the occupation of Egypt by the Hyksos and of Babylonia by the Kassites (events which may perhaps be associated with sweeping movements in Indo-European lands to the north), may also be Regarded as a general introduction to those that will follow it. In the next volume a new age opens up, an age characterized by what we may perhaps call internationalism : Greeks whose names were well remembered in Greek records will come upon the $tage and the curtain will rise upon Old Testament history. Any exposition of the history of early ages down to 3000 years ago and even beyond, must be in a very hig|i degree provisional* viii PREFACE This is due to the fortunate circumstance that new evidence is continually and rapidly accumulating- Conclusions historians draw to-day from the records at their disposal about Babylonia", Egypt, Asia Minor, and the Aegean may be upset, corrected, amplified, or transformed by a new discovery to-morrow. Since the writing of this volume was begun, writers who had completed their contributions have seen cause to change some of their state- ments in the light of new evidence which happened to be revealed in the meantime. Obviously there is a limit to this and experts must not expect to find a reference in every case to the npwyettes de Ijt^derniere heure* Even as we are writing, Sir Arthur El^ans publishes the news that his latest excavations at Cnossus (the spring of 1922) have disclosed the fact that the end of the second phase of the c Middle Minoan ' civilization was due to lin efrtih- quake. We may note that this disaster was not contempor- aneous with the volcanic eruption which wrought ruin in Them and Therasia (see below, p. 603) 1. The appearance of some new evidence, to enable us to decide finally between conflicting views of the chronologies of Egypt and Babylonia, is much to be desired. In accordance with the opinion of the great majority of scholars we have adopted the * shorter' dates (see chapter iv, i, iii). It is desirable to impress upon the reader that the precision with which the dates are assigned is based partly upon ancient lists and computations assumed to be tmstworthy, but partly also upon modern calcula- tions of a few crucial dates as to which there is no definite unanimity. The date adopted here for Hammurabi is not accepted by some high authorities. And as to Egypt, Dr Hall is unable to accept the view of Professor E. Meyer and other historians who follow him, that the Xllth Dynasty ended in 1788 B.C*; and he puts back the date by more than two centuries. This view affects both the earlier Egyptian dates and the chronology of the early Aegean periods which depend on Egyptian synchronisms* 'Early Minoan HI/ which the latest investigations of Sir Arthur Evans have shown to extend from the Vlth to the Xlth Dynasty,, is on our chronological scheme 200 years earlier than it is on the scheme which he has adopted. See pp. 173, 656 syy, In a co-operative work of this kind, no editorial pains coma avoid a certain measure of overlapping; and in fields, where there * Weidner's recent discussion of Sargon's expedition to the west, and of the oldest historical relations between Babylonia and the Hittite area, may- be mentioned as another example of the progressive character of studies in this field (see p. 647, 6). PREFACE IX Is so much uncertainty and such wide room for divergencies of Xiews? as in the first two volumes, overlapping must mean that occasionally different writers will express or imply different opinions. It has not been thought desirable to attempt to eliminate these differences, though they are often indicated or discussed. Such inconsistencies may sometimes be a little inconvenient for the reader's peace of mind, but it is better that he should learn to take them as characteristic of the ground over which he is being guided than that he should be misled by a dogmatic con- sistency into accepting one view as authoritative and final. It will easily be understood that it is not possible to give chapter and verse for every statement or detailed arguments for every opinion, but it is hoped that the work will be found service- able to professional students as well as to the general reader. The general reader is constantly kept in view throughout, and our aim is to steer a middle course between the opposite dangers, a work which only the expert could read or understand and one so * popular' that serious students would rightly regard it with indifference. In this connexion, the problem of transliterating occurs, and a quite satisfactory solution has not been found. Conventional and accepted spellings have been retained, but where usage varies the more correct are used (for Instance Mohammed, Nebuchad- rezzar), For classical Greek names the Latin forms are adopted (as in the yournal of Hellenic Studies). In regard to oriental names, we have thought it reasonable to assume that general readers are indifferent to what experts know; and experts do not always agree as to the precise spelling. We have followed generally Breasted, Hall, and King, and the Encyclopaedia Biblica, but attention has been paid to the lists drawn up by the Royal Geographical Society, and to the transliteration of Arabic recom- mended by the British Academy (vol. vm). The difficulty of transliterating unvocalized Egyptian names and of Interpreting names in cuneiform is commented on below (pp. 119, 126), Some modern technical transliterations are as formidable-looking as the hieroglyphs themselves. In Egyptian and in the other languages «}h is adopted instead of s or the like; s for £, ts, etc.; k for q, etc.; and kh for the harder guttural fc, &. But Hatti and Habiru haye been written because *Hittite* and * Hebrew* are so familiar; a$d Hammurabi is now well enough known to dispense even ^ith a diacritical point. Names when they first occur are sometimes written with their proper vowel-lengths, etc.; but as a rule dia- critical marks have been avoided (although :, Kaahshi may be x PREFACE thought clumsier than Kassi), and more or less conventional spellings (e.g. Ashur) have been freely employed. On the? other hand, an attempt is made in the Index to register some of the more correct spellings which for one reason or another deserve attention, but could not be introduced into the text without making it unduly technical1, We wish to express our indebtedness to contributors for their readiness in carrying out editorial suggestions, in avoiding archaeological and other technicalities and in restricting the use of footnotes; for advice on questions of transliteration and on other difficult questions which arose from time to time; and foFthe preparation of the bibliographies and the lists of kings, Mr Wace is indebted to Sir Arthur Evans for his kindness in reading the chapter on the Aegean and Early Greece,, imcr the Aegean section of the chapter on Chronology. Professor Myres wishes to express obligations to Professor H. J. Fleure, to Mr Harold Peake, F.S.A., and to Mr L. H, D. Burton. Dr Cook wishes to thank Dr H. R. Hall, Professor Kennett and Dr Nicholson for help in revising chapter v. He is particularly indebted to Professor A. A. Bevan, who read two proofs, and made many valuable criticisms and suggestions. But for the views put forward in that chapter the writer has sole responsibility. Special thanks are due to Professor Myres for the Table facing p. 660, and for the preparation of Maps i— 6* For permission to use Maps 7, 8 and 1 1 we are indebted to the publishers of the Encyclopaedia Biblica^ Messrs A. & C, Black; to Messrs Chatto & Windus for Maps 9 and 10 (from the first and second volumes of the late Dr Leonard W. King's A History of Babylonia and Assyria from Prehistoric Times to the Persian Conquesi)\ and to Messrs Methuen & Co. for the plan of Babylon on p. 504 (from Dr H. R, Hall's The Ancient History of the Near East from the Earliest Times to the Battle of Salamis)* The index has been made by Mr W. E. C, Browne, M.A., former scholar of Ernmamiel College. The design on the outside cover represents Hammurabi, king of Babylonia, and is from the head of the stone monument on which is inscribed the famous code now known after his namdt on the original he is depicted standing in the conventional attitude of adoration before the sun-god, Shamashu, the god of righteousness and justice* J. B- B, 8. A. C. F, E. A. * See the letters a, c, d, g, h> j, k, q, s, t and z in the Index. PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION ^ ||" ^HE demand for a new edition of the first volume of the JL Cambridge Ancient History has come much sooner than the Editors ventured to anticipate, and they have not been able to do more than make some corrections and modifications which could be effected without disturbing the paging* TSe remarks which they made at the top of page viii of the Preface have been amply justified since the volume was first sent to press. j[n Egypt, the Aegean, Babylonia, Palestine and Syria, excavations have continued and interesting discoveries have been made. At Byblus, for instance, new information has been gained touching the extensive relations between Egypt and Phoenicia during the Middle Kingdom (see below, p. a 2 6), The successful diggings at el-'Obeid and Kish have supplied archaeological and historical data, of which the bearing on the period covered in this volume cannot yet be justly estimated. We may point to Mr C. L. Woolley's report (The Times^ Jan. 19, 1924) of a monu- ment of A-an-ni-pad-da, son of Mes-an-ni-pad-da (on whom see below, p. 367), and Professor Langdon's addition to the kings of Kish (tb. Jan. 22, 1924). But the information which is thus being accumulated must be submitted to a careful criticism, and that takes time, as experience shows that the full significance of fresh material cannot be evaluated at once. This is especially true of the problems of chronology, which for the early Sumerian period have assumed a new aspect through Professor Langdon's publi- cation of a very important list of the early kings. Although, with the ever-present prospect of other historical inscriptions coming to light, we cannot treat this document as decisive, yet, as its im- portance is unquestionable, it seemed desirable that some account of it should be given in this edition, and on page xiii sq* will be found a statement drawn up on the basis of Professor Langdon's publication and of some notes which he has kindly sxijpplied. A fly-sheet containing all the more important corrections and additions to this volume will also be issued separately with volume ii. Some reviewers made the justifiable criticism on volume i that it suffered from the absence of illustrations. The Editors are glad to be able to state that the Syndics of the University Press have Xll agreed to publish a volume of plates which, it is hoped, will appear in the course of I fit,, It remains for the Editors to express their cordial thanks to the contributors for help in the preparation of the new edition, particularly to Mr A, J, B.Iace in the account of excavations in the Aegean (Chap, in Section vi), and to Mr Campbell Thompson for the translation of the Kassite names thich is given on p. xv. JIB, SIC, Fl'i NOTE ON THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EARLY SUMERO-BABYLONIAN PERIOD PROFESSOR LANGDON has recently published an important inscription, part of the Weld- Blundell collection1 in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. It is a large prism with eight columns of closely-written chronological material which gives the entire Sumerian lists of dynasties before and after the Flood to the end of the Isin dynasty in 2076 B.C. A small tablet in the same collection contains the names of the ten kings who reigned before the Flood, for which period it gives 456,000 years. The dynastic prism aas only eight kings before the Flood and assigns to them a duration of 241,200 years. Other important dynastic lists in fragmentary condition have been found in the Nippur Collection. These agree with the Oxford prism in giving twenty dynasties from t&e Fld%d to the Isin dynasty inclusive, and 125 kings. The first dynasty reigned at Kish (p. 365, 1. 18 from end). It included 23 kings, who are said to have reigned 24,510 years, 3 months and 3^ days. The figure recalls the 'World-year' of 25,920 years, the approximate period of the sun's apparent revolution through the twelve signs of the zodiac; but it is unlikely that the precession of the equinoxes was known even in the age of the most advanced Babylonian astronomical knowledge (Langdon, op, tit* p. 3, n. 6, cf. Kugler, Stsrnkunde und Sterndienst in Babel, u, 24—32). The longest and shortest reigns of this dynasty are 1500 and 140 years respectively; the names differ somewhat from the list on p. 665, and the name of Zukakipu (the 'scorpion') is replaced by Daggagib. The first dynasty of Erech (p. 366) counted twelve kings, reigning 2310 years. The name of the second king of the dynasty of Ur (p. 367, 1. 19) may preferably be read Meskem-Nannar. The dynasty of Awan (the identification with Awa& should be omitted on pp. 366, L 21 sf.9 438, L 14, from end) had three kings ruling 3 56 years. The details on p. 367 (lower half of the page) are considerably affected by the new prism. A list of seven kingdoms now intervenes between the semi-historic period and the northern Semitic kingdom of Akshak. The second dynasty at Kish, which succeeded that at Awan, may be placed about 3700 B.C.; to its eight kings the prism assigns 3195 years. The next dynasty ruled at Kharnazi and its king Khadanish is said to have ruled 360 or 420 years, the figures are presumably errors for six: or seven years* The sovereignty then returns to Erech in the south (c* 3400 B*C.), where the name of only one king, Enugduanna, is known. It is probable that the names of Lugalkigubnilakh and Lugalkisalsi are to be inserted here. After this second kingdom of Erech we reach the second kingdom of Ur, where four kings ruled 1 08 years. The capital now shifts to Adab for a period of 90 years, and then far to the north at Maer, where a dynasty of six kings (Ansir, [Lugaltar]zi, the rest are mutilated) reigned 136 years. It seems evident from the texts that the two succeeding kingdoms of Kish (the third) and Akshak were contemporary. If, therefore, we may follow the new source, it may be computed that these djpiasties were founded about 2967—6 B.C., in which case the first approximately fixed date in Sumero-Babylonian history will have to be placed more than 200 year* lower than that given on p. 367, L 4 from end. Moreover, it would now seem that the old third dynasty of Kish disappears (sec p. 667 [8], and n. 4); the two kings Urzaged and Lugal-tarsi belong to the second dynasty of Erech, and Mesilim possibly to the Awan dynasty (Langdpn, opf cit. 1 Oxford Editions of Cuneiform Texts, n. The Weld~$lundett collections, vol. ki. Historical inscriptions, containing principally the chronological prism, W-B 444. Oxford, 1923. C.A.H.I. xiv CHRONOLOGY OF SUMERO-BABYLONIAN PERIOD p. 6 /f.). The first kings of ELish of whom we have contemporary records apparently belonged to other kingdoms, and claim the title because of its dignity. Oa p. 3^3,^ L 9 jf. read: who followed the second kingdom at Kish and the brief dynasty of Khamazi (r. 3400). The third (not/0«r/j£) dynasty of Kish was founded by Kug-Bau, as the name should now be read instead of Azag-Bati (p. 370 last par., and 1. 7 from end). Ur-Nina was contemporary with the rulers of Maer, not Akshak (p. 379, L 14 from end). On p. 380, 11. 9—o? omit the words: convincing evidence. * * dynasty, and ib. 1. 6 from end, for Uruazagga the better reading now is Uru-kugga, Rimush (p. 408, L 19 from end), according to the Oxford prism, reigned nine years. Manishtusu was his elder brother (p. 409, L 21 Jf.). Naram-Sitx was his son (contrast /^,), although Babylonian tradition calls him son of Sargon (p. 4r^foot)1. For 22 read 24 (/<£.last line); and note that the prism gives a much lower figure for his reign — probably 38 years (p. 413, L 6). The fifth dynasty of Erech contains only one king, Utukhegal, to whom is ascribed a reign of 7 years, 2 months and 7 days (p. 434, last par.). T o Dungi^p. 43^, L 6) is ascribed a reign of 47 (not 58) years, and Langdon reduces all the figures in his reign (11. 4—18, and also p. 456, 1. 21 from end) by eleven. The length of the reign of Bur-Sin (p. 4575 L 20) is given as nine (not « but he definitely rejects the much lower dates for the dynasty which are held by Weidner (viz. 2057, see p. 672, xu i) and Kugler (viz. 2049), Langdon maintains the date 2357 for the beginning of the dynasty of Isin (pp* 471, 672); but, besides the modification of the earliest approximately fixed date (viz. 2967—6, see above), other important changes are suggested arising out of the Oxford prism. Thus, the Maer-Akshak-Kish domination (p. 373^ L 14) may be dated 3 103-2777, For the Kug-Bau dynasty (/£„ L 7) he suggests 2967-2873, and a similar reduction of about 120 years becomes necessary on p, 378, L 12 (viz. 2967-2873)* So the date of Sargon becomes 2752 (pp. 368, L 16 from end, 403, 1. 8). Lugal-zaggisi begins to reign in 2777 (pp. 39 5, L 21, 402, L %), The fourth dynasty of Erech Is dated 2571-2542 (p, 423, L 9), and that of Gutium becomes 2541-2416 (pp. 423 f$.9 670). Ur-Bau's date is 2620 (p. 373, L 26). The end of the last dynasty of Ur is fixed at 2328 (p. 377, L 13), and Dungi and Bursin are dated respectively 2391 and 2345 B.C. ,(pp, 437, 1 5, 457, L 19), These dates indicate the complexity of the chronological problems, and the difficulty of obtaining conclusive results, owing to the serious differences among tfce ancient souf ces themselves and the frequently very intricate character of the astro- nomical and other questions. They are not to be regarded as final, but it seemed desirable that a general statement of the evidence published by Prof* Langdon should be made accessible in this edition. 1 Prof. Lang-don adds that Sargfon claims to have collected ships from Melukhkha, Magan and Diknun at the quay of Agade (addition to p, 404, L 14), ON i i ^ i ring is a translation of the Babylonian renderings of the names of tie twenty-one kings, diiefly Kassites, mentioned on p, ^ of volume i; 'J) "Traeiin" 'Offspring of k Lord of Us' 'Servant o or 'Help of Bel " s Jil <( U Protect(ion) of [Stall]11 ion)oftkLordofknJs]' eiiDotieW TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER I PRIMITIVE MAN, IN GEOLOGICAL TIME BY JOHN L. MYRES, O.B.E., M.A., D.Sc., F.S.A. Wykeham Professor of Ancient History, Oxford PAGE I. JUKE SETTING OF THE STAGE i Definition of History I Nature and Man ..»,.,.„. 2 IL PRE-GLACIAL GEOGRAPHY 3 Theseaof 'Tethys* 4 Tertiary mountain-building 6 Crust movements ..,,,.... 8 Beginning of the Mediterranean * 9 Tertiary flora and fauna . . , . . . . . r I Africa separated from Asia 13 The Highland Zone 14 Relation to the Southern Flatland 16 African fauna , . . . . . . * * 17 III. THE GLACIAL CRISIS 1 8 Effect upon flora and fauna . . . , . . . 19 IV. THE PRINCIPAL HUMAN RACES 21 Mongoloid man »,..»,».. 22 His extension 24 African fauna and African man * . * , * • • 2 5 Sequence of human types 27 The white races , ,..,,.. 28 V. PALAEOLITHIC MAN IN THE SOUTH AND EAST , , * . 31 The Nile Valley ......... 33 Domesticated plants and animals . * , . . * 35 Links between Egypt and Europe 36 Man in Syria and Arabia 37 The Semites 38 Palestine 39 The Euphrates and Mesopotamia ...... 40 V L THE ICE AGE IN THE NEAR EAST ,,..., 42 Conditions in Armenia and Iran .43 VII. THE ICE AGE IN EUROPE 45 Mousterian man ......... 4^ Later types * ... .*..«» 48 Later palaeolithic cultures * S° VIII. THE CLOSE OF THE OLD STONE AGE „ . . • • • 52 The kitchen-middens « . - * , , * , • S3 Swamp and forest in north-west Europe 54 xviii CONTENTS CHAPTER II NEOLITHIC AND BRONZE AGE CULTURES BY J. L. MYRES PAGE L THE HIGHLAND ZONE AND ALPINE MAN « . » . . 57 The forests . 58 Varieties of man .*.»..... 59 Forest culture and polished implements . ... - 63 II. CHARACTERISTICS OF NEOLITHIC CULTURE . 5 5 Inventions ......... $7 Eurasian and Eurafrican cradle-lands . . . ^9 Pottery and pottery styles ....... 70 III. REGIONAL TYPES OF NEOLITHIC CULTURE: ALPINE EUROPE . „ 71 The lake-dwelling 73 IV. REGIONAL TYPES: THE DANUBE BASIN . , . . . 75 Daimbian pottery ......... 77 South-eastern Europe and Asia Minor 79 V. REGIONAL TYPES: THE TRIPOLJE CULTURE . .... 80 VI* TKE CULTURE OF THE NORTH-EASTERN STEPPE . . , . . 82 Waggon-dwelling culture; languages ...... 84 VII* THE CULTURE OF ANAU AND SUSA . , . * . . . 85 Contact with the west 4 88 VIII. THE RE0-WARE CULTURE OF THE NEARER EAST .... 89 The influence of Cyprus and Syria ««*... 90 IX. THE CULTURE OF THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN . * . . 92 Early Aegean culture ..... 93 X. THE CULTURE OF THE WESTERN MEDITERRANEAN AND ITS OFFSHOOTS * 94 'Megalithic* origins . <, * . * » „ * 95 XI. THE CULTURE OF THE BEAKER-FOLK: . , * . . xoo XII. THE COMING OF BRONZE . . . . . „ . .103 Aegean influence . „ . f , . . . .105 XIIL THE HALLSTATT CULTDRE . . . . « . . 106 The horse . . . . * , . * . 107 First appearance of iron . . . . . . . 109 Cremation . . . . . . , . . j to CHAPTER III EXPLORATION AND EXCAVATION BY R. A. STEWART MACALISTER, L,iTT*D.> F.S.A. Professor of Celtic Archaeology, University College, Dublin I. THE RELATION op ARCHAEOLOGY TO HISTORY . . » . . r 1 a Petrie's pottery test . . . . . . . , * XI4 II. EGYPT : (a) Surface exploration , . . . , . .116 (&) Decipherment * . . . . . „ ,117 (c) Excavation , ,120 III. MESOPOTAMIA: (a) Surface exploration . . . „ , , » 122 (ff) Decipherment , . » . , . » • . 123 (r) Excavation . , m , , , ^ ,127 CONTENTS xlx IV* STRIA AND PALESTINE: PAGE (a) Surface exploration. . . . . „ . .130 (<£) Decipherment . . . . . . ...132 ( . . . . . . . .163 General character of the chronology . . „ . . . .165 Table of dates 1 66 III. EGYPTIAN CHRONOLOGY BY H. R. HALL, D.LITT., F.S.A. Keeper of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities, British Museum Direct sources .... ....... 166 Sothic cycle ........... 168 Date of Xllth Dynasty . , 169 Date of Menes . . „ . . . . . . . .171 Institution of the calendar, 4241 B.C. ....... 172 Table of dates 173 IV. PREHISTORIC GREECE BY A. J. B. WACE> M.A. Formerly Fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge j Late Director of the British School of Archaeology, Atb*™ Archaeological periods , ... tyrj Early and Middle Minoan 175 Late Minoan . . . . . . . . , ^ , [76 Greek legend and tradition . . '. . . , *"- , 178 Helladic and Minoan co-ordinations . . , . . ,179 Thessalian periods ..*.., ...180 xx CONTENTS CHAPTER V THE SEMITES BY S. A, COOK PAGE I. PEOPLE, LANGUAGE AND MOVEMENTS . , - . . 1 8 1 Geographical limits . . . . . - - ,182 The * sons7 of Noah: Shem 184 The Semitic languages . . . . . - , .186 The alphabet 189 Migrations and trading movements - „ , . . .190 Semitization of immigrants . . . . . . * ' 192 Influence of Arabia , . .193 II. TEMPERAMENT AND THOUGHT ....... 194 Psychology of the languages . „ . . - .195 Religious characteristics »....- . 197 Polytheism and Monotheism . . . . . . .199 Semitic and non-Semitic thought .*.,.. 203 The extremes of the Semites . . , . , . .205 IIL SOCIAL AND POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT ...... 206 The^W 207 Attitude to the divine powers „ . . , „ . .209 Fundamental ideas , . . , . . . . ,210 Men and the gods , . . . . . . „ .213 The sanctity of kings . . . . . . . .214 Historical vicissitudes , . . , . . . ,216 IV. TREATMENT OF HISTORY- . . . . . . . .2x7 Treatment of tradition . . . . , * . ,219 Attitude to development . . . . . . . .231 The writing of history , . . , . » . ,222 Historical ideas . , . * , * „ . ,223 V. SYRIA AND PALESTINE * .... , . ... . 225 The story of Sin tihe . * , „ . . * ,226 Amor and Mesopotamia . * . . . . . ,230 Amorite gods P . * . . . » . .231 The Hyksos 233 Native Palestinian traditions . , , . » , .234 Genesis, chap, xiv , . . . . . . . .236 Paucity of historical material , . , » ^ . .237 CHAPTER VI EGYPT: THE PREDYNASTIC PERIOD By T. ERIC PEKT, M.A* Professor of Egyptology, Liverpool University L THE EVIDENCE OP THE CEMETERIES „ » . „ , ,238 Predynastic burial .....»»», 239 Predynastic settlements . . , , , . , ,241 Pottery and stone vases .»,.*.*, 243 Physical type, language and religion . - „ „ . 244 CONTENTS XXI PAGE II. JC^iTA FOR HISTORY ......„., 247 Introduction of tlie Calendar ....... 248 Sources for the predynastic period . , * . , .250 Historical slate palettes . . . . . . . .251 Ivory- knife-han die from Gebel el- Arak . „ . . .252 Original home of the predynastic Egyptian . * . . .254 Indications of eastern origin , , . „ . . .255 CHAPTER VII THE UNION OF EGYPT AND THE OLD KINGDOM By H. R, HALL L THE LISTS OF KINGS: DYNASTY I . . . „ . ,257 Sources . . . . . . . , . .258 Infiltration of aliens . . . . . . . . 261 Hamites and Armenoids ........ 262 Kingdoms of the north and south . . . . . .265 Pre~Menic kings ......... 266 The originals of Menes . . . . . . .267 Narmerza .......... 268 The court of Semti ......... 270 The dead and mummification ..,..,. 272 II. DYNASTIES II— IV . . . . . . , , .274 Zos&r and the first pyramid ...»**. 276 The age of Snefru ......... 278 Pyramids of Gizeh. . . . . . . . 28 r Zenith of Egyptian art . . . . . . . .282 Mycerirxus . . , . , * " . , . .282 III. THE CLOSE OF THE OLD KINGDOM . . . . . . .284 The 'son of the Sun-god* 285 Art and religion . . . . . . . . .286 The 'admonitions of Ptahliotep' . , . . . .288 Unis and the pyramid at Sakkarah ... ... 290 Pepi ........... 291 Uni in Palestine ......... 293 Entrance of negroes . . . . . . . .295 The Heracleopolites ........ 297 CHAPTER VIII THE MIDDLE KINGDOM AND THE HYKSOS CONQUEST BY H. K. HALL DYNASTIES XI AND XII ........ 299 Amenemhet I and the god Amon . * . , . 301 The Instructions of Amenemhet . , . , . .303 The story of Sinuhe . . . . . . . 3 04 The works of Senusret (Sesostris) I . . . * , . 305 Relations with Crete . , . . « * . .307 Senusret III, the historical Sesostris . * . ,,, . - 308 Amenemhct III , * , , . , ,r . • . . 309 xxii CONTENTS PAGE II. THE HYKSQS , 310 North Syrian movements . . . . . - . . 3 F2 Yekeb-hal, Khian and other kings . . . . . - 3 1 3 Expulsion of the Hyksos . . . . - « « 3r4 III. THE INTERNAL CONDITIONS OF THE AGE . . . - • .315 Life of the people 3*7 Officials and soldiers . . . . . » - 3 * & Tombs and religion . . . . . . • .321 The priesthood 323 Religious literature . . . - . . . . .324 A Messianic prophecy . . . . . . . ,325 CHAPTER IX LIFE AND THOUGHT IN EGYPT UNDER THE OLD AND MIDDLE KINGDOMS BY T. E. PEET General Egyptian character - , * • . . . * ,326 I. THE ARCHAIC 3PERIOD AND THE OLD KlNGDOM , . . . .328 Local and solar cults „ . . . . . . 329 Osiris - . . . . . , . . . -S3^ The^ 334 The tomb, death, and the hereafter . . . * * -33^ II. THE EARLIER INTERMEDIATE PERIOD, VllTH TO Xril DYNASTIES . . 340 Language and writing . . . » . . . .341 Early literature . . . . . . . , » 343 Pessimism . . . . . , , . * * 345 III. THE MIDDLE KINGDOM . . . . . , . ,346 Moral standards . . . . . . . . .347 'Story of the Eloquent Peasant' 349 Coffin Texts . „ * 351 Belief in a judgment . . .*. , . » »353 Hfke, rnagic and morality. . . . . „ . 354 CHAPTER X EARLY BABYLONIA AND ITS CITIES BY STEPHEN H. LANGDONT, M*A.7 B,D., Pn.D* Professor of and Shiliito Reader in Assyriology, Oxford L PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS * * , , * . . 356 The Euphrates and Lower Mesopotamia , . * . 358 Sumer and the date-palm , . , » . . 3 6C II. THE ORIGIN OF THE SvMERIANS . . . . . * ,361 The cultures of Anau and Sxisa * * , . . „ ,362 IIL EARLIEST TRADITIONAL DYNASTIES . . . . , . .364 The first city-states . * . „ . . . m .365 The third dynasty of Kish . . . , , . ,368 The fourth dynasty of Kish . . * , , . 370 Sumerian writing and religion • , . . » . 371 CONTENTS xxili PAGE TV TgE RECORDS OF THE CITY-STATES . . . . . . * 373 Lagash . . . . . . . . . . -373 Enkhegal and Ur-Nina . . . . . . . .374 Shuruppak and its legends . . . . . . • 377 The dynasty of Ur-Nina, 3100 B.C. . . , . . 378 Eannatum and Enannatum . . . . . . .380 Entemena and his son . . . . . , . .382 Rise of priests of Lagash . . . . . „ . .385 Social reforms of Urukagina . . . . . „ ,387 Inroad of Lugal-zaggisi . . . « . , . .388 V. OTHER crriEs , . . . . . . . . .389 ~ Umma . ..,.*,.... 389 Adab .*.-**..,.. 39° Nippur 391 Isip and Larak ......... 393 Kish ........... 393 Cuthah 394 Sippar 395 Erech. ........... 396 Larsa (Ellasar) ......... 397 Ur 398 Abu Shahrein (Eridu) . . . . . . . .399 Myth of Adapa ......... 400 Ashur ........... 401 CHAPTER XI THE DYNASTIES OF AKKAD AND LAGASH BY S. H. LANG DON I. THE RISE OF THE DYNASTY OF SARGON ...... 4O2 Stories of his origin , . , . . . . .403 Conquests in the west ........ 404 The foundation of Agade ....... 407 Accession of Rirnush ........ 408 Manishtusu .......... 409 Contemporary monuments . . . . , „ .410 Purchase of estates . . . . . , . . .411 II. NARAM-SIN AND THE DECLINE OP THE DYNASTY OF SARGON . . .412 Deification of Naram»Sin . . . * . . * .413 His conquests ......... 414 Expedition to Magan . * . . . . . .415 The * Stele of Victory* ........ 41,7 Submission of Elam, Lagash and Nippur ..... ;^8 ]<• Reign of Shargalisharri ........ f;T^v The rise of Gutium , ; 1421 Period of anarchy . . - . * . » .,; ;;V; 422 III. GUTIXJM AND LAGASH ....... 423 The kings of Gutium * . . . . . ./ . 424 Ur«Bau of Lagash . . . . * , » . 425 xxiv CONTENTS PAGE IV. THE KINGDOM OF GUDEA OF LAGASH „ . . . - ¥ 426 The statues of Gudea • 4"^s Contemporary art and literature . . « - • 43 2 Overthrow of dynasty of Gutium . . . . . .434 CHAPTER XII THE SUMERIAN REVIVAL: THE EMPIRE OF UR By S. IL LANG DON I. UR-ENGUR AND DUNGI .435 Might of Ur-Engur 43 6 Conquests in the east . . . . . . „ .438 Submission of Susa ........ 440 II. LAGASH AND OTHER CITIES OF THE EMPIRE . - . . .441 Sumerian liturgies . „ . * . . , . .443 The principal cults . . . . . . , , 4 44 Conditions in Akkad ..,.*..« 44^ III. THE EASTERN PROVINCES ..<....,. 447 Early deities of the east . . . . . . . ,448 Semitic infusion ......... 450 IV. THE NORTHERN ANZ> WESTERN EXTENSION . . . . . ,451 Ashur ...**.... 451 Subartu . . . * 452 Cappadocia and its Semitic colony „ . . . . ,453 V. THE DECLINE OF SUMERIAN POWER . . . . - . .456 Bur-Sin .......... 457 Gimll-Sm ..„„....„* 458 Ibi-Sin and his overthrow » « » . * * .459 Sumerian law and calendar *»..*.* 461 The influence of the Sumerians . * . . . .462 CHAPTER XIII ISIN, LARSA AND BABYLON By R. CAMPBELL THOMPSON, M.A., F.S.A. Fellow of Mcrton College, Oxfc rd L THE POWER OP THE SEMITES .,.,.»*. 464 West Semitic elements .»«.«.*. 466 Amor (Amurru) ..,.,.... 467 Early Assyria ...*,,„»*. 468 Kara-Euynk and Kerkuk . , . . . . . .470 11^ THE DYNASTY OF ISIN ....»..,. 47o Overthrow of Ibi-Sin ..»...«. 47 r Contemporary laments . „ . * . . . .472 ^Chedorlaomer* and G-encs;s xiv . „ f » . .473 New Sumerian activity ..«*.... 474 An Amorite raid .*..,..*. 476 The wars of Gnngunurn - . , , * . , » 477 Larsa ........... 478 The First Dynasty of Babylon . » , » „ , .479 CONTENTS xxv PAGE Relations with Larsa and Isln . . . * , . .480 Defeat of Larsa by Elam . , - . . . . 483 Elamlte kings. ....... 484 Rim-Sin's successes against Isin . . . . , .485 Fight for Isin and Larsa . . . . . . . .486 III, HAMMURABI .......... 487 Conquest of Elam ......... 488 Temple and other works . . , . . . , .489 Campaigns in the north ........ 490 His law-code ......... 492 Extent of his empire ........ 493 CHAPTER XIV THE GOLDEN AGE OF HAMMURABI BY R. CAMPBELL THOMPSON I. THE COUNTRY .......... 494 Communications by water . . . . . . .495 Ships and houses ......... 497 The date-palm ......... 499 Animals and birds . . . . , . . . .500 The Tigris .......... 501 II. BABYLON . 503 Plan . 504 Nebuchadrezzar's buildings . . . * . . .505 Tower of Babel 508 III. GOVERNMENT AND SOCIETY ........ 508 The patesis 509 Judicial procedure . . . . . . . . . 511 The levy 514 Capital offences, penalties . . . - . . .516 Social castes " . . . -5*8 Slavery 520 IV. PRIVATE LIFE 522 Matrimony . . . . . . . . .523 Divorce and adultery . * , * . . . .524 Children and inheritance . . . . - . « .526 Loans ........... 528 V. RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS . - . . . - * * 529 The gods 529 Religious beliefs . . . . . . . . -53* The temple and its staff 532 Priestesses and temple- women , . ... . . .536 VI. ORDINARY LIFE, DEATH, LITERATURE ...... 546 The crops -54* Food 543 Coinage, metals and pottery . . » . . ,.545 A love-letter ........ * 547 Burial . * . . 548 Myths and legends * . - . . , % » 55° xxvi CONTENTS CHAPTER XV THE KASSITE CONQUEST BY R. CAMPBELL THOMPSON PAGE I. THE END OF THE FIRST BABYLONIAH DYNASTY * . . . . 552 The Kassites and their language . . - * . 553 The kings of the Sea-country 555 Their advance . . . . - - * - 5 $7 Abeshu' and his artificial Hoods . . . . . 558 A Hittite raid • - .561 Decline of Babylonia . . . . • * * ,562 II. THE KASSITE DYNASTY . . . . . • . . -5^3 Internal conditions . . . . . « - . .564 Religion and art . . . . » * . . .567 Prelude to the 'Amania Age' 568 CHAPTER XVI THE ART OF EARLY EGYPT AND BABYLONIA BY H. R, HALL I. EGYPTIAN ART ..«,..»* . 570 Use of naetals . * * - , . . fc » 571 Archaic art . . . . - . . * , * 573 Portraiture * , . ,,574 Small art .....*,*. 576 II, INTERRELATIONS WITH BABYLONIA * . * . . , - 577 Prehistoric pottery . * . , . . . , .578 The Gebel el~Arak knife-handle . , . . . .580 Use of stone t . * . . . . . . 582 II L BABYLONrrAN ART . . . . . . , » * 5 84 The copper lions of el-*Obeid * * , . , « ,585 Relations with the west * . . « * » m ^ CHAPTER XVII EARLY AEGEAN CIVILIZATION BY A. J* B. WAGE I. CRETE . . . . . 589 Transition to Earty Minoan Age . , coo Conditions «... „ * . . SOI Middle Minoan Age . . * « * 593 The script . . , JQ j Palaces of Cnossus and Phaestus „ . ^ * 595 Middle Minoan culture . . * * . 596 Transition to Late Minoan , . * CONTENTS xxvii PAGE II. T,PE_CYCLADES * . . 599 Earl/ Cycladic culture Relations with Crete III. THE HELIADIC CIVILIZATION . Early Helladic Period Middle Helladic Period . Minyan ware Cretan influence IV. THE THESSALIAN CIVILIZATION First Thessalian Period . Second Period Third Period First and second cities of Troy , Supremacy of Crete Appearance of Mycenae . 600 602 603 604 606 607 608 609 609 610 6ix 612 614 615 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 617 BIBLIOGRAPHIES Chapters I and II ............ 619 Chapter III 625 Chapter IV 628 Chapter V 630 Chapter VI 636 Chapter VII 637 Chapter VIII 640 Chapter IX 643 Chapters X-XI1 645 Chapter XIII 649 Chapter XIV 651 Chapter XV 652 Chapter XVI 653 Chapter XVII 655 SYNCHRONISTIC TABLE 656 COMPARATIVE TABLE OF PRINCIPAL SEQUENCES AND CORRELATIONS IN SELECTED REGIONS BETWEEN NORTH-WESTERN EUROPE AND MESOPOTAMIA FACING 660 LIST OF EGYPTIAN KINGS OF THE OLD AND MIDDLE KINGDOMS, c. 3 500-1 580 B.C 661 LIST OF KINGS AND PATESIS OF SUMER AND AKKAD %$ KINGS OF ISIN, LARSA, BABYLON, ETC. , - . 672 GENERAL INDEX . . , . . . - .676 CONTENTS LIST OF MAPS, ETC. PACK 1, Stages in the growth of Land-masses , , , , FACING 16 2, The Ice Age », 48 3, Zones of Vegetation, to illustrate sequence of climatic regions „ 64 4, Olive, Vine and Orange Areas of the Mediterranean , „ 64 5, Principal Neolithic cultures „ no 6, Europe showing the principal lines of Early Bronze Aje Intercourse „ no 7, Trade-routes of Hither Asia „ ^224 8, Egypt „ 324 9, Babylonia, stowing the sites of Ancient Cities, , , ^ 400 10, Babylonia, Assyria and Mesopotamia , , , . „ 4/14 n. Syria, Assyria and Babylonia „ 566 12, Map to illustrate Early Aegean culture , , , , ,. 614 Plan of Babylon , 504 CHAPTER I PRIMITIVE MAN, IN GEOLOGICAL TIME L THE SETTING OF THE STAGE ¥ TflSTORY, in its common and more popular sense, is the JLJl $tudy of Man's dealings with other men, and the adjust- ment of working relations between human groups. But there is a larger sense, in which Human History merges in Natural History, and aludieS the dealings of Man with Nature; and it may be ob- served that it has been only by slow degrees that any human group has attained to such vision of the unity of mankind, or of civiliza- tion, as might constrain it to regard other human groups as more than a peculiarly intractable element in its own natural surround- ings. An austere conception of War — that under certain circum- stances Right has no court of appeal but Might — survives to remind us that Man has not yet wholly rid himself of this con- fusion between things and alien persons; and the most modern conception of international right so far accepts this fact of an alienation between the higher functions of human groups, however reasonable, as to take differences of language — of the medium, that is, for interchange and reconciliation of ideas, — as the best guide when and where, for the present, it is safer to keep human groups apart, and let them manage their affairs as far as possible each in their own way. History, in the narrowest sense of all, as the interpretation of written evidence for arrangements made for right living within a human group, or between such groups, accepts implicitly the same criterion, and stops short where such evidence is not available. Linguistic Pa^a525|^^y: goes a little further back, in the study of the distnf^^ groups, and of such relations between them as loan-words, or structural likenesses in the speech, mgy suggest. But the spoken word does not fall to the ground, like the spent missile or the broken vessel, to be its own memorial of human achievement: it vanishes in air, so that the philologist deals not with originals, but at best with the reminiscence of an echo. To recover, therefore, what men were doing, or maKliig, still more what they were thinking or desiring, befofe the dawn of history, the sole available method is that of the archaeologist, C,A,H«I I 2 PRIMITIVE MAN, IN GEOLOGICAL TIME [CHAP, merging as it does In that of the geologist : since these alone^ handle and interpret original creations of men's thought and will, and contemporary elements of the physical surroundings of those men. Where the tree falls, there shall it lie, and where the lost implement or shattered potsherd, or worn-out man fell, there have they lain, for all that any one cared then, or knows now. It is the careless- ness (in the literal sense) of the river as to the gravel which it carried, and an equal carelessness of those men as to what happened to their leavings., that justify such a hypothesis of the credibility of these data, and make prehistoric times at least a penumbra of history, ^ ^ "TSfor"are we compelled any longer by prejudice or authority to regard those times as catastrophically short, any more than we must believe that Rome was built in a day. Man's prehistory merges in the pageant of the animal world, and of the planet-wide arena on which it has been in progress. Mountain and sea-basin too have their history. Their geographical distribution has varied in immemorial years; the faith that can remove mountains is the same in kind as that in which the historian brings together armies and frontiers, 'bone to his bone/ showing *all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time/ Such 'historical* geography and 'historical' ethnology are a proper prelude to the history of the ancient world; and much, even within that history, cannot fully be understood without them. Ancient peoples come upon the stage of history, not all together, but in a certain order, and by their proper entrances; each with a character and make-up con- gruous with the part they will play* The pageant— or is it the drama ? — of history presupposes the formation of that character, and its equipment, in the green-room of the remoter past; and the sketch of the growth of initial 'cultures,* which follows now, is intended, like the hypothesis of a Greek play, to describe how men came by those qualities of build and temperament, those aims in life, atid the means wherewith they were attempting to achieve them. For, to the student of prehistory, a * culture is nothing more or less than this — the total equipment with which each gene- ration of men starts on its career, in whatever external conditions; to the archaeologist, no less, it is literally that equipment whirh the men of each generation were discarding, when they and it respectively ceased t6 be of Significant use. To see how the stage itself was set for this pageant, we must look back beyond the moment "when the first characters enter it. For it has been Nature, rather than Man, hitherto, in almost every scene* that has determined where 'the action shall He* Only at a I, n] 'NATURE5 AND 'MAN3 3 comparatively late phase of that action3 does Man in some measure shift t*he scenery for himself, * And by Nature and Man are here meant neither supernatural force nor superhuman design, altering the arrangement of us and our surroundings like chessmen on a board. Nature, adopted in our speech from Latin natura^ an unlucky mistranslation of Greek $>vcn^ stands as a common and inclusive term for all 'physical' events that happen; its Greek original being a verbal substantive signifying the fact of growth, the 'way things grow/ the mere processes of a world as apprehended by a mind. It has nothing to do, SB its Latin antecedents might suggest, either with birth or any sort of coming-into-being; nor with any question 'what shall it be in the end thereof ?* These are matters outside * natural9 history and human history alike. All history is the mere study of processes, of the 'way things grow* in the old Greek sense; for to this, modern thought has laboriously but unequivocally reverted> after long preoccupation with beginnings and endings, with cos- mogony and eschatology of all kinds, in the centuries between Greek science and our own. Within this Nature, so presented as a process or coherent sequence of occurrences, and so far as we know (by inference of me and you, each from experience of the rest of us corporeally participant in what goes on) a part of this Nature, stands Man, perceiving what goes on, learning what that is, conceiving it as alterable by inventive effort, and striving accordingly, with experience of what we call results, great or small, of that strife. By Man, then, in what follows, is meant the collective total of such perceiving, learning, inventing, striving and experiencing * selves/ myself and yours and theirs. By races of men, are meant groups and sequences of such selves linked by corporeal similari- ties propagated by natural process within each group: by peoples or nations^ groups of selves exhibiting peculiarities of interpreta- tion, invention, and effort sufficiently similar for their results to be cumulative and coherent; and by cultures or civilizations the accu- mulated and coherent results of such similarities in the activity of selves like you and me. IL PRE-GLACIAL GEOGRAPHY The stage of human history is a wide one from the firs|.;;®vieii disregarding those varieties of man in inner Asiaiorrjc«jg3ferial Africa which come latest and most incidentally iB~to,^i::S|ory? the stage even of ancient history is the whole home o£ffieP ''white races/ 4 PRIMITIVE MAN, IN GEOLOGICAL TIME [CHAP. from the Atlantic coast of Europe to the Persian plateaux, from the Sahara to the Baltic; the north-western quadrant of the? land- mass of the Old World, To understand even the actual configuration of this area, some of which Is very complicated — still more, to understand the changes which have occurred in the form and extent of the land-masses since they have been inhabited by man — we must review the whole series of events which have resulted in the formation of the present European peninsula, of the sea-basins which lie north and south of it, and also of its eastward continuation into Hither Asia, a similarly constituted highland with comparatively low-lying* flat- lands to north and to south. For, if we trace this series of events far enough back, we reach, at all events, the more immediate reasons for those strongly marked contrasts in the composition and structure of Its rocks, which have so profoundly affected the habitability and human prosperity of each component region, through the peculiar distribution of its plants and animals, and eventually of its breeds of Man. Herodotus, attempting to summarize the contrast between the northern flatland and the Aegean cradle of the Greeks, describes Scythia as a land where there are no earthquakes and they grow corn for sale. That immensity of arable is itself the corollary of the flatland's long immunity from geological stress, and its accu- mulation of successive sediments, as sea-floor or dusty desert. The recurring earthquakes in Greece and Italy, through ancient and modern times, are sufficient evidence that the process of mountain building is not yet complete, and the rarity and discontinuity of cultivable soils illustrate the dislocation and wear-and-tear inci- dental to such a process. The catastrophic geology of Genesis and the Psalms voices the same experience of Nature's workings among a people of the Nearer East. Let us summarize, then, the main course of that period of planetary history, within which the history of Man is one of the more recent episodes. The chalk which composes the 'white walls' of England, the massive limestones of the 'hills which stand about Jerusalem/ and the similar grey limestone which gives its wilder grace to the land- scape of Greece, were formed by deposition on the floor of a gre»t sea which, covered all, and more than all, of the stage on which history has played its greatest drama hitherto. This sea, to which geologists give the picturesque name of *Tethjy/ belongs to the second of the three great schemes of oceans and continents, whose distribution can be distinguished in the long course of the earth's history. It had taken shape as the result of that period of violent I, ii] SECONDARY DISTRIBUTION OF LAND AND SEA 5 planetary convulsion which closed the * primary* phase, and its q^liteSration, with the exception of the Mediterranean Pontic- Caspian, and Caribbean basins, marks the change from the 'secondary' to the 'tertiary' in which human history is the most recent episode. Unliie the modern Atlantic and Pacific Oceans of the * tertiary' phase, which (whatever their breadth) extend from the Arctic to the Antarctic circle, Tethys had its greatest diameter from east to west, and was comparatively narrow from north to south. Eastward it abutted on an ancient s Angara' continent, of whi^h the solid core lay in north-eastern Asia, with more recent extensions further south: westward it opened into a Pacific Ocean. Southward it was bounded by another ancient continent, 'Gpnd- wana-lan^L,' which had once extended in one vast oblong from weat of South America to east of Australia, but was already foun- dering in places, so that growing gulfs in its southern margin were separating South America from South Africa, and South Africa from Australia; first symptoms of the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans that were to be. Similar collapse of its northern margin allowed the waters of Tethys to form a deep bay between Brazil and Morocco ; and a long gulf between East Africa, on the one hand, and, on the other, a 'I^muxian^ peninsula connecting South Africa through Madagascar with peninsular India. Both of these eventually broke clean through to meet the southern gulfs, and insulated South America and ' Lemuria* for ever* Round the north end of 'Lemuria/ there was in due course open sea between Tethys and the new Indian Ocean; and meanwhile the rise of the first mountain structure of south-eastern Asia connected the Australian fragment of old 'Gondwana' with the southward ap- pendages of * Angara-land,* so that a single continent extended from Arctic Siberia to New Zealand. Northward, * Tethys' had probably sea-passage, of uncertain and perhaps varying width, to an Arctic Ocean, between 'Angara- land' and Scandinavia, one of the oldest and most massive corner-stones of the whole fabric. West of this again, between Scandinavia and Britain, a narrower strait extended far north, and perhaps reached the same Arctic Ocean. Beyond this, the rugged Caledonian highlands of Britain stood outpost on the eastern margin of a 'Laurentian* continent. The south coast of ' probably crossed the north Atlantic along the modern bulging then southward round the nascent Appalachian ch retreating northward near the Pacific coast of North ^A^S^c^ till it approached (or even joined) eastern * Aftgara^fflS'l^eyond the north Pacific, All north of this coastline seems €01 have been solid 6 PRIMITIVE MAN, IN GEOLOGICAL TIME [CHAP. land, with Greenland and Labrador at its core; but from time to time a wide lakeland covered the * middle west' of North AiAerica. Round these ancient shores, under the influence of solar heat, the general planetary circulation of winds and sea-currents played then as now. The resulting climates however were different, by reason of the shape of the sea-basins, and the altitude of the land- masses. In particular, the long trough of 'Tethys/ lying wholly in north temperate atid subtropical latitudes, and landlocked towards the north from Mexico to Scandinavia, served — like the Medi- terranean of to-day, but on a vaster scale — to mitigate and aspimi- late in an exceptional degree the climates of its foreshores, and still more those of its islands. For though most of 'Tethys* was open water, a lar/*e region between north Africa and Scandinavia was broken by large is- lands, ruinous fragments of continents older still, like Scandinavia itself, and the Caledonian highlands, Snowdonia, atid the Malvern and Mendip Hills, imbedded in the margin of *Laurentia.* One such forms now the plateau core of Spain and Portugal; Sardinia, Corsica, Elba, and the rugged *toe? of Italy are peaks of another, which we may call * Tyrrhenia*; the Caucasus, the Bohemian high* land, the Ardennes, are others, round whose skirts old shingle- banks and other shore deposits replace the clean limestones characteristic of the greater depths. So early in the history of the planet was the site of our European and Mediterranean region con- spicuous for its abnormalities, and its juxtaposition of old and new. The * tertiary* period of crust-history, which is still in progress — for the term * Quaternary,1 signifying those recent phases when Man's presence can be demonstrated, is a needless concession to self-esteem — is characterized, like its * primary * and * secondary * predecessors, by vast readjustments of the crust, breaking up the Laurentian and Indo-African continents, and crumpling the cre- taceous sea-bed of 'Tethys* into a series of elevated ridges* These folds result; from two series of lateral stresses. The one, thrusting outwards from Angara-land to east, south and west, has caused a series of southward-bulging * arcs' (like the rucks in a tablecloth when a heavy book is pushed across it) which define the present continent of Asia* Such arcs form the half-submerged island*- chains, Aleutian, Kurile, Japanese, Lu-chu; the grand sweep through Burma, and the Malay peninsula with its insular pro- longation to the Moluccas; the Himalayan range and the Hindu- Kush; the Iranian arc which traverses Baluchistan, south and west Pefsia, and Kurdistan; and further west, the Tauric and Dinaric systems which bound respectively Asia Minor on the south* and I, n] TERTIARY MOUNTAIN-BUILDING 7 the Balkan peninsula on the west,, as far as the head of the Adri- atic. Then follows the southward and westward-bulging Atlas range, and its prolongation into south-eastern Spain. Within these outer arcs rise other folds obviously concentric with them, most easily recognizable in north-eastern Asia, and behind the Hima- laya, but perceptible also in Iran and northern Asia Minor. Be- tween the folds, lie less crumpled areas, at higher or lower levels. The plateau of Tibet stands now at over 1 5,000 ft., the Tarim basin at over 3000 ft., and the core of Asia Minor at about xooo ft. above the sea; the Behring, Japan, and China Seas, on the other hand^have bottom at 12,000—9000 ft. down; the Gulf of Oman at 6000 ft., and the southern lobe of the Caspian at about 2000 ft* Similarly, outside each greater arc, the margin of old Gondwana- land*has been forced down and under, in the Bay of Bengal, in the Persian Gulf, — where the whole of Arabia has been tilted like an ill-laid paving slab — -and in the eastern basin of the Mediterranean, where the north African foreland has been fractured stepwise, so that, while the Libyan shore is beset with quicksands, the greatest depths are off the Peloponnese and Rhodes. The folds of the other series result not from southward but from northward thrusts, and overhang similarly sunken * forelands,' this time on their northern side. Examples are the Altai range between Mongolia and western Siberia, the Caucasus, and the whole Alpine series, — Balkans, Carpathians, Alps, and Pyrenees. The course of these European folds is complicated by several factors, chief among which is the presence of those older lands already mentioned, both north of the Alpine folds, in Bohemia, the Black Forest and Vosges, and the Auvergne, and within the folded area, as in Spain, *Tyrrhenia,' and Hungary; the stubbornness of which has not merely accentuated the transverse amplitude and overfolding of the ridges themselves, but has compressed them lengthways into the 2, -shape presented now by the Carpathians and Balkans and caused the spiral distortion of the Pyrenees, Alps, Apennines, Atlas, and the Spanish-Balearic arc. Finally, local relaxations of these strains brought about the collapse of whole regions of the crust, either parallel to the trend of the folded arcs, or transversely. Examples of longitudinal subsidence are the Black Sea and southern Caspian, carrying away both ends of the Caucasus and another great segment of mountain range between the Crimea and the Balkans : another is the Adriatic, nipped between the Dinaric arc and the Apennines* ^fraft&Verse fracture and collapse are illustrated, within the mass of 013 Angara- land, by the long * trough-fault' or 'rift yall^' df the Red Sea, 8 PRIMITIVE MAN, IN GEOLOGICAL TIME [CHAP. which Is prolonged between Crete and Rhodes right across the junction of the Dinaric and Tauric arcs, submerging the Aegean archipelago, and breaking down a shattered trough through Macedonia and Serbia to the Hungarian plain. A branch of this same rift forking west across the Dinaric folds depressed the Gulf of Corinth; another diverging eastward further south forms the Gulf of Akaba, the Dead Sea, and the trough of Code-Syria, and may be traced far athwart Armenia. All these are only classical examples of the main types of crust movement to which the tertiary transformations of old * Tethys' are due. Crust-movements of such amplitude occupied a vast period of time. And all the while, rainfall and frost were^denuding and dis- secting the land surfaces; rivers were transporting the debris, and depositing it in lake basins and coastal seas; limestones and fharls were accumulated in deeper waters; and at times along the lines of severest distortion and fracture, volcanic matter was discharged molten from beneath* Principal stages in this tertiary derangement of what had been the cretaceous sea-bottom of Tethys may be summarized as fol- lows. Their importance for us, over and above their contribution to the actual distribution of land and water, of mountains and plains, is that in conjunction with the changes of climate resulting from such rearrangement of lands and seas,, they have restricted or extended the regions which this or that type of vegetation could occupy, and the range of the animal forms which such vegetation fed, and so contributed in due course to localize and differentiate the main varieties of Man* Foldings and upheavals of the old sea-floor began earliest, as they have since reached their greatest amplitude, eastward in the heart of Asia, where the Himalaya, Kuen-lun andTienshan ranges, with the plateaux of Tibet and Mongolia uplifted between them, intervene between Angara-land and the * Leirmrian* sub-continent, of which only fragments soon remained, represented by Madagas- car and peninsular India. Elsewhere too during this stage there was widespread exposure of the sea-floor; especially along that east-and-west axis of upheaval which eventually becomes the 'Highland^Zone* of western Asia and southern Europe. Anl without being elevated, many of the remaining sea-basins dried up altogether, leaving vast deposits of salt and gypsum, like those which are forming now in the waste heart of Persia, Renewed submergence followed, from the westward ocean* as far south as Kordofan, and as far east as Khorasan* But the Hindu- Kush and Iranian arc barred off for ever from Tethys its old south- J, n] FIRST PHASES OF A MEDITERRANEAN SEA 9 ward gulf; and a mere bulging of the African continent cut off the eljj uf "depression in western Sahara from what we may now begin to call the Midland Sea; for it is the first phase of the Mediterra- nean of to-day. But the fauna and flora of the lands which were appearing now along the line of the Alpine folds were still essenti- ally of such Indo-African type as had spread thither during the period of exposure. And such they long remained; for these lands were mainly Insular, and as the Laurentian continent still limited the Atlantic northwards not far from the line joining Newfoundland to Cornwall, the oceanic currents which bathed their ^shores maintained a subtropical climate, warm, moist, and equable. Furthe^ folding and upheaval of the western arcs extended and consolidated the mountain zone of the Nearer East as a long pro- montory connecting the high plateaux of Asia with these mid- European islands, and these again with the British promontory of Laurentia, along the very ancient line of folding represented by the Ardennes and the Mendips. The result was to bisect the Mid- land Sea into a southern or 'Mediterranean' and a northern or *Sarmatian* basin, which henceforth have separate histories until almost modern times. A further result was that the sinuous Apen- nine-Atlas ridge encircled a -'West Mediterranean' basin, which though it communicated usually with both the Atlantic and the East Mediterranean, was occasionally cut off from both, and in late Miocene times was so much reduced by evaporation that none of its deposits of that age are now above water level. There was therefore ample communication between the new mid-Europe and the Moroccan lobe of the old Africa* The East Mediterranean long retained much of the character of its predecessor the Midland Sea, The highland arcs along its north border included Crete and Cyprus; the Adriatic had not yet SLink outside these arcs, nor the Aegean within them. The moun- tains of Media and Elam were still very imperfectly developed, and the Arabian slab of Gondwana-land had not yet been frac- tured or even tilted under their stresses. The southern border of this sea lay therefore far to the southward across Africa, from a Moroccan Gulf, south of Atlas, to Abyssinia, Hadramaut, and the mountain ridge of Oman; with an easterly gulf extending far Into Iran* It was separated however from all seas to the south-east, as its marine fauna show, by the ridge already mentioned connecting the Asiatic with the African continent. Occasionally disconnected from the Atlantic by elevation of the lands round tb^ttfestern basin, it underwent repeated phases of evaporation; stud Indo-African io PRIMITIVE MAN, IN GEOLOGICAL TIME [CHAP. plants and animals still occupied its northern margins^ leaving their remains for example in Sanies and Attica, "* The northern or Sarmatian Sea had a similar though separate history. It extended repeatedly far east> to lake Balkash and the foothills of Altai and Tienshan, and far north round the base of the Urals, an old ridge accentuated by the same tertiary stresses as the mountain-zone which bounded this basin on the south. Caucasus was sometimes insulated, but usually formed part of its southern margin, with only gulfs or lakes outflanking it south- ward. Westward communication with the Atlantic was interrupted earlier, oftener, and more completely than in the Mediterranean area, thanks to the growing intimacy between Mid-Europe and those ridges and stacks of old land which we have seen ^embedded in the Laurentian foreshore. Between the rising Alps and- the Bohemian and mid-German highlands a long gulf remained^ or in high-and-dry periods a drainage basin which we may already call 'Danubian*, but the strong northward and outward bulge of the Carpathians eventually cut off these lowlands and the sunken Hungarian basin, to form inland lakes. An outlet through the Iron Gates to the Pontic basin cannot be demonstrated till later. As the land-masses of Mid-Europe and also of North Africa and Western Asia increased in extent, the climate of the whole region became drier: the c Sarmatian' sea shrank into a * Pontic* scries of lakes, connected only by flood channels, if at all, but including then a region so far to the south-west as the present north Aegean* Eventually one of the deep fiver valleys, which dissected the ex- posed Sarmatian sea-floor, cut back into the high ground in the re-entrant angle between the Carpathians and Balkans, opened a new outlet for the waters of the Hungarian and Bavarian basins already mentioned, and created the Danubian drainage system. In this period also a long trough, faulted across Mid-Europe^ deter- mined the upper basin of the eventual Rhine, though it was long before this lakeland was tapped, like the Danubian, by a river cutting back from the north through the old Taunus highland from Coblenz to Bingetl, The same period of uprise and continental climate affected the Mediterranean also. The rising escarpment of Media and Elam cr.t off its Iranian gulf, which became silted, first with river deposits* then, as its waters evaporated, with a crust of salt and gypsum. And as the folded escarpment rose, very steep and lofty, the foreland in front of it to the south-west was forced down and under, till the great quadrangular slab which we call Arabia was snapped off" from Africa> and tilted bodily, downwards at the foot I, n] TERTIARY FLORA AND FAUNA n of the new Zagros range, but with a free broken edge upreared to wqptwatJrd, and long troughs of dislocation and subsidence between itself and the African continent. The Red Sea trough opened for long into the Mediterranean, like the Nile trough to the west of it; but was closed at its south end by the main ridge from Asia to East Africa. Further north, the same fractures crossed the Mediterranean floor, so that the free edge of the Arabian slab, or rather the de- tached strip of it which forms the Lebanon range, was thencefor- ward the eastward limit of that sea. The movement, violent as it appears in retrospect, was however gradual, and progressed from south to north so that the drainage basin formed on the tilted slab remained Connected with the Mediterranean through North Syria, and fee Jordan valley, lying in a smaller and earlier rift than that of the Red Sea and for long a tributary of a great river system of north-eastern Africa, still contains species in common with the Nile and the Euphrates* But, in time, Mesopotamia too became a separate basin like Iran, accumulating its own river sediments, and in dry periods its beds of salt and gypsum. The gradual coherence of new land-masses where the Tethys basin had been, and the restricted communication between the remaining seas and the Atlantic, affected the climate of the whole region profoundly and adversely, and the fauna and flora were modified accordingly. Surviving representatives of the first occu- pants of tertiary Europe are now only recognizable in the Malay zoological region, and to some extent in tropical west Africa. For our present purpose we need only note that it Is in these two regions alone that the great anthropoids, gorilla and orang-utan, survive; that it is certain that various monkeys, and probable that creatures ancestral to Man, were among these * Malayan * occupants of mid-Europe; that the most * simian* varieties of Man himself, the dwarfish, heavy-jawed, and long-armed Negritos, have a similarly discontinuous distribution surviving only in central Africa, in Malaya and beyond, and to sorae extent ijp^sputhern India; and further, that the only creatures really intermediate be- tween these and the anthropoids, are Pithecanthropus from a deposit considerably later in Java and the Broken Hill skull from Rhodesia, It is not without reason, therefore, that search has been made for human handiwork, even in eocepe and miocgae beds. But^tjbfii; * eoliths* collected in Belgium from miocene deposits h^^etiibt yet been generally accepted as such: those from graves ililing the sides of the present Nile valley are rather betft^jrtS^te'd, but must still be viewed with reserve. ia PRIMITIVE MAN, IN GEOLOGICAL TIME [CHAP. As the climate became less favourable, the Malayan fauna gave place in the north-west to characteristically * African' types, which persisted in the new European (or rather *Eurafrican') region until the close of the Pontic stage. Then, rather abruptly,, and very widely, this * African' fauna was itself replaced by new forms, dis- tinctly 'Arctic/ advancing apparently from that Laurentian con- tinent which had existed all the while west of Britain, and prob- ably had extended also far eastward beyond Scandinavia as the Sarmatian sea evaporated; since similar 'Arctic' forms can be traced penetrating Asia too, as far as its Himalayan crest* The * African' withdrawal was of course gradual and unequal ; typical forms sur- vived in Bessarabia, for instance, later than elsewhere, and Spits- bergen and Greenland still had magnolias and plane-tpees during the Pontic phase. Within the folded zone, especially, there were secluded regions favourable to the survival of the old warmth- loving forms. The progressive folding of maturer mountain-ranges, and the development of more recent folds, such as the Apennines and the Jura, accentuated this subdivision of the north-western or * Eurafrican ' land-mass. A fresh period of submergence follows, probably due to relaxa- tion of the folding stresses, and collapse of ill-supported blocks, The British promontory of Laurentia, and probably the whole southern seaboard of that continent, began to give way, so that the Atlantic ocean, which had long ago been extended southwards from Tethys to the Antarctic, spread northwards now into cooler latitudes. Since some of these sinking areas — for example, the Aquitanian region of France — adjoined the west Mediterranean, Atlantic marine fauna had access once more to the Mediterranean basins. As the water surface of these seas increased, the climate became moister, and the weathering of the highlands and main river valleys more destructive. It is in this period that the drainage systems of the lower Rhine, the Seine and other rivers of the English Channel, the Loire, Garonne and Guadalquivir, and the Wady Draa, south of the Moroccan Atlas, were established, in deep-lying gulfs; the Rhpne is another example of drainage con- sequent on such subsidence. Further east, the Aegean depression, already noted, began Qo admit Mediterranean waters to basins hitherto belonging to the Pontic lake-system. The Pontic region, too, receiving ample rain- fall once more, regained its old continuity from the Carpathians as far as lake Baikal. The trough-valley of the Nile was being opened, as we have already seen, as far south as Assuan, and re- ceived copious drainage from the high west edge of the Arabian I,n] SEVERANCE OF AFRICA FROM ASIA 13 slab; the first fractures had begun along the line of the Red Sea, and the remains of considerable lakes in the Dead Sea and Orontes region suggest similar subsidences further north. The Mesopo- tamian basin was by this time quite cut off from the Mediterranean by the tilting of Arabia, though the barrier from Lebanon north- ward was of no great width or height. When the tilting movement came to a crisis, and Arabia broke away from the African con- tinent, the Red Sea trough opened first as a gulf of the Mediter- ranean. But the foundering of the next block south of Arabia admitted the waters of the 'Indian1 Ocean into this gulf from the south; 'and a similar inbreak through the Hormuz strait converted the Mesopotamian lake, which had formed along the sunk eastern edge of Arabia, into a ' Persian gulf of the same southern ocean, extenfiing all along the foothills of Zagros, and also towards Anti- Taurus, and Anti-Lebanon. In this fashion, while the Mediter- ranean remained limited eastward almost at its present shoreline, the whole region between it and the Iranian plateau became almost wholly separated from what remained of old Gondwana-land, both in peninsular India and in east Africa, with a new and narrow isthmus, twice constricted, at Suez and north of the Lebanon, instead of the old broad land-avenue from Iran to Abyssinia. The consequence of this separation will be seen to be of the utmost importance, when we consider the distribution of Man, and of the modern fauna and flora generally; for it is with the severance of Africa from southern Asia, on the one hand, and the replacement on the other of ' African * plants and animals north of the Mediterranean by northern forms from Scandinavia and the Laurentian foreshores about Britain, that the modern period of tertiary time may fairly be said to begin. It will be evident from what precedes, that by this time not only Europe but the whole north-west quadrant of the Old World land-mass had been shaped approximately to its modern propor- tions : only the precise distribution of sea and lake over the shal- lower hollows in its surface being liable to shift, according as either the land rose or sank locally, or the supply of moisture varied over its landlocked basins. The broad features of this large group of regions, the eventual home of the 'white races* of man, may there- fore be summarized in modern geographical terms. It consists, essentially, of the Alpine 'folded highland/ whose structure ai^ conformation we have been tracing, bounded both northward^Scl southward by abrupt outward slopes overlooking depr^€^i btit undisturbed and level * forelands/ Included wi^^f'^iife ' folded region are numerous plateaux more or less ^le(vat©dy and more or 14 PRIMITIVE MAN, IN GEOLOGICAL TIME [CHAP. less buried under later sediments- And westward;* where the Alpine folds fade away towards the foreshores of the new Atlantic Ocean, and around the British remnants of Laurentia, now de- tached,, there is a * continental shelf of varying width, and liable to moderate oscillations of level. Three main regions are therefore to be distinguished here: (i) the Highland Zone itself; (2) its Northern Foreland, from the North Sea to the foothills of Tienshan and Altai, with its south- eastern half liable to be submerged in *Sarmatian* or *Ponto~ Caspian * lakes; (3) its Southern Foreland, from Morocco to Mesopotamia, continuous and undisturbed at a fairly high average level in latitudes remote from the Highland Zone; more broken and depressed further north, till its fractured slabs sink beneath the waters of the Persian Gulf, the east Mediterranean, and the lake region of southern Tunis. As already described, it is by no geo- logical accident that the west Mediterranean basin lies north, not south, of the Atlas folds; within the Highland Zone, that is, not adjacent to it like the eastern basin, The later history of these three principal regions must be traced separately, if only because the altitude of the Highland Zone has long been sufficient to give it a markedly cooler and moister climate than either of the Flatlands; so that its greater rainfall has sculp- tured it very deeply, and wrought upon its surface abrupt and complicated scenery of mountain and valley; the varied rocks thus exposed contributing directly, and still more (by their detritus) indirectly, to accentuate local differences in the soils and eventual flora of each drainage area. As its limits lie obliquely from north- west to south-east between latitude 50° in central Europe and 2 5° in south Persia, the larger changes of climate have affected its main regions serially from one extremity to the other. Its uplands have been sufficiently continuous at most periods to permit the spread and withdrawal of consecutive types of vegetation; yet the deep engraving of its passes has permitted the transmission of comparatively lowland flora from one basin to another* And what is evident for vegetation applies equally to all animals which are susceptible to changes of climate and food supply* This Highland Zone3 then, may conveniently be regarded, Aa its main characters, as a single geographical region. Frequently and for long periods, it has been a promontory based on central Asia, or a long isthmus, connecting a south-eastern continent with a wide and old land in the north-west. At all times its upland conformation, moister climate, and denser forest vegetation have secluded it from the Flatlands on either flank. In so far as there I, n] EURASIAN AND EURAFRICAN FLATLANDS 15 has been interaction. It has been the Highland which has had the initiative; because in periods of excessive moisture it has been from the" foothills of the Highland that forest has spread over adjacent plains; whereas in periods of drought, the extension of steppe con- ditions into the foothills has been retarded by the residual rainfall around the heights. Only by glaciation, It would seem., could the Highland vegetation be devastated from within, and even so under the most favourable conditions for reoccupatlon from the less frost- bitten highlands continuous with it to the south-east. And as we shall see in due course, such glacial devastation did actually occur, between the close of the pleistocene period and the beginning of our own. North of the Highland Zone lies the Northern Flatland. It is alm*t featureless from Altai and Tienshan to the Baltic and North Sea; except for the narrow transverse fold of the Ural range, which however fades away southward before reaching latitude 5*0°. But beyond those almost accidental depressions of its western margin, which form our 'narrow seas,' this Flatland Is limited by two considerable mountain-masses, Scandinavian and British, of great age and stability; and beyond these to the north-west ex- tended formerly a long arm of that old Lauren tlan continent which still encircled the north Atlantic, long after it had ceased to occupy it; and it was probably the subsidence of this Laurentian land (represented now by the * Wyville-Thomson Ridge, * on the ocean floor from Britain to Iceland and Greenland) and the circumstance that the breach of continuity lay west and not east of the Scandi- navian and British mountain ranges and involved general redistri- bution of currents between the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, that determined the profound changes of climate to which allusion has already been made (p. 12). Of secondary importance are the minor oscillations which deter- mined whether the northern parts of the Flatland, east and west of the Ural divide, should be above or below water; and thereby assigned to the remainder, and to the whole north face of the Highland Zone, a climate either moist enough to fill the Sarmatian depression with lakes or a sea, or dry enough to exhaust this re- servoir and reduce the whole northern Flatland to a cold desert as Inhospitable as the hot desert on the south side, to which we tutu now. The southern or Eurafrlcan Flatland Is almost as simple ,ift its main features as the northern, and far more uniform in defSalL As this region lies within the planetary trade-wind b$l&$!i£tiS devoid of abruptly folded ridges which might precipitate ra,lia^— except the 16 PRIMITIVE MAN, IN GEOLOGICAL TIME [CHAP. Atlas to the north, which belongs to the folded Mountain Zone, and the highlands of Nigeria and Abyssinia, — it has always been less well watered than the regions north and south of it, which are moistened respectively by the westerlies and the equatorial rain- belt. As no cause seems to be known which could displace the equatorial belt of perennial rainfall and dense forest., to any con- siderable degree, the normal result of a pluvial or glacial crisis in the northern hemisphere has been to contract this trade-wind belt and its desert regime; and conversely. The only other important variable affecting the Southern Flatland has been the greater or less extent of submergence, in the Mediterranean and Mesopo- tamia, mitigating or accentuating the dryness of northerly winds, The mitigating influence of the Atlantic has of course been per- sistent, but has been neither great nor far-reaching, after the dis- appearance of that old gulf or lake-basin south of the Ahaggar plateau after the miocene period. It should be noted however that in periods of greater rainfall both this plateau and the Tassili and TIbesti uplands further north and east,, have attracted sufficient moisture to feed large rivers, running some southwards to the Niger, others northwards into the Mediterranean, by the Wadi Irharhar and the Tunisian Schotts* Direct land-contact between the southern Flatland and the Highland Zone is interrupted for the middle third of its length by the persistent water-surface of the cast Mediterranean basin, last remnant of old *Tethys'; and again far eastward, by the Gulf of Oman and the Mesopotamian Gulf, formerly much larger and wider than now. Between these two sea-barriers, outer ridges of the Tauric arc radiate south-westward and southward into north Syria and Cyprus, and this highland prominence is continuous southward with the upstanding edge of the great Arabian slab and detached fragments of it, as far as the peninsula of Sinai, forming a causeway along which migrations of momentous im- portance have occurred repeatedly. In the west Mediterranean the Atlas range, which must always be regarded as being geo- fraphically continuous, as well as structurally, with the ranges of icily and Italy, and also of south-eastern Spains has the west Saharan Flatland along its steep southern face; but the continuity of the Eurafrican land-mass here Is qualified by the depth, and usual submergence, of the west Mediterranean depressions. Only at either end of this western basin have there been intermittent land-bridges from Atlas; north-eastward through Sicily to the . Apennine arc, concentric with the Alps and repeating on a small .scale some features of the Syrian causeway; and through Spain, an I, n] AFRICAN9 AND 'ARCTIC' FAUNA 17 old highland comparable in size and structure with that of Asia Minor? to the broad coast-plains of the Atlantic seaboard north of the Pyrenees, It results from these northward avenues of the southern Flat- land, that there has been long intercourse between its inhabitants and those of the Highland Zone, at both ends of their long frontier; simple, marginal, and almost uniformly from north to south over the Syrian causeway; intermittent, complicated, oscillatory, and far-reaching, in the 'Eurafrican* west. Such oscillations and, no less, the general replacement of 'Afri- can' by * Arctic* forms of life throughout the whole north-west of the Old World, were caused, or at all events greatly accelerated, in the pleistocene period by the onset of a profound change of climate, very severely felt all over the new European sub-continent of Eurafrica, but by no means confined to this region; for the *Ice Age' or * Glacial Period7 of the Old World has its counterpart in the New, and even very similar sub-periods. There have also been 'Ice Ages* in the southern hemisphere, but there is no proof that they either coincided or alternated with those in the northern, and they had no known influence on mankind. With the northern, and especially with the European Ice Age it was otherwise. That the replacement of African occupants, on the other hand, was as gradual as it was, was due to the fact that the Ice Age was not continuous, but had its * interglacial* phases, which permitted African forms to return northward, and also allowed Asiatic species to move westward into Europe along the Highland Zone; and we shall see that this oscillation had profound significance for Man. For if we compare the earliest known distributions of the other primates with the actual distribution either of their modern repre- sentatives, or of the principal races of man, it becomes clear that whereas the four-handed, and also many of the four-footed mem- bers of this 'order* of animals, retained mainly arboreal habits, and consequently were withdrawn southward and eastward into Africa and Malaya, as the subtropical forests were restricted by the general change of climate, one intermediate variety, two-handed an4 two-footed, and thereby more able to accommodate itself to the accidents of life in the open, became so far master of its fate as to outlast the forest, and enter on a career of pedestrian adventure and manual exploitation. We do not yet know at what stages in this acclimatization to the parkland and grassland sequel of the retreating forest this biped primate achieved its three primary controls over its surroundings — control over dead matter, in the C. A,BM i8 PRIMITIVE MAN, IN GEOLOGICAL TIME [CHAP. shape of boughs and stones, prolonging the reach, and enhancing the force, of its natural hand-stroke; control over the wayward energy of fire, the scourge and the terror of all other animals; and therefore not only comparative security against carnivorous animals, but control over the fund of sustenance and energy supplied by animal flesh. But we do know already, from an implement-strewn surface of old land underlying some of the earliest glacial debris of East Anglia, that some sort of tool-using, and animal hunting * precursor' of ourselves ranged so far as this to the north-west before the climate was as yet quite glacial; and from similar indi- cations in the Nile gravels, and on the surrounding desert, that subtropical drought restricted him as little as subarctic cold. How far these early traces, or remoter relics such as the Trinil brain-case from Java, or the Broken Hall skull and other bones from Rhcdesia, may be connected with ancestors of any actual variety of Man we must consider in fuller view of the effects of the glacial crisis* III. THE GLACIAL CRISIS The causes of this Ice Age have been much discussed, and are still obscure: recent investigations lay greater stress on geo- graphical factors, such as the distribution of land and water, the elevation or depression of the region, and other circumstances favourable to intense snow-fall at certain places and seasons, than to those astronomical explanations by nutation of the earth's axis, or precession of the seasons, which were formerly popular. It is at all events certain that the severest glaciations occurred in periods of submergence, and that the repeated relaxations of glacial auster- ity coincide with greater exposure of land-surfaces, and with a continental climate drier rather than warmer, since dry air, how- ever cold, precipitates little snow; without copious snow there is nothing to feed a glacier, much less a continental ice-sheet; and under dry cold winds on the lowland the snout of the best-fed glacier shrinks rapidly by sheer evaporation* The same circum- stance goes far to explain why the main ice cap of the Old World lay so far towards its western edge, exposed to wet westerly winds off the north Atlantic which as we ixave seen had only recently attained its modern extent. In the same ways the evidence for ex- tensive glaciation on the mountain ranges of Caucasus, Armenia, and especially of Central Asia coheres with that for a wide water surface in the Ponto-Caspian lakeland, and for submergence of western Siberia, Of such glacial maxima there have been recognized three in I, m] THE FOURFOLD CRISES OF THE ICE AGE 19 most parts of France, and four on the north side of the Alps and Py^ene&s, and in north-western Germany, followed by two oscilla- tions during the final retreat over those districts which lay nearer to the principal snow-caps. The second, or * Mindel, * spell in the Alpine series (corresponding with the later part of the first, further north) was the severest; submergence was deepest, temperature lowest, and the Scandinavian ice sheet widest, covering all but the south coast of Britain, and meeting the glaciers of the Alps (while the Rhone glacier, for instance, extended to Lyon) and those of the Carpathians and Urals so that their margins, like the glaciers of the Caucasus, bordered and replenished the Sarmatian sea. Outlying ice-caps, mainly of this phase, have been traced on the Pyrenees, Apennines, and Dinaric and Tauric chains; in Armenia, Zagr8s, and the north Persian ranges; and over the whole moun- tain knot of the Pamirs and Hindu- Kush, from its Sarmatian shore to an ocean-gulf which flooded the Punjab. Over these vast areas, therefore, all life was obliterated temporarily, and round their margins and interspaces was reduced to sub-arctic desolation. There is strong reason for believing that the climatic oscilla- tions of the whole north-west Quadrant synchronized and formed part of a single great planetary episode. Not only is the fourfold glaciation of north-western Europe repeated around the Alps and represented in a fourfold * pluvial' sequence in the Nile Valley; but the glacial maxima represented by deposits in Nebraska, Kan- sas, Illinois and Wisconsin respectively, though not necessarily contemporary, seem to repeat the relative intensity of the Gunz, Mindel, Riss, and Wtirm maxima of the European Ice Age. It is therefore permissible to treat as standard the southern Flatland, where there would seem to have been least bi*each of continuity in plant and animal life, and interpret the more broken and complicated sequence in the western and the northern Flatlands, and also in the Highland Zone, by reference of their main episodes to the principal stages in the south. Before dealing with the human occupants of these regions, and their redistribution during and after the Ice Age, it is convenient to note briefly the effects of any such crisis on the distribution of anTmals and plants, partly because these effects can be more fully illustrated, partly because it was in response to changes in his animal and vegetable surroundings that man's first human efforts seem to have been made. It follows directly that in any displacement of climatic zones the corresponding flora and fauna were displaced accordingly, with due allowance for peculiarities of soil or configuration which either 20 PRIMITIVE MAN, IN GEOLOGICAL TIME [CHAP. permitted the maintenance of any elements of such plant and animal associations, or accelerated their retreat. In this connexion, it is important to observe the normal sequence of the types of vegetation; round the margin of perennial snowfield or ice sheet* frozen treeless 'tundra* with transitory herbage after the spring thaw; then dwarf birch and stunted pine, passing to coniferous forest, and through this into mixed deciduous forest; oak, beech, and nut-bearing trees such as chestnut and walnut predominating in succession. Forest however may be interrupted, on soils un- favourable to trees, by other types of vegetation; on loess, repre- senting ancient deposits of wind-blown dust from adjacent desert, by precarious steppe or grass-land; on limestone, by the treeless turf of chalk-downs or wolds, owing to the withdrawal of surface water by underground channels; on ancient and imperviouslrocks, especially where these adjoin a wind-swept seaboard, by the dry bitter heather and gorse of moorland. Marshland too, and the travels of river valleys, have their special * plant associations/ >rming open glades between the forests which clothe the higher ground. This normal sequence is of course retarded also locally by altitude, which increases -rainfall, and reduces mean temperature. Parnassus for example has pines above its olives and buy-trees, and alpine flowers above its pines. Further south, in the 'Mediterranean' type of climate, with wet winter and rainless summer, deciduous trees give place to evergreens, and tall forest to thickets or shrubs; and as drought and warmth increase, even shrubs stand further apart,, in an under- growth of tough resinous bushes, and spring-flowering bulbs, annuals, and grasses* Eventually grasses, halfa-rush, and spiny leathery camel-fodder predominate, until they too fade out before drifting sand and sun-tanned rock. As climate becomes milder, the zones of vegetation move north- wards, and uphill; but as trees take centuries to mature, the shift of vegetation may lag behind that of climate* On the other hand, adverse shift of climate rapidly destroys the less hardy plants, for they cannot retreat and only acclimatize slowly; more .mobile forms of life, such as the larger animals and man, will cither follow their habitual food-plants or maintain themselves in aust suggest that, like Tartar infants nowadays, the parasitic proto-IVtongol sat tight upon his host between meals, and shared its wanderings. On the steppes of glacial Europe, man hunted and ate the horse; if we suppose that in central Asia, during the same and perhaps in long earlier periods, he made friends with him and lived upon his friendship, we seem to have a clue to the paradox of the emergence of a highly specialized breed of man from a region which had been for a very long time so little suited, except on these terms, to sustain him at all. The absence of rfhy widespread relics of such occupancy explains itself on the same hypothesis* Men who did not hunt or fight, had no more need of coups-de-poing than of supra-orbital ridges or a fighting-jaw^ such as characterize the negroids or the 'Neanderthal' type in Glacial Europe, As they must travel with their animal hosts or perish, they had no choice but to desert their ailing relatives when they I, xv] SPREAD OF MONGOL MAN 23 fell behind; Interments therefore are not to be expected, nor a group-psychology which sets much value on human life, or gives out-let to futile emotion. Almost inhuman in his normal apathy, the Mongol can display almost equine savagery when provoked by panic or ill-usage. The development of so peculiar a type presupposes not only a large continuous region? of appropriate physique, but also com- plete seclusion. The high plateaux had supplied the former for a very long time, since loess-land is so inhospitable to trees or shrubs that wide oscillations of climate only affect the density of its vege- tation without changing the quality. Seclusion has been assured by the great altitude of these plateaux, the ruggedness of the sur- rounding ranges, and the dense rain-forest of their monsoon-swept outvtfftjrd slopes. While therefore it has been exceptionally difficult for alien folk to intrude, it has been relatively easy for Mongol man to emerge, on one of two conditions — either that he parts company with his milk-giving host, and takes to hunting, as has happened in the north-east, or to agriculture, as in the south-east of Asia; or else, if he is to retain his nomad pastoral habit, he must wait till the climate has become so dry that Jhere are clearings of grassland through the forest belt. Even then he can only proceed so far as he finds grassland still in front of him; and this has only happened at two points: to the west, through the great avenue between Altai and Tienshan, and to the north-east, down the valley of the Hoang-ho; and even here it only happened far on in post-glacial time. It would be beyond the plan of this chapter, to discuss in detail the subsequent spread of Mongoloid Man through the Asiatic foreshores of his plateaii-home; but his western and north-western expansion has so profoundly influenced the course of history in the modern world, that it is necessary to trace at least the outlines of them, so far as they can be recognized; and also to make quite clear their upward limits in time, which appear to be very narrow. The older drainage of the southern and more elevated plateau, south of the Kuen-lun ranges, issued to the south-east, towards what is now the Malay Archipelago, but the Brahmaputra, cutting b^lck through the eastern Himalayas, where they have been inter- sected by the great Malayan folds, has captured the southernmost of these drainage areas; the Hoang-ho similarly has captured the northernmost, and the Yangtze the majority of those which lay between, leaving only a small remainder to feed the Sal wen and the Mekong. Consequently the main avenues of human movement have long been towards the eastern lowlands,, and the vast alluvial 24 PRIMITIVE MAN, IN GEOLOGICAL TIME [CHAP. area deposited by Chinese rivers, thus reinforced., has received and acclimatized most of the human overflow from the interior* m From the northern and less elevated plateaux of Mongolia, however, the older drainage was mainly north-eastward; and here owing to the conformation of the eastern arcs, the eventual recipi- ents have been on the one hand the Amur, on the other the north- ward-flowing Lena and Yenisei. Here the continental core of old 'Angara-land/ which is embraced between these two rivers and has been an immemorial reservoir of ancient forms of life, has also formed the * asylum" into which have descended successive types of flora and fauna discarded from the plateau-margins in successive periods of austerity. The human population here, so far back as it can be traced, belongs to such discarded fauna, and is consequently Mongoloid, but of far less specialized types than those whichchavc never left the plateaux. It is from this Angara reservoir, and the mountain arcs which prolong the north margin of the plateaux and encircle them eastwards, that the whole north-eastern promontory of Asia has received its human population; and similar types, essentially yellow-skinned and straight-haired,, have passed on through it to Alaska and the New World, Westward, the long-continued submergence of the Siberian lowland from the Yenisei to the Urals prevented all expansion until very recent times: and the present belts of tundra and forest vegetation are post-glacial. As far west as the longitude of Moscow they are of east Siberian origin, and it is only here that this Siberian forest meets mid-European forests advancing in the opposite direction; so that there is overlap of competing species, with a slight balance of advantage on the side of the eastern types. The importance of this is that with the forest, and its animals,, man has spread also, from east, as from west; coalescing in the same longitude as the species of trees. And over and above the disputable evidence of hybrid physique around the line of coalescence, the Mongolian antecedents of all groups cast of that line are betrayed by the fact that they have the reindeer domesticated, and do not hunt it, as Redskins do? and as did the men of the glacial west so long as wild reindeer survived there* Quite distinct from all this, and representing a very much lat<£r phase of redistribution, is the exodus from the western gate of Mongolia. Here, about latitude 45°, the roughly parallel ranges of Altai and Tienshan stand (on an average) two hundred miles apart; the descent by this avenue onto the Kirghiz steppe is easy and manifold; the head waters of the Irtish have already cut back into the plateau, and an earlier affluent of the Sarmatian sea once I^iy] AFRICAN FAUNA AND AFRICAN MAN 25 did the same, through the gap east of Lake Balkash, But this avenue only becomes passable under a special conjunction of cir- cumstances; the Kirghiz steppe, which all lies below 1500 ft., and much of it below 600 ft., must be neither submerged nor sand- swept; yet the avenue itself must be free of snow-cap and conver- gent glaciers; the forests on the outer slope and in the passes amist be discontinuous enough to permit pastoral nomads to pass with their flocks; and thirdly, there must be sufficient inducement to leave the plateaux at all. Obviously there is not here any large margin between one set of obstacles and the other. Moreover, ex- cept when the Sarmatian sea-floor is exposed, the Kirghiz steppe itself leads only to the Urals, where progress is barred again by forest. It is intelligible therefore that over long periods this western avenfae was not open for man; or if traversed at all, it served rather to admit western hunters from the steppes, or foresters along the foothills, than to let out the pastorals of the high plateaux; and the actual mixture of races all along this edge of the plateaux sug- gests that for a long while, and very widely, it was the west that was the aggressor, as indeed its cultures would lead us to suspect. This summary outline is enough to show what seems to have been going on in the Asiatic continent which bounds the North- west Quadrant on the east. Its significance is that so far as can be seen, High Asia and its characteristic type of man remained utterly secluded from the North-west Quadrant until post-glacial time, and may be quite left out of its history. We have next to deal with the African region which adjoins it on the south. This African region, like the core of highland Asia, consists of ancient and stable land, on the northern half of which cretaceous and subsequent limestones have been laid down without serious disturbance over an area which has gradually diminished during tertiary times. In the north-west the multiple Atlas ranges belong to the Alpine folds, not to flatland Africa. Eastwards the con- tinuity of this vast flatland has been broken, as we have seen, by the sunken troughs of the Nile and Red Sea, as the Arabian slab was tilted and detached. Similar depression and tilting in front of th.e Tauric and Dinaric arcs submerged successive long strips of the north margin to the Mediterranean sea-floor, but the greater part of the Libyan flatland stood fast, and the Cyrenaic plateau was even forced slightly upwards, Here there has been oscillation, even within historic times, for the harbour of ancient Leptis is high and dry now, whereas at Cyrene the sea has invaded the Greek theatre, With no barriers due to configuration, the distribution of plants 26 PRIMITIVE MAN, IN GEOLOGICAL TIME [CHAP. and animals over this large area closely follows the climate. Equa- torial rainfall, resulting as it does from the general atmospheric circulation,, may confidently be assumed as a permanent factor' of strictly limited range, and has probably never extended much farther north than latitude 20°. As the only really high ground is in Abyssinia., far to the south-east, the effects even of the present monsoon winds are minimized, and moreover, before the nearer sections of the Indian Ocean subsided, there was no reason for these winds to blow so far west at all. There has therefore been nothing since cretaceous times to interfere with the normal se- quence of trade-winds and westerlies over all northern Africa; and the only calculable effect even of the Scandinavian and Alpine glaciation would be to shift each of these zones southward towards the equatorial rainbelt, and narrow them both. The distribution of plant and animal life lay regularly therefore, as now, in zones of latitude: tropical forest in the south, passing through parkland into steppe and desert, and thence through steppe into evergreens followed by deciduous and coniferous forest, and sub-arctic moor- land and tundra. In the days of the early tertiary archipelago, the trade-wind zone was submerged, and there was therefore no desert; tropical plants and animals of old * Malayan' type flour- ished northwards almost to the Arctic circle, and those of the modern * temperate* zone were represented only in the interior of Laurentia, With the emergence of the western Sahara, and of the mid-European peninsula, 'Malayan' types were restricted to the Tropics, and replaced by * African * like those of the modern savannah region. On the establishment of a Mediterranean sea and European sub-continent north of it, * African* types were restricted in their turn, and replaced by * Arctic* forms from Laurentia; which have their counterpart in the modern flora of temperate North America, and are still fringed on the Atlantic and Mediterranean seaboards by the cLusitanian* remnants of genera widespread in America* Of the human associates of this pre-glacial vegetation we have no direct evidence from Europe; but the modern human type which characterizes the zone now occupied by the restricted * African* fauna, is the negroid, both in Africa itself, and (as tfate aboriginal type) in the present Malayan region, and among the * African * fauna (with its lion, tiger, and elephant) which has fol- lowed the 'Malayan' into southern Asia. The Broken Hill skull, from a deep bone-deposit in a Rhodesian cave, was found associ- ated with a distinctive * African* fauna, and is reported to display no general character subversive of this statement* I, iv] SEQUENCE OF HUMAN TYPES IN AFRICA 27 But here a distinction must be made. Among the vast majority of * African * (that is to say * negro ') men, the prominent carnivor- ous-looking jaw is accompanied by a markedly long-shaped skull, giving purchase to the powerful jaw-muscles and itself compressed by them. This, like the deeper blackness of the skin, has been commonly regarded as a special adaptation to 'African* zoological conditions; for other types survive isolated, not only in the heart of equatorial Africa and of the Malayan region, but far to the south where the edges of negro-land reach the Limpopo swamps and the Kalahari desert; types which though generally negroid, are of abnormally small stature, inclined to steatopygy (an abnormal development of superficial fat, especially among the women) and general hairiness, and with a yellowish or leathery tinge in their blackness, and a far less long-shaped head than either the standard negroes of Africa, or their * Malayan' counterpart in Melanesia. The trans-Malayan counterpart of the Bushmen, Vaalpens, and Strandloupers of South Africa is now easily recognizable in the Tasmanians1. That these types are ancient, and that they were already associated with the * African" fauna before it disappeared from Europe, is rendered probable, first, by the occurrence of negroid individuals along with north-western or Eurafrican races in palaeolithic deposits at Mentone, and in carvings palaeolithic and later; by the survival of a pygmy type into early neolithic times at S chaff hausen; by the frequent steatopygy of late palaeolithic and also of neolithic statuettes; by the representations of similar types in neolithic Egypt; and by other traces of a far wider distri- bution than now, in Africa itself. Besides the very long head of the standard negro type other characteristics, such as high stature and great physical strength, the more purely black pigment, the woolly scalp, the lack of body-hair, the prominent heel and slender calf, and the everted lips, may be regarded (like the more striking pecu- liarities of the Mongol type) as secondary adaptations to a highly special regime — in this case the tropical rain-forest, during the restriction of the * African* fauna to its eventual range south of the desert belt. Analogous local adaptations of a genetically * African' Type, associated in its geographical range with survivals of an * African' fauna, may be regarded as sufficiently accounting for the 'oceanic' negroes; for the negroid 'Dravidian* survivals in 1 There are no doubt other factors to be taken into account in tljese cor- relations, such as the build of the skull-base and the spinal calumny iail that is attempted here is to illustrate analogies, which might be multiplied, between the remoter races of the two regions in question. 28 PRIMITIVE MAN, IN GEOLOGICAL TIME [CHAP. southern India and beyond; for the ancient descriptions of * Asi- atic Ethiopians' in Mekran and in the extreme south of Arabia, around the margin (that is) of the sunken regions of Indo-Africa; and for the curious survival in the Mediterranean, and even in France and Britain, of types which combine certain characteristics of negro and of white man without any of the common marks of the half-breed, If an anthropologist were required to indicate an extant type of man to illustrate such common characters, he would choose the widespread and loosely interconnected group which includes the aboriginal elements of the population of Ceylon and peninsular India, and a long series of remnants further west; through southern Persia, and parts of southern Arabia, merging in thje darker- coloured and slighter built elements of the mixed 'Hamitic' p<3f>u- lation of north-eastern Africa, and in a superficially similar strain which is perceptible among outcasts and derelicts of the Mediter- ranean region and recurs as far afield as the British Isles, though here there are few precise observations yet. Summing up the relations which have existed between the negro and the white races on the African continent we reach the following result. The climatic zone represented by the Saharan desert, though it has varied in width, has been maintained long" enough to serve as an impermeable screen between the negro and the white stocks, except along a narrow coast belt fringing the Atlantic, and perhaps in the Nile Valley. Only the rare 'negroid* individuals in the palaeolithic caves of the Riviera suggest that during exceptional northward shift of the climatic belts, African man may have reached south-western Europe, temporarily and in small numbers: though others would explain these facts not by northward incursion of ready-made African * negroids/ but by the former presence, along the whole length of the region immediately south of the Highland Zone, of 'dark white* types such as those already mentioned, We have thus reconstituted, so far as it is known, the earlier distribution of the yellow-$kinned, straight-haired, round-headed Mongoloids, in the secluded upland heart of Asia; of the black- skinned, woolly-haired, and long-headed negroes of Indo-Africatf antecedents; and of the very indeterminate group of varieties which range from the Dravidian and other "dark-white* stocks to the 'poor-whites' of^the Near East and the Mediterranean, Having associated the peculiarities of their physical build, with the preva- lence of geographical conditions likely to give rise to them, we turn to the more complicated problems presented by the so-called I, IY] THE WHITE RACES OF MAN 29 * white race" of the north-west Quadrant, Here the criteria of statute, hair-texture, skin colour, and headform seem at first sight to fail us, in the medley of tall and short peoples; slim or thickset; blondes, auburn s, and brunettes; with all varieties of wavy or curly hair, and of florid or pasty complexions; with eyes brown, hazel, grey or various shades of blue; and with heads rivalling the average proportions alike of Mongol and Negro, and presenting besides very marked variation, in the height and contour of the brain-case, and in the modelling of face and jaw, In the long controversy which has been provoked by these anomalies, the following have been the principal turning points. Blumenbach selected a Georgian type from the Caucasus to illus- trate whaj he regarded as the embodiment of the qualities of the whftc race as a whole, and gave to the group a name the full appropriateness of which is appreciated only when it was realized what a medley of men is harboured in the Caucasus itself, Huxley insisted on the importance of the varieties of skin and hair, and distinguished within the whole group a blonde and a brunette section. Sergi recognized a closer structural relationship between the long-headed brunettes of the Mediterranean, and the long- headed blondes of the Baltic shores than between either of these and the broad-headed men of the Alpine zone; Bogdanof proved that the long-headed people of neolithic Russia and western Siberia belonged to the Baltic or * Nordic" type, not to the Medi- terranean type as Sergi had supposed, and were to be classed as blondes; Lapouge realized that the broad-headed strains, distri- buted through the mountain zone of central Europe, over an area tapering somewhat from east to west, and extending beyond this zone far into western Russia, into the Netherlands and Denmark, and into the south and east of Britain, originated not by local adaptation of various longer headed peoples to highland altitudes or other geographical conditions, but by the intrusion of a fresh 4 Alpine* race, anatomically distinct in its general build as well as in its characteristic head form. Ripley associated this European c Alpine' type with the great mass of even broader-headed varieties which occupy Asia Minor and the mountain zone eastward as far tLs the Pamirs. Deniker discriminated within this broad-headed complex, at least three brunette sub-types, the short thickset 'Cevenole' of central France and Savoy, the tall, well-propor- tioned 'Dinaric' variety of Dalmatia and Albania, and the very peculiar 'Armenoids* of Asia Minor, with their heads abruptly flattened behind; to which it was an easy corollary, that the blonde Alpines of north-eastern Europe had arisen by interbreeding with 30 PRIMITIVE MAN, IN GEOLOGICAL TIME" [CHAP. 'Nordic' blondes,, and his 'Littoral7 and "Atlantic ' types by similar interbreeding with * Mediterranean * brunettes. Keith distinguished between those broad-headed folk who entered Britain across 6ie North Sea, coining from north-eastern Germany, and those who entered across the Channel and originated west of the Rhine. More recently Peake has restated the evidence for separating alto- gether from any * Alpine/ that is to say south-easterly immigration, those broad-headed peoples, of northern Mongoloid descent who came westwards with the spread of the Siberian forest, round the northern edge of the old Sarmatian lake-land. It only remains before summarizing present knowledge, as heretofore, in brief narrative form, to note tentative identification by de Ouatrefagcs of the * Cro-Magnon type' of late-palaeolithic man with recent Berber and Guanche strains; the separation established by Scfiliz of* the old long-headed population of the Danube Valley both from the Nordiclong-heads of the Baltic area, and from the Mediterranean folk of the south-west, and his affiliation of it to the late palaeo- lithic hunting-folk; and Fleure's recent confirmation of the long- suspected survival, in the moorlands of central Wales, of a breed anatomically indistinguishable from the widespread * Aurignacian* type, of the same remote period. For the steps by which these main positions have been won, and consolidated into a realm of knowledge, reference must be made to current hand-books and the literature on which they are based, The problem of the * white races* is simplified in some degree by the severe glaciation of northern and central Kurope, which is the central event of 'Pleistocene * and * Quaternary * times; since the origin of the modern population of the glaciated regions is to be sought not in any general survival of earlier kinds of man within them, but in their reo ecu pation by plants, animals and men alike, from unglaciated areas. It is therefore only in these adjacent areas that questions of continuous descent can arise; and the actual distribution of the Mongoloid and Negroid varieties, and still more the reported occurrence of non-Mongoloid and pro-Mon- goloid remains on a number of sites around the fringe of South America, offer a strong presumption that the human species had already spread very widely before the glacial crisis deranged itft distribution. The close association of Negroid survivals with the discontinuous African fauna makes it certain, as we have seen,, that man accompanied this fauna before its disruption^ and probable that he was associated with it when it was still in full occupation of the North- Western Quadrant. Human remains do in fact occur with those of * African * animals, in numerous European deposits I, v] PALAEOLITHIC MAN IN THE NILE VALLEY 31 belonging to fairly early phases of the Ice Age; and the later and better 'attested varieties of * eoliths/ belonging to phases not long an*tecedent5 would be accepted by many people as evidence of a tool-using mode of life, if there were found contemporary traces of men who might have used them. In any case, the * Chellean' types of implements (p. 46), which are contemporary with the earliest human remains, are clearly not by any means primitive, but pre- suppose much experience in the improvement of handy stones, V. PALAEOLITHIC MAN IN THE SOUTH AND EAST The sequence of early forms of man and of his handiwork was first established laboriously and by comparison of many sites in western Isurope; and it is only recently that it has been realized that in the Nile valley we have a single continuous series of de- posits, outside the glaciated area, and free from its destructive austerity, but near enough to it to be affected by marked alterna- tions of moist and dry climate which can now be securely linked to the main periods of the Ice Age in Europe. With this clue to guide us, we can more easily seize the outstanding features of the European series, among their bewildering complexity of detail. The deep narrow Nile-gulf which was formed, as we have seen, in the pliocene period, across an otherwise featureless plateau, became at the close of that period a series of long lakes fed partly from the upper Nile, but partly also by considerable lateral streams whose gravel-screes, washed from the plateau surface during a period of considerably greater rainfall than now, contain chipped flints of * eolith* types; and such * eoliths7 are found on the plateau also. In a period of increasing subsidence and more abundant rain these lakes were gradually silted up by the deeply stratified Melan- -beds, which overlie the lateral screes as high as 1 80 ft* above the present flood level. A rain maximum, which may be taken to represent the first glacial crisis in Europe, accelerated this silting, and made good hunting on the plateau for some kind of man, whose implements, of the Chellean* type familiar from interglacial gravels in west- ern Europe, are found both there and in the Melanop$is~bzd$. Breasted ascribes to this phase, on account of their deeply weather- stained appearance, certain earlier rock-engravings of animals and even of boats, on the precipitous edges of the plateau, A first inter- pluvial drought (representing an interglacial mitigation of the cli- mate of the north-west) terminated this silting; but the Nile stream, fed as now by tropical rainfall further south, continued to flow 32 PRIMITIVE MAN, IN GEOLOGICAL TIME [CHAP. over the dry lake-beds, and cut into them a deep canon. It should be observed here that any northward shift of the desert regime should be accompanied by some extension of the tropical rain belt, and probably also of the area affected by the monsoon rains, since the Indian Ocean was by this time as extensive as now; and that these rains, then as now, would continue to feed the Nile stream, however arid the climate of its lower valley. In this period of drought and erosion, man seems to have maintained himself on the dry lake-bed, for Chellean implements are found among those remnants of its surface which forms the 'upper-terraces' on either side of the gorge. Next, a second rain-age, corresponding with the second or 4 Minder glaciation of Europe, flooded the gorge and set the lateral torrents to work again; and as a rise in the sea-levelf like that which submerged much of the Atlantic seaboard, checked the main stream, a fresh series of gravels, analogous to those of the Somme and Thames, were deposited to a height of 90-100 ft. above present flood level. In the new screes, as well as on the old plateau surface outside the valley, implements are found, of the more advanced *Acheulian* fabric, showing that man became again ubiquitous as the region became refertilized; and in the early part of the second interpluvial pause, he spread once more, as in France and Britain, on to the gravel beds, and scattered imple- ments there to the margins of the new gorge which was being cut through them by the main river* Once again in a third rain-maximum, corresponding with the third or *Riss* glaciation, fresh gravels were laid down in this inner gorge, not so copious as the earlier series, but partly covering the recent lateral screes, and standing in some places as much as 30 ft* above modern flood level; since the actual valley has been eroded In them during a third interpluvial drought* And once again, man ranged over the surface of these gravels, and left his implements there, as well as on the plateau, where they He on the desert surface mixed with all their predecessors* Then follows the fourth rain-maximum, a comparatively mild one, corresponding with the fourth or 'Wtlrm* glaciation. The gorge, of which the bed lies not less than 60 ft. below modern flood level, began to accumulate the first deposits of the present alluvium; which are shown by borings to contain human imple- ments at nearly all depths. A first pause in the deposition of this alluvium, corresponding probably with the * lower forest' period around the North Sea and the Channel, allowed man to descend through the fens to the river margin, and accounts for the presence, I,v] CONTINUOUS HUMAN OCCUPATION 33 at a depth of 50—60 ft. not merely of implements but of rough fragmehts of pottery, and animal bones of domesticable if not domesticated species. As the rate of deposition since the thirteenth century B.C. aver- ages 4-08 inches in a century, this depth would represent a period of 15,000—18,000 years, assuming that the rate remained uni- form. But as there were certainly oscillations, and probably more rapid deposition at first, this estimate can only be approximate, and should perhaps be reduced. A second and a third access of alluvium, corresponding with the lower and upper peat-moss periods in Europe, and separated by ill-defined pauses, has raised the flood plain to its present level, at which it covers not only the edges of th§ last-eroded gorge, but part of the valley floor of the fourtS rain-maximum between the 'lower terraces* already men- tioned, which in some places now rise only about 20 ft. above the flood plain. It will be seen from this sequence of events that there is every reason to believe that the Nile valley, and the margins of the desert plateau on either side of it, have been occupied by man continu- ously, though with varying density of population, at least from the beginning of the pleistocene period. Wherever any of its succes- sive land surfaces remain in the valley itself, his implements have been found representing successive stages of skill analogous to those of western Europe; and on the surface of the plateau* which has been exposed continuously, implements of all periods are found indiscriminately, and constitute a more nearly uninterrupted and graduated series than anywhere else. The only serious gap, inevitably, is in the period immediately preceding the settlements on the present alluvial surface, because this alluvium is in process of deposition, and its encroachment, since the last interpluvial pause, on the surface of the lower terrace, has been burying the sites and tombs of immediately preceding phases, As human occupation has been thus continuous and (in the more fertile intervals) widespread, and as there is nothing in the physique of the earliest known inhabitants of the alluvial surface to suggest that they have been of anything but the local variety of EiJrafrican man, it seems probable that the arts of life represented in all these deposits are of indigenous, or at least quite local de- velopment. The last period of alluvial aggression has however been a very long one, and while the pauses in it may be presumed to represent phases of greater drought than now, the periods of more rapid deposition should be interpreted conversely as periods of moister climate, and consequently of less complete isolation from C. A.H.I 3 34 PRIMITIVE MAN, IN GEOLOGICAL TIME [CHAP. the comparatively well-watered and fertile region of Palestine and Syria, where a similar though not yet so perfect sequence* of im- plements is being found. At these phases therefore allowance mxist be made for the possibility of intrusions of Palestinian and Syrian man, anticipating that which is known to have occurred when the so-called 'Gizeh' type entered and dominated Egypt in early dynastic time, And the gradual dilution of this alien type on that occasion imposes caution in assuming,, from the approximate purity of the predynastic inhabitants of the valley, that no such intrusion had ever occurred earlier. The importance of such caution will be understood when we take stock of the predynastic culture, more fully to be described in Chap, vi, and compare it with the distribution of |ome of its chief elements elsewhere. First, the types of implements preserve almost without qualification the ancient technique of mere chip- ping and flaking. The grinding and polishing, characteristic of neolithic implements in Europe and along the Highland Zone, are employed only late and in a supplementary way. The flaking on the other hand exhibits a climax of unparalleled delicacy just before the first apparition of copper implements, in immediately predynastic time. This obstinate adherence to the flake-technique cannot be merely due to the abundant supply of suitable flint, in the rocks of the valley sides; for the upper valley exhibits a large variety of crystalline and volcanic rocks, and pebbles from these rocks are included in old gravels downstream. Considering the proximity of the large West Asiatic region of ancient and highly developed skill in grinding and polishing such pebbles, the persistence of the flake-technique in Egypt is therefore a strong presumption of technical isolation; and the rare occurrence of polished celts, of the fully formed neolithic types common In Western Asia, points rather to occasional trade than to local manufacture* This isolation is confirmed by the original and unparalleled sequence of the pottery-forms, at all events down to the point at which appears the * red-polished* ware which is common to Egypt, Syria, and Cyprus in immediately predynastic time. And the fact that so many of the Egyptian pot-forms seem to depend on those of vessels cut out, or rather ground out^ from hard stone, makes all the more remarkable that abstention from the grinding-tcchniqiie for implements, which has been noticed above* With the ovoid forms of many of these stone vases should be compared those of the perforated stone mace-heads, which likewise betray great technical skill in shaping and perforating refractory rocks, I, v] DOMESTICATED PLANTS AND ANIMALS 35 It must however be remembered that it is just at this period that thfi Nile-valley series is least continuous and complete. Be- tween the two main groups of the oldest remains (the refuse heaps and the burials beyond the advancing edge of the alluvium) there is a notable discrepancy. For from the moment when the population left their earlier settlements, descended into the fens, and began to domesticate cattle and practise agriculture, until the time when the fens were completely reclaimed, the dead were probably buried in the alluvium, or on its margin, and the earlier tombs are there- fore covered more or less deeply by the later alluvium. That this was so, is shown by one or two of the oldest known burial-grounds, which not only lie on the very edge of the present alluvium but have been proved to extend beneath it. Yet even these show phases of culture which are highly developed and in some respects already decadent; and throughout the long 'predynastic' period for which burials are available, there is further decadence, especially in the finer stonework. Moreover, even in the earliest known graves, objects of lapis lazuli, which must be of foreign origin, are found occasionally, and also objects of copper. Probably therefore the greater part of the purely neolithic stage of Egyptian civilization still remains to be disinterred from tombs on the valley floor beneath the recent alluvium, and from sites on old flood plains within the alluvium itself. Other arts of life, represented in the earliest burials, are the use of wattled huts, basketry, matting and vegetable thread; of leather and wood-work, and of bone, ivory, and shell for ornaments. Rouge and green malachite were used for paint. Agriculture is represented by flax, millet, barley, and wheat; of the latter grain, both the variety called emmer (Triticum dicoccum^ which is found wild in limestone uplands in Syria, and Moab, and in western Persia) was grown, and also the cultivated wheat (TrMcum vu/gare). Goats, sheep, and short-horn cattle were kept, all apparently of African varieties, and attempts were still being made even in early dynastic times to domesticate ibex, gazelle, antelope, deer, and other desert ruminants. There were domestic geese and ducks from the fens, and from early paintings it would seem that the os?xich was familiar, if not kept in captivity like the gazelle. The dog was known, and in early dynastic times there were special breeds for sport and other purposes. The only beast of burden was an African variety of ass. There was organized irrigation, and probably an ox-drawn hoe, the prototype of the plough, as it is depicted in early-dynastic hieroglyphs. The river was navigated in large house-boats; there was fishing with hooks of delicate 3 — * 36 PRIMITIVE MAN, IN GEOLOGICAL TIME [CHAP. flint work, and immemorial hunting on the desert and in the fens, for the prowess of chiefs was symbolized by a fobe^ of leopard-skin. That in fertile periods a similar neolithic culture spread widely westward over north Africa is clear from early Egyptian records, depicting the Libyans as pastoral folk, with herds of cattle, and asses; and from the survival, even now, of pot fabrics and basketry of predynastic technique and decoration. Connecting links between the palaeolithic series of the Nile valley and of western Europe are not yet numerous; but enough has been found, especially in Algeria, and around Gafsa in south Tunis, to support the conclusions drawn from the climatic regime, and geological confirmations of its effects, and from^he general character of the modern population, which includes Aurigifkcijin remnants like those of Plynlimmon and Dordogne, and is other- wise strikingly uniform with the older elements in western Europe. Eoliths have been recorded around Gafsa and in Algerian quaternary beds; pre-Chellcan and Chellean types from Gafsa ; and the later deposits around Gafsa reveal a typical North African culture equivalent to the later palaeolithic of Europe. Rock-draw- ings from Algeria resemble those in the later French and Spanish caves. The area of this 'Capsian' culture (so called from the ancient name of Gafsa itself) seems to cover all northern Africa as far south as the oasis of Ghadames; it passes over westward into the later palaeolithic of Spain and southern France, and extends east- ward into Syria, And the continuity, now abundantly evident for this later * Capsian ' culture, is indicated for earlier periods also by more scattered finds of implements of all fabrics common to the Nile and to west Europe, in the wide ill-explored area between Gibraltar and North Syria. We may safely assume, therefore, es- sential continuity of human occupancy of this region from before the first pluvial period, qualified only in its extent by the climatic oscillations, which cohere, as in Egypt, with those of the European Ice Age. We may conclude also that all interglacial ebb and flow of human types from the south towards the Atlantic seaboard was essentially the marginal expansion or contraction of this large Eurafrican region. Of the physical characters of Burafrican nfcn we learn more at present from the remains on European sites, than from the ill-explored areas further south; in Egypt, unfortunately, no such remains have been found before the time of the predynastic graves, which belong, as we have seen, to the latest alluvial phases* Before turning however to the palaeolithic series in Europe, the question confronts us ; what was happening east of the Nile valley, I, v] EARLY MAN IN SYRIA AND ARABIA 37 and south of that section of the Folded Highland which affronts so abnfptly the Levant and the Persian Gulf; namely on that large Arabian flatland which lies dislocated and tilted askew between great Africa and greater Asia, and along the Palestinian isthmus which connects its north angle with the Highland Zone? In its earlier stages, as we have seen, this flatland was itself a part of Africa: and the great fractures which determined the geography of the Red Sea and the Nile valley did not wholly break this con- nexion. Both at the northern and the southern end of the Red Sea, there had been frequently continuous land, and in dry periods this sea shrank through evaporation, as the Dead Sea has shrunk now. But the great slab of Arabia itself, tilting steadily under Iranian fold-stresse^s, became structurally secluded behind its abrupt western escarpment, and offered to its occupants an independent, if rather restricted career. Until the comparatively late disruption of the Hormuz Strait, the waters of the long Mesopotamian lake — an Adriatic of the Nearer East — restricted the land area of this peninsula, and mitigated its climate. The dimensions of its east- ward-flowing drainage systems testify to former fertility; and we must probably conceive it as having long enjoyed a regime not unlike that of peninsular India, with Lebanon and Bashan playing the part of the Ghats. That it was inhabited by man, with a palaeolithic culture re- sembling that of north Africa, is proved by implements from Sinai, Palestine and Phoenicia, the only districts which have been sufficiently explored; they range from CM ouster ian* types onwards; that is to say, from at least the third pluvial maximum. Of the sequence of physical types, we know nothing: provisionally it may be assumed, from the sequence of artefacts, that if * Neanderthal' Man ranged over this region, as is suggested by the * Mousterian ' implements, he was extirpated, as in the west, by men of generic- ally Eurafrican stock; for the actual inhabitants, though far from uniform, are in essentials akin to their western neighbours. It would be natural to expect some traces of the 'Grimaldi7 negroids of the Riviera caves, and of the *poor white' strains (already men- tioned) which are common to the Atlantic seaboard, the Mediter- nfihean, and peninsular India; and superficial observation supports this; but there has been no accurate survey as yet. All that can be stated at present is that a modern population, of generically Eurafrican stock, shows larger local modifications than the present uniform regime would lead us to expect; and it may be inferred from this, that with more copious vegetation the main drainage areas were formerly better secluded, and permitted such differ- 38 PRIMITIVE MAN, IN GEOLOGICAL TIME [CHAP. entiation. The most Important of these local varieties is a com- paratively broad-headed type in the extreme south of Arabia; but there is no evidence as to its antiquity here, and it may only result from intercourse in historic times with trading centres in north Syria, which as we have seen is an ancient dependency of the Highland Zone. Such are the physical circumstances in which was fashioned one of the most notable of human stocks, the Semites of Arabia. Physically they are akin to their 'Hamitic* neighbours beyond the Red Sea and throughout Eurafrica, and strongly contrast with the men of the Highland Zone who have spread southward along its Syrian projection, or overflowed from time to time along the margins of the tilted slab. Culturally they have been habituated for long ages, like the Nile-plateau folk, to alternations'of moisture and drought, which however never seem to have permitted any extensive growth of forest, except on the monsoon frontage to the south-east, nor, on the other hand, ever to have extinguished the grassland vegetation entirely. They are therefore typically grass- land folk. They have domestic animals of their own, goat, camel,, and ass, all native to Arabia; the sheep, and eventually the horse, have been acquired by them from outside; in both cases from the north. They have a remarkable type of linguistic structure, re- motely shared only by the Hamitic group, which lies nearest to them, otherwise; and a temperament and outlook more coherent and persistent than that of any other of the greater races. In the moister spells, such people multiply over the widening grassland more rapidly than any alien can habituate himself to pastoral life, or to precarious agriculture c between the desert and the sown/ On the other hand, in spells of drought, Arabia erupts like a volcano, pouring floods of highly organized and mobile tribes across its land frontiers north-eastward, northward, and across the Jordan rift into coastland Syria and Palestine, perchance even into Africa. There has been percolation also, more insidious, but of wide effect, across the Red Sea, and especially its southern strait, where the transit into Africa is shorter, and timber for boats is more avail- able. Such periodic exodus of Arabian tribes can be traced back inferentially to the third millennium at least; and it need not tee supposed that the earliest recorded movement was by any means the first. The predynastic regime of Upper Egypt, for instance, seems to be partly due to such a movement crossing the Red Sea to Koseir, and reaching the Nile at Coptos by a trail which can be followed now. And it has already been hinted that the old popu- lation of the Nile valley may have been so supplemented even I, vj THE PALESTINIAN ROAD FROM THE NORTH 39 earlier. The physical resemblance between Arabian and Eurafrican man is* however close enough to make detection difficult, even if eafly evidence were found. See also pp. 182 sqq^ 193, 254. Allusion has already been made to the prolongation southwards of spurs from the Highland Zone through North Syria, to form with the high western edge of Arabia a continuous highland causeway along the abrupt eastern margin of the Mediterranean, and then along the Gulf of Akaba to loftier and steeper escarp- ments fronting to the Red Sea. In structure most of this causeway is Arabian, but its exposure to wet winds from the west has given it a Mediterranean climate and a considerable rainfall; it is the 'good land beyond Jordan, flowing with milk and honey/ which tempts the nomads of Arabia in all ages, yet has never acclimatized them to itsfclf. For the vegetation is partly old African, with tropi- cal survivals still in the hot moist jungle of the Jordan gorge; partly Mediterfanean, spreading along the coast plains and sea- ward foothills; but always mainly Asiatic, reinforced, ever since the junction of highland causeways above mentioned, from the Highland Zone at its north end. Of its earlier human occupants we have little but a few Mousterian implements; but in the first neolithic culture in Palestine the people are of the highland breed; they burn their dead; and their implements, pottery, and other equipment are in strong contrast both with everything Egyptian, and with the grassland influences which predominate later. Arabian man has occupied the 'good land' again and again; but the moist air seems to be fatal to him, and many of the peasantry of south Palestine are hardly to be distinguished from their neolithic pre- decessors, But the Palestinian complication is not the only one which qualifies the homogeneity of Arabia. Very ancient interaction of the streams which furrow the south face of the Highland Zone has reduced its drainage systems in this region to three. The Cilician rivers, trending south-westward, have created a secluded alluvial foreshore on the Gulf of Alexandretta, peopled, in all ages, by tribes who have come down from the mountain region inland, or, more rarely, have landed from oversea. The Tigris, flowing smith-eastward, is joined below Mosul by the two Zab rivers from the Median highlands in what was once another such foreshore, at the head of a Mesopotamian gulf; but it could only attain its eventual importance when that foreshore spread along the foothills of Zagros and merged with the similar deltas of the Diyala, and eventually of the Kerkhah and Karun further south again. The latter even now has a separate mouth west of the Shatt el-Arab. Here again, as in 40 PRIMITIVE MAN, IN GEOLOGICAL TIME [CHAP. Palestine and Cilicia, vegetation and other occupants spread outwards from the valleys, and coastwise, as these delta foreshores encroached on the gulf. But between the head-waters of the Tigris and those of the Ctlician rivers., one southward stream, Euphrates, has cut back deeper and further than its neighbours and intercepted not only the original headwaters of the Tigris, between Malatiu and Diarbekr, but far larger areas of old westward drainage as far as Erzerum and the slopes of Mount Ararat. Thus reinforced, Euphrates has excavated, in successive periods of elevation and copious rainfall, a wide and deep valley, well-watered and fertile throughout, athwart the sunk north-eastern slope of the Arabian slab, reaching the gulf formerly at el-Der, later at Ana, and (at the beginning of the modern phase) at Hit, where it cicscemis a last terrace of solid coast-line almost to the present sea-level. To plants, animals, and people of the foothills and the Syrian parkland, this long fertile valley has always offered sustenance far out into the steppe and desert which it traverses, By this emphatic frontier of the Euphrates channel, a roughly triangular area of southward sloping plateau — -a miniature Arabia. about as large as Ireland — is marked off from the Syrian and north Arabian plateau, and has never wholly been rejoined in history. This is Mesopotamia, the 'land between rivers/ for the Tigris delimits it no less clearly eastward from the foothill country below the Zagros ranges. Its structure is continuous with that of Syria; its climate is essentially the same, giving it (at present) desert and steppe regime in the south, and parkland nearer the hills. Its only river, the Khabur, rises in the highland, where it threatens to behead what is left of the Upper Tigris at Diarbckr; but till this happens its drainage-area is not sufficient to give It geographical importance; except that where it falls into the Euphrates close below el-Der, its delta forms a cultivable plain opening on the main valley. It will be seen at once that like Syria to the westward, Mesopotamia forms a region of transition, occupiable from the highland north of it, as far as its parkland extends at any given period; but offering wide steppe-pasture to any nomads of Arabia who may succeed in putting their flocfeS across the Euphrates, These then were the geographical and economic factors down to the time when the present sea-level was established* and the Euphrates delta, propagated south-eastward from Hit, began to coalesce with those of the Tigris and the Diyila round the Meso- potamian gulf-head, which then lay between Baghdad and Samarra, I, v] SUMER AND AKKAD 4I We might compare an immature Lombardy with, the Ticino pre- paring to join deltas with the Po. 'What has followed, while the joint delta pushed its alluvial steppe and dense fen-margin seaward over the 550 miles which separate Hit from the modern coastline., is disputed, and must inevitably be obscure. As in Egypt, the population, human and other, of the alluvial flood-plain may be presumed to have been derived from the shores of the gulf as it silted up. But these shores, as we have seen, were themselves peopled from different sources; the deltas of the eastern torrents, from the Zagros foothills; the Tigris banks, with sparse but continuous offshoots of the occu- pants of its upper valley; the fertile bed of the Euphrates, with similar elements, longer segregated however from their highland and parkland ancestry. Arabia, on the other hand, established a longer and longer land frontier with the growing flood-plain, as happened to Libya while the Nile trough was being silted up; it overflowed this frontier with its own aborigines, wherever steppe conditions were established; and this Arabian element became more important as two conditions were fulfilled; first, as the north- ern part of the delta between the main rivers, and behind its ad- vancing fen-frontage on the gulf-head, was assimilated in climate and vegetation to the steppe of southern Mesopotamia; second, as the main Euphrates stream took a more easterly course (as it eventually did), leaving a larger expanse of alluvium from Kerbela southward undefended by any considerable water-channel against Arabian immigrants; and this, too, nearly opposite the point where intercourse is easiest with the comparatively hospitable Nejd oases in the heart of the peninsula. On the other hand the establishment of an important bifurcation of the Euphrates threw a new channel across to the Tigris near Baghdad, and interposed a fresh obstacle to nomad intruders from Mesopotamia into what we may hence- forward call by its historic name of Babylonia, or by the older names of Sumer and Akkad, its principal sub-regions, which differ slightly in accordance with their respective situations. That under these circumstances the southern or Sumerian half of the growing delta should be more exclusively populated from the foothills of Za|>Tos, and that the northern or Akkadian half should show greater affinities with Arabian and Mesopotamia!! people, would seem to be inevitable, and is generally admitted. It is however unnecessary, in view of the geographical antecedents, to attribute all such northerly or westerly affinities to the earliest Semitic migration of which there is historic record. The same factors had been co-operating already for a long time. 42 PRIMITIVE MAN, IN GEOLOGICAL TIME [CHAP. VI. THE ICE AGE IN THE NEAR EAST We have next to see how this region of the 'Two Rivers/ and the sections of the Highland Zone adjacent to it, northwards and eastwards, were affected by the glacial crisis. As evidence is at present scanty, conclusions must be more general,, and a wider survey will best bring out the most essential points. As far as the head of the Adriatic,, a single series of events has been reconstructed in greater detail for all western Europe, and to this we shall re- turn later. East of the Adriatic, information is less copious, but the main course of events is fairly clear. The Carpathians, Dinaric ranges, and the Thracian mass of Rhodope were heavily snow- capped, and glaciated locally, and similar conditions prevailed on the coast-ranges of Asia Minor, both north and soutfi. Caucasus and Armenia, rising to greater altitudes, were glaciated more severely; and Lebanon, flanked by the Mediterranean on the one side, and with the shores of the Mesopotamian Gulf not so far off as now, on the other, had an ice-cap exceptionally heavy for its latitude. But a large part of Asia Minor probably remained fertile and habitable throughout. What is far more characteristic of this region, as of the Aegean depression and the Hellenic promontory, is the severely pluvial denudation, accentuating the rugged high- lands, and smothering the foothills in vast sheets of gravel and sand. In these the rivers cut fresh gorges during the drier intervals, which were also periods of emergence and consequently of longer and steeper gradients. The older drainage of Asia Minor had been longitudinal, towards the Aegean subsidence; sections of It are recognizable In the headwaters of the Euphrates, Halys and Iris; and the great westward avenue past Afium-karahissar probably represents its main outlet seaward* But later upthrusts of the west end of the Tauric arc closed this outlet, and converted the central plain into a lake-land, where some salt and gypsum were deposited as in Iran, But this had all happened in prcglacial timesj and the subsequent development of Asia Minor was differ- ent. For it was an immediate result of the subsidences already mentioned in the Black Sea region^ to accelerate erosion in the torrents on the new north coast, and two of these, Sangarius afiid Halys, cutting back clean through the Paphlagonian range*, drained the greater part of the central lake-land, and kept all Its floor fresh and habitable except the small central basin or Lake Tatta, The present drought is recent, and in part remediable; even in the fifth century B.C. the district west of the Halys was 'richest in sheep and corn of all known 1ri tads' for Herodotus. I, vi] GLACIAL CONDITIONS IN ARMENIA AND IRAN 43 Further east, the Armenian ice-cap extended at times almost to the plateaux, east and west; but in milder intervals there was con- tinuous highland country, full of small plateaux, glacier-fed gorges and lake-basins, from eastern Asia Minor to western Iran; prob- ably even at the worst some sort of corridor by way of Sivas, Kharput, Diarbekr, and the "Upper Tigris; while the triangular uplands of North Syria, between Adana, Damascus and Mosul, do not seem to have been glaciated at all. Even now, though the water-surface of the Persian Gulf has been greatly restricted, the deflection of the jo-inch rain-line north-eastward beyond the Lebanon reveals an exceptionally moist and equable climate, and associates this margin of the Arabian slab with the highlands to the north, and with the Mediterranean sea- boatfl, rather than with the rest of Arabia. It is no wonder that we have record of elephants in one of these Syrian valleys as late as the twelfth century B.C., or that the Macedonian veterans of Alexander the Great made here their most enduring settlements. But the well-marked ridge which is followed by the caravan route from Damascus to Palmyra makes the transition from parkland to steppe rather abrupt; and as long as the Lebanon retained any con- siderable ice-cap- — and it was certainly glaciated severely — there was little or no communication between north Syria and the south. The spread of Highland Man into Palestine (p. 39) was probably quite post-glacial, The course of events further east has been less easy to discover. Through the extension of an * Indian Ocean * along its southern margin, and through the re-establishment of the Sarmatian sea on the north, the climate of Iran necessarily became moister and more equable than it had been while its salt and gypsum beds were accumulating. Allowing always for its more southerly latitude, and ampler size, we may compare its geographical position with that of Asia Minor now, between the Levant and the Black Sea; and as it retains many elements of its old Indo-African fauna, there cannot have been any such climatic break as occurred further west. At most the salt and gypsum-covered waste in its centre has been larger or smaller, and more or less occupied by lakes; and i£S present drought is consequent on the quite recent shrinkage of the Sarmatian sea. During the glacial crisis, its high marginal ranges were snow-laden, but not severely glaciated except in the north-west and north-east; the diluvial thaw was consequently not very destructive; and as the main basin was never tapped by in- ward-cutting torrents, like Asia Minor (though some intermont basins in Zagros have begun to be drained by streams flowing 44 PRIMITIVE MAN, IN GEOLOGICAL TIME [CHAP. south into the Persian Gulf) its local reserve of moisture was only slowly dissipated, at the cost however of greater ultimate Salinity. East and west of it, however, the ice-caps of the Hindu Kush and Armenia, where the marginal ranges converge, isolated this region no less completely than did the seas to north and to south; for until the diluvial debris became continuous along the western frontage, the Persian Gulf extended, as we have seen, at least to the point where the Tigris emerges from the foothills of Kurdistan; while raised beaches of it have been traced far west of the Euphrates, All these regions therefore were habitable during the greater part of the Ice Age, and there are Chellean implements on the sur- face in Iran and Arabia, and in gravels containing mampoth bones on the Caspian shore, to show that they were inhabited widely by Man. The diluvial thaw, however, brought disaster here* As was natural so far south, it was very rapid, once the cold crisis was over; violent torrents seamed deeply the superficial sediments of the Arabian slab, and spread masses of debris, among which the older rivers followed uncertain courses, like the Oxus later on the Sarmatian sea-floor. Then, to diluvial rains succeeded drought and drifting sand, before any grassland, still less any forest regime could be established, sufficient to disintegrate this debris and ac- cumulate soil. In the foothills of Zagros similar torrents, descend- ing more abruptly, spent their diluvial energies within a narrower radius; so that the eventual course of the Tigris skirts and even erodes their fan-shaped screes of gravel Rapidly at first, and after- wards more gradually, the northern part of the old Persian Gulf was filled up by these converging deltas; while further south finer sediment accumulated with proportionate speed. There was up- ward earth movement, too, after long subsidence, for at Hit the Euphrates has cut down to an older shore line, and its rapids are now wearing through the sill of this* The disastrous effect of this diluvial phase was to eliminate Mesopotamia as a focus of post- glacial culture, and to postpone effective occupation till an alluvial area had been created beyond it. The contrast, in every respect, with Egypt on the one hand, and with the Po valley on the othfir, is complete,, and of historical Importance, I, vnj EARLY MAN IN EUROPE 45 VII. THE ICE AGE IN EUROPE We return now to peninsular Europe, west of the Adriatic and the Black Sea. Here the fourfold Alpine maxima of the glacial period corresponds as we have seen, with the pluvial maxima of the Nile, and with repeated glaciation, fringed by diluvial rainfall, of the Balkan lands and western Asia. Earlier study of the river gravels and caves of the Atlantic seaboard, from Britain to Spain, and most of all in northern and central France, has recently been supplemented by research along the north side of the Pyrenees, and in many parts of Spain; among the caves of the central German and Bohemian highlands; in the widespread deposits of interglacial loess along the Rhine, in the Danube valley, along the Margins of the north German lowland, and beyond the Car- pathians, in Poland, and Ukraine, There is controversy still as to the perspective of the earlier human finds; the principal question being whether these are later than the third or * Riss ' glaciation, or go back Into the milder interval between this and the second or * Minder crisis, which was the severest and most extensive of all. In what follows, the longer intervals are adopted, in the belief that these accord more closely with the pluvial series on the Nile, In Europe, as in Egypt, 'eolithic' objects from preglacial deposits, have been claimed by some observers as human handiwork. In the light of the Egyptian material, which offers very similar forms, the probability that they are so is somewhat increased; but it is too early yet for an accepted verdict on most of them. In East Angiia however the presence of preglacial Man seems already secure (p. 18), On the longer reckoning above adopted, it is in the * first iiiter- glacial * deposits which preceded the boulder clays and moraines of the *Mindel* glaciation, that the earliest human fragment has been found, a lower jaw chinless but recognizably human, from a gravel-bed near Heidelberg. No implements have been discovered in this deposit. A more perfect skull of a quite different and more modern-looking type comes, together with 'eoliths' and rolled bones of subtropical animals, from a very early river-side deposit arPiltdown, near Lewes, above, though not actually with, which lay gravel with implements ruder than those next to be mentioned, but generally similar in type. The date of the Piltdown deposit is still disputed, but it cannot be later than the earlier glacial gravels of the Thames, and may be considerably earlier. Next in the * second interglacial' debris of the thaw-swollen Somme, and other west European rivers, occur numerous imple- 46., PRIMITIVE MAN, IN GEOLOGICAL TIME [CHAP. ments, of the ruder fashion typical of the gravels of Chelles, and then in more skilful workmanship, at St Acheul. Both styles are chipped from natural nodules of flint3 so as to leave one end pointed, and the butt naturally or designedly rounded for grasping in the hand. These are but flood-spoil from camping grounds on the river banks, and tell little about their makers and users except that they haunted the drinking-places of the large African fauna whose bones are in the same gravels. Here, though we have their implements, we have at present no trace of the men themselves, It is only when the third glaciation draws on, and the African fauna were being replaced, except the woolly mammoth, by rein- deer, musk ox, arctic fox, marmot, and other Arctic animals, that man and his prey alike took shelter from the weathcj: in natural caves, and 'Mousterian* scrapers and borers, rudely fashioned by retouching the fresh edges of the flakes formed in shaping the 'Acheulian* coup-de-faing^ give a glimpse of the scraping and piercing of bones and hides during such sojourn, and the first hint of woman's knack of finding secondary uses for the waste from man's chase and chipping. The colder climate was enforcing the invention of clothes. In a Jersey cave of this period the hunting weapons predominated near the opening; domestic scrapers and hacked bones of animals further in; the remains of a child lay a little outside the entrance. In one French cave, an old man had been buried intentionally in the floor, crouched as so many savages sleep. This phase also has a wide distribution, from the south of England to Spain and Portugal, Algeria and Tunis, the plateau edge of the Nile valley and the Syrian margin of Arabia; eastward too through mid- Europe as far as Hungary, south Russia* and the Caucasus; and the style of the new implements Is still very uni- form. But outside these limits, lMousterian* settlements have not been found as yet, whereas Acheulian and Chellcan implements are common in South Africa^ and even further afield; and it is possible that it is to this period that we should assign a great divergence between human experiences within and beyond this ' Mousterian ' area, for reasons to be stated later (pp. 47—50). Like their implements, the men of this Older Palaeolithic Age are of very uniform type; and as this 'Neanderthal' type differs markedly from all subsequent varieties of men and also from the older but more modern-looking type represented by the Piltdown skull and some other finds of various early periods, it must be noted briefly at this point. Into the difficult question of its place in the human genealogy, this is not the place to go. Its distribution 48 PRIMITIVE MAN, IN GEOLOGICAL TIME [CHAP. definitely human chin. Well represented by examples from Britain, France, and as far east as Predmost in Moravia,, this is a^type in which not only "there are no salient features which cannot be matched among the living races of the present day/ but it remains the predominant element among the modern inhabitants of se- cluded districts such as the Plynlimrnon moorland in central Wales; it is common still in the west of Ireland, in the Dordognc, in Sardinia, about Guipuzcoa in Spain, and in parts of Tra-os- Monte5? and has been noted in the oases south of Algeria and Tunis, and among Egyptians, Somalis, and elsewhere in north-eastern Africa, The numerous earlier allusions to 'Neanderthaloid' indi- viduals in modern European populations probably refer to these Aurignacians, who look 'primitive* enough when contrasted with the majority of modern men, but are separated by almost, as -great an interval from the real Neanderthal type. From characteristics of these survivors it is possible to supplement the evidence of the early skeletons. The forehead is narrow, with marked hollows in the temples, above the heavy eyebrows; the orbits are long and narrow, the cheeks are high and broad. The nose is broad, the jaw prominent, and the chin rather weak; the stature is low, the carriage loose and ungainly, and the arms very long: the hair, eyes, and complexion are dark, and the whole body is very hairy. In some individuals, the resemblance to a common type of aboriginal Australian is well-marked; and the similarity between Aurignacian skulls in Europe and the prehistoric skulls from Lagoa Santa, in Brazil and other remote localities round the margins of South America, suggests that this type had once almost as wide a dis- tribution as that of the older types of implements. It does not however seem to have been recorded, as those have been, from tropical or southern Africa; and its extreme hairiness and the wavy texture of individual hairs distinguishes it altogether both from the Negroid and from the Mongoloid breed- With the occupation of western Europe, therefore, by Auri- gnacian Man begins a continuous series of events and material remains running on to modern times* There are moments in this series where continuity of civilization cannot be directly traced, but continuous descent is sure, and therewith continuity of tradi- tion, which above all other human characters engages the atten- tion of historians. Other breeds of man have intruded later, as we shall see, from the south-east along the Mountain Zone, and from the north-east as the Siberian forest extended towards the Volga basin; but in western Europe, Aurignacian man has never been wholly superseded, and still forms coherent groups such as the I, viz] CRO-MAGNON AND GRIMALDI TYPES 49 Plynlimmon moorlanders, and the secluded settlements already mentioned in Spain, Portugal, and Algeria. We are confronted however at this stage with a new turning point of advancement, the participation of more than one distinct breed of man in a single tradition of culture, and in exploitation of the same region. For, side by side with this Aurignacian type, at least two other varieties of man made their appearance in west- ern Europe during the warmer and drier period now in question. One of these, represented by the * Cro-Magnon ' skeletons, is both less widely distributed, and of larger and more modern-looking build; and has left, like the Aurignacian, its descendants among the modern population of France, Spain and North Africa, and also (according to some observers) round the western Baltic, Its genefal similarity with the Aurignacian has led to the presumption that it spread likewise from the south-west. The other type, distinctly negroid, is best represented by skele- tons from the Grimaldi cave near Mentone. There can be little doubt of its African affinities, and there are two other indications of such African types in Europe : a pygmy breed of somewhat negroid appearance, from an ill-dated deposit at Schaffhausen, near Constance; and the well-marked steatopygy which character- izes negroid Bushmen and Hottentots of South Africa,, and of some other negro breeds further north, and is represented in European drawings and sculptures of the female figure from Auri- gnacian times to the neolithic art of Malta. Steatopygy however is not an exclusively negroid character, and as it has been observed among the living in the same secluded districts along the western Pyrenees as the Aurignacian individuals already mentioned, all that results from the Grimaldi and Schaffhausen finds is that African varieties either had not yet entirely disappeared from southern Europe, or occasionally returned thither during periods of exceptional warmth* In general, however, it may be assumed that the present climatic zones were henceforward fairly well established; and that negro man, in the mass, did not range north of the Sahara desert, nor, except sporadically as now, along the Atlantic seaboard of North Africa. *The mode of life of * Aurignacian * man differed, no less than his build, from that of the Mousterians whom he superseded; and there is no reason for an archaeologist to dispute the consensus of anthropologists that there is no trace of intercourse between the two types* If they met, it was as independent competitors for the means of subsistence; and the almost total disappearance of Mous- teriati man after the arrival of Aurignacian, suggests that it was c.A.H-r 50 PRIMITIVE MAN, IN GEOLOGICAL TIME [CHAP. 'war to the knife' between them. The Tasmanians had no better fortune, after the arrival of Europeans in their country; and while the Tasmanians were rather less brutish than Mousterians, Euro- pean culture claims some advance over Aurignacian. Aurignacian industry shows great superiority over Mousterian. Flint implements are fashioned no longer from cores, but from selected Hakes, and are trimmed by careful flaking on both sur- faces., not on one only as heretofore. There are special types for boring and graving, knives adapted for a drawing-cut, and chisels for push-scraping. And the uses of all these are illustrated by an increasing quantity of bone tools, some of them shaped to be hafted with wood. There are bone dress-pins, beads and pendants; and bone whistles suggest concerted signals for action at a dis- tance. We may infer that men hunted now in a horde, and obeyed a leader; and that women took some pains with their attire. More noteworthy still is the beginning of pictorial art; en- gravings on bone and eventually carvings in relief and in the round; larger drawings and paintings on the walls of caves* The subjects are the animals most hunted by man, as their remains in his settlements show, reproduced with a sympathy and accuracy of observation, and a vigour of draughtsmanship and modelling, which have rarely been equalled. Human figures are rarer; usxntlly representing women, with rather prominent jaw, long-braided hair, and frequent steatopygy. Both men and women arc usually shown very hairy, and are seldom clothed, except when they mas- querade in complete hides of animals* A late and perplexing class of linear designs may represent huts or other constructions of timber. This civilization extends in time from the beginning of the interglacial period already mentioned, until far on into the last recurrence of glacial or rather pluvial conditions, for the fourth or 'Warm' glaciation was a comparatively small affair. It passes through several phases, Aurignacian in the special sense; Mag- dalenian, a well-marked regional culture of the Atlantic coast plain, best illustrated in the Dordogne cave of La Madeleine, which belongs to the beginning of a late spell of austerity; and Azilian, first identified in a remarkable cave in the foothills of the Pyrenees, which shows Magdalenian art and industry much de- generated, and only retrieved in interest by its use of painted symbols to distinguish hoarded pebbles of uncertain use. It is the first advance from delineation of objects to the visual representa- tion of ideas. On some sites in France, between Aurignacian and Magdalenian I, vn] THE LATER PALAEOLITHIC CULTURES 51 deposits, which in general form a continuous series of develop- ment, otcur fresh and very characteristic types of implements best represented at Solutre, near Macon, where hearths and burials of their makers lie immediately over a vast deposit of horse-bones marking the climax of the dry steppe regime, and probably some kind of late-Aurignacian slaughter-ground. Their graceful 'laurel- leaf and Svillow-leaf ' blades, single edged knives, and one-shoul- dered points suitable for missiles,, economize labour by skill in the choice and manipulation of material, and might be mistaken for a high quality of neolithic work. This use of missile weapons is itself a new invention, appropriate to the hunters of so swift an animal as the horse. Ivory beads, in country now devoid of ele- phants, suggest either wide range of movement, or some form of exch^fhge* Sketches of animals, on pebble and bone, and hoards of yellow, red, and brown colouring matter, indicate artistic tastes; insignia and whistles imply organized action against swift and in- telligent game. It has even been suggested that Solutrean horses were tame; but no horse-bits have been found, nor proof of any special breeding. This Solutrean episode is noteworthy because here for the first time we have intrusion of one culture, abruptly and temporarily, into the region where another was in process of development. And as this intrusion occurs at the climax of a cycle of dry continental climate when conditions were most uniform and the obstacles of forest, river, and morass were minimized, it has been commonly interpreted as due to the intrusion of fresh people of the tall heavy- built long-headed stock represented by individuals from Brunn and Predmost in Moravia. Whence these people and their culture originated is not yet clear, as no human remains can be identified as theirs. Their flint technique, as has been already noted, suggests that they inherited Acheulian tradition, and it is possible that this tradition survived somewhere further east, while central Europe and parts of the west were passing through the Mousterian de- cadence and receiving Aurignacian culture from the south-west. So severely continental a climate in western Europe suggests austere drought further inland, and accords with the deep accu- mulations of loess over the greater part of the northern flatland, during late palaeolithic times. It was certainly a good country to leave. The lack of Solutrean remains south of the Pyrenees (except one isolated find at Altamira), and their comparatively frequent occurrence in lower Austria, Bohemia, Hungary a&d eastern Poland, almost preclude the alternative of a southern origin, which was formerly thought possible; and the striking resemblance of 4—2 52 PRIMITIVE MAN, IN GEOLOGICAL TIME [CHAP. certain Nile valley implements, which has been adduced in favour of this, must be taken in connexion with the similar workihanship of the earliest implements of neolithic Susa (which will be "dis- cussed on p. 85); and would be explicable by just such an exodus southward from the north-eastern steppe, as has brought nomad raiders more than once from Turkestan to Mesopotamia and the borders of Egypt within historic times* We shall see reason to suppose, later on, that the earliest neolithic people of the south Russian steppe, and probably also of the Danubian region, may be descendants of these Solutrcan hunters, withdrawn as rapidly as they had come, when the Magdalen ian climate reafforested the western plains, and restricted their hunting grounds. Another small group of Solutrean remains is notable as the first indication of man's presence in Scandinavia, the soxfchern promontory of which must therefore have been released at least temporarily from the ice-grip; and there seems reason to believe that there may be Solutrean blood in the earliest men of that region whose remains have been preserved; though their date is very much later. Indeed, at any period when the forest zone was restricted to the foothills of the Carpathians and the central German highlands, there was no physical obstacle to the move- ments of hunting hordes between the shores of the Black Sea and Caspian, and those of the Baltic, or the margin of the Scandinavian ice-sheet, VIII. THE CLOSE OF THE OLD STONE AGE On the other hand, the steadily increasing moisture of the Mag~ dalenian climate restricted the habitable areas; for the forest en- croached on the hunting ground, and horde-hunting tribes do not easily adapt themselves to forest life. Arts and industries degener- ated, especially when the antlers of the reindeer gave place to the less workable tines of the forest-ranging deer, as the material for harpoons and spearheads* The barbed harpoons themselves betray the growing importance of fishing, as the rivers increased in size, The abundance of miniature flints, at Tardenoise and many similar sites, suggests that wooden clubs or spears were armed with them, as was customary later in the Alpine lake-dwellings; and indicates that timber was more plentiful* Then, for causes which are still obscure, the distinctive * Cap- stan' type of culture, which we have already seen to have been best and earliest represented near Gafsa in Tunis and widely distri- buted from Tripoli to Morocco, spread northwards through Spain I, vm] CLOSE OF THE OLD STONE AGE 53 and France (where its local varieties have been commonly known as 'Caiftpignian') into Belgium: it shows a revived interest in flint work, and some of its forms recall a far older technique, which had certainly lasted long in north-west Sahara, and apparently also all across north Africa. This early African style has some resemblance to the Mousterian; and we may compare the relation already suggested between the Acheulian and Solutrean tech- niques. In any case the Campignian style was of southerly origin, and marks a last palaeolithic attempt to reoccupy the west of Europe, perhaps during some spell of drier weather. But this adventure failed, like the Solutrean irruption, and Campignian survivors merged in the disorganized remnants who harboured in cave shelters in Spain and the south of France, in open settle- ment on the downs along the Marne and Somrae and in Belgium (where there is some reason to believe that at Flenu and Spicnncs there was also immigration of rude tribes from the north-east), and in fishing and hunting stations along the Atlantic coast from Portugal to Scotland and Denmark. Here immense refuse-heaps of shells, bones, and implements mark a last stage of collapse of the old hunting folk, like the modern Yahgans of Terra-del-fuego and the * Strandloopers ' of Cape Colony. These 'kitchen-middens' represent a long period, during which the interior of the continent was for the most part forest or swamp, and men hunted or gathered shellfish along the strand without wandering far, except occasionally seaward for fishing. Only three almost accidental acquisitions betray some overlap between the desperate state of these survivors of the Old Stone Age and the new world which was coming into being within the dreaded oak-forest. The dog, in this extremity, became man's messmate and fellow-hunter; occasional implements of neolithic fabric were acquired somehow, and refurbished by flaking as if in mere ignorance of their proper handling; and the clay linings of old leathern cups and bowls, accidentally burned at first and there- by hardened in the fire, gave a first notion of pot-making, to be imitated by degrees, but without improvement of form. All three discoveries suggest contact, at least occasional, with some other kind of man, to whom forest and swamp were familiar, and habit- able. And both forest and swamp contained such men, as we have now to see* Further north, the swamp, engulfing by degrees much that had been tundra and cold steppe, north of the central German high- lands, had long since been assisted in its dreary advarice by con- siderable subsidence of the whole of north-west Europe, so that 54 PRIMITIVE MAN, IN GEOLOGICAL TIME [CHAP. the period during which the Scandinavian ice-sheet shrank finally back, and exposed the south promontory of Sweden, waS one in which the Baltic was an open gulf of an enlarged North Sea "that washed the 'hundred-foot terrace* of its Scottish coast. The silt set free by the annual thaws varied slightly in quality, as the season changed^ and the banded clays which it formed in this Baltic gulf form an uniquely continuous record, so minutely graduated that it has been possible to reckon within a few centuries the interval between then and now. From this vast natural chronometer it would appear that the coast of Scania was released about 12,000 years ago, and northern Sweden about 5000 years later. The re- lease of the north German lowland was of course rather earlier, perhaps about 15,000 B.C. Those inshore * Yoldia* clays, so called from the chief marine shell which they contain, were later raised above water so far that the Danish archipelago became dry land, and the Baltic a lake wherein Ancyfas and other freshwater shells superseded the marine Yoldia. This rise greatly increased the swamp-covered area, and seems to have permitted the westward spread of a peculiar culture, best illustrated by the Maglemose settlement in eastern Denmark* Afloat or stranded^ according to the season, a raft was constructed of pine trunks from the coniferous forest fringe which encroached on the swamp margin as it rose and dried; and from this precarious home men fished and hunted, of a distinct breed which seems to have moved westward from the cold steppe of northern Eurasia, and may have been of ultimately Mongoloid origin. At its greatest extension, this type may have made touch with the Magdalenian hunters of France, if it be admitted that one of its men has been found with them in the Chancelade cave* But it borrowed little from them, and only in its retreat, when the forest restricted Its swampy hunting grounds, did it absorb something of the Mag- dalenian artistic spirit, perhaps from hunting parties out of the west who had wandered onto the north flank or the forest and re- mained there. "With the Maglemose culture may be connected other swamp-land settlements round Lake Ladoga and in the coastlands east of the Baltic; and it seems likely that a Mongoloid clement among the modern Finns> and probably the main strain of the Lapps, are descendants of these people* What forced the retirement of the Maglemose culture was no less the aggression of the sea than that of the continental forest. The Baltic became open gulf again, rather more so than at present^ for it is to this phase that the ^o-foot terrace * of Scotland belongs* Marine shellfish entered, such as the periwinkle^ which gives its I, vm] SWAMP AND FOREST IN N.W. EUROPE 55 name to this L//#mr^-stage; and following them the shellfish-eat- ing folk of the kitchen-middens wandered along the north German coa^t as far as Lettland, where the pine forest closes upon the shore. Here they persisted long; and the miserable Fenni described by Tacitus in the first century A.D. may well be a last remnant of them. The swamp-culture of the north-east, as will be seen from this sequence of events, coexisted with a considerable part of the palaeolithic decadence. At least two minor advances of the snow-cap of the Alps can be traced during the long withdrawal of the Scandinavian ice-sheet, and the general mitigation of the climate of western Europe was to this extent delayed and interrupted. It would probably be safe to place the Maglemose culture at about the same period as the spread of Campignian influences northwards over France, and it is certainly older than the kitchen-middens, since these crowd closely on the modern coastline, which was submerged in the Maglemose period. The part played in north-western Europe by the swamp-culture, and by those alien men from the north-east who are its repre- sentatives, was but slight and of short duration. The continental forest on the other hand, which had been spreading intermittently across Europe, northward and westward in the wake of the re- treating ice-sheet, fringed by birch, hazel and pine, but itself com- posed mainly of oak and other deciduous trees, with the zone of beech, walnut, and chestnut following on an average some five hundred miles behind the pines, had reached and smothered all country where trees could grow, as far as the Atlantic seaboard, and southern Britain at least, by a date which may roughly be estimated not far short of 7000 B.C. The palaeolithic remnant had retreated before it till only the kitchen-midden folk survived on the very strand-line, and discontinuously even there. In the in- terior, a few exceptional moorlands, bleak downs, and the larger expanses of thirsty loess in the Rhine and Danube basins and in the north German plain, remained comparatively treeless oases where hunting folk might live. And if this had been all, the Old Stone Age might have passed out of human experience, a withered b?anch of the 'Tree of Life.1 That this was not so is due essentially to two factors. One is the sequence of climatic belts already noted, which provides that a northward shift of the westerly winds is accompanied by commen- surate though not necessarily equal shift of the * Mediterranean ' and * desert-zone* climates, and consequently by ampler* accom- modation for human activities of the Eurafrican type. The other DI n III nil V CHAPTER II NEOLITHIC AND BRONZE AGE CULTURES I. THE HIGHLAND ZONE AND ALPINE MAN WHAT then was going 021, meanwhile, within the Highland Zone? For several reasons, evidence from this region is very scanty. Much of it is ill-explored from every point of view; still more — and especially in its best explored west-end where lateifrperiofls are exceptionally well exhibited and have been care- fully studied — is out of reach for the same reason as is so much the evidence for Interglacial man elsewhere; namely that the nearer we approach the centres of glaciation, the more completely do later glacial deposits cover the surfaces of the earlier; so that in Switzer- land and south Germany, for example, human record hardly begins before the neolithic age. Further south-east the scale of acci- dent is loaded the other way: for, in proportion as glacial action passes Into pluvial, it is not excess of deposits but the wholesale removal of them by rain-fed torrents that limits observation. A very large proportion of the land surface of Asia Minor, for in- stance, has no 'surface deposits/ in the ordinary sense, at all; even in the greater valleys, which are themselves rare, the upper terrace gravels have been severely dissected; and the lower have been covered by alluvium, deposited often within historic times. Consequently, it is almost exclusively by inference from other data, such as the distribution of racial types to-day, and certain indications of the course of events in immediately prehistoric times, that the prehistory of this great region must be reconstructed pro- visionally. Limiting conditions are supplied by the climate, vege- tation, and consequent mode of existence imposed here upon man in general. Like all other highlands this literally * Alpine* Zone has always Imd a cooler and moister climate than the lowlands north and south of it; and in periods when the submerged areas on its Mediterra- nean and Sarmatian flanks were extensive, this humidity was greatly accentuated, It must be inferred from this that the whole region has been predominantly and persistently a forest area. General changes of temperature would replace subtropical by temperate or subarctic species, but would not necessarily alter the forest area. 58 NEOLITHIC AND BRONZE AGE CULTURES [CHAP. A period of general drought would draw the forest margin inwards and upwards among the foothills; a pluvial period would expand it into the plains; and a heavy snow-cap would devastate it amdng the peaks and ridges5 and down the glaciated valleys. But none of these agencies would avail to destroy the forest regime altogether; that catastrophe was reserved for the hand of man; and even man has not devastated it wholly as yet. It follows that the grassland and parkland, fauna, whether African or Arctic, which is so widely associated elsewhere with the first signs of man's presence,, did not pervade the Highland Zone at all generally. In alluvial valleys, and in the large interment plains and forelands, such as the Danube valley, which are characteristic of the region and were reserved to grassland by their mantle of interglacial loess, it was possible for small herds of elephants to wander, as they did still in north Syria in the twelfth century B.C.; and for the lion to maintain himself as he did in Palestine until, at least, the tenth century,, in Macedon until the fifth, and in the Mesopotamian foothills until the present time. But these animals were never characteristic of the great mass of the highland: their place was taken by bear, wolf, and ruminants large and small. Man, hunting in the open, as he hunted in the lowlands of western Europe, or on the great steppes and parklands, had there- fore no inducement to occupy the forest area: at most his mode of subsistence brought him along the larger rivers such as the Danube, and its tributaries. It is significant that all the earlier individuals whose remains have been found hitherto within the Highland Zone are of the Neanderthal type; that the only large froup of Neanderthal men hitherto recorded is that from tlie rapina cavern in the headwaters of the Save; and that almost all the Neanderthal men have been found, along the western outliers of the highland core of Europe, To draw conclusions from the distribution of so few examples is risky, and the fragments from Kent's Cavern and one of the Gibraltar caves impose caution already; but there is another reason for expecting that the Nean- derthal type may be found to represent an early forest man, differ- entiated by his surroundings-, as well as by long descent,, from his Aurignacian contemporaries on the grasslands and parklands ouf- side. Whatever the relations of Neanderthal man to 'the Highland Zone, the Aurignacian stock at all events seems to have originated elsewhere, and to have only penetrated it locally and 'marginally* Here again, however, it is possible that Aurignacian relics scattered nearer its core may have been obliterated by the last outspread of glacial debris. And these last glacial deposits are sufficiently widely distributed to show that in the period which in westerti Europe is that of transition from palaeolithic to neolithic culture, practically the whole of the main highland was divested, not only of any human population it may have harboured inter- glacially, but of all save the most alpine vegetation. In any case we know enough about the changes of climate within the glacial period, to presume wide oscillation of contrasted types of man, as the forest spread or shrank again. As the highland was surrounded from north-east to south-west by tundra and cold steppe, while southward and eastward its slopes were washed by Mediterranean and Pontic Seas, there was only one avenue by which, when the climate was mitigated finally, it could be rgoccupied by that sequence of plants and animals which it exhibits now. This avenue is from the south-east, and consists of the long Asiatic continuation of the Highland Zone itself; for the Hellespont * river, * as Greek geography rightly named it, offered no real obstacle, and the occurrence of alpine flora in Crete and even in the larger Cyclades illustrates the regional continuity between the highland shores of the Archipelago itself. We have therefore to conceive the Highland Zone as a single great region, peninsular and self-contained; thrust westward into the heart of Europe from its Armenian summit, where it joins, base to base, its twin eastward promontories, the north Persian ridges and the Zagros escarpment south-eastward, and the diminu- tive but vitally important southward causeway through Syria into south Palestine. North of the Armenian mountain knot, and inti- mately associated with it, in climate, flora and fauna, lay the trans- verse ridge of Caucasus, steep-fronted towards Sarmatian seas or their flatland bed. Though we have no direct evidence yet as to the older human population, the modern inhabitants of this Highland Zone give an important clue, and the known course of events in the long neo- lithic and chalcolithic periods confirms that clue impressively. From end to end, the dominant type in historic times is distinct and characteristic; interrelated by well-marked broad-headedness and high-headedness; by wide and high orbits, set level or droop- ihg outwards, with almost no trace of brow-ridges; by broad cheek- bones and palate; by a characteristic wide square jaw with its * hinge-ends long, massive, and rising nearly at right angles with the plane of the teeth. It has broad shoulders and hips, broad hands and feet, with thick wrists and ankles, and a generally thickset build; dense parchment-like skin, sallow in the shade, and leathery under the weather; eyes hazel or brown, dark brown wavy hair, 60 NEOLITHIC AND BRONZE AGE CULTURES [CHAP. long In both sexes and very copious on the body, with profuse beard in the men. Its nearest affinities are with the other white-skinned and wavy-haired types, and with these it has formed numero'us intermediate varieties3 within which its own bodily features appear to be in the Mendelian sense * dominant,1 so that, once introduced into a region, it tends to persist and become accentuated with time, Its purer varieties are all found within the Highland Zone: its occurrences in north-west Africa, Spain, and the Canaries are not sufficient to establish the south-western origin formerly proposed; and the broad-headed strains which connect it north-eastward with the Mongoloid population of the Eurasiatic woodland, — whose other physical features are very different, — may be attributed rather to admixture between independent types spreading in op- posite directions, than to any propagation of such strains inter the Highland. The * Alpine' type in fact may be regarded as essentially of Alpine origin. On account of its great width, this type of skull was long classed with the Mongolian; but the general build and lofty proportions of the brain-case, and still more the peculiarities of the face and jaw? should have precluded this; and the absence of skin pigment, the wavy hair, and the copious beard and body-hair, force the con- clusion that we are dealing with a stock of quite other origin, more likely to be akin to the other * white* races, b>ut nevertheless strongly contrasted with these, in its head-form and bodily build. Moreover, between the highland home of * Alpine* man, and the still loftier plateaux, which we have seen reason to regard as the Mongoloid * cradle/ the narrow but gigantic ridges of the Hindu Kush and Pamirs have been long and almost continuously glaciated, as we have already noticed; their flanks are dissected by ancient transverse gorges; and below ice-level there Is vast extent of dense Inhospitable forest, fed, like the snows above them, by wet monsoon winds. Such human elements as have worked their way round this vast ice-cap since its last contraction have moved wholly from west to east, not from the Mongolian habitat into the Alpine; and Mongol admixture in highlands west of the Hindu Kush can always be traced to another and quite recent origin^ namely to nomad pastorals Intruded transversely from the low* lying grasslands of Turkestan, which m all but the latest phases of the Sarmatian sea lay submerged and therefore as Impassable as the snow-cap. Enough seems to be known of the correlation between diet and the form of the jaw, and of the pull of the jaw-muscles on the tem- poral and parietal region of the skull, to warrant the suggestion II, i] PRINCIPAL VARIETIES OF ALPINE MAN 61 that the peculiar combination of a short and massive jaw, suited rather Tor crushing than for cutting or tearing, with a musculature soTeeble as to be accompanied by almost no lateral compression of the brain-case, points to a long-continued mode of subsistence quite different from that of the carnivorous hunters of the steppes and parklands of Eurafrica. And we have already seen that the Highland Zone has necessarily been at all periods more or less completely a forest area, ill-adapted to maintain the large land- animals of the parkland except quite locally and sporadically, but abounding in many kinds of trees and shrubs bearing fruits or nuts, from conifers to chestnut and walnut, and from cranberry, crab-apple and sloe, to the characteristic fleshy-fruited apricot and peach of Persia and Armenia, and the vine, mulberry, fig and olive whi&h are common to the foothills of the forest zone and the ever- green flora of the Mediterranean region south of it. We shall see reason also to suspect that the first domesticated grasses, wheat, barley, and millet belong to genera which inhabit this same mar- ginal belt between the forest and the southern grasslands; and that they were cultivated by men of Alpine stock as far west as the Swiss lake-basins, and as early as we have any evidence of modern man in that section of the highland (p. 72). In this connexion it is perhaps worth noting, that Greek eth- nology, which so often formulates conclusions which it has been reserved to modern observers to substantiate, clearly distinguished between an earlier phase of subsistence, that of the * nut-eating' men (ySaXaz/^c^ctyot az/8/>es), and a later 'meal-eating* culture (az/Spes aX^Tya-rat); and that, in a very ancient stratum of Greek myth and ritual, the Power to whom the gift of grain-food was ascribed was worshipped with sacrifice of the pig, a typical forest-ranger. But within the Highland itself, the Alpine type varies, and the actual distribution of its principal varieties gives a clue to its prob- able cradle-land. Most accentuated is the 'Armenoid' variety, of the Ararat mountain region, with a head characterized by very lofty vault and outward-drooping orbits, and so abruptly flattened behind, that it has been ascribed by some observers, both ancient and modern, to artificial deformation. This variety predominates throughout the central section of the Highland, and is also not un- common throughout south-eastern and east-central Kurope. Least peculiar in the two respects already noted and distinguished rather by its smoothly globular cranium, and by a jaw broad but not so angular, are the West European varieties, especially in AuVergne and Savoy, and the most easterly groups from nolth Persia to the Pamirs and beyond; and the general likeness between these 62 NEOLITHIC AND BRONZE AGE CULTURES [CHAP. remotest groups is in fact such as to suggest that they represent a quite early phase both of differentiation and of outward srpread. Intermediate types, characteristic of east-central and south-eastern Europe, and commonly described as Dinaric5 show this globular head becoming more angular and cubical; and have their counter- part in Caucasus, western Persia, and along the southern margin of the highland thence towards the 'Dinaric' area westward, with notable offshoots southwards through Syria, Their distribution suggests a later stage both of specialization and of dissemination, around the central area already described, where alone the develop- ment has attained to that extreme 'Artnenoid* phase whose dis- tribution is least wide and also apparently least early. The relative antiquity of these successive phases of growth and spread can be stated approximately; for the outermost western or 'Cevenole7 type made its appearance in the Alps and in France during the transition from late palaeolithic to neolithic culture, At Ofnet, in Bavaria, it made its appearance in the Azilian phase, mixed with Aurignacian people, and already interbreeding with them; eastward, on the other hand, the human remains from Anau show that no such * Alpine' type had reached the north margin of Persia until after the second desertion of this early settlement (p. 85). Similarly the broad-headed intruders into Egypt at the beginning of the dynastic series, and into Crete and the Cy chides at the beginning of the Minoan Bronze Age, belong to the second phase, which may therefore be dated about 4000—3500 B.C.: and the first known occupants of Cyprus, and of Troy, in the earliest Bronze Age are of the same type, Fully developed 'Armenoid* remains, on the other hand, do not seem to be found anywhere until the second millennium at earliest* At present, therefore, it seems safe to regard this * Alpine* group of broad-headed types as representing phases of a special development within the Armenian mountain mass, or rather (since this region was certainly subjected to severe glaciation during the Ice Age) within the mountain-girt plateau of Asia Minor imme- diately west of it; large enough, isolated enough, and at all relevant periods habitable enough to become the cradle of such a sequence of varieties; sufficiently well connected with large similarly quatf fied regions eastward and westward and sufficiently liable from its geographical position to periodic changes of climate, to serve as a reservoir of population, like the highlands of Atlas and the Iberian peninsula in earlier times, and like the Arabian and Eur- asian reservoirs later on. Surprise has sometimes been expressed, that even considering II, i] FOREST CULTURE AND POLISHED IMPLEMENTS 63 how little scientific research there has been in this region, traces of palaeolithic culture are still so rare here, especially in view of the quite common occurrence of neolithic implements of polished stone in all parts of it. There is however good reason why flaked implements should be in any case rare in such a region. Though fairly well adapted for attacking wild animals, cutting up game, and dressing hides, and even for shaping and decorating imple- ments of bone and antler, the flaked implement is comparatively ineffective for felling trees, splitting logs, dressing planks, or pounding roots, bark or nuts* Moreover, though a large part of the great flatlands consist of, or rest on, flint-bearing strata — cre- taceous or derivative — and are as open country as they actually are, mainly because these limestone surfaces are inhospitable to tree^ in the highland zone, on the other hand, these beds are either absent — which accentuates its forest aspect, seeing how precarious is tree growth over limestone — or so distorted, or even deficient in flint and chert, that the supply of this material was scanty, and (what was worse) discontinuous. Collateral evidence is that in Egypt, where timber was rare and exotic, the flake- technique persisted and underwent cumulative refinement from Solutrean to chalcolithic times; and that in the kitchen-middens of north-west Europe acquaintance with polished implements in- creases pan passu with the northward advance of oak-forest, dis- placing conifers, just as these and the dwarf-birch had previously invaded the cold steppe. A further point is, that even before ac- quaintance with the polished technique began, there is a complete revolution in the mode of employment of stone implements gener- ally. The tapering pyramidal point for stabbing, and the longi- tudinal edge for cutting or ripping, are supplemented, and even- tually replaced in the more massive implements, by the transverse edge for hacking and clearing, under shock (rather than pressure) applied to the butt-end. This is conspicuous in the Campignian technique, which will be remembered as marking a last palaeo- lithic aggression in the moist forest-ridden west. The form of the butt-end, too, frequently suggests the use of some form of haft; ajid hafting itself presumes familiarity with wooden staves and clubs, and therefore with parkland at all events. Again, in any region where roots and tubers formed any considerable part of the food supply, the mere act of breaking the ground with pick or hoe, whether of wood, of bone or antler, or of hafted stone, automatic- ally smooths the surfaces of the implement about the point or edge, and leads to a natural finish, familiar among the digging-hoes of shell which are used by some Pacific peoples, and among stone 64 NEOLITHIC AND BRONZE AGE CULTURES [CHAP, hoes from pre-Columbian sites in North America. From this it is but a single step to the artificial improvement of blunted or splin- tered edges by grinding, not by flaking; and certain implements from the Nile valley show every stage of this advance in technique, though they are always exceptional there, and late. On these grounds, the inference seems justified., that whatever other causes may have been in operation, forest life, and especially the hacking of timber and the grubbing-up of edible roots? favoured the de- velopment of such types of stone implements, and methods of manufacture, asactually occur earliestandmost persistently through- out the Highland Zone, and are least and latest represented in comparatively treeless regions such as the Nile valley and the wide flatland of north Africa. ^ f It would be premature to correlate in more than the most t&nta- tive way the polished-stone technique exhibited in this region, both by catting, cleaving and grubbing implements, and by those for crushing and rubbing which so commonly accompany them, with the probability already noted, that the type of skull and jaw char- acteristic of Alpine man may result from long habituation to a diet of nuts, roots, and other vegetable foodstuffs needing steady mastication rather than the biting and tearing which meat re- quires, and so thoroughly received from the long highly-muscu- lated jaw? and prominent incisors and canines both of negro man and of the long-skulled Aurignaclan hunters of Eurafrica and the north-west* But the coincidence is noteworthy, and the roughly concomitant spread of * Neolithic * culture and of * Alpine * types of man is more striking still. That the earlier stages of such spread should be ill-represented is only what might be expected in view of the prolonged glaciation and widespread diluvial deposits of those western sections of the Highland Zone which alone are adequately explored* But it seems clear that the advanced stage of neolithic industry which is repre- sented even in the earliest settlements around the Swiss and Italian lakes, which had an Alpine population, presupposes a long and homogeneous development; and the occasional introduction of implements in fairly advanced phases of this polished technique into the Danish kitchen-midden s? which are the leavings of Aun- gnacian people, among a multitude of flaked implements of Campigniati and other late palaeolithic makes, suggests that in north-western Europe at all events there was just such an overlap of the older and the newer industries, as is proved for the long- " leaded and broad-headed stocks themselves by the mixed Azilian deposit, at Ofnet in Bavaria, which is of sufficiently late date to MAP 3 offline treeless1 areas" Coniferous forest Deciduous (broad leaved) forest Evergreens Temperate gr/js-f lands merging into steppe MAP 4 OUVE,VINE & ORANGE AREAS OF THE MEDITBWAJSTEAN" n by W, 6-AX. Jotoston !.¥ Ealiv II, ii] CHARACTERISTICS OF NEOLITHIC CULTURE 65 invite comparison with the earliest broad-headed remains from Grenellfe near Paris, and Furfooz in eastern Belgium, and with the ^earliest lake-dwellers among the Alps themselves. II. CHARACTERISTICS OF NEOLITHIC CULTURE Formerly, when attention was still mainly directed to the various types of stone implements found accidentally in surface soil., the contrast between flaked and polished technique seemed to be of greater value as an indication of date, than jiow, when the long overlap in time of these two techniques has been established on evidence from tombs and stratified sites, and when the significance of each fabric is better understood, Though the terms * Palaeo- lithic** and '^Neolithic/ have remained in common use for the older and later phases of the Stone Age, they are now applied in a secondary sense, to denote strongly contrasted phases of general advancement; and it is important to realize wherein this contrast consists. The men of the Older Stone Ages took the world as they found it, and made little attempt to alter it. They chipped natural stones into weapons for cutting and stabbing; they wrapped them- selves in skins and furs stripped from their prey. But the animals which they hunted and the fruits they gathered were wild, their shelters were natural caves, they buried their dead (at best) in a hole in the cave floor. With the late exception of hafted spears, they had no notion of construction1, and no use for timber, or for any movable object not easily held in the hand. The sole hints of cooperation or of social order are occasional whistles, and carved staves which may have symbolized rank. We may probably fill in the picture from the habits of merely hunting peoples on the open lands of Siberia, North and South America, South Africa and Australia; except in so far as all these have acquired the dog, which cannot be traced back earlier than the kitchen-middens. The New Stone Age, from its first beginnings, reveals a quite different outlook on nature. Even the implements illustrate this; their materials are varied, and presume search and selection, me- thodical and gradual improvement, constructive skill in hafting, a£Td appreciation of the elastic quality of wood, for long axe-helves, and above all for the bow, which appears first in the transitional rock paintings of Spain (p. 94). With axe and adze, man's do- minion over the forest was assured; and with chisel and saw, his mastery over the timber he had to fell. Loose stones he had already 1 Some French observers, however, have interpreted certain linear designs in Magdalenlan caves as representing wigwams and pitfalls for game. C,A«H. i 5 66 NEOLITHIC AND BRONZE AGE CULTURES [CHAP. piled together occasionally, at all events to conceal jEiis dead. Car- pentry and roof-construction were only a matter of time. To utilize other waste products of nature., fibrous twigs, grass, bark, fruit, rind and the like, for binding, wrapping, and eventually for plat- ters, bags,, and baskets, was another elementary step in the same direction, supplementing the use, which was already ancient, of hunters' debris, bone, sinew, hide, and fur; for man seems to have used up his own leavings before appropriating those of nature. The caulking of such vessels with another waste product, ubiqui- tous mud, led on to substitution of mere clay, hardened by fire to earthenware, for perishable skins and basketry. Other waste pro- ducts, nuts, kernels, pips, and grass seeds squandered after a meal, and found germinating in spoiled earth round old encampments, propounded problems of their own. It has been suggested^ too, that early beliefs connecting such germination with human life and death may have been suggested by unforeseen .growth of fresh plants over old graves. But this obviously did not occur till the graves were in the open, not in cave floors; and the whole notion that by deranging natural soil, natural vegetation may be sup- planted by a 'crop/ more edible and fertile, and of man's own selection, is quite outside the hunter's range of ideas. The other new notion, of captivating, rather than capturing, wild creatures, and making them domestic,- — that is, *at home' around the camp, — is less alien to the hunter*s thought, and in its simpler forms is not easily reconcilable with the plans of the plant-grower: between Cain and Abel, in the story,, there was early feud, for the grazing herd draws no distinction between natural and cultivated green-stuff, except to prefer the latter. But funda- mentally the pastoral creed is the same as that of the cultivators; * man's place in nature* is at the source of life, to multiply and replenish the earth, These various forms of exploitation increase subsistence, but they demand effort: Mn the sweat of thy face shalt thoti eat bread/ When the world is 'so full of a number of things/ as it becomes for either cultivator or pastoral, a human group is so far released from ^ the rigorous restrictions self-imposed on hunting-hordps, that it may increase its population not merely safely "but with advantage: many hands make light work. But many hands, many herds, and much store of foods which must be gathered at one harvest for the twelvemonth, mean much fear of attack from without; and other waste products, loose stones^ dead trees, mere soil, were piled into a ring-fence round the settlement. It was only gradually that unpenetrable defences challenged invention II, n] EXPRESSIONS OF INTELLECT AND EMOTION 67 in the aggressor, and differentiated Implements of war from mere hunting-tools. These principal aspects of invention, — which is reason's ad- justment of the materials and the forces of nature to fulfil desires, — all come into view as the New Stone Age dawns, and separate it from the Old. Of the other great inventions we have to wait long even for the next; when fire, already in use to harden clay, should be applied also to soften stone, and extract metals therefrom; and when animals already tame should yield man not only nutriment but a new source of power. Four others, on a higher intellectual plane, come only slowly into sights observation of the sun and moon in their seasons, first hinted by sundry circles and crescents in neolithic &rt, superseding the palaeolithic masterpieces of animal portraiture; the curiously abstract quality of nmch else in neo- lithic ornament, as if number, mass, and proportion were felt to have an interest of their own; a conception of value, which may fairly be presumed among people who, though sedentary, are found to have acquired, for whatever reason, commodities from afar like turquoise or amber; and a new self-consciousness and introspection, displayed in emphasis on details of technique in decoration, and in the choice of men and their acts and works, rather than natural forms, for pictorial record. Still higher aspects of advancement than these are even less easy to detect without risk of private interpretation. Whatever the first purpose of those emphatically feminine figures, whose neo- lithic types eventually come to be associated with the profoundest conceptions of early religion, their origin is not here, but long be- fore in Aurignacian time. The same applies to the first impulse to representative art of other kinds (in any magical implications which it may have had), in which Magdalenian draughtsmen are unexcelled; to the motives for careful disposal of the dead, which as a custom is at least Mousterian; and to the beliefs and emotions aroused by the primeval mystery of fire. All these we may take to have been already traditional at the close of the Old Stone Age : the New added only those fresh glimpses of the significance of life, wkich were suggested by experimental acquaintance with the be- haviour of animals and plants. Religious conceptions such as those of a * Good Shepherd ' or of the * Bread of Life ' can hardly have anticipated economic discoveries from which they draw their sym- bolism; while they may be but little subsequent. In estimating the significance of forest and dense parkland as a factor in the transition to the neolithic stage, the distribution of such conditions should be considered as a whole. The composition 68 NEOLITHIC AND BRONZE AGE CULTURES [CHAP. of actual forests in Europe shows them to have resulted from spread and coalescence around at least three centres. The clearest example of this is in the north-east, where the characteristic birches, pines and oaks of the Alpine Highland, spreading beyond the foot- hills of the Carpathians over central Russia, have met about longi- tude 45°? a westward-spreading woodland composed of Siberian species. That their narrow zone interpenetration., once established by contact of their advancing margins, has remained in long equi- librium is shown by the distribution of early cultures, and varieties of man; all eastward of this zone being related to widespread Asiatic types, and nearly all west of it to Alpine, Danubian and Baltic. Only comparatively recently have Asiatic people succeeded in establishing themselves west of this zone, and acquiring un- familiar woodcraft. To the south-west the course of events has not been so clearly traced* The greater range of latitude here, and the wider variations of climate which the Atlantic seaboard has undergone, have per- mitted far greater oscillation. The woodlands of Spain and Africa Minor have been repeatedly continuous with those of west-central Europe, and have developed but few distinctive forms, so that their coalescence is harder to detect. The former existence of large forest regions between the Pyrenees and the Sahara is however established; the Spanish forest flora stands more closely related to the north African than to the Alpine; but deep interpenetration is shown on the one hand by the * Spanish' chestnut and walnut, which intrude from the Alpine highland, and on the other by the occurrence of evanescent *Lusitanian* types as far north as the British Isles. That the latest interpenetration was but recent is demonstrated by the comparatively narrow range of typically * Alpine' forms beyond the Garonne, and especially by the fact that some of the most important of them, like the chestnut and walnut, are notably serviceable to man. All considerations, therefore, drawn from the peculiarities of forest life, such as the neolithic skill to grind implements instead of chipping, and the exploitation of nuts and other tree fruits for food, apply in a measure to the forested highlands beyond fjhe Garonne, as well as to those of central and south-eastern Europe. In the same way, arguments based on the early development ' of agriculture along the south-eastern margins of the highland to- wards Mesopotamia and Syria, or in the Nile valley, apply also to the foothills of Atlas and Pyrenees, to the margins of the Iberian table-land, and to other well-watered coastlands of the west Medi- terranean; and account must be taken of ancient and persistent II, nj EURASIAN AND EURAFRICAN CRADLE-LANDS 69 tradition that cereals were introduced into Greece by a Sicilian goddesS, and that wheat and barley grew wild in lands of the western sea. Similarly, the domestication of animals, though certainly very early in Egypt, Arabia, and Mesopotamia, cannot be assumed to be necessarily derived from these regions. On the one side, the breeds of domestic animals at Anau in the foothills between Trans- caucasia and Iran, and in early settlements along its western park- land fringe, are distinct from those of the * Ancient East/ On the other, those of western Europe, differing from both these groups, and no less from those of the Alpine lakeland, may be independent and Eurafrican. Most significant of all, whereas the earliest pottery of the 'Ancient East* mainly copies the forms of gourd vessels, appro- priate to a region of large irrigable alluvia, traversing ill-watered and inhospitable flatland, those of the western Mediterranean, and of the whole Atlantic seaboard, exhibit intimate dependence on fine basketry, such as still supplements pottery for storage purposes throughout the Atlas region and Iberia, in fact wherever the char- acteristic esparto-grass dominates all open country, and furnishes unsurpassed material for this kind of gear. The Nile valley, lying towards the western edge of this esparto-region, participates in both techniques. In the earliest graves, pottery of indigenous stoneware models is associated both with swollen unornamented gourd-forms in polished redware and with dull brown or black plates and saucers, quite different in profile, and copiously incised with angular geometrical schemes as closely reminiscent of bas- ketry as the shapes of the vessels themselves* That this kind of evidence should come into the reckoning at all, is a measure of the gulf which separates the study of the Old Stone Age from that of the New; and attention must be drawn, at this point, to the fresh source of information as to human habits and activities which is derived from objects of baked clay. During palaeolithic times, almost the only evidence for man's mode of life is supplied by his implements of stone, and latterly of bone and antler; and for his artistic capacity, by the carved decoration of* these, and by the engraved and painted walls of his cavern- homes. Henceforward, though the successive types of implements remain of very great importance, their evidence is supplemented almost everywhere by that of pottery, more varied and far more expressive. There are special reasons for this eloquence of * pot- sherds.* First, clay is eminently plastic^ unlike stone, wood or fibre, it has no 'grain* or texture of its own; it is therefore^/?/?, and can 70 NEOLITHIC AND BRONZE AGE CULTURES [CHAP. be modelled Into any form characteristic of the natural ' grain' or texture of any other material; all objects of pottery are therefore literally figments of the potter's -will, fictions (to vary the phrasft) of his memory or imagination. 'Hath not the potter power over the clay?' But the potter, and still more those who will use his pots, are creatures of habit. A hunting or a pastoral people, if it makes pottery at all, will make its clay vessels like hunter's game-bags, or the leathern bowls and flasks of the nomad dairy; or forest-folk will imitate wooden bowls3 or basketry; agriculturists,, strawplait or gourds. Moreover, the practice of primitive peoples suggests that sometimes pottery has originated accidentally, through" leaky vessels of these other materials,, temporarily caulked with clay, being dropped into a fire. For? plastic as it is to begin with, clay once * fired' is unalterable^ whereas many materials which it irused to replace are perishable; it may even3 in the case supposed, not merely retain the form of the basket of which it was the lining, but even the impress of the basketwork; examples of such im- pressions on early and primitive pottery are worldwide, and serve to record whole industries whose actual products have disappeared* But however indestructible in detail, pottery is so/rajf/fc, as to be practically irreparable, once broken ; consequently there is enor- mous waste, as every housekeeper knows, and accumulation of discarded fragments. It provides therefore exceptionally copious material, and as every fragment is an original work of art, the evi- dence of pottery justifies broader and surer generalizations than almost any other human document; every potsherd in any waste heap being the response of somebody's hand and brain to some- body's need, at the same time individual and communal, industrial and aesthetic. A further consequence of this fragility is that pottery is seldom carried far from the place of manufacture: its presence characterizes a settled mode of life, and signals the neighbourhood of a settlement; though on the other hand, the absence of pottery from any district is no proof of the nonexistence of a nomad popu- lation* The utter uselessness of pottery, once broken, except as extemporized scrapers, or as builder's ballast to level a new floor, is the main cause of its archaeological value; for where broken pottery is cast out of a settlement, there it is allowed to lie and .accumulate, layer over layer, later over earlier; so that the 'se- quence-dating' derived from such a rubbish-heap is as secure as the sequence of the fossils in the sedimentary rocks, and of the highest value as evidence for changes of style3 that is to say* of the notions, industrial and aesthetic, of successive generations oir makers and breakers of pottery. As breakage and replacement arc con- II, in] MIGRATION AND CONFLATION OF STYLES 71 stant, clay almost ubiquitous, and pot-transport risky, the pottery- series ift. any settlement is exceptionally continuous and coherent; the'smallest changes of style are recorded infallibly, directly, and immediately; and every other object cast upon the same waste- heap is conserved automatically in stratified order, and can be dated by the potsherds around it, between older ones below3 and later ones above. See p. 1 1 3 sq. Further, being ubiquitous and plastic, clay is also cheap. It is the poor man's substitute for materials which he cannot afford. It may therefore record not only the equipment of daily life, but the fashionable shapes of articles of luxury, such as vessels of gold and silver* It is also the mean man's, subterfuge on occasions of cus- tomary sacrifice; to equip the dead, for example, with a cheap and durable imitation of valuable originals retained for the use of sur- vivors* This is the special interest of all funerary pottery, for it correlates each isolated * tomb-group* with the waste-heaps of the settlement to which it belongs. In general, therefore, the potsherds of any people record continuously and accurately the general cul- ture and style of successive periods; the local and daily variations both of needs and of the satisfaction of them; the more abrupt innovations resulting from intercourse with neighbours similarly recorded; and the revolutions due to immigration. Conquest, in particular, may leave its memorial in wholesale destruction, and clearance of the debris of war, and in collateral production, after- wards, of objects in distinct fashions — 'peasant style' and 'palace style' — for the respective use of old compatriots and new masters. And as it usually happens in simple societies that pot-making is women's work, supersession of an indigenous by an immigrant style is strong presumption that the newcomers brought their own women with them; whereas, if they intermarried with the natives, there may be perplexing combinations, for example of indigenous shapes and technique with imported ornaments, to please the master's eye. In either case, eventual coalescence of racial or social elements may be signalled by the rise of a new mixed style, which is sometimes of striking originality (see pp. 81, 87, 90, 97, 101). III. REGIONAL TYPES OF NEOLITHIC CULTURE: ALPINE EUROPE We have seen that the first indication of the westward spread of a new variety of man is the appearance of broad-headed indivi- duals, side by side with Aurignacian long-heads, in a remarkable burial-place in an Azilian cave at Ofnet in Bavaria, and in caves at 72 NEOLITHIC AND BRONZE AGE CULTURES [CHAP. Laugerie Basse and elsewhere in central France. Isolated ex- amples in several districts of Spain, of uncertain and pfobably rather later age, may indicate that the spread of forest conditibns had carried the same human movement far to the south-west; but allowance has to be made here for the effects of a later sea-borne movement which will be discussed in its place below (p. 104), Next, and far more significant,, because associated with fresh elements of culture, is the broad-headed population of the pile- dwellings which occupy all the principal Alpine lakes* Here or- ganized communities were occupying settlements on artificially constructed platforms supported by wooden piles driven into the lake bottom, and communicating with the shore by a gangway. These communities maintained themselves both by haunting and fishing, and by collecting wild fruits and nuts from the forests: But they also practised agriculture from the first, and must therefore have brought this art with them when they first ventured into lake-land* Their wheat? barley, millet and flax are of the same species and varieties as were cultivated in the earliest known settle- ments on the Nile alluvium., and in the earliest stratum at Anau. Oats and rye, on the other hand, they did not grow, though the wild plants have a wide range in Europe* Perhaps they gathered them wild,, as people still gather them for food In outlying villages of Germany; but If so, it is odd that no grains of them fell overboard. Domesticated animals only became known here later; and this again corresponds with the sequence of events at Anau, Their implements include harpoons, perforators, and scrapers of botie and deer-antler perpetuating Magdalenian and Azilian forms, flaked flints like those of Azil and Taraenoisc, and especially many miniature flakes^ one use of which is here demonstrated by their occurrence mounted lengthways like saw teeth in wooden hafts* Early Egyptian reapers used sickles of the same construction* But along with these are numerous implements formed from natural pebbles of compact stone* selected for oval or cylindrical form, and improved either by splitting them longitudinally or by grinding a naturally wedge-shaped end on one or both of its faces to form a cutting edge. In^these tough or granular materials flaking is almost impracticable. Similar pebble-shaped implements with ground and polished edge are found in many regions, in surface soil and other post-glacial deposits, and mark the beginning of the New Stone Age wherever they occur. Gradually the grinding and polishing were applied to the whole surface of such implements to improve their symmetry, but it was long before oval or tapering pebble- shape at the butt-end was replaced by flat sides and more or less ll^ni] THE LAKE-DWELLING CULTURE 73 rectilinear profile. Flat edges In particular are a mark of advanced technicfue, and comparatively late date. Another important innovation is the perforating of hammer-stones and eventually of hammer-axes, effected first with sand and a blunt stick; later with a tubular drill of reed. A similar drill was used along the reed-fringed Nile at an early predynastic stage. The frequent fires to which the pile-dwellings were liable must have familiarized their occupants with the effects of fire on clay, even if they had not this knowledge already; and their pottery, which is found even on the earliest sites, Is so primitive that It may well be original. Much of It is clumsy and formless, but the more shapely pots take their forms almost exclusively from leather vessels. Atjfirst there is no attempt at ornament; later, modelled rims* and ridges, and roughly scratched patterns betray the influence of basketry and textiles, first of local, and later also of non-Alpine styles from the Rhine and Danube basins. The earliest lake-dwellers buried their dead ashore, In earth graves or slab-lined cists. But at a quite early stage it became cus- tomary to burn the bodies, and bury the ashes, with such personal ornaments as endured the fire, in a rough clay pot, closed with a saucer. As this custom of cremation destroyed direct evidence from skeletons, it prevents positive conclusions as to later changes of race; but, by drowning and other accidents, enough individuals escaped a regular funeral, to justify not merely the view that the population of the lake-regions remained broad-headed through- out, as it still essentially is, but the hypothesis that in most early periods peoples who burned their dead were probably of broad- headed ancestry. Later exceptions will be noted and discussed as they occur (pp. 81, 101). The sudden and widespread establishment of the lake-dwelling culture and of the broad-headed type almost explains Itself. From Its very construction, a lake-village could not be expanded inde- finitely, and consequently if its home population outgrew, super- fluous members had to go elsewhere and construct a fresh one. And as the Alpine lake-basins are interconnected both downstream and by passes between valley-heads, what may be described as longitudinal propagation was easy, both within the highland and along the rivers which issue from it. And in fact such movements have been traced, into the Danube valley, and beyond it into the rivers of the north German plain and the peat-mosses of the Danish peninsula; along the whole course of the Rhine and widely over northern France, Belgium, and Britain, where lake-villages were numerous, especially in mosses and bogs in Scotland and 74 NEOLITHIC AND BRONZE AGE CULTURES [CHAP. Ireland. Some of them remained in use until Roman times, as at Glastonbury, and even later still, changing their industries and arts, but not their structure or organization. c On the steep southern face of the Alps, the abrupt transition from highland to alluvial plain checked such expansion for long; but towards the end of the Stone Age a sudden movement spread lake-dwellings from Lakes Como and Maggiore as far as the main channel of the Po; a little later, when bronze was already in occasional use, a similar but more vigorous emigration from the eastern Alps occupied all the lower valley, crossed the main river, and advanced, in the specialized stream-bed settlements known as 'Terremare* (from the use made of their debris as a fertilizer by the modern peasants),, as far as the passes of the Apennines. A few adventurous parties passed on into lower Italy, and one such settle- ment exists close to Taranto. Reserving the details of this pro- foundly important movement, for the chapter on prehistoric Italy, in VoL ii, it must be noted here that by bursting the triple barrier of Alps, fenland, and Apennine forest, which had hitherto se- cluded Italy, this migration of lake-dwellers established a con- tinuity of race and of culture between that peninsula and the tributaries of the middle and upper Danube, which has had profound influence throughout all later ages. It is a commonplace that the history of this peninsula is that of * Italy and its Invaders'; and the first of these invaders arc the Alpiae lake-folk, and their descendants in the *terremare* villages. Eastward, subsequent changes have been so numerous and far-reaching, that equivalents of these Alpine lake-dwellings are not easily found. Quite early examples occur as far cast as Laibach; later settlements widely on suitable sites throughout the Hungarian lowland; and the influence of their culture extends as far north as Bohemia, In Bosnia, the remarkable settlement at Butmir, and less famous sites in the same region, illustrate special adaptation of the pile-structure to dry valley-bottoms, in many ways analogous to Italian *terremare/ Herodotus, iti the fifth century B.C., graphically describes the pile-dwellings of Lake Prasias in the Strymon basin ; and the occurrence of pottery of typical lacustrine and *terremare' forms, in this part of Macedonia and elsewhere in the Balkans, confirms and amplifies his testimony- Further afield again, ancient descriptions of pile-dwellings in waterlogged valleys of North Syria and Georgia, unverified as yet by excavation, suggest that our Alpine lake-settlements are to be regarded as a westward section of a very large region of early and essentially homogeneous culture, adapted to the conditions of a II, IT] REGIONAL TYPES: THE DANUBE BASIN 75 moist forest-clad lake-land, such as Asia Minor and much of the highland region eastward of it must have constituted during the long * pluvial' period which was the counterpart of the Ice Age in Europe. The same climatic changes which have restricted the forests and displaced north-westward the forest-fauna and forest- type of Man have not only disrupted this area of culture, but have also destroyed much of the evidence of its former extent; for the torrential discharge of the modern seasonal rainfall has scoured out most of the alluvium from the valleys, leaving only the numer- ous early types of polished implements, — in which this whole region abounds, though it is apparently devoid of chipped flints1, — to testify to the former existence of such a culture. The actual area of continuous lake-dwelling culture has thus beei» very much reduced by adverse physical changes, aggressive from the south-east. It has also been superseded, both on this side, and around the margins of its Alpine citadel, by other types of culture better accommodated to these changes, which (as we have seen in this extreme instance) have been on the whole by way of less moisture and greater warmth, and consequent curtailment of lake-land and forest. IV. REGIONAL TYPES: THE DANUBE BASIN The first great change indeed, affecting the lake culture itself, is typical of what was going on. This is the introduction of do- mesticated animals: and as all these, in the Alpine lake-villages, are of breeds not derived from the wild species of the region, but identical with domesticated breeds of the Near East, ancient and modern, and with some of those known in neolithic Egypt, it may be inferred that their arrival in central Europe results either through exchange from tribe to tribe from the south-east, or through direct immigration of pastoral people possessing such flocks and herds. Both would be impracticable as long as a dense and continuous forest covered south-eastern Europe to the Car- pathians and the Hellespont. Either would be comparatively easy %$ soon as a drier climate, with more seasonal rainfall of the Hel- ladic and Mediterranean type2, began to break up the forests into 1 Occasional reports of such implements, of Mousterian type, belong to a period so much earlier, that if verified they would not affect the impression created by the dearth of anything later. 2 Mention must be made here of the cardinal discoveries of Roumanian and Russian pedologists as to the sequence of climate and types of vegetation along the outer face of the Carpathians and on the adjacent steppe. 76 NEOLITHIC AND BRONZE AGE CULTURES [CHAP. parkland and meadow; a process which is always accelerated by the presence either of porous limestones like those of the Dinaric and Balkan chains, or of the loess deposits which (as we have s£en) cover so much of the lowlands of Hungary and Bulgaria, as well as of Rouznania, Galicia and Ukraine, Similar loess deposits occupy large areas of Moravia and Bo- hemia, of the Upper Danube and its northern tributaries, of the Neckar, Main5 and middle Rhine, West of the last-named river lay the north-and-south barrier of the Jura, Vosges and Ardennes, accentuated by the denser woodland which is fed by the wet winds of the Atlantic seaboard, and still clothes their western slopes and masks the passes between them. These loess-lands had been the last prairie hunting-grounds of Magdalcnian and A/ilian man, as the wet forests of the transition period closed up, alon^ the highlands to the north, from the Carpathians to the Taunus and the Black Forest. When the neolithic period opened they were still occupied by long-headed folk only slightly modified from the late-palaeolithic Aurignacians, but distinguished from their rela- tives north and west of those forested highlands, by a fuller oval headform, less angular, and associated with other characters which persisted long, and only gave way gradually before the later ex- pansion of broad-headed Alpine foresters. Here were all the con- ditions for the spread either of pastoral or of agricultural folk, so soon as the loftier, and therefore more forest-bound regions to the south-east became passable. The evidence for such passage, and for the period at which it was achieved, is as usual twofold: from the copious relics of a new and distinctive culture, and from the physical remains of the people themselves during and after its introduction. The earliest neolithic culture of these wide and interconnected lowlands, from the Balkan lands to the headwaters of the Danube, and. the basins of the Neckar, Main, Upper Elbe and Oder, is curiously uniform in type. There are regular settlements in the open valleys, usually grouped in clusters within reach of a con- siderable stream* They combine pastoral with agricultural life, and possess the same primitive crops as the Alpine lake-folk, and the same herds as the lake-folk acquired eventually. Their habitual implements are of the split-and-ground pebble type, but show a characteristic improvement on those of the lake-folk, and of the great south-eastern region of the Balkan lands and Asia Minor, in that they are ground nearly flat on one face,, and only left rounded on the other. For timber«working3 and still more for hoeing, this adze-like celt, set transversely in its haft, had obvious 11,1V] DANUBIAN 'BAND-POTTERY' 77 advantages, as with careful usage it maintained its own edge, like the shell-adzes used for sago-getting in Melanesia, and the convex maftock of the Levantine peasant. The pottery of these settlements consists mainly of small globular vessels, rather more than hemi- spherical, rounded below, and usually without rim or handle. There is no hint of imitation of any kind of structure such as leather or basketry, and the outer surface, smooth and uniform, is treated as a single open field for a continuous scheme of decoration which returns into itself, and has earned for this technique the nicknames of ' band-pottery' (Eand-keramikj Ceramique a rubans)^ and of the * free-field' style. The designs are rendered by continuous lines incised in the clay before firing; either rectilinear zigzags, or curved into lobes,^waves, or coils, sometimes rather complicated, and always quite irrespective of any limits but those imposed by the general shape of the pot. There is no attempt to emphasize or dis- tinguish its parts, for indeed it usually has none: at most there may be a collar-band following the edge of the opening. This is so different from the commoner 'skeuomorphic ' decoration of an object by enhancing its natural texture or structural elements (for example in the * western ' and * north-western y styles to be described later), and so closely resembles the * free-field7 ornament employed by those modern peoples who make their vessels of gourds, — whose natural surface is uniformly smooth and of imperceptible texture, — that it has been suggested with much probability that the Danubian * band-pottery* likewise originated so, and that consequently its origin must be sought further south-east in regions, such as Asia Minor and Syria, where gourd-plants occur naturally, and have been in immemorial use, as the earliest pot-fabrics of these and adjacent regions attest. Here again allowance must be made for the known shift of climate, and account taken of the remarkable gourd-types of the first pottery of Cyprus, and less distinctively of certain early fabrics in the Cyclades and Crete, which like Cyprus lie under the lee of this continental area; and also of a distinct gourd-element in the neolithic pottery of Egypt, which is not aboriginal there, but intrudes itself at an early phase among indigenous forms mainly derived from vases of stone. Once again it looks as though we were witnessing such an exodus from Asia Minor, both to south-east and to north-west, as we have already had occasion to infer as a probable consequence of the desiccation of this section of the Highland Zone, and as indicated by the distribution of the varieties of broad-headed man (p. 61 sgl). We have only to add, to complete the evidence at present available, that it is during the 78 NEOLITHIC AND BRONZE AGE CULTURES [CHAP, period represented by the neolithic * band-pottery ' that we have the first Indications of the spread of broad-headed man 'among the population of the Danubian region. Northwards, as we have seen, this Danubian culture occupied the loess-lands of Moravia and Bohemia., and reached the middle Rhine- It also influenced temporarily a large area beyond it in the direction of Belgium* But as the heavily forested ridges of the Carpathians and the central German highlands limited its north- ward range, so the Vosges and Jura barred extension westward, and it was not long before all its Rhine-ward provinces fell under alien influence from the north-west, of which account will be taken later (p. 9 8 jy.). Southward, its influence is clearly perceptible in the later technique of the lake-dwellers; but as it never affected Italy, the migration of the 'terremare '-builders must have oceitrred before this phase. Further to the south., the large western tributaries of the Danube, and especially the Save, received this culture early and developed it in a rather special fashion which makes the results difficult to correlate with the main Danubian types* Not enough is yet known of this district as a whole, to determine whether the remarkably rich settlement at Butmir in Bosnia is typical or not, nor to assign it to its proper phase; but it seems certain that the spiral ornaments, extraordinarily varied and beautiful, which were in vogue there, are on the one hand a local and perhaps spontaneous elaboration of the curvilinear elements common to nearly all schools of the * free-field* style; on the other, that the Butmir style of pottery, once established, was in wide demand (as actual exports show) and had a range of influence even wider^ from Thessaly and Macedonia to the Carpathians, and eventually far beyond towards the Dnieper, It has even been thought, chiefly by Teutonic ob- servers., that the spiral decoration which became so popular in the Minoan Bronze Age of the Aegean may have resulted from con- tact with this Bosnian school; but the contrary view is widely held, and until the relative dates of Minoan and of Bosnian culture are better established, this question remains open, It may even be that the Bosnian culture, lying so near as it does to the Adriatic coast, may have stood in more direct relation than is usually supposed to the neolithic art of Malta and the west Mediterranean., which also makes striking and very early use of spiral decoration; but here too intercourse cannot be asserted yet; priority even less. Though the general culture, and especially the technique of implements and pottery, of the whole of this Danubian region shows generic similarities^ each principal district developed pecu- II, iv] SOUTH-EASTERN EUROPE AND ASIA MINOR 79 liarities of Its own, of which those of the Bosnian area are only an exceptionally striking example; and these idiosyncrasies became more marked as time went on. It may be inferred, first, that the various groups of people were on the whole sedentary, as their agricultural habit suggests. Then, from the very gradual spread of broad-headed folk, among a mainly long-headed population, it would seem that this type of civilization spread rather by inter- course than by conquest; from the open situation of the settlements and the rarity of weapons of offence, that they were in no great fear of disturbance; and from the frequency of their villages and tombs, and the repeated reconstructions of their huts, that this peaceful development lasted a long time. The sam£ gradual and pacific advance characterizes also the next ftoteworthy change. As long as culture remained purely neo- lithic, and in most parts for some while after, the pottery, if it shows any designed interference with the natural colour of the clay, is baked black with the aid of a smoky fire, or of charred vegetable matter in the clay itself, or of a dressing of graphite. The surface is burnished by friction, and the incised ornaments are eventually enhanced by a filling of white earth. But about the time of the first introduction of copper, an improved method of firing came into use which took advantage of the presence of iron oxides in the clay to produce a brick-red surface, or imitated this by a wash of more ferruginous clay. Burnishing and white-filling went on as before. Now the earliest copper objects, — flat axe- blades, leaf-shaped daggers, awls, and dress-pins, — repeat with only slight variation the forms characteristic of the earliest metal- age in predynastic Egypt, in Syria, and in Cyprus; and the infer- ence that the Danubian region was acquiring its higher industries from the south-east, by way of the Hellespont, is confirmed by the fact (p. 8 9) that all over Asia Minor, similar but more emphatic replacement of polished black-ware by red-ware accompanies the spread of metal-working. This is well illustrated in the stratified site at Hissarlik on the Hellespont, where the first city has the black-ware and the second the red-ware technique. And the fact th&t these two settlements are separated by a layer of natural soil, showing that this site was for a while uninhabited, confirms the general impression that whatever intercourse there may have been, om Asia Minor into Europe, at an earlier stage, it had ceased for a while, and was renewed (and with it the importance of the Hissarlik site) when the new metal-traffic was becoming frequent, and was eliciting a return traffic in amber from the Baltic shores. As the second city seems from its contents to have been destroyed So NEOLITHIC AND BRONZE AGE CULTURES [CHAP. not later than 2000 B.C. and to have existed for a long while before that catastrophe, we have here a rough lower-limit of the period within which this traffic was established; and the foreign objects found in this second city give further cross-references to the cul- tures of other regions, as far afield as Sicily and Malta (p* 97)^ and the third civilization of Anau (p, 87), V. REGIONAL TYPES: THE TRIPOIJE CULTURE To present intelligibly the next two phases of the neolithic cul- ture of Europe and the crises which introduce them, it is necessary to range further afield3 into regions hitherto unaflrected, so far as is known, by the emergence of broad-headed man either in Asia Minor or in Alpine Europe. His relations with the Syrian highland, and with Egypt, have been discussed already, and the circumstances which hindered his general extension along the North African coast. We shall see later by what stages his culture, though not necessarily his race, passed south-eastward and eastward into the region of the ancient * painted pottery5" culture of Susa and Anau (pp. 85 jyf.). And we shall see that there is reason to believe that the site of Anau reveals that * painted7 culture in oscil- lation between the highland and the northward steppe, and in- debted for the technique of its forms, as well as of its ornament, partly to wood-using foresters, partly to leather-using pastorals from the steppe or its oases. It does not need much imagination to suggest that a steppe- or oasis-culture of this kind is unlikely to be confined to one section only of the steppe-margin; and that it is most likely to be recovered at any section of that margin where the steppe is bounded by mountain and forest as abrupt as the Kopet Dagh above Anau, and as liable to oscillations of climate, and alternate advance or retreat of the forest and its parkland fringe* Such conditions actually occur on the eastward face of the Car- pathians, and the Roumanian and Russian students of what is for those countries a problem of high practical importance to the national economy have demonstrated such oscillations throughout post-glacial time; though they have not yet established correlation in detail with those exhibited at Anau* It was therefore no surprise to geographers when the discovery was announced of a * painted pottery' culture on a number of iso- lated sites distributed oasis-like over the trans-Carpathian steppe, between the Dnieper and the Danube,, and supplemented by two other groups, one along the north side of the Carpathians, through- out Galicia> the other occupying sites in SiebenbUrgen on the II, v] « PAINTED-WARE' CULTURE OF TRIPOLJE 81 reverse flank of the Carpathian arc, as Susa and Moussian stand on the 'reverse flank or the north Persian highlands, looking over Mesopotamia and exploiting its lowlands, just as the cis-Carpathian sites spread down from Siebenbtirgen into the Hungarian plain. Like the culture of Anau, the Tripolje culture (so called from the best known of the trans-Carpathian sites) has two main phases. In both, the dead were burned, and it has been inferred from this that the people were of 4 Alpine' origin; but this does not neces- sarily follow, and the racial question may be left open for the present. The first phase seems to be purely neolithic; its decorative painting, like the first style at Anau, is simply geometrical; and it seems to beiimited to the flat land, except one brief incursion into the effrlier neolithic culture of Thessaly, with which it is at present linked only by a few casual finds in Macedonia and Bulgaria. The second, which is separated from the first by a considerable pause, during which sites were evacuated and reoccupied, as at Anau, shows marked development of its vase-forms, and still more de- cided change in its decoration; for in the interval it had acquired an empirical, though not very intelligent, acquaintance with the curvilinear ornaments of the Danubian ^band-pottery/ at a period when the latter was already strongly influenced by the Bosnian spiral designs. The painted trans-Carpathian spirals, however, never reproduce their prototypes with the close understanding of their geometry which characterizes the Bosnian school, but are Introduced haphazard in bizarre confusion among the triangles and other linear schemes which were already traditional. After a fairly long existence, to judge from the depth of de- posits on the Galician and Roumanian sites, — though there Is nowhere the vast depth of debris which Is common to Anau and Susa, — the Tripolje culture ceases abruptly and uniformly. Its sites were deserted and not reoccupied; and the cause of their evacuation is indicated by the occurrence, over the whole region of their distribution, of burial tumuli in a late phase of the neolithic culture ascribed by Russian observers to the * kurgan-folk1 ' or *rgd-ochre-people? (see below p. 83), who had long been in occupation of the central steppe, but seem to have been held aloof from the Tripolje folk along the course of the Dnieper. The occa- sion, and the cause, of their irruption can only be guessed, for it 1 Kurgan is a local word for a burial mound. These people will be herein- after described as the 'Tumulus-folk.' The red ochre with which they be- smeared their dead has been thought to be a survival of palaeolithic, perhaps Solutrean, observance (see below, p. 83), C.A.H.I 82 NEOLITHIC AND BRONZE AGE CULTURES [CHAP. cannot at present be correlated exactly with other events, though, curiously enough, pottery resembling the later Tripolje style ap- pears suddenly in Thessaly? at a longish Interval after the "first incursion (p, 81), whether we measure it in phases of the local styles, or by the depth of superimposed settlements. It may re- present an arrival of dispossessed folk from beyond the Danube. It is certain, however, that once let loose on Roumania the * tumulus-folk' were checked westward only by the Carpathians, and that southward they crossed the Danube, spread their tumuli widely over Bulgaria and Thrace, and penetrated into north-western Asia Minor, where their tumuli overlook the 1 lellespont and follow the Sangarius valley as for as the Phrygian plateau. It has been suggested, with some probability, that it was they wJ?o destroyed the second city at Hissarlik; at all events one skull from this city, wholly different from its contemporaries, closely resembles the * tu- mulus-folk* type; and if so, their irruption would be approximately dated not later than 2000 E.G., and would range with other great movements (pp* 91, 107) which were in progress about that time* While the left wing of this irruption from the steppe swung southwards in this fashion, the right or northern wing pressed on outside the Carpathians, scattering the Tripolje folk of Galicia into Silesia, Moravia, and Bohemia, The effects of this movement must be followed at a later stage (p, 101). Other survivors of the Tripolje culture seem to have taken refuge with their cis-Carpathian kinsmen and to have introduced disorganized elements of their culture* and especially their painted decoration, rather widely within the Dnnubian region., from north- ern Serbia to Bohemia* Perhaps this dissemination had already begun, from the cis-Carpathian sites, for the relative dates are uncertain; but the general similarity of these derivative painted techniques rather points to a single impulse, of not very early date. VI. THE CULTURE OF THE NORTH-EASTERN STEPPE While in western and north-western Europe the passing of the Old Stone Age can be traced in- fairly full detail,, the record^ is as yet less copious in the east, Roumanian and Russian studies of post-glacial deposits make it certain that the deposits of loess which indicate dry steppe and desert conditions, though generally con- tinuous,, were interrupted several times by moister periods which allowed soil to form, far out from the Carpathians towards the Dnieper. Nearer the Carpathians, and further south towards the Balkans, not only are these layers more numerous, but they can be II, vi] CLIMATE AND CULTURE OF THE STEPPE 83 correlated with the flood-wash of the lower Danube and other Roumanian rivers, and with other soils so richly impregnated with vegetable matter that they are regarded as evidence for forest, like that of the Carpathian foothills but extended for some distance into the plain. The forest regime attained therefore here too, and more than once in post-glacial time, a wider extension than now; and the changes of climate which this presupposes are indicated also by wider distribution of swamps and other shore-deposits of an enlarged Black Sea. As similar oscillations are established on the low ground between Black Sea and Caspian, at Anau, and around the southern foothills of the Ural range, it may be inferred that the old Sarmatian sea-basin still exercised its moderating in- fluence over^the whole Eurasian lowland, whenever the westerlies shiftefl far enough north to supply it with rain. But these oscillations only affected the margin; and meanwhile it was only gradually that the Asiatic forest, already mentioned in other connections (p. 24), was enabled by the shrinkage of the Scandinavian and Ural ice-caps to spread round the northern edge of what seems to have been continuously steppe or desert, at all events in its central area. This region has already been suggested (p. 51 sg?) as the probable reservoir of the Solutrean hunters who intruded into western Europe at the end of the Aurignacian period, and as their probable refuge when they withdrew, with the steppe-fauna, when the Magdalenian moisture set in. That they did not permanently lose access to central Europe is clear from the occurrence of similar long-headed individuals in the Ofnet burial-place, mixed with early representatives of the new broad-headed folk of the Alpine forest region; and that their culture penetrated atone time right across the Iranian section of the Highland Zone is suggested by the discovery of implements of the peculiar Solutrean technique on sites over- looking Mesopotamia, and even in the Nile valley; though the occasions of these deposits cannot yet be dated. Many of the later palaeolithic folk on west- and mid-European sites had the habit of supplying their dead with a quantity of pojvdered red ochre ; in what belief as to its efficacy we can only guess from occasional instances of the same custom among modern savages; there is obvious symbolism in so durable a representation of blood. It is therefore of the first importance, that the same practice is habitual among the earliest inhabitants of the Eurasian steppe, a tall, heavy-built and long-headed race not very different from those western types, burying their dead in surface graves, and marking these with earth-mounds, the only possible monument in the tree- 6—* 84 NEOLITHIC AND BRONZE AGE CULTURES [CHAP. less and stoneless loess-land. These mounds (for which the local word is kurgan) do not seem to begin until the fine Solutrean tech- nique had been lost, and their earliest contents are more roughly worked implements, and hemispherical pots of clay — durable sub- stitutes for the simple bowls of gourd or leather, available to a prairie folk. As horse-bits, and later on, fragments of wooden cars on wheels, are found in these mounds, we must infer that the horse had been domesticated, and that we have here an early phase of the waggon-dwelling culture which still occupied this grassland when it was visited by Greek explorers later on. Dates for these two inventions, locomotive animals and wheeled transport, cannot as yet be fixed; but they presuppose a combination of level un- obstructed country, with the presence of the wild hon?e, and access to parkland timber supply, which is nowhere so fully realised as in this region; and at no period so favourably even there, as in the late palaeolithic phase of moist climate, and consequent encroach- ment of such parkland far out into the steppe wherever its dusty soil was tolerant of trees. At the climax of the moist phase we have probably to picture this region wholly grassland at its centre, wholly encircled by forest, and with its southern half invaded by the swampy shores of a continuous Ponto-Caspian lakeland. It is not the purpose of this chapter to deal at length with the history of language, for though the periods of this may be as- signed an order of sequence, they can seldom be dated, because words, unlike implements, do not fall to the ground after use, But it may be noted here that the population of a region so long secluded, so vast in itself, and so absolutely devoid of internal ob- stacles can hardly have failed to acquire a fairly uniform vocabulary for such elements of their common experience and culture as the open sky, sun, moon and stars; open water, with some sort of boat, and swampland with geese and ducks; open grassland, with cattle and horses; but also parkland trees, with axes to fell them, and gourds for vessels; and the structural details of a waggon- home for its journey over paths and fords. Whether such people had also knowledge of the simpler agriculture would obviously depend on eventual intercourse with kindred men of the parkkyid, or with some other culture on the forest margin or beyond it; for on the grassland itself, as every nomad knows, even to scratch the surface may be to wound irremediably the delicate film of vegeta- tion on which depends alL Such vocabulary seems to have been among the oldest common possessions of Aryan-speaking folk; and there is now general agreement that whatever their subsequent adventures, the original speakers of this type of language probably II, vn] EARLY MAN ON THE MARGINS OF IRAN 85 Inhabited this region; while some observers go so far as to identify tbftm with these c tumulus-folk/ VII. THE CULTURE OF ANAU AND SUSA We reach next, in our survey of early neolithic cultures, the eastern section of the Highland Zone, separating the northern steppe from the lowland of Mesopotamia, where the earlier phases of civilization have been already noticed (pp. 42 syg."). In this eastern section the record is still fragmentary, in spite of the brilliant work of the French Mission in Persia. Palaeolithic culture, of the normal types, has not been detected. This is what would be expected, if the southward shift of climate clothed its abrupt escarpments on eithei^hand with forests impenetrable by hunting folk. At most, during a climax of drought, there might be occasional incursions, such as the rare occurrence of Solutrean types of implements to the south-westward has suggested already. The survival of dark- skinned folk akin to the older races of India and beyond, in the more extensive and better watered ranges of the south-western margin, suggests that this region long retained the character rather of a westward appendage of that great south-easterly region, than of an eastward extension, either of 'Africa- Arabia,' or even of the Highland Zone; and the intense glaciation of the Armenian and north-west Persian mountain-knot gives a reason for this long isolation from the west. Scanty human remains from Susa and other sites on its south-western margin, and from the ancient site at Anau, on its northern, agree in supporting this notion of its early human population, and at Anau in particular there is evi- dence that this type persisted, even where it would least have been expected, far on into early historic times. Further south, the same type seems to be figured in the Sumerian art of Babylonia early in the third millennium. The remarkable analogies between the earliest culture at Anau and on the Susan group of sites, need not therefore surprise us, nor the remote antiquity to which this common culture appears to^o back with essential continuity of development; for the lacuna between the second and third phases at Anau has been shown to be due to an encroachment of northern steppe-desert, which evacuated the site temporarily without destroying the civilization of which Anau was seldom more than an outpost. The unusual depth of continuously deposited debris on all these sites — at Susa 27 ft. for the first culture and nearly 50 for the second; at Anau 45 ft. for the first and 40 for the second — is 86 NEOLITHIC AND BRONZE AGE CULTURES [CHAP. presumptive evidence for very long duration, unless the contrary can be proved. We may compare the 25 ft. of pre-Minoan neo- lithic debris at Cnossus, and the occurrence of pottery at 50—60 ft. below the present flood-plain of the Nile* The second culture is succeeded, after an interval of desertion, by a third, 59 ft. thick, the later part of which contains objects not much later than 2000 B.C. Without accepting therefore estimates based on rate of accu- mulation on later sites in other regions, it is permissible to regard the beginning of the Susa-Anau cycle of civilization as falling within the same scale of time as is indicated by the Baltic sedi- ments for the close of the European Ice Age* Comparison of the most recent reckonings reveals indeed very striking similarities. Breasted, relying on the actual r&tc of alluvial deposit in Egypt, dates the beginning of the present Nile alltSrvium, and the first human occupation of it, 60-80 ft. below the modern surface, to about 18,000—15,000 B.C.; a second * floor* of occupa- tion (at 35 ft.) to about 10,000 B.C,, and the earliest tombs still exposed along its edge to about 4000 B.C. Baron de Geer's study of the annual increment of laminated clays in the Baltic area sug- gests 20,000 B.C. for the retreat of the Scandinavian ice from the north German plain; 15,000 B.C. for the release of the south end of Sweden (which very soon received Solutrean immigrants from the south) and 8000 B.C. for its northern districts. Pumpclly and Huntington begin the first settlement at Anau, in south Turkestan about 9000 B.C.; the second,, which succeeded it, about 6000 B.C.; and the third, after an interval of desert-drought, about 5200 B.C.; ending with another drought about 2200 B.C. De Morgan and Montelius allow 20,000 years for the whole series at Susa; Evans and Montelius 14,000 for that at Cnossus, The drought which evacuated Anau between 6000 and 5000 B*c* would thus corre- spond with the period of elevation and more continental climate in the Ancylus period of the Baltic area, by which time the Eurasiatic tundra and forest belt had completed their fusion with the west European, and were allowing Mongoloid folk to penetrate into the Baltic area. See also p. 579* The material cultures of Susa and of Anau present close sia^i- laxities. That of Susa is described below (pp. 361 $$$•'). At Anau the first culture in the lower part of the * North Kurgan" site begins likewise with hand-made pottery, of simple but shapely forms based partly on leather work, partly^ as usual, on a still older pot- fabric; the decoration, carefully applied in dark paint, is borrowed from other techniques, and is already so conventional that its ancestry remains doubtful. The material culture of these folk, that II, vn] FIRST AND SECOND CULTURES AT ANAU 87 is, must be considerably older than anything deposited on this site. The principal implements are small flint flakes, probably for insertion in a wooden haft, like those which appear in western Europe late in the palaeolithic decline, and at the beginning of the Alpine lake culture; and perforated mace-heads fashioned from pebbles of hard rock, such as occur in the earliest Nile-valley settlements, and also in lake-dwellings in the Alps. The huts were of mud-brick; their rectangular plan suggests the use of timber for roofing. Spin die- whorls attest the arts of spinning and weaving. Wheat and barley were cultivated from the first; but the earliest bones of ox, horse*, sheep and pig are those of wild species, like the gazelle and red deer with which they are associated. There are foxes and wolves, but no dogs. Gradually, however, ox, pig, horse, and ^wo kinds of sheep were domesticated into special breeds. The occurrence of small objects of turquoise, and of copper and lead, in the later phases of this first culture, shows that in some region with which Anau had intercourse these mineral resources were already exploited; but proves little or nothing as yet as to the rela- tive date of objects at Anau itself. The human remains, which occur at all depths, are long-headed: without accepting as more than provisional the first descriptions of them as *negrito' or 'Dravidian' they may be taken as proof of the extension of a south Asiatic type over the west Iranian plateau and its mountain rim. A notable observance of these people was the burial of young children beneath the house floors. The later part of this first culture lies in a phase of gradually increasing drought; and the second culture, which succeeds it or (more accurately) invades it rather suddenly, brings little change in essentials. Sling-stones became common, stone pivots for the doors, and baking-ovens made from a large pot, Lapis lazuli and cornelian supplement turquoise, and daggers of copper are found. Agriculture proceeds as before, but the camel, goat, a new horn- less sheep, and the dog are added to the domestic animals. This, and the new fabrics of pottery, of smooth red or grey ware, un- decorated except for dark smoke-mottling on the red ware, sug- gest wider intercourse with another, and in the main more south- westerly region. This is just what would be expected if drought had disorganized the forests of the highland at its narrowest point, namely between the Caspian and Mesopotamia; for we may re- member that one of the earliest fabrics of pottery in Syria and Asia Minor, is a red-ware with various blackened by-products (p. 79; cf. p. 89 below), and that a similar fabric appears in predynastic Egypt (p. 34). 88 NEOLITHIC AND BRONZE AGE CULTURES [CHAP. At the end of the second period, Anau had become so dry that the site was abandoned. When it was reoccupied the settlement was not on the old pile of debris, but on a lower mound a litfeie to the south. The people of this * South Kurgan' and their habits were the same as of old, including the practice of child-burial; but their pottery was now wheel-made and kiln-baked, and its decora- tion, painted as at the first, was more elaborate; the painted and the red-ware styles, moreover, have been combined in subsidiary fabrics; the red-ware and grey-ware have incised ornaments like the earliest pottery of early Asia Minor and Cyprus., and some of the forms recall those of early North Syrian fabrics. Elaborately incised clay figures of women, cattle, and wheeled carts indicate fresh contact with the grassland to the north, and with the North Syrian culture far to the west. The shapes and ornaments qf the spindlewhorls have a general resemblance to those of Cyprus and Hissarlik. Copper is supplemented by occasional bronze, and the daggers of the second culture by sickles, lances and arrowheads, There are also arrowheads of flint and obsidian, and ornaments of marble, alabaster, and blue-glazed paste like that of Egypt* A single gable-shaped seal-stone with its surfaces engraved respec- tively with a man and two winged griffins is another link with the Syrian culture, and has even been claimed as of Cretan type* This third culture also was expelled from Anau by a dry spell, more severe than the former one,, and the pause was long enough for the deserted mound to be devastated by rain-wash, till the climate improved once more and a fourth culture brought iron objects to Anau, probably not much earlier than Persian times. So detailed a survey of the scries at Anau may be justified by several considerations. First, to emphasize its close similarity with the Susan culture,, in quality, in duration, and. in the sterile interval between an earlier and a later period, on adjacent sites at Anau, but at Susa actually superposed* Secondly, because in the second culture at Susa, which corre- sponds with the earliest sites on the Sumerian ulluvium, a fresh set of influences, exemplified in the undccorated red-ware and grey- ware, appears in competition with the old painted-ware, in much the same way as in the second and third cultures at Anau, Bofn series point towards a distinct centre of culture further west, and the only culture which has such a red-ware tradition is that of early Syria, which has ancient relations with Egypt on the one hand, and with the highland-girt plateau of Asia Minor on the other; the latter a smaller replica, in respect of physical geography, of that of Iran. II, vmj RELATIONS BETWEEN IRAN AND SYRIA 89 Thirdly, because the more copious use of copper, even in the lowest layers at Susa, and still more in the tombs belonging to it, suggests that in this region, as at Anau, this copper is not originally local, but comes from another source, to which Susa had the easier access. This again points westward, to the Syrian culture or be- yond it. Fourthly, the occurrence of painted ware, resembling more or less closely the later stages of that of Anau and Susa, throughout North Syria, in south Palestine, in Cyprus (where it can be seen intruding into a purely red-ware culture), and locally also in Asia Minor, suggests a phase of reaction, later (as the sequence in Cyprus shows) than the widest expansion of the red-ware culture, in which the painted-ware tradition profoundly affected the Syrian region. Thiarphase cannot be precisely dated yet, but the presence in Egypt, under the early dynasties, of painted fabrics alien to the Nilotic styles, probably gives a downward limit for its arrival in Syria, and consequently for the previous spread of the red-ware culture eastward* The latter, on this reckoning, should be not far from contemporary with the beginning of the dynastic regime in Egypt, and the first culture of Anau would be altogether predynastic. VIIL THE RED-WARE CULTURE OF THE NEARER EAST The red-ware culture has already been noted in two connex- ions: (i) as the source of the new elements which are intruded into the second culture at Anau, and confront the Susan culture at the phase when it began to spread onto the Sumerian alluvium; and (2) on an earlier page (p» 79) as the probable source of the red-ware technique which has been traced spreading widely over the Danubian region. We have now to define its range and ex- amine its origin. The region over which it seems to be at home extends from Palestine on the south, to the Hellespont westward, and to the Upper Euphrates, or possibly rather further east; covering that is, the whole of the Anatolian or peninsular section of the Highland Zone, together with its Syrian appendage between the north end of Arabia and the eastern gulf of the Mediterranean. The earliest pottery of this region is illustrated best in the first city at His- sarlik, which has only very slight acquaintance with copper; in tombs at Yortan Keui and a number of casual finds all over Asia Minor, and in the lowest layer at the stratified site at Sakje- geuzi in North Syria. Its forms are partly close imitations of gourds, partly of skin vessels; the clay is densely blackened, and hand-burnished; the ornaments are simple bands, triangles and go NEOLITHIC AND BRONZE AGE CULTURES [CHAP, lozenges, with sparing use of punctured dots within the outlines, all incised3 and emphasized with white paste. Locally this fine * black-ware' degenerates into ashy grey? and loses its burnished surface. This early culture seems to be purely neolithic, with plump pebble-like celts rubbed to a blunt edge, and very little use of flaked flint. With the spread of copper implements a marked change takes place in the technique. Black polish gives place to a clear^brick-red, degenerating to chestnut-brown, as the black de- generated to grey. The forms become more gourd -like; open bowls3 long-necked jugs with one handle or none, wide-mouthed jars with cylindrical neck and two handles or more. Incised decora- tion becomes rarer, and is supplemented with ornaments modelled in relief. At Hissarlik, in the second city, many jars fcave human faces on the neck, or on a deep cover which fits over it, * It is in this period that the first exploitation of Cyprus takes place, and it is here, in a culture transplanted fully formed into a fresh locality, that its other characteristics have been most closely observed. Cereal agriculture was practised, as well as the growing of domesticated gourds; oxen and sheep were kept; the copper, which is abundant here, was worked extensively, and exported. The earliest forms of implement are the flat celt, the leaf-shaped dagger, and a longer dagger with a hooked tang to secure it in a wooden haft, The latter is peculiar to this culture; the former two are common to it and to predynastic Egypt., where the majority of the forms are quite different. The technique also of the red-ware is identical with the predynastic Egyptian, though its forms are wholly different; even the few gourd-forms among the Nile pottery being quite otherwise treated. The question now arises,, did Egypt or the Syrian culture ori- ginate copper-working, and transmit it to the other? In Egypt copper appears as a luxurious adjunct to a highly developed in- dustry or flaked flint, with very little grinding of implements, though hard stones were skilfully worked into vases; and it Is only very gradually that flint work declines and copper becomes com- moner; the transition is incomplete at the opening of the dynastic series about 4000 B,C* In the Asiatic red-ware region a small selejp- tion from the Egyptian copper-types appears suddenly amid the polished-stone culture, together with the red-ware pottery: Syria adds one new type of its own, and then remains long stagnant. There is copper ore in Syria itself, and in many parts of Asia Minor? but it would seem that it was the richer copper of Cyprus, exploited by men of the red- ware culture, which excelled competitors, and stereotyped these few forms over so large a I I,vxn] ORIGINALITY OF NEAR-EASTERN CULTURE 91 region. At first sight the Egyptian copper industry would seem to have priority. But the same question of priority arises as to the .origin of cultivated grains, wheat, barley and millet. Their wild forms are found along the Highland Zone, from Syria eastward; the same cultivated varieties are already in use from the first at Anau, and in predynastic Egypt. But Anau had had a very long career before the first irruption of the red-ware culture, and had copper from the first. Its domesticated animals, which it acquired some while before the red-ware came, are on the one hand derived from local species, on the other identical with the breeds of predynastic Egypt. Had Anau, or Egypt, priority? Or were both indebted to that intermediate region where the red-ware cul- ture arose £ In the present state of our knowledge of this * Middle Kitsgdom ' of the Near East, the answer remains in suspense, In another line of advancement the originality of the Syrian culture is less disputable. It is with the reoccupation of Anau by its third culture that the first clay figures of nude women appear. At Hissarlik they begin in the first city, and are copious in de- generate clay and stone types, from the second onwards. In south- western Asia Minor, similarly, they are found in the black-ware technique, and beyond the margin of this region they are part of the repertoire of neolithic Crete, and of the early bronze age of the Cyclades; in the latter case contemporary with a local school of red-ware. In Cyprus they are frequent in the local red-ware and even in a fairly early phase of it. In other parts of Asia Minor, and throughout Syria, they occur in various early techniques, in more and more traditional and grossly accentuated forms. Though a few female figures in local red-ware have been found in predynastic Egypt, they are unconventionalized and even this type had no regular vogue. In Palestine, where it became popular in the Bronze Age, there are only late and secondary types. In Babylonia it was unknown till the time of Hammurabi, and then became popular; and Hammurabi's people are thought by some authorities to have come down the Euphrates out of Syria, about 2300 B.C. (see p. 467). In Syria itself alone, on cylinders of rather earlier date, the conventional type can be traced in course of development. Everything therefore points to the creation of this artistic type, and of the religious con- ceptions which it symbolizes, within the region dedicated in his- toric times to the 'Great Mother of Asia/ With the exception of the figures of palaeolithic women, — no relationship with which can be established at present for this Asiatic type, — it is the earliest * ideal type' in history; and the earliest cult of which we know thp meaning as well as the symbol. 92 NEOLITHIC AND BRONZE AGE CULTURES [CHAP. IX. THE CULTURE OF THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN We come now to the last great region, and tradition of culture, which remains to complete the survey of our neolithic cosmos — the Mediterranean itself and the districts interconnected by it. Like the painted-ware culture of western Iran, and the red-ware culture of Syria and Asia Minor, the neolithic Mediterranean culture passes over so gradually into that of the full Bronze Age, that its development and relationships to neighbouring civiliza- tions can only be traced within a broad period of time, as well as over a wide extent of country. Local advancement was uncon- formable within its limits, and precocious varieties overlapped the more belated. And from two of its most prolific areas, currents of influence were projected beyond and athwart the regions and cul- tures which have been outlined already, to an extent which has profoundly influenced all subsequent history, Contemporary with the earliest known phase of prcdynastic civilization on the margins of the Nile alluvium, occur rare ex- amples of an alien fabric of pottery, which has provisionally been described as Libyan, that is to say, they are thought to be intrusive from the west. The clay is dark-brown or blackish, hand-made and burnished; the forms are open bowls and cups, sometimes on three or four short feet. The ornament is incised in simple geometrical forms, suggestive of basketry, sometimes rather elaborate, and always emphasized by careful filling with lines or dots. White paste is used, as in the old black-ware of Asia Minor, which shares the liking for tripod supports,, but has little love for basketry. Very scattered finds further west in northern Africa link these stray vessels with an amazing wealth of distinct but similar fabrics on neolithic sites in Malta, representing a long series of develop- ment, which culminates later in the great stone-built monuments at Hajiar-Kim, Mnaidra, Hal-Tarshien, and at Gtgantea in Gozo; Sardinia has another local school, and characteristic tripod vases? at Anjelu-Ruju; Sicily has similar but less fantastic fabrics, self- coloured and richly incised, at Stentinello and Villafrati; south- Italy has others, at Matera and Pulo di Molfetta, very early modi- fied, however,, by contact with other cultures to which reference Is made later (pp* 104 sgy^). Further north,, the Rhone valley has settlements of similar culture, as far inland as the great Camp de Chassy, near Macon. By far the most important regions, however* in which this widespread Mediterranean culture occurs? are Crete and Spain, II, ix] AFFINITIES OF EARLY AEGEAN CULTURE 93 In Crete, below the first Bronze Age layers at Cnossus (see Chap. rxvn), which are as old or older than the first Egyptian dyn- astfes and therefore not later than 3500—3000 B.C.., lie neolithic deposits about 25 ft, in thickness. From trial pits in these de- posits comes self-coloured pottery incised with simple linear and dotted ornament, showing general resemblance both to the other * Mediterranean ' fabrics above mentioned, especially in respect of the vase forms, and also rarer points of correspondence with the neolithic c black-ware' of Asia Minor. Almost identical pottery occurs locally in cave-deposits on the Syrian coast, but nothing similar is known in Cyprus. Further north in the Aegean, Melos, Amorgos, and some other islands show late and specialized phases of a similar culture, already affected both by the black-ware tech- nique, and by the red-ware of Asia Minor which superseded it. These Cycladic schools belong to the first period of the Aegean Bronze Age; they had intercourse with the earliest Bronze Age culture of Minoan Crete, and so indirectly with Egypt, and may be regarded as contemporary with Dynasties IV— VI, or not later than 2500 B.C. Aegean neolithic culture thus lies in a sort of sea- girt enclave between the black-ware culture of neolithic Asia Minor, the southernmost margin of the great Danubian region in Thrace, Macedon and northern Greece, and those scattered off- shoots of the trans-Carpathian painted-ware culture which pene- trated the Balkan highland and established themselves in the Thessalian plain. Its affinities are almost wholly with the other Mediterranean coastlands, but in default of information from the long stretch of north African coast opposite — which has under- gone progressive submergence since the beginning of the Nile- alluviation — it is difficult to define its exact relations with its west Mediterranean counterpart. As the Cretan neolithic was super- seded about the beginning of dynastic Egypt by the bronze-age 'Minoan' culture, with fresh vase-forms, painted decoration, azid engraved seal-stones, its principal interest is a proof of the very long period occupied by the * Mediterranean ' neolithic period before the dawn of the Minoan. This is in full accord with the Recurrence of those * Mediterranean * types of incised pottery in early predynastic tombs, with which this section of our enquiry started, For more detailed discussion of the Minoan series itself in Crete and the Cyclades, see pp. 139 sqq^ 1 74 sqq^ and Chap* xvn. Its share in the propagation of a bronze-using culture outside its Aegean cradle-land is outlined briefly below, pp. 103 $qq« 94 NEOLITHIC AND BRONZE AGE CULTURES [CHAP. X. THE CULTURE OF THE WESTERN MED1, TERRANEAN AND ITS OFFSHOOTS The great Spanish peninsula stands in a totally different rela- tion to the neolithic culture of the west Mediterranean basin, from that of Crete in the eastern. It is in itself a little continent, of about the same size as Asia Minor, more diverse in its configu- ration, and of at least equal variety and abundance of resources. Its two great central plateaux drain westwards to the Atlantic; as Phrygia and Cappadocia drain away northwards into the Euxine. The northern is more completely isolated, and has but a narrow foreshore astride the Douro mouth. The southern, by the two- fold access of the Tagus and Guadiana, communicates with the maritime lowlands of southern Portugal, and is reached with Kttle difficulty also by the headwaters of the Guadalquivir, from Anda- lusia,) the Lydia of Spain, Back to back with these central plateaux and facing onto the Mediterranean like JLyeia and Pisidiu in Asia Minor, are the narrow but very habitable coastlands of Almeriaj Alicante, and Valencia, with the Balearic chain, like Rhodes and Cyprus, inviting exploration seawards. Then comes Catalonia, a counterpart of Cilicia, with the long Kbro trough cut back far into the continent and opening a back door to the two plateaux of the interior. Finally, round the abrupt end of the Pyrenees and beyond lie more such lowlands, with access by the gap of Carcassonne to the vast coast plain of western France, and by the Rhone to central Europe* It would perhaps not strain analogy unduly to compare with these the Syrian coast, in some at least of its early relations with Mesopotamia. Throughout palaeolithic time this vast region had been the vehicle and the recipient of alternate phases of culture; Chellean, Acheulian, Mousterian, and at least one raid of Solutrean, from the north; Aurignacian and afterwards Capsian from north Africa, a twin continent which has no counterpart in the surroundings of Asia Minor., though its Saharan background has played repeatedly the same part in western history as Arabia has in the Near East, The long Magdalenian decadence affected the lands south of thp Pyrenees but little, and only late. Cave draughtsmanship at Al- tamira and other sites in the north-west achieves finer and maturer triumphs, and hands on eventually its own traditions to eastern and south-eastern districts-, where the rock-shelters show stag, oxen, and perhaps bison, hunted by men armed with bow and arrow, who sometimes fight among themselves, as at Morella, and whose women are shown at Cogul wearing long skirts, and II, x] 'MEGALJTHIC* ORIGINS 95 engaged In ritual dance. Even here, however, the period of cold moistuf e with consequent wide extension of forest restricted the descendants of the old hunters to these and a few other sheltered districts. Kitchen-middens accumulated along the Portuguese coast, and in the interior the subsequent deposits are mostly in caves. Rare early examples of broad-headed men show that the new people from the Alpine forest region began to spread beyond the Pyrenees, and a considerable population of this type estab- lished itself in the district around Mugem in southern Portugal. This crisis past, the whole peninsula was the prize of the next comer; and we have probably to make large allowance for our defective knowledge of Morocco and all northern Africa, in esti- mating Ibeyian originality. The small south-eastern coastlands, and ^especially that of Almeria, acquired early elements of the Mediterranean neolithic culture, and developed it rapidly; with regular settlements round caves and on hill tops, subsisting on the chase, with bow and arrow, and on simple terrace agriculture, like all branches of this Mediterranean culture. But the steep high- lands, still heavily forested, prevented expansion into the interior. From similar origins on the coast between Cadiz and Huelva, the Andalusian lowland was exploited with more success. But the main centre of advancement was the larger lowland of south Portugal. Here the kitchen-midden folk, reinforced as we have seen by 'lost tribes' of Alpine ancestry, and probably now by settlers from the Andalusian coast plain of the Guadiana, multi- plied rapidly, and created a culture of their own. Its industries are those of the other coast-districts, grafted on to those of the kitchen- middens, but matured early, rapidly, and distinctively, in this large and exceptionally favourable region. Most important of all, it is here that we first meet the custom of burying the dead, or at all events those of the more important families, in artificial chambers formed of upright blocks of untrimmed stone, and roofed with others, all as large as there was man-power to handle. Originally they were probably covered with a mound of earth, at least to the level of the cap-stone. From rude beginnings these 'megalithic* bjarial-chambers developed through a well-defined series of forms; the mere chamber, round or polygonal, according to the size of the wall-blocks; the chamber with corridor entrance, necessarily of some length as the diameter and height of the mound increased; the corridor with a terminal alcove replacing the chamber; the mere corridor with lateral alcoves or apses; and only after this, by gradual reduction of scale, the mere trench or cist below the natural surface, still lined and roofed with slabs in the ancient way. 96 NEOLITHIC AND BRONZE AGE CULTURES [CHAP. There seems no need to infer alien influence at any stage; even the corbelled cupolas which replace the megalithic cap-stone "are but another case of ^necessity mother of invention/ Such works pre- sume co-operation, and no ordinary degree of social coherence; and people so constituted and so situated had a whole world at their feet. As the climate became drier, and the forest more pene- trable, they pressed up the great valleys, onto the southern plateau and eventually beyond it into the Ebro basin, where they found and mastered the backwood settlements from the Catalan sea- board* They reached the Mediterranean coast around Valencia; they occupied Andalusia, and were only prevented by the rugged highlands of Granada and Murcia from transforming likewise the secluded Almeria culture. The latter was to have its turn later on. The great abundance, variety and excellence of their arrowheads betray their chief means of aggression; the growing perfection of their pottery,, grey or black-polished, incised with white-filled linear ornaments, of skill and beauty, attests their sense of style; everywhere their great burial chambers demonstrate their effici- ency and energy, Nor were they checked by the sea. The * talayots* of the Balearic Islands are a local adaptation of 'megalithic' architecture to a dis- trict where soil was too precious for mound-building, and must be replaced by rubble from the fields. The * giants* graves* of Sar- dinia show development from simpler types to the phase when the corridor had outlived its terminal chamber, but not yet developed alcoves in its sides; the great monuments of Malta and Gozo show the supreme achievement of successive paired apses, dwarfing the corridor, roofed with cupolas of ashlar masonry, and supplied with side-doorways cut through a single slab* A distant but apparently early outpost is the group of burial chambers in the heel of Italy; Corsica has another such. To what extent the north African coast was occupied, the small, late, and little-studied 'megaliths' of Roknia and Enfida do not clearly inform us; the impressive 4se- nams* of Algeria and Tripoli are now known not to belong to this culture at all, but to oil-presses of Roman date; and the * mega- lithic' structures of Nubia and Moab have been too little explored to permit more than conjecture as to any affinity with the west Mediterranean culture: they seem to be rather cists than dolmens, and if so, are comparatively late. The same applies to a reported group of large-stone monuments in eastern Thrace, to those of the Crimea, and to another limited and coherent * megalithic* area on the Pontic coast of Georgia, connected, apparently, by some isolated examples south of the Caspian, with a vast region to the II, x] ITS EASTWARD LIMITATIONS 97 south-east, including most of India and extending into the Pacific, where chambers of similar construction are found sporadically. Though the area exploited by the * megalith' builders included the whole of the western Mediterranean, and perhaps extended beyond it eastward, and though the total period of this exploita- tion is shown by the successive types of the monuments to have been a long one, its influence was not permanent. In Malta, after a brilliant climax, in which many concurrent styles of decoration were attempted, including an experiment in spiral ornament which seems rather to descend from still earlier western attempts in Azilian times, than to be the result of intercourse either with Bosnia or with the Aegean, the neolithic culture seems to have been cut off suddenly and in its prime. In Sicily, which was apparently little effected by it, perhaps because its climate and soil made its forests too difficult, except close around Palermo and in the south- eastern corner, the primitive neolithic culture of Stentinello gave place to a strange and alien 'First Sicel' style, as at Castelluccio, which arrived fully developed, with geometrically painted pottery which has its only near counterpart in immemorial leatherwork design among the peoples of western and central Sahara, and in the primitive-looking pottery of the Aures and the Kabyle country of Algeria. An African origin for it, as for the Stentinello culture, is supported by the distribution of the characteristic rock-hewn chamber-tombs in which it is found. These recur in Malta, where painted pottery of rather different style is found with that of the 'megalith' culture; and also in Tunisia. But it must be remem- bered, on the other hand, that painted ware resembling that of Thessaly occurs at Matera in the heel of Italy — within the mar- gin, that is, of the 'megalith* culture, though not actually on a *megalithic* site — and that there was certainly intercourse between the painted-ware culture of Sicily and the second city of Hissarlik far away in north-western Asia Minor, a peculiar type of carved plaque in bone and ivory being common to both, and occurring also in neolithic Malta. It might have been expected, and was indeed formerly sup- pc^sed, that the neolithic culture of Malta and Sicily owed some of its characters to Aegean initiative. But this has not yet been proved, and at present such correlation as is possible tends to show that the west Mediterranean culture long developed independently, and was for the most part earlier than the great Minoan Age, The earliest links are supplied on the one hand by the bone plaques already mentioned, which are dated at Hissarlik not later than 2000 B.C.; on the other, by the painted pottery of Matera, which C.A.H.I 7 98 NEOLITHIC AND BRONZE AGE CULTURES [CHAP. if it be of Balkan origin, belongs to an even earlier phase. As both these links are subsequent to the spread into Sicily and* Italy of the 'bell beaker' culture, to which reference must next be made, they serve to emphasize the relative earliness of the western cul- ture, and its independence of anything Aegean. And it has been noted already that even the neolithic settlement at Cnossus, seems rather to be an early northward offshoot of an essentially Medi- terranean culture with its cradle in maritime Africa, than itself originally Aegean* While the 'megalith '-building culture was permeating the west Mediterranean in this way, it was achieving even wider and more arduous expansion northward along the Atlantic seaboard. That this expansion took place mainly coastwise, and not over- land, is suggested by the distribution of the monuments in«» west- ern Europe, and especially of the different types* Principal early centres are, first, the promontory of Brittany, whence *megalithic' enterprise diverges, northward to Britain and Ireland, and north- eastward past the Low Countries to Denmark and southern Swe- den; secondly, this Scandinavian area, whence the whole of the western half of the North German plain was occupied, as far as the foothills of the central highlands. Meanwhile, the whole of lowland France was exploited, mainly up the Atlantic rivers, but also directly by land past the Pyrenees, and probably also from Catalonia along the Mediterranean shore, into Provence and up the Rhone, along an earlier line of exploration already noted (p, 92). That the whole of this vast area remained in fairly full inter- course with the motherland of the megalith-culture is clear from the occurrence of the same varieties of tomb-plan in nearly every region, usually in the same order of development, as is shown by the sequence of associated implements. The pottery varies locally, within a general uniformity of technique. But the individuals buried in these tombs vary in type, so that it is not possible to speak of a Megalith-people/ but only of a megalithic culture and a social structure imposed by its originators on the natives among whom they came. In the British Isles, these are more or less pure descen- dants of Aurignacian and other old long-headed stocks. In Scsyi- dinavia and the whole north-western area of the Continent, they are the tall massive long-headed folk who had apparently been developing there since the dispersal of the Cro-Magnon and Solu- trean hunters; they seem to be an early offshoot of the c Tumulus- people ' of southern Russia, and are the ancestors of the present 'Nordic' blondes. On the Atlantic seaboard, and all across France, there is the mixed population of Magdalenian survivors and Alpine II, x] THE NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCE 99 intruders, by this time much interbred except in the central high- land of Auvergne, where the forest remained intact longest, and the Sevenole type of broad-heads purest, and also least affected by 'megalithic' innovations. To follow the tfmegalithic* culture in detail as it made its way up the valleys leading into the Central German highland is impossible here. It is essential only to note that the strong forest barrier of the Vosges and Ardennes, and around the headwaters of the Marne, Seine and Loire, checked progress from the west, while the Rhine and Weser invited intrusion from the north. Consequently the Rhine, and its eastern tributaries Main and Neckar, early received elements of 'megalithic' culture from the seaboard, and greatly modified the^)ld Danubian culture which had exploited these areas beforehand. A temporary advance of Alpine lake-dwellers down- Rhine was met and repelled, so that northern elements penetrate even into the lakeland, and with them some Nordic men. Further east, the forest-frontier of the Danube basin seems to have held firm for a while, though northern traits were already becoming common locally, in pottery and implements, before the next crisis came. Further east still, local cultures more or less clearly based on the * north-western * megalithlc tradition, established them- selves along the upper courses of all the North German rivers as far as the Vistula, but failed like the Rhenish and Thuringian intruders to penetrate into Bohemia or Silesia, which remained essentially Danubian. Bohemia however was being affected about this period by an Alpine outflow similar to those down the Rhine and into northern Italy (p. 74), all probably due to some passing austerity of Alpine climate uncorrelated yet with events elsewhere. And before the crisis with which we have next to deal, Bohemia was also being influenced by the * painted-ware * culture from be- yond the Carpathians; so that our survey of events in neolithic Europe has now returned upon its starting point. Not merely was Europe itself by this time plotted out among well-defined regional cultures occupying its principal lowland and loessland areas, but the barriers of highland and forest which ha4 separated those areas hitherto were beginning to break down before human aggression from outside* We distinguish, that is, not merely eventual Hispanic and Gallic provinces on the Atlantic seaboard, an eventual Rhine-land and Danube-land, and Bohemian and North German regions, distinct from these and from each other; but also historic avenues like those of Carcassonne, Moravia, and the Lower Rhine. 7— * ico NEOLITHIC AND BRONZE AGE CULTURES [CHAP, XL THE CULTURE OF THE BEAKER-FOLK Meanwhile, a second impulse originating within the Spanish peninsula was to produce even more far-reaching effects than those due to the 'megalith '-builders. A good deal of the decoration, and some of the forms, of all early pottery in the neolithic Mediterra- nean, from Portugal to Crete and the * Libyan' vessels in Egypt, shows the widespread use of various kinds of basketry. This is natural enough when we consider that this culture is bounded southward by the grassland margin of Sahara, and that the most characteristic plant of all this grassland and of the plateaux of Spain itself is the half a or esparto rush, one of the finest materials for basketry in the world. But at a late period in the * megalith* culture something more specific occurs: the * bell-beaker' type of pottery, more closely imitated, both in form and incised decoration, from flexible rushwork vessels than any earlier or later type, is so suddenly intruded among existing Spanish forms, and followed by so remarkable a fresh outburst of exploitation, that there is much inducement to ascribe it to the intrusion of some fresh stimulus, perhaps from the African side, like the mediaeval coming of the Moors. Whatever the cause, the effects are certain. Over- running all parts of the peninsula, and reaching Mediterranean localities so remote as Sardinia, western Sicily, and Remedello near Brescia, in the far north-east of Italy, the 'bell-beaker* cul- ture crossed the Pyrenees, and penetrated almost all districts of France. Following the old coastal route to Brittany, it passed over to Britain and Ireland, and affected also profoundly the large region beyond the Netherlands which the * megalith '-builders had already made their own. That it was not a mere distribution of trade-objects is clear from the fact that the bell-beakers themselves are of local materials and various techniques; that it was not only the half a baskets them- selves that were traded a,nd imitated locally — though this, too, is probable — is shown by the simultaneous appearance of other kinds of objects, and by the shift not merely of whole provinces of cul- ture but of the frontiers of physical types, in the same direction as the spread of the * bell-beakers/ which, wherever they appear, are a storm-signal of profound disturbances, from Denmark to Buda Pesth. It has even been doubted whether those at Remedello are transmarine or transalpine intruders. Neglecting, as before, the bewildering details where they are known, and supplementing provisionally the no less baffling scarcity of data at some important points, we may yet present a II, xi] NEW WESTERN ACCESS TO CENTRAL EUROPE 101 general outline of the course of the 'bell-beaker' movement, and its principal effects. Ii? general, the 'bell-beaker' movement followed the main lines of the 'megalithic' culture, overtaking it however on its frontiers and passing beyond them. In one respect, however, it created a new situation altogether; for whereas in eastern France the 'me- galithic' advance had been held up by the forested highlands west of the Rhine, the * bell-beaker * folk, better organized and better armed, especially with highly-developed archery, forced this bar- rier (perhaps already weakened by previous clearings towards its main gaps north and south of the Vosges) and broke through into the Danube valley. We may speak confidently here of invasion, because the change of culture is not only sudden, but is accom- panied by replacement of the old Rhenish and Danubian popula- tion by the moderately broad-headed stock which had long been characteristic of the region of Atlantic drainage. The open villages and peaceable habits of the Danubian valley-folk made them an easy prey : remnants of them survived here and there in the foot- hills of the central highland, but this barrier also was obsolete, and the northern and western groups of * bell-beaker ' folk coalesced as they advanced, and occupied even the secluded Bohemian area. Further east still, parts of Silesia remained in occupation of a Danubian remnant; but a * bell-beaker* has been found as far down-stream as Buda Pesth. The main flood of invaders, however, was stayed in the more hilly country between Bohemia and the Austrian Alps, where the valley narrows, and the old Alpine cul- ture with its secure lake-settlements offered better resistance, and diverted the invaders northward into Bohemia and Moravia* This long-secluded region now became the centre of a fresh movement, the origin of which is obscure, though its results were revolutionary. Its population was by this time chaotically mixed, partly old Danubian, partly Alpine, partly new western invaders, and perhaps partly of more easterly and south-easterly origin; for the tumulus-building steppe-folk who, as we have seen, displaced the Tripolje culture from Galicia (p. 8 i sq.), seems to have pressed forward thus far about this time, while their southern kinsfolk made chaos in the Balkan lands. And out of this crucible of diverse stocks a new and remarkable type of man emerged, broad-headed like the Alpines, heavy browed like the steppe people, with mas- sive square face and jaw like the men of the old north-west, and with something of the high-vaulted brain-case of the Dinaric and Balkan roundheads. Their industries were in the main those of the 'bell-beaker' culture, and their east Alpine connexions kept them. 102 NEOLITHIC AND BRONZE AGE CULTURES [CHAP. in remote touch with the nascent copper culture of Italy; ^but they buried their dead in cist-graves resembling the latest *megalithic* tombs, covered however by conspicuous earthen tumuli, nof oval like the * long barrows' of neolithic Britain, but circular like those of the steppe people. It is one of the few instances where a new kind of man has come into existence under conditions where the ante- cedents are in any degree knowable, and whose racial history ex- presses so clearly the qualities of the brain within the new type of skull. It was apparently not long before the 'round-barrow folk/ as we may conveniently call them, outgrew their Bohemian cradle, and dominated the Danube valley, and much of the eastern Alps, coalescing with the already mixed folk (Alpines, western in- vaders, and Danubian remnants), whom they found *there. West- ward they spread into Thuringia; eastward into the Hungarian and Galician lowlands. But their main achievement was to the north-west, where they overran the lowland as far south as the Seine, penetrated into Denmark and Scandinavia^ and built their 'round barrows ' in south Sweden and south-western Norway. At the estuaries of the Elbe, Weser and Rhine, they took to the sea, and occupied the eastern districts of Britain, from the Thames to the Forth, driving the long-headed folk of the 'long barrows' into the forests, but not disturbing the more civilized 'megalithic* folk of Kent and the south and south-west. Here too their 'round barrows' indicate their distribution; and the 'beaker' types of the pottery in them clearly betray their affinities. And wherever they went, they settled and have remained, the ancestors of the 'John Bull* type of Englishman and the kindred continental stocks, The old long-headed Nordic people, whom they disturbed, partly coalesced with them, partly enlarged their own borders northward at the expense of the representatives of the old * Arctic" culture, till they were checked, partly by the climate, partly by the Mongoloid ancestors of the Lapps who had been working their way round the head of the Baltic as soon as the shrinkage of the last Swedish glaciers made this possible. In the Mediterranean, the 'bell-beaker' culture produced com- paratively small effects, so far as our present information goes^ It reached Sardinia and Sicily, but apparently not Malta; and there are no known traces of it on the north African coast. And its vogue appears to have been short. There seems to be good reason for this, as the west Mediterranean, and even the Mediterranean coast of Spain itself, began now to come under a fresh influence, which was to change the whole outlook of this region. It is only in this direction that we may hope to gain even relative dates. II, xii] THE BRONZE AGE 203 XII. THE COMING OF BRONZE The movement which initiated the Minoan bronze age culture in Crete and the Cyclades does not seem to have been confined to the Aegean, Its sources were multiple, and are not to be sought only in Egypt, though intercourse between the Nile and Crete was early, active and persistent. The implements and the pottery, both red-ware and painted, have much in common, as the very names of these styles imply, with Asia Minor and Syria and with that far-easterly culture which penetrated these regions early. Further west, the connecting links are scanty, but the fact that copper-working began early in south-eastern Spain, that the first copper implements there are the leaf-shaped dagger and the flat celt, ^and that with the copper appear fresh vase-forms and an imperfect red-ware technique, which spread rapidly and widely, suggests that this western copper-industry was not an independent discovery, but resulted from intercourse with the Levant. It was not, however, the * bell-beaker' regime of the plateau, but the smaller, more secluded, and hitherto more backward culture of the Almeria coastland, which acquired and exploited the new know- ledge; and the reason for this is certainly the wealth of copper ores in the coast ranges of Murcia and Granada, near enough to the sea to be accessible to prospectors, well supplied with timber for fuel, and perhaps already provided from the same source with seafaring vessels and oversea connexions of its own. Once intro- duced, the new industry developed rapidly; improved types of implements were designed; and the discovery, perhaps accidental, that certain ores yielded a yellower metal, resembling the gold which already circulated as a rarity in neolithic Spain, led to the employment of this for ornaments, which were traded into the interior for some while before the new alloy, as this yellow * bronze' was later discovered to be, was used for implements also, when its greater toughness was appreciated, and produced designedly with the aid of * tin-stone/ This mineral is widely distributed in certain districts of the far interior, and was soon traded to the copper- working districts, and eventually also abroad. At Hissarlik bronze is found in the second city, not later than 2000 B.C., and probably a good deal earlier, in weapons of Asia Minor type; in Egypt it appears first under the Vth Dynasty, not later than 2800 B.C.; aiid in Crete it goes back earlier still, almost to the beginning of the Minoan series. Here also therefore Spanish priority in discovery cannot be proved: the transmission of knowledge Is far more difficult to io4 NEOLITHIC AND BRONZE AGE CULTURES [CHAP. B detect than the transport of commodities; but it is significant that "in the tombs at Anjelu-Ruju, in Sardinia, which belong to a pre- metallic stage, and have a purely western culture, 10 out oT 63 bodies are not of Mediterranean type, and are indistinguishable from the broad-headed stock of Asia Minor, which certainly was entering eastern Crete early in the Minoan age, and must there- fore be presumed to have had already some seafaring skill. These Sardinian Immigrants had not been there long, for there had not been time for them to mix their blood much with the natives. Other patches of broad-headed folk have been recognized in Gerba island, off western Tripoli, and in the hill-country of north- eastern Tunis, but the earliness of their arrival here has not been demonstrated. In Spain direct evidence of such * prospecting* aliens has not been recorded yet. It can hardly be accidental, however, that the nascent copper- Industry in the west is accompanied, like that of Asia Minor and Cyprus, by active production of silver. This metal however was for long of local importance mainly, the ease with which It tar- nishes in a moist climate making it far less popular in the north- west. Another invention, this time definitely Spanish, did much to popularize the western metal industry. The leaf-shaped dagger, already broadened at the base, was fixed transversely (like a flat celt) in a long handle, and the * halberd' so constructed was'in wide demand. Together with other western types (elongated or ex- panded celts, the triangular dagger itself, and a longer swordlike blade), it was introduced into Italy, where the discovery of copper ores in Elba and Etruria set that peninsula fairly soon on an inde- pendent career; while Its nearness to the great Danubian province, now mainly dominated (as we have seen) by people of the * bell- beaker' culture, gave it an insatiable market for its metal work, traded against Baltic amber, and perhaps tin from the Central German highland. Later on, the Danube basin, and particularly the Hungarian region of it, began to exploit its own wealth of ore and fuel, and created a culture of its own; but central and north- western Europe long depended almost exclusively on Italian models, and in great part on Italian traffic. As in the west Mediterranean, so along the Atlantic seaboard, the Spanish metal traffic with its special series of forms followed in the wake of the bell-beaker culture. Halberds of early Spanish type have been found on the Upper Danube, and were widely copied in the north-west, as far as Ireland. It appears to have been about the time of the Bohemian exodus II, xnj COPPER AND BRONZE IN CENTRAL EUROPE 105 (p. 101) that the knowledge of copper began to penetrate Into westerif and central Europe; in the west mainly from Spain, and so, Jh the wake of the 'bell-beaker' folk, into the Upper Danube valley; in the centre mainly from Italy, greatly aided apparently by the arrival near Brescia and elsewhere in north-eastern Italy, and eventually as far south as Latium, of parties of people ex- hibiting mixed Alpine and Danubian physique, and burying their dead contracted in earthen graves, in old Danubian fashion. As a similar settlement has been found near Landshut in the Inn valley, it looks as if the famous Inn-Adige route across the Alps was already in use and in the hands of people from the north side. It must be reserved for a later chapter to describe the improvements in copper a#d bronze objects which were made there, and how they«cvere imitated in local factories north of the Alps, as northern ores were discovered and copper-working spread. Here it is suffi- cient to note that in all the earliest and some of the most important of the later types, such as the socketed celt, Italy supplied the models for all central Europe from the Carpathians to the Rhine, and competed, by way of Savoy and the Rhone valley, with the Spanish types which were already current further west. Far to the south-east, it is true, the copper and bronze of western Asia Minor seem to have been traded into Balkan lands through the second city at Hissarlik, and indirectly this traffic may have extended far, for amBer occurs in the second city, and celts, daggers, and pins, — spiral-headed or with an eyelet in the stem, and all common to Hissarlik, Cyprus and Syria, — are found in early lake-dwellings in Austria, But the disturbances due to the dispersal of the painted- ware people from Ukraine, and to the inroads of the 'tumulus- folk/ seem to have dislocated this traffic for a while; and it is not until a much later period, when the Late Minoan culture had at last reached the Hellespont and the north shores of the Aegean, not much before 1300 B.C., that its highly-developed swords, perforated axe-heads, and characteristic spiral decoration began to influence* the bronze work of Hungary and eventually of Denmark and Scandinavia. • Considerably earlier than this, however, and probably not much later than the days of the second city at Hissarlik, Aegean ex- plorers began to sail westwards, and penetrate into the western Mediterranean. Occasional finds betray their intercourse with south Italy as early as the Middle Minoan period, not later than 2000 B.C., trading with the Lipari islands for a rare decorative mineral, influencing the local pottery of Cassibile in Sardinia, and making at least one voyage as far as Marseilles. Their bronze io6 NEOLITHIC AND BRONZE AGE CULTURES [CHAP. swords, of rather later date, reached Sicily when the c painted Sicel* style was in its decline; and in the Late Minoan peridd, after 1400 B.C. they had regular settlements on the east coast of Sfcily, and another at Tarentum. Their wares now reached the head of the Adriatic, and influenced the native metal-work of Este on the old Adige-route to the north, and of Etruria, probably by way of Bologna, which was then the great centre of intercourse between northern and central Italy. XIII. THE HALLSTATT CULTURE It was also perhaps by way of the Adriatic, rather than through the Macedonian passes, that Minoan manufactures, f.nd particu- larly the later types of bronze swords, reached the Middle Danube, and more especially the centres of a new culture which was de- veloping, under combined Italian, Hungarian, and Danubian in- fluences, in valley bottoms among the Austrian and Dalmatian Alps. Of the material culture of central Europe one great trading centre, Hallstatt, among the great salt-beds to which it owes its name and its exceptional wealth, gives, a little later, an unusually full glimpse; for this * Hallstatt culture* not only dominates all the Upper Danube, but exercises widespread influence over middle Germany, over central and northern France, and over Britain and Ireland. Its characteristic swords, modelled at two removes on the Late Minoan type already mentioned, travelled even further into Bosnia, Macedonia, Hungary, East Prussia, Posen, Hanover, Schleswig and Scandinavia and in later varieties into Spain and the British Isles. It was in fact the first culture so general as to deserve the name of European, and with its spread about 900— 800 B.C. this survey of the prehistoric world may close. Outlines of its distribution are given by the finds of a character- istic leaf-shaped sword with broad-flanged handleplate, a 'superior weapon' which cut its way rapidly in the hands or men of superior organization, across a large part of central Europe,, and betrays their occasional incursions into the coast lands or the Mediterra- nean, as far as the Greek islands and Egypt. ^ Several fresh factors contributed to this rapid expansion, and give the Hallstatt culture its distinctive quality. In the first place, this is the first great regional culture which made systematic use of the horse for riding as well as for driving. The horse had been hunted for food since palaeolithic times, but there is no clear evi- dence even of its domestication as a milch-animal, outside the high plateaux of central Asia, until a comparatively late date. II, KIII] THE COMING OF THE HORSE 107 The first positive record is in a Babylonian tablet of about 2 100 B*.C,, where it is described as the 'ass from the east,' or 'from the**nountains/ and was therefore still a recent acquisition among the ass-using folk west of the Zagros range (p, 501). Its arrival here is commonly referred to that Irruption of fresh peoples from Iran or beyond, who founded the barbarian Kassite dynasty of Babylon about 1750 B.C.; and as there is no reason to believe that the great plateau of Iran itself was even then In much better condition than now to support an indigenous pastoral civilization, it is probable that this irruption originated further to the north-east, on the Sarmatian flatland, and that it is to be connected, in Its significance, if not precisely in date, with the irruption of Aryan-speaking folk into India .from the same northern reservoir, and with that west- ward outflow of the "tumulus-folk* across the Dnieper, which broke up the painted-ware culture of Tripolje and penetrated through Galicia into Bohemia, and through the Balkan lands into north-west Asia Minor (pp. 82 sqq.}. The rapidity and violence of these eruptions from the northern grassland, far exceeding in extent and effects all earlier move- ments of which we have any clear Indication, were themselves probably due less to the sudden urgency of unsettlement, than to the acquaintance of the unsettled peoples with unprecedented means of rapid and concerted movement, namely the domestic horse, as steed rather than milk-giver; though the practice of mediaeval and modern horse-riding nomads shows that the two functions are compatible, and that commissariat troubles almost disappear in such a mode of life, provided only that there is ample grazing. This however is precisely the most difficult condition to be at- tained within the Highland Zone and to the south of it; and it is only on the grassland itself, and in Hungary, Thrace, Thessaly and other Intermont plains in the Balkan lands; on the Phrygian and Cappadocian plateaux In Asia Minor; in the larger basins of north Syria; and in a few secluded troughs within the Median and Persian mountains, that local centres of horse-breeding and horse- manship were established permanently. The position of Egypt is ambiguous, as usual. It has been suggested that the peculiarities of the thoroughbred 'barb* variety point to an independent domes- , tication of a north African breed of horse now otherwise extinct; but it is noteworthy that Egypt does not seem to have made any use of horses at all, eastern, indigenous or western, until after the period of oppression by Asiatic invaders which separates the Xllth Dynasty from the XVIIIth; that is, until about 1600 io8 NEOLITHIC AND BRONZE AGE CULTURES [CHAP. B.C.; and by this time the horse was apparently being already im- ported into Crete, only a little before the period at which the northern aggressors were beginning to break through into ^the coastlands of the Aegean. Once introduced, however, the horse found congenial quarters around the fen-margins of the Delta, and Egyptian chariotry met Hittite chariots and cavalry on equal terms in the Syrian wars of the thirteenth century. As in Cappadocia and Syria, so in Thrace and above all in Hun- gary, and eventually throughoxit the Danube valley, horse-driving, and eventually horse-riding conquerors organized and led their very mixed native levies, in every direction where there was pros- pect of loot and lands. The Phrygians, for example, passed over into Asia Minor in the thirteenth century, on the same track as earlier ^tumulus-folk,' and wrecked the decadent empire of* the horse-driving Hittites. Some think that the Homeric *Achaeans' represent another such incursion through Macedonia and Thessaly as far as * horse-grazing Argos.' The terremare-culture of the Po valley came to an abrupt and violent end through a similar invasion out of Styria and Krain, where most graphic representations of these sporting and fighting people are found on bronze vessels of rather later date. North of the Carpathians again, other bodies of essentially simi- lar horse-owning folk traversed the North German plain as far as Denmark, with similar social and political consequences. The sub- sequent adventures of these, and of the eventual Danubian and mid-German invaders of the maritime west, belong, however, to a later volume* It is not to be expected that the whole story of the coming of the horse should be based upon direct evidence of equine remains or of horse-bits and other horseman's gear. Enough, however, seems to be known of the general culture of the horse-owning peoples, to supplement such direct evidence as there is, by that of their weapons, ornaments, and other property. Of these, the swords already mentioned are the most significant; for among a multitude of earlier types developed by local craftsmen, especially in Hun- gary, from the old straight-edged daggers imported as we hav^ seen from Italy, and perhaps earlier still from Asia Minor by way of the Hellespont, there appears at last one, derived from an Aegean pattern, which gave these restless northern peoples what was in the literal sense the "superior weapon' against all adversaries. This * leaf-shaped* sword combined for the first time the advantages of thrust and of cut; and its long flat tang running the full length of the handle and furnished with lateral flanges gave the structural II, XHI] FIRST APPEARANCE OF IRON 109 security of a girder where this was most absent from all earlier blades.*Its occurrence as far to the south-east as Egypt, along with other mid-European types, all belonging to the period of the great sea-raids of the years about 1200 B.C.; in Cyprus where it was eventually manufactured locally; and as far west as Spain and Ire- land, is the best proof of its efficiency as a weapon. From it were developed not only the specifically 'Hallstatt* swords of the tenth, ninth and eighth centuries, but the swords of the Greeks of classi- cal times, and less directly that shorter Spanish sword which was eventually adopted by the Romans. Another notable invention must be brought into retrospect here, and may fitly close our story; for it was during the domination of the leaf-sh%ped sword that bronze began to give place to iron as the material for cutting weapons; though rather in the south than in the home of those swords themselves. Until some first-class site has been properly explored in Asia Minor or North Syria, cer- tainty is unattainable at the most crucial points in the history of the new metal : but from the fragmentary material at present avail- able, the following points seem to be made out. Egypt had occa- sional, perhaps accidental, acquaintance with iron as a rarity, from late predynastic times, and received Syrian iron as a precious metal in tribute under the XlXth Dynasty, but made no general use of the metal till Greek times. Babylonia had no early iron, and though Assyria had it occasionally from the thirteenth century onwards, there was no iron industry there till later, and iron was mainly obtained from the highland district of Commagene between North Syria and Asia Minor* In Palestine, literary references presume that iron was in use as early as the eleventh century; and iron weapons occur at Lachish and other Philistine sites after the arrival of the sea-raiders at the beginning of the twelfth. In North Syria, an iron-using culture intrudes from the north-west in the twelfth century, and it is about the same time, after the collapse of the Minoan sea-power, and of the old coast-land civilization of Cilicia before similar intruders from inland, that iron weapons become common rather suddenly in Cyprus. m As a precious metal for jewellery, Cyprus, like Rhodes, Crete, and the Minoan area generally, had known iron since about 1400, and it was perhaps through Minoan intercourse that iron finger- rings became customary in parts of peninsular Italy. At Hissarlik, iron does not appear till after the destruction of the sixth city, which occurred not earlier than the twelfth century; and there is no reason at present to believe either that Asia Minor obtained its knowledge of iron from Europe (as has been suggested) or that it no NEOLITHIC AND BRONZE AGE CULTURES [CHAP. was brought to Europe directly by the Hellespontine route. In the north the * leaf-shaped ' swords are regularly of bronze, irbn only coming into use gradually during the 'Hallstatt* period, and super- seding bronze only at its close; later, that is, than in Greece, and later still than in Cyprus, where the weapons of * leaf-shaped" type are in iron throughout, from about the eleventh century. Traces both of the older use of iron as a treasured rarity, and of its later use for tools and weapons, occur in the Homeric poems, but with- out precise clue to the relative dates of the passages. That eventu- ally a great iron-working centre arose in Noricum, and repaid to Rome the north's ancient debt to Italian bronze, is iindisputed; and it may be that those who introduced the * leaf-shaped ' sword into Cyprus during the twelfth-century sea-raids parsed on the Levant's knowledge of iron-working to the north, by way of the Aegean or the Adriatic; but at present, priority seems to lie with the North Syrian source, with the possibility that this in turn may be found to be derivative from some other centre beyond Taurus, such as the Chalybes in north-eastern Asia Minor from whom early Greece obtained afterwards its finer quality of steel* A third revolution in custom, of a less material kind, finds its first illustration on any sufficient scale, in the great burial-ground at Hallstatt. The custom of cremation, as an alternative to burial, was of old standing in Europe; for it appears almost (though not quite) at the beginning of the lake-dwelling occupation of the Alpine region, and is also characteristic of the painted-ware cul- ture in Ukraine. But it is not confined to Europe, The Medi- terranean region knows it not, but practises interment uniformly, until after the first northern aggressions; and the painted-ware culture of Anau and Susa has simple earth graves or cists* In Palestine, however, cremation was practised in a very early phase of culture at Gezer, and, though it was superseded there later by burials which seem to represent the first Semitic immigrants, yet "they made a very great burning' for King Asa of Judah in the tenth ceti tury,- and only omitted it for King Jehoram, for special reasons, in the ninth. So it may be that at this far southern outlier of what we have already seen to be the larger habitat of * Alpine/ man an old forest-usage was retained as long as there was fuel to spare. In late neolithic times, Alpine cremation spread into Italy with the 'terremare'-folk, and similarly on the north side of the Alps it came gradually into general use, passing over, for example, into Britain and Asia Minor alike. Something must however be allowed here for the dispersal of the Tripolje people westward, over the MAP 5 EUROPE SHOWING THE PRINCIPAL NEOLITHIC CULTURES MAP 6 <£?: EUROPE SHOWING THE PRINCIPAL LINES OF EARLY BRONZE AGE INTERCOURSE Land above 30Q0 feet II, xra] CREMATION IN CLASSICAL TIMES m middle basin of the Danube, and also for the prevalence of cre- mation among the Aryan-speaking invaders of India, and there- fore ^probably among other folk also on the northern grassland, At Hallstatt itself, the actual process of replacement is illustrated by many examples, interment being first supplemented by partial cremation, for example of the head, feet or abdomen, and only gradually superseded by total incineration. This, however, is a late instance; in Thessaly, cremation appears with the earliest 'leaf- shaped' swords, probably about the eleventh century, and the splendid pyre-funerals of the Homeric poems may anticipate this by a few generations, In Greece and in Italy, as in Herodotus' description of Thrace in his own day, both rituals persisted side-by-side^till Christian doctrine restored the aboriginal usage of thi south. Into the significance of this conflict of beliefs as to the latter end of Man, this is not the place to go : let Herodotus, with whose wisdom we began, close the story in his own way. 'Him who has left them, they bury in the earth, with gladness and sport, recount- ing all the evils from which he is now free and in perfect bliss' , . , 'for three days they lay out the body, slay all sorts of sacrifice, and hold a feast, ending their mourning first; and then they bury, hming to ashes, or merely interring and cast a mound, and hold sports of every kind, in which the chiefest prizes are for single combat, Such is the Thradan's funeral'— on the margin between two worlds, CHAPTER III EXPLORATION AND EXCAVATION L THE RELATION OF ARCHAEOLOGY TO HISTORY ¥N every department of human life the past century has wit- JL nessedthe gradual growth of free enquiry. Documents formerly regarded as infallible have in recent years been made the subject of the severest criticism. Neither the sanction of long habitual acceptance, as in the case of the classical historians, nor the endorsement of the divine verbal inspiration attributed to the Hebrew Scriptures, has exempted the writings named from this treatment. The statements which they contain have been put to every conceivable test. Along with the textual and literary criticism of the documents themselves, there have advanced pan passu the exploration of the obscurer literatures of North European and of Oriental nations, the observation and tabulation of the rites, customs, and beliefs of peoples in primitive stages of civilization, and the excavation of ancient cities and settlements. A wealth of illustrative material has thus been collected, which has undoubt- edly illuminated many formerly dark passages in the historical records, It is not to be supposed, however, that archaeological or ethno- logical research can supersede the labour of the historical critic, or that the results of such work can be called in, definitely to cor- roborate or to refute his conclusions. Doubtless the archaeologist may discover an inscription which, referring to some historical event, may supplement, or correct, the account of the same event in the pages of some ancient historian. But even such an inscrip- tion must itself be submitted to criticism. Oriental monarchs were not above exaggerating their mighty deeds beyond all reason, and allowance must be made for this weakness. Archaeological research consists principally in the discovery and the classification of the common things of daily life — houses, personal ornaments, domestic utensils, tools, weapons, and the like (see pp. i $q^ 66-70)* These are occasionally of value even to the historical critic; for example, they may help to expose anachronisms. If, to suggest a possible concrete case, a narrative should describe a community as using tools or weapons of iron, at a time when, as contemporary deposits CHAP. Ill, ij ARCHAEOLOGY AND HISTORY 113 indicate, it had not yet emerged from the earlier Bronze stage of cultnre, then the critic must re-examine Ms texts. Either the docmrnent is wrong in this particular, or, perchance,, the word which he has rendered 'iron9 may be found, to have some other signification. The reader will understand that this illustration is merely put forward as an example of the kind of assistance which the archaeologist may render to the historian. Archaeological evi- dence of this nature must, however, be cross-examined, like every other evidence. In a case such as we have supposed, the archae- ologist must satisfy the historian that the deposits upon which he bases his deductions are fairly representative of the state of culture of the whole community, and not merely relics of some insigni- ficant and t^ickward group of people living within its borders, but haviag no direct connexion with the course of history. In archaeological study we cannot always deduce causes from the observed effects with mathematical certainty: the evidence is often ambiguous, and frequently there are no indications to en- able us to choose among several possible solutions of a problem. We may, for example, find a layer of ashes in a stratified city-site. The historian may tell us of a conquest or of a raid about the time of this deposit; but it is at least an even chance that the fire which produced the ashes was a mere accidental conflagration, of which no documentary record has been preserved. Indeed, it is in most cases desirable for the archaeologist to form his conclusions as to chronology and allied problems independently of the historian3 and for the two fellow-labourers to settle any differences by gradual approximation. To excavate merely with the purpose of 'confirming' written history is to court inevitable disappointment, and, what is worse, to do most serious injury to the sites examined. Out often thou- sand recorded events, not more than one or two can possibly leave any permanent record upon the aspect of the sites which witnessed them. Even the scars of war quickly heal on the face of the earth. Abraham, Joshua, Samuel, David, Isaiah, Paul march in a ma- jestic procession through Palestine, but we ransack the land in Xgin for their faintest footprint : they live in the written word alone. An explorer who should be so foolish as to go in pursuit of their relics would neglect, and very probably destroy, the countless valuable remains which he would actually meet. The true function of archaeological research is to discover the conditions amid which lived such heroes of old as we have mentioned; to show them, no longer as solitary, more or less idealised or superhuman, figures, but as men of like passions to ourselves moving with other men, C.A.H.I 8 u4 EXPLORATION AND EXCAVATION [CHAP. in a busy world engrossed in its secular interests, and making daily use of the common things of life. To excavate with the sole purpose of adding to the stock of written history, by the discovery or tablets, papyri, or inscriptions, is an equally fatal error. It would not be too severe to describe many excavations that have been made as mere 'tablet-piracies/ So engrossed has the excavator been in finding libraries of tablets — the importance of which no one would dream of minimizing— that he has neglected the pots and the pans, which are essential if he is to fill in the picture of the ancient life of the region. To Professor W, M. Flinders Petrie belongs the credit for calling attention to the importance of 'unconsidered trifles/ and he has shown it at many times during his long career as an ex- cavator. To mention one striking instance, by his preliminary re- connaissance at Tell el-Hesy, the site of Lachish, in Southern Palestine, he determined for all time the principles of the dating of Palestinian pottery. He proved, by comparing stratum with stratum in the mound that covered the remains of this often-re- built city, that every age had its own style of pot shapes or orna- ment, and of clay baking. At different times different foreign in- fluences were brought to bear upon the craftsman. So completely can the evolution be systematized, that, thanks to Prof. Petrie, whose scheme has not been modified by his successors except in occasional details, it is possible to date a Palestinian mound as unambiguously as if it had been full of inscriptions. Even from horseback an observant traveller can often assign approximate limits of date to an ancient site in the country. Among other advantages, the pottery-test affords a valuable check by which the modern identification of ancient sites can be tested and controlled. Many such identifications, made in the early days of research, chiefly on the unstable foundation of similarity of name, must now be abandoned, as the potsherds show that the date of the site, and the date assigned in the literary documents, do not correspond. Seeing that the comprehension of certain his- torical events (as, for example, military movements) often depends upon an exact understanding of topography, the unimportant sherds which the archaeologist collects may thus not infrequently become of at least an indirect value to the historian. The antiquities of the Near East have attracted the attention and interest of travellers from the days of Herodotus. But for the purposes of this chapter it is hardly necessary to go back further than the beginning of the nineteenth century. Before that time these monuments were a matter rather for intelligent curiosity 111,1] POTTERY AND EARLY RECORDS 115 than for serious scientific study. We recall how the Spectator^ in his first* number (i March 1711), describes himself as making *a Voyage to Grand Cairo, on purpose to take the Measure of a Pyramid/ and adding, 'as soon as I had set rny self right in that Particular, [I] returned to my Native Country with great Satis- faction/ In short, having acquired a disconnected scrap of in- formation, in itself of only moderate interest, he made no further use of it. He was typical of his time. It was, indeed, impossible for any progress to be made in re- search so long as the inscriptions remained undecipherable. The outward appearance of Egyptian hieroglyphs was probably familiar to some Europeans at all times. The more remote cuneiform of Mesopotamia and Asia Minor was naturally for long quite un- knovrti; but from the time of the publication of Pietro della Valle's delightful letters describing his extensive Oriental travels, there was at least a scrap of knowledge available with regard to the as- pect of that mysterious script, for the writer named has repro- duced five characters which he saw at Persepolis; and has stated reasons for his supposition, which proved correct, that they should be read from left to right. The letter in which he gives these Old Persian characters is dated 21 October 1621. But the only sources of knowledge on which would-be decipherers could draw, down to the beginning of the nineteenth century, were the writers of Greece; and, as has been subsequently proved, even in the meagre information which they vouchsafe on these obscure points, they were blind leaders of the blind. In this chapter it is proposed to give a brief survey of the history of the archaeological researches of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, which have so greatly enlarged our knowledge of Egypt, Babylonia and Assyria, and neighbouring lands; have revealed the empire of the Hittites; and have discovered the unsuspected civilization that flourished in the lands of the Aegean in the third and second millennia B.C. In setting forth the material, we shall follow the order in which a pioneer expedition to any country would naturally conduct its researches. First would come a survey o&the country, with an enumeration of the remains above ground; secondly, the collection and decipherment of its inscriptions; and thirdly, the excavation of its cities and burial places. 8—2 n6 EXPLORATION AND EXCAVATION [CHAP. II. EGYPT (a) SURFACE EXPLORATION Many accounts of the wonders of Egypt have come down to us from the hands of early writers. Herodotus has provided rich material for controversy with his descriptions of Lake Moeris and of the Labyrinth; and, in later times, the pyramid-fields accessible from Cairo attracted the attention of many mediaeval travellers and pilgrims. It is, however, hardly worth our while to expend space upon these fragmentary allusions. It is a strange and prob- ably a unique fact that the foundations of scientific Egyptology were laid in a military expedition. With the army that Napoleon conveyed to Egypt in 1798., in pursuance of his enter prises/ there were a number of draughtsmen and of keen scientific enquirers, and these made so good a use of their time and opportunities that they collected an unprecedented mass of topographical informa- tion* On the materials which they brought together is based the great Description de V&gyfte published in many volumes by the French Academy between 1809 and 1813, in which we find the first systematic account of the monuments of the Valley of the Nile. The inscriptions reproduced in this publication, although the copies were not without faults — as was to be expected, considering that they were in a script as yet completely unintelligible — fur- nished a quantity of useful material for those who first seriously attempted to unlock the secret of the hieroglyphs. When, as we shall see in the next section, Champollion had made some progress with the decipherment of the inscriptions, he was enlisted in the second great survey, that of Rosellini in 1828, Xhis enterprise considerably enlarged the body of knowledge accessible on the subject of the topography of the country; and the reading of the inscriptions made it possible for the first time to arrange the monuments in some historical order. The result of the expedition was not published, however, till after Champollion "s death in 1831* These explorations had confined themselves to the lower part of the Nile valley — that below the Aswan cataract. The study^of Egyptian remains In Nubia, and as far south as Khartum., was the work of the next survey, that of Lepsius in 1 840, This scholar had become the most prominent authority of the day on the Egyptian language. Not only did he examine the surface, but at Memphis and other places he made excavations. He thus greatly enlarged the geographical limits within which Egyptian remains were to be studied, and, further, in returning, he discovered and published Ill, n] EXPLORATION IN EGYPT 117 the important inscriptions left behind by the ancient Egyptian miners *at the copper-bearing parts of the Sinai Peninsula. By this time the main facts as to the surface antiquities of Egypt had been ascertained and put on record. All the monu- ments that a traveller would see in journeying through the country had been noted and delineated. Of course hardly a year has passed since then without adding some detail — a new inscription or graf- fito, for example — but in the main the statement may stand, that Lepsius exhausted the general topographical study of the country. The peculiar conformation of Egypt, a long narrow strip on each side of a river, and bordered by uninhabitable desert, makes it possible for a single expedition to cover the whole ground in a way hardly possible in any other country. More scientific and artistic cartclgraphy may have been undertaken since the time of Lepsius: the Egypt Exploration Fund is carrying out a detailed archaeo- logical survey; and the erection of the Aswan dam, which involved the submersion of important ancient remains over a wide extent of territory, necessitated a close examination of the country af- fected. But most of the significant work subsequent to Lepsius has been excavation rather than exploration. (£) DECIPHERMENT The few particulars of value regarding the Egyptian hiero- glyphs, preserved by a number of more or less obscure Greek writers, would never have been sufficient to enable a scholar to decipher a single inscription. Till the discovery at Rashid (Ro- setta), near Alexandria, by an officer of the Napoleonic expedition, of a bilingual inscription, in Egyptian and Greek, and till its sub- sequent analysis by European scholars, no solution of the riddle of Egyptian writing could be found. The Rosetta stone is a large slab of basalt bearing an inscrip- tion three times repeated. At the bottom the text appears in Greek, at the top in hieroglyphics; in the middle it is given again in Egyptian, but in a cursive simplification of the hieroglyphic called 'Demotic/ The hieroglyphic part of the inscription is much broken, and every line has lost its beginning and end; the Greek portion is also imperfect at the bottom. With regard to the con- tents of the inscription, all that we need say is that it is a proclama- tion by the priests of Memphis, setting forth the good deeds of Ptolemy Epiphanes, and decreeing that his statue shall be set up in every temple in Egypt. The Rosetta stone is often supposed to have been the sole key used for the solution of the problem of decipherment. But this is ii 8 EXPLORATION AND EXCAVATION [CHAP. not the case. The decipherers proceeded on the method adopted by readers of the common substitutionary form of cryptograms. The first step in such a process would necessarily be the dfeter- mination of the phonetic meaning of the characters; and the lan- guage of the Egyptian part of the inscription being unknown, this could not be done unless with the aid of -proper names^ which would be common to the Greek and the Egyptian. The Rosetta stone, in its present condition, happens to contain but one proper name — that of Ptolemy, In Zoega's De origine et usu obeliscorum (1797), the happy speculation was adventured that groups of characters surrounded with an oval ring or cartouche are proper names, or else especially sacred formulae. They are, as a matter of fact, royal names; and such a group of characters occurred in the Rosetta inscription at places corresponding to the appearance of the name riTOAEMAIOS (Ptolemaios) in the Greek version. An obelisk from the island of Philae supplied in 1822 the neces- sary further material. This bore inscriptions in Greek and Egyp- tian; it had the name IITQAEMAIOZ, and corresponding to it a cartouche identical with that on the Rosetta stone; it had also the name K A EOF"! AT PA (Cleopatra) with a different cartouche corre- sponding. Now the hieroglyphic letters in these cartouches (setting them out in a row) were respectively as follows; (A) w i x a 3 4 5 67 (B) Here it is obvious that A I is the same as B 5, and thus must be equated to the Greek fl (/>), which comes in the same positions in the Greek form of the names. Likewise A 4 is the same as B 2, and by the same argument must be equivalent to A (/). Again A 3 and B 4 are alike, and must therefore somehow represent the Greek O. In B, letters 6 and 9 are the same, and must have been regarded as equivalents to A, We have now got a framework of known letters, with gaps between them that can be filled imme- diately by reference to the Greek; we can thus identify A 2 as T, A 5 as M, and presumably A 7 as £ (s\ the preceding letter being in some way representative of the group of Greek vowels A!O. Similarly, in B, we learn to treat letter I as K, 3 as the equivalent of E, and 8 as P (r), 7 is T, but here we are introduced to the differentiation of cognate sounds, for it is a different character which is used for the same Greek equivalent in the first name. As Ill, n] DECIPHERMENT OF HIEROGLYPHS 119 for the two remaining characters, their explanation came in due time wB.en it was recognized that they always follow and distin- guish divine female proper names ; the one is /, the feminine suffix, the other an egg. An alphabet of eleven phonetic characters was thus obtained. The list was extended by applying it to other cartouches found in the publication of the French Academy, some of which contained the names of Roman Caesars or of Ptolemaic monarchs or queens, known from accessible historical sources. A few letters of each of these being determined, the rest followed automatically, as in the solution of a cryptogram. When a sufficient body of phonetic characters had been determined, the application of the key thus obtained to*the body of the Rosetta inscription proved that the Egyptian language was the ancestor of the modern Coptic. This tongue therefore provided a clue, making it possible to identify the common words with their Greek equivalents, and to systematize the grammatical structure of the language. Thus were the founda- tions laid on which three generations of Egyptologists have built ever since. The study, however, grows in complexity as it ad- vances. The language is now known to have changed greatly during its long life: the ancient Pyramid texts are in a very differ- ent form of the language from the inscriptions of the later empire. The principle that the script represents the consonantal framework of the language only (adopted by the Berlin school of Erman, but first enunciated by Brugsch in 1 857), and that the characters once supposed to be vowels are not so primarily, has added serious difficulty to the grammatical study (see p. 341 $$.*)* Readers of books on Egyptology are often perplexed by the variety of spellings adopted by different scholars in rendering Egyptian words, and especially proper names. To make them pro- nounceable at all, the vowels must be supplied; but in most cases there is little or no guidance to the correct vocalization. And even the nature of the nuances which distinguished the sounds of the so-called homophonous consonants is not always certain: thus, there are several kinds of d^ k and h sounds, as there are in the Semitic languages, but the nature of the differences between them cannot always be determined. There is thus an unavoidable differ- ence of opinion among scholars as to the true principles of trans- literation of words written in hieroglyphics : and whenever Hero- dotus or Manetho happens to give us a Grecized form, that form is often adopted for simplicity's sake. It is regrettable that personal and international jealousies have done much to obscure the question of the man or men first respon- 120 EXPLORATION AND EXCAVATION [CHAP sible for this great addition to knowledge. Four names stand out prominently in the history of the pioneer researches : the renowned Oriental scholar, De Sacy; Akerblad, Swedish Minister at R5me; Thomas Young; and Jean Frangois Champollion. It was the de- motic text which first attracted attention in the Rosetta Stone, and a facsimile was prepared by the Society of Antiquaries of London for distribution among scholars. De Sacy and Akerblad first pub- lished dissertations upon it in 1802, and the latter succeeded in identifying correctly fourteen of its characters. Dr Thomas Young (1773—1829)3 one of those singular * Admirable Crichtons* who were more numerous in former generations than they are now,, in these days of specialization, published in 1814 a study of the de- motic characters with an alphabet embodying AkerbfexFs results* but without sufficient acknowledgment of his predecessor's ^rork; it is true, he seems to have arrived at his own results independ- ently, but he had certainly read Akerblad's essay before he pub- lished, his own. Later, in 1 8 1 8, he contributed an extensive article on Egypt to the Encyclopaedia Britanmcay embodying all his re- searches, with an explanation (on the whole very incorrect, it must be confessed) of about 200 hieroglyphs. The true founder of scientific Egyptology, so far as the lan- guage is concerned, was undoubtedly Champollion (i79o~""I832)> who, again, worked on similar lines to the other investigators, and (as it would appear) with full knowledge of the progress of their researches. It is regrettable that, as Young absorbed the work of Akerblad, so he seems to have quietly appropriated the work of Young, without doing justice to his useful pioneer labours. He possessed, however, a thorough knowledge of Coptic, which his rivals lacked, and without which even in modern times a scientific study of the language is impossible; and thus equipped, he was able far to outdistance his competitors, and to win for himself a permanent fame which a little more generosity to his fellow- labourers would not have diminished. (0 EXCAVATION It is impossible to give any complete survey of the history cf Egyptian excavation. A few details only can be mentioned. We have already seen that Lepsius conducted some excavations at Memphis and elsewhere during his survey of the country. But the real founder of excavation work in Egypt was Augusta Marietta, the first director of the Cairo Museum. For the thirty years fol- lowing 1850 Mariette had the whole work of excavation in his own hands under an exclusive permit; and as all Egypt was virgin Ill, u] CHAMPOLLION, MARIETTE AND FOLLOWERS 121 soil before him, it is not surprising that his name is associated with some of the most epoch-making discoveries that have been made in trie country. The Serapeum of Memphis (the cemetery of the sacred Apis bulls), the temple of the Sphinx at Gizeh, and the cemeteries of Sakkarah, are among the chief fruits of his labours, as well as the clearance of the great temples of Abydos, Medinet Habu, Der el-Bahri, and Edfu from the rubbish that centuries of Arab neglect had allowed to accumulate. At the same time in- numerable inscriptions, works of art, statues, and other minor ob- jects enriched the museums of Paris or of Cairo. After his death in 1880, while the Cairo Museum continued., very properly, to reserve the right to prevent unique or otherwise valuable objects from leaving the country, permission was extended to representa- tives*of other countries to increase knowledge by conducting ex- cavations on their own account. The reign of Maspero (afterwards Sir Gaston Maspero) in the Cairo Museum was brilliantly inau- gurated by the opening of the pyramid of Unas at Sakkarah, on the walls of whose chamber were found the priceless * Pyramid Texts,* documents of absolutely inestimable value for the philo- logical history of the Egyptian language, and for the study of the early development of Egyptian religious ideas. In 1883 the English Egypt Exploration Fund (now the Egypt Exploration Society) was founded, and has since done steady work in several departments: excavation, surface exploration and sur- vey, including the publication of inscriptions; and Greco-Roman studies, more especially the decipherment and publication of the immense stores of papyri which certain sites have yielded. France, Germany, Switzerland and the United States of America followed suit in establishing and maintaining excavating expeditions. Every year produces a bewildering mass of new material. Among the more striking discoveries are the cache of Royal Mummies (Mas- pero and Loret, 1 88 1), the sites of Tanis and of Naucratis (Petrie, 1884—5% the Tell el-Amarna correspondence (1887), the site of Bubastis (Naville, 1887—9), Tell el-Amarna, and the numerous relics of the Heresy of Ikhnaton (Petrie, 1891), the Fayyum ex- cavations, which resulted in the identification of the Lake Moeris and of the Labyrinth of Herodotus, the Greco-Roman mummy portraits, and the first great collection of Greco-Roman papyri (Petrie, 1888), the treasures of the pyramids of Dahshur (De Morgan, 1 8 94), the tombs of the early dynastic kings at Abydos (Amelineau, 1895, continued in later years by Petrie and by Naville), the * Israel7 stele of Merneptah (Petrie, 1896), the *pre- dynastic ' race, first found at Nakadah (Petrie, 1896), the Tombs of 122, EXPLORATION AND EXCAVATION [CHAP. the Kings near Thebes (various explorers and years — most re- markable, probably, being the rich tomb of the parents of Queen Tiy, and of the Queen herself, by T. Davis, 1 904-6), the tonlb of Osiris at Abydos (Naville, 1902, and following years), the Ara- maic papyri at Elephantine (i 905 and following years), the de- tailed study of the temple of Der el-Bahri, resulting in the dis- covery of the wonderful Hathor cow-figure and many other works of art (Naville, a work of many years). This may suffice to give some idea of the work that has been no less energetically pursued since the date at which this enumeration stops1. IIL MESOPOTAMIA (*) SURFACE EXPLORATION The testimonies of early travellers regarding the 'remains of Mesopotamia are for the greater part confined to the two biblical sites of Nineveh and Babylon — the former close to the town of Mosul, the latter not far from Baghdad. The tradition of the identification of these two sites was never quite lost, although some travellers express themselves as sceptical about them. From the point of view of archaeological discovery, however, the criticisms and observations of the seventeenth and eighteenth century pioneers are of historical interest only. As in the case of Egypt, it was the nineteenth century which witnessed the real beginning of scientific work in Mesopotamia. In the important department of surface surveying the first name that calls for mention is that of C. J. Rich (1787— 1 820), Resident in Baghdad of the East India Company, who employed his leisure in visiting and surveying the gigantic mounds and fields of ruins which represent the ancient cities of Babylonia and Assyria. By his labours, accurate knowledge became available for the first time as to the real magnitude and outward appearance of the remains at such sites as Babylon, Arbela, Nineveh and others* During, and soon after, Rich's official residence at Baghdad, the best-known remains were visited by Buckingham (i 8 r 6), R» 1C Porter (i 8 1 8), Mignan (1837), 9* ^ Eraser (1834), and other travellers, all of whom added details of importance to the facts already recorded^ But a detailed survey of the whole region was still lacking : there was as yet nothing but the observations of single travellers upon individual sites. This want was in part supplied by the survey, in 1835—7, of the courses ^of the Euphrates and Tigris, by a British expedition tinder the direction of General Chesney. The maps which embody 1 On the work of the Egyptian Research Account, the Egyptian Exploration Society, etc., see p. 625 (r). Ill, in] EXPLORATION IN MESOPOTAMIA 123 the results of this work were the foundation for all later topo- graphicM investigation. Although the purpose of the Chesney ex- pedition was commercial and political rather than scientific, science profited in no small degree by the results of the work, and a great stimulus was given to further exploration. Of more immediate scientific value were the surveys of Assyria by JL F. Jones (1852), and the unfinished reconnaissance of Babylon under Selby, in the early sixties. (<£) DECIPHERMENT The decipherment of the cuneiform characters was a task of considerably greater difficulty than that of the Egyptian hiero- glyphs. In the latter study, the investigators had the assistance of inscriptions in a form of writing and language so thoroughly well- known as Greek; and when the Egyptian words themselves began to emerge from the hieroglyphic mystery which enshrouded them, their similarity to their Coptic progeny made the further task of interpretation comparatively smooth. In the case of the cuneiform characters, however, the decipherers had first to contend with the complexity and apparent want of individuality of the symbols themselves, and with their enormous number. Nor was there any available translation, in a known language, of any of the inscrip- tions to be analysed. True, the key was ultimately obtained, as in all such cases, by the use of bilingual inscriptions; but the 'trans- lation' had itself to be first made intelligible. Though the deci- pherers were not obliged (in current phrase) to interpret ignotum per ignofius, it is certainly true that they had to interpret ignotum far ignotum. Already in 1765 Niebuhr had surveyed the imposing ruins of Persepolis, a site which had shared with Nineveh and Babylon the interest of the earlier travellers, but by reason of their magnitude rather than of their historical associations; and he had pointed out that the cuneiform characters, while possessing a superficial simi- larity in all inscriptions, were not always identical in detail. There were certain inscriptions which appeared to be in a simplified form e Vogue and Waddington, by the former in studying the atfcient churches, and by both in collecting the Semitic and Greek inscriptions, which are so numeroiis in various parts of Syria, Valuable surveys were made in Phoenicia (1860) by Renan; and, in recent years, by an American expedition under H. C. Butler. The Palestine Exploration Fund, the first public body to devote itself exclusively to work in this region, was founded in London In 1865. After some preliminary work of excavation in Jerusalem, it embarked in 1 8 70 on the Ordnance Survey above mentioned, under the direction of Conder and Tyrwhitt Drake. The latter was a young zoologist, but endowed with a marvellous capacity for acquiring languages. He had already accompanied the noted linguist, E. H. Palmer, in an adventurous march through the desert of the Tih, and seemed well fitted by his physical powers to take part in so laborious an enterprise as the survey. But he died shortly after the work began. His place was taken by a young lieutenant of engineers, afterwards to be famous as Lord Kitchener of Khartum. The maps, and the series of volumes accompanying them, containing name-lists, descriptions of fauna and flora, and brief — sometimes too brief — notices of the surface appearances of the various sites and mounds and fields of ruins scattered so richly over the country, are the basis of all later topographical work. It cannot be claimed that the work was as full as it might be, foT there are still plenty of gleanings left, even for an explorer who does not dig; and the knowledge since acquired on the subject of the chronology of pottery, as explained above (p. 1 14), reopens the question of many of the identifications of ancient sites proposed by the explorers. Still, these defects are mere sun-spots, and the work will always stand as a monument of industry and enthusiasm. Some later surveys, such as those of Schumacher and of Musil, in the land of Moab, may be noticed in passing* 1 32 EXPLORATION AND EXCAVATION [CHAP. (6) DECIPHERMENT There is nothing to say in this section under the head $f de- cipherment, as all the inscriptions of Palestine and Syria are in known scripts and languages — though the interpretation of many of them offers no little difficulty. The Hittitc hieroglyphs are treated in a later section. Of the inscriptions in which the mys- terious Philistines may have recorded their sentiments, and which, when they appear, may be expected to offer problems analogous to those of the hieroglyphic and cuneiform mysteries, none has as yet rewarded any excavator,, and the * speech of Ashdod ' still re- mains unknown* (0 EXCAVATION The excavations which have been carried on in the Holy Land, like those in Mesopotamia, have all been partial. Lack of funds, and the limitations imposed by the Turkish Imperial Permits, which required the work to be completed in two or at most three years, have hitherto prevented the attainment of the ideal of carry- ing out an excavation to the very end* The sites dug have been as follows; isolated spots in and around Jerusalem (Warren, 1867— 70); Tell el-Hesy, the ancient Lachish (Petrie and afterwards Bliss, 1891-2); the Soxith Wall of Jerusalem (Bliss and Dickie, 1 894-7); Gath (?), Azekah (?), and Marissa (Bliss and R. A, S. Macalister, 1899—1900); Gezer (Macalister, 1901—8); Beth-Shemesh (D. Mackenzie and F. G, Newton, 1910—12), Megiddo (Schumacher, 1903— 4);Taanach(Sellin, 1902—3); Jericho (Sellin and Watzinger, 1909—10); Samaria (Lyon and Reissner, 1908—10). The above list down to Beth-Shemesh contains the sites dug for the Palestine Exploration Fund; Megiddo and Jericho were excavated under German auspices, Taanach under Austrian, and Samaria under American. Since the War excavation has been undertaken at other sites, such as Ashkclon (Garstang, 1920—2). The results which have rewarded this activity have been very different from those obtained by Egyptian and Mesopotamian ex- plorers. It is not in human nature for a Palestine explorer to r#ad without a feeling of envy of the rich epigraphic and artistic harvest gathered by his brethren in Egypt and Mesopotamia. The Moabite Stone, found almost at the beginning of scientific excavation (in 1868), is always before his eyes as a stimulus and encouragement; but so far that extraordinary monument stands alone, and many hundreds of tons of earth have to be removed before a find of really outstanding importance can be expected* Ill, iv] PALESTINE, SYRIA AND ARABIA I33 The chief discoveries that have been made on Palestinian soil (including in the denomination Syria and the land across the Jordan) have not been numerous. In epigraphy, the stele of Mesha, commonly called the Moabite Stone, stands easily first as a monu- ment of unique importance. A long way behind comes the Siloam tunnel inscription, which tells us little of real historical value. This and the Gezer calendar, and the Samaria ostraca, are the only other specimens of pre-exilic Hebrew, apart from inscribed seals, etc., as yet discovered. These, while possessing some sociological and philological interest, are devoid of direct historical value. A few cuneiform inscriptions have come to light, e.g. in Lachish, a tablet belonging to the Tell el-Amarna series, two Gezer tablets of the period of the* Assyrian domination of Israel, and a few in Taanach. All trBe other important epigraphic discoveries in Palestine proper have been late inscriptions, a few in Hebrew (Jewish), but mostly in Greek, as for instance the minatory stele of Herod's Temple, discovered at Jerusalem by Clermont-Ganneau, and the taxation- tablet found in fragments at Beer-sheba. Across the Jordan, the most important monument, next to the Moabite stone, is the stele of Seti I, found at Tell esh-Shihab. This, perhaps, is the most con- venient place for referring to the Aramaean inscriptions of Zen- jirli, north of Aleppo, found in 1888—9, anc^ relating to a small North Semitic kingdom of which it was the centre; as well as the funerary inscriptions of the Phoenician kings, Tabnith and Esh- munazar, and the dedicatory inscriptions cut upon the foundations of the Temple of Eshmun at Sidon. Other excavations and dis- coveries in North Syria will be mentioned in their place. Reference must also be made to the epigraphic discoveries that have been made in Arabia. This country lies outside the main stream of ancient history, and for this reason it would be superfluous to devote a special section of this chapter to the chequered history of its exploration, though it has an important place in the scenery of the background. Its climate, its difficulties of transit, its long stretches of barren lands, and the character of its population have made its topographical study a matter of no ordinary risk. The iit-fated expedition of Niebuhr (1761—4) began work which has been carried on through the nineteenth century by Burckhardt, Von Wrede, Burton, Wetzstein, Hal6vy, Hurgronje, Doughty, Huber, Glaser — to name but a few of the taost important. Passing over the many contributions to geography and the various branches of anthropology and natural history which these explorers have made, we confine ourselves to mentioning the many inscriptions that have been copied, or c squeezed, y often at very serious per- 134 EXPLORATION AND EXCAVATION [CHAP. sonal risk. These are for the greater part confined to the south of the peninsula., and fall into two series, an older, in the 'Minaean* dialect, and a later, the 'Sabaean' (see p. 188). They are ofc con- siderable historical and linguistic value, and throw much welcome light upon ancient Arabian religion. But some of those that are known still await publication, and those that have been published are not as yet fully elucidated. There are also, in northern Arabia, as well as in the Sinaitic peninsula, a large number of Nabataean inscriptions in an Aramaean dialect; although most of these are mere graffiti, several are grave-inscriptions and illustrate the re- ligious and social institutions. The artistic harvest from Syria and Palestine has if anything been still less than the epigraphic. The art is all, without exception, exotic, Babylon, Egypt, Crete and Cyprus, all in turn influence the native craftsman, who never by any chance turned out any- thing original, except unintentionally. That the magnates of Sidon could appreciate good art — when they saw it — is shown by the great 'Alexander* sarcophagus, a consummate masterpiece of classical Greek art: but they had to go abroad for it. The excava- tions in the country towns, above enumerated, have shown that the average standard of living was not much, if at all, higher than that of the fellahin of modern times. How far the excavation of a metropolis, such as Jerusalem, would tell a different tale it is im- possible to say, as the modern buildings effectually seal up the underlying soil from the excavator's pick. But this region takes its place as a mart or a centre of exchange rather than as an original contributor. Some of the discoveries that have been made in the region are of considerable importance from the point of view of religious and social conditions. Numerous figures of deities — of no artistic merit — come to light in every excavation. The High Place of Gezer and the terra-cotta altar of Taanach may be mentioned in this connexion as being of some importance for early Palestinian re- ligion. Though a description of Palestinian research has to be pitched in a lower key than an account of work in Egypt or in Mesopotamia, the resources of the region are by no means ex- hausted, and the light already thrown upon Palestinian life and thought affords some hint of the wealth of information that might be anticipated, were excavators able to dig their sites from end to end. Ill, v] THE HITTITES 135 V, THE HITTITE EMPIRE resuscitation of the long-forgotten Hittlte empire begins with the discovery by Jean Otter in 1736 of the famous relief at Ibriz in south Cappadocia. This was followed in 1812 by the discovery of one of the Hamath inscriptions by Burckhardt. Other finds of the same kind were made from time to time; but they were scattered, and no special notice was taken of them. The revival of interest begins with the rediscovery of the Hamath stone in 1 870, by J. A. Johnson, the American Consul-General in Syria, and the Rev* Dr Jessup, a Beirut Missionary: several others were found at the same time. In 1872 Richard Burton, in his Unexplored Syriay published tile first available transcript of the Hamath inscription, whicii, though not an exact copy, was enough to show that the writing was a hitherto unknown hieroglyphic script. In the same year Dr W. Wright, an Irish missionary at Damascus, with the co-operation of the Turkish governor, procured the transmission of the Hamath stones to the Constantinople Museum, and sent home to London two sets of plaster casts; and the British Museum also secured a number of inscriptions from Jerabls, the ancient Car- chemish. Wright seems to have been the first to suggest that in these writings we were to see monuments of the people known in the Bible as Hittites — a people sufficiently great to command the respect and fear of the Egyptians, and who also occupy a promi- nent position in the contemporary cuneiform records. This sugges- tion is now generally accepted. In 1884 Wright collected every- thing till then known of the Hittites in his book, The Empire of the HittiteSy with valuable facsimiles of all the inscriptions that had come to light, and with a first attempt at decipherment by Pro- fessor Sayce, to whose persistence and ingenuity Hittite studies have been greatly indebted. Since Wright's publication a considerable amount of material has accumulated, especially as the result of two important excava- tions — that of Winckler at Boghaz Keui, and that of the British Museum at Carchemish by Hogarth, Campbell Thompson, Law- p^nce and Woolley. The civilization called * Hittite' extended over north Syria and the greater part of Asia Minor; almost everywhere in that great area are to be found sculptures, at least as bold and as lifelike as the reliefs of the Assyrian palaces, and inscriptions. In spite of heroic attempts, however, the hieroglyphs of the Hittites have not yet been deciphered. The numerous cuneiform inscrip- tions which Boghaz Keui has yielded have thrown much light upon this people; on these see Vol. u, Chap. xi» 136 EXPLORATION AND EXCAVATION [CHAP. VI. THE AEGEAN CIVILIZATION Of all the discoveries In archaeology that the nineteenth cerftury has witnessed, perhaps the most extraordinary is that of the great Bronze Age Empire which centred in the Island of Crete. The foundations of this discovery were laid by Heinrich Schlie- mann, whose romantic story has been told by himself, with a char- acteristic naivete^ in his book Ilios. He relates how he raised him- self from the poverty of his youthful surroundings to wealth, with the single purpose before him of carrying out an ambition, formed in childhood, to excavate Troy. The first sod was turned at Hissar- lik, the site of this city, in April, 1870, when the explorer was In his forty-eighth year. This was merely in the nature orf a prelimi- nary trial; it immediately became clear that the work would ifeces- sarlly be so extensive that authority from the Porte to prosecute the research would be imperative. The permit was not granted till the autumn of 1871, after which, in the face of many difficulties, partly climatic, partly imposed by Turkish officialdom, S chile- mann continued at work until the following year* In 1872 he un- earthed the great treasure of gold and silver, which In his first publication he named 'the Treasure of Priam/ This name is an indication of the spirit in which Schliemann worked. He had a child-like faith in the Homeric poems. He was in search of the heroes of the Iliad\ and his work as a whole, it must be frankly admitted, cannot be altogether exempted from the strictures which, as we saw earlier in this chapter, an idee fixe of such a kind almost inevitably incurs. We can however pardon Schlieinann, for in the seventies of the last century excavation had not become a science; indeed, he was one of the pioneers whose labours established it as such. We now know that he was wholly wrong in his Identification of the Homeric Troy, which he supposed to be the second of the series of nine superposed cities buried In the mound of HIssarllk, It was, In fact, the sixth, which belonged to the time to which the Trojan war is assigned, as was proved afterwards by the excava- tions of Dr Dorpfeld (1892). Thus Schliemann, by a too eager , haste, actually destroyed part of what he was in search of, sine* to reach the second city he had to cut through all the superposed layers. This, however, he could not have been expected to know: such knowledge has been attained gradually, by the patient study of many stratified sites, and by a minute investigation of the mor- phological evolution of pottery and other classes of antiquities capable of seriation. The treasure of Priam, * though a great discovery, was of Ill, vi] THE WORK OF SCHLIEMANN 137 mixed advantage for the excavator. The removal of so much bullion from Turkish soil aroused the indignation of the Ottoman Govern- merit, involved Schliemann in a tedious and expensive law-suit, and made it a difficult matter for him ever again to obtain per- mission to excavate within Ottoman dominions. He accordingly- turned his attention to Mycenae, where, in 1876 (after a brief return,, under a new permit, to Troy) he discovered the marvellous treasures of the shaft-graves, which have enriched the Athens Museum with the most wonderful collection of ancient gold ob- jects in the world. A short visit to Ithaca followed, where an excavation revealed the remains of an ancient settlement. In 1878 work was once more resumed at«Troy, continuing at intervals till 1883, when Schlie- manit finally left the site. In the latter years his labours there were shared, greatly to their advantage, by specialists in anthropology like Virchow, in archaeology and architecture like Dorpfeld, and in literary scholarship like Burnouf. The * finds/ with the excep- tion of the proportion handed over to the Ottoman empire, were presented to the Ethnological Museum of Berlin. The fine beehive tomb, popularly called the ' Treasury of Min- yas/ at Orchomenus occupied Schliemann's attention in 1880, the Mound of Marathon early in 1884; later in the same year he uncovered the foundation of the great palace of Tiryns, from many points of view one of the most important of his discoveries. In the later years of his life he resumed, with the collaboration of Dorp- feld, patient work at Troy, He had just found the sixth or Homeric city, when at the end of 1 890 he died suddenly at Naples. The results of Schliemann's work were far different, atzd far greater, than those which he had anticipated when he turned the first sod at Hissarlik. He went, as we have said, in search of the heroes of Homer; and indeed he believed, not without reason, that he had found them, when he broke into the shaft-graves at Mycenae, with their amazing wealth of golden treasure. But what he really found, though he himself never fully realized it, was a mighty Empire, that had passed altogether into legend. Even the Hittites still lived in the contemporary records of Egypt and Mesopotamia; but all that remained of the empire of the Aegean were the fairy-tales — as they seemed to be — of Minos and the Labyrinth, the Minotaur, Daedalus, Theseus, and Ariadne, ._, These excavations revealed the existence of an art previously unknown, totally different from the Greek art of classical times. It became immediately a problem of momentous importance to determine the origin and the affinities of this new art. Much of it 138 EXPLORATION AND EXCAVATION [CHAP. was obviously conventionalized, and therefore derived from some as yet undiscovered naturalistic art: where, then, was thfe proto- type to be sought? Various answers to this question — mo«t of them best forgotten — were put forward: the least unreasonable theory was that the art was Egyptian in origin, and had been carried by Phoenician mariners to the islands and shores of the Aegean. Schliemann himself looked towards Crete. The credit of pointing the way to the true solution,, and after- wards of practically demonstrating its correctness, belongs to Sir Arthur Evans. His attention was directed to Crete by the exami- nation of a series of remarkable seals which came Into his hands., bearing upon them figures in which he recognized a previously unknown form of picture-writing. In 1896, in a Presidential ad- dress to the Anthropological Section of the British Association, in session at Liverpool, he put forward the Cretan hypothesis, ending his address with these words, in reference to the struggle for political independence at the time in progress: 'To Crete the earliest Greek tradition looks back as the home of divinely-inspired legislation and the first centre of maritime dominion. Inhabited since the days of the first Greek settlement by the same race, speaking the same language, and moved by the same independent impulses, Crete stands forth again to-day as the champion of the European spirit against the yoke of Asia/ Nearly in the centre of the north side of Crete is the site of the palace of Cnossus. Some desultory digging in 1878 had shown that it contained antiquities, Schliemann in 1887 endeavoured in vain to obtain permission to excavate the site, a task which it was the good fortune of Sir Arthur Evans to accomplish. The results of this investigation have completely revolutionized our know- ledge of the ancient history of the Near East, We now know that roughly between 2250 and 1200 B.C. the island of Crete was the centre of a maritime empire, which extended its influence, in politics and in culture, over the Aegean islands and mainland shore, and which, though not using iron — a metal the working of which was not as yet introduced into Europe — practised a natural- istic art of the highest merit, and enjoyed a civilization in many respects more 'modern* in its comforts than any other of the ancient world. The Palace of Cnossus, with its innumerable cham- bers and passages, and with its frescoes of bulls, is the tangible historic basis of the tales of the Labyrinth and the Minotaur, We have been admitted to the throne-room of king Minos, and we may even sit upon his royal seat. We can turn over the tablets upon which his stewards recorded the household accounts and in- Ill, vi] PERIODS OF CRETAN CULTURE 139 ventories, though, as yet we may not pry Into their secrets. And in the beautiful painted ware that graced his halls we may at last see the long-sought origin of the art with which in its later, con- ventionalized, form, Schliemann at Mycenae had startled the world of scholars of his generation. The archaeological yield of the Palace of Cnossus was brilliantly supplemented by that at other palaces excavated at the same time — Phaestus and Hagia Triada by the Italian expedition under Halbherr, Pernier, Savignoni and Paribeni, and in E. Crete by Miss Harriet Boyd (Mrs Hawes) and by Seager. From the results of this work the chronology of the c Minoan? periods, as Sir Arthur Evans has named them, has been determined. The great chrono- logical importance of pottery was nowhere so fully demonstrated: the Scale constructed by Evans and his lieutenant, Dr Duncan Mackenzie, has proved a guide to the dating of the results of all research in the pre-classical antiquities of the Eastern Mediter- ranean. Other excavations may be passed over with a bare mention, space not permitting more, though they cannot be left wholly without notice. Such are Palaikastro in Crete, a city with im- portant tombs, excavated by the British School at Athens; in the Cyclades, the scene of Tsountas* patient and fruitful researches, Phylakopi in Melos (the centre of the obsidian trade), excavated by the British School at Athens; and the French and German excavations of Thera. On the mainland of Greece, besides the excavations of Schliemann, already mentioned, we may refer to Tsountas' long campaigns at Mycenae and brilliant success at Vaphio; Dorpfeld's opening of cupola tombs at Kakovatos in Triphylia (Elis), identified with the Pylos of Nestor; the tombs of Spata and Aphidna in Attica; the excavations of Keramopoulos on the site of Thebes ; and of Soteriadis around Chaeronea, which have considerably extended our knowledge of ancient pottery. The French excavations of Delphi have revealed pre-classical remains; • and those of Tsountas, especially at Dimini and at Sesklo, and of Wace and Thompson in Thessaly, have advanced our knowledge *»f the early civilization of that region. The nine periods into which the history of Bronze-Age civiliza- tion in Crete and the area under its influence have been divided, chiefly through the evidence of pottery, are as follows: their char- acteristics are here stated as briefly as possible. Early Minoan /(immediately overlying the thick neolithic layer under the site of Cnossus, and continuous with it). Black lucchero ware, of similar appearance to the neolithic pottery, but differing 140 EXPLORATION AND EXCAVATION [CHAP. in the technique of the ornamentation. In the neolithic pottery this consists of geometrical devices, 'encrusted,' i.e. inciSed and filled in with gypsum : in the Early Minoan pottery it is applied in colour, either light-tinted on a black ground, or mce versa. Similar pottery found in Egyptian first-dynasty tombs. Early Minoan II (Ossuary at Hagia Triada, Vasiliki pottery, Hagios Onuphrios). Pottery similar to preceding, but showing a higher class of workmanship. Beginning of spiral and other cur- vilinear decoration. Copper triangular daggers. Rude idol figures. Conical seals of marble, ivory, and soft stones. Appearance of vases with long spouts (Schnabelkanneri). Early Minoan III (Hagios Onuphrlos, later deposits at Hagia Triada, Geometrical Pottery of Gournia, Cyclades, Bkissarlik city II, Phylakopi city I). Schnabelkannen with shortened spouts; inore elaborate decoration of pottery; beginning of polychrome decora- tion. Recrudescence of neolithic incised and dotted decoration. Cycladic types of 'fiddle-shaped' idol-figures (*Amorgos* type). Spiral decoration developed. Beginning of writing (pictographs on seals). This period terminates with Egyptian Dynasty XL Middle Minoan /(beginning of greatness of Cnossus). A notable advance in civilization and art. Polychrome decoration of pottery; geometrical patterns continued and developed, but first appear- ance of naturalistic forms (animal figures painted on ware). Elabor- ate ruffed figures of PetsofL Seals with hieroglyphic figures. Middle Minoan II (first palace of Cnossus destroyed at the end of this period. Palace of Phaestus). Kamares pottery with poly- chrome decoration of the highest merit. Seals with hieroglyphic signs. Contemporary with Egyptian Dynasty XI L Middle Minoan ///(later palace of Cnossus). Pottery decoration decadent: naturalistic forms now reach their highest point. Great palace frescoes. Beginning of the linear script. Daggers, which have been hitherto the chief metal weapon, begin to develop into swords. Contemporary with Egyptian Dynasties XIII — XVTL Late Minoan /(Acropolis of Mycenae, Palace of Hagia Triada), Pottery similar to preceding period, except for the technical differ- ence that whereas the artists of the former period preferred lightly" coloured designs of a dark ground, those of thp latter period re- verse the effect* Linear writing freely used during this period* Art still naturalistic. Late Minoan II (great vases of the t Palace' style: end of Cnossus), Conventionalization in art grows; architectonic decora- tion in pottery noticeable (devices arranged, as it were. In friezes divided into groups suggestive of the alternation of metopes and Ill, vi] PERIODS OF THESSALIAN CULTURE 141 triglyphs). The 'Stirrup-vases' (Bugelkannetf) which began to ap- pear at'Hagia Triada in the preceding period are in use, though still *rare. Linear script; many tablets. Contemporary with Egyp- tian Dynasty XVIIL Late Minoan III (period of general diffusion of style formerly called 'Mycenean'), Art stereotyped into conventional forms, in themselves pleasing, but poor when set beside the prototypes from which they have degenerated. Stirrup-vases common and char- acteristic. Fine and long swords^ and excellent works of art in gold and ivory. During the time of the Minoan civilization In the Aegean area, Thessaly offered a barrier between this region and central Europe. The neolitkic culture long persisted in Thessaly; the Early and Midltile Minoan art of Crete and the Cyclades made no impression there, even though the existence of trade with the latter islands is suggested by numerous implements of obsidian. It is not till we reach the Late Minoan or Mycenaean stage that Thessaly yields to Aegean influences. The First Thessalian period5 the chronology of which in relation to the Minoan periods is not yet certainly established, is neolithic. Tools are found in polished stone5 flint and obsidian, as well as rude idol-figures : the latter are of a type wholly different from those of the Cyclades. The pottery of this period is well made: it is either red monochrome, with thin walls, or else is covered with a white slip bearing designs in red or reddish brown (geometrical and conventionalized floral patterns). The Second period is likewise neolithic, and on the whole re- sembles the first, differing only in detaiL The idol-figures are per- haps less gross in type. The pottery shows a foreign influence of some not certainly determined origin (the Dimini ware): it is gracefully decorated with spirals or straight lines. The Third period, in which metal (copper) first begins to be used, shows otherwise a decadence. The pottery becomes coarse, and the painted decoration disappears. There are remarkable idol- figures in this period, consisting of a marble head with a spike, *which is intended to fit into a crudely modelled clay body* The Fourth period is the beginning of the Age of Bronze in Thessaly. The pottery is crude, grey or black monochrome. After this there follows directly the art of Late Minoan III, which thus gives a minor limit of date for the earlier periods. The recent work of Wace and Blegen, founded upon a number of excavations in the Peloponnesus and elsewhere, has done much to establish a similar series of evolutionary periods on the main- 142 EXPLORATION AND EXCAVATION [CHAP. land of Greece, To these have been given the names Early, Middle and Late Helladic. The character of their pottery, and t&eir ap- proximate synchronism with the Minoan periods, are as follows : Early Helladic I (= Early Minoan I, II). Bowls of hand-made monochrome ware, black, red, or buff, sometimes decorated with incised patterns; jugs and other vessels, hand-made, with red, buff or grey slip. Early Helladic II (= Early Minoan II, III). Vases wholly or partly covered with a glaze paint. These last in use till the time of Middle Minoan I. Early Helladic III (= Early Minoan III, Middle Minoan I). Vases with a zone of geometrical or basket-work decoration sur- rounding the body; the surface may otherwise be left plain, or else covered with a light glaze paint, the decoration in such a€'case being in dark lines. A variant shows a light coloured decoration on a dark glaze background. Middle Helladic (= Middle Minoan II, III). A wheel-made, metallic-looking ware, of the type commonly called Minyan^ first found by Schliemann at Orchomenus. In the earlier phases of this period this ware is of a grey colour, but later it is yellowish-buff. Another new type is introduced in the Middle Helladic, namely jugs and other vessels with linear devices in matt colours — at first hand-made3 afterwards wheel-made. This type of pottery gradu- ally improves in technique as time goes on, three stages of develop- ment being recognized, The first of these belongs to the first phase of the Middle Helladic, the second and third to later phases. The period of the shaft-graves at Mycenae begins at the end of the Middle Helladic. Late Helladic or "Mycenaean (= Late Minoan I? II, III). This period includes the whole of the great history of Argolis and Boeotia, from the shaft-tombs at Mycenae down to the time of the general diffusion over the Aegean area of the Mycenaean types of pottery. See also below. Chap, iv, pp. 174 sqq.\ and Chap, xvu, VIL CYPRUS In conclusion we may give some particulars as to the antiquities of this important island. Excavations have been comparatively few, and some of them have been lamentably unscientific. Indeed, it has not been without very considerable difficulty that any order has been evolved from the chaos into which the archaeological history of Cyprus has been thrown by native and foreign tomb-plunderers. On the other hand, Ill, vn] HELLADIC AND CYPRIOTE CULTURE 143 there have been excavations of a high order of importance, such as those*of Hagia Parasceve, an important cemetery of the copper and •bronze ages (Ohnefalsch-Richter); Kalopsida and Laksa (Myres); and Curium, Enkorni, and Amathis (Murray, for the British Museum). Cyprus was famous from very early times for the copper-mines which have given the island its name. It maintained in consequence commercial relations with Mesopotamia,, Syria, Crete and Egypt. Letters from Cyprus figure in the Tell el-Amarna correspondence (if the identification with Alashia be accepted), and numerous ob- jects of foreign origin have been found in Cypriote graves. The island is, in fact, a sort of clearing-house of ancient culture, and its deposits fchus present associations of objects of the highest value for chronological purposes. The neolithic stage of civilization is not well represented, Very few implements of polished stone have been found on the island. It gives place to the Copper Age at about 3000 B.C. This lasts till, roughly, 2200 B.C., as Babylonian cylinders, found in the tombs of the period, inform us : these cylinders are witnesses to trade, not, as was formerly supposed, to a Babylonian domination. The Bronze Age in the island may be divided into two periods, dated in round numbers 2200—1550, and 1550—11-00 B.C. respectively. The Copper Age, and the two bronze periods, correspond each in its turn to the Early, Middle and Late Minoan periods of the Cretan area, though It is not till the last-named epoch that we find much evidence of communication between Cyprus and the centres of the Aegean culture. The metal-work of the bronze periods shows no small degree of skill on the part of the craftsman. True, it is clumsy in comparison with the finest work of the Cretan artists, but it Is often decorated with no little skill and taste. The pottery of the Copper Age Is covered with a brilliantly-burnished slip, decorated with geo- metrical patterns Incised or in relief — not painted. Especially characteristic of all periods of Cypriote culture are globular jugs with long cylindrical necks, sometimes set crookedly. In the bronze periods a light-coloured slip is used, sometimes5 Indeed, of a milk- white colour, with geometrical patterns in dark sepia, usually frets and ladder-like patterns. This type of ware (hemispherical bows and jugs) has a wide range of Influence, having been freely ex- ported to Egypt, Syria, and elsewhere. At Enkomi were found rich deposits of ornament In gold and ivory, as well as fine ex- amples of coloured ware, of Late Minoan types. Especially noteworthy in connexion with Cyprus is its posses- 144 EXPLORATION AND EXCAVATION [CHAP. Ill, vn sion of a system of writing. This is a syllabary, each character de- noting a vowel, or else a consonant followed by a vowel. We owe Its first decipherment to the insight of George Smith, the? dis- coverer of the Deluge Tablet (p. 129). Many of the inscriptions are in Greek; but it is quite obvious that the syllabary cannot have been originally designed for rendering Greek words. To these it Is a very bad misfit; they have indeed, to be distorted almost out of recognition to be expressed in the Cypriote syllabary at all For example,, an inscription discovered at Tamassus begins with the words rov dv$pidvTav rwSe (?) eSa/cei/, which appear as to-na-ti-ri-a-ta-ne-to-te ( T)-e-to-ke-ne. There are other inscriptions written in this character the language of which is unknown, and presumably it is to this latter tongue that the script properly be- longs. The origin of the Cypriote syllabary is as yet nothing«4nore than a matter of speculation ; it is natural to connect it with the Cretan linear writing on the one hand, or with the Hittite hiero- glyphs on the other — and indeed, efforts have been made to deter- mine phonetic values for certain of the Hittite characters on the basis of the undeniable similarity which they present to Cypriote signs. But such theories must for the present be regarded as tenta- tive and uncertain. Even a moderately complete history of the archaeological researches, that have been carried out during the past hundred years in the regions with which we have been dealing, would more than fill this entire volume. There is indeed, we might almost say, an element of grotesqueness in an endeavour to compress the story into some thirty pages. Only the barest out- lines, with a slight emphasis on the more important details, can be attempted in a space so restricted. Moreover, even the fullest history must necessarily be incomplete. Knowledge grows from day to day, even from hour to hour. As we write, researches are being carried out In more centres than one which might revolu- tionize knowledge of the ancient history of the Near East, and give the historians of the future surprises as unexpected as those that have been their lot in the present age. CHAPTER IV CHRONOLOGY the Bible three eras gained currency at an early date, namely, those of the first Olympiad (776 B.C.), the foundation of Rome (753 B.C.), and the establishment of the Se- leucid power in Syria and Mesopotamia (312 B.C.). The last of these long continued in use, even by the side of the Mohammedan era (622 A.D.), and survived among the Jews until about the fifteenth century. By means of these and other less familiar eras it became possible to synchronize 'biblical* and * profane* history; and the earliest efforts to form a single scheme of universal history may be said to begin in the third century A.D,, when Julius Afri- canus, in the first Christian history of the world, combined biblical and other data in one comprehensive scheme. He reckoned 5500 years from the Creation of the world to the birth of Christ, and in the person of Peleg (Gen. x, 25) found a partition of the world (see p. 1 85 jy.). He was followed by Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea, who succeeded in subordinating all his eras and dates to an era of Abraham (corresponding to 2017 B.C.). The work of the 'Father of Church History* thus gives him an honourable place among those who have sought, and with increasing success, to construct an absolute chronology of history. The necessity of some method of reckoning time was naturally felt from an early age. On the other hand, the interest in preserving and arranging records of the past has not been so widespread. Only after a long development did the desire to record the dates of business dealings and of political and other occurrences give rise to a variety of devices which were gradually made more consistent and trustworthy. Only at a relatively late date were there efforts to synchronize different systems, and, finally, to attempt to sub- ordinate them to national or to universal history. But, unfortun- ately, the most important of the more detailed of the accessible sources seems to have been already imperfect and inconsistent; and when, for example, Eusebius endeavoured to arrange his biblical and other material, in order to exhibit a comparative table of past kings and events, he was obliged to submit the numbers contained in the Bible to a candid criticism, the necessity of which has also been recognized by every succeeding historian. C.A.H- 1 *Q 14.6 CHRONOLOGY [CHAP. In more modern times the vast and increasing accumulation of ancient historical and archaeological material lias solved some serious problems, but has brought many new ones. The tas^ of writing the history of the past has been rendered difficult, partly by the obscurity or ambiguity even of old and often more or less contemporary evidence, partly by the greater strictness of modern historical methods, and partly, also, by the fact that long before the time of Eusebius scribes and historians had frequently employed a sort of criticism of their own and have left us results which we are unable to control. Consequently, the modern historian often cannot do more than balance the probabilities; and conflicting conclusions are unavoidable, on account of the difficulty of decid- ing between conflicting sources, each apparently valid, and of determining the meaning or worth of historical references or-allu- sions. Further, from time to time new discoveries are made which force some revision of historical and chronological conclusions. From Eusebius to Ussher — whose chronological scheme found its way into the margin of the Old Testament and thus gained widespread currency in the English-speaking world — and from Ussher to the present day, solid progress has been made in deter- mining an absolute chronology. Still, as regards the Ancient East, finality is far from attained, and in every department there are characteristic fundamental problems which have to be considered by themselves and in relation to the other departments. The chronology of Syria and Palestine is bound up with that of the Old Testament and of the surrounding Empires. The Old Testa- ment is the most ancient of continuous historical writings, and in the past its chronology has invariably been of the first importance for universal history. But it is relatively young compared with the records of Egypt and Mesopotamia; and its chronology can be fixed only through that of Mesopotamia which is also essential for fixing the chronology of Egypt. With the chronology of Egypt is connected, to a certain extent, that of prehistoric Greece; and the evidence of both Egypt and prehistoric Greece is indispensable for dating the archaeological development of Syria and Palestine. All the chronological problems are therefore interrelated to #> greater or less degree, and it will be convenient to summarize them separately, beginning with those of Mesopotamia, IV, i] BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 147 I. MESOPOTAMIA Mesopotamia (Babylonia and Assyria) and Egypt together laid the foundations of our modern systems of reckoning time and of computing the intervals between events. If, in some respects, the Egyptians were more accurate, the men of Mesopotamia paid more attention to chronology, and to them are due the division into years, months and weeks (the designation of the seven days of the week after certain deities is later), the subdivision of the day into twelve double hours, and the sexagesimal system. Their astronomical, or rather their astrological, observations go back to a very remote date, and, as the year was a lunar one, it was neces- sary to introduce from time to time intercalary months so that it migRt correspond to the solar year (p. 461)* A letter of the famous king Hammurabi (c, 2100 B.C.) of the First Babylonian Dynasty to a governor at Larsa informs him that * the year has a deficiency,* and that the current month was, accordingly, to be registered as the Second EluL Mention is also made in this period of a Second Nisan and a Second Adar. Later, in the period of the Assyrian Empire, the astronomers sent numerous reports to the king, who officially regulated the calendar and gave instructions for the insertion of the necessary intercalary month. Watch was kept for the appearance of the new moon; and in Palestine, even as late as the Christian era, the be- ginning of the month was fixed by personal observation on the part of appointed officials. No doubt the Mesopotamian kings were advised by the temple astrologers and other officials, who would foretell the duration of the month and the next new moon; and since contracts and other business tablets were commonly dated and preserved in the local temple, some locally authoritative calculation of time would arise in connexion with the temples. At first each year was named after some more or less noteworthy event. The practice is natural in itself; and modern examples have been found, for example, among the Dacotas, where the events are at first often of ritual interest. On the Mesopotamian tablets the year-names refer to the building of a temple, the performance of some religious ceremony, the capture of a city, and so forth; the predominance of ritual events clearly betrays the influence of the temple. The system had many inconveniences. Sometimes the year was called *the year after' the name of the preceding, or it was named from an event as yet unfinished or nearing completion. Two or more years might be named after the same event, or different localities would give each its own name to the same year, I0 — a 148 CHRONOLOGY [CHAP. so that one year might have several names. Among the Sumerians Ur-Engur (c« twenty-fifth century) fixed a single system of reckon- ing in place of the various local systems; but the local scribes would often add the name of their priest-king (jpates?) to the authoritative year-name, and this jealous regard for local rights finds a much later parallel in the many local city eras of the Greek and Roman ages. The ceremonial naming of the year probably took place at the beginning of the year at the New Year's Feast on the First of Nisan. It was then that the gods were believed to meet to decide the fate — in other words, the history — of the coming year, and the Babylonian king grasped the hands of the temple gods as a sign of his divine appointment. When the name was fixed, presumably after consultation with the temple officials, it was sent round* the country, usually being abbreviated in the process. The first two years of Hammurabi are called: 'the year in which H. became king' and 'the year in which H., the king, established the heart of the land in righteousness.' His thirty-first year was *the year in which H., the king, after that he with the assistance of Anu and Enlil, marching at the head of his troops, the land of Yamut- bal and its king Rim-Sin had brought under his power/ By associ- ating the name of each year with the reigning king a certain degree of method was introduced; and about the same period we find that the capture of Isin was used as an era (p. 486). But it was not until the Kassite period (c* 1746), that the simple plan of dating by the years of the reigning king was definitely adopted, although it had been in use before the time of Sargon (pp. 390, 419). Here the first year begins with the First of Nisan after the king's accession, and the preceding year, the year in which his predecessor died, is the year in which A died or B entered his father's house. Among the Assyrians the limmu lists form the starting-point of positive chronology. They enumerate the various officials who gave their names each to his year of office; and they sometimes also add brief references to events of political and other import- ance. The year of each official is the limmu (or limu\ the *epony- mate/ and events are in the limmu of so-and-so. The practice re^ calls the Greek method of dating events by the local archons of Athens, the Spartan ephors, or the Argive priestesses of Hera. But there is this interesting peculiarity, that the names of the Assyrian officials begin with that of the king and are in rota from the higher officials to the lower, followed by governors of the old cities, and with the later addition of cities and provinces subse- quently acquired. Each in turn names the year, the king leading, IV, i] THE LIMMU LISTS 149 until with the accession of a new king there is a fresh beginning, althoifgh sometimes the rota is continued irrespective of the break. Tine institution of the Kmmu is found even in the old Assyrian tablets from Cappadocia (p. 455)., and the practice of designating the year after sacerdotal and other officials was known earlier in Shuruppak and Lagash (pp. 378, 384 sg.\ The Assyrian method looks like a compromise between rival class and local interests; it shows the significance once attached to the honour of naming the year, and seems to point to a republican rather than a monarchical or sacerdotal origin. In order to fix events dated by the limmu^ lists of the eponyms are needed; and in fact the Canon or Eponym lists have proved as valuable a& the catalogues of the Greek archons or the Consular Fasti of the Romans. Those as yet found extend — apart from fragments — from 893 to 666, that is, from the reign of the As- Syrian king Adad-nirari II (911—890) to that of Ashurbanipal (669—625). Among the events mentioned is one in the ninth year of Ashur-dan, in the eponymate of Bur-sagale of the city of Gozan ; ca revolt in the city of Ashur; in the month of Sivan an eclipse of the sun took place/ It is now agreed that the latter observation Is to be identified with the total solar eclipse of 15 June, 763, visible at Nineveh, and from this it Is easy to determine all the dates in the Assyrian Canon and to co-ordinate both dates and events with what is known from other tablets of Assyrian history and from the relations with Babylonia and other countries. In addition to this, the lower part of these lists can be co-ordinated with 'Ptolemy's Canon of Kings/ that is, the list of Babylonian, Persian, Greek and Roman kings with the length of their reigns, and a record of eclipses, compiled by the Egyptian, Claudius Ptolemaeus, In the second century A.D. This list can be independently verified and shown to date from Nabonassar (747), to whose age later astro- logical theory ascribed the beginning of a new period. Ptolemy's dates are reckoned after the Egyptian year; and, as the first year of a king is calculated in the Babylonian style, short reigns which did not extend to the First of Nisan are ignored. Although the royal names are rather deformed, it is possible to connect Ptolemy's Canon with the Assyrian lists, and in this manner all the dates can be fixed as far back as the beginning of Adad-nirari's reign. , The foundations of Mesopotamlan chronology having thus been laid, It remains to determine further details from the numerous contract tablets, historical Inscriptions, chronicles, and the like. Among the records of Babylonia and Assyria the most valuable have been the synchronous chronicles, one of which deals with 150 CHRONOLOGY [CHAP. the Interrelations between the two countries, from the middle of the sixteenth to the end of the ninth century. Lists of kings and dynasties were compiled by scribes at various periods, and of these one of the most important comprises a list of the Babylonian kings down to the seventh century B.C. The most remarkable of ancient lists is as early as the twenty-second century B.C. (see below, pp. 152, 365), and the persistence of elaborate lists is proved by the * Canons' preserved by later classical writers, the best-known being that which claims to be due in the first instance to the Babylonian priest Berosus. Even in the earliest lists mistakes could easily arise, e.g. the alternative names for the same year could be counted as separate years; indeed, on closer inspection we often find discrepancies, misunderstandings and exaggerations. In addition to the acfcual contents of inscribed tablets, useful hints can also be obtained from a study of their palaeography, terminology and material. Attention is also to be paid to the strata in which they are dis- covered and their relation to other strata; and in this way the archaeological evidence may be used, sometimes to suggest a date for otherwise undated events, or to supplement, check, or revise dates obtained by other means. Striking examples of the inde- pendent value of the archaeological argument are afforded in the case of the date of Sargon I in Babylonia, and of the duration of the Hyksos invasion in Egypt (pp. 156, 169, 233)* Of the lists preserved by classical writers, most importance is commonly attached to that of Berosus, a priest of the god Bel at Babylon, who dedicated to his patron Antiochus I Soter (280— 261), an elaborate work upon Babylonian or Chaldean history in three parts. Of this fragments alone remain, quoted at second- hand by Josephus, Eusebius and others. These include lists of (I) ten antediluvian kings from Alorus to the hero of the Deluge, reigning, in all, 120 sars, i.e. 432,000 years (a sar is 3600 years); (II) the kings from the Flood onwards; and (III) a narrative of events from Nabonassar to Alexander the Great. In the second part six dynasties or divisions are specified: (a) 86 kings, total 34,080 years; (ff) 8 Median usurpers, 224 years (according to*- another reading 34); (c) n kings of unknown length (according to a marginal reading 48 years); (/) 49 Chaldeans, 458 years; (e) 9 Arabians, 245* years; and (/) 45 kings, 526 years. As the lists of Berosus are presumably based upon earlier material, it is necessary to consider their value and ascertain, if possible, what underlies his remarkable scheme. It is well known that curious theories arose in the Greek and later ages concerning IV, ij THE TESTIMONY OF BEROSUS 151 vast world-periods or world-cycles, and one of these in particular populated the notion of a cycle 0^36,525 years, that is, 25 times the Sothic period of 1461 (1460) years (see p. 168). On the other hand, it is now generally supposed that, as Berosus reckoned by sars of 3600 years in the first part, he probably arranged the second in a cycle of 10 sars, i.e. 363000 years. Consequently, if we deduct the exaggerated figures in (a), the remainder, it is presumed, may be accepted as the figures for those kings whom we may re- gard as historical. From 36,000, if we deduct 34,080 (the figure quoted by Syncellus) or 34,091 (assuming that 33,091, as cited by Eusebius, is a slip) there are 1920 or 1909 years from the mythical age of (a) to the unknown terminus of the chronological system. No*w, according to Abydenus (cited by Eusebius) the 'Chaldeans' reckoned their kings from Alorus (the first of the ten antediluvian kings of Berosus) to Alexander (i.e. 331—323 B.C.), hence if we reckon back from 322 we obtain 2242 or 2232 as the date for the commencement of the historical period* If, however, in view of the patronage Berosus enjoyed, the date should perhaps be fixed at the beginning of the Seleucid Era (312 B.C.), the beginning will be merely ten years later. In any event it is quite uncertain whether the notice in Berosus of the '8* Median usurpers* with their 224 years (margin 34) is really to be regarded as a reference to the First Babylonian Dynasty of 1 1 kings and some 300 years, or whether the starting-point is the sixth and most important king, Hammurabi. Presumably, by * Media* we are to understand the people of the land later held by the Medes. But unfortunately the old classical writers contain so many discrepant and confused statements and figures that little reliance can be placed upon their unsupported testimony* Thus, as regards the end of the sixth division Eusebius states, after Alexander Polyhistor, that there followed a king of the Chaldeans named 'Phulus/ Phulus is the Pul of the Old Testament, Tiglath- pileser III. But Polyhistor, after mentioning the nine Arabian kings (viz. e, above), proceeds to say that Semiramis reigned over the Assyrians, and he then ( minutely enumerates' the names of •4.5 kings with their 526 years, after whom came Phulus. Now Semiramis (the Sammuramat of history) is the famous Assyrian , queen of classical legend. She has a prominent position in the traditional lists of Assyrian kings extending from the legendary Ninus, the founder of Nineveh, to the equally notorious Sardan- apalus, who is placed at the age of a Median invasion or, other- wise, in the time of Nebuchadrezzar (c. 600 B.C.). To this Assyrian empire is attributed a duration varying from 520 years (Herodotus 152 CHRONOLOGY [CHAP. I, 96) to ten or even fourteen centuries. It looks, therefore, as though the scheme of Berosus has introduced the Assyrian empire together with the Babylonian., and that his list contains dynasties that were really contemporary. On these and other grounds the testimony of Berosus is of dubious value, although we need not deny that he embodies some ancient computations. Thus, his account of antediluvian kings, although of no historical importance, is of considerable interest, partly because of the points of contact that have been found be- tween it and the biblical tradition, and partly also because it goes back to very early Sumerian lists, where to 134 kings from the Deluge to the eleventh king of the dynasty of Isin is ascribed a total of 28,876 years, and there is a certain general resemblance between these lists and that of Berosus. Accordingly, while Bdrosus presents what is essentially a Babylonian tradition of the sequence of mythical and other rulers, the old Sumerian lists represent a much earlier and Sumerian tradition peculiar to Kish, Ur and other cities, before the age of Babylonian supremacy (see p. 365). So far as the leading chronological problems are concerned, the whole course of Mesopotamian history can be roughly divided into the three pre-Christian millennia: (i) the Sumerian and Semitic periods prior to the First Babylonian dynasty; (2) this dynasty, the Kassite dynasty, and the growth of Assyria under Tiglath-pileser I; and (3) the supremacy of Assyria and Its fall, the Neo-Babylonian empire, and Its overthrow by the Persians. The dates for the last period can be approximately fixed through the /zmmu-Iists* For the next earlier period the 'Amarna Age' is central, namely, the age of the fourteenth century illumined by the cuneiform tablets found at Tell el-Amarna in Egypt, which are to be supplemented by those found at Boghaz Keui, the capital of the Hittite empire of Asia Minor. Sennacherib asserts in his second Babylonian campaign that he recovered certain deities which Mardufc-nadin-akhe had carried off In the time of Tiglath-plleser, king of Assyria, 418 years pre- viously. As his conquest of Babylon can be dated at 689, Tiglath- pileser was evidently reigning In 1107; and as It Is known tha^r this defeat was not In the first five years of his reign> his first year must be not later than 1 1 12. At the same time, a boundary-stone of the Babylonian king mentions a certain victory in the tenth year of his reign, so that his first year may perhaps be dated 1 117—6, Tiglath-pileser I was one of the greatest of the kings of the early Assyrian empire, and consequently the dates thus obtained are important. Moreover, he himself mentions that at the beginning IV, i] ASSYRIAN DATA: THE AMARNA AGE 153 of his reign he restored a temple at Ashur which his grandfather,, Ashur-dan (who 'attained to grey hairs and a ripe old age*), had pull«d down sixty years previously. This allows us to fix the date of that king, who is elsewhere described as contemporary with the Babylonian Zamama-shum-iddin, who began to reign four years before the close of the Third or Kassite Dynasty. On the other hand, in an undated statement, Nabonidus (Nabu-naid, 555—539) asserts that he dug down to the foundations of the temple in Sippar built 800 years previously by Shagarakti-Shuriash, son of Kutur-Enlil. This king may be identified with Shagarakti-Shuri- ash, son of Kutur-Enlil who, according to the lists, began to reign 92 years before the close of the Third Dynasty and ruled for 13 years. Accordingly he must have flourished about 1339 (539 + 8 oo), and the close of the Dynasty must then be dated about the first half of the thirteenth century, or about a century earlier than the date now generally accepted. But since the number given by Na- bonidus is clearly a round one it need not be taken too literally. Again, when Sennacherib conquered Babylon he recovered the seal of Tukulti-Ninurta, son of Shalmaneser of Assyria, 600 years after its capture. It is doubtful whether this occurred in the first or the second campaign of Sennacherib (702 or 689); and the figure is again a round one. But we may safely place Tukulti- Ninurta shortly after 1300. This king was the grandson of Adad- nirari, and the conqueror of Kashtiliash III of Babylon; and his genealogy is recorded back to Ashur-uballit, whose daughter married Burna-Buriash of Babylon, a contemporary of the Egyptian Amenhotep IV (Ikhnaton) who can be independently dated at 1380. These are not, indeed, final dates; there are discrepancies and inconsistencies, but the broad outlines are clear. The Third or Kassite Dynasty, to which the late Babylonian Royal List ascribes 36 kings reigning 576 years, 9 months, can be provisionally dated about 1746—1169. There are unfortun- ately great gaps in the middle; and while the lower end can be associated with the history of the ' Amarna' and later ages, the upper portion is more obscure. To the First (Babylonian) and Second dynasties are ascribed by the old lists 1 1 kings each and totals of 304 and 368 years respectively, and on the assumption that all three dynasties were consecutive it was supposed that the First began c. 2440 B.C. But it has since been discovered that the Second Dynasty (that of the Sea-Lands, or Lower Babylonia) was partly contemporary with the First and the Third, and conse- quently the dates must be considerably reduced. Now, the Babylonian Nebuchadrezzar I, who was a contem- 154 CHRONOLOGY [CHAP. porary of the father of Tiglath-pileser I, and therefore flourished about the latter half of the twelfth century, was separated," accord- ing to a boundary stone of the period, by 696 years from*Gul- kishan, who is known as the sixth king of the Second Dynasty. But since the stone refers to events in the fourth year of his imme- diate successor, Enlil-nadin-apli, we have a round seven centuries between the latter and Gulkishar, and the figure 696 at once loses its semblance of precision. At all events, if Gulkishar (who reigned 55 years) may be placed about the middle of the nineteenth cen- tury, the beginning of the dynasty — the five preceding kings are assigned a total of 193 years — will evidently be a couple of cen- turies earlier. The first of these, Iluma-ilu, waged war with Ham- murabi's son (Samsu-iluna) and grandson (Abi-eshu); and the famous Hammurabi himself, according to Nabonidus, flourfshed seven centuries before Burna-Buriash, who, as we have seen, was a contemporary of Amenhotep IV (V. 1 380). The great Babylonian king, whose name probably reappears in Amraphel, one of the kings said to have been defeated by Abraham (Gen. xiv), can therefore be dated about 2100 B.C. The coincidence is interesting, but perhaps may only be due to common reliance upon the same chronological scheme. However, the same date has been reached through a series of tablets of astrological omens derived from ob- servations of the planet Venus, and containing a precise reference to the eighth year of Ammi-zaduga, whose reign can be dated on independent astronomical grounds at 1977. As the lists place him 103 years after Hammurabi's reign of 43 years,, we can thus ob- tain for the latter the date, 2123—2081. On the other hand, quite another indication Is afforded by Shalmaneser I, who, as the father of Tukulti-Ninurta, flourished soon after 1300 B.C. He refers to the building of a temple in Ashur by Ushpia; which was rebuilt by Erishu, and 159 years later again rebuilt by Sharnshi-Adad, and finally after 580 years burned down in his own reign. But Esarhaddon, who lived some BIX cen- turies later, gives the figures as 126 and 434. If we accept the former, Erishu may be dated about 2040, and if his father Ilu- shuma may be identified with the contemporary of Sumu-abu, thf founder of the First Dynasty, the lists reckon 1 02 years from his accession to that of Hammurabi. If, on the other hand, we accept the latter, the beginning of the Dynasty would be in the first half of the twentieth century. In either event the date of Hammurabi is brought considerably below that previously mentioned, and the difference between the figures of Shalmaneser and those of Esar- haddon is a disconcerting example of the difficulties of Mesopo- IV, i] HAMMURABI AND SARGON i55 tamian chronology. For the sake of completeness it may be added that Shamshi-Adad, who, according to Esarhaddon, was the son of BeKkabi, is also the name of a contemporary of Hammurabi; and if 159 (or 126) years sever him from Erishu, the latter's father is severed by 102 years from Hammurabi. But another of the same name, son of Ishme-Dagan, is mentioned by Tiglath- pileser as restoring the temple of Ami and Adad in Ashur, 641 years before it was pulled down by Ashur-dan (named above), and must therefore have lived c. 1820 (perhaps 1840—1821). A third of the name should, however, probably be presumed, an experi- ence by no means uncommon in dealing with little-known kings of Mesopotamia (see pp. 490, 568 ^.). Finally, n« unambiguous indication is afforded by the state- ment fif Ashurbanipal (c. 650) that he recovered an image which the Elamite Kutur-nakhkhunte had carried off 1635 years earlier (c. 2280), as it is uncertain whether the events he refers to occurred during the Elamite campaigns in the First Babylonian Dynasty or earlier (see p. 471). Consequently the dates of the early Babylonian dynasties can- not be fixed with the precision desired; and although the discovery that the first three dynasties are not to be reckoned consecutively has narrowed the extent of the divergence in modern computa- tions, the chronological schemes that have been proposed vary according to their reliance upon the trustworthiness of the refer- ences already mentioned, and of the figures in the Royal Lists and other summaries. As for the earliest period the dates depend primarily upon the history and chronology of the dynasties in question. It is true that the dynasties of Ur and I sin have been dated on the basis of a reference to the capture of Isin by Rim-sin of Larsa in the seven- teenth year of Sin-muballit, the father of Hammurabi. On this view the two dynasties of five and eleven kings, reigning 117 and 225 years respectively, then came to an end, and their commence- ment would be about three-and-a-half centuries before the age of Hammurabi. The evidence, however, is inconclusive, and what- ever other points of contact can be found, there always remains the solitary chronological notice for which Nabonidus is once more the authority. He declares that he saw the foundation inscription of the temple of Naram-Sin, son of Sargon of Agade, which no one had seen for 3200 years. As he lived c* $£$—539, at a stroke we are taken back to the thirty-eighth century B.C., far removed from all tangible and consecutive history. On the other hand, we should note that (i) in an old chronicle the section concerning 156 CHRONOLOGY [CHAP. Dungi, the second king of the dynasty of Ur (c. twenty-fifth cen- tury) follows immediately after that concerning Naram-Sin, More- over (2)5 for palaeographical reasons, the age of Sargon and Maram- Sin can hardly be severed by any great interval from the other early dynasties. Finally (3), at Nippur the pavement of Ur-Engur, the first king of the dynasty of Ur, rested immediately upon the brickwork of Naram-Sin (cf. also pp» 390, 419 sq^ 426). On these and other grounds, it has been found impossible to accept the extra- ordinary figures of Nabonidus, and we should perhaps assume a simple clerical mistake and reduce his figure to 2200. Against the view that Naram-Sin fought Menes of Egypt, and that Sargon's age can be dated by Egyptian chronology, see pp, 171 j^., 303 n. The chronological framework of Mesopotamiandiistory there- fore rests primarily upon a combination of fixed dates (the? limmu lists), early computations, synchronisms and lists, and on the inter- pretation of the relevant historical and other notices and allusions. For further details reference must be made to the discussions in the following chapters, and the tables at the end of the volume. Below are given some of the chief dates — most of them only ap- proximate— of leading authorities, viz;. Jastrow (J), L, W, King (K), Langdon (L), Eduard Meyer (M) and R, Campbell Thomp- son (T). Sargon of Agade . . 2872 (L), 2650 (K), 2500 (J, M). Dynasties of Ur and Ism 2474— (L), 2400—2100 (K), 2304-1963 (M), 2300—1980 (J). First Dynasty of Babylon 2225—1926 (K, T), 2060—1761 (J, M). Hammurabi . . 2123— 208 r (K., T), 1958— 1916 (J5 M), Second Dynasty (the Sea- 2085—1718 (Ungnad), 1910— (M)> i goo- Country) 17200*), 2070—1703 (T), Third (Kassite) Dynasty 1 760-1 185 (K)> 1 746-1 1 69 (T). Gulkishar . 1877-1823 (J, T). 1276-1257 Tf). 1 146-1 123 (T), c. 1 140 (K). c. ii25(J), 1 1 15-1103 (T). c. iuo(K). 745-7^7 CD- 604-561 (K). 555-539 Shalmaneser I Nebuchadrezzar I Tiglath-PIleser I Marduk-nadin-akhe Tiglath-Pileser III Nebuchadrezzar II Nabunaid (Nabonidus) IL THE OLD TESTAMENT Although ordinary ideas of the history of the ancient East have commonly been based upon the Old Testament, the latter has no true era and its dates are a matter of careful computation. It cer- tainly contains very precise chronological schemes, but these are IV, n] THE OLD TESTAMENT 157 distinct from, and often inconsistent with, the narratives embedded in them.*Thus, in the book of Genesis, the elaborate chronological scheme that runs through the book will often represent the patri- archs as being of an age very different from what we should expect from the popular stories* In point of fact the Israelites entered history after the best days of Egypt and Babylonia, and, like the Arabs of the days of Islam, they were in several respects relatively simple. For example, they maintained the practice of reckoning periods and historical vicissitudes in terms of genealogies and generations, similar to the early pedigrees of the Greeks. But the duration of a generation is obviously variable, and the genealogical lists are wont to suffer from interpolation or abbreviation, whether accidental 01* intentional. OrPthe other hand, we certainly find events dated by reference to other events, e.g. to the Exodus (Ex. xvi, i), the capture of Ashdod (Is. xx, i), and the Exile (Ezek. xxxiii, 2 1). The prophecy of Amos is dated two years before what was evidently an earth- quake of unusual severity; and as a rule the prophecies are dated more or less fully by the year or reign of a king (even of Babylonia) or kings. In the Books of Kings events of importance for the temple are dated after the reigning king, and it is possible that some sys- tematic record was kept in the temple-archives. This is suggested also by the character of the more elaborate chronological schemes; and, while there is reason, as we shall see, to assume that there was some knowledge of Mesopotamian chronology, the statement (Num. xiii, 22) that Hebron was built seven years before Zoan (Tanis) in Egypt testifies to some synchronism — not necessarily trustworthy — of Egyptian and Palestinian affairs. This associa- tion recalls the zeal of the rival historiographers of the Ptolemaic and subsequent periods who vehemently and rather maliciously expatiated upon early relations between Jews and Egyptians at the time of the Hyksos kings and the Exodus. Now, although Tanis itself dates from before the eleventh dynasty of Egypt, it was rebuilt by Ramses II (thirteenth century); and if there were some tradition of the founding of Hebron in the same period, the old belief, recorded by Josephus, that Tyre, too, was founded one year before the fall of Troy (and therefore about 1 200 B.C.), or 240 years before the building of Solomon's temple (and therefore c. 1 1 80), may point to some common chronological tradition of the importance of the age in question. Tyre itself was in truth a much older city, but the interest of the old chrono- logical data lies often, not in their face-value, but in their testimony to early schemes or theories of history. This is especially true as 158 CHRONOLOGY [CHAP regards the biblical chronology from the Creation of Man to the Deluge and thence to the time of Abraham. Here the attempts to fit the numbers into some reasonable scheme have always* been hindered by internal discrepancies in the numbers, and by the numerous variations between the Hebrew (or Massoretic) text, the Samaritan recension of the Pentateuch, and the Greek ver- sions. Even in 1738 Des Vignolles knew of about 200 different attempts to compute the earliest period : the date of the Creation ranging from 6984 to 3483 B»C. And while the Jews reckon it at 3760 the Greek Church has accepted 5509. Archbishop Ussher's calculation (4004 B.C.) in some way found a place in the reference editions of the Authorized Version, and his system (published 1 650— 4) and that of Dr William Hales (1809—1 8 174)5 have fre- quently been quoted and often regarded as final, Ussher did not strictly follow the Old Testament, according to which the dates for the Creation and the Deluge would be 4157 and 2501 respec- tively, whereas his figures are 4004 and 2348 (Hales 5411 and 3155). He allowed 4000 years between the Creation and the birth of Christ in harmony with the belief that the world would last 6000 years, namely, 2000 before the Law, 2000 tinder it, and 2000 years under the Messiah, In thus subordinating the num- bers to a definite and, in this case, a Christian conception of world- history, he merely followed in the footsteps of earlier speculations (Babylonian, Persian, etc*), a clear trace of one of which can prob- ably be found iti the biblical figures themselves (p. 165), As we descend, the chronological notices become less untrust- worthy and Ussher's date for the accession of David (1056 B.C.) is probably only about fifty years too early, while that for the fall of Jerusalem (588 B.C.) is almost exact. The period of the Hebrew monarchies is in -fact the starting-point of an absolute chronology, thanks to the Assyrian !immu-\iBt§> which have already been de- scribed. But although a few dates of biblical history can thereby be definitely fixed, much still remains uncertain owing to the nature of the biblical evidence itself. In the history of the divided monarchies of Judah and Ephraim (or Israel) the length of the reign of each king is given, and hh accession is dated by the regnal year of the rival dynasty. The period from the schism, when Rehoboam and Jeroboam presum- ably began to reign contemporaneously, to the fall of the northern kingdom in the sixth year of Hezekiah of Judah, is divided into two by the contemporary accession of Athaliah, queen of Judah, and Jehu of Israel. In the first subdivision, however, the syn- chronistic schemes reckon 8 8 years, whereas the reigns of the IV, u] THE KINGS OF ISRAEL AND JUDAH 159 kings total 95 and 98 for Judah and Israel respectively. (The Septuagilit, by adding three years to the reign of Abijam of Judah, equalizes the numbers, I Kings xv, 2.) Now, the first year of a king could be that after the year in which his predecessor died (the Babylonian method); or it might be that year itself (the Egyp- tian method), in which case it could be counted twice over (as the last year of the dead king and the first of his successor). This double reckoning is seen in the case of Nadab and Blah, who are assigned each two years, although the synchronism shows that the reign of each began and ended in one year (i Kings xv jy.). Traces of the simpler reckoning are preserved, however, both in the Hebrew text and in an important recension of the Septuagint (Luciati's); acid if we allow for the double reckoning the years of both monarchies during the first subdivision amount to 89. This is so far satisfactory. In the second subdivision, on the other hand, there are irreconcilable discrepancies : 1 70 years are reckoned by the synchronisms, but the reigns amount to 165 and 143 for Judah and Israel respectively, and when allowance is made for double reckoning, the figures are 158 and 135. There is reason to believe that the synchronisms are of second- ary origin and a later insertion in the history; and, in fact, for the time of Jehoshaphat and Ahab there are traces in the Septuagint of another system (i Kings xvi, 29; xxii, 51; 2 Kings i, 17). In addition to this, not only are the totals of the reigns sometimes open to suspicion on various historical grounds, but it would also seem that the kings of Judah and of Israel were supposed to reign 480 and 240 years respectively, and that each of these grand totals was artificially subdivided into three equal portions. Thus, the Aramean wars of Israel continued 80 years and form the second of three periods of 80 years each; and the second subdivision of the Judaean period comprises the 1 60 years from the temple re- form of Joash to the death of Hezekiah. Moreover, while Solomon is said to have begun to build the temple in the 48oth year after the Israelites came out of Egypt, it has been computed that 480 years from the lower date would carry us to the end of the Exile. This calculation is on the assumption that the Exile lasted only 50 years, the true number being quite uncertain. Further, it is at least a coincidence that the total 480 represents roughly 12 gener- ations, of 40 years each, that twelve generations of priests can be calculated from the Exodus to the days of Solomon's temple (i Chron. vi), and that there are eleven high-priests of the temple to Jehozadak, who was carried into Exile. The earliest absolute date is furnished by the Assyrian record 160 CHRONOLOGY [CHAP. of the defeat by Sfaalmaneser at Karkar of a confederation includ- ing Ahabbu Sir'lai, who Is presumably the Israelite Ah^b, son of OmrL This can be dated at 854 B.C. Twelve years later ShpJman- eser records the payment of tribute by Yaua, son (sic) of Omri, who is evidently the Jehu who overthrew the dynasty of Ahab. But it is only with difficulty that the biblical account of Ahab's successors, Ahaziah and Jehoram, and of the relations with the Arameans, can be made to fit Into the twelve years. Still, it may be assumed that the Assyrian year is to be reckoned, as usual, from the spring, and the Hebrew, In accordance with the earlier usage, from the autumn, and that Ahab died during the year 855 (autumn) — 854 (autumn). These dates 854 and 842 are commonly accepted*. Calculating back, and allowing for double reckoning, the accession of^Reho- boam and Jeroboam is inferred to be 932, that of Solomon 970, and that of David c. 1010. The results obtained approximately agree with external Phoenician and Egyptian sources. For Ahab married the daughter of Ethbaal of Sidon, in whose reign Men- ander of Epliesus records a one-year famine which Josephus iden- tifies with that at the beginning of Ahab's reign; and the Phoeni- cian lists allow the dates 878—866 for the reign of Ithobal (Eth- baal) and 969—936 for that of Hiram, Solomon's contemporary. As for Egypt, only one synchronism can safely be found, namely, Shishak, who was contemporary with the close of Solomon's reign, the rise of Jeroboam and the reign of Rehoboam (p. 173). 'Zerah the Ethiopian/ defeated by Asa (2 Chron. xiv), has been identified with Shlshak's successor Osorkon; but, although the Chronicler may have wished to make this synchronism, the narrative itself does not seem to have referred originally to an Egyptian invasion, but to one from Arabia. After 842 the next definite date is furnished by the mention of Meni^im (Menahem), of Samerinaa (Samaria), among those who paid tribute to Assyria In the eighth year of Tiglath-pileser III, i.e. 738. The 104 years that Intervene agree tolerably with 112, the total of the regnal years of the seven kings of Israel from Jehu to Menahem inclusive. Serious difficulties now arise. Menahe*n was succeeded by Pekahiah (2 years), Pekah (20 years), and Hoshea, in whose ninth year Samaria fell (2 Kings xvii, 6; xviii, 10). But Tiglath-pileser relates (in 733) that he himself placed Hoshea on the throne, Samaria was besieged by Shalmaneser in 724—722, and the fall of the city was claimed by Sargon in 722. Here there Is obviously no room for Pekah's long reign, and the relationship between him and Pekahiah (to whom Lucian's recen- IV, H] THE ASSYRIAN FIXED DATES 161 slon ascribes 10 years) is far from clear. Various proposals have been m£de, and it is at least certain that the fall of the northern kingdom was quicker than it is represented to have been in the chronological scheme of the biblical writer, according to which the last third of Israel's 80 years consisted of 40 years of glory under Jeroboam II, and 40 years of decline. Nor are the difficulties less when we turn to Judah. The fall of Samaria was in the sixth year of Hezekiah (2 Kings xviii, 10), According to the biblical figures this was 165 years after the ac- cession of Athaliah in 842, i.e. at the impossibly late date of 667; but as they also reckon 139 years to the fall of the Judaean kingdom in 587, we arrive at the date 727 or 720 (according as we adopt the longer or shorter computation). The date 720 is preferred on independent grounds; since, if, as we are told, Hezekiah became king in the third year of Hoshea at the age of 25, and his father Ahaz died at the age of 3 6 after a reign of 1 6 years (2 Kings xvi, 2; xviii, i), Ahaz would be about 10 years of age when his son was born! Moreover, Ahaz is mentioned among the tributaries of Tiglath-pileser III in 72 8, and, according to Is* xiv, 28, he died in the year when Philistia was threatened, a reference, as is held5 to Sargon's expedition of 720. On the other hand, a still later date has been suggested, since Sennacherib's invasion of Judah in the fourteenth year of Hezekiah (2 Kings xviii, 1 3) can be definitely dated in 701, and this gives us 715 as the year of his accession. On the assumption that the story of the sign given to Hezekiah (2 Kings xx) had its basis in some eclipse, astronomical calculations have dated this in 679 (which is clearly too late), or in 710 (14 March 71 i—io), the year when Sargon took Ashdod. Moreover, the embassy of Merodach-baladan (2 Kings xx, 12), now associated with Hezekiah's sign and the promised defence of Jerusalem (v* 6\ can be dated on Independent grounds either during the former's short lease of power in 702, or, preferably, during his earlier reign (72 1—7 1 o), when he was at length driven out by Sargon. In addition to this, further difficulty is occasioned by the possibility of a second invasion of Palestine by Sennacherib after 701, and by the date «,nd identification of 'Tirhakah, King of Ethiopia/ In consequence of these difficulties the history of this important period cannot be finally dated, nor is it possible to recover with any confidence the chronological schemes of the early writers. As another instance of the internal intricacies, it may be observed that a period of enmity between Judah and Israel culminated in the defeat of Amaziah and the partial destruction of Jerusalem by Jehoash of Israel. Forthwith Judah and Israel flourished under C.A.H.I I* 1 62 CHRONOLOGY [CHAP. the long rule of Azariah (Uzziah) and Jeroboam II respectively, and the latter's reign of 4 1 years ended in the thirty-eighth year of the former. But according to another notice, while Jeroboam began to reign at once, Amaziah * lived' (not * reigned') 15 years (xiv, 17, 23), and, according to a third, there is a gap of 12 years, and it is not until the twenty-seventh year of Jeroboam that the great Judaean king came to the throne (xv, i). For the close of the Judaean monarchy the starting-point is the defeat of Necho of Egypt by Nebuchadrezzar II, at the battle of Carchemish* According to the biblical evidence, this was in the first year of Nebuchadrezzar, 'king of Babylon/ and in the fourth year of Jehoiakim of Judah (Jer. xlvi, 2; cf. xxv, i). On the other hand, we learn from Berosus that his father Nabopolassar was still reigning, but died shortly after the victory. Thus thers is a discrepancy as regards the true date of the first year of Nebuchad- rezzar* Now, after Jehoiakim's reign of 1 1 years, Jehoiachin was carried off after a brief three months, and accordingly this is called the eighth year of Nebuchadrezzar (2 Kings xxiv, 8, 12), Jeru- salem was again besieged from the ninth to the eleventh years of Zedekiah, and was captured in Nebuchadrezzar's nineteenth year (xxv, i, 2, 8), On the other hand, another statement, not in the Septuagintj, specifies two captivities in the king's seventh and eighteenth years, and a third, otherwise unknown, five years later (Jer, Hi, 28 sqqC). Finally, while to Nebuchadrezzar is ascribed, by Berosus, a reign of 43 years, his successor Evil-Nferodach (Amil- Marduk) at once liberated Jehoiachin, who had been in captivity a few days short of 38 years (2 Kings xxv, 27), These discrep- ancies remain, and consequently the dates have not been settled unanimously. Nebuchadrezzar's death is dated 562 or 561, and the final fall of Jerusalem is fixed at 587 or preferably 586* As regards the length of the Exile, the familiar three-score years and ten is too long (Jer. xxv, 1 1 $eq»\ Zech. i, 12, etc.). The first year of Cyrus can be independently fixed at 538—7; and the foun- dation of the new Temple in 536 (Ezr. iii) fits in with the fifty years during which, according to Josephus (contra Apion. i, 21), the temple had been desolate* The allowance in Matthew i, ol fourteen generations from the Exile to the birth of Christ (14 x 40 = 560)3 also agrees fairly with the results. Thenceforth dates can be more readily determined: e.g. the prophecies of Haggai and Zechariah in the second year of Darius (520), and the return of the Jews under Ezra in the seventh year of Artaxerxes (458). But the historical problems themselves are exceedingly intricate. There was an increasing and astounding ignorance of this age, and the IV, n] DATES BEFORE THE MONARCHY 263 book of Daniel even gives currency to a tradition that Darius pre- ceded Cyrus (v, 31; vi, 28). It is not at all certain that the above- mentioned Artaxerxes was the first of the three kings who bore that name, and here as elsewhere the chronological questions are bound up with questions of historical criticism. For the periods before the kings of Judah and Israel there are no fixed dates. According to a late and doubtful statement, when Solomon began to build the temple in his fourth year (c. 967, see above) 480 years had elapsed since the Israelites came out of Egypt (i Kings vi, i). The various biblical chronological notices amount to 534 years, and this number is exclusive of the rule of Joshua, Samuel and Saul. Various acute efforts have been made to harmonize the statements, and it is observed that, if we reckon 480 years as equivalent to 12 generations, we can count 12 priests from Eleazar's son to Solomon's priest Azariah (i Chron. vi, 3—10), and 12 prominent leaders (Moses, Joshua, Othniel, Ehud, Deborah, Gideon, Jephthah, Samson, Eli, Samuel, Saul and David). On these figures the Exodus would have occurred in the fifteenth century (967 + 480); whereas, if we accept the figure 534, or the figure given by Josephus for the interval (vix* 612, c* A-p* n, 2), this event would be a century earlier. If, however, we attempt to reckon forward from the time of Abraham, we have a choice of variant traditions. The patriarchs were in Palestine 215 years (Gen. xii, 4, and other notices), and the Israelites remained in Egypt for 400 years (Gen. xv, 13) or 430 (Ex. xii, 40). Hence an interval of 615 (or 630) years separates Abraham from the Exodus. But the Septuagint, by allow- ing 430 (or 435) years for the entire interval (similarly Gal, iii, 1 7), reduces the length of the Egyptian period to 2 1 $ years. Similarly, Gen. xv, 16, represents a period of merely four generations, and with this agree approximately the genealogical lists (Ex. vi, 14—27, Numb, xxvi, 59; Josh, vii, i); and Joseph is even said to live to see his grandchildren who were contemporaries of Moses (Gen. 1, 23; Num. xxxii, 39—41)* If we leave the biblical notices and consider the external evi- cLsnce, the first clue should be the date of Hammurabi, with whose name we may doubtless identify that of Abraham's foe Amraphel (Gen. xiv). It is not impossible that there were records or traditions synchronizing the two, and consequently the first half of the twenty-first century would be a plausible date for the Hebrew patriarch. It is then possible that the descent of Jacob or Israel into Egypt, 215 years later, represents the biblical writers* idea of the Hyksos invasion; in any case, the Hyksos period made a great im- 1 64 CHRONOLOGY [CHAP. pression upon late Alexandrian writers., and Jewish historians may not unnaturally have striven to co-ordinate Jewish and Egyptian tradition (see pp. 2 2 2, 3 r i ) . All this, however, is entirely conj ectural ; and we are not on much surer ground when we attempt to date the Exodus by external evidence. If the Israelites built Pithom and Raamses in the time of Ramses II (Exod. i, 1 i), the Exodus is consequently later (thirteenth century), and the figures for the period from the Exodus to Solomon must be considerably reduced. And if we adopt this thirteenth-century date, and enquire when Israel descended into Egypt, the variant traditions of the duration of the bondage allow abundant range. It has been varyingly sug- gested that the sons of Jacob or Israel entered with the Hyksos and came out with them, or that it was only after the exodus of the Hyksos that there arose the king who 'knew not Josepbu' But Joseph has also been identified with a minister of the time of Amenhotep IV (c. 1380), and even with a later Semitic official (c. 1200) before the rise of Ramses IIL External history may suggest that the biblical chronology of the period from Abram (Abraham) to David and Solomon should be subordinated to what is known of the Hyksos, or connected with the movements of the time of Amenhotep III and IV. In any event, the activity of the Philistines before the rise of the Hebrew kingdom and the fact that this independent monarchy itself could arise owing to the weakness of the surrounding empires, may cer- tainly be said to support the broad outlines of the biblical history. Yet it must be recognized that there is a complicated blend of trust- worthy and untrustworthy material, not unlike what may be found in Berosus, or in the Alexandrian writers, or in such a work as Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Britonum^ and this precludes any further attempt to disentangle the chronological intricacies without the help of conclusive external evidence. As becomes more evident when we approach the pre-Abra- hamic period, the figures, although of extraordinary precision, re- present particular schemes and calculations, the source of which can hardly be conjectured. It is possible to compute 2666 years from the Creation to the Exodus, and this number is twc- thirds of a cycle of 4000. Following this up it has been observed that if we regard this number as 26 centuries or generations, we may assign 20 from Adam to Abraham, one each to Isaac, Jacob, Levi, Kohath, Amram, and Aaron, while the fraction remains for Eleazar, who was an adult at the time of the Exodus. This does not stand alone. Through the loss or the addition of whole hundreds the figures from the Creation to the Deluge are 1656 IV, n] INSECURITY OF THE CHRONOLOGY 165 (Hebrew text)., 1307 (Samaritan version) and 2242 or 2262 (Septuagint). But it is at least a coincidence that the number 2 2 6& approximates to the 2280 which Africanus, on the authority of Manetho, gives for Egypt from Menes to the end of the Xlth Dynasty; and it is possible that the Septuagint was acquainted with Manetho's chronology. Again, the 432,000 years ascribed by Berosus to the 10 antediluvian kings of Babylonia represent 86,400 lustra^ and the same number of weeks would represent 1656 years, the number given by the Hebrew text. Accordingly, the Hebrew * week-unit' would seem to correspond to a Baby- lonian unit of five years; and, in a word, the general result is to indicate a complexity which is probably due to the fusion of different systems and schemes. It fe quite typical, therefore, that In the Pentateuch there are two full forms of dating, the one by day, month and year (Num. i, r, etc.) and the other by year, month and day (Num. x, n, etc.), and that these correspond respectively to Mesopotamian and Egyptian methods. Again, while the Jews came to adopt the Baby- lonian names for the months, and to transfer the beginning of the year to the spring, the final chronological system seems to show conformity to Egyptian reckoning, viz. by months of 30 days and a solar year of 365 J days. Yet besides Egyptian and Mesopotamian influences, there was, it would seem, an elaborate system of reckoning by generations of 40 years, and this rather rudimentary system is entirely characteristic of the more simple and naive life and thought of the Israelites. It is regrettable that the fixed dates of the Old Testament should be so few. But the historical books in their present form are rela- tively quite late. They are the result of complicated editorial pro- cesses which are also reflected in the intricacies of the chrono- logical frameworks, wherein earlier narratives and sources have been fitted and adjusted to much later conceptions of monarchical history, of the history of the Hebrews, and of the history of the world as then known. Still, it must be more than a coincidence that Hebrew post-diluvian tradition enters upon a new stage with Abram who Is assigned to an age evidently contemporary both with that of Hammurabi (of the First Babylonian Dynasty) in Mesopotamia, and with that of the Xllth Dynasty in Egypt. The era of Abraham adopted by Eusebius thus has some justification in tradition (see p. 145). The following dates are mainly those of Driver, with the inclu- sion of those of Ussher (U), Skinner (S), etc. Dates fixed indepen- dently by Assyrian evidence are in square brackets. 1 66 CHRONOLOGY [CHAP, B,C» c. 2100 Abraham, 1996-1821 (U)j real biblical date 21 1 1-20315. c, 1230 The Exodusj 1491 (U). c. 1025 Saul? 1099 (U). c. 1010 David, 1056 (U). c. 970 Solomon, 1017 (U). c* 933 Separation of Judah and Israel, 977 (U). 876 Ahab, 9i8(U). [854 Ahab at battle of Karkar.J 843 Jehu(S). [842 Jehu's tribute to Assyria.] 797 Amaziah, 798 (S), 790(0. C. Whitehouse). 783 Jeroboam II> 785 (S, Whitehouse). 779 Uzziah. 743 Menahem, 745 (S). [738 Menahem pays tribute to Tiglath-pileser IIL] 736 Ahaz, 735(8), 728 Hezekiah, 726 (U), 725 (Robertson Smith), 720 (S, H. P, Smith), 715 (Hezekiah's sole reign; 726—715, Hezekiah and Ahaz; Whitehouse). [722 Fall of Samaria.] [701 Sennacherib's campaign against Phoenicia, Palestine and Philistia.j 639 Josiah, 641 (U), 640 (H. P. Smith), 637 (S). [605 Battle of Carchemish.] 597 ^irst captivity, 599 (U). 586 Fall of Jerusalem, 588 (U), 587 (S). 561 Release of Jehoiachin. 538 Capture of Babylon; edict of Cyrus, 536 (U). 516 Completion of Second Temple. 458 Return of Exiles under Ezra, seventh year of Artaxerxes. 445 First Visit of Nehemiah to Jerusalem* 432 Second visit of Nehemiah (ch. xiii, 6), 434 (U). III. EGYPTIAN CHRONOLOGY The chronology of ancient Egyptian history depends largely upon that of Babylonia. For Egypt we have nothing corresponding to the regular chronology of the eponymous /f#w&-officials, and the Egyptians never had an era continuously used* There occurs, indeed, cthe year 400 of Nubti* on a monument of Ramses II, which incidentally dates the Hyksos period to 400 years before his time; but this instance is isolated. As a rule, the Egyptians only mention such and siich a year of King X, In early times they, like the Babylonians, merely quoted a year as that in which some particular event occurred. Later, they reckoned by the fiscal numberings that took place every two years, in connexion with the festival of Horus. As time went on these records were combined into regnal annals, engraved on monumental IV, m] EGYPTIAN CHRONOLOGY 167 stelae set up under the Vth Dynasty. Fragments of these have been discovered in modern days. The famous Palermo Stele is one of theim Scrappy as they are, these fragments are Invaluable, because they give us hints of the approximate lengths of the reigns of some of the kings from the 1st to the Vth Dynasty. It was the habit of the kings of the Xllth Dynasty to associate their sons with them on the throne; and this custom, combined with the fact that the regnal year is more frequently mentioned on monu- ments of this period than of any other, supplies a useful check on chronology. When we know that the thirtieth year of Amenemhet I was also the tenth of his son Senusret (Sesostris) I, and that the forty-fifth of Senusret was also the third of Amenemhet II, and so on, *>we can reconstruct the regnal years of the dynasty with*considerable accuracy. This custom was revived under the XXIInd Dynasty, The Turin Papyrus of Kings, compiled under the XlXth Dynasty3 gives the duration of the reigns (sometimes with the odd months and days), but the kings to which they refer cannot always be identified* This document has to be used with caution because it was garbled by copyists. There is a notable instance of a mistake in the regnal years which the papyrus assigns to Pepi I of the VI th Dynasty, He apparently reigned 50 years, but here he is credited with only 20* Manetho, the Ptolemaic historio- grapher, gives him fifty-three, which is likely enough. As for Manetho, originally his dates were probably trustworthy; but his text has been so terribly mangled by copyists that it would be most unsafe to trust its data unless they are confirmed by the Turin Papyrus or by monumental evidence. The regnal years of a few kings, who are historical persons, given by Herodotus and Diodorus are of little value. So much for the direct sources. In order to compile a definite list of the probable lengths of the reigns, we have to fall back very largely upon the study of the monuments, checked by syn- chronisms with Mesopotamian history. These synchronisms are based ultimately on the limmu-lists and the succession-lists of the Mesopotamian kings. Thus the known date of Shalmaneser I of •Assyria (p. 153 jy.) fixes approximately that of his Egyptian con- temporary Ramses II and other kings (e.g. Kadashman-turgu of Babylonia), and also that of his great-great-grandfather, Ashur- uballit, who was contemporary with Amenhotep IV (Ikhnaton), Astronomical evidence has also been successfully used in con- nexion with data derived from Mesopotamia. Eclipses were not noticed with any particular interest in Egypt. It is the observation not of eclipses but of the heliacal risings of Sirius that helps our 1 68 CHRONOLOGY [CHAP. chronological enquiries. The Egyptians had discovered ^the true length of the solar year from their observations of the"" heliacal rising (that is, the latest visible rising before sunrise) of the star Sinus, which they called Sothis. This civil year consisted of 365 days (360+ 5 epagomenal). They did not intercalate an addi- tional day every four years. The necessity of this intercalation may have been known to the later Egyptians, but it was never officially recognized, probably on account of a religious conservatism, like that which preserves the Julian calendar in Russia and Greece, Hence the months lost all relations to the seasons, and if the heliacal rising of Sirius fell on the first day of the first month, say, in 4241 B.C., it would fall in the middle of the year at the end of 730 years (in 3511 B.C.), and would not coincide again with the first day of the first month till 2781 B.C., when 1460 years had been completed. This interval of 1460 years, due to the defects of the Egyptian calendar, is known as the Sothic cycle. It was only used for regulating the calendar, never for dating events. Now, we know that a new Sothic cycle began in A.D. 139 (or 143). Theon, the mathematician of Alexandria, calls the preceding cycle, which must have begun in 1321 B.C. (or 1317), 'the epoch of Menophres.' The 'throne-name* of Ramses I, who succeeded Harmhab about 1321 B.C., was Menpehre. His date is known because his predecessor dated the years of his reign from the death of Amenhotep III, the father of Ikhnaton (whose reign is ignored on account of his religious heresy), and * reigned' at least 59 years, 1380—1321 B.C. Thus 1321 B.C. was the first year of a Sothic cycle, and the evidence fits in well. The two preceding cycles will have begun in 2778 or 2781 B.C. and 4238 or 4241 B.C., and in one of these years the cycle was instituted (p, 248). If we find that the heliacal rising of Sirius is noted in an Egypt- ian document as falling in a certain month of a certain year in the reign of a certain king, it would seem that by calculating the loss of days implied we could discover the year B.C. to which the given year corresponds. On this principle, by means of a statement in a papyrus found at Kahun, that Sothis rose heliacally on the first of the month Pharmouthi in the seventh year of Senusret III, it ha^ been computed that this year was 1882 (1876) or 1876 (1872) B.C., while from the same data another computer has arrived at 1945 B.C. But there are many considerations which militate against an unreserved acceptance of either of these dates, in the present state of our knowledge. If the former date were accepted, the end of the Xllth Dynasty would fall in 1788 B.C. But it will be ad- mitted by all who have studied the material for the history of the IV, m] DATE OF THE Xllxn DYNASTY i6g time that to allow only two centuries for the period between Dynasties XII and XVIII is difficult. If there are resemblances in culture between the Xllth and the early reigns of the XVIIIth Dynasty which argue a comparative proximity in time, there are, on the other hand, differences which cannot be accounted for if the distance is to be measured by no more than two hundred years. The Xllth Dynasty itself lasted for two centuries: are the changes observable during its continuance in any way comparable to those which had come about between its termination and the rise of the XVIIIth? The answer can only be a decided negative. Moreover, it seems impossible to find room in two centuries for the two dynasties of the Hyksos or 'Shepherd-kings,' preceding the XVIIItJi Dynasty, some of whom seem to have had very long reigns and to have ruled the whole land (so that they cannot have been contemporaneous with other kings ruling in the south whose names we know), as well as for the long Xlllth Dynasty that pre- ceded them, some of whose kings also reigned long and ruled the whole country. An attempt has been made to cut this Gordian knot by pushing the Xllth Dynasty back a whole Sothic period of 1460 years, and assuming the true date of Senusret III to be about 3330 B.C. This seems an impossible solution. For though we might find some support for it in the long periods assigned by Manetho to the dynasties between the Xllth and the XVIIIth, 1600 years is far too long a period to be compatible with the resemblances between the Middle Kingdom and the beginning of the New Kingdom, and is far longer than our material demands. Were the Sothic date unknown, our evidence would not require more than 400 or at most 500 years between the two dynasties (see also p. 303 #.). In the present writer's view, there must have been some mistake in the original observation of the star (if not in the modern calcula- tion of the date); or possibly some change in the calendar, unknown to us, was introduced between the time of Senusret III and the beginning of Dynasty XVIII. Until the astronomical date is con- firmed by another recorded observation in another reign, we are h.ot justified in assuming that the Xllth Dynasty ended so late as 1788 B.C., or even 70 years earlier. Provisionally it would seem best to assume the round date 2000 B.C. for the end of Dynasty XII , This would satisfy all the requirements of our other know- ledge. But it must be borne in mind that the majority of writers accept the later date which it seems difficult to reconcile with the facts (see p. 3 1 5 jy.). If any change occurred which would invalidate the accuracy of 1 70 ' CHRONOLOGY [CHAP. the computation — some failure of record, perhaps, consequent on the Hyksos invasion and resulting anarchy — it must have occurred before the rise of the XVIIIth Dynasty. This is certain from the fact that the dates of certain new-year festivals which were cele- brated on certain days of the month in certain years of the kings Thutmose III and Amenhotep I can, by computing back from the epoch of Menophres, be fixed to the years 1474 (or 1470) and 1550 (or 1546) B.C. And from what we know of the lives of the kings of Dynasty XVIII and of the details of the history of the time, we can see that these dates correspond to what a dead reckoning from the time of Ramses I would demand. Computing back from Amenhotep I, we find that Amosis, the founder of the dynasty, must have ascended the throne about 1580 B.C. This, in the present writer's opinion, is the earliest date for an Egyptian king of which we can be absolutely certain within the margin of a few years either way. Taking the hypothetical date of (about) 2000 B»C, for the end of Dynasty XII and working back, we reckon up the regnal years of the kings of this dynasty as to which we have clearly seen that we are very fully informed. By this means we are able to arrive at (about) 2375 B.C. for the beginning of Dynasty XL At this point we reach the second 'dark age' that meets us in a regress through Egyptian history, the period intervening between the Old and the Middle Kingdom. There were eighteen kings of Dynasties IX and X, namely the Heracleopolites, of whom the latest were contemporaneous with the earlier kings of Dynasty XL We do not know whether they were also contemporaries of the later Memphite kings of Dynasties VII and VIIL The official Egyptian lists recognized as legitimate the kings of Dynasties VII and VIII and the later kings of Dynasty XI, but did not recognize the Heracleopolites. Thus it is uncertain whether we are to sup- pose that the last king of Dynasty VIII immediately preceded, in the north, the king of Dynasty XI who united the two kingdoms under the Theban sceptre (Nebhapetre), or that a number of Heracleopolites intervened between them. The Turin Papyrus of kings appears to count the sum of the years of the king^ from Dynasty I to Dynasties VII and VIII as 955, If the Hera- cleopolites never ruled over the whole country but were contem- poraneous with the Memphites, then, reckoning 955 years from Nebhapetre, whose reign probably began about 2290 B.C., we shall get (about) 3200 B.C. as the date of Menes, the unifier of Egypt and the founder of the monarchy. But it is more probable that several of the Heracleopolite kings IV?m] DATE OF MENES 171 did rule over all Egypt; and moreover we have to account for the degeneration of art and culture which is apparent under Dynasty XI as compared with Dynasty VI, a fact which points to a con- siderable period of anarchy and possibly foreign invasion (see below, p. 295 jy.). We can hardly assume less than one century of decadence between Dynasties VI and XI; on the other hand, not more than two, since in many ways the two ages approximate very closely, much more closely than Dynasties XII and XVIII. More- over, we have to allow for the kings of Dynasties VII and VIII, the last of whom were possibly contemporary with the first Hera- cleopolites. Thus we come to 2600 (less preferably 2500) B.C. as the latest probable date for the end of the Vlth Dynasty. Now if we reckon the 955* years of the Turin Papyrus from 2400 B.C. (as the probable date of the end of Dynasty VIII), we get 3355 B.C. as the date of Menes, which nearly agrees with that adopted by some high authorities. But the 955 years of the Papyrus need not be taken as final, for mistakes were made by the copyists, e.g. in the case of King Pepi L If, then, we combine the informa- tion supplied by the Papyrus with that available from other sources and a dead reckoning of the probable lengths of the reigns, de- rived from a study of the monuments, we find that very nearly 1000 years must have elapsed from the founding of the monarchy to the end of Dynasty VI. Thus we arrive at 3500 B.C. as an approximate date for Menes. This agrees with the calculation of those who hold the later date of the Xllth Dynasty, that an interval of roughly 1500 years separated Dynasty I from Dynasty XII. Our argument puts each of these dynasties about two centuries earlier. The bold suggestion has been made that Menes, the founder of the Egyptian monarchy, is none other than Manium or Mannu- dannu, king of * Magan,' who is mentioned by Naram-Sin, the early Semitic king of Babylonia (cf. p. 4 1 5 sy*'). Now the Babylonian king Nabonidus states thatNaram-Sin reigned 3 200 years before his own time, that is, about 3750 B.C. (above, p. 155 jf.). As there seems to be a historical blank between this date and the period of Gudea, «patesi of Lagash, who certainly reigned not long before 2500 B.C., and as such a remote date for a Semitic king seems inherently im- probable (seeing that Sumerians were still reigning in Babylpjtii& after Gudea's time), it has of later years generally been supposed that Nabonidus made a mistake of a round thousand and mdant to say 2200, thus making Naram-Sin's date 2750 B.C., which is far more probable. Accordingly, the suggestion can be maintained only if we bring down the date of Menes from, the minimum of 172 CHRONOLOGY [CHAP. 3500 B.C., which seems to be demanded, to 3000 B.C. But it is surely Impossible to assign such a late date to the 1st Dynasty, and if it is held that Magan is Egypt and Manium is Menes, we .-must admit that the actual figures of Nabonidus for the date of Naram- Sin are correct and that Menes reigned about 3750 B.C. This is quite as probable as the minimum date we have postulated, 3500 B.C. But the gap of 1200 years between Naram-Sin and Gudea would still remain to be explained. Moreover, Mannu or Manium was a usual Semitic name in Naram-Sin's time; and although Magan may conceivably be the western coast of the Red Sea, and so Egypt in a sense, it is not certain that the land of Melukhkha, which is often mentioned along with Magan and certainly meant Ethiopia in later times, had the same signification in the age of Naram-Sin (see p. 416). The assignation of the name to EtKiopia two thousand years later may have been due to faulty antiquar ianism. Therefore, with our present knowledge, we cannot claim 3750 B.C. as the date of Menes on the ground that he was contemporary with Naram-Sin, though otherwise the date is probable enough. If the Sothic cycle was first observed in 27 8 1 B.C. this event would, on our chronological scheme, have taken place under the Vth Dynasty. But it is highly probable that the cycle, and quite certain that the calendar to which it was applied, are both much older. The civil year of 360+ 5 days is mentioned in the 'Pyramid Texts,* inscribed under the Vth and Vlth Dynasties, but in reality far older. And under the I Vth Dynasty we hear of two New Year Days, 'the First of the Year/ which apparently relates to the civil calendar, and the * Opening of the Year,' which is connected with the Sothic year. It is then obvious that the civil calendar was estab- lished and its relation to the Sothic year known earlier than the IVth Dynasty, Either^ then, the date of the IVth Dynasty, and of the mention of the civil calendar with its epagomenal days under the Vth, is later than 2781 B.C., which is hardly possible; or the Egyptian civil calendar was introduced in 4241 B.C., or another Sothic cycle earlier, 4241 B.C., in the times before the foundation of the united monarchy, is the more probable date, and, if it is right, it is the earliest that we know in Egyptian history. To return to the starting point from which we worked back. Ramses II was reigning about 1260 B.C, and his reign can be fixed with fair accuracy to 1300—1234 B.C., by means of dead reckoning and other evidence. After him the principal synchronism is that between SHshak (Sheshonk), Jeroboam of Israel, and Rehoboam of Judah. This date has been fixed, on the authority of the Assyrian /immu~lists and the biblical evidence, to the neighbourhood of 930 , in] EGYPTIAN CHRONOLOGY B.C., and the reign of Shishak may fairly be assigned to 947—925 B.C. After this, we enter the accurately dated domain of Assyrian histc^ry, which certifies our Egyptian dates down to the seventh century when the list of limmi ceases, but not before we are able to date Psammetichus I to 651-610 B.C. After him we have the Greek historians to guide us. The following chronological framework has thus been estab- lished; for the sake of comparison some dates maintained by other authorities are inserted, vi%. Breasted (B) and Meyer (M), B.C. 4241 (?) 3500 (?) 30*0 (?) 2781 2600 (?) 2400 (?) 2375 "" 2275 2212 2OOO c. 1650 c. 1580 Institution of the Calendar(F). Beginning of the First Sothic Cycle. Beginningof theOld Kingdom; Dynasty I. 3400 (B), 331 5 (M). Approximate date of the Great Pyramid (Dynasty IV), Beginning of the Second Sothic Cycle. End of Dynasty VI. 2475 (B). End of the Old Kingdom; Dynasty VIII. 2445 (B). Beginning of the Middle Kingdom; Dynasty XL 2160 (M). Reunion of Egypt under Nebhapetre. Beginning of Dynasty XII. 2000 (B, M). End of Dynasty XII. 1788 (B, M). Hyksos Kings reigning. End of Middle Kingdom. Beginning of New Kingdom; Dynasty XVIII. Amenhotep I reigning (c. 1559—1530) Thutmose III reigning (c. 1501—1447). End of reign of Amenhotep III and accession of Ikhnaton (c. 1380-1362). Beginning of the Third Sothic Cycle. First year of Ramses I (Menophres). 1315 (B). Ramses II reigning (c. 1300—12345 1292—1225 B); Dynasty XIX. Shishak (Sheshonk I) reigning (c. 947—925)5 Dynasty XXII. Reign of Psammetichus I (663—609 B); Dynasty XXVI. IV. PREHISTORIC GREECE The chronology of prehistoric Greece is naturally far from cer- tain although through connexions with Egypt certain general •dates can be given. For the present everything must be based on the archaeological evidence till the clay tablets and other inscribed objects found in Crete and on the mainland of Greece can be read and interpreted. So many surprising revelations about the great prehistoric civilization of Greece, of which. Homer is the echo, have come to light since Schliemann first began the exploration of Mycenae in 1 876, that it would not greatly astonish us if some fortunate excavator at Cnossus3 or some other rich site, were to 1550 1450 c. 1380 1321 1250 930 651-610 174 CHRONOLOGY [CHAP. find the remains of royal and diplomatic correspondence like that of Tell el-Amarna. Till then, however, the potsherds and other archaeological finds must be the hieroglyphs from which history has to be pieced together, for it is a truism that in a prehistoric age archaeology is history. Archaeology divides prehistoric Greece into the four great re- gions : Crete (Minoan), the Cyclades (Cycladic), the Peloponnese and south-eastern Greece (Helladic), Thessaly and north Greece (Thessalian). Systems of dating the objects found have, as ex- plained in the last chapter, been drawn up, and it is consequently easy to express the date of a characteristic object from the Cyclades in terms of the Minoan or of the Helladic series1. These archaeological dates are purely relative, and naturally the series slide up or down in relation to one another as new discoreries are made. But the main lines have stood the test of several years and the general correspondences may be regarded as fixed. The difficulty comes when we attempt to fit these archaeological dates into any scheme of world chronology or to fit them on to the his- tory of another country outside Greece. Asia Minor is still unex- plored and the connexions through Macedonia and Thrace be- tween Greece proper and the Balkan countries are not yet known though some indications are already to hand. The one neighbouring land where there is a fairly stable chrono- logical system based on written documents and inscriptions is Egypt. Between Egypt and prehistoric Greece, especially Crete and Mycenae, there was intercourse as shown by Egyptian objects found in Crete and Mycenae, and by Cretan and Mycenaean objects found in Egypt. The relations between Crete and Egypt in the first (Early Minoan) period are indistinct, but there is clear evi- dence of contact between the two countries. The Early Minoan ossuaries, or receptacles for human bones, found in the Messara plain, contained some flakes of pale-grey, transparent obsidian, and fragments of the same kind of obsidian have been picked up at Cnossus* The obsidian usually found in Crete is the well-known black, opaque Melian obsidian, while the pale-grey transparent variety is found in Egyptian and Hittite sites and comes fronv African and Anatolian sources2. In the same ossuaries hundreds of small stone bowls were found, which, though of local fabric and material, are analogous to the stone vessels of the first six Egyptian dynasties. A large number of beautiful stone bowls of the same date and general character, which have been found at Mochlos and 1 See Chap, m, pp. 139 sqq, ; and below Chap, xvxr, on early Aegean civilization. 2 Or possibly the Dodecanese. IV, iv] EARLY AND MIDDLE MINOAN 175 at Cnossus, were genuine Egyptian vases in Syenite and diorite assigned? to the late predynastic period and to the Ilnd and IVth Dynasties. At Cnossus, atPyrgus not far to the north-east, and in the cave at Arkalochori, were vases of the Early Minoan period which are similar to some found by Petrie in 1st Dynasty sur- roundings at Abydos. Another strong point of contact is formed by the Early Minoan seals in stone and ivory, especially those from the Messara ossuaries mentioned above, which by their style and their devices are parallel to Egyptian seals of the first six dynasties. Button seals of a sixth dynasty type are especially to be noted. Again, stone and marble palettes of Early Minoan and Early Cycladic times resemble analogous palettes found in early dynastic tombs in Egypt, Generally speaking, therefore, the Early Minoan period may be said to have begun before the middle of the fourth millennium and to have ended about 2250 B.C. This dating is only approxi- mate, and of course depends upon that assigned to the Xllth Dynasty. It is consequently complicated by the problems peculiar to early Egyptian chronology. Further, although the succession of pottery styles and the development of the other classes of objects mentioned are fairly clear within the Early Minoan period, it is impossible to say, except very approximately, what particular style in the Early Minoan period corresponds to any given Egyp- tian dynasty. The excavation of a well-stratified Early Minoan site would do much to clear up some of these points. All detailed study, however, of the evidence so far available, and daily increas- ing, brings out more and more the close connexion between Crete and Egypt in those remote times, In the Middle Minoan period the intercourse between Crete and Egypt so far revealed is clear and reciprocal. At Kahun were found Middle Minoan potsherds in a Xllth Dynasty context (time of Senusret II), and at Abydos a tomb of the latter half of the Xllth Dynasty contained a Middle Minoan II poly- chrome vase. Meanwhile, at Cnossus have been unearthed in Middle Minoan strata a diorite statuette of one Ab-nub~mes- jjpazet-user of the Aphroditopolite nome, dating from the Xllth or early XHIth Dynasty, and the lid of an alabastron bearing the cartouche of the Hyksos king, Khian (of the XVIIth cent. B.C.?), Another monument of Khian, a black granite lion in the British Museum, has been found at Baghdad, and suggests interesting speculations about the influence of this king of whom unfortun- ately all too little is known from the Egyptian records (p* 313). It nevertheless seems clear that the first two phases of the Middle 176 CHRONOLOGY [CHAP. Minoan age are contemporaneous with the Xllth Egyptian Dyn- asty and are therefore to be dated towards the close of the third millennium. But here again this date depends on the view taken of Egyptian chronology, as to the expansion or compression of the intervals between the Vlth and Xllth and between the Xllth and XVII Ith dynasties (see pp. 169 sqq^ 316). Many vases, dating from the First Late Minoan period, have been found in Egypt, although not all are of Cretan fabric; also a scarab of the later XVI I Ith Dynasty in one of the tombs of the Cnossian cemetery of the third phase of this period. In the frescoes on the walls of the tombs of Senmut and Rekhmire, great officials who administered Egypt under Queen Hatshepsut and Thut- mose III (c+ 1501—1447), appear Keftian and other foreigners bringing offerings consisting of vessels of precious metals which are in shape unmistakably the same as characteristic Minoan vase types — cups like the fine gold cup from Vaphio (a type very com- mon in pottery of the Late Minoan I period) and rhytons (fillers) — similar to the fine steatite specimens from Phaestus and Hagia Triada in Crete. Some also carry copper ingots, such as have been found at Phaestus* Who the Keftians were is for Egyptologists to decide, but it is remarkable that the Keftian bearers of tribute in the Egyptian tombs have a considerable likeness, both in their appear- ance and in the style of the frescoes themselves, to the cup-bearer of the Cnossus fresco. The general style of the XVIIIth Dynasty frescoes from Thebes and Tell el-Amarna also shows artistic kin- ship with the frescoes of Cnossus and Phaestus, and is again re- flected in an early group of frescoes from Mycenae and Tiryns. Through this Cretan evidence we can correlate the Late Minoan period with the XVIIIth Dynasty, and their parallelism is con- firmed by the evidence from Mycenae and elsewhere, At Mycenae itself several Egyptian objects have been brought to light. We have a monkey in blue vitreous paste with the car- touche of Amenhotep II3 a faience plaque and a genuine Egyptian lotos-bowl with that of Amenhotep III (though unfortunately we do not know the context in which these were found), and a scarab of Queen Tiy from a chamber tomb of the Third Late Helkdir period. This evidence is again supported by a scarab of Amen- hotep III from lalyssos in Rhodes and one of Queen Tiy from Cyprus, both found in tombs which contained vases of the Third Late Minoan period. At the same time, vases of the typical My- cenaean style (Late Minoan III, or rather Late Helladic III, for the vases are Mycenaean not Cretan), have been found in quan- tities in Egypt, especially in the ruins of Ikhnaton's palace at IV, iv] LATE MINOAN; RAIDS ON EGYPT 177 Tell el-Amarna which thus gives a fixed date (about 1380 B.C.) for this style of vase-painting. They are found, too, in the foreign settlement at Gurob, and in many other sites in association with XlXth and XXth Dynasty objects. Further, in the tomb of Ramses III (XXth Dynasty) stirrup vases of the typical Mycenaean shape in gold and copper are represented, and Egyptian imitations of the same vase type and of rhytons in blue faience, which date from the XlXth Dynasty, are now in the British Museum. The archaeological evidence all points to the fact that the greatest and closest relation between prehistoric Greece and Egypt was during the XVIIIth, XlXthand XXth Dynasties (c. 1580—1100 B.C.), a period which may be treated as generally contemporaneous with the Late Minoan and Late Helladic Here again other considerations occur. It was in these times that Egypt was in close contact with, and in fact often invaded by, the peoples from the Great Green Sea, among whom are men- tioned the Danauna and the Akaiuasha, long since identified as 'Danaoi* and 'Achaeans.* The Danauna possibly appear in a letter of Abimilki of Tyre to Amenhotep (Tell el-Amarna, No, 151); later they reappear in the reign of Ramses III as threatening Egypt with the Libyans, Pulesati (Philistines), and certain other tribes that cannot be identified. It is possible that the Danauna are the Danaoi, and it may be more than a coincidence that their appearance in Egypt at this date (shortly after 1 200 B.C.), is the time when *the isles were restless/ and Danaoi under Agamemnon were besieging Troy. The Akaiuasha formed part of the horde of peoples who invaded the Delta in the days of Merneptah some thirty years earlier and were principally, it seems, from Asia Minor. If the Akaiuasha were Achaeans and the Danauna Danaoi, it is worth noting that these raids on Egypt by peoples from Greek lands took place in the Third Late Helladic period, which was the time of the greatest diffusion of Mycenaean culture, We shall see later that the colonization of Cyprus by Achaeans may be assigned, following the traditional dates, to 1 176 B.C., and tins island, as so often in history, would have formed an excellent base of operations for seafaring raiders from Asia Minor and the Aegean to harry the Nile basin. Egypt may have been to the sea- kings of Crete and Mycenae what the Spanish Main was to Eliza- bethan England, or the British Isles and neighbouring coasts to the Northmen, In this latter case the settlement in Normandy would find a parallel in that of the Philistines (Pulesati) on the Palestinian coast, and perhaps also in that of the Mycenaean or C*A.H*I 13 178 CHRONOLOGY [CHAP. Cretan elements who seem to be included among the "Phoeni- cians* of the Syrian coast. Accordingly, the Greek tradition of the prominence of*4 Red Men9 (oaafc€s) in prehistoric times in Greece, and their intro- duction of the alphabet, and other signs of civilization, could be taken as a reference to the Cretans who, as we know, were the first to develop a script in the Aegean basin and to introduce it on the mainland of Greece. Similarly, too, the tales of Cadmus, Cecrops, Danaus and other foreigners, as coming from Phoenicia, or Egypt, and settling in Greece as the bearers of a higher type of civilization, could be again the echo of the gradual penetration and, partly too, colonization by 'IVtmoan' (as we may call them) chiefs and traders of parts of the Greek mainland* The Thucy- didean tradition of Minos the thalassocrat, the tales of the settle- ment of this island and of that by some son of Minos, of Theseus and the human tribute exacted from Athens, and the frequent occurrence of the place-name Minoa, all point in the same direc- tion, namely that civilization in the Aegean area began in Crete and spread northwards. When all this took place cannot yet be dated with even approximate accuracy. Greek traditional dates — commonly based on genealogies — for the reign of Minos, the Trojan War? and other events all more or less legendary, do not entirely disagree with the dates to be deduced from Egyptian chronology through the medium of archaeological comparisons. One of the most important Greek documents giving traditional dates is the Marmor Parium, an inscription, found in Paros and now in Oxford, which gives, so far as it is preserved, a series of dates (based upon computation) for the principal events of Greek history both of heroic and of historic times. It dates from 264—3 B-c* and differs from other authorities in some of its figures, placing, for instance, the Fall of Troy at 1209—8 B,C, The works of Eratosthenes and Apollodorus as preserved in Eusebius, Suidas, and other late writers, also give important help, though naturally their authority is secondhand. Other traditional dates are given by Thucydides and Herodotus, who, with Diodorus and the Marmor Parium^ are the most trust- worthy sources* The royal genealogies given by Pausanias and others are of some assistance, though there is some ground for suspecting that they have been rationalized. From a comparison of these sources, then, we might hazard the following approximate chronology. We might date Cecrops between 1582 and 1556, Cadmus to 1313, Danaus to 1466, Pelops to 1283, Minos to 1229, while the Trojan War may probably be IV, iv] GREEK LEGEND AND TRADITION 179 dated to r 192—83, the Achaean settlement in Cyprus to 1 176, the Thessalian migration to 1 124, and place to about 1 104 the great Dorian invasion which really marks the end of the prehistoric age and of the marvellous Bronze-Age civilization of Greece and the begin- ning of the Iron Age. This would mean that, by the archaeological dates determined by the Egyptian evidence, the House of Pelops would have reigned at Mycenae during the Third Late Helladic period which was, as the recent excavations have shown, the time when Mycenae was at the very climax of its wealth and power. Following these lines we can observe a certain correspondence between Greek legend and tradition and the archaeological dates derived from Egypt; but as the traditions are naturally enough vague and often contradictory, the simple archaeological evidence should be preferred in any case of doubt, and there are unfortun- ately only too many. For instance, in transferring dates of the Minoan series into the Helladic series we are faced with the fundamental difficulty that there is only a general correspondence between the three series (Minoan, Cycladic and Helladic), each with its three periods (Early, Middle and Late). The Early periods at the beginning of the Bronze Age correspond, because it is clear from a comparison of the archaeological finds that these three areas were inhabited by peoples very much akin in culture, and at approximately about the same stage of progress towards civilization, though, through the impulse and perhaps coloniza- tion from early dynastic Egypt, Crete rapidly drew ahead of the other two. Beyond this statement it is impossible to go at present, nor can we date the Early Cycladic and Early Helladic periods by the Egyptian dynasties through the medium of Crete. In the Middle period we know from the Cretan polychrome ware found at Phylakopi in Melos that the Middle Cycladic and Middle Minoan periods were contemporary; but there is no certain connexion between the mainland and Crete at this time. There is, however, a class of pottery which is typical of the Middle Helladic period, and has been found at Phylakopi in the same stratum as the Cretan ware. We are thus enabled to correlate Middle Helladic aSid Middle Minoan periods, but it is impossible to date one de- finitely in terms of the other in the absence of direct contacts. For the late periods, with the spread of the Minoan and Mycenaean civilization all over the Greek area, and the great improvement in trade and communications, which seems to have marked this age, one can say with far less chance of inaccuracy that the first Late Helladic period is to all intents and purposes contemporaneous with Late Minoan L The progress of civilization to the final climax of i8o CHRONOLOGY [CHAP. IV, iv the Bronze Age and the establishment,, apparently, of big centres of political power (for instance, at Cnossus and Mycenae) dominant over wide spheres of influence, produced a far greater unity in the culture of the different areas, and so give a surer basis for any attempt at chronology especially when, as we have seen, the contacts with Egypt at this time are so strong and numerous. When we turn to the remaining area, Thessaly, which is divided into four periods, we £nd that here there are serious difficulties, for relations between this region and the south seem to have been few. At Corinth Thessalian pottery of the Second period has been found underlying pottery of the later Early Hellaclic period, at Orchomenus and Lianokladi Early Helladic pottery has been found above pottery of the First and Second Thessalian periods, and at Tsani Magoula in Thessaly some Early Helladic vase§ have been found in a stratum placed at the end of the Second period, The only other links are provided by pottery of Late Helladic I! and III periods found in Thessaly at the end of the Fourth period and by the discovery in strata only slightly anterior of a ware typical of the Middle Helladic age, which occurs however as late as Late Helladic II. From this one can say that the First Thessa- lian period is older than the Early Helladic, while the Second Thessalian period is partly contemporary with the Early Helladic, and the later part of the Fourth period is parallel with the Late Helladic age. More than this the archaeological evidence, so far available, will not bean It is therefore impossible at present to attempt to represent the Thessalian series in terms of any one of the others with any approach to accuracy, Further careful excava- tion is necessary. It is in fact only by careful excavation by well- trained observers, not to mention the proper study and publication of all material found in the past — for full justice has not yet been done to many excavations in this way — no less than in the future that we can hope for further light on the chronology of prehistoric Greece. For a comparative table of periods, see pp. 656 CHAPTER V THE SEMITES I. PEOPLE, LANGUAGE AND MOVEMENTS dawn of continuous history breaks In that great region Ji which is the meeting-place of three continents each with its own physical, ethnical and even psychological characteristics. The region may be treated as a unit, although the several threads of the histories of the constituent portions often run independently and, indeed, must be handled separately if we would understand the development of the Ancient East. Interrelations both within and without can be recognized in prehistoric times; and although it happens that the development of Egypt can be traced back fur- ther than that of Babylonia and the rest of western Asia, at Anau in Turkestan, for example, there was a culture which may have been quite as ancient as that of Egypt (pp. 86, 91). But we must be guided by the nature of our material, and partly, also, by the necessity of finding the thread of history, and of determining the interconnexion of events. Thus, although Indo-Iranian and Mon- golian elements from time to time enter our field, India and China naturally lie outside our horizon. On the other hand, our present knowledge of early Asia Minor and the Aegean, scanty and dis- connected though it is, illumines later conditions when the actual historical material is more abundant and consecutive, and all the lands concerned in the great drama can be more clearly viewed and their parts more fairly estimated, Of this virtually homogeneous area the Semites are the central figures throughout the earlier developments. They have a per- manent interest because three religions have arisen among them and shaped the world's history. Of these Judaism and Christianity ate Palestinian, and are historically and otherwise closely associ- ated. They may be regarded as the last phases in the decay of the old Semitic culture. Later, after its death, Islam, the third religion,, arose in Arabia and rapidly spread west and east. The history of Islam frequently illustrates factors that have always operated In the east; and the different periods and aspects of Semitic history so explain each other, and such has been the similarity of geo- graphical, economic and other conditions, that it Is possible, with 1 84 THE SEMITES [CHAP. been governed from unexpected centres. Though nothing, per- haps, can be more barren than the Sinaltic peninsula, it & part of an area (the ancient Edom) which., owing to the trade-routes, had a political significance far beyond its own natural resources. North of the Hijaz, an oasis like el-Ola, which was the seat of a * South Semitic' colony, illustrates the part played by oases as seats of power or as stages in the passage of elements of culture from one end of the Semitic world to the other* The Palmyrene oasis, especially in the third century A.D., is an example of an extraordinarily powerful and wealthy state founded upon commerce. East of the Jordan rich states have arisen and enjoyed a short and brilliant career in spite of the ever-present risk of bedouin invasion. And, further north, Damascus itself, unprotected, and remote from natural trade- routes, still maintains itself as the most ancient of cities, and under the Omayyad Caliphs (vnth— virith cent, A.D.) actually became the capital of a realm extending from India to Spain. Syria and Pales- tine, by reason of their geographical and historical circumstances, are the meeting-ground of different peoples and civilizations. They have been the object of conflicting ambitions and policies for some four millennia, and may thus be said to surpass in historical interest the other 'Semitic7 lands. The problem of this term now becomes acute. The term c Se- mite f is more convenient than accurate, and is derived from Shem, a son of Noah, the hero of the Deluge (Gen. ix— xi). In an elaborate genealogical table many divisions of the world as formerly known are traced back to Noah's three sons, with the result that each division stands in some more or less intelligible relationship to the rest. This method of reckoning geographical, ethnical or political divisions has always been in vogue and recurs, for example, in Hesiod's genealogy of 'Hellen' (the Hellenes), the son of Deu- calion (also the hero of a Deluge), who is the father of Dorus (Dorians), Aeolus (Aeolians), and Xuthus, the father of Ion (lon- ians) and Achaeus (Achaeans). Precisely what was believed at the time when these chapters were written is uncertain. They embody at least two groups of traditions and, according to the older, Noah was not connected with the story of the Deluge, but was the firs** to make wine, and so mitigate the curse of agricultural toil (Gen. v, 29; ix, 20 sqq^). The narrative in its original form told how Canaan was cursed and condemned to be the servant of Shem, whereas Japheth is very favourably recognized as Shem's protegcS. The genealogy represents Canaan as the * father' of certain Phoeni- cian cities and of Heth, the latter being not necessarily the Hittites of Asia Minor, but later offshoots in Palestine. Canaan's territory V,i] THE 'SONS' OF SHEM 185 is from Sidon to south Palestine and the east of the Dead Sea; and it includes the Amorites and other peoples who are regularly spoken of as pre-Israelite. The identity of Japheth is obscure, but Shem is the ancestor of Eber (^ebher} — i.e. of the Hebrews (VMm;z) — who is the father of Peleg (division) and of Joktan, the 'father* of certain Arabian groups. As Yahweh (the * Jehovah' of the Eng- lish Bible)1 is explicitly called the God of Shem (ix, 26), he is not god of Israel alone (cf. similarly iv5 26), even as the Hebrews are evidently regarded as more extensive than Israel. But in the later source. Ham, who is here Noah's son, is the * father5 of Cush (Ethiopia), Mizraim (Egypt), Canaan, and other names; the divi- sions of Japheth belong to the northern zone as far as Greece; and Shem seems to have another meaning* Shem's divisions include Elam (east of Babylonia), Assyria, Aram (with relationships in the south) and Lud (apparently Lydia). Shem, accordingly, extends along the great ancient post-road between Susa and Sardes (Herod, v, 52). The whole scheme is broadly geographical, and recognizes three zones, Japheth in the north, Ham in the south, and Shem in the centre. This scheme has takenToot, and in the *Book of Jubilees * (shortly before the Christian era) it was developed further in ac- cordance with later knowledge, and it is observed that the land of Japheth is cold, that of Ham is hot and that of Shem is a blend. The foundation of Babylonia and Assyria is ascribed to Nimrod, son of Cush; but the Cushite divisions are unmistakably Arabian (they include the Sabaeans, who are otherwise ascribed to Shem's descendant Joktan), and it is uncertain whether Ethiopian immi- grants were supposed to pass eastwards into Babylonia, whether there was a Cush in Arabia, or whether there has been some con- fusion with the ancient dynasty of Kish (p. 365) or with the Kass- ite immigrants from the north (p. 552). In any event the table can- not be strictly linguistic^ because the Phoenicians, whose language differs only dialectically from Hebrew, and is related to Assyrian, are ascribed to Ham; and even though Phoenicia was from early times culturally connected with Egypt, this cannot be said of the Hittites, with whom Phoenicia is also associated. Moreover, "Lydian and Elamite were linguistically different from each other and from. Semitic. Feelings of relationship can express themselves in genealogical form and differently at different times; hence 1 In order to avoid pronouncing the Divine Name (perhaps originally Yahweh) the Jews replaced it by j4donfiyy "lord/ the vowels of which were subsequently introduced into the consonants (T[or JJ-h-vfor wj-h). Early Christian scholars, misunderstanding this? as early as the fourteenth century A,a>.? gave currency to the impossible form which has since become familiar. 1 86 THE SEMITES [CHAP. Shem may have had diverging meanings, just as was the case with Amor (the Amorites), Heth (the Hittites), and many ^another name. As regards its precise meaning in the narratives in Genesis we must be guided by the fact that our sources now represent the standpoint of a people which ascribes itself to Sheni, and feels firmly settled among alien groups — viz. Canaan — to whom there is the keenest antipathy. While dominating Canaan it graciously receives the alien Japheth of the north. The people whose god is Yahweh admits the closest kinship with the desert; and elsewhere the genealogies and traditions closely associate Abraham with northern Mesopotamia, and with Aramaean and Arabian groups. There is also a hint of some * division * (viz. Peleg) whereby the southern and Joktanite Arabs were severed from some 'son* of Eber, the ancestor of the Hebrews (see p. 233 sy.*). What history lies beneath this remains uncertain owing to the difficulty of dating the biblical traditions and of determining their precise reference. But in so far as they point to some separation, and some intrusion of a stock with desert kinship among an older settled people, they correspond to a typical process. Moreover, the desert stocks, especially of Arabia, have always remained rela- tively primitive, and the Arabic language in particular has also been regarded as typically Semitic. Indeed, the Semitic languages have retained throughout all time (except in Africa) their most distinctive features, and this persistence corresponds to that of a certain temperament which is best seen among the desert-peoples. The facts have led to the theory of Arabia as the original home of the Semites and of the Arabian (bedouin) mind as the representa- tive of Semitic thought. The theory deserves attention because it is often used as a key to the interpretation of the development of Semitic history and culture. The best-known Semitic languages are the Akkadian (some- times used as a convenient term for the practically identical Baby- lonian and Assyrian dialects), Canaanite (a term to include Phoeni- cian, Hebrew, Moabite, etc.), Aramaean (Syriac, etc*), and South Arabian (Minaean and Sabaean). Their close interrelation resembles that among the members of the Romance or of the Teutonic sub-** divisions of the Indo-European family. But the linguistic, ethnical and cultural boundaries are not similar. Semitic languages have been adopted by invaders (Kassites, Philistines, etc.); Armenians and Jews despite a noteworthy physical similarity spoke entirely distinct languages; and, notwithstanding constant Intercourse between Syria and Asia Minor, no Semitic language was spoken to any considerable extent or for long in Cilicia or elsewhez-e. In V, i] THE SEMITIC LANGUAGES 187 more senses than one the Semitic languages come between Indo- Europe*an and Hamitic (Egyptian, etc.). They have noteworthy points of contact with the latter, they share with both the distinc- tion of gender (there is however no neuter in Semitic and Egyp- tian), but they have no evident relationship with the former or with any non-Hamitic tongue. Semitic is characterized by the possession of peculiar gutturals, triconsonantal roots with regular vocal changes., affixes and suffixes to express modification of the stem-meaning {MeLeK king, MaLKenu our king, hiMLtK he caused to rule, maMLaKah kingdom), only two tense-forms5 peculiar case-relations, and an extreme rarity of compounds (ex- cept in proper names which are often sentences). But Semitic both influenced the strange agglutinative Sumerian and was influenced by it, Jews and Syrians adopted and naturalized Greek loan-words> and Persian words passed into Arabic and were adapted to its own peculiar structure. On the other hand, Arabic has exercised a re- markable influence upon African languages, and the strangest blends have arisen when, as in Amharic, Hamitic tribes have modified Semitic to their modes of thought and expression. Very drastic changes thus ensue; and as there have often been move- ments from south-west Asia into Egypt and Abyssinia, the factors that can be recognized in historical times may also have operated before our history begins. See pp. 25^, 261 and above p. 28* While Semitic is characteristically triliteral, Egyptian contains several familiar Semitic words (for mouth3 water, etc.) which are not of triliteral origin. And not only are there some indications of a primary biliteral monosyllabic stage in Semitic, but an ultimate linguistic connexion has even been claimed — although the evi- dence is not convincing — between Semitic and Sumerian. In any case, if we go back far enough there was a period before € Semitic ' became what we call Semitic, though it does not follow that there was a single Egypto-Semitic language which afterwards bifurcated (p. 255). So also, there must obviously have been a time before the separate leading languages acquired their distinctive characters — even as Amharic has grown up and is supplanting other lan- guages— although we cannot therefore postulate one single Se- mitic stock from which the rest have differentiated. Such questions lie outside history, but they are very important for our ideas of what really characterizes Semitic and the Semites, and for the further question whether the earliest or most primitive features are therefore the most typical. The Babylonian is the first Semitic language of which we have any knowledge; it is not primitive, but has a lengthy philological r88 THE SEMITES [CHAP. development behind it. By the middle of the third millennium B.C. the existence of Canaanite can be assumed. The numerous inscriptions of the southern Semites (Minaeans, Sabaeans, etc.), which belong to the first millennium B.C., contain some noteworthy points of contact with Babylonian and with the Canaanite (or rather the so-called 'Amorite') of about 2100. Babylonian, after becoming by the fifteenth century a language of diplomacy in Egypt and south-west Asia, was gradually replaced by Aramaic, the lingua franca of the Persian empire, which ultimately drove Hebrew into the Rabbinical schools and was used even by Arabs* Meanwhile, the old Arabian language of the inscriptions remained relatively unchanged throughout many centuries, a fact which sug- gests a firm literary hieratical tradition. It had died out by about A.D. 5003 when the 'pre-Islamic* period begins (500—622); and finally Aramaic almost entirely disappeared, and a later form of Arabic became the common language. By classical Arabic is understood that language,, spoken in central and northern Arabia, which, through Mohammed, the Koran and Islam, became a sacred tongue and one of the principal languages of the world. It preserves many forms which have developed or decayed in the cognate languages; and although the documents are almost modern compared with Babylonian the language is relatively ancient, like Lithuanian among the Indo-European languages* It is not truly primitive, nor is it the sole ancestor of the modern dia- lects; the older extinct Arabic (Minaean, etc,) was in some respects more primitive, and has left a few traces In certain modern dialects (in south Arabia), while others betray the Influence of Aramaean. Besides, it is to be remembered that classical Arabic had not been the only Arabic current in Arabia, Hence it cannot be regarded as necessarily representing the earliest form of Semitic, and one must not assume that Babylonian and Canaanite, which are his- torically earlier, and preserve certain archaic forms, go back to some prehistoric language resembling the 'classical' Arabic. It is true that the later Arabian dialects underwent vicissitudes analo- gous to those that can be presumed In the development of the older languages themselves* It is also possible to observe the factor,, that restrict the decay of one dialect or give new prominence to another. But, in general, the history of the Semitic languages, like that of the Semites and of their culture, proves to be more complex than has been thought; and one must avoid the mistake, made by the Semites themselves, of unduly simplifying the data and of assuming regular relationships and developments. The most essential fact is that the desert is the home of nomads V, i] CLASSICAL ARABIC. THE ALPHABET 189 or semi-nomads who from time to time thrust themselves into the settled districts and replenish the population. The desert itself is monatonous and the conditions remain the same in spite of re- curring change. Its occupants have preserved certain character- istics which seem to be typical; and even at the present day the bedouin will speak a dialect purer and more archaic than that of the townsman. But it does not follow that a language is best pre- served where it originated, or that the Semitic language and the Semites 'originated7 in the desert. The history of the rise of Islam itself shows how certain definite historical circumstances brought 'classical Arabic* to the front; it was the result of a new movement after a period of decay, unrest and transition. It was a new growth in an old cradle. But how Semitic arose and what caused the very marked cleavage between the south Semites (Arabia, Ethiopia) and the rest can hardly be conjectured. There is a similar cleavage between the * North* and the * South* Semitic alphabets. They are ultimately related to one another and to the parent of the European scripts. In contrast to the cuneiform writing (p, 126) and to secondary developments in south Semitic (Ethiopia, etc.), the Semitic script was wholly consonantal* The * North* Semitic alphabet begins to divide (in the eighth century B.C.) into Canaanite (Phoenician, Old Hebrew, Samaritan, etc.) and Aramaean branches, at about the time when the Aramaean inscrip- tions of North Syria are neither pure Canaanite nor pure Aramaic. The origin and date of the common alphabet are still uncertain. Derivations have been sought in every conceivable quarter, but the old theory of an Egyptian origin is again favoured, owing to the remarkable characters found at the mines worked by the Egyptians at Serabit el-Khadim in the Sinaitic peninsula (? c. 1500 B.C.)1* Yet, Sumerian parallels have also been found for both the forms and the sounds. In any case, the Phoenicians can no longer be credited with the invention of writing. It is, however, known that they were importing papyrus from Egypt about noo B.C., and It may well be that the Semitic alphabet, like the Semitic lan- guages and culture, was the result of a native, Independent fusion of external and non-Semitic influences. Such * Semitization * is, at all events, entirely characteristic* In spite of numerous minor differences, natural among peoples living under different conditions, there has been a persistence of language, thought and custom, even as there has been one of physical type, despite movements of population. These movements are important for history* There are regular seasonal movements^ 1 A. H. Gardiner, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology ', 1916, vol m. 190 THE SEMITES [CHAP. often over large areas, in search of pasturage; and although tribal names familiar at one period are often lost at another, when new ones will appear. Sir George Adam Smith found the Beni Mesaid pitching their summer camp east of Jordan where a Greek inscrip- tion of A.D. 214 still records the presence of a nomad tribe of the same name (<£uX/*? Mc£aieSip>coz'). Tribes have also escaped into Egypt or out of it. But, above all, *upon Arabia nature has be- stowed few gifts beyond that of breeding men/ and tribes, driven by bad seasons, famine, increase of population, pressure or lust of conquest constantly drive against the fertile districts, wedge them- selves in, or expel the settlers and destroy all fertility and culture. The Decapolis represented a Greek league to keep the bedouins out, and the Romans played off the invading tribes one against the other and built forts to ward off the invaders. Besides, the invari- ably heavy death-rate of the towns is only counterbalanced by a constant infiltration of the peasantry. There are many gradations from the pure nomad to the settled agriculturist; and even nomad traders have been capable of inaugurating dynasties scarcely more ephemeral than many of those of more settled lands. Such move- ments as are known are typical. The great Islamic movement and the entry of Israel into the 'Promised Land* are not without lesser parallels. The Moabite Adwan believe that they came from Arabia some ten generations ago, and the Jafnites (Ghassanids) were said to have journeyed from Yemen about the first century A*D. Earlier still, about the middle of the first millennium B.C., another im- portant movement can be faintly traced, contemporary with the decay of the great empires of Egypt and west Asia. The religious wars of Islam, and Israel's debt to Sinai, Horeb and to the Arabian kin of Moses, illustrate the influence of the south; but some im- portant influences have flowed from the north. The Arabs them- selves received many elements of culture from the Aramaic- speaking tribes of the north; Greeks, Persians and Jews have exercised political and cultural influence over south Arabia, and a physical relationship has been traced between the south Arabians (as distinct from the bedouins) and the Armenoid types of the north. The biblical accounts of Shem, Eber, Abraham and Jacob point to the north and to a southward movement of Aramaeans; and the Aramaeans were apparently responsible for the collapse of Solomon's great empire. Although there has been no diffusion of Semites analogous to that of the Indo-Europeans, the spread of Islam is only an extreme example of its kind. The influence of the trading Phoenicians with their colonies in the Mediterranean and Atlantic can hardly be V, i] TRADERS AND COLONISTS 191 calculated. Carthage then, and Morocco more recently* are speci- mens of what Semitic influence could achieve on congenial soil. Of tjje south Arabians, also great traders, and with communica- tions with Africa and India, only little is known. The Jews, though hardly a sea-faring people, traded successfully on land, and their settlements and synagogues paved the way for Christianity, in the spread of which Syrians travelled eastwards as far as China, and were the forerunners of Mohammedan traders and missionaries, (It is difficult to determine the precise share of Phoenicians and Aramaeans in spreading the European and north Semitic forms of the one common ancestral alphabet in the west and east respec- tively.) Syrians in the west were merchants, musicians, slaves, and carriers of oriental cults. So also, the c Chaldeans' — astrologers and diviners — succeeded in making their own name a synonym for impostor. Going further back, we find a Semitic colony at the mines of Kara Euyuk in Cappadocia, by the twenty-first century B.C.; and, in addition to the relationship between Assyrian art and Phrygia (seventh century), and between Assyria and Lydia, there are old traditions of * white Syrians* of Cappadocia, and, as we have already seen, Shem/s genealogy extends from Blam and Assyria to Lydia. Moreover, there was a Minoan sea-power long before the Phoenicians are named in history; * Byblus-farers ' plied in the Levant, and there was frequent intercourse between the Phoenician coast and the Delta. Hence the people we call * Phoeni- cians ' are strictly the heirs of an old-established system of inter- course, and the Tyrian sea-power itself was only one of a succes- sion of thalassocracies. How much intercourse and movement lie outside our records must of course be entirely conjectural. It is at least certain that the * Semitic* world was no secluded one. There were periods almost cosmopolitan, notably in the * Amarna' period (see pp» 152, 177, 312, 569), and again, later, under the Persians. A vivid picture of Phoenician traffic is given in EzekiePs descrip- tion of Tyre (ch. xxvii); and when Jerusalem was 'the gate of the people* (ib. xxvi, 2) we see how commercial activities could give wealth and influence to cities that were fortunately situated or were centres of government (cf. also Mecca, Medina and Palmyra). South-west Asia and north-east Africa have many points of contact; Abyssinian and negroid elements are found in south Arabia, and noteworthy ethnical and sociological relationships have been observed between the Semitic and African popula- tions. The * wilderness of the land of Egypt* was the scene of the wanderings of the tribes of Israel (Ezek. xx, 36), and, conversely, one of the Egyptian nomes was later called Arabia. 192 THE SEMITES [CHAP. Yet, the Semites belong essentially to Asia and have been mainly influenced from the north; and Egypt hardly "became truly * Semitic' until the collapse of her old distinctive culture and the conquest by the Mohammedans, It was always difficult for Asia to hold Egypt, and Egypt was ever ready to conspire with the Levant against the East, In the north the Semites were unable to make any lasting impression upon Asia Minor: "so soon as the land-level of northern Syria attains a mean altitude of 2500 feet, the Arab tongue is chilled to silence > (Hogarth). Not the Semites, but only the north-country Turks could hold it definitely; while, on the other hand, peoples passing into the Semitic area have com- monly undergone a process of *Semitization.* The Semite and the invading Sumerian exchanged religious, literary, and other ele- ments of culture. Similarly, Elamites and Kassites were Semitized, and some strange blends are found in the mountain districts. Fierce racial difference did not prevent the Persians from being true Mohammedans after a few generations; and the debt of the Semites to the Persian, most obvious under the Abbasid Caliphs of Baghdad, is recognizable earlier in the days of the Achaemenid Persians, and can be suspected at some other periods. Mongols, Turks, and Persians often seem to become more Semitic than the Semites; and when, as in early times, religious and other aspects of culture tended to form a single system, assimilation was easier, and conquerors were conquered. Through the Hittites, Kassites, Mitannians, Philistines — to mention no more — the Semitic area was seemingly impregnated with foreign influences. But it showed an astonishing receptivity, and an ability to assimilate; although sometimes the influence was not so deep as it appeared, or there were most remarkable syncretisms which, however, hardly took root among the simpler classes. The fact remains that the blood of the peasantry has always determined the type, and foreign ele- ments tended to disappear in the process — -in the words of Robert- son Smith : ' One of the most palpable proofs that the populations of all the old Semitic lands possessed a remarkable homogeneity of character is the fact that in them, and in them alone, the Arabs and Arab influence took permanent root/ By a bold generalization the attempt has sometimes been mad* to view the entire history of the Semitic area as the result of suc- cessive waves of nomad Semites migrating from a 'home' in the deserts of Arabia owing to overcrowding, desiccation or some other natural cause. In this way five epochs have been distin- guished, the latest being the Mohammedan movement of the seventh century A.D* The first invasion would date about the V5i] INFLUENCE OF ARABIA 193 fourth millennium B.C., occupying Mesopotamia and North Syria. About tfte middle of the third millennium will come the Canaan- ites a^id a modification ('Amorite') of the "Semitic element in Mesopotamia. A thousand years later the Aramaean wave, a vast movement, brings the Hebrew and related peoples (Edom, Moab and Ammon), and fills the north as far as the Taurus mountains. Again, after another millennium, a fourth, invasion is responsible for the Nabataeans and for later settlers, e.g. the Lakhmids and Ghassanids of the east and west respectively. All theories of this sort, however, while in accordance with many facts,, give too schematic a view of the movements; and, in endeavouring to sim- plify complex processes of ethnical history, they follow the mistake of the old-time historians themselves who, as exemplified in the biblical narratives, tried to simplify the traditions at their dis- posal. The theories are largely influenced by linguistic considera- tions, whereas, at present, enough is not known of the early Se- mitic languages to base historical arguments upon the character of each. Although the tendency of desert tribes to move into the * fertile crescent' is exceedingly significant for Semitic history, there are repeated influences from without and to the south no less signifi- cant. By the Semites we may understand the homogeneous group of Semitic-speaking peoples occupying a definite area which has retained a certain stamp. What is 'Semitic' is not necessarily of single or simple origin, for nowhere do we reach the absolutely primitive Semite; and we have to look, not for the most rudimen- tary features, but for the most typical and persistent. Now, some interpreters of Semitic history have been impressed by the relative primitiveness of Arabian life and thoxight, and the * Arabian home' of the Semites; others by the antiquity, solidarity and widespread influence of a culture best exemplified in Babylonia. The rudeness and simplicity of bedouin conditions are thus weighed against a culture which was apparently homogeneous among all the great ancient powers, and presumably left its mark upon all intervening districts. But the alternatives between the simple, unchanging fcedouin and the complex and long-extinct culture of Mesopotamia have been stated too rigorously. We have rather to recognize that certain psychological and other tendencies, which have taken in- choate and primitive forms among rudimentary tribes, have be- come more developed, though less permanent, among the more highly organized; and that they appear to be responsible for new creative periods and the rise of new political organisms. See p. 38 sy. C. A.H.I *3 I94 THE SEMITES [CHAP. II. TEMPERAMENT AND THOUGHT , Among the factors that have conditioned the course of Somitic history may be mentioned the marked differences of soil, the irre- gularities of climate, the broken character of Syria and Palestine, the inhospltallty of the desert (whereby the bedouin often lives In alternating periods of semi-starvation and surfeit), the social differ- ences in town-life, and the varieties of thought due to the con- tiguity of different social and ethnical types. Although the per- sistence of typical forms of life and thought has made the 'un- changeable East* a truism, conspicuous differences of character can often be noticed in different villages and tribes. A very Im- portant factor, however., has been the influence of foreigners. Egypt, Crete, Asia Minor, and, above all, Iran., have exercised an Influence which, In the case of the last-mentioned. Is incalculable. The proximity of Indo-Europeans, the easy gateways, and the re- currence at one time or another of Indo-European personal names from Lake Van to south Palestine combine to suggest possibilities of fusion such that the separation of what is and what Is not Se- mitic may well seem hopeless. At all events, it is noteworthy that Aramaic, which was used and spoken In the northern part of the Semitic area, and was therefore nearer to Indo-European influence, is a much more flexible language than Hebrew or Arabic, and lends itself more readily to the interconnexion and subordination of sentences and of ideas. On the other hand, there is a typical similarity of life and thought throughout the desert-lands of Syria and Arabia, and also of north Africa. A relatively primitive type prevails outside the influence of more developed and complex forms of life, and it becomes more prominent at certain creative periods, notably at the rise of Islam, but also during the history of Israel. It does not follow that the primitive features represent some primeval type of Semitic thought; for Islam,, too, like the Arabic language itself, betrays the influence of earlier and more developed growths. Biit there are certain modes and processes which recur at the great creative periods and are more rudimentary among the simple anct undeveloped classes, and these persisting and formative factors may be considered characteristic of the Semites. The pure and bracing desert air stimulates the faculties, and gives a lively consciousness of health and vigour* It breeds energy, enthusiasm, and aggressiveness. Courageous, furious in attack, contemptuous of death, the Semites are better in skirmishes and raids than in prolonged attack; they are soon discouraged, and, V, n] PSYCHOLOGY OF THE LANGUAGES 195 outside the Assyrian and Carthaginian conquests, organizing power is rare. More intent upon ends than means they have no base for operations, no lines of communication, and they anticipate short cuts to success. But they can meet defeat and misfortune with resignation, await a proverbial forty years for revenge, and they pass easily from extremes of optimism and confidence to pessimism and despair. They have been called superficial, vain, aristocratic, and swift to feel humiliation* The heroic virtues of the warriors were group-loyalty, self-sacrifice, defiance of the strong foe and protection of the weak kinsman. But the horizon is a small one. Tribal or family pride readily conquers civic or national loyalty, and is a disintegrating factor when nomads take to settled life. The personal or tribal interest is all-compelling; but the bravest deeds are often Isolated, or of no social value. The individual easily reacts to personal appeal, emotion has the last word; his fancy and imagination can be stirred — less readily his intellect. Personal feel- ing is the source of action, not commonsense, or plan, or morality. A personal claim is recognized, and there is admiration for any manifestation of personal power and ability as distinct from its ethical value or its consequences. Ideas of lordship, power and control have a fascination, and here again ethical distinctions are secondary. The older Semitic languages are simple, direct, immediate, and 'without the particles and auxiliaries which unite phrases and give suppleness to the Indo-European languages. The syntax is simple; sentences are statements with little subordination, although Ara- bic, and more especially Aramaic, are decidedly freer. But it must be remembered that at the more rudimentary stages, and among simpler peoples, there is everywhere a certain syntactical resem- blance, so that colloquial English and Egyptian non-literary papyri approximate to Hebrew usage and the frequent *and* of the Fourth* Gospel. Though Semitic ideas may be limited and undeveloped, the languages have a much richer vocabulary than might be imagined, e.g. from the restricted character of Hebrew and Syriac literature. Hebrew itself is poor in abstracts, but rich in concrete, ^sensuous imagery; though it does not follow that every concept conveyed what its most literal meaning might suggest. Its direct- ness and concreteness give the Old Testament its persisting appeal to the senses and feelings; it incorporates the thought of an emo- tional, self-conscious and observant people at a simple stage of development. Later, both Hebrew and Arabic were extended and used for abstruse and scientific topics, though Syriac was content to borrow the necessary terms. A characteristic feature is the ease 13— a 196 THE SEMITES [CHAP. with which the individual passes from one standpoint or picture to another. Thus., the conditional proposition may consist of two distinct mental pictures, the juxtaposition of which causes <*hern mutually to determine each other, Again, impending or future events can be regarded as actually present; conditions and results can be associated, and what was once future (from some past standpoint) can be regarded as still unaccomplished. The tenses in Hebrew hardly express time from our point of view, but rather states of development; and the language is dominated by the action and reaction of living ideas and the judgment of the speaker. The Indo-European scheme of three distinct time-periods (past, present and future) is not expressed, although even in the old Babylonian the Semitic * imperfect J was slightly differentiated in order to dis- tinguish what we call present and preterite. Not only does the Semite's appreciation of time in events and actions colour his general historical perspective, but disconnected- ness and love of bold imagery are manifested in many forms. The poetry is intensely realistic. No figure is too bold, and even the mysticism is not vague. In common with the love of eloquence, rhetoric and the use of sonorous and striking words, these char- acteristics can easily become wearisome when they are overdone, Hebrew poetry, though deeper and richer than that of the Arabs, was intensely subjective, and sublime rather than beautiful. There is in general a love of practical and epigrammatic brevity. Led away by personal interest the individual is terse, inconsequential and frequently indifferent to discrepancies irrelevant for his pur- pose, but perhaps not for ours. Alike in the Hebrew prophets and in Mohammed's Koran we have enthusiasm, eloquence and imagi- nation rather than logical exactness, sustained thought and sweep- ing comprehension. Guided by the impulse and feeling of the moment, the language is elliptical, representing a series of emo- tional states which require elaborate expositions to understand and co-ordinate them, The thought does not proceed step-wise, nor is it detached or objective. There is too much earnestness — or obsession — for that. There are no half-tones — nothing between love or hate, one might" almost add; and even in the developed legal code of the Babylonian king, Hammurabi, actions are either right or wrong. Things to be of any interest must be of deep personal interest, and passion then generates a feeling of human relationship even with the inanimate. The whole of nature is subordinated, the universe blends with personal conviction., and there is an * immediacy' in conceptions of God and Nature, in contrast to a detached or scientific view V, n] CHARACTER OF SEMITIC THOUGHT 197 of things. This profound consciousness and this depth of feeling give the Old Testament its religious value. In contrast to the un- impassioned and intellectual admiration of the Greek for grandeur and beauty, the sensuous Semite must possess them for himself. Religious truths are apprehended as personal necessities. They are ends in themselves. There is no creativeness or originality, the 'poets' are not the 'makers' that their Greek name means. There is reshaping rather than a constructive or reproductive ability, symbolism rather than plasticity. With all the keen observation of Man and Nature there is no apprehension of a great or united whole: the unity is of subjective feeling and purpose rather than of composition, or of analysis and synthesis* The desert stimulates the nerves, but the mind starves. There is much to feed fancy, little to encourage discursive thought. Interests are few, a man has his ends in himself and carries his world with him. But life is a fight; one must be heedful, and every- thing is ominous. So, there can be no repose, and the self-control of the bedouin is apt to be an affectation, a truce, or a prelude to some sudden explosion. The nomad does not need many goods, he has the simplest categories : there is no wealth of social detail to en courage or compel speculation. The simple patriarchal organi- zation of life is his pattern of thought. Moreover, desert-life does not promote social stability. It throws men back upon themselves; and self-consciousness brings out the contrast between the poor degenerate types, whose only conscience is a self-discontent, and those nobler, aristocratic, if pagan, types which at once arouse our admiration. It has been said that the Arabs of the classical period and their descendants, the bedouins of the present day, are perhaps one of the races most untouched by the solemnities of religious awe that have ever existed (Sir Charles Lyall). Certainly, their poems will breathe a 'pagan' passionate love of life (cf. also David's Lament in 2 Samuel, dbu i); and it is, in any case, one of the paradoxes of the Semites that they have given the world its greatest religious geniuses. The religious and other aspects of life are not distinguished as among more developed peoples. This relatively less differentiated stage of development makes the study of Semitic life and thought one of absorbing interest. Religion and ethics, social, political and religious institutions formed more or less a whole. Consequently religion has played a really unique part in Semitic history, and Semitic religion is important for developments which we are accus- tomed to consider outside the sphere of religion. The Semites breed men of tremendous personality, men who hold the world 198 THE SEMITES [CHAP within them and feel themselves anyone's equal. Impetuous and imperious they rush at difficulties; and, although they are normally unadventurous, they outstrip, when aroused, their racial rivak, but rarely leave heirs. Mohammed transformed a tendency already represented by a few, and as a single individual perhaps did more than any other to shape history. The main lines of his doctrines developed those familiar in Judaism, and his conception of God is essentially that of the Old Testament, Christianity began as a Jewish sect amid new religious tendencies in which Jews played the most prominent part. Judaism itself is of uncertain origin — tradition ascribed it to Moses, earlier to Abram^and the worship of Yahweh is even said to begin with Enosh, the grandson of Adam, the first man (see further p. 235)0 But it owed its persistence and renewal to the Maccabees (second century B.C.), and to earlier prophetical or other figures, some of them quite unknown* Yet the religion of Israel, indebted to Sumerian, Iranian and other non-Semitic influences,, is essen- tially one with the other Semitic religions, although reformers and transformers wrought the essential spiritual differences that mark it out from the rest. In their broad outlines all the Semitic religions are the natural expression of the Semitic temper and modes of thought. Characteristic are the simplicity, directness, exclusiveness and intensity which give them a seeming monotheistic trend. True monotheism, however, is rare — Yahweh himself gave objects of worship to the heathen (Deut, iv, 1 9) — and the temporary or con- sistent worship of one god above all others and to their exclusion is 'henotheism* or *monolatry.' Further, even when only one god is recognized, the question of his ethical and moral character and of his functions is vital. There is a vast difference between a psycho- logical monotheism (as where the god filled the entire emotional life of his worshipper) and one that is metaphysical and involves theoretical problems of causation which, needless to say, the Semites did not consider. The belief in demoniacal and other agencies persisted under Judaism, even as it had flourished amid Sumerian polytheism. In point of fact, polytheism prevailed over the Semitic world; but^ every man was at least a potential henotheist and the god addressed might be unique for the time being, A social organization with polygamy and easy divorce could hardly foster ideas of undivided loyalty; on the other hand, political organization tending towards a single, supreme head caused ideas of monotheism and of mon- archy to flow together, and to the great and only ruler of the land would correspond one great and only god. But a monotheism V, n] RELIGIOUS TENDENCIES 199 which. Is simply a single government of the universe Is not as such of a very exalted order. Co-ordinating and synthesizing processes, Identifying gods or reducing their number, and simplifying ideas of divine or supernatural powers, were repeatedly at work, but there was no conception of a philosophical or metaphysical unity. Yet everywhere there Is a vague colourless and Inchoate feeling of *God* — even in the polytheistic code of Hammurabi; and although It often defies formulation, It is the God then and there felt, who can sometimes be identified with some known and named god. Hence, although the religious Indifference of the bedouin is notorious, this El (Bab. ilu] Is a supreme feeling into which reason hardly enters, although It is the source of the explicit doctrines of the more developed communities. In general, the bedouin accepts the * superstitions' of the settled people, and, among the latter, the monotheizing (i.e. unifying) tendencies are constantly at war with the more developed Ideas of the prevailing civilization. Semitic monotheism is a passionate demand rather than the result of reflection. The remarkable monotheism of the Egyptian king Ikhnaton (fourteenth century BX,) was explicitly a * doctrine'; it broke with the anthropomorphism of the people, and was in turn broken by the popular or national cult* Nor was the Semitic conception of divine * holiness' necessarily ethical, It might be that of some transcending and tremendous energy utterly outside human power. We should notice the prominence of gods of sun, storm, thunder and lightning, and the recurrence of catastrophic and destructive Imagery. Moreover, prophecy and madness, ecstasy and raving, were admittedly Interrelated. Men and women devoted to licentious religious cults were 'holy* or * sacred* — the difficulty of translating such terms is obvious (see p. 538 ^.)^ and even with a £ God of Righteousness' — the great gift of Israel to the world — practical religion and ethics had to ask, What constitutes righteousness, and Who is a man's neighbour? There was no Necessity' to which even a Zeus was subordinate: the Deity is all In all. He Is true to His character, and all further practical ques- tions were answered by the practical behaviour of the Semite, whose religious, social and political ideas tended to form an in- divisible whole. The intense feeling of the immediacy of a super- sensuous realm was a force driving every man according to his temper and leading men to good or evil. There is the keenest desire to maintain the dogma of divine supremacy; but the indi- vidual is the interpreter, vessel or representative. Yet, an impass- able gulf severs gods and men, and woe to those who dare to set themselves upon a level with the Most High* 200 THE SEMITES [CHAP. Men and nations are clay in the potter's hand, and heaven and earth must bend to His purpose. Hebrew literature enshrines the effort to reconcile intense religious conviction and the has*d ex- periences of history, God must be omnipotent; it is He who hardens Pharaoh's heart, deceives men, tempts them to sin, gives them statutes that are not good (Ezek. xx, 25)3 so that the Law itself becomes a temporary measure in the eyes of Paul (but see Rom. :xi, 25—32). Semitic religion is coloured throughout by a rather crass determinism and the sense of man's nothingness before an arbitrary God. Indeed, the Semitic gods are not at ease. Mighty and imperious, they manifest themselves in the more terrifying phenomena; they are devouring fires to destroy alike sinners and the uninitiated (Ex* xix, 1 2 sq.\ xxiv, 1 i), to punish both the ethical and the ritual misdemeanour (Is. xxxiii, 14). Accordingly we find the greatest extremes; entire dependence upon the deity, tears, laments, utter abasing, a femininity, a * slave' temper; or else it is a sublime and often very spiritual confidence; or it is a self-suffi- ciency, with all the arrogance of a divinely-chosen representative. Although * I slam' is pious * submission' to the will of God, it is a resignation not without a confident assurance of what, that will is. Entirely characteristic are the words of a very old Babylonian attempt to solve the mysteries of personal experience : * If men hunger they are like corpses; if satiated they consider themselves a rival to their god; if things go well, they prate of mounting to heaven; if they are in distress, they speak of descending into Ir~ kallu (*.£. the world of the dead)/ Sensual grossness alternates with reverence; and both asceticism and sensuality have been pursued to the extremest lengths. The jealousy and intolerance of the gods is that of the worshipper; and the history of the Semites, like that of other ancient peoples, has many pictures of fanaticism and of horror. Still, the fact remains that as one follows the general trend of Semitic life and thought one is invariably filled with admiration for the brilliant exceptions; and the protests of reforming spirits and the striking conceptions of the purer minds are the more to be appre- ciated. One contrasts the Babylonian hero of the flood saved by the favouritism of the god Ea, with Noah delivered by his merits — Lot is saved for his hospitality; and there is a profound protest in the assurance that God is not one to lie or change His mind (Numb, xxiii, 1 9). Intelligibly enough, fear and gloom run through- out Semitic religion (cf. pp, 443, 533 sq.}. Men must confess that of which they are not consciously guilty; they must be cleansed of their unknown sins, and appease all known and unknown gods V, n] CHARACTER OF THE RELIGIONS 201 and goddesses whoever they may be. Neither the Semites nor their gods have the softer virtues. In the Mohammedan conceptions of Alia]* attributes of vengeance overshadow those of love; but all the religions reiterate the ultimate mercifulness of their god. Se- mitic religion in general is naive and child-like; it is often that of the trustful and, it must be said, of the spoilt child. The require- ments were simple: be good and enjoy the land (Is. i, 19 sq.}. It is essentially practical, with practical rewards in this life, or (in the case of the Mohammedan Paradise) in the next. Their simplicity and their immediate explanations of all mysteries kept alive Judaism and Islam, until the advance to a more developed stage of life and thought made the elementary ideas too imperfect and unsatisfying and raised questions which could not be answered. To the Semite the fear of the Lord was indeed the beginning, or the best, of knowledge. Learning grew out of and centred around the sacred places which were under priestly control. The Jewish synagogues were centres of religious and communal life; the old temples had far wider functions, they were storehouses (the modern local shrines are also so used), banks, and trading establishments, and thereby gained immense influence (p, 534^.)- The Babylonian commercial organization of about the sixth cen- tury B.C. was comparable only to that of modern times, of which it was, perhaps, through the Greeks and Romans, the parent. And not only was trade bound up with religion, it reacted upon it, so that commercial intercourse spread religion, and promoted a cer- tain cosmopolitanism. But purists could object to those who 'strike hands with the children of strangers' and learn of their idolatrous ways (Is, ii, 7 sq.\ cf. Zeph. i, 8)* The old hepatoscopy, or divina- tion by means of the liver (p. 409) in order to determine the will of the gods, contributed to anatomy, even as astronomy was in- debted to the astrological study of the divine decrees in the move- ments of the stars. Moreover the priests were interested in local or national traditions, and in substantiating claims or privileges. But one must not look for objective history; and personal bias will show itself beneath the surface, in some strange tradition, or will 'come out in some Psalm of vengeance, in the ejaculations of a Nehemiah (e.g. v, 1 9; xiii, 14, 3 1) or in the * aside* of an Arab poet* Already in early Babylonia the religious literature fostered the study of the Babylonian and Sumerian languages — lexicography began among the Babylonians (cf. p. 5 52 sy^ and among Jews and Arabs it was also the main factor in linguistic and related pursuits. When Jewish learning concentrated upon the Law — and with all the contempt of Confucianism for the unlearned, the * people of 202 THE SEMITES [CHAK the land* — the discipline at least meant some legal training, and an ability to thresh out the theologico-legal questions of Rabbin- ism. Purely intellectual speculation, however, was scarcely en- couraged when religious conceptions of divine power, not to men- tion beliefs in demoniacal and other causes, settled all doubts; and unusual phenomena were marvels whose * natural' causes were not to be Investigated, if only because men had not our conception of * natural/ The conditions were not favourable to complex thought; and speculative advance Is intuitive, with no secure de- fence and no 'lines of communication.' Emotion and feeling are oblivious to inconsistencies, and some Hebrew words for thought and purpose, suggestively enough, come to indicate Irreligious activity. The Semite was not analytical; It was the Egyptian who, avoiding the elaborate, clumsy syllabary of the cuneiform writing, took the first step towards an alphabet (p. 342). The Semite, unlike the Egyptian, was interested only in this world, and this difference between them reappears throughout their culture (see p. 531). On the other hand, Islam owed to ex- ternal influence its conception of a heaven of joys with Its counter- part in the tortures of helL The old popular hymns of Tammuz celebrated the death and rebirth of nature; but these did not sug- gest, as did the later mysteries, the resurrection of the dead. And even then, to Jews and Arabs it was a marvel of divine power, and no process like the natural quickening of the seed (i Cor, xv). In religious and other thought the Semitic mind was at the implicit stage; It might apprehend metaphysical facts of the spiritual order (tf.^g". the personality of God), but It was unable to reason about them. The prophets of Israel had a practical goal, and Jewish c wisdom' was an insight into human life and into the significance of nature for man. Whatever Solomon's observations were (i Kings vi, 6, 33), they would not be those of detached science, but gnomic, like the later reflections upon the ant and the rock-badger (Prov, vi, xxx). The religious sentiments were hostile to both science and art, and the latter could not exercise the influence it did in Egypt or Greece (pp. 134, 586). A religious theory of history was early developed (see p, 223 J^.); but theology and cosmogony hardly pass^ beyond elementary stages, and the curious Phoenician doctrines preserved by Greek writers (like the Greek accounts of Egyptian wisdom) cannot be taken, as they stand, to represent old Semitic thought. They represent the efforts of writers trained in Greek thought to restate that which at an early stage had been expressed in intelligible myths. Yet, in the old Babylonian conception of the creative power of the Word there are the germs of a more V, n] SEMITIC AND NON-SEMITIC THOUGHT 203 developed doctrine (c£ p. 443), though It Is to the Greek or the Persian lhat the Semites owed such developments. Tbe Greek cities of the Decapolis produced some well-known Greeks (e.g. Meleager, Theodorus the rhetorician), and later on we can contrast the semi-barbaric Lakhmids with the effect of Greek culture upon the Ghassanids, and mark the influence of Persian intellectual and speculative activity upon Baghdad. The proud bedouin left agricultural toil to the miserable fellahin and literary culture to the Persians. Arab speculation was unsystematized so long as it was only slightly influenced by the Greeks; and the Mohammedan Arabs who excelled in religious or scientific en- quiries were either not of Arab origin or were indebted to foreign teachers. But the co-operation of Semite and Greek spread Baby- lonian astrology, and much else besides; and while Spain in the west gave a new and almost modern turn to the typical Arab poetry, the partnership in the east enriched the world from Spain to India with a literary culture the benefits of which for the Europe of the 'Dark Ages' can hardly be over-estimated. In a word, the Semites are middle-men, copying foreign models (like the Phoenician and Arab artists), reshaping what they adopt (like the Israelite treat- ment of the older myths), and stamping themselves upon what they send out. So characteristic is the repeated external influence upon the Semites that one may suspect that Semitic culture was really a complex organism from the earliest times. The Semite must personify; law and order in the Universe must be embodied In or associated with an anthropomorphic god, and Semitic anthropomorphism is sometimes of the crudest. Later Se- mitic antipathy to idolatry was in contrast with Greek bias for the personal and the individual and Its aversion from the amor- phous; but it was not only detrimental to the arts, it allowed in- complete conceptions of divine personality. Imageless worship (e.g. of Yahweh, Ashur) certainly discouraged tendencies of thought which were grossly human; but it encouraged ideas the reverse of spiritual, because the ideas of human personality were not suffici- ently advanced. Semitic anthropomorphism is unstable, and the "curious fantastic, half-animal and half-human forms in Egypt and west Asia, and the use of skins, masks, etc*, and the animal sym- bolism of the religious literature, indicate rudimentary (pernaps totemic) and imperfect conceptions of personality, or attempts to clothe ideas for which the human figure seemed far too inadequate. Religious, social and political ideas were interrelated. Polygamy excluded an intimate family life, and therefore a family religion as in Greece or Rome. Certain social and political organizations 204 THE SEMITES [CHAP. encouraged Ideas of ruling gods; and among the Jews of Elephan- tine in Upper Egypt (fifth century B.C.), Yahweh, like'the local gocl Khnum, and like Abraham with his Sarah and Hagar^seems to have two female companions of higher and lower rank (cf. also, p. 523). The conviction that the gods belong to the family or tribe is fundamental, and the kinship of gods and men expresses itself in many ways (cf. p. 350^.). The deities are men's kin, and old Semitic personal names frequently express some intimate bond. The be- lief inspires fine ideas, but can lead to gross cults, suggesting or symbolizing the intimate relationship. The marriage-relation — the god and the land, people or king — was especially familiar, but the idea of divine sonship is more inveterate and permanent, The gods join in the life of their worshippers, they share in the feasts, the wine that cheers gods and men is passed round, and all are one. So the gods are loyally active for their group; and the ideas are capable of profound development — until the religion becomes particularistic and the morality narrow. And this exclusiveness, characteristic of the Semitic gods, is at once the Semite's strength and his weakness. The lengthy history of the Semites presents many phases of growth and decay. When the fire of enthusiasm dies down, all that is best perishes. The pointed speech becomes a mannerism, and the richness of language is tautologous. The vigorous Arab poetry with the virility of desert-life becomes a euphuism, Hebrew his- torical narrative with all its picturesqueness becomes supremely dull, poetry is gravely misunderstood (e.g. Josh, x, 13), Jewish apocalypses lose their early glow, the agonies of Syrian martyrs fail to move us, and Syrian metrical theology becomes tiresome when Isaac of Antioch is guilty of a stupendous poem of 2137 verses on a parrot which proclaimed the holiness of the Deity. There is then an absence of moderation, and the typical Semitic aversion from absolute symmetry in art, poetry and thought be- comes a mechanical extravagance* The religion and ethics decline and leave a sterile magic. Sumerian and Jewish sacerdotalism be- comes extreme. Then the vision is sealed up among the few, and ordinary men must resort to whatever native or foreign gods they can find — and excavation has indicated the lasting popularity of some Egyptian gods (notably the grotesque Bes) in early Pales- tine. New mystical symbolism flourishes, and at periods of de- generacy there are excesses of rude? licentious and cruel cults. Already the Egyptian of the Xllth Dynasty could take a pessimist outlook upon life, and the maid Sabitu gives the old Babylonian hero Gilgamesh what is later the counsel of Ecclesiastes (ii, 24). V, H] RELIGIOUS VICISSITUDES 205 The pre-Islamic bedouin, too, had a thoroughly hedonistic view of life. jKt the periods of disintegration there are advances in indi- vidualism which are not lost when later there is a new unity. This individualism has meant a greater originality of thought owing to the decay of earlier religious and social systems, and has led to the spread of new ideas. Older beliefs, customs or privileges formerly associated with the few have been extended to the many. Yet this individualism was disintegrating; men refused to acknowledge either the rights of others or the supreme authority of their gods. At such times men do 'each that which is right in his own eyes/ until the arrival of the new stage, which is typically one with a religious, no less than a social and political aspect. So it is char- acteristic of Semitic life that periods of decay are followed by a religious renewal, and that in the two versions of the accession of Saul, the first king of Israel, he is either a divinely-sent saviour or the kingship is an affront and the deity is the only king. The extremes of the Semites have been their making and their undoing. Their permanent religious and ethical gifts to humanity were in large measure protests evoked by current cruelty, licenti- ousness, excessive sacrifice and ritual, love of wealth and grossness of superstition. Their best was due to the ability of a few to rise above their worst* The instability of the Semites is in harmony with their subjectivity, it permeates every phase of life; and their enthusiasm and energy were never moderated by that objective knowledge and reason which would have saved them — from both extremes. Although their characteristics taken separately are not peculiar to them alone, together they form a systematic whole, due partly to natural and physical conditions, and partly to their inability to develop beyond the child-stage. The Semites of old represent a child-stage of humanity and an arrested develop- ment; and, what has been said of their shortcomings is true of other ancient peoples. Where a social or political organism broke down it led to no new organism; there was not that transformation of idiom and thought which we find in the relatively more mature Indo-European world. If there have been greater and more radical thanges (e.g. in the Semitic dialects) during the Christian era — and some transformations can be adduced — the fact remains that the culture of the old Semitic world has long passed away, and that its true Golden Age is as far removed from the beginning of the Christian era as is this age. 206 THE SEMITES [CHAP. III. SOCIAL AND POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT The ordinary economic conditions among the Semites are«easily recognizable; compare, for example, the situation in ancient and modern Babylonia (Chap, xiv). The rivers of Mesopotamia led as naturally to the union of cities as did the Nile of Egypt. In both lands the physical conditions compelled co-operation, and made for a certain unity and homogeneity of life and thought; Baby- lonia, however, suffered from its more exposed situation and hetero- geneity of population, and Palestine and Syria were little adapted for any union from within. In the steppes and deserts an Ishmael could flourish with his hand against everyone and everyone's hand against him; but access to the pasture-grounds and the use of the wells demanded some sort of order and discipline, and at the oases of the desert loosely-knit groups are easily formed. The products of the soil are so unevenly distributed that there can be no com- plete independence; groups must exchange surplus goods for necessaries, and from the earliest times trading-activities have been an important factor in political development. Caravans must be organized, friendly relations maintained along the routes, and the typical Semite is essentially an aristocratic trader. Needless to say, the whole system of conditions among traders would be entirely different from that of the agricultural districts or towns. So, a distinction was also drawn of old between Jabal, 'father' of the tent-dweller, and Tubal-Cain, the metal worker, between the agriculturist Cain and Abel the pastoral, and between Jacob and Esau, of whom the latter corresponds precisely to the Phoenician hunter TJsoos (the Greek spelling). The aversion from agricultural toil reflects itself in the curse pronounced on the first man, and only mitigated by the invention of wine by Noah, the comforter (Gen* iii, 17—19; v, 29). The ideal life was under one's vine and fig-tree; and Israel could boast of occupying cities it had not built and vineyards it had not planted (with the contrast in Deut. xxviii, 30, 33). Blessings and curses are very significantly of an agricultural order. But although trade is sometimes explicitly associated with the alien Canaanites, it was of vital importance for^ the prosperity of Palestine and Syria; and not only was this recog- nized as regards the temple (Is. xxiii), but there are divine promises of a prosperous foreign commerce and of the ability to lend to foreign nations — but with the threat of the reverse in case of dis- obedience (Deut. xv? 6; xxviii, 12 sq^ 44). The deep-reaching interconnexion of religious and economic ideas has many interesting aspects among the Semites. Various V, in] PRODUCTION AND OWNERSHIP 207 tabus were Imposed upon the families charged with the care of incense-trade; and the date-palm, a staple food and invaluable in many^ways, was the centre of various important rites and beliefs (pp. 361, 543 sq.}. Ideas of ownership and immovable property were not naturally developed among bedouins and traders, who tend to be aristocratic communists; and where these ideas appear they are part of the problem of the cause of growth and prosperity, and the ownership of products, and are interwoven with religious, social and political ideas. Thus, as regards the condition of women and the ownership of children, two main social types can be recognized. The prevailing one is that where the woman on marriage leaves her kin or group, and the husband is the natural guardian of wife and children. He is her baaly and the woman is 'held by a ia'al* (be'ulah^ Is. Ixii, 4, R*V. mg.). Nevertheless, such women could exercise power : the force of harem-intrigue Is notorious, the queen- mothers of Judah were important personages, women could carry on business and with profit to their baal (Prov. xxxi), and in desert warfare a maiden could be the centre of the fight and the palladium whose capture meant the utter rout of her tribe. But there is another type, where the woman remains a member of her family or group; she is visited by her husband or lovers, and the children find their natural protector in the mother's family, and especially in her brother. Descent will here be reckoned through the mother, and paternity may be quite uncertain. In both types the extent of a woman's freedom or subjection depended very largely upon individual circumstances; Laban, for example, claimed the off- spring of his daughters and their husband Jacob; but the wives complain that they have not their rightful share in the inheritance (Gen. xxxi). The two types involve fundamental questions of ownership of the wife and of the children, and also of production. The emphasis can be laid upon the woman or upon the man; has the woman borne, or the man begotten ? Has she borne children for her family or group ? — in which case paternity may be of quite secondary importance. Or are the children the husband's? — and in this case, a Ruth may bear children for a dead husband, or an 'Abraham, when Sarah is sterile, may take a concubine. In the baal type the standpoint is essentially that of the man and of his personal rights. The fundamental ideas are singularly important, because if the term baal connotes ownership, the subjection of the woman is not necessarily peculiar to the baal type, and even when subjected to her baal she could enjoy considerable freedom. Further, baal is the ordinary term for a god, and the gods were not originally 208 THE SEMITES [CHAP. owners; the common word El itself frequently denotes rather a local numen. The term certainly comes to imply possession; and similarly, when 'God Most High' is called * possessor' of hgaven and earth (Gen. xiv, 19), the word is rendered 'maker5 by the R.V.marg. (the verb is used of 'acquiring' and 'creating*). Ideas of production and ownership readily converge — 'the producer owns' — and the explanation may be that the laal is primarily the effec- tive cause, the functionary, the genius, the productive element, and,, therefore, the holder of peculiar rights. The precise sexual aspects of production are not primary. The Hebrew did not originally distinguish between bearing and be- getting; and the difference between "to bear' (yalad}, and the causative form, 'to cause to bear' (holiJ, to beget)3 is a secondary development of the use of a verb which primarily has some un- differentiated use (e.g. "to have a child'). Also, several feminine words have no feminine ending (em, mother; rahel, ewe). Further, the deities are begetters and causes of increase, and specific god- desses are not only tender or voluptuous, but also protective and warring Amazons. Some of the great deities, in fact, are indiffer- ently male or female. The Sumerian Gudea appeals to his * mother' and 'lord' Nin-girsu, and we hear of * mother-father Enlil/ and * father-mother Ninlil'; c£ also the bisexual Kadi of Der (p. 448). The male Tammuz sometimes seems to be regarded as feminine^ and has titles that properly belong to Ishtar. The goddess Ishtar herself — "with a feminine ending In west Semitic (e.g. Ashtart, the biblical Ashtoreth) — is a male in south Arabia, but is called both a mother (Umm-Athtar) and a baal. And the sun-deity, Shamash, who is female in the south, is generally male in the north! Very complex forms arise in the apparent fusion of male and female qualities: the deities Ishtar-Chemosh in Moab, the Phoenician Eshmun-Ashtart, the royal name Shamshi-Adad in Assyria (p. 232), and the later combination of Mithra and Ana- hita. Strangest of all is the bisexual Venus, the * bearded Ishtar/ It is often difficult to see clearly what ideas lay beneath the efforts to explain growth and increase. Yet, throughout Semitic thought there are certain recurring beliefs and practices which may be said to imply certain essential ideas of which each case is some particular and more or less developed form. There is that which is holy, sacred, distinctive or tabu; it is to be approached with caution, with proper ritual, or through recognized inter- mediaries. There are powers, definite or vague, to be invoked on all important occasions when man feels the need of a help outside his own power. There are times and occasions when the * religious' V, in] BAALS AND OTHER POWERS 209 preliminaries are indispensable to success. Sacrifices are necessary before n£w soil is broken; one must obtain permission from the El (god)^ Adon (lord), Baal,, or, as at the present day, from the Sahib. New buildings must be dedicated, new undertakings solemnly in- augurated (harvest, war, coronation, etc.). There is an implicit and sometimes an explicit theorizing. Is the soil spontaneously pro- ductive? does it require an external cause — sun or rain, a god of sun or of rain ? or does God rule over sun and rain, and are His favours influenced by man's prayer, and hindered by man's sin? The gods grant the increase of nature and of man; therefore they must have the first-fruits, the firstlings, and theoretically, at least, the first-born, who in any case have some special virtue. The theory is implicit that the first causes are with the gods; and things are *holy' before they are ceremonially made * secular * and for com- mon use. The gods must be tended and served, they must be fed, housed and clothed. But ethical ideas are by no means absent, and they culminate in the supreme conviction that God desires justice, humility and mercy rather than sacrifice (Micah vi, i— 8). In general, there was 'power' ('mana') outside ordinary reach; but accessible under given conditions. It was associated) on the one side, with unseen beings (gods, angels, demons, the Arab jinn)^ and, on the other, with special individuals, who had peculiar abilities and almost unrestricted gifts. It is the illegitimate and anti-social use of one's power or of external powers which, properly speaking, is * magic*; and the religious side of life is concerned with the acquisition and manipulation of power> whether directly or indirectly through the will of the gods, through prayer, ritual or conduct (cf. p. 354 ^.). Herein lies the importance of the priest, but not of him alone. The closer the relationship of men with the source of power, the more complete the co-operation between men and gods, for the gods need men, even as men need the gods. And men can learn the will of the gods. * Yahweh will do nothing without revealing his secret counsel to his prophets' (Amos iii, 7; iv, 13; cf. also, Rev. x, 7); and, according to the Koran, God has sent a succession of prophets to direct men. Liver- *tiivination and astrology, lots, curses, oaths and ordeals — all de- pend upon the belief in the ability of man to learn an unseen will and utilize it* But as the relationship of the gods with their wor- shipping group is usually closer with special individuals-- — and notably the priest-kings, secular rulers, and priests — Semitic social-political theory is fundamentally bound up with religious ideas. The underlying ideas take many different forms. It is Yahweh C.A.H.I 14 2IO THE SEMITES [CHAP. who tends the land of Israel (Deut. xi); but otherwlse^we find special functional gods (of rain, corn, etc.), or baals, causes or authors of all fertility, human, animal and vegetable. Personal names frequently express some religious conviction or wish; and while the names of modern Arab tribes are rarely fortuitous, but have some significant meaning, the old names characteristically suggest the power or attribute of a god (Ishmael, El will hear), a relationship (Abiezer, the father [god] is a help), or they identify god and people (Ashur, Gad). Place-names, too, often have a sacred meaning, e.g. Jezreel (may El sow), Baal Peor, Baal Leb- anon; or they refer to some definite deity, e.g. Anathoth (the Anaths), Beth-Shemesh (house of the Sun-deity)^ Everywhere there were local, district and city-gods, the last being especially female, like the Tyche or 'fortune' of the Greek age. These were effective, indispensable powers, upon whose help and good-will men depended. The precise relationship varies, but everywhere we find particular forms of the fundamental Ideas, so that com- munities differ according to the way in which these are developed and systematized. In their most inchoate form we find them among the desert- tribes. Here there is an inveterate aversion from discipline, duty, responsibility, and all that goes to make a coherent society. Yet, although there is no law-giver there is law; customary usage is the strictest of rules, and what ought or ought not to be done is the bond that unites men. The link is common sentiment: the offend- ing kinsman is outlawed and becomes right-less; and ceremonies of adoption, and fictions of kinship and genealogical fabrication can make the stranger a true member of the group. Common feel- ing is typically a more fundamental bond even than blood; al- though blood-ceremonies will inevitably give concrete expression to the feeling. The keen sense of unity and loyalty within each group engenders a collective responsibility for good and eviL An offence by one defiles all (cf. Josh, vii, xxii; Judg. xx $q.}. An injury to one is an injury to all, and revenge is the most solemn of duties when a kinsman has been killed. The practice of blood- revenge knits together the members of each group, but sets oneT group against another. It is mainly responsible for the weakness of political organization; and, indeed, the legalized lawlessness of the Semites recurs in the 'brotherhood' money paid to the bandits of the desert, in the tribute exacted by Assyrian kings in their raxxias, and in the payments formerly made by European govern- ments to the Moroccan pirates to ensure the safety of their ship- ping. The mechanical tallo ("an eye for an eye') may take a more V, HI] FUNDAMENTAL CHARACTERISTICS 211 retributive force ('By what things a man sinneth, thereby he is punished*' Wisdom xi, 16); it is a step from endless reprisal among all the parties concerned to the regulated punishment by duly authorized officials. But although the restriction of personal vengeance has been the first care of every government from Ham- murabi to Moses and Mohammed, yet, when there is a period of social decline, there is a reversion to the unsystematized practice of collective group action, and blood-revenge still remains the custom of the desert. Throughout there are ideas of right and justice, and a sense of the evil consequences of crime. These ideas become more explicit in divine ordeals, judgments, and so forth. The executive force, however, is weak. The chiefs and elders of the tribes are men noble, wise and brave, but with slight authority. In Aramaic the root from which the common Semitic term for 'king7 is derived means 'to advise'; even the mighty Mesopotamian kings themselves had no very exclusive powers. Permanent authority is resented; though it would be granted to an independent religious head, who could weld together conflicting tribes (cf. Moses, Mohammed). Author- ity is based upon religious rather than upon political ideas of king- ship and of representative men. Even in the secular and highly- developed Code of Hammurabi certain difficult cases must come before 'God' (i/u). The desert sheikhs are frequently of im- portance only in ceremonial and religious affairs; and when men become leaders in time of war, the story of Gideon and Abimelech illustrates at once the interconnexion of religious and political ideas, and the typical instability of leadership when it is dependent solely upon personal claim (Judg. vi— x). Men regarded as 'sacred' or of some superior efficacy can exert extraordinary influence; moreover, to men of surpassing ability will be attributed superhuman aid and almost unrestricted powers. Such men swing between the human and the divine. The mixed effects of modern Dervishism are notorious, and Semitic history is full of men of striking personality, earnest, reckless and fanatic. Men will arise and protest against existing conditions; and, while file reformer tends to become a ruler, the thorough-going political revolutionary will often appear as a religious leader. The head of a militant sect will rule a state, and politics will constantly take at religious form. Creeds sever the Semites, and on the smallest points. But they are also the strongest bonds; and, when Mohammed cut himself off from his people, he founded a new community in which slaves and freedmen might be united by the new ideas. The link was creed not blood. Similarly the Levites of Israel, on one view, 14 — a 2I2 THE SEMITES [CHAP. were a new body formed of men who had broken old bonds (Exod. xxxii, 29; Deut. xxxiii, 9). New movements of this nature will be marked by stern discipline, a puritanism, or even an antipathy to certain elements of civilization. This rigour has characterized certain sects or groups (Rechabites, Essenes, and the modern Wahhabites and Sanusis), and has been more prominent at some reforming period (e.g. Ezra's strict marriage reforms). The move- ment will encourage ideas of collective authority, conditions of equality, and a certain communism, illustrated in the military constitution of the warrior-nation of Islam and, earlier, in the armed camp of Israel in the wilderness of wanderings. Where there have been migrations, the settlement has forced adjustment of ideas. In settling down among the older inhabitants there are new economic conditions: the need of private and landed property is felt, class-distinctions arise, the causes of the earlier cohesion disappear, old ties are broken and new local ties are formed. Tribal names will persist with a geographical rather than a genealogical and ethnical value, and the newcomers will often accept the local names, traditions and religion of their new home. At one end of the scale we find intermarriage and fusion; and at the other, a proud isolation and an unwillingness on the part of the aristocratic invaders to admit the indigenes to their circle. The particular reforming movements and migrations belong to history. But their interpretation is often rendered difficult by the confusing use of appellatives as tribal or national names ('plunderers/ c desert-dwellers, * 'allies'), by the growth of religious sects into political entities (the Druzes), or by the religious use of earlier tribal or national names (Israel, Jew). In the change from desert to settled life the fundamental Se- mitic ideas take another and more highly developed form. The aristocratic institutions and despotisms are wholly in accord with the Semitic temper; a practical sovereignty could always be appre- ciated and accepted* There are many vivid pictures of what this meant, of men of extraordinary will, barbaric, ill-balanced or half- mad, yet patrons of letters, religion or art; men entirely arbitrary, or men who, as was said of Abdul-Malik, came *to do good witt£ out feeling pleasure, and to do evil without feeling pain/ They were men with such powers for good or for evil that one must the more appreciate the conspicuous cases of a higher morality (as in David's repentance in the matter of Bath-sheba), or courageous courtiers and others protesting against injustice. The Semitic despot ruled, often only with the help of mercenaries, but also because he possessed, besides the accepted qualifications (e.g. V, m] MEN AND THE GODS 213 blood, physical and other ability), some token of superhuman power or'of divine recognition. But while, as part of the conviction of the jntimate relationship between men and their gods, the demo- cratically-minded prophets of Israel taught that prosperity de- pended upon the behaviour of the people (Is. i, 19), in more aristocratic regimes the emphasis is laid rather upon the behaviour of the representative individuals — the priests (especially the high- priest), and in early political systems, the priest-king, or king with priestly powers. Thus, a Babylonian list of warnings begins, 'If the king does not heed the law, his people will be destroyed, his power will pass away/ The biblical accounts of Yahweh's relations to the rivals, Saul and David, and their representation of the history of apostate Israel and faithful Judah, afford other examples of this aspect of divine authority, which in one form or another is wide- spread. The Egyptian Rarnses II * gives health to whom he wilP; he sacrificed to the god Sutekh for fair weather and was popularly supposed to possess influence with his god. But in modern north- east Africa, barely outside the Semitic area, there are veritable royal rain-makers; and while rain-charms are to be found from the old Jewish Feast of Tabernacles to modern eastern custom, the absence of rain in Israel was ascribed to tribal or national sin (Hag. i, 10 sq.\ Zech. xiv, 16—19). The fundamental conception throughout is that of a connexion between nature and man or? more especially, certain men to whom were ascribed special powers. According to an Assyrian saying, 'the man is the shadow of God, the slave is the shadow of man, the king is like God/ The ruler stands in closest relationship to the gods, and to the people he is as the god, or the god's visible representative. Ramses II was called the husband of Egypt, and Israel was YahweVs spouse. Merneptah declares that Egypt was the only daughter of Re, whose son (i.e. he himself) sits upon the throne; and this filial rela- tionship of king or land to the god was very familiar. The king is the god's anointed — as also is the people (Ps. xxviii, 8); and the divine king could anoint vassal kings and ceremonially recognize •Vassal gods (e.g. Egypt), He ruled by divine authority as the chosen one of the gods, if not predetermined (like a people, Is. xlix, 3—5; or prophet, Jer. i, 5) ; and his divinity showed itself in the insignia, costume, and toilet, in court etiquette and royal prerogative, in the tithes and tribute, and in the connexion between the temple and the palace; Such special individuals are intermediaries between gods and men ; and in the Old Testament, which betrays a certain hostile attitude to the divinity of the king — God being king — the 214 THE SEMITES [CHAP. idea becomes ultimately that of a people intermediary between God and the world. Although there are many gradations from mere prestige to superstitious veneration or to actual deification, there is a general pervading idea of the intermediate position of the representative individual between the people and their gods; it underlies institutions, court language, and political and eccle- siastical rivalries. The ruler by his success manifested divine favour; and what injured so important a person injured the country. Hence the conviction that he must be carefully guarded, lest lie 'quench the lamp' of his people (2 Sam. xxi, 17), The Egyptian Pharaoh must survive death at all hazards; and to retain the favour of the gods rulers must perform certain ritual, and observe certain ethical re- quirements, the nature of which depended upon current concep- tions. In Mesopotamia there were royal ceremonial laments; and the old hymns, prayers and ritual were primarily for the king who, like the high-priest of a later day, upheld the national cult. Later the sacred literature was extended to the needs of individual re- ligion; and by a democratizing process ideas of life in the next world, once indispensable for the all-important Pharaoh, became more widely applicable. Again, while the Babylonian king at the religious ceremony of coronation grasped the hand of his god's image, thus legalizing his position, the solar monotheism of the Egyptian Ikhnaton, a universalizing rather than a narrow national cult, expanded this into the conception of a hand at the end of each of the innumerable rays of the sun held out for every wor- shipper and every country. In Israel, too, some early fundamental ideas are popularized in the ideal of an entire kingdom of priests and a holy nation, and in the extension to the individual of con- ceptions earlier associated only with secular or priestly authorities* It is iti such processes of extension and modification of ideas that positive developments can be recognized. The rulers typically represent or symbolize, on the one side, the gods on whom the land or people depend, and, on the other, the land or people itself (e.g. the Pharaoh's double crown, see p. 266). They helped to suggest or mould conceptions of the gods/" and the arbitrariness or fierceness of the gods accords with the temper of the oriental despot. In such circumstances as these righteousness and loyalty are one. Every war is holy, the gods take part in the wars and even in the subsequent treaties. Where there were local or city chiefs with their corresponding deities, there were inevitable problems of rival claims and functions; and alliances and federations had both religious and political aspects V, in] THE DIVINE KINGSHIP 215 (cf. for example, pp. 329, 389). In co-ordinating the deities the advantage of cosmic or universal powers — like sun, storm or rain — wag obvious. A successful king would naturally encourage a political monotheism; and when certain cities gained a leading religious importance, religion was centralized (Nippur, Babylon, Jerusalem, Shechem). Moreover, royal claims to rule over the four quarters or over all lands encouraged ideas of a no less universal god. These developed a political and religious imperialism, which, however, did not necessarily mean much politically (with the notable exception of Assyria in the eighth century B.C.); while in religion it would involve some identification of cults (in Israel the local baals were popularly identified with Yahweh), or, may be, the offering of gifts to the mother-sanctuary or Church. But such tendencies to universalism were not necessarily of a high ethical order, save when, for example, the prophets of Israel taught that Yahweh, to vindicate the Right, would even use an enemy to destroy his own erring people. The divine kingship inevitably brought difficult questions of both a political and a theological character : some typical examples of these are furnished by the Old Testament. The monarchy is a divine institution (i Sam. ix, 16 j^.), or it is inconsistent with divine supremacy (xii, 12; c£ Judg. viii, 23). The deity gives kings, but takes them away in his wrath (Hos. xiii, 10 ^$".); or he refuses to recognize them (viii, 4). Hence there are conflicting attitudes to the great schism of Judah and Israel, and notably to the sanguinary overthrow of the house of Ahab by Jehu and the fierce reforming Rechabites. Coronation was a religious ceremony, and continuity of rule could be symbolized by the possession of the regalia, or the predecessor's harem, or his favourite wife. Often the king must be of the old ruling family, even as the Caliph must be of Mohammed's tribe; and the Shiites accept as the legitimate religious head of the Moslem world a member of the family of AH, The Pharaohs maintained the fiction of solar origin — to be adopted by every new dynasty — and the Judaean kings sat on * David's throne' and at least claimed to be a perfectly unbroken line. Under the divine kingship the king's success or failure could be attributed to divine favour or anger, and while this obviously opened the door for a religious explanation of any failing, just out- side the Semitic area, among the African Dinka and Shilluk, chiefs are still killed at old age or at the first signs of weakness. At dynastic changes (for whatever cause) whole families were some- times extirpated (seventy is used as a round number), and the usurpers would sometimes take a famous old name (Sargon, 214 THE SEMITES [CHAP. idea becomes ultimately that of a people intermediary between God and the world. Although there are many gradations from mere prestige to superstitious veneration or to actual deification, there is a general pervading idea of the intermediate position of the representative individual between the people and their gods; it underlies institutions, court language, and political and eccle- siastical rivalries. The ruler by his success manifested divine favour; and what injured so important a person injured the country. Hence the conviction that he must be carefully guarded, lest lie 'quench the lamp' of his people (2 Sam. xxi, 17), The Egyptian Pharaoh must survive death at all hazards; and to retain the favour of the gods rulers must perform certain ritual, and observe certain ethical re- quirements, the nature of which depended upon current concep- tions. In Mesopotamia there were royal ceremonial laments; and the old hymns, prayers and ritual were primarily for the king who, like the high-priest of a later day, upheld the national cult. Later the sacred literature was extended to the needs of individual re- ligion; and by a democratizing process ideas of life in the next world, once indispensable for the all-important Pharaoh, became more widely applicable. Again, while the Babylonian king at the religious ceremony of coronation grasped the hand of his god's image, thus legalizing his position, the solar monotheism of the Egyptian Ikhnaton, a universalizing rather than a narrow national cult, expanded this into the conception of a hand at the end of each of the innumerable rays of the sun held out for every wor- shipper and every country. In Israel, too, some early fundamental ideas are popularized in the ideal of an entire kingdom of priests and a holy nation, and in the extension to the individual of con- ceptions earlier associated only with secular or priestly authorities* It is iti such processes of extension and modification of ideas that positive developments can be recognized. The rulers typically represent or symbolize, on the one side, the gods on whom the land or people depend, and, on the other, the land or people itself (e.g. the Pharaoh's double crown, see p. 266). They helped to suggest or mould conceptions of the gods/" and the arbitrariness or fierceness of the gods accords with the temper of the oriental despot. In such circumstances as these righteousness and loyalty are one. Every war is holy, the gods take part in the wars and even in the subsequent treaties. Where there were local or city chiefs with their corresponding deities, there were inevitable problems of rival claims and functions; and alliances and federations had both religious and political aspects V,iv] HISTORICAL VICISSITUDES 217 represents animosity towards Canaan, but kindliness towards Japhetlf, some alien northern people. The Semites submit to foreigners who can rule, and the energy and simplicity of their religious cults have often attracted enthusiastic proselytes, who become almost more Semitic than the Semites. Under non-Semitic sovereignty (Achaemenid or Turk) rival populations have lived side by side and tolerated each other; or some Moses or Moham- med has been able to exert a divine authority and stand above rival feuds. The success of Alexander the Great had also a 'theological* rather than a 'political' basis. The Semites do not cohere; the religious enthusiasm which has often united them has as often had a disintegrating effect. Conditions become too complex; the thought cannot develop to meet the social-political growth, and institutions do not cope with expanding ideas. Religious-political theory finds Its ultimate authority in a subjective emotionalism, and there is neither the objective knowledge or thought to main- tain continuity, nor any external authority to still intertribal or international jealousies. Society has then disintegrated into its simplest elements, and the consequences have been more drastic where the material civilization has depended upon elaborate co- operation. So, the collapse of artificial irrigation has been largely responsible for depopulation and for the ruin of the great cultures of old, whereas simpler organisms, and especially those of the desert, which were never highly developed, did not suffer serious alteration^ but remained characteristically 'Semite/ But reflective minds commented on the desolate c tells y (cf. Jer. xxx, 1 8, R.V. mg.), and ruined palaces; and a moral philosophy, or rather the germs of a philosophy of history, became a feature of Semitic history. IV. TREATMENT OF HISTORY Pride of race encouraged genealogical zeal which could lead to fanciful results, and to a love of tribal lore which was in no wise unbiased. Oral tradition in poetry or in metrical prose can still have its exponents in mere herd-boys. But oral tradition is pre- carious, and it was the loss in battle of many of the men who knew most of the Koran by heart that led to the first authoritative written edition. Some of the earliest Arab poems (c. A.D. 500) were inspired by tribal warfare, and tribes were naturally anxious to preserve traditions that fed their vanity and supported tdeil* claims. The birth of a poet to perpetuate their deeds and ferae was especially welcome, and the poet among the Arabs was in some sense a man of supernatural or magical power — one recalls the story of Balaam's efficacy (Num. xxii sqq?). 2i8 THE SEMITES [CHAP. Annals date In Egypt from a very early period (pp. 1 66 jrjr., 266). Religious and magical factors have also been prominent itf the rise of history-writing, and Mesopotamian astrological and similar tablets record for the warning of all concerned, portents, signs, catastrophes, including references to events of current interest, such as foreign invasions. They also contain references to past history (see pp, 403—409). In view of the reliance upon divination, dreams and visions, a religious and didactic treatment of the past is natural; and events were readily connected with divine help and counsel or men's disobedience. Ritual laments for national mis- fortune were of a semi-historical character, and the more significant, seeing that the gods met annually to determine the fate of men and land for the coming year. Sacred myths, which among rudi- mentary peoples are often acted, are depicted upon the temple walls of Egypt. It was essential to remember the deeds of gods or of divine ancestors; and an appeal could be made to the deity's sense of honour and his prestige (cf. Josh, vii, 9; Num. xiv, 16). The records of the past thus inspire courage amid defeat, and hope despite existing evil (Hab. iii). They fortify a people and reiterate the consciousness of its relations with its gods. Here myth, magic and religion readily overlap : what the gods have done, they can, will, and surely must do. A Sumerian account of creation, which has been adapted to a purely Babylonian standpoint, now forms the introduction to an incantation; and an incantation for the cure of toothache Is prefaced by a cosmology introducing the worm that is the supposed cause of the trouble. The possession of know- ledge is power, and the knowledge of the secret name of a god Is especially efficacious. The curiosity of children must be satisfied — authoritatively (e.g. Ex. xii, 2 6), and the usual curiosity as regards origins, strange phenomena, and local features leads to a mass of conflicting lore which Is consciously or unconsciously sifted. Hence arise variant accounts of Creation and Deluge, or of local shrines, ancestors, or heroes; and of such the Old Testament has preserved only a selection, but one so strangely uneven that it needs explanation. Myths and legends easily become complex through religious and ' other developments; and cuneiform tablets (notably the versions of the annals of Ashurbanipal) and Egyptian papyri, In common with the Old Testament, bear many marks of compilation and adjustment, and the effort to subordinate one point of view to another (cf. pp. 351 ^., 443 Sqq^ 447). The scribe was indifferently copier or author — authorship has no special prestige — and the discovery of contemporary documents has proved that he was far V, iv] TREATMENT OF TRADITION 219 from faultless. There is at times an astonishing accuracy; but the oft-quofed care of Jewish scribes and copyists was after the Hebrew text and Partl7 fr?m the much- discussed account of the overthrow of four eastern kings and their armies by Abram the Hebrew and his 318 followers j^Gen. xiv). Here we are told that the kings of five cities of the plain had long been oppressed; Lot (once more a private individual) was carried off, and the scene Is the Vale of Siddim, the Dead Sea — the event is supposed to happen before the great cataclysm. Now, of the hostile kings, the first is Amraphel of Shinar, presumably Ham- murabi of Babylonia. Arloch of Ellasar, i.e. of Larsa, can hardly be identified with Eri-aku, the Sumerian form of Arad»Sin, son of Kutur-mabuk, who, moreover, was not a contemporary of Hammurabi* The Elamite Chedorlaomer has a name unknown, but of genuine form, meaning 'servant of (the goddess) Lagamal/ The name of Tidal of Goiim (* peoples, hordes ') may be the Hittite Dudkhalia, known in the thirteenth century. However, the leader of the kings is Chedorlaomer, whereas Hammurabi was no vassal of Elam, but its chief foe; and the story, which contains anachron- isms and misunderstandings, and introduces old primitive inhabi- tants of the land, aims chiefly at describing the glory and piety of the great ancestor of Israel. It also tells how Abram after his victory was blessed by Melchizedek of Salem, priest of God (El) Most High. It thus exalts the ancient priesthood of Jerusalem; for, while Jacob promises tithes to zahweh at Bethel (Gen. xxviii, 22), Abram himself is supposed to introduce the practice by giving tithes to Melchizedek at Jerusalem. See also p, 473 n» Tradition has doubtless preserved some genuine names and possible situations; but in its present form the narrative is late, and it was especially in the Persian period (c. fifth century B.C.) that Babylonians themselves were keenly interested in the early relations between Elam and their land. The names Abram and Abraham ate found in Babylonia in the First Dynasty — the latter as a small farmer — and we have seen that those of Jacob and (possibly) Israel are no less ancient, and that those of the Hebrews and perhaps Yahweh may be traced. But the names in the biblical narratives are more ancient than what is said of them; and although certain social' usages in Genesis can be illustrated from Hammurabi's code of laws, they are in no wise peculiar to that remote period and do not prove the antiquity of their context. V, v] PAUCITY OF HISTORICAL MATERIAL 237 It has sometimes been thought that the entrance of Abram and, later, of Jacob refers in some way to two distinct ancient immigra- tion^ Again, when Abram enters Egypt and is escorted out (Gen. xii), and when Jacob likewise enters and a large company returns to Palestine (very late traditions tell of wars between Egypt and Canaan at the time), it has been conjectured that the writers are giving their view of the Hyksos invasion of Egypt and their ex- pulsion. But conjectures of this sort can hardly be disproved or proved. In any case, if they are well-founded, it is abundantly clear that the narratives themselves cannot be used, as they stand, for our history of these events. The biblical narratives regard the Amorites as the old inhabit- ants, and as distinct from the Hebrews, of whom the Israelites are a subdivision. A relationship is felt, partly with Babylonia, partly with the semi-nomad Aramaean and related population of the desert, and partly, also, with the Aramaean and more or less Hittite districts of the more cultured Harran and the north. But the narratives hardly reflect the period of the First Babylonian Dynasty or of the Egyptian Middle Kingdom. From Mesopotamia to Crete the age was an active one; it was also one of great ethnic movements which flooded some portion at least of the Se- mitic area. Moreover, there were tendencies to supreme and universal gods (p, 323); and if one may build upon the later occur- rence of the gods Varuna and Mithra in Asia Minor (see p. 312), the noteworthy ethical character of the former — comparable only to Yahweh — is highly suggestive of the noble ideas that could pre- vail. Such Syrians as Sinuhe's father-in-law would have oppor- tunities of learning what was happening in the outside world; and, in any case, the rich world of life and thought which we shall find in Syria and Palestine. in the next period was no sudden growth. Yet, although the deities which can be traced among the western Semites at the earlier period were naturally centres of ritual and be- lief, it would be unsafe to attempt to reconstruct the period from the scanty remains. The indications in an ancient cave at Gezer of some pig-cult seem to point to the widespread worship of Tammuz and to the antiquity of what became the well-known tabooed animal. This evidence combines with indications of rude conditions and the presence of some non-Semitic stock both to warn us that as far back as the historian can go the * Semitic * area was a meeting- place of many different and conflicting elements, and to suggest that * Semitic culture ' is sometimes specifically the new formations that arose, perhaps as a compromise between the desert and the more exposed surrounding lands. CHAPTER VI EGYPT: THE PREDYNASTIC PERIOD nature and range of our archaeological and historical JL material give Egypt the priority in a survey of the develop- ment of the Ancient East. The earliest period is the predynastic or prehistoric : it is called predynastic because it precedes the 1st Dynasty of Manetho's list (pp. 259 sqq.}> and prehistoric because it antedates the earliest surviving written records. The period is a discovery of the close of the nineteenth century. When the exca- vation of Nakada in 1895 ky Flinders Petrie revealed crouched burials surrounded by black-topped ware and other now familiar types of hand-made pottery, the contrast which these burials and objects presented with those previously known in Egypt sug- gested to him a *New Race/ which must have entered Egypt at some period during the early dynasties. But others pointed out that in this 'New Race' we were at last face to face with the earliest inhabitants, excluding those of the Palaeolithic Age, of the Nile valley. Since this time predynastic cemeteries have come to light in considerable numbers, and it may reasonably be said that we are as well acquainted with the material civilization of this era as with that of any other in Egyptian history, though at the same time it has to be admitted that our knowledge of its actual history amounts to practically nothing* It will best serve the present purpose if we begin by describing the remains actually found, and then proceed to draw from them whatever conclusions are possible regarding the civilization of this remote era. And since the period is known to us mainly from Its cemeteries, we have to reverse the natural order of things, and learn all we can of the treatment of the dead before we proceed to ask what is known of the living, I. THE EVIDENCE OF THE CEMETERIES The typical predynastic tomb consists of a shallow pit cut in the sand or in the soft rock which usually underlies the sand. In the earliest times it is usually circular, but, later, rectangular types, often with slightly rounded edges, come into use. At the bottom of this pit lies the body in a tightly contracted position, that is to CHAP. VI, i] PREDYNASTIC BURIAL 239 say with the knees drawn up towards the chin and the arms bent at the elbows in such a way that the hands are in front of the face. The ^mport of this position will be examined below ; for the moment we must describe the later development of the grave itself. At first it had been usual to lay the body in the centre of the tomb, which indeed was only just large enough to hold it, and to place the vases and other objects round it. Later, especially in rich graves where numerous offerings were to be made, a special step or ledge of rock was left when digging the grave, in most cases on the west side. On this ledge were placed the larger vases, while the body with its ornaments and often the smaller vases and other objects lay in the deeper part of the pit. A further develop- ment soon followed. The shelf, in order to accommodate more vases, was broadened until it threatened to occupy the whole pit to the exclusion of the body* To obviate this a recess was cut to hold the body in the side of the grave opposite to the ledge. In some cases this recess is so large as to rival in size the original pit, from which it is occasionally divided by a fence of wattle or a wall of mud brick. The latest of the predynastic tombs sometimes have a lining of mud brick round the edges of the rectangular pit, a form which persisted into the dynastic period. Many of these tombs were probably not roofed in any way, but merely filled up to the desert level with the sand which had been taken out of them; others however were covered with a primitive roof of wood surmounted by a layer of mud. No traces of a superstructure have ever been, found. The body was not mummified in any way, but was in many cases simply laid in the grave without any covering or protection; occasionally it was wrapped in the skin of some animal, and frequently it was covered with a reed mat. Sometimes the body was placed beneath an inverted £>ot, more rarely in a true coffin of pottery : both methods of burial seem to be confined to the later phases of the period. At Mahasna (north of Abydos) the coffin consisted of four planks placed in the position of the four sides of a box, but with neither bottom nor lid; in some cases the planks were so placed as to constitute a wooden lining to the pit rather than a true coffin for the body. The normal position for the body was on its left side. This position was used in the very large majority of the tombs in all the cemeteries known to us, with the exception of el~Arnrah (south of Abydos), where the position on the right side was normal in the earlier phases of the period. Practically all predynastic tombs were placed with their longer 240 EGYPT: THE PREDYNASTIC PERIOD [CHAP. axis lying local north and south, i.e. parallel to the course of the Nile at that particular point. The significance of this custom is wholly unknown, but the care with which it was observed suggests that it may have involved a religious idea of great importance. The head generally lay towards the south, but the rule was not invariable, and at Turra (south of Cairo), in particular, there were numerous exceptions. Why the body was always placed in the contracted position is uncertain. Some have suggested that it was used in order to save room in the cemeteries. Others think it was the natural position of rest or sleep, while yet others affirm that the limbs of the dead man were tightly bound up with cords in order to prevent him from doing harm to the living. But perhaps the most widely approved suggestion is that the posture is em- bryonic, i.e. that of the foetus in the womb, and symbolizes the return of the mortal to the womb of earth from which he came. It is unnecessary to discuss here the value of these speculations, we need only note that any attempt at explanation must^ reckon with the very wide distribution of this peculiar custom in early times in Europe, North Africa and nearer Asia. Several excavators have called attention to the occurrence of predynastic tombs in which, though there was no trace of sub- sequent disturbance, the bones of the skeleton appeared to lie out of their natural order. From this fact they inferred that in certain cases the body was either cut up before burial, or else buried provisionally in some other spot and only removed to the tomb in which it was found after natural decay had allowed the skeleton to become disarticulated. Although there are parallels for these practices elsewhere, some archaeologists still totally deny their existence in Egypt. Nevertheless a dispassionate examination of the evidence suggests that it is more prudent to preserve an open mind, even though some of the cases quoted as examples of dis- memberment can be explained away. The discovery of partly dismembered bodies inside untouched linen wrappings at De- shasheh points to the practice of this custom in the early dynastic period, and it would therefore be in no way surprising to find it already obtaining in the Predynastic Age. The body having been laid in the tomb it only remained to place around it the funerary provision. This consisted to a great extent of vases of food and drink. It is probable that the vases in which the offerings were placed were in many cases made specially for the occasion, and were not those which the deceased had been in the habit of using in his lifetime. Along with these, however, were frequently placed objects which he had actually used, and VI, i] PREDYNASTIC SETTLEMENTS 241 which were very often worn or damaged by use. Thus with a man were buMed tools and weapons of copper, flint or stone, while a woman was equipped with her ornaments, necklaces of beads, and armlets of flint, slate or ivory, malachite to make eye-paint, and a slate palette and pebble wherewith to grind it. Of the manner in which the predynastic people lived we can form fairly accurate conjectures from the contents of their tombs. But fortunately we can do more than this, for several sites are known on which they actually dwelt. Some of these may be described as kitchen-middens (kJKkkenma&ddinger)* They consist simply of heaps formed by the refuse of everyday life, bones, shells, pottery, worn or broken flints, etc. Several of these early settlements at Ballas, Mahasna and Abydos, have been more closely examined. All lie on the sandy edge of the desert. At Ballas there were remains of mud-brick houses. At Mahasna were dis- covered sockets in which the excavators conjecture that there must have stood poles supporting huts or tents; but the absence of more solid remains leads us to suppose that the dwellings were either of very flimsy material or, if of wood, were capable of re- moval in sections. At Abydos two large hearths were found, from five to six metres in diameter, consisting simply of heaps of wood-ash containing fragments of bone and pottery. The objects of flint and pottery found in this settlement, were, as a whole, like those of Ballas, much rougher than those drawn from the con- temporary graves, though no type found in the graves was entirely unrepresented. This makes it quite clear that the objects buried with the dead were mainly chosen from his finer and more valuable possessions. Indeed it is not altogether improbable that some of the better types of pottery were manufactured purely for funerary use. On the edge of three of these settlements were found structures consisting each of a number of deep open-mouthed jars, about a metre in height, coming to a point below, and arranged in two parallel rows placed so close as almost to interlock. Each vase was supported beneath by a number of vertical fire-bars of clay, and the whole structure was surrounded by a low wall and roofed over, leaving the mouths of the vases free. Around and among the fire- bars were found large quantities of charred wood, and close investigation showed that the whole formed a kind of slow-com- bustion furnace designed to keep at a moderate temperature for some length of time a certain substance placed in the jars; this when analysed proved to consist of grains of wheat. Analogies from other countries and ages tend to show that these kilns were C.A.H.X l£ 242 EGYPT: THE PREDYNASTIC PERIOD [CHAP. used for drying wheat with the purpose of increasing its keeping properties, rather than for parching it in order to facilitate grind- ing. However this may be, it shows clearly that the predysiastic people were not only agriculturalists, but that they were quite well acquainted with the problems of storing their grain. The state of civilization to which these people had attained at the moment when their appearance is first revealed to us in the Nile valley was in many senses a high one. Some think that they were still in the neolithic stage; others, relying on unpublished evidence from the excavations at Nagc ed-Der (opposite Girgeh), believe that copper was already being gradually introduced during this period. What is certain is that long before the 1st Dynasty copper was used in considerable quantities for arms and imple- ments. Within this same period gold and silver both came into use, and in two tombs of the Middle Predynastic Period, near Medum, were found beads of hammered iron, in one case strung alternately with others of gold. But throughout the predynastic age the substance most used for implements and weapons was not metal but flint. There was no difficulty in obtaining material, for the limestone cliffs of Egypt contain flint nodules without number, many of which are of a quality which readily lends itself to minute and accurate work- ing. It was, therefore, to be foreseen that the flint industry in Egypt would attain to a very high level, and it did in fact reach an excellence which has never been surpassed. For ordinary uses implements of a simple type were made, and no more work was, done on them than was necessary to give the desired surface and edge. But for the finer products a very different method was pursued. In order to secure a perfectly even surface from which regular flakes could be removed by pressure, the implement was first roughly shaped by coarse flaking, and the whole surface was then ground smooth. The implement now possessed all the necessary qualities except sharpness and durability of edge, which could only be produced by taking off minute flakes from the edge. The Egyptian was, however, not satisfied merely to do this, for he proceeded to remove a double series of rippling flakes from the face, and in many cases to fit the edge of the implement with minute and almost invisible teeth. The tool was then complete, except that in some cases it was fitted with an artistic handle of wood, ivory, bone or gold. Next in importance to the making of weapons to defend himself and to hunt, and implements wherewith to pursue the occupations by which he lives, the savage ranks the preparation of vessels in VI, i] POTTERY AND STONE VASES 243 which to cook and eat his food and store the products of his agriculture. And it is here that in Egypt a paradox meets us, for, at th« moment when he entered Egypt, the primitive potter was producing vases so admirable from the technical and artistic point of view that his successors never surpassed and seldom equalled them. He had learned to clean his clay by mixing it with water and removing the coarser particles which settled first at the bottom; knowing that a pure clay is apt to crack in the firing, he introduced into his paste a proportion of small grains of quartz or limestone; despite his ignorance of the potter's wheel he moulded his shapes so perfectly that its absence is never felt; and, last but not least, he belonged to one of those rare and happy periods when the craftsman seems incapable of an error of taste, and in con- sequence almost every form that leaves his hands is a thing of beauty. The vase once moulded he coated it with a slip of finer clay in which a quantity of powdered haematite had been mixed, and after a short drying in the sun polished its surface with a smooth pebble or a spatula of bone. There now remained only the firing. But here too experience had taught him something. Did he require the vase to retain the red haematite colour, he placed it clear of the glowing embers in the open flame; did he on the other hand wish to produce a bichrome effect, he placed it mouth downwards in the fire, whereupon that part of the surface which was covered by the ashes surrendered a portion of its oxygen and turned into the magnetic oxide of iron, which is black, while that on the exposed portion, free to draw oxygen from the air, remained in the form of the red oxide. The result was the well-known red-polished pottery with a black top. Having dis- covered a white pigment which would withstand the action of fire, the potter was further able to draw simple geometric and even naturalistic designs on his red-polished or black-topped wares, and so to produce what may be the world's first painted pottery. But the Egyptian predynastic potter possessed a piece of know- ledge more extraordinary than any yet described. Not only had he discovered that sand when combined with potash or soda and a metallic oxide will vitrify at a certain temperature; but he had realized the possibilities of this glaze for decorative purposes; he had learned to colour it blue with a salt of copper, to make it adhere to the substance on which it was to be laid, and to produce a fire of sufficient temperature to fuse it. See pp. 320, 576. The hardness of stone had no terrors for the predynastic crafts- man. It is true that in the earliest tombs stone vases are rare or even absent, but in the Middle Predynastic Period the drill had 1 6 — a 244 EGYPT; THE PREDYNASTIC PERIOD [CHAP. already been discovered, perhaps as a direct consequence of the working of copper. Equipped with this instrument,, and dbubtless with an inexhaustible store of patience, the Egyptian fou$d no stone too hard for him to work, and indeed the diorites with their fine surfaces were among his favourites. Here again, as in the case of pottery, he arrived at astonishing accuracy and beauty of form, and his achievements in the harder stones were never sur- passed in later days. Passing from the products to the authors of them we have next to ask what manner of man was the predynastic Egyptian. Anthropological researches carried out in Egypt during the last twenty years enable us to form a very good idea of his physical characteristics and his racial affinities. He belonged in the first place to a remarkably homogeneous and unmixed race. He was a small man5 the average stature being under 5 feet 5 inches in the case of men and 5 feet in the case of women. He was of a slender and almost effeminate build; though his limb bones possess certain characteristics (platycnemia and platymeria) commonly supposed to indicate great muscular strength. His hair was dark-brown or black, wavy or almost straight, sometimes even curly, though never woolly like that of the negro. He possessed very little facial hair, but a small pointed beard and slight moustache were generally permitted to grow. His skull was of the long and narrow type known as dolicho- cephalic. This at once ranks him with the early neolithic peoples of the Mediterranean as opposed to the Armenoid or Alpine race, which seems to have penetrated into central Europe from Asia towards the end of the neolithic period and to branches of which the bronze age civilization of north Italy and possibly the geo- metric civilization in Greece were due (cf. pp. 34 $qq*y 65 ^^., 93, 105 sqq^ The early Egyptian skulls when viewed from above present a long angular pentagonal appearance. The face is oval and pointed^ the jaw narrow and sharp, and the nose apt to be flat, especially in the females. There is no doubt that this race formed the base of the population of Egypt far down into dynastic times, and that a strong admixture of it remains even to-day in the more isolated villages.^ As far as can be ascertained at present it remained quite uncontatninated until the end of the Predynastic Period, when it gradually became mixed with another element possessing a skull of a much broader type, an element drawn from the Armenoid branch referred to above, and known in Egypt as the Gizeh race, from the site on which its presence was first observed (cf. p. 34), The pioneer of this anthropological work in Egypt, Elliot VI, i] PHYSICAL TYPE AND LANGUAGE 245 Smith, insists most strongly on the homogeneity of the predynastic race up* to the beginning of the dynastic era in the cemeteries examined by him in Upper Egypt. At Tarkhan, however, which is much further down stream, between Cairo and Wasta, the measurements of the long bones of the skeletons, which 'were found to give clearer results than other parts/ have suggested to Flinders Petrie that in the second half of the Predynastic Period there was a distinct reduction in the stature of the race, which continued well into the dynastic age. This change he attributes to the rapid infiltration of a new people, the * Dynastic Race/ who were shorter than the predynastic Egyptian and, as he thought, probably came from Elam, Should anthropologists decide that the changes recorded by Petrie require the supposition of a new people to explain them, and if no similar changes in these same measurements are noticed in the cemeteries further up the Nile, we shall probably be compelled to believe that the dynastic people came in from the north, and for some time only occupied the northern portion of Upper Egypt* We shall return to the question later; see pp. 2,54, 2,63. The language spoken by the predynastic inhabitants of Upper Egypt was in all probability the same as that used in the dynastic epoch. Unfortunately no proof of this can at present be given, but if the bulk of the population remained unaltered in type, and if the infiltration of the Armenoid element was very gradual, the assumption that no change of tongue took place is by no means hazardous. At the same time it is to be regretted that we have not a single undoubted specimen of predynastic writing. This is the more remarkable in view of the fact that in certain of the royal tombs of the 1st Dynasty we find the system of hieroglyphic writing so highly developed that it must already have been long in use, and had already acquired a cursive or hieratic script, written in ink. A slate palette of undoubted predynastic date, found at el-Amrah, has in relief two signs which might conceivably be hieroglyphs; one of these may be an early form of the cult object of Min, but the other is no known hieroglyph, and no conclusion ought to be drawn from the group. Of the early in- scribed cylinder-seals none can be definitely proved to be earlier than the rise of the 1st Dynasty, the predynastic examples showing only designs of animals and birds, with in one case a star, and in another what appears to be a building. Further, it is doubtful whether any of the slate palettes which show undoubted hiero- glyphs can be dated as predynastic. On the other hand, the crude combination of elementary true writing with pictorial representa- 246 EGYPT: THE PREDYNASTIC PERIOD [CHAP tion so admirably illustrated by the great palette of Narmer (p. 268) warns us that if this document is a fair sample of the stage which writing had reached at this moment (beginning of tfee 1st Dynasty or just earlier), and not an archaism, very little in the way of writing is to be expected from the period which preceded it. At the same time it is singular that nothing at all has up to the present made its appearance. Of the religion of the predynastic Egyptian we know practically nothing. Judging by the existence of a pronounced animal element in the cults of the dynastic period it may be suspected that in earlier times Egypt passed through a true totemic stage. This hypothesis is not susceptible of proof, though several facts have been observed which are fully consistent with it. Such a theory would explain, for instance, the custom of representing the king of Egypt under the form of an animal, such as a bull, a lion, a scorpion or a hawk, though it must be admitted that there are, in some cases at least, other possible explanations. On the predynastic vases with designs in red on a buff ground we find representations of boats on which are standards supporting what are generally supposed to be the cult objects of various districts. Among these are the hawk and the elephant, which, it is suggested, may have been totems of two tribes. Similarly, among the later nome-signs of Egypt, which undoubtedly have a very early origin, are several which may be totemic in origin, though we are always confronted with the difficulty that many of these birds and animals may be nothing more than hieroglyphs carrying a purely phonetic value. Finally, some writers believe that the animals which so frequently appear on the carved slate palettes, on the ivory knife-handles and combs, and on the cylinder-seals of predynastic days are totemic in origin. The precarious nature of all this evidence need hardly be pointed out, and were it not for the theriomorphic element in the later religion the suggestion could not be ventured that Egypt ever passed through a totemic stage. See also below, Chap. ix. The distribution in the Nile valley of the * predynastic ' culture is quite clear. In the Delta it has not as yet been found; but since the earlier strata in this part of Egypt are usually unattainable owing to the rise in the water level no conclusions whatsoever can be drawn from this negative evidence. From Turra, 8 miles south of Cairo, predynastic cemeteries and settlements extend up into Nubia, being perhaps most thickly scattered north and south of Coptos and the mouth of the Wadi Hammamat. Throughout the whole of this long stretch of land the civilization seems to have been quite homogeneous up to the moment of transition to the VI, n] DATA FOR HISTORY 247 Dynastic Period, when a distinct tendency to fall behind is ob- served ill Nubia. Whatever views we may hold as to the origin of the pj-edynastic people of Egypt — and there are some who believe that they entered Upper Egypt from the south by way of Nubia — it is at least clear that the cultural influences which produced the high civilization of the early dynasties first came into play in Egypt itself, and only gradually permeated Nubia, IL DATA FOR HISTORY The length and date of the Predynastic Period are matters of very great uncertainty. The terminus ad quern depends purely on the length assigned to the various dynastic periods, whether on astronomical or on other grounds, a matter which has already been discussed (pp. 168 sqq^ As regards the duration of the period it may at once be said that all attempts to estimate it by the amount of development which took place during its course are the merest guesswork, and, as such, devoid of value. Had we, as in the case of the Later Intermediate Period (between the Xllth and XVIIIth Dynasties), a dated era both before and after it with which com- parisons in rate of progress could be established, we might, if we proceeded with caution, reach a result which had some likelihood of accuracy. But as this is not the case we are helpless, and most scholars are content to believe that the period ended a few centuries before 3000 B.C. Petrie, however, has proposed to date the earliest predyttastic graves to not later than 8000 B.C., and the latest to about 5500, arguing from the similarity of certain flint implements of the Egyptian graves to those of the Magdalenian era in Europe, and also to those of the great flint-working period in Scandinavia. It is not possible to discuss in full this argument; the present writer doubts the legitimacy of comparing flints in widely distant areas, and is not prepared to push the Magda- lenian epoch down to say 7000 B.C., and that of the finest Scandinavian flints up to that date. See above, pp. 34 sq^ 36. If, however, we cannot fix either the date or the length of the Predynastic Period we have at least a means of dating relatively within the period itself; and it was indeed a step forward in pre- dynastic research when Petrie, at Diospolis Parva, invented the now famous method of 'Sequence Dating.* The basis of this is typological. It was noticed that in certain forms of pottery vase, furnished with a wavy ridge of clay on each shoulder in place of a handle, the ridge gradually degenerated and lost its size and its form until it became nothing more than a useless line scratched on the pot. At the same time the form of these vases degenerated EGYPT: THE PREDYNASTIC PERIOD [CHAP. in a perfectly definite direction. This enabled them to be placed with considerable accuracy in chronological order; and; by ob- serving the forms of the other objects found with particular^types of wavy-handled vases, chronological series of these too were easily established. The whole Predynastic and Early Dynastic Period was divided into intervals numbered from 30 to 100, the series 1-29 being left blank in case still earlier graves should in future be discovered* The type series was then equated with the successive intervals of this so-called Sequence Dating,, with the result that if we find a predynastic tomb we can at once assign it to its correct position in the series. It must be clearly understood that the units of dating are not necessarily equal, and that the space from 30 to 40 might conceivably be twice or three times the length of that between 50 and 60, or vice 'versa. But despite the severe criticism which the system has met with in some quar- ters, and despite its obviously approximate character, it still re- mains a convenient and practical way of dating predynastic tombs and objects. The whole period is now generally divided into three sub-periods. Early Predynastic, Sequence Date 30 to 40; Middle Predynastic, 40 to 60; and Late Predynastic, 60 to 78, the end of which marks the rise of the 1st Dynasty. One other consideration must not be forgotten in trying to estimate the length of the predynastic civilization, namely the date of the introduction of the Egyptian Calendar. The nature of the * Sothic cycle/ and the relation between the civil and Sothic years, have been discussed in an earlier chapter (p. 168). Now since the first season of the year is called the Inundation Season, it is manifest that the civil calendar can only have been introduced at a moment when its first day coincided with the heliacal rising of Sothis which occurs on July 1 9th of the Julian Calendar, and marks the beginning of the rise of the Nile. In other words, at a certain moment the early Egyptian, having for some time observed that the length of the year was about 365 days, definitely intro- duced a calendar with a year of this length, and for its first day naturally chose that most important of all days in Egypt, the beginning of the fertilising rise of the Nile, a day rendered the more striking because it coincided with the day of the heliacal rising of Sirius. This coincidence took place at the beginning of each Sothic period, and of the two which alone deserve considera- tion here, namely those which began in 12781 and 4241 B.C. respectively, the latter can be shown to be by far the more probable. See also p. 265. Thus, unless there be some unsuspected flaw in the astronomical VI, ii] EGYPTIAN CALENDAR f 249 evidence, we are faced with the conclusion that as early as 4241 B.C. the Nile valley was already inhabited by a people civilized enough to observe the risings of stars and to fix the length of the solar year within a few hours. Would it not seem, then, that attempts to shorten the Predynastic Period in such a way as to bring its terminus a quo down to 4000 B.C. or even later are misguided? To this question it may be replied that the predynastic remains which it is proposed to date in this way all come from the Nile above Cairo, whereas the calendar can be shown to have been discovered in the Delta, or at any rate not far south of it. The proof of this is very simple. Ancient authorities state that the day of the Julian Year on which the heliacal rising of Sirius was observed in Egypt was July i gth. Now astronomical considerations show that this could only be the case in or about the thirtieth degree of latitude, or, in other words, in the region of the modern Cairo. So here again we are brought face to face with the possibility that in the Delta there may have existed an earlier and more advanced pre- dynastic civilization than in Upper Egypt, of whose remains we as yet know nothing. It may reasonably be asked what evidence we have for sup- posing that the graves of the Early Predynastic Period, assigned to Sequence Date 30—40, represent the first appearance of man in the Nile valley subsequent to palaeolithic times. Seeing that practically all Egyptian cemeteries lie on the very edge of the cultivation, may there not be earlier predynastic cemeteries, formed before the Nile mud had reached its present limits, and therefore concealed beneath the cultivation ? There is in itself no impossibility in this view, but it must be noticed that the position of the earliest tombs known to us shows that on the whole the limits of cultivation in Upper Egypt have altered but slightly in the last 5000 years at all events, and it would be somewhat unlikely that just before Sequence Date 30 some change should have occurred sufficient to overwhelm all earlier cemeteries. On the other hand, though cemetery after cemetery is discovered and fails to yield earlier material than that already known to us, we cannot assume that this will always be the case, and at any moment a fortunate discovery may take us back another stage in the life-history of the predynastic Egyptian. In this connexion the complete lack of . evidence from the Delta should be most carefully kept in mind. In any case, it is not at all certain that we have not already a group of remains which, while they cannot be called palaeolithic, are to be attributed to a date earlier than that of the first known tombs. For many years past natives have been accustomed to 250 EGYPT: THE PREDYNASTIC PERIOD [CHAP. collect large numbers of finely- worked flints at certain sites in the west of the Fayyum, notably at Dimeh and Kom Ashimt It does not appear that any systematic excavation has ever been carried out on these sites, but the flints are said to be found on the surface unaccompanied by any other remains, e.g. pottery. These flints Petrie proposes to connect with those of the Solutrean phase of the European Palaeolithic Age, and thus to attribute them to an age preceding that of the earliest predynastic tombs, which he would equate with the Magdalenian (see above). ^But, not to mention other difficulties, the mere fact that such flints occur in the Solutrean Period in Europe does not justify the ^belief that their date in Egypt is Solutrean, and, consequently, it is advis- able to withhold judgment on this matter until such time as the Fayyum sites shall have been properly investigated,. Unfortunately the Egyptians have recorded practically nothing of any value with regard to the history of the Predynastic Period. There are three sources to which we can appeal, Manetho's History, the Turin Papyrus of Kings, and the Palermo Stone, together with the other fragments of the same or a similar monu- ment, lately discovered and now preserved in Cairo. Manetho, as quoted by Eusebius, records the following details with regard to the Predynastic Period: (i) A dynasty of gods, consisting of the Great Ennead of Heliopolis in the form in which it was wor- shipped at Memphis. (2) A further dynasty of gods, down to the time of Bidis, a space of 13,900 years. (This date includes both dynasties.) (3) Rule of a race of demigods, 1255 years. (4) Other kings, ruling for 1817 years. (5) After these another 30 kings from Memphis, 1790 years. (6) Ten kings from This, 350 years. (7) Kingdom of departed spirits and demigods, 5813 years, upon which follows immediately the 1st Dynasty, headed by Menes. From the historical point of view there is little to be made of this (see p. 265). Moreover, the first two columns of the Turin Papyrus, which deal with the Predynastic Period, are in a lament- able condition. The king-list clearly began, however, with a dynasty of gods, which included Re, Geb, Osiris, Set, Horus, Thoth and Maat. Thereupon follow several totals of years, the connexion of which is lost. We then read of 1 9 rulers from Mem- phis whose years are 1 1 and some months and days, while the next line records rulers (?) in the Delta (?) whose years are over 2 100* Then, after an obscure reference to 7 women, we apparently find * Spirits' — the reading is not certain — 'Followers of Horus £3,420 plus x years/ and after this 'Total up to the Followers of Horus, 23,200 plus x years/ The next line brings us to Menes VI, nj HISTORICAL SLATE PALETTES 251 and the 1st Dynasty. In the papyrus, as In Manetho, we have dynasties of gods,, Followers of Horus immediately preceding the 1st Dynasty, and between the two a group of rulers from Memphis. For the scanty information furnished by the Palermo Stone, the only early Egyptian annals which have survived; see p. 266 $q. Despite the lack of definite contemporary records from the Predynastic Period it would seem that attempts were made to put on record historical events. Whatever may have been the original intention in the making and dedication of the archaic carved slate palettes there can be little doubt that some of them show us pic- torial representations of actual events. The most famous of them all is the palette of Narraer, and, whether we believe this king to be the Menes of later Egyptian tradition, or one of his immediate predecessors, it is believed by some to record an incident in the wars which ended in the subjugation of the north by the south and the unification of the Two Egypts (p. 268 j^,). To the same period has been assigned, on grounds of style, the Louvre fragment, on each side of which is a bull worrying a prostrate human figure with prominent nose, apparently curly hair, long square-cut beard, and naked except for the pudendal sheath* The two representations of walled towns on the reverse, and the standards on the obverse which end in hands holding a rope to which prisoners are attached, make it clear that the subject of these scenes was a war in which some person or tribe, who could be symbolically represented by a bull, defeated a tribe or nation whose features were as described above. A third palette, that which bears on its reverse the well- known giraffes flanking a palm-tree, has been assigned to the same period, though, if the stylistic argument is sound, one would perhaps expect it to be a little earlier. On the obverse of this we see numerous prisoners dead and alive* One is being devoured by a lion, perhaps symbolical, as was the bull; while another is being lead off by a figure — the upper part of which is unfortunately lost — clad in a long robe covered with a simple decorative pattern and ending in a fringe. The prisoners at first sight remind us of those in the last palette, for their hair is curly and they have rather square beards, in one case apparently shown as plaited. But it has been pointed out that these men are not wearing the pudendal sheath : what some writers have mistaken for this being simply an attempt on the part of the artist to depict a peculiar type of circumcision still practised by certain east African tribes. It has also been made clear that the object which is partly visible in front of the led prisoner is not, as was generally supposed, a weight hung round his neck, but a primitive hieroglyphic writing 252 EGYPT: THE PREDYNASTIC PERIOD [CHAP. of the defeated country, though unfortunately we cannot^ identify the place. Another fragment of a palette (now in Cairo) which is perhaps a little earlier than any of the above, tells a fairly clear story. On the obverse four horizontal registers are still left, containing respectively a row of oxen, one of asses, one of sheep, and a group of trees (identified as olive trees), together with a hieroglyphic group representing the country-name Libya. The whole quite clearly depicts the booty brought away from a successful campaign in Libya (p. 269). On the reverse are seven walled cities, one of which is being destroyed by a hawk, another by a lion, another by a scorpion, and a fourth by' two hawks on perches. The destroyers of the other three cities are lost. It is probable that in these animals we should see, not the totem animals of an invading tribe, but various symbolical representations of the king of Egypt. Among still earlier palettes, which, to judge by their style, may with certainty be assigned to a predynastic date, two show nothing but animals and are of greater value to art than to history, while the other is quite clearly a hunting scene in which bearded men, apparently with curly hair, in which is stuck a feather, clad in pleated kilts with a wolf's (?) tail behind, and armed with bows and arrows, clubs, lassoes, spears and perhaps double axes, pursue lions and other animals. Still more striking from the historical point of view is a carved ivory knife-handle (now in the Louvre Museum), said to have come from Gebel el-Arak in Upper Egypt, on the east bank of the Nile opposite Nagc Hamadi (south of Girgeh). The fine ripple flaking and minutely toothed edge of the knife make it clear that the implement is to be dated back into the Predynastic Period. On one side of the handle we find what is clearly a scene of warfare. In the two top registers a series of single combats are represented between men armed with maces or knives and men totally un- armed, with the exception of one, who carries a flint knife. Both groups of men are clean-shaven and naked except for the pudendal sheath. The unarmed men have a long tress of hair hanging over the left shoulder; the armed men show no such tress, though it is advisable to remember that they are invariably seen in right pro- file, and may have had a tress on the left. Below these two registers arc two rows of boats separated by a heap of slain men. The boats in the upper of the two rows are totally different from those in the lower, and one can hardly resist the inference that the two types of boat belong respectively to the two groups of warriors. On the VI, n] HISTORICAL SLATE PALETTES ^ 253 other side of the handle is what appears to be a hunting scene. At the top a3 human figure seen In left profile is supported herald! cally by twp lions. The appearance of the human figure can only be described as totally un-Egyptian. He wears a hemispherical cap with thick rolled brim — unless this is merely the coiffure — and a tunic reaching down to below the knees. He has full side-whiskers and a thick heavy beard. Below are dogs and various other animals, and a hunter whose body has almost disappeared. Another hunter, who should balance this one on the right, has been crowded out and is to be found on the other side of the handle. He differs in no respect from the armed warriors in the scenes of combat (see below, pp. 255, 580). None can doubt that In the series of objects here described something of the history of predynastic times Is written, yet so obscurely. In most cases, that the main result has been to puzzle us. There are, indeed, happy exceptions. One palette clearly records the result of a Libyan campaign of which we have perhaps another record in an ivory cylinder from Hieraconpolls on which Narmer, in the presence of the falcon-god and the vulture-goddess, smites a bearded people marked as Libyans. In the great Narmer palette, too, the main details and actors are fairly clear, whether or no we accept the conjecture that the defeated enemy were the Libyan inhabitants of the Harpoon nome in the north-western Delta. But of the rest of these scenes it is uncertain whether they represent mere local wars between tribe and tribe, or strife between Upper and Lower Egypt, or campaigns by kings of Upper or Lower Egypt, or both, against foreign foes. These are questions which we are hardly as yet In a position to answer. It has, however, been pointed out that in the human beings figured on these palettes we have to deal with more than one people. Thus, on the obverse of the giraffe-palette the defeated are men with curly hair, small beards and slight whiskers, coarse noses and slightly everted lips, who show a peculiar kind of circumcision. These are no true negroes, though they had obviously too much negro blood in their veins to be Egyptians and may have been Hamitic negroids* On the palette of Narmer the hair of the defeated is not curly, nor are their features negroid, yet one at least shows the same form of circumcision as the negroids just described. Both these conquered peoples have been assigned to the Hamitic -stock, from which the predynastic Egyptians were themselves derived; and the negroid features of the one group may be explained on the supposition that they were a southern branch who had absorbed much negro blood by contact with the peoples of east Africa. 254 EGYPT: THE PREDYNASTIC PERIOD [CHAP. It must be left for the future to determine the relation between any of these three groups and the people wearing the pudendal sheath who are shown on each side of the Louvre fragmentrbeing gored by a bull, or the two peoples similarly clad on the knife handle, or the kilted hunters on the great hunting palette. Suffice it to notice that the pointed beard with slight side whisker and the pudendal sheath are both known fx*om the tombs to have been characteristic of the predynastic Egyptian. Their wearers, there- fore, must not be put down as foreigners, as they frequently are, on these grounds alone. From what direction did predynastic man enter the Nile valley? Until quite lately two opposing theories concerning this question were in the field. According to one, predynastic Egypt was occupied by two peoples, not necessarily of different stock, and perhaps both akin to the Mediterranean race, one of whom occupied the Fayyum and the Nile valley as far south as Kawamil, near Suhag, at that time the northern limit of the known predynastic cemeteries, while the other was responsible for the predynastic remains which are found in such quantity from here southward, and which are thickest in the neighbourhood of Coptos. This second people is supposed to have entered Egypt from the east by the Wadi Hammamat, and eventually to have conquered the race which occupied the lower Nile valley, thus founding United Egypt. According to the other theory, the predynastic population of the Nile valley was a single indigenous people, akin to the Mediterranean race; towards the end of the predynastic period a new race of different type entered the country by the Wadi Hammamat, coming from Arabia by the Straits of Bab el-Mandeb and Koseir. This race is supposed to be Semitic or 'Proto-Semitic' in origin, and to have brought with it the elements of proto- Babylonian culture, which enabled it to found the Dynastic Kingdom of Egypt. Such were the two conflicting theories on the subject, for the theory of a southern origin has long been without a champion. During recent years we have gained a better knowledge of the physical type of the earliest Egyptians; and we now know that, so far from being strongly negroid and suggestive of a con- nexion with the south, the physical type of the predynastic Egyptian differed little, if at all, from that of the great long-headed people whose various branches inhabited in neolithic times the Mediterranean basin and western Europe. Elliot Smith has gone further than this : he regards both the Semites of Arabia and the Sumerians as branches of this same race, which he calls the Brown VI, n] ORIGINAL HOME OF EGYPTIANS 255 Race, slightly differentiated from the Egyptians and from one another ^by long residence in a different environment. He is not prepared to discuss the original home of this race, but he believes that both Egyptians and Sumerians had been settled in their respective lands many generations before the date of the first of their graves known to us. In the case of Egypt this is a point on which there is some diversity of opinion, though this need not for the moment affect our belief in a relationship between the early Egyptian and his Arabian and Sumerian neighbours if we wish to do so. It should be noticed that the evidence of language, always, however, a most precarious guide, favours a common parentage for the Egyptian and the Semite of nearer Asia. The Egyptian language in its earliest known form shows important affinities with Semitic, which some authorities consider too radical to be explained away by the hypothesis of borrowing (but see p. 187). Nor have we any reason for supposing that this was not the lan- guage used in predynastic times, during which the script, which we find in an advanced stage in the 1st Dynasty, was being slowly and painfully evolved in the Nile valley. On the other hand, the evidence of language does not confirm the belief that the Egyptian and Sumerian were of a common stock, though this is in itself no evidence against the truth of the belief. See further pp. 261—4. Attacking the problem fi*om the side of material civilization, we may say that for many years archaeologists have called attention to features in early Egyptian civilization which have their parallels in Mesopotamia and Elam. Thus, for instance, the occurrence of the cylinder-seal at an early date in Egypt and in Mesopotamia may be more than a coincidence (see p. 263). The style of the carved palettes with animals on them is most strikingly paralleled in Mesopotamia and in the countries bordering thereon. The lion- like animals with serpent necks seen on the palette of Narmer and on two of the earlier palettes are exactly paralleled on a Chaldean cylinder in the Louvre. Again, a close connexion between the motifs of the palettes and knife-handles and those of ancient seals and cylinders from Elam has been observed, not so much in the similar types of various animals (lions, for instance), as in the general system of their grouping, partly round a certain centre, partly in continuous rows one over the other, the empty spaces sometimes being filled up with animals, sometimes with geometric or vegetable ornaments. The Gebel el-Arak knife-handle is an even more striking instance than any hitherto found. The figure of the man flanked by the two lions on the reverse might have come direct from a Mesopotamian monument, and it has been 256 EGYPT: THE PREDYNASTIC PERIOD [CHAP. suggested that the figure is an Egyptian counterpart of the Baby- lonian Gllgamesh subduing the lions. See p. 580^. What conclusion is to be drawn from these admittedly staking analogies with the east ? While many Egyptologists still prefer to hold their hands on the subject, Petrie has argued that a civiliza- tion developed in Elam much earlier than in Egypt, that its authors, or some of them, migrated from Susa to Egypt, with a long halt at some point on the way. -They first reached Egypt early in the second prehistoric civilization, after Sequence Date 40, and continued to enter the country for some considerable time. The proof of the influx of this new element is to be seen, on this view, in the variations of the long bones of the skeletons found in graves of this period at Tarkhan, the newcomers being three or four inches shorter than the original Egyptians and temporarily shortening the stature of the country. These are the people who carved the knife-handle of Gebel el-Arak, 'the ancestors of the makers of the slate palettes, of Narmer and his people, and the founders of dynastic art/ Whatever the value of this hypothesis, here it is only necessary to repeat that Petrie's theory of the priority of the Elamite civilization is based wholly on the occurrence in its early strata of supposed Solutrean flints, similar to those of the Fayyum, which he believes to be earlier than the first predynastic graves in Egypt. The cogency of this type of argument from flint forms must, however, be regarded as doubtful in the extreme. As for the evidence of the bone measurements, the figures given by Petrie, if they can be supported by similar results from other sites, will indeed constitute a piece of evidence which must be very seriously reckoned with. The indications which point in the direction of the east are certainly unmistakable. But it is a far call from recognizing the fact of these indications to furnishing their precise interpretation; and it is doubtful whether this can ever be done so long as the early civilization of the Delta remains a closed book to us. It must not be forgotten that certain striking parallels have been found between the cult-objects of the western Delta and those of early Crete (see pp. 174^., 591). This suggests that the affinities of this early Delta civilization were with the Mediterranean rather than with Upper Egypt (see p. 264). But even here we are still in the realm of conjecture, and it is clear that nothing but excavation can place us on a higher plane. For the present almost every new object of any importance dating from these early times in Egypt merely serves to convince us, if we are wise, of the extent of our ignorance. CHAPTER VII THE UNION OF EGYPT AND THE OLD KINGDOM L THE LISTS OF KINGS: DYNASTY I IN passing from the predynastic to the dynastic period we leave the interpretation of archaeological and legendary material, and pass from the prehistoric to the historic age of Egypt. We now for the first time have ancient records to guide us, both con- temporary and later. And it is only with the help of the later accounts that the contemporary monuments can be understood, for at first they are very difficult to comprehend, being archaic and unsettled in style and meaning. But about the time of the IVth and Vth Dynasties the nation attained its full measure of civilization, and Egyptian art and the Egyptian script assumed the form which is the framework, so to speak, on which all the later developments were fashioned. The statues and reliefs of the IVth Dynasty are as * typically Egyptian * in their own way as those of any later dynasty, but when we see the artistic representa- tions of the first three dynasties we are constantly brought up short by unexpected forms and bizarre appearances which failed to survive to later days. Under the first three dynasties Egyptian art was trying its hand ; it was only under the fourth that a state of equilibrium was reached, religious conservatism and artistic endeavour having compromised in a convention which, so far as representations of the gods were concerned, persisted till the end* Antoninus Pius is represented on an Egyptian temple in the costume of a king of the Vth Dynasty, some 3000 years earlier. This is as true of the writing as of any other form of art. It must not be forgotten that Egyptian written records were works of art: the painter and the writer were one and the same thing. By the time of the IVth Dynasty the forms and arrangement of the hieroglyphs had crystallized more or less into those that persisted until the end. Naturally we can distinguish at a glance an inscription of the Xllth Dynasty from one of the IVth, one of the XlXth from one of the Xllth, one of the Ptolemaic period from one of the XlXth. The difference in style is obvious. But a Ptolemaic antiquarian C.A.H*! 258 EGYPT: THE OLD KINGDOM [CHAP, could have read a IVth Dynasty inscription without much diffi- culty, whereas one of the 1st Dynasty would probably have been almost as unintelligible to him as to us. By the time of the I Vth- Vth Dynasties certain artistic conventions as to arrangement had been introduced, and they remained till the end; under the Ilnd and Illrd Dynasties the hieroglyphs are still uncertain in form., and they are cut haphazard without any particular care as to pro- portion and symmetry. It is on this account that the divergences of the later king-lists from the royal names as we find them on the actual monuments of the early dynasties are easily explicable. The most important of these lists of royal names, those of Abydos and Sakkarah, were compiled at the beginning of the XlXth Dynasty. It would seern that about the time of king Seti I, the first monarch of the XlXth Dynasty (c. 1320 B.C.), attention had been specially drawn to the tombs of the earliest kings at Abydos. Either the king, wishing to build there his splendid temple which still stands, and to com- memorate his dead 'ancestors/ instructed his historiographers to seek out the names of the oldest kings, or, may be, a discovery of the early royal tombs moved the king to commemorate his pre- decessors by building there a temple and inscribing their names in it. The list which he caused to be put up contains among its most ancient names several which, as we shall see, are obviously misunderstandings and misreadings of the archaic hieroglyphs. When the names of the Pyramid-builders (the IVth Dynasty of Manetho) are reached, lists and contemporary monuments prac- tically agree, and we have, in the duplicate Abydos list of Seti and of Hs son Ramses II, the most important ancient authority as to the succession of the legitimate monarchs of the whole country. The second ancient authority is the famous Turin Papyrus of Kings, which gives not only names but regnal years, and in some cases even months and days. Had it survived entire, it would have been our chief authority. It is in fragments, and much critical labour has had to be spent upon it in order to make it intelligible when, as is often the case, it gives information as to obscure or illegitimate kings not mentioned in the Abydbs list. With this it otherwise agrees, and the accuracy of both is usually confirmed by the monuments at epochs when, as in the times of the IVth— Vlth and the Xllth— Xlllth Dynasty, we possess detailed know- ledge from contemporary authorities. There is, however, a dis- crepancy as regards Pepi I (p. 291). It. is of these periods of prosperity and power that the later Egyptians like ourselves actually had most knowledge. From the style of the writing, and VII, i] LISTS OF KINGS 259 from Its agreement with the Abydos list as to the forms of early names, \his list would also seem to date from the XlXth Dynasty. The list of Sakkarah was set up In the tomb of a royal scribe .named Tunurei, who lived in the reign of Ramses II (c. 1300— 1234 B.C.)- It begins, not with the traditional Mena or Men! (the Menes of Herodotus and Manetho), but with the king Merbapen (Merpeba), the Miebis of Manetho, who both in Manetho and in the Abydos list is the fifth successor of Menes. This fact is of historical importance, as we shall see later. The forms of the names of the earlier kings given by Tunurei are evidently derived from a hieratic original of his own time,, such as the Turin Papyrus, For the later period this list is in itself not of much value, since, though it gives a selection of the most important royal names correctly, it turns the kings of the Middle Kingdom back- wards, making the Xlllth Dynasty succeed the Vth, and the Xlth precede the XVIIIth, The Xllth Dynasty kings are given In their correct order — but backwards. The oldest list, that of Thutmose III (c. 1501—1447 B.C.) at Karnak, is evidently based largely upon tradition rather than formal chronicles, but it gives the names of a number of kings, known to us from monuments, that do not appear In the more reliable lists of the XlXth Dynasty. Such catalogues as these were not made for the first time under the XVIIIth and XlXth Dynasties, We know that much earlier lists existed, and not only lists but annals, inscribed upon stone stelae set up as public monuments, and we have portions of such dating from the time of the Vth Dynasty (c. 2965—2825 B.C., or in round numbers 2950-2800) in the * Palermo Stone' and other fragments of similar annal-stelae. These contained records of every regnal year back to the beginning of the 1st Dynasty, and gave the names of predynastic kings also. Had they been perfect they would have settled many disputed questions : as it Is, even in their fragmentary condition they are invaluable on account of their nearness in time to the most ancient period. The lists of the XlXth Dynasty are undoubtedly the basis of Manetho's work. But the Ptolemaic historiographer also used continuous annals, legendary and historical, which we no longer possess. These gave him the reasons for his division of the kings into dynasties, which are not Indicated in the lists, though the Turin Papyrus especially distinguishes the monarchs of the Old Kingdom (Manetho's I—VIII Dynasties) from those of the Middle Kingdom (Manetho's IX-XVII Dynasties). The break in his- 260 EGYPT: THE OLD KINGDOM [CHAP. torlcal continuity between the two Is fully recognized (see p. 298). Manetho goes further in recording the minor breaks 'between successive ruling families; and so far as we are able to chesk him from the contemporary monuments his division into dynasties is entirely justified. His authorities evidently were good. But un- happily his work has come down to us only in copies of copies; and, although the framework of the dynasties remains., most of his royal names, originally Graecized, have been so mutilated by non- Egyptian scribes, who did not understand their form, as often to be unrecognizable, and the regnal years given by him have been so corrupted as to be of little value unless confirmed by the Turin Papyrus or the monuments. The royal names given by Herodotus and Diodorus are entirely derived from tradition, recounted to them by Egyptian priests. Sometimes they are by no means bad representatives of the real names, especially in the case of the Pyramid-builders. But the true course of history was entirely deformed by the * Father of History/ and he makes the IVth Dynasty immediately precede the XXVIth, for reasons intelligible to students of Egyptian art, for the Sa'ite period was one of archaism, which carefully imitated in its monu- ments the style of the Pyramid-builders, All other 'classical' authorities are entirely valueless. To the skeleton supplied by Manetho even Champollion was able to fit many of the monuments then discovered, soon after his decipherment of the hieroglyphs (p. 1 1 6 j^*). But he mixed up the Xllth Dynasty with the Ethiopians of the XXVth, and J, G. Wilkinson was the first to discover the correct position of the kings of the XII th Dynasty, Lepsius merely confirmed the truth of Wilkinson's discovery. The finding of the Abydos list in 1864 (by Dumichen) settled the correct articulation of the skeleton. Since that time the work of fitting the kings, whose contemporary monuments we have, into the scheme, controlled and corrected by their own contemporary statements, has gone on until, at the beginning of the century, with the correct placing (by Steindorff) in the XHIth Dynasty of certain kings formerly supposed to belong to the Xlth, we had reached comparative certainty as far back as the end of the IHrd Dynasty, The earliest kings still remained unknown from contemporary monuments, and were generally relegated to the realm of legend, if not of fable. Then, at the turn of the century, came the discovery of the earliest royal tombs at Abydos, which in the time of the XlXth Dynasty had presumably turned the attention of the scribes of that time to the most ancient kings. Their lists and Manetho were aerain Justified VII, i] ORIGINS OF THE EGYPTIANS 261 in the main; the contemporary monuments of many of the kings of the first three dynasties were found, giving the real forms of the names that the later list makers had often misunderstood. But for the beginning of the 1st Dynasty it is evident that the Menes legend., the story of the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt, which was no doubt as well known in the time of Seti as in that of Herodotus, had to some extent confused the list-makers. Better interpretations of the Palermo Stone, new fragments of which have been recently published, and further archaeological dis- coveries, are enabling us to find our way even into the days before Menes, who though a legendary figure was no imaginary creation, since he was a real king, but in legend has attracted to himself the deeds of others who preceded and followed him, The question of the date of Menes and the unification of the kingdom has already been treated, and it has been urged that it cannot be placed later than about 3500 B.C. (p. 171). We have also seen that during the long predynastic age the Nile-dwellers passed from the use of stone to that of metals, and developed in the Delta and in Upper Egypt the Egyptian culture, which meets us in its own peculiar and characteristic guise, with its cult of the dead, its religion, its hieroglyphs, its art, and its state-organiza- tion, albeit in an archaic and comparatively primitive stage of development. This development has been ascribed to the infiltra- tion into Egypt from Syria of an alien race (* Armenoids *), who brought to the Nile-land a higher brain-capacity than that of the native Hamitic population, and therewith developed the native prehistoric culture into the ancient Egyptian civilization which we know. See pp. 244 sy.9 254 sq. The impulse to this movement was given before the actual unification of the kingdom and the founding of the 1st Dynasty. Until recent years it has generally been supposed that it was given by an invasion of 'Horns-Egyptians' from the south, either by way of the Wadi Hammamat (which reaches the Nile valley at Coptos, leaving the Red Sea at Koseir), or through Nubia. We certainly seem to have echoes of a conquest of Egypt from the south (and so entirely distinct from the *Armenoid* infiltration from the north) in the legends of the god Horus and his followers, assisted by the Mesentiu (usually, but very doubtfully, translated * smiths') of Edfu (the city of Horus) against the Intiu or aboriginal inhabitants of the Nile valley. The sky-god, Horus of Edfu, whose emblem was the falcon, was the oldest supreme deity of Upper Egypt, and the special protector of the royal house. He is represented in the legend as coming from Nubia with his followers 262 r EGYPT: THE OLD KINGDOM [CHAP. and his 'Mesentiu,' overthrowing the Intiu (who were the fol- lowers of his rival Set), until he finally expelled them from the Delta into Asia, much as the later Egyptians expelled the Hy ksos. Probably the legend, as we know it from Ptolemaic sources, has been contaminated by the stories of the union of the kingdom by the Horus-kings of the south (Menes) and of the expulsion of the Hyksos. The Intiu (whose name should mean 'pillar-folk') prob- ably represent the main stock of the Hamitic Nilotes, akin to the Mediterraneans and to the pre-Semitic inhabitants of Palestine, who, it may be presumed, gave to the Semites their worship of sacred trees and pillars (baetyK). These Intiu left traces of their name in Upper as well as Lower Egypt, at Dendera as well as at Heiiopolis (On). Set, 'the brother' of Horus, was originally an Upper Egyptian god (of Ombos) like him, and was only estab- lished in the Delta in later times, when the mention of him would naturally cause it to be supposed that Horus had expelled him from the Delta. Originally the legend may have been perhaps merely that of a more energetic tribe of Hamites, following the banner of the falcon, who came from the south and subdued their kinsmen, the pillar-folk of Upper Egypt. To assume, on the authority of the translation of the word Mesentiu as * smiths/ that they effected this conquest by means of their knowledge of metal, is, however, more than doubtful, as it is probable that the word has no such meaning. The Egyptians doubtless obtained their knowledge of copper- working from Mesopotamia by way of Syria, probably through the c Armenoid' race, which must already have made its appearance in Lower Egypt long before the end of the predynastic period. The land of Magan, which is mentioned in Sumerian Babylonian inscriptions of the fourth millennium B.C. as yielding copper, if rightly identified with Sinai, would suggest that Babylonians as well as Egyptians obtained copper from that peninsula. It would seem probable that the 'Armenoids,' if they also brought copper with, them, originally obtained it from further north, the mountains of the modern Armenia, as the Mesopotamians no doubt originally did* When the Egyptians took to using copper, a nearer source of the metal was found in Sinai, and the Babylonians also utilized it, going thither by sea in ships from the Persian Gulf. *Magan* means the land of ships, the land to which ships go, and it is obvious that much heavier masses of ore could be transported in a ship's hold than on donkey-back to the head waters of the Euphrates and Tigris and thence southward on rafts* A certain amount of Mesopotamian influence may have reached VII, i] HAMITES AND ARMENOIDS 263 Egypt at this time, traces of which have been found in the simi- larity of Babylonian and Egyptian mace-heads (p. 582), and the cornr&on use of the cylinder-seal, and of recessed brick walls. The invention of brick itself was no doubt of independent origin in both countries, as the shapes of the early Babylonian and the Egyptian brick are quite different. The cylinder-seal seems rather exotic in Egypt, where it died out at the beginning of the XVII Ith Dynasty, whereas in Mesopotamia it remained till the end (see pp, 255, 581 sg.*). In Egypt it is first made of wood (originally a section of reed ?), and may be an independent development. But the style of building with recessed walls and the common shape of the mace- head are not so easily explained away. However, whatever influence existed was slight, and Egyptian culture was little affected by it, The characteristic writing-system of Egypt had not, so far as we can yet see, a common origin with that of Mesopotamia, nor was it influenced by it. The Mesopotamian writing-system, originally hieroglyphic, had already become simplified into a semi-cuneiform system when the Egyptian script was still an archaic picture- writing. Whether the latter owes its origin to the Hamitic Egyptians or to the invading 'Armenoids* we do not know. It makes a very sudden appearance in Upper Egypt shortly before the unification, and this points to its having been introduced from the Delta. An ultimate Syro-Mediterranean origin is possible* There can be no doubt now that the impetus to the development of civilization was given by these Armenoids from the north; their skulls testify to the fact that their brain-capacity was greater than that of the native Hamites, their remains are found gradually percolating southward till, in the Illrd Dynasty, they are in Upper Egypt, and by the time of the Vth they are merging with the general population. We see their facial type, quite different from that of the 'Karaite Egyptians, in the statues of the great men of the court of the Pyramid-builders. They are powerful, big-boned, big-skulled people with broad faces and * mesa ti cephalic' heads, quite different from the slight, small-boned, long-headed, narrow- chinned and bird-like Arabs and Hamites; quite different again from the typical Anatolian 'Hittite,' with his big nose, retreating , chin, and'brachycephalic skull, and differing in face from the Syrian * Semite' (the 'Jewish' type), though resembling him in skull form. If, as has been conjectured, the Syrian type is the result of a fusion of * Armenoids' with the real Semitic Arab (who is first cousin of the Hamite), the Egyptian Armenoids rnust have belonged to the vanguard of the invasion, which passed on into 264 EGYPT: THE OLD KINGDOM [CHAP. Egypt before it had time to mix with the Semites or the related Mediterranean-Harnitic aboriginal population of Palestine! Where these 'Armen oids" came from is uncertain, although we .might well assign to them a common origin in middle Asia with the very similar 'Alpine' type of central Europe. However this may be, in Lower Egypt we find them as the dominant civilized aristocracy at the beginning of things, and it is by no means improbable that the ruling race of Upper Egypt, to which the unifiers of the kingdom belonged, were of 'Armenoid* origin. The invaders were originally few in number, and so they formed a ruling caste which adopted the civilization of the con- quered, and developed it. In the Delta they probably found civilization (of a primitive c Mediterranean ' type) much more ad- vanced than in the Upper country (see p. 256). What elements they contributed to the ensuing common civilization we cannot yet tell. The hieroglyphic system and all the accompanying culture that it implies may have been theirs, but was more likely * Medi- terranean/ The main stuff of the religion of Egypt, on the other hand, the characteristic animal-gods and most other of the more fundamental beliefs, must be Nilotic and belong to the Hamite indigenes. The god Osiris, however, at all events appears to be of Syrian origin, and so are the cultivation of wine and of wheat, both of which are associated with him* The Egyptian knowledge of bee-keeping and of honey was possibly also of Syrian origin, It Is significant that the ancient formal title of the king of Lower Egypt was *the Bee-man* or * Honey~man ' (byati). Certainly Palestine, 'the land of milk and honey 9 is more naturally the original home of agriculture than Egypt. But whether Osiris is * Arm en oid' or (perhaps more probably) belongs to the * Medi- terranean* pre-Semites of Palestine we do not know. Accordingly, we see Egypt originally inhabited by a stone-using Hamitic race, related to the surrounding Semites, Libyans, and Mediterraneans. A second wave of the same race then comes, perhaps from the south. A foreign race, metal-using, then invades from Syria. It starts the great development of culture and founds a northern kingdom in the Delta, where a primitive culture akin to that of the 'Mediterranean' Cretans and Aegean islanders probably already existed. No actual traces of such a primitive * Mediterranean ' culture in the Delta have yet been found, but its existence Is inherently probable, and many possible Indications of It may be seen in the later religious representations peculiar to the Delta, To it may have been due the invention of the hiero- glyphic writing. At all events, kings of this invading race came VII, i] KINGDOMS OF THE NORTH AND SOUTH 265 i ultimately to rule the south and unite the two kingdoms under their scSptre. W& have no means yet of estimating the duration of the period of the separate existence of the two kingdoms of the north and south, before the unification. Four centuries, perhaps, passed before this Egyptian civilization had progressed so far that the calendar was fixed, and the number of the months ordained, with the five intercalary days 'over and above the year/ It may have been in the year 4241 (or 4238) B.C* that this advance in civiliza- tion was made, as a Sothic period begins in that year. The year 2781 (or 2778) is too late, as before that time the calendar was already in full working order. Hence we must go back 1460 years, to about four or five centuries before the founding of the mon- archy, for the institution of the calendar, apparently in Lower Egypt (see pp. 168, 248 ^.). At that time no doubt the southern and northern dynasties existed, as the establishment of a calendar demands a state organization, with a royal will to direct it. And the hieroglyphic writing-system must also have existed in its beginnings. In the forty-third century B.C., therefore, we perhaps find Egypt already divided into two civilized communities, each under its own king. These kings of Upper and of Lower Egypt are those called by Manetho the 'dead demigods* (yeKvzs oi ypi- 0€0i). This appellation points to the fact that even to the early Egyptians they were shadowy figures of legend; for there is no doubt that Manetho's authorities, like those of his brother- chronicler, Berosus in Babylonia, were ancient. Probably the Old Kingdom Egyptians already regarded them as demigods. The predynastic kings of Upper Egypt were known to the later Egyptians as the 'Followers of Horus' (Shemsu-Hor)^ meaning either that they followed the falcon-god of Upper Egypt, Horus, upon the Hieraconpolite throne, or that they followed him to war in the legendary contest with Set, which we have already noticed. Probably both meanings were understood. As the representative of the falcon-god the king of Upper Egypt bore his name on a banner in the form of a palace-front, known as the serekfa, or 'Proclaimer,1 surmounted by the figure of the falcon* This is known to us generally as his 'Horns-name,7 his name as Horus, as king, which was assumed at his accession* The traditional centres of the two kingdoms were the cities of Sais and Buto in the Delta and those of Hieraconpolis and Edfu in the south. The memory of the original Dual State was always preserved. Neither was wholly absorbed into the other at the unification. The south conquered the north, but the north was 266 EGYPT: THE OLD KINGDOM [CHAP. admitted nominally, at least, to equal dignity with the dominating south. The monarch of the united kingdom was not rking of Egypt only, but king of Upper and Lower Egypt (In$-byai conventional transcription Nst-iytf). The Insi, the king of Upper Egypt, comes first, thus marking the primacy of the Upper Egyptian conqueror over the Byati or king of the Delta; and the ordinary Egyptian word for "king* Is insi1. The king is 'lord of the two lands' — though it has been suggested that this means lord of the two Nile banks; he is lord of the Upper Egyptian Vulture (since the vulture-goddess, Nekhebet, was the deity of Hieraconpolis), and of the Lower Egyptian Uraeus (since the serpent was the emblem of Uto, the goddess of Buto in the Delta), and so on. This last title seems to have been used from earliest times. And also from the first, union of both lands under one head was marked by the wearing by the earliest kings of the 1st Dynasty of the two peculiar crowns, the red crown of Lower Egypt and the white crown of Upper Egypt, And In the middle of the dynasty, Semtl Den, who was the first king to use the title insibya^ combined the two into one crown in which the white crown was the uppermost as the senior. But the memory of the older wearers of the red crown was not proscribed. They had been the legitimate kings of the Delta, And as such they were commemorated in the official records of the kingdom, The annals of the Old Kingdom, engraved upon stone stelae, and set up under the Vth Dynasty in various places, of which we have scattered specimens in the fragments of the 'Palermo Stone* and its congeners (see p. 259), gave lists of the pre-Menic kings of Lower as well as of Upper Egypt, each name being determined by a figure of the dead king wearing his peculiar white or red crown. The names of some of these early Delta kings are preserved: Tin, Thesh, Hsekiu, Uaznar, and others; they are primitive in form. No names of the early Hieraconpolite kings are preserved upon the extant fragments of the Vth Dynasty Annals; we know, however, that they existed thereon, from the occurrence, below a break in the stone, of the sign of the king wearing the white crown, which Is the * determinative* of a king of Uppef Egypt. 1 Professor Newberry has pointed out to the present writer that the Insi (^neset* or 'suten') was, not improbably, not the king of Upper Egypt proper, but of Middle Egypt, the portion of the Nile- valley of which Heracleopolis was the centre, immediately south of the Delta. Here was the Het-insi, 'the House of the InsiJ and it is probable that the title Insi was first adopted after the conquest of this territory by the Horus kings of the south. Very soon it meant king of Upper Egypt generally. VII, ij THE ORIGINALS OF 'MENES' 267 * The names of some of the pre-Menic kings of the south may have been preserved among relics discovered at Abydos, but It is probable that only two of these,, Ro and 'the Scorpion' (the cursive form of whose Horus-name was read by Petrie as *Ka'), were really kings at all. Ro, who is merely called 'the Horus Ro/ is probably a genuine pre-Menic king of the South* 'The Scorpion/ whose personal name was Ip, is called Horus and Insi (not /#j/- bya)+ He is known from monuments at Hieraconpolis which from their style must be placed immediately before those of Narmer or Narmerza, the conqueror of the north and unifier of the kingdom. The 'Scorpion* also conquered the north, and was probably the first to do so, his work being completed by Narmer, whose suc- cessor, Ahai or Aha, was the first to reign undisputed over united Egypt. The Scorpion ruled undoubtedly as far north as the apex of the Delta, as his name has been found at Turra. A short distance further south both he and Narmer appear at Tarkhan, near Kafir Ammar, between Cairo and Wasta. These kings, with Aha, are the historical originals of the legendary 'Menes/ the Mena or Meni of the Abydos list, From a newly discovered fragment of the Palermo Stone it would seem that the personal name of the king whose Horus-name was Zer was Atoti, who in the Abydos list is the second successor of Meni. In Manetho his immediate successor, Zer (Athothis), judging by the style of his monuments, succeeded Aha. The 'Teti f of the lists who precedes Atoti, will then be Aha, and Meni will be Narmer. Thus 'the Scorpion* appears neither in the lists, nor in Manetho, who based his work on them. But he undoubtedly belongs as much to the 1st Dynasty as does Narmer. Both Narmer and Aha seem to have borne also the appellation 'Men/ *Teti* may in reality be a mere reduplication of Atoti, due to confusion in the traditional accounts, Aha being really Menes II, and Narmer Menes L In legends not only Narmer, but the Scorpion also, are . evidently included in the saga of Menes, who thus appears to be a * conflate' personage of. legend, bearing the name of the third of the great kings of the beginning of the 1st Dynasty, but including the deeds of all three. The dominating personality of the three is the first historical Menes, Narmer (c* 3500 B.C.). The later list makers were confused by the fact that in Narmer and Aha they had two claimants to the honour of being * Meni/ hence they transferred the former to a later period, reading his Horus-name, Narmer or Narmerza, as 'Buzau/ the Boethos of Manetho, who follows the lists in placing him at the beginning of his Ilnd Dynasty. Such are the conclusions to which the progress of discovery seems 268 EGYPT: THE OLD KINGDOM [CHAP. to lead us; but It must be borne in mind that a new discovery may at any moment cause us to revise our statements as to these early kings1 . The chief monument of the ( Scorpion' at Hieraconpolis is » great ceremonial mace-head of stone (now at Oxford), on which are reliefs of crude vigour representing the royal hawk swooping in conquest,, and rows of miserable-looking crested birds, rekhyut (the ideograph of "mankind '), hung by their necks from standards bearing repre- sentations of the sacred animals of the south, and thus symbolizing conquest by the southerners. With this were found the famous relics of Narmer, perhaps the most remarkable monuments of archaic Egyptian art; vix* another ceremonial mace-head (now at Oxford), and the ceremonial 'palette' (at Cairo). This latter is a formal development of the slate palette, on which the primitive Egyptians mixed paint; it is constantly found in the predynastic tombs, and apparently one of the first objects to which the nascent art of the Egyptian decorator was turned* On the mace-head we see the king celebrating the 6W~festival? which has been regarded as the survival of an ancient custom (with many parallels elsewhere) of killing the king at the end of a thirty-years' reign. This custom was probably in abeyance by Narmer's time: we do not suppose the monument actually commemorates his forcible death, though he may have been deposed. Later on, it was always cele- brated by the king, dressed up as the mummy, Osiris, and not always after a thirty-years' reign; it became one of the many pompous ceremonies in which the Pharaoh had to take the leading part. On the palette we see him wearing the red crown, inspecting the headless bodies of slain northerners, attended by his vizier (zati) 'the Man/ as opposed to 'the God/ /. after Menkaure's time, the title Sa-Re, 'Son of the Sun-god/ as well as that of insibya* Kakau was the first to use an additional name (Neferirikere) compounded with the name of the sun-god. His successors did not always do so at first. When two names were used, both are usually, but not invariably, enclosed in cartouches,, or are combined in one cartouche. Under the Xllth Dynasty the regular use of two names in separate cartouches and preceded by separate titles is fixed : the additional name assumed at accession comes first preceded by the Insibya-titl^ and the personal name follows preceded by the titles of 'Son of the Sun/ 'Lord of the Two Lands, ' etc, ' Neferirikere's brother Userkaf founded the dynasty. The sixth 286 EGYPT: THE OLD KINGDOM [CHAP. ruler, *Neuserre-An, Is the next king of note, the two intervening monarchs, Shepseskere and Khaneferre, being short-lived and unimportant. These three were also probably brethren, sf>ns of Neferirikere. Neuserre reigned thirty years, and celebrated the Sed festival in his thirtieth, according to custom. Of the original three, Sahure was a warrior, and went to Sinai, where he set up his memorial stele; but otherwise he and his successor Neferirikere, and the longer-lived Neuserre, are chiefly known as the builders of the pyramids of Abusir, the excavation of which has shed much additional light upon the art and religion of the time. Sculptured reliefs now for the first time appear upon the walls of the pyramid-temples, and great red granite columns for the first time uphold its roof, fashioned in the form of papyrus- plants and lilies, opened and closed: forms which were preserved till the end In Egyptian architecture. And we now see the gods in the forms which they continued to retain : religious art has now reached its final epoch of development, henceforward the deities are always represented as they were depicted under the Vth Dynasty (see p. 574). One thing we do not see again: the special sanc- tuaries of Re that accompany these pyramids, with their truncated obelisks on mounds, their huge circular alabaster altars and basins, with runlets to catch the blood of the sacrifices, and the great boats, reproductions of the bark in which the sun crossed the heavens by day and returned to his starting-place through the underworld of the dead by night* In the inscriptions of the time the nobles specially mention themselves as priests of this sun-stone on its mound. But after the end of the Vlth Dynasty and the retransference of power to the south it disappears. The architecture and decoration of these temples are splendid, but the pyramids themselves seemed to have suffered from com- Srative lack of attention, as, instead of being built of solid granite Dcks throughout, like their predecessors, they have a core of rubble. There is a falling-ofF here, and in the art of the time we may perhaps see an alteration that speaks of the beginning of degen- eracy. In sculpture the rugged strength of the IVth Dynasty is much modified, and delicacy of treatment begins to take its place. The portrait-figures of the nobles, found in their tombs, are still wonderful, so far as the heads are concerned, though still not so good as those of the IVth Dynasty. There is something wanting: power is lacking; the upward impulse is already beginning to ebb. And we can see a proof of the arrest of inspiration in the fact that in these statues of the Vth Dynasty, while the heads are still great portraits, there is no development in the treatment of the VII, m] ART AND RELIGION 287 * rest of the body* Had the progress of the IVth Dynasty been continued, the sculptors would surely have turned their attention next to the trunk and limbs. But these are less shapely than In the preceding generation. A convention Is being established, and the characteristic Egyptian treatment of the body stereotyped at the stage of achievement reached by the sculptors of the IVth Dynasty* The evidently greater religiosity of the time, under the influence of the Heliopolitan cult, was probably the cause of the establishment of the artistic conventions. It had been impious to depict the gods in other guise than that which they had assumed under the earliest dynasties and the religious convention was now extended to the representation of ordinary mortals. The assump- tion of the throne by the high-priest of Heliopolis, secular noble though he was also, would mean a great accretion of prestige to the priestly office as such. The Uer-maa (* Great Seer *), as the high-priest at On was called, was a noble whose sacerdotal functions were so Important as to make him quite as much priest as layman. The two high-priests of Ptah in Memphis, both of whom bore the title of Uer-khorp- hemtiu ('Great Chief of Artificers'), were now equally important from the religious point of view. And from this time we may date the beginnings of the separation of the priest from the rest of the community, though it must be remembered that this separation never went so far as has been inferred from the statements of Herodotus: even in his time they did not form a ' caste* apart, In the Indian sense, though they were an enormously influential "class.* Under the Vth Dynasty the sacerdotal subordinates of the high-priest were also laymen who at stated times officiated as the * servants of the god' (hemu-neter)^ and alongside him stood the * Treasurer of the god,' who no doubt conducted the temple- business. Priesthoods of the royal pyramid-temples were conferred on deserving subjects, and each noble himself nominated hemu-kay servants of his 'double,* to maintain the funerary offerings at his tomb; and for the maintenance of these chantry priests regular legal grants of revenues and land were made in the wills of the deceased. These foundations corresponded exactly to our mediaeval 'chantries'; like them they were intended to last for ever, and like them fell into desuetude when owing to civil turmoil or other causes the revenues which supported them came to an end* It is to these tomb-chaplains that the inception of the later pro- fessional priestly caste may perhaps be traced. Henceforward we gradually see the tomb assuming more and more importance in the Egyptian mind, and under the next 288 EGYPT: THE OLD KINGDOM [CHAP. dynasty the practice of mummification., generally very rare, becomes more usual, but is not yet general (see pp. 32*1^336). The preservation of the body itself is now considered desirable, both as the residence of the * double/ which survived invisible in the tomb, and in order to enable the dead man to live again in the underworld as he had on earth — the reason, as we have seen, for the elaborate reliefs of the tomb-chamber. In the case of ordinary persons this aim was not attained until much later. On one view, this solicitude for the ka explains the presence of the portrait- statues in the tombs. A king, like Khafre, had many statues which were set up in his temple, for offerings to be made to them as to a god. The private person of high degree had his statues placed in the serdab or walled-up hollowed space behind the stele in the tomb. They were not intended as memorials for a posterity that it was hoped would never see them, but, probably, as simulacra of the deceased in which the ka could live. To ensure this, in some tombs reserve stone heads, life-size, were provided as an alternative to full-size statues. See, for another view, p. 337. Under the Vth Dynasty still more than under the IVth the tomb is the chief source for our knowledge of the time, and the reliefs of the vast tomb at Sakkarah of the royal secretary Ti, chief of the royal works, and priest of Neuserre's pyramid, are among the best known of the ancient representations of the life of that day. In the reign of Dedkere Isesi (V. 2883—2855 B.C. ?), the second successor of Neuserre, lived a famous wise man named Ptahhotep, who wrote a number of proverbial sayings of which we possess a papyrus copy of the Middle Kingdom, the oldest monument of Egyptian literature extant. We also possess fragments and excerpts of much later date; for the * admonitions of Ptahhotep* were used as a school book in later days, and the Egyptian school boy of the XVII Ith and XlXth Dynasties conned the words of the ancient sage and wrote his school copies of them on the frag- ments of white limestone which corresponded to the * slate' of not many years ago. Ptahhotep, an old man, first describes the miseries of old age, *the worst of all misfortunes that can befall a man,' and then, on the principle that *it is no use being old unless you are clever/ repeats, at the order of the king and for the instruction of the crown prince, the proverbial philosophy which he had thought out during the course of his long life. It is of a naively worldly kind, inculcating proper reverence to superiors lest worse befall, and decent behaviour to inferiors lest the anger of the gods be provoked; instruction in the proper way to behave at table VII, in] THE '•ADMONITIONS OF PTAHHOTEP* 289 follows, and a man is bidden not to look too scrutinizingly at his food,, at*all events if it is the gift of a greater than himself. Hints as to th.e proper conduct of servants in great families are provided, and the main points of etiquette pointed out. The proper way to manage a wife is fully explained : * Give her food in abundance and raiment for her back, anoint her with unguents/ Wife-beating is reproved as impolitic: 'Be not harsh in thy house, for she will be more easily moved by persuasion than by violence/ The nou^oeau riche is warned that it is not tactful for him to be too high and mighty, and the wisest man is held to be he who keeps his mouth shut. This oldest proverbial philosophy of the world is naturally of extraordinary interest as a document for the history of mental development, and the Martin Tupper of 3000 B.C. is a very human old figure with his aches and pains and his wise saws (see also below, p. 348 sq.). Another worthy of Isesi's reign was the Chancellor Baurded, who travelled to the land of Puenet, and brought back thence a dwarf of the kind called deneg^ and was much honoured by the king therefore. These dwarfs were regarded as great curiosities and were taught to take part in the festival dances before the gods with the princesses and waiting-women of the harem, who took the role of priestesses. We hear of Baurded from the inscription of Herkhuf, who under the VI th Dynasty also went to Puenet and brought back a similar dwarf, He went by land, up the Nile and through the Sudan, and so no doubt did Baurded. Puenet (often called Punt), was probably the modern Somaliland, and a sea expedition thither was by no means out of the power of the princes of the Vth Dynasty. Great ships for the Nile were built as early as the time of the 1st and Ilnd Dynasties, and at the end of the Illrd we know that they -went to sea in the Mediterranean. Snefru sent 40 ships to Phoenicia, which came back laden with great balks of cedar from the Lebanon. And under the Vth Dynasty Sahure actually represents on the walls of his tomb-temple the sailing of a naval expedition on the waters of the Red Sea, probably to Sinai. A large ship is shown returning to Egypt with Semitic prisoners on board. But as the overland way to Puenet was no doubt open, as it was in the time of Herkhuf about a century later, Baurded probably went by land. Neuserre, Menkauhor and Isesi are all commemorated on the rocks of Sinai, and we have an interesting record of movement further afield in a representation in the tomb of a Vth Dynasty noble named Inti at Deshasheh in Upper Egypt. This shows an attack by Egyptian warriors, no doubt commanded by Inti, on C.A.H.I 19 290 EGYPT: THE OLD KINGDOM [CHAP, the stockaded or walled settlements of northern foreigners, who are evidently Semites. Their villages, named 'the enemy town Nedya, the enemy town 'En-Ka, . ./ (i.e. the Spring [W#] of Ka. . . 5?)3 must be in southern Palestine. There is a vivid repre- sentation of the siege of one town : the men are breaking their bows in despair, some of the women are succouring the wounded, while others with the old men and children stand before the sheikh, who is seated on his stool, tearing his long hair with grief, and beseech him to surrender. Men are listening with anxiety on their side of the wall, just where the Egyptians are making a breach with poles under the direction of a very composed Egyptian officer who leans nonchalantly on a staff looking on. Other Egyptians are raising a scaling-ladder against the outer face of the wall, Outside a general massacre of other inhabitants is proceeding, a train of captives is being led away bound with a rope, and one, a girl, is flung over the shoulder of her captor. This was no doubt a mere raid for slaves, perhaps in revenge for some marauding attack on the Delta. We find it repeated on a larger scale in the expedition of Uni under the next dynasty (p. 293), The successor of Isesi was Unis. Both kings are said to have had long reigns, of 28 and 30 years respectively. Unis (c. 2855— 2825 B.C.?) is remarkable only as the builder of the pyramid for himself at Sakkarah, which is the first to contain written spells and prayers for the dead king's safety in the next world (p. 330), They contain matter of very great anthropological interest. The gods are represented as being terrified at the arrival of Unis among them: 'the heavens open, and the stars tremble when this Unis comes forth as a god*; for Unis is to obtain strength by devouring the gods themselves ('the old gods shall be thy meat in the even- ing, the young gods shall be thy meat in the morning'), and he is to boil their bones to prepare his food. This is unadulterated African savagery, and is either the product of barbarous necromancers, or, more probably, a survival of very early days indeed. The reemer- gence of such types of primitive savagery was not rare in Egypt even in much later times than these. The same texts were copied in the pyramids of the kings of the Vlth Dynasty, which now followed. The Vlth Dynasty (c* 2825—2630?) was founded by a certain Tetij whose relationship to Unis we do not know. But we see no sign of forcible revolution, as at the beginning of the Vth Dynasty. He was followed by an ephemeral Ati, who bore the second name Userkere. These two (merged by Manetho into Othoes) were merely the prelude to the energetic king Pepi I Merire, who, though he did not reign as long as his centenarian son, Pepi II, VII, m] THE SIXTH DYNASTY 291 was otherwise a far more notable monarch, and is the central figure of the new dynasty. Manetho calls him Phios, and credits him wj.th a reign of 53 years (c. 2795—2742 B.C.?), We have contemporary monumental evidence for his forty-ninth and fiftieth year, so that the Turin Papyrus, which gives him only twenty years, is here known to be in error, a fact that should warn us against accepting the evidence of the papyrus without critical examination in any doubtful case, Pepi must have been a very young man at his accession, and we see him represented as he was in his vigorous youth, in the magnificent bronze (?) statue of himself, accompanied by a smaller figure of his son, that was found at Hieraconpolis and is now in the Cairo Museum. It was found broken in several pieces, and has been skilfully put together. Luckily the metal had not become so severely oxidized as to make it impossible to do this. The figure of the king was originally six feet, and that of his son about three feet high. The king's head originally bore a crown, possibly of precious metal, which was no doubt stolen when the figures were broken up in ancient days. He wore otherwise only the waistcloth, which also has disappeared. He stands with left leg advanced, and a raised left hand, which originally held a staff or sceptre. The son is represented as a naked small boy: his face is extremely well preserved. Both heads were apparently cast, the rest of the bodies being put together of hammered plates of what is said to be bronze, over a wooden core. The heads have inlaid eyes of obsidian and white limestone. A similar techniqiie is known from early Babylonia, where, in 1 9 1 9 at Tell el-£Obeid, near Tell Mukayyar (c Ur of the Chaldees *), the present writer, when ex- cavating for the British Museum, discovered copper figures of lions and bulls made in the same way with bodies hammered over wood and heads cast (p. 585)* In their case, however, the heads had been filled with bitumen to strengthen them, and their eyes are of red jasper, white shell, and blue schist, inlaid and fastened to the bitumen core by copper wire. These Sumerian copper figures are some centuries older than the Pepi group1. Pepi's portrait is 1 That the Sumerian figures are copper is proved by the analysis of Dr Alexander Scott, F.R.S. That the Egyptian figures are of bronze seems doubtful (p. 585); a fresh analysis is very desirable. ^A contemporary seal- cylinder analysed by Berthelot {La CMmie au Moym dge^ i, p. 365) is of pure copper, and is proof of the general use of the unalloyed metal as late as the Vlth Dynasty. A stray exception is the famous IVth Dynasty bronze rod from Medum, found by Petrie. The first real use of bronze begins about the Xllth Dynasty, the period of the Hyksos, whose victory may hare been due to their bronze weapons (see below, pp. 311 sqq., 319, 572). 19—2 EGYPT: THE OLD KINGDOM [CHAP. that of a good-looking and intelligent young man, with broad forehead, prominent nose, full mouth and chin. That* he^ was energetic we know from the number of temples that he^ either builder rebuilt throughout Egypt. Most of the chief sanctuaries of Egypt had owed something to his building activity, though his actual work largely disappeared in the course of later rebuilding. In his day it first became the royal custom to mark the king's reign by great temple works that should at once evince his piety, glorify his reign, and perpetuate his name for all time. More than any king before him Pepi used the splendid red granite of Aswan for this work, and in his time the famous quarries began to produce the increased output that continued with intermissions to the days of the Romans. We have several records at this time of the expeditions which were sent to procure this stone. One of the best known is that of the high official Uni, who was one of the most prominent men of Pepi's day, and was a very old man when he was sent to bring granite from the cataract in the reign of his successor. He was a contemporary of Pepi, having been born in the reign of Teti, and was probably brought up with Pepi at the court. At his accession Pepi made him rekh-neset (*king-knower') or * Companion, ? and superintendent of the royal domain, specially charging him with the oversight of the royal harem, in which he had to deal with various confidential matters, which he settled, with the vizier as his sole assessor. In a matter of the highest secrecy, however, which concerned the honour of the queen, Ixntis, against whom * legal proceedings were Instituted in camera within the harem,' he acted as sole judge: *no chief judge and vizier at all, no prince was there, but only I alone.* He drew up the frocks-herbal in writing, with a subordinate judge to advise him on legal points. * Never before had one of my standing heard the secret of the king's harem/ Then Pepi gave his faithful servant command of an expedition against the Herm-sha^ "those who are upon the sands/ probably the inhabitants of the half-cultivated sand-dune country of the Mediterranean coast about the modern el-Arish and Rafah or else on the Gulf of Suez. He assembled an army * of many ten thousands/ from all parts of the Egyptian realm, from the negroes of the Sudan, and the Libyans west of the Delta, as well as from the Egyptians from Aswan to Atfih. Uni in his inscription celebrates the victory of his army in seven couplets (see p, 343)* The stock- ades of the enemy are besieged, fruit trees destroyed, the dwellings put to the flames and the warriors slain in myriads. We have seen IX, in] PYTHAGOREAN MATHEMATICS 291 After TJbtales come Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans. The Pythagoreans, says Aristotle, devoted themselves to mathematics and were the first to advance that science as a study pursued for its own sake1. They made geometry a part of liberal educa- tion: their quadrivium comprised arithmetic, geometry, sphaeric (astronomy) and music. By arithmetic in this classification is meant, not the arithmetic of daily life, but the theory of numbers in themselves. We have seen (vol. iv, p. 547) that Pythagoras discovered that the musical intervals correspond to certain arith- metical ratios between lengths of string at the same tension, 2, : i giving the octave, 3 : 2, the fifth and 4 : 3 the fourth. These ratios are the same as those of 12 to 6, 8, 9 respectively, and 6:8 = 9:12, so that this proportion shows all three intervals. The principle of proportion so established became a uniform principle for all science and notably for medicine. An easy transition from arithmetic to geometry, from numbers to geometrical magnitudes, was through figured numbers, tri- angles, squares, etc. marked out by dots. This revealed a law of formation. Three dots were placed in contiguity to one dot so as to form a square, five dots round two sides of that square gave the next square, and so on, showing that the sum of any number of terms of the series of odd numbers beginning with r is a square number; to add any odd number to the sura of all the preceding odd numbers (including i) made one square into the next larger square; hence the odd numbers were called gnomons. If the gnomon (odd number) so added is itself a square, we have two square numbers the sum of which is also a square; and from this is easily deduced the general formula (attributed to Pythagoras) for finding three numbers the squares of two of which are together equal to the square of the third. Any triangle with its sides in the ratio of three such numbers is right-angled; hence the rule is connected with the theorem of the square on the hypotenuse, the proof of which Greek tradition uniformly ascribes to Pythagoras. The comparison, again, of right-angled triangles having their sides in the ratio of integral numbers with other right-angled triangles led to the discovery of the irrational or incommensurable. Not only did the Pythagoreans discover that the ratio of the hypo- tenuse of an isosceles right-angled triangle to one of its other sides 1 The Pythagoreans expressed this idea in their motto found that the capital was better placed towards the north. Never- 302 EGYPT: THE MIDDLE KINGDOM [CHAP, thelesS, they did not restore either Heracleopolis or Memphis to this position^, but, instead, built for their capital a fortress-city between the two, in the neighbourhood of the modern JLisht, which they called Itht-toui, * Controller of the Two Lands/ a name which explains its character and function. The kings of the Xllth Dynasty were strangers in the north. We do not know whether Amenemhet I or his predecessor, Nebhapetre, legitimized their position by marriage with the Memphite or the Heracle- opolite family or with both. But the fact remained that they were the descendants of the mere nomarch of Hermonthis and Thebes, places entirely undistinguished in previous history, and that (possibly owing to the invasion of the southerly nomes by Nubian and negro barbarians after the close of the VI th Dynasty), they had become the wardens of the south, and had then assumed the Pharaonic dignity and enforced their claim to it by arms. They did not attempt to hide their origin. Thebes was never ashamed of it, and in the (otherwise very inaccurate) Karnak list of kings even the nomarch Iniotefi is commemorated as erpati. Moreover, Senusret I set up a statue in honour of *his father, the erpafi^ Intef-o, born of Ikui/ This is probably the nomarch Intefi, though he is given the peculiar name (Intef-o) of king Uah-ankh. Comparatively plebeian origin was thus openly confessed, and a show of force seemed necessary to assure the royalty of the new house, at all events in the north, where the kings lived, in order to check instantly any attempt at revolt. Amenemhet I was no doubt the builder of Itht-touL The energy and determination he showed was maintained by his successors, especially by Senusret III (Sesostris) and Amenemhet III (Lamaris), two of the greatest rulers that not only Egypt, but even the world, has ever seen. 'Char- acter* is the distinguishing mark of these kings, and energy is evident in their contemporary portraits, which seem to show a strain of negro blood, probably derived from fierce Sudanese invaders of the south, three centuries or more before. In them the Pyramid-builders were re-born, Khufu and Khafre had come again. The * hereditary prince* (erpati-hatio) still rules his nome as in the days of the Pepis; he is still locally almost independent of the king. But the latter no longer impotently tolerates his independ- ence and his waging of private war, but watches him cat-like from his lair at Itht-toui, ready to pounce at any sign of defiance of the royal authority. This was still precarious, and the passage from one reign to another was always dangerous. For this reason Amenemhet I inaugurated the institution of co-regency, character- istic of this dynasty, so that in his old age he might have by his VIII, i] THE INSTRUCTIONS OF AMENEMHET 303 side a younger and vigorous fellow-king, bound to him by ties of self-interest, even if those of filial duty had no weight, who would succee^ him automatically and obviate the danger of an interreg- num and revolt of feudatories. This device is characteristic of the politic mind of the founder of the Xllth Dynasty, who bequeathed to his son a set of maxims, renowned in later days as a classic, * the Instructions of king Sehetepibre/ inculcating a hard wisdom. Above all, his successor is warned to have no friends. "Fill not thy heart with a brother, know not a friend, make not for thyself intimates wherein there is no end, harden thyself against sub- ordinates, that thou mayest be king of the earth, that thou mayest be ruler of the lands, that thou mayest increase good/ This note of * increasing good* is characteristic of this king and of his dynasty; and their claim is justified that in their time the good of the people as a whole was considered and furthered. *I was one who cultivated grain and loved Nepri the harvest-god; the Nile greeted me in every reach; none was hungry in my years, none thirsted then; men dwelt in peace through my deeds and spake concerning me/ says Amenemhet in his * Instructions/ We meet, in the mind of Amenemhet, for the first time, the conception of single-minded public duty, and the obligation of the king to benefit his subjects, which became the tradition of his descend- ants. They, following his policy, succeeded in the end in completely breaking the power of the local princes, and re-established a cen- tralized state like that of the IVth Dynasty, though of course with differences of detail, and with a higher purpose, Amenemhet spent his life1 in visiting every part of his dominions 1 A most interesting object of his time, probably, is the lapis seal-cylinder, a bilingual, published by Pinches and Newberry, Journ. of Eg. Arch, vii, 1921, pp. 196 sqq. It contains the Babylonian name Pikin~ili, or rather Wakin-ili, and that of the Egyptian king, Sehetepibre", probably the first of the three who bore this name, Wrs. Amenemhet I. Certainly the cutting of the Egyp- tian signs is of XII th Dynasty character. The character of the cuneiform itself is inconclusive; and it cannot be maintained that, because it resembles that of Sargon of Akkadand Naram-Sin, the date of Amenemhet, and therefore of the Xllth Dynasty, should be carried back to their time. The name of the Babylonian owner is of a period not earlier than that of Hammurabi (c. 2100 B.C.), which is broadly that of the Xllth Dynasty. To date the latter (with Petrie) 1460 years before 2000 would take us to 3460 B.a, the days of the earliest Sumerian patesis, before cuneiform really existed, and long before such an inscription as that of Wakin-ili could have been cut; though, of course, it might be argued that Wakin-ili had his name inscribed on the cylinder centuries after it was made. Hence the later date for the Xllth Dynasty — not earlier than 2200 B.C. — still remains the more prob- able. See also p, 1 69. 304 EGYPT: THE MIDDLE KINGDOM [CHAP. and iri warring against the barbarians on every hand. Towards the end of his life the young king Senusret (Sesostris I),*his son, naturally took his place'in warlike expeditions; and while he ]yas ab- sent on one of these in Libya, the old king died and was buried in a pyramid at Lisht, close to Itht-touL We know of the circumstances from the Romance of Sanehat or Sinuhe, the story of a young noble who accompanied Senusret. *In the year 30, second month of the first season, on the yth day, departed the god into his horizon, the insibya Seheteplbre. He ascended to heaven, he joined the sun; the divine limbs were mingled with him that begat him. At the court was silence; the great double doors were closed, the court sat mourning, the people bowed down in silence/ On the arrival of the news of the king's death, Senusret immediately left the army ('the hawk, he flew; together with his following, not letting the army know7), In order to ensure his accession. SInuhe, how- ever, for reasons which we do not gather, but were probably con- nected with some intrigue against Senusret, of which he was cognizant or In which he had taken part, fled alone, crossed the Delta, and exiled himself till old age with a Semitic tribe. Eventu- ally he was pardoned and returned to Egypt, to be received in full state by the king, and be buried in a tomb, the royal gift, as befitted an Egyptian noble, and not in a sheepskin like an Arab. All this we learn from the story, a classic of the Xllth Dynasty, known to us from no less than twelve papyri and ostraca (see pp. 226 £f#.). Amenemhet I had reigned thirty years (c, 2212—2182 B.C.?). Of these the last ten were shared with his son. Comparatively full as our knowledge is with regard to the history of the IVth to the VI th Dynasties, our information with regard to the Xllth is far more complete. All the lists agree with each other and with the monuments as to names; and the Turin Papyrus gives 213 years for the length of the dynasty, the monuments apparently 212. Manetho's years are not very correct, but Ms names (since the necessary emendations of his copyists* errors are easily made) are very accurate Contemporary records of dates in the years of the various reigns are frequent, and can be checked by each other in several instances owing to the habit of co-regency which was regular during the first half of the reign (see above). The Turin Papyrus allows for these co-regencies. We have now, therefore, passed from the region of guess-work Into one of documented history. Senusret I ('Usret's Man') bore the name of Usret, a god- dess not often met with in Egyptian mythology and usuallv VIIL i] SENUSRET I AND GREAT FEUDATORIES 305 Identified with Isis. It is the original of the cSesostris* of the Greeks. *But whereas Manetho's copyists have preserved it for Senusixt II, in the case of the first of the name some careless transcriber has confused it with the name of the much later king Sheshonk (the biblical Shishak) and gives it as 'Sesonkhosis/ His throne-name was Kheperkere. He reigned 45 years in all (c. 2192-2157 B.C.?), ten in conjunction with his father and three with his son. Seven years before his father's death he officially laid the foundation of a new and splendid temple of the Sun at Heliopolis (On), the sole remaining relic of which is his red granite obelisk still standing amid the palms of Matarieh. Its fellow fell in 1258 A.D. and has disappeared. Another monument of his is the small round-topped obelisk at Ebgig, in the Fayyum. He built extensively at Abydos and Karnak. We have a fine lime- stone relief of him from Coptos, which shows how entirely the art of Egypt had recovered from the dark age into which it had fallen after the time of the Pepis, and from which it only began to emerge in the days of Nebhapetre. The work of the time of Amenernhet I is already of extraordinary delicacy and beauty. The tomb of the nome-prince Ameni at Beni-Hasan is one of the finest in Egypt, with beautiful painted decoration showing the taste and sense of proportion characteristic of the art of the dynasty (seep. 575). From its inscriptions we learn that the king was an energetic warrior, and carried his arms into Kush, the nome of Ethiopia, which we first find mentioned under the Vlth Dynasty, and is now the usual appellation of the Nubian land. Ameni seems to have been a loyal feudatory who followed his king to war with all the forces of his nome. Stelae were set up by Amenemhet I at Korosko to record 'the overthrow of Wawat* (northern Nubia between the First and Second Cataracts), which had presumably revolted at the change of dynasty. And at Wadi Haifa Senusret I commemorated his further conquests. He presumably reoccupied southern Nubia, between the Second and Third Cataracts, which had already belonged to Pepi L Hapzefi, prince of Siut, was Senusret's governor at Kerma (the Third Cataract)* He is well known from his great tomb at Siut, in which are inscribed his numerous benefactions and chantry- foundations. But he was never buried in this tomb. He died at Kerma, and was interred there under a great mound, in Nubian fashion, surrounded by the bodies of Nubian slaves who were killed in order to accompany him to the next world. The discovery of this gives a new idea of the relations of the Egyptians to their Nubian subjects. We see these ruled, apparently, by tyrannical C.A.H.I 20 3c6 EGYPT: THE MIDDLE KINGDOM [CHAP. Egyptian satraps, who treated them as slaves. From the relics found in the burial of Hapzefi we perceive that a sort of colonial art had begun to arise In Nubia: Egyptian Ideas were clumsily copied and modified by the natives. From this time dates the 'Egyptianization* of the Nubians, which in far later days caused Egyptian civilization to survive there In a debased form when it was dead In Egypt itself. Mixed with the native Nubians were the negroes, who had probably overrun the country, and perhaps even penetrated Into Egypt itself during the intermediate period between the Old and Middle Kingdoms. The expeditions of the kings of the Xllth Dynasty seem chiefly to have been directed against the negroes who were recognized as formidable foes, and in the time of Senusret III seem to have pushed the Egyptians back from the Third to the Second Cataract. Senusret I was burled in the southern pyramid of Lisht, in the Immediate vicinity of Itht-touL Ten colossal seated figures of the king In white limestone were found In a court east of the pyramid, and are now In the Cairo Museum. His successor Amenemhet II Nubkaure, reigned 35 years (c. 2150—2115 B.C.?), three years In conjunction with his father, and three with his son. Manetho calls him Ammanemes, and says he was slain by his guards. He was the least-distinguished of his dynasty; and several of the great men of his time are better known to us than he, notably Khnum- hotep, son of Neheri (prince of the nomeof Mahez, whose tomb at Bern-Hasan is one of the most interesting there), Tahutihetep of el-Bersheh, Sihathor the explorer of the Nubian gold-mines, and Khentekhtal-uer, who sailed to Puenet and returned to Koseir In peace with his ships in the king's twenty-fourth year. The gold of Nubia was now flowing in a steady stream into the royal coffers; and though we may see in this reign a falling-off from the energy of the two preceding, and possibly a revival of activity on the part of the feudatories, the accession of wealth to the court did much to secure the position of the king. Se&ustet 11^ Khakheperre, reigned nineteen years (V, 2118- 2099 B^^thiree years with his father and possibly an unknown number of years witH his son* Like his predecessor, he does not seem to have been a warrior, arid Nut>Ia was probably peaceable during his reign. Egypt was rich and prosperous, and Its fertility and abundance were now attracting a considerable immigration of Semites from the desert into the settled land. In the tomb of Neheri's son Khnumhotep at Beni-Hasan, already mentioned, we see depicted the reception of a body of 37 Aamu (bedouins), led by a chief, Abshai, who brought with them tribute of meszamut, VIII, ij RELATIONS WITH CRETE 307 or green antimony eye-painty the modern kohl^ which was, and still is, muclrprized by the Egyptians (see p. 228). This was in the sixth year ofjSenusret IL Relations existed with other foreigners besides the Semites. At Kahun in the ruins of the town of the workmen who built the pyramid of the king at Illahun, near the entrance to the Fayyum, have been found many fragments of the contem- porary polychrome pottery of the Minoans of Crete. This ware, known as * Kamarais ' or * Kamares * ware, from the locality of the cave on the southern slope of Mount Ida? in which a great quan- tity of it was found, is of the period commonly designated as < Middle Minoan II,* which was thus contemporary with the Xllth Dynasty (see p. 175). We know that relations with Crete existed even earlier .than this, for the spiral design which suddenly appears on Egyptian scarabs of the time of Senusret I was of Aegean or more northern origin, and the art of glazing pottery was probably imported from Egypt into Crete earlier still. The forms of Cretan stone vases of the older * Early Minoan' period also appear often to be imitated from those made in Egypt under the Vlth Dynasty and earlier. The ships of Snefru that went to Phoenicia were no doubt soon succeeded by others that coasted round the southern shore of Asia Minor, and that the early Cretans were keen seafarers who could well cross the sea to Libya and thence coast to Egypt we know* In the time of Sankhkere, Henu, the Puenet-farer, had defeated an attack of the Haau — a name read later as 'Haunebu' and identified with the Greeks of the Delta. The pyramid-town in which the users of Cretan pottery dwelt was called f these foreigners dressed themselves in the titles and authority of native pharaohs, they were never accepted as rightful kings. Only for a short period did they succeed in conquering Upper Egypt and ruling the whole country. Thebes made a stout fight against them at the beginning under the later Intefs; and it was at Thebes under their descendants the Sekenenres that the national revolt began which ended in their final expulsion by the founder of the XVIIIth Dynasty, Fahmases or Ahmose (Aahmes, Manetho's Amosis), an event which the great Jewish historian Josephus regarded, and justly, in the present writer's opinion, as the original of the biblical story of the Exodus (see pp. 164, 237). The Hyksos were doubtless chiefly Semites of the northern or Syrian type, led by a royal sheikh. The name Hyksos is the Egyptian Hifcu-kkasut (pronounced in later times something like hik-shos\ 'princes of the deserts/ the usual appellation for bedouin chiefs. Abshai is so called in the tomb of Khnumhotep (p. 306). Indeed, Khayan, or Khian, the greatest of the Hyksos kings, actually has the title htk-khasut. Manetho translates the phrase as * prince of the shepherds/ by confusion with another word, s/zasu (c bedouins *), who might well be described as shepherds, since the chief occupa- tion of those Arabs who lived on the borders of Egypt was the breeding and herding of immense flocks of sheep. One sees the same thing in Mesopotamia to-day: the desert Arab, the camel and horse-breeder, despises the shepherd of the borderland of 'the sown/ It was to the horse and chariot, as well as to superior weapons, that the invaders owed their victory. Neither was known to the Egyptians before this invasion. One Egyptian word for 'horse/ htori^ really means "yoked,' and refers to the yoking of the two steeds to the chariot, another, sesemy is apparently Semitic; and of the two foreign words, for * chariot/ wererit &&& markakata> the latter is Semitic. This great invasion can very probably be traced to that epoch- making event, the first appearance of the Indo-Europeans on the Near Eastern stage. Shortly before 2000 B.C. the Aryans seem to have descended from the Oxus-land into Media, and made their presence felt on the eastern mountain-border of the Semitic king- dom of Babylon, the realm of the great law-giver Hammurabi and his successors. They brought with them from central Asia the horse, hitherto unknown to the Babylonians, who had previously gone to war in chariots drawn by asses (see pp. 107, 501). The Egyptian, although he had multitudes of asses, had never harnessed 3i2 EGYPT: THE MIDDLE KINGDOM [CHAP. them 'to wheeled carts. Babylon was taken^ and sacked^ by the Hittites (c. B.C. 1926?), who retired after their raid, carrying with them their spoil to distant Anatolia (p. 56 1). The derelict kingdom was subsequently pounced upon by the Kassites, who swarmed over the Zagros under Gandash, and founded a dynasty (Aryan) at Babylon which lasted for six centuries (see Chap. xv). Simul- taneously, other Aryan tribes seem to have entered Mesopotamia further north; and in the region of the Khabur and Balikh the state of Mitanni was eventually set up, ruled by a royal house and aristocracy of horse-riding Kharri ( PAryans), and worshipping, as we know from cuneiform documents of the Atnarna Age, the gods Indra, Varuna, and the Nasatya twins (the Asvins). Moreover the chief god of the Kassitesis said to have been Shuriyash^ the Indian Surya (with nominative termination)., the Sun (p. 553). This fact shows that the differentiation between Indian and Iranian Aryans had not yet taken place* It is easy to imagine the confusion caused in northern Syria, already highly civilized, by the invasion. There would be a con- siderable displacement of the native population which would react further south. Waves of dispossessed Syrians must have flowed into Palestine, followed by bands of the Kharri^ and it is highly significant that in the time of the XVIIIth Dynasty (1400 B.C.) we find in Palestine such names as Yashdata (Yazdata) and Shu- wardata (Suryadata, i.e. ( Given by the Sun': 'Heliodotos'). The congeries of nations, mingled Syrians, bedouins, and Aryans then burst the weak barrier of the * Prince's Wall * that had hitherto sufficed to defend the Delta, and overwhelmed Egypt. These people neither knew Egypt nor reverenced her gods; they burnt and destroyed the temples and enslaved the people; the echo of their impious deeds moves Manetho in his day to passion; and the Delta, especially, was so ravaged that it did not recover till the time of the XlXth Dynasty, three or four centuries later. During the period of the XVIIIth its cities are hardly ever mentioned in the inscriptions. The Theban kings alone succeeded in stemming the torrent, and for a time preserved their independence. But murder and rapine could not go on for ever, and the chiefs of the newcomers assumed Egyptian royal dignity. The Hyksos kings reigned at Avaris (probably Pelusium). Another stronghold was at the place now known as Tell el-Yehudiyeh, 'the Mound of the Jewess3^ (near Zagazig), a name that may preserve a memory of the nationality of its builders. Memphis also was one,, of their chief seats. The Hyksos may well have owed much of their success to their VIII, n] THE SHEPHERD-KINGS 313 bronze scimitars (pp« 319? 572)- According to Manethb, they formed'two dynasties, the XVth and XVIth. Naturally their names are ignored in the official lists. Manetho gives the names of their first kings, Salitis, Bnon, Apakhnas, Apophis, lannas, and Aseth, which have been identified with more or less success with various unplaced royal names that occur on scarabs and other relics of this period. It was probably somewhere about this time that the Theban king Intef Nubkheperre lived, who in a remarkable stela set up at Coptos tells us how he cursed root and branch 'Teti (let his name be anathema!), son of Minhotep,' who had received cthe enemy' in the temple of Coptos, 'Let him be expelled from his office in the temple: even unto his son's son and the heir of his heir let him be cast forth. Take his loaves and sacred food: let not his name be remembered in this temple, as is done to one who like him hath transgressed with regard to the Enemy of his God ! ' Evidently Teti was a priest who had received an emissary of the Hyksos or possibly had even admitted a Hyksos garrison into Coptos. There were certainly several kings of the name Apophis, in Egyptian Apopi. The first of these was pretty certainly he who bore the significant throne-name of Neb-khepesh, ' Lord of the Scimitar/ Apopi II Ouserre, and Apppi III Okenenre, were of later date, and among the last of the Hyksos. Between the earlier group vouched for by Manetho and the later Apophis came several less distinguished kings bearing Semitic names, Yekeb-hal ('Jacob is god7), Ye|:eb-ba£al ('Jacob is lord'), cAnt-hal (:Anath is god'), and then Khian, who bore the Egyptian throne-name Seuserenre (see p. 232)* He took the unusual title of ink-idebu^ €Embracer of Territories/ and proclaimed himself as the Mk-khasut. The alabastron-lid bearing his name found at Cnossus in Crete may well be an importation of his time; the small stone lion with his throne-name from Baghdad may have been brought from Egypt at a much later date. Neither proves that his power reached Crete or Babylon, But he was undoubtedly a powerful monarch, and there is little doubt that under him Theban independence no longer existed. His successor Apopi II recorded his rule at Gebelen in Upper Egypt, south of Thebes. This king also set up great gates in the temple of Tanis in the Delta, and we have a record of the thirty-third year of his reign in the subscription of a mathematical papyrus. A doubtful king, Setopehti Nubti, commemorated by Ramses II as having reigned 400 years before his time, will if he is a king at all, and not merely the god Set (Sutekh) himself, belong to 3i4 EGYPT: THE MIDDLE KINGDOM [CHAP. about this time (c. 1700 B.C.). There is also Osehre, who erected an obelisk at Tanis, and Apopi III, in whose time the final war broke out with Thebes that resulted in the Expulsion x>f the Hyksos. A tributary king Sekenenre I, Taa, *the great/ who bore the Egyptian royal titles, reigned at Thebes about forty years before the Expulsion, and in his reign the War of Liberation probably began. About 1615 B.C. he was succeeded by Sekenenre II, Taa, 'the twice-great/ who was shortlived, and was followed perhaps about 1605 by Sekenenre III, Taa5 'the great and vic- torious/ who was either killed in battle or assassinated (probably about 1 590)5 as we know from the appearance of his mummy, now in the Cairo Museum. The actual manner of his death and the order in which he received the blows that struck him down can be reconstituted from examination of the mummy. He married a princess named lahhotep, and by her had three sons, Kainases (Kames), Senekhtenre, and lahmases (Amosis or Ahmose), who succeeded each other in order on the throne, the last being the liberator and founder of the XVIIIth Dynasty. At the beginning of the reign of Sekenenre III a temporary peace existed between the two powers, probably after a struggle that had resulted in the pushing forward, in the reign of Sekenenre I, of the Theban power at least as far northwards as Herinopolis. For it is in that reign that the queen lahhotep was born, and with her begins, so far as we know, the popularity of names con- nected with the moon (lalihotep, lahmases) and the moon-god Thoth (Thutmases? Thutmose or Tethmosis) in his family. It would seem probable therefore, either that the family was of Herinopolite origin, or, as is more likely, that in the reign of Sekenenre I the Thebans had captured Ekhmunu (Hermopolis Magna), and then adopted the lunar names, in honour of the liberated god^ However this may be, in the time of Sekenenre III Thebes was still tributary to the Hyksos. Contemporaneously with Sekenenre III reigned the Hyksos Apopi III; and from a papyrus wp learn that war broke out between the two owing to the pro- vocation of the Hyksos, who complained that the roaring of the hippopotami in the royal tank at Thebes disturbed his sleep at Ayaris, Since 'the white land* was tributary to him, he sent to the King of the South to request an abatement of the nuisance. Sekenenre summoned his counsellors, who knew not what to advise him to reply to the Hyksos, good or ill. He no doubt endeavoured to placate his overlord with fair words, but, Apopi was bent on war, which resulted disastrously for the Theban. In the reign of Kames we know that the Theban dominion reached VIII, m] THE EXPULSION OF THE HYKSOS 315 only as far as Cusae, which is a long way south of Hermopolis. The wsS: is described by Manetho as a long and mighty one- It must iiave greatly resembled that waged by the original Thebans against the Heracleopolites five centuries or so before, and was no doubt carried on intermittently and with various success. Kames, however, must have again renewed it, and it is probable that he took Memphis, the capture of which is not mentioned under Amosis (lahmases), who took the war into the Delta. He captured Avaris and, after a siege of three years, Sharuhen in the Negeb of southern Palestine, where the remnant of the Hyksos had con- gregated. We do not know the name of the last Hyksos king. From the inscription of Aahmes, a companion of the king, we know that a certain Aati invaded Egypt south of the Delta while Amosis was absent, after the taking of Sharuhen, in a punitive expedition against the Nubians. This may have been an attempt on the part of the expelled to regain their position. Amosis easily defeated him. Another enemy named Teti-an, who was then * extinguished ' (as the inscription says), was pretty certainly an Egyptian rebel. Thenceforth the land had peace, and entered into the flourish- ing period of the *New Kingdom,* reunited under the rule of Amosis and his descendants, the kings of Manetho's XVIIIth Dynasty. The accession of Amosis can be dated within a few years either way to 1580 B.C. Avaris was taken about 1578, and Sharuhen about 1575 B.C. With these historical dates our survey of the earlier period of Egyptian history closes, III. THE INTERNAL CONDITIONS OF THE AGE The debatable point with regard to the Egyptian Middle Kingdom, the history of which has been briefly described above, is its date: the period of time which it covered (see p. 169). We have followed in a modified form the shorter chronology which at present is accepted by the majority of Egyptologists, It is im- possible to believe that the events of the Middle Kingdom, the essential outlines of which we have given, can fill out the fifteen hundred years that are necessitated by the 'long* chronology, as - against the four or five hundred at most that the 'short* chronology demands. There is not the material to fill the longer period; ahd the differences between the early XVIIIth Dynasty and the Xllth are notjsuch as would inevitably be seen if eighteen hundred years had intervened between them instead of only four hundred* After all, four hundred years is a pretty long period of time, in which all 3i 6 EGYPT: THE MIDDLE KINGDOM [CHAP. the changes we see between the civilisations of the two periods may easily have been brought about. We hold therefore Chat the period of the Middle Kingdom, which ended certainly within a few years either way of 1580 B.C., began with the Xlth Dynasty., not earlier than about 2400, the XHth having flourished between 2212 and 2000 B.C* Within these limits the Middle Kingdom forms a well-defined epoch of ancient Egyptian civilization. In some respects it may be regarded as marking its culmination. Remarkable as are the revelations of late years with regard to the art of the Old Kingdom, that of the XHth Dynasty still holds its place as the classic age of the sculptor, the painter, the wood-carver, and the jeweller of ancient Egypt, And the Middle Kingdom is the classical period of the Egyptian language. Its correct literary form is now fixed until the time of the Ramessids, when the current 'slang' locutions of the day were first admitted into formal inscriptions. Under the XVII Ith Dynasty official phraseology and book-talk, 'classical Egyptian,* differed from the usual speech of ordinary life much as happens to-day; the speech of the Xllth Dynasty was still used for formal purposes as that of the eighteenth century is now. But under the Xllth Dynasty the language of the inscriptions, the classical tongue, was the ordinary language of the time. It is in the inscriptions of the Middle Kingdom that we find the language in its greatest purity. So far as material civilization went, we perhaps do not see much advance upon the standard of the Old Kingdom, Under the XVIIIth Dynasty Egypt entered upon an altogether widened world, with immeasurably increased demands and hitherto unheard-of satisfactions. The Middle Kingdom was still in the same stage of development as the Old, so far as foreign relations were concerned and the broadening (and degeneration) of culture that resulted therefrom. Egypt was still, as in the days of the Pyramid-builders, self-contained. She needed nothing from others but big timber, oil and wine from Syria, for which she bartered the contents of her overflowing granaries and some of the gold which her Nubian slaves got for her. For her actual sub- sistence she raised more than all that was necessary : her imports were a few luxuries* She was self-sufficient, and needed no foreign gods, foreign wives, and foreign ways such as came to her later in the time of the conquering kings of the XVIIIth Dynasty. Egypt in the time of the Xllth Dynasty was still a world by itself, ruled by a god in human form, as it had been in the time of the Pyramid-builders, and there was as yet no comity with other non-Egyptian, political organizations as there was in the time of VIII, in] THE LIFE OF THE PEOPLE 317 the XVIIIth Dynasty, when the king of Egypt addressed the king ofTHattij of Mitanni, of Babylon, or of Assyria, as £ Monsieur men JFr&re. . .je suis de Votre Majeste le bon frere/ We may compare the pharaohs of the Xllth Dynasty, in relation to the outer world of Babylon, of Elam, or of the Hittites, the world of Hammurabi and his predecessors, with the great Chinese em- perors of the eighteenth century, with K'ang-hsi and Chien-lung, in their relation to the outer world of England, France and Holland, before the catastrophe of the wars of the nineteenth century proved to China, as the Hyksos conquest had to Egypt so many thousand years before, that there were other people in the world besides herself. We shall not therefore look for any great difference be- tween the Old and Middle Kingdoms of Egypt so far as the general life of the people is concerned. We have seen in both ages change and evolution in local government, alternate periods of strength and weakness of the central royal power, corresponding to periods of weakness and strength of local magnates, of whom some one fortunate or more than usually energetic family may succeed in acquiring the royal authority Itself, and, as the reigning house, may eventually extinguish the local power of less successful princely families originally perhaps more important than itself. But whether the pharaoh was powerful or weak, whether dues were paid to the court or to the chief^ the life of the fellah has con- tinued practically unchanged throughout the centuries. So far as the life of the common people Is concerned, Egypt is the most amazingly unchanging country in the world, it has changed less even than China. The life of the fellah of the Xllth or even of the IVth Dynasty is much the same as it is to-day. The change of religion to Christianity and then to Islam has altered nothing but the form of prayer : the changes of political allegiance have mattered nothing at all. The agricultural and urban classes were differentiated just as they are to-day. The 'Story of the Eloquent Peasant/ which dates from the Xllth Dynasty, tells us of the relations between the hemtiu or artizans of the towns and the sekhtiu or fellahin. Many wrongs and indignities did a certain long-suffering sekhti of the Fayyum bear from an overbearing hemti^ till at last he complained to the royal high- steward, MeruitensL On the steward's report of the matter, the king told his nobles to see how many times the sekhti would make complaint, if nothing was done. Again and again he came until finally ,30 charmed were the nobles with his importunate eloquence that the Jiemti at last got his deserts (see p. 349). The lot of the sekhtiu was hard. As now, they rarely moved their habitat, and 3s8 EGYPT: THE MIDDLE KINGDOM [CHAP \vere practically tied to the land, which belonged either to the king or to the great "feudatories, and after the Middle Kingdonl also to the great priest!}7 corporations. They were serfs, but not slaves. The latter were chiefly foreign war-prisoners, and it is perhaps to colonies of Nubian prisoners that we may ascribe the peculiar "pan-grave" burials, with their Nubian pottery, that occur in Egypt at this period. The Theban kings of Hyksos times seem to have lost control over Nubia, and we find the ancient trading settlement of the Defufa-fortresses, which had been founded in the reign of Pepi I, destroyed by fire in the Hyksos period, prob- ably in a negro revolt. We have seen that one of the first tasks of Ahmose after the expulsion of the Hyksos, was the restoration of Egyptian dominion in Nubia and of the commerce in gold, ostrich-feathers, and slaves which had contributed so much to the wealth of the Xllth Dynasty kings. The forbidding of private war by Amenemhet I and his suc- cessors certainly bettered the condition of the common people, as their lot must have been miserable during the dark age of civil war that preceded the triumph of the Thebans. No doubt they were better off during the period that immediately ensued, when the land had peace; but the old local princes, who would be sym- pathetic to their own peasants and retainers, still ruled their nomes. The abolition of hereditary jurisdictions however, probably by Senusret III, and development of a local bureaucracy, probably by Amenemhet III, must, though it operated admirably in the interests of the monarch, have often borne hardly on the fellahin, who would now be exposed to the exactions of petty officials. But a new element in the state had now appeared, which rendered the change from feudalism to bureaucracy easier than otherwise it would have been. This was a real middle-class of free townsmen and small landholders, which had not existed under the Old King- dom. These people could supply the army of scribes and officials necessary for the new regime, The supremacy of the authority of the court meant that the king V vizier 'and his myrmidons resumed a power that they had not possessed since the days of the IVth Dynasty, It paved the way for the elaborate bureaucratic state-organization which we find under the XVIIIth, with its two viziers, its independent treasurer, its royal assessors, its local courts of justice, and so forth, all ultimately under the control of the viziers, but with various checks and balances devised to prevent the danger, of too great a concentration of power in the hands of subjects. The vizier under the Xllth Dynasty was head of the civil administra- VIII, m] THE OFFICIALS AND SOLDIERS 319 tlon of the south and north. Under him were 'the great ones of the southern Tens' (an ancient title the precise meaning of which escapes us) who supervised all records for purposes of land- measurement) taxation and corvee. The yearly obliteration of landmarks caused by the inundation necessitated then as now an enormous amount of survey and adjudicatory work. The vizier also supervised the law-courts, the six * Great Houses* and the * House of the Thirty/ and he could be High Treasurer also, a position which was never permitted under the XVIIIth Dynasty, when the vizier had no control of the public purse. The Xllth Dynasty vizier was by no means always a stationary minister, resident always at the court or capital. He was often sent out on expeditions to fetch gold or chastise Nubians, and was expected to act in a military capacity when required. The armed force of the court was a body of regular infantry soldiers, many of them Sudanese, recruited for the king's service, and stationed at various places, chiefly no doubt at Itht-toui, in Nubia, and in Sinai, under commanders who had been brought up at the court under the royal eye. During the first half of the dynasty the local princes also had their own armed retainers, whom the king could call out on his service under the leadership of their- lords, as under the Vlth and Vllth Dynasties. But these fell into desuetude with the privileges of their masters. The chief arms were, as under the Old Kingdom, the bow (a very weak one) and arrows (with heads of flint still, or hardened wood), the broad- bladed spear, long bill, and small hatchet (usually of copper, but bronze is beginning to appear), and a short sword or dagger of bronze with a peculiar hilt of ivory let into the metal. Swords and hatchets were often inlaid with gold. Towards the end of the Middle Kingdom a new form of bronze sword, or rather scimitar (khepesK]y of peculiar kinked form, was introduced, perhaps by the Hyksos. It later became the most favourite arm. The stone- headed mace of the Old Kingdom was no longer used (p. 572,). In connexion with weapons it may be said that the Egyptians passed from the Chalcolithic to the Copper Age about the time of the IVth Dynasty, and from the Copper Age to the fully- developed Bronze Age during the Middle Kingdom, Under the Xllth Dynasty stone was still employed for the cheapest of knives used by the fellahin for chopping up meat, etc., and for the arrow- heads which once shot off would never be recovered. Razors and fine daggers, however, were now of finely-tempered bronze, ordinary knives and weapons of copper. Horses and chariots were unknown till the Hyksos conquest (above, p. 31 1); but they 320 EGYPT: THE MIDDLE KINGDOM [CHAP. were speedily adopted by the Egyptians, and no doubt used by the Tliebans'in the war of liberation. But it can be seen that their use in Egypt must always have been hampered by the peculiarities of the terrain* Nilotic warfare was conducted on ship-board, and it was the river flotilla rather than the array of chariots that was the chief weapon of war-makers in Egypt. Not until they carried war- fare into Palestine in pursuit of the fleeing Hyksos did the Egyptians realize the full value of the chariot. It was no doubt owing to the difficulty of using their chariots in Egypt that the Hyksos did not at the first rush conquer the whole valley as far south as Nubia. The popular idea of the Egyptians as no sailors and as afraid of the sea is entirely erroneous. The Egyptians fought well at Salamis and at Navarino: the Ptolemaic navy ruled the seas. And in the early days they sailed to Phoenicia in the time of Snefru or earlier, and to Somaliland under the Vlth Dynasty. Under the Xllth the voyages of Enenkhet and Henu were often repeated. Egyptian trading and revictualling settlements existed all along the Red Sea coast, and ships were always coasting from one to the other on the way to or from Puenet, As usual, the sailor-mind developed many a tale of the wonders of the voyage, one of which is known to us, 'the Story of the Shipwrecked Sailor/ and is of this period (see p. 348)* On land the ass formed the sole means of carrying,, and the ox of dragging transport. The camel, though it must have been known, is -never represented. It was the animal of the bedouins and was probably regarded as specially unclean. The ass was never harnessed to a cart. The wheel was not an Egyptian invention. The sledge-runner was universal as the under-carriage of man- drawn carts until the introduction of the chariot at the end of the Middle Kingdom* In all probability the cart-wheel was first in- vented by the Surnerians or the Elamites. The potter's wheel also may have come from the same source, as it does not appear in Egypt till well on in the Old Kingdom, but was evidently used much earlier in Elam. On the other hand, the Egyptian was the inventor of the art of glazing pottery. Glass, originally always blue, made from copper-frit, was an Egyptian discovery of late predynastic days.^ The blue glaze was used to coat not only the light faience of siliceous sand held together with gum or paste, but soft stone also, such as steatite, of which blue glazed scarabs, imitating lapis or turquoise, were first made towards the end of the Old Kingdom, and came into regular use in the reign of Senusret I. See^p. 576. Artists of all kinds found ample scope for their talents in the VIII, m] THE TOMB AND FUNERARY STATE 321 decoration of the tomb and its appurtenances. We see a notable development in the furniture of the Middle Kingdom tomb that marks^it off from the tombs of the preceding and succeeding periods. With the great wooden chests containing the body, often sealed up in a covering of cartonnage (pasted thicknesses of linen covered with stucco), painted in imitation of the human face and form, were buried innumerable wooden models of varying excel- lence of workmanship., depicting the dead man's ghostly servants engaged in field-labours, emptying sacks of corn into granaries, grinding the grain, making beer of it, stamping out the grapes to make wine, butchering animals, carrying dead wild fowl, and so on, while models of boats with sails of linen complete are always present with little wooden soldiers, Egyptians and negroes, on board with their cow-hide shields and their spears, and a deck- house in which sits a small figure of the great man himself. All these, like the wall-decorations of the larger tombs (now usually painted in tempera rather than sculptured in relief as under the Old Kingdom), had a c magical* purpose. They were intended to turn into actual servants in the next world, to carry on a life for the dead like that which he had led on earth, We now for the first time find in the tombs, though rarely, the shauabti (#,r^£/z)~figures, or * answerers,* which in later times were the commonest accompaniment of the dead* These were supposed, as stated by the VI th chapter of the Book of the Dead, which later on was inscribed upon them, to answer 'Here am I!* whenever the dead man was called upon to do any work in the other world. They possibly represent the servants who in early days had been actually put to death in order to serve their masters beyond the grave. We know that in Nubia slaves were executed at the tomb with this object; and it is by no means certain that in the case of the burial of the king inhuman rites of this kind were not still practised during the Middle Kingdom. The priestess-princesses who were buried in the precinct of the tomb-temple of Nebhapetre at Der el-Bahri were very probably his harem-women, killed and buried with him. And the enigmatic bodies found with the big funeral boat in the tomb of Amenhotep II, under the XVIIIth Dynasty, may also have been slain royal favourites. This boat is the last known example of the custom of burying such models with the dead, which had died out by the beginning of the XVIIIth Dynasty. The custom of mummification was as yet by no means common, bodies ^>f this period being usually found as skeletons. But the wrappings of fine linen (one of the oldest Egyptian inventions) C.A.H.I zi 322 EGYPT: THE MIDDLE KINGDOM [CHAP. had been In use from the time of the Old Kingdom, and a special goddess, Tait, presided over their manufacture and use* To be buried in such, and to wear linen garments in life, were the mark of the civilized Egyptian, who prided himself much on the purity and cleanliness of his garments and his clean-shaven face and head, as compared with the greasy woollen or skin habiliments and the hairiness of foreigners* The wig was a concession to nature; it was worn also by women, but over their own hair. Boys, and sometimes little girls, wore three-quarters of the head shaven, while a single plaited lock hung over the right ear. This was the symbol of youth; the boy-god Harpocrates was represented with it, and the fashion never changed. The masta&a-tomb was now given up, and the great were buried in rock-cut sepulchres opening in the sloping face of the desert- clifFs bounding the river valley. The king, however, was still buried in a pyramid, though he might, like Senusret III, have a duplicate tomb cut in the rock at Abydos, or like Nebhapetre have a dummy pyramid as a mere ornament to his tomb-chapel, the actual rock-cut tomb being in the cliff. Persons of lesser note than the feudal nobles were buried in tomb-chambers opening out of the bottom of a deep shaft. Under the Middle Kingdom the religion of the dead was bulk- ing more and more in the Egyptian mind. Osiris, originally Syrian (pp.264, 333) now came to his kingdom. If the new god Amon-Re took command of the pantheon, the Delta god of the dead, known during the Old Kingdom only in Lower Egypt, was now para- mount among the shades. Osiris had passed from Busiris to Sakkarah in the Pyramid-period, and had become identified with the local Sokari; by the time of the Xllth Dynasty he had taken over Abydos from its original owner, the jackal Anubis, with his title of Khentamentiu. The very ancient funerary prayer (the ne$et-di-hefep formula), In which the king is besought to give the funerary, meals and everything 'good and pure' on which the dead man lives, in the presence of Anubis, is now addressed primarily to Osiris, *great god> lord of Abydos/ and the invocation of the kitig- has^become a meaningless phrase. The Busirite doctrine of the identification of the dead person, male or female, with the god, so that every dead man or woman or child became ipso facto a god, 4 the god there/ 4the Osiris N or Af/ is now in full vogue at Abydos as well as at Sakkarah; Osiris is the * universal lord' of the dead, the neb-er-xer or "Lord as far as the boundary/ and every Egyptian adores him. Abydos has become a place of common pilgrimage; all would wish to be buried there; those great ones VIII, in] THE PRIESTHOOD 323 who cannot sleep at Abydos have stelae put up there in their honour (p. 350$. It is more than probable that this national devotion to Osiris^t Abydos was deliberately encouraged by the kings of the Xllth Dynasty in order to foster a feeling of common nationality under Upper Egyptian auspices : the worship of Osiris and that of Amon-Re would go hand in hand. But the latter was not yet the universal god of the living as Osiris was of the dead. For the religious purposes of daily life the people preferred their own local deities. But in imitation of Amon, we find the custom beginning of identifying such local divinities as Sebek with Re. There was as yet no priestly class in the later sense, except at the necropoles, where the chantry-priests of the Old Kingdom had developed into cemetery-chaplains. The temples were now served by professional chief priests instead of nobles assuming the sacerdotal dignity, as under the Old Kingdom. But they were few in number, all the subordinate priests being laymen who per- formed priestly duties. It is not till the time of the XVIIIth Dynasty that the great priestly college of Arnon-Re at Thebes appears, which was to be imitated on a smaller scale in every temple throughout the land, so that in the days of Herodotus they had come to resemble a caste apart. Whether this development of the XVIIIth Dynasty was native * to Egypt and Thebes, or whether it was a foreign idea, derived possibly from Syria or Anatolia, we do not know. One later de- velopment of Egyptian religion, and that a heretical one, may perhaps be due to Semitic influence: w:s. monotheism. The heno- theistic worship of a god was common enough, but monotheism, whether patent or latent, was unknown to the native religion. We see it first in Egypt as a characteristic of the Semitic ETyksos kings; Apopi III 'took Sutekh for his lord and served no other god in all the land but he/ says the chronicler of the quarrel of the two kings, Sutekh was a god of the desert edge in the region of Lake MenzalehandPelusium: he was more than half Syrian and identical with a Semitic Baal (pp. 231 sy., 275), During the Middle King- dom he seems to have become identified with the Upper Egyptian god Set of Ombos; and in later times is depicted sometimes in Syrian guise and sometimes as Set. The Hyksos worshipped him as their patron-deity; and, in consequence, Set, who was already unpopular except at Ombos, owing to the old tradition of his hostility to Horus, became anathema to the Egyptians. His enmity to Horus took in a new meaning: he became the murderer of Osiris; £is worship was proscribed. Under the XVIIIth Dynasty he never appears. But monotheistic traditions remained in the 324 EGYPT: THE MIDDLE KINGDOM [CHAP. Delta lifter the expulsion of the Hyksos, and we shall find them developing at Heliopolis, always receptive of eastern influence, until, centuries later, under Amenhotep III and IV we h^ve the monotheistic adoration of the aton or solar disk as the living mani- festation of the one god behind the sun. But to the Egyptian such monotheism was as abhorrent as ApopFs worship of Sutekh had been. The Egyptian always worshipped many gods, and when, as Is sometimes the case In religious hymns, he appears to be praising one alone, it is henotheistic praise, not monotheistic. In religious literature the chapters of the Book of Coming Forth by Day were increasing in number, in complexity, and In unin- telligibility. But no doubt they fulfilled admirably their purpose, that of a guide to the devious ways of the next world. Sometimes at this time we find elaborate maps of the Duat or underworld painted with accompanying texts on the Inside of coffins. Besides the literature already referred to (see further, Chap, ix) we have a more human and more Interesting memorial of the Egyptian feeling with regard to death in a poem of this time, which was said to have been inscribed in front of the relief figure of a harper 'In the tomb-chapel of king Intef, deceased/ We do not know which of the kings of this name is meant. The harper was evidently supposed to sing the song, which has been likened to the Dirge of Maneros, which, Herodotus says, was chanted while the mummy-figure was carried round the feast : All hail to the prince,, th , -Syjujfe his children remain for aye. The gods of old rest In their tombs, And the mummies of men long dead; The same for both rich and poor. The words of Imhotep I hear, The words of Horded e£> which say: — 'What Is prosperity? tell!9 Their fences and walls are destroyed, Their houses exist no more; And no man cometh again from the tomb To tell of what passeth below. Ye go to the place of the mourners^ To the bourne whence none return; Strengthen your hearts to forget your joys, Yet fulfil your desires while ye live. Anoint yourselves, clothe yourselves well, Use the gifts which the gods bestow, Fulfil your desires upon earth. VIII, in] THE PROPHECIES OF IPUWER 325 For the day will come to you all * w When ye hear not the voices of friends, ^ When weeping avails you no more. So feast in tranquillity now, For none taketh his goods below to the tomb. And none cometh thence back again! 'Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die!' The refrain echoes down the ages from the time of king Intef. The pathetic character of the whole Egyptian care for the dead strikes one more and more: they took such pains to secure their own and their friends' happiness in the unknown; they persuaded them- selves that they knew all about it, and wrote magic guide-books to it. But the truth came out in the Song of the Harper, Yet this pathetic solicitude for the dead is evidence of a far higher culture, of a far greater humanity in the best sense of the word, in Egypt than among the Semites, with their wretched Sheol, and their comparatively primitive burymgs, Sinuhe chose well when at the close of his life he decided that he would not be buried in a sheep- skin like a bedouin, but would return to enter his swept and garnished tomb, to receive his mummy-swathings from the hand of Tait, and sleep in his great coffin of painted wood with his boats and his models of servants about him, The first period of the history of Ancient Egypt was brought to an end by a catastrophe which subjected the land to cruel foreign conquerors. The disaster may well have seemed to be foreshadowed in the weird prophecies of Ipuwer, which foretold dire calamities to come upon the land, the overthrow of the state, the invasion of foreigners, and the destruction of all civilization, followed by the advent of a Messianic ruler who should save Egypt from her misery (pp. 341, 345 ^.). This saviour might well have seemed to come in the persons of the Liberator and his descendants, the kings of the XVIIIth Dynasty. CHAPTER IX LIFE AND THOUGHT IN EGYPT UNDER THE OLD AND MIDDLE KINGDOMS J\ CCORDING to Plato, while the love of knowledge would be jH^ chiefly attributed to his own country, people would especially connect the love of riches with the Phoenicians and the Egyptians. He was the one Greek who seems to have been unimpressed by that * wisdom of the Egyptians' which was almost a by- word in the mouths of his fellow countrymen. And the decipherment of the Egyptian texts has shown that Plato was right. 'Most scholars/ it has been said, 'would agree with the verdict that the Egyptians show no real love of truth, no desire to probe into the inner nature of things. Their minds were otherwise oriented: a highly-gifted people, exhibiting talent in almost every direction, their bent was towards material prosperity and artistic enjoyment; contemplation and thought for their own sake — necessities to the peoples of Greece and India — were alien to the temperament of the Egyp- tians/ Settled early in one of the most fertile river valleys in the world, in a land devoid, with the exception of the river itself, of any striking natural features which might stimulate the imagina- tion and encourage speculation, this people led a life which was for most of them one unchanging round of agricultural pursuits. This fact coloured all their activities and all their thought, and in particular made them perhaps the most conservative people the world has ever seen. Of practical wisdom there was no lack. The problems of land-division and tax-paying developed a noteworthy proficiency in mensuration and geometry; and though the Egyp- tians have been overrated as astronomers, they did at a very early period observe the movements of certain stars and arrive at a very accurate approximation to the length of the solar year, while their medical knowledge, though overlaid and obscured by magic, was far from inconsiderable. Yet on the speculative side there is little to place against this; of philosophy apart from religion there is literally nothing, and the nearest approaches to pure thought ate little more than attempts to reconcile conflicting religious systems. This was partly due to the concrete nature of the Egyptian methods of thought and perhaps yet more to an extreme con- servatism, which, rather than consign anything to the scrap-heap, CHAP. IX] HISTORICAL INFLUENCES ON THOUGHT 327 would spare no pains to find some means, however fantastic, of reconciling two fundamentally incompatible beliefs. If the attempt failed 7«ery little difficulty seems to have been felt in retaining the two side by side. It need hardly be pointed out how effectually this trait in the Egyptian temperament retarded the advance of speculation. At the same time it would be an error to suppose that Egyptian thought failed utterly to develop. Develop it certainly did, if by development be meant simply change, and not progress in a definite and upward direction. Not only can we watch this change taking place but we can to some extent lay our finger on the causes which produced it. And this will be our task in the present chapter* The history of Egypt was in a very special sense the result of her geographical position. She lies at the African exit of the sole land bridge which unites two great continents, Asia and Africa. In early, as in later, times that portion of Asia which lies nearest to Egypt seems to have been the centre of extensive and irresistible racial movements, in consequence of which Egypt was liable to be overrun every time she failed to defend her north- eastern frontier against the invading hordes. One such invasion, which took place between the Xllth and XVIIIth Dynasties, is well known to us, and an earlier one, between the Vlth and the Xllth, is sufficiently attested by recently discovered evidence. Unfortunately the history of the Delta is almost a complete blank to us throughout. It may be that in early days a human current swept backwards and forwards over the Isthmus of Suez just as it did over the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus, if we read the evidence of Hissarlik aright. Be this as it may, it is obvious that circumstances which so profoundly influenced the history of Ancient Egypt must equally deeply have affected the life and thought of her inhabitants. Indeed it is to these events perhaps that we should in the main attribute the developments which we are about to trace. From the point of view of development we may perhaps con- veniently divide the period before us into three: the Archaic Period and Old Kingdom, the outcome, historically, of the group- ing in ever larger political combinations of the numerous inde- pendent tribes of early Egypt and their eventual unification in a single kingdom; the Earlier Intermediate Period, Vllth to Xth Dynasties, marked by the first great Asiatic invasions of the Delta; and the Middle Kingdom, XI th— Xllth Dynasties, in which we see the feudal system fully organized and at the height of its prosperity. 323 EGYPTIAN LIFE AND THOUGHT [CHAP. I. THE ARCHAIC PERIOD AND THE OLD KINGDOM To gain an idea of the material conditions of life in Egypt at this early date we have only to look at the remains. These tell their story in a remarkably unambiguous manner, as other chapters in this volume have shown. When, however, we try to get into touch with the mind of the people and to watch its workings serious difficulties await us. The literature of the period which has come down to us consists almost entirely of a comparatively small number of historical inscriptions and a considerable body of religious texts of a most difficult type. In other words we are permitted to study the machinery of the Egyptian mind mainly in its application to the problems of death and religion. If, how- ever, we were right In affirming that it was on these subjects almost exclusively that the Egyptian exercised his speculative faculty. It is probable that our loss is less serious than might have been Imagined. There is nothing more impressive to the student of comparative religion than the numerical strength of the Egyptian pantheon and the diversity of type shown by the deities who compose it. A large number of Egyptian gods are probably totemic in origin ; such as Thoth the ibis god, Anubls, perhaps the jackal, Sebek the crocodile, and Horus the falcon. Side by side with these we find a group of nature gods, Re the sun god. Nun the primeval ocean or chaos, Shu the god of air, and so on. A third type consists of gods almost purely human in form and attributes, such as Isis and Osiris, while yet a fourth class was made up of deified personifica- tions of abstract or semi-abstract conceptions, such as Maat the goddess of truth or justice, Sia the god of Intelligence or know- ledge and Hu the god of * commanding utterance/ It Is beyond our scope to ask to what extent the combination of deities of such various types in a single pantheon presupposes the existence in the early Egyptian population of two or more different racial elements. What it does behove us to realize is that the co- existence of gods of at any rate the first three classes goes back far into predynastic times, and that In origin each of these gods, with few if any exceptions, possessed a purely local sway. There Is good evidence that In the predynastic period Egypt was inhabited by a number of Independent tribes, each of which had its, totem animal or plant as the case might be, a figure of which, mounted on a perch, formed the standard of the tribe or clan. In historical IX, i] LOCAL GODS 329 times the true totemic stage has passed away and we are left with the worship of a god In human form with the head of the totem animal,-^iv"hile the domestication and sacrifice of animals together with the sacredness of the whole totem species still remain to testify to the origin of the system (see pp. 246, 290). These early tribes do not appear to have lived at peace with one another, and a study of their standards, as figured on certain predynastic vases, in conjunction with the later standards of the nomes, suggests very forcibly that the stronger among them were in the habit of absorbing their weaker neighbours. The inevitable result in such cases was that the god of the stronger became also the god of the conquered, though not necessarily to the complete exclusion of the defeated god. This process served, as the unifica- tion of Egypt slowly proceeded^ to bring into prominence a few particular deities at the expense of all the rest. Thus the falcon-god Horus, originally, it would seem, the local totem-god of Behdet in the Delta, became in predynastic times the national god of Lower Egypt, simply because the falcon tribe acquired an ascend- ancy over the other tribes of the Delta. Later still, on the unifica- tion of Upper and Lower Egypt, he became -the national god of the united country, and it was doubtless then that he was given a new home at Behdet of Upper Egypt, the modern Edfu. Now it will readily be understood that each local deity, whether theriomorphic, animistic or purely anthropomorphic in type, was surrounded by his own peculiar complex of belief and legend. Moreover, whenever Tribe A absorbed Tribe B, it was to the interest of both conquerors and conquered that god A should not completely delete god B5 but should attempt some form of coalescence with him. And here we are face to face with the feeling which underlay all early Egyptian speculation, and which even in later times never ceased to play its part, namely the desire to bring into harmony with one another the more important of the innumerable local religious systems. Not that the local element ever disappeared. An inhabitant of Siut always prayed to Upwa- wet, the local god, perhaps a wolf-god, of Siut, though he never became in any sense a national god; even the king conformed to this and 'made his monuments * to Hathor when in Sinai and to Dedwen when in Nubia. This continual striving after harmony was thus an inevitable result of the political history of the Egyptian state. The state religion at any period was naturally that of the district pr even town from which came the ruling family for the time being, and each change of house meant the need of a fresh series of religious equations and absorptions (cf. p. 214 sy.). 330 EGYPTIAN LIFE AND THOUGHT [CHAP. Unfortunately the Egyptian texts afford us very little help for the earliest period of all. It Is not indeed until the Vth arid Vlth Dynasties that the so-called Pyramid Texts give us a glin^se into the religious beliefs of the Egyptian people., a glimpse which is satisfying despite textual difficulties and obscure allusions. These texts are inscribed on the walls of the chambers and passages of five royal pyramids at Sakkarah. The earliest, that of king Unis, dates from the Vth Dynasty; the other four belong to kings Teti, Pepi I Merire, and Pepi II of the Vlth (see p. 290). The texts at first sight appear to be an almost systemless farrago of religious matter of every kind3 introduced by a funerary ritual and a ritual of mortuary offerings. The more miscellaneous portion appears to lack arrangement almost entirely and contains fragments of myth and legend, charm, ritual and prayer jumbled together in inextricable confusion. The texts are purely funerary in purpose, that is to say, they are Intended to be of use to the dead king in leaving this world and in entering and dwelling in the next. They were probably in part recited at his funeral, and certain portions, written originally in the first person singula^ were intended to be used by himself in the new life. They were chosen with this end in view from a religious literature which, in part at least, is very much more ancient than the pyramids themselves. The internal evidence for this is incontrovertible, and we need only instance the passages which reflect a state of affairs clearly previous to the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt, and thus doubtless earlier than the 1st Dynasty. The advantage of this from our point of view is con- siderable. Since the literature from which the texts are drawn covers so long a period of years they should show some develop- ment in religious thought. And this they do. More than this, the later of them show distinct traces of editing, and of editing on very definite lines. It may fairly be said that the groundwork of the Pyramid Texts consists of sun-worship. The origin of this cult in Egypt is enveloped in darkness. All we know is that in very early times it centred in Heliopolis, a town not far north of the modern Cairo. Even here it was tiot the original cult, for the sun-god was identified in Heliopolis with an earlier local deity, Atum, of whose origin we know nothing, but who may just possibly have been an ichneumon totem, since in later times he is occasionally repre- sented in this form. The sun-god was also identified wittu Horus, the falcon-god of Behdet and later of all Egypt; the identification was supported by conceiving the sun as a falcon flying through IX, i] SOLAR CULTS 331 the sky. This Idea was extremely popular, and it Is In the fdrm of Horns df the Horizon that the sun-god Is most frequently repre- sented, **ieven in early times. Yet again the sun-god may be envisaged as Khepri, the scarab beetle who symbolizes coming- into-existence, the sun's disc as It crosses the sky recalling perhaps in the popular fancy the ball of dung which the beetle rolls In front of him. In all this we see how strong was the tendency to harmonize sun-worship with the local totemic cults. The Impression we receive is that sun-worship, and Indeed the whole cosmic system of which it Is typical, was secondary In Egypt, Imposing Itself on a substratum of totemlsm. In any case, whatever doubts there may be on this point, one thing Is clear, namely that nine-tenths of the mythology of Ancient Egypt Is cosmic in origin, and that it was grafted on to a totemic system with which it had originally no connexion. Thus to Horus, a falcon totem in origin, was attached the whole of the mass of myth which centred round the sun, while to Thoth, originally an Ibis totem In the north-eastern Delta, accrued all the legend connected with the moon. The lengths to which Egyptian conservatism was prepared to go In this direction, rather than countenance a deletion or a mere brutal substitution, can be admirably Illustrated by the sun-myth Itself. Thus according to a widely received belief the sun-god appeared in the primeval ocean or chaos, Nun, and begat in miraculous fashion Shu, the god of air, and Tefnut, his wife. These produced Geb, the earth-god, and Nut, goddess of the sky. From them sprang two sons, Osiris and Set, and two daughters, Isis and Nephthys. Osiris married his sister Isis, and of them was born Horus, who, be it noted, is himself In one of his forms identified with the sun-god his great-great-grandfather. Such contradictions as these seem to have had no repugnance for the Egyptian mind. Unfortunately we are unable to discern the nature of the political event, for such it undoubtedly was, which led each local cult to attempt to work the sun-god into its myth; we can only observe the amazing result and note the extreme antiquity of the process. On the other hand, the prominence of sun-worship in the JPyramid Texts is easily explained if we keep In mind their date. At the end of the IVth Dynasty a change of royal family took place. This was well known to the Egyptians of later days5 for the \Vestcar; Papyrus, dating from the Hyksos Period, preserves a story which tells how Khufu, a king of the IVth Dynasty, was told by a magician that a priestess of Re, the sun-god, had conceived 332 EGYPTIAN LIFE AND THOUGHT [CHAP. three "sons by the god himself, that they should live to be kings of the land, and that the eldest of them should be high 'priest of Heliopolis. The event alluded to is obvious and its reality is con- firmed by numerous circumstances (p. 284 sy.'). The kings of the Vth Dynasty represent a new royal family whose home was Heliopolis and whose cult was therefore that of the sun. This became the state religion; the pharaohs of this Dynasty proclaimed themselves sons of Re, built great new temples in his honour, and were laid to rest in tombs which in form were perhaps reproduc- tions of the pyramidal benben-stone sacred to the sun at Helio- polis. Hence we need not be surprised to find the Pyramid Texts dominated by solar myth and ritual. The other element which comes to the fore in these texts is that connected with Osiris and his cycle of deities. Few are un- acquainted with Plutarch's version of the Osiris story, how the wicked Set,, anxious to be rid of his brother, made a wooden coffin in which by means of a ruse he induced Osiris to place himself. The coffin was then nailed up and cast into the sea, which bore it to land at Byblus in Syria, where an Erica tree grew up and enclosed it as it lay on the shore. The tree was felled and used as a pillar in the royal palace, where Osiris* faithful sister and wife Isis, wandering in search of her husband's body, at last found it and took the body back to Egypt. There, unfortunately, Set, while hunting by moonlight, found it and scattered the bones far and wide, whence came the innumerable relics of Osiris shown to the faithful of, later days in the temples of Egypt. Meanwhile Horus, the young son of Osiris and Isis, had been growing up in concealment from Set in the marshes of the Delta. On attaining to manhood he sought out his father's murderer, and a combat took place in which Horus lost an eye and Set was injured in still more distressing fashion. The older sources are less explicit. According to the Pyramid Texts Set struck his brother down in Nedyt, wherever that may be, and on the British Museum Stela, No. 797, a late production, but based on documents of the Pyramid Age, ©siris is represented as having been drowned. The earliest localization of the worship of Osiris is found at Zedu in the Delta, a town known to the Greeks as Busiris, * House of Osiris/ Here he was symbolized by a cult-object called the zed, or dad* which has been variously interpreted as a four-fold column, a tree with lopped branches, and a backbone, and wlych was ceremoniously "set up* on the last day of the fourth month of the Inundation Season of each year. Now Osiris was not the original IX, i] NATURE OF OSIRIS 333 local god of Busiris, a position held by Anzety, a deity usually represented by a human head set on a pole, with arms wielding the cro^jk and flail, and called in the Pyramid Texts *the chief of the eastern nomes/ Whence Osiris came to Buskis we do not know: several indications have been thought to point towards Syria, and this may have a distant echo In the reference to Byblus in Plutarch's version of the myth (see p. 264). A belief has gained almost universal currency among archae- ologists that Osiris was a god of the Nile, or more generally of fertility, or of crops, or of changing seasons and hence of resurrec- tion. Now, though it is true that in course of time Osiris became associated with these ideas, we are not in a position to say that the connexion was a genetic one. The evidence for such a belief is scanty and indecisive, and is outweighed by evidence which suggests that Osiris was either a very ancient king deified, or that he was nothing more than a personification of dead kingship. In either case, the essential fact to be grasped is that he is first and foremost a dead king. How he received the attributes of power over the processes of nature we do not know; some have suggested, and there are analogies to support the idea, that such powers were held to be inherent in early kingship, others that the connexion of the god with the river and hence with vegetation is due to the story of his death by drowning in it, It would perhaps be overbold to assume that Osiris had been accepted as a member of the Heliopolitan cycle as early as the foundation of the calendar in 4241 B.C., merely because the god gave his name to one of the five intercalary days. But it is certain that by the time of the Pyramid Texts he and his cycle had assumed such importance that they had succeeded in very seriously modifying the beliefs of the old sun-cult as represented in the texts. How natural this was is evident when we remember that these were funerary texts collected for the use of dead kings, and that Osiris was himself a dead king, or at least a personification of dead kingship. But in order that we may fully understand the nature of the modifications produced it is necessary to enquire more closely into the beliefs of the early Egyptians concerning the next life and its relation to this. In nothing does the unphilosophical temperament of the Egyp- tians betray itself more clearly than in their beliefs concerning the nature of human existence. A man's being seems in early times to have been regarded as manifesting itself under various aspects, of which £he most essential were the kay the ba and the ikh, which we may provisionally render by the words * character/ 4mani- 334 EGYPTIAN LIFE AND THOUGHT [CHAP. festatipn/ and * glorified state' respectively. Of less Importance were other aspects such as the shadow, the name and the body. In later times the list was increased by the ^addition j?f such appurtenances of personality as the destiny, birthplace and up- bringing* Now it would be a mistake to characterize the ka and the &a and the ikh as 'parts' of the person, as is often done, or to believe that the Egyptian himself had perfectly sharp and distinct con- ceptions of each. The ka, represented in the hieroglyphs by a sign consisting of two arms stretched upwards, and shown^ by the manner of its early writing to have been regarded as divine, was a phase of being which, in origin, may have been possessed only by gods and kings, by the latter possibly only in so far as they were regarded as deities, and extended to private persons only in later times when a similar extension took place in the whole of the royal funerary cult. All we know is that every god, king, and man receives at his birth a ka who coexists with him during his life, and from whom it is essential that he should not be separated during his death. The precise relation between the two is difficult to grasp. The usual modern conceptions of the ka as a * double* or a * protecting genius' seem too narrow, even though in special cases these may be adequate translations of the word; and the latest tendency is to go back to the older view of the ka as the * character1 or 'individuality/ However this may be, the ka assumed a gradually increasing importance from the funerary point of view, perhaps because it was the least changeable and most stable of the various aspects* As the ka stands for the fixed individuality, so the la represents the changeable 'incarnation' or * external manifestation/ It can assume many shapes, the most common of which is that of a human-headed bird, with human arms holding the sign of life and that of wind or breath. In funerary scenes it hovers over the dead and holds to his nostrils the vivifying signs which it carries, whence it has often been regarded as the 'soul/ In the Pyramid Texts it seems to be the great aim of the king to become a ba after his death, though the belief that the ba came into existence only at this moment is strongly contradicted by the story of the Misanthrope, who, while still alive, carries on a conversation with his ta. The origin of the ba probably lies in the totemic nature of so much of Egyptian belief, which demanded that after death a man should go to his totem. To the same origin are to be traced the ideas prevalent in the Book of the Dead as to tne dead man making his transformations into a swallow, a crocodile, a IX, i] BELIEFS REGARDING DEATH 335 phoenix, a lotus, etc. As for theikh, usually rendered 'glorioijs one* or 'illunjinated one/ it is clearly a mode of existence after death, and the dead are often as a whole referred to as the 'glorious ones/ If we ask in what way these beliefs concerning the nature of existence were applied to the problem of death, there awaits us only one more illustration of the fact that the attitude of the Egyptian towards the phenomena of reality frequently shows a remarkable lack of attention and reflective thought. On this point he held the most inconsistent views, without apparently being in the least troubled by their incompatibility. Yet there is patent in them all a horror of physical death, a refusal to accept it as a possibility, and a determination to stave it off by every possible means. One of the commonest forms of address on grave stelae begins * O ye who love life and hate death/ and the constant refrain of the Pyramid Texts is 'King X is not dead, he is alive/ Now it must be clearly understood that the death referred to here is a physical death. For the Egyptians all existence, whether of gods or of dead or living men, presupposed physical wants. To this belief are due the whole of the temple and mortuary rituals, which with a few exceptions are identical. Even in priestly nomen- clature this fact comes to the surface. The Egyptian word for a servant is hem\ a temple priest is hem netery Servant of the god7; and a mortuary priest is hem kay * servant of the ka+* For the god in his shrine and for the dead man in his tomb the same ceremonies are performed, and the same offerings of food and drink are made in the one case as in the other. Both gods and dead must be fed in the same way as living men; and one of the chief anxieties ex- pressed by the dead in the funerary texts is lest, for want of food offered at the tomb, they should be compelled to consume their own excrement. This physical analogy between the dead and the living may be said to reach its climax of absurdity in certain tomb chapels of the Ilnd Dynasty at Sakkarah, where lavatories are provided for the use of the dead occupant. This is not speculation as to the nature of death, but mere inability to conceive of any form of existence other than that of physical life. At the same time it was necessary to meet the obvious fact that the life of gods and dead, though regarded as physical, was in some way different from that of living men. The problem was solved by making the difference one of degree rather than of kind. Gods and dead lived in a less real manner, and hence, as a conse- quence, all service that was designed to benefit them must be carried but in a prescribed manner. This is nowhere more apparent than in the ritual which forms the introduction to the 33& EGYPTIAN LIFE AND THOUGHT [CHAP. Pyramid Texts. This is a feast modelled on an earthly banquet with all the ceremonies attendant thereon. It begins with^a lustra- tion, symbolical of the hand-washing which preceded an ggyptian meal, "Then follow the burning of incense and the pouring of water, two rites which had for their object the restoration to the corpse of its pristine moisture and odour. Next comes an abridged form of the ceremony of 'Opening the Mouth/ performed in full on the day of the funeral, and intended to give back to the dead man the use of all his organs of sense and perception. A small preliminary meal is now served, followed by a complicated toilet, after which the deceased is ready for the banquet proper. This is technically known as 'the offering which the king gives/ probably because in origin the mortuary feasts of the great nobles were provided out of the royal purse, though this is a matter of some uncertainty. There is hardly any room for doubt as to the nature of this ceremony. It is a purely material banquet in which the deceased is regarded as taking part in his tomb. In the case of the royal mortuary temples which adjoined the pyramid tombs of the Vth and Vlth Dynasties we have no reason for disbelieving that the offerings were actually made m some instances for many years after the death of the tomb's owner. In the case of private persons, to whom in this period the royal mortuary rites had been gradually extended, we cannot have the same assurance, though we know that even as late as the Middle Kingdom the more important nobles had their own mortuary priests (p. 287). It may well be that a few inexpensive offerings coupled with a rapid recitation of the more salient parts of the ritual often represented the priest's conception of his duties. One fact of supreme importance emerges from all this. The dead man is looked upon as actually alive in his tomb. And in this belief lies, beyond all doubt, the origin of that strange Egyptian practice, mummification. True mummification, that is the attempt to pad out the preserved corpse in such a way as to retain its original lifelike appearance, is late in Egypt, the art only reaching its full perfection in the XXIst Dynasty. Previous to this all that had been attempted was the protection of the body against com- plete dissolution by means of the removal of most of the internal organs, the^application of preservatives, and the use of linen band- ages. Primitive mummification has been found in tombs of the Ilnd Dynasty at Sakkarah, and the wrapped arm with jewelled bracelets of 1st Dynasty type found in the tomb of Zer at Abydos carries the practice still further back. IX, i] LIFE IN THE TOMB 337 This attempt to preserve the body from decay has ofteti been explained as due to a desire to provide a home in which the ka or some c^frher spiritual essence of the dead man might take up its abode whenever it chose to revisit the tomb. Such an explanation is based on the failure to recognize the Egyptian belief in the continued physical existence of the dead in the tomb itself. The body must be preserved simply because it is the dead man him- self. What takes part in the mortuary ceremonies and banquets is not the ka or the kay but the dead man himself, who is literally regarded as leaving the tomb-chamber below, ascending the shaft, and issuing forth through the false door into the offering-chamber. Hence the supreme importance of preserving the body. Moreover, in the present writer's opinion, there is no evidence for calling the statues found in the tomb-chapels ^-statues, or for supposing that they were placed there to provide a bodily shell in which the ka might inhere or dwell. The more probable explanation is much cruder and simpler than this, it is that the statue is designed to take the place of the deceased man in case his body should, despite all precautions, fall into decay; it was in fact an attempt to make assurance doubly sure. See also p. 288. In all this we cannot help seeing the counsel of despair. The fact of physical death is not to be admitted. The body must if possible be preserved, and kept alive by offerings of food and drink. Should the body be overtaken by dissolution the statue will perhaps serve in its place. But this is a comfortless notion, especially for the poor. Mummification, perhaps originally a privilege of the king alone, was an expensive process and only gradually became usual for persons of moderate means in Egypt, while the provision of statues and mortuary priests was within the reach only of the *rich minority. As for the poor, they must either have lived without hope, or at the best relied on the makeshifts of * sympathetic * substitution eked out by the magical power of recited words. Above all, it should be emphasized that all these services rendered to the dead were the outcome of each man's desire to have his own future welfare amply provided for when the time came. There is no reason for supposing that there existed any cult of the dead as such, still less that the mortuary ritual was an attempt to placate the spirits of the departed and to prevent them from doing injury to the living. Side by side with, and without prejudice to, the crude belief in a continued life in the tomb, we find other ideas prevailing accord- ing to which the dead enjoy a glorious existence in some distant sphere. Such an existence may have been at the outset the unique C.A.H.I 22, 338 EGYPTIAN LIFE AND THOUGHT [CHAP, privilege of kings; it is known to us in early times mainly from the Pyramid Texts, and its conditions are such as could perhaps be satisfied by royalty alone, inasmuch as the king was in the first place the son'of Re and In the second place, when dead, identified with Osiris, In the solar portion of the Pyramid Texts the life of the here- after is closely associated with Re, and the aim of every dead king is to reach the eastern side of the sky, there to be with the god. The difficulty is how to get there. The idea of a righteous life on earth as a passport to future happiness is at this time almost com- pletely undeveloped, and it is only rarely and incidentally that the words 'King X is righteous' appear. Frequently we read of 'the lake of Kha, whose farther shore is in the east of heaven/ which has to be crossed by him who would be with Re. The normal method of crossing this water is to be ferried over by a boatman called 'Turn-face/ who can only be cajoled into doing his office by some cunning pretext. It may even be necessary to appeal to Re himself to soften the heart of his obdurate ferryman, or even to bring the boat over in person. Sometimes the dead king crosses the lake on a pair of reed-floats of primitive type, made for him by four youths who sit on the east side of the sky. If all fails, he must take unto himself wings and fly up to heaven as a falcon or a grasshopper; or a bright ladder, perhaps the sun's slanting rays, may be let down for him from heaven or set up on earth. All this is very primitive, and no less so are the magical charms or threats to the gods in case of non-compliance by which it is sought to force a passage heavenward for the dead monarch. Once arrived in heaven the king becomes the intimate companion of Re, whose son he already is at this period. He is variously called his scribe, his adviser, or 'the acquaintance of Re, the companion of Horus of the Horizon,' and accompanies the god in the solar barque on his journey across the sky. In all this solarized version of the hereafter we occasionally catch a fleeting glimpse of earlier beliefs with regard to the dead; there are not infrequent references, for example, to the dead man as a star in the sky, and in two passages he is represented as having the head of the jackal- or dog-god Anubis. These, however, seem to be but reminiscences of older things and may be neglected. In strong contrast to the solar version of life beyond the grave stands the Osirian myth. We have already seen how the early evidence is^to the effect that Osiris is either a dead king or a personification of dead kingship. In conformity with tliis the deceased king is in the Pyramid Texts actually identified with IX, i] THE OSIRIAN HEREAFTER 339 Osiris and called 'the Osiris King X,* and as such receives all necessary funerary attention from his son Horus, who is incarnate in the laying king his successor (similarly called *the Horus King Y *), an idea afterwards extended to include private individuals. In the Pyramid Texts the dead king, as Osiris, is already ruler of the dead and Lord of Dewat (Duat), a region which was perhaps originally conceived as in the sky, but which was afterwards certainly located beneath the earth and made the home of the departed. Gradually, however, an attempt to reconcile these two con- flicting systems took place. In the Pyramid Texts we can almost watch the process. Myths, obviously solar in origin, are fitted on to the Osirian cycle, and the Osirian hereafter is carried into the sky, the realm of Re. In some cases we actually find a passage in two forms, firstly in its original solar colouring, and secondly, but side by side with the first, in an expanded and Osirianized shape. Thus the two faiths reacted the one on the other, and, despite contradictions, both found acceptance. Side by side with these products of a gradual process we find in the Pyramid Texts instances of the crudest possible editing in favour of the Osirian myth. Thus in the offering ritual in the pyramid of Unis the words *the Osiris' have been mechanically inserted in front of the king's name whenever this occurs at the opening of a section, but the editor has been too careless to make the addition when the king's name occurs in the body of a section. Such then is the main conflict of belief in Egypt in the Pyramid Age. But we should be wrong if we regarded this conflict as occupying an important place in the thoughts of the average man in Egypt. If the intelligence of the priests, who represented the learning of the country, never got beyond these feeble efforts to reconcile the obviously incompatible, what are we to expect from the uneducated? They doubtless believed precisely what they were told to believe, untrammelled by such formulae as £^f cannot be both B and not- 5,' and for them religion consisted in practice mainly in performing certain acts of devotion at the shrine of the local god. Much more might be said, but the preceding paragraphs may suffice to give some idea of the workings of the Egyptian mind in dealing with the problems of life and death, and to show how far removed they were from evolving any consistent theory of the nature and meaning of things, from sheer lack of the philosophical habit of mind. It would not be fair, however, to leave the period without Reference to the one document which stands out as the sole effort made in Egypt previous to the XVIIIth Dynasty to 340 EGYPTIAN LIFE AND THOUGHT [CHAP. account In a rational and consistent manner for existence. In the British Museum,, under the number 797, Is ^a stela dated in the reign of Sliabaka, who lived about 700 B.C. Time has dealj; hardly with it, for It was once used as a nether millstone, with the result that quite two-thirds of its content is utterly obliterated* Enough remains, however, to show us that Shabaka's scribe was not lying when he claimed the document to be a copy of an ancient and worm-eaten papyrus, and that Its contents go back to the Pyramid Age, The document, which is composite. Is of Memphite origin, and is an obvious attempt to assert the claims of Ptah, the god of Memphis, to a commanding position in the Egyptian pantheon, a process with which we are already familiar. Eight forms or emanations of Ptah are said to spring from the god himself. One of these Is called 'Ptah the Great* and is described as the "heart and tongue of the Nine,* that Is, of the group formed by the original Ptah and his eight emanations. This particular form is then commented on at some length, the heart being treated as the seat of thought and the tongue as the executive member which carries out the designs of the heart. * When the eyes see or the ears hear or the nose breathes they lead it (the sensation) to the heart. This It is that causes every decision to go forth; the tongue it Is that repeats what the heart has devised.. , . In this way the kas and the qualities were made, and all that is lovely or hateful; in this way life is given to the peaceful man and death to the transgressor, in this way arise all work and all art/ And so the catalogue con- tinues. It is interesting not only as a piece of metaphysics, an attempt to explain how all things had their origin in Ptah, but also as a piece of psychology, for the analogy of the tongue and heart applied here to Ptah in itself betrays thoughtful speculation as to the nature and bodily localization of the human faculties. II. THE EARLIER INTERMEDIATE PERIOD, Vllrn TO XTH DYNASTIES The prosperity of Egypt seems to have met with a rude set-back at the ead of the Vltb. Dynasty, and the succeeding years up to the^end of the ,Xth Dynasty, and perhaps even later, are marked by Internal dissension and by Incursions of Asiatic peoples into the Delta. And yet to this stormy Interval are to be traced the earliest extensive examples yet known to us of Egyptian literary activity. Purely a product of its time, this literature, like the thought which inspires It, is very definitely pessimistic in tone. It coufd hardly have been otherwise. In the Delta is, It would seem, the Asiatic IX, n] LANGUAGE AND WRITING 341 Invader. *The desert Is throughout the land/ says Ipuwef In his Admonitions, 'The nornes are laid waste; a foreign tribe from abroad^ias come to Egypt/ In Upper Egypt, at this time probably cleft into two Independent kingdoms, confosion and treachery are rampant. *The wrongdoer Is everywhere* The plague Is through- out the land. Blood is everywhere. Gates, columns and walls are consumed by fire. No craftsmen work. Nile overflows, but no one ploughs for him. Every man says *cWe know not what has hap- pened throughout the land." Men are few, women are lacking, and no children are conceived. Cattle are left to stray, and there is none to gather them together. All Is ruin/ Thus the Egyptian has been brought to muse on the mutability of human fortunes, and an Irresistible wave of pessimism sweeps through the land and gives us the world's first literature in the true sense of the term. And let It not be forgotten that the disasters of this age affected not only the living but also the dead. We have seen how necessary It was in the eyes of the Egyptian that his corpse should rest undestroyed in his tomb and should receive the due mortuary offerings. No doubt In many cases the mortuary arrangements established by the great kings and nobles of the Pyramid Age had already lapsed; the ^-priests had ceased to function, and the tomb chapels had either been destroyed by the enemy or begun to fall into decay from natural causes. Gradually It was borne In upon the Egyptian mind that even the noblest and the richest had proved powerless to protect themselves against the attacks of time and circumstances. And, If this was the case, for what could ordinary men hope? It was typical of the Egyptian temperament that, Instead of meeting the situation with a new and advanced theory of life and death, he tamely bowed to the inevitable and took refuge In a pessimistic literature. But before we deal with this In detail we must very briefly review the earlier history of Egyptian literature. The Egyptians spoke a language of Hamitic type showing distinct affinities on the one hand with Semitic and on the other with Berber. As early as the beginning of the 1st Dynasty they were writing this language with considerable facility, having even evolved a cursive form of the script, though the specimens that have survived, mostly seal- Ings and labels, are not always completely intelligible to us. The script had originally been pictographic and had only been rendered phonetic by a wide application of the ingenious device of rebus- writing. Thus the Egyptian word for *a house* consisted of the letters p and r In that order, with a vowel between them con- cerning which we only know that it varied according to the 342 EGYPTIAN LIFE AND THOUGHT [CHAP. grammatical construction of the word. The house sign, a simple rectangle with a gap In one side to represent the door or entrance, could therefore be employed to represent the bi-consonan>al com- bination p-r in whatever word it occurred and whatever the vowel, If any, which separated the two consonants. Thus the sign offered a means of writing the verb *to go out/ whose consonantal skeleton was pry, the weak consonant y being, like the variable vowels, negligible. In this way a series of phonetic signs arose, some representing a combination of two consonants and some a combination of three. Nor was much difficulty encountered in finding by the same method signs to represent the single con- sonants. There were many words In Egyptian which, owing to the falling away or degeneration into vowel sounds of the weak consonants wyy and the soft breathing (alepK), or to other phonetic causeSj had been reduced in pronunciation to a consonant pre- ceded or followed by a vowel, and since the unstable vowel could be neglected the picture of such an object could be used as a rebus to represent the one consonant phonetically in all positions and combinations. Thus the picture of a mouth, the word for which was ro (a weak consonant having dropped off at the end) could always be used for r* In this way the Egyptians had evolved at a very early date an almost though not quite perfect alphabet, thus escaping the cum- brous syllabary of the cuneiform script (p. 126), One of the world's greatest discoveries was beneath their eyes and yet with typical conservatism they refused to make use of it; instead of discarding all the old picture-signs as such, and all the two- and three-con- sonantal group-signs, and writing everything purely alphabetically with the uniliteral phonetic signs, they chose to keep them all. They even went further and produced a new kind of sign* In many words still written by means of their pictures it became customary to prefix, or more rarely to affix, some or all of the phonetic signs in order to make sure that the reader should recognize the picture aright. This made it less necessary to be accurate In the drawing of the pictures. Thus, in the case of the Innumerable names of birds, It was soon seen that, provided part or the whole of the phonetic spelling accompanied the picture, the Irksome and often impossible task of making the precise species of the bird recognizable and distinct was no longer needed. Even now conservatism prevented the obvious course of dropping out the bird altogether, and so a picture of what we may call argeneric bird of no particular species or of a very common species was left as an aid to the reader. Similarly, instead of drawing out the IX, n] EARLY LITERATURE 343 figures of the various animals the scribe wrote their names^phone- tically,^adding a picture of an animal's skin. Hence arose what is known as the generic determinative, the latest development of hieroglyphic writing. Such was the elaborate and somewhat clumsy means which the Egyptians had devised for recording their deeds and their thoughts, and it is consonant with their practical genius that as early as the beginning of the dynastic period they were already writing shortened forms of the hiero- glyphic signs in ink upon wood and other materials. Long before the Middle Kingdom papyrus was in common use, and records and accounts were being kept on this material in a fully developed cursive script known as hieratic, Of literature in the true sense of the term there is little or nothing under the Old Kingdom, The biographies of the nobles as recorded in their tombs are for the most part catalogues of titles and promotions, with occasional and only too rare stories of military prowess. The point of view is almost always purely personal, and yet there is seldom a human touch, still more seldom a literary. One exception, however, must not pass unnoticed, for it is one of our earliest examples of that strophic arrangement which appar- ently formed the basis of Egyptian literary style. It is the triumph song of Uni over the safe return of his army from a. campaign in Syria in the time of Pepi I of the VI th Dynasty (see p. 292 sq.\ It consists of seven couplets, the first line of each being identical* This army returned in safety; It had hacked up the land of the Sand-dwellers. This army returned in safety; It had destroyed (?) the land of the Sand-dwellers. This army returned in safety > It had overthrown its fortresses. This army returned in safety; It had cut down its figs and its vines, Now this strophic arrangement undoubtedly has its origin in old religious hymns. Considerable portions of the Pyramid Texts consist of ancient hymns arranged in couplets of two sentences parallel in form and in idea. Whether they were also parallel in metre our ignorance of Egyptian vocalization and accentuation forbids us to say, but in any case they constitute the world's earliest poetic form. The diction, terse and commonplace in many cases, rises to considerable heights of imagination in others, as for instance in the description of the commotion caused among the stars of heaven when they see the dead king Vising as a soul/ or again in the hymn to the Nile, where we read *the marshes laugh, 344 EGYPTIAN LIFE AND THOUGHT [CHAP. the batiks overflow; the divine offerings descend. Mankind is of a glad countenance and the heart of the gods rejoices.' Hege, then, in the Pyramid Texts we get a glimpse of the origins and^literary forerunners of the texts of the Earlier Intermediate Period. Of the five important texts which clearly have their origin in this period not one has come down to us in a contemporary manu- script. The Admonitions of Ipuwer (Leiden Papyrus 344) dates from the XlXth Dynasty, though it manifestly goes back to a prototype which cannot be placed later than the Xllth Dynasty, and describes a state of things which passed with the Intermediate Period preceding this. To the same group of texts belong the British Museum writing-board, 5645, and the still more famous "Dialogue of the Man-weary-of-life with his Soul/ known to us from a Middle Kingdom Papyrus (Berlin Museum 3024). It would be difficult to prove that the original of this last actually goes back to the Intermediate Period, but its affinity with the two preceding shows that whatever the actual date of the composition it owes Its inspiration to a state of things prevailing at that time. This has of late been made still more certain by the publication in full of two new texts (Petrograd 1 1 1 6 ^and 5), the first of which contains a literary composition of a form very prevalent in Egypt, consisting of the * Teaching' given by a king, whose name is lost, to his son Merire, afterwards a king of the Heracleopolitan House of the IXth and Xth Dynasties. Our copy dates from the XVIIIth Dynasty, but there is no reason to believe that the original was not contemporary with the ruler whose 'political testament * it con- tains. It establishes beyond all possibility of doubt the fact of an Asiatic invasion at this period and throws back to this date at least the origin of the literary form, known as * Instructions ' or * Teach- ing/ The other papyrus (i 1 1 6 5) contains a document of even greater importance to us, for it is in the form of a prophecy, and clearly belongs both in date and style to the pessimistic group of texts. It relates how king Snefru, by way of seeking diversion, com- manded that some person should be brought to amuse him with 'beauteous words and choice speeches.* A certain Neferrohu appears and, on being asked to tell of * things to come/ proceeds to picture the land In a condition very similar to that described by Ipuwer in the Admonitions, *I show thee the land upside down; that happens which never happened before. Men shall take up weapons of war; the land lives in uproar. All good things have departed. Things made are as though they had never beefi made. The land Is mlnished, its rulers are multiplied. Re removes him- IX, n] PESSIMISTIC LITERATURE 345 self from men/ Finally a saviour is foretold who shall set^ Egypt to rights and build the 'Wall of the Prince' to keep the Asiatics from invading Egypt. The reference to this wall enables us to identify this saviour with Amenemhet I, the first ruler of the Xllth Dynasty., to whose reign, unless we assume an interpolation, the original of our composition is doubtless to be dated, But we must turn back for a moment to the "Dialogue of the Man-weary-of-life with his Soul* before we attempt to estimate the bearing and value of these texts as a whole. In this papyrus we are introduced to a man who through the buffering's of mis- fortune has been brought to a point where he seriously contem- plates escaping from life by suicide. He is represented as carrying on a dialogue with his own soul (ba^ not ikk> is the correct reading). The text is difficult and obscure, especially in the first half, the beginning of which is lost, but the final advice of the ba is clear: 'Now hearken unto me. Behold it is good for men to hearken. Follow the happy day (a common phrase for 'to enjoy oneself). Forget care/ To this advice the man replies in four strophic sections probably metrical in structure. The first depicts his sad plight on earth and consists of strophes of this type, c Behold my name stinks (?) more than the smell of fishermen on the edges (?) of the marshes when they have been a-fishing/ The second tells how evil mankind has become: *To whom shall (or *do*) I speak to-day; brothers are evil, the friends of to-day love not'; or again, *To whom shall I speak to-day; hearts are covetous, each man makes away with his fellow's goods/ Then follows a panegyric on death: 'Death is before me to-day like the convalescence of a sick man, like going forth after an illness ( ?). Death is before me to-day like the smell of myrrh, like sitting beneath the sail of the boat on a breezy day. Death is before me to-day like the longing of a man to see his home when he has spent many years in captivity/ The whole ends with a short description of the happy fate of the dead, 'They who are over yonder/ What is the inner meaning of this phase of Egyptian literature ? In the first place it is the purely physical product of the distressful days of the Intermediate Period, whether we believe that some or all of it was actually written during that time or immediately after. And in the second place it reflects, as Breasted has so rightly pointed out, the awakening of man to the moral unworthiness of society and the possibility of better things. In Petrograd u 16 £ a saviour is actually predicted, and again, in the Admonitions of Ipuwet*, although there is no prediction, the poet cannot refrain from drawing a picture of the ideal ruler of a state under the form 346 EGYPTIAN LIFE AND THOUGHT [CHAP. of the sun-god Re. This type of writing, whether definitely pre- dictive or not, is closely akin to the prophetic writings of the Hebrews, and every discussion of the latter must reckon ^ith the possibility of Egyptian models. As Breasted remarks concerning the Admonitions, "this is Messianism nearly a thousand years before its appearance among the HebrewsV Cf. pp. 216, 325. IIL THE MIDDLE KINGDOM With the Middle Kingdom came the restoration of prosperity in Egypt and the triumph of the feudal system. It thus gives us an admirable opportunity for observing the behaviour of the Egyptian mind and character under normal conditions. We may therefore with advantage choose this as a point at which to ask on what moral principles the Egyptian acted, and what he thought about his action, Essentially practical in this as in all else, he gave himself up very little to ethical speculation, although, as will be seen, his mind had a considerable and very definite ethical content. He had never reached the point of distinguishing ethical from meta- physical rightness, if we may trust the evidence of his language, for the one word maat serves to translate our "truth/ 'right* and * righteousness/ This ambiguity prevents us from seizing the precise meaning of one of the most striking ceremonies in the daily temple ritual, the presentation to the god of a small figure of Maat personified as a goddess. On the other side, ethics was not very clearly distinguished speculatively from aesthetics, for there exists only one word nefer to express both morally good and aesthetically beautiful. These facts show us how undeveloped and undifferentiated was the science of ethics* But that morality was a concept full of practical meaning we know from the tomb inscriptions with their endlessly reiterated professions of piety and of charity towards mankind. And yet in the Pyramid Texts the conception of righteous dealing as a qualification for happiness in a future life barely takes form. Here It must be remembered that, in the first place, these texts deal essentially with kings, who doubtless were regarded as outside and above the application of moral standards; and in the second place that the conception of morality may perfectly well exist to a high degree without necessarily being connected with the hope of happiness beyond the grave. Thus on the tomb-stelae of the great nobles of the Old Kingdom we find their go<5d dfceds 1 Development of Religion and Thought in jfncient Egypt (1912), p- 212. IX, m] MORAL STANDARDS 347 recited In order to persuade the passers by their tombs to say those prayers which according to Egyptian belief could secure food and drink teethe dead. So Herkhuf says : i I was one who was excellent; beloved of his father, approved of his mother, one whom all his brethren loved. I gave bread to the hungry, clothes to the naked. I ferried across the river him who had no boat. O ye who live upon earth, who pass by this tomb in going up or down stream, and who shall say "Thousands of bread and beer for the owner of this tomb," I will give thanks (?) to you in the necropolis/ Here we have a tacit admission of the fact that all the virtues enumerated are impotent to procure for the deceased the most elementary physical needs of life in the tomb. He uses the catalogue of his good deeds merely to persuade his survivors to recite those prayers which it was believed could secure for him food and drink. But we must observe the logical consequence. Felicity in or beyond the tomb is dependent on the performance of correct rites and the pronouncing of the correct prayers by a man's fellows at his tomb. The most obvious way in which he can enlist their sympathy and services is by assuring them on his grave-stela that he acted kindly by his neighbours in his lifetime and bidding them requite it in this way. Thus good actions do indirectly help to ensure a happy hereafter. It would be rash to assume that here lay the origin of the moral sanction in Egypt, the causative connexion between piety on this earth and well-being in the next; but at least this fact must have had a place in the development of the idea. What then was the ethical standard in earliest Egypt, for such there must have been, since actions could be distinguished as good or bad? Probably it was, as to a great extent it remained in later times, almost purely selfish. As we might say in our modern phrase, virtue *paid* on the whole. It gained the approval of a man's fellow creatures because they benefited by it. *I did that which all men approved* was perhaps the highest piece of self- commendation which a noble could inscribe upon his tomb. The idea of right as a thing commendable in itself is completely absent from Egyptian literature; and there is no word for 'duty* except in the very limited sense of the c duties * or 'functions' of a par- ticular post or office. When Ptahhotep tells us * Great is right, and endureth and prevaileth, it has not been brought to nought since the days of Osiris,* he proceeds to qualify this high moral idealism by the addition of a more worldly reflection : * It is vice that maketh away wjth wealth; never has evil brought its venture safe to land.* In plain words the Egyptians believed that virtue brought its own reward on earthy and this was their main motive for good conduct. 343 EGYPTIAN LIFE AND THOUGHT [CHAP. Whatever was felt in later days this was certainly true of early times. Nowhere is it more clearly shown than in the etkical and didactic literature of the Middle Kingdom, ^ ^ The Egyptians were formalists in literature as in all else and their writings consequently fall into clearly defined groups. The simplest of these is the romance. Of this we have two outstanding examples. The first is the 'Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor/ from a Petrograd papyrus. This, unless it contain some allegory invisible to our eyes, is simply a fairy tale. The hero goes to sea in a ship 150 cubits long by 40 wide, and is wrecked on a desert island inhabited only by a huge snake-like monster 60 cubits long. * Its beard was more than 2 cubits in length, its limbs were overlaid witK gold, and its eyebrows were of real lapis lazuli/ The snake, despite the sailor's apprehensions, deals gently and even kindly with him, and foretells his speedy deliverance, which is effected by the arrival of a ship from Egypt, on which the sailor departs loaded with gifts by his strange host. The other romance, that of Sinuhe, is more pretentious and has a historical setting (see pp. 226 syy.j 304). The inference from this and from similar evidence with regard to other works is that Egyptian literature embraced few masterpieces, but these few were very popular and provided a source for study and copy-writing for centuries. Another of the groups into which Egyptian writings fall is of greater interest still to the modern reader. It comprises a number of didactic and moral works under the title of £ Teachings * or 'In- structions/ We have already met one such work in the c Instruc- tions of a king to his son Merire/ Others are the * Instructions of Ptahhotep/ the instructions of King Amenemhet I* and the 'Instructions of Dawef to his son/ The last of these is a later document; the second, which has survived only in several late copies (e.g. Papyrus Millingen), is closely related to the pessimistic literature dealt with above (p. 303). The * Instructions ofPtahhotep/ of which parts are preserved in a number of papyri (notably Prisse and British Museum 10,509), is perhaps the most difficult to translate of all Egyptian texts. The Instructions are represented as having been uttered by a vizier named Ptahhotep in the reign of Isesi of the Vth Dynasty. Feeling old age creeping on him the vizier craves the royal permission to set his son in his place and to give him advice on the subject of the viziership. The content of this advice may well be called 'the beginning of worldly wisdom/ Relations with one's fellow creatures both official and personal are dealt with. In the case of official relations we seem to see signs of a traditional standard of official morality. * If thou IX, in] THE ELOQUENT PEASANT 349 be a man of trust whom one great one sends to another, bf exact in the business whereon he sends thee, execute for him his errand as he bi|ls. » » . If thou be a leader, be patient when thou hearest the speech of the suppliant* Deal not roughly with him before he has relieved his soul of that which he thought to tell thee/ The advice given on the subject of personal behaviour has lost none of its force to-day. * Be cheerful (bright of face) all the days of thy life. ... If thou find a wise man in his hour a man . . « of under- standing, as one more excellent than thyself, bend thine arms, bow thy back.* These practical maxims contain little notion of right for its own sake, and when a reason is given for a prescribed course of action it is that *it is profitable* or gains the doer *a good name* (see p. 288 J^.). Of no less ethical interest is the * Story of the Eloquent Peasant.* A poor countryman going down into Egypt with his donkeys laden with the produce of his oasis is robbed of all by an official by means of a trick* He hastens to demand justice from the steward under whom the unjust official is serving. In such elo- quent terms does he plead his cause that the steward reports the matter to the king, who orders the case to be dragged slowly on so that more may be heard of the peasant's eloquence. This chiefly consists in Appeals to the high standard of impartial justice which is to be expected from the official class in Egypt. "For thou art the father of the orphan, the husband of the widow, the brother of the forsaken maid, the apron of the motherless. Grant that I may set thy name in this land higher than all good laws, thou leader free from covetousness, great one free from pettiness, who brings to nought the lie and causes right to be/ This is fine imagery, but our poet can fly still higher in the realm of metaphor. *Thou rudder of heaven, thou prop of earth, thott measuring tape. * . . Rudder, fall not. Prop, fall not. Measuring tape, make no error/ The peasant makes no fewer than nine appeals in this strain, and the end of the papyrus, which is torn, would seem to have recorded the granting of his suit and the punishment of the guilty official. Throughout this document, which may be regarded as a dis- quisition on official justice, we find not a word of appeal to the steward's hope of future happiness. The appeal is rather to his sense of what is expected of an official in his position. Moreover it must be confessed that we are left with the impression that the standard implied in this papyrus and in the * Instructions of Ptahhotep* was not always lived up to by officials; otherwise it is harcl to* conceive why the peasant should be represented as at such pains, not to establish the justice of his claim, which is never 350 EGYPTIAN LIFE AND THOUGHT [CHAP. disputed, but to persuade the steward to do his obvious duty (see p. 317'). From such papyri and from the tomb inscriptions we gather that Egypt had in the Middle Kingdom a very definite code of morality both private and public. We do not however find any trace of the recognition of a categorical imperative in morals* Free-will is clearly implied throughout, and though there existed a conception of destiny (skayt) it was only reckoned responsible for the external events of a man's life, not for his reaction to them. But what relation., if any, had these ethical beliefs and this moral code to religion; and if there existed no relation, how are we to explain so strange an anomaly? To answer this we must consider shortly the developments which had taken place in theology since the end of the Old Kingdom. The Osiris cult, once extended from dead king to dead subject, made giant strides, owing perhaps mainly to its funerary bearing, for nothing inter- ested the Egyptian more than his fate after death. The outward and visible sign of this was the localization of Osiris as funerary god at Abydos, where he took the place and title of an earlier deity 'Chief of the Westerners/ a god with a dog or jackal face, possibly, though by no means certainly, a form of Anubis. Here at Abydos in the Middle Kingdom a spot called Peker was pointed out to pilgrims as the site of the grave of Osiris. It may perhaps be identified with the low mound known as Umm el-Ka'ab, where the royal tombs of the 1st and Ilnd Dynasties lay. In the XXVIth Dynasty one of these tombs, that of king Zer, was identified with the tomb of Osiris, and, although the offering vases with which the tomb is covered do not go back beyond the XVIIIth Dynasty, the identification may be as old as the Xllth. At any rate we know from the inscription of Ikhernofret that as early as this date certain mysteries were performed at Abydos, the subject of which was the death of Osiris and his burial in Peker. From this time forward it became the wish of every pious Egyptian to make during his lifetime the pilgrimage to Abydos. Those who failed to do so were often taken there after death and certain ceremonies were performed there over their mummies. Tfee^a^t cemetery began to fill rapidly with the bodies of those anxious to be laid beside the Lord of Abydos, and with the cenotaphs and stelae ^of those to whom this was denied. C£ p. 322 sg. This predominance of Osiris is reflected by the religious texts of the period. These consist mainly of a series of chapters or utterances written, often very carelessly, on the inside of the fine wooden coffins usual at this date* As might have been expected, IX, in] COFFIN TEXTS 351 these texts stand midway between the Pyramid Texts on the one hand an4 the so-called Book of the Dead on the other. Many of their sections are found in the Pyramid Age; others, however, are apparently new, and contain fresh developments of belief. To realize the capacity" of the Egyptian mind for cherishing incom- patibilities it is enough to read these Coffin Texts. Let us take an example (Lacau's chapter LXXXVI) : *The Osiris N, has risen as Re; he is on high as A turn. Hath or has anointed him; she gives him life in the West like Re every day. O Osiris, there is no god who shall make a charge against thee, there is no goddess who shall make a charge against thee on the day of reckoning characters before the Great One, Lord of the West. Thou eatest bread on the altars of Re with the great ones who are at the gates. Lo! 1 am he who opens thy way, who causes thy foes to fall; ... I have stretched out ( ?) for thee my arm upon them on this day on which thy ka and thy t>a went to rest. . . . Thou art glorious, and art a spirit, and art mightier than the gods of Upper Egypt and the North. The great ones who are In the horizon arise. The attendants of the Lord of All are glad;, . . Joyful is the heart of those who are in the horizon when they see thee coming in this thine honour which thy father Geb made for thee. . . . Thy ba rejoices in Abydos, thy corpse reigns in the desert cemetery. Glad is the heart of the Head of the Divine Hall when he sees this god, lord of those who are, ruler of those who are not. I am thy son Horus; I have given thee justification in the assembly. ... * This is a very miracle of confusion, but it is typical. The dead man is identified with Osiris and in the same breath with Re- Atum. Moreover, though himself an Osiris, he is apparently to be tried before Osiris himself, for the 'Great One, Lord of the West' can hardly be any other. This attempt to edit earlier texts on Osirian lines is already familiar to us from the Pyramids. In the Coffin Texts, however, the editing is more frequently done by means of marginal glosses. Thus the text known later as Chapter xvn of the Book of the Dead begins as follows in the Coffin Texts; All things were mine when I was alone; I am Re at his first rising. (Gloss) That is, when he rises In the morning in his horizon, I am the Great One who begat himself. (Gloss) This great god is Nun (Chaos). *ho created his names, lord of the Divine Ennead. (Gloss) That is Re. 352 EGYPTIAN LIFE AND THOUGHT [CHAP Who is not kept off from among the gods. (Gloss) That is Horns of Letopolis. Yesterday is mine and I know to-xnorrow. (Gloss) That Is Osiris. Originally the purpose of the glosses was to explain difficulties, but HI the hands of the priests they served the very useful purpose of enabling new beliefs to be incorporated with old without the suppression of the latter. In this way Osiris acquires an ever increasing ascendancy in the solar myth, and the first result is that the dead man as an Osiris is granted a place in the celestial hereafter, as is abundantly clear from the passages quoted above. But just as Osiris must be taken up into the solar hereafter so., too. Re acquires a connexion with the Osirian hereafter. He becomes Lord of the Dewat or Underworld, a position hitherto occupied by Osiris. It has been remarked that the geography of the Osirian Dewat was obscure. It is now cleared up. Re sinks each evening in the western horizon and enters the realm of the Dewat over which Osiris as Head of the Westerners presides. The Dewat is thus conceived as under the earth, where Re spends the night threading its complicated halls and passages to rise next morning in the east. Such is the theology of the Middle Kingdom as shown in the Coffin Texts. We can now answer our original question, What relation does this bear to ethics? In a Coffin Text quoted above and in. several others we meet with the phrase cthe day of reckoning characters/ but the idea does not seem to be developed very far. At the same time the view which regarded Osiris as the judge of the dead and which later crystallized out into Chapter cxxv of the Book of the Dead is already taking form. *Hail to you, lords of right, * we read, * company that is behind Osiris, ye that put the evil-doer to the sword. Behold me. I am come before you that ye may expel the evil that is in me/ It is true that almost side by side with this we find the solar passage: *The sin that was in me is put away. I have cleansed myself in those two great and mighty pools in Heracleopolis in which the offerings of mankind are cleansed for the great god who is therein/ The local god of Hera- cleopolis is Harshef, but the gloss runs: *Who is this (god)? It is Re himself/ Here Re is represented, if not as the judge, at any rate as one interested in the expulsion of sin. Indeed he had from the first been regarded as the incarnation of all goodness. Ipuwer in the Admonitions looked back to Re as the ideal just ruler, and the eloquent peasant speaks of a proverb, 'Tell the trutK and do justice,* as 'That good word which came out of the mouth of Re/ IX, in] BELIEF IN A JUDGMENT ' 353 But a change was gradually taking place. Quite early there had come into being a myth in which Osiris was arraigned by his brother Set before the Court of Re in Heliopolis, and acquitted as 'true of voice* or * justified/ a legal term used of one proved innocent in the courts. In origin the Osiris legend had little or no ethical content, and the incident of the trial marks the first con- nexion of the god with morals. The importance of this is made apparent when the funerary cult is extended from the king to the private individual. Every deceased person then becomes an Osiris and as such is 'true of voice * or * justified/ By the beginning of the Middle Kingdom this change has already taken effect, and before long the Osiris myth takes another step forward and Osiris, instead of being the person judged innocent, becomes himself the judge. But this is a stage of the myth which does not bulk at all largely in the Middle Kingdom. There we still have Re and Osiris side by side as models of goodness and justice, the former standing for the old state religion, the latter, though royal in origin, now beginning to appeal more strongly to popular belief and imagination. Now, it is a remarkable fact that the connexion here evident between religion and ethics plays a very minor role in the profane literature and the tomb inscriptions of the Middle Kingdom. There is one notable exception, a passage in the * Instructions of a king to his son Merire/ a document to which we have already referred, and which probably dates from the Intermediate Period. It runs as follows: * As for the court who judge sinners, mark thee that they will not be lenient on that day of judging miserable (men), in the hour of performing their function. Wretched is he who is accused as one conscious (of sin?). Put not thy faith in length of years, for they behold a lifetime as an hour. A man survives after death* His deeds are laid beside him for treasure. Eternal is the existence yonder. He who has made light (?) of it is a fool. But he who has reached it without wrongdoing shall exist yonder like a god, stepping forward boldly like the lords of eternity/ This passage has to be taken seriously into account in estimating Egyptian morals; the words are spoken by a king to his son and heir, and probably date back to the IXth or Xth Dynasty. And yet it stands almost alone in its lofty conception. We search the tomb inscriptions and the didactic papyri almost in vain * for another such expression of the moral sanction, though in these, if anywKere, we might have expected to find the belief of the wise men and educated nobles of Egypt. This is a remarkable fact, and C.A.K.X 23 354 EGYPTIAN LIFE AND THOUGHT [CHAP. it has. a still more remarkable explanation. With his ever practical mind the Egyptian had devised a means of securing his future which, if followed out to its logical conclusion, must have^deprived morality of all its value. This means lay in the application of what was called hike, a concept which it is difficult to translate but corresponds generally to the anthropological term mana. The Petrograd papyrus., above quoted, tells us that 'God (i.e. the sun-god) made for men spells of htke&s a weapon to ward off (evil) happenings/ And the Egyptians had not failed to make use of the gift. In the Pyramid Texts we find certain utterances which are to be used by the dead king as a means of propitiating unfavourable beings in the next world. This principle of the efficacy of certain words for certain purposes is inherent in Egyptian thought and is undoubtedly based on the conception of hike. Such an immensely important part did this play that any attempt to interpret Egyptian life and thought without making allowance for it would be worth- less. To suppose that hike was a pathological excrescence on the body of Egyptian religion, that it was, as it were, c religion gone wrong/ does not cover the facts. To the Egyptian all acts of what- soever nature came under one of two categories, ordinary acts or hike. Ordinary acts are those in which purely natural means were used. When, however, these natural means, such as prayer, re- quest, entreaty, failed to obtain the required favour from another being or thing there still remained fuke^ a form of coercion which required some special marvellous knowledge to perform. One of its commonest forms consisted in the pronouncement of a particular group of words in a particular way, often to the accompaniment of a prescribed action* On this, as will be seen later, the whole of Egyptian medicine is based. The action of Kike was not limited to relations between men and men or between men and things. We have already seen that the Egyptian regarded men, gods, and dead as merely three species of a single genus, both gods and dead being subject to the same physical wants as men, though somehow in a less tangible sense. Now gods and dead were of course approachable by men through what we have termed natural means; but they were, like men, also amenable to that particular kind of force majeure which the Egyptians called teke> a power which, incidentally, they were by no means averse from using themselves, as Egyptian myth amply testifies. Nay more, since gods and dead were removed from direct contact with the living, what more natural than that men should come to^ regard Kike as a much more potent and certain means of persuading them than ordinary prayer or request ? If this be the IX, m] HIKE AND MORALITY 355 case, it would explain, as nothing else seems to do, why nearly all commiirucation with gods and dead took the form of ritual, of words to be recited in a prescribed way and acts to be done in a prescribed form. In this way we avoid any antithesis between religion and hike^ and we see that any act, secular or religious, may be regarded either as purely natural or as partaking in a greater or less degree of hike. See p. 209. If this interpretation be correct, all ritual is of the nature of hike, which is in accordance with the fact that the spells used by men for the purposes of self-protection, production, prognostic and cursing are similar in form to the ritual of the temple and the tomb, and that spells are not infrequently transferred from the purely human sphere to the religious or funerary. The significance of this belief in hike from the ethical point of view is enormous. Why trouble to follow the painful path of virtue, except insofar as purely mundane considerations made it advisable, if all could be made right with the gods by merely knowing the correct words to be said on arrival in the next world and the right way to say them? If anyone finds such a belief preposterous let him study the Coffin Texts. For instance, the Middle Kingdom edition of the section known to us later as Chapter xvii of the Book of the Dead ends as follows : * If a man says this section he shall enter into the West after he has gone up. But as for anyone who does not know this section he shall not enter in.* And be it understood, it was not necessary that he should know the section by heart, since the mere fact of its being inscribed on the inside of his coffin placed it at his command whenever he might have need of it, just as in later days it sufficed to have in one's tomb a copy on papyrus of the more essential parts of th** T3nr>lr nf 23 — * CHAPTER X EARLY BABYLONIA AND ITS CITIES I. PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS IN turning from Egypt to Babylonia we enter the Semitic area. But its early history is Sumerian rather than Semitic, and the origin, character, and civilization of the Sumerians constitute a difficult problem which has not yet been solved. For some time past scholars have recognized that the numerous inscriptions in * Sumerian' were not some cryptographic writing of the ordinary cuneiform, but, primarily at least, a genuine and agglutinative language, entirely distinct from Semitic (p. 127). Moreover, it has been possible to recognize the presence of a people who, as regards physical type and culture, were not Semites, but had points of contact, not with the Arabian desert on the west, but with the east. The evidence, however, is as yet fragmentary, and depends upon such old sites as have been examined or excavated; but it enables us to contrast the Sumerians and the Semites, to observe the strength of the civilization of the former, and its influence upon the latter, who in time gradually gain the upper hand. The interpretation of the scattered archaeological data is of course somewhat conjectural. It is unlikely that the country was unin- habited before the Sumerians entered; moreover, throughout the whole of the Semitic area the towns were habitually recruited from the desert, and what we call * Semitic1 rarely had an absolutely pure ancestry (see p. 192 sg.). Hence, it is not easy to decide whether the growth of the Semites which we are about to follow began before our earliest records (c£ p. 371). The name Sumer (properly Shumer) Is the late phonetic repre- sentation of the word Ki-en-gi(n), the precise meaning of which is uncertain. One interpretation, 'Land of the Reed/ refers appro- priately to the reedy marshes of the Euphrates and Tigris. But since the word also appears to be an old title of the city and district of Nippur, and can be rendered 'place of the faithful lord," the reference may be to Enlil, the earth-god. His cult at Nippur and the cult of Enki, the water-god, at Eridu, formed^ the two pillars of the old pantheon. The term Sumer is now generally applied to the southern part of Babylonia (Akkad being the north), CHAP, X, i] THE TIGRIS AND EUPHRATES 357 but may be extended to cover all the land occupied by Sum^rians at any gwen age, including Assyria. The great plain extending from the southern slopes of the Armenian plateau, in which rise the Tigris and Euphrates, has the shape of an elongated flat-iron about 800 miles long. The southern and more recently formed portion of the plain was the scene of the first great civilization of western Asia, from the region of Ashur (the modern Kal'at Shergat), on the middle Tigris above the 35th parallel, to the old mouths of the two rivers. This comparatively small territory, which in the fifth millennium B.C. was not more than 350 miles long, is bounded on the east by the Zagros Moun- tains and the low range of the Pushti Kuh whose foothills rise gradually from the Tigris valley at a distance varying between 60 and 100 miles from that stream. Several small rivers rise in this great western bluff of the plateau of Iran and flow south-westerly into the Tigris. The most northerly are the Greater and Little Zab; the former empties into the Tigris about 40 miles below ancient Nineveh and the latter about So miles below the Greater Zab, The Shatt el-Adhem joins the Tigris 60 miles above Baghdad. It was known to the Semites as the Radanu and to classical geo- graphers as the Physcus. The Tigris is said to have shifted east- ward from its old bed in this region, the present mouth of the Adhem being about eight miles from the old river bed. Perhaps the most important stream which descends from the eastern highlands to the plain is the Diyala which reaches the Tigris below Baghdad, opposite the site of the city Seleucia of the Greek period. Across the sources of this river runs the ancient caravan route from the central Tigris region to the Persian city of Hamadan ma Kerind and Kermanshah. Through this pass the Sumerians probably descended into the valley of the two rivers from the highlands of Iran and central Asia* The pass was known as the 'Gate of the Zagros* and the * Median Gate/ and in a lofty crevice near this pass, beyond Kermanshah, Darius the Great placed the well-known sculptures and trilingual inscription of Behistun (see p. 125). In ancient times the remaining rivers of western Persia which flow into the southern plain emptied into the sea below the estuary of the Tigris. The Tigris and the Euphrates reach the sea in a single large stream, the modern Shatt el- Arab. From the junction of the rivers, formed in our own era where Kurna now stands, to the sea the distance is nearly a hundred miles. East of the middle course of the Kerkhah on the western slopes of the low plateau of Susiana lay the very ancient city Susa, one of the oldest seats of 358 THE CITIES OF EARLY BABYLONIA [CHAP civilization in Asia. Parallel to the Kerkhah, about 40 miles to the south, the important river Karun reaches the Shatt el-Arab below Basrah, 2 5 miles from the sea* Sumer proper, or at least the region of the great Sumerian cities whose foundations are of prehistoric date, ends with the north coast line of the sea; but the narrow plain between the eastern shore of the Persian Gulf and the foot- hills of Iran as far as the Strait of Hormuz was probably the first region of advanced Sumerian culture. The long coastal plain is crossed by several small streams, and here probably lay the district of Dilmun, the legendary home of the Sumerian Paradise and the beginnings of civilization. Others, however, identify that enigma- tical land with the western shore of the Gulf and the island Bahrein. The Euphrates is a much longer and more tortuous stream than the Tigris. Its two upper streams, the Kara Su, or western Euphrates, and the Murad Su, or eastern Euphrates, cross the western and southern plateaus of Armenia andunite near the north- eastern corner of ancient Cappadocia. Here it follows a winding southerly course forming the eastern boundary of Cappadocia and of Commagene, where it finally emerges into the Syrian and Mesopotamian plains from the foothills at Samosata, ng^ miles to the sea by river. Along its upper course it is joined by two important streams. The one, the Balikh, which drains the region of Edessa and Harran (in the old Roman province of Osrhoene), flows almost parallel to the long southern reach of the Euphrates between Samosata and Thapsacus at the great bend, and joins the * Great river' below Rakka (the classical Nicephorium). About 90 miles lower down, the other, the Khabur, drains the central region of northern Mesopotamia and empties into the Euphrates near the old Roman military post Circesium. As the Euphrates approaches the line of the Tigris the plain of Mesopotamia is only about no miles wide, and from this point it gradually contracts until, opposite Baghdad, a distance of only 20 miles separates the rivers. From Hit to the waist of the plain at Abu Habba the river has a current of only 2 J miles per hour and an average depth of 20 feet. Signs of ancient irriga- tion systems begin to appear along both rivers above the 34th parallel, for we have now reached the region of old Akkad proper and of long summer droughts. Forty-eight miles below Hit the Saklawiyeh canal leaves the Euphrates in an easterly direction, and in early Abbasid times joined the Tigris above Baghdad. Most of the canals are constructed in order to conduct the waters of the Euphrates into the Tigris. The ruins of Sippar (Abu Habba) lie inland, east of the Euphrates just south of the Royal Canal X, 1] LOWER MESOPOTAMIA 359 (modern Nahr el-Malik), and since Slppar was situated on the 'Great River., * the stream has shifted westward at this pointsabout five miles. In the times of which we are about to write we must assume tliat the two rivers approached each other at a distance of only 12— 15* miles here; and, since the kingdom of Akkad had its capital at this point, it is probable that military reasons weighed in the selection of the site. Below Sippar another canal crosses the country, the Canal of Cuthah, so called because the old Sumerian city Gu-dn-a or Kutha received its water from this source. Cuthah,, now Tell Ibrahim, eighteen miles north-east of Babylon, owed its existence, like all other inland cities, to the irrigation system. It is in fact probably older than either Sippar or Babylon on the Euphrates. The hill-country has been left behind, and from the region of Sippar to the sea the soil is now deeper and entirely alluvial ; with considerable certainty we may regard this region as approximately the old shore of the Persian Gulf at the beginning of the post- glacial period. Just above Babylon the Shatt en-Nil leaves the river in a south-easterly direction to pass through nearly the whole length of central Sumer and rejoin the Euphrates 1 50 miles below, at Nasriyeh. This canal is in reality the original bed of the Euphrates, and one of its small northern branches supplied the famous city of Kish (Oheimir), eight miles east of Babylon. Further south the main canal carried water to a large number of very ancient towns, including Niffer, the ancient Nippur, Below Babylon west of the Euphrates is the mound Delab or Delem, the ancient Dilbat. There are no great ancient cities on the present Euphrates for a hundred miles until we reach Mukay- yar (Ur) and Abu Shahrein (Eridu), both a considerable distance to the west of the river, which in early times is supposed to have reached the sea at Eridu. The reconstruction of the canal and river course of the region along the lower Euphrates presents great difficulties owing to the unknown extent of the shifting of the river. It is a notoriously fickle stream, as a comparison between the maps of Chesney (1836) and those of Kiepert (1883, 1893) proves. Two of the most ancient cities lay in this district, both of them capitals of influential dynasties, Erech (now the mound Warka) nine miles east of the present bed of the Euphrates, and Larsa or Ellasar (now Senkereh)* 1 5 miles south-east of Warka and west of the Shatt el-~Kar. Below Nippur the Shatt en-Nil is now known as the Shatt el- Kar? From its source above Babylon to its reunion with the Eu- phrates it traverses the central plain, and once irrigated the great 360 THE CITIES OF EARLY BABYLONIA [CHAP. Sumerian cities Isin(see p. 688, n. i)? Nippur, Larsa, Shuruppak, Ad&by and Eredbu Its banks are dotted with the mounds of un- identified cities. The Sumerians apparently depended upon the Euphrates to a great extent for their supply of water. The Shatt el-Hai taps the Tigris at Kut el-Amara and crosses the lower plain southward in a direct line to Nasriyeh, where it discharges into the Euphrates. Near Its course, and probably supplied from it, lay the foundations of Lagash (a name formerly read Shirpurla), now the mound Telloh, to the south in the central plain, and Umrna (now Yokha), on the north side of the Hai opposite Lagash. There were no old Sumerian cities on the present course of the Euphrates below Babylon. Sumer lay north of the 3ist parallel,, and the classic region of its civilization was a comparatively narrow plain between the two rivers. No great cities were built on the plains east of the Tigris or west of the Euphrates, and it is difficult to discover how much of these adjacent lands came within their irrigation system* Their southern lands are in the latitude of Cairo and New Orleans, and their northern cities in the latitude of Cyprus and South Carolina. The isothermal charts of Sumer and the lower Mississippi valley are approximately the same. In summer the temperature reaches 126° Fahrenheit in the shade, and is ordinarily above 1 10° from June to September, In this region the thermometer usually reaches freezing-point in winter, but snow is rare below Baghdad. The prevailing winds are from the north-west throughout the year; but whatever moisture they may carry from the Black Sea and the Mediterranean in the hot season has long been precipitated in the plateaux of Asia Minor and Armenia and in the hill-country of upper Mesopotamia when the winds reach the land of Sumer. During September hot winds blow from the south, and sometimes steadily for several days. Although they render the air extremely hot and suffocating, yet the culture of the date-palm depends upon this, for the hot winds ripen the dates. Now the Sumerian legends locate the land of Paradise, where the gods first blessed mankind with manners of civilized life, in Dilmira on the shore of the Persian Gulf, In the island Bushire the French excavator, M. Pezard, found traces of neolithic culture and tHn monochrome pottery decorated in geometrical style, characteristic of the earliest culture at Susa, Musyan, Ur and Eridu. The Arabian geographers also describe this region as fruit- ful, and one of their four lands of Paradise was located here. But the Sumerians seem to have founded settlements along tlie upper Tigris long before the land in the south was redeemed from the X, nj THE DATE-PALM AND THE SUMERIANS 361 rivers and the climate. Thus, at Ashur, and lower down the river near Samarra, ancient Sumerian statuettes have been found. If, then/ w£ enquire what was the attraction of the southern plains, luxuriant, marshy, subject to annual droughts, there is one ob- vious reason which could have Induced men to undertake the enormous labour which Irrigation Imposed, and that was the cul- ture of the date-palm. The more hospitable and temperate plain above Baghdad does not possess the hot moist conditions of the lower Tigris and Euphrates, which are so indispensable for the fruit. Throughout the records of Sumerian and Babylonian civi- lization the date-palm surpasses all other products of the soil in Importance, and entire lexicographical texts are devoted to the names of the various kinds of the date-palm, the parts of the tree and the technical terms employed in its cultivation (cf. pp. 543 $qq^)« Fruit in hot countries has always been the staple article of human diet, and It was the date which supplied this need and made pos- sible the rapid rise of the Sumerian people. Dilmun, Itself the land of Sumerian beginnings. Is mentioned in their records as a land of the date-palm. See further, for a general account of the country, pp. 39 sg., 43 *?*> 494 II. THE ORIGIN OF THE SUMERIANS Archaeological evidence points to the occupation of western Asia in prehistoric times, certainly before the chalcolithic stage, by various branches of a vigorous race which spoke agglutinating languages. They first come within the scope of archaeology at Susa In Elam, a site near the Kerkhah river, on the western slope of the Persian plateau, 80 miles east of Amara, There are neolithic stations along the slopes of the Zagros mountains where flint is abundant, Flint and obsidian gravers and borers characterize the lower strata of the culture at Susa, and are found also in the lower levels of all the oldest Sumerian cities; but none of these founda- tions show a true neolithic culture. The flint knives, scrapers, saws, borers, arrow-heads and other stone implements of Susa, Lagash, Ur, Eridu, Nippur and Umma are found mingled with rude copper implements. The most ancient culture at Susa Is 60 metres below the present level of the plain and Is characterized by fine painted pottery. The potter's wheel had already come Into use, the clay Is finely kneaded and* turned with such skill that the walls of the vessels are mar- vellously thin and delicate. These craftsmen of the fifth millennium 362 THE CITIES OF EARLY BABYLONIA [CHAP. invented a lustrous black paint by mixing brown haematite with an alkali salt and potassium. The same thin pottery with geo- metrical designs in lustrous black paint has now been fpund at Lagash, at Eridu, and near Ur. This early kind of elegant" pottery is ordinarily decorated with geometrical designs. Animals are stylized so that they are almost unrecognizable. The animals most commonly represented (in black line) are the serpent, goat, hunting dog, stork, turtle, and eagle with outspread wings. Human figures are rare, and not so conventionalized as those of the animals; but the geometrical line-drawn human figure does occur on the in- terior of a fine bowl from Susa, and often on the pottery of the same period at Musyan, a proto-Elamitic site 30 miles west of Susa. The ceramic of Musyan, although on the whole less perfect than that of Susa, clearly 'belongs to the same culture, and in the writer's opinion both may be dated between 4500—4000 B.C. The relation between the proto-Elamitic people and the Sumerians must be left to conjecture. When we come to the second or realistic period of Elamitic culture it will be seen that it belongs either to a branch of the Sumerian race or to a people of the same raciajl habits and customs. The painted pottery had already become conventional befor< i 4000 in E3am and Sumer, and its origins must be much earlier. The same culture appears at Anau in Russian Turkestan at ii depth of 64 feet from the top of the mound and 24 feet belov r the present level of the plain. Here the texture of the pottery i< J also thin and delicate, and the monochrome designs are laid on the 5 polished handmade surface with lustrous black paint, violet 01* black-brown. Occasionally a colour slip is put on before the design, Some of the proto-Elamitic pottery is also handmade but here a rude wheel was already invented. The above date is disputed;. but the writer inclines to the belief that a great prehistoric civilization spread from Central Asia to the, plateau of Iran, and to Syria and Egypt long before 4000 B.C., andi that the Sumerian people, who are a somewhat later branch of this? Central Asian people, entered Mesopotamia before 5000 B.C. The decorative art at Anau is already in a period of stiff conventionj and reveals an industry at the end of its evolution. The chevron^ zigzag line, lattice work and triangle are clear evidence of intimate relation between the decorative arts of Elam and Anau; and the similarity between the early ceramic of Susa and that of predynas-i tic Egypt is one that cannot be due to chance. I The stratum of monochrome geometrical pottery at Siisa'had a maximum thickness of 27 feet, and the same period at Anau fills- X, nj THE CULTURES OF ANAU AND SUSA 363 a layer of 49 feet. It seems quite obvious, therefore, that we must assign a long period to the prehistoric civilization of Central Asia an^L Elam, all of which belongs to the late stone and copper age. Above the archaic stratum at Susa lay the remains of a sterile Eeriod which indicates the complete effacement of that fine civi- zation in Islam. After the sterile layer of 3—4 feet in thickness a new civilization arrives contemporary with the beginnings of Sumerian sculpture in lower Mesopotamia. This layer is char- acterized by an inferior type of painted pottery, less delicate and often polychrome. The old geometrical style is now superseded by an effort to portray animals and vegetation In realistic style. The animals of the archaic period remain, but the fish now appears. A tendency to use stone and alabaster becomes manifest, and instead of the goblet in clay we have fine horn-shaped vessels in stone. The cylinder-seal appears contemporaneously in Elam, Sumer and Egypt; and the influence of sculpture and glyptic in stone reacts visibly upon the decorative art of pottery much to its dis- advantage. Hieroglyphic writing, also, appears in this period in the three lands; on the connexion between them, see pp. 372, 376; and for the wider relations, see pp. 62, 80 sg.> 85—91. We may find in the mound of Susa the best archaeological norm for tracing the rise and progress of the Sumerians. Their earliest remains begin with the late stone and early, copper age, with cylinder seals and rude sculptures in stone. The lowest strata of their culture yield little painted pottery, but plain dull red vases, whose shapes have considerable resemblance to those of the second period of Susa. These we should place at about 4000 B.C. For the shapes of both stone and clay jars in prehistoric times we are dependent largely upon designs of the contemporary cylinders and bas-reliefs; and these show a noteworthy similarity in Susa and Elam. The new civilization at Susa which appears there about 4000 B.C. seems to form part of the great Sumerian culture. An asphalt head found in the second stratum of Susa reveals all the characteristics of Sumerian physiognomy and coiffure. A high straight nose joins the cranium without appreciable depres- sion at the bridge; the forehead is slightly receding. The axis of the eye slopes slightly downward from the inner to the outer corner, a phenomenon noticeable in many Sumerian heads. This type of eye and nose is characteristic of both Elamites and Sumerians. The Elamite face has a long beard dressed in horizontal waves and clean shaven lips. The earliest Sumerians wore full beards, in the present writer's opinion, but on archaic bas-reliefs the lips are shaven. A remarkable monument of the late archaic period (i.e. 364 THE CITIES OF EARLY BABYLONIA [CHAP. 4^oo~-3OOO B.C.) represents the Sumerian people in the transition stage. The circular pedestal of Lagash, now in the Louvre, has both types in the figures of kings and dignitaries, but the ordinary people here have shaven heads also. The earliest known example of a Sumerian sculptured in the round is the figurine of Lugal- kisalsi of Erech who has a long braided beard, and shaven lips and cheeks. The hair of the lips was first to disappear, leaving long carefully dressed hair and beards. Then the beards were aban- doned and finally also the hair of the head. Since the Semites who arrived in Sumer in the prehistoric period wore full beards, the only test of distinction in this respect is the shaven lip. The gods of Sumer generally have full beards and shaven lips, an indication that the representation of deities arose in this stage of Sumerian culture and that the pantheon is entirely Sumerian. In the writer's opinion it is therefore unnecessary to suppose that the custom represents Semitic Influence. The primitive Sumerian dress was the sheep's fleece, and the proto-EIamitic peoples of the first period have left examples of finely woven linen. The first impulse in weaving was to imitate the sheep's fleece which they had abandoned for the woven gar- ment. The garment was at first woven with one row of long loops, and as worn by men it was secured at the waist by a band leaving the upper body bare. It was consequently known in Sumerian as gu-en-na^ gu-an-na^ * garment which leaves the shoulder bare/ and it passed into Semitic, and thence into Greek (kaunakes). The word *kaunakes* may be employed to denote the old national dress of the Sumerian and Elamitic peoples. In the evolution of its manufacture it is woven to imitate three, four and often as many as ten rows of locks which greatly resemble flounces. Women wore the kaunakes draped from the left shoulder, and this habit was also adopted by men in the Semitic period of Akkad. The kaunakes hung from the hips was the national dress of prehistoric Sumer, of Elam in the second period, and it has been found repre- sented on a gold cup discovered at Astrabad in northern Persia on the slope of the Elburz range near the south-eastern corner of the Caspian sea. III. EARLIEST TRADITIONAL DYNASTIES All the evidence suggests that a dolichocephalic race speaking agglutinative lang-uages descended upon Iran, Mesopotamia and the shores of the Persian Gulf probably from the then fertilS plains of central Asia before 5000 B.C. Of this race the Sumerians who X, in] EARLY DYNASTIC LISTS 365 first occupied the upper readies of the Tigris and Euphrates were by far the most talented, and their oldest cities known to us are built by; the shores of the Tigris and the Euphrates,, and the canals which they constructed in prehistoric times. Long afterwards, when their own independent kingdoms had passed away and they were living under the rule of a Semitic dynasty at Isin and an Elamite kingdom of Larsa in the twenty-third century, their learned men constructed a vast system of chronology extending from the Flood to their own times, and their poets wrote legends of the Creation, the beginning of their civilization and the myth of prediluvian Paradise. From these long lists we can partially re- construct the earlier ages, but they cannot be utilized for history until they reach a period where they can be controlled by the inscriptions. (See the lists at the end of this volume.) There are inconsistencies and errors even in the addition of the figures of the reigns of kings. The most important tablet is one written apparently in the fourth year of Enlil-bani, eleventh king of Isin, and composed at Nippur. This tablet and its duplicates agree in saying that eleven cities possessed at various times the seat of one or more dynasties in the long period from the Flood to and including part of the dynasty of Isin. The principal tablet reckons 134 kings from the Flood to the eleventh king of Isin (third year= 2198 B.C.) and 28,876 (+ ?) years from the Flood to the year in which the tablet was written. Another tablet gives 139 kings and 25,063 (+ ?) years. Cf. above, p. 152. The first of the dynasties reigned at Kish (now Oheimir), situated near the old course of the Euphrates, nine miles east of Babylon. The early reigns were mythical. Thus Arpu reigns 720 years, and to Etana the shepherd who ascended to heaven is assigned 635 years. The shortest reign is 410 years and the longest 1200. Only nine names of this mythical line at Kish are fully preserved, Galumum, Zukakipu (the 'scorpion/ cf» also in Egypt, p. 267 $q.\ Arpu, Etana, Walikh, Enmenna, Melam- Kish, Barsalnunna, Meszagud. Four of these appear to be Semitic, whence it would seem that already before 5000 B.C. there were Semites among the Sumerian peoples of central Mesopotamia (later known as Akkad). Some historical truth must certainly lie behind these semi- mythical kingdoms. At the most conservative estimate the old Semitic dynasty of Kish cannot be reduced below 45*00 B.C., and probably recedes well into the fifth millennium. On this view, then, the*earfiest kingdom of Kish is northern and Semitic, and the adop- tion of Sumerian culture suggests a long period of earlier Sumerian 366 THE CITIES OF EARLY BABYLONIA [CHAP, occupation In central Mesopotamia. In historical times these semi- mythical kings receded into the realm of legend and poet&y; some of them were regarded as gods and figure as deities in the pan- theon. Of the kings of the first dynasty of Kish, Etana became the subject of a long Semitic poem, the principal episode of which is his ascension to the dwelling of Ann, the heaven god, on the back of an eagle, where he is seized with dizziness and falls to his death. This myth is referred to in the chronological Sumerian tablet, and Sumerian seals of the early archaic period represent the eagle bearing Etana upward, while his two dogs sit looking after him beside his vacant throne. But the real motif of the tale concerns Etana's search in heaven for a plant of birth-giving so that he might have an heir. The poem involves a long myth of a conflict between a serpent and an eagle, in which the eagle is defeated and on the point of death is revived by Etana. An archaic stone mortar discovered at Nippur portrays in bas-relief the conflict of the eagle, the bird of the sun-god, and the serpent, representative of the powers of darkness. The association of the cosmological battle between the eagle and the serpent with a king of a prehistoric dynasty only proves how ancient such motifs were among the Su- merians, and myth-making of this sort is the chief characteristic of this remarkable people. The next dynasty ruled at Erech and belongs to the south. This is manifest not only from the situation of its capital, but from the Sumerian character of the names. The principal list says that five different dynasties ruled at Erech, and they include 22 kings. The sum of the years of these five Erech kingdoms is 4980 (+ ?) years, 6 months and 14 days. Meskingasher son of Utu the sun-god reigned 325 years in E-anna, which is ordinarily the name of the temple of Anu and Ishtar at Erech. His son Enmerkar built the city of Erech and ruled 420 years. Then follow three kings all of whom become prominent in later Sumerian and Babylonian re- ligion, Lugal-banda, Tammuz, and Gilgamesh. All three receive the title of deity in the list. Lugal-banda occupies a prominent position in^the religion of Erech and Sumer as the son of Enlil the earth-god of Nippur, and consort of the mother-goddess Nin-Sun mother of Gilgamesh. The tablet assigns 1200 years to his reign and gives him the title * shepherd/ Tammuz, whose name may mean 'the faithful child/ came from Khabur a suburb of Eridu and ruled at Erech 100 years* The great cult of the dying and resurrected god was presumably attached to his name because he had sacrificed his life for his people. Tammuz is called a "fisher- man * in the chronological tablet. The Rod Gil^amesh was lord of X, ni] THE FIRST CITY-STATES 367 Kullab a quarter of Erech. This semi-human semi-divine son of the mother goddess Nin-Sun ruled 126 years and became tlie hero of a Sumerian epic, and later of the great Semitic epic of Gilgamesh, in 1 2 tablets, the masterpiece of Babylonian literature* The Semitic poem describes him as a king of Erech of the sheepfolds, who oppressed his people, wherefore the mother-goddess Aruru cre- ated a satyr Enkidu to oppress him, but the two became reconciled and together they made war against the god Khumbaba in the cedar mountains of Elam. This legendary reference to hostility between a prehistoric ruler of a southern Sumerian kingdom and Elam probably contains a hint of early relations between these peoples, A tradition at Nippur credits Gilgamesh with having built the temple of Enlil there, and his son also showed concern for that sacred city. It is probable that the two semi-mythical dynasties of Kish and Erech were really contemporary. The next dynasty has its seat still farther south on the Euphrates at Ur and is entirely Sumerian. We now arrive at reigns which are for the most part normal. Mesannipadda ruled 80 years and his son Meskenagnunna 30 years. Then follow Elulu with 25 years and Balulu with 36 years: in all four kings at Ur whose reigns cover a period 171 years. The next dynasty ruled at Awan (later known as Awak in Kazallu) a city of unknown location but probably east of the Tigris, and certainly not far from Susa. A long list of unknown kingdoms must now be supplied until we come, in the dynasty lists, to the northern Semitic kingdom of Akshak on the Tigris, later Up! (Upe), the Opis of Xenophon, at the mouth of the river Adheiru Between the old southern kingdoms of Ur and Awan and that of Opis we know that two kingdoms ruled again at Kishy and that they were probably Semitic* Ur was again the capital of an unknown line of four kings, who ruled 108 years. A short dynasty of 7 years ruled at Khama%iy east of the Tigris, near Awan. A third dynasty of Kish followed. Then Erech again became the seat of a dynasty of four kings, after which Adab obtained the supremacy for 90 years. The control of the two lands then returned to the north at Maer on the middle Euphrates, where a dynasty of four (?) kings ruled from 3268—3188, Next followed the dynasty of Akshak. If we may depend upon the figures given upon another tablet the dynasty of Akshak began about 3200 B.C. This may be re- garded as the first approximately fixed date in Sumero-Babylonian hisfbry. It is at present impossible to estimate the real value of the traditions concerning the kingdoms before that time. The tradi- 368 THE CITIES OF EARLY BABYLONIA [CHAP. tlons indicate that both north and south Mesopotamia were at first inhabited by Surnerlans, but that from the very beginning of their historical recollections there had always been a qorthern Semite territory and a southern Sumerian territory. Old Sumer lay south of Kish and old Akkad to the north, but always with Kish in Its territory, The lists speak of the passing of the kingship from one city to another, from Kish to Erech, from Erech to Ur, and so on. If these statements be taken literally, we must assume that both north and south were always united under the rule of a single Semitic or Sumerian dynasty. The Inaccuracy of this state- ment Is, however, proved by the fact that one of the chronological tablets states that after the last kingdom of Ur the kingship passed to Isln and the scribes proceed to give the 16 kings of Isin. But we now know that the kingdom of Isin included only a few cities In northern Sumer, and that from the very year of its foundation a rival dynasty at Larsa secured control of all southern Sumer, And these tablets on which we must depend were written in the Ism period, when the scribes of course knew the situation. If such misleading information is recorded by scribes concerning their own times, their statements regarding ancient history are surely suspect. In fact, we must often see In these ambitious titles to kingdoms nothing but the sudden rise of local dynasties. Now a city in the north? now a city in the south, owing to its own vigour and power becomes prominent and rules over its immediate neighbours: Old Sumer was never united under a central rulership until the great Semitic dynasty of Sargon founded at Akkad near Sippar reduced for the first time Sumer and Akkad to its sway (c. 2872 B.C.), On the other hand, these local dynasties as given In the lists really appear to have followed each other, so far as we can now control the lists by other documents * Assuming that none of these king- doms of the 134 kings from the Flood to the eleventh king of Isin overlap, and allowing for the mythical reigns, we could place the oldest city-states before 5000 B.C. That is a conservative esti- mate, If any confidence is to be placed in the lists of kingdoms : the discovery of geometrical thin pottery of the proto-Elamite period in the extreme south confirms this supposition and the evidence of the calendar makes the view imperative. The first dynasty of which we have contemporary record is the Third Dynasty of Kish (about 3638-3488); like all the northern kingdoms It was probably Semitic. Mesilim may have been the conqueror to whom Kish owed Its supremacy over most of Sumer and Akkad. Six centuries later Eannatum and Entemena, kings of X, m] THE THIRD DYNASTY OF KISH 369 Lagash, refer to a stele which Mesilim king of Kish had erected to fix the boundary between the rival southern cities Laga'sh and Umma.^A fine limestone mace-head eight inches high and _£-| inches in diameter was dedicated by him to Ningirsu, god of La- gash, to commemorate his building of the temple of that god; and the fact that it names Lugal-shagengur as patesi suggests that Lagash recognized the supremacy of Kish. This huge mace-head bears the oldest important bas-relief in Sumerian archaeology; and testifies to the cosmopolitanism of the age; see below p. 584. In the records of Lagash and Adab Mesilim calls himself king of Kish, without the postfix determinative ki city. In fact so often and so long had the dominion of the entire land belonged to the city Kish that the ideogram Kish came to mean ' universal dominion* (Se- mitic kishshatii)\ and in later times we shall find this title revived by the kings of Akkad (p. 404). Urzaged, king of Kish, who dedicated a stone vase to the god Enlil and his consort Ninlil in Nippur, probably belongs to the Mesilim dynasty, as also Lugal-tarsi, king of 'universal dominion/ His inscription on a lapislazuli tablet says that he built the 'wall of the court' for Anu and Innini; the names of these deities seems to indicate Erech as the city in question. A glance at the map will convince the reader of the sway of Kish over all Suxner, if Lagash, Adab (modern Bismaya) and Erech belonged to their dominions* A fourth king of this dynasty, Lugal- ?-aga, 'king of universal dominion/ is named on the neck of a fine copper lance found in the lower stratum of Lagash. He too included Lagash in his do- minion, and a lion artistically engraved upon the blade indicates surprisingly good art at Kish in this early period. Enbi-Ashdar (or Ishtar), whose name is of Semitic origin, was the last king of the Mesilim dynasty. He was defeated by the Sumerian priest-king, Enshagkushanna,, who reigned as *king of the land/ a title claimed later by Lugal-zaggisi, king of Erech. Apparently he founded a new kingdom at Erech, which was the capital of the land of the south. It was probably to the same Erech dynasty that Lugal-kigub-nidudu and Lugal-kisalsi belonged. Both bear the title king of Erech and king of Ur which indicates a dual capital, and both of them showed their respect for the ancient temple of Nippur by dedicating vases and monuments to Enlil., to whose favour the former attributes his elevation. The dominion now passed to Adab^ north of Erech. Although a dynastic tablet knows of only one king Lugal-annimundu^ to whom il assigns 90 years, other kings are known, and it is prob- able that the scribes knew the duration of the kingdom, but could C.A.H.I 24 370 THE CITIES OF EARLY BABYLONIA [CHAP. find only one of its rulers, and therefore they attributed to him the wfiole period. A long building inscription of Ammi^zaduga, tenth king of the First Babylonian Dynasty, states that Lugal- annimundu was king of the four quarters and caretaker o^Nippur. This title implies that he held sway over all of western Asia, for only the kings of the great empires of Akkad and Ur employ it in later times. A fine archaic statuette of Lugal-dalu, 'king of Adab,' was excavated at Bismaya. Another king of Adab, Mebasi, is known from a vase inscription. From the south the dominion passed to Maer far to the north, on the middle Euphrates near the mouth of the Khabur. The founder, An-Bu, has a Sumerian name, and a statuette of the last king, (?) -Babbar, who has a Sumerian name, bears a Sumerian inscription in which he claims the title 'king of Maer and great priest-king of Enlil/ by which he recognized the supreme religious authority of the earth-god of Nippur from whom all royal claims were derived. The seated figure belongs to the rude sculpture of the early period and wears a kaunakes with only one flounce. It belongs to an even earlier period than the statuettes of the old Sumerian civilization of Ashur, and may be classified with the rude figurine of Istabulat found near the important Sumerian city Akshak or Opis (p. 469). It is dedicated, however, to the sun-god (Semitic Shamash), and this may be adduced as evidence for the Semitic origin of the Maer kingdom. When this province figures again in history, in the age of the Empire of Agade, it is a Semitic stronghold* From Maer the capital changed to Akshaky where Unzi founded a kingdom and ruled 30 years. Although the first three kings have Sumerian names, the dynasty of Unzi was probably Semitic, as the names of the other kings certainly are (Gimil-Shakhan, Ishu-el and Gimil-Sin), Shortly before 3050 the ancient Semitic city of Kish regained supremacy and its eight rulers, according to the dynastic list, reigned 586 years, though the figures themselves amount to the more probable number of 192, One chronological tablet states that the fourth kingdom of Kish was founded by a female wine merchant Azag-Bau, who ruled 100 years. This queen * strength- ened the foundation of Kish/ and is mentioned among the legend- ary rulers * after the Flood/ Strange tales came from Kish con- cerning the founders of their dynasties, as we shall see later from the legends of Sargon. A more authentic list states that Gimil-Sm, son of Azag-Bau, was the first ruler and reigned 25 yeajfs. Azag- Bau was at all events a famous character. She is included in an X,mJ THE FOURTH DYNASTY OF KISH 371 Assyrian list of exceptionally famous rulers of early times, and an Assyria*}, book of omens taken from birth-prodigies includes an augury made for Azag-Bau, 'who ruled the land/ and indicates that the*state would be visited by calamity. It seems obvious that Azag-Bau really was the founder of the fourth kingdom of Kish and was queen-regent during the reign of her son and for part of the reign of her grandson, Ur-Ilbaba. The period (3089—2897) assigned to the Azag-Bau dynasty of Kish saw the rapid develop- ment of Sumerian literature^ law, commerce and art; and in read- ing the history of the great city-states of the period which now follows, the reader must bear in mind that Sumer then owed alle- giance to a Semitic kingdom of Akkad. For the early period of this Maer-Akshak-Kish domination (3268—2897) there is from Kish one interesting inscription on a stone tablet (said to have been found at Warka), which illustrates the racial conditions. It is the record of a sale of land, Archaic Sumerian measurements and legal expressions are employed,, and there is nothing Semitic in it save the name of Rabe-ihim, whose brother has the Sumerian name Zuzu, and the curious Se- mitic expression *the institution of the oath' (shikin mamttfy* The sellers are called the * eaters of the silver of the field.* The popula- tion of this Semitic capital certainly contained a large percentage of Sumerians. Although the Semite was always in the north from the very beginning of traditions, the earliest kings of the Semitic cities employed Sumerian in writing their inscriptions, and often adopted Sumerian names or types of names. The kings of the Mesilim dynasty not only write Sumerian, but a statuette from a site a few miles above Akshak of the period of Mesilim wears the national Sumerian dress and has a pure Sumerian head. The origin of the Sumerian writing goes back far beyond this period* It began with pictures for the most obvious things, but intricate ideas were cleverly expressed; emphasis on superlatives was indicated by adding strokes to the pictographs. Thus the pic- ture for a human foot meant foot, go, stand, but the gunu form3 with additional strokes meant 'hasten, carry, foundation/ Most ingenious is the combination of signs one within the other. A wild ox is written with the picture of an ox head with the sign for moun- tain placed within, and meant 'ox of the mountain/ Weeping is expressed by writing * water ' and c eye* together. The mental effort 1 Gunu is the Sumerian grammatical terra for * superlative, great/ and the grammarians described all signs to which additidnal strokes had beep addecf as gunu-signs. Thus Huy cbird/ has a gunu-form Hu-gunu for * large bird/ jdb means c dwelling/ but Ab-gunuy. * great dwelling, city/ 24- 572 THE CITIES OF EARLY BABYLONIA [CHAR nvolved in the origin of Sumerian writing, as contrasted with nore simple pictographic methods, is noteworthy. A phonetic system was evolved from these signs before 4000 B.C^ so that morels and verbal prefixes could be written as pronounced. To this ong period of Sumerian development may be assigned the evolu- ion of the complex pantheon in which every aspect of religion is idequately represented. This Sumerian linear pictographic writing leeins to have been introduced into Egypt in predynastic times see below, p. 462). It is in the realm of religion that the relationship between Su» nerians and Semites is most instructively illustrated. Entemena >f Lagash, rival of the Azag-Bau dynasty of Kish, recognizes, as he deity of Kish, Ka-di (i.e. Izir) an earth and serpent goddess, >robably the old Sumerian local divinity of Kish. On the other land, the Sumerians refused to recognize Zamama (now known ,o have been pronounced Ilbaba), the local god of Kishu This god, in aspect of the spring sun, was identified with the Sumerian war- *od Ninurta, and consequently Bau the consort of Ninurta be- :ame the consort of Ilbaba at Kish. The cult there was organized iccording to Sumerian religion; its temple E~meten-ursag, 'house :hat befitteth the hero/ and its chief chapel E-ki$Mb-bay 'house of .he seal/ bear Sumerian names. The Sumerian priests admit the lames of the temple and chapel of Kish into their great canonical iturgies, though only as the seat of the worship of Ninurta; but :hey excluded Ilbaba from their litanies and psalms. Even under :he Semitic dynasty of Akkad, the god of Kish is completely leglected in the formation of proper names in favour of Ninurta, *nd not until the Semitic empire of Babylon does the name of Ilbaba acquire a place even in the religion of the people. The uncompromising hostility of the old national Sumerian religion towards all things Semite, notwithstanding close political relations of more than a couple of thousand years, is perhaps the salient feature of Babylonian history. And the Semites willingly dlowed their religion and their manners to be engulfed in the great civilization of the people with whom they struggled so long for supremacy. The Assyrians, in turn, although from time to time masters of western Asia, and even Egypt, submitted to the claims D£ the Sumerian priesthood transmitted to them, and did not even venture to insert the names of their own capital and national god in the liturgies of their temples. X,iv] THE CITY-STATES 373 IV, THE RECORDS OF THE CITY-STATES: LAGASH Our scanty knowledge of early Sumerian history must be eked out with the scattered evidence from such cities as have been ex- cavated. Not one of the ancient royal cities has been thoroughly searched; and the lower strata of Erech and Ur, whose remains surely contain most of the history of early Sumer, have not been touched. Lagash and Nippur, which appear never to have been more than powerful city-states, have been fairly well excavated, and from their records we at least know to which kingdom they belonged at various periods. Nippur is of special importance as a national religious centre and the chief city of the old district of Sumer? a name which the Semites finally applied to all the south in distinction to their own province of Akkad in the north. We have seen that the kings of Kish in the age of Mesilim left written records at Nippur, Lagash and Adab, which prove that these Sumerian cities belonged to a Semite kingdom in the north as early as 3650 B.C. Lagash3 marked by the modern mound Telloh, was the oldest and most important Sumerian city in the now desolate region south of the Shatt el-Hai (* valley of the serpent'). The mounds occupy a great oval running north and south, 2-J miles long and ij broad. The bed of the old canal, which rendered it a suitable site for a great city, lies just east of the mounds, and references to local canals are numerous in the earliest inscriptions. The most northerly mound rises 46 feet above the plain and marks the site of the great temple of Nin- girsu, the god of Lagash. This temple is comparatively modern> dating only from the age of Ur-Bau (c. 2700 B.C.). The mound in the centre marks the prehistoric site of Girsu, the oldest part of the city, which rises 52 feet above the plain. A short distance south-east of Girsu is the mound 33 feet high which is known as * tablet-hill,' for here the French excavators, De Sarzec and Com- mandant Cros, discovered a great magazine of temple-records dating from the times of Entemena onward (c. 3000 B.C.). Lagash was one of the Sumerian cities which ceased to be inhabited after the age of Hammurabi (c. 2100); and the mounds were deserted until the days of the Seleucid kingdom of the second century B.C. The ancient city was surrounded by a thick wall, of which a portion together with its fortified western gate has been excavated just west of the northern temple mound. The old wall certainly includecl not only the ancient central and southern mounds, but also the northern mound where stood the later temple and temple- 374 THE CITIES OF EARLY BABYLONIA [CHAP. tower (ziggurat). Although no construction has been found on this site earlier than Ur-Bau, a pre-Sargonic foundation probably stood here. Girsu is a Sumerian word for flood, inundation, and the prehistoric site was called Girsu(ki), Le, place of the waters which descended upon the dry land of the south by the great inland canals. The city-god was Ningirsu, 'lord of the floods/ a god of irrigation and fresh water, and a local type of the great Sumerian incarnation of animal-life and vegetation, Abu or Tammuz. As a city-god he was identified with Ninurta, son of Enlil, the earth-god of Nippur, and hence for Lagash he becomes a war-god. The appearance of Ningirsu, the god of Girsu, in religious texts is a sure test of their antiquity, Girsu covers the remains of the oldest buildings, inscriptions, and bas-reliefs hitherto recovered in Sumer. At a depth of 12 feet below the pavement of Ur-Nina? oldest historical ruler of Lagash, whom we shall presently place at about 3100 B.C., was found a rectangular construction orientated with the corners to the points of the compass. The long sides face south-west and north-east, the ends of the rectangle face north-west and south-east. This orienta- tion is characteristic of Sumerian architecture. The dimensions of this building are 26 feet by 20 feet. The bricks employed in its construction have the so-called plano-convex or biscuit shape, a type of brick characteristic of the archaic period. The most strik- ing feature of the oldest bricks is their convex tops, due to the fact that they were moulded by the hand on a flat support. The rectangular flat brick which was made in a mould does not appear until shortly before the era of Sargon. Bricks of this type have small dimensions and average about 7 by 4^ inches. The thickness at the ends is ordinarily i^j- inches. This building at Girsu, whose walls were found intact to a height of over 9 feet, is divided into two unequal compartments by a transversal solid wall leaving a narrow chamber on the south-east end and a large chamber on the north-west. Both chambers are entered by wide doors at the ends of the building* There is no interior communication at all between these chambers. In prehistoric times the structure was surrounded on three sides by a huge terrace of brick and gyp- sum slabs to two-thirds the height of the building and the smaller chamber was filled up to the height of the terrace. Thus the larger chamber is left a deep walled room without any access at all, and the larger building of Ur-Nina above it in later times shows this same strange feature. On a carefully built terrace above the old building Ur-Nina con- structed a similar rectangular building 38 by 30 feet* The biscuit X, w] ENKHEGAL AND UR-N1NA OF LAGASH 375 shaped bricks of this king are larger, loj by ^f- inches, having the traditional thickness. The bricks of Ur-Nina are all markeci by a thumb impression on the convex top surface. Along the entire surface of the exterior walls, which are not preserved to an appre- ciable height, there is no entrance at all. Ur-Nina seems to have continued the idea of the secondary builders of earlier times and erected a great chamber without access from the exterior save by ladders placed on the terrace outside. Within this great rectangle he built two rooms, both with their own walls and separated from the side walls by passages. These rooms also have no doors. This extraordinary feature of the two old Sumerian buildings of Girsu leads to the conclusion that they were built as store-houses, and in fact the inscriptions of Ur-Nina and his successors found on this site frequently mention a store-house for food and liquors. Esh- girsu and E-Ningirsu are the most common names of the temple of the local god at the old site Girsu, and when this god was identi- fied with Ninurta, son of Enlil, the name was changed to E-ninnu, temple of the 'fifty,' for 'fifty' was the sacred number of the earth- god Enlil. Theological speculation with numbers is indicated by this new name, which occurs already in prehistoric times on* one of the oldest figured monuments discovered at Girsu, viz. a stone tablet of the Plumed Figure, a primitive record of a sale of land in which th¶kku or chapel of E-ninnU is mentioned* To Anu the heaven god was assigned the sacred number * sixty/ while Enlil, the earth-god, and Enki, the water-god, received the sacred num- bers 50 and 40, and the moon-god 30* The first recorded royal name of Lagash, Enkhegal, may prob- ably be placed about the middle of the Akshak dynasty of UnzL This ruler, who assumes royal rank, cannot be placed much earlier than Ur-Nina. The tablet on which he is mentioned records purchases of large estates of land, and the tendency of the script to passj from pictograph to cuneiform appears here for the first time upon stone and reveals the influence of the style developed by writing on clay with a triangular headed stylus. The old pre- historic linear script has much resemblance to the geometrical style of representing objects. The pictograph for bird in this period has striking similarity to the bird-band decoration of Susan painted pottery of the first style, and is almost a replica of the aquatic bird on a painted vase from Lagash. The sigppL for gfain is taken directly from the geometrical grain dec$ratioft* In :£actv the old linear script as we first meet it in the age of stone writing from 3600-3200 clearly descends from the age of the first pottery of Susa. The primitive pictographs have passed 376 THE CITIES OF EARLY BABYLONIA [CHAP. through a long period of linear stylization, precisely similar to the geometrical decoration of the first age of ceramic, and this indicates the great antiquity of writing in Sumer. Fragments of painted pottery and a painted vase of geometrical decoration were recovered in the prehistoric stratum of Girsu, There is, therefore, every reason to believe that the Sumerians already occupied these sites in the south in the age of the first Susan pottery. When we reach the historical period and the age of cylinder-seals we are in the same realistic and decadent stage of art as in Elam; but in Sumer the evolution is continuous. The writing alone suggests that the Sumerian civilization of Mesilim, Enshagkushanna and Ur-Nina has its roots in the remote age of a glorious art and that we first meet this people in a decadent stage from which, however, they were soon to recover. The cylinder-seals appear abundantly in the period preceding Ur-Nina, contemporary with their appearance in Elam and pre- dynastic Egypt* In Elam and Sumer they are uninscribed. The most common scene of this period represents two gods seated facing each other; between them is a large jar from which they suck wine by means of a long tube. Certainly the ideas of feasting and of making offerings to the gods dominate the religious art of the very early period. Somewhat rare is the scene of a worshipper standing in prayer before a seated god; but it becomes the most common seal decoration in later times. Even in this prehistoric time we find already established the two great religious gestures of the Sumerians, the hand in front of the mouth (throwing a kiss), and the liturgical gesture of the hands folded at the waist. The festive scenes of the gods disappear in historical times, prayer and worship became prominent as their civilization advanced, and they developed that profound sense of humiliation which characterized the entire history of the Sumerian religion. The clay-tablet for writing seems to have been invented about a century before Ur-Nina. It was destined to have a profound effect upon the literature, commerce and diplomacy not only of Sumer but of all western Asia. The credit for this revolutionary discovery ^ has been usually claimed for the Sumerians. A rival claimant is Elam, Baked clay tablets of pre-Sargonic times have been found at Susa, and they are inscribed in a cuneiform style of writing peculiar to Elam, having few connexions with the Su- merian writing. Only the method of writing the numbers seems to be the same,^and a few signs are obviously identical in the two systems. It is difficult to determine the priority. Certainly *none of the tablets yet discovered at Susa attain to the great age of the X, iv] SHURUPPAK, ITS LEGENDS AND GODS 377 early Sumerian tablets. Both systems of writing may have origin- ated in -a common source. The Elamites were inferior *to the Sumerians in literary ability, and the barren character of their inscriptions tends to diminish any claim that might be made on their behalf. In the prehistoric period the city Shuruppak, on the old course of the Euphrates, 50 miles north-west of Lagash, enjoyed a posi- tion of exceptional importance. The ruins are now marked by the mound Fara. The city was famous in tradition as the home of Ziudsudu, hero of the Flood story, and the Semitic version places the construction of the Ark and the details of the episode at that place. The city disappears entirely from the ancient records after the last Ur dynasty (c. 2380 B.C.). Archaeological discoveries at Shuruppak have thrown much light upon the earliest period. The oldest burials appear to have been made by wrapping the body in a reed-mat, the corpse being laid upon its right side with knees drawn forward and the right hand supporting the head. The left hand is placed near the face. The body thus interred is provided with jars of water and oil, head ornaments, cylinder-seals, copper mirrors, fish-hooks (?) and implements. This so-called embryonic position in burials is the rule with the Sumerian peoples from prehistoric times as it was In Egypt. More elaborate burials in clay coffins are found along with the mat burials. The god of Shuruppak was a local form of Enlil with the title Aradda^ Arattay meaning the 'honoured one/ 'the god of praise'; and consequently the city itself acquired the epithet Aratta. The goddess of this city was, as was to be expected, a form of Ninlil, the earth-mother of Nippur, and her local title was Sud (or Sudam)^ a word which seems to describe her as a deity of light, for the same title was applied to Aja, wife of the sun-god of Sippar. She was said to have been the daughter of Enki, the water-god of Eridu. Shuruppak, Eridu, Larak and Sippar are the only cities men- tioned as existing before the Flood, and two of these names have the Elamite ending -ak. A few baked tablets from Shuruppak anterior to Ur-Nina have been found at Lagash and one at Nippur. Since these tablets come chiefly from Lagash it seems probable that Shuruppak actually belonged to a southern kingdom of Lagash at that time, which was not included in the dynastic list because it was contemporary with the Unzi kingdom of Ak^hak. If Shuruppak belonged to the kingdom of Lagash, so also did Umma, Erech, Larsa, and probably Ur and Eridii, and we seem bound to assume an extensive Sumerian kingdom at 378 THE CITIES OF EARLY BABYLONIA [CHAP. Lagash for a short period before Ur-Nina. This is confirmed by the similarity of legal terms in the business documents of Lagash, Shuruppak, and Akkad. We have already noticed the ancio*it stone tablet of Kish in which the expression for seller of property occurs, a technical term characteristic of records of sales at Shuruppak, and a term still employed at Agade in the times of Manishtusu. A stone tablet from Delem (Delhim or Daillam) — the ancient Dilbat — 17 miles south of Babylon, ten miles south-east of Bor- sippa, records several sales of land and, although showing Semitic traces, has the Sumerian phraseology characteristic of the Shurup- pak tablets. A peculiarity of the legal formality of sales in the period of the Akshak kingdom of Unzi (3188—3089) is the pro- vision for a gift (nigba) to the seller in addition to the price paid. The Shuruppak tablets anterior to Ur-Nina reveal this remnant of the custom of barter. Another characteristic legal practice is the provision for a supplement to the price of a field to pay for the buildings on it. The legal language is in all cases Sumerian, and the uniformity in legal procedure in Sumer and Akkad points to a period of central control, and thus vindicates the veracity of the dynastic list which attributes to Kish the government of both provinces in the period of the patesis and kings of Lagash* In Shuruppak a primitive method had been invented of naming the years after the magistrate for each year. The year was called the pal or * change* of the current magistrate, who was probably appointed by the king. Such were the historical and cultural conditions of the Sumer- ians and the Semites when the earliest records of Lagash enable us to begin our history proper, Ur-Nina ( . patesi of Lagash, chosen by Innini, built the Ibgal; Eanna, which fills heaven and earth, he built. Then Lummatur, son of Enanna- tum patesi of Lagash, fashioned the kib and named it a house of heaven/" Since this temple and its sacred chamber, the Ibgal5 382 THE CITIES OF EARLY BABYLONIA [CHAP. certainly stood in Lagash, we have an instance of the transport of votive .objects from the capital to dependent cities. Entemena, great-grandson of Ur-Nina, succeeded to the patesi- ship of Lagash. In his reign the old plano-convex bricks ifre aban-, doned in favour of the oblong flat shape, formed in a mould, and the size Is slightly increased, 10 by 5^ inches. The use of clay for writing becomes much more common and the cuneiform style of writing now appears on the stone monuments also. This ruler, alone, of the great line of the family of Ur-NIna seems to have become prominent in history. A century later, when Lagash belonged to the empire of Akkad, the Sumerians of his city made sacrifices to his statue. In the time of Abi-eshu', eighth king of the First Baby- lonian Dynasty, after the Sumerian people had disappeared, a statue was erected probably at Lagash to the * divinity of the god Entemena/ Tradition has dealt kindly with him. His irrigation canals seem to have been extensive. The canal 'Lion of the Plain/ which probably ran from the old bed of the Euphrates south of Nippur to the Shatt el-Hal passing east of Umma, had formed the border between these provinces. The territory, bequeathed to his successors by the treaty of Eannatum with Umma, extended from the sea northward to Nippur, and Entemena seems to have constructed a parallel canal farther east. 'The mighty canal at the boundary of Enlil Entemena made for Ningirsu, the king whom he loved; for Ningirsu he caused it to come forth from the River of the Prince, whose name is in the foreign lands.* To him the land of Sumer probably owed the construction of the Shatt el- Hal. At the command of Enlil, Ningirsu and Nina, the goddess of irrigation, he built a canal from the Tigris to the * River of the Prince/ That feat of engineering alone entitled him to a place In history more than the victories of his predecessors. He built a wall which apparently surrounded Gu-edin. His activity In building sacred places is astonishing. Six fine door-sockets — all inscribed with his architectural works — have been recovered. Like his pre- decessor, he laboured at the reservoir of the canal Lummadimdug which supplied the holy city Nina (Surghul). He says that this great reservoir lay in the court of the temple at Girsu, and was called the 'Well of the wall of the plain, ravine of the city/ As a ruler pre-eminent in works of art his name Is perpetuated by a ^ magnificent silver vase, which he dedicated to Ningirsu for his life; and It is to be noted that he attributed his choice to Nina,^ goddess of the waters, and not to the war-like Innini, as did his two predecessors. • * Immediately after Eannatum had conquered Umma and had X, iv] THE REIGN OF ENTEMENA 383 erected the Stele of the Vultures, Urlumma, a pates! of Umma, seized the boundary canal and diverted its waters, invaded the territory of Lagash and burned the stele of Eannatum and the ancient stele of Mesilim. This accounts for the fragmentary con- dition of the Stele of the Vultures. Entemena records the fact that' his father fought against Umtna. He mentions no victory and goes on at once to describe his own triumph over the ancient foe of Lagash. Urlumma fled and the warriors of Lagash carried earn- age even into the city of Umma. Illi, a high-priest of an unidenti- fied city near Adab, was made patesi of Umma, and ordered to control the irrigation system so that the provinces of Lagash should be watered. The perpetual difficulty about the supply of water to the territory of Lagash, with which Umma was in a position to interfere, proves that the Euphrates, now the Shatt el- Kar, was utilized, and from this source the lands north of the Hai and south of Nippur obtained their water. The menace of hostile northern raids upon these canals which flowed southward from Nippur and Adab to Lagash determined Entemena to dig the great canal from the Tigris to the Euphrates and so to ensure water supply to the extreme south by a canal whose course could not be interfered with by northern states. The installation of a governor at Umma of his own selection and from a city subject to Lagash seems to have terminated the long period of hostility. To this period belongs the earliest known diorite monument, a record of purchase of land at Lagash by Lupad, a high official at Umma. Entemena reigned at least 19 years. We know this from two clay tablets, the earliest contracts from Lagash. They reveal a change in legal formulae since the cosmopolitan standards of the times before Ur-Nina. The old word for seller (*the eater of the silver') is abandoned, we now have the phrase fhe purchased from'; but the custom of giving supplementary payments to the seller, his relations and certain officials continues for two centuries. In an old and perhaps contemporary contract from Nippur we have the phrase, 'In the name of the king man affirmed to man that he would not complain,' and there is an oath in the name of the king, whose name is not specified. This fact proves that in pre-Sargonic times a king was recognized at Nippur, and only some king of Kish seems possible. The practice of transacting business in the presence of witnesses was common in the archaic period; but the oath in the name of the king never occurs at Lagash in pre-Sargonic times, which indicates clearly enough that this city did not recognize the reigning dynasty of Kish* A curious custom, found only in the time of Entemena, is a curse added to a 384 THE CITIES OF EARLY BABYLONIA [CHAP. contract: "When in future days complaint be made, provided that by the complaints evil is done, slay such a one by the sword for his words/ Under his successors a new custom arose of assembling all the witnesses at the city wall, where" each of them put his right hand to the soft clay tablet; that is, they im- pressed their right thumb finger-nails or in some cases impressed their seals. This latter custom, which arose soon after Entemena, became henceforth a legal procedure in Sumerian law* A stalagmite vase dedicated to Enlil in the temple of Nippur refers to a fountain which Entemena made there, but hardly proves that his rule included that city. Although this powerful ruler of Lagash claims only the title of patesl, he obviously controlled a great and an independent kingdom which included Adab, Umma and possibly Erech, Larsa and Ur. During his reign Dudu, high- priest of the god Ningirsu, occupied such an important position that he is mentioned in the dating of events: * At that time Dudu was high-priest of Ningirsu/ So influential was Dudu in the affairs of state that the official weights bear his name. The two oldest known stone weights bear the inscription, 'One mana, Dudu high-priest/ These form the basis of our present sources for the history of Babylonian metrology, and prove that the oldest standard mana, or so-called light mana, of about 500 grams was already fixed at 3000 B.C. Another priest evidently high in affairs of state, was Enetarzi, to whom a certain Luenna, high- priest of the goddess of Mar, wrote a letter in the fifth year of Entemena, wherein we lea*rn that Lagash had been plundered by the Elamites, whom Luenna pursued and captured. The son of Entemena, Enannatum II, succeeded his father to the patesi-ship. He was the last of the line of Ur-Nina, whose memory was long cherished and to whose statue offerings con- tinued to be made. The family claimed as their personal god a deity whose name is written Dun and an unidentified sign. This mysterious god appears at Lagash as late as the last dynasty of Ur, and seems to have been a minor deity. Why he was adopted we know not; but the fact illustrates the old Sumerian belief that each individual was protected by a god and a goddess who were ever present about him. Seals of this period frequently reflect the belief in demons who in the guise of monsters make war against man and strive to evict his protecting god from his body. This system of beliefs seems to be the fundamental principle of Sumerian and Babylonian religion. The aim of prayer and ritual, so far as they concern the individual, is to keep the body a holy habitftiorf for the personal god of each man. And in the event of his falling into X3ir] RISE OF THE PRIESTHOOD OF LA GASH 385 the power of the demons, and his god being expelled from his body, he resorts to intricate incantations to restore the divine rela- tion ancj^ to free himself from the devils. Under the patesis of Lagash, the high-priests of important tem- ples attained positions second only to the rulers. Their title (shangu) was not strictly religious in a sacerdotal sense. The shangu held an administrative office by virtue of which he controlled the great temple estates and managed the secular affairs of the numerous clergy. Sacerdotal matters pertained to other ranks of the priest- hood. The high-priest of Ningirsu naturally occupied a powerful position and Enetarzi now succeeds to the patesi-ship. Since the letter addressed to him as high-priest of Ningirsu under Ente- mena (above) concerned a foreign invasion, this ecclesiastic was really the prime minister before he became patesL Only one tablet, dated in his fourth year, preserves a record of his reign. Enlitarzi, also high-priest of Ningirsu at the end of the reign of Entemena, now becomes patesi, and with his reign temple-records begin to appear in great numbers. A new class, the nubanday is now found in the state, and under each of the succeeding patesis the temple- records generally mention the chief nubanda in such manner as to indicate the date of the tablet. The temple-records of Lugal-anda and Urukagina mention offerings of the parentalia (ki-a-nag) to him, and to his contemporary Dudu, priest of Ningirsu. Sacrifices and meals to the souls of the dead were called ki-a-nag and funds were often bequeathed for their maintenance. Such offerings to the patesis and important men and women constantly recur in the temple archives after their deaths. Enlitarzi was succeeded by his son Lugal-andanukhunga, usually called Lugal-anda, from whose patesi-ship of nine years a very large number of temple-records are preserved. He married Bara- namtarra, daughter of Ashag, a woman from whom his father had purchased an estate. His wife and Ninigidubti, wife of the patesi of Adab, exchanged valuable presents, of which there is an inter- esting record ; proof of the peaceful relations between Lagash and Adab. Other business documents refer to intercourse with Umma, and people of Umma lived at Lagash and had full religious and civil rights in the time of Lugal-anda. Clearly the policy of Entemena had secured peace with Umma for nearly half a century. Baranamtarra appears to have been a queen-regent and an exceptionally prominent figure of the period. Business records dated by the name of Eniggal, chief minister of tlugal-anda after his first year, show that this woman possessed great estates, and that she made enormous contributions to C.A.H.I *$ 386 THE CITIES OF EARLY BABYLONIA [CHAP. the cults. Her business affairs are regarded as official^ and are discharged by ministers of the state. She was known simply as 'the woman5 and her palace was known as the * house of the woman/ Even under the succeeding patesi and king she was still known as "the woman/ Another title of this remarkable queen was &my 'the exalted or magnified one/ and even proper-names were composed with this epithet. In the temple archives of Lugal-anda and Urukagina * the woman7 or 'the exalted one' always means Baranamtarra although her name Is not mentioned. The same prestige was enjoyed by Shagshag, queen of Uru- kagina, and tablets of the next reign mention offerings to the statues of Baranamtarra and Shagshag. A very large number of tablets mention the wives of Lugal-anda and Urukagina by cour- tesy only and as a means of indicating the reign. The temple- records give the impression that the patesi Lugal-anda and the king Urukagina were only prince consorts; at all events, documents are ordinarily dated in the name of the queen. The three patesis, Enetarzi, Enlitarzi and Lugal-anda, have left no monuments and Inscriptions, and historical statements concerning them are based upon casual notices in the temple-archives of the period. Impres- sions on lumps of clay show three seals of Lugal-anda and one of his queen Baranamtarra; the main subject of the decorations is, as usual, taken from the legend of Gilgamesh. The seal of Eniggal, chief minister under Lugal-anda and Uru- kagina, also styles him * scribe of the house of the woman' and * scribe of the goddess Bau/ As the previous minister Subur, the chief nubanda^ had the title c scribe,* the chief ministers were secretaries of state. *The house of the woman * Is a title for the queen's palace, just as the patesi's palace was 'the house of the man * ; and in later periods at Lagash it refers to the palace of the wife of the actual patesi. For some reason Shagshag, queen of Urukagina, was called "the goddess Bau/ and her servants were called 'men of the goddess Bau,' Eniggal, therefore, owed his position to the fact that he was secretary to the queen, ^ Urukagina, who appears in the archives of Lugal-anda as a dignitary with the title ungal^ 'lord/ succeeded to the patesi-ship. Already in his first year he felt himself in a position to renounce allegiance to Kish, to -whose king Imu-Shamash he undoubtedly owed Ms appointment. He retained the title patesi for only a few months and then assumed the rank of king of Lagash. In his second year he claimed the title "King of Lagash and Sumer/ Sumer, or the city-state of Nippur, was nominally and^perliaps effectively claimed by the rulers of Lagash from Ur-Nina to Uru- X, iv] URUKAGINA, AND HIS SOCIAL REFORMS 387 kagina, and a tablet dated in the second year of Urukagina is a list of rich offerings sent by Shagshag, the queen, to the gods Ninkiggj. and Ninazu from Lagash to Burner, that is, Nippur. The number of business records of the temple and royal affairs from the short reign of Urukagina is enormous. The literary style of all subsequent Sumerian, Babylonian and Assyrian historical documents was fixed by the scribes of Entemena and Urukagina, The long inscriptions on cones and tablets, although chiefly de- voted to history, always lead up to the account of some sacred building. Only one tablet, the account of the pillage of Lagash by the conqueror Lugal-zaggisi, is entirely devoted to history. In a short reign of six years he accomplished an amazing amount of building. Besides his temples should be mentioned the recon- struction of the canal and reservoir which supplied the city Nina with water. At its mouth stood the great temple E-ninnu in Girsu, and at its outlet the temple of Nina in Sirara. A cone inscription gives the valuable information that the territory of Lagash ex- tended to the sea: at that time the shore-line lay not more than 50 miles south of the city. A small olive-shaped votive object of clay refers to the temple of Erech where Ningirsu conferred in gracious words with his consort Bau concerning the patesi. This little ob- ject indicates the attachment of the people of Lagash for the cult of the great virgin goddess Innini of Erech. As an historical figure Urukagina is interesting chiefly for his economic reforms. 'The high-priest. . .came not into the garden of a poor mother and took not wood therefrom, gathered not tax in fruit therefrom/ Thus, the executive of the great temple-estate could no longer tax widow and orphan. Moreover, the state now provided the dead with food and drink in their graves, that their souls might successfully make the long journey to the lower world. *If to the subject of the king a fair ass be born and his overlord say separated from it by a canal, now the Shatt en-Nil. Here have been found the archives of Kassite kings and of great business houses of the Neo-Babyloman and Persian periods. In dealing with the^ history of Lagash reference has been made to its possible sovereignty over Nippur* Entemena dedicated a X, v] NIPPUR, ISIN, LARAK 393 vase to Enlil, and Urukaglna not only claimed the hegemony of Nippur but sent great presents and sacrifices to the chapels*of two deities qf the nether-world there. No trace of its ever having been a capital of a kingdom exists. A legendary nobleman of Nippur, Lai- uralim, became in later tradition the type of a just man who endured manifold sorrows. He was the Babylonian Job, and portions of a long Semitic poem concerning his sufferings and final justification have been recovered. The earliest royal dedications to the temple Ekur are the vases of the kings of Erech, who succeeded the Mesilim kingdom at Kish (3688-3558). A patesi of Nippur, Ur- Enlil, who probably served under one of the rulers of Lagash or Kish, is known from two vases dedicated to Enlil for his life. Not later than the age of Enshagkushanna of Erech are two vases dedicated by the son (?) of Lugal-ezen to the mother-goddess, Bau or Gula, 'Queen who gives life to the dead/ for the life of his wife and children, 'that Abaranna his wife might live/ The god- dess of healing, especially worshipped at Lagash as consort of Ningirsu, seems to have been the consort of Ninurasha at Nippur. Two other vases to Nintindigga, or Gula of healing, from the period of Ur-Nina (c. 3 100) are known; from sources of the later period the cult of the goddess of healing and medicine seems to have had its centre at Nippur. Ninlil, consort of the earth-god, is only a satellite of this patroness of life, and vases were also dedicated to her for wives and children. A great cult of Gula and Sakkut sprang up at Isin, possibly the ruins of Zibliyya, or rather of Bahriyat (see p. 688 note). Isin is of very late foundation, appearing in the inscriptions only in the last years of the Ur-Engur dynasty of Ur. But such was the power of local tradition that a cult of the type of Nippur was imposed there. Larak, the little-known city east of Nippur, also had its cult of the goddess of life, Gula, with her consort, Pabilsag, a feeble reflection of Enlil. In the traditions reported by Berosus, Opartes, father of Xisuthrus (that is, Ubar-Tutu, father of TJt-Napishtim), ninth of the mythical kings before the Flood, lived at Larankha (Larak), It was known to the later Assyrian kings as a military post, and business records of the period of Darius from Nippur state that it was situated on the old bed of the Tigris, Its cult of the god Pabilkharsag, later Pabilsag, and of Gula the goddess of healing, were recognized throughout Sumer; this we know from their incorporation in the canonical liturgies. Less is known of the religion of the prehistoric Sumerian cities KisJi and Akshak, of the north, later occupied by the Semites. Kish (El-Oheimir), with the neighbouring ruins of Inghara (not 394 THE CITIES OF EARLY BABYLONIA [CHAP. Tell el-Bandar), had already in the age of Mesllim a cult of Ka-Di (Isir), 'an earth goddess. The site lay near the old bed of the Euphrates and was identified by bricks bearing the stamp gf Adad- apal-idinnam, who rebuilt there the temple of Ilbaba, E-meteursag. Nebuchadrezzar restored this famous temple and its central chapel E-kishibba, and names Ilbaba and his consort Bau as the local deities of Kish. Ilbaba Is only a local title of Ninurasha, the son of Enlil of Nippur, and another consort of Gula-Bau, the mother- goddess. Kish, which was the capital of two legendary and two historical kingdoms, and whose name became synonymous with universal dominion, passed into the possession of the Sumerian kingdom of Lugal-zaggisi. Little is known of its history, and when the Semites of the north, under the great Sargon, possessed themselves of the hegemony of ail Mesopotamia they abandoned Kish and selected Agade, 40 miles northward on the Euphrates, for their capital. But royal traditions are not easily suppressed, and the city led by one Ipkhur-Kish instigated a rebellion against the mighty Naram-Sin of Agade, and made its last effort to retain the proud position of capital of Western Asia (p. 414). The works of Nebuchadrezzar bear witness to its religious importance. Its cult belongs to the pantheon of Nippur and the worship of the earth- mother, and the canonical liturgies include its god and goddess, its temple and chief chapel in the litanies to Enlil Ninurasha and their various local types. Another deity of the Nippur pantheon, Nergal, lord of the lower world and the dead, with his consort Ninmug or Ereshkigal, queen of the lower world, had his chief cult at Cuthah, the Biblical Cuthah, perhaps to be identified (after Sir Henry Rawlinson) with the ruins of Tell Ibrahim. This mound, which lies 20 miles north of Kish and 35 miles south-east of Sippar, is two miles in circum- ference and 60 feet high. The temple of Nergal at Cuthah was named E-meslam or House of Meslam, Meslam is an epithet for the lower world and the god Nergal has also the title Meslanitaea, cHe who rises from Meslam/ referring to his solar character as god of tixe scorching summer sun. As a god of the waning summer sun he was connected with the waning moon and the new moon, and the stage-tower of CutKah bore the name E-Nannar, 'House of the New Moon/ The name Nergal is derived from Ne-unugal, 'Power of the vast -abode/ lord of the lower world where he was the judge of those that died. The cult of the terrible deities of the dead, plague and judgment, Nergal and Laz of Cuthah, belongs to the prehistoric pantheon; their titles and temple occur regularly in the canonical liturgies. The city was of no political X, v] KISH, CUTHAH, SIPPAR 395 importance and never became the seat of a dynasty. Like Sippar, Akshak and Kish it belonged to the Semitic sphere of influence in the nqrth. The cult of its god Nergal was established in every Sumerian city and Cuthah was kept in repair by all Sumerian and Semitic rulers to the last centuries before our era. Sippar, now the ruins of Abu Habba ('Father of Corn'), was situated in ancient times on the east bank of the Euphrates just south of the Royal Canal. The temple E-babbar or * House of the Sun/ and its stage-tower E-iluanazagga, 4 House of the threshold of the bright heaven/ occupied a terrace 1300 feet square beside the river. East of the temple-complex and separated from it by a wide avenue lay the great residential quarter, and the whole was surrounded by a wall. The exterior wall of the city forms a rect- angle 1 400 yards long and 8 60 yards wide, the long sides facing north and south. The city walls were pierced by numerous wide gates. Excavations conducted here by Rassam (1881—2), prin- cipally at the temple in the northern part of the eastern mounds and the stage-tower south of the temple, produced over 60,000 tablets, chiefly contracts, grammatical and religious texts from the neo-Babylonian period. The antiquity of the city is shown by the fact that Lugal-zaggisi (c. 2900) calls the Euphrates the River of Sippar. A canal whose name was actually pronounced * Canal of Sippar ' is said to have been dug by Ammi-zaduga (1977-1957 B.C.). t The Sumerian name of the city (Zib-Bar-Nun) seems to have meant 'Radiant chamber of the Prince/ 'Prince7 (Nun) refers here to the water-god Enki or Ea of Eridu, and * radiant * (Bar) is one of the titles of the sun-god whose principal cult was here and whose temple was known as E-barra or E-babar. The name of the city reveals its original connexion with the sun-cult as well as its relation to^ the river of the water-god. The Semitic Shamash was identified with the Sumerian sun-god Utu or Babbar of Larsa, and his cult installed at Sippar. At Larsa the temple of the sun-god was called E-babbar and the same name was given to the new temple at Sippar. At Sippar, and apparently also at Larsa, the wife of the sun-god was known as Aja, a form of Inning as queen of heaven. But at Agade the Semites worshipped Ishtar as queen of heaven, or goddess of battle,, also named Anunit; and here her temple has a Sumerian name, E-ulmash. Six miles north-east of Sippar lies Sippar- Yakhruru, now the mound ed-Der, *the monastery,* excavated by Sir E. A. Wallis Budge in 1891. There is good reason to suppose that this repre- sents the site of Agade. It is also possible that Sargon's famous 396 THE CITIES OF EARLY BABYLONIA [CHAP. city was known during the first Babylonian dynasty as^Sippar- Yakhrtiru, but in later times was usually called Agade, or 'the city Akkadu/ or Sippar-Anunit. The most ancient name is Agade and the city is said to have been founded by Sargon^(p. 407). The location of the city which was to become the capital of the first great empire is important; and it is regrettable that the identifica- tion with Sippar-Yakhruru is somewhat uncertain. All the old cities which lay in central Sumer and in the north from Lagash to Akshak were consistently attached to the worship of earth-deities. Only in the extreme south along the lower Eu- phrates are found grouped together the other great cults which complete the pantheon, the cult of Anu, the sky-god at Erech, of Babbar, the sun-god at Larsa, of Zu-en or Sin, the moon-god at Ur, and of the god of fresh water, Enki or Ea at Eridu. This re- markable religious topography can be explained only by design and not by accident. The Sumerian word Unug, which became Uruk (the biblical Erech), seems to be a compound of Unu9 'dwelling,' and the Ela- mitic-Sumerian locative ending -ak (cf, p. 377). As the home of the cults of Anu, the father of all the gods, and of the great virgin goddess Innini, Erech, like Nippur and Eridu, was a place of the greatest sanctity. Ninana, cthe queen of heaven,' whose name ecame Innini by phonetic decay, is a transformation of the oldest deity of the Sumerians, Geshtin the goddess of the vine, who as such is only a specific form of the prehistoric earth-goddess of Central Asia, The great virgin-goddess Innini and her mystically begotten son, Abu or Tammuz, are the most impressive figures in Sumerian theology and ritual. As a counterpart of heaven she became associated from unknown antiquity in an abstract way with Anu as Ms female principle and acquired the title Innini, 'queen of heaven/ Hence her cult was associated with that of Anu, who never was much more than an abstract figure in the pantheon. The name of the principal temple at Erech was E-anna, * house of heaven ' — it was apparently the earlier name of the city itself; but the cult of Innini or Ishtar, because of its more human appeal, usurped the position of the old god and dominated the religious interests. She was widely known as 'the Erechian god- dess/ Her cult is of course found established everywhere like that of her companion (Nintud) the goddess of birth, but Erech was her home. A grammatical text records eleven epithets of this holy city, among them Illag or ///*£, the enclosure; Antiranna^ the forest of heaven (an ordinary name of the Milky Way); ^Jlwniny the seven regions; Daiminy the seven sides; Geparimm, the seven X5 v] ERECH, LARSA (ELLASAR) 397 dark chambers. The three last names refer to the tower, Ege- parimin> whose seven stages in accordance with the usual* belief symbolized the seven regions. Erech was also called 'the sleeping place of Anu.' Its mythical dynasty has already been noticed (P-366). Famous from prehistoric times the city retained its prestige to the end; in the times of Strabo its great school of astronomers rivalled the astronomers of Borsippa. Uruk (Greek, Orchoe), now Warka, lay on the western bank of the old Euphrates, now the Shatt el-Kar, whose course has shifted a few miles eastward. Its outer walls, six miles in circumference, enclose a nearly circular area of about noo acres. Three great mounds and numerous smaller ones lie within the walled area. The temple E~anna and its tower stood in the eastern side of the city beside the river; its huge moat walls built by Ur-Engur are still intact. The walls of this huge structure consist of layers of bricks interrupted at intervals of four feet by a layer of reed mats, on which account the Arabs have named this mound Buwarlya ('reed mats'). The base of the tower was 200 feet square; it stood together with the temple at the western angle of a great platform built with the corners facing the cardinal points. At this mound Loftus, who excavated in 1854, uncovered a unique system of late mural decoration, a kind of mosaic made of painted cone-heads and cone-shaped pots with narrow tops and shallow cavities. These walls consist of cones or pots laid with their heads outward. To the west of the temple and separated from it by a ravine in the centre of the city lies the high mound Wuswas, which is regarded as the site of the palace of pre- Sargonic kings and also of the patesis. A great number of valuable religious texts have been recovered from the temple library; they date from a period so late as 70 B.C., and reveal in astonishing manner the interesting ideas of the priestly school of Erech, at the very beginning of our era. Fifteen miles south-east of Erech on the western bank of the old Euphrates lie the ruins of Larsa, now the mounds of Senkereh. They are 4^ miles in circumference, and the temple-area of the central mound measured 320 by 220 feet. As the centre of the worship of the Sumerian sun-god Babbar or Utu, Larsa must be one of their oldest cities. Babbar, the son of the moon-god of Ur, was regarded as the lord of justice and divination throughout Sumer. Enannatum in his stele of victory appealed to the god of Larsa to consecrate and protect his treaty with Umma, and he sent sacrifices of oxen from Lagash for the temple E-babbar. But its political relation to Lagash and the reigning dynasties of Akshak 398 THE CITIES OF EARLY BABYLONIA [CHAP. and Kish in pre-Sargonic times is unknown. Being in the vicinity of the* greater city, Erech, it is reasonable to suppose that its political history coincided largely with that of the neighbouring metropolis. The name of the city is written Ud-Unu-(kt), 'City of the abode of the sun (god)/ All the prehistoric names, like Lagash, Nippur, Uruk, etc., are much more ancient than the pictographs by which they were written, and the written signs almost in- variably refer to the city-cults. The name of the city was read Za~Ra-Ar-Ma.> that is Ilrar-ma or Ilrar (Za has the value #). The Sumerian r readily passed into s> and the word became Ilasar, or, as Gen. xiv, I writes it, Ellasar. The Babylonians, at least in the late period, pronounced the name Larsa, and the name was some- times written with an ideograph which means 'Holy throne/ Ury the famous city of the moon-god, was situated 30 miles south of Erech, But before the period of Rim-Sin the Euphrates seems to have run west of Ur, reaching the sea at Eridu. Appar- ently Rim-Sin was the first to straighten the southern course of the Euphrates so as to bring the stream past Ur, leaving Eridu an inland city. When Entemena's great canal was dug from the Tigris to the Euphrates it probably reached the Great River above Ur, The river has shifted eastward six miles, and the canal, now the Shatt el-Hai, joins it at the modern town Nasriyeh. The ruins of Ur rise above the plain west of the Euphrates, twelve miles south-south- west of Nasriyeh. The ruins have been named by the Arabs MM- kayyar^ or 'the pitched/ J. E. Taylor, British Vice-Consul at Basra, excavated here in 1854. The mounds occupy a large oval whose greatest diameter from north to south is about five-eighths of a mile with a circumference of i J miles. An old canal passed along its western side, coming from the north. A ravine, the remains of an old canal, crosses the city from east to west at the southern end. At the northern end of the city stands the best preserved stage-tower of Babylonia, called E-lugal-galgasidi, * House of the lord who directs wisdom/ a reference to the moon-god Sin as lord of wisdom. The two lower stages are still in good condition, but this tower is rect- angular, not square like the other ziggurats. The corners face the cardinal points; the tiottli-east and south-west sides of the base measure 1 88 feet and the north-^west and south-east ends 133 feet. In each corner of the second storey of the tower Taylor found a barrel-cylinder of Nabonidus, the last king who repaired the sacred edifices of Ur. South-east of the tower was a large building, probably the temple of Sin; it was called 'the temple of light/ Its lower stratum is built of plano-convex bricks, which indicate a very early foundation. In a mound at the centre of the city he un~ X, v] UR3 ERIDU 399 covered numerous graves, of the * capsule' type,, of inverted tub type, and fine vaulted brick tombs. Taylor's work was very well done, but with the publication of the results of the excavations conducted at Ur by the British Museum, new and fuller light will be thrown upon the archaeology and history of this important city. Ur and its cult of the moon-god Sin or Nannar belong to the prehistoric sites of Sumer. The city was the seat of a prehistoric dynasty of four kings who succeeded the first kingdom of Erech. A second prehistoric kingdom reigned at Ur, but we know of its existence only from the summary of the dynastic list of Nippur* Eannatum invokes the moon-god Sin to solemnize his treaty with Umma in his stele of victory and sent offerings to the temple at Ur. This victorious patesi of Lagash conquered Erech, Larsa, Ur, and probably all of these great cities belonged temporarily to that city-state. The name of the city (Shesk-Unu~kt) means 'City of the habitation of the brother/ a reference to Sin as the brother of Nergal, god of the summer-sun. Both of these deities were re- garded as sons of the earth-god Enlil of Nippur. Nannar, god of the new moon, seems to have been an aspect of the lunar-god who became an independent deity, and had his own temple, Enunmakh, at Ur, The name of the city is ordinarily read U-ri-ma, but also Uri and Uru, and in this shortened form it passed into Hebrew as Ur. Ten to twelve miles south-west of Ur lie the ruins of Abu Shah- rein, * Father of the two moons/ commonly supposed to be the site of Eridu. This identification was first based upon the slender evi- dence of a stamp of Bur-Sin, found on bricks in the buildings of Abu Shahrein and Mukayyar. The Inscription ends, 'he built for Enki his beloved lord the Apsu.' Enki, the god of fresh water, was worshipped chiefly here and his temple was known as E-ab^u or 'House of the nether sea/ The apsu9 or sea of fresh water, on which the earth was supposed to rest and from which fountains and rivers sprang, was often represented by a great bowl or apsu in the temple courts of other cults. Ur-Nina constructed an apsu at Lagash, and Ur-Bau built a temple to Enki there. The cults of Ningirsu, a god of irrigation, and of Nina, 'queen of the waters/ and daughter of Enki, were intimately connected with the cult of the water-god of Eridu. At Lagash the sacred apsu had its own priesthood; also at Babylon, Marduk, son of Enki or Ea, and the great god of the ritual of atonement, possessed an apsu adorned with gold in his temple, Esagila. The*early connexion of Eridu and Lagash is due to the fact that both were once practically sea-board cities. Lagash and Baby- 4oo THE CITIES OF EARLY BABYLONIA [CHAP. Ion both possessed water-cults, offspring of the worship at Eridu, and the fact Is explicable on topographical grounds. Eridu is said to have Iain at the junction of two rivers and the siter of Abu Shahrein excellently satisfies the references to Eridu, and the identification has received universal acceptance. The report of Taylor's excavations (published in 1855) was the only source of information concerning Eridu, until R. Campbell Thompson, then Captain, conducted excavations here in 1918 under orders of the British Mesopotamian Army. He found the bricks of Bur-Sin,, al- ready uncovered by Taylor, whose inscription mentions the apsu. A few bricks of Ur-Engur are stamped with an inscription which .ends with the words ehe built the temple of Enki of Eridu/ Thompson also found a long brick stamp of Nur-Adad, eighth king of the dynasty of Larsa, which commemorates his work at Eridu, and there is now no longer any doubt that this city is Abu Shahrein. Thompson noted quantities of fresh-water mussels in the lower strata, which prove that the city stood by a fresh-water lake. The site yielded the ordinary evidence of the late stone age, polished flints, stone hoes and baked clay sickles, and pots with small spouts. Fragments of alabaster vessels, beautifully carved, indicate a flourishing city in the historic period. The burials are almost ex- clusively early, the age being indicated by the shape of the pots in the graves. The Kassite, Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian kings do not appear to have paid any attention to Eridu, although the cult of this god was one of the most sacred and important in all periods. The city and its famous school sank into oblivion after the age of Hammurabi. The god of wisdom and philosophy, of atonement and consecration, continued to hold his place of almost supreme importance in religion, poetry and tradition. So necessary was his cult to the practice of religion that every city possessed a temple or chapel to Enki or Ea. In such circumstances, his ancient city, which probably became uninhabitable owing to the retreat of the shore-line and the diversion of the Euphrates, lost its position in the history of Babylonia without detriment to its god. See p. 555. Eridu was never the seat of a dynasty and in fact it did not even possess a patesi under the various reigning kingdoms. One of its citizens, Adapa, a legendary sage endowed with vast intelligence by Ea, became the hero of the Eridu myth of the Fall of Man. This tale of the fisherman of Eridu who was summoned to the court of heaven for his sins and who lost eternal life by the ruse of his divine counsellor, Ea, is told in a fragmentary Semitfc p5em, the Sumerian text of which, if it ever existed, has not been found. X3 v] ERIDU, THE MYTH OF ADAPA, ASHUR 401 The fundamental theory of this myth is that mankind lost eternal life through the jealousy of a god. Adapa, a sage of Eridu, who, in the Qraditian preserved by Berosus, was the second king of Babylonia after the Flood, and reigned 10,800 years, was said to have been initiated into all wisdom by Ea, the god of wisdom; but eternal life was withheld from him. One day, while he was fishing, the south wind blew violently and threw him into the sea. In his fury he broke the wings of the south wind which then ceased to blow. Anu, the heaven god, summoned him to the gates of heaven for punishment. But Ea in his jealousy advised him to beware of partaking of bread and water which Anu would offer him. On his arrival before Anu, Tammuz and Gishzida interceded for him and explained to Anu that Ea had revealed all wisdom to this man, and that he would be a god, did he possess eternal life. Anu offered him the bread and water of life which he refused. Thus he lost eternal life and mankind became mortal. Throughout Sumerian religion and speculation there are two main streams of thought represented by the schools of Eridu and of Nippur. A large portion of the texts of the Nippurian school has been recovered, but the library of the temple of E-abzu has eluded the search of excavators. The excavation of the old capital of Assyria, Ashur (Ashshur), on the upper Tigris, has proved that a Sumerian city existed here in the pre-Sargonic period. Statuettes of the period of Ur-Nina reveal pure Sumerian type. The name of the old Sumerian city may not have been Ashur, and even the god of the city, Ashir or Ashur, may belong to a later period and a foreign (MItannian) race. But names of places and cults are among the things most tenacious in the history of man and until new material disproves the conjecture it may be assumed that a northern Sumerian city, Ashur, existed from prehistoric times. Its relation to the city- states and kingdoms of Sumer and-Akkad is unknown. Not a trace of Ashur has been found in the inscriptions of the great kingdoms of Erech and Akkad which now assume the hegemony of the whole of Western Asia. Nevertheless Ashur must be in- cluded in the survey of the rise and progress of the prehistoric cities and as we descend the stream of history its power and im- portance will continue to attract attention. Such were the city-states and cults of Mesopotamia when Lugal- zaggisi of Umma wrested the supremacy of the two lands from Kis]^ anji subdued the rival states of Sumer (£.2897); and we now enter upon a new stage in their lengthy history. C.A.H.I CHAPTER XI THE DYNASTIES OF AKKAD AND LAGASH L THE RISE OF THE DYNASTY OF SARGON brief but prosperous reign of Urukagina of Lagash came to a catastrophic end about 2 8 97 B.C., at the hands of Lugal- zagglsi (see p. 388). Fragments of white alabaster vases, which the conqueror dedicated to Enlil in Nippur, are at present our princi- pal sources for the record of the new king. He of course attributed his authority to the earth-god, 'When Enlil king of the lands had given to Lugakzaggisi the kingship of the Land (i.e. Sumer), had set him righteously before the Land, and had subdued the foreign lands to his power. . ,'; so runs a passage from his inscription. Urukagina describes him as the priest-king of Umma and his own inscription mentions his father Ukush, patesi of Umma. But he transferred his capital to Erech and assumed the title 'King of Erech and king of the Land/ 'The Land' in later inscriptions, after the term * Akkad ' had been given to the Semitic north, means the Sumerlan south only, that is, the region from a point below Kish to the sea* But in pre-Sargonic times these two ethnological divi- sions were not recognized, and up to this point the Sumerians still regarded the north as their 'Land/ In the introduction to his his- torical inscription Lugal-zaggisi recognizes various gods of Sumer as his patrons, placing at the head of the list the grain-goddess Nidaba of Umma. Then follow Anu, Enlil and Enki, or the trinity Heaven, Earth and Sea, a passage which reveals the rise of a systematic pantheon. He then claims to have been the choice of Babbar, the sun-god of Larsa, and of Sin, the moon-god of Ur, born of Nidaba and nursed by Ninkharsag, the mother-goddess of Adab. And he realized his ambitions, for he subdued the lands from the Lower Sea (Persian Gulf) to the Upper Sea (Mediterranean) along the Tigris and the Euphrates, and instituted prosperity and peace in his vast dominion. He bestowed royal favours upon the cities of Sumer: Erech, Ur, Larsa, Umma the city of his god Shara, and Nippur are specially mentioned. He erected a statue of himself in the temple of Enlil at Nippur, inscribed 'Lugal-zaggisi, lord of the province of Erech, king of the province of Ur,' followed by a long curse against anyone who should destroy the statue or erase CHAP. XI, ij LUGAL-ZAGGISI AND SARGON 403 the inscription. The inscription is in Semitic, proof that Lugal- zaggisi had been a patesi under the Azag-Bau dynasty of *Kish, and had^been accustomed to the use of Semitic as the official language of the empire. No tablets dated in his reign have been found in any Sumerian city. He seems to have destroyed Lagash completely. After a reign of 2 5 years Lugal-zaggisi was deposed by Sargon, who founded the empire of Agade about 2872. He was placed in fetters and taken to Nippur. The king, who had destroyed the mighty power of Kish and founded a great Sumerian empire, saw his work pass away as quickly as it was made and the Semites again were rulers of the land, Of Sargon, founder of the Semitic dynasty at Agade, many romantic stories were current. Two chronological tablets state: *At Agade Sharru-km-lubani, a gardener and cup-bearer of Ur~Ilbaba, having been made king, ruled 55 years1/ The name means 'a legitimate king verily is created.' He was known in history as Sharrukin or Sargon? but the original name was obviously chosen in mature years to justify his claims. A legend records that his mother was a lowly woman, his father he knew not (see p. 537) ; he was born in concealment at Azupirani on the Euphrates; his mother cast him adrift on the river in a reed basket and he was discovered by Akki an irrigator, who reared him and made him a gardener; but Ishtar loved him and he became king for 55 years. According to an earlier Sumerian fragment his father was Laipum and he grew up among the cattle. It also refers to a messenger of Sargon sent to Lugal-zaggisi, who maltreated the messenger and returned a haughty reply. The inscription is so defective that the facts which attended the outbreak of war between them cannot be discovered. Lugal-zaggisi, however, seems to have sent his wife to Sargon as concubine. So largely did Sargon and his descendant, Naram-Sin, influence the history of the period that a record of their omens was handed down in the Assyrian and Babylonian books of liver divinations. His name is especially connected with hepatoscopy, i.e. divination by means of the liver. Thus, on a great liver-omen text of the seventh century B.C. it is said: * It is a decision given to Sargon, it is favourable, in calamity there will be deliverance/ Among 1 But Ur-Ilbaba was the third king of the fourth dynasty of Kish and is assigned a reign of 80 years (according to another tablet, six years), and as five other £ing$ of Kish and the reign of Lugal-zaggisi intervene with a total of 86 years, Sargon cannot have been the king's cup-bearer* It was a posthumous cult of Ur-Ilbaba at Kish in which the young Sargon officiated* 404 THE DYNASTIES OF AKKAD AND LAGASH [CHAP. other records, a Chronicle of early kings has been recovered which gives the events of the reigns of the six most famous rulers before Sumu-abu (2225 B.C.). It begins with Sargon. ^The king attributes his accession to the aid of Ishtar5 the Semitic goddess of Agade, identified with the Sumerian Innini, goddess of battle. His career began with the conquest of Erech. He defeated the army of Erech and a coalition of the governors of 50 cities which had rallied to the standard of Lugal-zaggisI, and he carried away the king Lugal-zaggisI a prisoner to Nippur. His son Naram-Sin speaks in praise of his father, who * destroyed Ur and gave liberty to the people of Kish/ Lugal-zaggisI had taken special pains to oppress this old capital of the Semites, and Sargon, himself attached to the priesthood of Kish, probably organized his rebellion there before he chose Agade as his capital. The old Sumerian cities in the south refused to submit and he now Invaded the territory of Ur, defeated its army and destroyed its wall. Turning eastward he overran the territory south of the Shatt el-Hai and occupied its chief cities, E-Ninmar(ki) and La- gash, and triumphantly washed his weapons in the sea. Since he already possessed Nippur and the whole of the extreme south it is strange that Umma between Nippur and Erech still held out. This warlike city was the last of the Sumerian centres to be occupied. He now proclaimed himself king of 'the Land,' under the high tutelage of Enlil, and returned to rebuild the city of Kish, The order of the subsequent events is uncertain. By right of pos- session of Kish he assumed the title * king of universal dominion ' (p. 369). His next expedition seems to have been made against Elam and the districts east of the Tigris. He prepared to invade Elam from the south, and returned to the sea border which at that time extended north of the modern city Kurna, 'The sea in the east he crossed* — and this statement In the Chronicle (Obverse 3) Is not to be confused with the crossing to the west, mentioned In the Omens (Obv. 24). He smote the Elamites, besieged them (in Susa?), and cut off their supplies. Beside Susa, the capital, he con- quered^ other cities (Bajrakhsi, Ganni, Bunban, Gunilakha, Saba and Shirikhum), who&e kames are Elamite* In his third year he invaded the west, which he calls the * Amor- ite Land/ He claims to have subdued the whole of the western lands and to have crossed the western sea, that is the Mediterra- nean, by which he may mean an occupation of Cyprus, From the 'land of the sea* he caused booty to be brought over^ (Ctoens, Obv, 26). Again in his eleventh year he subdued the entire west after he had finished an expedition beyond the eastern sea and XI, i] CONQUESTS OF SARGON IN THE WEST 405 erected his statues in those lands. The Omens mention an expedi- tion to the west in Four different sections. An inscription copied from on% of his statues at Nippur has a more definite account of his western conquests. * Enlil gave unto him the upper land, Maer, Yarmuti and Ibla, as far as the cedar forests and the silver moun- tains/ The silver mountains refer to the Taurus, especially the regions near the Cilician Gates, and the discovery of silver in this range of mountains in the twenty-ninth century B.C. proves the great age of silver mining in Asia Minor. The cedar forests probably refer to the Lebanons, The land of Yarmuti occurs re- peatedly in the letters of Rib-Addi, governor of Gebal (Byblus) in the Amarna Letters and as a great storehouse of grain and food; but its situation is uncertain1. It is disputed whether Sargon visited Cyprus (p. 587). The Omens of Sargon say definitely that he crossed the sea of the west, but the Chronicle has a confused statement: 'When he had crossed the sea in the east, in his third year the land of the west unto its end his hand captured/ Some good authorities (e.g. L, W, King) have assumed that the Omens are in error. They mention three expe- ditions to the west (Amurru), besides the one of his eleventh year, in which he went to the 'setting sun* and crossed the 'sea of the setting sun/ and the Omens add that 'he caused their booty to be brought over/ The statement is explicit. The Chronicle is either confused, or it means to say that tliere was an expedition to the west in the eleventh year of Sargon following upon an eastern in- vasion. It seems impossible to explain away the voyage of Sargon across some part of the Mediterranean, and naturally Cyprus was his first objective. Moreover, a stele of Sargon's son, Naram-Sin, has been found at Diarbekr (p. 417). Although Naram-Sin does not claim to have crossed the western sea but only to have reached Ibla and an unknown land, Armanu, yet a seal which mentions the 'Divine Naram-Sin ' was found in Cyprus by di Cesnola. The inscription, which is of the writing of the twenty-third century, reads 'Apil-Ishtar son of Ilubani servant of the god Naram-Sin'; and the type of this seal-inscription appears first in the period of the last dynasty of Ur (c. 2400 B.C.) and becomes extremely common 1 Ibla, which together with Armanu was smitten by Naram-Sin, is probably the Ibar of the geographical list of Thutmose III (so Sayce),anet possibly the classical Pieria, north of Antioch on the sea coast. In the Ibla mountains on the coast lay Urshu (the classical Rhosus, and the modern ArsusJ, whence, later, Gudea brought aromatic cedars and plantain. A tablet of the time of Bur-Sin, whose rule was recognised in this region, contains a list of offerings from citizens of Maer, Ibla and Urshu. 4o6 THE DYNASTIES OF AKKAD AND LAGASH [CHAP In the age of Hammurabi. The design on the seal is pure Syro- Hittife, as used on seals of the Cappadocian tablets, a mixture of Babylonian and Hittite design. There is no specifically ^Cypriote symbolism (griffins and monsters) on this seal; and we can infer from it that Naram-Sin became a mythical hero in the Syro-Hittite region and his cult survived there for at least five centuries1. The fame of Sargon was such that a range of mountains in the Lebanon region from which frankincense (lupanu) was obtained was named the Mountain of Sargon. Concerning his expeditions in these lands a Hittite legendary poem was written called the 'King of Battle/ of which the first tablet of the Semitic version has been recovered at el-Amarna. In this legend the opponent of Sargon seems to be Nurdaggal of the city Burshakhanda unto which the 'way was grievous/ Nurdaggal felt secure beyond his barriers : * Unto us Sargon will not come, surely the shore of the flood will prevent him. Who is the king who has come and seen our mountain?' And after Sargon captures the city of his foe, Nurdaggal says unto him: 'The soldiers of thy god have caused thee to cross (saying) "the mountains may he ascend, the river may he cross." What are the lands which can rival the city Aggata (Agade), what king can rival thee?* We are left in doubt concern- ing the movements of Sargon. Sayce interprets the passages as re- ferring to Syria, Cilicia and Cappadocia. These lands were regarded in early legend as one of the six * regions * (nagu) beyond the world- encircling sea and by reason of his distant conquest Sargon was actually supposed to have been translated to this Hyperborean land along with the hero of the Flood, Ut-napishtim. A map based upon this mythical cosmology describes those trans-oceanic re- gions inhabited by monsters where dwell also Sargon, Ut-napish- tim and Nur-Dagan. Sayce has very plausibly connected Nurdag- gal of the legend of Sargon, 'King of Battle/ with Nur-Dagan. In view of the fact that the historical legend of Sargon was prob- ably written under the influence of the old cosmology in which Asia Minor was regarded as beyond the sea, the present writer considers that it is possible to interpret the legend, as Sayce does, without seeing in it an expedition to Cyprus. After these conquests Sargon divided his vast empire from the lower sea to the upper sea, from the rising to the setting of the sun into districts of five double hours* march each, over which he 1 The exact provenance of the seal is disputed. It is reproduced by Sayce in Transactions of Society of BtU. Archaeology > 1877, p. 44-2? an^ discussed by King, History of Sumer and jfkkad, p. 346. For the date of these Syro-HIttite seals, see Conteiiau, Revue d*jf$$yrioL XIY, 67. XI, i] SARGON IN THE EAST, AGADE FOUNDED 407 placed the 'sons of his palace/ By these numerous delegates of his authority 'he ruled the hosts of the lands altogether/ A "severe contest with the Elamitic land and city Kazalla, whose king, Kash- tubila, revolted, now followed* "He turned Kazalla into dust and heaps of ruins; he destroyed even the resting-places of the birds/ This important city, often mentioned in later history, seems to have lain east of the Tigris in the latitude of Baghdad. Sargon 7s last expedition to the east was therefore in the latitude of his own capital, and into the province of A wan, where memories of a former kingdom still inspired the ambitions of its people. 'In his old age all the lands revolted and besieged him in Agade'; so runs the Chronicle, which adds that Sargon went out to battle and utterly overthrew their hosts. On the other hand, the Omens record a rebellion of the elders of his own land who be- sieged him in Agade. The statement of the Chronicle is probably correct, for an inscription on his statue at Nippur refers to his smiting 30 governors of rebellious cities. Northern Mesopotamia along the upper Tigris next claimed his attention. At that time the territory later known as Assyria had been occupied by Hittite- Mitanni people whose land was called in Semitic Subartu, gentilic Subaru (Greek, Sabiroi^ Sapeires^ Saspeires). The old Sumerian civilization at Ashur, where the goddess Innini-Ishtar had a temple from remote antiquity, had been overrun by these advance guards of the Hittite race, who now attacked Sargon. According to one account Sargon invaded Subartu with his hosts and anni- hilated their armies. In another the latter attacked Sargon and were grievously smitten. He carried away their spoil unto Agade. The Omens place the founding of the city Agade soon after Sargon *s first invasion of the west. He took soil from the outer walls of Babylon and consecrated the boundaries of his new capital by tracing its outer walls with the earth of the holy city of Marduk, He made it after the model of Babylon. But according to the Chronicle this was the last act of his reign, and it adds that Marduk was angry because of this sacrilege and destroyed his people with hunger. 'They united against him and he found no rest.' These two passages contain the first reference to the famous city of Baby- lon. It is thus seen to be pre-Sargonic; the cult of its god Marduk, son of the water-deity, Enki of Eridu, was already established ac- cording to the Chronicle; but as this reference to Marduk does not occur in the Omens, we may regard that part of the records as a late Babylonian gloss. Marduk, the later god of Babylon, ap- peafs fi?st under the title Asar in the period of Gudea, and his original connexion with Babylon is doubtful, The patron deity 4o8 THE DYNASTIES OF AKKAD AND LAGASH [CHAP. of Agade was Amal, a god identified with Marduk In an astro- nomical text. As he had also a temple in Babylon he may be the old god of Babylon transferred to Agade. Innini, or^ Anunit, goddess of Agade, had also a temple at Babylon, Accordingly both Amal and Innini seem to have been borrowed from Babylon, but we do not know why Sargon so honoured the city. The glorious reign of Sargon closed with the entire empire in revolt. The Babylonian Chronicle pragmatically attributes his disasters to the violation of the holy city Babylon, An Omen Text preserves the same tradition : * Sargon whose troops bound him in a trench and suppressed their master in a coalition/ The misfor- tune which overtook him at the end of his career is again referred to a birth omen, *if an ewe give birth to a lion with head of a lamb, lamentation of Sargon whose universal dominion [passed away]/ Only one sculptured monument of Sargon has been re- covered; it is a large triangular monolith found at Susa; the king, according to Semitic fashion, has a long beard reaching to the waist, heavy moustaches, and his long hair is rolled into a huge chignon on the back of his neck. Sargon *s ordinary title is 'King of the city Agade/ to which is sometimes added c King of the Land' and "King of universal dominion' (see p. 369). He is also described as the fashish (Le. "elder brother r) of Anu and the priest-king of EnliL Sargon was succeeded, as is now known, by his son Rimush, who reigned 1 5 years. Other sons were Ibarim and Amal-ishdagal. The name Rimush has been read Urumush, but the city Ri-mu-ush in an inscription of Naram-Sin and on a Drehem tablet indicates the true rendering. Rimush is closely associated in history with his successor Manishtusu by the fact that both employed the title 'king of universal dominion/ and for many years Assyriologists regarded them as kings of Kish. When he came to the throne he found Sumer and Elain in revolt, as might be expected from the close of Sargon's reign* A certain Enimazag proclaimed himself king of Ur, and already several southern cities recognized his authority* Riinttsh smote Ur and Umma, taking several thousand prisoners, and reached the shores of the lower sea. Kazalla, which had again revolted against the empite^ was subdued on his return from Sumer. Der on the Elamite border was also subdued. Al- though Sargon had conquered Elam and Barakhsi Rimush was compelled to reduce them again, Abalgamash, king of Barakhsi, between Susa and Awan, was defeated in battle and its governor, Sidgau, was captured. Rimush claims to have ruled the^Iaiicl of Elam, and in fact this warlike neoole seem reallv to have s XI, i] REIGNS OF RIMUSH AND MANISHTUSU 409 to the kings of Agade for a long period. He assumed, the title 'smiter of Barakhsi and Elam/ and claims to have ruled tte lands from th£ Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea, and all the moun- tain lands — by which he probably means Elam, Commagene and Syria. He held the vast empire of Sargon intact and prepared a mighty heritage for the most glorious reign of the period, that of Naram-Sin. Like Sargon, he ended his career in misfortune and Babylonian omen-books preserve traditions of his calamity. Two liver-omens preserve an evil portent of Rimush which preceded his death. They illustrate the method of divination. The lobus caudatus was like a new moon and the 'sons of the palace' rose up and slew Rimush with their seals. The top of the gall-bladder turned toward a blister on the surface of the liver and enclosed marks which re- sembled weapons, and the * servants of his house' rose up and killed him. The 'sons of the palace* in the inscriptions of Sargon and Rimush refer to the officials of Agade, and the statement that the conspirators slew the king with their seals is entirely credible, as the seals of the period are noted for their extraordinary size and beauty. . His successor, Manishtusu, has commonly been regarded as the son of Sargon; traditions agree that his own successor, Naram-Sin, was his brother, and therefore a son of Sargon, His name, which is Semitic, probably means *Who can (uproot) his foundation?* Among the principal sources for the history of his reign are a large cruciform stone with twelve columns, chiefly concerned with the restoration of the temple and cult of the sun- god Shamash of Sippar, and a great obelisk, recording in 76 columns the details of his purchase of four estates. The latter contains the name of a witness, Sharru-kin-ili, * Sargon is my god/ The founder of the kingdom did not actually receive divine honors; but a proper name of this kind in the time of his successor proves that he was regarded as at least semi-divine by his subjects at Agade. The bust of his stone statuette has been found at Susa, where it had been dedicated by Ashshub, a patesi of Elam, to the local god Naruti. The king wears a long beard and heavy mous- taches. A high bent nose and angular cheeks reveal the Semitic character. More interesting is the long square beard which falls in horizontal waves and perpendicular streams. The beard of Naram- Sin at Diarbekr has much the same frisure, but it is pointed, .and does not fall so low on the breast. Naram-Sin wears the same pointed beard on his Stele of Victory and an early Semitic head found at Adab has a short pointed beard. On the Susa monument 4io THE DYNASTIES OF AKKAD AND LAGASH [CHAP. of Satgon that king wore a pointed beard, consequently the two styles are not indicative of age. Manishtusu wears no head-dress and the thick crisped hair is cut off abruptly at the neck. The eyes are inset in the old style. Two statues of Manishtusu, which had been carried away from Babylonia by Shutruk~Nakhkhunte> king of Anzan> were found at Susa by the French excavator De Morgan. One, a standing figure of the king, was taken from * Akkaddum* (Akkad is a later corruption for Agade)3 and the other was plun- dered from Ishnunuk. It is interesting to know that this king gave a statue of himself to the city Ashnunak, east of the Tigris. The original Semitic inscriptions of both statues have been cut away and replaced by one in Anzanite. A dolerite stele engraved with bas-relief figures of Manishtusu and his son Mesalim was also recovered at Susa. It had been plundered from Babylonia by Shutruk-Nakhkhunte. This son who is known to have possessed an estate near Kish did not succeed to the throne and nothing more is known concerning him. His name recalls the famous Semitic king of former times at Kish, Me-silim, provided that the latter name has been read correctly (p. 369). Fragments of three of his statues all inscribed with the same in- scription have been recovered, two from Sippar and one from Susa. The cartouche of one statue is preserved. ' Manishtusu, king of universal dominion, has dedicated to Shamash/ Soon after Ms accession the lands which his father Sargon had left him revolted. The so-called * Cruciform. Monument * is that of some son of Sargon, and as it contains a passage identical with an inscription of Manishtusu at Nippur we may infer that Manish- tusu and not Rimush was that son1. Here he says that he divided his troops and sent part of his army to conquer Anshan (the pro- vince of Susa) and Shirikhum, whose king he brought with gifts into the presence of the sun-god at Sippar, Then follows the first great charter of endowment to E-barra, the temple of Shamash. Its regular offerings, revenues and estates were fixed. Luxurious vestments were made for Shamash and Aja, and rings of silver and gold to the weight of 30 talents of each metal were presented to the solar deities of E-barra. The standard inscription on all his monuments refers to his expedition beyond the Lower Sea in boats after he had conquered Anshan. The kings of 32 cities beyond the sea assembled against him. He smote these cities and subdued their kings even unto the silver mines. From the mountains beyond the sea he brought back stone for statues. An expedition beyond 1 For this important identification see Revue d*jfssyriologley IX, p.* 94, 12—15, and Poebel, Historical and Grammat. Texts^ iv, p, 205, XI, i] CONTEMPORARY MONUMENTS 411 the Persian Gulf eastward Into the coast-lands south of Elam is the interpretation which is generally placed upon Babylonian refer- ences t$ invasions beyond the Lower Sea* A coalition of 32 cities in this region, as well as the mention of silver mineSj and the im- portation of diorite, prove that southern Persia was a populous and prosperous region in his time. The most interesting Semitic monument of the early period is the great diorite obelisk on which is recorded the purchase of four large estates, at Bas in the district of Dur-Sin by the Tigris, at Baraz- sirim in the district of Klsh, at Maradda and at TImtab, east of the Tigris. The estates in each district are obtained by purchasing small properties from several owners,, to whom in each case the king gave an additional sum of money for the buildings (nig-ki-gar) and presents of jewellery and clothing for their goodwill (nig~ba)^ old legal customs which can be illustrated from more ancient sales in Sumerian and Semitic centres. The sellers are still described by the quaint expression 'eaters of the silver * (cf. p. 371). In giving tha boundaries of each estate the primitive terms for the cardinal directions are retained : North is * storm- wind/ West is 'wind from Amurru,' East is 'wind from the mountains/ and South is 'wind of the ship sailing up-stream/ A unique feature of these royal transactions is the provision made for entertaining a large number of serfs who worked on the estates, and of officials who appear to have held secular and religious offices at Agade and In the pro- vinces where the estates were located. The property purchased at Bas amounted to about 700 acres and supported 190 workmen whom 'he caused to eat/ The phrase seems to mean that the king gave them food until they were provided for, and their large num- ber reveals how Intensive was the cultivation of the soil. He also 'caused to eat* five officials of the district Dur-SIn, and 49 officials of the capital Agade. Among the officials of the province of Agade are the king's nephew, three scribes, a chief minister, governors, a priest of divination, a barber, a cup-bearer, a seer of the temple. Two sons of Surushkin, a Semite and the patesi of Umma, whose father was a high-priest, are also among the officials of the capital. A stone spindle inscribed with the name of Surushkin, patesi of Umma, has been found at Umma. Urukagina^ son of Engilsa3 patesi of Lagash, who is also among the officials at Agade, cannot of course be the famous Urukagina, king of Lagash, whose reign was terminated half-a-century before by the Invasion of Lugal- zaggisi. The same officials of Agade receive pensions from the purchase of the estate at Kish acquired from eleven owners. Here there are 412 THE DYNASTIES OF AKKAD AND LAGASH [CHAP. 80 retainers on the estate. The king obviously endeavoured to secure the goodwill of the powerful priest-rulers of important cities by appointing their sons to office in the central province o£Akkad itself. His efforts to secure the goodwill of the two Sumerian patesis of Lagash and Umma indicate the strong position which they still occupied as centres of Sumerian military power. The city Agade had now become synonymous with the province Akkad or the Semitic region north of Sunier. The details of the purchase of a huge property of 3300 acres at Maradda in another administrative province illustrate the same principles as above, save that the surveyors receive gifts. The officials of Maradda who receive a banquet include a judge, a priest of Lugal-maradda, god of the city., several prefects of local towns of the province and three scribes. Also ten sons of the officials are included in the king's hospitality. The retainers on the estate number 1800, of whom 600 are fed for one day and 1200 for two days. The brother of the king, Amal-ishdagal, owned an estate at Maradda and the agrigor seer of Amal-ishdagal, Bel-ibani, entertained this vast company for the king at his villa. These seers formed an important class of priests in Sumerian religion, and they were of course equally important in Akkad. The belief in the revelation of the will of the gods by various kinds of divination was so deeply rooted that it is not surprising that a prince had his own soothsayer whose wealth was sufficient to meet the demands imposed by the king* A smaller estate purchased at Timtab east of the Tigris in the region of Kazalla supported only 94 tenants who received their temporary food from the king after the purchase. The local officials of the city as well as the entire list of officials at Agade are feasted after this sale. The list of Timtab includes shepherds, a merchant, a carpenter and two scribes. This estate like those at Bas and Kish lay, therefore, in the imperial province of Agade, This interesting monument sheds light upon the political and racial conditions of 0ie periqcl and upon the diplomacy of the king. It proves that the central province of Akkad did not include Maradda, but that Kish 'and ' IL NARAM-SIN AND THE DECLINE OF THE DYNASTY OF SARGON Naram-Sin, 'the beloved of the moon-god/ was the fourth king of Agade, and Babylonian tradition invariably states that fie was the son of Sargon, Since at least 22 years must be assigned to the XI, n] REIGN OF NARAM-SIN 413 reigns of Manishtusu and Rimush, and since Sargon died in his old age, it is difficult to believe that Naram-Sin was the son of Sargon^ If we allow 22 years for his two predecessors, and assume that he was born 20 years before the death of Sargon, he could have ascended the throne at the age of 42. The Nippur dynastic list has 56 for the years of his reign, and this would give him an age of 98 years. The inscriptions of his own period almost invariably give Naram- Sin the rank of a deity; but later chroniclers omit the sign for god before his name, as they do in the case of the names of all the historic kings of Sumer and Akkad who had been deified. The deification of Roman emperors began in the Greek provinces long before the institution reached Rome itself, and the tendency to deify, which was one of the most important aspects of Sumerian religion, harmonised with the belief in the priesthood of kings. The old patesis, or city-kings, were priests of the gods, and the title, * patesi ' of a patron deity, was retained even when they became heads of kingdoms. Three kings of the prehistoric Sumerian dy- nasty of Erech had enjoyed apotheosis. Eannatum and his suc- cessors at Lagash were hailed as children who had been nourished by the milk of the mother-goddess, and Lugal-zaggisl was said to have been the son of Nidaba, the mother-goddess of his native city, Umma, andjnpurished on the milk of the great Ninkharsag. Already, in pre-Sargonic Sumer, human kings were compared to Tammuz, the divine son of Innini, the principal type of mother-goddess. The belief in the king's divine origin is based upon his supposed miraculous birth from one of the unmarried mother-goddesses. The institution was made possible by the very ancient cult of Tammuz, the dying son of Innini. The only inscriptions of Naram- Sin *s period which neglect the divine title are one inscribed on a vase from Magan and found at Babylon — that is, near his own capital — and one written by his son Lipitili. A tablet-copy of the inscriptions on his monuments dedicated in E-kur at Nippur omits the determinative for god, but their historians habitually deprived the ancient kings of this title. The order of events in his reign is uncertain. Limestone door- sockets from the temple of the god Lugal-maradda, built by Lipitili, patesi in Maradda, have an historical introduction which states that the building was erected in the year after Naram-Sin had defeated nine armies and had captured their three kings. These three Jdngs were brought prisoners before Enlil, even as Sargon had brought Lugal-zaggisi in chains before the same god at Nip- pur. In virtue of his vast empire Naram-Sin here assumed the THE DYNASTIES OF AKKAD AND LAGASH [CHAP. title *king of the four regions/ and henceforth the title 'king of universal dominion* Is dropped^ and Kish, jealous of the new capital at Agade, organized a great coalition against him. This prob- ably explains the rejection of the title which in itself recognized the ancient prerogatives of KIsh. The four regions revolted under Ipkhur-KIsh of Kish5 and the leading cities of the coalition include the principal cities of his own land Akkad5 four cities of Elam and Erech, the greatest city of Sumer. He refers to the ingratitude of KishD who had been freed by his father Sargon from their op- pression by the king of Erech, and had now revolted against the son of their deliverer and joined their ancient foes. Apparently more than half his own Semitic province had revolted; even Sippar, a few miles from his capital and the centre of the cult of the old Semitic sun-god? was found among his enemies. Ipkhur-Kish, the chief of the coalition, assembled his armies in the fortresses of Tiwa and Urumum in the * Plain of Sin' and in the fortress of Bit-Sabadj the temple of Gula, (The temple of Gula at Babylon was named E-sabad.) The Inscription ends abruptly with the names of ten kings and gives no information concerning his vic- tory. These ten kings do not appear to have been in the coalition which raised Ipkhur-Kish to the kingship; they are rather a sum- mary of Naram-Sin's expeditions and invasions. The list comprises (i) Puttimadal, king of Shimurru, a land west of the Zagros mountains, (2) Inmash of Namar, in the region of Samarra3 east of the Tigris. Three centuries later a Hittite- Mitannian people lived here, and 7#, 'lord/ the first syllable of the name Inmash (or Inbar), suggests the presence of a Mitannian people already. The third on the list Is Rish-Adad, king of Apirak; the conquest of which was regarded by subsequent chroniclers as the most important event in the reign of Naram-Sin. Also the Omens give this deed the first place In his career, Apirak may be identical with Abiak, a city near Timtab. Its king, Rish-Adad, as also its later patesi, Sharrubani, bear Semitic names. On the Obelisk of Manishtusu the names of most of the citizens of Timtab are Semitic. Kazalla, the Elamitic province in which lay Timtab, Apirak and Awan, had still an Elamitic king in the days of Sargon; but the names of Its citizens and patesis in the later period of Ur are mostly Semitic. Such facts are important for the racial conditions of the peoples east of the Tigris in the Zagros area in the first half of the third millennium. In the Elamite re- gions south of the Diyala are Semites who are evidently not natives but immigrants from Akkad, for whom the repeated invasibns^of the kings of Agade had prepared the way. North of the Diyala XI, u] NARAM-SIN'S CONQUESTS 415 Hittite-Mitanni peoples seem to have occupied the hill-lands of Shimurru, and the plains of the Tigris above the Adhem, tis well as the central plain of Subartu. Here they maintained for centuries a tenacious resistance towards the Semites, who were also pushing northward along the Euphrates. In Lulubu, soon after the period of Agade, Annubanini reigned; on the stele at Seripul this king is represented in bas-relief with full beard and shaven lips standing before a well-sculptured figure of the Semitic war-goddess, Ishtan The inscription is written in Semitic, but proves that the religion of Lulubu in the twenty-seventh century was Sumerian, like that of the Semites of AkkacL The king himself, as here represented, is hardly a Semite, and it has been argued that his name and those of his wife and brother belong to the Caspian-Elamitic languages. The fourth on the list is Migir-Dagan, king of Maer. The presence of a Semitic kingdom in the old Sumerian district of Maer in Syria on the Euphrates is another indication of Semitic power in Mesopotamia, The important deity Dagan, who appears here for the first time, seems to have been the prehistoric god of the land of Maer whose capital was Tirka, now the village clsharah on the Euphrates below the mouth of the Khabur river, The fifth and sixth kings are Khubtakkibi of Markhashi and Dukhsusu of Mardama'm, of wliich the latter, like the former, was probably in Elam. The seventh in the list is Manium, king of Maganna(ki). The chroniclers regard the conquest of Magan as the event of second importance in the reign of Naram-Sin, and the books of omens also record the signs on the liver which led to the subjection of the 'Land Maganna/ The Chronicle states that he went to Maganna and captured Mannu-dannu, its king. A marble vase from Magan, with the inscription cNaram-Sin, king of the four regions, a vase, booty of Magan/ was carried away to Elam, and a fragment has been recovered at Susa. Naram-Sm made a statue of himself of diorite which he brought from the mountains of Magan, and dedicated to (? Shamash in Sippar); and this object was also plundered by the Elamites, and all but the feet and base mutilated. According to the fragmentary inscription he smote Magan and captured its king Mani-^^ in the year after he had defeated nine armies and bound their three kings. The full name of this king may have been, therefore, Mannu-dannu, 'Who is mighty?' Magan, a compound of the Sumerian Ma, 'ship,' was so named because its inhabitants were a sea-going people; and a text of the period of Dungi from Lagash speaks of the shipwrights of I&agan, Sumerian inscriptions consistently combine Magan with Melukhkha, which later at all events is Ethiopia, but originally 416 THE DYNASTIES OF AKKAD AND LAGASH [CHAP. denoted Oman and the Arabian side of the Persian Gulf. The dates of Magan and Melukhkha are associated with those of Dilmun on the Persian Gulf. Magan was called the mountain of ^copper, and its famous black diorite differs geologically from Egyptian diorite. A Sumerian epic concerning the fates decreed by the war-god Ninurasha for various stones sang of the mountain Makkan as the land of dolerite. Gudea, too, mentions the timber which came from Magan, Melukhkha,, Gubin and Dilmun. Ma- gan, or Makkan, was a coast-land of the Persian Gulf, probably the modern el-Hasa, and the classical Gerra. It was a land famous also for goats, and in the Sumerian legend of Dilmun, or Epic of Paradise, the deity of Magan is called Nindulla, * queen of the flocks,' The reference to Magan as the copper mountain seems to indicate the inclusion of the Jebel Akhdar of Oman where copper is still found. Manium of Magan was honoured by having his name given to the city Manium-(ki), which is mentioned in a temple record of the period of Dungi, four centuries after Narain-Sin. The inhabi- tants of Magan were loyal Sumerians who sent tribute to the great cults of Sumer, The land was also famous for the stone called gug (Sumerian) or samtu (Assyrian), which is supposed to be the Hebrew shoham (? onyx, beryl). An old caravan route crosses the Arabian peninsula from Jidda via Mecca and the Jebel Shammar and reaches Babylonia in the region of Babylon. This is the historic Pilgrim route of the eastern Mohammedans to Mecca. A northern branch of this route from Yambu el-Bahr and Medina joins the main road in the Jebel Sham- mar. A Semitic kingdom^ in the age of Naram-Sin, in Hijaz and in the land of the Minaeans may reasonably be expected and the language would naturally be closely related to the Babylonian. The conquest of this region may have been made by the overland route *uia the Jebel Shammar, or more probably by the long sea voyage 'via Dilmun, Gubin and Melukhkha. Gudea speaks of bringing stones from lands distant a whole year's journey; and from the time of Naram-Sin onward the statuary and sculptured monuments of Sumer and Akkad are chiefly made from diorite of Magan. For these reasons many scholars have argued that Manium was a Semite and that Magan included Sinai and even Egypt, but the geographical survey of Sargon, which states that Melukhkha was reached after a march of 120 hours from .the reservoir of the Euphrates, fixes at once the general location of these lands. See further, pp. 171 ^., 583. ° The early years of Naram-Sin *s reign were occupied in subduing XI, n] NARAM-SIN AND THE STELE OF VICTORY 417 nine armies with their three kings and in the invasion of Magan. The title * conquerors of nine armies/ which he assumes on th?e Susa statue and the Maradda temple inscription, probably refers to the rebellion* of Erech, Umma and Nippur, whose kings, Lugal-Anna, Arad-Enlil and Amar-Enlil, are the last of the ten (p. 414). The invasion of Magan was then undertaken after the conquest of these sea-lands. On his return from that region he found Akkad, Sumer and Elam in revolt. It is astonishing that Naram-Sin had the mili- tary resources to meet such opposition. Little of his own Akkad remained loyal to him. Certainly, Maer and the western provinces conquered for Agade by his predecessors had no interest in aiding him to suppress the rebellion. His survival must be attributed to a well-organized army trained to obedience and loyalty by his pre- decessors. Like Sargon he also invaded Syria and reached the sea. A perforated stone tablet used as a pedestal for an emblem, and a marble vase, dedicated to the temple of Lagash, were both in- scribed with the record of his victories in the far west : *The divine Naram-Sin, the mighty king of the four regions, smiter of Ar- manu and Ibla.* A standing figure of the king In bas-relief is pre- served in the mountain lands in Kurdistan at Pir Hussein, a village 20 miles north-east of Diarbekr on the Ambar Su, a branch of the Tigris. He wears the Sumerian kaunakes of the period draped from the left shoulder, and seizes the handle of a sword in his right hand in attitude of defence. The left hand, tightly pressed to the waist, holds the shaft of a sceptre. A badly damaged inscrip- tion in four columns refers to the making of the stele and utters a curse upon him who destroys it. From a phrase * he turned back the breast,* it is evident that he opposed invaders, possibly the Hittites, who were seeking to descend upon Mesopotamia from beyond the Taurus. The most famous monument of Naram-Sin is his remarkable Stele of Victory dedicated to the sun-god in Sippar and carried away to Susa by Shutruk-Nakhkhunte. The monument is of yellow sandstone probably obtained from Kurdistan and transported to Sippar. The king in Semitic dress ascends a mountain beside one of whose peaks his conquered foes kneel in supplication. The field at the summit of the stele is occupied by eight-pointed stars with streaming rays, insignia of Ishtar the goddess of Agade and genius of war. The delicate but firm execution of each figure, the sim- plicity and strength of the composition, reveal an imperial art and prove that the sculptors of Agade were more than provincial craf?smen (see p. 584 sq^). It seems unmistakably to reveal the in- fluence of Egyptian art of the Ilnd and II Ird Dynasties. Shutruk- C.A.H.I 2 4i8 THE DYNASTIES OF AKKAD AND LAGASH [CHAP. Nakhkhunte, justly proud of the magnificent stele ^which he had plundered from Sippar, inscribed his own Anzanite inscription on a surface which has not destroyed the figures. The^ original inscription, of which all but a few words are destroyed, told how the kings of the lands east of the Tigris in the^Zagros mountains including Lulubu assembled to oppose the divine Naram-Sin. Naram-Sin's statue of himself in E-kur dedicated to Enlil refers to his conflict with Kharshamatki, lord of Aram and Am in the mountain Tibar, possibly identical with the land Tabal of Assyrian inscriptions and the people Tibareni of classical geography. In the Assyrian period this land, the Tubal of Bzekiel, lay considerably south of its later site on the shores of the Black Sea. The conquest of Aram and Am possibly formed part of the expedition into Kurdistan commemorated by the stele near Diarbekr, and would indicate that this energetic warrior advanced beyond the Anti- taurus in Armenia. If so, his empire may have extended from Armenia to the shores of the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea, from Elam and the Zagros mountains to the Mediterranean coast. 'The four regions bowed before him in unison/ so runs a fragment of a statue; and the best evidence of the recognition of his authority throughout this great empire is the existence of the written docu- ments of the patesis — some of them his own sons — whom he ap- pointed in various cities. His son Lipitili received the province of Maradda. Another son, Nabi-Kibmash, was made patesi of Tutu- (ki), whose daughter, Lipushiaum, was a musician of the temple of Sin (at Ur). A third son, Bingalisharri, apparently did not re- ceive a province. The kings of Agade appointed native Sumerian patesis over the old cities of the south, but they distrusted the Elamites and ap- pointed Semitic patesis to Susa. A fragmentary tablet written in Anzanite seems to be a treaty between Naram-Sin and a king of Elam. *The enemy of Naram-Sin is my enemy and the friend (?) ofNaram-Sin is my friend (?)/ is the most noteworthy phrase of this document, which follows the invocation of a long list of Elarn- ite gods and the god Amal. of Agade, The information of this important document, the oldest known Anzanite inscription, is meagre, but it confirms the submission of Elam to the empire of Agade. Lugal-ushumgal, patesi at Lagash, seems to have exercised a marked influence upon the affairs of his city. He rose to the pre- fecture of his city from the office of a scribe, and was one of the energetic patesis who revived the culture and the art of Lagashu This city under the beneficent rule of Agade was no longer XI, n] LAGASH AND NIPPUR UNDER NARAM-SIN 419 embarrassed by the jealousy of its neighbours and a period of glorious revival, culminating in the reign of the famous Gudea, now begins. Lugal-ushumgal showed his gratitude to the emperor by dedicating his seal to the * Divine Naram-Sin, the mighty, the god of Agade'; he also enjoyed the patronage of Shargalisharri, who kept him in office. He revived the old Lagash method of dating tablets by the year of his patesi-ship, an unusual procedure for a patesi who was supposed to adopt the official system of the empire. A number of his business records have been recovered, principally the purchase of slaves; the names of the citizens of Lagash are still almost exclusively Sumerian, but Semitic words appear in the letters and contracts of the period at Lagash. This reveals the increasing prominence of the Semite in Sumer. The state archives prove that Lagash sent heavy tribute in grain, sheep and cattle, gold and silver, salt and fish to Agade, of which the king and queen received the principal portions, Lagash was also obliged to send relays of labourers and skilled workmen to the capital. The administrative office of the affairs of state under the empire of Agade lay in the western part of the city at some distance from the old city archives. The frequent mention of Lugal-ushumgal, the patesi, in the state records of Lagash in this period shows that he administered the affairs of the province with success over a long period, Nippur, on the other hand, does not appear to have possessed men of great administrative ability who figure largely in the his- tory of the city and the period. But the religious prestige of the city enjoyed the benefaction of the emperors, and three tablets at Lagash are dated by the formula: *In the year when the Divine Naram-Sin laid the foundations of the temple of Enlil in Nippur and of the temple of Itinini in Ninni-Ab' (south of Nippur towards Umma). Naram-Sin 's great reputation as a builder of temples is made particularly evident by the inscriptions of the last kings of Babylon, Nebuchadrezzar and Nabonidus. Nebuchadrezzar claims to have rebuilt the temple of Maradda upon the ancient foundation of Naram-Sin, but makes no mention of his son, Lipitili, who actually built the temple for his father. Nabonidus, in his accounts of the rebuilding of E-barra, the temple of the sun-god in Sippar, says that he excavated to the foundation of Naram-Sin, who reigned 3200 years before his own work at Sippar (553). The date (3753) thus assigned to him by the royal antiquary cannot possibly be correct. His buildings at Nippur and Adab are found only a foot or two below the works of the next great restorer of Sumerian 27— z 420 THE DYNASTIES OF AKKAD AND LAGASH --[CHAP. temples, Ur-Engur, who reigned at the beginning of the twenty- fifth century; and between the dynasty of Agade and that of Ur- Engur the dynastic list gives a period of only 151 years plus an unknown dynasty at Uruk, to which 50 years may be assigned. The figures of Nabonidus for Naram-Sin are almost exactly 1000 years too high (see pp. 156, 426). Naram-Sin was succeeded by Shargalisharri, son of Dati-Enlil. The name means 'king of all kings/ and in a dynastic list it is followed by a damaged line, which is restored by Poebel to read '[son of the] son of Nar[am~Sin].' Dati-Enlil is not mentioned at all in the inscriptions of the preceding king, who had^placed two of his sons in prefectures; but a door socket from Nippur bears a Semitic inscription of Shargalisharri, son of Dati-Enlil, the mighty, king of Agade and the dominion of Enlil, builder of the temple of Enlil. After the name of this king the same dynastic list seems to sum up the years of the first five kings and to describe them as the family of Sargon. If this view of the broken text be correct, Dati- Enlil was the son of Naram-Sin, and for some unknown cause a grandson succeeded this king, who certainly attained a very great age* Shargalisharri reigned at least 25 years, but no historical inscriptions have been found, and the record of his reign depends chiefly upon the meagre information of seven official year-dates. In the first year Shargalisharri * smote the invasion which Elam and Zakhara instituted against Akshak and Sakli/ A Sumerian version of this date states that he smote Elam and Zakhara : the Elamites apparently revolted against Agade at the accession of all the first five kings. According to another entry he 'subdued the Amorite in Basar/ The land of Amurru in the early Sumerian and Babylonian inscriptions meant the west, and the earliest known expression for west is 'Wind from Amurru/ Amorites were em- ployed in Sumer and Akkad in the period of Agade as labourers, and the term Amurru ('Amorite') became a class-name, and a JL^ggsh tablet of this age has a list often workmen who are called *menfrom ;Ama:rru.* It would seem that western Semites had been imported i&to Sitmeir ai%d J&kkad, and even into Elam, precisely as, later, the KEabiru ;;!^rerfe imparted in the time of Hammurabi as mercenary soldier^; Aii 'Ainotite,* in the business-records of Shargalisharri, would thus mean simply a special kind of work- man; and of the ten Amorite woirkmen at Lagash mentioned above eight are Sumerians and^ two Semites, and, their names, Uiakhi and Ishma-ili, are not specifically * Amorite/ See pp* 454 XI, n] SHARGALISHARRI. THE RISE OF GUTIUM 421 Two year-dates refer to war with Gutium — of ominous import for the civilization of Sumer and AkkacL In the highlands east of the rnidc^e Tigris, the warlike and cruel nomads of Gutium had appeared. The name of the earliest king Sharlak, and those of the later dynasty which ruled in Sumer and Akkad, cannot be de- finitely identified with any known group of languages; but later, at all events, Mitanni-Hittite names prevail in this region (cf. p. 452,). The year-dates also contain some reference to a battle at Erech, and hint at a Sumerian revolt, possibly at the king's accession. The artistic monuments of Shargalisharri are rare. At Lagash were discovered two fragments of a magnificent stele, tomb-stone shaped, like the Stele of the Vultures. The Stele of Victory of Naram-Sin and the Lagash stele belong to the same school of art. On both the warriors of Agade wear the same short plain skirts and leather helmets,, and carry the same short swords. The vanquished foes are naked and, like the Semitic warriors, wear full beards. Some of the warriors are bowmen and carry large quivers adorned with tassels; others are spearmen and carry a long shaft to which is attached a metal point. On the Susa monument the swordsmen advance in one file and the spearmen in another, but the Lagash stele represents all ranks in the midst of carnage on a level plain. As is evident from the tonsure and the physique of the captives and suppliants, the enemies of Agade are not Sumerians. An inscribed fragment, which, however, may not belong to the same monument, refers to 1 7 villages of the province of Lagash, which seem to have been given to officials, possibly in recognition of their military support. The inscription ends with a phrase which has been rendered, *In addition to Agade, the kingdom which he had received [the patesiship of Lagash was given to Shargalisharri (?)]/ If the monument and inscription really belong to this king the present writer would interpret the words to mean that he forcibly seized the throne at Agade. This would explain why none of the sons of Naram-Sin became king. The figured monument would then represent Lagash as an ally of Shargalisharri at war with the Elamites or Guteans. The reign of Shargalisharri is especially distinguished for the beautiful seal cylinders dedicated to him. The seal of a scribe, Ibni-sharru, dedicated to the Divine Shargalisharri, and now in the De Clercq Collection (Paris), has long been regarded as the finest engraved cylinder of antiquity. The motif consists simply of Grtlgamesh watering a buffalo from ajar which overflows in two streams representing the Tigris and Euphrates. For symmetry the 422 THE DYNASTIES OF AKKAD AND LAGASH [CHAP. scene is doubled so that the cartouche is artistically enclosed be- tween the horns of the two buffaloes. The most common design on the seals of the period consists of a double combat, Gjlgamesh with a bull and his companion, the satyr Enkidu, with a lion. The stones most commonly employed are marble, serpentine, jasper, chalcedony, basalt, lapis lazuli, steatite and haematite. In his reign the provinces were administered by patesis, usually of local origin, who paid tribute in the same manner as under his predecessor. There is no reason to suppose that he had less control over the great empire than Naram-Sin, but his Inscriptions rarely admit his divine rank. If he came to the throne by^ illegitimate means, that would have been an incentive to emphasize the claim rather than to neglect it. At all events, the institution of emperor- worship obtained only for a brief period. It was clearly not con- genial to the Semite, and that probably explains its practical aban- donment by ShargalisharrL The idea thrived best in Sumerian religion and was soon revived there in great splendour. A liver-omen refers to the king's last misfortunes. *It is the oracle given to Sharkalisharri. It means the destruction of Akkad. The enemy will come up thy way, he will take up his journey and before our army will he not turn back.* Tradition, therefore, re- ported misfortune of him also, as it did of the end of Rimush and Sargon. The country had borne restlessly the yoke of five great kings and, at the passing of each, various provinces invariably re- volted. The records of the last of the Sargonids are scanty and there is no information concerning the foes which caused the disruption of the empire. Certainly it fell to pieces at his death, and Akkad itself retained its independence for only about 40 years. 'A short period of anarchy followed, for which the dynastic lists are unable to assign a king. In place of a name for the sixth king they write, 'who was king who was not king.' Then a certain Igigi came to the throne, only to lose it again in a few months. After him followed Imi, Nani and Elulu (or Ilulu). These four reigned only thy^ years altogether. Imi is a familiar Semitic name. Nani, Se- mittcized td J^aiinm^ is Sumerian. In the time of Manishtusu there was a Natii, a tnagi^atq;at Agade, Since he already had a son of mature years in''the^i^e161f1;lS^abis]hLtusui he certainly cannot be the king who reigned at least 70 years later. Next, Dudu reigned 0,1 years, and alabaster vases dedicated to the temple at Nippur and to that at Lagash are inscribed 'Dudu the mighty, king of Agade/ This indicates that Agade still retained the hegemony of Sumer* Dudn is a name which occurs somewhat frequently at Lagash as the name of a prominent citizen in the time of Shar- XI, in] PERIOD OF ANARCHY 423 galisharri, and an historical inscription,, probably to be assigned to that king, mentions a Dudu, a high official of the city Ki-shi, probably Kish. It is not unlikely that this official who has a Sumerian name became king. Dudu was followed by his son Gimil-Durul, who reigned 15 years. The suzerainty of the two lands now returns to Sumer, and the dynastic list says that the kingship passed to Erech, the same ancient city which had been almost invariably chosen as the seat of Sumerian dynasties. Five kings of Erech reigned 26 years (2675—2649). No monu- ment or tablet betrays their existence in contemporary records, and their names are known from the dynastic list only. Their rule had obviously little authority. For a period of half-a-century after Shargalisharri seals and tablets disappear almost entirely in the history of every city. This may be attributed partly to the complete breakdown of Semitic and Sumerian military power, partly to the threatening invasion of the hordes of Gutium, and partly to the fact that great cities like Erech and Ur, which certainly main^ tained some of the ancient culture, have not been excavated. Once more a dark age is illuminated by the contemporary monuments and tablets of Lagash. III. GUTIUM AND LAGASH The barbarians from the north now descended upon Sumer and Akkad. The Scheil dynastic-tablet ends : * The royalty was taken to the hosts of Gutium which had no king/ A Nippur list assigns 21 kings and a period of 125 years and 40 days to the kingdom of Gutium. Some of the kings have names which seem to contain Hittite elements: Arlagan (Ar\a\> to give), Saratigubisin (Sin, brother). It is evident that the two lands of lower Mesopotamia recognized the Gutium kingship whose capital probably remained at Arrapkha (perhaps Kerkuk, east of Arbela); and an inscription states that Gutium had taken the royalty of Sumer to the moun- tains. The texts of the period frequently refer to the devastation and pillage of the rich lands of Sumer and Akkad by the peoples of Gutium. Thus the statue of Anunit at Agade was carried to Arrapkha, where it remained for 2000 years until Neriglissar re- stored it to her temple. Lamentations in Sumerian and Semitic were sung in the temples in the times of these oppressors. A frag- ment from Nippur wails over the ruin of that city, and for Kesh and Adab, two centres of the cult of the earth-goddess which had be£n r^zed by Gutium. The foot of the stranger had defiled the shrines of ancient Sumer, and * Nippur by the death-dealing weapon .24 THE DYNASTIES OF AKKAD AND LAGASH [CHAP. ras smitten.' 'Nintud because of his deeds wept bitterly/ After nentiening the cults of the goddess of birth (Ninlil, Nintud) the iturgy takes up the woes of the cult of Innini at Erech. ^ Eann.a, ,bode of the dark chamber, the foe beheld and the priestly rites verc suspended/ Hymns of this kind usually confine their refer- nces to a single cult or deity and emphasize the ruin of those cities dbere her chief temple or chapels were. A Semitic lamentation on bis calamitous period is concerned chiefly with Innini-Ishtar. 'She f Erech weeps because her maid of honour is exiled. She of Agade reeps because her attraction is gone forth. Weep for Erech, she as met with the disgrace of shame. As for the daughter of Larak ,er face is covered with her shawl in sign of disgrace.* The hymn lentions in the same strain the cities Kharsagkalama, Khulkhud- :hul, Mash, Kesh, Dunna, Nippur and Der. In view of this clear vidence of the direful rule of Gutium for 125 years it is not sur- rising that business records and works of art almost totally dis- ppear. So detested became the name of Gutium in Sumer that it ras known as the habitation of the pest/ One of their kings, however, Lasirab, dedicated a fine stone lace-head to the temple in Sippar, where it was found. The in- :ription is written in the Semitic dialect of the period of Agade, ad mentions the gods of Gutium as well as the Sumerian Innini and ic moon-god Sin. Lasirab paid tribute to the culture of the lands rhich he had despoiled by learning their art, script and language, tid by recognizing their gods. Again, at Nippur the American xcavators found a tablet which seems to be a compilation of in- criptions copied from statues dedicated to Enlil at Nippur, ontains the name of E4rridupizir or Enridapizir, king of Gutium nd the Four Regions. He, too, became a disciple of Sumerian icliefs, and dedicated his statue to the great god from whom all oyal claims were derived. The act itself proves that he included fippur in his kingdom, and in his choice of a title he imitated faram-Sin, who had also described himself as King of the Four legions. The Nippur tablet probably relates the deeds of the ireat kings Of Gutium whose dominion must have coincided closely nth the vast empire of Agade. They administered the old pro- inces by a system of patesis, or priest-kings, and appear not to lave changed the existing administration. Under Sium, king of Jutium, the patesi of Umma was Lugal-annatum, whose inscrip- "on refers to the prosperity of Umma, * which he made rich with beralities for 35 years/ We have now to turn to the history of Lagash. Ur-Bau,*one of ic most enlightened patesis of this city, may be placed shortly XI, m] LAGASH UNDER GUTEAN KINGS. UR-BAU 425 after Shargalisharri, for he still employed the same huge brick- moulds of the size adopted by Naram-Sin. He built or rebuilt a great temple of Ningirsu on the terrace north of Girsu at Lagash. It was adorned with most remarkable statues of the two great patesis, Ur-Bau and Gudea. A diorite statue of Ur-Bau has been recovered. The figure is now decapitated, the body is abnormally squat and heavy, and in execution distinctly inferior to those of Gudea, The patesi is represented standing with hands clasped in liturgical pose, wearing the long shawl draped gracefully from the left shoulder. An inscription on it commemo- rates his construction of the temple E-ninnu. In Girsu he built a temple to the mother-goddess Ninkharsag of Kesh, one to the water-god, Enki of Eridu; one to Geshtin-anna, a title of the old virgin mother-goddess Innini of Erech, and one to Tammuz, her son and consort. In the neighbouring city, Uru-kug, 'Holy City/ he built a temple to Bau, goddess of healing and consort of Nin- girsu* In the temple-mound the excavator, De Sarzec, recovered a bronze figurine of a god attached to a pillar in kneeling position with hands firmly placed at the top of the post as though in the act of planting the pointed end firmly in the ground. It is a new type of the old copper figurines of pre-Sargonic times, a post with the body of a female deity with a stone tablet on her head (p. 378 sqC). It was enclosed in a clay vessel with the customary stone tablet on which was inscribed the record of Ur-Bau's pious works for the gods. This curious talisman represents the god of the city himself protecting the boundaries of his land, and reminds us of the Roman deity Terminus. Ur-Bau had more than local and contemporary fame, for in the times of Samsu-iluna (twenty-first century) a street at Erech was named after him* His are the first inscriptions which mention Ninagal, a variant of Ninegal, a form of Ereshkigal, goddess of the lower world; and he claims to have been her son. His two sons-in- law became patesis after him; they lived in a period when there was no strong central government, for they use their own year-dates, which would not have been permitted under the great kings of Agade. Nammakhni, who had married his daughter, Ningandu, seems to have been an important ruler. He was grandson of Ka- Azag, the patesi who probably preceded TJr-Bau, His mother, Ninkagina, dedicated a statuette of herself to the goddess Bau for the life of her son and patesi. The wife of Urgar, a patesi, and another son-in-law of Ur-Bau, likewise dedicated a statuette of hersfelf Tor the life of her husband. Nammakhm's monuments are many; they include a fine large circular dish of veined onyx dedi- 426 THE DYNASTIES OF AKKAD AND LAGASH [CHAP. cated to Ningirsu by his wife; a marble mace^dedicated to a god, Dunskaggana, and another dedicated to Urizi, god of the harem. Although Nammakhni was one of the immediate successors of Ur-Bau he no longer made use of the huge cubit moulds (17 inches square) of the Agade period which had been adopted by Ur-Bau. The size introduced by him is a little more than a foot square, the mould subsequently employed by Gudea, and by the great builders of the last dynasty of Ur. From this we may infer that Ur-Bau lived shortly after Shargalisharri and that Gudea belongs to a period not far removed from Ur-Bau. This in itself shows the impossibility of inserting a long period between the dynasty Ur-Engur and the kingdom of Agade (cf. p. 419 ^.)- IV. THE KINGDOM OF GUDEA OF LAGASH Sumerian literature is at present associated with the name of Gudea more than with that of any other ruler in the history of ancient Babylonia. This remarkable man came to the patesi-ship in the most troubled period of the history of Sumer. His date is somewhat uncertain,, but he lived in all probability under the rule of the kings of Gutium, who, however, are not mentioned in the archives of his reign. From the style of the writing and the names of the months it would seem that he reigned shortly after the period of Agade. But although the numerous monumental inscriptions of Gudea are written in old classical Sumerian, many of the inhabi- tants of Lagash have Semitic names, and Semitic phrases appear in the temple records. The majority of the people, the priesthood and the ruling classes are still Sumerian, but their decline before the aggressive Semite of Akkad is now apparent, and the popula- tion of Lagash has become cosmopolitan. Placed by circumstances in a position where his activity was confined to literature and architecture, Gudea exercised a profound influence iipon the re- ligion of Sumer. Not as a temporal ruler, but as the apostle of classical literature and the mysteries of the gods, did he obtain posthumous deification. In the days of the Sumerian revival, when the empire of Ur was recognized throughout Western Asia, he was one of the rulers of the past who was remembered as a divine man. A record from Unima in the time of Ibi-Sin mentions offer- ings to Gudea, where he is mentioned with the deified kings of Ur, The divine Gudea, patesi, received libations of wine and meal at the feast of the new moon ^t Lagash, and it is probable that his cult was recognized in all the Sumerian cities and that Jiis *5oul was supposed to reside in one of the stars. XI, iv] GUDEA'S WORK AT LAGASH 427 His year-dates point to his interest in the temples and their cults. His most ambitious undertaking was a complete »recon- structioi^ and enlargement of the temple of Enlnnu on the northern mound where his predecessor, Ur~Bau? had already laboured. Concerning this work Gudea caused to be written two fine hollow clay cylinders; they are now styled Cylinders A and B, and carry 30 and 24 columns respectively. They comprise a long religious poem on the origin of the temple plan, the sacred chapels, em- blems, and the attributes of the gods. Cylinder A begins with the * Dream of Gudea,* in which he describes his dream, and tells how Nina the goddess of oracles interpreted it to mean that Ningirsu had appeared to him as a mighty man with the storm-bird at his side, the hurricane at his feet, and had ordered him to build Eninnu. And the maiden who had appeared to him holding a tablet of the stars was Nidaba, goddess of numbers and writing. Other figures and signs of the dream are explained to him by the goddess Nina, whose cult was located at the city Nina (see p. 381). Mention is also made of the voyage to Sirara in Nina(ki) to con- sult the oracle of the water-goddess Nina* After the interpretation of his dream Gudea performed ceremonial acts of lustration and liturgies in Eninnu. After a prayer to Ningirsu he again fell asleep and his god appeared to him in his dreams, commanding him to rebuild the temple, * whose name shall call together the lands from the boundaries of heaven, even Magan and Melukhkha shall it bring up from their mountains/ The god then gives instructions concerning the chapels and sacred emblems of Eninnu. In preparation for his construction the patesi cleansed Lagash of all evil and injustice. Evil wizards were expelled from the city. Heaps of fragrant woods were burned on the altars. Prayers were made by day and petitions by night. In the province and in the city, 'where the tumult of man is/ he levied taxes. The Elamites and the inhabitants of Magan and Melukhkha brought timber, From the * cedar mountains/ where he claims none had penetrated before him, he brought cedar. The 'cedar mountains* were the Amanus range between Syria and Cilicia, and more than two cen- turies previously Sargon had claimed to have reached the * cedar forests' (p. 405). He speaks of obtaining juniper wood and various kinds of cedars and plantain from this region. In one of his statu- ary inscriptions he says that he obtained these at the Ursu and the Ibla mountains, that is Rhosus and the Pieria range north of Antioch. Gypsum and asphalt were brought by ship from Madga. TtTe Madga mountains lay in the province of the city Rimash, whence he obtained copper, and both are probably to be located 428 THE DYNASTIES OF AKKAD AND LAGASH [CHAP. in the foothills of the Zagros range along the Diyala. Gold was obtained from Melukhkha in a mountain which he calls Khakhu. His silver came from * the mountains/ probably the * silver mount- ains' mentioned by Sargon, namely the Taurus. Melukhkha supplied porphyry, and Tidanu, 'the Amorite mountain' (pre- sumably Anti-Lebanon), supplied marble. In Cylinder A this mountain range is designated as the 'marble mountain/ The same ceremonial preparations are told in abbreviated form on a diorite statue, usually designated Statue B, which he placed in the newly- built temple of Ningirsu. According to this version he brought boxwood from Syria also. These timbers obtained in the far west by the shores of the Mediterranean were made into rafts, upon which the marble and other stones of Syria and Cilicia were floated down the Euphrates to Sumer. In B Gudea mentions also the mountain Umanum in Menua, and Basalla, the Amorite mount- ain whence he obtained stone. B also records Gudea's conquest of Anshan in Elam. The zeal of Gudea was partly inspired by the magnificent temple constructed at Nippur by the kings of Agade; the hall of statues of these kings in E-kur had especially excited his ad- miration, and one of his principal objects was to adorn Eninnu with a hall of statuary. * A temple with sculptured designs had no patesi built for the god Ningirsu, but I built and wrote my name thereon/ Twelve diorite statues of Gudea have been re- covered; most of them are decapitated. He successfully imitated the hall of E~kur, wherein stood the diorite statues of Sargon, Manishtusu, Ttimush and Naram-SIn. E-kur was also adorned with sculptured monuments of the exploits of the kings of Agade, and Gudea rivalled these with fine bas-reliefs which he placed in the central court of Eninnu. The most important statue is a life-size seated figure of Gudea with a long inscription in nine columns engraved on the back, hips and lower part of the vestment. On the knees of the patesi lies a rectangular stone tablet on which is traced the ground-plan of the temple, its gates> crenellated towers and false pillars. The outer edge carries a carpenter'^ rule or m^suring stick. The rule is sub- divided by lines into' 1 6 digits, there being 30 digits in the Sumerian cubit; between the first and last lines it contains only a little more than half a cubit, and measures 264-5 millimetres or about lof inches, the cubit being 1 9| inches, or approximately 20 inches. The bricks of Gudea, whose moulds were first introduced by Nam- makhni, measure ordinarily 330 millimetres or 20 digits/fhaf is, two-thirds of a cubit in Sumerian terms. This is the brick-mould XI, iv] THE STATUES OF GUDEA 429 adopted by all subsequent builders, and is found In the construc- tions of Nebuchadrezzar, one of the last kings of Babyloia. The Sumerians had two cubits, the larger of a little less than 20 inches (30 digits), and a smaller cubit, the modern foot, of about 1 2|- inches (20 digits). The huge bricks introduced by the kings of Agade were a little less than the large cubit, and were occasionally em- ployed in Assyria, and also by Nebuchadrezzar. The rule on the lap of two of Gudea's statues has enabled Assyriologists to define the Sumerian digit (16-5 millimetres, say, three-quarters inch), and consequently their system of measurement. At the right side of the tablet on Statue B is a metal graver or chisel, shaped like a modern awl with bent handle. The figure is robed in an elegant fringed shawl (which replaced the old kaunakes]^ draped gracefully from the left shoulder, and brought closely under the right arm to be fastened together at the right breast. All Sumerian statues were given mystical names, and the in- scription of Statue B describes how it was called: *To my king I have built his statue, may life be my reward.' When the temple was finished this statue was installed and a great holiday pro- claimed to the people of Lagash. For seven days old customs were abolished* maid became like her mistress, and servant walked beside his master. The whole temple was purged. In the interest of justice, like Urukagina before him (p. 387), Gudea applied the laws of Nina and Ningirsu. *The rich man did the orphan no evil, the rich man oppressed not the widow. As for the house without a son, its daughter entered as its heir/ Then the patesi expresses the hope that this statue may be present at the parentalia or libations to his soul when he is dead, and in fact the temple-archives of a century later mention offerings of sheep, meal and oil for the soul of Gudea. The inscription then terminates with a long curse upon him who interferes with his temple or damages the text in any way, Gudea is referred to as a king in an epic which was composed not more than two centuries after his death: I am lord; thou art made fit for my heroic arm. The king who will bequeath his name to life of far-off days. Who will fashion a statue for eternal days, In Eninnu, the temple which is filled with festivity, At the place of the mortuary libations . , . fittingly may he set thee. A similar statue of almost the same dimensions and in the same pose is Statue F. It is perhaps the finest example of Sumerian sculpture. The head is missing. An inscription commemorates the bufldirlg of the temple of Gatumdug in the 'Holy City.' In the construction of Eninnu itself, Gudea employed two different stamps 430 THE DYNASTIES OF AKKAD AND LAGASH [CHAP. for his bricks, recording In nearly identical terms the building of EniniHi. In the north-eastern part of the central mound of Girsu the excavators found a building with two huge brick piljars two metres distant from each other. Each pillar consists of four columns ; a layer is made by laying eight triangular bricks around a small circular brick centre-piece, the next layer in the column consists of one large circular brick and the third layer repeats the triangle brick layer by making the triangles shorter and encasing them in semicircular bricks. The space between the four columns is filled in by four bricks cut with straight backs, semicircular faces to fit the columns and angular ends to join each other. These bricks bear an inscription which refers to the building of Eninnu and the placing of an aga of cedar therein. The pillars cannot possibly belong to the great temple of the northern mound, and the only explanation seems to be that the inscription does not refer to the pillars at all., but to a part of Eninnu. The aga is said to have been made of cedar and to have been a council chamber, dedicated to the goddess Bau, wherein stood a ship and a bull-image. Eninnu contained another aga,, the Ku-Lal at the 'Gate of Battle/ where stood a sculptured figure of a god in the act of slaying a seven- headed ram. Gatumdug, 'the beneficent bearer of milk/ is a local title of the mother-goddess, Bau, patroness of healing and child- birth, a married type of Nintud and consort of Ningirsu. Gudea often speaks of having been borne by this goddess, * Mother of Lagash.' Since Statue F commemorates the building of the temple of Gatumdug a&d was found in the Parthian palace on the great temple-mound the supposition is that it was carried there from the temple of Bau, which probably stood in the north-eastern part of Girsu, A fine marble lion's head, almost natural size, is inscribed in memory of the construction of the temple of Gatumdug in the 'Holy City: A diminutive statue in green diorite (3 feet 4 inches high with- out the pedestal) represents the patesi standing. It is designated Statue A, and is the most successful ensemble of the statuary of Telloh. The monument was placed in the temple of Ninkharsag in Girsu, and its name was *The goddess who in heaven and earth ^3e3ees fates, goddess Nintud, mother of the gods, hath lengthened the life of Gudea builder of her temple.* Nintud or Ninkharsag, therefore, retained her identity as an unmarried type at Lagash beside^Bau, the consort of the city-god. This monument certainly stood in a temple on the old site, although it was found in the great court of the Parthian palace. * * Statue C states that Gudea brought diorite from Magan, and XI, iv] THE STATUES OF GUDEA 431 made this statue to which he gave the name: 'May the life of Gudea builder of the temple, be prolonged/ The statue wa« then placed in Eanna which was also the name of Innini's temple in Erech. ft was however found in the great court of the Parthian palace. The so-called Colossal Statue (Statue D) represents the patesi sitting on a low bench and is remarkable for the vigour of its design and its immense proportions. Its inscription mentions the construction of a ship for the goddess Bau — equipped with images of sailors and placed in the temple of Ningirsu. Its name was: 'The king whose sturdy strength the foreign land bears not — even Ningirsu — has decreed for Gudea the builder of the temple a good fate/ This inscription is particularly valuable for its refer- ence to the sea voyage to Magan and Melukhkha. It is obvious that long sea voyages along the Arabian peninsula were common already in the first half of the third millennium (see p. 416). Statue E relates how Gudea built E-silsirsir ('the aisle7),, the temple of Bau in the Holy City, where stood also the temple of Gatumdug celebrated by Statue P. Both statues probably refer to the same temple, only different epithets of the mother-goddess consort of Ningirsu are used. Bau had also a chapel in the great temple of Ningirsu called Silsirnr^ where Gudea placed an image of Kuli-anna (Aquarius). In her temple he constructed a great throne, and in her court he placed a relief of a lyre called 'Queen of the wide heaven and the earth/ He then fixed the offerings of the festival of Bau which fell upon New Year's day (the winter solstice?). The principal feature of this festival was the mystical marriage of Ningirsu and Bau, a 'sympathetic' ceremony repeated yearly at the season of the rebirth of nature. The god chosen by Gudea for his personal deity was Ningishzida, a form of Tammuz, and he too was installed in the temple of Bau. The diorite for Statue E was brought from Magan, and after it was sculptured the patesi named it, * My lady establisher of the gift of the breath of life, the gift of life for. . . days has made (?)/ He explicitly says that he placed the statue in the temple of Bau* But it was found in the central court of the Parthian palace built on the ruins of Eninnu. The only complete figure of Gudea is a small squat statue only 1 8 inches high (designated Statue I), It represents a seated figure? the head was found by De Sarzec many years before the trunk, and Heuzey restored the figure at the Louvre. The king is clean- shaven &nd wears a turban; for his features we have only another head which (Heuzey believes) belongs to Statue G. It is an ad- 432 THE DYNASTIES OF AKKAD AND LAGASH [CHAP. mirable representation of a refined and talented man, combining firmness and determination with total absence of anything sug- gestive of sensuousness. Statue I commemorates the construction of the temple of Ningishzida, Gudea's personal god. Tins edifice stood in Girsu and it is the only statue which the Parthians did not carry away to their palace from the temples in the old part of the city, At least three statues (B, D and K) of Gudea adorned the temple of Ningirsu, which, however, was not favoured with similar monu- ments of emperors, as had been done for Nippur by the kings of Agade. At the great gate of Eninnu he placed a sculptured lion and a stele which was almost certainly sculptured with bas-reliefs. In the fore-court he placed a stele of Lugal-zaggisi which he had found In a chapel of the older temple. Sculptured steles were placed in various chapels of the great building and *the temple of Ningirsu did Gudea cause to arise like the sun among the stars; like a mountain of lapis lazuli built he it/ In the great court of Ningirsu, where stood the statue of the god, he placed images of the patrons of various aspects of civilization and religion; Galalim, patron of justice, the son of Ningirsu, stood there to guard the throne and uphold the weak and humiliate the evil; Dunshagga, son of Ningirsu, presided over the rituals of purification by water; Luggl-kurdub, genius of war, holding the seven-headed battle mace, and his comrade, Kurshu-(?), with the terrible weapon, 'storm of battle' (sharur\ stood beside Ningirsu. Lugal-sisa, his counsellor, was the divine intercessor for men before the mighty god of Eninnu. There were, also Uri-zi*, keeper of the harem, Ensignum, who tended the asses and di^oye jhe chariot, Eulilum, the shepherd of his kids. Further there were the tiiusician, singer, inspector, guardian and the god who looked after the building of houses and fortresses. Such is the briefest account of the almost in- credible labour spent by this patesi on behalf of his city and his gods, It is interesting to observe that new styles appear in women's dress, A marble figurine of the wife of Gudea, dedicated to a deity ^&r tk^lifcbf ,Gttdea, preserves a curious innovation in the method oFSiapingl^e^fti^ged^shawL Draped from the left shoulder across the backslid taxtfer tfo.rigjit arm the shawl is brought upward to -be caugM at tllef left &^t^t%B4^oy^ai:d over the first fold. On a female figurine to the goddess Ninegal for the life of Gudea appears the new and elegant attire of Sumerian women which re- placed the kaunakes in flowing folds worn by women in the transi- tion period after the fleece-like kaunakes had disappeared. Her attire is thus described by Heuzey : 'Fastened at first traiftsvef-sely across the breast and under the arms the ends atv* ot^oo-*^ ,,~. — XI, iv] CONTEMPORARY ART AND LITERATUP.E 433 the back and brought forward over the shoulders to fall in parallel folds upon the breasts.' A sculptured steatite vase dedicated by Gudea tc^his own god Ningishzida, holds the same leading position in stone vase decoration that the silver vase of Entemena does in metal work. The designs on each reflect the minds and aspirations of the two periods. If the engraved figures of the warlike Entemena had suggested the vigour of a race in aggressive movement and the splendid force of youth, the bas-reliefs of Gudea's vase may be said to reflect the passing of materialism and the quest of power, and the triumph of mysticism and ritualism. The seals of the period of Gudea abandon the scenes from the legend of Gilgamesh, which form almost the only subject of seal decoration under the kings of Agade* The large thick seals of the preceding period are replaced by cylinders of smaller size. Gudea again reveals the tendency of his period by adopting a re- ligious scene as the principal subject for seals. His preference for the ways of the ancients led him to restore the old processional scene which depicts the owner of the seal led into the presence of a god by his own personal god or goddess. Thus, Gudea's own seal represents him led before a god by his own god Ningishzida. He is depicted as a clean-shaven Sumerian, and the head is almost identical with the one supposed to belong to Statue G. Behind him stands the interceding figure of the mother-goddess. Of great archaeological interest is the seal of Abba, a scribe, who dedicated it to Gudea (now in the Morgan Collection of New York City). Abba has the full beard of a Semite and Semitic features. His dress is also totally un-Surnenan, but the religious scene is strictly Sumerian, and he has the Sumerian devotional attitude. Here was a Semite, a scribe at the court of the most conservative and devout of Sumerian rulers, and he worships a Sumerian god and recites Sumerian prayers. It is a most striking testimony to the power and attractiveness of Sumerian culture* The seal of a Sumerian scribe, Lugalme, is dedicated to Gudea; it has the same processional scene and interceding goddess. Gudea had created a new epoch in litera- ture and art, and the new sentiment was profound. In view of his many works we may no doubt assign 40 years to his patesi-ship. He certainly lived under the kingdom of Gutium; but the business archives of his reign make no reference at ;all to tribute paid to the kings of this foreign dynasty. His son Ur- Ningirsu succeeded to the patesi-ship of Lagash; but nothing Is. known of his history. As for the other great cities apart from Lagash there is a blahk. From the days of Shargalisharri to the founding of the dynasty of C.A.H.I 28 434 THE DYNASTIES OF AKKAD AND LAGASH [CHAP. XI, iv Ur darkness fell upon Agade, Sippar, Kish and Babylon; Erech, Ur and Erldu yield at present no records from that period of anarchy and terrible oppression of the barbarians from^Gutium. It is not likely that excavations will discover an Ur-Bau or a Gudea who maintained the civilization of Sumer in those ancient cities. Certainly Nippur and Umma felt the heavy hands of cruel op- pressors, and it is safe to surmise that most of the cities of Sumer and Akkad possess in that period equally little history, The dynasty of Gutium was overthrown by UtukhegaL He proclaimed himself king of Erech and revolted against Gutium, *the dragon of the mountain, enemy of the gods/ Here for the first time the word Sumer occurs as a generic term for the whole of the South Land. Sumer, the old name of the province of Nippur, received this wider distinction because Enlil had become more than ever a national god to whom even foreign kings attri- buted the gift of imperial power* The great revival of Sumerian political power was now at hand and Utukhegal, the leader of Erech, expelled the northern barbarians from Sumer and Akkad. Their last king, Tirigan, or Terikhan, bears a name which like several of the other names of this people may be of Hittite connexion. Utukhegal proclaimed to the people of Erech that Enlil had sent him to destroy the Guteans, who had filled Sumer with sorrow, who had torn husband from wife and parents from children. The people of Erech marched forth from their city be- hind their champion as one man. He arranged them in battle order. Tirigan sent unto him a message by two of his captains Ur-Ninazu, a Sumerian, and Nabi-Enlil, a Semite. In this selec tion of two officers, representing the two great races of Sumer antd Akkad, we may see the conciliatory policy of the later kings "cj Gutium. But Erech was not to be reconciled. In the combat Tiri- gan fled abandoned by his own troops and was made prisoner by the people of the village Dubrum. He was brought before Utu- khegal, at whose feet he crouched and the conqueror placed his foot upon his neck. The fame of this victory was such that the name of Tirigan became synonymous with military disaster and it passed into the Otaen-books as an evil oracle. 'Tirigan the king who fled in the midst of his troops/ The Vth Dynasty of Erech, founded by Utukhegal, is kiiown to have contained three kings, and the writer would assign to this, the only chronological lacuna in the dynastic tablets, the provisional term of 50 years (p. 441 sy.). The history of Sutner and Akkad is entirely unknown in the period after Utukhegal, until thfe ap- pearance of Ur-Engur and the founding of the last dynasty of Ur, CHAPTER XII THE SUMERIAN REVIVAL: THE EMPIRE OF UR L UR-ENGUR AND DUNGI ^IT^HE real champion of Sumer and Akkad, the organizer of its Ji most brilliant period, was Ur-Engur1. His name indicates that he was the devotee of an otherwise unknown goddess, Gur or Engur (perhaps Id). How peace was restored and the whole of western Asia subdued are related in a long panegyric found at Nippur* It refers to his military exploits as follows. * Those whom he plundered followed with him in tears ... in a place which had been unknown his ships were known/ Kish, the ancient Semitic rival of Sumer, rebelled against 'the Land' and was conquered. The foreign lands brought presents. But there is no definite state- ment concerning his conquests east and west, although a year-date at Lagash refers to the year when Ur-Engur traversed Mesopo- tamia from the Upper Lands to the Lower Lands. The history of the kings of Ur is derived almost exclusively from the records of Sumerian cities which belonged to his kingdom, and at none of these was he recognized as a god. But at his own capital arose the cult of the god Ur-Engur, and a tablet containing two hymns in his honour calls him the merciful lord who brought prosperity to Ur, the shepherd of Ur, who ruled also in far-away lands which paid heavy tribute to the capital. He was son of the mother-god- dess Ninsun, and the Moon-god of Ur selected him to rule the dark-headed peoples; * Wickedness tarried not before him/ and he seems to have been the founder of the Sumerian code of laws. In the course of his eighteen years' reign he was busily engaged in restoring the ancient temples, which renders the paucity of tab- lets during his reign all the more striking. His son became high- priest of Innini at Erech, and it is certain that this ancient rival city prospered under his care. Besides his work at .Nippur, Lagash, Adab, Larsa, Eridu and Umma, he built the wall of Ur; and the hymn to Ur-Engur from Nippur alludes further to the rebuilding of the royal palace. Brick-stamps found at Mukayyar refer only to the current reading of the name which should probably be transcribed Ur-Id or Ur-Lammu. (Now to be read Ur-Nammu.) 436 THE SUMERIAN REVIVAL AT UR [CHAP. the temple of Nannar,, god of the new moon, and his inscriptions give 'only the name of the tower E-temen-m-il> * Temple whose foundation supporteth splendour/ Liturgical texts of tjjis period refer to the great temple of the moon-god as E~gishshirgal, * house of light/ and its central chapel where stood the statue of Sin or Nannar bore the name E-nitendug. Nabonidus refers to Ur-Engur as the builder of the stage-tower, but he writes its name E-lugal~ malgasidi^ 'temple of the king who orders counsel/ and still another name for it was E-shuganuluL The hymn to the deified Ur-Engur refers to his palace as the house of Ur wherein was accumulated the wealth of the foreign land. The throne-room of Ur-Engur was named "The mercy of Sin, great lord/ and its gate, *Thy god is a great god/ There the divine Ur-Engur god of heaven and earth sat as counsellor, and the Nippur hymn has also much to say concerning the royal palace, which is referred to even more frequently in the inscrip- tions of his successors. The palace of the kings of Ur remains to be excavated; its ruins conceal the treasures accumulated by the kings of Sumer's greatest empire, and if the indications obtained from the texts of the period may be trusted, they made this build- ing the chief object of their care. A clay cone from Lagash states that he dug a canal for his god Nannar, son of Enlil, after he had finished the temple of Enlil at Nippur, and he adjures his successors to care for the abode of Nannar, Since the cult of the moon-god was prominent at Nippur also, it may be inferred that the king refers to a temple of Nannar in Nippur. The Lagash inscription contains the striking phrase: cBy the laws of righteousness of Shamash forever I established justice*; and the hymn in his cult at Ur speaks of the proverb: *Th.e righteousness of Ur-Engur, a treasure, was a saying/ Similar references to the promulgation of a Sumerian law-code are found in the inscriptions of Dungi. Although Ur~Engur's deification had not been authoritatively recognized beyond the capital it is probable that he was generally regarded as a deity. A posthumous cult of Ur-Engur was certainly known at Lagash, for a tablet from the archives of that city carries a record of six gur (say 1 8 bushels) of dates made for a festival and for the regular offerings to Ur-Engur. A similar record from Lagash, dated in the reign of Gimil-Sin, refers to offerings for the festival of the reigning monarch and the fixed offerings of Ur-Engur, and a tablet from the temple-archives of Umma in the same reign refers to sacrifices made to the thrones of Ur-Engur, Dungi and Bur-Sin, the predecessors of XII, i] UR-ENGUR AND DUNGI 437 Gimil-Sin. Here lie alone is deprived of the divine title but he received posthumous worship throughout Sumer. Ur~Ei£gur adopted the title * King of Ur, king of Sumer and Akkad/ which was claimed by his son Dungi up to his forty- > second year. Dungi ascended the throne of Ur in '245 6 and ruled for the exceptionally long period of fifty-eight years. The date- formulae for all the years of his reign are known with the excep- tion of the second to the twelfth years. In tablets from every Su- merian city of the period except Ur this king appears without the divine title in the early years of his reign. There is definite evidence of his apotheosis before the twelfth year; and in the seventeenth year the seventh month in the old calendar of Lagash appears re- named in honour of the festival of the divine Dungi. At Umma it was the name of the tenth month which was changed to make place for the new cult of the reigning king. A tablet from Lagash bears the date: 'Year when the high-priest of the cult of the god Dungi was installed and elected/ At Nippur documents dated by the official formulae of the kingdom of Ur do not exist at all before the thirty-fifth year of Dungi. The tablets of accounts from Umma reveal the same situation : business revives, the temples again re- ceive revenues as in the days of the kings of Agade, but not until Dungi had occupied the throne of Sumer and Akkad for nearly forty years. In a list of the provincial governors of the period the following order is given : Girsu (/,f Ur. Nippur during the greater part of this literary era belonged to Isin and the rival dynasty reigned at Larsa. Consequently the old Sumerian cult of the sun-god was expunged, although the other temples and gods of the kingdom of Larsa were retained. Thus the Semitic sun-god of Sippar completely displaced the older Babbar of Sumer in the sacred songs of the Babylonian church. The history of the capital itself is perhaps the least known or any great city in the empire. A pearl tablet, taken to Susa in later times among other plunder from Ur, has an inscription of Dungi which refers to its dedication to Ningal, consort of the moon-god Sin. The inscription is noteworthy for the title which is given to the *God Dungi, god of the Land/ The ever-increasing emphasis now placed upon the divinity of the rulers of Ur is manifest. His successor, Bur-Sin, proclaimed himself to be the sun-god of the Land. Dungi twice refers to the dedication of a statue of the moon- fod Nannar in a city Karzidda, probably a quarter of Ur itself. ur-Sin has left two inscriptions which refer to a sacred room of the temple of Nannar in Karzidda. Before his time this temple did not possess a gig-kisal^ 'secluded court/ but Bur-Sin built one and placed therein his god Nannar, The archives of the depot of sacrifices for Nippur usually attribute the incoming taxes and gifts from Ur to the relays of the king* The great cult of the moon-god of Ur hardly received adequate recognition in the canonical liturgies of Babylonia, because Ur came under the sway of Larsa when these breviaries were being completed at Nippur. Of the older liturgical hymns of the temple services in Ur during the period of her affluence under Dungi and his successors two at least have survived* Both belong to the temple library of Nippur, and their note of gladness relieves the sombre monotony of the official liturgies of the later period ; O holy crescent light of heaven, who is of itself created, Father Nannar, lord of Ur, Father Nannar, lord of Ekishshirgal, »••*»** *** When in the boat that in heaven ascendeth, thou art glorious, Hail thou that in the majesty of a king daily risest, hail! Hail son of Enlil, in the Land he is ruler, lord Ashimur* In my city of the lifting of the eyes, the home of his own abode, which is the fulness of luxury, Whose design is like Shuruppak. 446 THE SUMERIAN REVIVAL AT UR [CHAP. The moon-god is usually referred to under the title Nannar by the theologians of Sumer, and this is the ordinary title in the titular litanies of the prayer-books. The patesi-ships assigned to Akkad were those of Babylon, Kish, Cuthah and Maradda. An unidentified city. Push, which seems to belong to Akkad also received a patesi-ship. Its cult is unknown and the name appears only in this period. All of these cities contributed sacrifices regularly to Nippur; but Cuthah and Its cult of the god of the lower world Nergal, were especially favoured by the king of Ur. This ancient city never lost its tradi- tions as a centre of Sumerian culture, and both of the patesis of Cuthah whose names are known, Namzitarra and Gudea, seem to have been Sumerians* Dungi rebuilt the temple E-kishibba and its stage-tower in Cuthah. The favourite title of the chthonian god of Cuthah in the liturgies and inscriptions is Meslamtaea (p. 394). Under this title he was worshipped everywhere in Babylonia and Assyria, Dungi's attachment to this deity is reflected in the in- scription of an elegant seal from Lagash dedicated to Meslamtaea for his life by Kilulla, an official. The engraving on the seal is almost unique in the period, for the man has the attitude assumed in the early period, when the suppliant saluted the deity by throw- ing a kiss,, and the deity stands with right hand outstretched holding a flail with three knotted cords and in the left hand a short sword. This bearded deity with horned tiara is surely the terrible judge of those who die and come before the god of the nether world* The loyal owner named his seal * May my king in his ex- cellent wisdom live/ At Babylon, which began to attain prominence under the kings of Ur, Arshikh has the distinction of being the first important historical personage. He seems to have been patesi from the fifty- third to the fifty-sixth years of Dungi and again during the reign of Bur-Sin. The Babylonian Chronicle says of Dungi : * Evil he sought after and the treasures of E-sagila and Babylon he brought forth as spoil, the god Bel (Marduk) brought evil upon him and caused his dogs ;to eat his corpse/ The tendency of the Chronicle to record evil of kings who had violated Babylon has already been noted in the case of Sargon (p. 407), At all events, the humiliation of Babylon at the hands of Dungi may explain the fact that the records of the Ur period are silent concerning Arshikh during the last two years of this reign. There is no evidence that the kings of Ur did anything for the city and its cult, or had the slightest premonition of its Jfutore fame. Its god, Asaru, or Asaruludug, a water-deity, was borrowed XII, ni] CONDITIONS IN AKKAD 447 from Eridu after the Ur dynasty, and in the liturgies of the Isin period only this title and Enbilulu, an old Eridu title., a^e ever admitted. Its gods and temples are not mentioned at all in the time of the last Ur dynasty, and it had no claim to figure in the canonical prayer-book of Sumer by its status as the seat of a pre- historic god. Babylon and its god Marduk were forced upon the liturgists of Nippur and Sumer because of its subsequent political power in the times of the kings of Isin. The theologians of Babylon revised the old myth of creation in which Ninurasha, son of Enlil, a god of the spring-sun, battled with the dragon of chaos, and Asaru replaced Ninurasha in this legend. As such Asaru, a god of lustration and atonement, son of the water-god of Eridu, became perforce a sun-god and the writers devised the new name amarudu> * youth of the sun/ The Semites, in borrowing Sumerian words compounded of the elements, usually attached the ending ku and the word became Amaruduku^ Marduk, in popular speech. This new title is never admitted by the Sumerian hymnologists, although they were compelled to admit him into the pantheon, a concession which was not made to Agade, to Ashur, or to Nineveh. III. THE EASTERN PROVINCES Ashnunak (or Ashnunnak, Ishnunuk), east of the Tigris on the river Uknu, modern Kerkhah, is first mentioned in the records of Dungi, who appointed a patesi, Kallamu, to that province. Both Kallamu and his successor, Ituria, have Semitic names. Shutruk- Nakhkhunte, king of Anzan and Susa, found a statue of Manish- tusu at Ashnunak, and carried it away to Susa, which indicates that the kings of Agade knew the province under the same name. Its old Sumerian deity was Umunbanda, a type of earth-god known at Erech as Lugal-banda. Umunbanda, Enbanda or Lugal-banda, and his consort, Ninsun, are both forms of Ninurasha, the son of Enlil and Gula the mother-goddess, and both may have been trans- ferred to Erech from Ashnunak. Lugal-banda was originally an ancient king of Erech who had been deified, and he was probably then confused with Umunbanda, after which Ninsun was also brought to Erech. There may have been some historic circum- stance which connected Erech and its legendary king Gilgaiiiesh with Ashnunak and Elam (cf. p. 366). Another title of the god of Ashnunak is Tishpak, an Elamite type of Ninurasha. Both Ash- nurrak^and Der occur in all periods from Dungi to the Persian period for the same province or parts of the same province. The 44-8 THE SUMERIAN REVIVAL AT UR [CHAP. Elamlte god Tishpak was also the god of Der and the two places appear to interchange freely. Esb-nun-(kf)i the original Sumerian name, means * house of the prince/ that is, home of the cult of the water-god Enki, ahd Bad- an-(kt)*> the ideograph for Der, means 'wall of the heaven-god Ami.' This province, east of the Tigris, was the seat of a prehis- toric Sumerian civilization at whose two chief cities, Der and Ash- nunak, were established the cults of the heaven-god Ann and the water-god Enki. Der was also the seat of a cult of the earth-god- dess Ban, called c Queen of Der/ Here, too, was the prehistoric home of Ka-Di, a bi-sexual ophidian deity; and the scribes call the serpent-god (Jiru) of Der5 both lord of life, and queen of life. Ka-Di is in fact a prehistoric title of the later Tammuz, and his name, Izir, seems to refer to the ophidian character of the prehistoric vegetation-deities : mother-earth and the bi-sexual child who dies and is resurrected yearly. Der is one of the halting places of Su- merian emigration from central Asia and its cults retained the character of their great antiquity. Innini, the special type of virgin earth-goddess, sister of Izir or Tammuz, also had her cult here* But the centre of Sumerian civilization shifted southward to the fertile valley of the Two Rivers. Anu and his daughter, Innini, took up their abode in the great city of Erech, and Izir, the dying fod, under the more popular name of a dead king, Tammuz, had ere his principal cult. The old relation of Erech to Eshnunak and Der manifests itself especially in the liturgies in frequent passages. Another deity of the oldest Sumerian pantheon is Sakkut of Der, the prototype of Ninurasha. The Elamite Tishpak was identi- fied with him. The temple of the heaven-god at Der was called Dimgal-kalama, 'Bar of the Land/ and here Anu, father of the gods, undoubtedly maintained his position as the principal deity, whereas at Erech he was completely overshadowed by the worship of Innini. The Sumerians increasingly emphasized the cults of the mother-goddesses, especially of the virgin-type Innini, and the history of Ashminak and Der both secular and religious is of supreme importance, for in this province the older Sumerian stage . of religious belief persisted. Anu usually has the title * Great Anu * at Der, and his temple was served by a great priesthood, even in the daysof Ashurbanipal. Esarhaddon restored the city and temple for the god Anu, the queen of Der, the serpent-god (ftrti), the god- dess Kurunitu, Sakkut, the god of Bube, and the god Mar-biti. In the days of the Gutium invasion and subsequent humiliation of Sumer and Akkad the goddess of Der was carried away tcf the land of the conqueror, and a Semitic poem rehearses the lannenta- XII, m] EARLY DEITIES OF THE EAST 449 tions of the various local mother-goddesses of the two lands (p, 424). To judge from the date of his nineteenth year Dungi restored to his city the god Izir, who, like Bau, had probably been taken to Gutium. Both Der and Ashnunak were situated in a province which from the period of Hammurabi was called Yamutbal or Emutbal. Ham- murabi ordered his governor, Sin-idinnam, to restore the goddesses of Emutbal, and in another letter he directed that the hierodules and harlots of Emutbal be brought to Babylon (p. 488), The Baby- lonian king certainly referred to the Sumerian mother-goddesses of Der and Ashnunak, and to the sacred women in the service of the cult of Innini there. Certain indigenous languages of this region in the Assyrian period have a word which recurs in place-names, kingi^ apparently in the sense of 'land, country/ Emutbal itself is called in Sumerian ktngi-sag- FIy 'Land of the six heads.* Kingi^ however, is the original of the later word Sumer, and may perhaps mean the land simply; and the word seems to make it certain that this lan- guage, which survives in such sporadic instances in the highlands east of the Tigris, is a survival from the prehistoric period of the migrations of the Sumerians. Emutbal, a late (Elamite?) name for one of the oldest Sumerian halting places, was designated by the Sumerian ideogram for * seven/ a mystic number given also to Erech and the sacred city of Kesh in Sumer. There can be no doubt concerning the sentiment of the Sumerians towards their old home-lands east of the Tigris; and their primitive serpent-cult lingered there, whereas it disappeared when it proceeded to Erech. Erech was the traditional capital of Sumer, and its historic con- nection with Ashnunak, Der, and Emutbal is explained by the fact that its chief cults of Anu, Innini and Tammuz are precisely those of the city of their former habitation, A Sumerian inscription of the period of Gutium records how some patesi or governor had rebuilt Der and its temple. Beside the patesis of Ashnunak, whose names are found in the archives of Drehem, on tablets from the reigns of Dungi, Bur-Sin and Gimil-Sin, there is a seal-inscription concerning Ur»Ningishzida, the patesi of Ashnunak, dedicated to him by his son, Girra-bani. His brick-stamp has a Semitic inscription, c Ur-Ningishzida, be- loved of the god Tishpak, patesi of Ashnunak/ The scene on the cylinder belongs undeniably to the Ur period. It is unique in that it combines two styles of the Ur period. First, the worshipper is represented standing with hands folded at the waist, the new style, and Behind this figure another worshipper is brought forward by a deity who grasps his left hand while he salutes with the right, 450 THE SUMERIAN REVIVAL AT UR [CHAP. the old processional style which is not later than the Ur period. One ©f the figures represents the owner, Girra-bani, and the other is his father Ur-Ningishzida, to whom the seal is dedicated. The population of this region, at all events of the parts of Emutbal near the Tigris, was largely Semitic from the period of Agade onward, but in culture and religion Sumerian. In the period of Rim-Sin of Larsa, the daughter of Billama, patesi of Ashnunak, married Dan-rukhuratir, viceroy of Susa. In the period of turmoil after the fall of Ur, Ibik-Adad proclaimed himself king of Ash- nunak, and of course assumed the title of god, for king- worship was then in vogue. His son Dadum succeeded to the throne, also as a god., A seal of Khabde-Adad, servant of the god Ibik-Adad, in the glyptic style of the Hammurabi period is now in the British Museum. Shuruppak and Kisurra probably constituted the administrative area immediately north of the central province, and its patesi was located at Shuruppak. The names of two of its viceroys who served under Bur-Sin and Gimil-Sin are known from contemporary records, but these afford no information concerning the cult of the mother-goddess of Shuruppak and its god Aradda. The name of its chief temple appears to have been E-sagtena or E-sagdana, The temple of Nin-ezen-la, founded by Dungi, was probably that of Sag-pa-Kab-Du, Sagpaega (or Ursagpae), possibly near Umma, Zabshali, whose patesi married a daughter of a king of Ur, was certainly an Elamite province. Documents from Susa in the period of the Susan patesi Adda-Pakshu, contemporary of the founder of the first Babylonian dynasty, mention the city Zapzali. Dungi, in fact, allied himself to two districts of Elam (Anshan and Markhashi) by marrying his daughters to their patesis. The year-date which refers to a similar alliance with Zabshali is * Year when Tukin-khatti-migri-sha daughter of the king and the patesi of Zabshali married/ It occurs several times, but the king in ques- tion cannot be determined: Ibi-Sin, the last king of the dynasty of Ur is most probable, for Zabshali was in revolt against Gimil-Sin, who devastated the place in his sixth year. The name of the princess is Semitic: 'She has secured the sceptre of her favourite/ a name not likely to have been chosen by Dungi, who made no concessions to the growing power of the Semites. XII, iv] SUMERIAN EXTENSIONS 451 IV. THE NORTHERN AND WESTERN EXTENSION » Dungi doubtless extended his empire northward to include all northern *Mesopotamia, and westward to the sea to include Syria , and Cappadocia. A fine carnelian seal was found in the vicinity of Arbela in Gutrum with the inscription: *To Ninlil, his lady, the divine Dungi, the mighty man, king of Ur, king of Sumer and Akkad, has dedicated it for his life/ The question as to whether this seal was found in its original place is important. Arbela is near Ashur, the old Sumerian settlement of the north, and the capital of early Assyria. Its goddess was Ninlil, who became the consort of the god Ashur there. Little is known of the history of the Su- merian occupation of Ashur. In the early Assyrian period it had a temple to Enlil named B-amkurkurra, * Temple of the wild ox of the lands'; and the probability is that Enlil and Ninlil of Ashur were imported from Ashur to Nippur. The older patron deity of this city was the god A-shir, corrupted into Ashur and Ashshur. The deity occurs in the name of an early patesi of Ashur, Kate- Ashir, about a century after the Ur period; and at Tuz-khurmatij on the Aksu, a brick stamp of Pukhiya son of Asirim and king of Khurshitu of about this time has been found. This Semitic prince it will be noticed, claimed for himself a royal status, and it is difficult to understand why the early viceroys of Ashur previous to the establishment of Babylonian authority in the time of Hammurabi did not make the same pretensions. At all events, the god Ashir was unknown to the Sumerian priests, although Ur-Engur or Dungi certainly conquered his city. A date of the Ur period reads: 'Year when for the second time the land of Ashur was destroyed/ It had no patesi apparently, and it may be assumed that Ur-Engur and Dungi placed it under the patesi-ship of Kl- mash or some other district in that region. Zariku, a Semite, was governor under Bur-Sin, and he built the temple of Nin-egal, 1 Lady of the great house/ His title shakkanak was that of a local political office subordinate to the patesis (cf. p. 51 1)» The old Sumerian civilization of Ashur had already disappeared in the time of Sargon. A fine statuette of one of its early Sumerian rulers has been recovered from the period when the beard was still worn, the Hps, cheeks and head being clean shaven. The monument proves two things most important for the solution of the problem of origins. The incomplete tonsure belongs to the age of early Elamitic culture and long before the earliest sculpture of Sum^r. l?he weaving of the kaunakes reveals a higher state of civi- lization in the north than that of Sumer two or three centuries 39— z 452 THE SUMERIAN REVIVAL AT UR [CHAP. later. Seals from the same strata are pre-Sargonic; and this,, com- bined with the fact that the old earth-god Enlil and his consort, Nin-lil, probably migrated to Nippur from Ashur, only,, indicates that Ashur in reality duplicates the history of Ashnunnak and Der. They are halting-places of the prehistoric Sumerian migration, ~ and Nippur received from Ashur its gods, even as Erech had re- ceived hers from Der. But was its old Sumerian name Ashir(ki) corrupted to Ashshuru, already in the time of Dungi ? The name is of course taken from that of the god Ashir about whom the Sumerian texts of all periods are silent. His name is sometimes written A-usar^ but A~shir, if Sumerian, should mean a deity of light, a form of the sun-god, and A-u$ar may refer to a god of dreams. At all events we find the Cappadocian proper-name Ashir- Shamshi, that is, Ashir is my sun-god. However, the origin of the patronymic deity of the future capital of Assyria is a complete mystery. No temple-archives of the city under the empires of Agade and Ur 'have been found, and it certainly did not pay tribute to the cults of Nippur* In the age of Sargon the extensive district between the rivers north of Agade was called Subir or Subartu, but in the records of Ur it appears as Sua(k£)y Su(kt} or Su+ Its population was Hittite or Mitannian (p. 407). Men from Su are repeatedly mentioned in the archives of Drehem and the name of one, Niushanam, is known. The Assyrian grammarians frequently enter words of Su or Subir in their vocabularies. For example, one vocabulary states that the *Su* words for child, son, are -pitku and nibru\ now, a Hittite word for son is pitga. The * Su* word for door is khSraliy and for bed it is namaltum* The names of the war-god Ninurta in cSu* are Zizanu, Rabisguzu and Lakharatil. Gutium was likewise shortened to *Gu* and the grammarians occasionally enter words from *Gu.* *Su* and *Gu* would be the Shoa and Koa mentioned by Ezekiel (xxiiL 23) with the Babylonians, Assyrians, and others, , An administrative record from Umma speaks of rations for camp-followers from Ibla, Urshu and Kimash; the rations are* wine from the land Bilak. Ibla and Urshu have already figured in the geography of the empire of Agade and in the inscriptions of Gudea in northern Syria on the sea-coast (p. 405), and Bilak is probably identical with the classical Bilechas, the name of the river on which were situated Harran and Edessa. The Semites of Akkad were already firmly established among the peoples of the middle and upper Tigris long before the age of Dungi, and they were most probably the founders of the Semitic state at Ashur. The older Mitanni element reasserted itself toward the end of the XII, iv] DUNGPS WESTERN PROVINCES 453 Ur period, and Assyrian tradition speaks of two early Mitann! rulers at Ashur, who may be Assigned to the age of Ibi~Sin, Ushpia and Kikig. (see p. 469). A great many Mitanni names appear in the archives of Drehem in the reigns of Dungi and his successors, *and men with Mitanni names are found, not only as contributors to the national Sumerian cult of Nippur, but also in the capacity of civil servants in Sumer. Cappadocia was doubtless conquered and attached to the em- pire of Ur by Ur-Engur or Dungi. In the valley of the Halys, north-east of Caesarea, at Kara-Euyuk, several hundred cuneiform tablets, mostly letters and contracts of the periods of Ur, Isin and the first Babylonian dynasties, have been found. The people learned Sumerian business methods and juridical procedure, the use of the cylinder seal, and the so-called "case-tablet/ In the case-tablet, the clay tablet on which a contract or letter has been written, is en- closed in a thin clay envelope upon which is copied the inscription on the inner tablet. Witnesses, buyers and sellers, or officials, then impressed their seals on the envelope. By this method the con- tracting parties secured duplicate copies. The custom came into vogue about the time of Dungi in Sunier and at once spread throughout the empire. A Cappaddcian contract concerning a loan of money in form of a case-tablet has several seal impressions. The document is witnessed by a Sumerian scribe, who used the following seal: cTo the divine Ibi-Sin, mighty king, king of Ur, king of the four regions. Ur-Lugal-banda the scribe, son of Ur- nigingar thy servant.* Some Sumerian, learned in Sumero-Baby- lonian legal methods., had been brought to this Semitic colony in the most remote part of the empire. It has been suggested that the scribe employed this. old seal of the reign of the last king of Ur in the age of Hammurabi two centuries later. But the evidence for the antiquity of this Cappadocian colony cannot be thus explained away. Many of the seals of Cappadocia are engraved with Sumerian religious scenes combined with local religious motif s^ and a consider- able percentage of them may be definitely dated in the Ur dynasty. One of the most common scenes is that where the worshipper is conducted into the presence of a seated deity by his protecting divinity, who leads him by the left hand while he salutes the deity by throwing a kiss with the right hand. This motif IB characteristic of the age from Gudea to Dungi, and disappears after the kings of Ur; and the seal of the scribe dedicated to Ibi-Sin only com- pletes the evidence of the glyptics. Capp^iocia was clearly under the inHu f are represented by the simple sounds, k or gy z and /. The surds t and p almost invariably become the sonants d and by and there is a tendency to discard all closed syllables. For example, the Semite of Cappadocia may write bit house, bi-i~e-it^ *he pur- chased* i-sha-um not i-sham\ and in general the cuneiform script which they borrowed from Sumer was adapted to their peculiar pronunciation. These Semites of Cappadocia were doubtless under Hittite influence, as their defective pronunciation of Semitic words seems to be explained by Hittite phonetics. Many of these pecu- liarities recur in the Semitic dialect as spoken and written by the Hittites at Boghaz Keui in later times. The contracts of Kara Euyuk mention two Hittite cities, Ganish and Barush, and an official is called the garum xakhir rabu Khatim^ * Inferior and chief prefect of the Hittites/ On the other hand, the names of men and women are Semitic, and principally west Semitic (or Amorite) with a prominent admixture of Assyrian names, a few are Babylonian and Sumerian. It is not possible to detect with certainty a single Hittite personal name in the lists yet published. Caution must be exercised in the discussion of this important problem, for the ma- jority of the Cappadocian tablets remain unpublished and Hittite names are to be expected. The Amorite god Adad is prominent In the composition of names; but specifically west Semitic words (like adunu^ lord) are rare. The god of Ashur is common, and is written Ashir, as in the early period of the Ur dynasty, and also Ashur. That is, the same form of the word occurs here as in its native land. But the most important evidence for the direct influence of the city-state Ashur upon this remote Semitic colony is supplied by the month-names. They are identical with the old Assyrian month-names and have nothing in common with the Semitic month-names of Atkkad. In fact the Cappadocian tablets afford earlier records of the Assyrian XII, iv] THE CAPPADOCIAN SEMITES 455 months than the Assyrian sources. The name of the sixth month is * month of the lady of the great house.' Now, Ninegal was an old Sumerian goddess of the lower world whose name was translated into Semitic by Belit-ekallim; her cult was popular at Ashur and . among the Hittites of the later period. A temple was built to her at Ashur for the life of Bur-Sin and it may be assumed that her cult was older there than in Cappadocia. The weight of evidence, however, seems to favour a Cappadocian origin of the Assyrian month-names, but it can hardly be maintained that the god Ashur came from that region. The Cappadocians went their own way in the method of dating documents, writing the date in the body of the contract, giving the month and the name of the limmu (see p. 147 sq^ For example, a loan of money is dated in the month Kuzallu in the limmu of Ashur-imeti the sailor. The name of some prominent citizen is given to each year, though none of them seem to have held high office as did the eponyms of Assyria. This method of dating is commonly regarded as characteristically Assyrian, but the system was in use in Cappadocia at least before 2000, and may be as old as the Ur period there. Here again the Assyrian appears to be the borrower. The Cappadocian week of five days has not been dis- covered in Assyria, If it may b^ assumed that the week of five days was unknown at Ashur, it follows, of course, that the Cappa- docian colony could hardly have come from there. The five-day week might have been borrowed from the Hittites, but this cannot be proved. The Cappadocian colony consisted largely of traders, merchants of gold and silver and of garments manufactured there* The most probable view is that a branch of the western Semites (*Amorites*), attracted by the mines of Anatolia, founded a colony beyond the Taurus about the time of Dungi, and that after the Ur period recognized more or less the authority of the viceroys of Ashur, Influences between the growing power of Ashur and the Cappa- docians were mutual. But the ethnological conditions of the lands of Subartu and Amor in the time of the empire of Ur are still a dimly lighted gallery of Ancient History, and it is regrettable that the origin of the future kingdoms of Assyria cannot be more pre- cisely described (cf. pp. 229 sqq^ 468 sqq^. The Semitic penetration of Subartu, in which Ashur lay, from the age of Sargon onward, renders it a natural assumption that Ashur was colonized by the Semitic Akkadians about 2900 B.C. BurthiS Semitic colony, which displaced the Sumerian there, came into more intimate contact with the western Semites; Hittite in- 456 THE SUMERIAN REVIVAL AT UR [CHAP. fluence also went no little way In increasing the difference between them and their ancestors in the south, both in language and tem- perament. But the greater number of the deities in Cappadocia were Sumerian, as is to be expected. The western Semites on the frontiers of the empires of Akkad and Ur borrowed their culture from Sumer and Akkad, and came into contact with a northern exponent of this civilization at Ashur. Semite and Hittite vied as eager apostles of the religion, law and literature of Sumter and Akkad. The old deities of Sumer, Sin (written Zu-in^ Su-in)*> Ea, Enlil, Ami, Ashdar (Ishtar), Nana and Ninsubur appear fre- quently among the proper names. The goddess Ishkhara, who first appears in the Sumerian pantheon at the end of the Ur period, occurs in Cappadocian names and frequently in the oaths of the treaties of later Hittite kings. It is possible that she is a Hittite deity of fountains and canals; the Sumerians identified her with Nina, the irrigation goddess. The fact that her name is omitted from the liturgies throws doubt upon her Sumerian origin. V. THE DECLINE OF SUMERIAN POWER Such was the empire founded by Ur-Engur and consolidated by Dungi. In virtue of his wide dominion Dungi changed his title about the forty-second year of his reign, and henceforth described himself as ' King of Ur, king of the four regions/ The empire had been roughly divided into four lands, Sumer and Akkad, Elam, Subartu and Axnurru. The long and -prosperous reign of Dungi inspired a religious movement of emperor-worship throughout Sumer and Akkad, Temples were built to the god Dungi, or chapels provided for him in the great city-temples. A large temple record from Lagash dated in the fifty-seventh year preserves the income and expenses of the estate of the temple of the divine pungL Even more intensive became the adoration of the god- king after his death, and a business record of Lagash mentions landa belonging to the temples of the gods Bur-Sin (his son), i'ligishzida, the latter being the local type of the dying '; '' ' The deified tings had this in common with Tammuz, that they suffered the fate of death. They were therefore more or less identi- fied with the dying son of mother-earth; they triumphed not over death as he did, but were translated to the stars. In Dungi the people supposed that a champion had arisen to restore the Paradise among men which had existed before the Flood, and had b^erflost through the transgression of an ancient king, the divine Tagtug-. XII, v] * INFLUENCE OF DUNGI AND BUR-SIN 457 The theologians of Nippur wrote a long epic poem concerning the lost Paradise and the Fall of Man from his pre-dlluvian s^ate of happiness, and for the cult of Dungl they also wrote hymns in- spired by faith in him as the son of the earth-mother Ninsun of Erech, sent to restore the age of peace and happiness. His conquests In far-away lands are also mentioned In his liturgies: One that walks in a foreign land by a route stretching far away thou art? A hastening governor^ traversing his plains by the highways thou art. Divine Dungi3 conqueror of foreign lands, establisher of the Land of Sumer, Hero who in heaven and earth no rival hast. The hyxnns to Dungl emphasize his love of justice and institu- tion of laws. *He that tirelessly causes anarchy to depart art thou.' The names of men reflect the new religion: 'Dung! Is the plant of life/ 'Dungi the breath of life has given.* An estate was named "Dung! Is the breath of life of the Land/ A seated deity usually beardless,, and with low round hat, extending a cup to an adorant, now appears on seals. The new deity represents the deified emperors of the period, Bur-Sin, son of Dungi, succeeded to the throne (2398 B.C.) and reigned eight years, receiving divine honours from the date of his accession. His name ('youth of the moon-god*) is a Semitic translation of a good Sumerian type, and the fact reflects the in- creasing influence of the Semites. It is indeed incredible to suppose that the Sumerian empire of Ur was founded and held together for even a short period by the military power of the older race. The desolation of the Gutium period had shown that the welfare of Sumer and Akkad depended upon co-operation, and the real military power of Ur-Engur and Dungl was probably founded upon *the Semitic element. The Sumerian tenure of power was founded largely upon prestige of ancient culture and religion, ac- knowledged by Elam as well as Akkad, The only parts of the empire which caused trouble in the reign of Bur-Sin were those of the ever turbulent peoples of the Zagros table-lands, Urbillum revolted and was suppressed In the first year, Shashra and Khu- khunurl in the same quarter had to be reconquered in the fifth and seventh years. Shashru together with Shurudkhum had been subdued in his third year, an event not mentioned In the date-lists* A variant of the date-formula for the seventh year describes mote fully the campaign of the sixth year. * Bur-Sin the king, Nebrabe- lak, Nieshru with their lands and Khukhunuri he destroyed/ He has feft^an inscription In which it is stated that he placed a statue of himself in a chapel at Ur. Many seals of his reign have the 458 THE SUMERIAN REVIVAL AT UR [CHAP. usual dedication to tlie deified emperor and in all his inscriptions he retains the later title of Dungi, * King of Ur, king of the four regions/ His cult flourished long after him. A tablet from JDrehem includes sacrifices to him in the great temple of Enlil where he had a chapel, but the people of Lagash provided a special temple for the god Bur-Sin. He even passed into the official pantheon of later times as a minor deity in the court of the moon-god Sin, and his consort, Ningal. The hymns of his cult have been lost, with the exception of a long hymn to the war-god on the accession of his son Gimil-Sin. He was succeeded by his son, Migir-Sin, or rather Gimil-Sin (a Semitic rendering of the Sumerian Shu-Sin). The cult of Gimil-Sin was added to those of Dungi and Bur-Sin as a matter of course. Their feasts seem to have been appointed to coincide with phases of the moon, and we now find feasts of the * houses (or stations) of the moon/ This is probably due to the influence of the worship of their patron deity, for Sin was the god of Ur. A list from Nippur contains nine year-dates, and in fact there are nine formulae for the years of Gimil-Sin's reign on documents. Disturbances in his reign are again confined to the area east of the middle Tigris. Simanum revolted in the second year and Zabshali in the sixth year. In his third year he built a wall known as the "Wall of Amurru/ or the Amorite Wall, usually translated as the Western Wall. Inscriptions from Umma which commemorate the construction of the temple of the god Shara, E-shaggipadda, have the interesting chronological detail, * When he built the Amorite Wall "Murik-Tidnira" and restored the Amorite route of Madanu/ Murlk-Tidnim means 'Wall which keeps Tidnu at a distance,' and Tidnu (or Tidanu) has been identified with the Anti-Lebanon mountain region. The Assyrian geographers employ it for the west as a synonym of Amorite. The location of this wall is unknown. The name recalls the old Median wall north of Sippar between the rivers, built to restrain an in- vasion from the north. At all events the name suggests that the Amorites now threatened Sumer and Akkad. Gimil-Sin was obviously losing control of the restless lands of his far-flung frontiers, for in his second year he transferred several eastern patesi-ships and governorships to Arad-Nannar, patesi of Lagash, The door-sockets of the temple built by this patesi for the cult of the divine Gimil-Sin at Lagash are inscribed with the titles of Arad-Nannar. He was patesi of Lagash, high-priest of Enki, prefect of Uzargarshana and of Bo-fri-shu-e^ patesi of Sabum and the land of Gutebum, prefect of Timat-Enlil, patesi ofth anc^ we may divide the period from 2357 to the time of Hammurabi into five sections. The First is from 2357 to 2263, when the two lines of kings remained on their respectiv^thrones and maintained perfect harmony between the two states. In the Second, 2263 to 2214, 1 Here, too, we must include the cuneiform text which was previously considered to contain references to the kings mentioned in Genesis xiv, Dr Pinches, as far back as 1895, identified with considerable ingenuity the names Eri-A.KU, Ku-dur-ku-ku-rnal, 'king of E-la-.»./ and Tu-ud- khul-a, cson of Gax. . .,' with Arioch, Chedorlaomer and TidaL Dr King, however, pointed out that no Chedorlaomer was known apart from the biblical account, and the theory of Jeremias, that Ku-dur«ku~ku-mal is S-obably to be read Kudur-nakhu-te ( ?), is the most satisfactory at present, ut it is worth remembering that kuku is part of the Elamite name Lankuku, and may appear in another, Kuk-Kirpiash, both historical persons of im- portance. W"e cannot, however, dismiss the possibility of the Elamites having raided Syria, because, as King pointed out, Kutur-Mabuk called himself adda ('father') of Martu, the middle Euphrates. See further, p. 484. 474 ISIN, LARSA AND BABYLON [CHAP. Sumer made a bid again for the rule, and persistent quarrels broke the peace. The year 2214 marked the beginning of the Third Section lasting until 2167; the 1st Dynasty of Babylon was then rising, and the rulers at Isin again had Semitic names, although a few years later its dynasty was again to be changed. Elam was to . challenge Larsa, and finally, in 2 1 67, under Kutur-mabuk, to esta- blish itself there in southern Babylonia. The Fourth Section, 2 1 67— 21265 culminated in the final overthrow of Isin by the Elamite stock in Larsa, and the Fifth with the merging of Larsa and its conquests into the Babylonian empire under Hammurabi (2123— 2081), The First Section, then, opened with the two parallel lines of Isin and Larsa on their respective thrones in amicable relation. Isin showed a succession of heirs after Ishbi-Girra — Gimil-ilishu, Idin-Dagan, Ishme-Dagan and Lipit-Ishtar — while Larsa showed as contemporaries of these, Emisum, Samum and Zabaia. The Isin names are more easily comparable with those of Semitic Baby- Ionia (save in their use of the national god Dagan) than with those of the middle Euphrates valley: the Larsa names appear, on the other hand, to be west Semitic. These kings in their two lines were content to build their temples, maintain the divine worship, and gradually adopt the native custom of emperor-worship. The very founder of the dynasty of Isin saw to it that the sutummu ( ? store- house) of the temple of Ninlil, E~kurra-igi-galla, was founded or restored, apparently a part of the Tummal, a quarter of Nippur. GimiHlishu, the next king, reigned ten years (2325—2316). Idin-Dagan, his son (2315—2295), seems to have extended the power of Isin over Sippar and Nippur., for in the ruins of the former was discovered a hymn to this monarch. His son, Ishme- Dagan (2294—2275), went still further, using the vaunting title 'King of Sumer and Akkad,* adding it to that of Isin, and in- cluding in his sway Nippur, Ur, Eridu, Erech and Isin. Some faint echo reaches us of the less martial side of their character. Deeply religious like all Semites, they seem to have striven after something more than mere conquest, as is indicated by a liturgy of the cult of Ishme-Dagan, describing the sun-god: That the rich man do not whatsoever be his desire. That one man to another do nought disgraceful. Wickedness and hostility he destroyed, Justice he instituted. The hymn praises Babbar, the sun-god, 'the son whom Ningal bore/ and still more curiously identifies Ishrne-Dagan as TsfrniTiuz, husband of Innini (Ishtar): Irmini, queen of heaven and earth, XIII., n] SUMERIANS AGAIN AT ISIN 475 *as her beloved spouse hath chosen me/ The pantheon In this hymn Includes Enkl, Ninki, En-til and NIn-uI, the Anunnaki, and himself, for he has now been deified: "Divine Ishme-D'agan, son of Dagan art them/ The assimilation to Tammuz Is well in » accord with the creed of mortal kings becoming gods after death, for Tammuz, the god of earthly vegetation, descends to the under- world like an ordinary human being, albeit he does so each year. A festival song to Ishtar for the entry of the king Ishme-Dagan into E-anna bears out his claim to be king of Erech, where the temple to Ishtar bore this name: O Lady, whose largesse doth fill the land. . „ „ Thy guardian Ishme-Dagan to thee corneth. With Lipit-Ishtar, the next king (2274—2264), the son either of Ishme-Dagan or of Idin-Dagan, we find that the central shrine of Babylon was within the jurisdiction of Isin» Again comes the echo of this seeking for righteousness in a hymn to this king: 'If thou (O Lipit-Ishtar) dost righteousness In Sumer and Akkad, then will the land prosper/ Ur, too, with Its shrine to the moon, was now definitely bound by religious ties to I sin, for Enannatum, the brother of Lipit-Ishtar, had become high-priest of the great temple. He ministered to Sin beneath the towering four-sided ziggurrat, which still thrusts Its brick peak to heaven like a mountain top, shimmering in the heat-haze as a beacon to guide caravans over the flat deserts and reedy margins of the swamps, visible even at far Eridu itself. It was a wealthy temple, and so rich was this priest Enannatum, so powerful, and so mindful of the ancient friendship with Larsa and his kinship to the inhabitants, that he rebuilt as an act of grace the splendid temple of the sun at Larsa for the salvation In this world of him- self and of Gungunum, the new king of Larsa* Not only did Lipit-Ish tar's brother act thus diplomatically, but his son was made * high-priest of Ninsunzi, high-priest of Nin- ...(?) at Ur/ and was not replaced until 2252, doubtless after his death. Relations between the two cities were never more cordial, and yet the upheaval which appears to be essential in these eastern states at periodic intervals was at hand. With the end of Lipit-Ishtar's reign at Isin, almost within a year of the rebuilding of the temple at Larsa, begins the Second Section of this period, 2263 to 2214. Lipit-Ishtar's family did not inherit the kingdom : two kings of a different race, father and*sofi, Ur-Ninurta, son of Ishkur (2263—2236) and Bur-Sin (2235—2215), uncompromisingly Sumerian in name, occupied the 476 ISIN, LARSA AND BABYLON [CHAP. throne of I sin. More than this,, after the first-named king came to the throne, he claimed to be king of the four quarters of the world, and king of Isin, Sumer and Akkad., lord of Erecjb, and In some way the benefactor of Nippur, Ur and Eridu. The mention of the place-names Erech, Ur and Eridu shows how all TJr~. Ninurta's interests lay in the south; Indeed, Erech is so rarely mentioned at this period that we might have assumed It to have struggled back to independence, as It did under Warad-Nene subsequently. It is conceivable that Ur-NInurta was a Sumerian king of Erech, and we might presume that he absorbed Ur and the religious foundation of Eridu and attempted to re-establish the old Sumerian domination. He marched against the Su tribes, who had been subject to Lagash In the time of Arad-Nannar; and as the Su are probably the Suti, who were closely connected with Erech to the west of Babylonia, it Is likely that Erech was his home. That he should have raided Zabshali on the east was probably one of the usual royal diversions; it can hardly have any reference to the relations formed by the marriage of one of the daughters of a king of Ur with the patesi of this land (p. 509). A strange entry among the dates of Lipit-Ishtar's reign — 'the year when the Amurru drove out Liplt-Ishtar' — can refer only to the end of his rule; but how are the Amurru to be connected with an obvious Sumerian like Ur-Ninurta? Did the scribe make a mistake in calling the enemy Amurru — or is one to believe that the Amurru would drive out their own kin ? Or, presuming that such was the fact, did Amurru make an alliance with Sumer against the dominant race at Isin ? It may be that, just as Kutur- Mabuk, king of Elam in the time of Abil-Sin (2,161—44), called himself adda (c father*) of Amurru, perhaps his predecessor also may have claimed some similar connexion. Lipit-Ishtar's rule came to an end in 2264, and, with the arrival of these presumed Sumerians in Ism, although this was only a brief outbreak of the old fire, the friendship of Larsa towards Isin vanished, and throughout this interval the two cities glared at each other with brooding suspicion which burst out from time to time in raids and razzias. Yet the very offspring of Ur- Ninurta, Bur-Sin, who built up the wall of Isin against his foes, could not resist the Semitic influence, for he appears to have called his two sons by Semitic names, Iter~pl-sha and Girra-imitti, and after these two had come to the throne In Isin, the succession was disputed by Semites. The king of Larsa, Gungunum (c. 2264-38), before challenging the usurpers had first to deal with the hostility of Bashimi (prob- XIII, n] AN AMORITE RAID, GUNGUNUM'S WARS 477 ably the same as Basime, not far from Sippar, Lagash and Cuthah, which in Manishtusu's time was ruled by a patesi). Two years later he ^defeated Anshan, and from that date (2260) onwards until 2246 there was a peaceful interval, We are in great debt to one Sin-uselll, a scribe of Hammurabi *s period, for our knowledge of the history of Babylonia from Gungunum onwards almost to his own date. Doubtless with the intention of commemorating the great year of Hammurabi's victory over the enemies arrayed against Babylonia, he set himself to copy out a list of the events which happened to Larsa after which the years were named. He completed his document as he tells us with an amusingly precious pomposity 'on the morning of the fourteenth of Tebet* of the great year, doubtless congratu- lating himself that his work kept him indoors on that wintry day, and that it was not his duty to make muddy dams or to clear canals. Towards the end of fourteen peaceful years earned by Gun- gunum*s victory over his foe, rumours of war were again in the air. Gungunum shows us his preparation by building a fort for his troops in 2246, and in the following two years he put a great gate and a city-wall in order. It is to this year doubtless that we must refer the building of the great wall of Larsa, called *the Sun-god is the spoiler of hostile lands,' a direct challenge to his foe. It is possible that in 2243 he attacked a strong city of Isin called Dunnum (which is known also by the Sumerian name Sag-anntia); but death — probably a violent one, since it is actually recorded — ended his dreams of conquering Isin. Again the clash of the two opposing forces of Larsa and Isin came in 2229 in the reign of Abi-sarl of Larsa: what happened is uncertain, but it is quite probable that there was no result at all. The Arabs of the present day regard a razzia as a bloody massacre if a man Is killed; and from the top of the stout walls of unburnt brick Sumerian could laugh at Semite. The Babylonian does not seem to have had the ferocious qualities of the later Assyrian who doubtless intermarried with the wild highlanders of the Kurdish hills. These intertribal bickerings represent the military exploits of the two states from 2264 to 2226. Campaigning was not really to the taste of these Babylonian kings, for the crops occupied their time in the late spring and early summer, the summer was far too hot for war until October, and winter was bleak,. wet aid muddy. They much preferred an ostentatious piety, a due devotion to t|^e temples and gods; if any fighting had to be done, unless it were a war of extermination or self-defence, it ought only to be in the nature of a raid, an opportunity snatched after the harvest, 478 ISIN, LARSA AND BABYLON [CHAP. when labourers were no longer wanted in the fields, or between the date-picking at the end of summer and the first rains. The records are full of evidence of the royal worship. Almost the first deed of Gungunum was to dedicate to the Sun-temple of Larsa two copper palm-trees (such as are represented at an earlier .- period on a Telloh plaque), and, a few years later, a great copper statue. In his sixth year (2259) the high-priest of this temple was chosen by omens, and three years later was elevated to his full functions : it was the custom to elect thus to this office after the death of each priest, as we may infer from the fact that no similar installation at the Sun-temple took place again until 2228. Gungunum displayed no less solicitude for the minor shrines, now dedicating a statue of copper and another of silver to the temple of the moon, now building the Temple of Ishtar (in Larsa) or of Lugal-kiburna, now repairing the sacred store-house attached to the moon-temple. The same pious duties were per- formed by his successor Abi-sarl, who formally presented the old silver statue, which had been begun by Gungunum, to the temple of the moon, and another of cornelian and lapis lazuli (2230). Like other rulers, the kings of Larsa occupied themselves with increasing the fertility of their lands, because thereby the treasuries were filled. In a country like Mesopotamia the sun which can scorch the waterless soil to dust will bring all seeds to maturity with speed, if only water be led through the fields by canals. A Babylonian town of this period, like those of the present day, would be set either on a river bank or along a broad canal in a forest of date palms, amid which would grow pomegranates, grapes> and figs. Beyond the date-orchards would lie the fields of wheat and barley, spreading probably for five or six miles outwards from the larger cities as they do to-day at Nasriyeh, The harvest depends first on the rains for its growth, and then, for its gathering, on the people who are as dependent as the crops on water; the vegetables and the dates, the cattle and the asses all draw their life from the rivers or canals: the mud-brick houses with palm-wood rafters and doors, and the reed huts, all take their origin in water, and demand no niggard supply. Away from the rivers, canals are essential: the security which a large settled vigorous population provides, the wealth borne to the king by taxation, the priestly dues and offerings to the gods which bring to the city the divine protection, all are drawn from water. It is these canals which disperse the river-waters over the lanQ. in the dry season that man may increase and multiply% as was well XIII, n] THE FIRST DYNASTY OF BABYLON 479 known by the Semitic kings in Babylonia., now more dependent on artificial water-channels than their ancestors had been higher up the Euphrates, where tributaries and a better rainfall* took their place. Gungunum of Larsa from his fifteenth year onwards ,(2250) excavated vigorously, first the Anipada canal, then that called Imgur-Sin two years later, and then three more during his last ten years. Abi-sarl dug the Anipada canal again in his fourth year, and two more, all in eleven years, and this continuous canal digging was regularly recorded. With the year 2226 Sumu-ilum came to the throne of Larsa, and the following year Babylon entered the political arena with the birth of its 1st Dynasty under Sumu-aburn (2225—2212). Instead of a duel between Larsa and Isin, the contest developed into a triangular fight with Babylon as the third participant. Larsa during this period challenged Kazallu twice; Sumu-ilum, its king, first laid waste Akus (a district where Adad was wor- shipped) and fought Kazallu in 2223, Kazallu may be the same as the Kazalla which revolted against Sargon of Agade, when Kashtubila was its king. As it is mentioned between Marad and Ulmash it may have formed part of the dominion of Ur. There is a stray date-formula, which may be attributed to some year of the Larsa dynasty, which describes how an unknown king made (statues of) Numushda (known as far back as Manishtusu's time as a god), Namrat and Lugal-Awak, and brought them into Kazallu. The last are written with the single wedge denoting a person as well as the sign for god, and it may be that they represent the names of two dead kings of Kazallu. The second is probably Semitic, and when we reach 2194 B.C. the name of its king, Yakhzir-ilu, is that of a Semite, which the earlier king Kashtubila certainly was not. Four years later (2219) Sumu-ilum added to the Larsa do- minion the town of Ka-ida, which from its* name, *the mouth of the Rivers, * may have been at the junction of the Euphrates and Tigris (near Nasriyeh). It is a little-known town, and the presumed position is so near Larsa that this would not appear to have been a heroic exploit. By 2219 B.C. the real interest of the political relations was centring further north round Sumu-abum, the first king of Babylon. Before Sumu-abum's time Babylon probably owed fealty to some city-state, since it was governed by a patesi (in Dungi's time by name Arshikh), and the office of patesi, as we shall see later, had by now sunk far beneath its early impcfttaftce (p. 509). With the end of the reign of Bur-Sin at Ism in 2215 pur 480 ISIN, LARSA AND BABYLON [CHAP. Third Section begins with the advance to power of Babylon and extends to the capture of Larsa by Elam in 2 1 67. Like all western Semites Sumu-abum of Babylon was hardly a fighter, anjd was far more anxious about his gardens for his gods, his temples for Ninsinna and his cedar-wood doors for Nannar. Yet it was a. period of unrest which called for deeds of warlike action, for the Assyrian babe in the north, who was to develop into a giant, was now stirring. As for Kish, the neighbour of Babylon, there can be little doubt that it was to Babylon's advantage to be on good terms with it, and Sumu-abum, alert to the threat of his cousins in the north and the hostility of Kazallu on the east, honoured Kish, as a good diplomatist should, with an offering which took the form of a crown to the temple of Anu. It is perhaps because of these very pourparlers that Larsa grew fearful of its old ally Kish, for in 2216 the two states fell out and fought, but we do not know why, nor what happened. Two years later a new king, Iter-pl-sha, the son of Bur-Sin (2214—2210), came to the throne of Isin, of which place little can be said at this period* The same year saw trouble between Babylon and Kazallu which, ever irreconcilable and hostile equally to Larsa or Babylon, was now to be 'laid waste' by Sumu-abum. Sumu-abum of Babylon was followed by Sumu-la-ilum (2211— 2176), while Sumu-ilum was still the latter's contemporary at Larsa. The hostility between Babylon and Larsa now became more pronounced, although the Babylonian king's reign began peaceably enough with the digging of the Shamash-khegallu canal. The third and fourth years are dated by the slaying of a certain otherwise unknown Khalambu, But the gathering clouds were now big on the political horizon, and uneasiness was clearly shown by the building, in Sumu-la-ilu's fifth year, of a great protecting wall for*Babylon, an essential to any city in these flat lands. So great was the undertaking that the next year was also dated by this event. Meanwhile, a new ruler, Girra-Imitti, brother of Iter-pi-sha, had come to the throne of Isin (2209—2203). He 'restored Nippur to its place/ presumably attaching it to his rule* It is very probable that Nippur was tossed from Isin to Larsa and back again, inasmuch as many tablets of the Larsa dynasty period were found there by the American expedition. Larsa had done little since Sumu-ilum 's fight with Kish in 2216, except to dig the Euphrates and act piously towards the temple of*N£nnar; she had fought with Kazallu in 2205, but thenceforth Sumu-ilum XIII, n] THE FORTUNES OF LARSA AND ISIN 481 of Larsa had no more interest in fighting. He ceased to reign about 2198, having reckoned his last seven years by the civil and peaceful^ episode of the investiture of the high-priest of ISfannar in his duties. Sumu-la-ilum of Babylon had a brief interval of ease during which he rebuilt the temple of Adad and dug a canal called by his name. Then Kish, his near neighbour and ally, finding perhaps that its encounter with Larsa in 2216 had serious consequences, which the friendship of Babylon was not practical enough to stay, became impatient, so that Babylon turned upon and * devastated ' her in 2199. So complete a political ^olte-face of Babylon as to march against its erstwhile friend Kish was a marked epoch to Sumu-la-ilum,, and for four years afterwards the yearly date was reckoned from the Kish expedition. But he was to have his hands full enough presently. The throne of Larsa went to Nur-Adad, who for sixteen years (2197—2182) had, as far as we know, an uneventful reign. At home he offered a golden throne to Shamash, and invested the high-priest of the god with due authority; he built the temple of E-nunmakh of Nannar and Ningal in Ur, and, as the present writer found in the British Museum diggings at Eridu in 1918., he carried on a small restoration of the ziggurat of Enki's temple there. It may be that this piety towards cities in the extreme south, particularly Eridu, whose glory was departing, shows the trend of his thoughts: Larsa might easily become untenable if Kazallu repeated its thrusts. We are allowed to infer what we please from his sudden gratitude to this moribund city sacred to Enki, a compliment such as no Semite had ever shown it; indeed, it had received no builder's homage since the time when Bur-Sin of Ur faced its ziggurat with bricks. But there was good cause for Nur-Adad of Larsa to be afraid. With the change of dynasties in the east the political friendships change : for where the clan-feeling is strong, the personal element of a ruler is a powerful factor for peace or war. The kingly family at Isin about 2202, five years before Nur-A dad's accession, had come to an end in a curious way, and the cuneiform chronicles agree closely, as L. W. King pointed out, with the story of Beleous and Beletaras related by the Greek historian Agathias (sixth century A,D.), on the authority of Bion and Alexander Polyhistor. Now, according to the Babylonian Chronicle, 'Girra- imitti, the king, set Enlil-ibni, the gardener, on his throne as a substitijfte (?), (and) placed the crown of his sovereignty upon his head'; Girra-imitti then died, and Enlil-ibni was established on C-A.H.I 31 482 ISIN, LARS A AND BABYLON [CHAP. the throne. We also know from a king-list that a king whose namer begins with the first part of a sign which may be 'Enlil/ reigned for six months after Girra-imitti (the ninth king of Isin) before Enlil-ibni came to the throne, and it ^may be that the Chronicle has omitted him. None the less, if his name be * Enlil , (i.e. Bel). . .,' we may, despite the discrepancy, see some agree- ment with the story as told by Agathias, where Beleous, the son of Derketadas, is said to have been displaced by a certain man Beletaras, a gardener, who, having gained the throne in an un- expected manner, established his own race upon the throne. Beletaras must, of course, be Enlil-ibni, whose name would be read by late translators as Bel-ibni. Beleous may equally represent the tenth name of the king-list, Bel (Enlil) . . . , and if so, we may possibly see in Derketadas some corruption of Girra-imitti. In this way was the dynasty displaced at Isin in 2202. An ingenuous date explains that Enlil-bani ' disclosed light to all the land and the people of the sons of Isin" — doubtless a clear exposition of his title to the throne. Elsewhere was turmoil on the political horizon. Kazallu was threatening Babylon; and Sumu-la~ilum, in 21 94, in expectation of trouble, drove out Yakhzir- ilu, the Semitic ruler of Kazallu. Next year, in order that Kish might be well aware that he had revoked any previous goodwill shown by dedicating a crown to its god Anu, Sumu-la-ilum pulled down the temple walls of that same god, and in 2192 he de- molished the ramparts of Kazallu and fought its inhabitants, finally killing Yakhzir-ilu himself in 2187. Sumu-la-ilum spent his declining years in making images for Ishtar and Nana, in building walls, in digging out the canal called by his name, and in killing two recalcitrant chiefs. It is never safe to say that peace reigned in Babylonia for any long period. New contract-tablets appear from time to time dated in a year in which some campaign hitherto unknown has taken place. At Larsa Nur-Adad's uneventful reign was replaced by that of his son Sin-idinnam (2181—76), the benefactor of Ur, and king of Larsa, Sumer and Akkad, who prided himself on his restoration of the temple of Shamash, his clearing out of part of the Tigris bed, his building-works at Dur-gurgurri (Tell Sifr) and the wall of Mashkan-shabra (probably near Adab), which doubtless helped him to ensure * peace to his people' and be ca shepherd of justice/ Yet he must needs fight Elam, who was in alliance with Zambia., the king who succeeded Enlil-bani at Isin, in 2177. Zambia lived on, but Sin-idinnam was replacecTby*Sin- iribam at Larsa in 2175, and it may be that Sin-idinnam was XIII, n] EL AM DEFEATS LARS A 483 killed; in the same year Sumu-la-i]um was succeeded at Babylon by Zabium or Zabum (2175—62). € But thys chronicles tell us little at this juncture of Sin-iribam of Larsa (2175—4); however, there is a weight of one talent, which ^Is described as coming from his palace. As for his contemporary, the king of Isin, who came to the throne in 2 1 74, we do not even know the name, or that of his successor, although Langdon thinks it may be Ur-azag (2169—6). At Larsa Sin-ikishatn, who succeeded Sin-iribam (2173—69), paid his usual devotion to the gods, dedicating eleven statues to the great temple of the sun-god, parading the riches of his country by making many of his votive images of gold. It was a foolish display for which the country paid dearly, for his successor Silli-Adad was deposed by the Elamite conquerors within the year of his accession (2168). The Semites of Larsa had lost their vigour; Elam was spoiling their temples and sitting on their throne, and Babylon in the first flush or its youth was presently to overthrow Larsa and its usurping dynasty, and oust the Semitic ruler from Isin. The year 2167 culminated in the success of Elam over Larsa; this marks our Fourth Section, which ends in 2126 with the final overthrow of Isin by the Elamitic stock in Larsa. In Sin-idinnam's time Ur had belonged to Larsa but a bare ten years before this date; it passed in this brief interval into Elamite hands. The southern cities Ur, Eridu, and their district, had been Elamite in prehistoric times, having probably owed their foundation to Susian migrants, and it was therefore no strange thing that they should turn Elamite on slight provocation. It was Kutur-mabuk, the son of Simti-Shilkhak, obviously an Elamite, who burst in on the decadent king of Larsa, Silli-Adad about 2167 B.C.; there must have been a tremendous Elamite incursion, for we find Kutur-mabuk's son, Warad-Sin, on the throne of Larsa in 2167, whence Silli-Adad had been deposed. Elam had at last succeeded in capturing Larsa, This success was probably not due to her own efforts alone, but in alliance with Isin and Babylon; such is the inference which may be drawn from the trifling evidence which we have. That Babylon was swayed in some measure by Elam at this juncture is shown by the dating of Zabum' s twelfth year (2 1 64), when the wall of Kazallu was destroyed; it does not say by whom, but the reference must surely be to the latter part of Kutur-mabuk's exploit, when he * avenged* E-Babbara (the temple of the Sun in Larsa), destroyed the army of Ka^allu and Mutiabal in Larsa and Emutba], and beat down the walls of Kazallu. If so, it is 484 ISIN, LARSA AND BABYLON [CHAP. significant that the record of this event is adopted by Zabum as a date. But Ism also has left some trace of her friendship or alliance with Babylon, for the new king of Isin, Sin-magir (2 1 65- 55), who called himself king of Sumer and Akkad, dedicated a cone to the temple of E-patutila in Babylon, claiming thereby < some act of devotion to Enlil. While his father doubtless con- tinued to rule in Elam, Warad-Sin, although in nominal control of Larsa during his father's lifetime, would almost appear to have made Ur his royal city. Kutur-mabuk tells us that he dedicated E-nunmakh to the moon-god in Ur, on behalf of his son, whose Semitic name Warad-Sin, 'the servant of the moon-god/ points perhaps also to diplomatic necessity. Warad-Sin's pious works indicate Ur as the object of his homage, for during his reign he built the lofty platform of the temple of Nannar, brought into the shrine two golden thrones, and restored E-nunmakh, while his sister En-an-e-ul was invested as the high-priestess of the moon in Ur. His one building for defence was the great rampart of Ur itself. How far his father maintained control is not easy to say. He called himself adda or * father* of the west land, and was so far catholic as to dedicate a cone to Nergal and build the temple E-mete~Girra for his life and that of his son. It is certainly peculiar that during Warad-Sin *s reign over Larsa a king of Erech should be named Sin-iribam, the same as that of a previous king of Larsa (c. 2175—74) only a few years before Warad-Sin. It may be that they are one and the same king. Kutur-mabuk probably died during his son's reign, for a statue of him was devoted to the temple of Babbar in Larsa, We may take it that, though Ur was in the eyes of Warad-Sin a more defensible capital, Larsa was still in high repute. The king shows the extent of his rule by his religious devotion to Ishtar of Khallab, and his inclusion of Nippur, Eridu and Lagash in his domain. In fact, under Elam, possibly with Isin and Babylon as sub- servient allies, there was a temporary recrudescence of Larsa as a power* Everything was working up to a climax: the three king- doms, Larsa, Isin and Babylon, are being welded into one by force of circumstances. With the advent of Rim-Sin, the brother of Warad-Sin, to the throne of Larsa in 2155 began the final phase, the disappearance of Isin and Larsa. Rim-Sin undoubtedly inherited Ur with Larsa, as was only natural. He was able to dedicate four copper figures of Kutur-mabuk to the temple of the moon in his third year, and build a shrine to Enki in Ur in his ninth. For the first thirteen XIII, n] RIM-SIN'S SUCCESSES AGAINST ISIN 485 or fourteen years of his reign Rim-Sin lived at peace, consolidating his position and making himself popular* Besides his piety towards Larsa agd Ur, he extended his favours to Adab, Zart>ilum, Mashgan-shabra, Ishkun-Shamash (a city on the bank of the » Euphrates), and Ishkun-Nergal, fortifying the two latter; but it is most striking that his beneficiaries did not include Ism, Erech or Babylon. Isin under Damik-ilishu (2154), son of Sin-magir (21 6^—5 5), was preparing for the storm. He, the last king of Isin who was to see the end of her pride, was at one with Babylon, where he built a temple to Shamash; his rule was acknowledged at Nippur; and at some date in his reign, perhaps before the storm burst, he built the wall of Isin, called Damik-ilishu-migir-Ninurta. Erech, under the king Warad-nene, was friendly, and along with Erech, which lay on the desert borders, might be reckoned from time to time the ephemeral support of the bedouin Suti, doubtless, like the modern representatives, an uncertain factor and certainly untrustworthy allies in a defeat. Isin and Babylon under the leadership of Warad-nene, with his following of wild bedouins, and the small city of Rapikum, allied themselves against Larsa and Ur under Rim-Sin. This Rapikum can hardly be the Rapikum mentioned by Tukulti-Ninurta, three days' march north of Sippar, and in all probability there was another of the name. In fact, it seems to have been reasonably near Larsa, to judge from a Larsa letter in which the writer reminds the addressee of the latter's promise to give him ten shekels when he went to Rapikum: *Five days hence I shall be en route to Rapikum: I send herewith Shamash-rabi to thee: send the ten shekels of silver.* The result does not appear to be in doubt. Rim-Sin speaks of his success with pride, and for many years continued to capture city after city, Sin-muballit of Babylon (2143—24) discreetly makes no mention of anything of the kind, and there is as yet no trace of the battle recorded in Damik-ilishu*s chronicles. Larsa in 2141 had won an indubitable victory. From now onwards Rim-Sin continued a policy of * nibbling, setting himself to swallow up the towns round his enemies piece- meal. First it was Ka-ida, 'the mouth of the rivers* (which had been absorbed by the Larsa king Sumu-ilum in 2219 *n£° t&e Larsa empire, but had evidently reverted to the foe), then Nazarum, both in 2140. The two cities may have lain near the modern Nasriyeh, and nothing but the certainty that Nasriyeh takes its namS frbm Nasir Pasha who built it not so many years ago, would prevent its identification with Nazarum. Next, in 2138, it was Imgur-Gibil and Zibnatum; then in 2137 Bit-Gimil-Sin and 486 ISIN, LARSA AND BABYLON [CHAP. Uzarpara, and in 2136 Kisurra and Durum; and finally, In 2134, having thus swept away the outliers, he took the very stronghold of Erech itself. The Isin coalition was hard hit, for by 2 1^30 Larsa had invaded the lands of Isin and captured the city of Damik-ilishu, its king. But Babylon then came to the aid of its old ally Ism, and delivered battle to the 'army of Ur' (or * Larsa* as the duplicates have it) in 2130,, and in 2127 it would appear that Babylon recaptured Isin. Rim-Sin leaves out all mention of this, thus tacitly admitting a temporary set-back; in one of his letters to a commander called Nuria, which refers to a defeat, he upbraids him. for not having sent the barges necessary for the troops. Ten had apparently been wanted but they did not arrive and the result was disastrous; whether they were for carrying men up-river, or supplying them with provisions we do not, of course, know; but Rim-Sin is definite in fixing the blame: *Thy life be for the soldiers who were killed: and as for those soldiers who are left, fill up (the rations) to twenty ka of grain each (?).' Whether we should assign this letter to this or some later year of Rim-Sin is doubtful; but it is an admirable illustration of what happens in Irak when transport is limited, as anyone who went through the earlier stages of the recent campaign up the Tigris will remember. In expectation of some further set-back Rim-Sin fortified Zarbilum in 2127. He then continued his 'nibbling,' capturing Dunnum, the strong city of Isin in 2126, although he allowed its people to dwell there. Finally in 2125 he succeeded in his great effort. Isin fell to him, and so triumphant was Rim-Sin over it that he dated the remaining thirty-one years of his reign by it. The people of Isin were scattered until Hammurabi's time (as the great king says), and it was not until his reign that they were reassembled; it was Rim-Sin's crowning achievement, and he was well satisfied. One of his inscriptions from Lagash, doubtless late in his reign, dedicated to the god Nin-shubur, defines his empire as including Nippur, Eridu, Ur, Lagash, Larsa, 'Sumer and Akkad,' and Uruk. We know very little of his private life: he wedded Si. . , Innina, the daughter of (W)arad-Nannar and also a daughter of Sin-Magir (king of Isin ?) named Rim-Sin-shala- bashtashu, and one of his daughters was named Lirish-gamlum. His sister En~an-e-ul has already been mentioned. Thus ends the .Fourth Section. Old Sin-muballit of Babylon, whose reign is reckoned by one chronicle at twenty years, and by the * Kings' List' at thirty, sat on the throne supine and p5w£rless before the sweeping victories of Rim-Sin , But his son Ham- murabi was of a different stamp. XIII, ni] HAMMURABI'S ACCESSION 487 III. HAMMURABI Hammurabi succeeded to the throne of Babylon (2 123— 208 i), young, vigorous, and a genius full of fire, destined to be both a law-giver and a fighter, a man who would have made an admirable Governor-general of modern Irak. His reign of forty- three years marks our Fifth Section during which the Babylonian empire was consolidated. There is a cryptic entry in the date-lists for Hammurabi's first action which is variously translated 'when he put order (or righteousness) in his land7 or 'he and his prefects put order in the land/ It may perhaps indicate reforms, but it is equally probable that it shows a state of unrest after Rim-Sin's victories. He began by building certain minor fortifications and finally, when his plans were ready, swept down on Erech and Isin and captured them both from Rim-Sin in 2117. Four years later he recaptured Rapikum, taking Shalibi in addition, and thereby stripped Rim- Sin of almost all his conquests. Rapikum was, as will be remem- bered, one of the allies under Erech; a variant in the date-lists attributes the capture to Ibik-Ishtar. This introduction of Ibik-Ishtar (obviously the same as the king of IVtalgi of that name) as an ally of Hammurabi into the annals points to an interesting sequence of events. Hammurabi, as he has related in the prologue to the Code, had befriended Malgi in a time of misfortune, about 2114 B.C., a year or so previously, and this was Ibik-Ishtar's way of showing his grati- tude. Malgi was a district which some have thought to have been situated near the sea; it was served by a Royal Canal in the time of Meli-Shipak II (about the thirteenth century). Its gods were Ea and Damkina, which certainly point to a connexion with water. But in his thirty-fifth year (2089) Hammurabi destroyed the walls of Mari and Malgi, and hence we must locate Malgi not far from the middle Euphrates near Mari, Since also we know that its king was named Ibik-Ishtar, we are justified on these two f rounds in seeking Malgi near the west Semitic districts of the uphrates1. 1 If we might place Malgi so far south as the watery district south-west of Babylon, represented to-day by the Bahr en-Nejef and Bahr Shinafiyah (presuming, of course, that these sheets of water existed in those days), we might identify Shalibi with the modern TTell Shelaba, near the latter lake. A Shelibi is known in Kassite times as supplying Nippur and Dur-Kurigalzu, but It is* not necessarily the same, nor is it easy to believe that either Shalibi or Shelibi is Zelebiyah up the Euphrates. 488 ISIN, LARSA AND BABYLON [CHAP. For the first twenty-nine years of his reign Hammurabi was content with these exploits. He spent much of his time in making thrones for Nannar, Sarpanit, Ishtar of Babylon, and qf Kibal- sabati, Nabu and Adad, and statues of Ishtar and Shala, and of himself; he built Bad-Laz, Bad-igi-kharshagga, restored the temples of Enlil (and dedicated a mace to the god in Babylon) and of Adad, also in Babylon (called E-namfche)* He also fortified Sippar and Bazu. In his thirtieth year (2094) he met the troops of Elam, who were apparently in alliance with Rim-Sin, Emutbalum and Ashnunnak; and in the next year he raided Emutbalum, captured Rim-Sin himself, and in the year following, Ashnunnak and Emutbalum* At this thrust the dynasty of Larsa crashed to the ground; the very temples of Emutbalum re-echoed with the trampling of Hammurabi's soldiery who were carrying off its goddesses. The king*s official letters about them are still extant, written to his minister Sin-idinnam : 'To Sin-idinnam speak, thus Hammurabi : the goddesses of Emutbal, which are assigned unto thee? the troops under the command of Inukhsamar will deliver unto thee. When they reach thee, detail some of the men who are with thee to settle the goddesses in their dwellings.' Another, which appears to be later, refers to the removal of these goddesses to Babylon, where Hammurabi himself would be able to refresh his memory and gloat on the triumphs over his foes by the sight of them. He informs Sin-idinnam that he will send two officers to take charge of the transport of these goddesses, and that Sin-idinnam is to embark them in a boat in a fitting shrine that they may come to Babylon with a train of temple-women in attendance. He is to provide for offerings for the goddesses and food for the ministrants on the way, and to arrange for men to tow the boat up river — just as they do to-day — and attach a picked escort to the boats. See above, p. 449. The campaign is recorded in the Chronicle with the words 'Hammurabi, king of Babylon, summoned his forces and inarched against Rim-Sin, king of Ur. Hisjband captured the cities of Ur and Larsa and he carried off their possessions into Babylon/ Tablets from Nippur, Tell Sifr and TTokha show that Rim-Sin ruled over these cities up to the thirtieth year after the capture of Isin (2096), but those of the first two places named represent him in control of Nippur and Tell Sifr from his thirty-first year onward, So proud was Hammurabi of his prowess in throwing offrthe enemy voke that hvmns were written in his XIII, m] HAMMURABI'S WORKS 489 Enlil thee hath power given. Whom dost thou await? Enzu thee hath headship given, Whom dost thou await? Ninurta thee hath fierce glaive given, Whom dost thou await?* Ish&r thee hath battle given. Whom dost thou await? It may be that the curious refrain 'Wliom dost thou await ?* referred to some allies who were supine and dilatory — the gods help th.ee> Hammurabi, why wait for other friends? For all time he his mighty strength hath shown^ The mighty warrior, Hammurabi, king, Who smote the foe, a very storm in battle. Sweeping the lands of foemen, bringing war to nought^ Giving rebellion surcease, (and) destroying, Like doll(s) of clay, malignants, hath laid open The steeps of the impenetrable hills. The last line shows that the reference Is to the mountains of the eastern barrier, Elam: there are no other mountains to be con- sidered so seriously. Freed from the Elamlte Incubus Hammurabi had little further to distract his attention from home. He took care, however, In 2089 to render Marl and Malgi innocuous by destroying their walls. He dug an enormous canal In 2091 called 'Hammurabi the abundance of the people/ and boasts of his energies: 'When Anu and Enlil gave (me) the lands of Sumer and Akkad to rule, (and) they entrusted their sceptre to me, I dug the canal Ham- murabi-nukhush-nishi which bringeth copious water to the lands of Sumer and Akkad. Its banks on both sides I turned Into glebe, I heaped up piles of grain, (and) I provided unfailing water for the lands of Sumer and Akkad/ (One may see great piles of grain to this day on the banks of a canal, covered over with reed mats for protection.) 'The scattered people of Sumer and Akkad,* so he goes on, * I gathered, with pasturage and watering I provided them; I pastured them with plenty and abundance, (and) settled them in peaceful dwellings*' He then built a wall or fortress at its head, calling it after his father 'Dur-Sin-muballit-the-father-who- begat-me/ In the next year (2090) he restored the great temple of E-tur- kalama in honour of Anu, Innana and Naraa. He has left an inscription of his building of the shrine of Ninni of Khallab, *the lady whose splendour covereth heaven and earth/ because she entrusted him with the sway of his empire. Indeed, he wrought many pious works for the temples during his later years, restoring E-iri£te*ursag of Zamama and Innina at Kish in 2088 and E-meslam of Nergal at Cuthah in 2084. There were only two 490 ISIN, LARSA AND BABYLON [CHAP. military exploits during the later years of his reign. The first appears to have been a foray to the north against Turukku, Kakmu and Sube in 2087. This incursion, which was ma^de partly against Kakmu, appears to have been undertaken to punish an unprovoked attack. It shows that Assyria was then subservient to « Babylonia. At the time when we left it (c. 2225), Assyria was still dependent on Babylon (p. 470). Its king, Ilu-shuma, was followed by his son Irishum, who has bequeathed to us actual relics of himself in the form of three inscriptions in which he calls himself patesi of Ashir, He was the first builder of the temple of Enlil, E-am- kurkura, and perhaps also of the temple of Adad in Ashur, where he also renewed the old shrine E-kharsag-kurkura. His successor (as King long ago suggested) was Ikunum, who built a temple to Ereshkigal in Ashur and restored the city wall. He was followed by Sharru-kin I, who renewed the Ishtar-temple of Ilu-shuma, and by this time (c. 2200), as we have already seen, the presence of Semitic Assyrians as far -afield as Cappadocia is certain. Then coine Puxur-Ashir II and Rim-Sin, the latter probably Rim-Sin of Larsa, and if this is true, Assyria was still (or again) under the rule of Babylonian kings. It may even be the case that the expansion towards Cappadocia was due to this pressure, for this dependence appears to have continued under Shamshi- Adad, a contemporary of Hammurabi, whose name is mentioned with Shamshi-Adad on a tablet of Hammurabi's tenth year. Here it should be added that the father of one Shamshi-Adad is given as Enlil-kabi, who was at one time identified with Be~el~~ ta-bi on a contract of the first year of Sin-muballit, but this has been given up. If we may trust Esarhaddon, it was his 'ancestor,' Enlil-ibni (Enlil-bani), the son of Adasi, who has now been found in the lists, who was 'the founder of the Assyrian kingdom* (c. 2050), On the other hand, Adad-nirari IV refers his pedigree to Enlil-kapkapi, 'the king of former times, my predecessor, the forerunner of the rule of Sulili* (= Sumu-la-ilu). Returning to Hammurabi's attacks in the north, we may note that the first of the places named, Turukku, is also mentioned by the Assyrian king Adad-nirari I (c. 1330), who calls himself the conqueror of the lands of Turuki and Nigimti, to their entire extent, with all (their) rulers, mountains and highlands; and he goes on to say that he overcame the Kuti, Akhlame and Suti. Turuki thus tallies roughly with our idea of the country in which Hammurabi's small war was fought. Kakmu occurs in an Inscrip- tion of Sargon of Assyria (722-705 B.C.) in a passage following XIII, m] THE CAMPAIGN IN THE NORTH 491 his exploits in Ararat: *(I) who changed the sites of the cities of Papa, Lalukni, Sukkia, Bala, Abitikna, which had plotted against the land^of Kakmu/ * By the good fortune which sometimes falls to the student., , a letter probably telling the origin of a similar expedition is extant. It is a despatch from Marduk-nasir to Ili-awelim~rabi, the writer being at one time, as we know from the letters of Abeshu*, a high official, probably the governor, of Sippar. *To Ili-awelim-rabi speak, thus Marduk-nasir : Marduk-nishu hath spoken to me thus: thus he (speaketh): "(Some) men of Kakmu and Arrabkhu have attacked the houses of the gardeners under my hand: when these men had attacked their houses, they (the gardeners) brought away their goods and are (now) dwelling in Babylon/' Nowdo I send you my letter. Drive out the men of Kakmu and Arrabkhu from the houses of these gardeners/ Arrabkhu (Arrapachitis) lies to the east or north-east of Assyria, and this fact settles the position of Kakmu. It is clear that some unfortunate husbandmen had been raided by Kurds, or their ancient equivalent, and, failing to defend themselves, had brought away such portable property as they might, and had taken the long journey to Babylon, which would ordinarily take about a fortnight, by kelek (skin-raft) and road. Doubtless the local ruler in the Assyrian capital was useless, or declined to listen to them, so that they elected to prefer their complaint to the king of Babylon direct. Evidently their cause was heard and the prestige of Babylon was maintained even in such a remote district; the force employed was obviously a local one, as Ili- awelim-rabi is told to carry out the business himself without the expectation of aid from the south. What is very possibly a monument of Hammurabi's campaign has already been described (p. 439). It must be remembered that Hammurabi was in firm occupation of Assyria at this time, and he would have little difficulty in obtaining a base here for an expedition to the north, where he might assemble a force and collect his supplies and animals. Assyria was occupied by picked Babylonian troops, as is clear from one of his letters to Sin- idinnam, governor of Larsa: 'Two hundred and forty men of the Royal Guard under Nannar-iddina of the force at thy disposal, who have left the land of Ashur and Shitullum ... let them set out and let their force take up billets with the troops of Ibni- Martu. These troops shall not delay: send them speedily that the/ xrfty complete the march.' Hammurabi, in the prologue to his Code, shows also by his beneficence to E-mishrnish, the 492 ISIN, LARSA AND BABYLON [CHAP. temple of Ishtar of Nineveh, how closely bound Babylonia was to Assyria. THb year after this raid into the north of Assyria > (2 08 6), Ashnunnak on the east of Babylonia suffered from a heavy flood. Such is not infrequently the case to-day, east of the present Tigris; there are large lakes between the river and the mountains, which are liable to rise with an increase of winter rain or melting snow. That his expedition to the north was concerned in this is hardly likely; he might have been able to divert some of the Tigris waters, as Abeshu* tried to do some years later, but if he did, he would probably have boasted of it. The explanation most likely is the ordinary one : that the Tigris of this period was not large enough to carry off the spring floods, and that the freshets over- flowed. The eastern flank of Babylonia was thus for a time secure and Hammurabi in the next year conquered the whole of the hostile lands *up to Subartu/ During the last four years of his reign he dug another canal, Tishit-Enlil, the canal of Sippar, and built the wall of Rapikum (near Erech and Larsa), which he thus definitely included in his empire. On the Tigris bank he built Kar-Shamash, * whereof the summit he made high like a mountain5; and, still dissatisfied with Sippar, he again increased its wall, and wrote its story in both Sumerian and Semitic: 'The top of the wall of Sippar/ says he, *I raised with earth like to a great mountain (and) set it about with a swamp : I digged the Euphrates unto Sippar and set up a wall of safety for it** Such were his activities as a soldier and pious ruler. Great though his deeds may have been as they are set out above, they pale before his wonderful creation, the Code of Laws, one of the most important documents in the history of the human race. That he was not the inventor of these laws, numbering some two hundred and eighty-five, is now well known, for Sumerian originals exist (see pp. 435 sq*y 461); but it was his genius which codified them and published them abroad in his empire. Even down to the seventh century B,C, it was studied apparently under the name of "The Judgments of Righteousness which Hammurabi, the great King, set up/ This was the Code wherewith the land was governed, and it shows the laws of Babylonia of this period to have been in advance of those of Assyria at a much later time. The Code, as we have it, consists of a block of black diorite found in the French excavations at Susa by De Morgan in 1901. It had been carried off from Babylonia by some Elamfee Con- queror in a raid, and he has erasecLgye of its columns, doubtless XIII, in] HAMMURABI'S EMPIRE 493 with the Intention of inscribing his own name there. On the obverse is a picture of Hammurabi receiving the laws from the Sun-god,; and a prologue sets forth the king's exploits, a!nd is followed by the laws themselves with the penalties attaching * thereto (see below, pp. 516—521). Great was his pride in his empire, as shown in the summary of his life in the prologue. Even a district of Cappadocia was partly populated by Assyrian emigrants, and Assyria was so far under his control that its ruler was a mere patesi or local governor; and even fifty years later outraged inhabitants would journey from Arrapachitis to Babylon, presumably in order to lay their plaint before the king himself. Indeed, it was no new conquest of the north from Babylon, for, already, Naram-Sin appears to have set up a stele near the modern Diarbekr (p. 417). Hammurabi was actively a benefactor of the temples and cities of Babylon, Borsippa, Kish, Cuthah, Sippar, Dilbat, Nippur and Duranki, Lagash, Adab, Larsa, Erech, Khallab, Isin, Ur, Eridu, Kesh and Mashgan-shabra, and even Nineveh. He carried his arms west- wards far up into the Euphrates districts of Man, where the people worshipped Dagan; and in one of the inscriptions of his period he is called 'King of Amurru/ the west land. That his occupation of the Euphrates was no mere invention is suggested by the 'marriage-lines' of two wedded folk in that district which still exist in the form of a clay-tablet dated in the year 'when Khammurapikh, the king, opened the canal Khabur4bal~bugash from the city Zakku-Isharlim to the city Zakku-Igitlim.' The mention of the name Khabur shows the provenance of the tablet: it is one from the Khabur district on the middle Euphrates, with -a local dating of its own. The final word bugashy the distinctive Kassite word for 'god/ in the name of the Canal is curious, and for this reason there is a doubt about the date of this tablet; It may be remembered that a tablet dated in the reign of Kashtiliash, probably the Kassite king of 1 708—1687, is extant (see p. 467), We know the name of one daughter of Hammurabi, Ilu- matisha, who appears as 'the daughter of the King' on a tablet of his thirty-seventh year, which is sufficient evidence that it is he who is her father. With the last five kings of the dynasty new movements were afoot: the Hnd Dynasty of Babylon, or, as it is now called, the 1st Dynasty of the Sea-Country, rose, and the Kassites made their first foray against Babylonia, which was to lead to their final conquest (Chap, xv). B CHAPTER XIV THE GOLDEN AGE OF HAMMURABI L THE COUNTRY ETWEEN the Persian Gulf and Baghdad the two great rivers, the Euphrates and the Tigris, water what once was ancient Babylonia. The physical characteristics have been de- scribed above (Chap, x, pp. 356 jjy.). The general features of the country in the second millennium B.C. were the same as they are to-day; a few of the wild beasts have died out, and with British occupation came the railways and the aeroplane — but, after all, these last are but easy potentialities of the Jinn with their magic carpets, and are hardly worth an Arab's curiosity. Four thousand years ago a traveller frora the Persian Gulf working his way up the river valleys from the sea to Assyria trusted to the vaguest ideas of geography* His guide would have told him that the sea of which the Persian Gulf formed part was a broad circular canal of which the bed continued round behind the Persian mountains and the Caucasus, "where the sun is not seen/ enclosing all Babylonia and Assyria. Such at any rate is the impression gained from the ancient clay map which some geo- grapher has left us; it may be that hazy traditions of the Caspian Sea, the Black Sea, the Mediterranean, and Red Sea had been woven together and are thus preserved in an ingenious theory that these were all connected with each other forming a belt of ! water about the land. Certainly two-thirds of this theory is correct; it is the explanation of that part of the country only, between the Black Sea and the Caspian, and thence southwards through Persia, which is at fault. His information of the lands which lie about Babylonia and Assyria would have been far more accurate, for merchants and soldiers had pushed far afield, and their knowledge could be supplemented locally. Distances would be reckoned in time by double hours and not by mileage, and in the settled districts travelling from town to town would be com- paratively easy; among the unsettled tribes where control was uncertain, doubtless it would be necessary to attach a man from the clan not only as a guide but as a protection, the usual* way of traversing such places* CHAP. XIV, i] COMMUNICATIONS IN BABYLONIA 495 A letter of Hammurabi to Sin-idinnam in Larsa, demanding a statement of accounts from the overseers of temple-cattle (especially the shepherd of the flocks of the great temple of Shamash), shows the rate of speed which was expected. 'Thou ^shalt despatch them unto Babylon that they may render their accounts. See' that they travel by night and by day, and reach Babylon within two days/ The distance is more than a hundred miles as the crow flies; and it is considerably more by water, which is the way they would probably travel if they were to journey night and day: their boat would be towed, poled and probably helped by sails, but it would be good going to do even a hundred miles upstream in two days and a night, and they would probably have taken another night on the way in addition. That it was safe for a boy with valuables to travel in the neighbourhood of Kish to Dilbat in the period of Ammi-zaduga, is clear from a dated letter. There is, however, nothing unusual in this, as none would be likely to stop a boy of the people on the road unless war were raging. 'Either send a goat (?) for an offering, or the money. I did not see you in Kish* Do not send (back) the boy empty-handed. (Seal) Ibni-Marduk, the scribe, servant of Nabu. Month Elul, gth day, the year when Ammi-zaduga the King, (built) Dur-Ammi-zaduga/ The traveller, after his galley had reached the head of the Persian Gulf, would leave the salt sea and cross the enormous shallow khors^ or swampy lakes, often of bitter water, and still subject far inland to the tides, where a man must dig a hole at the edge to find sweet water for drinking. If he were fortunate, his sea-going vessel would find a channel deep enough to carry her pver these lagoons to the joint mouth of the Gharraf and Euphrates near where stands the modern Nasriyeh, doubtless the neighbour of the ancient Dur-Ammi-zaduga* Thence the usual mode of trans- port was by boat and barge on rivers or canals. Marduk-nasir, the successor and probably the son of Sin-idinnam, an official of Sippar in the time of Abeshu', sent word to Nabi-Shamash to forward certain goods which had been left behind in Kar-Shamash, the city on the Tigris, girt with the high wall, founded by Hammurabi: 'put them in a boat and .let them come to me in Sippar/ One Sani writes to his two friends Dan-ilu and Inbi-Sin: * About the boat of which ye spake: a boat is going to my lord(s), I send you a letter; return me answer to my letter; let the boat return to its owner at your convenience/ Balrg&s were reckoned by their burthen or carrying capacity in £W-measures : the syllabaries show that the size ranged from five, 496 THE GOLDEN AGE OF HAMMURABI [CHAP. ten, fifteen or twenty ^gw up to sixty gur* According to a letter of Hammurabi, a ship of seventy-five gur burthen would carry ninety men ('from round about Ur'), who would amount to six tons dead weight, demanding seating space for at lea'st ninety square yards or, say, a ship of 45 feet length with 18 feet beam,^ without reckoning space for crew, tackle and "food. The present writer noticed a bumy or seagoing vessel at Basrah, with a length over all of 50 feet, and 18 feet beam, with a freeboard when unloaded of five feet, which must have been just such another, save that the ship of seventy-five gur was probably a mahailah for river work only, and would be shallower with less freeboard. It takes from three to six men looped to the towing rope, to drag a mahailah of this size upstream. To-day the water transport is curiously varied. Down the Euphrates from Birejik to Felujah they use a flat-bottomed boat called shakhtur^ and below Felujah ply the rough boats made at Hit, while on the lowest reaches the sailing barge or wherry known as the mahailah is found. On the Tigris, from Diarbekr to Baghdad, the descent is made on skin rafts, which rarely go below the latter city; at Baghdad begins the 'kuffah* (gufak\ or coracle, which will be found almost as low as Filaifilah; and below, between Filaifilah and Basrah, the people use the little skiff-like helium. The great southern lake, now known as the Khor Hammar between the sea and the river mouths, is girt with flat land" fringed with high reed beds: little islands rise sporadically out of the water, barely lifting their heads above the high tide, and when they do, support the reed huts and families of a few marsh* dwellers of a low type, who, as jesting stories say, are almost web-footed. Perhaps even in these days the great city of Eridu lay on the fringe of this lake — 'sea' the Babylonians always called- it — and the mariner's galley might tie up near the Quay of the New Moon, like some more modern Adapa, the hero of Eridu of the Babylonian saga, who broke the wings of the south wind in revenge for the squall which upset his scow as he was fishing (p. 401). The shoreland is marked by low level banks of dull sepia, fringed always with reeds, withered to dull brown in the winter, save where some plantation of palm trees near a town along a canal marks civilization. Round about this lake lies the sea-land where in the next few hundred years a dynasty is to arise, replacing the less vigorous dregs of the first. In prehistoric times there had been great settlements to south and west of these lakes by the same people who had <»cc*apied Elam after their migration thither from the east* Here on the XIV, 1] SHIPS AND HOUSES 497 Euphrates flats they had made their dwelling, built the founda- tions of many cities — Ur, Eridu, the modern Tell el-Lahm and others — ^ploughed the fields with hoes of chipped stone, reaped their crops with sickles of baked clay, and rubbed the corn with - stone mullers; shot birds with stone arrow-heads and clay sling- bolts, caught fish with nets, and even with reed traps where the tide helped them, and ate the freshwater mussels; learnt to rub dow& obsidian into delicate pins, burnt clay pots in the fire, painted them in a hundred ingenious designs, and built their houses of unburnt bricks and reeds. Then as the Sumerians invaded the land from the north, these settlers died out or were absorbed in the conquering race: Ur, Eridu and the rest had become Sumerian cities by the third millennium B.C., and at the time of which we speak, about 2 zoo B.C., the Semite in his turn was ousting the Sumerian. The invention of burnt bricks had long made a difference in the appearance of the cities, and the Sumerians, with a remi* niscence perhaps of their mountains in the east, had added lofty pyramid-like towers to the temples, which now stood up promi- nently as landmarks across the dead levels. Brick buildings were, however, only for the temples and palaces, the houses of the richer folk and officials; the poorer people used the reeds, as they still do, for houses and boats. In the earlier times about 3000 B.C., when red burnt bricks were coming into fashion, the Sumerians moulded them flat on one side and convex on the other, with a thumb impression lengthwise to grip the bitumen which they used for mortar (and even these may not be the earliest type); by the middle of the third millennium these had gone out of use, and flat bricks took their place. But as fuel was scarce these must have -been expensive to bake, and it is for this reason probably that foundations and city walls were made of adobe. The reed huts and boats of the poor folk go back to the most distant period of all : to this day they are to be seen on the Tigris^ as far up as the reed beds themselves extend, beyond Kut el-Amara, but not much farther. Such a hut did Uta-Napishtim, the Babylonian Noah, occupy, when his patron Enki, the god of wisdom, being privy to the intention of the gods to drown mankind in a flood, came to warn him. But "as he drew nigh to the village the god felt qualms about divulging the secrets of heaven to a mortal, and so, not daring to tell his friend directly, came to the reed hut in which he knew Uta-Napishtim was dwelling, and revealed the project "to the wall and not the man: * Reed-hut, Reed-hut, Wall, Wall, O Reed-hut hear, O Wall understand/ and by such C.A.H.I 32 498 THE GOLDEN AGE OF HAMMURABI [CHAP. casuistry was the Babylonian Noah saved. To-day these huts are built on a framework like a tunnel made of a succession of long arched bundles of reeds. The bundles of reeds are tightly bound into sheaves, as thick as a man's leg or thicker, prolonged to unlimited length by lapping the ends of one bundle firmly within the end of another. These great fasces are then set on one end in the earth, arched over, and the other end is then also buried; the walls are formed by similar bundles bound cross-wise horizontally to this framework, and over the upper part as a roof are spread mats of split reeds. Or the hut may be made more simply with upright reeds for the walls, and a screen of palm branches to mask the doorway. Rafts are made of great thick cylinders of reed bundles in tiers, the whole float bearing at least three people; the present writer has seen one on the Tigris towed downstream carrying a man, two women, a child and a calf, and herein is to be sought the explanation of the directions to Uta-Napishtim, when the Flood is threatened, that he is to pull down his house and build a boat. There are few materials In a mud-brick hut wherefrom a boat may be built, but it is altogether another matter in the case of a good reed-hut, for the whole material can be turned into a raft, which thus must have been the original Noah's Ark. The marsh- Arab of to-day is quite accustomed to pull down his cabin and transfer it (by boat, be it said) to another place. • Skiffs are made of three bundles lashed together, tapering towards the prow, and more than a man's height long, and even floats to sustain a man swimming are made of reed bundles, where in the more northern districts an inflated skin would be used. In the fields you may see little watchers' platforms made on four reed columns, as high as a man, raised far enough above the flat to see an hour or two's journey away. In the distance are visible moving objects like a T, the top cross-piece sloping backwards: these are the women bringing in sheaves of reeds or fueL Such were the boats our traveller would have met on his journey across the lakes. Here at Eridu or Ur he must leave his sea-going vessel and go up one of the ancient arms of the Euphrates (the modern Shatt el-Kar for choice), or the Tigris, perhaps by the present Gharraf channel, in a shallower boat. If it was the same as a modern mahailahy the large sailing barge, a favouring wind would help him upstream, but more probably his men must tow him: thus did Hammurabi order the statues of the goddesses of Emutbal to be brought to Babylon,'* hauled upstream by *men to pull the ropes* (sab? ska did asMm). Other- XIV, i] BOATS, DATE-PALMS 499 wise, if he travel by land it must be by ass, or more rarely, camel, for the horse did not come into use until the Kassites invaded the land. The traveller is now entering the populous districts of middle Sumer; Eridu and Ur are only the southern outliers, and , the former of these, as the marshes dried and the canals failed, ceased to be a town of importance, receiving honour only, because of the antiquity of its shrine to Enki. Ur was different; the Euphrates washed its flanks, and it rose to such importance that there was no room on the mound itself for the traders and husband- men who flocked to live in safety within its walls. Northwards for a mile beyond its two-mile perimeter they have left great traces of their dwellings, the bricks with which they built, the stones which they used to grind their corn. Its great ziggurat of burnt brick pierced the sky, frowning over the splendid temple to the moon-god for which the city was so famous: kings1 daughters were priestesses here, even down to the time of the antiquary-king Nabonidus who loved to preserve old customs. Round about the city extended the green corn-fields, and near its canals were the groves of palm-trees. Dates, corn, flocks, herds and fish were the staple commodities and it may be that in the southern districts the fish and dates held highest place, just as is shown to-day when the Arab women embroider their little purses with palm-branches and fishes. Amid the palm-trunks grew the fruit-trees as they do to-day, A Babylonian cylinder-seal of early workmanship shows the date- pickers plucking the dates from the lower kinds of palm trees, and represents two other kinds of trees growing in the plantation. Ammianus Marcellinus, in his account of the Roman legions under Julian in the fourth century A.D., tells the same story of palms interspersed with vines and a kind of apple. Nowadays you may find growing amid the palms, grapes and figs with their fruit forming or ripening in May and offered in the markets in June, the scarlet flower of the pomegranate in late April with the fruit ripe in July, and mulberries ripe in April. Of other fruits in southern Babylonia the melon stands easily first, and is in the markets in June and continues until the end of October. Apples are frequently to be found in the bazaar (both in January and June), walnuts and lemons in January. Oranges are poor at Basrah, but rival the melon at Baghdad in early summer, and orchards of apricots drop their yellow fruit in May to the north of Baghdad; vegetables are unlimited; the purple bedinjan or egg- plant^ d*e most satisfactory substitute for the potato, is to be had for the greater part of the year. 500 THE GOLDEN AGE OF HAMMURABI [CHAP. A cuneiform list of more than sixty different kinds of vegetables grown in the royal Babylonian gardens of Merodach-Baladan has survived. The palace-gardener grew very much the same kind of plants as the modern inhabitants of Basrah: garlic* onions, mint, beans, cardamoms, leeks, pennyroyal, lettuce, dill, saffron, coriander, hyssop, thyme of two kinds, mangold, turnip, radish, lucerne, assafoetida, cucumber and colocynth, are among the plants which can be easily identified. Of cereals ancient Babylonia possessed the following: emmer spelt (zizti), which gave its name to the month Sebat; kunashu (the KvXXyj arris of Herodctus ii, 77; Egyptian, k-l-sh-f) and bututtu^ a form of spelt in the Kassite period (Egyptian, bdi)\ corn, barley, wheat and sesame, Berosus speaks also of barley, ochrys, palms, and apples growing wild; and Pliny of wheat which, after being cut twice, still provided good fodder for sheep. He who would travel by river had little need to fear wild beasts or robbers, save perhaps in rare cases when a bakshish might be taken by some upstart occupant of a river bank from boats going through his domain. But the wayfarer by the more desolate roads feared other terrors besides lack of food and water. Lions had abounded in the thickets in ancient times and the goddess Ishtar had reckoned one of them her lover; thus does Gilgamesh taunt her with her past amours when she proposed marriage to him ; Thou did'st love also a lion in all the full strength of (his) vigour, Yet thou didst dig for him seven and seven pits. Gilgamesh and Engidu together slew lions in the hey-day of their youth, but after Engidu died Gilgamesh set forth ^on his travels alone, and the dread of the lonely road presented itself vividly to the hero; I will get hence on the road, to the presence of Uta-napishtim? The wise, the son of Ubara-tutu, I'll speed my departure, An't -were in darkness that I should arrive at the gates of the mountains, And meet with lions, and terror fall on me, I'll lift my face (skyward) To offer my prayers to the Moon-god. Panthers, jackals and foxes were common, yet the letters and contracts tell us so little of them, that we can see how well the shepherds knew how to look after their flocks. In the hills were the ibex, on the plains gazelles and wild asses, and in the thickets, wild boar; the wild ox is already rare. Of domestic animals the ass was the chief beast of burden, probably a descendant of the wild ass, the same species which roamed the plains even in Xenophon's time. In the later Baby- lonian empire, after Assyria had fallen, it was still customary for XIV, ij ANIMALS AND BIRDS 501 men to ride donkeys. cNow/ says a writer of this date, 'since I am coming without an ass, give the ass to Samas-etir that it may carry him, an4 the deposits be brought.' The horse did not come into common use until it was introduced by the Kassites (see p. 311), * Its Sumerian name, 'the ass from the east/ shows whence it came, and that the Sumerians knew of it; although actually the earliest reference to it is on a tablet of Hammurabi's period. The camel also^was a beast which was introduced fairly late, as its name * the ass from the sea-lands/ implies; and as the Babylonian-Semitic name for it is gammalu^ it probably came in with the Suti-bedouins via Erech. It is not often mentioned in contracts or letters, and the probability is that the Arabs kept their own carrying-trade in the desert as a monopoly, rarely showing their beasts in the towns, and that camel-caravans (such as ply to-day between Baghdad and Mosul), either were not common, or were distinct from the ordinary methods of travel used by the Babylonians, That camels were not led into the cities is not unusual, as their drivers prefer to park them outside. The other domestic animals were the black buffalo, the ox, the black goat, and both brown and white sheep. The present writer also found the skeleton of Bos celticus (identified by Mr W. P. Pycraft, F.Z.S.) at the base of the ziggurat at Eridu, some fifteen to nineteen feet below the surface, where it had evidently been buried as a sacrifice about Bur-Sin *s time (c. 2400 B.C.). Of smaller domestic animals the temples contained dogs which were specially fed, and there were, of course, the ordinary fowls of the farmyard. As for the larger kinds of birds, the shells of ostrich eggs have been found at Babylon and Bahrein; the bustard is still to be seen, and there are birds of prey, innumer- able waterfowl and wading-birds, sandgrouse, partridges, bee- eaters and so on. If our traveller had gone up the Gharraf there is little doubt that he would have seen exactly the same kind of country as lies about the present bed of the Tigris, He might, as to-day, meet with gulls in Baghdad, even in Mosul in the winter, and terns, as high up the Euphrates as Carchemish, in spring. As one ascends the Shatt el-Arab and the Tigris, the low river-banks become higher and steeper; the river itself, six hundred yards wide at Basrah, narrows sometimes to seventy, but is usually from one to two hundred yards. From Basrah up to Kurnah the bank is fringed with palm-groves, willows and reeds: sometimes an island, as at Gurmat Ali, offers good pasture, but behind the leafy- barrier *bf the margin lies the flat desert, stretching as far as eye can see> desolate and flat* The fields sown with maize, which is/ 502 THE GOLDEN AGE OF HAMMURABI [CHAP. ten feet high In November, are sometimes marked with walls three feet high; green grass, visible in November, extends in a belt two hundred yards in depth along the banks, if cultivation has not destroyed it; beyond this is flat desert, relieved only by a rare and low mound, or reed village. On the mud selvage are the. reed fish traps, as far up as the tide affects the stream. Above Kurnah the palm-groves cease for a space, and nought is to be seen save level desert with grass now green, now brown. The reed villages are built on the river-edge, and with them are occasional tents of black hair. On the mat roofs of the Iruts dry the cakes of cow-dung fiiel; the cattle and sheep graze in the stubble fields, hens and dogs pick up what livelihood they can in the village itself. The Arab women wear bright colours, red or even green, often with rings in their right nostrils, more rarely in the left, and with silver bangles on their arms. Boys either wear their hair close-cropped (probably shaven), but sometimes they let it fall in two long plaits, or leave it until they are shock- headed, when the shaving process begins again. Sometimes one passes a mud fort built rectangular with towers fourteen feet high at the corners. Towards Amarah, the first large town above Basrah, the gardens are irrigated with the chird or waterwheel turned by a horse, and are girt about with mud walls, protected against thieves by a layer of camel-thorn laid on top. These chirds are found as far up the Tigris as Mosul, and on the lower Euphrates; but on the middle Euphrates with its high sheer banks they disappear, their places being taken by a great water- wheel which turns by the current, lifting the water from the stream by a succession of little pots tied to its circumference which empty themselves into a trough as they reach the top. Skin waterlifts pulled by an animal going up and down a ramp are to be found near Basrah and Baghdad; the shadufy or swipe, exists at Basrah also, just as it is shown on an Assyrian bas-relief. In the neighbourhood of Amarah the Persian mountains of the frontier first come into view in the east, perhaps the most striking sight in the whole of Mesopotamia, calling to mind the cuneiform sign which means both * mountain' and *the east.' They are of limestone, towering in great mass, and form a tremendous barrier against the dwellers in the plain. Snow descends upon them in December, when their summits are crowned with a white mantle. Above Samarra the country begins to undulate, and the river is less navigable. One now comes to Assyria proper with its cities, Ashur, Kalakh and Nineveh all abutting on the river. The* date •palm ceases to flourish naturally about Tuz Khurmati, although XIV, n] BABYLON 503 stray palms grow even as high as Mosul. The hills of Jebd Hamrin break the levels to the south of Ashur, and above these round IV^osul He the red undulating ploughlands, like the English west country. Above Mosul the mountains begin. Up the Euphrates the same law of latitude for the date palm holds good, for it flourishes as high as Anah, but no higher. Here in old times were the red-brown lands of Mari and Sukhi, rourid the Khabur mouth, and here, long after our period, Shamash-rish-u§ur planted palm groves and boasted of his intro- duction of the bee. Round about Carchemish, a little higher, where each year spring two crops, wheat and licorice, lay the southern confines of the Hittite lands, settled by immigrants from Anatolia, leaving their magnificent mountains for the dusty limestone foothills of Jerabls. The Amanus mountains, which provided wood for boats then, just as they do now, and the Cilician limestone ranges clad with flowers of all hues in June, mark roughly the barrier between Hittite and Semite, These are the lands our traveller would see. II. BABYLON Babylon, the Gate of God, or, as a text from Ashur describes it, 'a date of Dilmun, whereof the fruit alone is sweet,* became the capital of this land under Semitic rule. We know far more of its appearance when Nebuchadrezzar was on the throne than at this early period, and we must skip fifteen hundred years or so, and look at it as it was in the sixth century B.C. The foundations of the great buildings go back into the distance of ages; the temples and palaces visible now are more modern. The earliest accessible times are those of the first Babylonian kings, but there is evidence of prehistoric occupation from the neolithic imple- ments. Cf. p. 407 sq+ As the traveller drew nearer the great city he was guided by the immense tower of E~temen-ana-ki, 'the Foundation Stone of heaven and earth, ' its eight stages, if we may believe Herodotus, showing clear in the sunlight. Round this * brazen-doored sanc- tuary of Zeus Belus/ as the Greek called Bel-Marduk, arose a myth of a presumptuous people who would build their tower to touch the sky, and of Yahweh who came down to see the city and the tower, and confounded their speech and scattered them abroad lest they should succeed in their object. * Therefore is the name bf it called Babel/ says the Hebrew writer, * because Yahweh did there confound the language of all the earth/ So are 504 THE GOLDEN AGE OF HAMMURABI [CHAP. Scale of Yards. 250 500 760 1000 \] . ENAHK1 F BABEL)" O *-i (TEMPLE OF MAJJBTJKJ BABYLON its ancient buildings in 1020. XIV, n] NEBUCHADREZZAR'S BUILDINGS 505 myths built up; for Babel means 'Gate of God' and lias nothing to do with the Hebrew word fralal 'to confound/ Yet, not to mention^ the psychological interest of the story (see p. 225}, it is noteworthy that an echo of part of the legend appears in the very - cuneiform legends themselves : it was Marduk who commanded Nabopolassar 'to lay the foundation (of the Tower of Babylon) . . . firm on the bosom of the Underworld, while its top should stre'cth heavenwards/ The great towered encircling walls of Babylon rise sheer from the plain, in their outer bastion 3-3 metres thick, fronted by a deep fosse; behind this bastion lies a wall of burnt brick, 7-8 metres thick, and at an interval of about twelve metres another wall of crudf brick, 7 metres thick. The space between the two walls is filled with rubble so that a road leads along the top of the walls broad enougk for a four-horse chariot, as also do the classical travellers aver. To the north-east the frontage is 4*4 kilometres long, and not quite half that length on the south-eastern side. The circuit of the city was about eighteen kilometres; Herodotus says eighty-six and Ctesias sixty-five, but the German excavator Koldewey thinks they may have mistaken the full circumference for one side. The great king Nebuchadrezzar, fearing attack from the eastern side where the Euphrates does not shield the wall, had set himself to secure the city: 'That no assault should reach Imgur-Bel, the wall of Babylon, I did what no earlier king had done; for 4000 ells of land on the side of Babylon, so far removed that [no assault] should penetrate, I caused a massive wall to be built on the eastern side of Babylon/ He dug its moat, built a scarp with bitumen and bricks, and made a wall as high as a mountain, made gates of cedar and copper, surrounded it with deep lagoons, piled high an embankment of earth, and made quay-walls of burnt brick. Within this encircling wall lay three main groups of stately buildings. Far to the north is what to-day is called Babil; between Babil and the ziggurat is the Kasr; and just at the southern foot of the ziggurat is the mound of Amran* All round about these palaces on the flat were the flat-roofed, yellow houses snuggled close in streets, especially in the modern Merkes, and to the north-east of the ziggurat, where some richer house was set, a few stray palms or fruit trees rose. As a broad ribbon on the west, with a heavy fringe of palms, flowed the Euphrates, at this period washing the flanks of the Kasr; beyond this Vele the fields of wheat, and palm groves marking a water- course, until the eye met brown desert or some far city with its 506 THE GOLDEN AGE OF HAMMURABI [CHAP. holy pinnacle striking the heavens, like Kish due east, or even Cuthah, visible at a clear time of day, or the zlggurat of Nabu of E-zida at Borsippa, nine miles to the south-west. ^ The clustered buildings of Babil to the north are, as they stand now, 22 metres above the plain, and cover an area of 250 metres. Arab brick-robbers, rummaging at random in this later age, scattering the noble buildings of Nebuchadrezzar who has stamped the bricks with his name, have destroyed what must have i>een his palace, which he seems to have named * May-Nebuchadrezzar- live-may-he-grow-old-as-the-restorer-of-E-sagila/ Little is known of it from excavation. It is the Kasr, the main imposing palace- mound, between it and Amran, which affords our greatest know- ledge of Babylon palaces of this period. The Kasr, six hundred yards to the north of the ziggurat, in the sixth century bore the great architectural triumphs of Nebuchadrezzar, who completed the works of his father, Nabopolassar. Later on the Greeks called it the Acropolis, the Romans the Arx or citadel; to-day the work which has been laid bare and stands in massive yellow walls is almost all by Nebuchadrezzar. As one ascends the Kasr from the north-east corner, one meets • * •> the broad road which leads to the magnificent Gates of Ishtar. It was made by Nebuchadrezzar almost like a sacred way, over which his god Marduk might pass to the temple of E-sagila, south of the ziggurat. Beneath, it was laid on firm foundations of bricks covered with asphalt, and then a surface made of a flagged pavement of limestone and red breccia. Time was when this pro- cessional road was flanked by high protecting walls which guarded the approach to the Gate of Ishtar, between long avenues of lions on the walls picked out in low relief with brilliant enamelling; lions to left and right, a hundred and twenty snarling monsters to frighten away all evil from the city. The bricks are burnt bricks, mortared with asphalt and mud, or asphalt and reed straw. Only in his latest buildings did Nebuchadrezzar use lime for mortar; Nabonidus, still later, used asphalt, following the ancient mode, and the Persians, Greeks and Parthians used merely mud. The great Gates of Ishtar confront the traveller, beetling high above him, when he passes the last lion. This is a double gateway of massive burnt brick, two doorways set close together, formed into one block by short connecting walls, the one behind the other, even now twelve metres high and covered with nine rows of alternate dragons and bulls in relief on the bricks. Once through these monstrous portals, the traveller stands on a high op£n Space before the eastern front of the southern citadel of the mound, XIV, n] THE CITADELS AND HOUSES 507 which now lies to the right hand. On the left hand is E-makh, the temple of the goddess Ninmakh, the great lady, of mud bricks cover ecUwith. white plaster, so that to all appearances it was like white marble in the sun. Like other buildings in the east, it con- sists of chambers round a rectangular court which lies open to the sky: in front of the entrance is perhaps what was a small altar of mud bricks. On the right is the southern citadel, a far more splendid build- ing. Originally a palace of Nabopolassar, it had been preserved by* Nebuchadrezzar as his dwelling-place while the eastern part was being built, and it contains no less than four great courtyards, round which were scores of chambers. Its wall, high and studded with towers? abutted on the procession-way; its principal court was splendidly adorned with enamelled tiles. On the western side of this southern citadel ran the historic wall of Imgur-Bel, running along the edge. It had been built by Nabopolassar, and Nebuchadrezzar describes his own additions: * After Nabopolassar, my father, my begetter, made Imgur-Bel the great wall of Babylon, I, the fervent suppliant, worshipper of the lord of lords, dug its fosses and raised its banks of asphalt and baked bricks mountains high. O Mardiik, great lord, behold the costly work of my hands with satisfaction, may'st thou be my helper, my support; grant (me) the gift of long life/ The centre of the mound holds the principal citadel, due to a second scheme of Nebuchadrezzar, Here was another of his palaces, built with bright yellow bricks, cemented with fine white lime mortar, and here and there a layer of matting or reeds. On the walls were large reliefs of a beautiful blue paste; the flooring was made of paving stones of white and mottled sandstone, and in the courts limestone and black basalt. At the entrance stood gigantic basalt lions; here, td^was found the large basalt group of the lion trampling on a prostrate man — perhaps of allegorical significance. Leaving the central mound, the way south-eastwards leads to the populous quarter now known as Merkes, where the burghers of Babylon had their homes. The upper remains to-day show Parthian houses, thin walls of mud brick or brick rubble; below these lie the houses of the citizens of the glorious period of Nebuchadrezzar, the houses closely crowded in? but with never a window looking on the street, the narrow streets like any eastern town to-day, their walls stoutly built of mud and brick, good bricK tFieir flooring, and the water-supply obtained from numerous circular wells. Earlier, in the late Kassite period (1400—1300 B.C.), 508 THE GOLDEN AGE OF HAMMURABI [CHAP. the city was less thickly populated, for, though the walls are as stoutly built, the houses stand at wider intervals. Still earlier, unde/ Hammurabi, the walls are of mud-brick on a foundation of burnt brick. A little to the north of Merkes lay a small temple to Ishtar* The splendid ziggurat, E-temen-ana-ki, the Tower of Babel, lies in an almost square enclosure, the east side being 409 metres long. Most of the buildings are of crude brick; round the tower are the mansions of the priests, girt about with walls whereof the even lines are broken with high gates and a thousand towers. Here w£re the treasuries with immense temple-wealth, the guest chambers innumerable for strangers visiting the shrine, Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal, the Assyrian kings, anxious to record their names in distant Babylon, like any traveller of any age who can write, restored part of the great fane. To the south of the Tower, 2, 1 metres below the surface of what is now the mound of Amran,lay the great temple of Marduk, E-sagila. The name is not mentioned in the oldest inscriptions of the south, but when Dungi invaded Babylon he looted the temple. Later, it was rebuilt by Zabum and Agum II, the latter restoring the statue of Marduk carried off in some ancient raid. The temple was almost square, the frontage being 85 and 79 metres on the west and north sides; within is a court 37 X 31 metres, and on the west side of this was the principal shrine, that of the tutelary deity Marduk. On the north of the court lay also a little shrine to Ea, who in Greek times was identified with Serapis. The two Assyrian kings again carried on restorations here, and the temple was open until at least the Seleucid period, as may be seen from the small objects found in the excavations. Five hundred yards to the south-east is a small rectangular temple (called *Z' by Koldewey), made of mud-brick. A short distance to its east lies E-patutila, the shrine of Ninurta, built principally by Nabopolassar* IIL GOVERNMENT AND SOCIETY The government of the country changed greatly after the early Sumerian kings of the third millennium, as must naturally happen when the control of the land is becoming centralized. In the very early period the exact relation in meaning of the two words lugaly 'king/ and patesi, * prince-priest,* is quite uncertain: Ur-nina (c. 3100 B.C.) calls himself king of Lagash, but Eannafum (£. 3000 B.C.) takes the title patesi of Lagash. As time goes on, and XIV, m] THE PATESI 509 we reach the period of the Dynasty of Ur about the middle of the third millennium, we can be more definite; the patesi from being the chief secular and religious ruler of a city-state »drops to a position of dependence on the overlord, who is now holding ., the reins of control of the nucleus of an empire in his hands. He has sunk to the minor position of a local governor, natural enough as the stronger states absorbed the weaker. Babylonia by now was^no longer divided into just so many states as there were mounds, but had reached the time when city-states were being amalgamated into groups, each under its own king, when Ur held the hegemony of a greater part of the lower plain between the two rivers. The patesi remained in control of his township, but it was as a minor official. The tablets from Drehem show how numerous these patesis were in the time of the Dynasty of Ur, We know of more than forty districts or townships controlled by them; and in fact almost complete lists of patesis can be made from Umma, Nippur and Lagash from the thirty-fifth year of Dungi until the third of Ibi-Sin. There were many places in Elam under the local control of patesis at this period, as was only natural, since many of the kings of Ur at this time were overlords of Susa and Elam. Of Kazallu we know the names of four (Zarik, Kallarnu, Gimll- mama, Abillasha); and on a tablet from Susa we find Zarikim taking office in the presence of ten witnesses, several of whom are obviously Semites. Although the power of the patesis declines, even in the time of the Dynasty of Ur they had the right of legal decision; they were, however, compelled to pay taxes, and might be transferred from one district to another. One of their duties was to take charge of sheep sent in for the temple or for the king. They were, as a rule, appointed to the office, and did not inherit it — although there is one exception; and they found it advan- tageous to be mindful of the sacrifices to the gods. They might be absent from their posts for a time, probably while on official missions, their places being taken by temporary deputies; for instance, at Umma two are named for the fifty-seventh year of Dungi, and for the fifth year of Bur-Sin. Provisions, consisting usually of food, beer and oil, were supplied both for the journey out and back. From references to kings* daughters at this period it would appear that patesis married them; *the daughter of the king* marries the patesi of Zabshali, *the daughter of the king* marries the patesi of Anshan. Ni . . . midaku, another king's daughter, was actually elevated to the rule of the principality of Markhashi; but in the two former instances there is equally the 510 THE GOLDEN AGE OF HAMMURABI [CHAP. possibility that they became the patesis, rather than that they married them. With the advent of the Semitic kings of the Isin and Larsa dynasties in 2357 the office of patesi was shorn of much of its splendour, and although it continued to exist, the mayor of provincial towns (called raManu} was soon to become a more powerful personality, Hammurabi was not a king with whom decentralization would be popular; he could not grant his ^sub- ordinates a full measure of power, except in minor cases. More- over., although meticulously careful of religious matters, he seems to have brooked no challenge from the priests in the matter of control, for we find the old priestly courts disappearing in his reign. Hence may have arisen the reason that the office of patesi, with its priestly reminiscences, as well as its Sumerian origin in its disfavour^ fell rapidly from power. The word patesi now represents an officer who takes his orders not directly from the king, but from some official between him and the king. Thus Hammurabi says to Sin-idinnam: 'I wrote to thee that Sin-ilu the patesi who was under Taribatum, whom thou didst assign to riduti (officers of the levy), should be restored as a patesi to the control of Taribatum/ The office is a long way from the king by now. Apparently the governor of Larsa thought he could make a patesi into a ridu or officer of the levy, but Sin-ilu must have appealed directly to Hammurabi, availing himself of a privilege as popular with the toadying underling as with the condescending monarch. Such an officer might beg the king to allow him to exchange his district: Apil-Martu, the son of Mini-Martu, a patesi who takes orders from Enubi-Mard.uk, appeals through Sin-idinnam to Hammurabi that he may serve another chief, and the king assents, providing that the new chief, by name Nabium- malik, gives a patesi to Enubi-Marduk in exchange, Elam relin- quished the patesi soon after Dungi's reign, replacing the office by that of the sukkal, an indication of Kutur-nakhkhunte's con- quest of Babylonia. The judicial procedure in the time of the Dynasty of Ur appears to have been carried out by a mashkim (Semitic rabim}^ who is found present in all trials. Men of this class were not, were many of them. Before them were decided all kinds of important cases, particularly of sales. Sometimes the mashkim appealed to the Galu-enim-ma^ a semi-official person wh»se*r61e is not clear. Finally, in cases which the mashkim was not capable XIV, m] , THE COURTS 511 of deciding, professional judges were added, called Sa-Kud^ of whom there might be from two to four. The decisions of even these latter might be challenged and an appeal lodged against them. In the period of the 1st Dynasty the administration of Babylon and some of the other large towns (such as Sippar-Amnanu) appears to have been in the hands of the skakkanakku, governor/ Indeed, the shakkanakku of Babylon became such an institution that it is usual to find later kings such as Sargon calling themselves by tthis title rather than sharruy 'king.' During the Dynasty of Ur at least a dozen towns or districts have such an officer, but the number appears to have been reduced as time went on. Most of the towns of Babylonia were under a rabianu^ 'mayor/ Both shakkanakku and rabianu could preside over courts, the one in Babylon and the other in the Inferior courts of Babylon and the provincial towns. Justice was maintained by a series of courts with a final appeal to the king. But in Hammurabi's time we have still to make the distinction between a priestly and a civil jurisdiction. Under previous kings the priests had the right of judicial decision, and it is only during the 1st Dynasty that we find civil courts with secular judges in full power. Under Hammurabi's rule both the priestly and civil jurisdiction held good, but the ecclesiastical courts were obviously being ousted, and we can see the trans- formation at work, the civil judges replacing the priests. The alteration was perhaps due to a change in the character of the kingdom: the king does not now represent himself as a god, like Naram-Sin and Dungi, for instance, but calls himself merely 'the favourite of the gods' and their representative. The Sumerian deification of royalty, especially after death, was however continued under the 1st Dynasty, even down to the time of Ammi-zaduga. There were at least two civil courts prepared to try cases: a, lower court, under a raManu in the provincial towns, which dis- posed of cases in which no appeal was brought, and a high court of appeal at Babylon, consisting apparently of the * king's judges/ over which the shakkanakku may have presided* Our knowledge, however, does not allow us to speak of these courts with any certainty. Beginning with the lower court, we may consider It fairly certain that the mayor (raMamt) was the magistrate charged with the maintenance of order in provincial towns. One Nan&ar- manse writes about a field with which Sin-ishmeanni, the raManu of Kfeh,*»and Gimil-Marduk, his successor to the office, had been concerned. Ibi-Sin addresses a letter to the raManum and shibuti 512 THE GOLDEN AGE OF HAMMURABI [CHAP. (elders) of Bulum. If robbery were committed within his town, it was the duty of the rabianu to arrest the malefactors; if he failed, then he and the town were liable to make good the loss of any property stolen. This is still the usual custom in the east. The rabianu at the time of the 1st Dynasty was president of an« assembly of old men or notables, a practice which went on into the Neo-Babylonian period. These elders, whose name is synonymous with * witnesses/ may have formed the < assembly' before ^hom (so the Code of Hammurabi lays down) a man was scourged or a prevaricating judge expelled. Ibi-Sin of Ur addresses a letter to the rabianu and shibuti of Bulum, which shows that the Semites inherited the court from the Dynasty of Ur. The shibuti) who appear in the contracts as official witnesses, are doubtless the same as those mentioned in this court. The addressee of letters addressed by name 'Unto X, the Kar-Sippar, and the Judges of Sippar* by Sarnsu-iluna and Abeshu*, was probably the rabianu of the town. In a record of a trial of Hammurabi's period we find judgment given by the rabianu of Sippar, by name Isharlim, along with the Kar-Sippar. It is uncertain whether this court of Kar- Sipparj cthe wall of Sippar,* is to be kept distinct from the Judges of Sippar, on the grounds that the address quoted above always makes the distinction. We have probably also to reckon with a court of similar or equal powers in the provinces, consisting of 'the judges/ with whom the rabianu might sit. The court of appeal at Babylon appears to have been the next in order for a dissatisfied litigant. The difficulty arises at once in defining this or other courts, as the legal decisions are rather vague In their references to *the Judges of Babylon/ We know, however, that the high governor of Babylon (shakkanakku) could preside over a court, which consisted in one case of six persons, among whom were a judge, a prefect (ska-tarn), and a mashkim (see above), a definite survival from Sumerian times. In another court the governor's council consisted of a rabianu and ten others. This, then, was the position of the high governor in law, though, whether he was regularly president of the court of appeal at Babylon we cannot be sure. For instance, in a re-trial of a case about an estate in which a priestess of the sun-god (at Sippar) was concerned, the phrasing used makes it impossible for us to determine much about the court; the case was tried before the judges of Babylon and Sippar, and, except that this clearly indicates a court of appeal, we cannot glean much of the details of it. It must of course be remembered that Babylon*hsid its ordinary district court, inferior to the court of appeal. In a case XIV, ra] LEGAL PROCEDURE 513 which was tried at Babylon, the parties concerned, being dis- satisfied with the ordinary tribunal, consisting of four judge§ and two othe* members, appealed to the higher court, consisting of five judges of whom four had already appeared in the lower; finally, being still dissatisfied, they appealed to the king himself. This right of personal appeal was maintained to its utmost during the 1st Dynasty. It was a survival of the old personal element of Semitic nomad conditions, the summary procedure of the sheikh, and the king was active in seeing personally that justice was done. Instances of royal interest in legal matters, appeals and re-trials, are common. The king Abeshu* writes to * Sin-idinnam, the Kar- Sippar, and the Judges of Sippar* about two men whose plaint against an elder brother had been pending for two years in the Sippar court, but they had been unable to obtain redress against him. The king directs that this elder brother should be sent to Babylon with the witnesses 4 in order that their case may be con- cluded'; he probably guessed that the real cause of the delay was that the elder brother had probably no case, and had bribed the judges. Bribery, although it can hardly have been as common as it was more recently, did, of course, occur. Hammurabi writes to Sin-idinnam about an alleged case in Dur-gurgurri* A man named Shumman-la-ilu had made a report direct to the king about a bribe; the very man who had taken it, and a witness to the act had been brought before him. The king gave orders that official cognizance should be taken of the matter : ' and if bribery (really) have taken place, set there a seal upon the money or upon that which was offered as the bribe, and cause it to be brought to me. Send also the man who took the bribe, and the witness who hath knowledge of these matters, whom Shumman-la-ilu shall point out to thee.* The actual procedure in the courts appears to have been for the parties at law to settle on a day, and then appear in court, be it the local temple or the traditional *Gate/ where the judges first *saw the pleas/ the plaintiff pleading first and then his opponent, with the deeds relating to the case in front of them. Witnesses were sworn by the local god and the king, and any tampering with witnesses was penalized by the Code, Hammurabi himself was well aware of the worthlessness of evidence after the witnesses had discussed the case together, and in one of his letters gives explicit orders for the separate despatch of men concerned in a trial: ^but when thou shalt send them, thou shalt not send them together, but each man thou shalt send by himself/ In a criminal C.A.H.I 33 514 THE GOLDEN AGE OF HAMMURABI [CHAP, case a man was given six months grace by the Code in order to produce his witnesses. The judges then pronounced their decision. They r»ight also give orders for direct action, as in the case of the restoration of a dowry, where the judges of Babylon wrote to Mukhaddu (whcr appears to have been a seer in Samsu-ditana's time) thus: 'Con- cerning the suit of Ilushu-ibishu and Mattatum, we announce (our) judgment to them, according to the law of our lonfi (the king) : Whatever dowry there may be, which Mattatum had given her daughter and had brought into the house of Ilushu~ibi§hu, we have decided to restore to Mattatum. We will send down a constable (?) with her: let them hand over to Mattatum every- thing in good condition which they shall find there/ We do not know if judges received any remuneration, but they belonged to the highest class of officials, and if they revoked their own decisions were liable to be publicly deposed (v)1. Records of criminal cases are rare, but one exists in which suspicion of theft has fallen on the servants of a dead man, which has already been mentioned. It appears that one Ibgatum was killed, and after his death, which was not duly notified by these servants to the son and heir, certain of his furniture was found to be missing from the house. The servants were prosecuted, but the judges of Babylon considered that there was no proof of guilt ; yet at the same time they agreed to test the defendants on oath and invited them to swear in the Gate of Nungal that first they recognized their omission in not notifying death, and secondly they had stolen nothing. For obvious reasons they declined, and a new trial took place again at Babylon which again failed. The prosecutors then addressed the king direct; one affirms before a god that his father was killed and he was not informed, but he does not venture now to accuse the defendants directly of theft, Had he done so he would have incurred a risk of a breach of the first section of the Hammurabi Code: cif a man accuses another, and has not proved him guilty, the accuser is liable to death/ Unfortunately we do not know how the case ended. Leaving the* administrative and judicial heads and going to the active agents who controlled the state labour, we find two officials coming into prominence both in the Code and in the letters of the period, the rid saU and the btfiru* The former is the officer in charge of a levy, for whatever purposes it may be used, and the latter a kind of warrant officer. They obeyed the bidding of the 1 Numerals in brackets refer to sections of the Code of Hammurabi* XIV, m] THE LEVY 515 king, to go on his errands when ordered; and they might not, on a maximum penalty of death, send a substitute. The natural inference from this is that cowardice would be the normal reason for shirking the duty in person. Even without this indication we "can be certain that both were liable to military service, as the Code lays down the procedure for their ransom if they were taken prisoner; if they could not afford to pay the enemy for their release, the temple of their native town must provide,, or, in the last resort, the state. This makes it clear that they received con- sidferable benefits and perquisites from the state, and owed fealty to it. Service abroad might keep them long absent from home, and a son might act in the stead of either, and in such a case was to enjoy the benefice which appears to be their right, except that a third part was deducted for the wife of the absent husband with which she might bring up the children. This benefice or feoff was in land, garden, house, sheep, cattle and a salary, directly ascribed to the king as benefactor, and normally, if the officer were at home and neglected it, he ran the risk of forfeiting it. There is, in fact, a letter from Samsu-iluna in existence which appears to relate to the relinquishing of such a benefice. The king writes to Marduk-nasir and the administrators of the (royal) domain of Imgur-Ishtar about one Ibni-Adad, who is under the authority of Belanum, who held and subsequently relinquished an estate in Imgur-Ishtar: '[Now in place of the tenure] which he has relinquished [another has been granted to him in Dur-Sum]u~ la-il, tenure of Ibni-Adad, which [he has relinquished]. Give them to Wall, the Elamite, who is under the authority of Belanum, the Gal~M.artu. Furthermore, write afresh on a tablet the designa- tion of the field, land, and boundaries of the field which you shall give : let me have the old one, send it to me : let a sealed document be delivered to him/ Now we fortunately possess the sequel to this letter, the instructions from Marduk-nasir to Sin-gamil and Ninurta-mushalim about this estate. *A letter has arrived from my lord (the king) that this field is to be given to Wall the Elamite, who is under the atithority of Belanum, the Gal-Martu. I have sealed (it) and am sending it on to you.' The estate of Ibni-Adad is to be given to Wall. 'As for the designation of the field, land, and boundaries of the field which you shall give, let me havedts : ancient (one), and send it to me, that I may (send) it to my lord. Let a sealed document be delivered to him.* '" ~ '', ' It appears that the levy might bp called 6ut for liiilttary service, **or might even be taken locally for repairing temporary damage to the canals of their own city. In the press-gang or levy 516 THE GOLDEN AGE OF HAMMURABI [CHAP. It was no protection In Hammurabi's time for a man to be on the staff of a patesi, for twice at least did the king write to Sin-idinnam, telling him to arrest, in one case, two men, and, in another, four men who were under the control of a patesi. But the persons of the patesis themselves, although liable to taxes, were in a measure* sacrosanct as regards transference against their will to another department. The old religious side of their profession still appears as a reminiscence in one of Hammurabi's letters which mentions a priest of Aminit who is also a patesi of Anunit. • We have little knowledge of the police-system that was in vogue in Hammurabi's time, but certain inferences may be drawn from a letter sent by Etil-pi-Marduk to Shumma-Anum : ' Idin-Ishtar, the Chief of Police (fa-khat sha sab-ma ssar-a-tim) hath thus spoken : "Etirum of the police of my house hath deserted and is (now) living in Dilbat with Shumma-Anum, the shepherd. I have sent to arrest this Etirum, but Shumma-Anum, the shepherd, hath not surrendered this Etirum to the man whom I sent to arrest him,"' We cannot say definitely whether the police were under the control of one head or whether each city had its own system, but Idin-Ishtar would hardly have arrested a deserter in "Dilbat on his own initiative if there had been a different police control in that city; the correct method in such a case would have been for him to write to the chief of the Dilbat police to arrest his man. If, however, Idin-Ishtar were supreme chief of police in Baby- lonia, he might reasonably send an officer direct to Shumma- Anum*s house to effect his purpose. The Code of Hammurabi allows us to speak with no little accuracy of the laws of Babylonia and the penalties attached for their breach. What strikes the reader at first sight is the severity of the punishments, as being contrary to the opinions which the thousands of contracts and letters of this period naturally induce. These, the most human documents which survive, do not necessarily breathe the ferocity involved in their quotations from the ancient laws threatening the dire penalties which will overtake either party who shall break the contracts; they quote, but they do tiot compel conviction that they are always in earnest. The fact is most probable that these ancient laws, preserved by a naturally conservative race who adopted them from their Sumerian inventors, were never repealed: the antiquated and severe penalties doubtless put into force in early times, merely represented to the 1st Dynasty the maximum penalties which the state could inflict. The Semites of Hammurabi's period were XIV, m] CAPITAL OFFENCES 517 neither modern savages nor Europeans of a couple of centuries ago. It is true that the penalty laid down in a contract of this period ffom the middle Euphrates (doubtless not far froln the neighbourhood of Hit, the bitumen city) is that the delinquent > shall have his head smeared with hot tar; it might be as cruel as the pitch-cap once used in Ireland, but it might not be more uncomfortable than tar-and-feathering. The particular penalties inflicted by the Code, which appear to be out of all proportion to the offence, are death by fire for a temple votary who opens a be^r-shop or even enters one, death by drowning for a beer-seller for some malpractice in selling beer, and impalement for a wife who procures her husband's death. It must be doubted whether such penalties had not fallen into desuetude by the time Ham- murabi set up his Code. Besides these penalties a tablet of the period of Shagarakti-Shuriash shows that imprisonment was a form of punishment. The Code lays down the death-penalty, in some cases specifying the method, for the following crimes (the number in brackets refers to the section) : — Rape (cxxx). Brigandage, burglary and theft in various forms (ix sqq^ xxi $q.\ in the case of a governor xxxiv); especially of goods from palace or temple, including the receiver (vi), and (in the case of a man who is too poor to pay compensation) of animals or a boat belonging to temple or palace (in this case it may be compounded by richer folk, vm). A thief stealing from a burning house was to be burnt (xxv). Stealing the son of a man (amelu> xrv). Adultery with a daughter-in-law (the man to be drowned, CLV). Incest with a mother (both to be burned, CLVII). Adultery of a married woman (cxxix) (both to be drowned, unless the husband save his wife, or the king his servant: cf. also cxxxm). A flagrantly careless and uneconomical wife (to be drowned, CXLIII). A wife causing her husband's death, in order to marry another (to be impaled or crucified, cun). A Sal-Me- priestess, or ^W»-^tf-priestess, not living in a cloister, opening a wine-shop, or even entering one (to be burnt, ex). Harbouring (or helping to escape) runaway slaves of the palace, or of a mush- kinu (xv sq.) xix). In the old Sumerian law it is laid down that if a man harbour a slave 'during a month, he shall give slave for slave, or failing that, twenty-five silver shekels/ Cowardice in the face of the enemy and neglect of duty by certain officials (xxvr, xxxiu). A builder who builds a house which falls and causes the death of the owner (ccxxix); or in the case of its killing the son of the owner, the ftuiider's son is to be put to death (ccxxx). If the son of & mush- kinu on whom a distraint has been levied, be taken in distraint 518 THE GOLDEN AGE OF HAMMURABI [CHAP. and die from hunger or blows in the house of the distrainer, the son of the distrainer is to be put to death (cxvi). If a man strike the daughter of an amelu when she is pregnant, so thatrshe die, his daughter shall be put to death (ccx). Malpractices in selling beer (the proprietress of the tavern to be drowned, cvm). Har- bouring outlaws in a tavern (the proprietress liable, cix). Bringing a false accusation, sorcery, etc. (i sq^. Wrongfully accusing wit- nesses of perjury in a capital charge (in). Purchase, or receipt as deposit, of goods belonging to a man from either his son or his slave without witnesses or bonds (vn). Failing to brfcig witnesses in an accusation of theft (xi). Trial by ordeal existed, when a man was accused of sorcery, or a woman accused of adultery without sufficient evidence (n, cxxxn). In both cases the accused were to leap into the river, their innocence being established if they came out alive. Many of the minor penalties are based on the principle of the lex talionis-^ if a man strikes his father, his hands are to be cut ofF(cxcv); if he knock out the eye of an amelu or break his Kmbj the same shall be done to him (cxcvi sq^\ the tooth of an equal demands the same retaliation (cc). Cutting out the tongue, putting out an eye, or cutting off a nurse's breasts come under the same head (cxcn ^.), A man might be scourged with sixty strokes of an ox-hide whip for striking a superior (ecu); he might be banished from the city for incest with a daughter (CLIV). False accusation of adultery against a wife or j?Vi"^-^^-priestess was punished by marking or branding the forehead of the accuser (cxxvn). The law laid down the fees for surgeons, veterinary surgeons, the wages of builders, brickmakers, tailors, stonemasons, car- penters, boatmen, ox-drivers, herdsmen, shepherds, or labourers, and the hire of oxen and asses (ccxxvm sg.). The unfortunate surgeon who made a mistake in his treatment was liable to severe penalties. ,„ Fines were a common form of penalty. Restitution threefold was exacted for cheating a principal (cvi), five-fold for loss or theft by carrier (cxn), six-fold for defrauding an agent (cvu), ten-fold for th^eft from temple or palace by a mushktnu (the lower orders), and thirty-fold by an amelu or gentleman (viu). With this mention of the social castes in Babylonia it is well to turn aside to see how sharply divided the aristocracy, the middle classes, and the slaves were. Throughout Babylonia by Hammurabi's time the population, owing to various invasions, was a mixed one. In the earlier times the Elamites had descended on southern Babylonia, only to be XIV, m] SOCIAL CASTES 519 subjugated by the Sumerians who were o£ an entirely different race* These and the Semites represent the three chief types. There must also have been some small infiltration of Kassitea and possibly **even of Hittites, although perhaps this is anticipating. ,At all events, the Code makes provision for three orders or classes of individuals — the amelu or noble, the mushkinu or plebeian, and the slave. The amelu formed the predominant class, and Dr Johns thought that they came from the conquering race of Semites, the word in the Tell el-Amarna letters (c* 14.00) being still us@d as an official title* The mushkinu is more difficult; it is a word which ultimately reached Europe, the French being mesquin* But in southern Arabia the corresponding word means, according to Snouck Hurgronje, those who are neither descendants of the Prophet, nor nobles related to the family of the Prophet, nor secular nobles. They are labourers, workmen, merchants, school-masters, courtiers, beggars; they have not the right to carry arms; no organization; they are entirely under the dominion of the nobles. According to the Hammurabi Code the mushkinu is inferior to the amelu but better off than the slave. In these two classes, it is curious to see that the punishments were more severe on the amelu 'patrician' than on the mushkinu^ difference of race or, perhaps, noMesse oblige may have been at the base of it. The mushkinu was punished in a less primitive and ferocious manner than the amelu, frequently being simply fined; where the noble was dealt with eye for eye and tooth for tooth, the plebeian was merely mulcted in damages. This certainly suggests that a very sharp line was drawn between the two classes, indi- cating a difference of race. The mushkinu was in no wise a slave; he might hold slaves and goods, he seems to have been liable to conscription, and in Sippar he had his own particular quarter, the Mushkinutu. But he differed from the amelu in that he was not of the governing classes* Amelu^ in fact, came in time to be used as meaning simply a respectable person. Among the higher professional ranks we must reckon the learned pursuits of scribe, physician, and priest, and the upper government. The son of Ur«negun, a patesi of Umma, follows the profession of letters; so does a son of Ne. « .fan, patesi of Cuthah, about the end of the Illrd Dynasty of TJr. Even the son of Gudea himself, Lugal-shi-dup, and Lugal-ushumgal, the patesi of Lagash, call themselves scribes. The office was not a priestly one; it was a profession by itself, and when a record of a contract was «ie«essary, the scribe wrote the whole of the document him- self, including witnesses* names. Doubtless the lower orders of 520 THE GOLDEN AGE OF HAMMURABI [CHAP. the profession sat about the streets as they do to this day, with style and blank clay tablet or lump of moist clay, ready to write letters home for the ignorant and homesick sojourners. Women were not debarred from carrying on professions or trades, and even that of scribe is not omitted in their various* callings. They might act as witnesses to a deed or rent property. As a rule, however, we usually find women attached to the temple, and as kings' daughters certainly as early as the 1st Dynasty clown to the time of Nabonidus could be priestesses, we may take it that the profession ranked very high in Babylonian society. Social custom, allowed women great independence; even as early as the 1st Dynasty Babylonian law recognized in the free woman a broad capacity in legal matters. We are not certain whether marriage altered her status. The husband and wife together would make contracts, e.g. in the purchase of a slave; and in eleven out of sixteen purchase-tablets from Sippar, of the 1st Dynasty (pub- lished by G. S, Duncan, 1914), women are buyers, and in six they are sellers. Particularly noticeable is the freedom with which rich priestesses conduct their own monetary affairs; their capacity for business, as will be discussed further on, appears to have been great. The institution of slavery dates back to the earliest time. Even on the stele of Manishtusu (c» 2800 B.C.) we find a slave-girl who is worth thirteen shekels, while nine other slaves, male and female, are reckoned for one-third of a mana each* (A mina or mana weighed approximately 500 grains; it contained 60 shekels and was -$>$• of a talent*) According to the Code (xvi— xvni), it is clear that the slave was personally the property of his owner; he might not run away (which he did occasionally), it was illegal to harbour him if a fugitive, and a reward was fixed for his recapture. A slave was subject to the 'levy' for forced labour (xvi); he might be sold, or pledged for debt (cxvm), and in theory his property belonged to his owner (c£ CLXXVI), but on the other hand, it was his master's duty to pay the doctor's fees if he were sick (ccxrx, ccxxnr). There appears to have been less of the stigma attaching to a slave than we are accustomed to associate with the word, for he might marry a free* woman, and in that case the children were free (CLXXV jy.); the slave and his free wife might acquire property, half of which would fall to the wife and children after his death (CLXXVI). In just the same way children borne by a slave-woman to her master were free after his death, and the mother after the death of her master would go free (CLXX $q.}. The slave was^ma-rked (ccxxvi j 5 ka of food yearly (gur = 300 ka\ later 1 80 ka). After the death of a father a division of property among the children (and the widow) followed. The sons inherited equally, and there was no right of primogeniture as in Israel, although a father might bequeath a special legacy to a favourite (CLXV), The daughter who had already a dowry is excluded from a share in the inheritance; otherwise her brothers portioned her off(cLxxxin ^.). There are special .clauses about daughters who have become ^priestesses ^(CLX^VIII ^f-)- Th,e widow inherited the same share 111 of the ^ property f^^&^^of/^G^c^l^en9 as well as her original marriage po^c^;.^ on in the home until she died, being thus head of the family, I£> however, she wished to marry again, she might choose for herself without having to be given in marriage, and she could take with her her original dowry; but she must leave behind any settlement from her husband. There was a lien even on her dowry, because if she bore children to her new husband, they and her former children skarSd it equally after her death (CLXXII sgj. The Code is elaborate in XIV, iv] PROPERTY 527 regard to the inheritance of children by different wives, concubines and maidservants. If a roan's wife died childless, the husband was bound to return to her family the dowry she had brought with her, but he could * deduct the value of the terkhatu -which he had paid to her father, if it had not already been returned to him as was due (CLXIII sq^ The business of selling a piece of property was conducted on definite and traditional lines. The clay tablet of the contract was written out by the scribe on an ancient model, constantly in SiAnerian or, at any rate, full of Sumerian words, which gradually dropped out in the time of the 1st Dynasty, although the usage can be traced down to the time of the Kassites. The transaction was witnessed by several people, male or female, whose names were attached by the scribe, and the sealmgs were made by rolling on the clay the carven stone cylinders possessed by all who could afford them. The contracting parties would swear by the local gods and the king by name, that no claim would be made either by themselves or their heirs against the new purchaser in regard to the property. For instance, at Sippar, in Sumu-abum's time, Shamash and the king are invoked, at Dilbat it is Urash and the king. After the time of the 1st Dynasty of Babylon the practice of recording a formal oath began to die out and various devices were used as a substitute, e.g. the impression of finger-nails or seals, and above all the pronunciation of an additional malediction or benediction. In Kassite times at Nippur the gods invoked in addition to the king were Enlil, Ninurta and Nusku. Babylonian law distinguished between real and personal property. If in certain circumstances an adopted child is disin- herited the Code allows him a third of the share of a son in the father's goods, but no share in the fields, gardens, or house (cxci). Pasture-land, on the other hand, as Dr Johns pointed out, was not owned, and if this applies to desert land, after the spring rains, which is the usual grazing ground for the cattle near villages, this is explicable* Grazing land represents * common * land probably, and Dr Johns' suggestion that to have brought it under cultivation was originally enough to establish a title to it is probably the correct one. Land was not uncommonly let out on the metayer system, the landlord providing draught cattle and seed, and the harvest obtained by some one else's labour paying his. share of the profit (XLIII sg., ccuii)* But fields might also be let at a fixed rent, usually payable in kind; the tenancy was generally for three year$ (Suv). Houses were commonly leased on a yearly tenancy, the average rent having been calculated to be one shekel yearly. The 528 THE GOLDEN AGE OF HAMMURABI [CHAP, cost of repairs fell on the tenant; he usually paid down some part of the rent as earnest-money, and until this was done he was not allowed to make alterations. The custom of giving a bakshish in addition to the arranged price was in vogue even from earlier times (p. 528). In the Semitic document of Manishtusu (c* 2800 B.C.) not only is a price paid, but a present is given to the seller; in a contract of Abeshu's time, one-sixth of a shekel is thrown in as sibika, or additional bakshish^ to the proper price of six shekels for a slave. Loans, as is natural in a country where the population is largSly agricultural and coined money does not exist, are frequently in kind to be repaid in kind. The period at which expenses were highest was or course the harvest when labour was dear and very often difficult to obtain; and adventurous spirits from neighbour- ing countries, like the Kassites, would come in for work on the harvest, just as well-paid excavations on ancient mounds or modern railways will draw them. It is common to find loans made, especially by the temples, in anticipation of the harvest, either for labour in sowing and particularly in reaping. The date for the return of the money is constantly given as 'the day of the harvest.' The harvest was given as an excuse for absence or delay; Ham- murabi complains to Sin-idinnam that he has already written to him about sending one Sheb-Sin, *a scribe of the merchants/ whose duties appear to have been those of a revenue-collector, but that he had not appeared, 'Thou dost reply "The scribes of the merchants say * Since it is now the time of harvest, we will come after the harvest is over'.1* After this fashion spake they unto thee? and thou didst write (of it). Behold, the harvest is now over/ Men constantly went into partnership, especially when they were speculating in corn-sowing. For instance, six people join in renting a field near the village of Tukhamu amid khilbi (wood ?) and siri (desert) to sow it with corn and share the results after the harvest. When the partnership terminated it was usual to go to the temple, particularly the door of the temple, to complete the division of assets. From this rapid survey of the government and the laws we may turn to the literature and religion. XIV, v] THE TEMPLES 529 V. RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS It need hardly be said that every town of any eminence 4iad a temple to its tutelary or patron deity. In Babylonia, during the . 1st Dynasty of Babylon, with thre rise of the city of Hammurabi the power of Marduk, his great god, was correspondingly pro- moted until he attained a position in the pantheon from which only^shur thrust him. But, although Hammurabi might consider him as peculiarly his patron god, the popular view of the local powers of the different gods was far too strong to allow Marduk the hegemony over the pantheon. However devoutly Marduk might be worshipped in his temple of E-sagil in Babylon, in Larsa or Sippar it would be the sun-god Shamash in his own temple E-Babbara, and in Erech the mother-goddess Innini, or Ishtar, in her shrine E-anna, The moon-god Nannar had his temple E-gishshir-gal in Ur, Enlil his temple E-kur in Nippur, Nabu his temple E-zida in Borsippa; there was no end to them. But although each city recognized its own patron god, it was by no means so exclusive as to eliminate the worship of other gods within its precincts. In this the Babylonians were catholic and open-minded: they recognized the existence of an Olympus made up of many deities, the result doubtless of a growth which had been going on for hundreds of years, an amalgamation of different local tribal gods. In Lagash, the city protected by Ningirsu, long before our period Eannatum had built a temple E-anna to Innini, which was burnt in a raid by the troops of TJmma in the time of Urukagina. In Babylon where Marduk was supreme, was a temple to Adad called E-namkhe; in Sippar., the city sacred to the sun, was E-ulmash to Anunit. It was open to any ruler to found temples to gods other than the special guardian gods in any city, and equally open to anyone to build a private chapel of his own. In the time of Sumu-ilum a certain Nur-ilishu, son of Enlil-nada, built a temple to his god Lugal and goddess Shullat (neither of them well known), and gave the land for that purpose. He installed Puzur-Shamash as priest, and signed a deed promising not to raise any claim against the priests in future. The gods of the old Sumerian Olympus, such as could be easily identified by the Semites with their own deities, were retained under Semitic names; Babbar, Nannar, Innini and Enlil become Shamash, Sin, Ishtar and BeL The sun-god Shamash (sometimes in the form Samsu in names, as in Arabia), worshipped at Siypar and Larsa, is as much a Semitic god as Babbar was Sumerian; the moon-gpd Sin, worshipped at Harran and called C.A.H.I 34 530 THE GOLDEN AGE OF HAMMURABI [CHAP. Sahar In Syria, can easily take the place of Nannar or Enzu at Ur, Innini Is the mother-goddess and as such is the same as Ishtalr, whose name Is repeated in the west as Astarte (the biblical Ashtoreth), and in Arabia as a male Athtar. She is to be found in various forms in the near east, frequently as a naked female figure- offering her breasts; there is a large sculpture of her at Carchemish, full face in relief, and probably the broken statue of a goddess dedicated by Assur-bel-kala, which was found at Nineveh and is now in the British Museum, was the same. This last must undoubtedly have marked the position of E-mashmash, T:he temple of Ishtar; it was found by Hormuzd Rassam at Kuyunjik behind Sennacherib's palace, near where his inscriptions would lead us to locate it. The name of Bel, 'the lord/ represents the familiar baal of the western Semites, and the worship of this specific god in the form Bel, Bil, Belos, appears to have spread from Babylon into the western lands, rather than eastwards to Mesopotamia from Syria. Enki was originally the god of the earth and then, by association with rivers, was worshipped as a god of the water by the Semites, becoming Ea. Nlnurta (Nlnib), about whose name is still much doubt, was, as lord of Girsu (Telloh), at least as old, as Eannatum. The great god of the west appears to have been Hadad, Adad, Addu, Ramman, the god of storms, wind and rain; he came into Babylonia with the western Semites as Martu (Amurru), the god of the west (see pp. 2,31, 454)* The minor gods are well nigh innumerable, and among these must be counted the different forms which many of the major gods assume, or rather perhaps, the various identifications of local gods and goddesses with some chief deity. Hammurabi speaks of Anu, Enlil, Ninlil, Enkl, Babbar, Enzu and Im, but these are followed by Zamama, Ninni (Istar) and Ne-unu-gal (Nergal), who form a third triad, and Nintud and Ninkarrak, both forms of the mother-goddess, Zamama and Ne-unu-gal are both forms of Ninurta (Ninib), who is also identified with Ningirsu of Lagash. Dagan appears to be exclusively west Semitic. Ashur or Ashir, the national god of Assyria from whom the country took its name, appears before Hammurabi's time, and may represent an earlier form, An-Shar, which appears in the Babylonian Creation Legend; but he never took rank in Babylon, at least in the form Ashur. The temple was closely bound up with the daily life of the people. Deities were very human in their ways, for they were merely men and women gifted with tremendous powers, ^hcf their foibles and emotions were exactly the same. The dwellers in XIV, v] RELIGIOUS BELIEFS 531 Mesopotamia lived In close relationship with them; the gods would dine with them at a sacrificial feast, feeding on beeves and sheep, ti^e first-fruits of plants and grain, beer and wine;* they would intermarry with their women, and of their union demi-gods would be born (cf. also Gen. vi, *i sqq^. The temple represented a concrete bond between men and gods, as the house of the god who lived among his people: they fed him and provided him with his earthly needs, they invoked him with prayers and hymns to their aid in time of trouble, and it was for him to help them to figftt their battles against man and nature in this world. With the next world, that misty and ill-defined Hades whither the poor soul, reft of mortality, went, the city-god had no concern, for he could no more exceed his province in the unseen spheres than a king could transgress a neighbour's boundary, or a man of one tribe trespass at free will in the domain of another. Hades had its peculiar god, Nergal, who does not rank among the nobles of the pantheon; he holds an almost inferior position among them, and sometimes appears to be subservient to Ereshkigal or Allatu, his wife, the queen of the underworld, although it is true one city, Cuthah, regarded him as its patron. In this world it was the city- or family-god who would help you in your daily life; in the next, unless some powerful god who could raise the dead restored you to life, you must needs depend on your children and descendants to give you your food after death, for no one else would tend you or provide you with comfort and it was not the province of a god to help you. There was no Heaven, or Valhalla, or Happy Hunting Grounds in the Semitic or Sumerian beliefs; no relation with the high gods, to see them face to face (cf. Num. xiv, 14); man was buried in the earth and in some mysterious way his spirit would live amid dust and mud in a ghostly town of seven walls, each with its gate, under the earth. If he was not buried, so much the w<5rse for him and other human beings, for he must prowl about the sewers and gutters for food, and malignantly attack wayfarers to make them feed him (see p. 549). The gods were not concerned with him; when an offering is dedicated to the gods, it is always for the life and good health of the worshipper, not with any view to a future state. Dungi, in his hymn to Enlil and Ninlil, prays for years of plenty, not for a heavenly abode. The temple, then, with its statue representing the^god, stood for the outward sign of human relations with the divine powers. It was a great state-institution to which the king, as head of the state, 'MdVoted his labours, and not infrequently, also, dedicated his daughters. Disestablishment was not one of the bogies to be 34- 532 THE GOLDEN AGE OF HAMMURABI [CHAP. feared or desired by the priestly mind; and we have no knowledge of heresies which might reduce the temple-offerings and threaten a diminution of the ecclesiastical shadow. The cult of^the gods in a land of extreme heat, great floods, cold wind-blasts and tre- mendous storms, where nature shows little of her more beneficent side, was ingrained in the people; if these beings must be placated by offerings to lend an ear to the tribulations of the city or the private woes of worshippers, by all means let us bring in our tithes, our cattle and goats, that we may be thus aided. When the foe sweeps down on our towns and we cower and treititle behind the solid walls of brick, it will be well to jog their memories, lest even their temples be looted like the houses of the lowest of us. There are many psalms extant, as has already been shown, telling of the chants and genuflexions, the rites and ceremonies, which were performed in the temples, when terror had smitten the rich priesthood and their adherents. The library of the great king of Assyria has provided a poetical description of Erech, when the foe ringed it about for three years, and despite all its piety in the past towards its goddess, Ishtar paid no heed to Its appeal : The boatman sank his craft In the river, and, bitterly weeping [What] will become of me? (cried); [while she who sojld wine in the city Shattered her amphora; asses their foals [deniedj (and) the buffaloes Hated their calves, the people like cattle lowed, (while) the maidens Mourned like doves. The gods turned to Hies in Erech the strong-walled Swarming in alley-ways, (while) the winged bull(s) turned to mice, thus escaping1 Out by the gutters (?); for three years the foe sat down before Erech, Locked were the gates, and were set barricades, while Ishtar stood heedless, (Callous) of the enemy, so that Bel speaking, cried unto Ishtar, The Queen. . , . The feeling of the poet is that the guardian goddess of Erech did nothing to help her worshippers. But besides the services for his public benefits, the private individual's prayers were heard. Gilgamesh, in his expectation of dangers on his long journey, comforts himself by saying that if he meets with lions he will lift up his face to the moon-god in prayer. Less mythical people, down to a late period, also besought the prayers of others when they were travelling in far lands. A letter from^ man Iddina-apli to his lady, Kudashu, written about the sixth— fifth century B.C., tells her of his journey; *For my own part, I am well, by the grace of the gods, as also are all tl^o^e who 1 Lit. cthe winged bull of Erech the strong-walled," XIV5 v] THE TEMPLE 533 are with me., . . I have been travelling to the land of Panlragana (?) since the month Siwan; pray (therefore) to Bel and Bellt on my behalf/ Another about the same date writes to his wife: 'Be not remiss in the housework, but be careful : pray to the gods on my •behalf, and speedily let me have news of thee by the hands of some traveller/ The gods would thus be as responsive to prayers offered by the individual as by the state. Ea was not alone in his thought for his -protege, Uta-napishtim, when he warned him of the flood to come. ^The temple stood on the main city-mound, frequently, in Sumerlan times, In the north-west area. The stranger who entered the town would have no difficulty in recognizing the tower of the principal fane, rising high over the flat-roofed houses and even above the palace. It was an Immense mass, often in stages, square, and with a stairway up the outside. The core was of adobe, the facing a veneer of burnt brick; it raised its head far above the desert-surface, a landmark in the waste, and a pinnacle from which the watchers In peace could mark the exact phases of the moon as he rose from the level circle of the earth, and his correspondence with the sun that thereby they might decide the length of the month, and in war the sentinels could descry the masses of men crawling towards them at eye-range. Close to the temple-tower was built the temple itself. Like all buildings in the east, temples have at least one main court (often with a well) round which, are the chambers, for a court Is an essential for ventilation and shade In a hot country. Little more than mere ground-plans now, marked out by the ruined walls, in their pristine glory they must have presented an Imposing appearance, their solid towered walls reflecting the fierce sunlight or offering kindly shade. Within were the sacred shrines, the holy of holies, and near were the living rooms for the priesthood, and cells for the numerous pilgrims who visited the temple. Liturgical services originated among the Sumerlans (see p, 443). To the temple were attached many musicians and singers, who formed choirs to play on lyres, drums, tambourines, reed-pipes, cymbals and perhaps bag-pipes, and chant In unison. There runs a persistent melancholy note through the psalms and liturgies: now it would be the annual mourning for Tammuz, sought by his bride Innini, when the grass had withered from the earth and the flower had faded ; now for a ravished statue of a god carried off in some raid. Babylonia is a land not of laughter but of gloom and cf serious meditation; every evil demon which can attack man lives there, the sun scorches and kills, the frost bites, the thunder- 534 THE GOLDEN AGE OF HAMMURABI [CHAP. storms are terrible in their assault, and flies, mosquitoes and scorpions add to the trials of man. Tfee temple was the great monetary centre or bank of the community. It was the temple which attracted foreign invaders by its coffers of gold and silvery and in times of emergency they< were open to the king of the land, of Palestine, as of Babylonia; Asa, Ahaz and Hezekiah of Judah were all indebted to the temple treasury during their lifetime. In the period of the 1st Dynasty the Babylonian temple was of high political and religious im- portance. It was ready to lend money or arrange loans in seed to prospective cultivators. A man in the 1st Dynasty period records his loan of 5^- shekels from the god Shamash in Sippar, agreeing to pay it back at harvest with interest. Another, borrowing ten gur of grain from a priestess of Shamash, promises to pay at the rate of I pi, 40 $a for each gur at harvest time. From Drehem, the great cattle-centre for the temple of Enlil at Nippur, have come numerous accounts of temple gifts, made during the latter period of the Illrd Dynasty of Ur. Cattle and sheep were driven across to Nippur for the different feast-days, and careful receipts kept; the very temple-dogs are shown to have received their barley-porridge and milk. The temples possessed large properties in land, and amassed riches in three ways: by tolls or dues, by revenues from the lease of property, and by income from cattle-breeding. It would appear that cities and towns were assessed and paid taxes to the temples according to their capacity; and, as usual, the collectors or others managed to absorb some of these during their duties, Hammurabi was wide awake to this peculation, and his spies were active. * Sheb-Sin, the scribe of the merchants,* says the king to Sin-idinnam, 'hath reported to me saying, Enubi-Marduk hath laid hands on the moneys for the temple of Blt-il-kittim (probably a name for the temple of the sun-god), which are due from the city of Dur-gurgurri and the Tigris district; and that Gimil-Marduk hath laid hands on the moneys for the temple of Bit-il-kittim, which are due from the city of Rakhabu and from the region round about that city, and he hath not [paid] the full amount. But the palace hath exacted the full sum from me/ Dur-gurgurri was the city of the metal- workers, probably Tell Sifr; Rakhabu was near Larsa. Enubi- Marduk was a man of position with at least one patesi under him, but he is. in danger of being put in ward, for a peremptory letter from the king to Sin-idinnam demands his presence: *I wrote unto thee, bidding thee send Enubi-Marduk into my presence. Wherefore, then, hast thou not sent him ? When thou shalt behold XIV, v] THE STAFF OF THE TEMPLE 535 this tablet, thou shalt send Bnubi-Marduk to my presence. . . . Look to it that he travel day and night, and that he arrive speedily/ The s|afF of a temple naturally varied with its size, but with an eminently practical people, like the Babylonians, it would include -»all the attendants necessary for tke temporal welfare of the priests and their families. On a document of Hammurabi's time we find mentioned among the staff, doubtless of a temple, a priest, three brewers, two musicians, one boatman and one shepherd* A list of salaries in the temple of Tashmitum, the wife of Nabu, doubt- less in Babylon, drawn up in the reign of Ammi-ditana, shows that there were three main classes attached to the temple; the first, two priests (one of Marduk) and their families and the female secretary, each receiving twenty-four ka of grain for a period of time; the second, minor officials and their families, each receiving twelve £<#; and finally the lower officials and servants, such as the fisherman, whose salaries vary down to as low as three ka, In the great temple of Shamash, the sun-god, at Sippar, the number of priests was of course larger than those of a minor shrine like that of Tashmitum, and there were also priestesses* Among the witnesses to a deed in Sin-muballit's time are two, or perhaps three, Shamash-priests, and one priestess. Among the lower orders we find in the 1st Dynasty contracts the pasMshu (the 'anointing-priest'), the temple superintendent (Pa-J£), the brewer, the porter, the servant who cleans the court, and the purshumu for both the temple of Martu and the temple of Ku-su. The office of * anointing-priest' was not without its perquisites, for it was regarded as sufficiently lucrative to be sold. Another class of priest was the xammaru^ or 'chanter,' probably not of a high order, for we find on a tablet of Hammurabi's period the mention of two * anointing-priests* and four 'chanters/ They presumably corresponded to the choir; and modern experience suggests that they must have sung most unpleasantly and con- tinuously through their noses, something in the manner of a bag-pipe. The seers (&aru\ who must have been attached to the temples, belonged to an important class. Ammi-ditana writes to three officers a long letter about corn for the city of Shagga and ends with instructions for the baruti seers: *And let the seers who are in (your) presence divine the future (and) then do thou send this corn to Shagga with favourable omens/ Their office was not so sacrosanct that they could avoid arrest; Hammurabi never left thatln^doubt as his letters show. In the ritual texts copied at a later period (seventh century), doubtless from much earlier 36 THE GOLDEN AGE OF HAMMURABI [CHAP. riginals, a special baru, known as the 'king's seer/ is mentioned. The seers were connected with, or even perhaps in some measure !nde£, the rabi-xikatum^ a letter in one case being addressed to im and the seers * dwelling in Sippar-Yakhrurum * by Ammi- aduga. Properly the rabi-'zikatf-m is a president of a council, a >osition often held by the rabianu* Here may be added pro- -sslonal scribes or interpreters who, as a class, appear to have prung up about this period, called 'Amurru-secretaries.7 They ?ere probably used as interpreters for the language of the western >emites. * Besides the servants more nearly attached to the shrine there /ere the shepherds of the flocks and herds belonging to the smple. The number was large, for we find Hammurabi summon- ig through Sin-idinnam forty-seven shepherds by name to appear Before him to render an account of their stewardship. At this >eriod the shepherd had to give a receipt for sheep, ewes, ewe- imbs, new-born lambs, etc., and if he should lose any, he had, :ke Jacob, to bear the loss of it (Gen. xxxi, 39). The priestesses and temple women form several distinct and nteresting classes. The entu^ or 'bride of the god/ was, as the .ame (Nin~An) implies, of the highest caste in the land* Kutur- vlabuk dedicated his daughter En-an-e-ul, sister of Rim-Sin, as ntu to the temple in Ur; so also, a long time after, Nabonidus, ver ready to maintain old traditions, did the same with his daughter, and doubtless they both ranked as high-priestesses. /Vhen Annabu, the daughter of Ammi-zaduga, was inaugurated nto her new position in the temple of Ishtar of Babylon (whether >y initiation or promotion) there was no little ceremony, although t cannot be said that the offering of four lambs on this occasion howed too generous a bounty. In the Code (ex) it is laid down hat no natitu or entu who is not living in the gagum (* cloister*) hall open a wine shop or enter one, under penalty of being mrned alive. In other words, both had to maintain the prestige >f their class. It is not certain that the entu married; her name mplies that she was a divine bride, a wife to the patron god of he city, and the Code lays down that a false accusation against icr chastity is on a par with a similar accusation against the wife >f an amelu. But in this clause (cxxvn) there is no mention of the ?^/-JM>, and this throws some light on the latter. There appears to >e great probability that the mother of Sargon, in the Babylonian cgend, who is described as enitu (~= entu ?), was a Nin-An ("divine >ride*); Sargon 'knew not his father/ which is in keeping* aC any ate with the matrimonial status of the Sal-~Me* XIV, v] THE PRIESTESSES 537 We know more of the natitu (Sal-Me) than of the entu> and with the former must probably be connected the simple Sal used to express ^priestess.' We find very few Instances of Nin-An, but several of the Sal-Me\ and princesses were included In the classes ^Nin-An and SaL There seem tc? have been many Sal-Me priest- esses : two of Marduk are mentioned on the same tablet, and five priestesses of Shamash on another of the date of Hammurabi. Theij constantly carry on business In the contract tablets, and moreover the 'cloister/ g^gumy was capable of holding several at on'fe time. But what is indicative of their functions is, first, that throughout the contract literature, although the Sal-Me have children, these children are never ascribed to a father in the ordinary way; where the child of a Sal-Me is mentioned, the mother's name only Is given. Moreover, a father in dedicating his daughter to the temple (whether Nin~An^ Sal-Me or •zikrum] gave her a dowry (CLXXVIII .sy.). These two facts show at once that Iltani, the daughter of Abeshu', who was a Sal Shamash, *a woman of Shamash,* was there In the temple in order to represent the god's harem* This throws a light on the 'wife of the god' (Nin-Aft)\ that just as men have one chief wife and may have other Inferior wives and con- cubines, so also may their gods (cf. the case of Yahweh at Elephantine, p. 204 above). The Nin-An rarely occurs in the contract tablets and the probability is that there was only one to each temple and that she was the chief wife of the god. Although we do not find direct evidence that she bore children, surely as the chief wife of the god it is still more probable than in the case of the Sal-Me that she should bear a child of whom the god was the putative father. That Is how demi-gods are born; and that is probably what Sargon claimed (p. 403). The Nin-An is the lawful wife of the god, and as such takes her place along with the lawful wife in cxxvii; and stress should be laid on the fact that the Code does not take notice of the finger of scorn pointed at the concubine or slave-girl, either of god or man. A Sal-Me priestess might marry a man, but, curiously enough, she was not expected to bear him children, but was supposed to give a maid to her husband for that purpose. All this Is laid down in CXLIV— vn of the Code; If a man marry a priestess and she grants him a maid who bears him children, then he is not allowed a concubine; if she does not, then he may take a concubine. This shows that the Sal-Me is not really mated to man, and again bears out sh» contention that the children were nominally the god's family. If the maid given to the man bears children and becomes 538 THE GOLDEN AGE OF HAMMURABI [CHAP. overbearing towards her mistress, then she may be sold as a slave. The parallel of Hagar (Gen. xvi) has often been adduced in this instance. r We are told the dowry of a priestess of Marduk who married the son of a priest of Ishtar: two maids, six gold shekels for ear-* rings, one shekel of gold for her nose-ring, and other ornaments and various clothes; one ox, two cows, thirty sheep; two grind- stones, a bed and five chairs, and so on. Priestesses had ^reat scope and capacity for trade. They were very rich, owning houses and lands, in which they trafficked both with the outer world sftid their own cloistered sisters, and the contract literature is full of their negotiations. The Sal-Me priestess of Shamash, as a rule, lived in the gagum> or convent, which Scheil actually discovered near the Temple of the Sun at Sippar, consisting of pretty little private houses. Similarly the entu (Nin-An} lived in a section of the Ur temple called E-gipar5 which dates back at least to Bur-Sin of Ur, The class of the xikru or temple-harlot is more difficult. In the Code we find her mentioned after the entu and the natitu (j$al-M.e)\ but the xikru, in contrast to the other classes, is not mentioned in religious literature. There is no bar to her having children. Another word for the sacred harlot is 'zermashitu* She was of a class superior to the kadishtu, as is seen from a tablet of Ammi-ditana's reign, whereon one Liwir-Ishtar, who marries Warad-Shamash, is both a priestess of Marduk and a xermashitu. There was no objection to a man marrying a ^ermashitu^ and indeed in Ammi-ditana's time Zermashhu is a proper name. But there is no such honour extended to the profession of kadishtu, which is perfectly clear, A contract of Hammurabi's time describes certain property in Sippar as 'near the house of the daughter of I din-Sin, the xermashitu> near the temple of Eshkharra, facing the town-square/ That the lady owned the house signifies nothing; and we should certainly not be justified in supposing for this reason that she was carrying on a prostitute's trade then, for it was quite usual for women to own houses. The position of the house, however, allows us to consider that she was well-to-do. A homily on behaviour describes three classes of these women: 4 Wed not a kharimtu — her husband is the wind; (nor) an Ishtaritu., who is named for a god; (nor) a %ermashitu whose. . . (Kt-Kaf) are many; she will not lift thee up in thy trouble.* The kadishtu is different, and there is no record of her marriage. Her name implies *the sacred woman,' but the meaning- of the word is ambiguous (sec p. 199). It is the same as the fcedeshah of XIV, v] THE TEMPLE-WOMEN 539 Deuteronomy xxiii, 17 (18); there is no doubt how she earns her living from a deed of adoption of the time of Rim-Sin, Shalur- tum adopts Awirtum the daughter of Khupatum, paying if shekels lor her upbringing. Awirtum is to be made into a hiero- , dule (kadishtu) to support her now mother, Shalurtum. If this girl should repudiate her new mother she can be sold; if Shalurtum repudiates Awirtum, she is to pay ten shekels of silver. It% was the custom among Babylonian ladies, and even poor women, to give out their babes to be suckled by the kadis htu-cl&$<$ of* temple- worn en. In Hammurabi's time Zukhuntum, the wife of Anum-klnum, gave her child to the kadishtu Iltani to suckle, but she was unable to provide Iltani's fee for suckling the child for three years. For this reason Zukhuntum said: 'Take the child, it shall be thine.* Iltani has then to pay three shekels of silver to Zukhuntum. There is another case of a mother delivering over her little daughter to such, a hierodule in the time of Samsu-iluna : *Yabliyatum has surrendered Alanitum, her daughter, to Zami- dum, the hierodule (kadishtu or Isktaritu) of the god Adad, the daughter of Ashkur( ?)-Adad, as her daughter. Pay for suckling for three years Yabliyatum? her mother has received. For ever. If Alanitutn says to her mother Zamidum "Thou art not my mother,*' they shall mark her and sell her/ But the feadishtu was not necessarily the only class of foster-mothers, for we find a priestess of Shamash giving her son as foster-child to a married couple. Here again no father's name is mentioned. At the same time, although there appears to be no question that the -xermashitu and kadishtu were sacred harlots, a dis- tinction is drawn between them and the kixreti, the shamkhati and kharimati of the worship of Ishtar at Erech, which are names applied to the licentious ministrants of this goddess. They appear to be different in some way from the kadishtu and xermashitu^ but how cannot exactly be said. The temple-girls of Ishtar at Erech are thus described in the Legend of Girra : Of Erech, home of Anu and of Ishtar, The town of harlots, strumpets and hetaerae, Whose (hire) men pay Ishtar^ and they yield their hands. It refers to the licentious worship of the goddess of love, such as the Greek writers have described. The words used are entirely different from the xermashitu and kadishtu of the Code and con- tracts. In the Legend of Gilgamesh one of the shamkhati is selected by tke Shunter from the temple of Erech to seduce Engidu, Here there is no religious background, and subsequently the woman 540 THE GOLDEN AGE OF HAMMURABI [CHAP cleaves to him, at any rate so far as to take Engldu back to her city, where we lose sight of her* VI. ORDINARY LIFE, DEATH, LITERATURE *5 Turning to another side of Babylonian life we may begin with the army, although at this period little of it is known. We have few pictorial records of troops such as are to be found in profusion In the palace-sculptures of the later Assyrian kings, or even on the reliefs of the earlier Sumerian rulers; nor are the references to details in the texts common. The 'levy' (ridu} represented the method by which men were obtained for the army (p. 514). In Samsu-iluna's time a case Is recorded of one Anatum, a Ka~Bar, son of Kanishitum, 'who to. . . of the soldiers had been given,* and who is given back by the king's exercise of his prerogative to two men as Ka-Bar. Throughout the yearly datings of the Semitic kings of Isin, Larsa, and Babylon of this time we find infinitely more attention paid to the worship of the gods than to the army. The consecration of a high-priest Is recorded in them, but never the promotion of a general, and contlnttally temple-gifts are mentioned, but never anything which shows that the king took an interest in providing his troops with weapons. One of Ham- murabi's letters does, however, speak of the despatch of troops, '2,40 men of the King's guard/ together with *the troops of Ibm-Martu*; another orders the sending of outfits (clothes and headbands), oil, etc., *for the men under the command of Imgur- Enlil and Adad-irshu/ Yet another to Sin-idinnatn instructs him to take ninety men from the troops round about Ur and embark them on a ship of seventy-five gur burthen. There is an Interesting point about those troops of Ur: they would seem to have retained their old weapon, the bow, even In Sumerian times (which they certainly had In the Elamltlc period), for in the twenty-eighth year of Dungl the men of Ur were enrolled as long-bow archers. Barbed stone arrowheads were actually found by the present writer at Erldu. In Hammurabi's time the weapons included axes and spears. Corn-rations were issued, but whether they reached the men as flour, or whether they were expected to crush the corn them- selves, we do not know. A ration receipt is extant, dated in the reign of Zabhim, for 300 gur of corn as the levied contribution *fbr the maintenance of troops (ridu] under the orders of Kuk- simut/ who from his name appears to be an Elamlte — a p^ig^iant example of a mercenary officer. But the levy, of course, was for XIV, vi] THE CROPS 541 public works as well as the army. In Sin-muballit's time we hear of five-sixths of a mana of silver, part of one rnana of silver, which ^as paid by Imlik-Sin for 'fifty hired men who* were engaged for the King's Road/ Hammurabi sends Gimillum to » Larsa with a letter to Sin-idinn^m with instructions that he is to take over the workmen of Larsa and set them to work under the overseer who is going with him. The king elsewhere writes to Sin-i^linnam that he is sending him three hundred and sixty labourers., one hundred and eighty of whom are to serve with the L^rsa workmen, and the same number with the men of Rakhabu. Canals, of course, demand persistent care, and it is for these that the corvee was chiefly wanted. These are made so that the water is above the surrounding level and irrigation machines are not necessary. Every canal bears in its waters the alluvial mud from the Euphrates in flood, and thus brings about its own destruction; in time It becomes cheaper to dig a new canal than to clear out this old one. Sin-idinnam was ordered by his king to call out the men who held land on the banks of the Damanum Canal near Larsa In order to clear out the channel within the month. He was again commanded to clear out one of the Erech canals which was so blocked 'that (boats) cannot enter the city'; the men at his disposal were to finish the work within three days. Again, a letter was written by Apil-iluka to *my lord/ probably Hammurabi, concerning the clearing of the Ningirsu- Khegallu Canal. Since its channel had become choked Ham- murabi had given orders for it to be re-dug, but owing to a dispute with the village of Khalbl, situated on its bank, the work was not carried out. Sin-idinnam (evidently here the well-known official of Larsa) had refused to listen to Apil-iluka*s complaints, and the latter therefore protests directly to Hammurabi. The crops, which appear to have been mainly spelt and barley, were as a rule a private speculation. In primitive times the ground was broken with stone hoes; the earliest representation of the plough which we have is on a seal of the fourteenth century, of the time of Nazl-Maruttash, Here a yoke of humped oxen draws a primitive plough, which one man guides, a second man drives the oxen, and the third has the bag of grain which he is sowing through a tube in the plough. From a contract of the same period we learn of an accident which once stopped the sowing of a field : * Iklsha-Enlil, the son of Khashma-Kharba, received from Belanu, the son of Ibba-amel-uballit an ox for ploughing: It broke its feg* whereupon Belanu thus spake to Ikisha-Enlil, " Bring (me) (another) ox that I may plant (my) field, (for) thou shalt not 542 THE GOLDEN AGE OF HAMMURABI [CHAP. make me miss my sowing/' Ikisha-Enlil thus spake to Belanu, " I will give thee an ox in the month Ab." (But) Ikisha-Enlil did not give frhe ox to Belanu in Ab : therefore Ikisha-Enlil shp.ll make good the crop of the field to Belanu/ It was customary then, as at the present time, to allow shdfep to nibble the early shoots of' green corn, but the Code lays down that it must be done by arrangement with the owner of the crops (LVII sf.). The next operation was the reaping. Scheil says that in ^894 when he left Sippar on the 2oth of April not an ear of corn had been harvested, but that at Bartelle (near Mosul) on the i3thrbf May it had already been reaped. The barley ripens a little later. When L. W. King and the present writer left Mosul for Bisitun in April, 1904, the fields had not been touched and were still green; when we returned in June the crops had been garnered and the sledges were breaking up the straw for horse-fodder. At Nasriyeh the crops were growing high towards the end of March, 1918. In very early times in the south, especially at Eridu, men, women and children turned out to reap the crops with sickles made of baked clay. Doubtless also flint sickles were used, several sharp flakes being arranged in a haft to form one continuous edge; then followed the use of copper, but it was probably too valuable to be in general use for reaping hooks, although an example from Elam does exist. The value of corn varied. A shekel in Manishtusu's time (c. 2800 B.C.) would buy one gur, twice as much under Shamshi- Adad II (c. 1880—60), and three times as much under Sin-gashid (c. 2000). The harvest, of course, attracted labourers from afar, and the farmer would hire extra hands for garnering his crop. As a rule the man was hired for the harvest, and was free directly afterwards; but his term might be reckoned at one month, half-a- year, or even a whole year. Reapers reckoned to earn anything from half-a-shekel to two shekels, but very frequently the wages were paid in corn. The master of a slave would let out his man for hire, or even parents their children, the wages then being paid to the master or parents. In the time of Hammurabi, for instance, we find a slave-girl hired out for harvest: 'Taraitum the daughter of Iza-iluraa, has hired a slave-girl, Aya-Lamazi, from Nish-Ini- shu the Sal (priestess) of the sun, the daughter of Idin-Dagan, for one month and three days, the time of the harvest/ In this case the hirer promises to pay for her hire, one gur of corn, in the gate of the gagum-cloistzr, which rather points to it being similar to a convent into which strangers were not admitted. ** c The amount of corn necessary for a man in full work appears XIV, vi] FOOD 543 to have been 2 f %a daily, judging by the hire paid by Lu-Ninsianna for the man Idin-Ishtar. The daily feed of barley for domestic animals j^as reckoned during the Kassite period on the following scale : horse, 5 ka (a modern Anatolian horse eats about fourteen * double handfuls of barley and ^ quarter of a sack of chopped straw); ox, 2|- ka\ dove (doubtless in the temple of Ishtar), -^ ka\ fowl, -J or ^g- ka* We may therefore take it that a man was allowed abou£ half as much grain as a horse* In order to make the daily bread the corn was first pounded between two stones, the lower wf Gilgamesh returning home in triumph carrying a fish and a tortoise, such as would be tabu at the present day. Beer of many kiifds was made from corn, and a wine or arrack from dates; the gods themselves, when their hearts were overcome with the terror of Tiamat, did not disdain to cheer themselves with wine, so that their spirits were exalted. Wool from the flocks was a source of revenue, both for the temple and the palace. Apil-ilishu writes to his son: *now I send Ili-erish to thee : give (him) twenty maiias of good wool as my temple-gift/ Five letters of the time of Ammi-zaduga announce that a sheep-shearing will take place in the Bit-akltim, the time of the year being the month Shebat or early Adar, Le* in the early spring. The value of wool varied. In the time of Manishtusu four manas were worth one shekel, and later, under Sin-gashid, three times the amount was obtainable for that sum; under Shamshi- Adad II a shekel would buy as much as fifteen manas. Coinage, of course, did not exist and the method of payment was by manas and shekels of silver weighed out. Gold was used for temple-offerings and in payment, but was much rarer in business than silver, which doubtless came from the mines of Bulgar Maden in Asia Minor. Copper was found in considerable quantities in Elam, whence doubtless it was exported to Mesopo- tamia. The industry of copper working was carried on, particularly at Umma, about the time of Dungi and Bur-Sin, although this can hardly have been the place where a knowledge of metallurgy developed. Dur-gurgurri, near Larsa, was another town where the clangour of coppersmiths at work could be heard continually. The relative value of the three metals appears to show that gold decreased in value by about one-third between the Agade-period and Hammurabi. We find the following ratios : Agade period Gold 1920 : Silver 240 ; Copper I Hammurabi Gold 1440 : Silver 240 Sin-gashid Silver 240 : Copper f Offerings in copper were, of course, made to the temples. Zarik, patesi of Susa, sent a wonderful cow of copper inlaid with silver C.A.K.I 35 546 THE GOLDEN .AGE OF HAMMURABI [CHAP. to Ur, in the time of Bur-Sin or Gimil-Sin, Two-thirds of a mana was paid in the fourth year of Hammurabi for the restoration of a cojSper vessel for the temple of Shamash. c. A private letter of the period of the 1st Dynasty shows that the inevitable * copper pot' was Fn use. It may be either the water- pot which the women still carry on their shoulders for fetching water, or else one for cooking: *To Baba say: thus Munawirum. May Shamash and Marduk keep thee in good health for- ever. I am sending Lumur-sha-Marduk; give (him) a copper pot. I am sending thee the money for the copper pot. I am out of health: since thou lovest me truly, send the copper pot/ It is an indica- tion that a copper bazaar existed only in the towns, as of course happens to this day. Lead came probably also from the mines in Anatolia; a Cappadocian tablet of the end of the third millennium mentions as much as fifteen manas. The question of the introduction of bronze is a difficult one, as analysis of objects found has not always been carried out, and objects have been loosely called * copper' or * bronze' according to fancy. Certainly the objects found by the present writer at Eridu and by Dr Hall at Obeid all point to a use of copper with- out alloy even in late Sumerian times (see also pp. 291, 585 sq^ The difficulty of translation prevents our giving a full inventory of a good middle-class household at this period. Duluktu, the daughter of Ashkudu and Taram-Sagil, is given a well-furnished house with garden, and also clothes for herself, so that she may set up on her own account. Probably we have here a dowry : the lady further receives a slave-girl as waiting maid, a shekel's weight of gold for her wrist-bangle or finger-rings, and another shekel for her ear-rings; ten head-bands (it is a hot country and she probably used much oil on her hair), two laptasi-dresses (or cloths), two fringed skirts (?), and a leather girdle (?), two grinding stones, another girdle ( ?), four copper spoons ( ?), one shade (parasol ?), seven chairs and so on. A bed is also mentioned in other inventories. The pottery of the Sumerians was plain and simple; they never continued the beautiful designs painted in black, either geometric or decorative, which the Elamites knew so well how to produce. Seals show that they had the large hubb or water-pot on a stand, which allowed the water to filter through to a smaller pot, and such would be in every household. Water-pots were of cream- coloured turned or unturned clay, made frequently with a spout at the shoulder; plates and bowls were made of the saxsierplain material, but sometimes turned, in the case of cups, to a most XIV, vi] A LOVE-LETTER 547 delicate thinness. Of Semitic pottery of this period we can say little, but probably it was similar to that of the Sumerians, as there wo^ild be little need to change. At this period there *is no doubt that little clay figures of the mother goddess were in common use, and in these innumerable %iodels, which are so frequent, we must see the equivalent of the modern Arab woman's piece of rag hung up near a saint's tomb^ the prayer for a child. On the art, s^e further, pp. 577 sqq. Still more than the contract tablets the private letters give us th^ daily life of the people. One, from a son apparently away from home, seems to refer to some family bickering, his mother having made home unpleasant for him: 'To Beya speak: thus Ibni-Martu, thy son. May Shamash and Marduk give thee life for my sake. Thou hast grieved me and brought great distress of mind on my head. Since I may not return to the company of my brothers, I will no (longer) call myself by the name of my father's house. Thou hast done wrong (or thou hast done [it] me) seeing that the father (whom) I have I may not [see again ?]. Now I am [sending] Birda. . .unto thee, (and) with him is. . . (?) that he may bring the cloak (and) come (back again). If thou art not willing (to send) the cloak, send (me) the money which I have despatched to thee for the dress. I sent thee its pattern (tzu-kka-as-say for su-kha-ar-sha its diminutive)/ The letter ends with a request that the messenger be returned. Even a love letter from Sippar Is extant, dating back to the 1st Dynasty: 'To Bibiya say: thus Gimil-Marduk. May Shamash and Marduk give thee health for ever for my sake. I have sent (to ask) after thy health; let me know how thou art, I have arrived in Babylon, and see thee not; I am very sad. Send news of thy coming, that I may be cheered; in the month of Markheswan thou shalt come. Mayst thou live for ever for my sake/ Evidently it reached the lady Bibiya (whose name is doubtless parent of the oriental bibi^ 'lady') in Sippar whither it had been sent from Babylon. Now, we have already found Sheb-Sin denouncing one Gimil-Marduk to Hammurabi for appropriating the moneys for temple-dues from the city Rakhabu (p. 534). Only the desire to avoid conclusions drawn from what may be mere coincidences prevents us from connecting the incidents — but did Gimil- Marduk find the lady exacting and expensive? Finally, the burial customs of this period may be briefly noticed. The Sumerian in burying his dead chose a high place if he could : that is, an old mound if possible, in the same way as does the bedouin of the present day. His word for a grave was 35—2 548 THE GOLDEN AGE OF HAMMURABI [CHAP. ^ 'great earth/ and one of Ms kings, Eannatum3 has left us a picture of the burial of warriors after his battle with Umma. An OK was sacrificed, as was found at Eridu, where the Jung had made his offering, now fifteen feet below the surface (p. 501). The dead were collected In row^ head to foot, and naked as they- lay, covered with a mound of earth. This was about 3000 B.C. At the end of the third millennium (if the burials near the surface at Eridu are really late Sumerian), the dead were buried wjlthout coffin and probably unwrapped, with a spouted pot for water placed near them, with one or two rough upturned bowls* or1 goblets. This class of spouted pot was also found at Shuruppak; it is exactly the same as those represented on the old seals. With the advent of the Semites an alteration becomes gradually apparent. Koldewey found at Babylon that the lowest levels of the time of the first Babylonian kings contained bodies lying simply in the earth, or rolled in reed mats, or roughly surrounded by mud bricks. The bodies were always laid out at full length. The present writer found a body buried in the mound of Ur about a foot below the surface, apparently the skeleton of a girl, with a silver-copper ring on each arm and a nose-ring possibly of silver* The body had evidently been huddled up, the total length of the burial was less than two feet; it lay on its left side with the head pointing approximately to the east. Not far from the mouth was a water- pot, and upturned on or near the legs was a basin. There had been some cloth with it, and the whole, pots and all, had been wrapped in a reed mat. Cuneiform tablets were found at a depth of two feet in a 'throw-out* at a stone's throw distance, probably of the period of the Illrd Dynasty of Ur, so that the presumption is that this mat burial was about the same period, and Koldewey's mat burials at Babylon will coincide in date or, not unlikely, may be earlier. The next later burials at Babylon are similar to those which the present writer found at Tell el-Lahm, double-urn interments, two pottery vessels with mouths joined together lying horizon- tally. At Tell el-Lahm such burials had included pots and plates of plain wheel-turned ware. Among the graves of this class at Babylon were a few brick-built subterranean chambers with barrel-shaped vaulting, doubtless similar to those found by Taylor at Ur (p, 398 j^.). We have to assign these to the period early In the 1st Dynasty or even a little before, rather than later. Similar double-urn burials were found at Nippur and assigned (by Peters) to Hammurabi's period or rather before. So a?Jso at Telloh where the careful records of Cros show that these double- XIV, vi] THE BURIALS 549 urn burials are subsequent to Bur-Sin, as he found a brick of that king below them. The next class of interment is entirely different. Kol^.ewey found a different class of burials above the stratum in which these * double-urns were contained at j metres above his zero line, and he puts them at ( Nebuchadrezzar and earlier/ which, however, seems far too late. Peters, who found the same at Nippur, assigns thereto 2000 B.C., and onward to the close of the Persian period, The coffin in this case is a clay sarcophagus rather like a small bs&h-tub, round at one end and square at the other, the length rarely more than a metre. The present writer found them at Tell el-Lahm above the double-urn burials, and is also inclined to assign them to an earlier date than Koldewey, One at Sippar (i m. x *47 cm. x -50 cm. high) contained a legal document of the date of Hammurabi. There were none of this type actually in the mound at Eridu, although they were to be found on the neighbouring flat. It is worth noticing that an unoccupied mound is the obvious place for burials, for not only does it provide a well-marked cemetery and is itself a funeral monument, but it has also a sacrosanct character. That numerous interments could be made in an ancient mound while it was still inhabited is hardly possible, and this is therefore always a point to consider before deciding the questions either of the date or of burial in the house walls. Cf. further, pp. 377, 381. In the views about the next world and spirits we may take it that there was little difference in what people believed either under Hammurabi, or later under Ashurbanipal. All the theories about the Hades under the earth and the soul which obtained in the seventh century doubtless held good in the twenty-first century B,C. The dead were buried with food and water so that the descendants might not be plagued with the ghost who would otherwise prowl about the earth seeking to assuage its hunger with any offal, or attacking men so that it might be appeased by offerings. If the body was unburied the spirit roamed as an uneasy ghost, until it was given a resting-place in the earth; similarly a mother who died in child-birth, like the Indian chure^ came back for her child; many are the ghosts who return. Normally the spirit whose body was duly buried remained in the earth, inhabiting a gloomy abode — "the Land of No Return* — presided over by a goddess, Ereshkigal, the wife of Nergal (see p* 53 1)» Of the Semitic literature of Hammurabi's period other than buskiass documents unfortunately comparatively little survives, but this little is gradually increasing* For instance, there is the 550 THE GOLDEN AGE OF HAMMURABI [CHAP. long poem of Agushaya which not only from Its style,, but its actual epilogue, is to be referred to Hammurabi's age: The King who repeateth this song, (As) proof of thy power, thy glory, Hammurabi who singeth (?) this song. So long as he liveth, thy glory. It is written on a clay tablet in eight columns, in the short lines which the authors of this period affected. The recent identi- fication of the Second Tablet of the Legend of Gilgamesh, in the Nippur Collection in the University of Pennsylvania, dating*- to the same period approximately, renders it impossible to lay down any hard and fast distinction between the literature of this time and of the later Babylonian empire. Indeed, it is doubtful how much of the great Epics and Legends are Semitic at all, many certainly being mere translations or adaptations from the Su- merian. A fragmentary legend of Gilgamesh, for instance, actually occurs in Sumerian on a Nippur tablet, although it cannot be identified with any known part of the Semitic version. Conse- quently, we may hope in time to find the earlier versions from which Ashurbanipal's copies were made: to describe his Royal Library at Kuyunjik and its contents would be out of place in the present volume. The immense quantity of * interlinear' texts (i.e. texts written in Sumerian with each line translated into Assyrian) shows how largely the Assyrian king was indebted to the Sumerians for his literature. We may, therefore, defer a fuller description of the Babylonian literature until we reach the Later Babylonian Period, The actual occurrences of early editions (that is, of the Hammurabi period) of the Legends are, as was men- tioned above, very rare, and can be more conveniently discussed with the rest of the material which for the most part is written on clay tablets of the first millennium B.C. The old legends include, first, the great Epic of Gilgamesh, the semi-legendary king of Erech, in twelve tablets, describing his tyrannical rule over Erech which is to be abolished by the divine creature Engidu. In the end Engidu becomes his friend and seeks adventures with him. Then the goddess Ishtar falls in love with Gilgamesh, only to be spurned by him, and the two heroes slay a monstrous bull which her father, Anu, had created for their undoing. Presently Engidu dies, and Gilgamesh, in his terror of dying also, sets forth on a long journey to Uta-napishtim, the Babylonian Noah, to whom the gods had given eternal life: if anyone can advise Gilgamesh it will be he. Ultimately, cafter many adventures, Gilgamesh reaches the sage, who tells him the XIV, vi] MYTHS AND LEGENDS 551 story of the Flood, and recommends him to dive into the sea for a life-giving plant, This he does, but on his journey home a snake snatches it out of his hand, and he is left again to face the common lot, See also pp. 366 ty, 497, * , Next in importance we must p^ce the Seven Tablets of Creation in which the fight of Bel and the Dragon (Tiamat) is related, ending in her death and the subsequent ordering of the cosmos, These are the two chief legends, but there are many others: of Zu, Sie storm-bird, and how he stole the Tablets of Destiny; of Aiapa, a hero of Eridu, who cozened the dwellers in heaven (p, 401); of Etana, who, like Ganymede, was borne up into the sky by an eagle (p, 366), Ishtar, the faithful spouse of Tammuz, descends to the Underworld in search of him, like Orpheus his Eurydice, and Hell, the city of Seven Gates, wherein the dead enter naked, is pictured with no mean pen (cf, p, 461), Almost within the realm of history we might count the story of Girra, the plague-god, with its political import (p, 473); and the curious legend called after the king of Cuthah, with its battles wherein men with birds' bodies and faces take part, CHAPXER XV THE KASSITE CONQUEST I. THE END OF THE FIRST BABYLONIAN DYNASTY 1 "AMMURABI was succeeded by Ms son Samsu-iluna In fc 2080, and the politics of Babylonia entered on a new phase. A second dynasty, overlapping the first, arose, the so-called 'Dynasty of the Sea-Country/ which was to challenge the ruling power and presently survive it. Contemporary with these a new foe threatened the eastern boundary, the Kassites, a powerful tribe, inhabiting the fringe of the Persian mountains, whose first foray was made in Samsu-iluna's reign (p. 554). The caravans of the merchants plying up the mountain roads eastwards into the Zagros, the stray wanderers whose business or pleasure took them into the hills, and even perhaps the luckless prisoners who had been captured by Elamltes in their many forays into Babylonia, all told the same tales, in the rugged lime- stone fastnesses, of the wealth of golden grain in the Mesopo- tamian valleys below, and how men might enrich themselves in these lands. Such tales early reached the nearest mountain people, the Kashshi, whom classical writers called Kossaioi (and probably also the Kissiofy a wild tribe of freebootmg barbarians, inhabiting the slopes north or north-west of Elam, and numbering, according to Strabo, 13,000 bows. Their name possibly survives in the modern Khuzistan. They were as little to hold or bind as the modern Lurs; in later tines Alexander conquered them, but after his death they regained their independence. Strabo says that they fought alongside the Elamites against the Susians and Baby- lonians; the Persian kings never subdued them, but purchased peace by paying them tribute. Sennacherib describes them as equally unsubmissive to his fathers: * Through the high mountain forests, a rough country, I rode on horseback, and hauled my chariot up with ropes. The steepest places I climbed on foot like a wild ox/ They had begun to stray down into the harvest fields of Babylonia as early as the time of Hammurabi. The Babylonian lexicographers, whose broad view of ^pr#ign languages as well as of their own native tongue led them to make CHAP. XV, i] THE KASSITE LANGUAGE 553 extensive dictionaries of all kinds — Sumerian, Hittite, Kassite and so forth — have left us a tablet which gives the Babylonian translation of twenty-one kings* names, chiefly Kassxtes, Jrings who 'lived after the flood, but not arranged in consecutive order,7 &s the text says: * Hamnmrabi = kimta-rapasktum Meli-Khali = amet-Gula Ammi-zaduga = kimttun-kettum Meli-Shumu ~ amel-Skukamuna Kur-galzu « re- i-i-bi(kasfi)-shi-i Meli-Shibarru — amel-Shimalia Sirama$h-Shipak= lidan-Marduk Meli-Sakh — amel-Shamash Ulam-Buriash « lidan-bel-matati Nimgirabl ~ eteru Na?i-Maruttash = sil-Nlnurta NImglrabi-Sakh «= eteru-\8ha9nas£\ Meli-Shipak = amel-Marduk Nlmglrabl-Buiiasli — ete\ru-bel-mataii\ Burna-Buriash = kidin-\bel-mat5\ti (?) KadisiLman-Buriasli = tukul\ti-bel-matatz\ Kadasliman- Kadishman-Sakh = tuku]\ti-ShamasK\ Enlii = tukuhi-Bel Nazi-SHpak == \si!-Mar£\nk Ulam-KIiarbe = lidan-Bel Nazi-Buriasli = [sil-beQ-matsti Many of these are well-known names. Nimgirabi, not yet known as a king in the lists, is the name of a weaver (Nimgirabu); but the name Nimgi-shar-ilani rather throws doubt on the trans- lation given above, just as the translation for Buriash does not seem entirely satisfactory. The vocabulary can be amplified from the lexicographical tablets which give the Assyrian equivalents of Kassite words: bashkku *god* nu (or kur)~/a eking* dakask 'star* mali *man* dagegi 'heaven' tneli 'slave' Uttlu 'heaven' kukla 'slave' mirlyask 'earth* barkhu 'head' turukhna 'wind' khameru ^o ian&i *Hng" sari&u *foot* Their gods were Kashshu (who probably gave his name to the tribe); Kharbe(Bel); Kamulla(Ea); Sakh and Shuriyash(Shamash); Shipak (Marduk); Ubriash, or Buriash, and Khud (or Khulakh)- kha (both Adad); Tur or Shugab (Nergal); Khala (Gula), Shimalia (Shibarru^ who was *the lady of the bright mountains, who dwells upon the summits/ and Shukamuna (Nergal-Nusku), Gidar or Maruttash (Ninurta) has been compared to the Sanskrit deity Marut, a deity of wind and storms; Shuriyash, the sun-god, to the Indian Surya, the Greek Helios; Buriash to Boreas; and the word bugash to the Slav bogu and the Phrygian bagaios^ 'god/ But, although the gods can be compared to Indo-European deities, it cannot be said that the ordinary words quoted above are similar to those of the Indo-European tongues. It will be seen that ^eyeral words have two renderings, a possible indication of an amalgamation of two languages : it may be that, from the great 554 THE fCASSITE CONQUEST [CHAP. difference between the kings' names and the native vocabulary we should Infer that the ruling caste was of a different stock froinrthe native Kassites. After all, this was usual; Semites ruled Sumerians, Kassites ruled Semites, Macedonians ruled Babylonians, and so forth* The Kassite harvesters were but the forerunners of a serious incursion; they were the spies who, however unintentionally, spied out the land and bore home, doubtless not without exaggeration, the tales of Babylonian wealth. It is the old story of the successive trader, missionary, and warship. r Yet for his first eight years Samsu-iluna on the throne of Babylon had little to do except dig two canals and dedicate gifts to Nannar, Marduk and Shamash. His offering to the great temple of the sun in his sixth year appears to have been of a statue of the king praying, and figures of lions, such as Hall found in the British Museum excavations at 'Obeid near Ur: fearsome copper creatures, life-size, doubtless arranged in an avenue, in pairs facing each other, to protect the approach. We can easily imagine the portly priests performing their evolutions and ceremonies of dedication, and chanting the Sumerian hymn which was actually used for the occasion. First the statue was addressed, and then the king was praised, and finally the lions were hymned : Thou whose presentment radiant beameth on all living creatures, (Yea), from his bounty is plenty brought forth 5 because of his statue Effulgent, prosperity (now) is attained. . . . Samsu-iluna, thy champion, the country enriching, I am the strong prince devoted; (and) watchful care do I foster. He for the rule of the land with benignant fate hath been destined. Lions as guardian spirits he gave (?), making awful their fierceness, So to reduce (?) the wicked to fealty; (so) hath Innini With a firm hand set in place; (and) on their left hath been stablished Sarnsu-iluna. The Kassite mountaineers of Pusht-i-Kuh, the white-capped mountains visible from the Tigris banks above Amarah, swept down on the land in 2072 B»C. It must have been a rude contrast, the genuflexions of the fat Babylonian priests and the wild and sudden onslaught of hardy and handsome mountaineers. Some of the Kassites, no doubt, went back to their eyries with as much loot as they could pick up from the village-dwellers nearest the hills, but they came again, and with telling effect. As will be seen a little further on, Babylon lost control in the south in 2071 or This was the first indication of the coming rule of the Kassites. XV, ij THE KINGS OF THE SEA-COUNTRY 555 For the moment there was a more pressing enemy even than the Kassites nearer at hand, destined to found a new line of kings contemporaneous with the 1st Dynasty of Babylon, known &s the 1st Dynasty of Sea-Country Kings. (See p. 153 foot.) , The ' Sea-Country' has always been a vague term. In the early days of Assyriology the description of Eridu In the Chronicle ('Dungi, the son of Ur-Engur, cared greatly for the city of Eridu, which was on the shore of the sea '), was understood to mean* that the Persian Gulf washed the flanks of the mound of A feu Shahrein. Subsequently this Idea was given up in favour of the more probable one that the *sea' (tamtu) was the great Hammar Lake, the wide marshland and shallow lagoon now spread between Nasriyeh and Basrah, and expansive enough in ancient days to reach Eridu. This was settled finally by the excavations which the present writer carried on there for the British Museum in 1918, the quantities of fresh-water mussels in contrast to the extreme rarity of sea-shells in the strata showing that the sea could not have been intended. It may be added that the proper definition of the salt tidal waters here is Nar Ivlarratu, 'the bitter river.' How far the new Sea-dynasty corresponds ethnologically to the modern marsh Arabs we cannot say; we have to note the entire absence of monuments of this dynasty, and it would appear that, though vigorous, the kings were ignorant and inartistic. As a tablet from Nippur is dated in the first year of Iluina-ilu, the first king of the Sea-land dynasty, we can see how very far north from the marshes this new rule extended in its inception; and consequently we are entitled to place the vague * Sea-land* north of the great Hammar Lake and not south or south-east of it on the actual sea. It is even possible that we are to see a reminiscence of the name in the word Tehoma found on some maps for the district near Bismaya, which lies about thirty miles south-east from Nippur. The great creation legend of Babylon, of Tiamat, the restless sea-dragon, may have taken its origin in the fanciful minds of the primitive settlers from the tidal rise and fall of the lakes near the coast. At all events the modern Arab of Basrah is said to believe that earth- quakes are caused by the 'buffalo of the Jinn7 moving about under the earth. That the * Sea-land' is not an evanescent term is clear from its reappearance in a Kassite letter, and, still more cogently, in another Dynasty of the Sea-land in the eleventh century, Our foremost indication of this Sea-land Dynasty is found in the Chro*iicle, which, although broken at this point, says that there was war and the 'sea' was filled with corpses; that ' Samsu-iluna 556 THE KASSITE CONQUEST [CHAP. again . . . Iluma-ilu advanced and the defeat of the troops accom- plished/ The next paragraph shows that the successor of Samsu- iluna: Abeshu', failed equally to conquer Iluma-ilu, although he dammed the Tigris to do it. The * damming of the Tigris' is a trick which the Arabs are still rfond of attempting, in order to, discommode the enemy by flooding large districts. The names of the kings of the Sea-country show fairly definitely that part at any rate were Semitic; some of the rest seem to be Sumerian. Their dates can be only approximately determined; but we may assign the beginning of this dynasty to c. 2070. After die first ten years of Samsu-iluna's reign the contract tablets from Tell Sifr near Larsa, hitherto so plentiful, cease abruptly; some upheaval in the south of Babylonia must have occurred about 2071 or 2070 B.C., which would aptly coincide with the Kassite raid, when, doubtless, the Sea-country kings were not slow to snatch some advantage. Further, tablets found so far north as Nippur, dated in the * first7 year of Iluma-ilu (that is, in the first year of his rule over that city), show that Nippur, at any rate, was included in Iluma-ilu's dominion. Moreover, the latest tablet of the 1st Dynasty from Nippur is dated in the twenty-ninth year of Samsu-iluna; in other words Nippur fell to Iluma-ilu about 2052. This clearly indicates the gradual onslaught of the Sea- country forces, working their way up methodically through the cities of the south northwards, and with this in mind we can follow the yearly events of Samsu-iluna's reign which provide us with the details leading to the catastrophe. The Kassite raid of 2072 B.C. was followed by five years of disorder in the land, due to the invasion of these mountaineers, which either post hoc or Crofter hoc resulted in revolution. East and south, Idamaraz, Emutbal, Uruk and Isin banded together in 2071, apparently under an upstart Rim-Sin II of Larsa, and broke away from their fealty. We get a glimpse of what went on from a private letter, doubtless to be assigned to this period: one Ilu-ikisham complains in disgust to his agent of 'the robbery by the people of Idamaraz of a wooden tamlu*\ he was probably lucky to get off so lightly. Samsu-iluna sent an expedition against the four malcontents; Rim-Sin, as Larsa says, was unable to repulse his enemies, and according to the Chronicle, was either captured or burnt alive in his palace. The Babylonian king, awake to future dangers from the south, would take no risks, and in 2070 destroyed the magnificent walls of Ur and Uruk, a tremendous undertaking, which would draw heavily on^local labour. Indeed, subsequently he must have pulled down part at XV5 ij THE ADVANCE OF THE SEA-COUNTRY 557 least of the ramparts of Isin and Emutbal, for he restored them In his fifteenth and seventeenth years. Revolution broke out again in 2069. Samsu-iluna was «quite justified in describing the unrest as a second revolt, as he does, for Babylonia had long been an •empire under one control. The Babylonian king could with difficulty suppress it during the next two years; he was able to reduce only Kisurra and Sabura by 2068., and ij was not until 2067 that he could subjugate 'the usurper who had drawn the Akkadians to rebellion.3 If we may regard Rifn-Sin II as an ephemeral usurper who died about 207 I, it is quite probable that the new revolutionary who followed him was Iluma-ilu, also a Semite of the same district, soon to become the founder of the Sea-country line, and our date, 2071, fits aptly to allow of this identification. Although Samsu-iluna boasted that he * subdued* him, the destruction in 2070 of the walls of two cities, Ur and Uruk, so close to Larsa, shows that Babylon had definitely relinquished her hold on them after the first emeute. Much more precise is the evidence of Samsu-iluna?s withdrawal to a still more distant frontier line in the years 2066—45 when he rebuilt the city-walls of Isin and Emutbal, and increased the ramparts of Sippar, the latter doubtless being in anticipation of a raid from the Semites of the -middle Euphrates — which actually occurred a few years later, in 2045. The year 2061 again brought revolt, and Samsu- iluna was forced to leave his temples and the dedication of their thrones to subdue it. In 2058 ...sha'na and Zarkhanum are mentioned (conceivably as attacked), and in 2057 he was receding still further north, nervously rebuilding the wall of Kish, the city so close to Babylon, and heightening the wall of Enlil at Nippur which Sin-muballit, his grandfather, had repaired. He has left an inscription in which terror stares out, hid behind a mask of vaunting complacency. In a Sumerian and Semitic bilingual record he relates how, by his own power and wisdom, he restored Dur~An-Za-Kar of Nippur, and the obsolete fortresses of Dur-padda, Dur-lagaba, Dur-yabugani, Dur-Gula-duru and Dur-u§i~ana-Girra, * which Sumu-la-ilu, my might-y father, the fifth father of my father, had built/ all in the space of two months. Nothing could show the panic and perturbation of Samsu-iluna's mind in this anxious period more clearly than the frantic haste with which he rebuilt these old disused fortresses on the home- front, which had formed the old frontier of a century and a half before,* when Sumu-la-ilum was only just beginning to lay the foundations of the empire. The line must have lain perilously 558 THE KASSITE CONQUEST [CHAP. near Babylon, for Sumu-la-ilum's radius of control was very short; he had busied himself with building the walls of his capital city, and so important were they that he dated two years by the work. The foe whom Sumu-la-ilum feared occupied the neighbouring city of Kish; now, in Samsu-ilur&'s time, the enemy had come to* Nippur, very near the capital, and that is why the king, chased northwards from one frontier to another, rebuilt these old forts. The exact year is unknown, but it must have been about thq. time when Iluma-ilu was pressing sore on his heels. What has Samsu-ihina's own date-list to say of all this? The king must have been in Babylon, watching the advance of the foe, with fort after fort surrendering or going over to the enemy; and now was the time for his patron-god, whom he had worshipped with such zeal, to aid him. The king sought an oracle of Enlil, and the event marked this year and the two following; the real events are cloaked behind these dates. Iluma-ilu pushed up to Nippur by 2050 and the inhabitants were already dating their business, their leases and accounts, in his name instead of their liege-lord. Well might Samsu-iluna hide his shame behind the oracle of Enlil. We have no record that Iluma-ilu reached Babylon, but the reign of Samsu-iluna ends in trouble: in 2048 it is the city of Saggara- turn, in 2046 Amal and Arkum. To clinch the disaster in 2045 Amurru, the west land, doubtless in sympathetic movements with the people of the Sea-land, attacked the Babylonian king, and possibly carried off the images which Agum II later on recovered (c. 1561—1537, p. 562). In the next year (2044) *AkkacT — a term by this time almost forgotten, save in the conventional title 'King of Sumer and Akkad* — rebelled. Samsu-iluna's reign ended with the new dynasty threatening him close at home; his last year records that he renovated the unsparing battle-mace of Ninurta, truly a significant entry when the foe was at his gates. Thus was the Dynasty of the Sea-land firmly planted astride the domain of ancient Sumer. Samsu-iluna was succeeded by Abeshu*, his son, who reigned for either twenty-five or twenty-eight years. For practical purposes we may accept the latter, and date him 2042—15 B.C. He came to the throne at a most inauspicious moment when Iluma-ilu had firmly occupied a large slice of his kingdom and was not to be dis- possessed. With ingenious purpose the Babylonian king attempted to dam up the Tigris so as to swamp the invaders in Nippur, a proceeding at first sight feasible; for the whole district between Nippur and Kut was liable to inundation, and this is dcwfetless what he tried to bring about. 'Abishi/ says the Chronicle, 'the XV, i] ARTIFICIAL FLOODS AS A BARRIER 559 son of Samsu-iluna, to conquer Iluma-IIu tu[rned his attention], and set his mind to dam the Tigris: he dammed the Tigris but could no| [catch] Huma-ilu.* The incident is recorded also in his date-list; the project was too ambitious, and failed. As a rule, ^even if floods wash the flanks <3f a mound, they would not be more than shallow floods, and could not last long. There is still extant a letter from Abeshu* to * Sin-idinnam, Kar-^ppar, and the Judges of Sippar/ which if it does not refer to the annual spate of the Euphrates, may allude to this artificial overflow from the Tigris. It is true that the Euphrates is men- tioned at the end, and Sippar is prominent; but the flood is clearly abnormal, for the workmen have been prevented from completing little more than a third of their usual annual work. The possibility, therefore, of its referring to the historic incident should not be dismissed. * Concerning the matter about which you wrote unto me, saying, "Of the dam on the Irnina canal, one hundred and twenty #^~measures . „ . [have been built] each year; we have built forty-four #x&-measures, (and) now the flood hath come, and the Irnina canal hath reached the (top?) wall of the dam." Let what you have sent to me be sent to the provincial authorities who live in Sippar.7 The broken remainder suggests that certain other men in Sippar shall arrange for the strengthening of the dam. Whatever flood may be described in the above letter, it is clear that Sin-idinnam was then at Sippar. In Hammurabi's time Sin-idinnam was, it would seem, a kind of viceroy in the south, at Larsa, and there are numerous letters addressed by the great king to him. But now, with the threatened advent of the Dynasty of the Sea-land during Samsu-iluna's thirty-eight years, we find Sin-idinnam at a far more northerly post. It is only natural that with the defection of Larsa early in the reign of Samsu-iluna, the viceroy should remove to a safer place, A Sin-idinnam reappears as Gal-Marmy which might conceiv- ably mean * Chief of Amurru1 if it were not that a certain tablet (V. A. Th. 842/43) gives one Nidnat-Sin, the title Gal an Marzu, which makes it appear to mean * Chief-(priest) of the god Martu/ But there is an interesting letter from two men, one of whom is probably a wild bedouin, to the wife of Sin-idinnam: *Unto Akhatim, wife of Sin-idinnam, the Gal-Martu, thus Tabbi-Wadi and Mar-Shamash, thy servants. The Gal-Martu hath sent us unto thee, (for) palaces are strange to us (and) he took us to a palace/ The letter goes on to ask that they be allowed to depart, but it i% written in a curious dialect, such as might be dictated by a man with an Arab name> Tabbi-Wadi ('Good is Wadd') — it 560 THE KASSITE CONQUEST [CHAP. reappears in a contract of Hammurabi's time — who was not at home in palaces. At all events, even if Sin-idinnam were not controlling part of Amurru from Sippar, it is certain that during part of the reigns of Samsu-iluna and Abeshu', he removed from Larsa to that city. In the time of Abeshu* he was growing an old- man, and we find that after his retirement or death, he was followed by Mardiik-nasir (perhaps his son), and in turn he, too, was replaced by his son. None of the date-formulae of Abeshu', of which about ten are extant, show any military prowess, although he is ablerto perform some pious and diplomatic act in the temple of Nannar, E-gishshir-gal, which can hardly be the great temple of Ur? but must be a smaller shrine nearer home. From now on, until the Hittites arrive, the two kingdoms, Babylon and the Sea-land, existed side by side. Sometimes there was a flicker of the old fire, as when Ammi-zaduga * broke the oppression of the land* in 1967, and, we may suppose, recon- quered some of his ancestors* dominion, for in the next year he built a fort at the * mouth of the Euphrates/ His predecessor, Ammi-ditana (2014—1978), in his last year 'destroyed the wall of Durum which Damki-ilishu built/ which at least shows that the Babylonians were biting back some of their own. Ammi- ditana also vanquished an unknown enemy, Arakhab (or Ara- khaun), a lu-mada in 1997. Otherwise the sphere of activity of the kings of Babylon is woefully narrowed; they made a brave show with their gifts to the temples of Babylon, Kish, Borsippa and Sippar, but the glory had departed. At the wedding of Elmeshu ('Sapphira/ or some such precious stone), who may be the daughter of Ammi-ditana, the terkhatuy or present to the bride's family, was only four shekels, a singularly small amount for a king's daughter. She married Ibku-Anunitum, the bridegroom's parents in this case paying the terkhatu to the bride's brother and sister. We know not who he was, except that he was a Semite, and that the name is also that of a judge in Ammi-zaduga's time. Her sister, Zirtum, on the order of her brother, Shumum-libshi, gave her away, and the only protection which the bride had, beyond the ordinary laws of the land, is the fine of half a mana which her husband is to pay if he repudiates her. If the name of her father on the tablet is certain, and he is indeed the king, we might see here a trenchant criticism of Babylonian royalty. It is perhaps the same Elmeshu who is men- tioned in two letters. One found at Larsa is from §iru (possibly a 'pet name' of Zirtum), praying her; *do thou a sisterly act thus. XV, ij THE HITTITE RAID 561 for we were brought up together since we were little.* Then follows a curious phrase which, as it stands, means * since thou hast acquired a god* (ishtu Ham tarshT)\ words which would have little meaning, unless we suppose that she had married one of the *royal blood who might eventuallyHbecome king and then be deified. The last kings of the dynasty were far more attached to their temples than to the camp. They multiplied their gifts in gold and silver, to their gods, they dedicated emblems, statues, thrones, maces, solar disks; sometimes they built towns or digged canals called after their own names. But they were unwarlike and mere shadows of their great predecessor Hammurabi, and our know- ledge of them decreases as the dynasty draws near its end. Ammi- zaduga (1977—57) has left us an Omen-text, and it was in his reign that a date-list (known now as *B?) was compiled. It was owing to this weakness that the Hatti^ 'Hittites/ suddenly appeared in Babylonia in a raid down the Euphrates, and were able to invade the land with impunity in the reign of the last king, Samsu-ditana (1956— 26). Tiie Chronicle describes the invasion with the words: *In the time of Shamash-ditana Hattu came to Akkad' (c, 1926). The new Hittite tablets from Boghaz Keui, as translated by Hrozny, show that, later on, in the fifteenth and fourteenth centuries, Hittites were raiding from Aleppo to Carchemish and Tagarama (the biblical Togarmah); and consequently we have good reason to infer that the first expedition of 1926 was based directly on the Hittite capital in Anatolia, and was not merely a raid from the Syrian Hittites round Carchemish. A later Hittite expedition (of Murshilish I) took place in the latter part of the Kassite period, and may account partly for the numerous treaties which the Babylonian kings made with Assyria. There was certainly a close relationship between the Kassite and the Hittite capital in the fourteenth century, for we find horses (called AnsJiu Kur-ray the proper Babylonian word) mentioned in a Hittite historical text of about this period, describ- ing what happened in the reign of Murshilish II (towards the end of the fourteenth century), and the introduction of the horse, at all events in Babylonia, was certainly due to the Kassites. This Hittite raid on Samsu-ditana down the Euphrates marks the end of the 1st Dynasty of Babylon. Samsu-ditana might call to his aid 'the great forces of Shamash and Marduk,* but nothing could stay the fast-flowing sands of his dynasty. He was prepared to meet his enemy only when he could look at him from the basti$n« of his city walls : so much perhaps one may glean from the following letter from him to Sippar: * Concerning what ye C.A.H.I S^ 5&2 THE KASSITE CONQUEST [CHAP. wrote to me, saying, "The corn which is in Sippar-Ya'rurum — it is not right that it be left on the land to the mercy of the enemy troops; let the king our lord command that order be s.ent to us that the Shamash-gate be opened, and then this corn can be brought into the town/' This i£ what you sent. As soon as they- have finished the corn, which is the town-crops, open the Shamash- gate5 and then until they have finished (bringing in) the corn which is the town-crops, seat the judges (i.e. in the gate), ajid let them not be negligent about guarding the gate!' If this letter is to be ascribed to the time of the Hittite raid, the reference^ to Sippar shows that the enemy certainly appears to be from the north rather than the south. It is clear that the harvesters went almost in fear of their lives in bringing in the grain from the adjacent fields, for the city-gate, now closed, could only be opened when the wisest and most responsible burghers of the town were acting as sentinels. Later, the Kassite king Agum II (c. 1561-1537) brought back to Babylon from Khani (the old Khana on the middle Euphrates) the images of Marduk and Sarpanit to E-sagila. It is uncertain whether they had been carried off by the Hittites, or by the men of Amurru, who were the more usual inhabitants of Khana, in Samsu-iluna's reign (perhaps 2045, see pp. 468, 558). Samsu-iluna made two thrones in gold for Marduk and Sarpanit in 2062, and had also made statues of gold for certain gods in 2075; doubtless this was why they were carried off as booty. His successor, Abeshu', in one of his date-formulae, records the making of statues of Marduk and Sarpanit, and the probability is that he was replacing the ravished deities. To this period L, W, King has ascribed the reigns of the three kings of Erech,, Anam, Sin-gashid and Sin-gamiL To these we must add Arad-shagshag (?). Anam, the son of Bel-shemea, re- built the wall of Erech, ascribing the original building to the great king of the city, Gilgamesh, It had been destroyed in 2070 by Samsu-iluna and we must put the date of Anam's restoration within the next hundred years. It is probable that *Anam-gish- dubba, son of Bel-shemea' is the same person; he rebuilt the temple of Nergal, 'king of U^arpara/ for the life of Sin-gamil, king of Erech, in which case Sin-gamil was probably his pre- decessor. Sin-gashid, who calls himself son of Ninsun, thus identifying himself with the line of Gilgamesh, rebuilt E-anna, the ancient shrine of Anu and Ishtar in Erech; and on a clay nail, which, he dedicates 'to Lugal-banda, his god, and Nlneuft, his mother' (thus emphasizing his connexion with the pedigree of XV, ii] THE KASSITE CONQUEST 563 Gilgamesh), lie calls himself 'king of Erech, king of Amnanu/ and. describes his building of E-kankal after E-anna had been finished^ He quotes in this inscription the current markcUprice of commodities : a shekel of silver would buy 3 gur of corn, 1 2 *mana of wool, 10 mana of coppet or 30 %a of vegetable oil. Corn was thus three times as cheap as in Manishtusu's time some seven or eight centuries earlier. "WJth the end of the 1st Dynasty of Babylon in Samsu-ditana's reign (c. 1926 B.C.) we reach the beginning of an obscure period. A? ail events, Babylon drops from her high estate : the kings of the Sea-country, of whom we know little more than their names,, are in power until the time of Ea-Gamil, c. 1711—03 B.C. We meet a stray reference to one of the kings, Gul-Kishar, c. 1877—23, as 'king of the Sea-country' on a boundary stone of the twelfth century, made by Enlil-nadin-apli of the Ilnd Dynasty of Ism, who says that he lived six hundred and ninety-six years before Nebuchadrezzar I (see p. 154). II. THE KASSITE DYNASTY Towards the end of their dynasty the Semites lost their strength. As we have seen, the Kassites had been peacefully penetrating the laitd, and were now to control Babylonia for nearly six centuries. Out of the thirty-six kings, which is the number the royal list gives for the Kassite occupation, lasting 576 years 9 months, we now know the names of thirty-five. About 1746 B.C. Gandash, or Gaddash, or, as he calls himself in his own semi-illiterate (Sumerian) inscriptions, cGande/ was the first chief of the Kassites to conquer Babylon. A neo-Baby- lonian copy of one of his inscriptions commemorates his restora- tion of the temple of Enlil, which was probably damaged f in the conquest of Babylon,' as the text itself appears to say. Two inferences are clear: the first is that Babylon fell to the Kassites under his leadership, and the second that he did what every wise conqueror of these lands has done — he placated the gods, or, what is far more important, the hierarchy. His door-sockets in Nippur, stolen from dead kings, and miserably inscribed with his dedication to Enlil, not even in his own language, show that he also added Nippur to his rule. Safely on the throne for sixteen years, the barbarian king imitated his predecessors of another race, and called himself 'king of the Four Regions, king of Sum