Part 13 (1/2)

Saites, XXVI-x.x.x Dynasties, 664-342 B.C.

Pottery clumsy, mostly rough: some thin, smooth red. Greek influence; silver coins from 500 onward. Iron tools beginning. Glaze pale greyish and olive: some fine blue at 350. No gla.s.s. Bronze figures common. Ushabtis with back pier and beard; fine 650 to poor at 350.

Ptolemies, 332-30 B.C.

Pottery clumsy and small. Many Rhodian jars with Greek stamped handles. Glazes, dark violet and yellow-green. Gla.s.s revived for inlay figures in shrines: minute mosaic begins. Glazed beads scarce, no scarabs. Large copper coins, silver tetradrachms, base in later time, and concave on reverse.

Romans, 30 B.C.-A.D. 641. The earlier half, to A.D. 300.

Large brown amphorae, peg bottoms; ribbed after 180, wide ribbing at first, then narrower. Gla.s.s blown; fine white and cut facets in 1st cent.; hollow brims 2nd-4th; stems and pressed feet, 3rd-4th. Gla.s.s mosaic 1st cent.; coa.r.s.er wall mosaic 2nd cent. Glaze coa.r.s.e blue, on thick clumsy bowls and jugs. Red brick buildings as well as mud brick, coins: billon tetradrachms in 1st cent., almost copper in 2nd, small copper dumps in 3rd, leaden tokens from A.D. 180 to 260. Some large copper in 1st and 2nd, thinner than the Ptolemaic. Potsherds used for writing receipts and letters. Abundance of moulded terra- cottas, and small lamps.

Roman, Second Period, A.D. 300-641.

The Constantinian Age brings in new styles. Much salmon-coloured hard pottery, mainly platters and flat dishes. Brown amphorae soft and smaller, with narrow ribbing. No glaze. Much very thin gla.s.s. Coins: little thin flat copper, as in rest of Empire, ending about 450. No Egyptian coinage, except a very few rough lumps from Justinian to Heraclius, I+B on back. Letters written on potsherds and flakes of limestone.

Red brick the material for all large buildings. Limestone capitals of debased leaf.a.ge. Rudely cut relief patterns in wood. Coa.r.s.ely carved and turned bone or ivory. Pottery in Byzantine Age with white facing and rudely painted figures. Textiles, with embroidery in colours, and especially purple discs with thread designs of the earlier Arab period. A characteristic of late Roman and Arab mounds is the organic smell.

Muhammadan Period. Seventh to fifteenth centuries.

Characterized by great amounts of glazed pottery. Smaller antiquities found in cemeteries or on ruined sites, the earliest transitional, and related to Coptic examples of the same kinds. Pottery: lamps at first continue Christian forms and are unglazed; afterwards long spouted lamps of dark green glaze. Fragments of vessels, &c., from the rubbish heaps of old Cairo are glazed; a typical faience has a soft sandy body of light colour with painted designs in blue or blue and brown with transparent glaze. Those of the Mamluk period, and probably some of earlier date, show a general resemblance to Western Asiatic contemporary wares, due to importation of potters from Syria, Asia Minor, and Persia (between twelfth and fifteenth centuries).

Other varieties have decoration in metallic l.u.s.tre on an opaque white tin glaze; others again have monochrome glazes imitating imported Chinese wares. Inscriptions very rare. Gla.s.s: if found, is in fragments; rich coloured enamel designs are seldom earlier than the thirteenth century. Textiles: chiefly found in small pieces; the colours rich; ornament consisting of geometrical designs and Cufic inscriptions. Any silk, or printed patterns, should be secured.

No information about papyri is given here, for the reason that any site containing them should not be touched except by a trained excavator.

[ILl.u.s.tRATION XIII: EGYPTIAN POTTERY TYPES]

CHAPTER VIII

MESOPOTAMIA

[See the diagrams of flint implements, Ill.u.s.tration II; pottery and brick-forms, Ill.u.s.tration XIV; cuneiform signs, and other scripts Ill.u.s.tration XV].

Mesopotamian antiquities are nearly always found in Tells, or artificial mounds, which are the sites of ancient towns or temples.

The surrounding plain for a distance of several hundred yards out, whether steppe-desert or untilled land, will usually be found to be productive of antiquities, either a few inches or few feet deep or, in the case of the dessert, actually lying upon the surface. These are usually the result of rainstorms was.h.i.+ng out antiquities from the tell itself. Each tell or ganglion of connected tells usually has a number of small subsidiary tells round about it, the sites of small isolated buildings or villages connected with the central settlement.

Originally the settlements were built upon natural rises of the ground which stood up as islands in the fen-country.

Visitors should give the local names of tells in Arabic characters, when possible, so that mistakes in transliteration into English may be avoided. Antiquities bought in the neighbourhood of a tell should be noted as coming from that neighbourhood. Depredations by Arabs (or by others!) should be noted, and reported to the nearest Political Officer or Inspector of Antiquities. The barbarous practice of forcibly dislodging inscribed bricks from walls, as trophies and 'souvenirs', which has unhappily been common during the war, should never be imitated and always discountenanced as much as possible.

Other good spots for antiquities than tells are rare. In the mountainous and stony country of the North we may meet with rock- sculptures, as at Bavian, and these should always be recorded by a traveller, even if he is not certain that they have not been remarked before: something new may turn up at any time. Antiquities acquired in the neighbourhood of such monuments should be noted, and their precise place of origin ascertained, if possible, as in this way the site of some ancient settlement adjoining the monument may be identified. The open ruin-fields, or _Khurbas_, characteristic of Palestine are not usual, except in the case of Parthian or Sa.s.sanian palace ruins such as Ctesiphon, Hatra, or Ukheidhir, which were often abandoned almost as soon as they were built, so that no later population could pile up rubbish-heaps or graves above them.

In order to aid the visitor to get some idea of the age of a tell or other site from the antiquities found on its surface and its neighbourhood, and so to be able to give some idea of what is likely to be found in it, the following hints have been drawn up.

In the first place, most of the surface remains, are, as elsewhere, pottery sherds. These should tell us their date by their appearance.

It must be said, however, that our experience on the subject of the development of Mesopotamian pottery is limited. Owing to the attention of a.s.syriologists having been so long focussed on the study of the cuneiform records, to the neglect of general archaeology, we have nothing like the knowledge of these things that we have in Egypt or in Greece. Such minutiae of information as our common knowledge of ceramic development in Egypt or in Greece gives us with regard to these countries, enabling us to date sites with great accuracy, are not vet available for Mesopotamia. And if for this reason all possible information as to the objects found on archaeological sites is desirable, it is also impossible yet to give the visitor any absolute guide to the distinctive appearance of pottery at every period. The main periods are known. The 'prehistoric', the Sumerian, the late Babylonian, and the Parthian styles are easily distinguishable. If a visitor is able to tell us that such-and-such a mound is prehistoric or is Parthian, or that settlements of both periods existed on it, this is what we want. One of the most general of criteria with regard to pottery is whether it is glazed or not. If glazed, it is, generally speaking, late. Other things besides pottery are of course found, and the presence or the absence of metal, and the occurrence of stone implements, are important. But it must be remembered that stone was used long into the 'Bronze' Age, and contemporaneously with copper. There is no sudden break between the two periods. Fragments of sh.e.l.l and mother-of-pearl, often with incised designs, are very characteristic of the earliest period.

Coins are of late date; a tell with coins on it is certain to contain buildings as late as the fourth or third century B.C. (though it may also contain far older buildings as well). One of the most useful criteria of age is: Bricks. The form of the brick is a very good guide to date. The Babylonians used both kiln-baked and crude bricks.

The oldest type, whether baked or crude, is plano-convex in form, and uninscribed. The mortar is bitumen. Later on rectangular bricks, often square, made in moulds, were introduced. These usually bore the name of the royal builder. Later on bricks became generally oblong and much like our own. In the sixth century the square shape was revived. Both shapes were in use at the Nebuchadnezzar period. Glazed bricks were then common. Under the Persians mortar took the place of bitumen. Under the Parthians and Sa.s.sanians, bricks were yellow, oblong, small, and very hard. Details will be found below, The names of various excavated sites are given in brackets as the 'cla.s.sical'

sources of information on certain points, and as the places from which type-antiquities have come to our Museums. Ancient names are in capitals; museums in italics.