Part 13 (2/2)

I. PREHISTORIC (?) AGE: Chalcolithic (aeneolithic) period, before 3500 B.C.

Until quite recently no traces of the Stone Age had been discovered in Babylonia other than a few possible palaeoliths lying on the surface of the desert: all traces of a Neolithic Age were supposed to have been buried beneath the alluvium of the valley. In a.s.syria, however, neolithic traces in the shape of obsidian flakes had been discovered by the late Prof. L. W. King in the course of his excavation of the mound of Kuyunjik (NINEVEH), besides fragments of painted pottery resembling those from the earliest deposits in Asia Minor and those found by the American geologist Pumpelly in his diggings in the _kurgans_ of Turkestan, (to which he a.s.signed an extremely remote date B.C.). In Persia, and about the head of the Persian Gulf, somewhat similar pottery was discovered by de Morgan and the other French excavators at Susa, Tepe Musyan, Bandar Bus.h.i.+r, and other places: here again the dates were put at a very remote period. With the exception of a few flint saw-blades from Warka [1], Fara, Zurghul, and Babylon [2], no similar remains had been found in Babylonia until, in 1918, Capt. R. Campbell Thompson, exploring on behalf of the British Museum, discovered flint and obsidian flakes and painted pottery lying on the surface of the desert at Tell Abu Shahrein (ERIDU), and also at Tell Muqayyar (UR). The continued excavations carried out by Mr. H. R. Hall for the Museum in 1919 have produced more of the same evidence from both places, besides a new 'prehistoric' site at Tell el-Ma'abed or Tell el-'Obeid near Ur. It seems that these antiquities date from the very end of the neolithic, or rather to the succeeding 'chalcolithic', age; whether they are really prehistoric, as regards Babylonian history, must until more evidence from stratified deposits is found remain undecided. They prove the occupation of the head of the Persian Gulf at the beginning of history by a people whose primitive art was closely akin to that of early Elam, and distinct from that of the Sumerians.

[1] Found by Loftus in 1854: their early date was not recognized at the time.

[2] Koldewey, _Excavations at Babylon, E.T._, p. 261, fig. 182.

Koldewey curiously speaks of the saw-blades as 'palaeolithic.' They are, of course, nothing of the sort.

Characteristics: flint, chert, obsidian, green and red jasper, and quartz-crystal flakes, arrowheads, cores, and saw-blades. Chert and limestone rough hoe-blades (easily mistaken for palaeolithic implements; they are, however, much flatter); polished serpentine or jasper celts; lentoid (lentil-shaped), amygdaloid (almond-shaped), and discoid beads of cornelian, crystal, obsidian, &c., unpolished; nails of translucent quartz and obsidian (obviously imitations of metal types); hard grey pottery sickles, pottery cones of various sizes, and pottery objects like gigantic nails bent up at the ends; pottery painted with designs in black, usually geometrical (see ill.u.s.tration XIV, Fig. 1), but sometimes showing plant-forms or even animals. This ware is often very fine, so much so as to look as if wheelmade. The shapes are chiefly bowls (often closely resembling early Egyptian stone bowl types), pots with suspension-handles or lugs, and spouted 'kettles'. All these objects are at Shahrein and el-'Obeid found lying on the desert surface at the distance of 50 or 100 yards from the tell; they are supposed to have been washed out of the lower strata of the latter by rains. Objects of this kind should be recorded from any site, and the neighbourhood of a desert tell should always be searched for them.

[ILl.u.s.tRATION XIV MESOPOTAMIAN POTTERY, SEALS, ETC].

[ILl.u.s.tRATION XV: CUNEIFORM AND OTHER SCRIPTS].

II. EARLY BRONZE (Copper) AGE: First Sumerian (pre-Sargonic) Period; c. 3500-3000 B.C. Earliest Sumerian civilization.

Typical sites. Older strata at Telloh (LAGASH); Fara (SHURUPPAK); Tell 'Obeid (ancient name as yet unknown); Shahrein (ERIDU).

Characteristics. Writing. First appearance of script, already conventionalized from pictographs. Cut on stone and incised on clay tablets and bricks of characteristic early style. Brick buildings, with crenellated walls (until the discovery of Tell 'Obeid supposed to date only from the later Sumerian period) of typical plano-convex bricks, baked or crude, usually with thumb-mark down length of convex side (Shahrein), or with two thumb-holes (for carrying the brick when wet?), or vent-holes ('Obeid); at first uninscribed, later with long inscriptions; measuring 10 x 6 x 2-2 1/4 ins. (Shahrein), and 8 x 6 x 2-2 1/4 ins. ('Obeid); poorly shaped and baked (see XIV, Fig. 3). Bitumen used for mortar; laid very thick. Hard white stucco on internal faces of crude brick house walls, often decorated with red, white, and black painted horizontal stripes (Shahrein.) Pottery. Wheel and hand-made; drab, fine or coa.r.s.e paste, unpainted and usually undecorated. Typical shapes: (see XIV, Figs. 2 abc) mostly handleless vases, and cups, and spouted 'kettles' (again often resembling early Egyptian types).

Metals: Copper. Extensive use: large copper figures of animals, heads cast, bodies of copper plates fastened by nails over a core of clay with a mixture of bitumen and straw; the figures have eyes, tongues, and teeth of red and white stone and nacre (Tell 'Obeid); goat's head with inlaid eyes of nacre (Fara). Otherwise ordinary treatment of eye shows a number of wrinkle lines round it, and it is always disproportionately large (bull's heads, Tell 'Obeid and Telloh). Small fragments of copper or bronze on the surface of a tell should never be neglected, as there may be enough in any fragment to give an idea of possible archaic remains within the tell.

Silver. Rare. Fine engraved vase of Entemena (Telloh, _Louvre_).

Gold. Not uncommon. Copper nails with gold-plated heads (Shahrein).

Stone. Portrait figures in round (Bismaya, Telloh, &c.), usually representing men, with face and head shaven; very prominent large curved nose; usually squatting with arms crossed, sometimes standing; only garment a kilt apparently made of locks of natural wool. Usually inscribed in archaic characters on back of shoulders. Material: a grey or a white limestone most usual; tufa and dolerite also used.

Reliefs: large stelae (Stele of the Vultures; Telloh, _Louvre_, fragment in _B. M._), completely inscribed; small relief plaques, inscribed (Telloh, _Louvre_). Flint carved and engraved cylinder- seals, of limestone, black basalt, jasper, diorite, &c. Vases, bowls, and cups (usually fragmentary), of white and pink limestone and breccia. Maceheads of breccia, granite, &c., of same type as the early Egyptian (Shahrein).

Sh.e.l.l. Very largely used for decoration; small plaques of nacre often engraved with scenes of men wors.h.i.+pping, &c. (Telloh); tessellated pillars with nacre plaques ('Obeid). Seal-cylinders of sh.e.l.l.

Wood. Rarely survives; small beams plated with copper ('Obeid).

Burials. Pottery coffins with lids, mat burials; bodies contracted; funerary furniture, copper, stone or pottery drinking cups held near mouth: copper weapons, fish-hooks, net weights; beads of agate, lapis, sh.e.l.l (unpolished); colour-dishes, (Fara). (The idea that the Babylonians ever burnt their dead is now discredited; the supposed 'fire-necropoles' at Zurghul, &c., are not substantiated.)

The burials are hard to distinguish from similar contracted interments of later date, except that the furniture is more abundant in early times and mat graves are unusual in later days Mounds of this age may be known by the occurrence on the surface of sc.r.a.ps of oxydized copper, nails, &c.; sh.e.l.l-fragments; undecorated light drab sherds; and the typical small plano-convex bricks.

III. MIDDLE BRONZE AGE.

1. Early Semitic or Akkadian (Sargonid) period; c. 3000-2500 B.C.

Characteristics. Less crude style of art: development of writing (see XIV, Fig. 1); first inscribed clay tablets of usual style; beginnings of cuneiform, developed from the archaic semi-pictographic character.

Bricks still plano-convex; stamped inscriptions begin. Stone maceheads of same type as earlier. Large and well-cut cylinder-seals of fine limestone, lapis, diorite, granite, and sh.e.l.l are characteristic of the period: they are generally of an easily recognizable form (reel-shaped) with sides showing a marked concavity (see XIV, Fig. 5). The great development of art is shown by the stele of Naram-Sin (_Louvre_) found at Susa. Not many mounds of this period have been dug.

2. Later Sumerian (Gudea) and early Semitic Babylonian (Hammurabi) periods; c. 2500-1800 B.C.

Characteristics. Typical 'Gudea' style of sculpture, in round and relief (Telloh, _Louvre_); materials hard diorite, dolerite and basalt as well as limestone: characteristic treatment of eye with heavily marked brows: elaborate tiaras and head-dresses of female figures, &c. Very high development. Regular use of cuneiform on clay tablets and cones (see XV, Figs. 13-15); non-cuneiform character (in a developed form) still used in brick stamps (XV, Fig. 10) and on stone monuments. Bricks (XIV, Fig. 4) now rectangular and well made, either square (14 ins., usually, by 2 1/2 ins. thick) or oblong (11 1/2 x 8 x 2 1/2 ins., or 10 x 5 x 2 1/2 ins.) with stamps or incised inscriptions of Ur-Engur, Dungi, Bur-Sin, Gudea and other kings (XV, Fig. 10), from Ur, Shahrein, Telloh, Niffer, &c. Bricks of Bur-Sin from Shahrein often have inscription-stamps also on the smaller sides (thickness). Great buildings of crude and baked brick (Telloh, Ur); temple-towers (ziggurats) of crude brick faced with burnt brick (Ur, Shahrein, Niffer). Town ruins of Hammurabi's age (Babylon): crude brick: plans always confused and haphazard. Bitumen still used for mortar. Burials, contracted, often in double pots (mouth to mouth), sealed with bitumen. With the bodies are found large numbers of agate and cornelian beads, unpolished.

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