FIG. 5.CONJECTURAL RESTORATION OF THE SOUTHERN CITADEL.The view is reconstructed from the north, the conventional mound in the foreground covering the Central Citadel now partially excavated. The Sacred Road passes through the Ishtar Gate and along the east side of the palace; further to the east and within the fortifications is the small temple of Ninmakh. The innermost wall encloses the palace of Nebuchadnezzar with its four open courts; the façade of the Throne Room, with three entrances, is visible in the Great Court. The flat roofs of the palace are broken here and there by smaller courts or light-wells. Compare the ground-plan on p. 30, Fig. 6.(After Andrae.)
FIG. 5.
CONJECTURAL RESTORATION OF THE SOUTHERN CITADEL.
The view is reconstructed from the north, the conventional mound in the foreground covering the Central Citadel now partially excavated. The Sacred Road passes through the Ishtar Gate and along the east side of the palace; further to the east and within the fortifications is the small temple of Ninmakh. The innermost wall encloses the palace of Nebuchadnezzar with its four open courts; the façade of the Throne Room, with three entrances, is visible in the Great Court. The flat roofs of the palace are broken here and there by smaller courts or light-wells. Compare the ground-plan on p. 30, Fig. 6.
(After Andrae.)
The outer city-wall, already described, dates only from the Neo-Babylonian period, when the earlier and smaller city expanded with the prosperity which followed the victories of Nabopolassar and his son. The eastern limits of that earlier city, at any rate toward the close of the Assyrian domination, did not extend beyond the inner wall, which was then the only line of defence and was directly connected with the main citadel. The course of the inner wall may still be traced for a length of seventeen hundred metres by the low ridge or embankment,[35]running approximately north and south, from a point north-east of the mound Homera.[36]It was a double fortification, consisting of two walls of crude or unburnt brick, with a space between of rather more than seven metres. The thicker of the walls, on the west, which is six and a half metres in breadth, has large towers built across it, projecting deeply on the outer side, and alternating with smaller towers placed lengthwise along it. The outer or eastern wall has smaller towers at regular intervals. Now along the north side of the main or Southern Citadel run a pair of very similar walls,[37]also of crudebrick, and they are continued eastward of the citadel to a point where, in the Persian period, the Euphrates through a change of course destroyed all further trace of them.[38]We may confidently assume that in the time of Nebuchadnezzar[39]they were linked up with theinner city-wall to the north of Homeni and formed its continuation after it turned at right angles on its way towards the river-bank. This line of fortification is of considerable interest, as there is reason to believe it may represent the famous double-line of Babylon's defences, which is referred to again and again in the inscriptions.
FIG. 6.PLAN OF THE SOUTHERN CITADEL.A: East Court of the Palace of Nebuchadnezzar. B: Central Court. C: Great Court. D: Private portion of palace built over earlier Palace of Nabopolassar. E: West extension of palace. F: Throne Room of Nebuchadnezzar. G: Sacred Road, known as Aibur-shabû. H: Ishtar Gate. I: Continuation of Sacred Road with Lion Frieze. J: Temple of Ninmakh. K: Space between the two fortification-walls of crude brick, probably Imgur-Bêl and Nimitti-Bêl. L: Older moat-wall. M: Later moat-wall. N: Later fortification thrown out into the bed of the Euphrates. P: Southern Canal, probably part of the Libil-khegalla. R: Basin of canal. S: Persian building. T: Moat, formerly the left side of the Euphrates. V: River-side embankment of the Persian period, a: Gateway to East Court, b: Gateway to Central Court, c: Gateway to Great Court, d: Double Gateway to private part of palace, e, f: Temporary ramps used during construction of palace, g: Temporary wall of crude brick, h: Broad passage-way, leading northwards to Vaulted Building.(After Koldewey, Reuther and Wetzel.)
FIG. 6.
PLAN OF THE SOUTHERN CITADEL.
A: East Court of the Palace of Nebuchadnezzar. B: Central Court. C: Great Court. D: Private portion of palace built over earlier Palace of Nabopolassar. E: West extension of palace. F: Throne Room of Nebuchadnezzar. G: Sacred Road, known as Aibur-shabû. H: Ishtar Gate. I: Continuation of Sacred Road with Lion Frieze. J: Temple of Ninmakh. K: Space between the two fortification-walls of crude brick, probably Imgur-Bêl and Nimitti-Bêl. L: Older moat-wall. M: Later moat-wall. N: Later fortification thrown out into the bed of the Euphrates. P: Southern Canal, probably part of the Libil-khegalla. R: Basin of canal. S: Persian building. T: Moat, formerly the left side of the Euphrates. V: River-side embankment of the Persian period, a: Gateway to East Court, b: Gateway to Central Court, c: Gateway to Great Court, d: Double Gateway to private part of palace, e, f: Temporary ramps used during construction of palace, g: Temporary wall of crude brick, h: Broad passage-way, leading northwards to Vaulted Building.
(After Koldewey, Reuther and Wetzel.)
The two names the Babylonians gave these walls were suggested by their gratitude to and confidence in Marduk, the city-god, who for them was the "Bêl," or Lord,par excellence.To the greater of the two, thedûruor inner wall, they gave the nameImgur-Bêl,meaning "Bêl has been gracious"; while theshaikhu,or outer one, they calledNimitti-Bêl,that is, probably, "The foundation of Bêl," or "My foundation is Bêl."[40]The identification of at least one of the crude-brick walls near Homera with Nimitti-Bêl, has been definitely proved by several foundation-cylinders of Ashur-bani-pal, the famous Assyrian king who deposed his brother Shamash-shum-ukîn from the throne of Babylon and annexed the country as a province of Assyria.[41]On the cylinders he states that the walls Imgur-Bêl and Nimitti-Bêl had fallen into ruins, and he records his restoration of the latter, within the foundation or structure of which the cylinders were originally immured. Unfortunately they were not found in place, but among thedébrisin the space between the walls, so that it is not now certain from which wall they came. If they had been deposited in the thicker or inner wall, then Nimitti-Bêl must have been a double line of fortification, and both walls together must have borne the name; and in that case we must seek elsewhere for Imgur-Bêl. But it is equally possible that they came from the narrow or outer wall; and on this alternative Nimitti-Bêl may be the outer one and Imgur-Bêl the broader inner-wall with the widely projecting towers. It is true that only further excavation can settle the point; but meanwhile the fortifications on the Ḳaṣr have supplied further evidence which seems to support the latter view.
FIG. 7.GROUND-PLAN OF QUAY-WALLS AND FORTIFICATION-WALLS IN THE N.W. CORNER OF THE S. CITADEL.A: Sargon's quay-wall. B: Older moat-wall. C: Later moat-wall of Nebuchadnezzar. D: Intermediate wall. E: South fortification-wall of crude brick, probably Imgur-Bêl. F: North fortification-wall of crude brick, probably Nimitti-Bêl. G: North wall of the Southern Citadel. I: Ruins of building, possibly the quarters of the Captain of the Wall. J: Palace of Nabopolassar. K: West Extension of the Southern Citadel. L: Connecting wall. M: Later wall across channel with grid for water. N: Water, originally the left side of the Euphrates. P: Later fortification of Nebuchadnezzar in former bed of the Euphrates. 1-3: Nabopolassar's quay-walls. N.B. The quays and moat-walls are distinguished by dotting.(After Koldewey.)
FIG. 7.
GROUND-PLAN OF QUAY-WALLS AND FORTIFICATION-WALLS IN THE N.W. CORNER OF THE S. CITADEL.
A: Sargon's quay-wall. B: Older moat-wall. C: Later moat-wall of Nebuchadnezzar. D: Intermediate wall. E: South fortification-wall of crude brick, probably Imgur-Bêl. F: North fortification-wall of crude brick, probably Nimitti-Bêl. G: North wall of the Southern Citadel. I: Ruins of building, possibly the quarters of the Captain of the Wall. J: Palace of Nabopolassar. K: West Extension of the Southern Citadel. L: Connecting wall. M: Later wall across channel with grid for water. N: Water, originally the left side of the Euphrates. P: Later fortification of Nebuchadnezzar in former bed of the Euphrates. 1-3: Nabopolassar's quay-walls. N.B. The quays and moat-walls are distinguished by dotting.
(After Koldewey.)
The extensive alterations which took place in the old citadel's fortifications, especially during Nebuchadnezzar's long reign of forty-three years, led to the continual dismantling of earlier structures and the enlargement of the area enclosed upon the north and west. This is particularly apparent in its north-west corner. Here, at a considerable depth below the later fortification-walls, were found the remains of four earlier walls,[42]the discovery of which has thrown considerable light on the topography of this portion of Babylon. All four are ancient quay-walls, their northern and western faces sloping sharply inwards as they rise. Each represents a fresh rebuilding of the quay, as it was gradually extended to the north and west. Fortunately, stamped and inscribed bricks were employed in considerable quantities in their construction, so that it is possible to date the periods of rebuilding accurately.
The earliest of the quay-walls, which is also the earliest building yet recovered on the Ḳaṣr, is the most massive of the four,[43]and is strengthened at the anglewith a projecting circular bastion. It is the work of Sargon of Assyria,[44]who states the object of the structure in a text inscribed upon several of its bricks. After reciting his own name and titles, he declares that it was his desire to rebuild Imgur-Bêl; that with this object he caused burnt-bricks to be fashioned, and built a quay-wall with pitch and bitumen in the depth of the water from beside the Ishtar Gate to the bank of the Euphrates; and he adds that he "founded Imgur-Bêl and Nimitti-Bêl mountain-high upon it."[45]The two walls of Sargon, which he here definitely names as Imgur-Bêl and Nimitti-Bêl, were probably of crude brick, and were, no doubt, demolished and replaced by the later structures of Nabopolassar's and Nebuchadnezzar's reigns. But they must have occupied approximately the same position as the two crudebrick walls above the quay of Sargon,[46]which run from the old bank of the Euphrates to the Ishtar Gate, precisely the two points mentioned in Sargon's text. His evidence is therefore strongly in favour of identifying these later crude-brick walls, which we have already connected with the inner city-wall, as the direct successors of his Imgur-Bêl and his Nimitti-Bêl, and therefore as inheritors of the ancient names.
FIG. 8.SECTION OF THE QUAY-WALLS AND FORTIFICATION-WALLS ALONG THE NORTH FRONT OF THE SOUTHERN CITADEL.A: Sargon's quay-wall. B: Older moat-wall. O: Later moat-wall of Nebuchadnezzar. D: Intermediate wall. E: South fortification-wall of crude brick, probably Imgur-Bêl. F: North fortification-wall of crude brick, probably Nimitti-Bêl. G: North wall of Southern Citadel. H: Remains of older crude brick wall.(After Andrae.)
FIG. 8.
SECTION OF THE QUAY-WALLS AND FORTIFICATION-WALLS ALONG THE NORTH FRONT OF THE SOUTHERN CITADEL.
A: Sargon's quay-wall. B: Older moat-wall. O: Later moat-wall of Nebuchadnezzar. D: Intermediate wall. E: South fortification-wall of crude brick, probably Imgur-Bêl. F: North fortification-wall of crude brick, probably Nimitti-Bêl. G: North wall of Southern Citadel. H: Remains of older crude brick wall.
(After Andrae.)
We find further confirmation of this view in one of the later quay-walls, which succeeded that of Sargon. The three narrow walls already referred to[47]were all the work of Nabopolassar, and represent three successive extensions of the quay westward into the bed of the stream, which in the inscriptions upon their bricks is given the name of Arakhtu.[48]But the texts make no mention of the city-walls. No inscriptions at all have been found in the structure of the next extension, represented by the wall B, which, like the latest quay-wall (C), is not rounded off in the earlier manner, but is strengthened at the corner with a massive rectangular bastion. It was in this latest and most substantial of all the quay-walls that further inscriptions were found referring to Imgur-Bêl. They prove that this wall was the work of Nebuchadnezzar, who refers in them to Nabopolassar's restoration of Imgur-Bêl and records that he raised its banks with bitumen and burnt-brick mountain-high. It is therefore clear that this was the quay-wall of Imgur Bêl, which it supported in the manner of Sargon's earlier structure. That the less important Nimitti-Bêl is not mentioned in these texts does not necessitate our placing it elsewhere, in view of Sargon's earlier reference.
We may therefore provisionally regard the two crude-brick walls along the Ḳaṣr's northern front[49]as a section of the famous defences of Babylon, and picture them as running eastward till they meet the innercity-wall by Homera. The point at which they extended westward across the Euphrates can, as yet, only be conjectured. But it is significant that the angle of the western walls, which may still be traced under mounds to the north of Sinjar village,[50]is approximately in line with the north front of the Ḳaṣr and the end of the inner wall by Homera. Including these western walls within our scheme, the earlier Babylon would have been rectangular in ground-plan, about a quarter of it only upon the right bank, and the portion east of the river forming approximately a square. The Babylon of the Kassite period and of the First Dynasty must have been smaller still, its area covering little more than the three principal mounds; and, though part of its street net-work has been recovered, no trace of its fortifications has apparently survived.
The evidence relating to the city's walls and fortifications has been summarized rather fully, as it has furnished the chief subject of controversy in connexion with the excavations. It should be added that the view suggested above is not shared by Dr. Koldewey, whose objections to the proposed identification of Imgur-Bêl rest on his interpretation of two phrases in a cylinder of Nabopolassar, which was found out of place indébrisclose to the east wall of the Southern Citadel. In it Nabopolassar records his own restoration of Imgur-Bêl, which he tells us had fallen into decay, and he states that he "founded it in the primæval abyss," adding the words, "I caused Babylon to be enclosed with it towards the four winds."[51]From the reference to the abyss, Dr. Koldewey concludes that it had deep foundations, and must therefore have been constructed of burnt, not crude, brick; while from the second phrase he correctly infers that it must have formed a quadrilateral closed on all sides. But that, as we have seen, is precisely the ground-plan we obtain by including the remains of walls west of the river. And, in view of the well-known tendency to exaggeration in these Neo-Babylonian records, we should surely not credit any single metaphor with the accuracy of a modern architect's specification.If a single section of the wall had been furnished, during restoration, with a burnt-brick substructure, it would have been enough to justify the royal claim.
The manner in which the Euphrates was utilized for the defence and water-supply of the citadel has also been illustrated by the excavations. The discovery of Sargon's inscriptions proved that in his day the river flowed along the western face of his quay-wall;[52]while the inscriptions on bricks from the three successive quay-walls of Nabopolassar[53]state, in each case, that he used them to rebuild the wall of a channel he calls the "Arakhtu," using the name in precisely the same way as Sargon refers to the Euphrates. The simplest explanation is that in Nabopolassar's time the Arakhtu was the name for that section of the Euphrates which washed the western side of the citadel, and that its use in any case included the portion of the citadel-moat, or canal, along its northern face, which formed a basin opening directly upon the river.[54]The "Arakhtu" may thus have been a general term, not only for this basin, but for the whole water-front from the north-west corner of the citadel to some point on the left bank to the south of it. It may perhaps have been further extended to include the river frontage of the Tower of Babylon, since it was into the Arakhtu that Sennacherib cast the tower on his destruction of the city. Within this stretch of water, particularly along the northern quays, vessels andkelekswould have been moored which arrived down stream with supplies for the palace and the garrison. The Arakhtu, in fact, may well have been the name for the ancient harbour or dock of Babylon.
Some idea of the appearance of the quays may be gathered from the right-hand corner of the restoration in Fig. 5.[55]It is true that the outer quay-wall appears to have been built to replace the inner one, while in the illustration both are shown. But since the height of the citadel and of its walls was continually being raised,the arrangement there suggested is by no means impossible. But in the later part of his reign Nebuchadnezzar changed the aspect of the river-front entirely. To the west of the quay-walls, in the bed of the river, he threw out a massive fortification with immensely thick walls, from twenty to twenty-five metres in breadth.[56]It was constructed entirely of burnt-brick and bitumen, and, from his reference to it in an inscription from Sippar, it would seem that his object in building it was to prevent the formation of sandbanks in the river, which in the past may have caused the flooding of the left bank above E-Sagila.[57]A narrow channel[58]was left between it and the old quay, along which the river water continued to flow through gratings. This no doubt acted as an overflow for the old northern moat of the citadel, since the latter fed the supply-canal, which passed round the palace and may still be traced along its south side.[59]It is possible that the subsequent change in the course of the Euphrates may be traced in part to this huge river-fortification. Its massive structure suggests that it had to withstand considerable water-pressure, and it may well have increased any tendency of the stream to break away eastward. However that may be, it is certain that for a considerable time during the Persian and Seleucid periods it flowed round to the eastward of the Ḳaṣr, close under three sides of thecitadel and rejoined its former bed to the north of Marduk's temple and the Tower of Babylon. Its course east of the Ishtar Gate is marked by a late embankment sloping outwards, which supported the thicker of the crude-brick walls at the point where they suddenly break off.[60]Beyond this embankment only mud and river sediment were found. The water-course to the south of the citadel is probably the point where the river turned again towards the channel it had deserted. A trench that was dug here showed that the present soil is formed of silt deposited by water, and beyond the remains of the earlier canal no trace of any building was recovered. This temporary change in the river's course, which the excavations have definitely proved, explains another puzzle presented by the classical tradition—the striking discrepancy between the actual position of the principal ruins of Babylon in relation to the river and their recorded position in the Persian period. Herodotus,[61]for example, places the fortress with the palace of the kings (that is, the Ḳaṣr), on the opposite bank to the sacred precinct of Zeus Belus (that is, E-temen-anki, the Tower of Babylon). But we have now obtained proof that they were separated at that time by the Euphrates, until the river returned to its former and present bed, probably before the close of the Seleucid period.
The greater part of the Southern Citadel is occupied by the enormous palace on which Nebuchadnezzar lavished his energies during so many years of his reign. On ascending the throne of Babylon, he found the ancient fortress a very different place to the huge structure he bequeathed to his successors. He had lived there in his father's life-time, but Nabopolassar had been content with a comparatively modest dwelling. And when his son, flushed with his victory over the hosts of Egypt, returned to Babylon to take the hands of Bêl, he began to plan a palace that should be worthy of the empire he had secured. Of the old palace of Nabopolassar, in which at first he was obliged to dwell, very little now remains. What is left of it constitutes the earliest building of which traces nowexist within the palace area. Nebuchadnezzar describes it, before his own building operations, as extending from the Euphrates eastward to the Sacred Road; and the old palace-enclosure undoubtedly occupied that site. Traces of the old fortification-wall have been found below the east front of the later palace, and the arched doorway which gave access to its open court, afterwards filled up and built over by Nebuchadnezzar, has been found in a perfect state of preservation.[62]
III. The Throne Room in Nebuchadnezzar's palace at Babylon, showing the recess in the back wall where the throne once stood.
III. The Throne Room in Nebuchadnezzar's palace at Babylon, showing the recess in the back wall where the throne once stood.
The old palace itself[63]did not reach beyond the western side of Nebuchadnezzar's great court.[64]The upper structure, as we learn from the East India House Inscription,[65]was of crude brick, which was demolished for the later building. But Nabopolassar, following a custom which had survived unchanged from the time of Hammurabi, had placed his crude-brick walls upon burnt-brick foundations. These his son made use of, simply strengthening them before erecting his own walls upon them. Thus this section of the new palace retained the old ground-plan to a great extent unchanged. The strength and size of its walls are remarkable and may in part be explained by the crude-brick upper structure of the earlier building, which necessarily demanded a broader base for its walls.
When Nebuchadnezzar began building he dwelt in the old palace, while he strengthened the walls of its open court on the east and raised its level for the solid platform on which his own palace was to rise.[66]For a time the new and the old palace were connected by two ramps of unburnt-brick,[67]which were afterwards filled in below the later pavement of the great court; and we may picture the king ascending the ramps with his architect on his daily inspection of the work. As soon as the new palace on the east was ready he moved into it, and, having demolished the old one, he built up hisown walls upon its foundations, and filled in the intermediate spaces with earth and rubble until he raised its pavement to the eastern level. Still later he built out a further extension[68]along its western side. In the account he has left us of the palace-building the king says: "I laid firm its foundation and raised it mountain-high with bitumen and burnt-brick. Mighty cedars I caused to be stretched out at length for its roofing. Door-leaves of cedar overlaid with copper, thresholds and sockets of bronze I placed in its doorways. Silver and gold and precious stones, all that can be imagined of costliness, splendour, wealth, riches, all that was highly esteemed, I heaped up within it, I stored up immense abundance of royal treasure therein."[69]
A good general idea of the palace ground-plan, in its final form, may be obtained from Fig. 6. The main entrance was in its eastern front, through a gate-way,[70]flanked on its outer side by towers, and known as the Bûb Bêlti, or "Lady Gate," no doubt from its proximity to the temple of the goddess Ninmakh.[71]The gate-house consists of an entrance hall, with rooms opening at the sides for the use of the palace-guard. The eastern part of the palace is built to the north and south of three great open courts,[72]separated from each other by gateways[73]very like that at the main entrance to the palace. It will be noticed that, unlike the arrangement of a European dwelling, the larger rooms are always placed on the south side of the court facing to the north, for in the sub-tropical climate of Babylonia the heat of the summer sun was not courted, and these chambers would have been in the shade throughout almost the whole of the day.
Some of the larger apartments, including possibly the chambers of the inner gateways, must have served as courts of justice, for from the Hammurabi period onward we know that the royal palace was the resort of litigants, whose appeals in the earlier period weresettled by the king himself,[74]and later by the judges under his supervision. Every kind of commercial business was carried on within the palace precincts, and not only were regular lawsuits tried, but any transaction that required legal attestation was most conveniently carried through there. Proof of this may be seen in the fact that so many of the Neo-Babylonian contracts that have been recovered on the site of Babylon are dated from the Al-Bît-shar-Bâbili, "the City of the King of Babylon's dwelling," doubtless a general title for the citadel and palace-area. All government business was also transacted here, and we may provisionally assign to the higher ministers and officials of the court the great apartment and the adjoining dwellings on the south side of the Central Court of the palace.[75]For many of the more important officers in the king's service were doubtless housed on the premises; and to those of lower rank we may assign the similar but rather smaller dwellings, which flank the three courts on the north and the Entrance Court upon the south side as well. Even royal manufactories were carried on within the palace, to judge from the large number of alabaster jars, found beside their cylindrical cores, in one room in the south-west corner by the outer palace-wall.[76]
It will be seen from the ground-plan that these dwellings consist of rooms built around open courts or light-wells; most of them are separate dwellings, isolated from their neighbours, and having doors opening on to the greater courts or into passage-ways running up from them. No trace of any windows has been found within the buildings, and it is probable that they were very sparsely employed. But we must not conclude that they were never used, since no wall of the palace has been preserved for more than a few feet in height, and, for the greater part, their foundationsonly have survived. But there is no doubt that, like the modern houses of the country, all the dwellings, whether in palace or city, had flat roofs, which formed the natural sleeping-place for their inhabitants during the greater part of the year. Towards sunset, when the heat of the day was past, they would ascend to the house-tops to enjoy the evening breeze; during the day a window would have been merely a further inlet for the sun. The general appearance of the palace is no doubt accurately rendered in the sketch already given.[77]
Fig. 9.PLAN OF THE THRONE ROOM OF NEBUCHADNEZZARAND PART OF THE PRIVATE PALACEC: Great Court. F: Throne Room,a: Recess in back-wall for throne,b-d: Entrances to Throne Room from Court,e-g: Entrances from side and back. 1-3: Open courts, surrounded by rooms for the royal service. 4, 5: Open courts in the south-east corner of the Private Palace.(After Koldewey.)
Fig. 9.
PLAN OF THE THRONE ROOM OF NEBUCHADNEZZARAND PART OF THE PRIVATE PALACE
C: Great Court. F: Throne Room,a: Recess in back-wall for throne,b-d: Entrances to Throne Room from Court,e-g: Entrances from side and back. 1-3: Open courts, surrounded by rooms for the royal service. 4, 5: Open courts in the south-east corner of the Private Palace.(After Koldewey.)
The most interesting apartment within the palace is one that may be identified as Nebuchadnezzar's Throne Room. This is the room immediately to the south of the Great Court.[78]It is the largest chamber of the palace, and since the walls on the longer sides are six metres thick, far broader than those at the ends, it is possible that they supported a barrel-vaulting. It has three entrances from the court,[79]and in the back wall opposite the centre one is a broad niche, doubly recessed into the structure of the wall, where we may assume the royal throne once stood. During any elaborate court ceremony the king would thus have been visible upon his throne, not only to those within the chamber, but also from the central portion of the GreatCourt. It was in this portion of the palace that some traces of the later Babylonian methods of mural decoration were discovered. For, while the inner walls of the Throne Room were merely washed over with a plaster of white gypsum, the brickwork of the outer façade, which faced the court, was decorated with brightly-coloured enamels.
Only fragments of the enamelled surface werediscovered, but these sufficed to restore the scheme of decoration. A series of yellow columns with bright blue capitals, both edged with white borders, stand out against a dark blue ground. The capitals are the most striking feature of the composition. Each consists of two sets of double volutes, one above the other, and a white rosette with yellow centre comes partly into sight above them. Between each member is a bud in sheath, forming a trefoil, and linking the volutes of the capitals by means of light blue bands which fall in a shallow curve from either side of it. Still higher on the wall ran a frieze of double palmettes in similar colouring, between yellow line-borders, the centres of the latter picked out with lozenges coloured black and yellow, and black and white, alternately. The rich effect of this enamelled façade of the Throne Room was enhanced by the decoration of the court gateway, the surface of which was adorned in a like fashion with figures of lions. So too were the gateways of the other eastern courts, to judge from the fragments of enamel found there, but the rest of the court-walls were left undecorated or, perhaps, merely received a coat of plaster. The fact that the interior of the Throne Room, like the rest of the chambers of the palace, was without ornamentation of any sort favours the view that heat, and light with it, was deliberately excluded by the absence of windows in the walls.
FIG. 10.DESIGN IN ENAMELLED BRICK FROM THE FAÇADE OF THE THRONE ROOMIn the drawing light and dark blue are indicated by light and heavy horizontal shading; yellow by a dotted surface.
FIG. 10.
DESIGN IN ENAMELLED BRICK FROM THE FAÇADE OF THE THRONE ROOM
In the drawing light and dark blue are indicated by light and heavy horizontal shading; yellow by a dotted surface.
The chambers behind the Throne Room, reached by two doorways in the back wall,[80]were evidently for the king's service, and are ranged around three open courts; and in the south-west corners of two of them, which lie immediately behind the Throne Room wall, are wells, their positions indicated on the plan by small open circles. The walls of each of these small chambers are carried down through the foundations to water-level, and the intermediate space is filled inaround the wells with rubble-packing. This device was evidently adopted to secure an absolutely pure supply of water for the royal table. But the private part of the palace, occupied by the women and the rest of the royal household, was evidently further to the west, built over the earlier dwelling of Nabopolassar. It will be seen from the ground-plan that this is quite distinct from the eastern or official portion of the palace, from which it is separated by a substantial wall and passage-way running, with the Great Court, the whole width of the palace-area. The character of the gateway-building, which formed its chief entrance and opened on the Great Court, is also significant.[81]For the towers, flanking the gateways to the official courts, are here entirely absent, and the pathway passes through two successive apartments, the second smaller than the first and with a porters' service-room opening off it. The entrance for the king's own use was in the southern half of the passage-way, and lies immediately between the side entrance to the Throne Room[82]and another doorway in the passage leading to one of the small courts behind it.[83]In two of the chambers within the private palace, both opening on to Court 5, are two more circular wells, walled in for protection, and here too the foundations of each chamber are carried down to water-level and filled in with brick-rubble, as in the case of the wells behind the Throne Room.
The same care that was taken to ensure the purity of the water-supply may also be detected in the elaborate drainage-system, with which the palace was provided, with the object of carrying off the surface-water from the flat palace-roofs, the open courts, and the fortification-walls. The larger drains were roofed with corbelled courses; the smaller ones, of a simpler but quite effective construction, were formed of bricks set together in the shape of a V and closed in at the top with other brickslaid flat. The tops of the fortifications, both in the citadel itself and on the outer and inner city-wall, were drained by means of vertical shafts, or gutters, running down within the solid substructures of the towers; and in the case of crude-brick buildings these have a lining of burnt-brick. In some of the temples, which, as we shall see, were invariably built of crude brick,[84]this form of drainage was also adopted.
FIG. 11.PLAN OF THE NORTH-EAST CORNER OF THE PALACE WITH THE VAULTED BUILDING.A: East Court of the Palace. B: Central Court. H: Ishtar Gate. I: Vaulted Building. J: Southern fortification-wall of crude brick, probably Imgur-Bêl.h: Passage-way leading to the Vaulted Building,m,n: Entrances to the Vaulted Building. 1-15: Small open courts or light-wells in official residencies.(After Koldewey.)
FIG. 11.
PLAN OF THE NORTH-EAST CORNER OF THE PALACE WITH THE VAULTED BUILDING.
A: East Court of the Palace. B: Central Court. H: Ishtar Gate. I: Vaulted Building. J: Southern fortification-wall of crude brick, probably Imgur-Bêl.h: Passage-way leading to the Vaulted Building,m,n: Entrances to the Vaulted Building. 1-15: Small open courts or light-wells in official residencies.
(After Koldewey.)
One other building within the palace deserves mention, as it has been suggested that it may represent the remains of the famous Hanging Gardens of Babylon.[85]It is reached from the north-east corner of the Central Court[86]along a broad passage-way,[87]from which a branch passage turns off at right angles; and on the left side of this narrower passage are its two entrances.[88]It must be confessed that at first sight the ground-plan of this building does not suggest a gardenof any sort, least of all one that became famous as a wonder of the ancient world. It will be seen that the central part, or core, of the building is surrounded by a strong wall and within are fourteen narrow cells or chambers, seven on each side of a central gangway.[89]The cells were roofed in with semicircular arches, forming a barrel vault over each; and the whole is encircled by a narrow corridor, flanked on the north and east sides by the outer palace-wall. This part of the building, both the vaulted chambers and the surrounding corridor, lies completely below the level of the rest of the palace. The small chambers, some of them long and narrow like the vaults, which enclose the central core upon the west and south, are on the palace level; and the subterranean portion is reached by a stairway in one of the rooms on the south side.[90]
There are two main reasons which suggested the identification of this building with the Hanging Gardens. The first is that hewn stone was used in its construction, which is attested by the numerous broken fragments discovered among its ruins. With the exception of the Sacred Road and the bridge over the Euphrates, there is only one other place on the whole site of Babylon where hewn stone is used in bulk for building purposes, and that is the northern wall of the Ḳaṣr. Now, in all the literature referring to Babylon, stone is only recorded to have been used for buildings in two places, and those are the north wall of the Citadel and in the Hanging Gardens, a lower layer in the latter's roofing, below the layer of earth, being described as made of stone. These facts certainly point to the identification of the Vaulted Building with the Hanging Gardens.[91]Moreover, Berossus definitely places them within the buildings by which Nebuchadnezzar enlarged his father's palace; but this reference would apply equally to the later Central Citadel constructed by Nebuchadnezzar immediately tothe north of his main palace. The size of the building is also far greater in Strabo and Diodorus than that of the Vaulted Building, the side of the quadrangle, according to these writers, measuring about four times the latter's length. But discrepancy in figures of this sort, as we have already seen in the case of the outer walls of the city, is easily explicable and need not be reckoned as a serious objection.[92]
The second reason which pointed to the identification is that, in one of the small chambers near the south-west corner of the outer fringe of rooms on those two sides, there is a very remarkable well. It consists of three adjoining shafts, a square one in the centre flanked by two of oblong shape. This arrangement, unique so far as the remains of ancient Babylon are concerned, may be most satisfactorily explained on the assumption that we here have the water-supply for a hydraulic machine, constructed on the principle of a chain-pump. The buckets, attached to an endless chain, would have passed up one of the outside wells, over a great wheel fixed above them, and, after emptying their water into a trough as they passed, would have descended the other outside well for refilling. The square well in the centre obviously served as an inspection-chamber, down which an engineer could descend to clean the well out, or to remove any obstruction. In the modern contrivances of this sort, sometimes employed to-day in Babylonia to raise a continuous flow of water to the irrigation-trenches, the motive-power for turning the winch is supplied by horses or other animals moving round in a circle. In the Vaulted Building there would have been scarcely room for such an arrangement, and it is probable that gangs of slaves were employed to work a couple of heavy hand-winches. The discovery of the well undoubtedly serves to strengthen the case for identification.
EASTERN TOWERS OF THE ISHTAR GATE
EASTERN TOWERS OF THE ISHTAR GATE
Two alternative schemes are put forward to reconstitute the upper structure of this building. Itsmassive walls suggest in any case that they were intended to support a considerable weight, and it may be that the core of the building, constructed over the subterranean vaults, towered high above its surrounding chambers which are on the palace-level. This would have been in accordance with the current conception of a hanging garden; and, since on two sides it was bounded by the palace-wall, its trees and vegetation would have been visible from outside the citadel. Seen thus from the lower level of the town, the height of the garden would have been reinforced by the whole height of the Citadel-mound on which the palace stands, and imagination once kindled might have played freely with its actual measurements.
On the other hand, the semicircular arches, still preserved within the central core, may have directly supported the thick layer of earth in which the trees of the garden were planted. These would then have been growing on the palace-level, as it were in a garden-court, perhaps surrounded by a pillared colonnade with the outer chambers opening on to it on the west and south sides. In either scheme the subterranean vaults can only have been used as stores or magazines, since they were entirely without light. As a matter of fact, a large number of tablets were found in the stairway-chamber that leads down to them; and, since the inscriptions upon them relate to grain, it would seem that some at least were used as granaries. But this is a use to which they could only have been put if the space above them was not a garden, watered continuously by an irrigation-pump, as moisture would have been bound to reach the vaults.[93]
Whichever alternative scheme we adopt, it must be confessed that the Hanging Gardens have not justified their reputation. And if they merely formed a garden-court, as Dr. Koldewey inclines to believe, it is difficult to explain the adjectives [κρεμαστός] andpensilis.For the subterranean vaults would have been completely out of sight, and, even when known to be below thepavement-level, were not such as to excite wonder or to suggest the idea of suspension in the air. One cannot help suspecting that the vaulted building may really, after all, be nothing more than the palace granary, and the triple well one of the main water-supplies for domestic use. We may, at least for the present, be permitted to hope that a more convincing site for the gardens will be found in the Central Citadel after further excavation.