CHAPTER XII
SinceLayard dug up the vanished cities of Nineveh and Calah on the banks of the Tigris three-quarters of a century ago, many gifted men have followed in his footsteps, and wielded pick and shovel among the mounds dotting Mesopotamia. No one coming upon the utter desolation of Abu Shahrein could imagine that this great mound of sand, with the ruined brick tower peeping out at the top, was some six thousand years ago the flourishing port of Eridu.
Eridu to-day is a dead city, buried under a sea of sand, yet this desolation marks, so far as we know, the very beginnings of civilization in Mesopotamia. Here it was that the Sumerians rose out of the dim past, with a culture that was far higher than that of many nations still peopling the world. They wrote on clay tablets, and had their code of laws, and traded by ship with distant places.
For long it was thought that Eridu in that far-off time must have stood upon the seashore. The evidence that it was a port, and that ships discharged their cargoes at the quays of the city, isbeyond all dispute. Yet to-day Eridu stands inland over a hundred miles—the seashore is a long journey from the one-time seaport.
Men of science strove to solve the seeming contradiction of a seaport so far inland. They studied the question very carefully. Measurements were taken as to the amount of silt deposited by the Euphrates and the Tigris at their deltas, and it was proved that in the last six thousand years the area of land at the mouths of the rivers has been very considerably extended, indicating that the ancient seashore has receded inland. The only uncertainty was whether the rivers had created a new belt of land over 90 miles wide since the Sumerians lived their peaceful lives at Eridu of old. It was thought that the rivers must have accomplished this feat, and it came to be accepted as the explanation of why Eridu is now so far away from the coast.
But there is another explanation, and the correct one. The Sumerians were the people who taught the Babylonians the art of making canals. In the days of the Sumerians a system of canals spread over the country to irrigate the land, and we now know that the Babylonians and Assyrians obtained their knowledge of irrigation from the Sumerians, for the latter were highly capable engineers.
The site of Eridu, about 20 miles from the Euphrates, stands on the edge of a big depression in the desert. The skill of the Sumerians in buildingcanals is beyond question, and herein lies the answer to the puzzle of an inland seaport. The big sandy depression sixty centuries ago was a lake, and the outlet from the lake was by canal to the Euphrates, and so to the sea. Eridu of old was merely the forerunner of Manchester of to-day, and the ancient people solved the problem of bringing the galleys to their very doors, in the same way that the people of Manchester solved the problem of bringing the steamers into the heart of their city six thousand years later. Solomon spoke truly when he said that under the sun there is nothing new.
Mr. Campbell Thomson, who has done fine work in Mesopotamia during the past few years on behalf of the British Museum, was the man who solved the mystery of ancient Eridu, and definitely proved that it never stood on the seashore. His Arabs were digging there, to throw some light on the vexed question of the past, when they came across quantities of shells, just as the kitchen middens of Denmark are marked by the shells of the fish the ancient peoples ate. The shells at Eridu were similarly the sole remains of repasts eaten seventy or eighty centuries ago, perhaps longer.
The average man would shovel such debris aside, and take no further notice of it, but Campbell Thomson knew only too well the importance of trifles in reconstituting the past. He put specimensof the shells aside, and brought them to England with his other finds.
These shells were submitted to an expert, who was asked to identify them. The expert found that the shells were those of fresh-water mussels.
Instantly all the theories of those who asserted that the city once stood on the seashore were refuted. If Eridu actually stood on the seashore, the mussels eaten by these primitive inhabitants would have been salt-water fish. As the shells found were those of fresh-water fish, they revealed that Eridu stood on a lake, which the Sumerians undoubtedly connected up by canal with the Euphrates. In this way did a simple thing like a mussel shell reveal another long-lost secret.
About four thousand years ago Eridu was deserted by man, and the encroaching sands have gradually silted up the canal and lake. The fact that human beings ceased to live there so long ago might be considered a disadvantage to those exploring the spot, but actually it has proved a tremendous advantage. Human beings have a habit of destroying the remains of those who go before them. They knock down former habitations and rebuild, using previous materials, until all traces of former peoples are lost.
At Eridu, Campbell Thomson set his diggers to cut through the layers of the mound, until they came to the bottom layer of sand, which had never beendisturbed by human hands. He found that men of the Stone Age lived here, men who used flints to cultivate the soil in the days when the use of metal was unknown. They cut their corn with sickles made of clay baked hard, and they were intelligent and clever enough to make pottery, although the use of the potter’s wheel was not then known. It was a pottery of a fine texture, painted with taste in a number of designs. The hands that made it were skilled, and the eyes of the potters were true enough to guide their hands aright.
Only a dozen miles across the desert is Ur of the Chaldees, where Mr. Taylor, who was British vice-consul at Basra in the days when Layard was making a stir, managed to find the remains of the temple of the Moon God. Seas of sand have been shifted since on behalf of the British Museum, and the mighty walls of the temple are now laid bare, while in the background rises the huge mound covering the city.
The luck of digging was never better exemplified than at Ur. A Persian and a Babylonian pavement adjoined, and Mr. Woolley, who was in charge of the digging operations, states that he was anxious to know whether there were any traces of a Babylonian pavement below the Persian pavement. He describes how he set his diggers to take up a portion of the Persian pavement, and left them wielding their picks while he betook himself to another part of the diggings.
In a little while a small Arab boy came rushing up, his black eyes aglow with astonishment, words coming breathlessly from his mouth. “Come quick, Sahib! Come quick and see what the diggers have found!” he cried.
Mr. Woolley wasted no time in returning. Directly he entered the ruins he saw an old cloak spread on the floor, and lying upon it were gold and silver ornaments, which had lain undiscovered under the pavement for twenty-five centuries or more. Giving a few sharp orders, he cleared the room of the diggers. Then he undertook further operations with his own hands, and brought up beads and bits of gold necklaces, with lapis lazuli and other semi-precious stones. But the gem of the find was a beautiful gold statuette of a woman.
Quickly he sent out for boxes and packing materials, and he was placing the treasure trove in the boxes, when he was still further astonished. The Arab in charge of the diggers came up.
“Here, Sahib!” he exclaimed, and began to take more jewels from his capacious pockets. “I was afraid to let the men see them, in case they murdered me for the treasure,” he added simply.
This discovery of ancient treasure follows another important Mesopotamian find, by Dr. Hall, of the British Museum, at Tell el Obeid in 1919. Wonderful life-size heads of lions, most cunningly modelled in bitumen, were uncovered. The Sumerian artists,striving after realism, simulated the fiery eyes and red tongues of the animals by imitating them in red jasper. Originally the heads were covered with fine copper masks, but the metal became corroded and only the grey-green fragments of the masks remain. The heads, now among the treasures of the British Museum, are undoubtedly some of the finest examples of early Sumerian art in existence.
Richer treasures still may await the spade of the excavator, for the deserts of Mesopotamia hide the relics of many nations; traces of many a hard-fought battle are swallowed up in the sands. Bits of the mighty past peep out of Babylon, great gateways and walls that have been uncovered by the hands of strangers, men who speak in divers tongues, even as the slaves who toiled to build the Tower of Babel.
No longer is there any uncertainty as to the site of the Tower of Babel. Here in Babylon itself was the Tower erected that was to reach to Heaven. The power of Babylon went to the building of the enormous square tower which, rising terrace on terrace, dominated the plains for many miles, a landmark for the whole country-side, and a symbol of the Strength of Babylon. Thousands of slaves toiled at making the bricks, thousands more expended their energies in the building of the gigantic square platforms which gradually rose above thecity like a series of boxes, each smaller than that below.
A flick of the Finger of Time and the mighty tower toppled, changed into a mountain of broken brick and debris. Amid the debris, the lower platform of the tower stood firm, to prove to us that Babel existed in the days of old.
Here in Babylon Nebuchadnezzar reigned, the city echoed to the tramp of his armies as he led them forth to triumph; out on the plains he caused the golden image to be set up for his subjects to worship; here followed the ordeal by fire of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, the madness which drove the monarch to eat grass as the beasts of the field. Daniel once paced the palaces that stood here in their glory, found favour with the king, saw the writing on the wall and prophesied the downfall of the city when Belshazzar came to the throne. “God has numbered thy kingdom and finished it. Thou art weighed in the balance and found wanting. Thy kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians,” says the prophet in the Book of Daniel. The pages of the Bible whisper to us the history of the world.
Gone is the glory. Only thousands of bricks stamped with the name of Nebuchadnezzar remain to call up visions of the pleasure-loving Babylonians who were swept away by fire and sword.
By courtesy of Major Kenneth Mason, M.C., R.E.THE REMAINS OF MIGHTY BABYLON, WHICH WERE BURIED UNDER THE DRIFT OF CENTURIES UNTIL OUR OWN TIME. THE ISHTAR TOWER SEEN TO THE LEFT WAS COMPLETELY COVERED WITH DEBRIS BEFORE PROFESSOR KOLDEWEY EXCAVATED IT
By courtesy of Major Kenneth Mason, M.C., R.E.THE REMAINS OF MIGHTY BABYLON, WHICH WERE BURIED UNDER THE DRIFT OF CENTURIES UNTIL OUR OWN TIME. THE ISHTAR TOWER SEEN TO THE LEFT WAS COMPLETELY COVERED WITH DEBRIS BEFORE PROFESSOR KOLDEWEY EXCAVATED IT
By courtesy of Major Kenneth Mason, M.C., R.E.
THE REMAINS OF MIGHTY BABYLON, WHICH WERE BURIED UNDER THE DRIFT OF CENTURIES UNTIL OUR OWN TIME. THE ISHTAR TOWER SEEN TO THE LEFT WAS COMPLETELY COVERED WITH DEBRIS BEFORE PROFESSOR KOLDEWEY EXCAVATED IT
By courtesy of Major Kenneth Mason, M.C., R.E.THE RUINS OF NEBUCHADNEZZAR’S PALACE IN BABYLON. THE SEEMING CLIFFS HERE AND IN THE TOP PHOTOGRAPH SHOW THE MODERN GROUND LEVEL AND INDICATE THE ENORMOUS QUANTITIES OF SOIL WHICH THE DIGGERS HAVE REMOVED IN ORDER TO UNCOVER THE RUINS
By courtesy of Major Kenneth Mason, M.C., R.E.THE RUINS OF NEBUCHADNEZZAR’S PALACE IN BABYLON. THE SEEMING CLIFFS HERE AND IN THE TOP PHOTOGRAPH SHOW THE MODERN GROUND LEVEL AND INDICATE THE ENORMOUS QUANTITIES OF SOIL WHICH THE DIGGERS HAVE REMOVED IN ORDER TO UNCOVER THE RUINS
By courtesy of Major Kenneth Mason, M.C., R.E.
THE RUINS OF NEBUCHADNEZZAR’S PALACE IN BABYLON. THE SEEMING CLIFFS HERE AND IN THE TOP PHOTOGRAPH SHOW THE MODERN GROUND LEVEL AND INDICATE THE ENORMOUS QUANTITIES OF SOIL WHICH THE DIGGERS HAVE REMOVED IN ORDER TO UNCOVER THE RUINS
The clay tablets of Mesopotamia have told us many things since Rawlinson stripped them of their secret; they are pages from the Book of Mankind. Not the least remarkable discovery we owe to George Smith, who, going out to the East on an expedition for theDaily Telegraph, found among hundreds of the clay books of the ancients an account of the Flood. He crowded some fine work into his short life, before succumbing at Aleppo in 1876 at the age of thirty-six.
Just across the borders in Persia the French have explored many an ancient site in the quest for knowledge. De Morgan, in the remaining years of last century, dug down and down at Susa for 80 feet, until he came to the virgin soil. Throughout this huge deposit were scattered the relics of many civilizations, among them a stone which has provided us with a unique record of the time when the Sumerians held sway over the land. Inscribed on this stone is the code of laws made by Hammurabi, the Sumerian king who reigned about four thousand years ago.
Throughout the ages history has been repeating itself. Just as we carried off the Rosetta Stone from Egypt as one of the spoils of war, so the people of Susa, setting their heel on Babylon, conveyed the stone of Hammurabi back in triumph to Susa. Then the sword of the Assyrians swept through Susa, and the code of Hammurabi wasengulfed in the ruins, to await the spade of de Morgan.
The laws of Hammurabi set forth on his stone are good laws, and they indicate a people governed justly. The sun god himself is shown taking the stylus from the king in order to set down the laws, implying that the laws were derived from the god himself.
Instinctively the mind reverts to the vision of Moses coming down from the mountain, with the Ten Commandments graven on two tablets of stone. It may be that some such stone as that of Hammurabi was itself the foundation of the Ten Commandments, that the very code of laws on which all Christian morality is based may one day reward some ardent excavator. It is impossible to say. What was unknown to us yesterday may be revealed to us to-day.
England has cause to be proud of the part played by Britons in reading the story of mankind. Young in deciphering hieroglyphics, Rawlinson in reading cuneiform, and Professor Sayce in mastering the mysterious Armenian writing of Van—now known as Vannic—provide a glowing tribute to the intelligence and determination of the British race.
Mesopotamia, despite the many things to be found there, has no tombs like those of Egypt to yield up the secrets of its lost civilizations. The bodies of the dead were mostly burned. Sometimesthey were buried in two huge jars placed mouth to mouth, at other times in a pottery coffin shaped something like a foot-bath, on which a stone cover was placed; sites of ancient cemeteries have been found, revealing strangely shaped pottery coffins, highly glazed in blue.
These things have told the diggers much, but the records written on clay bricks and barrel-shaped cylinders found in the temples and palaces have yielded more information than has yet been deciphered or translated. The ancient peoples used to place baked clay records in a special niche in the foundations of their buildings, and these have proved invaluable. The same custom persists to this day in our own land, for it is a common practice to place coins and other records under the foundation stones of modern large buildings of public importance.
It may truly be said that Layard gave the impetus to digging in the East, that all the men working in those parched lands are the disciples of the Englishman who gave up his best years to the science he loved. He suffered untold hardships, his life was often in dire danger, illness afflicted him, but through it all he went on digging. He was subjected to bitter attacks and intrigues, but he countered them to perform his lifework. The hardships did not weigh with him, the lack of money for carrying on the work was not aninsuperable handicap, but he was terribly disappointed at the lack of interest shown by his countrymen in his discoveries, and by the way his priceless relics were damaged during transit. Apparently people thought they were so much rubbish, hardly worth the taking away.
He entered politics and gained honours as a diplomat, but his name and his fame will ever rest on his wonderful work in digging up ancient Assyria out of the deserts of Mesopotamia.