* The ICfvp. word fittiiili ('Ipt) la, however. Itself urlKinallv derlvid fi-oin the Ital). /»//«.
+ This ffitniMli Is the Perso-Indlan ktirun/ia, which Is also a weight of 10 shekels.
220
BABYLONIA
BABYLONIA
much later period. The Bab. temples, formed of brick like Bab. buildings in general, were in ' stage ' form, and had either three or seven storeys, the latter number in imitation of the seven planet- spheres (see p. 21(3''). The oldest kings already refer, in their inscriptions, to palaces, and on a statue of Gudea (c. 2S)00) we find even the plan of such a building. The surface of each brick was stamped witli an inscription of six to ten lines, and formed a square with a side of 330 mm. {i.e. i of a cubit = I Bab. foot). The science of hydraulics was also highly developed (dams, canals, sluices, cisterns, etc.). From the fragments of vases which still exist (beautifully ornamented, and in some cases with lengthy inscriptions), formed either of alabaster or of clay, we see tiiat pottery had made great advances in the very earliest times. The same is true of weaving. Long before tlie time of Abraham, the magnificent Bab. carjjets and mantles were in high repute (cf. Jos. 7-'). Music and poetry (on the latter see the remarks on Bab. literature, below) were sedulously cultivated. As early as the time of Gudea we find a twelve- stringed harp portrayed. To the forms of poetry belonged, as we have now learned, a highly- complicated strophic system, as well as the regular succession of a certain number of cadences, and finally the so-called parallelismus membroriim. The diorite statues of the Patesi of Sirgulla may confidently be matched against the famous statues of wood and diorite whicli belong to tlie Egyp. art of the so-called ancient empire. Special skill was displayed, however, by tlie Babylonians at all periods, in engraving ; and their cylinder- seals, which date as far back as c. H.C. 4000, show a fineness of execution which cannot but arouse our admiration. Mythological scenes are the favourite subject ; particidarly common is the portrayal of such as belong to the circle of legends which formed itself around Gisdubar (Nimrod). The in- scriptions appended give, as a rule, simply the name and title of the owner of the seal and his father ; but as these are freijuently kings, such cylinder-seals not infrequently serve as important sources for the tracing of history. Jletallurgy, finally, was also in an advanced stage in early days. The relation of silver to gold was in point of value 3 : 40, or 1 : 131, the same ratio as that of the ancient lunar month of 27 days to the solar year of 300 days. From the first we find the Babylonians acquainted also with the smelting of iron. The latter was originally obtained from meteoric stones, hence the Sumer. name an-har, 'heavenly metal.' They had also learned the composition of bronze (Sumer. zabar, Semit. siparni) from copper and tin. They were ac- quainted even with the manufacture of glass. As early as c. B.<'. l.jOO we meet with cobalt-coloured glass as an artificial substitute for the costly lapis- lazuli imported from Media.
The Literature of Babylon, as was to be ex- pected from a people so highly civilised, was of the most varied character and greatest extent. Un- fortunately, in spite of the numerous discoveries made by excavation (esp. the remains of actual libraries, inscribed on clay tablets), only the ruins of this literature have been preserved ; but in this form we liave specimens of at least all the more important branches.
First, as regards literature in the narrower sense, the poetry of Babylon, even the so-called secular epic, e.g. the Nimrod-epos, bore an essen- tially religious character. To the poetical fragments which have come down to us either in Sumerian alone, or (as is generally the case) with a Semitic interlinear translation as well, belong above all the numerous magical formuhe (with the title enna or shiplu, 'incantation'), as well as a great
number of hymns to the gods, and penitential psalms. While the first-named are composed in relatively old and pure Sumerian and generally written ideographically, the last two show an admixture of numerous later forms of speech : they contain Semit. loan-words and frequent in- stances of phonetic WTiting (the so-called inii-sal forms or ' women's speech ' in opposition to the 'priests' speech' of the earliest period). From all this, the N. Babylonian and Semit. origin of the penitential psalms, and of a large number of the hymns to tlie gods, may be certainly inferred. Moreover, the line of thought in the penitential psalms, notwithstanding their being composed in Sumerian, is far more Semitic than Sumerian. In particular, there appear in them with tolerable clearness purer religious conceptions, approaching monotheism. While the magical formulie cer- tainly go back to a very remote antiquity, the penitential psalms may possibly have taken their rise somewhere between B.C. 3000 and 2000, i.e. in the last centuries before Abraham. In any case, they are essentially more recent than the formulue.
By far the greater half of the Bab. literature was composed, however, only in tlie Semit. idiom of the country. This is true of certain magical formulfe {€.(/. the so-called ' burning series ' or mailG, i.e. burning of wax figures of evil spirits or of witches) and many hymns to the gods. To the same class belong, above all, the epic poems of which, fortunately, a whole series have come down to us, more or less perfectly preserved. These poems might with equal propriety be called mythological texts, for the purely epic and narra- tive element in them is constantly mingled and combined with the mythological. The most im- portant and (as is proved by the order adopted foi- the zodiacal signs, the Ram, fcwsari'A-A-H, being last i the oldest poem is —