Chapter V: Comparison Between Egypt and Chaldæa (4)

[269] The bas-reliefs of Malthaï have been described by LAYARD (_Nineveh_, vol. i. pp. 230, 231), and, with greater minuteness, by PLACE (_Ninive_, vol. ii. pp. 153–160). The latter alone gives a reproduction of them, made from photographs. Between the two accounts there is one considerable discrepancy: Layard speaks of four groups of nine figures each, Place of three only.

[270] Other cylinders belonging to the same group will be found reproduced in LAYARD _Recherches sur le Culte de Vénus_, notably in plate iv. figs. 9–12.

[271] French National Library, No. 710.

[272] Florence Museum.

[273] _Art in Ancient Egypt_, vol. i. pp. 120–122.

[274] FLANDIN published in the _Revue des deux Mondes_ (15 June, and 1 July, 1845), two papers under the general title of _Voyage archéologique à Ninive_, and headed severally _L’Architecture assyrienne_, and _La Sculpture assyrienne_. The assertion to which we have alluded will be found in the second of the two articles, at page 106.

[275] BOTTA, _Monument de Ninive_, vol. v. p. 178.

[276] PLACE, _Ninive_, vol. ii. pp. 82, 83.

[277] _Ibid._ vol. iii. plate 46, No. 4.

[278] BOTTA (_Monument de Ninive_, vol. v. p. 178.) LAYARD, _Nineveh_, vol. ii. p. 310.

[279] Upon this question of polychromy in the reliefs, a very precise note of LAYARD’S may be consulted with profit (_Nineveh_, vol. ii. p. 312). The discussion has also been very judiciously summed up by RAWLINSON (_The Five Great Monarchies_, vol. i. pp. 357–365). One of the plates from which we may gather the best idea of how this sculpture must have looked when its colouring was intact, is that in which LAYARD gives a reproduction of one of the winged bulls as it appeared when first uncovered (_Monuments_, first series, plate 92).

[280] BOTTA, _Monument de Ninive_, plates 12 and 14.

[281] PLACE, _Ninive_, vol. i. p. 58.

[282] BOTTA, _Monument de Ninive_, plate 113.

[283] _Ibid._ plates 43 and 53.

[284] BOTTA, _Monument_, &c. plate 62.

[285] _Ibid._ plates 61 and 76, and vol. v. p. 124.

[286] See especially at the south end of the _Nimroud Gallery_, the upper part of a male figure, numbered 17 _a_. The black of the hair and beard has preserved much of its strength.

[287] “At Kouyunjik there were no traces whatever of colour.” _Nineveh_, vol. ii. p. 310.

[288] HEUZEY, _Catalogue des Figurines en terre cuite du Musée du Louvre_, p. 18.

[289] HEUZEY, _Catalogue_, &c. p. 19.

[290] _Ibid._ p. 20. LAYARD also found many of these blue statuettes at Khorsabad (_Discoveries_, p. 357).

[291] These fragments were found by LAYARD in one of the small temples at Nimroud (_Discoveries_, pp. 357, 358).

[292] M. SULLY PRUDHOMME has lately embodied this idea in his verses addressed to the Venus of the Louvre (_Devant la Vénus de Milo in the Revue politique_ for 6 January, 1883):--

“Dans les lignes du marbre où plus rien ne subsiste
De l’éphémère éclat des modèles de chair,
Le ciseau de sculpteur, incorruptible artiste,
En isolant le Beau, nous le rend chaste et clair.

Si tendre à voir que soit la couleur d’un sein rose,
C’est dans le contour seul, presque immatériel,
Que le souffle divin se relève et dépose
La grâce qui l’exprime et ravit l’âme au ciel.

* * * * *

Saluons donc cet art qui, trop haut pour la foule.
Abandonne des corps les éléments charnels.
Et, pur, du genre humain ne garde que le moule,
N’en daigne consacrer que les traits éternels!

[293] HERODOTUS, i. 195. STRABO says the same thing, but in a passage (xvi. i. 20), in which he borrows from Herodotus without acknowledgment.

[294] There are fine series of these seals, or cylinders, both in the Louvre and in the _Cabinet des Antiques_ of the French National Library. But the collection of the British Museum is the richest of all. It possesses about 660 examples, against the 500 of the _Cabinet des Antiquités_, and the 300 of the Louvre. The cabinet at the Hague has 150. A single French collector, M. de Clercq, possesses more than 400, most of them in very fine condition and of great interest. He is preparing to publish a descriptive catalogue of his treasures, accompanied by photogravure facsimiles of every cylinder. According to M. Ménant, the total number of these cylinders now in European galleries can fall very little short of three thousand.

[295] M. Fr. LENORMANT explains this talismanic value of the cylinders very clearly in his _Étude sur la Signification des Sujets de quelques Cylindres babyloniens et assyriens_ (_Gazette archéologique_, 1879, p. 249).

[296] We have derived most of the information contained in this chapter from the works of M. MÉNANT, who, for many years past has given more study to these cylinders than any other savant. We have found his _Essai sur les Pierres gravées de l’Asie occidentale_ of special value, but we have also made use of the various reports he has published in the _Archives des Missions_, relating to the foreign collections visited by him, and of his papers read before the Académie des Inscriptions. We have, moreover, consulted the following works, not, we hope, without profit: DE GOBINEAU, _Catalogue d’une Collection d’Intailles asiatiques_ (_Revue archéologique_, new series, vol. xxvii.); E. SOLDI, _Les Cylindres babyloniens, leur Usage et leur Classification_ (_ibid._ vol. xxviii.); and _Les Arts méconnus_, by the same author (1 vol. 8vo. Leroux, 1881), chapter i., _Les Camées et les Pierres gravées_.

[297] The thickest cylinders are found among those that appear the most ancient. I measured one, in the _Cabinet des Antiquités_, that was barely less than an inch in diameter. On the other hand, there are some very small ones in existence.

[298] MÉNANT, _Essai sur les Pierres gravées de l’Asie occidentale_, Introduction, p. 19. In the British Museum M. Ménant made a careful examination of a tablet on which these successive impressions from a cylinder allowed the whole of the scene with which it was engraved to be studied (_Rapport sur les Cylindres Assyro-Chaldéens du Musée britannique_, p. 95, in the _Archives des Missions scientifiques_, 1879). Even as late as 1854, a fine connoisseur like DE LONGPERIER could think that the cylinders were purely amulets and were never used as seals (_Notice des Antiquités assyriennes exposées dans les Galeries du Louvre_, 3rd edition, p. 87). No such assertion could be made now. Hundreds of impressions are to be found on the terra-cotta tablets from Mesopotamia, and moreover, we find this formula in the inscription borne by many of the cylinders: “Seal (kunuku) of so-and-so, son of so-and-so.” In Assyrian the word _kunuku_ meant, as the word _seal_ with us, both the instrument used and the impression it gave (MÉNANT, _Essai_, Introduction, p. 17). Some of these impressions are figured in LAYARD, _Discoveries_, chapters vi and xxv. See also his _Monuments_, second series, plate 69.

[299] The Louvre possesses a cylinder mounted in this fashion. It was found by Place in the foundations of the Khorsabad palace. See DE LONGPERIER, _Notice_, p. 98, (No. 469 in the _Catalogue_).

[300] TAYLOR, _Notes on the Ruins of Mugeyer_, p. 270 (in the Journal of the _Royal Asiatic Society_, vol. xv.).

[301] LAYARD, _Discoveries_, p. 563.

[302] A few cylinders of fine stone dating apparently from the early monarchy, are exceptions to this rule. M. MÉNANT quotes a cylinder of sapphirine chalcedony, which he ascribes to the reign of Dungi, the son of Ourkam (_Essai sur les Pierres gravées_, pp. 141–143); elsewhere he mentions an onyx cylinder in the _Cabinet des Antiques_ (No. 870), which bears an inscription proving it to have been the seal of the scribe or secretary who served the son of Karigalzu, whom he places at the end of the fifteenth century B.C. We also find jasper cylinders that appear, so far as their execution and the costume of the figures engraved on them may show, to have come from the same workshops (_ibid._ p. 123) as those of the softer materials. This, we acknowledge, is a difficulty. But in the first place they may have now and then succeeded, even in the early years of the art, in fashioning materials harder than those with which they were familiar, by redoubling the patience and time spent upon the work; and, secondly, several kings separated from each other by centuries must have borne the same name, and it is perhaps a little bold to determine the age of a monument from the fact that it is engraved with this or that royal name. Who can say that none of these little monuments were reworked in the time of Nebuchadnezzar? Archaism was then in fashion. The writing of the early monarchy was imitated in official documents. Is it not probable enough that, while they were in the vein, they copied the seals of the old and almost legendary kings? They would reproduce them in their entirety, both images and texts, but in obedience to the taste of the day, they would execute the copies in those harder and more precious materials which his increased skill permitted the workman to attack. In spite of a few doubtful instances, we may repeat the general rule we have laid down: That the great majority of those cylinders that bear incontestable marks of a high antiquity, are cut from materials inferior in hardness to the precious stones, or even to the quartzes.

[303] E. SOLDI, _Les Cylindres babyloniens_ (_Revue archéologique_, vol. xxviii. p. 147).

[304] _Ibid._ p. 149.

[305] The three pages in which M. SOLDI sums up the result of his inquiries, may be studied with advantage (_Les Arts méconnus_, pp. 62–64).

[306] See J. MÉNANT, _Observations sur trois Cylindres orientaux_ (_Gazette des Beaux-Arts_, December, 1879).

[307] Or, more correctly, Dioscurides (Διοσκουρίδης), according to the texts.--ED.

[308] As to the connection of the Greek Heracles with Izdubar, see a passage quoted from SAYCE by Mansell (_Gazette archéologique_, 1879, pp. 116, 117?). The New York cylinder is only 1.52 inches high. It has been slightly enlarged in our woodcut, so that its workmanship might be better shown.

[309] Upon the exploits of these two individuals, and the place they occupy upon the cylinders, see MÉNANT, _Essai_, &c., pp. 66, _et seq._

[310] MÉNANT, _Essai sur les Pierres gravées_, Fig. 86.

[311] _Ibid._ p. 138.

[312] DE LONGPÉRIER, _Œuvres_, vol. i. p. 335. Compare our Fig. 17, Vol. i., and M. MÉNANT’S observations upon the double-faced individual in whom the original androgynous type of the human race has been recognised by some (_Essai_, &c., pp. 111–120). We are inclined to agree with him in supposing the double profile to be no more than a convention, whose strangeness is diminished when we remember that it occurred upon the convex sides of a cylinder, where the eye of the spectator did not grasp it all at once, as upon the flat impression. In choosing such an arrangement, the artist seems to have desired to connect the figure both with the seated god and the figures on the other side; it is an expedient of the same nature as the five legs of the Ninevite bulls.

[313] MÉNANT, _Essai_, &c., p. 166. M. Ménant mentions some other myths, with which this scene may be connected. The true explanation cannot be decided, however, until the Chaldee mythology is better known than at present.

[314] _Ibid._ p. 153.

[315] _Art in Ancient Egypt_, Vol. i. Fig. 85.

[316] MÉNANT, _Essai_, &c., pp. 61–96.

[317] MÉNANT, _Essai_, p. 94. Izdubar contends not only with monsters; he pursues, for his own pleasure, all the beasts of the desert and mountain; like the Nimrod of Genesis, he is a “mighty hunter before the Lord.” See the cylinders figured and explained by S. HAFFNER (_La Chasse de l’Hercule assyrien_, in the _Gazette archéologique_, 1879, p. 178–184).

[318] MÉNANT, _Essai_, p. 91.

[319] See above, page 144, and Fig. 70.

[320] MÉNANT, _Essai_, pp. 55–62.

[321] BEROSUS, fragment 1, § 4, in vol. ii. of the _Fragmenta historicorum Græcorum_ of Ch. Müller.

[322] BOTTA, _Monument de Ninive_, vol. v. p. 2. LAYARD, _Discoveries_, p. 605.

[323] These two cylinders are respectively numbered 937 and 942 in the _Cabinet des Antiques_.

[324] MÉNANT, _Catalogue des Cylindres orientaux du Cabinet royal des Médailles de La Haye_ (The Hague, 4to.), No. 135.

[325] Upon these types see MÉNANT, _Archives des Missions_, 1879, pp. 128–9. The signet figured above belonged to a member of the tribe called _Egibi_, a group of merchants and bankers who seem to have held the highest rank upon the market of Babylon, both under the last national kings, and under the Achæmenidæ.

[326] _Archives des Missions_, 1879, p. 115.

[327] The charging animal seems rather to be a wild boar. The shape of its head and body, the ridge of hair along the spine, the shape of the legs and feet, and its action in charging, all suggest a boar, a suggestion confirmed by the action of the hunter, who receives the rush of the animal on a kind of scarf or cloak, while he buries his boar-spear in its back.--ED.

[328] The cylinder published by LAYARD, _Introduction à l’Étude du Culte public et des Mystères de Mithra_, plate xxv. No. 4. See on the subject of the inscription upon it, LEVY, _Siegel und Gemmen_, plate 1, No. 15. A certain number of intaglios with Aramaic characters, which belong to the same class, have been studied and described by M. DE VOGUÉ, in his _Mélanges d’Archéologie orientale_, pp. 120–130.

[329] National Library, Paris; No. 1086.

[330] National Library, No. 978.

[331] MÉNANT, _Empreintes de Cachets assyro-chaldéens relevées au Musée britannique_ (_Archives des Missions_, 1882, p. 375), fig. 5.

[332] _Ibid._ fig. 25.

[333] A kneeling figure occurs on a contract dated from the seventh century, MÉNANT, _ibid._ p. 376, fig. 7. Several impressions in the London collection show us personages in the modern attitude of prayer before the figure of a god overshadowed by huge wings. _Ibid._ figs. 26 and 27.

[334] MÉNANT, _Empreinte de Cachets_, &c. fig. 65.

[335] De Luynes collection, No. 188. Diameter 1 inch.

[336] No. 986.

[337] _Ibid._ figs. 20–24, 27, 30, 31, 41–44.

[338] _Art in Ancient Egypt_, vol. ii. pp. 290, 291.

[339] MÉNANT, _Rapport sur les Cylindres du Musée britannique_, p. 127.

[340] SOLDI, _Les Cylindres babyloniens_ (_Revue archéologique_, vol. xxviii.), p. 153.

[341] _Art in Ancient Egypt_, vol. i. fig. 85.

[342] LAYARD, _Discoveries_, p. 281. A scarab of Amenophis III. has also been found. Layard also tells us that he found several scarabæi of Egyptian manufacture, while excavating at Nimroud, and others were brought to him which had been found in different parts of Mesopotamia.

[343] _Account of the income and expenditure of the British Museum for 1878._

[344] In a recently published work (_Kritik des Ægyptischen Ornaments, archäologische_ _Studie_, with two lithographic plates, Marburg, 8vo, 1883) Herr Ludwig von Sybel has investigated the influence exercised by what he calls _Asiatic ornament_ upon Egyptian art, after the commencement of the second Theban empire. The impression left by his inquiry--which is conducted with much order and critical acumen--is that Egypt, by the intermediary of the Phœnicians, received more from Assyria and Chaldæa than she gave. This influence was exercised chiefly by the numerous metal objects imported into the Nile valley from western Asia, where metallurgy was more advanced and more active than in Egypt. We may have doubts as to some of Herr von Sybel’s comparisons, and may think he sometimes exaggerates the Asiatic influence, but none the less may his work be read both with profit and interest.

[345] See above, page 98.

[346] Layard, _Monuments_, first series, plate 7.

[347] _Art in Ancient Egypt_, vol. ii. chapter iv. § 1.

[348] Vol. I. Chapter II. § 7.

[349] The ornament reproduced in our Plate XIII. is borrowed from a plate of LAYARD’S _Monuments_ (first series, plate 80), and the two subjects brought together in Plate XIV. are taken from plate 55 of the second series. Our Plate XV. brings together, on a smaller scale, the figures which occupy plates 29, 30 and 31 of PLACE’S _Ninive_.

[350] LAYARD, _Nineveh_, vol. ii. p. 311.

[351] PLACE, _Ninive_, plate 32.

[352] LAYARD, _Discoveries_, p. 166, note.

[353] PLACE, _Ninive_, vol. ii. pp. 251, 252.

[354] LEPSIUS, _Les Métaux dans les Inscriptions egyptiennes_. Translated into French by W. Berend, and with additions by the author, 1877.

[355] LAYARD, _Discoveries_, p. 166.

[356] _Ibid._ p. 166.

[357] LAYARD, _Nineveh_, vol. ii. p. 313.

[358] LAYARD, _Discoveries_, p. 166.

[359] PLACE, _Ninive_, vol. ii. p. 252.

[360] DIODORUS, ii. viii. 4.

[361] RAWLINSON, _The Five Great Monarchies_, vol. i. pp. 91, 92. We borrow figs. 163–8 from Professor Rawlinson. Some of these, he tells us, are from drawings by Mr. Churchill, the artist who accompanied Loftus into Chaldæa and Susiana; the rest are taken from objects now in the British Museum.

[362] We borrow the figures numbered 183, 184, 186 and 187, from the plate accompanying a remarkable paper by M. HELBIG, in which he points out the similarities that exist between this Ninevite pottery, and the oldest pottery of Attica and the Ægæan islands (_Osservazioni sopra la provenienza della decorazione geometrica_, in the _Annales de l’Institut de Correspondance archéologique_, 1875, p. 221). The tracings reproduced by M. Helbig (_tavola d’aggiunta_, H), were made by Mr. Murray. Our figures 182, 185, and 188 were taken from drawings made by myself in the British Museum.

[363] PLACE, _Ninive_, vol. ii. p. 150.

[364] BIRCH, _History of Ancient Pottery_, 2nd edition, 1873, p. 91.

[365] BIRCH, _History of Ancient Pottery_, 2nd edition, 1873, p. 104.

[366] The British Museum possesses some fine examples of these coffins; they were transported to England by Loftus, who had some difficulty in bringing them home intact. See LOFTUS, _Travels and Researches_, &c., p. 204; LAYARD, _Discoveries_, pp. 558–561; and BIRCH, _History of Ancient Pottery_, pp. 105–107. In the upper parts of the mounds at Warka and Niffer, where these slipper-shaped coffins were packed in thousands, fragments of glazed earthenware, plates and vases, were also found; they seemed to date from the same period.

[367] _Art in Ancient Egypt_, vol. ii. p. 375.

[368] BOTTA, _Monument de Ninive_, vol. v. p. 173. RAWLINSON, _The Five Great Monarchies_, vol. i. pp. 389–391.

[369] On this subject see a note by Sir David BREWSTER (?), appended to LAYARD, _Discoveries_, pp. 674–676.

[370] LAYARD, _Discoveries_, p. 197.

[371] LAYARD, _Nineveh_, vol. i. p. 421; _Discoveries_, p. 197.

[372] RAWLINSON, _The Five Great Monarchies_, vol. i. p. 574.

[373] A detailed description of this curious object will be found in a note supplied to Layard by Sir David BREWSTER, who made a careful examination of the lens (_Discoveries_, p. 197).

[374] See RAWLINSON, _The Five Great Monarchies_, &c., vol. i. pp. 95–97.

[375] On the richness of the metalliferous deposits about the head-waters of the Tigris and Euphrates, see vol. i. pp. 124, 125.

[376] RAWLINSON, _The Five Great Monarchies_, vol. i. p. 98.

[377] _Ibid._

[378] _Ibid._

[379] PLACE, _Ninive_, vol. ii. p. 263.

[380] _Art in Ancient Egypt_, vol. ii. pp. 303–305 and 379.

[381] PLACE, _Ninive_, vol. i. pp. 84–89, and plates 70, 71.

[382] A certain number of iron implements are exhibited in the British Museum (Kouyundjik Gallery, case E); they were found for the most part at Nimroud, by Sir H. LAYARD (_Discoveries_, pp. 174 and 194). Among objects particularly mentioned by him are feet of chairs, tables, &c., mattocks and hammers, the heads of arrows and lances, and a double-handled saw 62 inches long.

[383] PLACE, _Ninive_, vol. i. p. 264 and plate 71; figs. 5, 6 and 7.

[384] This is formally stated by Dr. PERCY, who furnished Layard with a long note upon the composition of the Assyrian bronzes (_Discoveries_, p. 670). At Nimroud, the latter found helmets and cuirasses of iron with surface ornaments of bronze (_Nineveh_, vol. i. p. 341). He speaks of this proceeding as characteristic of Assyrian metal-work (_Discoveries_, p. 191).

[385] To the evidence of Layard, which we have already had occasion to quote on this point, we may add that of RICH (_Kurdistan_, vol. i. pp. 176 and 222).

[386] LAYARD, _Discoveries_, chapter viii.

[387] See Dr. PERCY’S note, at the end of the _Discoveries_, p. 670.

[388] LAYARD, _Discoveries_, pp. 176–178.

[389] NAHUM, ii. 9.

[390] E. FLANDIN, _Voyage archéologique_.

[391] LAYARD, _Discoveries_, pp. 198, 199.

[392] In 1882 these fragments were in the _Nimroud central saloon_. In the _Assyrian side room_, close to the door, there is another throne whose bronze casing might be restored almost in its entirety. Its decoration is less rich, however, than that of the thrones of which we have been speaking. A poor drawing of it may be found in George SMITH’S _Assyrian Discoveries_, p. 432.

[393] This is not complete; about a third of it seems to be missing.

[394] Reasoning from the analogy of the ivories above mentioned, it might be thought that this fragmentary column belonged to the balustrade of a window. M. Dieulafoy, who first drew our attention to the fragment, provided us with a photograph of it, and is of that opinion.

[395] In BOTTA, _Monument de Ninive_, plate 164, a bronze bull’s head is figured which must have been used as the arm of a chair.

[396] This motive was by no means rare. Some more examples will be found reproduced in LAYARD, _Nineveh_, vol. ii. p. 301. At Malthaï there are human figures between the uprights of the throne on which the second deity is seated. They may be seen more clearly in Place’s large plate (No. 45), than in our necessarily small engraving.

[397] _1 Kings_ x. 18.

[398] LAYARD, _Discoveries_, p. 198; SMITH, _Assyrian Discoveries_, pp. 431, 432.

[399] George SMITH, _Assyrian Discoveries_, p. 432.

[400] As soon as these ivories arrived at the British Museum, the learned keeper of the Oriental Antiquities was struck by their Egyptian character. A paper which he published at the time may be consulted with profit (BIRCH, _Observations on two Egyptian cartouches, and some other ivory ornaments found at Nimroud, in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature_, second series, vol. iii. pp. 151–177.)

[401] LAYARD, _Discoveries_, p. 195.

[402] LAYARD, _Monuments_, first series, plate 24.

[403] _Ibid._ plates 55 and 56. In the second stage of reliefs, counting from the bottom.

[404] Among the ivories in case C of the _Nimroud Gallery_ there is a kind of blackish ivory egg, which may have served as the knob of a sceptre. In an oval crowned by the uræus between two feathers, we find an inscription which appears to be Phœnician. It has been read as the name of a king of Cyprus. LOFTUS, in a letter addressed to the _Athenæum_ (1855, p. 351), speaks of other ivories from the south-western palace at Nimroud. They are the remains of a throne, and were found in a deposit of wood ashes. He says there was a shaft formed by figures placed back to back and surmounted by a capital shaped like a flower. There was also, according to the same authority, a Phœnician inscription.

[405] See Vol. I., pp. 299–302.

[406] My researches were not confined to the ivories in the cases. I also went through the thousands of pieces in the closed drawers which are not shown, in some instances because of their broken condition, in others because they are merely duplicates of better specimens in the selection exhibited.

[407] The feet found by Sir H. LAYARD at Nimroud must, as he conjectured, have belonged to one of these tripods (_Discoveries_, pp. 178–179).

[408] We should also mention another vase, shaped like the muzzle of a lion, which was used to take liquids out of a large crater set upon a stand (BOTTA, _Monument de Ninive_, vol. i. plate 76. See also M. Botta’s plate 162, where the chief examples from the bas-reliefs are figured).

[409] LAYARD, _Discoveries_, p. 197.

[410] In the eighth chapter of the _Discoveries_, LAYARD gives a sort of inventory, rather desultory in form, perhaps, but nevertheless very instructive and valuable, of the principal objects found in the magazines--we have borrowed largely from these pages. The most important of the cups are reproduced, in whole or in part, in the plates numbered from 57 to 68 of the _Monuments_, second series. A complete and accurate study of the cups and other objects of the same kind discovered in Western Asia will be found in M. ALBERT DUMONT’S _Les Céramiques de la Grèce propre_ (pp. 112–129).

[411] LAYARD, _Monuments_, second series, plate 68.

[412] This platter is figured in LAYARD’S _Monuments_, plate 63, but our drawing was made from the original.

[413] _Art in Ancient Egypt_, vol. ii. pp. 87–89.

[414] It is numbered 619 in the museum inventory. It bears an inscription in Aramaic characters.

[415] _Art in Ancient Egypt_, vol. ii. figs. 280, 281.

[416] Inscriptions of this kind have been found on five or six of the bronze platters in the British Museum. They are about to be printed in the _Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum_, part ii., _Inscriptiones Aramæa_, vol. i.

[417] Thus, according to M. de Vogüé, who has examined the inscriptions upon the cups recently cleaned, three of the cups from Nimroud bear respectively the names of _Baalazar_ (Baal protects him), _Elselah_ (El pardons him) and _Beharel_ (El has chosen him). Baalazar was a scribe.

[418] See above, p. 220, note 2.

[419] See PRISSE, _Histoire de l’Art egyptien_, vol. ii. plate entitled _Le Pharaon Khouenaten servi par la reine_. The kind of saucer held by the queen is more like the Assyrian pateræ in shape.

[420] See in PRISSE’S _Histoire_, the plates classed under the head _Arts industriels_, and especially the four entitled _Vases en Or émaillé et cloisonné_. In all these I can only find one patera, in the plate called _Collection de Vases du Règne de Ramesés III._ There is nothing to show that the vases here figured were not earthenware.

[421] _Art in Ancient Egypt_, vol. ii. figs. 287, 288. See also the great vultures on the ceilings (_ibid._ fig. 282), and winged females (_ibid._ fig. 287).

[422] PRISSE, _Histoire de l’Art egyptien_, vol. ii., the plate entitled _Types de Sphinx_.

[423] _Art in Ancient Egypt_, vol. ii. fig. 239, and PRISSE, in the plate above quoted.

[424] A cursory glance through the pages dedicated by Prisse to the industrial arts is conclusive on this point, the heads of snakes and horses, the figures of negroes and prisoners of war are almost invariably placed back to back on the objects they are used to adorn. Examples of this abound, but in order to understand what we may call the principle of this ornamentation it will suffice to refer to figs. 314, 327, and 328 of the second volume of our _History of Art in Ancient Egypt_.

[425] In PRISSE’S plate entitled _Choix de Bijoux de diverses Époques_, there is a bracelet with a central motive recalling that of our cup. It shows us two griffins separated by a palmette from which rises a tall stem of papyrus between several pairs of volutes. This object is, however, almost unique of its kind, and we do not exactly know to what epoch it belongs. May it not belong to a period when Egyptian art began to be affected by that of Mesopotamia, an influence that is betrayed in more than one particular? According to Herr VON SYBEL, who has studied Egyptian ornament with so much care, this motive of two animals facing each other did not appear before the nineteenth dynasty, and he looks upon it as purely Asiatic in its origin (_Kritik des Ægyptischen Ornaments_, pp. 37, 38). We may also quote a small box of Egyptian faïence inscribed with the oval of Ahmes II, the Amasis of Herodotus. It bears two griffins quite similar to those of our group, separated by a cypress. But Dr. Birch, who was the first to publish this monument, recognizes that, in spite of the cartouch, its physiognomy is more Assyrian than Egyptian (_Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature_, Series II. p. 177).

[426] See on this subject an ingenious and learned paper to which we shall more than once have occasion to refer, namely, M. CLERMONT-GANNEAU’S _Étude d’Archéologie orientale, l’Imagerie phénicienne et la Mythologie iconologique chez les Grecs_. First part: _La Coupe phénicienne de Palestina_ (1880, 8vo, 8 plates).

[427] LAYARD, _Monuments_, second series, plate 66.

[428] HOUGHTON, _On the Mammalia of Assyrian Sculptures_, p. 382.

[429] LAYARD, _Monuments_, second series, plate 67.

[430] LAYARD, _Monuments_, second series, plate 62, B.

[431] RAWLINSON, _The Five Great Monarchies_, vol. i. chapter vii.; LAYARD, _Nineveh_, vol. ii. pp. 338–348.

[432] RAWLINSON, _The Five Great Monarchies_, &c., vol. i. pp. 408–410.

[433] BOTTA, _Monument de Ninive_, plate 159. In this plate the chief types of weapons figured in the reliefs at Khorsabad are brought together.

[434] BOSCAWEN, _Notes on an Ancient Assyrian Bronze Sword bearing a Cuneiform Inscription_ (in the _Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archæology_, vol. iv. p. 347. with one plate).

[435] BOTTA, _Monument de Ninive_, plate 160.

[436] SAYCE, _The Cuneiform Inscriptions of Van_, in the _Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society_, vol. xiv. p. 653. Mr. Pinches tells me that there is a similar text on the hollow border of the shield reproduced in our Fig. 225. Nothing is now to be distinguished, however, but characters that may be read, “Great king, king of ----”.

[437] See vol. i. page 394.

[438] We cannot too often thank the keepers of the Oriental antiquities in the British Museum for the trouble they took in enabling us to give a figure of this hitherto unpublished monument. The fragments, which had not yet been pieced together or exhibited in the galleries, were arranged expressly for our draughtsman.

[439] Nos. 385–391 in DE LONGPÉRIER’S catalogue. These objects came from the collection of Clot-Bey, which was formed in Egypt but contained many things of Syrian origin. DE LONGPÉRIER did not hesitate, on the evidence of their style, to class these objects as Assyrian, and any one who examines the motives of their decoration will be of his opinion. See his _Œuvres_, vol. i. p. 166.

[440] _Art in Ancient Egypt_, vol. ii. pp. 394–395, and figs. 257, 329–331.

[441] DE LONGPÉRIER, _Notice des Antiquités assyriennes du Musée du Louvre_, third edition, No. 212.

[442] Many more varieties of the same type will be found in the plate on which BOTTA reproduced the principal jewels figured in the Khorsabad reliefs (_Monument de Ninive_, plate 161). See also LAYARD, _Discoveries_, p. 597.

[443] The Arab jewellers still make use of similar moulds (LAYARD, _Discoveries_, p. 595).

[444] LAYARD, _Discoveries_, pp. 177–178.

[445] LAYARD, _Discoveries_, p. 597. The oldest mention of the pearl fisheries of the Persian Gulf is to be found in those fragments of NEARCHUS that have been preserved in the pages of ARRIAN (_Indica_, xxxviii. 7); but it is probable that the search for pearl oysters began in those waters many centuries before. The Assyrians, as we have seen, made use both of pearl and mother-of-pearl.

[446] J. OPPERT, _L’Ambre jaune chez les Assyriens_ (in the _Recueil des Travaux relatifs à la Philologie et à l’Archéologie egyptiennes et assyriennes_, vol. ii, pp. 34 _et seq._) M. Oppert’s rendering of the paraphrase which he believes to specify amber is not accepted by all Assyriologists.

[447] In the inventory, compiled with so much care by de Longpérier, of all the little objects in the Assyrian collection of the Louvre, and especially of those necklaces found by Botta in the sand under the great threshold at Khorsabad (from No. 295 to No. 380), there is not the slightest mention of amber. MM. Birch and Pinches tell me that the oriental department of their museum contains no trace of amber, with the exception of a few beads brought from Egypt, to which they have no means of assigning a date. They have never heard that any of the Mesopotamian excavations have brought the smallest vestige of this substance to light.

[448] ARRIAN, _Expedition d’Alexandre_, vi. 29.

[449] The reputation enjoyed by Chaldæan textiles all over western Asia is shown by a curious text in the book of JOSHUA (vii. 21). After the taking of Jericho, Achan, one of the Israelites, disobeyed orders and secreted a part of the spoil, consisting of two hundred shekels of silver, a wedge of gold, and “a goodly Babylonish garment.”

[450] “Pictas vestes apud Homerum fuisse (accipio), unde triumphales natæ. Acu acere id Phryges invenerunt, ideoque Phrygioniæ appellatæ sunt. Aurum intexere in eadem Asia invenit Attalus rex: unde nomen Attalicis. Colores diversos picturæ intexere Babylon maxime celebravit et nomen imposuit.” PLINY, _Nat. Hist._ viii. § 74. _Acu pingere_, and for short, _pingere_, here meant _to embroider_. _Picta_ or _picturata vestis_ was a robe covered with embroideries.

[451] See PLINY, l. c. LUCRETIUS, iv. 1026. PLAUTUS, _Stichus_, Act ii, Scene ii, v. 54. SILIUS ITALICUS, xiv. 658. MARTIAL, _Epigr._ xiv. 150. I borrow these citations from the first chapter of M. EUGÈNE MÜNTZ’S _Histoire de la Tapisserie_ in the _Bibliothèque de l’Enseignement des Beaux-Arts_.

[452] See Vol. I. pp. 305–307.

[453] NAHUM iii. 16.

[454] EZEKIEL xvii. 4. ISAIAH also alludes to the commerce of Babylon (xlvii. 15).

[455] See on this subject, François LENORMANT’S _La Monnaie dans l’Antiquité_, vol. i. _Prolégomènes_, cap. iii. and especially pp. 113–122.

[456] RAWLINSON, _The Five Great Monarchies_, vol. i. p. 108. MÉNANT, _Essai sur les Pierres gravées_, p. 128.

[457] “... the Chaldeans whose cry is in the ships,” ISAIAH xliii. 14.

[458] TAYLOR, _Notes on the Ruins of Mugeyer_ (_Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society_, vol. xv. p. 264).

[459] STRABO speaks of a Chaldæan settlement on the Arabian coast of the Persian Gulf; he calls it Gerrha (xvi. iii. 3). All the products of Arabia, he says, were there brought together. Thence they were transported to Chaldæa by sea, and carried up the Euphrates as far as Thapsacus.

[460] The juxtaposition on the black obelisk of Shalmaneser II. of the rhinoceros, the small-eared or Indian elephant, and the Bactrian camel seems to point to this route. The monkeys in the same reliefs appear to belong to an Indian species (HOUGHTON, _Mammalia of the Assyrian Sculptures_, pp. 319, 320).

[461] _Art in Ancient Egypt_, vol. ii. figs. 257, 330 and 331.

[462] _Art in Ancient Egypt_, vol. ii. pp. 176–179.

[463] SOURY, _Théories naturalistes du Monde et de la Vie dans l’Antiquité_, cap. i. and ii.

[464] _Ibid._ cap. iii.

[465] Fr. LENORMANT, _Manuel d’Histoire ancienne_, vol. ii. page 176.

[466] SOURY, _Théories naturalistes_, p. 65.

[467] A. DE CANDOLLE, _Origine des Plantes cultivées_, pp. 285, _et seq._

Transcriber’s Notes:

1. Obvious printers’, punctuation and spelling errors have been corrected silently.

2. Some hyphenated and non-hyphenated versions of the same words have been retained as in the original.

3. Where hyphenation is in doubt, it has been retained as in the original.

4. Superscripts are represented using the caret character, e.g. D^r. or X^{xx}.

5. Italics are shown as _xxx_.

6. Bold print is shown as =xxx=.