DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5625#0081
62
Survey of the Ancient World
105. The
Sumerian
house and
town and
the mounds
of to-day
106. Period
of the Sume-
rian city-
kingdoms
(about 3050-
2750 li.C.)
(Fig. 38). The town was at first only, a few hundred feet
across. It slowly spread out, although it still remained very
limited in extent. Such a town is to-day a mound of earth and
crumbled sun-dried brick, in which lie buried the clay-tablet
records of the ancient community which once lived there.
When we dig out such a mound, we therefore find it a rich
storehouse of things
which tell us much
about ancient Baby
Ionian civilization,
the story of which
we are now to fol-
low (see Ancient
Times, §§158-1651
and Figs. 83, 84).
In the clay tab-
lets found in these
mounds we read of
a class of free, land-
holding citizens,
working their lands
with slaves, and
trading with cara-
vans and small
boats up and down
the river. Over
both these classes,
free and slave( there was a numerous body of officials and
priests — the aristocrats of the town. They were ruled, along
with all the rest, by a priest-king. Such a community owned
the fields for a few miles round about the town. The whole,
that is, the town and its fields, formed the political unit, or
state, which we call a city-kingdom. Sumer as a whole con-
sisted of a number of such small city-kingdoms, and this earliest
Sumerian period may be called the Age of the City-Kingdom?,
Fig. 38. Restoration of an Early
Babylonian House. (After Koldewey)
The towns of the early Babylonians were small
and were chiefly made of such sun-baked-brick
houses as these. Their simple adornment con-
sisted only of vertical panels and a stepped
("crenelated") edge at the top of the wall.
In course of time the rains washed down
the unbaked-brick walls, and as such houses
fell the whole town formed an ancient city
mound. Few such mounds of ancient Sumer
have been excavated (see Ancient Times,
Figs. 83, 84)
Survey of the Ancient World
105. The
Sumerian
house and
town and
the mounds
of to-day
106. Period
of the Sume-
rian city-
kingdoms
(about 3050-
2750 li.C.)
(Fig. 38). The town was at first only, a few hundred feet
across. It slowly spread out, although it still remained very
limited in extent. Such a town is to-day a mound of earth and
crumbled sun-dried brick, in which lie buried the clay-tablet
records of the ancient community which once lived there.
When we dig out such a mound, we therefore find it a rich
storehouse of things
which tell us much
about ancient Baby
Ionian civilization,
the story of which
we are now to fol-
low (see Ancient
Times, §§158-1651
and Figs. 83, 84).
In the clay tab-
lets found in these
mounds we read of
a class of free, land-
holding citizens,
working their lands
with slaves, and
trading with cara-
vans and small
boats up and down
the river. Over
both these classes,
free and slave( there was a numerous body of officials and
priests — the aristocrats of the town. They were ruled, along
with all the rest, by a priest-king. Such a community owned
the fields for a few miles round about the town. The whole,
that is, the town and its fields, formed the political unit, or
state, which we call a city-kingdom. Sumer as a whole con-
sisted of a number of such small city-kingdoms, and this earliest
Sumerian period may be called the Age of the City-Kingdom?,
Fig. 38. Restoration of an Early
Babylonian House. (After Koldewey)
The towns of the early Babylonians were small
and were chiefly made of such sun-baked-brick
houses as these. Their simple adornment con-
sisted only of vertical panels and a stepped
("crenelated") edge at the top of the wall.
In course of time the rains washed down
the unbaked-brick walls, and as such houses
fell the whole town formed an ancient city
mound. Few such mounds of ancient Sumer
have been excavated (see Ancient Times,
Figs. 83, 84)