DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5253#0103
CHAPTER V.
CHALD/EA.
Mesopotamia in General. — Chalda;a.— Historical Sketch. — Clay Tablets. — Ancient Myths. — Oan-
nes. — I/.tlhubar. — Titanic Races. — Cylinders illustrating Myths. — Babylonian Religion. — Goddess
Istar. — Her Statues and Statuettes. — Diminutive Remains.— Discoveries at Tello. — Mounds.—
Gudea. — Head found at Tello.— Hardness of Material of Remains. — Traces of Egyptian Influ-
ence.— Independent Traits of Sculptures.— Subjects of Primitive Reliefs. — Character of Works.
— More Vigorous Works. — Statue of an Architect. — Excellences of these Sculptures. — Later
More Elaborate Works. — Resemblance to Greek Archaic Sculptures. — Cubes of Masonry and
Contents. — Bronzes. — Influence of Chaldasan Art.
As the Nile is the bearer of blessings to Egypt, so through the heart of
Mesopotamia flow two rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, watering plains
which were the seats of some of the hoariest civilizations of antiquity.
Of these our knowledge was long confined to the reports of a few Greek
travellers, and to fragments from a history written in Greek by Berossos, a
Chaldaean priest. But the past forty years have opened up undreamed-of
monuments, over which even Xenophon's Ten Thousand seem to have passed,
unconscious of the treasures buried in the soil, and of which Herodotos' de-
scriptions give no notice. The explorations of Botta, Layard, Rawlinson,
Place, Rassam, Loftus, and last, but not least, of de Sarzec, have opened to our
astonished view ruined cities, palaces, and temples, witnesses to a powerful and
long-lived civilization ; while countless mounds, still unexplored, await patient
labor with the pick and spade, that we may fill out our picture of buried
empires.'00
Northern and Southern Mesopotamia are strikingly different in geological
conformation. To the south, in ancient Chaklasa, or Babylonia, the surface
is flat and uninteresting; but to the north of Hit on the Euphrates, and of
Sumarah on the Tigris, the plain is rolling, and slightly elevated in rocky
ridges.101 It is to the vast alluvial plain of Chaldasa in the south, that we must
look for the oldest monuments. On all sides the level expanse is broken by
solitary mounds, the remains of ancient cities or temples : elsewhere we see
elevated embankments, marking the course of ancient or recent canals ; and,
towards the south, a few sand-hills. These forsaken plains now support a
scanty population of wandering Bedouins, but once were proverbial for their
fruitfulness, and teemed with inhabitants. Deep mystery shrouds the remote
71
CHALD/EA.
Mesopotamia in General. — Chalda;a.— Historical Sketch. — Clay Tablets. — Ancient Myths. — Oan-
nes. — I/.tlhubar. — Titanic Races. — Cylinders illustrating Myths. — Babylonian Religion. — Goddess
Istar. — Her Statues and Statuettes. — Diminutive Remains.— Discoveries at Tello. — Mounds.—
Gudea. — Head found at Tello.— Hardness of Material of Remains. — Traces of Egyptian Influ-
ence.— Independent Traits of Sculptures.— Subjects of Primitive Reliefs. — Character of Works.
— More Vigorous Works. — Statue of an Architect. — Excellences of these Sculptures. — Later
More Elaborate Works. — Resemblance to Greek Archaic Sculptures. — Cubes of Masonry and
Contents. — Bronzes. — Influence of Chaldasan Art.
As the Nile is the bearer of blessings to Egypt, so through the heart of
Mesopotamia flow two rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, watering plains
which were the seats of some of the hoariest civilizations of antiquity.
Of these our knowledge was long confined to the reports of a few Greek
travellers, and to fragments from a history written in Greek by Berossos, a
Chaldaean priest. But the past forty years have opened up undreamed-of
monuments, over which even Xenophon's Ten Thousand seem to have passed,
unconscious of the treasures buried in the soil, and of which Herodotos' de-
scriptions give no notice. The explorations of Botta, Layard, Rawlinson,
Place, Rassam, Loftus, and last, but not least, of de Sarzec, have opened to our
astonished view ruined cities, palaces, and temples, witnesses to a powerful and
long-lived civilization ; while countless mounds, still unexplored, await patient
labor with the pick and spade, that we may fill out our picture of buried
empires.'00
Northern and Southern Mesopotamia are strikingly different in geological
conformation. To the south, in ancient Chaklasa, or Babylonia, the surface
is flat and uninteresting; but to the north of Hit on the Euphrates, and of
Sumarah on the Tigris, the plain is rolling, and slightly elevated in rocky
ridges.101 It is to the vast alluvial plain of Chaldasa in the south, that we must
look for the oldest monuments. On all sides the level expanse is broken by
solitary mounds, the remains of ancient cities or temples : elsewhere we see
elevated embankments, marking the course of ancient or recent canals ; and,
towards the south, a few sand-hills. These forsaken plains now support a
scanty population of wandering Bedouins, but once were proverbial for their
fruitfulness, and teemed with inhabitants. Deep mystery shrouds the remote
71