DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5253#0104
72 SCULPTURE IN WESTERN ASIA.
beginnings of Chaldcean history. Enough, however, has been deciphered from
the monuments to lead with certainty to the conclusion, that the races then
occupying Babylonia were non-Semitic.102 To them has been given the name
Accadian and Summerian ; but their origin is hypothetical in the extreme, the
term Turanian being often a convenient cloak for vague conjecture. Long
before 1700 B.C., Semitic tribes obtained possession of the land; and this Ac-
cadian tongue became extinct. The civilization which then arose sank before
the Assyrians in 1700 B.C., and is scarcely heard of until 625 B.C., when
Nabopolassar revived its glory. The conquering Persians, however, soon ab-
sorbed this later Babylonian empire into their own realm, which, in turn, fell
before the world-conquering Alexander, to become the kingdom of the Seleu-
kidae, and, later, a part of Roman rule.
Before considering the monuments of ancient Babylonia, this battle-ground
of empires, let us turn back to the gray dawn of antiquity, long before Assur
had gone forth to establish the new empire of Assyria, and before Abraham had
left his home in Ur of the Chaldees. In that earliest time, we find that the
Accadians had written scientific and poetical works, woven a web of fantastic
myth, and fashioned forms of gods and men which should serve as models to
some of the later people of Western Asia. From clay tablets, preserved in the
British Museum, these myths are being read, supplementing the meagre words
of Berossos. Their artistic expression has at last been traced in rare cylinders,
as well as statues and reliefs, recently discovered in Southern Chaldsea, covered
with inscriptions in the same tongue, and now in part in the Louvre. A hasty
preliminary glance at a few of these myths will throw light on many of the
forms of art met with in the existing monuments of Chaldaea and its Assyrian
heir, revealing, as well, the fountain-head from which Phoenicia, and, in a few
cases, even Greece, indirectly drew.
One story is, that, during the remote ages before the Flood, a semi-human,
semi-fish being, but full of wisdom, called Oannes, came up out of the neigh-
boring sea, the modern Persian Gulf, and taught primitive man the arts of civili-
zation. According to Berossos, he appeared wearing over his head a fish ; and
such a being appears on Assyrian monuments. Closely akin to this god seems
that fish-tailed creature seen on very ancient Babylonian cylinders, evidently
the prototype of the Philistines' Dagon of Bible history, of the god Ophion of
the Phoenicians, as well as of the Geron, or Triton, of much later Greek myth
and art.103
The exploits of heroes who peopled the land after the Flood formed a whole
cycle of romance, which likewise throws light on many creations of later days.
The hero of the national epic, Izdhubar, doubtless Nimrod, the "mighty
hunter" of Bible story, whose narrow escapes and marvellous achievements
in subduing terrible monsters are recorded in the Deluge tablets of the British
Museum, unquestionably furnished the gem-engraver in ancient Babylonia, and
beginnings of Chaldcean history. Enough, however, has been deciphered from
the monuments to lead with certainty to the conclusion, that the races then
occupying Babylonia were non-Semitic.102 To them has been given the name
Accadian and Summerian ; but their origin is hypothetical in the extreme, the
term Turanian being often a convenient cloak for vague conjecture. Long
before 1700 B.C., Semitic tribes obtained possession of the land; and this Ac-
cadian tongue became extinct. The civilization which then arose sank before
the Assyrians in 1700 B.C., and is scarcely heard of until 625 B.C., when
Nabopolassar revived its glory. The conquering Persians, however, soon ab-
sorbed this later Babylonian empire into their own realm, which, in turn, fell
before the world-conquering Alexander, to become the kingdom of the Seleu-
kidae, and, later, a part of Roman rule.
Before considering the monuments of ancient Babylonia, this battle-ground
of empires, let us turn back to the gray dawn of antiquity, long before Assur
had gone forth to establish the new empire of Assyria, and before Abraham had
left his home in Ur of the Chaldees. In that earliest time, we find that the
Accadians had written scientific and poetical works, woven a web of fantastic
myth, and fashioned forms of gods and men which should serve as models to
some of the later people of Western Asia. From clay tablets, preserved in the
British Museum, these myths are being read, supplementing the meagre words
of Berossos. Their artistic expression has at last been traced in rare cylinders,
as well as statues and reliefs, recently discovered in Southern Chaldsea, covered
with inscriptions in the same tongue, and now in part in the Louvre. A hasty
preliminary glance at a few of these myths will throw light on many of the
forms of art met with in the existing monuments of Chaldaea and its Assyrian
heir, revealing, as well, the fountain-head from which Phoenicia, and, in a few
cases, even Greece, indirectly drew.
One story is, that, during the remote ages before the Flood, a semi-human,
semi-fish being, but full of wisdom, called Oannes, came up out of the neigh-
boring sea, the modern Persian Gulf, and taught primitive man the arts of civili-
zation. According to Berossos, he appeared wearing over his head a fish ; and
such a being appears on Assyrian monuments. Closely akin to this god seems
that fish-tailed creature seen on very ancient Babylonian cylinders, evidently
the prototype of the Philistines' Dagon of Bible history, of the god Ophion of
the Phoenicians, as well as of the Geron, or Triton, of much later Greek myth
and art.103
The exploits of heroes who peopled the land after the Flood formed a whole
cycle of romance, which likewise throws light on many creations of later days.
The hero of the national epic, Izdhubar, doubtless Nimrod, the "mighty
hunter" of Bible story, whose narrow escapes and marvellous achievements
in subduing terrible monsters are recorded in the Deluge tablets of the British
Museum, unquestionably furnished the gem-engraver in ancient Babylonia, and