- Racial Types (after Champollion)
From Egyptian Tomb paintings - Chaldean lamps of the second period
Chaldean lamps of the second period - Cuneiform Inscription
Among the earliest of the monuments hitherto discovered are a set of bricks bearing the following cuneiform inscription. This inscription is explained to mean:—“Beltis, his lady, has caused Urukh (?), the pious chief, King of Hur, and King of the land (?) of the Akkad, to build a temple to her.” - Chaldean vases, drinking vessels and amphora of the second period
Chaldean vases, drinking vessels and amphora of the second period - Egyptian Corset
Egyptian Corset - Chaldean vases of the first period
Chaldean vases of the first period - Chaldean Reeds (from a slab of Sennacherib)
Among the vegetable products of Chaldaea must be noticed, as almost peculiar to the region, its enormous reeds. These, which are represented with much spirit in the sculptures of Sennacherib, cover the marshes in the summer-time, rising often to the height of fourteen or fifteen feet. The Arabs of the marsh region form their houses of this material, binding the stems of the reeds together, and bending them into arches, to make the skeleton of their buildings; while, to form the walls, they stretch across from arch to arch mats made of the leaves. From the same fragile substance they construct their terradas or light boats, which, when rendered waterproof by means of bitumen, will support the weight of three or four men. - Temple of Êa at Eridhu
- Warriors swimming on inflated skins
- Wild-sow and pigs
The wild animals indigenous in Babylonia appear to be chiefly the following:—the lion, the leopard, the hyeena, the lynx, the wild-cat, the wolf, the jackal, the wild-boar, the buffalo, the stag, the gazelle, the jerboa, the fox, the hare, the badger, and the porcupine. The Mesopotamian lion is a noble animal. The wild-boar frequents the river banks and marshes, as depicted in the Assyrian sculptures. - Winged Bull
- Winged lion with human head
- Dragon from the Ishtar Gate of Babylon
Dragon from the Ishtar Gate of Babylon - Apollo
- Ani, a scribe
Ani, a scribe 1450 B.C. - Ares
- Details of decoration
Details of decoration - A Queen
An Egyptian queen - Arch of Titus
- Venus
- Hairdressing and Head-dresses 600 BC - 146 BC
Hair dressed with a wave on the temples was the most important feature of hairdressing at the beginning of this period, and during the first two centuries the elaborate stiff waving had the effect of a scalloped edge {left picture). On top of these waves, a series of stiff curls, pointing downwards, was often arranged. Another style in vogue at the same time was the dressing of the front hair to form a coronet of circular curls, all round the head from ear to ear {middle picture). The side ringlets, "braided tresses," were still retained, coming from behind the ears, and brought forward on to the shoulders, and the back portion (left picture) was allowed to hang down behind in waves or ringlets. Above this was tied a band, or fillet, of ribbon or metal, also encircling the head behind the row of waves or curls. Late in the sixth century the fillet became a little wider in the band, and was more upstanding on the head, forming a coronet that was often richly ornamented {right picture), and this was the early form of the stephane. - Later State of Alexander’s Empire
Later State of Alexander’s Empire - Amphitheater
- Section of Drain
Besides the coffins themselves, some other curious features are found in the burial-places. The dead are commonly buried, not underneath the natural surface of the ground, but in extensive artificial mounds, each mound containing a vast number of coffins. The coffins are arranged side by side, often in several layers; and occasionally strips of masonry, crossing each other at right angles, separate the sets of coffins from their neighbors. The surface of the mounds is sometimes paved with brick; and a similar pavement often separates the layers of coffins one from another. But the most remarkable feature in the tomb-mounds is their system of drainage. Long shafts of baked clay extend from the surface of the mound to its base, composed of a succession of rings two feet in diameter, and about a foot and a half in breadth, joined together by thin layers of bitumen. To give the rings additional strength, the sides have a slight concave curve and, still further to resist external pressure, the shafts are filled from bottom to top with a loose mass of broken pottery. At the top the shaft contracts rapidly by means of a ring of a peculiar shape, and above this ring are a series of perforated bricks leading up to the top of the mound, the surface of which is so arranged as to conduct the rain-water into these orifices. For the still more effectual drainage of the mound, the top-piece of the shaft immediately below the perforated bricks, and also the first rings, are full of small holes to admit any stray moisture; and besides this, for the space of a foot every way, the shafts are surrounded with broken pottery, so that the real diameter of each drain is as much as four feet. By these arrangements the piles have been kept perfectly dry; and the consequence is the preservation, to the present day, not only of the utensils and ornaments placed in the tombs, but of the very skeletons themselves, which are seen perfect on opening a tomb, though they generally crumble to dust at the first touch. - A Queen
Egyptian queen - Natural amphitheater
- Ariadne from the Vatican
- Zeus
- Chaldean Jar-Coffins
The third kind of tomb, common both at Mugheir and at Telel-Lahm, is almost as eccentric as the preceding. Two large open-mouthed jars (a and b), shaped like the largest of the water-jars at present in use at Baghdad, are taken, and the body is disposed inside them with the usual accompaniments of dishes, vases, and ornaments. The jars average from two and a half feet to three feet in depth, and have a diameter of about two feet; so that they would readily contain a full-sized corpse if it was slightly bent at the knees. Sometimes the two jars are of equal size, and are simply united at their mouths by a layer of bitumen (dd); but more commonly one is slightly larger than the other, and the smaller mouth is inserted into the larger one for a depth of three or four inches, while a coating of bitumen is still applied externally at the juncture. In each coffin there is an air-hole at one extremity (c) to allow the escape of the gases generated during decomposition. - A supposed monumental head of Sesostris
The most renowned monarch that ever reigned over Egypt was Sesostris. The date of his reign is not precisely known; but there is a carving in stone, lately found in Egypt among the ruins of an ancient city. which is more than three thousand years old, and supposed to be a portrait of him. It is doubtless the oldest portrait in existence. This king formed the design of conquering the world, and set out from Egypt with more than a million of foot soldiers, twenty-four thousand horsemen, and twenty-seven thousand armed chariots. His ambitious projects were partially successful. He made great conquests, and wherever he went he caused marble pillars to be erected, and inscriptions to be engraved on them, so that future ages might not forget his renown. The following was the inscription on most of the pillars: - SESOSTRIS, KING OF KINGS, HAS CONQUERED THIS TERRITORY BY HIS ARMS. But the marble pillars have long ago crumbled into dust, or been buried under the earth; and the history of Sesostris is so obscure, that some writers have even doubted whether he made any conquest's at all. - An Egyptian goddess
A goddess, 700 B.C., is an exact copy of an Egyptian drawing. - Serapis
This trinity consisted of the god Serapis (= Osiris + Apis), the goddess Isis (= Hathor, the cow-moon goddess), and the child-god Horus. In one way or another almost every other god was identified with one or other of these three aspects of the one God, even the sun god Mithras of the Persians. - Italy after 275 B.C
Map of Italy after 275 BC - Painting of fish on plates
Sargus vulgaris In Attica, was early developed a characteristic and closely accurate type of representation of marine forms, and this attained a wider vogue in Southern Italy in the fourth century. From the latter period a number of dishes and vases have come down to us bearing a large variety of fish forms, portrayed with an exactness that is interesting in view of the attention to marine creatures in the surviving literature of Aristotelian origin - Paintings of fish on plates
Crenilabrus mediterraneus. Uranoscopus scaber? In Attica, too, was early developed a characteristic and closely accurate type of representation of marine forms, and this attained a wider vogue in Southern Italy in the fourth century. From the latter period a number of dishes and vases have come down to us bearing a large variety of fish forms, portrayed with an exactness that is interesting in view of the attention to marine creatures in the surviving literature of Aristotelian origin - Chaldean Tomb
The clay coffins, shaped like a dish-cover, are among the most curious of the sepulchral remains of antiquity. On a platform of sun-dried brick is laid a mat exactly similar to those in common use among the Arabs of the country at the present day; and hereon lies the skeleton disposed as in the brick vaults, and surrounded by utensils and ornaments. Mat, skeleton, and utensils are then concealed by a huge cover in burnt clay, formed of a single piece, which is commonly seven feet long, two or three feet high, and two feet and a half broad at the bottom. It is rarely that modern potters produce articles of half the size. - Brick Vault at Mugheir
Next to their edifices, the most remarkable of the remains which the Chaldaeans have left to after-ages, are their burial-places. While ancient tombs are of very rare occurrence in Assyria and Upper Babylonia, Chaldaea Proper abounds with them. It has been conjectured, with some show of reason, that the Assyrians, in the time of their power, may have made the sacred land of Chai the general depository of their dead, much in the same way as the Persians even now use Kerbela and Nedjif or Meshed Ali as special cemetery cities, to which thousands of corpses are brought annually. At any rate, the quantity of human relics accumulated upon certain Chaldaean sites is enormous, and seems to be quite beyond what the mere population of the surrounding district could furnish. The brick vaults are found chiefly at Mugheir. They are seven feet long, three feet seven inches broad, and five feet high, composed of sun-dried bricks imbedded in mud, and exhibit a very remarkable form and construction of the arch. The side walls of the vaults slope outwards as they ascend; and the arch is formed, like those in Egyptian buildings and Scythian tombs, by each successive layer of bricks, from the point where the arch begins, a little overlapping the last, till the two sides of the roof are brought so near together that the aperture may be closed by a single brick. The floor of the vaults was paved with brick similar to that used for the roof and sides; on this floor was commonly spread a matting of reeds, and the body was laid upon the matting. It was commonly turned on its left side, the right arm falling towards the left, and the fingers resting on the edge of a copper bowl, usually placed on the palm of the left hand. The head was pillowed on a single sun-dried brick. - Brawl among Egyptian Boatmen (Pyramid Age)
Brawl among boatmen ... (From tomb of Ptah-hetep——Pyramid Age) - Cyprian limestone group of Phoenician dancers
Cyprian limestone group of Phoenician dancers, about 6½ in. high. There is a somewhat similar group, also from Cyprus, in the British Museum. The dress, a hooded cowl, appears to be of great antiquity. - Theatrum at Aspendus
- Thuthu
THuthu, wife of Ani - Floor plan of the theatrum at Herculane
- Groups from Titus' triumphal procession over the Jews (Arch of Titus)
- Assyrian
Assyrian - Chaldean dish-cover tombs
The clay coffins, shaped like a dish-cover, are among the most curious of the sepulchral remains of antiquity. On a platform of sun-dried brick is laid a mat exactly similar to those in common use among the Arabs of the country at the present day; and hereon lies the skeleton disposed as in the brick vaults, and surrounded by utensils and ornaments. Mat, skeleton, and utensils are then concealed by a huge cover in burnt clay, formed of a single piece, which is commonly seven feet long, two or three feet high, and two feet and a half broad at the bottom. It is rarely that modern potters produce articles of half the size. - Raft bouyed by inflated skins (modern)
- The Babylonian Cylinder
The Babylonian Cylinder - An Example of the Friendly Relations between Syria and Egypt
In the twelfth year of his reign, the tribute of the vassal kingdoms reached such a high value that a particular record was made of it, and scenes showing its reception were sculptured in the tombs of Huya and Meryra II. An inscription beside the scene in the tomb of Huya reads thus:— Year twelve, the second month of winter, the eighth day.... The King ... and the Queen ... living for ever and ever, made a public appearance on the great palanquin of gold, to receive the tribute of Syria and Ethiopia, and of the west and the east. All the countries were collected at one time, and also the islands in the midst of the sea; bringing offerings to the King when he was on the great throne of the City of the Horizon of Aton, in order to receive the imposts of every land and granting them [in return] the breath of life. - Seleucus I
Tetradrachm with head of Seleucus I - Median and Second Babylonian Empires (in Nebuchadnezzar’s Reign)
Median and Second Babylonian Empires (in Nebuchadnezzar’s Reign) - Tablet at Sneferu at Wady-Magharah
The first living, breathing, acting, flesh-and-blood personage, whom so-called histories of Egypt present to us, is a certain Sneferu, or Seneferu, whom the Egyptians seem to have regarded as the first monarch of their fourth dynasty. Sneferu—called by Manetho, we know not why, Soris—has left us a representation of himself, and an inscription. On the rocks of Wady Magharah, in the Sinaitic peninsula, may be seen to this day an incised tablet representing the monarch in the act of smiting an enemy, whom he holds by the hair of his head, with a mace. The action is apparently emblematic, for at the side we see the words Ta satu, "Smiter of the nations;" and it is a fair explanation of the tablet, that its intention was to signify that the Pharaoh in question had reduced to subjection the tribes which in his time inhabited the Sinaitic regions. - Egyptian Peasants (Pyramid Age)
Egyptian peasants seized for non-payment of taxes ... (Pyramid Age) - Man Lion
- Lady's Dress in the days of Greece
Lady's Dress in the days of Greece - A Priestess
A Priestess - An Egyptian Stamp for impressing Bricks
In old Egypt, bricks were impressed by the same method of stamping [as the Assyrians], but not to such an extent as they were in old Assyria. . The cuts annexed represent the face and back of an old Egyptian stamp discovered in a tomb of Thebes. The stamp is five inches long, two and one-quarter inches broad, and half an inch thick, and is fitted to an arched handle. The characters are engraved below the surface of the wood, so that an impression taken from the stamp on the clay would show the engraved characters in relief. The inscription on the stamp has been translated, Amenoph, beloved of truth. Amenoph is supposed, by some authorities, to have been the king of Egypt at the period of the exodus of the Israelites. The characters on the Egyptian and Babylonian bricks are much more neatly executed than would seem necessary for inscriptions on so common a material as clay. - Raft bouyed by inflated skins (ancient)
- A hunter
This man, in hunting dress dates from ninth century B.C - Burning of Incense
The conventional Egyptian representation of the burning of incense and the pouring of libations