E. A. Wallis Budge, Babylonian Life and History, The Barnes & Noble Library of Essential Reading, New York, 2005

 

The vast plain between the Tigris and Euphrates runs roughly in a south-eastern direction, and classical writers called its northern part Mesopotamia, and its lower part Babylonia. (2)

 

The earliest dwellers in Babylonia known to us, the Sumerians (2)

 

The question of the race to which the Sumerians belongs has been the subject of many discussions… One thing, however, about them is certain; they were not Semites. … suggest that they were an offshoot of a people who may have lived in some part of Northern India (8-9)

 

The monuments found in the ruins of the early Sumerian cities, and among the remains of the cities built upon them by later kings, supply the names of a large number of Patesis, or kings, but it is extremely difficult to arrange these names in chronological order. … The length of the reigns of the kings who followed immediately after the Flood are equally incredible, and though it is very probable that many of them lived in the fourth, or even the fifth, millennium, BC, it is impossible to assign dates to them. (11)

 

The greatest of the Patesis who ruled over it was the mighty warrior Sharru-kin (Saragon), who reigned for fifty-five years; there is now reason to think that he reigned from 2637-2582 BC. (17)

 

About 2057 BC the First Semitic Dynasty of Babylon began to rule in the city of Babylon under its founder, Sumuabum, who reigned for about thirteen years. The Dynasty consisted of eleven kings, and they reigned for three hundred years. … but it was under the rule of Khammurabi, who was the sixth king of the Dynasty, and reigned for about forty-two years, that Babylon attained its greatest influence and splendour, and became the first city in Babylonia. … He was not only a great warrior, but a great organizing ruler, who thought that nothing concerning the welfare of his kingdom or people was too small or unimportant to deserve his personal supervision. His desire to make his subjects a law-abiding people is shown by the Code of Laws that he compiled, and it is clear from it that he realized no kingdom could stand that was not ruled by justice coupled with wisdom and humanity. He was undoubtedly the greatest king of Babylonia and perhaps the greatest man the country ever produced. (27)

 

Khammurabi enumerated the cities of Nineveh and Ashur among his possessions, and included Assyria in his kingdom. But Assyria asserted her independence soon after the death of Khammurabi, and about 1525 BC the Kassites found it advantageous to make treaties with the kings of Assyria. (32)

 

About 1250 BC, Tukulti-Enurta, King of Assyria, defeated the army of Kashtiliash II, King of Babylonia, captured the city of Babylon, and Babylonia became a province of Assyria. (33)

 

The Assyrian method of quelling rebellion was short and effective; the towns and villages of the rebels were burnt, their fields were laid waste, the rebels themselves were slain, or burnt alive or impaled, and their women and cattle and sheep were carried off into captivity. The Assyrians were a brutally cruel people, and when the Babylonians saw their acts on the battlefields, they could do nothing except make themselves tributaries of Assyria. (36)

 

…Nebuchadnezzar II came to Jerusalem, which he captured and plundered, and he carried off to Babylon, the king and his mother and family and all the craftsmen in the city, 596 BC (2 Kings xxiv. 1-17). About ten years later the people of Jerusalem again rebelled, and Nebuchadnezzar marched against Jerusalem once more, threw down the walls, burnt the Temple and houses, and carried off Zedekiah and the remainder of the people to Babylon, 587 BC (see 2 Kings xxv.). Apries, Necho’s successor, attempted to relieve Jerusalem, but failed. Nebuchadnezzar took all Palestine and Syria and the cities on the seacoast, including Tyre, which fell after a siege of thirteen years (573BC) … Nebuchadnezzar seems to have thought as lightly of his great conquests as Khammurabi, his great predecessor on the throne of Babylon, thought of his. The principal object of these kings was to record their devotion to Bel-Marduk and the other gods, and their restorations of the temples throughout the lands. (40-42)

 

…Nabonius (555-538BC), who was a great builder and repairer of temples. But he was neither a soldier nor a practical man of affairs, and he studied the past history of the religious institutions of his country more than the means by which the power of Babylon was to be maintained or the right government of his subjects. … According to the text, the rule of Nabonidus was unjust and the people became discontented; devils took possession of him, and he built a sanctuary which the Babylonians refused to recognize as such. … temple… to the Moon-god of Harran, and forbade the celebration of the New Year Festival until the period of mourning which he had proclaimed and the work of building were ended. … During the celebration of the New Year Festival, 538BC, he committed several impious acts that showed his utter contempt for the sacred symbols of the Babylonian god Sin and the god Bel. In the last column of the tablet we read of the restoration of the old rites in Babylon, the completion of the great wall Imgur-Enlil, and the return of the gods to their cities. The work of Nabonidus was destroyed everywhere, and all records of him that could be found were broken, the text ends with a curse on Nabonidus, who is consigned to the prison in the Underworld, and with a prayer for Cyrus. (42-3) On the whole, it seems that Nabonidus was somewhat of a religious fanatic, and that he would have fulfilled his purpose in life better as a priest than as a king. It is possible that the king of Babylon who is said to have gone mad in the Book of Daniel was not Nebuchadnezzar II but Nabonidus. (44)

 

Classical writers (Diodorus and Strabo) would have us believe that the Hanging Garden ascended in terraces 6 feet high, 32 feet wide, and 400 feet long, looking like a great flight of stairs, or the tiers of seats in a theatre. It was planted with trees and flowers, and was watered by a hydraulic screw, which went down from the highest terrace to the level of the Euphrates. Every one who has seen the ruins (i.e., of the Vaulted Building) will admit that a garden of this size and kind never existed at Babylon. There may have been there a terrace, with trees and plants, (53)

 

Heroditus says that “in the middle of the precinct there was a tower of solid masonry…upon which was raised a second tower, and on that a third, and so on up to eight.” A tablet translated by George Smith, formerly in the possession of Madame Fennerly, supplies the dimensions… [300 x 300 base, 300 feet high, split into 8 levels.] … This “stepped tower” was undoubtedly the Tower of Babel. (53-54)

 

Babylon must have been in existence in the fifth or fourth millennium before Christ… (56)

 

The final decay of Babylon seems to have been due to the Euphrates in the time of the Persian kings (538-331 BC). … Probably it was the alterations made in the city by this change of bed by the river that induced Seleucus I to found Seleucia near the Tigris; at all events, as the new city grew, Babylon declined. … The town of Hillah, on the west bank of the Euphrates, was founded AD 1101-2, and in a few years Babylon was left without an inhabitant. The natives did not even spare her ruins, for they began to tear down the walls of her temples and palaces and fortification, and carry away the bricks to build the towns and mosques of Kifl, Kufah and Karbala. (56-7)

 

…sanctuary of great importance… The ruin is now called Birs-i-Nimrud. It stood on the west bank of the Euphrates a few miles from Babylon. … Close to the temple was the great zikkurat, or “stepped tower,” called E-ur-imin-an-ki. This building was in seven stages, liked the Tower of Babel, and Rawlinson stated that each stage was dedicated to a planet, and had a different colour, (57) … A greatly exaggerated importance has been given to this ruin through the mistake made by Benjamin of Tudela who thought it was the Tower of Babel, which was destroyed when the speech of mankind was confounded. … Muslim tradition states that the Birs-i-Nimrud is the remains of the tower that was built by Nimrod, a contemporary of Abraham, so that he might ascend to Heaven to see God. Nimrod persecuted Abraham, but God  protected the patriarch, and destroyed Nimrod’s tower by fire. Nimrod died miserably, for a gnat entered his head through his ear or nose, and caused him agony which lasted for four hundred years. (58-9)

 

The world was created by Marduk, who formed it by kneading earth and spreading it over a mat made of rushes, which he laid on the face of the waters. This formed an abiding place for the gods of which they approved. Marduk then fashioned man, and the goddess Aruru with him created the seed of mankind. He created the beasts of the field. … He made the city of Nippur and built her temple E-Kur, he made Erech and built her temple E-Anna. (64)

 

The other version of the Story of Creation is found in the Seven Tables of Creation, large portions of which are preserved in the British Museum. According to this, in the beginning nothing existed, except an inert mass of watery matter, of boundless extent, called Aspu. … Out of Aspu came hideous devils of composite forms, and gods in the forms of men; the former lived in Aspu and the latter above it. The place where the gods lived we may call haven, and the space immediately below it, together with Aspu, we may call earth. The two oldest gods to spring from Aspu were Lakhmu and Lakhamu, but about them we know nothing. After a long and indefinite period the gods Anshar and Kishar appeared, and heaven and earth were established as separate entities. Next there came into being Anu, the god of heaven and the sky, and the god Ea, god of the “House of Water,” and several other gods. The disposition of things, which the text calls the “Way of the gods,” was displeasing to Apsu, who is here made to be the predominant being in Apsu, [!] and he took counsel with the monster she-devil, Tiamat, with the view of finding a way of overthrowing the order which had take the place of chaos. Tiamat was imagined to be a composite creature, part animal, part serpent, part bird, revolting in appearance, and evil in every way. But at the same time she was the Universe-Mother, and she had in her possession the Tablet of Fate. Nowhere in the texts is any description of this Tablet given, … (65)

 

Tiamat was the personification of chaos, night, darkness and inertness, and of every kind of evil. Apsu and Tiamat having taken counsel together determined that, with the help of Mummu, they would fight the gods and abolish their arrangement of heaven and earth. When Ea knew of their decision he went forth to do battle with the powers of darkness and chaos, and gained a victory over them … But Ea’s spell … produced a permanent effect on Apsu and Mummu, and seems actually to have killed Apsu. (65) For a time Tiamat was dismayed at the death of Apsu, but she recovered, and her anger against the gods increased. She called to her help the female devil Ummu-Khubur, who at once spawned a brood of monster devils and put them at her disposal. Tiamat next summoned her male counterpart Kingu, and place under his command the evil powers of the air, to which the texts give the names of the Viper, the Snake, Lakhamu, the Whirlwind, the Ravening Dog, the Scorpion-man, the Storm Wind, the Fishman, the Horned Beast, and all these were armed with an invincible weapon. These, together with Kingu and Tiamat, probably represent the primitive Twelve Signs of the Zodiac, which were powers of evil… (66)

 

When Ea heard what Tiamat had done, … he felt that he was not strong enough to do battle with them, and he went to Anshar… a council of the gods was called by Ea, and his son Marduk came with the rest, and offered to go as the champion of the gods to fight Tiamat. (66) … Marduk threw his net over her, and when a gale of wind entering through her mouth distended her body, he drove his spear into her hide, which as once burst asunder. Her fiends and devils tried to escape, but were prevented by the four winds; and having caught them all in his net Marduk trampled upon them. … He then crushed the skull of Tiamat with his club, and scattered her blood to the north wind. He split her body into two parts; of the hide of the one he made the vault of heaven and the hid of the other he made the abode of Ea. The plenishing of heaven and earth next occupied his attention, and he began by establishing abodes for Anu, god of the heavens, Bel, god of the earth, and Ea, god of the deep and the underworld. (67)

 

The gods, however, appear not to have been wholly satisfied with what Marduk had done for them, chiefly because there was no one to present offerings to them and to worship at their shrines. When Marduk heard their complaint he decided to create man out of “blood and bone,” and announced his decision to Ea, who suggested that one of the gods should be sacrificed to provide “blood and bone” for the man who was to be made. Thereupon Marduk asked the gods in council who was the cause of the rebellion of Tiamat and had made war, and they named Kingu, the husband of Tiamat. And they bound Kingu with fetters, … let out his blood, from which mankind was made. (68-9)

 

The account of the flood given in the Book of Genesis is not borrowed from the Babylonian Version, as has so often been stated. It is quite true that the Accounts in cuneiform and Hebrew agree in many places very closely, but the variations in them show that their writers, or editors, were dealing with a very ancient legend which had found its way among all Sumerians, Semites, and other peoples in Western Asia. … it is pretty clear that variant versions of it existed among the Sumerians and Babylonians in the third millennium BC. (70)

 

The Legend of the Flood has nothing to do with the exploits of the mythical hero Gilgamesh, and it is difficult to see why it is included in the history of them. … The great moral lesson of the Epic of Gilgamesh is that the greatest and mightiest king must die, for all men are born to die; no man can enjoy immortality on earth. But this lesson is not what the Legend of the Flood as told by Berossos teaches [not in Gilgamesh. Xisusthros is alternate of Uta-Napistim] For according to him, when Xisuthros found that the ark had come to a standstill he looked out and saw that it was resting on a mountainside. Therefore he and his wife and daughter and the pilot left the ark, made adoration to the earth, and built an altar and offered up sacrifices to the gods and then disappeared. When those who remained in the ark found that he and his wife and daughter and the pilot did not return to them they left the ark with many lamentations, calling continually on the name of Xisuthros. They saw him no more, but they could hear his voice in the air and his admonitions to be religious. The voice told them that it was on account of his piety that he had been translated to live with the gods, and that his wife and daughter and the pilot had received the same honour. The voice also told them to return to Babylonia, to search the writings at Sippara, which they were to make know to mankind. (71-2)

 

Heaven was usually divided into three parts, viz., the heaven of Anu, the heaven of Bel, and the heaven of Ea, though some theologians held the view that there were seven heavens. … Below heaven was the earth, also divided into three parts (or seven parts), which were inhabited by Ea, men, and the gods of the Underworld. … Below the earth was the subterranean sea called “Apsu,” which could be reached by an opening made in the ground; it was surrounded by a sea that enclosed all earth and heaven. In the latter sea were eight islands. Near the Mountain of the Sunset was the entrance to the Underworld, which was called Kurnugia, or Arali, and occupied the uttermost depths of the earth. This region was divided into seven parts by seven girdle-walls, each of which was provided with two doors. It was ruled over by a goddess called Allatu, or Ereshkigal, who, with the help of the Six Hundred Anunnaki, took charge of the spirits of the dead. Another view is that as there were Seven Heavens there were also Seven Hells, and that the lowermost Hell was reserved for the spirits of those who had been the greatest sinners on earth. / The gods and goddesses of the Babylonians were many, and their names fill one of the largest tablets of the Kuyunjik Collection in the British Museum. The earliest people in Babylonia believed that everything possessed a spirit, and such religion as they had can perhaps be best described by the word Animism. Some spirits were benevolent and some malevolent, and the latter must be propitiated by gifts or supplications, or by both. (80-81)

 

The length of the animistic period in Babylonia is knot known, but there is abundant evidence that, in the fourth millennium before Christ, the Sumerians had formulated a system of gods in which each held a well-defined place. The gods were usually represented in human forms, but some had the forms of animals, birds, etc.; each had his own attributes, and each performed certain duties and work. At a comparatively late period the powers and attributes of all the gods were assigned to Marduk, the son of Ea, and some have thought in consequence that the Babylonians were Monotheists, but such was not the case. The monotheism of the Babylonians and Assyrians (for the national god Ashur was in Assyria what Marduk was in Babylonia) entirely lacked the sublime, spiritual conception of God that the Israelites possessed, and was wholly different from the monotheism of Christian nations. Among the Sumerian and Babylonia gods may be mentioned the following:

Anu, the Father and King of the Gods, the God par excellence in fact. He was not a popular god in Babylonia, for he was too great and too remote to be called upon by worshippers to help them in the affairs of daily life. [Babylonians didn’t prefer the king of the gods]. (82-3)

 

Ea, also called Nudimmud, was the son of Anu by Nammu of E-Kur. As the lord of water in all forms, rivers, lakes, seas, the water in the earth and the celestial ocean, he was called Enki. … He was the god of wisdom and knowledge, and instructed men in handicrafts, and invented the characters used in writing. He also taught man to overcome their enemies by the use of spells and incantations, and was the arch-magician and master of the art of divination. (84)

 

Marduk was also a son of Ea. … he represented… the early morning sun. At an early period he was choses as the chief god of Babylon, and after Khammurabi enlarged that city, the renown of the god increased, until at length he became the lord of the all the land. Like his father, he engaged in battle against the powers of evil… The animal sacred to him was the serpent-gryphon, and his sacred number was Ten; his star was Jupiter. (84-5)

 

The gods of the passage to the Underworld, or the “Land of no return,” were Birtu and Manungal. To reach the Underworld the spirits bound thither had to cross the river Khubur and pass through the Seven Gates, which divided it into seven parts. (87)

 

The gods were divided into two main groups; the hone group had dominion in heaven, and the other on earth and in the Underworld. The gods of heaven were called the Igigi, and those of earth the Anunnaki; the former were in number three hundred, and the latter six hundred. A text published by Ebeling makes the number of the gods to be 3,600. From first to last the attributes and characters of the gods remained practically unchanged for at least three thousand years. Besides these there were many spirits of various kinds, some good-natured and some ill-natured, … The Babylonians ascribed to their gods human attributes as well as human forms, and as they conceived of a time when the gods came into being or were born, like men and women, so they also thought it possible that a time would come when they would cease to be, or die, like men and animals. The Creation Legend described in a preceding chapter shows that the gods of evil could be killed and cease to exist. … The priests also held the view that Marduk had to cross the riven in the Underworld, and to go to the kingdom of the dead therein, where he remained for some time in close captivity. He was delivered by the gods, and then became the King of the gods and Lord of heaven. (89)

 

The gods considered man to be, in some respects, akin to themselves, for though man’s body was made of clay it was animated by a divine soul, and was made in their likeness and image. The gods were man’s overlords, and men were their vassals; but the gods were also men’s fathers, and men were their sons, and it was believed possible for a god to dwell in his son. But the gods who were thus closely related to men were gods of the lower orders of the celestial hierarchy, and there is no text which suggests that Anu, or Enlil, or Ea, ever became incarnate in man. (89-90)

 

The Moral Law… A man should avoid his neighbour’s house and the polluting of the water supply.  … The Civic Law forbade the use of false weights and measure and the use of metals with alloy in them as currency, trespass on the property of the god or the neighbours, the removal of landmarks and boundary stones, the stealing of a neighbour’s plough, the destruction of growing crops, the cutting down of reeds and thickets, the stopping of a watercourse, and, in short, any act or deed that would tend to disgrace the Local-god or cause unhappiness, injury, misery or loss in any shape or form to a neighbor. (90)

 

…there is no text containing any suggestion that the Babylonian prayed for the change of mind that would prevent him from repeating his sin. He prayed that his god would change his wrath to compassion and mercy, but he never asked him to create in him a “clean heart” and a “steadfast spirit’ (Psalm li. 10). The Babylonians in general, like the Egyptians, did not understand the importance of repentance in our sense of the word. (91)

 

And the doctrines of the priests encouraged men to enjoy life to the full, for their descriptions of the Underworld were terrifying indeed. Once arrived there man’s body turned into mud, and his spirit took the form of a bird and flitted about in darkness. … Underworld… the spirits of the dead entered it through an opening in the earth in the West. The first obstacle was the river Khybur, which was crossed in a ferry worked by the ferry man Khumuttabal, who had a bird’s head and four hands and feet. … Then it had to pass through Seven, or Fourteen, Doors, … each of which was guarded. … The spirit was … stripped of all clothing and it entered into the presence of the goddess naked. The doors passed, the spirit entered the dark house of Irkalla. … without light, they feed upon the dust and they eat mud; they never see the light, but sit in darkness; they wear feathers like the birds and the dust lies thick on the door and its bolts. (91-2)

 

One section of the Underworld must have been set apart for the spirits who were not condemned by the Anunnaki, for we read of some who reclined on couches and drank water, and of others who had their fathers and mothers to support their heads, and their wives to sit by their sides. Presumably such spirits lived upon the spirits of the offerings made to the dead by the living, and the libations poured out in this world found their way to those in the Underworld. (93)

 

Among the Babylonians the belief in the immortality of the soul (or spirit) was fundamental, and the doctrine of annihilation appears to have been wholly unknown to them. (93)

 

The Sumerians had a Code of family laws, some of which are preserved on a tablet in the British Museum; of these the following are examples; “If a son saith unto his father, ‘Thou art not my father,’ they shall brand him, bind him in fetters, and sell him for money as a slave.” “If a man saith unto his mother, ‘Thou art not my mother’, they shall brand him on the face, and forbid him in the city, and drive him out of the house.” “If a wife hateth her husband and saith unto him, ‘Thou art not my husband,’ they shall throw her into a river.” “If a husband saith unto his wife, ‘Thou art not my wife,’ he shall pay [to her] half a maneh of silver.” (96-7)

 

When Khammurabi had conquered the whole of Babylonia and reduced the countries to the east of the Tigris to subjection, he formulated a Code of Laws, by which he intended all his subjects to regulate their lives and affairs. The Laws were not invented by him, but were drawn up from earlier codes which had been in existence for many centuries, and had been observed in all well-governed City-States. (97) …

If a man casts a spell on a man and does not justify his action, the man who is under the spell shall go to the sacred river and cast himself in, and if the river drowns him the caster of the spell shall take his house as his property. If the river does not drown him the caster of the spell shall be put to death, and the innocent man shall take his house. (100)

 

If a man steals an ox, or a sheep, or an ass, or a pig, or a boat from the temple or palace, he shall pay thirty-fold. The poor man shall pay ten-fold. If the thief has no money, he shall be killed. (101)

 

If a man has enticed a maid of the temple or palace, or the slave or maid of a poor man outside the gate, he shall be killed. (101)

 

The man who is caught stealing during a fire shall be thrown into the fire. (101)

 

If a wine-merchant allows riotous men to assemble in his house and does not expel them, he shall be killed. (101)

 

A man and a woman caught in adultery shall be cast into the water, but the husband of the woman may save her, and the king may save the man. (101)

 

If a man forced a betrothed maiden living in her father’s house, the man shall be killed and the woman shall go free. (102)

 

If there be provisions in the house of a man who is taken captive, and his wife goes to another man, she shall be cast into the waters. / If there be no provisions in the house and she goes to another man and bears him children, if the husband returns she shall go back to him, and the father of the children shall keep them. (102)

 

If a man forsakes his city and his wife, and then returns, his wife shall not return to him. (102)

 

If a wife spends her time out of the house, behaves foolishly, wastes her husband’s goods, and holds him in contempt, he can say “I divorce her,” and send her away without paying back to her her dowry; if he does not say “I divorce her,” he shall marry another woman, and the wasteful wife shall live in his house as a servant. / If a blameless wife has been reviled by her husband, she shall take her dowry and return to her father’s house. / If a wife is not blameless, and had wasted her husband’s goods and reviled him, she shall be thrown into the waters. (102)

 

If a man strikes a gentlewoman and she miscarries, he shall pay ten shekels of silver for her loss of offspring. / If the gentlewoman dies, the striker’s daughter shall be killed. If the woman be the daughter of a poor man, the striker shall pay five shekels for her miscarriage. If the poor man’s daughter dies, the striker shall pay half a maneh of silver. (103)

 

The earliest and most persistent form of Sumerian and Babylonia literature is a rhythmic prose. Rhyming was unknown. The earliest song consisted of what we may call verses, each of which contained two halves with the same form and expressing the same sense; two such verses formed a distich. Nearly all poetic compositions were written in this form, which was also used in exorcisms, incantations, and even in historical inscriptions. The greater part of Babylonian poetical literature consists of Hymns and Prayers in which the gods are praised extravagantly, and their help demanded by the suppliant. (105-6)

 

We know that they had gods, great gods whom they worshipped at festivals and on state occasions, but they thought that they were too great, too far removed from them, to trouble about the daily wants and affairs of men. (115)

 

The Babylonian … most of all he feared the Seven Evil Spirits, who were the creators of all evil. The first was the South Wind, the second a dragon, the third a leopard, the fourth a viper, the fifth a raging beast, the sixth a whirlwind, and the seventh a storm (hurricane). These evil spirits were created by Anu, … (117)

 

The Babylonians did not usually resort to prayer to the gods or appeal to the good spirits when afflicted by evil spirits, but went to the priest, who often assumed the character of a god, and who exorcised the devils by reciting incantations. (118)

 

Another class of beings was greatly feared by the Babylonians, viz. warlocks and witches. These were usually men and women who were deformed, or who possessed some physical peculiarity which led their neighbours to believe that they were closely associated with devils, and that they sometimes served as dwelling-places for the powers of evil. As possessors of human intelligence, they were often considered to be more baneful than the devils themselves. They were specially masters of the Evil Eye and the Evil Spell… (119)

 

Besides the priests who used the cedar-wood staff and the bowl, there were many “prophets” in Babylonia who professed to be able to tell the future without reading the omens on the bodies of the birds or animals that were sacrificed. The use of the liver of an animal in divination dates from the earliest time, and it was believed that the science of reading the signs on it was the invention of Shamash. A fine example of an inscribed model, in clay, of a sheep’s liver is preserved in the British Museum. (121)

 

Babylonian Book of Wisdom: … Harm not in any way thine adversary. / Recompense the man who doeth evil to thee with good. / Oppose thine enemy with righteous dealing. (122)

 

The Kassite Boundary Stones usually record grants of land to favoured or deserving subjects by kings, and the earliest mention of them dates from about 1400 BC. The inscriptions mention the names of the kings, describe the boundaries of the lands granted, and sometimes tell us why they were granted. They usually end with a series of curses on the man who shall destroy or remove the landmark, and with figures and symbols of the gods whoa are invoked to make the curses effective. …

 

The first paragraph gives the name and title of Nebuchadnezzar I (1146-1123) … / “or shall cut out the name of a god or of the king which is written down herein, and shall substitute another; or shall incite a simple man, or a deaf man, or a blind man, or an evilly-disposed man, to break in pieces this memorial with a stone, or shall destroy it by fire, or cast it into the river, or bury it in a field where it cannot be seen; may all the great gods whose names are invoked in heaven and upon earth curse that man with a curse of wrath; and may both king and god frown upon him in anger. May ENURTA, the king of heaven and earth, and Gula, the bride of E-sharra, destroy his landmark and blot out his seed. May ADAD, the ruler of heaven and earth, the giver of springs and rain, block up his canals with mud. May he make him to be hungry and in want, may disaster, misfortune and calamity cling to his side by night and by day, and may ruin seize the inhabitants of his city. May the great gods SHUMALIA, the Lady of the shining mountain, who dwelleth in the heights and goeth by the water-springs, and ADAD, NEGRAL, and NANA, the gods of Namar, and SIRU, the shining god, the son of the temple of Der, and SIN, the Lady of Akkad, the gods of Bit-Khabban, in the wrath of their hearts bring calamity upon him. Let another possess the house which he hath built. With a dagger in his neck and a knife in his eye, let him cast himself upon his face before his conqueror, and let his adversary reject his supplication and cut off his life. Through the downfall of his house may his hands claw the mud. May he be bound to sorrow so long as his life lasteth, and as long as heaven and earth endure may his posterity be blotted out.” Sometimes the utterer of the curse prays that the destroyer of his landmark may be smitten with leprosy, or dropsy, or wasting of the bowels, and that he may wander like a starving dog through his city all night long, and lie down with the wild ass outside the city wall. (126)

 

There seems to be little doubt that in Sumerian times the population was divided into two (or three) classes, but it was not until the reign of Khammurabi that these classes were sharply defined. His Code recognizes three classes, viz., the Amelum (or Awelum), the Mushkinu, and the Wardum. The Amelum included the king, his governors and nobles, the landed proprietors, the priests and the educated class, the higher officers of the Government, and the highly skilled handicraftsmen. … The Amelium enjoyed many privileges, but on the other hand, if they were fined because of an accident which caused loss of life or limb to any man, their fine was heavier than that imposed on the ordinary folk. (128)

 

The Mushkinu, or “serf”, lived in a special quarter of the city, and we know from the Code that he contributed less than the Amelum to the temples, and that all his fines and fees were on a lower scale than theirs. He was a free man, or partly so, and was, like the Amaleum, compensated for property destroyed or for loss of limb. He was never put in the fighting line in war time, but served in the camps. Nothing is known as to his origin or mode of life in general, and it is difficult to find a word that will translate exactly the title mushkinu. In later times it lost its original significance, and its equivalent in Arabic, maskin, whence it has passed into European languages, means “destitute”. (129)

 

The Wardum, or slave, was the absolute property of his master, whether acquired by purchase or born on his land; his head was generally shaved in a peculiar way, and he was branded. He was fed and housed by his master, who provided him with a wife, whose offspring was the master’s property. He could own property, and many slaves lived as tenants on their lords’ estates. A slave might buy his freedom, or be freed by his master, to serve in the temple, or he might receive freedom by marrying a free woman, or on adoption by his own or another master. (129)

 

A man was master of his house and family, and the full responsibility for the upkeep of the house and fields, and the maintenance of his wife and children and cattle and salves was his. But the wife of a free man, or of any man, had considerable power, and enjoyed many rights and privileges. A wife was always mistress of the dowry that she had brought, and if she were so disposed could, in the event of her dying childless, arrange for that and her personal property to go back to her father’s family. And she could spend her money in any way she pleased. The contract tablets and other documents prove that women invested their money in commercial undertakings, and bought and sold estates and slaves and lent money on interest… (130)

 

From one of the laws in the Code of Khammurabi it seems certain that there was great infant mortality in Babylonia. In that country, as elsewhere in the East, girls and children who were not wanted, or who, for some reason, could not be reared by their parents, were cast into pits, or thrown out into the desert to be devoured by jackals and wild beasts… it is clear from the law in the Code of Khammurabi that children were sometimes allowed to die… (131)

 

When the bridegroom had finished speaking, he took his wife’s hand and embraced her, and the two then passed into the bridal chamber, where they remained for the greater part of a week. At the end of that time the bridegroom rejoined his friends and amused himself with them, and the young wife took up her duties as mistress of the house. (133)

 

Polygamy was recognized and was common, but to all intents and purposes the Babylonian was a monogamist, and only took a concubine to give him children when his wife was unable to fulfil her duties. (133)

 

[Working men] wore nothing at all, except a string tied round the loins. Men of the upper classes wore a sort of fringed tunic. Working women wore a narrow band round the loins; those of the upper classes wrapped themselves in a kind of shawl, but always left the right breast uncovered. (134)

 

The well-to-do Babylonian, like all Orientals, loved a change of apparel, and enjoyed sitting in a clean place. His religion demanded cleanliness of person, and no man would dare to make supplication to his god in a dirty state or wearing dirty garments. The climate necessitated frequent ablutions, and when a man went dirty or wore filthy garments by choice his neighbors knew that he was in trouble or suffering mentally and physically. The custom of appearing before the god naked shows how difficult it was for a man to keep himself ceremonially clean. (135)

 

Next to ablutions and clean apparel for personal comfort and a feeling of well-being, the Babylonian required anointing with perfumed oils and unguents. The perfume of flowers or the odor of sweet incense was absolutely necessary for him. (135)

 

A cleansing preparation made of oil and potash was used as soap, and its seems that in some parts of Mesopotamia the use of depilatories was not unknown. (136)

 

The fertility of the soil enabled the Babylonian generally to eat his fill, but he lived for the most part on a vegetable diet. His usual drink was water from one of the rivers or large canals, and on special occasions or days of festival he drank palm wine. In humble houses the family sat round the bowl or tray that held the food, and each person helped himself with his fingers, which were usually washed before the meal began. By way of grace the master or mistress mentioned the name of Ishtar or Shamash. … In rich men’s houses the guests sat after the meal and drank deeply of wine, probably fermented, oftentimes until they were drunk. (136)

 

From our point of view we must consider the Babylonians a very religious people, for there is no doubt that they frequented the temples and made their prayers and presented their offerings. … but there is no evidence that any system of public worship, in our sense of the word, existed. (136)

 

The most important and most significant offering the suppliant gave was the animal, usually a sheep, which was killed before the god, and was intended to be a substitute for the suppliant himself, or for one or all his family. By the sacrifice of the animal he intended to show the god that he recognized his divinity, and acknowledges his own wickedness, which merited death. (137)

 

The most important object in early temples was the low, rectangular mass of brickwork on which the offerings were laid, and which served as an altar. This was originally quite flat, but when the animals brought as sacrifices were to be slaughtered upon it, it had slightly raised edges and a kind of spout through which the blood flowed out. Sometimes, especially during the late period, a square pillar stood in the middle of it, and on this the animal was lifted up and slain. … on the altar itself, ie. the higher part, fruits, flowers, vegetables, joints of meat, etc. were laid. (138)

 

As there was no stone in Babylonia and very little wood, both had to be imported. (141)

 

But the Babylonian was, on the whole, a humane man, and there is every reason to believe that the lot of his slave was better than is ordinarily supposed. (142)

 

He loved life, and hated death because he believed that the life he would live after death would be sad and dreary, and perhaps painful. In the next world he believed he would sit in darkness with the shades of other departed beings about him, and be clothed in feathers like a bird, and eat dust and feed upon clay. There is no definite statement on the subject in the texts, but it seems that Babylonians and Akkadians thought that any good or virtuous actions performed in this world were rewarded by long life and prosperity in this world, and not by a life of bliss in the next. (142)