History Of Egypt, Chaldea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Vol. 3 — 12 - Ch. 1: Ancient Chaldaea, pt. 12

Other kings and vicegerents of doubtful sequence were followed lastly by Urbau and his son Gudea.

These were all piously devoted to Ningirsu in general, and in particular to the patron of their choice from among the divinities of the country--Papsukal, Dunziranna, and Ninagal.

They restored and enriched the temples of these gods: they dedicated to them statues or oblation vases for the welfare of themselves and their families.

It would seem, if we are to trust the accounts which they give of themselves, that their lives were passed in profound peace, without other care than that of fulfilling their duties to heaven and its ministers.

Their actual condition, if we could examine it, would doubtless appear less agreeable and especially less equable; revolutions in the palace would not be wanting, nor struggles with the other peoples of Chaldaea, with Susiana and even more distant nations.

When Agade rose into power in Northern Babylonia, they fell under its rule, and one of them, Lugal-ushum-gal, acknowledged himself a dependant of Sargon.

On the decline of Agade, and when that city was superseded by Uru in the hegemony of Babylonia proper, the vicegerents of Lagash were transferred with the other great towns to the jurisdiction of Uru, and flourished under the supremacy of the new dynasty.

Grudea, son of Urbau, who, if not the most powerful of its princes, is at least the sovereign of whom we possess the greatest number of monuments, captured the town of Anshan in Elam, and this is probably not the only campaign in which he took part, for he speaks of his success in an incidental manner, and as if he were in a hurry to pass to more interesting subjects.

[Illustration: 108. jpg THE SACRIFICE] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a stone in the Louvre.

That which seemed to him important in his reign, and which especially called forth the recognition of posterity, was the number of his pious foundations, distinguished as they were by beauty and magnificence.

The gods themselves had inspired him in his devout undertakings, and had even revealed to him the plans which he was to carry out.

An old man of venerable aspect appeared to him in a vision, and commanded him to build a temple: as he did not know with whom he had to do, Nina his mother informed him that it was his brother, the god Ningirsu.

This having been made clear, a young woman furnished with style and writing tablet was presented to him--Nisaba, the sister of Nina; she made a drawing in his presence, and put before him the complete model of a building.

He set to work on it _con amore_, and sent for materials to the most distant countries--to Magan, Amanus, the Lebanon, and into the mountains which separate the valley of the Upper Tigris from that of the Euphrates.

[Illustration: 109. jpg SITTING STATUE OF GUDEA] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin The sanctuaries which he decorated, and of which he felt so proud, are to-day mere heaps of bricks, now returned to their original clay; but many of the objects which he placed in them, and especially the statues, have traversed the centuries without serious damage before finding a resting-place in the Louvre.

The sculptors of Lagash, after the time of Idingi-ranagin, had been instructed in a good school, and had learned their business.

Their bas-reliefs are not so good as those of Naramsin;

the execution of them is not so refined, the drawing less delicate, and the modelling of the parts not so well thought out.

A good illustration of their work is the fragment of a square stele which represents a scene of offering or sacrifice.

We see in the lower part of the picture a female singer, who is accompanied by a musician, playing on a lyre ornamented with the head of an ox, and a bull in the act of walking.

In the upper part an individual advances, clad in a fringed mantle, and bearing in his right hand a kind of round paten, and in his left a short staff.

An acolyte follows him, his arms brought up to his breast, while another individual marks, by clapping his hands, the rhythm of the ode which a singer like the one below is reciting.

The fragment is much abraded, and its details, not being clearly exhibited, have rather to be guessed at; but the defaced aspect which time has produced is of some service to it, since it conceals in some respect the rudeness of its workmanship.

The statues, on the other hand, bear evidence of a precision of chiselling and a skill beyond question.

Not that there are no faults to be found in the work.

They are squat, thick, and heavy in form, and seem oppressed by the weight of the woollen covering with which the Chaldeans enveloped themselves; when viewed closely, they excite at once the wonder and repulsion of an eye accustomed to the delicate grace, and at times somewhat slender form, which usually characterized the good statues of the ancient and middle empire of Egypt.

But when we have got over the effect of first impressions, we can but admire the audacity with which the artists attacked their material.

This is of hard dolerite, offering great resistance to the tool--harder, perhaps, than the diorite out of which the Memphite sculptor had to cut his Khephren: they succeeded in mastering it, and in handling it as freely as if it were a block of limestone or marble.

[Illustration: 111. jpg Plan of the Ruins of Mughier] The surface of the breast and back, the muscular development of the shoulders and arms, the details of the hands and feet, all the nude portions, are treated at once with a boldness and attention to minutiae rarely met with in similar works.

The pose is lacking in variety; the individual, whether male or female, is sometimes represented standing and sometimes sitting on a low seat, the legs brought together, the bust rising squarely from the hips, the hands crossed upon the breast, in a posture of submission or respectful adoration.

The mantle passes over the left shoulder, leaving the right free, and is fastened on the right breast, the drapery displaying awkward and inartistic folds: the latter widens in the form of a funnel from top to bottom, being bell-shaped around the lower part of the body, and barely leaves the ankles exposed.

[Illustration: 112. jpg STATUES FROM TELLOH.

and HEAD OF ONE OF THE STATUE OF GUDEA.

] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Heuzey-Sarzec.

All the large statues to be seen at the Louvre have lost their heads;

fortunately we possess a few separate heads.

Some are completely shaven, others wear a kind of turban affording shade to the forehead and eyes;

among them all we see the same qualities and defects which we find in the bodies: a hardness of expression, heaviness, absence of vivacity, and yet withal a vigour of reproduction and an accurate knowledge of human anatomy.

These are instances of what could be accomplished in a city of secondary rank; better things were doubtless produced in the great cities, such as Uru and Babylon.

Chaldaean art, as we are able to catch a glimpse of it in the monuments of Lagash, had neither the litheness, nor animation, nor elegance of the Egyptian, but it was nevertheless not lacking in force, breadth, and originality.

Urningirsu succeeded his father Gudea, to be followed rapidly by several successive vicegerents, ending, it would appear, in Gala-lama.

Their inscriptions are short and insignificant, and show that they did not enjoy the same resources or the same favour which enabled Gudea to reign gloriously.

The prosperity of Lagash decreased steadily under their administration, and they were all the humble vassals of the King of Uru, Dungi, son of Urbau; a fact which tends to make us regard Urbau as having been the suzerain upon whom Gudea himself was dependent.

Uru, the only city among those of Lower Chaldaea which stands on the right bank of the Euphrates, was a small but strong place, and favourably situated for becoming one of the commercial and industrial centres in these distant ages.

The Wady Eummein, not far distant, brought to it the riches of Central and Southern Arabia, gold, precious stones, gums, and odoriferous resins for the exigencies of worship.

Another route, marked out by wells, traversed the desert to the land of the semi-fabulous Mashu, and from thence perhaps penetrated as far as Southern Syria and the Sinaitic Peninsula--Magan and Milukhkha on the shores of the Red Sea: this was not the easiest but it was the most direct route for those bound for Africa, and products of Egypt were no doubt carried along it in order to reach in the shortest time the markets of Uru.

The Euphrates now runs nearly five miles to the north of the town, but from the regions bordering the Black Sea.

[Illustration: 114. jpg Plan of the Ruins of Abu-Shahreyn] In ancient times it was not so distant, but passed almost by its gates.

The cedars, cypresses, and pines of Amamis and the Lebanon,the limestones, marbles, and hard stones of Upper Syria, were brought down to it by boat; and probably also metals--iron, copper and lead.

The Shatt-el-Hai, moreover, poured its waters into the Euphrates almost opposite the city, and opened up to it commercial relations with the Upper and Middle Tigris.

And this was not all; whilst some of its boatmen used its canals and rivers as highways, another section made their way to the waters of the Persian Gulf and traded with the ports on its coast.

Eridu, the only city which could have barred their access to the sea, was a town given up to religion, and existed only for its temples and its gods.

It was not long before it fell under the influence of its powerful neighbour, becoming the first port of call for vessels proceeding up the Euphrates.

[Illustration: 115. jpg AN ARAB CROSSING THE TIGRIS IN A “KUFA.

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