History Of Egypt, Chaldea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Vol. 3 — 37 - Ch. 3: Chaldaean Civilization, pt. 10

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Rawlinson’s _Five Great Monarchies_.

On the right two axes, in the middle a hammer, on the left a knife, and below the head of a lance.

Some of the metal objects manufactured by the Chaldaeans attained large dimensions; for instance, the “brazen seas” which were set up before each sanctuary, either for the purpose of receiving the libations, or for the prescribed rites of purification.

As is often the case among half-civilized peoples, the goldsmiths worked in the precious metals with much facility and skill.

We have not, succeeded up to the present in finding any of those golden images which the kings were accustomed to dedicate in the temples out of their own possessions, or the spoil obtained from the enemy; but a silver vase dedicated to Ningirsu by Entena, vicegerent of Lagash, gives us some idea of this department of the temple furniture.

It stands upright on a small square bronze pedestal with four feet.

A piously expressed inscription runs round the neck, and the bowl of the vase is divided horizontally into two divisions, framed above and below by twisted cord-work.

Four two-headed eagles, with outspread wings and tail, occupy the lower division; they are in the act of seizing with their claws two animals, placed back to back, represented in the act of walking: the intervals between the eagles are filled up alternatively by two lions, two wild goats, and two stags.

Above, and close to the rise of the neck, are disposed seven heifers lying down and all looking in the same direction: they are all engraved upon the flat metal, and are without relief or incrustation.

The whole composition is harmoniously put together, the posture of the animals and their general form are well conceived and boldly rendered, but the details of the mane of the lions and the feathers of the eagles are reproduced with a realism and attention to minutio which belong to the infancy of art.

This single example of ancient goldsmiths’work would be sufficient to prove that the early Chaldaens were not a whit behind the Egyptians in this handicraft, even if we had not the golden ornaments, the bracelets, ear and finger rings to judge from, with which the tombs have furnished us in considerable numbers.

[Illustration: VASE OF SILVER.

AND BULL OF COPPER.

] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Heuzey-Sarzec Alongside the goldsmiths there must have been a whole army of lapidaries and gem-cutters occupied in the engraving of cylinders.

Numerous and delicate operations were required to metamorphose a scrap of crude rock, marble, granite, agate, onyx, green and red jasper, crystal or lapis-lazuli, into one of those marvellous seals which are now found by the hundred scattered throughout the museums of Europe.

They had to be rounded, reduced to the proper proportions, and polished, before the subject or legend could be engraved upon them with the burin.

To drill a hole through them required great dexterity, and some of the lapidaries, from a dread of breaking the cylinder, either did not pierce it at all, or merely bored a shallow hole into each extremity to allow it to roll freely in its metallic mounting.

The tools used in engraving were similar to those employed at the present day, but of a rougher kind.

The burin, which was often nothing more than a flint point, marked out the area of the design, and sketched out the figures; the saw was largely employed to cut away the depressions when these required no detailed handling; and lastly, the drill, either worked with the hand or in a kind of lathe, was made to indicate the joints and muscles of the individual by a series of round holes.

The object thus summarily dealt with might be regarded as sufficiently worked for ordinary clients; but those who were willing to pay for them could obtain cylinders from which every mark of the tool had been adroitly removed, and where the beauty of the workmanship vied with the costliness of the material.

[Illustration: 315. jpg CHALDAEAN CYLINDER EXHIBITING TRACES OF THE DIFFERENT TOOLS USED BY THE ENGRAVER]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a heliogravure in Menant’s _Catalogue de la collection de M. de Clercq_ The seal of Shargani, King of Agade, that of Bingani-shar-ali, and many others which have been picked up by chance in the excavations, are true bas-reliefs, reduced and condensed, so to speak, to the space of something like a square inch of surface, but conceived with an artistic ingenuity and executed with a boldness which modern engravers have rarely equalled and never surpassed.

There are traces on them, it is true, of some of the defects which disfigured the latter work of the Assyrians--heaviness of form, exaggerated prominence of muscles and hardness of outline--but there are also all the qualities which distinguish an original and forcible art.

The countries of the Euphrates were renowned in classic times for the beauty of the embroidered and painted stuffs which they manufactured.

* Nothing has come down to us of these Babylonian tissues of which the Greek and Latin writers extolled the magnificence, but we may form some idea, from the statues and the figures engraved on cylinders, of what the weavers and embroiderers of this ancient time were capable.

The loom which they made use of differed but slightly from the horizontal loom commonly employed in the Nile Valley, and everything tends to show that their plain linen cloths were of the kind represented in the swathings and fragments of clothing still to be found in the sepulchral chambers of Memphis and Thebes.

The manufacture of fleecy woollen garments so much affected by men and women alike indicates a great dexterity.

When once the threads of the woof had been stretched, those of the warp were attached to them by knots in as many parallel lines--at regular intervals--as there were rows of fringe to be displayed on the surface of the cloth, the loops thus formed being allowed to hang down in their respective places: sometimes these loops were retained just as they stood, sometimes they were cut and the ends frayed out so as to give the appearance of a shaggy texture.

* Most modern writers understand by tapestry what the ancients were accustomed to call needle embroidery or painting on stuffs: I can find no indication on the most ancient monuments of Chaldaean or Egypt of the manufacturing of real tapestry.

[Illustration: 316. jpg Egyptian Manuscript] Part of an Egyptian Manuscript found in the Swathing of a Mummy [Illustration: 316-text.

jpg Egyptian Manuscript] Most of these stuffs preserved their original white or creamy colour--especially those woven at home by the women for the requirements of their own toilet, and for the ordinary uses of the household.

The Chaldaeans, however, like many other Asiatic peoples, had a strong preference for lively colours, and the outdoor garments and gala attire of the rich were distinguished by a profusion of blue patterns on a red ground, or red upon blue, arranged in stripes, zigzags, checks, and dots or circles.

There must, therefore, have been as much occupation for dyers as there was for weavers; and it is possible that the two operations were carried out by the same hands.

We know nothing of the bakers, butchers, carriers, masons, and other artisans who supplied the necessities of the cities: they were doubtless able to make two ends meet and nothing more, and if we should succeed some day in obtaining information about them, we shall probably find that their condition was as miserable as that of their Egyptian contemporaries.

The course of their lives was monotonous enough, except when it was broken at prescribed intervals by the ordinary festivals in honour of the gods of the city, or by the casual suspensions of work occasioned by the triumphant return of the king from some warlike expedition, or by his inauguration of a new temple.

The gaiety of the people on such occasions was the more exuberant in proportion to the undisturbed monotony or misery of the days which preceded them.

As soon, for instance, as Gudea had brought to completion Ininnu, the house of his patron Ningirsu, “he felt relieved from the strain and washed his hands.

For seven days, no grain was bruised in the quern, the maid was the equal of her mistress, the servant walked in the same rank as his master, the strong and the weak rested side by side in the city.

” The world seemed topsy-turvy as during the Roman Saturnalia;

the classes mingled together, and the inferiors were probably accustomed to abuse the unusual licence which they momentarily enjoyed: when the festival was over, social distinctions reasserted themselves, and each one fell back into his accustomed position.

Life was not so pleasant in Chaldaea as in Egypt.

The innumerable promissory notes, the receipted accounts, the contracts of sale and purchase--these cunningly drawn up deeds which have been deciphered by the hundred--reveal to us a people greedy of gain, exacting, litigious, of artisans in Egypt.

This is taken from a source belonging to the XIIth or possibly the XIIIth dynasty.

We may assume, from the fact that the two civilizations were about on the same level, that the information supplied in this respect by the Egyptian monuments is generally applicable to the condition of Chaldaean workmen of the same period.

(Unreadable) and almost exclusively absorbed by material concerns.

The climate, too, variable and oppressive in summer and winter alike, imposed upon the Chaldaean painful exactions, and obliged him to work with an energy of which the majority of Egyptians would not have felt themselves capable.

The Chaldaean, suffering greater and more prolonged hardships, earned more doubtless, but was not on this account the happier.

However lucrative his calling might be, it was not sufficiently so to supply him always with domestic necessities, and both tradespeople and operatives were obliged to run into debt to supplement their straitened means.

When they had once fallen into the hands of the usurer, the exorbitant interest which they had to pay kept them a long time in his power.

If when the bill fell due there was nothing to meet it, it had to be renewed under still more disastrous conditions; as the pledge given was usually the homestead, or the slave who assisted in the trade, or the garden which supplied food for the family, the mortgagor was reduced to the extreme of misery if he could not satisfy his creditors, This plague of usury was not, moreover, confined to the towns; it raged with equal violence in the country, and the farmers also became its victims.

If, theoretically, the earth belonged to the gods, and under them to the kings, the latter had made, and continued daily to make, such large concessions of it to their vassals, that the greater part of their domains were always in the hands of the nobles or private individuals.

These could dispose of their landed property at pleasure, farm it out, sell it or distribute it among their heirs and friends.