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If
we knew more of the internal history of the great Chaldæan cities,
we
should
no doubt come to see what an important part the servile element
played
in them; and could we trace it back for a few generations, we
should
probably discover that there were few great families who did
not
reckon a slave or a freedman among their ancestors. It would be
interesting
to follow this people, made up of such complex elements, in
all
their daily work and recreation, as we are able to do in the case
of
contemporary Egyptians; but the monuments which might furnish us
with
the
necessary materials are scarce, and the positive information to
be
gleaned
from them amounts to but little. We are tolerably safe, however,
in
supposing the more wealthy cities to have been, as a whole, very
similar
in appearance to those existing at the present day in the
regions
which as yet have been scarcely touched by the advent of
European
civilization. Sinuous, narrow, muddy streets, littered with
domestic
refuse and organic detritus, in which flocks of ravens and
wandering
packs of dogs perform with more or less efficiency the duties
of
sanitary officers; whole quarters of the town composed of huts
made
of
reeds and puddled clay, low houses of crude brick, surmounted
perhaps
even
in those times with the conical domes we find later on the
Assyrian
bas-reliefs;
crowded and noisy bazaars, where each trade is located in
its
special lanes and blind alleys; silent and desolate spaces
occupied
by
palaces and gardens, in which the private life of the wealthy
was
concealed from public gaze; and looking down upon this medley of
individual
dwellings, the palaces and temples with their ziggurats
crowned
with gilded and painted sanctuaries. In the ruins of Uru,
Eridu,
and Uruk, the remains of houses belonging doubtless to well-to-do
families
have been brought to light. They are built of fine bricks,
whose
courses are cemented together with a thin layer of bitumen, but
they
they are only lighted internally by small appertures pierced at
irregular
distances in the upper part of the walls: the low arched
doorway,
closed by a heavy two-leaved door, leads into a blind passage,
which
opens as a rule on the courtyard in the centre of the building.
[Illustration:
208a.jpg Chaldean houses at Uru.]
Drawn
by Faucher-Gudin, from the sketch by Taylor.
[Illustration:
208b plans of houses excavated at Eridu and Ubu.]
These
plans were drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from sketches by
Taylor.
The houses reproduced to the left of the plan were
those
uncovered in the ruins of Uru; those on the right
belong
to the ruins of Eridu. On the latter, the niches
mentioned
in the text will be found indicated.
In
the interior may still be distinguished the small oblong rooms,
sometimes
vaulted, sometimes roofed with a flat, ceiling supported by
trunks
of palm trees;* the walls are often of a considerable thickness,
in
which are found narrow niches here and there. The majority of the
rooms
were merely store-chambers, and contained the family provisions
and
treasures; others served as living-rooms, and were provided with
furniture.
The latter, in the houses of the richer citizens no less
than
in those of the people, was of a very simple kind, and was mostly
composed
of chairs and stools, similar to those in the royal palaces;
the
bedrooms contained the linen chests and the beds with their thin
mattresses,
coverings, and cushions, and perhaps wooden head-rests,
resembling
those found in Africa,** but the Chaldæans slept mostly on
mats
spread on the ground.
*
Taylor, _Notes on the Ruins of Mugeyer_, in the _Journ. of
the
Royal As. Soc_, vol. xv. p. 266, found the remains of
the
palm-tree beams which formed the terrace still existing.
He
thinks (_Notes on Tel-el-Lahm_, etc., in the _Journ, of
the
Royal As. Soc._, vol. xv. p. 411) with Loftus that some
of
the chambers were vaulted. Cf. upon the custom of
vaulting
in Chaldæan houses, Piereot-Cupiez, _Histoire de
l'Art_,
vol. ii. p. 163, et seq.
**
The dressing of the hair in coils and elaborate
erections,
as seen in the various figures engraved upon
Chaldæan
intaglios (cf. what is said of the different ways
of
arranging the hair on p. 262 of this volume), appears to
have
necessitated the use of these articles of furniture;
such
complicated erections of hair must have lasted several
days
at least, and would not have kept in condition so long
except
for the use of the head-rest.
An
oven for baking occupied a corner of the courtyard, side by side
with
the
stones for grinding the corn; the ashes on the hearth were always
aglow,
and if by chance the fire went out, the fire-stick was always
at
hand to relight it, as in Egypt. The kitchen utensils and
household
pottery
comprised a few large copper pans and earthenware pots rounded
at
the base, dishes, water and wine jars, and heavy plates of coarse
ware;
metal had not as yet superseded stone, and in the same house we
meet
with bronze axes and hammers side by side with the same
implements
in
cut flint, besides knives, scrapers, and mace-heads.*
*
Implements in flint and other kinds of stone have been
discovered
by Taylor, and are now in the British Museum. The
bronze
implements come partly from the tombs of Mugheîr, and
partly
from the ruins explored by Loftus at Tell-Sifr--that
is
to say, the ancient cities of Uru and Larsam: the name of
Tell-Sifr,
the "mound of copper," comes from the quantity of
objects
in copper which have been discovered there.
[Illustration:
300.jpg CHALDÆAN HOUSEHOLD UTENSILS IN TERRA-COTTA]
Drawn
by Faucher-Gudin, from the sketch by G. Rawlinson, and
the
heliogravure in Heuzey-Sarzec.
At
the present day the women of the country of the Euphrates spend a
great
part of their time on the roofs of their dwellings.* They install
themselves
there in the morning, till they are driven away by the heat;
as
soon as the sun gets low in the heavens, they return to their
post,
and
either pass the day on neighbouring roofs whilst they bake, cook,
wash
and dry the linen; or, if they have slaves to attend to such
menial
occupations,
they sew and embroider in the open air.
*
Olivier, _Voyage dans l'Empire Othoman,_ vol. ii. pp. 356,
357,
381, 382, 392, 393.
They
come down into the interior of the house during the hottest hours
of
the day. In most of the wealthy houses, the coolest room is one
below
the
level of the courtyard, into which but little light can
penetrate.
It
is paved with plaques of polished gypsum, which resembles our
finest
grey-and-white
marble, and the walls are covered with a coat of delicate
plastering,
smooth to the touch and agreeable to the eye. This is
watered
several times during the day in hot weather, and the evaporation
from
it cools the air. The few ruined habitations which have as yet
been
explored
seem to bear witness to a considerable similarity between the
requirements
and customs of ancient times and those of to-day. Like the
modern
women of Bagdad and Mosul, the Chaldæan women of old preferred
an
existence in the open air, in spite of its publicity, to a
seclusion
within
stuffy rooms or narrow courts. The heat of the sun, cold, rain,
and
illness obliged them at times to seek a refuge within four walls,
but
as soon as they could conveniently escape from them, they climbed
up
on
to their roof to pass the greater part of their time there.
Many
families of the lower and middle classes owned the houses which
they
occupied. They constituted a patrimony which the owners made
every
effort
to preserve intact through all reverses of fortune.* The head
of
the family bequeathed it to his widow or his eldest son, or left
it
undivided
to his heirs, in the assurance, no doubt, that one of them
would
buy up the rights of the others.
*
A house could be let for various lengths of time--for
three
months, for a year, for five years, for an indefinite
term,
but with a minimum of six months, since the rent is
payable
at the beginning and in the middle of each year.
The
remainder of his goods, farms, gardens, corn-lands, slaves,
furniture,
and jewels, were divided among the brothers or natural
descendants,
"from the mouth to the gold;" that is to say, from the
moment
of announcing the beginning of the business, to that when
each
one received his share. In order to invest this act with greater
solemnity,
it took place usually in the presence of a priest. Those
interested
repaired to the temple, "to the gate of the god;" they placed
the
whole of the inheritance in the hands of the chosen arbitrator,
and
demanded of him to divide it justly; or the eldest brother
perhaps
anticipated
the apportionment, and the priest had merely to sanction
the
result, or settle the differences which might arise among the
lawful
recipients
in the course of the operation. When this was accomplished,
the
legatees had to declare themselves satisfied; and when no further
claims
arose, they had to sign an engagement before the priestly
arbitrator
that they would henceforth refrain from all quarrelling on
the
subject, and that they would never make a complaint one against
the
other.
By dint of these continual redistributions from one generation
to
another, the largest fortunes soon became dispersed: the
individual
shares
became smaller and smaller, and scarcely sufficed to keep a
family,
so that the slightest reverse obliged the possessor to
have
recourse to usurers. The Chaldæans, like the Egyptians, were
unacquainted
with the use of money, but from the earliest times the
employment
of precious metals for purposes of exchange was practised
among
them to an enormous extent. Though copper and gold were both
used,
silver
was the principal medium in these transactions, and formed the
standard
value of all purchaseable objects. It was never cut into flat
rings
or twists of wire, as was the case with the Egyptian "tabnu;" it
was
melted into small unstamped ingots, which were passed from hand
to
hand by weight, being tested in the scales at each transaction.
"To
weigh" was in the ordinary language the equivalent for "payment
in
metal,"
whereas "to measure" denoted that the payment was in grain.
The
ingots for exchange were, therefore, designated by the name of
the
weights to which they corresponded. The lowest unit was a shekel,
weighing
on an average nearly half an ounce, sixty shekels making a
mina,
and sixty minas a talent. It is a question whether the Chaldæanns
possessed
in early times, as did the Assyrians of a later period, two
kinds
of shekels and minas, one heavy and the other light. Whether the
loan
were in metal, grain, or any other substance, the interest was
very
high.*
A very ancient law fixed it in certain cases at twelve drachmas
per
mina, per annum--that is to say, at twenty per cent.--and more
recent
texts show us that, when raised to twenty-five per cent., it did
not
appear to them abnormal.
*
We find several different examples, during the Second
Chaldæann
Empire, of an exchange of corn for provisions and
liquids,
or of beams for dates. As a fact, exchange has
never
completely died out in these regions, and at the
present
day, in Chaldæa, as in Egypt, corn is used in many
cases
either to pay Government taxes or to discharge
commercial
debts.
The
commerce of the chief cities was almost entirely concentrated in
the
temples.
The large quantities of metals and cereals constantly brought
to
the god, either as part of the fixed temple revenue, or as daily
offerings,
accumulated so rapidly, that they would have overflowed the
storehouses,
had not a means been devised of utilizing them quickly: the
priests
treated them as articles of commerce and made a profit out of
them.*
Every bargain necessitated the calling in of a public scribe. The
bill,
drawn up before witnesses on a clay tablet, enumerated the sums
paid
out, the names of the parties, the rate per cent., the date
of
repayment, and sometimes a penal clause in the event of fraud or
insolvency;
the tablet remained in the possession of the creditor until
the
debt had been completely discharged. The borrower often gave as a
pledge
either slaves, a field, or a house, or certain of his friends
would
pledge on his behalf their own personal fortune; at times he
would
pay
by the labour of his own hands the interest which he would
otherwise
have
been unable to meet, and the stipulation was previously made in
the
contract
of the number of days of corvée which he should periodically
fulfil
for his creditor. If, in spite of all this, the debtor was unable
to
procure the necessary funds to meet his engagements, the
principal
became
augmented by a fixed sum--for instance, one-third--and continued
to
increase at this rate until the total value of the amount reached
that
of the security:** the slave, the field, or the house then ceased
to
belong to their former, master, subject to a right of redemption,
of
which
he was rarely able to avail himself for lack of means.***
*
It was to the god himself--Shamash, for example--that the
loan
was supposed to be made, and it is to him that the
contracts
stipulate that the capital and interest shall be
paid.
It is curious to lind among the most successful money-
lenders
several princesses consecrated to the sun-god.
**
It is easy to foresee, from the contracts of the New
Assyrian
or Babylonian Empire, how in this manner the
original
sum lent became doubled and trebled; generally the
interest
accumulated till it was quadrupled, after which, no
doubt,
the security was taken by the creditor. They probably
calculated
that the capital and compound interest was by
then
equal in value to the person or object given as a
security.
***
The creditors protected themselves against this right of
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