The Birth of Civilization in the Near East

by Henri Frankfort

CONTENTS

[ PREFACE] v [ LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS] xi [I. THE STUDY OF ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS] 1 [II. THE PREHISTORY OF THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST] 25 [III. THE CITIES OF MESOPOTAMIA] 49 [IV. EGYPT, THE KINGDOM OF THE TWO LANDS] 90 [ APPENDIX. The Influence of Mesopotamia on Egypt Towards the End of the Fourth Millennium B.C.] 121 [ CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE] 138 [ INDEX] 139

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Following [page 64]

[1A.] Bone sickle haft with end carved in form of animal’s (goat’s) head, and groove for inserting flints, 38 cm. long, from Mugharet el-Kebarah, Natufian (Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, LXII [1932], Plate XXVII, 1) [1B.] Upper part of bone sickle haft with carving of a young deer, about 11 cm. long, from Mugharet el-Wad, Lower Natufian (D. A. E. Garrod and D. M. A. Bate, The Stone Age of Mount Carmel, Vol. I [Oxford, 1937], Plate XIII, 3) [1C.] Upper part of bone sickle haft with end carved in form of human figure and groove, 12.8 cm. long, from Sialk in Persia (R. Ghirshman, Fouilles de Sialk, Vol. I [Paris, 1938], Plate LIV, 1) [1D.] Sickle of wood with cutting edge of flints, 51.5 cm. long, from the Fayum (G. Caton-Thompson and E. W. Gardner, The Desert Fayum [London, 1934], Plate XXX) [1E.] Wooden sickle of the First Dynasty with cutting edge of flints, 45 cm. long, from Saqqara (Walter B. Emery, The Tomb of Hemaka [Cairo, 1938], Plate XV, D) [2.] Camp site at Hassuna (Journal of Near Eastern Studies, IV [1945], Fig. 27) [3.] Papyrus swamp on the Upper Nile (Courtesy of Natural History Museum, New York) [4.] Chart of the sequence of predynastic and protodynastic remains, by Dr. Helene J. Kantor, Oriental Institute, University of Chicago [5.] Sculptured trough in the British Museum (W. Andrae, Das Gotteshaus and die Urformen des Bauens im alten Orient [Berlin, 1930], Plate II) [6.] Marsh Arabs in Southern Iraq (Photo Underwood) [7.] Clay objects of the Al Ubaid period, from Tell Uqair, in the Iraq Museum, Baghdad (Journal of Near Eastern Studies, II [1943], Plate XVI) [8.] The “White Temple” on its ziggurat at Erech (Achter vorläufiger Bericht, Abhandlungen der Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1937, Phil.-Hist. Klasse, Plate 40b) [9.] Semi-engaged columns covered with cone mosaic (Dritter vorläufiger Bericht, Abhandlungen der Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1932, Phil.-Hist. Klasse, Plate I) [10.] Colonnade on platform at Erech (ibid., Plate 8) [11.] The Ishtar ziggurat at Erech in Assyrian times (W. Andrae, in Otto, Handbuch der Archaeologie, Plate 144) [12.] Cult relief, from Assur (W. Andrae, Kultrelief aus dem Brunnen des Assurtempels zu Assur [1931], Plate I) [13.] The development of Mesopotamian writing (J. H. Breasted, Ancient Times, 2nd ed. [Boston, 1935], Fig. 86) [14.] Impression of a cylinder seal of the Protoliterate period showing bulls and ears of barley (Frankfort, Cylinder Seals [London, 1939], Plate Vb) [15.] Impression of a cylinder seal of the Protoliterate period showing offerings of fruit, vases, etc., being made to the mother-goddess (ibid., Plate Vc) [16.] Impression of a cylinder seal of the Protoliterate period showing frieze of monsters (ibid., Plate Vh) [17-18.] Front and back of the stone figure of a ram in the Babylonian Collection, Yale University (Courtesy of Yale University Art Gallery), length 21.8 cm., height 15.8 cm. [19.] Early Dynastic temple at Khafajah (P. Delougaz, The Temple Oval at Khafajah [Chicago, 1940], Frontispiece) [20.] Copper model of primitive chariot, from Tell Agrab (Courtesy, Oriental Institute, University of Chicago), height 7.2 cm. [21.] Alabaster figure of the Early Dynastic period, from Khafajah (Frankfort, More Sculpture from the Diyala Region [Chicago, 1943], Frontispiece), height 7.2 cm. [22.] Head of an Akkadian ruler, from Nineveh (Courtesy of Department of Antiquities, Baghdad) [23-24.] The Gebel el Arak knife-handle (Louvre: Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, V [1919], Plate XXXII) [25.] The Hunters’ palette (British Museum and Louvre; Capart, Primitive Art in Egypt, 231, Fig. 170) [26.] Macehead of king “Scorpion” (Courtesy of Ashmolean Museum, Oxford) [27-28.] Palette of King Narmer (Cairo Museum; photographs of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) [29.] Harvesting scenes, from the tomb of Ti, Old Kingdom, about 2400 B.C. (Wreszinski, Atlas zur Altaegyptischen Kulturgeschichte, III, Plate 49) [30.] Agricultural scenes, from the tomb of Menna, New Kingdom, about 1400 B.C. (Wreszinski, Atlas zur Altaegyptischen Kulturgeschichte, I, Plate 231) [31.] Plan of workmen’s village at Tell el Amarna, about 1360 B.C. (Peet and Woolley, The City of Akhenaten, I, Plate 16) [32.] Impression of a Mesopotamian cylinder seal, from Egypt (Berlin; Scharff, Altertümer der Vor- und Frühzeit Aegyptens, 1929, Plate 25, No. 135) [33-34.] Impressions of two cylinder seals of the second half of the Protoliterate period, from Khafajah (Courtesy of Oriental Institute, University of Chicago) [35.] Wooden cylinder seal of the First Dynasty, from Abydos (Berlin; Scharff, op. cit., Plate 27, No. 48) [36.] Impression of Fig. 35 [37.] Cylindrical funerary amulet (Berlin; Scharff, op. cit., Plate 26, No. 145) [38.] Impression of Fig. 37, showing long-haired man seated at offering table [39.] Cylindrical funerary amulet showing seated man (Berlin; Scharff, op. cit., Plate 26, No. 146) [40-41.] Flint knife with gold-foil handle, from Gebel et Tarif (Cairo; J. E. Quibell, Archaic Objects [Cairo, 1905], p. 237) [42.] Two buildings, with recesses and towers, of the First Dynasty in Egypt, and a seal impression of the second half of the Protoliterate period, from Khafajah (American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures, LVIII [1941], Plate I, a, b) [43.] Stela of King Djet of the First Dynasty (Louvre) [44.] Three buildings with recesses, rendered on monuments of the First Dynasty in Egypt, and three Mesopotamian cylinder-seal impressions of the Protoliterate period (American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures, LVIII [1941], Plate 341, Fig. 7) [45.] Plan of the “White Temple” on the archaic ziggurat at Erech (Achter vorläufiger Bericht, 1937, Plate 19b) [46.] Plan of the Tomb of Hemaka at Saqqara (W. B. Emery, The Tomb of Hemaka, Plate I) [47.] Tomb ornamented with recesses, at Abu Roash (Kemi, VII [1938], Plate XIa) [48.] Recesses of the “White Temple” at Erech (Drawn after Achter vorläufiger Bericht, 1937, Plate 14b) [49.] Wooden coffin imitating a recessed building with round wooden beams, from Tarkhan (Petrie, Tarkhan, I, Plate XXVIII) [50.] Recessed tomb with round wooden beams, of the First Dynasty, at Abu Roash (Kemi, VII [1938], p. 40, Fig. 9) [51.] Map of the Ancient Near East, from the Westminster Historical Atlas to the Bible (The Westminster Press, [Philadelphia, 1945], 22)