It is rather a striking commentary on the progress that has been made in three thousand years, to know that Layard’s methods in removing the bulls were almost identical with those of the ancient Assyrians who placed them in position. One of the sculptured slabs uncovered by Layard at Kouyunjik, furnished full particulars of how the ancients tackled the difficulty of moving such masses.
The original huge block was brought from the quarry in the hills on rafts supported by skins, just as the bull was sent down to Basra. It was dragged ashore by bands of slaves, and the sculptor carved the block into the form of the man-headed winged bull, giving the statue five legs, as was the general practice in Assyria, so that four might be seen from the side and two from the front. The bull was then placed on a sledge, something like that used by the Egyptians for moving similar masses, and dragged and levered along, the lever used being a great pole to which ropes were attached for men to throw their weight upon. A sloping road was built up to the place where the bulls were to stand, and up this the statues were gradually hauled and pushed. The man directing the operations of the army of workmen is clearly shown, though whether he is signalling by blowing on a trumpet, or shouting through the first megaphone ever invented, is an open question. He appears to be using a trumpet, but for aught we know it might have been something to magnify the voice.
There were carved ivories, Egyptian cartouches, sculptured sphinxes, to link Babylon and Assyria with ancient Egypt, to show that intercourse existed between the two peoples, just as the monuments of Egypt indicated. Three thousand years ago letters written in cuneiform characters on clay tablets were regularly passing to and fro between the two countries. Apparently at that time the cuneiform characters could be read equally well by Egyptians and Babylonians and Assyrians, as is proved by the Tell el Amarna tablets discovered in Egypt. Some of the clay letters of those days are very similar to puppy biscuits in colour, shape and size; others might easily be mistaken for oblong tablets of toilet soap.
Whether the civilization of Egypt and that of Mesopotamia developed simultaneously independent of each other is a question that is still unsettled. The general opinion is that the beginnings of all civilization are to be found in Mesopotamia, but men who have spent their lives studying ancient Egypt give precedence to the civilization of the Nile. These are things which may never be solved.
By courtesy of the British Museum
THIS CLAY SPELLING BOOK OF BABYLON WAS THE FORERUNNER OF THE MODERN SPELLING BOOK
IN OLDEN DAYS LEGAL DOCUMENTS WERE GRAVED IN STONE AND WRITTEN IN CLAY. THIS CLAY TABLET WITH ITS QUAINT CUNEIFORM CHARACTERS IS A DEED RECORDING THE SALE OF A PIECE OF LAND
