A: The Sacred Way or Procession-Street of Babylon. B: E-makh, the temple of the goddess Ninmakh. C: South-east corner of the Southern Citadel with the Palace of Nebuchadnezzar. D: Canal and basin. E: Northern Court of the Peribolos of E-temen-anki. P: Main Court of the Peribolos. G: The mound Merkes. H: Temple of Ishtar of Akkad. J: Greek Theatre. K: Old canal.
(After Koldewey.)
From the accompanying plan it will be seen that the street net-work has been recovered over a considerable area. The entire structure of the mound consists of the dwellings of private citizens, rising layer above layer from below water-level to the surface of the soil. The upper strata date from the Parthian period, and here the houses are scattered with wide spaces of garden or waste land between them. In striking contrast to these scanty remains are the streets of the Greek, Persian and Neo-Babylonian periods, where the houses are crowded together, and open spaces, which were at one time courts or gardens, have later on been surrendered to the builder. We here have striking proof of the value of house-property in Babylon during the city's period of greatest prosperity. Still deeper in the mound a level can be dated to the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, for in the houses were found tablets inscribed in the reigns of Merodach-baladan I., Meli-Shipak II., and Enlil-nadin-shum. In the northern part of the mound, in the lowest stratum of all and lying partly above and partly below water-level, contract-tablets of the First Dynasty were uncovered, bearing date-formulæ of Samsu-iluna, Ammi-ditana and Samsu-ditana. Here the mud-brick walls of the houses, though not very thick, all rest upon burnt-brick foundations, a method of building which, as we have seen,[184] survived into the Neo-Babylonian period. This is the earliest city of which traces have been recovered, and a thick layer of ashes testifies to its destruction by fire. There can be no doubt that the town so destroyed was that of Hammurabi and his immediate successors, for the dated tablets were found lying in the layer of ashes undisturbed. We here have additional proof that Babylon's First Dynasty ended in disaster. It is possible that the conflagration, in which the city then perished, was the work of the Hittite raiders whose onslaught we know took place in Samsu-ditana's reign.
This portion of the town would appear to have been entirely residential, as it contains no open space such as would have served as a market. Even the temples were without a space in front of them, and in this respect resemble the churches in many modern cities. It will be noted that the temple of Ishtar of Akkad in the north of the Merkes Mound, though not actually built in, is approached on every side by private houses, though on its southern face the road is rather broader than elsewhere. Still more shut in were the temple of Ninib and the unidentified temple known as "Z," both of which lie in the mound Ishin-aswad.[185] Here trenches cut across the mound have uncovered the ruins of Babylonian houses in crude brick, the remains of different periods lying one above the other as in Merkes, and they surround the temples on all sides. The only other spot in Babylon where the same strata of streets and private houses have been found is in a low range of mounds between the Ḳaṣr and Tell 'Amrân, where the dwellings appear to be of an inferior character such as we might expect in a poorer quarter of the town. It is only in the rather higher ground that satisfactory results have yet been obtained, as in the plain the earlier strata descend below water-level. It is possible that further digging may lay bare the business-quarters of ancient Babylon, and that we may identify the markets and bazaars which formed one of the great centres of distribution in the ancient world.
Meanwhile, the Merkes Mound has yielded sufficient evidence to form a general conclusion as to the lines on which the city was built. The street net-work shown in the plan is mainly that of the Neo-Babylonian period, but, wherever the earlier levels were preserved, it was noted that the old streets followed the same lines with but slight variations. The main arteries run roughly north and south, parallel to the course of the Sacred Way, while others cross them at right angles.[186] It would appear that, in spite of the absence of open spaces, we here have a deliberate attempt at town-planning on a scientific basis, the original idea of which may be traced back to the First Dynasty. It is true that the streets are not entirely regular, but the main thoroughfares all run through, and the island-plots are all approximately rectangular. We may probably place this achievement to the credit of the Semitic element in the population, as in the two Sumerian towns, in which private house-property has been uncovered, there is no trace of town-planning. Both at Fâra and at Abû Hatab, the sites of the early Sumerian cities of Shuruppak and Kisurra, the streets that have been followed out are crooked and far more irregular than those of Babylon. It has long been known that Hammurabi did much to codify the laws of his country and render their administration effective. It would now appear that similar system and method were introduced at the same period into the more material side of the national life.
The excavations at Babylon have thus thrown some direct light upon the condition of the city during the period at which it first became the capital. It is true that no portion of a royal or sacred building as yet identified antedates the later Assyrian Empire, and that, as the result of extensive reconstruction, the ruins of temples, palaces and city-walls are mainly those of the Neo-Babylonian period. But there was no great break in continuity between that epoch and its predecessors, so that, when due allowance has been made for certain innovations, the buildings of the later period may be treated as typical of Babylonian civilization as a whole. We have seen how the streets of Babylon followed the same lines throughout the whole of her dynastic period, and a similar spirit of conservatism no doubt characterized her architectural development. Temples were rebuilt again and again on the old sites, and even in the Neo-Babylonian period they retained the mud-brick walls and primitive decoration of their remote predecessors. Indeed, the conditions of life in Babylonia precluded any possibility of drastic change. The increased use of burnt brick in the upper structure of the royal palaces rendered possible the brilliant enamelling of the Neo-Babylonian craftsmen. But, even as late as Nabopolassar's reign, the thick mud-brick walls of the king's dwelling must have resembled those of Hammurabi himself: it was mainly in point of size that the earlier palace and city differed from those of later monarchs. And when we examine the successive periods of the country's history, we shall find that tradition exerted an equally powerful influence in retaining unaltered the essential features of the national life. It was under her earliest dynasty that Babylon worked out in detail a social organization that suited her agricultural and commercial activities; and it is a remarkable tribute to its founders that it should have survived the shock of foreign domination and have imposed its mould upon later generations.
[1] Rogers points out that the rabbi's account of Babylon seems to lack the little touches which betray the record of an eye-witness, and he compares it with the same traveller's descriptions of Mosul and Baghdad. By far the best and fullest account of the early explorers of Babylonia is that given by Rogers in his "History of Babylonia and Assyria," Vol. 1., pp. 84 ff.
[2] See Hakluyt, "The Principall navigations voiages and discoveries of the English nation," ed. 1589, p. 232; ed. Goldsmid, Vol. X., "Asia," Pt. III. (1889), p. 63.
[3] He states that "the heavenly fire which struck the tower split it to its very foundation," a description which is thoroughly applicable to the present appearance of Borsippa's temple-tower at El-Birs; see the photograph reproduced on Plate II. Other travellers, such as Anthony Shirley in 1599 or 1600, appear to have made the same identification. A few years later Pietro della Valle was nearer the mark in identifying the tower with the mound Babil, from which he carried away to Home some of Nebuchadnezzar's stamped bricks, probably the first collection of Babylonian antiquities to reach Europe (cf. Rogers, op. cit., p. 98).