We will once more return to the Southern Citadel and examine the Eastern Court. It is paved with Nebuchadnezzar’s bricks, which became chipped and damaged, and was then restored. The level was slightly raised above the old pavement, which was covered with an even wash of asphalt, and on the piled-up material a new flooring was laid of fine tiles almost exactly 50 centimetres square, that bear Nebuchadnezzar’s stamps on one edge. The vertical joints are filled with gypsum mortar and no asphalt is used. Thus the pavement could be sprinkled and kept pleasantly moist, for the burnt tiles absorb the moisture readily while the underlying wash of asphalt prevented its penetrating to the foundations.
Whether the walls of the court were left uncovered, or whether they had a coat of plaster, we do not know. We know that the gateways at any rate were decorated with the coloured enamelled bricks with lions, which are found in all the courts. The inner chambers were covered with a fine plaster of pure gypsum laid on over a thicker coating of gypsum. In the chamber of the eastern gateway there is still a piece of this remaining, where the ancient wall is protected by the accumulated earth of the raised level of the floor.
Fig. 58.—Base of column, Southern Citadel.
In the court we found the base of a column (Fig. [58]) and a capital of fine white limestone. The base has the same bowl-shaped form and the circular leaf ornament, with a contour of fillets, as the base of Kalach (Nimrud). The capital is severely damaged, but the circular drum can still be recognised, as well as two projecting masses which appear to be the remains of two bulls’ heads, similar to those on the capitals of Persepolis. The fragments lay on a pile of rubbish 1 metre high, and must therefore have been removed here after the palace was destroyed. It is possible that the base belonged to the round circular pedestal in front of the Ishtar Gate near the north-west bastion. In the court itself there is no place whatever for a column. It is in the vaulted building (see p. [99]) alone that we can imagine columns to have been used.
XIII
THE CENTRAL COURT OF THE SOUTHERN CITADEL
The central court (M on Fig. [46]) is entered by a doorway, similar to the eastern gate. Here, however, both the adjoining rooms have a side-chamber connected with them by a wide opening without any door, and with the large adjoining houses by a door. Here we see clearly the idea of a government bureau. These gateway chambers I am disposed to regard as courts of justice, where the judge occupied the side-chambers, which could only be reached from the house, while the litigants made use of the gateway chambers, which could be reached both from the courts and from the gateways. In the Old Testament the gateways are represented as places for administering justice. We have no proof, however, of a similar use of our gateway chambers.
Here, again, the southern house is exceptionally spacious, with its two courts (21 and 22) and a large hall opening on the central court. It must certainly have belonged to the highest state officials. Behind the great hall there are three chambers, much like courts, which with their respective side-chambers may have served for the administration of public business. From here, as well as from the adjoining house, which also comprised a number of rooms round 23, there was direct communication, only interrupted by many doors, with the royal private offices on the western side.
On the north was a house with two courts (13 and 14) and two business offices opening on to the central court, and six one-court houses (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20). Unfortunately we do not know the purpose of the long large chamber near court 13. In the adjoining office there is a walled well, an unusual feature in a house.
The paving of the court is similar to that already described, even to the repaving by Nabonidus, who covered the older flooring with his stamped paving blocks 50 centimetres broad.