XIV
THE VAULTED BUILDING
From the north-east corner of the central court a wide passage leads to a building in the north-east corner of the Southern Citadel, which from every point of view occupies an exceptional place among the buildings of the Citadel and even of the whole city—one might almost say of the entire country.
Fourteen cells, similar in size and shape, balance each other on the two sides of a central passage, and are surrounded by a strong wall. Round this slightly irregular quadrangle runs a narrow corridor, of which the far side to the north and east is in large measure formed of the outer wall of the Citadel, while other ranges of similar cells abut on it to the west and south. In one of these western cells there is a well which differs from all other wells known either in Babylon or elsewhere in the ancient world. It has three shafts placed close to each other, a square one in the centre and oblong ones on each side, an arrangement for which I can see no other explanation than that a mechanical hydraulic machine stood here, which worked on the same principle as our chain pump, where buckets attached to a chain work on a wheel placed over the well. A whim works the wheel in endless rotation. This contrivance, which is used to-day in this neighbourhood, and is called a dolab (water bucket), would provide a continuous flow of water. We will speak later of the use to which we presume it to have been put.
The ruin (Fig. [59]) lies completely below the level of the palace floor, and is the only crypt found in Babylon. It was approached from the upper passage by steps of crude brick faced with burnt brick that led into one of the southern chambers.
Fig. 59.—The Vaulted Building, from the south-west.
All the chambers were vaulted with circular arches (Fig. [60]). The arches consist of numerous ring courses, separated from each other by level courses (Fig. [61]), exactly as in the eastern door of the Citadel.
Fig. 60.—Arches of the Vaulted Building.
We must here observe the difference that exists between arches, underground vaulting, and outstanding vaulting. The wall in which the arch is placed provides it with the necessary abutments; there are no difficulties to encounter in its construction, and we meet with it in the earliest times, at Nippur and Fara as early as the invention of writing. In Fara there is an underground canal which consists of actual arches placed close together; in Babylon and Assur there are underground vaults which certainly date back to the year 1000. Such vaultings are easily constructed, for the earth in which they are buried affords the necessary abutments. But the case is very different when the vaulting has to be carried from one free standing wall to another. Then the building has to be so constructed that the thrust of the vaulting is counterbalanced by the walls themselves. This distinct advance appears to have been first attempted, or at any rate planned, in Mesopotamia by Nebuchadnezzar. Certainly, no house vaulting older than ours on the Southern Citadel has been found in Mesopotamia, roofing as it does a huge connected complex of chambers. The vaultings asserted by Place to be over the chambers at Khorsabad are, without exception, absolute inventions. Sargon was only acquainted with the arch in the wall, which, as we have already seen, is not a noteworthy achievement, and with the sloping courses employed in forming the arched roofing of a canal. Those Assyrian-Babylonian palaces were entirely roofed with wooden beams, like the cedars of Lebanon of our Southern Citadel. It is possible that the throne-room of the principal court was vaulted, but that is not certain. The vaulted building shows clear signs of tentative and inexperienced work in the arrangement of the vaulting. It consists merely of simple barrel-vaults, and there is, of course, no cross vaulting, cupola, or any arrangement of the kind. The thrust of the central chambers is on the north against the strong Citadel wall, and on the south against the outer row of chambers vaulted in the other direction (Fig. [62]).