ALSO IN THE NORTON LIBRARY

The Ancient Near East by Cyrus H. Gordon

The Common Background of Greek arid Hebrew Civilizations
by Cyrus H. Gordon.
The Sumerians by C. Leonard Woolley
Ur of the Chaldees by C. Leonard Woolley
! .. 10!
:::.
EVERYDAY LIFE
IN BABYLON
AND ASSYRIA
_ ~
By
GEORGES CONTENAU
The Norton Library
W o W o NORTON & COMPANY o INC o
NEW YORK
ILLUSTRATIONS
(Note.-The titles of Layard's and Botta's works, referred to below, are mis-
leading. Both purport to refer to Nineveh, but Botta's excavations were at
Khorsabad and many of Layard's were at Nimrud. The site of the ancient Nineveh
was in fact the modern Kuyunjik.)
Plates between 136 and 137
I Huntsmen shooting birds in a forest
From Kborsabad. 8th cent. B.c. Louvre
II The Siege of Lachish by Sennacherib
From Kuyunjik. End of 8th cent. B.C. British Museum
III (a) Coracle and Kelek .
From the palace of Sennacherib at Kuyunjik. End of 8th cent.
B.c. British Museum
(b) Soldiers crossing a river on goatskins
From Kuyunjik. End of 8th cent. B.C. Layard, Monuments of
Nineveh, II, pl. 41
IV Man-headed winged bull
From the palace of Sargon II at Kborsabad. 8th cent. B.C. Louvre
V Cylinder seals and their impressions '
VI (a) Prisoners eating a meal
From Kuyunjik. 7th cent. B.C. Louvre
(b) Vegetables for a banquet
From Kuyunjik. End of 8th cent. B.c. British Museum. Layard,
Monuments, II, pl. 8
VII Transport of a winged bull to Sennacherib's palace
End of 8th cent. B.c. British Museum. Layard, Monuments, II,
pl. 15
VIII of the palace at Khorsabad
IX Detail of embroidery on king's robes
From Nimrod. 9th cent. B.C. Layard, Monuments, I, pl. 9
X Ashur bani pal in his chariot receiving the surrender of
Babylon
From Kuyunjik. 7th cent. B.c. British Museum
XI Banquet of Ashurbanipal and his queen
From Kuyunjik. 7th cent. B.C. British Museum
XII Musicians accompanying an army on the march
From Kuyunjik. 7th cent. B.C. Louvre
. XIII Lion hunt of Ashurbanipal-I
XIV Lion hunt of Ashurbap.ipal-II .
From Kuyunjik. 7th cent. B.C. British Museum
xiv Illustrations
. XV Transport of a cargo of wood from Lebanon
. From Khorsabad. 8th cent. B.C. Louvre
XVI Assault O? a city with a battering ram
From N1mrud. 9th cent. B.c. British Museum. Layard, Monu-
ments, I, pl. I 9
XVII Scene inside a fortified camp
From Nimrod. 9th cent. B.C. British Museum. Layard, Monu-
ments, I, pl. 30
XVIII Sack of u ~ a ~ i r by Sargon II
From Khorsabad. Botta, Le Monument de Ninive, IV, pl. I4I
XIX Two statues of Gilgamesh
From Khorsabad. 8th cent. B.c. Botta, Monument, I, p. II, 4I, 47
XX Use of ladders in theassault on a city
From Kuyunjik. End of 8th cent. B.C. Layard, Monuments, II, pl. 3 I
XXI Scene inside a captured fortress
From Kuyunjik. End of 8th cent. B.c. Layard, Monuments, I, pl. 77
XXII Procession of the gods with their attendants
From Maltai. 8th or 7th cent. B.c. Revue d'Asvriologie, 2I (I924)
I87
XXIII Symbols of the gods from the boundary stone of Ritti-
Marduk
British Museum
XXIV The demon Lamashtu
British Museum
Drawings in the Text
Map o ~ Mesopotamia and surrounding lands
Vase in the form of a circular hut
Andrae, Das Gotteshaus und die Urformen des Bauens im a/ten Orient, fig. 62.
Rectangular houses with beehive roofs
Layard, Monuments, II, pl. I7
Plan of Babylon, c. 6oo B.c.
Reconstruction of the Ish tar Gate at Babylon
Ground plan of a gateway at Khorsabad
After Perrot and Chipiez, History of Art in Chaldea and Asvria I
fig. 43 '
The Shadiif
La yard, Monuments, II, pl. I 5
A fishpond
Layard, Monuments, I, pl. 67B
Plough with seed-drill
After Perrot and Chipiez, op. cit., II, pl. I 5
Page
xvi
26
33
39
39
44
47
51
Drawings in the Text
XV
Loading a camel 59
Layard, Nineveh and Babylon, 582
Prisoners in a cart 6 3
Layard, Nineveh and Babylon, 583
Attendants carrying locusts on skewers and pomegranates 77
Layard, Nineveh and Babylon, 339
Eardrop and bracelet 97
Perrot and Chipiez, op. cit., II, figs. 240, 242
Sword in its scabbard I 24
K. R. Maxwell-Hyslop in Iraq, VIII, 8, pl. VI, 5 5A
Stone threshold in the pattern of a carpet I 28
Perrot and Chipiez, op. cit., I, fig. 96
Boxers arid drum- and cymbal-players I 3 I
Meissner, Baby!onien und Asvrien, I, fig. I37
Banquet of noblemen I3 2
Meissner, op. cit., I, fig. I 36
Bringing tribute I 3 9
Botta, Monument, I, pl. 2 5
A battle I43
Layard, Monuments, II, pl. 45
Archers and their shield I 44
Layard, Monuments, I, pl. 75
Sennacherib on his throne before the gates of Lachish I48
After Barnett in Iraq, XII, I, I950
Warship 157
Meissner, op. cit., I, fig. 68
Scribes 174
Layard, Monuments, I, pl. 58
Cuneiform writing I 76
British Museum
Birds and ibex designs I 78 and I 79
Carleton, Buried Empires, 36
The origin and development of cuneiform signs r8 3
Frankfort, The Birth of Civilization in the Near East
Marduk fighting Tiamat 193
British Museum
Babylonian world map 226
Chiera, They wrote on clay, I62
Demon o(the south-west wind 253
Perrot and Chipiez, op. cit., II, fig. 32
Plan of E-mah, the temple of Nin-mah 272
After Unger
Reconstruction of the temple area in Babylon 274
King, History of Babylon, fig. 28 (after Andrae)
King and State
Mus!c, of which the inhabitants of the East always have been
ar:d stlll extrem.ely fond, was an essential feature of
trunments like that 1n the garden of Nineveh 9 and the reli c
h h . 1 . ' eJ.s
s o.w t e in us.e in Mesopotamia during our
penod. and wtnd were all known, the first
of a kind of squarish cithern. This was played
while as was a portable harp with a sounding box
covered wtth .skin. instruments were known in Egypt,
betng instead of skin. There was also
a kind of mandohn with an extremely small sounding
b.ox. stnngs attached .to the end of a very long handle, and
stmtlar are. stlll employed in Mesopotamia and Iran.
Percusswn provtded by drums of different kinds, ranging
from portable tlmbals to others of very large dimensions. We
plaques depict some musicians striking
tlmbals wtth theu hands, while others are carrying kettle drums
smaller than modern drums, which they
beatmg wtth theu hands.
Some of the were wholly made of metal, like the
hand or the s1strum which had long been familiar in
and .was equally common in Egypt. An animal-
orchestra 1s engraved on the front of a harp found in the Ro al
Tombs at. Ur,. and the sistrum is being played by what is belie:ed
t? be a tlny Jerboa. Wind instruments comprised a variety of
stngle flutes and also, no doubt, pan-pipes.
Mus1c1ans playmg their instruments appear on a number of
monuments like the relief in the Louvre on which four musicians
are while the army has halted for a rest. Drummer and
harptst, ctthern-player and cymbalist face each other in pairs
alternately advancing . and retreating (Pl. XII). '
o.n a depicting the capture of Madaktu in Elarri we see
the lnhabttants of the town marching in procession before their
conquerors, the musicians in front and the inhabitants small and
marching behind and clapping their hands in with the
mustc.
. Singing and were accompanied by dancing, usually
m. form. still to be seen 1n the East; especially in Syria, in
which two of. dancers face each other, alternately advancing
an.d retreatmg .while the spectators accompany the music with
cnes and clappmg. There were also dances which, for example,
Entertainments, Banquets, Music, Dancing 13 I
mimed warlike actions, and we a terra-cotta plaque which
shows two men each carrying a stick somewhat reminiscent of
a folding ruler opened at an obtuse angle. I do not accept the
view that these are boomerangs, for though this implement has
often been attributed to the Mesopotamians, there is no proof
that they possessed it. I believe them rather to have been so-
called 'dancing sticks', a large number of which have been found
in excavations in Egypt. These are flourished in a series of
complicated movements by the dancers, who clash them together
to mark the rhythm.
Finally a terra-cotta plaque dating from the first dynasty of
Babylon shows a curious scene in which a naked woman, holding
a kind of lyre, stands on a small stool, while at her feet a male
figure wearing a short tunic is crouching in what might be
described as a Russian dance, while accompanying himself on a
tambourine. We have no clue to the meaning of this scene, which
may represent either a ritual dance or a priestess in the role of
dancing partner, and we can merely infer that some dance of this
nature must have existed.
The existence of .plaques showing figures in the attitude of
boxers suggests that then, as now, boxing was a popular spectacle.
It must, however, have been only a carefully rehearsed sham fight,
since one of the plaques shows two men beating an enormous
drum beside the boxers, in time with their movements.
Boxers and drum- and cymbal-players

I 3 2 King and state
Finally, like the Egyptians and the Aegean races the Ass .
extremely fond of games resembling the modern
. which be played by one or more players. There is a
ful set ln the Lou:vre, and a number of others, much earlier i -
date,_ were found ln the. tombs at Ur. The contents of a
consist.ed of what the occupant had most frequent! used
earth, In order to provide him with his wonted comforts in
other world: and frequency with which these games
M
been found_ at Ur Is eloquent testimony to their popularity i
esopotam1a. n
We may the leisure occupations of a king of Assyria as
hstemng to music, dancing, sedentary games and the
givmg of for his nobles. We have a picture of such
banquet on a relief from Khorsabad. The nobles, whose meal is
A banquet of noblemen
set at small are dressed appropriately to their
In a tumc w1th a long-fringed scarf wound round
their ?odi_es, and are sitting on stools before a table on which
lymg a mysterious c;Iish like a pile of ears of corn, faintly
of a drawn bunch of bananas. Their left hands
resting on _their knees; in their right, they all simultaneously
ratse a rhyton the shape of a lion's head, presumably drinkin
a to their benefactor, the king. The odd thing about
scene Is that all the guests are sitting on high stools, with their
Hunting 133
feet off the ground, like people in modern bars. (This should be
compared with the practice described on p. 79).
Hunting
Every king was devoted to hunting, and what had once been
his duty as protector of the tribe had become a recreation, not
free of the spice of danger despite the precautions with which he
was surrounded, and repeated to the point of tedium on the bas-
reliefs of the numerous palaces.
We do not find the king hunting birds, a sport requiring
nothing but cunning, and therefore too trivial to deserve his
attention, but the Assyrian population loved it, sometimes shoot-
ing at targets, sometimes shooting francolins with bow and
arrow. There is, however, a perplexing scene on a bas-relief in
the Louvre, which shows two huntsmen practising their art in a
forest (Frontispiece). One of them, clean shaven, stands in the
foreground:
1 0
the other, wearing a beard, seems to be some dis-
tance off, since he is much smaller than the figure in the fore-
ground, who, however, cannot be the king, despite the scale on
which he is carV-ed, since he has no beard and is unpretentiously
dressed. The only possible explanation of the difference in the
size of the two figures is that he must be a prince, unless indeed
on this one relief the Assyrians have uniquely succeeded in
realizing the modern concept of perspective (p. 2 3 8).
Between the reigns of and Ashurbanipal, i.e.,
from the ninth to the seventh centuries B.C., Assyrian sculpture.
seldom varied the conventional representation of a wild beast
hunt, and followed the authoritative pattern obediently.
Although the late Assyrian kings did not hunt the wild boar,
which later became a favourite sport of the Sassanians, the plains
were still the home of wild bulls of the species bos primigenius,
the ancestors both of the domestic herds and also of the Spanish
fighting bulls (bulls of the ganderias), as well as enormous herds
of wild asses, which supplied Mesopotamia with draught animals
before the acclimatization of the horse. The king would pursue
the wild asses on horseback and, after riddling them with his
arrows, would slaughter them with his bow or his hunting spear,
or sometimes force a young one to gallop alongside his chariot
and capture it alive.
Wild goats, too, were hunted and caught. We see the hunt
Plate VI.
Vegetables for a banquet
Banquet of Ashurbanipal and his Queen in the royal gardens
Note the head of King Teumman upside down in a tree (British Mum11JJ photo.)
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Plate XVI.
Assault on a city with a battering ram
Plate XVII. Scene inside a fortified camp