(j]4. Dr. J. n. Gladstone [Feb. 11, 



made to him by the minor chieftains of the time in token of their 

 submission, indicating that at this period, B.C. 700, it was still not 

 very common. 



Assyria. 



In the country lying between or near the Euphrates and the 

 Tigris we have some antiquities dating, perhaps, as far back as any 

 in Egypt. We have also a great amount of Accadian and Assyrian 

 historical and other literature on tablets and cylinders of clay, and on 

 the walls of the great palaces ard temples. As in the case of Egypt, 

 the discoveries of the remotest age are those which have been most 

 recently published. Dr. Peters has just given us the records of the 

 explorations of the American Oriental Society at Nippur, and describes 

 the successive layers of the great temple of Bel.* These appear to 

 indicate the absence of metal in very remote periods. The oldest 

 specimens are those recently found by M. de Sarzec at Tello (Lagash) 

 in Southern Chaldaea. They consist of some votive statuettes, and a 

 colossal spear, an adze and curved hatchet — all of copper without tin, 

 according to M. Berthelot's analysis. A small vase of antimony and 

 a large one of silver have also been found. The period of these is 

 supposed to be some considerable time anterior to B.C. 2500. At Tel 

 el 8ifr, in the same neighbourhood, Mr. Loftus discovered a large 

 copper factory, in which were caldrons, vases, hammers, hatchets, 

 links of chain, ingots, and a great weight of copper dross, together 

 with a piece of lead. The date of these is believed to be about B.C. 

 1500. At Nippur the American explorers found at a higher level, in 

 the temple of Bel, what they term a jewellei-'s shoj), which consisted 

 of a box full of jewellery, mainly precious stones, but also containing 

 some gold and copper nails ; these apparently date from abmit B.C. 

 1300. In Babylonian graves, and oth{;r places of about the same 

 period, there have been found objects made of copper and iron and 

 silver wire ; but the use of metals seems much more restricted in 

 these great alluvial plains than in contemporary Egypt. Iron, 

 however, was perhaps an exception. According to Messrs. Perrot 

 and Chipiez, excavations at Warka seem to prove that the Chaldaeans 

 made use of iron sooner than the Egyptians ; in any case, it was 

 manufactured and employed in far greater quantities in Mesopotamia 

 than in the Nile Valley ; in fact, at Khorsabad M. Place is said to 

 have found hooks and grappling irons, fastened by heavy rings to 

 cha'n cables, picks, mattocks, hammers, ploughshares, &c., in all about 

 157 tons weijfht. Mr. Layard also found at Nimroud a large quantity 

 of scale armour of iron in a very decomposed state, but exactly 

 resembling what is represented in the sculptures of warriors. Of this 

 he collected two or three basketfuls. 



Coming down to the period of the great Babylonian Empire, we 

 find very large treasures of the precious metals changing hands 



* ' Nipimr,' by Dr. Peters, Philaflelphia. 



