312 



NATURE 



[January 5, 191 1 



the ancient Nubians is full, accurate, and interesting, 

 and provides a wealth of data which is quite new. 

 His observations on their diseases and injuries opens 

 a fresh chapter in pathology ; for the first time we 

 have a precise knowledge of the ailments and diseases 

 of ancient races. No certain evidence of syphilis was 

 found in Nubia, tuberculosis was extremely un- 

 common, rickets was unknown, but that chronic 

 disease of joints, rheumatoid arthritis, was extremely 

 common, especially in the predynastic inhabitants. 

 Stone in the bladder and kidney occurred but seldom, 

 but appendicitis evidently occurred, for in the illustra- 

 tion reproduced in Fig. 4, a band of adhesion — signify- 

 ing a former inflammation of the appendix — is seen 

 to pass across the pelvis of a young woman found in 

 a cemetery of the Byzantine period. Gout was also 

 known ; and a sketch by Dr. Wood-Jones shows 

 the basal joint of the big toe of a man 

 loaded with "chalk" stones. Caries of the teeth, so 

 prevalent now amongst European races, was un- 

 known amongst the predynastic Egyptians, but in 

 lower Egypt, it had appeared in the wealthier class 

 by the time of the earlier dynasties. It did not be- 

 come common until early Christian times in Egypt. 



i- iG. 4.— i 



viscera, showing an adhesive \jat,<l -^i^a^,,^^ ^^ ^.^ a-^-^t.,,^:. 

 woman of the Byzantine period. 



There cannot be two opinions of the scientific value 

 of the report prepared by Prof. Elliot Smith and Dr. 

 Wood-Jones ; they have made a contribution to our 

 knowledge of racial anatomy and disease, of which 

 the Egyptian Government and English anatomists 

 mav well be proud. But it is also clear that this 

 contribution is only a first instalment to a verv large 

 and important subject, which must be studied now, 

 otherwise the opportunity will have gone for ever. 

 Both authors have returned to England, and it is 

 greatly to be desired that the Eirvptian Government 

 will see that the work they have begun so well will 

 be continued. 



THE GERMAN EXCAVATIONS AT BABYLON. 



OF all the societies that are engaged in the 

 enormously important scientific work of dis- 

 interring the remains of ancient civilisation in the 

 countries of the Near East, probably the most success- 

 ful, in proportion to the length of time it has been 

 in existence, is the " Deutsch Orient-Gesellschaft." 

 Here, as in other matters, the German has come late 

 upon the scene, but he has made up for his late 



NO. 2149, VOL. 85] 



appearance, not only by the amount of work he has 

 done, but also by the way he has done it. Armed 

 with ample funds derived from private subscribers, 

 and made conspicuous by the special patronage of 

 the German Emperor, the '"Deutsch Orient-Gesell- 

 schaft " has carried on, or helped to carry on, excava- 

 tions in Egypt, Palestine, Mesopotamia, and Asia 

 Minor, which have produced results of the highest 

 importance to the archaeologist and to the historian 

 of early civilisation. The excavations of the pyra- 

 mids of Abusir, in Egypt, which date to the time of 

 the Fifth Dynasty, have given us an entirely new idea 

 of the art and religion of Egypt under the " Old King- 

 dom " ; the disinterment of the ancient ruins of 

 Jericho and Megiddo have made us realise better than 

 before what the Canaanite civilisation was like ; the 

 discoveries of Dr. Winckler at Boghaz Kvoi have 

 revealed to us a previously unknown period of the 

 history of the Hittites, and those of Dr. Koldewey and 

 Dr. Andrae at Babylon and Kala'at Shergat (Assur) 

 have enabled us to study the actual ruins of the 

 greatest city of the ancient world and of the oldest 

 capital of Assyria. 



The work at Babylon was the first undertaken bv 

 the society after its foundation eleven vears 

 ago. In March, 1899, work was begun on 

 the Kasr, the "citadel" of Babylon, where 

 are the ruins of Nebuchadnezzar's palace, 

 and where he constructed the famous 

 " Hanging Gardens " to please his Median 

 queen, and make her fancy herself once 

 more among the mountains, trees, and 

 forests of her native land. Here was found 

 an important monument in the shape of a 

 stela of a Hittite king, which had been 

 carried ofif by some Babj'lonian conqueror, 

 probably from Carchemish. The great 

 walls of the citadel, Imgur-Bel and Nimitti- 

 Bel, have been uncovered, and the long 

 "Processional Way of Marduk," between 

 the two walls of Nimitti-Bel, have been re- 

 vealed. Near by is the great mound, now- 

 called Tell ' Amran ibn-'Ali, which covers 

 E-sagila. the chief temple of Babylon's 

 chief god, Marduk. And between this and 

 the citadel is a space called es-Sahn, "the 

 plate," in which stood a great ziggiirrat- 

 temple called Etemenanki. This building, 

 .. „j„„,.^- E-sagila, and the neighbouring temple ot 

 Borsippa, compete for the honour of being 

 the legendary " Tower of Babel." Dr. 

 Koldewey seems to pronounce for the claims of E-sagil,. 

 and Etemenanki against Borsippa, and has latel\ 

 announced in an article in the Berliner Tageblatt thai 

 the excavation of the Tower of Babel "we now aspirt. 

 to and expect." Whether E-sagila or Etemenanki, 

 or the two together, are the basis of the legendary 

 tower we do not know, but in any case the work will 

 be of the highest interest. The execavations have 

 also uncovered a temple of the god Ninib, E-patutila, 

 and many streets ; while the great palace buildings of 

 the citadel, where Belshazzar's feast took place and 

 Alexander died, have been shown to cover up on the 

 river-side the remains of the quay walls built by 

 Sargon and Nabopolassar. 



Babylonian architecture was not beautiful, and in 

 this, as in its use of enormous and imposing brick- 

 masses, it reminds us strongly of the architecture 

 of imperial Rome. As the brick at Rome was covered 

 up by marble veneer, so at Babylon the brick wall- 

 faces were often varied by coloured relief brickwork 

 or hidden by coloured glazed bricks arranged in orna- 

 mental designs. The Gate of Ishtar at Babylon, dis- 

 covered by Dr. Koldewey, has splendid decoration of 

 both kinds, showing bulls guarding the gate. The 



