SCIENCE 



NEW YORK, JUNE 2, 1893. 



THE LATEST DISCOVERIES IN CHALD^A. 



BT THE MAHQUIS DE NADAILLAC, PARIS, FTIANCE. 



All we knew of Chaldaea was a very few years ago completely 

 legendary. Thanks to our scientists and to their discoveries, 

 every day brings us new and important facts. Inscriptions allow 

 us to learn the names of kings six thousand years old. Sculp- 

 tures disclose to us their faces, their weapons, their vestments, 

 the soldiers who followed them, the horsps who bear them. We 

 may be allowed to say. with a just pride, that the nineteenth cen- 

 tury, now so near its close, deserves well of science, and that 

 never have the progresses in every branch of human knowledge 

 been either so numerous or so wonderful. 



In September last, Mr. Maspero presented to the Academic des 

 Inscriptions' the photograph of a Chaldsean sculpture dedicated 

 by King Naramsin, who reigned in Babylonia and in the northern 

 parts of Chaldsea some 3800 years before our era. The sculpture 

 actually in the Museum of Constantinople is in a very mutilated 

 condition but shows, nevertheless, a masterly execution and can 

 well be compared with the celebrated diorite statues excavated 

 at Tello a few years ago. Centuries must certainly have elapsed 

 before men could have acquired such an art and attained the 

 civilization it allows us to presume. Centuries are not less neces- 

 sary to arrive at the agglomeration of population required for 

 the execution of similar monuments and the establishment of a 

 kingly power. It is diflBcult even to imagine the vast past we 

 must embrace. 



The last researches have brought to light numerous works of a 

 more rude and primitive art which tend to confirm our opinion. 

 Amongst the discoveries lately reported by that eminent Assyrian 

 archaeologist, Mr. Leon Heuzey," those of Mr. de Sarzec at Tello 

 are the most important, and date certainly from older times than 

 King Naramsin. The discovery of three new fragments have 

 completed the celebrated stele des vaiitoiirs, so named on account 

 of the vultures which hover above the scenes depicted, and cer- 

 tainly one of the oldest and most remarkable works of the Chal- 

 dsean artists. 



The monument presents on both sides figurative scenes. It 

 was ordered, as the inscription runs, by E-anna-dou, King of 

 Sirpoula,^ son of A-Kourgaland grandson of Our-Nina, one of the 

 oldest Chaldaean kings as yet known to us. One of the most re- 

 markable scenes which it has been possible to reconstruct repre- 

 sents a funeral after a battle or a thanksgiving after a victory. 

 The number of the human bodies shows the severity of the fight. 

 An ox is provided for the sacrifice to be offered to the presiding 

 deity. Other fragments show E-anna-dou at the head of his 

 soldiers, disposed in six ranks, armed with pikes and carrying 

 large rectangular shields of a very peculiar form. 



The king himself is represented in the act of piercing with his 

 lance a defeated enemy, or on his chariot charging the flying 

 crowd. This last scene is unluckily much damaged. In both 

 of them the king carries in his left hand a long lance. The 

 chariot is a set of panels curiously put together; on the front 

 seat are deposited a battle-axe and a quiver full of arrows. The 

 wheels unluckily have been destroyed. E-anna-dou wears a 

 kaunakes rolled round his legs and a woollen cloak thrown over 

 his shoulders and chest. He has no beard but an abundant flow 

 of hair partly brought up on his neck and partly hanging on his 

 back. In all the scenes in which the king appears, besides his 



1 Bui., Sept. 30, 1892. 



3 Bui. Acad, dee Inscriptions, 12 Aout et 21 Octobre, 1892. 

 3 Assyrlologlsts look upon Slrpoula as the same town as Lagash, men- 

 tioned In some cylinders also found by Mr. de Sarzec. 



lance he carries in his right hand a crooked weapon of a very 

 peculiar form, which Mr. Heuzey compares to the weapon or 

 mark of dignity carried by the head of the Asiatic tribe Amou 

 in the celebrated picture in an Egyptian tomb of the XII dynasty 

 at Beni-Hassan near Minieh. It is obvious that such a fact is 

 worth noticing. Detail we must not omit in all these Chaldaean 

 scenes, the ground is strewn with human bodies symmetrically 

 arranged, head against head, as a carpet for the warlike and sav- 

 age king. 



The other side of the stela presents sculptures presumed to be 

 of a mythological character. A man or a god of gigantic size is 

 the principal actor; his bulky head, his powerful frame, his 

 broad shoulders, form a striking contrast with the figures already 

 described. His hair is in the same style as the hair of King E- 

 anna-dou, and is maintained by a large head-band; but what 

 distinguishes him from the royal figure is a flowing beard plaited 

 in the Assyrian fashion. The body is naked, the middle part 

 alone is covered by some sort of cloth, of which little remains. 

 In his hands the giant carries a massive club and a curious instru- 

 ment, the use of which is ditHcult to guess; it figures an eagle 

 whose claws rest upon a lion's head, the heraldic figuration of 

 the town of Sirpoula, says Mr. Heuzey, to whom we leave the 

 responsibility of the assertion.^ 



Under the principal personage is a very striking scene. Near 

 the arm which carries the eagle is an immense net in which 

 crawl in all possible attitudes, trying to escape through the 

 meshes, a number of naked men whose features recall those of 

 the captives under the feet of Eanna-dou and who evidently 

 belong to the same race. We cannot tell the meaning of this 

 scene; it brings to mind the curses of the prophet Habakkuk, com- 

 paring the defeated populations to fishes which the Chaldaean 

 conqueror carries off in his net.^ 



With these sculptures were found fragmentary inscriptions 

 diflBcult to decipher. Wecan, nevertheless, read '• Isbanki," with 

 its principal town, "Ner-ki-an," as a country subdued by King 

 E-anna-(lou. We find also mentioned two Chaldaean towns, Our 

 and Erech, which are named in Genesis. They were, therefore, in 

 existence and in communication with Sirpoula in those very an- 

 cient days, certainly many centuries before Moses. 



E-anna-dou, we have said, was the grandfon of Our-Nina, 

 already king of Sirpoula. We are in possession of numerous an- 

 tiquities which can leave no doubt of the existence of Our-Nina, 

 bricks from an edifice probably a temple erected by him,'^ tablets 

 with inscriptions,' other tablets with animal figures, small 

 bronze statues, the fragments of an onyx vase, and sculptures 

 which show the king amongst his court and family. 



One of the fragments thus discovered shows a double proces- 

 sion marching towards a man placed alone in the middle. The 

 name of Our-Nina, twice repeated, leaves no doubt as to the per- 

 sonage so figured. The king is naked with only a kaunakes 

 rolled round his loins. His hair is closely shaven, and he carries 

 upon his head a large basket similar to those carried by the slaves 

 in the stele des vautours and very similar also to the coufEe in use 

 with the Arabs till this day. In his devotion, the king is carry- 

 ing the materials for the building of a temple. An inscription re- 

 cently deciphered puts the fact above discussion. It reads thus: 

 " Nina-Our, son of Nini-hal-dou, son of Goui-sar, the temple of 



* The giant himself, according to our eminent Orientalist, is the god or hero 

 Isdoubar, figured In a very old relievo discovered a few years ago by Mr. de 

 Sarzec. 



s " They take up all of them with the angle, they catch them In their net 

 and gather them in their drag. Therefore they rejoice and are glad. Shall 

 they therefore empty their net and not spare continually to slay the na- 

 tions ? "—Habakkuk, C. IV., 15-17. 



' Decouvertes en Chaldee, PI. sssl.. Fig. 1. 



' Revue d'ASsyrlologle, T. II., p. 147. 



