TRE LATEST DISCOVEKIES IX BABYLONIA. 



195 



of Babylon were not rare in Babylonia and Assyria, and they 

 probal»ly varied in size with the importance of the place and the 

 consequent opulence or poverty of the religious foundation therein. 

 Answering Dr. Coles, he stated that it seemed to him hardly likely 

 that Libra was originally the picture of an altar, though altars 

 were found on the boundary-stones. In the only place where the 

 name was spelled out it appeared as Zihanif, which was regarded 

 as the word for " scales." (As this is of late date, it may have 

 been introduced, as suggested, by the Egyptians.) In reply to 

 Mr. Eouse, he was glad of the testimony that the seeding-device, 

 of which he had shown a picture, was still used in the country. 

 The lecturer regretted not having made himself clear as to E-sagila 

 and E-zida. E-sagila was not the tower, but the great temple of 

 Merodach connected with the Tower in Babylon, which seems to 

 have been called " The House of the Foundation of Heaven and 

 Earth."' E-zida was the "Everlasting House" at Borsippa, and the 

 tower in connection with it was called E-iu^we-imina-an-ki, "the 

 House of the 7 regions of Heaven and Earth," symbolizing the seven 

 planets (including the sim and moon). The meaning of E-sagila 

 Avas '"head-raising," not, apparently, in the sense of a tall structure, 

 but as the place where the people, or the hostile gods of old (see 

 p. 188), were comforted — "lifted up" from their downcast state. 

 Both E-sagila and E-zida had been restored by Xebuchadrezzar. 

 Mr. Rouse had sitggested that Ea (the name of the god gf the 

 waters and of deep wisdom) was a variant of Jah (or its original 

 form) ; but this the lecturer hesitated to confirm, notwithstanding 

 that his friend, Professor Fritz Hommel (Journal of the Jlcforia 

 Institute, 1895, p. 36) had already pointed out the likeness. 

 (Naturally there is also the cpiestion of an ancient identification of 

 two names originally distinct to be considered.) Colonel Van 

 Someren was right as to the Tower of Babylon not being very high 

 (see p. 192, note to p. 18-1:). A tower, whose top '-was in the 

 heavens," simply meant, as has already been recognized, a very 

 high tower. Whether there was a planisphere at the top or not 

 the lecturer cotild not say, but he thought it unlikely, though 

 small planispheres of baked clay existed. The house at the top 

 was the abode of the god Merodach. Replying to the Rev. F. A. 

 Jones, the antiquity of the ruins at Xifi:er had been estimated by 

 an examination of the acciun illations as dating from about 10,000 



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