BABYLON UNEARTHED

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 121, 23 May 1914, Page 10

BABYLON UNEARTHED

HOW THE CITIZENS LIVED SIDELIGHTS ON BIBLE HISTORY. But a few years ago and Babylon was just a name that called up a vague idea of something that was once vast and splendid. To-day, thanks to the work of the German Oriental Society, writes W. F. Ahem to the Melbourne Argus, one can see the city as it actually was long before the time of the patriarch Abraham. In those old days the country was exceedingly fertile, as a result of the splendid system of irrigation, although to-day it lies as a barren desert, because of the lack of irrigation. The walls of the city in those primeval ages were so thick that they withstood the fiercest assaults of any foe's artillery. The city was only captured by an army that 'crept in through aft unguarded gate, while the army and people were plunged in drunkenness and shameless debauchery. In those days its walls were strengthened and ornamented by tremendous towers, that dominated the ' country for miles around. The palaces and mansions had beautiful gardens, the most attractive of which were those on the banks of the Euphrates. The temples and libraries possessed millions (of books, cla> tablets, engraven with cunil'orm inscriptions, hi which the origin of the human race and other primitive legends of intense interest were related. This was the city which was a by-word for wicked splendour throughout the Biblical period, and for centuries alter its downfall. Its end came nearly 2000 years ago, when the degenerate Belshazzar was overwhelmed in the midst of his sinful luxury, As wo read of in the Book of Daniel. ANCIENT ART. Photographs, taken by the German Oriental Society, included a picture of a huge lion standing over a man. The idea of the sculptor was evidently to express the power of the lion. Its age is given at 4000 years. No other speciment of this art has been discovered. It must have been a tremendous task to bring stones of the size to Babylon, for it has since been ascertained that the granite from which the lion was carved was brought from the granite quarries 200 miles away from Babylon. The Oriental Society have also unearthed a part of the tremendous wall that surrounded Babylon. It is part of the triumphant gateway of Ishtar, the principal female divinity of the city. The gateway is profusely decorated with many animals, conspicuous among win is the bull, the sacred animal of the god Nebo Many of the temples and houses ha.vo also been unearthed. The thickness of the walls again shows the magnificent construction of the buried city, and explains why the old historians speak of it with mingled awe and admiration. One of the ruins unearthed is all that remains to-day of tho palaco of Nebuchadnezzar, the mightiest King of Babylon. Each brick of the building bears still the monarch's name and his Royal titles all stamped in cuneiform writing, the inscribed side being placed downward. One gieat column of bricks unearthed was found to be part of the entrance-hall of the palace. It may have been here that Belshazzar saw the writing on the wall. "Thou art weighed in the balance, and found wanting." Behind this column was found the site of the throne hall of Nebuchadnezzar. And beyond this the society unearthed what is known as the south mdund, forming the site of the commercial and industrial city of Babylon, and probably also the Tower of Babel. To uncover these ruins has been no light task. The river Euphrates had buried them under an alluvial deposit o\ifer sixty feet deep. The greater part of the city still remains to be excavated. Among the ruins still largely hidden is the Tower of Babel, the construction and abandonment of which forms one of the mobt curious legends in the Old Testament. BUSINESS IN BABYLOtt. Many of the objects unearthed by the German Oriental Society relate to the commercial life of Babylon. It was the greatest commercial city of the world prior to 500 B.C. Its merchants employed a perfect system of bookkeeping and of making out "commercial papers" and other documents. The entries were first made on soft clay and then baked hard. They could never be altered, or defaced. Jilven to destroy them would be difficult. Those that have been unearthed are as legible as on the day they were written. It was owing to their system of bookkeeping and the giving oi indestructible receipts that the Babylonian, merchants gained a great reputation of honesty, and in this respect were considered very superior to their commercial competitors in Egypt. The excavators have found an enormous collection of tablets inscribed * with the laws. Babylon enjoyed an elaborate system of law as long as 3500 years ago. It dealt with the most complex and intimate relations of life, with matrimonial relations, and commercial disputes. If the legal code appears to us to-day to have been harsh, it was at least in the main intelligent and just, and there is every reason to believe that it was rigorously enforced. "THE PUBLIC VOTARIES." The darkest side of Babylonian life is seen in the existence of an enormous body of women known as "public votaries." It is said there were over 50,000 of them in the city. Many of them were kept in the temples of Ishtar and other divinities. It was the existence of this system that caused Baßylon to be condemned as the city of sin, the most shameful type of corruption among the communities of the ancient world. In nearly every place where Babylon is mentioned in tho Bible it is accompanied by words of severe reprobation. Many oi the tablets discovered relate to the female votaries of Babylon. Those who were attached to certain temples were never allowed to go away, and any attempt to escape was punishable with death. Otheis were allowed to go at lafge, but they had no rights under the law. They were branded on the forehead, in order that all might know what they were. If one of them asked for alms the offence was punishable with death. It is said that the whole civilised world was ransacked to find these women They were bought or stolen from their distant homes. The choicest specimens were placed in the Temple of Ishtar. The hotels and wirie-sbops, according to inscriptions discovered, were usually kept by women, and there were many provisions in the laws concerning them. The measure of drink was to be the same as for corn. In case the customer was overcharged the hotelkeeper was thrown into the river. DOCTOR AND PATIENTS. According to the tablets discovered there were elaborate laws for surgery and the practice of medicine. In order to discourage the surgeon from making rash experiments severe penalties were fixed in case of unsuccessful operations. For an operation on the rich folk the surgeon received 10 shekels : on the lower class five, and on the &lave but two. If the patient died the hands of the surgeon were cut off. In the case of a slave he had to replace him with one of equal value. If the eye of the slave was lost through the unskiltulness ot the surgeon, the am goon had to pay to the owner; half the cost pi the slave.

Nebuchadnezzar was King of Babylon when the city reached the zenith of its glory. The Bible tells how this great man's mind was unbalanced by the tremendous power he possessed. As a consequence, he became mad for a while, and "did eat grass as the oxen."