. The dawn of civilization: Egypt and Chaldaea . resembled in shape a sort of The curtain of the citadel looked down on the plain froma great height, so that the defenders were almost out of reach of thearrows or slings of the besiegers: the remains of the ramparts at Uruk atthe present day are still forty to fifty feet high, and twenty or more feet in 1 Place, Ninive et VAssyrie, vol. i. pp. 26, 27. 2 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a brick preserved in the Louvre. The bricks bearing his-torical inscriptions, which are sometimes met with, appear to have been mostly ex-voto o
. The dawn of civilization: Egypt and Chaldaea . resembled in shape a sort of The curtain of the citadel looked down on the plain froma great height, so that the defenders were almost out of reach of thearrows or slings of the besiegers: the remains of the ramparts at Uruk atthe present day are still forty to fifty feet high, and twenty or more feet in 1 Place, Ninive et VAssyrie, vol. i. pp. 26, 27. 2 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a brick preserved in the Louvre. The bricks bearing his-torical inscriptions, which are sometimes met with, appear to have been mostly ex-voto offeringsplaced somewhere prominently, and not building materials hidden in the masonry. 3 See the plan of the ruins of Uru at Mugheîr, p. 612 of this History. 4 This appears to have been the case from the description given by Loftus of these ruins (Travelsand Researches in Chaldxa and Susiana, p. 244, et seq.) ; as far as I am aware, no plan exists ofthis town. 5 See the plan of the ruins of Eridu at Abu Shahreîn, p. 614 of this History. 2 s. A CHALDJEAN STAMPED BRICK. 626 THE TEMPLES AND THE GODS OF CE ALB JE A. thickness at the top. Narrow turrets projected at intervals of every fifty feetalong the face of the wall : the excavations have not been sufficiently pursuedto permit of our seeing what system of defence was applied to the area described by these cities was often very large, but the population inthem was distributed very unequally ; the temples in the different quartersformed centres around which were clustered the dwellings of the inhabitant?,sometimes densely packed, and elsewhere thinly scattered. The largest andrichest of these temples was usually reserved for the principal deity, whoseedifices were being continually decorated by the ruling princes, and the extentof whose ruins still attracts the traveller. The walls, constructed and repairedwith bricks stamped with the names of lords of the locality, contain in them-selves alone an almost complet
Size: 1575px × 1587px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookidd, booksubjectcivilization
