The five great monarchies of the ancient eastern world; or, The history, geography, and antiquites of Chaldaea, Assyria, Babylon, Media, and Persia . composition. Besides the coffins themselves, some other curiousfeatures are found in the burial-places. The deadare commonly buried, not underneath the naturalsurface of the ground, but in extensive artificialmounds, each mound containing a vast niunber ofcoffins. The coffins are arranged side by side, oftenin several layers ; and occasionally strips of masonry,crossing each other at right angles, separate each setof coffins from its neighbours.
The five great monarchies of the ancient eastern world; or, The history, geography, and antiquites of Chaldaea, Assyria, Babylon, Media, and Persia . composition. Besides the coffins themselves, some other curiousfeatures are found in the burial-places. The deadare commonly buried, not underneath the naturalsurface of the ground, but in extensive artificialmounds, each mound containing a vast niunber ofcoffins. The coffins are arranged side by side, oftenin several layers ; and occasionally strips of masonry,crossing each other at right angles, separate each setof coffins from its neighbours. The surface of themounds is sometimes paved with brick ; and a similarpavement often separates the layers of coffins one fromanother. But the most remarkable feature in thetomb-mounds is their system of drainage. Long Chap. V, DRAINS. ii; shafts of bakpd clay extend from the surface of themound to its base, composed of a succession of ringstwo feet in diameter, and about a foot and a half inbreadth, joined together hj thin layers of give the rings additional strength, the sides havea slight concave curve (see woodcut, 2 and 3); Section of drain. still further to resist external pressure, the shafts arefilled from bottom to top with a loose mass of brokenpottery. At the top the shaft contracts rapidly bymeans of a ring of a peculiar shape (see w^oodcut, 1) ;and above this ring are a series of perforated bricksleading up to the top of the mound, the surface ofwhich is so arranged as to conduct the rain-waterinto these orifices. For the still more effectual drain-age of the mound, the top-piece of the shaft imme-diately below the perforated bricks, and also the firstrings, are full of small holes to admit any straymoisture; and besides this, for the space of a footevery way, the shafts are surrounded with brokenpottery, so that the real diameter of each drain isas much as four feet.** By these arrangements tlie Juuriiul of the Asiatic Society, vol, xv. pp. 2G8, 2(
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