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Searching the Houses
Ancient
Baby I on
First Photographs of the Most Mag
nificent City of the Past, Where
King Nebuchadnezzar Ate Grass
and Daniel Was Cast to Lions
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The Living Present Looks upon the Long Dead Past. A Little Girl of the Squalid
Village Which Nestles in a Come r of the Ruins Contemplating the Bones of a
Babylonian Woman Who Died 4,000 Years Ago. The Fragments of the Skel
eton Are Seen in the Edge of the Clay Coffin
T HE German Oriental Society is pursuing
a wonderful work in laying bare the re
mains of the magnificent city of Babylon.
A few years ago Babylon was merely a
name that called up a vague vision of some-
king vast and splendid. To-day, through the
■:bois of these archaeologists, we can see tile
oily as it actually was in Biblical times.
Herewith are some photographs of the latest
excavations by the Oriental Society. Here is
.e very city that was the capital of the empire
cU Abraham came, it was countless
old when that patriarch set out to
he race of the chosen people. It al-
ossessed a splendid civilization.
noted for the luxury of its palaces,
,. an d mansions, although they were
of brick on account of the lack of stone,
tie unwinding country was then rich and
me as a result of the splendid system of
irrigation, although to-day it lies a barren desert
for the lack of irrigation.
Babylon’s walls were so thick that they were
impregnable against any military force em
ployed in those days. It was finally captured
by an army that crept in through an unguarded
gate while the army and people were plunged
in drunkenness and shameless debauchery.
The walls were strengthened and ornamented
by tremendous towers that dominated the coun
try for miles around.
The palaces and mansions had beautiful gar
dens the most attractive of which were those
situated on the banks of the River Euphrates.
The “Hanging Gardens” of Babylon connected
with the royal palace formed one of the seven
wonders of the ancient world.
The temples and libraries possesed millions
of books, clay tablets engraved with cuneiform
inscriptions, in which the origin of the human
race and other primitive legends of intense in
terest w'ere related
This is the city which was a byword for
wicked splendor throughout the Biblical period
and for centuries after its downfall. Its end
came nearly two thousand years ago, when the
degenerate Belshazzar was overwhelmed in the
midst of his sinful luxury, as related in the
book of the prophet Daniel.
One of the most curious objects unearthed
by the present excavators is a huge lion stand
ing over a man. It somewhat suggests the
modern cubist style of art,, hut yet it is not
without intelligence and artistic force. The
sculptor’s idea was to express the power of a
lion. . , ...
This is the oldest and most primitive work ot
art yet discovered in Babylon. It dates from
at least four thousand years back. No other
sculpture in this style has yet been found. It
was a tremendous task to bring blocks of stone
this size to Babylon. The block of granite
from which the lion was carved was obtained
in a quarry two hundred miles away and brought
down the Euphrates on a raft.
Another photograph shows a portion of the
tremendous wall of ancient Babylon. This sec-
ion of wall is part of the Triumphal Gateway of
.Altar, the principal female divinity of Babylon,
tuny of the sculptures decorating the wall at
hi ; gateway still remain beneath the surface,^
end it is doubtful if the entire wall will ever
>e uncovered.
;. ; gateway is profusely decorated with
a any animals, conspicuous among which is the
■ p’l, the sacred animal of the god Nebo. The
rick work, formed of very large bricks, is in per-
’ect condition. It has survived numerous earth-
uakes and the ravages of time and weather for
■ or two thousand years. It bears eloquent tes
timony to the excellence of Babylonian methods
. f construction.
The most interesting photograph, however ,is,
probably, the one that shows a large group of
the ruins of the temples and houses of Babylon.
The thickness of the walls shown here again
proves the magnificent construction of the an
cient city and explains why the old historians
speak of it with mingled awe and admiration.
The nearest group of ruins represents all that
is left of the palace of Nebuchadnezzar, the
mightiest King of Babylon. Each brick of the
foundation bears that monarch’s name and his
royal titles all stamped in cuneiform writing.
The inscribed side is placed downward.
The great column of bricks shown in the fore
ground formed part of the entrance hall of the
palace. It was here, perhaps, that Bel
shazzar saw 1 the w'riting on the wall:
“Thou art weighed in the balances and
found wanting."
The mass of ruins seep beyond tbe
column encircles the site of the throne
hall of Nebuchadnezzar, fn the back
ground may be seen what is known to
the explorers as the south mound. This
covers the site cf the commercial and
industrial city of Babylon and probably
also the Tower of Babel.
. To uncover the ruins shown here has been
a tremendous task, for the Euphrates River bad
buried them under an alluvial deposit over sixty
feet deep The greater part of the city still lies
under Jhis deposit. Among the interesting ruins
still largely hidden is the Tower of Babel, whose
construction and abandonment form one of the
mo3t curious legends in the oldest part of the
Bible.
Many of the objects found relate to commercial
dealings. Babylon was the greatest commercial
city of the ancient world prior to about 500 B. C.
Its wealth was naturally the greatest source of
its power. Its merchants employed a perfect
system of bookkeeping and of making out “com
mercial paper” and other documents. The en
tries were first made on soft clay and then
baked hard. They could never be altered, burned
or defaced. Even to destroy them with great
force was difficult. Those that are found to
day are as legible as when they were made.
Owing to their system of bookkeeping and
giving indestructible reoeipts, the Babylonion
merchants enjoyed a great reputation for hon
esty. They were considered very superior in
that respect to their competitors in Egypt.
The excavators have found an enormous col
lection of tablets inscribed with the laws. The
Babylonians enjoyed an elaborate system of law
as long as thirty-five hundred years ago. It dealt
with the most complex and intimate relations of
life, with matrimonial relations and commercial
disputes. Although the legal code appears harsh
to us in many respects, it is in the main intel
ligent and just, and there is every reason to be
lieve that it was rigorously enforced.
The darkest side of Babylonian life ig seen
in the existence of an enormous body of women
known as “public votaries.” It is said that there
were 50,000 of them in the city. Many of them
were kept in the temples of Ishtar and other
divinities. The money paid by the citizens visit
ing the “votaries” w'ent to the prients of these
heathen temples, and the “votaries” themselves
were slaves of the most wretched description.
It is the existence o f this institution that has
caused Babylon 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 the
Bible it is accompanied by w'ords of severe repro
bation.
The excavators have found many inscriptions
relating to the female votaries of Babylon. Those
who were attached to certain temples were never
allowed to go away, and an attempt to escape, if
discovered, was invariably punished with death.
Colossal Figure of
Oldest Sculpture
semblance to th<
a Lion Overcoming a Man. The
Found in B<R)y| 0 n. Note its Re-
Modern “C^obist” Sr.uloture.
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The Triumphal
Gate of the
Goddesi
Ishtar.
An Ancient Seal Found in Babylon, Showing Hunters
Gathering Ostrich Feathers for King Nebuchadnezzar
Others wiere allowed to go at large, but they
had no rights under the law. They were uranded
on the forehead in order that every one might
know who they were. ID one of them importuned
a citizen for money or troubled him in any way
her offence was puuiahtible with death.
The whole civilized world was ransacked to
find these women. Thity were bought or stolen
from their distant bonnes. The choicest .speci
mens were placed in the Temple of Ishta-r.
These facts make it certain that Babylon was
plunged in conscienceless self-indulgence and
luxury to a degree unknown in the modern world.
The wine shops were usually kept by women in
Babylon and there are many provisions i:a the
laws concerning them. The measure for drink
was to be the same a|i tor corn. In case' she
overcharged her custom ers they could throv / her
into the water.
For surgery and the pt notice of medicine, <t here
was elaborate legislation. In order to dis
courage the surgeon frq m making rash ex ueri-
ments, severe penalties i.ere fixed in case of un
successful operations. For an operation on the
upper class, the surgeon received ten site ke’.s,
on the lower class five, and on the slave two. If
the patient, died the surgeon’s hands were cut
off. In the case of a slave lie had to replace him
with one of equal value. If the. eye. of a slave
was lost the owner received half the price of the
slave.
Similar legislation was enacted fop builders. If
the house fell down and kil ed the owner as the
result of bad workmanship, the builder was sub
ject to the death penalty.
A man could give his wife, sou cqr daughter to
work off a debt, but in the fourth y*>ar lie or she
could regain freedom.
The great early ruler of Babylon was King
Khammurabi, whose famous code was the basis
of all the laws that governed the empire.
Nebuchadnezzar was King' when Babylon
reached the zenth of its glory. The Bible tells
us bow this man’s mind was unbalanced by the
tremendous power he possessed- As a conse
quence he became insane for a tSme and “did eat
grass as the oxen.”
He built the two great walls of the city.
He built immense quays on tbje hanks of the
Enphrates, besides developing otherwise the
facilities for handling commerce; He dug wide
moats about the walls so that it was as if the
sea surrounded ij:e city.
He built the causeway by whiiih the God Mar-
duk was taken on New Year’s D:a.y from Babylon
on a visit to his son, Nebo, the patron deity of
Borsippa. All these interesting things will be
laid bare by the excavators, so that the tourist
may look at them
i^hoto ev wooo""2"Tj^"dfrvv-ood hr y
I he Houses of Ancient Babylon, the First Photograph Showing the Enormous Excavations of the
German Expedition in the Palace of Nebuchadnezzar and the Heart of the Ancient City.
Good Two-Cent Dinners for School Children™ By 0 , U t r h. C E“lu^ E R I ! y S a'u„tvJrf® N
F ROM an analysis of the meals
eaten by eight healthy chil
dren of the middle classes, tt
is found that what children need is
food that contains seventy-two
grammes of protein and sixty-nine
grammes of fat, and for poor
children those proportions have to
be obtained at the lowest possible
cost.
For example, a bowl of thick len
til soup containing %-pound o?
le—tils, with a slice of bread, cost
ing about 2 cents, contains much
more nourishment than la-pound
of meat and a slice of bread cost
ing 10 cents.
The question oi a good one-
course dinner is important. In
many of the houses of 'the poor
the cooking facilities—one small
open grate—are not well adapted
to providing a two-course meal if
such were otherwise available, and
in connection with the feeding of
large numbers of school children
there is certainly economy of time
and labor, and possibly of expense,
in a one-course as compared with
a two-course meal. Experience
has shown that a one-course meal
at low cost can be made as nour
ishing and attractive to children as
a two-course meal at similar out
lay.
It is of interest in this connec
tion to refer to the nutritive value
and cost of a series of five one-
course dinners recently supplied,
on my recommendation, by the Ed-
inburgh School 11
dren:
V\
Ixintil soup
Meat, soup and
1K.5
Plum puddkiK
MA
8**otti«h Ivrot!
Porridge and hard
28.13
biscuit
24a Ta
f Average ... -
27 J
A study of
the
ferent columns, he says, is very in
structive. The average amount of
protein 27.1 grammes, fat 9.0
grammes, and carbohydrates 102
grammes, may be taken as a re
liable standard for a highly nutri
tious meal, er.’ing, if anything, in
a deficiency in fa... if we compare
the individual menus we find that:
No. 1 is a.very nourishing dinner
at small cost.
No, 2 is of considerably lower
nutritive value, and Is ou<t of pro
portion expensive.
No 3 is a rich highly nourishing
meal and is proportionately dear;
it is only advisable as an occa
sional tneal.
No. 4 is a good iliuuer obtained
at moderate cost.
No. 5 is also a good meal, a little
belo-w the average in nutritive val
ue; this can be rectified by slightly
increasing the amount of tuilk.
Tbo experience of the head mas
ters in the different schools under
the Edinburgh School Board has
shown that meals planned on these
lines have been followed by satis
factory rate of growth, increased
physical vigor and more efficient
education of the children, these
being the oriteriu for judging the
correctness of any system of feed
ing.
It is probatdy no exaggeration to
say that the medical profession, no
less than the public has a very
inadequate idea as to the extent of
minor or major adulteration of
common foodstuffs.
Bread is an important illustra
tion. A largo proportion of bread
in daily use is now made front
flour which has been artificially
bleached by Lite passage of nitrous
oxide fumes. Those are produced
by au electrical discharge, the pro
cess being described by the parties
interested as ‘ electrified air,” and
in ignorance accepted by millers
and bakers as a process “from of
chemicals ”
The researches of Professor
Ladd, U. 3. A., Professor Hallibur
ton and the author, among others,
have shown that the digestibility
of flour so treated is appreciably
reduced, and as there arc. unques
tionably, no compensating advant
ages In the process from the phy
siological and dietric point of view,
it is advisable that all bread should
be made from the natural product
of the wheat.
it 1b conceivable that a child
would thrive better on a diet con
taining a smaller amount of food
in a pure form than on a diet which
is richer from the point of view of
chemical composition, but with its
nutritive value impaired by the ad
dition of various preservatives.
A further point of importance is
the use of hard food adapted for
promoting mastication, giving meat
in a form which necessitates
chewing, bread in baked form for
similar reasons, and at the same
time restricting indulgence in sugar
and sweets, which promote fer
mentation in relation to the teeth
with resulting caries.