The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria Part 76

[1311] _Vorgeschichte der Indo-Europaer_, pp. 126-141.

[1312] Gen. xi. 4.

[1313] _E.g._, Tiglathpileser I., col. vii. ll. 102, 103; Meissner, _Altbabylonisches Privatrecht_, no. 46; Nebopola.s.sar Cylinder (Hilprecht, _Old Babylonian Inscriptions_, i. 1, pls. 32, 33), col. i.

l. 38. Or 'as high as mountains'; _e.g._, Nebuchadnezzar II., IR. 58, col. viii. ll. 61-63; and so frequently the Neo-Babylonian kings.

[1314] _Kosmologie_, pp. 185-195.

[1315] Or _Kharsag-gal-kurkura_; see p. 558.

[1316] See p. 458.

[1317] _Ekurrati_; Delitzsch, _a.s.syr. Handworterbuch_, p. 718b.

[1318] IR. 35, no. 3, 22.

[1319] See below.

[1320] Hebrew _Bamoth_. Through the opposition of the Hebrew prophets, the term acquires distasteful a.s.sociations that were originally foreign to it.

[1321] See Peters' _Nippur_, ii. 124 _seq._

[1322] IIR. 50, obverse.

[1323] Perhaps, however, these several names all designate a single zikkurat.

[1324] Peters' _Nippur_, i. 246; ii. 120.

[1325] For the meaning of this phrase, see Winckler's _Altorientalische Forschungen_, iii. 208-222, and Jensen's _Kosmologie_, p. 167.

[1326] From Heuzey's note in De Sarzec, _Decourveries en Chaldee_, p.

31, it would appear that at Lagash there was a zikkurat of modest proportions, but Dr. Peters informs me that from his observations at Telloh, he questions whether the building in question represents a zikkurat at all, though, as we know from other sources, a zikkurat existed there in the days of Gudea.

[1327] _Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society_, xviii.

[1328] Of Sargon's zikkurat at Khorsabad, also, only four stories have been found. Perrot and Chiplez (_History of Art in Chaldaea and a.s.syria_, i. 388) suppose that there may have been seven.

[1329] _E.g._ Perrot and Chiplez, _ib._ p. 128. Hommel, _Geschichte Babyloniens und a.s.syriens_, p. 19.

[1330] Peters (_Nippur_, i. 214) found many yellow-colored bricks at Borsippa.

[1331] Book I, -- 98.

[1332] See a paper by E. W. Hopkins on _The Holy Numbers of the Rig-Veda_ (Oriental Studies, Boston, 1894, pp. 141-147).

[1333] Written ideographically, as the names of the zikkurats and of all sacred edifices invariably are.

[1334] See above, p. 459.

[1335] Inscription G, col. i. l. 14; D, col. ii. l. 11.

[1336] IIR. 50; obverse 20. See p. 472.

[1337] _Kosmologie_, pp. 171-174.

[1338] The suggestion is worthy of consideration whether the name 'seven directions of heaven and earth' may not also point to a conception of seven zones dividing the _heavens_ as well as the earth. One is reminded of the 'seven' heavens of Arabic theology.

[1339] So _e.g._, Kaulen, _a.s.syrien und Babylonien_ (3d edition), p. 58; Vigouroux, _La Bible et les Decouvertes Modernes_ (4th edition), i. 358.

[1340] Lit., 'house to be seen,' _Igi-e-nir_. See, _e.g._, VR. 29, no.

4, 40, and Delitzsch, _a.s.syr. Handworterbuch_, p. 262.

[1341] So at Babylon, at least, according to Herodotus. Traces of such a room were also found in connection with the zikkurat at Nippur (Peters, _Nippur_, ii. 122.)

[1342] _Bit pirishti_. IIR. 50, obverse, 6. Another name (or perhaps the name of a second zikkurat at Nippur; see p. 616, note 2) is _Im-kharsag_, _i.e._, 'mountain of awe.' Peters' rendering (_Nippur_, ii. 122) of the names is inaccurate.

[1343] Peters' _Nippur_, ii. chapter vi.

[1344] Schick, _Die Stiftschutte, der Tempel, und der Tempelplatz der Jetztzeit_, pp. 8, 9.

[1345] Snouck-Hurgronje _Mekka_ (Atlas, pl. 1). The present structure, though comparatively modern, is built after ancient models.

[1346] Schick, _ib._ pp. 125-131.

[1347] _Die Stiftshutte, der Tempel, und der Tempelplatz der Jeiztzeit_, p. 82.

[1348] On the significance of the gate in sacred edifices, see Trumbull, _The Threshold Covenant_, pp. 102-108.

[1349] Dr. Peters is of the opinion that at the entrance to the temple area proper at Nippur there also stood two large columns.

[1350] _Decouvertes en Chaldee_, pp. 62-64. Heuzey, in a valuable note, already suggests the comparison with the two columns of Solomon's which is here maintained on the basis of the excavations at Nippur.

[1351] _Ib._ p. 64.

[1352] The best example for a.s.syria is furnished by the magnificent bronze gates of Balawat, now in The British Museum. See Birch and Pinches, _The Bronze Ornaments of the Palace Gates of Balawat_ (London, 1881).

[1353] See the ill.u.s.trations in Perrot and Chiplez, _History of Art in Chaldea and a.s.syria_, i. 142, 143.

[1354] So Puchstein and Friedrich, but see Meissner-Rost, _Noch einmal das Bithillani und die a.s.syrische Saule_ (Leipzig, 1893).

[1355] _Discoveries among the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon_, plan 2.

[1356] Papakhu for Pakhpakhu, from the stem _pakhu_, "to close."

Parakku, from Paraku, "to shut off, to lock."

[1357] Inscription D, col. ii. l. 9.

[1358] V. Rawlinson, pl. 60.