Bettie's Books

ancient history - mesopotamia> euphrates> babylonpdfread feb 2013non-ficDisclaimer: I received and read an uncorrected proof.This book is dedicated to the memory of my parentsDenys and Katie Pagewho packed me off to Nimrud in northern Iraq in 1962for the first of many adventures in archaeology and epigraphy.Acknowledgements (it is always nice when the author decides to put this section at the front - shows a pleasant bowing of ego.)ContentsList of Colour PlatesList of FiguresTimeline (I love maps and timelines)Opening quote:Not all our power is gone—not all our Fame—Not all the magic of our high renown—Not all the wonder that encircles us—Not all the mysteries that in us lie—Not all the memories that hang uponAnd cling around about us as a garmentClothing us in a robe of more than glory.Edgar Allen Poe, ‘The Coliseum’ (1833)IntroductionEast India House inscription of Nebuchadnezzar IIOpening: Drawing a Blank in BabylonBeware lest you lose the substance by grasping at a shadow - Aesop, Fable of the Dog and his ShadowWhen a German team led by Robert Koldewey excavated in Babylon from 1898 to 1917, it made a thorough excavation of the citadel on which the royal palaces stood, along with the splendid processional way, the great temples, and the Ishtar Gate. Of course those archaeologists were keen to discover at least the site of the Hanging Garden, both out of interest and because further funding would follow from the resulting publicity. They treated Josephus’ information as correct,and expected to find inscriptions of Nebuchadnezzar confirming thathe built the garden.Page 30: Diodorus’ description is especially significant for stating that the water-raising mechanism was not visible. This eliminates the possibility of a water wheel or any type of shaduf, both of which are highly visible. Shadufp. 47The chapter about Confusion of Names was particularly enlightening; all that was lumped together in my history education now starts to take on a more lucidly individual view. Page 121: The name Sammu-ramat in the form Semiramis—by which the Greeks knew her—was used also for later historical Assyrian queens of great repute, causing much confusion among Greek historians who tried to trace the history of Assyria at a time when stories had already merged.There goes our childhood image and as usual, the emerging facts of a landscaped earth dump is far more satisfactory.And I do not mind the flowery language of the ancient scribes at all.