Produced by Delphine Lettau and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net [Illustration: CLAY CYLINDER OF TIGLATH-PILESER I.] _Present Day Primers_ _Primer of Assyriology_ BY A. H. SAYCE, LL.D. PROFESSOR OF ASSYRIOLOGY, OXFORD AUTHOR OF 'FRESH LIGHT FROM THE ANCIENT MONUMENTS' 'ASSYRIA, ITS PRINCES, PRIESTS, AND PEOPLE,' ETC. WITH SEVEN ILLUSTRATIONS THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY 56 PATERNOSTER ROW AND 65 ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD _First Edition, September, 1894._ CONTENTS PAGE CHAPTER I THE COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE Geography--Population and Language--The Chaldaeans--The Kassi-- Natural Products--Canals--Architecture--Asphalt and Naphtha-- Character of the Babylonians and Assyrians 7 CHAPTER II THE DISCOVERY AND DECIPHERMENT OF THE INSCRIPTIONS The Site of Babylon--The Site of Nineveh--Excavations--The Decipherment of the Inscriptions--The Decipherment tested-- Sumerian--Vannic--Other Languages--The origin of the Cuneiform Syllabary--Simplification of the Syllabary 18 CHAPTER III BABYLONIAN AND ASSYRIAN HISTORY Different States in Babylonia--The first Empire--The monuments of Tello--Chronology--The United Monarchy--The rise of Assyria-- Babylon a sacred city--Tiglath-pileser I--The First Assyrian Empire--The Second Assyrian Empire--The Babylonian Empire--Cyrus and the Fall of Babylon--Belshazzar--Decay of Babylon 42 CHAPTER IV RELIGION The religions of Babylonia and Assyria--Differences between Babylonian and Assyrian religion--Sumerian religion Shamanistic-- Two centres of Babylonian religion--Semitic influence--The goddess Istar--Bel-Merodach--Other deities--Sacred books and ritual--The Priests--The Temples--Astro-theology--Sacrifices and offerings--The Sabbath--Monotheistic tendency--The future life--Cosmology 80 CHAPTER V BABYLONIAN AND ASSYRIAN LITERATURE Aids to the reading of the texts--The libraries--Varieties of literature--The texts autotypes--Astronomy--Mathematics--Medicine and law--History and mythology--The Chaldaean epic and the Deluge--Epic of the Creation 95 CHAPTER VI SOCIAL LIFE The Contract-tablets--Married Life--Burial--Slavery--Lowness of Wages--Property--Taxes--Prices--Usury--The Army--Navy--The Bureaucracy 109 APPENDIX Assyrian Measures of Length--Measures of Capacity--Measures of Weight and Coinage--The Months of the Year 118 Babylonian Kings--Assyrian Kings--High Priests of Assur--Kings of Assyria 120 Synchronisms between Assyrian and Biblical History 125 The Principal Deities of Babylonia and Assyria 126 A PRIMER OF ASSYRIOLOGY CHAPTER I THE COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE