In Babylon the dead were buried by the fortification walls, in the streets, and in such parts of the inhabited town as were unappropriated for dwelling-houses at the time of the burial. They were laid from 1 to 2 metres deep in the ground. The house ruins of an earlier period were often encroached upon, and where the ancient walls were recognisable the pit was dug parallel with them; where they were not recognisable the walls of the ancient house were often cut through by the grave, while the wall of a later building period once more turned off from the burial site. If an ancient brick pavement was reached this also was frequently cut through, and the sarcophagus lay partly above and partly below it. From such clear cases, against which situations that cannot be made out can adduce no conclusive evidence, it can be distinctly seen that in Babylon, at any rate, no interments took place inside inhabited houses. We have already (p. 219 ff.) seen how various were the methods of burial at different times, and in the few ruined sites of Babylonia hitherto excavated. We cannot here enter into all the peculiarities, and we can only attempt to sketch out the classes of burial that are clear, and easily distinguishable from each other. [Illustration: FIG. 195.—Double-urn burial from Merkes. ] The lowest levels, of the time of the first Babylonian kings, Hammurabi and his successors, contain no sarcophagi. The bodies either lay simply in the earth, or at most were rolled in reed mats or were roughly surrounded by mud bricks. They were almost always laid out at full length, and often in an attitude that gives an impression that they were left in the same place and situation in which they died. [Illustration: FIG. 196.—Trough coffin, with lid. ] [Illustration: FIG. 197.—Trough coffin, opened. ] Between zero line and about 3 metres above zero, we come almost exclusively on double-urn burials (Fig. 195). They consist of two pottery vessels with the mouths joined together, in which the body is placed in a crouching position, and generally tightly packed. These double jars, of which one is perforated at the foot end, lie together horizontally or slightly sloping, never upright, although both vessels are provided with a broadened end. They are either alone or in groups of 6 or 8 crowded into a small space. Generally close by there is a layer of ashes, which appears to represent some burial ceremony; in this layer there are a few brick-built subterranean chambers, with barrel-shaped vaulting, such as are often found in Asshur. Their great rarity, when compared with the masses of pottery coffins, shows them undoubtedly to be foreign to Babylonian usage. [Illustration: FIG. 198.—Crouching burial. ] [Illustration: FIG. 199.—Brick grave from Merkes. ] [Illustration: FIG. 200.—Anthropoid sarcophagus, north-east of Kasr. ]