The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria

The earliest altars were made of the same material as the zikkurats and sanctuaries. One found at Nippur at an exceedingly low level was of sun-dried bricks.[1433] How early this material was replaced by stone, we are not in a position to say. Gudea, who imports diorite from the Sinai Peninsula to make statues[1434] of himself, presumably uses a similar material for the sacred furnishings of his temples, though custom and conventionality may have maintained the use of the older clay material for some time. In Assyria, altars of limestone and alabaster became the prevailing types. The shape and size of the altars varied considerably. The oldest known to us, the one found at Nippur, was about twelve feet long and half as wide. The upper surface was surrounded by a rim of bitumen.[1435] Assyrian altars now in the British museum are from two to three feet high. The ornamentation of the corners of the rim of the altar led to giving the altar the appearance of horns.[1436] The base of the altar was either a solid piece with a circular or oblong plate resting on it, or the table rested on a tripod.[1437] The latter species was well adapted for being transported from place to place by the Assyrian kings, who naturally were anxious to maintain the worship of Ashur and of other gods while on their military expeditions.

Much care was spent upon the ornamentation of the altars, and, if we may believe Herodotus, the great altars at Babylon were made of gold.[1438] In front of the altars stood large vases or jars of terra cotta, used for ablutions and other purposes in connection with the sacrifices. Two such jars, one behind the other, were found at Nippur. They were ornamented with rope patterns, and the depth at which they were found is an indication of the antiquity and stability of the forms of worship in the Babylonian temples. It may be proper to recall that in the Solomonic temple, likewise, there were a series of jars that stood near the great altar in the large court.[1439]

A piece of furniture to which great religious importance was attached was a great basin known as 'apsu,'—the name, it will be recalled, for 'the deep.' The name indicates that it was a symbolical representation of the domain of Ea. In Gudea's days the symbol is already known,[1440] and it continues in use to the end of the Babylonian empire. The zikkurat itself being, as we saw, an attempt to reproduce the shape of the earth, the representation of the 'apsu' would suggest itself as a natural accessory to the temple. The zikkurat and the basin together would thus become living symbols of the current cosmological conceptions. Gudea already regards the zikkurat as a symbol. To make the ascent is a virtuous deed.[1441] The thought of adding a symbol of the apsu belongs, accordingly, to the period when this view of the zikkurat was generally recognized. The shape of the 'sea' was oblong or round. It was cut of large blocks of stone and was elaborately decorated. One of the oldest[1442] has a frieze of female figures on it, holding in their outstretched hands flagons from which they pour water. In Marduk's temple we learn that there were two basins,—a larger and a smaller one. The comparison with the great 'sea' that stood in the court of Solomon's temple naturally suggests itself, and there can be little doubt that the latter is an imitation of a Babylonian model.

Another sacred object in the construction of which much care was taken was the ship in which the deity was carried in solemn procession. It is again in the inscriptions of Gudea[1443] that we come across the first mention of this ship. This ruler tells us that he built the 'beloved ship' for Nin-girsu, and gave it the name Kar-nuna-ta-uddua, the ship of 'the one that rises up out of the dam of the deep.' The ship of Nabu is of considerable size, and is fitted out with a captain and crew, has masts and compartments.[1444] The ship resembled a moon's crescent, not differing much, therefore, from the ordinary flatbottomed Babylonian boat with upturned edges. Through Nebuchadnezzar[1445] we learn that these ships were brilliantly studded with precious stones, their compartments handsomely fitted out, and that in them the gods were carried in solemn procession on the festivals celebrated in their honor.[1446] A long list[1447] of such ships shows that it was a symbol that belonged to all the great gods. The ships of Nin-lil, Ea, Marduk, Sin, Shamash, Nabu, Ninib, Bau, Nin-gal, and of others are specially mentioned. A custom of this kind of carrying the gods in ships must have originated, of course, among a maritime people. We may trace it back, therefore, to the very early period when the sacred cities of Babylonia lay on the Persian Gulf. The use of the ships also suggests, that the solemn procession of the gods was originally on water and not on land, and it is likely that this excursion of the gods symbolized some homage to the chief water-deity, Ea.

However this may be, the early significance became lost, but the custom survived in Babylonia of carrying the gods about in this way. In Assyria, less wedded to ancient tradition, we find statues of the gods seated on thrones or standing upright, carried directly on the shoulders of men.[1448] In Egypt sacred ships are very common, and it is interesting to note as a survival of the old Babylonian and Egyptian custom that an annual gift sent by the khedive of Egypt to Mecca consists of a tabernacle, known as Mahmal, that presents the outlines of a ship.[1449] The ark of the Hebrews appears, similarly, to have been originally a ship of some kind.

The ships of the Babylonian gods had names given to them, just as the towers and sanctuaries had their names. The name of Nin-girsu's ship has already been mentioned. Marduk's ship was appropriately known as Ma-ku-a, 'the ship of the dwelling.'[1450] Similarly, a ship of the god Sin was called 'ship of light,' reminding one of the name of the great temple to the moon-god at Ur, 'the house of the great luminary.' The ship of Nin-gal, the consort of Sin, was called 'the lesser light.' Bau's ship was described by an epithet of the goddess as 'the ship of the brilliant offspring,' the reference being to the descent of the goddess from father Anu.[1451] These illustrations will suffice to show the dependence of the names of the ships upon the names of the temples, with this important difference, however, that the names of the ships are chosen from a closer association with the gods to whom they belong. So a ship of En-lil was known simply as 'the ship of Bel,' and the ship of Naru,[1452] the river-god, was called 'the ship of the Malku (or royal) canal'[1453]—an indication, at the same time, of the place where the cult of Naru was carried on.