- Darius, king of Persia
Darius, king of Persia - Dancing Bacchante
Dancing Bacchante. From a vase in the British Museum. According to some authorities, one of the most primitive of the first class, attributed to Phrygian origin, was the Aloenes, danced to the Phrygian flute by the priests of Cybele in honour of her daughter Ceres. The dances ultimately celebrated in her cult were numerous: such as the Anthema, the Bookolos, the Epicredros, and many others, some rustic for labourers, others of shepherds, etc. Every locality seems to have had a dance of its own. Dances in honour of Venus were common, she was the patroness of proper and decent dancing; on the contrary, those in honour of Dionysius or Bacchus degenerated into revelry and obscenity. - Damsels singing to the Sound of Timbrels
The next natural step for the use of music would be that of victory and triumph. The first notice of this kind is the song of Miriam. And here we may rightly conjecture the introduction of an Egyptian, and therefore cultured element. " Miriam took a timbrel in her hand, and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances " (Exod. xv. 2o). - Cyprian limestone group of Phoenician dancers
Cyprian limestone group of Phoenician dancers, about 6½ in. high. There is a somewhat similar group, also from Cyprus, in the British Museum. The dress, a hooded cowl, appears to be of great antiquity. - Cuneiform Inscription
Among the earliest of the monuments hitherto discovered are a set of bricks bearing the following cuneiform inscription. This inscription is explained to mean:—“Beltis, his lady, has caused Urukh (?), the pious chief, King of Hur, and King of the land (?) of the Akkad, to build a temple to her.” - Counting hands
An admirable representation of a battlefield is found on the walls of the pronaos of the great temple of Medient Habou and is thus described by Dr Richardson:-The south and part of the east wall is covered with a battle-scene, and the cruel punishment of the vanquished, by cutting off their hands and maiming their bodies. - Combat between Menelaus and Hector
Combat between Menelaus & Hector (in the Iliad) From a platter ascribed to the end of the seventh century in the British Museum. This is probably the earliest known vase bearing a Greek inscription. Greek writing was just beginning. Note the Swastika. - Columbarium
- Colobium
Shape. This garment varied in width across the shoulders. The greater the distance between the neck-hole and the edge of the top corner (see A B), the more the upper arm was hidden. This has the misleading effect of a sleeve to the elbow. The Romans had a great aversion to anything in the nature of a close arm covering, so the fashion of wearing long shaped separate sleeves, set by Alexander the Great, was not followed at Rome, as it was considered unmanly; besides, such sleeves were worn by foreigners and barbarians, so naturally this mode was distasteful to the patriotic intolerance of a Roman citizen. The Greek " kolobus," called by the Romans the "colobium." Another name for this garment was the "tunica". When more than one was worn, the under ones were called the "tunica interior" or "subucula." A long tunica was called "tunica talaris." - Clay Pipe from Babylon
“Clay pipe from Babylon, the most ancient yet found, apparently modelled to imitate the skull of some animal. It still sounds clearly the intervals of the common chord.” - Circus Maximus - Plan
- Circus Maximus
- Chlamys
- Chem
Another great god was their narrow valley, the country in which they lived, clearly divided from the yellow desert by the black Nile-mud, y which it is covered and made fertile, and hence called Chemi, the Black Land, or when made into a person, Chem, or Ham. He was the father of their race, called in the Bible, one of the sons of Noah, and considered by themselves the god of increase, the Priapus of the Greeks. Chem has a cap with two tall feathers like that of Amun-Ra, so large that it was necessary to give him a metal support to hold it on the head. His right arm is raises and holds a whip, his left arm is hid under his dress, which is the tight garment of the Egyptian women. - Chaldean vases, drinking vessels and amphora of the second period
Chaldean vases, drinking vessels and amphora of the second period - Chaldean vases of the first period
Chaldean vases of the first period - Chaldean Tomb
The clay coffins, shaped like a dish-cover, are among the most curious of the sepulchral remains of antiquity. On a platform of sun-dried brick is laid a mat exactly similar to those in common use among the Arabs of the country at the present day; and hereon lies the skeleton disposed as in the brick vaults, and surrounded by utensils and ornaments. Mat, skeleton, and utensils are then concealed by a huge cover in burnt clay, formed of a single piece, which is commonly seven feet long, two or three feet high, and two feet and a half broad at the bottom. It is rarely that modern potters produce articles of half the size. - Chaldean Reeds (from a slab of Sennacherib)
Among the vegetable products of Chaldaea must be noticed, as almost peculiar to the region, its enormous reeds. These, which are represented with much spirit in the sculptures of Sennacherib, cover the marshes in the summer-time, rising often to the height of fourteen or fifteen feet. The Arabs of the marsh region form their houses of this material, binding the stems of the reeds together, and bending them into arches, to make the skeleton of their buildings; while, to form the walls, they stretch across from arch to arch mats made of the leaves. From the same fragile substance they construct their terradas or light boats, which, when rendered waterproof by means of bitumen, will support the weight of three or four men. - Chaldean lamps of the second period
Chaldean lamps of the second period - Chaldean Jar-Coffins
The third kind of tomb, common both at Mugheir and at Telel-Lahm, is almost as eccentric as the preceding. Two large open-mouthed jars (a and b), shaped like the largest of the water-jars at present in use at Baghdad, are taken, and the body is disposed inside them with the usual accompaniments of dishes, vases, and ornaments. The jars average from two and a half feet to three feet in depth, and have a diameter of about two feet; so that they would readily contain a full-sized corpse if it was slightly bent at the knees. Sometimes the two jars are of equal size, and are simply united at their mouths by a layer of bitumen (dd); but more commonly one is slightly larger than the other, and the smaller mouth is inserted into the larger one for a depth of three or four inches, while a coating of bitumen is still applied externally at the juncture. In each coffin there is an air-hole at one extremity (c) to allow the escape of the gases generated during decomposition. - Chaldean dish-cover tombs
The clay coffins, shaped like a dish-cover, are among the most curious of the sepulchral remains of antiquity. On a platform of sun-dried brick is laid a mat exactly similar to those in common use among the Arabs of the country at the present day; and hereon lies the skeleton disposed as in the brick vaults, and surrounded by utensils and ornaments. Mat, skeleton, and utensils are then concealed by a huge cover in burnt clay, formed of a single piece, which is commonly seven feet long, two or three feet high, and two feet and a half broad at the bottom. It is rarely that modern potters produce articles of half the size. - Cerae (open)
- Cerae (closed and sealed)
- Carthaginian coins
At her zenith Carthage probably had the hitherto unheard-of population of a million. This population was largely industrial, and her woven goods were universally famous. As well as a coasting trade, she had a considerable land trade with Central Africa,[126] and she sold negro slaves, ivory, metals, precious stones and the like, to all the Mediterranean people; she worked Spanish copper mines, and her ships went out into the Atlantic and coasted along Portugal and France northward as far as the Cassiterides (the Scilly Isles, or Cornwall, in England) to get tin. About 520 B.C. a certain Hanno made a voyage that is still one of the most notable in the world. This Hanno, if we may trust the Periplus of Hanno, the Greek translation of his account which still survives, followed the African coast southward from the Straits of Gibraltar as far as the confines of Liberia. He had sixty big ships, and his main task was to found or reinforce certain Carthaginian stations upon the Morocco coast - Bust of Thothmes I, the first great Egyptian Conqueror
Thothmes I. was the grandson of the Aahmes who drove out the Hyksôs. He had thus hereditary claims to valour and military distinction. The Ethiopian blood which flowed in his veins through his grandmother, Nefertari-Aahmes, may have given him an additional touch of audacity, and certainly showed itself in his countenance, where the short depressed nose and the unduly thick lips are of the Cushite rather than of the Egyptian type. His father, Amen-hotep I., was a somewhat undistinguished prince; so that here, as so often, where superior talent runs in a family, it seems to have skipped a generation, and to have leapt from the grand-sire to the grandson. - Burning the Dead - Etruscan Ceremony
Etruscan painting of a Ceremonial Burning of the Dead - Burning of Incense
The conventional Egyptian representation of the burning of incense and the pouring of libations - Bruce's Harpers
- Bronze Hermes statue of Herculaneum
- Bronze Cat
- Brick Vault at Mugheir
Next to their edifices, the most remarkable of the remains which the Chaldaeans have left to after-ages, are their burial-places. While ancient tombs are of very rare occurrence in Assyria and Upper Babylonia, Chaldaea Proper abounds with them. It has been conjectured, with some show of reason, that the Assyrians, in the time of their power, may have made the sacred land of Chai the general depository of their dead, much in the same way as the Persians even now use Kerbela and Nedjif or Meshed Ali as special cemetery cities, to which thousands of corpses are brought annually. At any rate, the quantity of human relics accumulated upon certain Chaldaean sites is enormous, and seems to be quite beyond what the mere population of the surrounding district could furnish. The brick vaults are found chiefly at Mugheir. They are seven feet long, three feet seven inches broad, and five feet high, composed of sun-dried bricks imbedded in mud, and exhibit a very remarkable form and construction of the arch. The side walls of the vaults slope outwards as they ascend; and the arch is formed, like those in Egyptian buildings and Scythian tombs, by each successive layer of bricks, from the point where the arch begins, a little overlapping the last, till the two sides of the roof are brought so near together that the aperture may be closed by a single brick. The floor of the vaults was paved with brick similar to that used for the roof and sides; on this floor was commonly spread a matting of reeds, and the body was laid upon the matting. It was commonly turned on its left side, the right arm falling towards the left, and the fingers resting on the edge of a copper bowl, usually placed on the palm of the left hand. The head was pillowed on a single sun-dried brick. - Brawl among Egyptian Boatmen (Pyramid Age)
Brawl among boatmen ... (From tomb of Ptah-hetep——Pyramid Age) - Boats on Nile about 2500 B.C.
Boats on Nile about 2500 B.C. - Binding and pulling grain in the Egypt of the pharaohs
Binding and pulling grain in the Egypt of the pharaohs - Battle of the Lapiths and Centaurs (Apollo temple at Bassa
- Basterna
- Balteus
- Balneum (Roman Bath)
- Bacchus
- Bacchus
Bacchus was the Roman god of agriculture, wine and fertility, equivalent to the Greek god Dionysus. - Babylonish Coffin and Lid of Green Glazed Pottery
Stone is very rare in Chaldea, and could be brought only at great expense from a distance. Hence all the buildings of earlier ages were built of bricks. o we read of the Tower of Babel, that "they had bricks for stone." The outsides of the buildings were covered with burnt or kiln-dried bricks to keep out the rain. More elaborate specimens of their pottery appear in articles for domestic uses, and especially in their coffins. - Babylonian Weather God
Babylonian Weather God - Augustus
Augustus When Augustus entered upon secure possession of absolute power, the Roman Empire included the fairest and most famous lands on the face of the globe and all the civilised peoples of the ancient world found a place in its ample bosom. - Atys - the Phrygian shepherd
- Atrium
- Athor
Other goddesses were attributes or feelings, made into persons, such as Athor the goddess of ove and Beauty. She has cow's horns, and sometimes a cow's head. - Athenian Foot-soldier
Monument of Athenian foot soldier found near Marathon. - Athene of the Parthenon
Goddess Athene of the Parthenon - Athena
- Assyrians Flaying Prisoners Alive
The Assyrians used these inventions in their wars against the contiguous nations of the East, and with their aid achieved the mastery, and unified the Orient. That the Assyrian rule was harsh and cruel should not be denied; but, on the principle that any kind of government is better than no government, it cannot reasonably be supposed that the central and efficient administration of Assyria was not better than the condition of continual petty wars and quarrels that had existed among the numerous tribes and nations, with their enormous possibilities for suffering of all kinds. - Assyrians drinking
The Assyrians, who `rank` next in antiquity to the Egyptians, were no shunners of wine; they could drink sociably, and hob-nob together, as we see by the illustration. - Assyrian Wine List
“This list of wines is found engraved upon a terra-cotta tablet from the palace of Assur-ba-ni-pal, the Sardanapalus of the Greeks, and evidently represents the wines supplied to the royal table. It reads: Col. I. Wine of the Land of Izalli. Wine, the Drink of the King (Daniel i. 5). Wine of the Nazahrie. Wine of Ra-h-ū (Shepherds’ Wine). Wine of Khabaru. Col. II. Wine of Khilbunn or Helbon. Wine of Arnabani (North Syria). Wine of Sibzu (Sweet Wine). Wine of Sa-ta-ba-bi-ru-ri (which I think means Wines which from the Vineyard come not). Wine of Kharrubi (Wine of the Carrob or Locust bean).” - Assyrian Warrior (temp. Sargon II)
Assyrian Warrior (temp. Sargon II) - Assyrian inscription
- Assyrian Harpist , beating time with his foot
Assyrian Harpist , beating time with his foot - Assyrian Bas-relief
Layard's "Nineveh." Beards were curled and probably dyed and powdered, the powder, however, being gold. As a matter of fact, gold was employed in various ways as an enrichment to the hair. - Assyrian
Assyrian - Assurbanipal at the chase.
- Asiatic Monarch