The Mystery of the Hanging Garden of Babylon: An Elusive World Wonder Traced

by Stephanie Dalley

  33. He uses a plural term, pensiles horti, in contrast to the singular term kremastos kēpos used in all the Greek sources with the exception of Antipater.

  34. Q. Curtius Rufus, History of Alexander V.1.10–45. Loeb edn., translation of J. C. Rolfe (1946).

  35. See e.g. R. Thomas, Herodotus in Context: Ethnography, Science and the Art of Persuasion (2000), 200–10.

  36. The wrong one, with the wrong date, is given by Finkel, ‘The Hanging Gardens of Babylon’, eds. Clayton and Price, Seven Wonders (1988), 45–6; by R. Bichler and R. Rollinger, ‘Die Hängenden Gärten zu Ninive: Die Lösung eines Rätsels?’, ed. R. Rollinger, Von Sumer bis Homer, Festschrift für Manfred Schretter (2005), 172–98, and by Reade, ‘Alexander the Great and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon’, Iraq 62 (2000), 199; corrected by I. Finkel and M. Seymour, Babylon Myth and Reality, British Museum Exhibition catalogue 2008, 185 n. 162.

  37. The Oxford Classical Dictionary (3rd edn. 1996) does not include an entry for the later of the two.

  38. K. Gutzwiller, A Guide to Hellenistic Literature (2009), 166.

  39. See D. Haynes, The Technique of Greek Bronze Statuary (1992), 121–8.

  40. R. Hercher, Aeliani de natura animalium, … Porphyrii philosophi … Philonis Byzantii (1858), 101–2.

  41. K. Brodersen, Reiseführer zu den Sieben Weltwundern: Philon von Byzanz und andere antike Texte (1992).

  42. The translation of D. Oates given by Finkel, eds. Clayton and Price, Seven Wonders (1988), 45–6, was made largely from Hercher’s Latin translation which is partly a paraphrase; a few of Oates’s phrases are given here in the following notes, to indicate differences. The translation made by Hugh Johnstone in J. and E. Romer, The Seven Wonders of the World (2000), appendix 230–1, contains some good insights; but on p. ix he gives the wrong dating to Philo, so presumably made his translation without the benefit of Brodersen’s 1999 edition.

  43. Oates’s ‘This is the technique of its construction’ is in Hercher’s Latin text, but not in the Greek original.

  44. Oates: ‘grafting and propagation’. It is uncertain whether grafting was practised in the 7th century BC.

  45. The normal word for an aqueduct is used. Oates’s ‘elevated sources’ avoids translating as ‘aqueduct’ which is the translation given by Johnstone, and in dictionaries.

  46. Oates: ‘bends and spirals’, Johnstone ‘in a screw’.

  47. Oates: ‘the twists of these devices’, Johnstone ‘round and round in a spiral’.

  CHAPTER 3

  1. H. Rassam, Asshur and the Land of Nimrod (1897), 365.

  2. Bull inscription lines 41–2, see A. Fuchs, Die Inschriften Sargons II aus Khorsabad (1994), 66–7.

  3. Rassam, Asshur and the Land of Nimrod (1897), 352–5.

  4. Bellino cylinder, see D. D. Luckenbill, The Annals of Sennacherib (1924), 99; E. Frahm, Einleitung in die Sanherib-Inschriften (1997), 46–7.

  5. See M. T. Larsen, The Conquest of Assyria: Excavations in an Antique Land (1994), 190, and 346–9.

  6. R. D. Barnett, E. Bleibtreu and G. Turner, The Sculptures from the Southwest Palace of Sennacherib (1998), 16.

  7. J. E. Reade, ‘Nineteenth-century Nimrud: motivation, orientation, conservation’, eds. J. E. Curtis, H. McCall, D. Collon and L. Al-Gailani Werr, New Light on Nimrud (2008), 6. For the instrument see M. Kemp, The Science of Art: Optical Themes in Western Art from Brunelleschi to Seurat (1992), 200–1, and plates 396 and 397.

  8. J. E. Reade, ‘Assyrian illustrations of Nineveh’, Iranica Antiqua 33 (1998), 81–94; Barnett et al., Sculptures from the Southwest Palace of Sennacherib, vol. 1 (1998), 84–5.

  9. A. H. Layard, Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon (1853), 232.

  10. Barnett et al., Sculptures from the Southwest Palace of Sennacherib (1998), plates 223–5.

  11. BM 124939. See R. D. Barnett, Sculptures from the North Palace of Assurbanipal at Nineveh (1976), plate 23.

  12. Some modern drawings of the scene on this panel do not show the terraces above the aqueduct, and so give a misleading impression.

  13. This is the convention known as rabattement. See Lexikon der Aegyptologie s.v. Architekturdarstellung.

  14. See Chapter 7 for more detail.

  15. Some drawings of the panel are too sketchy to show this adequately.

  16. M. I. Finley, ‘Technical innovation and economic progress in the ancient world’, Economic History Review 18 (1965), 29–45, with K. Greene, ‘Technical innovation and economic progress in the ancient world: M. I. Finley re-considered’, Economic History Review 53 (2000), 29–59.

  17. See e.g. D. Charpin, ‘Archivage et classification: un récapitulatif de créances à Mari sous Zimri-Lim’, Proceedings of the 51st Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale 2005 (2008), 3–15, and bibliography in note on p. 3.

  18. See especially the inscription quoted in Chapter 4.

  19. Plutarch, Life of Marcellus XVII.3–4.

  20. Diodorus Siculus, Library of History I.34.2 and (quoting Posidonius of Apamea) V.37.3.

  21. Gutzwiller, A Guide to Hellenistic Literature (2007), 157–8.

  22. E. J. Dijksterhuis, Archimedes (1956), 22–3.

  23. See e.g. D. L. Simms, ‘Archimedes the engineer’, History of Technology 17 (1995), 45–111.

  24. Dijksterhuis, Archimedes (1956), 21–2; B. Gille, ‘Machines’, eds. C. Singer, E. J. Holmyard, A. R. Hall and T. I. Williams, A History of Technology, vol. ii (1956), 631; R. J. Forbes, Studies in Ancient Technology, 2 (2nd edn. 1965), 40; B. Cotterell and J. Kamminga, Mechanics of Pre-industrial Technology (1990), 94.

  25. A. Kleingünther, Protos Heuretes (1933).

  26. George, Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh (2003), vol. i, 708–9, tablet XI, line 86.

  27. E. Robson, ‘Three Old Babylonian methods for dealing with “Pythagorean” Triangles’, Journal of Cuneiform Studies 49 (1997), 51–2.

  28. Genesis 4.

  29. See J. Barr, ‘Philo of Byblos and his “Phoenician History”’, Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester 57 (1974), 17–68.

  30. e.g. in India around 2500 BC at Rahman Dehri, in Egypt on the 19th-century BC site of El-Lahun, and in north-western Iran on the 7th-century BC citadel at Bastam. See A. Sagona and P. Zimansky, Ancient Turkey (2009), 328–31 for the latter.

  31. A. Mazar and N. Panitz-Cohen, ‘It is the land of honey: bee-keeping in Iron Age IIA Tel Rehov—culture, cult and economy’, Near Eastern Archaeology 70 (2007), 202–19.

  32. G. Frame, Rulers of Babylonia from the Second Dynasty of Isin to the End of Assyrian Domination (1157–612 BC), Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia Babylonian Periods, vol. 2 (1995), 281–2. See also E. Crane, The World History of Bee-Keeping and Honey-Hunting (1999), 170–2.

  CHAPTER 4

  1. Here, as elsewhere, the text sometimes uses the word for copper, perhaps as a deliberate archaism imitating epics of earlier times.

  2. Date of the inscriptions: Iraq Museum prism, dated 694 BC published by A. Heidel, ‘The octagonal Sennacherib Prism in the Iraq Museum’, Sumer 9 (1953), 117–88; Chicago Prism dated 689 BC published by D. D. Luckenbill, The Annals of Sennacherib (1924), 28–47.

  3. Strabo, Geography XVII.1.10.

  4. The dots indicate that other details of building works in the text have been omitted here to gather up passages relevant to the waterworks; castings were also used for metal column bases, and special alloys for shining surfaces, as shown elsewhere in this chapter. The complete text is given in translation in the Appendix.

  5. Perhaps for rotation. The cog may not yet have been invented; but see the ‘Bronze Gears’ of the Early Iron Age found at Marlik, described later in this chapter.

  6. This intrusive line probably marks an imperfect arrangement of extracts taken from more detailed texts. See pp. 142–44.

  7. The modern equivalent to half a shekel is about 4 grams.

  8. J. Laessøe, ‘Reflexions on modern and ancient oriental water works’, Journal of Cuneiform Studies 7
(1953), 5–26.

  9. The word ‘copper’, omitted in Laessøe’s translation, was damaged on the prism available to Luckenbill, but well-preserved on the prism edited by Heidel, just too late for Laessøe to take into account.

  10. J. Laessøe, ‘The meaning of the word alamittu’, Compte rendu de la Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale 1952 (1954), 150–6, and ‘Reflexions on modern and ancient oriental water works’, Journal of Cuneiform Studies 7 (1953), 16.

  11. saqia: a wheel with bucket-like compartments fixed to its rim, rotated either by men treading the rim or by animals yoked to a capstan with right-angled gearing. The cerd is a mechanism mainly for drawing well water with rope, pulley and self-dumping bucket, pulled by a draft animal that walks away from the well, then back again.

  12. I. Löw, Die Flora der Juden, vol. 2 (1924), 302–3.

  13. See F. N. H. al-Rawi and M. Roaf, ‘Ten Old Babylonian mathematical problems’, Sumer 43 (1984), 184.

  14. S. Dalley, ‘Nineveh, Babylon and the Hanging Gardens: cuneiform and classical sources reconciled’, Iraq 56 (1994), 52.

  15. The Concise Dictionary of Akkadian (revised edn. 2000) gives the meaning ‘(a wild species of date palm)’.

  16. See e.g. M. Giovino, The Assyrian Sacred Tree: A History of Interpretations (2007), 31–7.

  17. A fairly common word thought to mean a crossbar is tallu or gištallu. Tallu is used in mathematical texts, see O. Neugebauer and A. Sachs, Mathematical Cuneiform Texts, American Oriental Society 29 (1945), 98.

  18. C. L. Woolley, Excavations at Ur (revised by P. R. S. Moorey 1982, as Ur ‘of the Chaldees’), 155.

  19. See B. as-Soof, ‘Mounds in the Rania plain and excavations at Tell Basmusian 1956’, Sumer 26 (1970), 65–104, and J. Eidem, The Shemshara Archives, vol. 2 (1992), 54 and map 2.

  20. Vitruvius, De Architectura book IV, c. 1, 6–7.

  21. T. Howard-Carter, ‘An interpretation of the sculptural decoration of the second millennium temple at Tell Al-Rimah’, Iraq 45 (1983), 64–8.

  22. D. Collon, First Impressions Cylinder Seals in the Ancient Near East (1987), nos. 765 and 773.

  23. A. Livingstone, Court Poetry and Literary Miscellanea, State Archives of Assyria vol. 3 (1989), no. 7.

  24. In other instances the ‘male’ tree with spiral patterned trunk may be a conifer. P. Collins, ‘Trees and gender in Assyrian art’, Iraq 68 (2006), 100–1. Conifers, of course, are not dioecious, so the gender in this case is presumably symbolic only.

  25. N. Franklin, ‘From Megiddo to Tamassos and back: putting the “Proto-Ionic capital” in its place’, eds. I. Finkelstein and N. Na’aman, The Fire Signals of Lachish, Festschrift for David Ussishkin (2011), 129–40.

  26. The technique is well described by P. Meyers, ‘Characteristics of casting revealed by the study of ancient Chinese bronzes’, ed. R. Maddin, The Beginning of the Use of Metals and Alloys (1988), 284.

  27. F. W. König, Die elamische Königsinschriften (1965), 169, text no. 78, and description, p. 22.

  28. See H. Maryon and H. J. Plenderleith, ‘Fine metal-work’, eds. C. Singer et al., A History of Technology, vol. 1 (1954), 632.

  29. For comparison of dimensions and angle with Roman screws used for mining, ‘typically a screw would be about 3 m long and set at an angle of between 30–40 degrees and could raise water about a metre. … (and in Japan) 3.5 m long, set at 40 degrees, raised water through about 2 m.’ See P. T. Craddock, Early Metal Mining and Production (1995), 78.

  30. Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, II.10.

  31. Strabo, Geography, XVI.1.

  32. See P. R. S. Moorey, Ancient Mesopotamian Materials and Industries: The Archaeological Evidence (1999), 269–73.

  33. See e.g. J. Rawson, ‘Carnelian beads, animal figures and exotic vessels: traces of contact between the Chinese states and Inner Asia, ca.1000–650 BC’, Archaeology in China, 1: Bridging Eurasia (2010), 1–42.

  34. It is uncertain whether the light talent or the heavy one was used in the relevant inscriptions. For the heavy one, the weight is doubled.

  35. e.g. E. Lipiński, The Aramaeans: Their Ancient History, Culture, Religion (2000), 548. See E. Frahm, ‘Wer den Halbschekel nicht ehrt—nochmals zu Sanheribs angeblichen Münzen’, Nouvelles assyriologiques brèves et utilitaires 45 (2005).

  36. See A. Kose, ‘Die Wendelrampe der Ziqqurrat von Dūr Šarrukīn—keine Phantasie vom Zeichentisch’, Baghdader Mitteilungen 30 (1999), 115–37.

  37. K 1356, see B. Pongratz-Leisten, Ina šulmi erub, Baghdader Forschungen 16 (1994), 207–9; and Frahm, Einleitung in die Sanherib-Inschriften (1997), T 184.

  38. F. Millar, The Roman Near East 31 BC–AD 337 (1993), 82–3.

  39. J. P. Oleson, Greek and Roman Mechanical Water-Lifting Devices: The History of a Technology (1984), figs. 71, 86 and 101.

  40. Many Old Testament scholars date a first version to the reign of Josiah, late 7th century; and a final redaction during the Achaemenid period which ended c.331 BC.

  41. Philo Judaeus, On the Confusion of Tongues, 38, quoted by J. P. Oleson, eds. J. W. Humphrey, J. P. Oleson and A. N. Sherwood, Greek and Roman Technology: A Sourcebook (1998), 318.

  42. E. O. Negahban, Marlik: The Complete Excavation Report (1996), 303 and plate 134, nos. 931 and 932. Average inside diameter 2.5 cm, outside diameter 6.5 cm, cast bronze, found with ‘small bronze tools and equipment’.

  43. A. Wilson, ‘Machines in Greek and Roman technology’, ed. J. P. Oleson, Oxford Handbook of Greek and Roman Technology (2008), 341; O. Wikander, ‘Gadgets and scientific instruments’, same vol., 791–3.

  44. R. Hannah, ‘Timekeeping’, ed. Oleson, Oxford Handbook of Engineering and Technology (2008), 740–58; T. Freeth, A. Jones, J. M. Steele and Y. Bitsakis, ‘Calendars with Olympiad display and eclipse prediction on the Antikythera mechanism’, Nature 454 (July 2008), 614–17.

  45. In the BBC television Channel 4 series Secrets of the Ancients (1999).

  46. Suggested e.g. by F. R. Stephenson, ‘A proposal for the irrigation of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon’, Iraq 54 (1992), 35–46.

  47. J. P. Oleson, ‘Irrigation’, ed. O. Wikander, Handbook of Ancient Water Technology (2000), 222–5. See also n. 5 in this chapter.

  48. Dated probably to the reign of Tiglath-pileser III, grandfather of Sennacherib, although a few of the panels in that group date from the time of Assurnasirpal II, in the 9th century; see J. N. Postgate and J. E. Reade, Reallexikon der Assyriologie 5 (1976–80), s.v. Kalhu.

  49. A. Bagg, Assyrische Wasserbauten, Baghdader Forschungen 24 (2007), 18 and 21, BM 118906; M. E. L. Mallowan, Nimrud and its Remains (1966), vol. 1, 124.

  50. The lexical list HAR-ra = hubullu, tablet VI, ed. B. Landsberger, Materialien zum sumerischen Lexikon vol. 6 (1958), 64–5.

  51. Sometimes under an alternative form hulamētu.

  52. However, in an intriguing entry the logogram bu.bu.i has Akkadian equivalents that include not only alamittu but also šuqqû which can mean ‘raising, lifting to a higher level’, information from the lexical list ALAM=Lanu A lines 189 ff. according to the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary s.v. alamittu and šaqû A. Reasons for grouping such items are often obscure. An irrigation device of uncertain identity in a list within a section dealing with ropes used for various purposes is GIŠ GÚ zi-rí-kum which may refer to a pulley or to a part of a shaduf. See forerunner of HAR-ra = hubullu tablet 6, 148, ll. 73–5, ed. B. Landsberger, Materials for the Sumerian Lexicon 6 (1958), also Nabnitu IV 378, ed. I. Finkel, The Series SIG7 = ALAN = Nabnītu, Materials for the Sumerian Lexicon 16 (1982), and lexical series ana ittišu 4.ii.33–5, ed. B. Landsberger, ana ittišu, Materials for the Sumerian Lexicon 1 (1937).

  53. D. Frayne, Ur III Period (2112–2004 BC), Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia Early Periods 3/2 (1997), 27, no. 5.

  54. See J.-G. Glassner, Mesopotamian Chronicles (2004), 156–9.

  55. V. Place, Ninive et l’Assyrie, vol. 2 (1867), especially 275–9, with plates 38 and 39. See Rassam, Asshur and the Lan
d of Nimrod (1897), 219–20, and S. Dalley, ‘Water supply for cities in the late eighth and seventh centuries BC: Assyria and Urartu’, eds. A. Çilingiroglu and G. Darbyshire, Anatolian Iron Ages 5, British Institute at Ankara Monograph 31 (2005), 39–43.

  56. Luckenbill, Annals of Sennacherib (1924), 129, vi.57.

  57. The qanat is explained and discussed in Chapter 5.

  58. See e.g. M. Huxley, ‘Sennacherib’s addition to the Temple of Assur’, Iraq 62 (2000), 107–37.

  59. G. Turner, ‘The state apartments of late Assyrian palaces’, Iraq 32 (1970), 177–213.