Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1905-10-10
)LDEN SEWERAGE SYSTEMS
HOW THE BABYLoMIANS DRAIN
ED THEIR CITY.
Excavations in Oldest Cities of the
World Show Remarkable Drainage
Systems Perfectly Adapted to the
Soils and to the Demands of the In
hahifants

oySLSHlS TSFIeCtly ADAPTED TO the
Soils and to the Demands of the In
habitants.
1t is generally supposed that it is
only modern man who has perfected
a system Of drainage and sewerage
TO carry from his house and city the
oyerfowing rain water and the filth
and garbage which accumulate In
the excavation of Bismya, the ancient
Sumerian or pre-Babylonian city
which fourished $500 years ago,
writes Edgar ]. Banks in the Scien-
tifc American, a remarkable system
Of drainage, perfectly adapted to the
alluvial plain of the Mesopotamian
desert, has been discovered.
Babylonia is perfectly level From
Bagdad to the Persian Gulf there is
not the slightest elevation, save for
the artificial mounds or an occasional
changing sand drift In most places
there is a crust of hard clay upon
The surface, baked by the hot sun of
summer time, so hard that it resem-
0les stone. Parts of the desert are
perfect for bicycle riding. Beneath
the crust, which at Bismya is seldom
more than four feet in thickness and
In places entirely lacking, is loose,
eaving sand reaching to an unknown
1epth.
Drainage in such a country, without
stopping hills or streams of running
water, might tax the ingenuity of the
modern builder. In constructing q
house the ancient Sumerian of more
than 5000 years ago first dug a hole
into the sand to a considerable depth.
At Bismya several instances were
found where the shaft had reached
the depth of fourteen meters beneath
the foundation of the house.
From the bottom he built up ver-
teal drain of large cylindrical, terra
Gotta sections, each of which is pro-
vided with grooved fianges to receive
the one above The sections of one
drain were forty-eight centimeters in
diameter and sixty in height; others
were larger and much shorter; the
thickness of the wall was 81 cent?
metres. The tiles were punctured at
Intervals with small holes about two
centimeres in diameter. The section
at the top of the drain was semi
spherical, fitting over it like a cap,
and provided with an opening to re-
ceive the water from above. Sand
and potsherds were then filled in
about the drain, and it was ready for
use. The water, pouring into it, was
capidly absorbed by the sand at the
bottom, and if there it became
cIogged the water escaped through
the holes in the sides of the tiles
The temple at Bismya was provided
with several such drains. One palace
was discovered with four; a large
bath, resembling a modern Turkish
bath, and provided with bitumen
floor, sloping to one corner, emptied
its waste water into one.
In clearing out the drains, few Of
them, whose openings had been ex-
posed, were filled with the drifting
sand; others were half full of the filth
of long past ages; in one at the tenn
pie we removed dozens of shallow
terra Gotta drinking cups, not unlike a
large saucer in shape and size. Evil
IDENTIFY it received the waste water of
drinking fountain, and the cups had
accidently dropped within.
In the Bismya temple platform, con-
structed about 2750 B. c., we uncov-
cred horizontal drain. of tiles, each
of which was about meter long and
fifteen centimeters in diameter, and
not unlike in shape those at present
employed. 1t conducted the rain
water from the platform to one Of the
constructed that for a long time it
served as a chimney for our house,
until my Turkish overseer suggested
that its dark smoked end project from
the battlements of the house to con-
vince the Arabs that we were well
fortified; thus it served as a gun UNI
til the close of the excavations.
In other parts of the temple more
elementary drains were employed to
carry off the surface water from the
slightly inclined platform. 1t con-
sisted simply of a groove constructed
of bricks or arranged by emitting the
bricks in the floor; frequently the
groove was continued down over the
vertical edge of the platform.
The Babylonians of later period,
dead, carefully provided their ceme-
teries with drains. The graves were
small house-shaped structures entire
ly or partly above ground, and when
ever they were found upon the slop-
ing side of mound, they were pro-
tected above by a breakWater, while
along the sides were square, open
brick drains The result was that
some of the graves, although thous-
ands of years old, and constructed Of
unbaked clay, are still in a perfect
state of preservation.
To the student of architecture it
may be surprising to learn that the
arch, until recently supposed to have
been unknown to the ancients, was
frequently employed by the probably
lonians of more than 5000 years ago
Such an arch, in poor state of pres
ervation, was a few years ago discov-
cred in the lowest stratum, beneath
the Babylonian city of Nippud. More
recently an arched drain was found
beneath the old city of Fara, which
the Germans have excavated in cen
trail Babylonia. The city, although
one of the earliest known, was built
upon an earlier ruin, and provided
with an arched drain constructed of
small, plano-convex bricks 1t meas
ures about one meter in height, and
has an equal width.
While delving among the ruins of
the oldest cities of the world, we are
thus finding that at the time when we
supposed that man was primitive and
savage, he provided his home and city