Los Angeles herald., 1906-10-22

AS the excavator uncovers the ruins
Of long past civilizations, in ancient
Egypt, and especially IN Babylonia. the
antiquities which he discovers, crude as
they may seem, often tell a story of
unusual interest. A shapeloss piece OF
clay, minute fragment Of eartheu jar,
q bit Of polished stone, a sea she'll or
some other apparently worthless object,
II found at certain depth and with
certain surroundings, may reveal far
more regarding primitive man and how
he lived than the more beautiful an
tiquitics which adorn the showcases OF
the great museums.
Bismya, the Babylonian ruin which
the excavations for tho University of
Chicago have recently exposed and
which represents the oldest city now
known, revealed in it's lowest strata
material which has yielded an unusual
abundance of light upon the origins Of
come most common things. AS valu-
able as were the marble statues from
the Bismya temple, the gold jewelry
from the graves and the beautifully
engraved and lnlaid vases of alabaster
and onyx, stlll more valuable for the
study of primitive civilization were the
little fragments OF clay and stone tc
which most people would hardly give
passing glance.
While was standing at the edge Of a
trench which was being dug through
the residential portion of Bismya a
workman upturned with his pick %
small clay object the size of a large
orange. Carefully brushing the dirt from
it he examined it. and, observing that
Il was so light that it must be hollow
he shook 1t at his ear. faint sound
came from within. Later as the clay
became free from the moisture of the
ground the sound became louder, closely
resembling that made by a babys tin
rattle. Indeed, the little clay object was
the rattle of'a Babylonian baby of 5000
years ago, for that was the date of the
Inscriptions found in the encasing dirt.
The rattle was made by placing a few
pebbles in a small saucer-shaped dish,
and before the clay was dried n similar
dish was inverted upon it, and as the
edges were pressed together a hollow
spherical clay ball, with the pebbles
inside, was formed.
The First Lamp
The lamp is a common thing, perhaps
so common that it may seen to have
always existed. In one of the lower
strata of the Bismya temple there ap-
peared several ordinary sea shells, in the
interior of which still clung a black
deposit. For long time it was difficult
to understand the purpose which the
shells had served. Later, as we were
digging at higher level, we discovered
conch> shell from which a section had
been cut so that 1t formed a perfect
dish, while the valve resembled an
elongated nose of a frying pan. In this
shell also was a black deposit. The
conch had clearly served as a lamp.
The sea shell, therefore, seems to have
been the first lamp of primitive man.
Centuries later, when lamps became
more common and shell could no longer
be found to meet the demand, stone was
cut into the shape of shell and its
valve. A number of beautiful ala
baster and marble lamps, some plain
and Others more or less decorated, were
found at Bismya, all resembling the
shell from which they were copied.
1t would be interesting to know what
oil the Babylonian Of 5000 years ago
burned in his shell lamp and how he
discovered that oil could produce light.
We can only imagine that the fat of the
mutton, which he was roasting oyer
the camp fire, ignited, and fiaring up,
lighted the darkness about him. In
time he learned to collect the mutton
rat into the dish and 10 pace IN II
wick of the cotton which grew wild
along the Euphrates river.
Fragments of Pottery
Down on the desert level, far below
a large temple which was constructed
about $500 B. c., and beneath thirty
feet of earlier ruins, we found a thick
layer of clay pottery fragments Of an
antiquity so great that it is difficult to
estimate their approximate age. Some
of the pots from which the fragments
came had been made by hand; others
showed traces of a most primitive pot
ter'S wheel. The potter who, while
forming vessel, turned with one hand
the fat board or stone upon which the
clay was resting, as he shaped it with
the other, invented the wheel. The
earliest thrown vases were not eX-
actly circular, for the board upon which
the clay was formed did not then re-
vclVe evenly as about a central pivot