The Historians' History of the World 01

I proceed to the second division of the day into twelve kazabs [kashbu]. Each of these was equivalent, putting out of sight errors of observation, to two hours of mean solar time, such as we use in ordinary life. The word kazab [kashbu] is from a Hebrew root meaning “to fail,” which is applied to streams that run dry. This suggests the primary signification, “runnings out,” namely, of the water which had been poured into a vessel with a small hole in the bottom. The Babylonians measured time by clepsydræ, which, when they had been filled, would be emptied in two hours of mean time. Such clepsydræ would maintain a sufficiently accurate division of the day into twelve kazabs [kashbu] if the first were set to run at apparent noon, the second when the first had run out, and so on till the thirteenth, which would be set to run at the next apparent noon, whether the twelfth was just running out, or had already run out, or had still a little water in it.

The kazab [kashbu] is mentioned as an ordinary measure of time in more than one passage. The distance from the mainland to an island in the Persian Gulf is said to be a voyage of thirty kazabs [kashbu] (Botta, 41. 48), just as that from Cyprus to Syria is said to be one of seven days (Botta, 38. 41). Also, in Rawlinson, 42. 13, Sennacherib speaks of slaughtering his enemies for the space of a journey or march of two kazabs [kashbu]. This use of the word seems to me a positive proof that the clepsydræ was in use among the Assyrians and Babylonians generally, and was not confined to the astronomers.

There does not appear to me any reason to suppose that a division of the day from sunrise to sunset into twelve hours, varying in length according to the season of the year, and again of the night, from sunset to sunrise into twelve similar hours, was ever known to the Babylonians. Such a division was in use among the Egyptians, and was adopted from them by the Greeks, but the Babylonians and Assyrians knew nothing of it. I may here observe that some modern writers have committed a strange mistake in supposing the clepsydræ to have been invented so late as the third century before Christ and at Alexandria. These writers have confounded two totally different things; viz., the original invention of the clepsydræ marking mean solar time, which goes back to remote antiquity, and is almost certainly due to the Babylonians, and the adaptation of the clepsydræ to the seasonable (καιρικαὶ) hours of the Egyptians and Greeks, which was accomplished at the time and place which these writers mention. I have met with no subdivisions of the kazab [kashbu], and I much doubt whether the Babylonians had any means of marking such.f

ASSYRIAN SCIENCE

The exact sciences were cultivated in Assyria from the earliest times, nor had natural sciences been neglected. Zoology, botany, mineralogy are largely represented in the library of Nineveh, and as all these tablets contain a Sumerian as well as the equivalent Assyrian text, we are justified in believing that the Ninevites, in this respect, still followed the traditions of their predecessors.

We find lists of animals arranged in a certain order which indicates an attempt at classification; thus the dog, lion, and wolf are in the same category, whilst the ox, sheep, and goat form another. In the enumeration of the different animals, there is a very evident design of establishing genera and families, and of distinguishing species. Thus we have a family comprising the great Carnivora: the dog, lion, and wolf; then we have different species in the dog family—such as the dog itself, the domestic dog, the coursing dog, the small dog, the dog of Elam, etc. The scientific side of this classification is revealed by an easily recognised circumstance; thus one finds after the common name a special nomenclature, which belongs to a scientific classification with which the Assyrians seem to have been familiar.

Among the birds similar attempts at classification are evident. Birds of rapid flight, sea-birds, or marsh birds are differentiated. Insects form a very numerous class; we see an entire family whose species are differentiated according as they attack plants, animals, clothing, or wood. Vegetables seem to be classified according to their usefulness, or the service that industry can make of them. One tablet enumerates the uses to which wood can be put, according to its adaptability, for the timber-work of palaces, the construction of vessels, the making of carts, implements of husbandry, or even furniture. Minerals occupy a long series in these tablets. They are classed according to their qualities, gold and silver forming a division apart; precious stones form still another, but there is nothing to indicate on what basis a classification would be established.