History of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 4 (of 12) eBook

Gaston Maspero
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 344 pages of information about History of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 4 (of 12).

History of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 4 (of 12) eBook

Gaston Maspero
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 344 pages of information about History of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 4 (of 12).

The dynasty of Uruazagga-The Cossseans:  their country, their gods, their conquest of Chaldaea-The first sovereigns of Assyria, and the first Cossaean Icings:  Agumhakrime.

The Egyptian names for Syria:  Khara, Zahi, Lotanu, Kefatiu-The military highway from the Nile to the Euphrates:  first section from Zalu to Gaza-The Canaanites:  their fortresses, their agricultural character:  the forest between Jaffa and Mount Carmel, Megiddo-The three routes beyond Megiddo:  Qodshu-Alasia, Naharaim, Garchemish; Mitanni and the countries beyond the Euphrates.

Disintegration of the Syrian, Canaanite, Amorite, and Khdti populations; obliteration of types-Influence of Babylon on costumes, customs, and religion—­Baalim and Astarte, plant-gods and stone-gods-Religion, human sacrifices, festivals; sacred stones—­Tombs and the fate of man after death-Phoenician cosmogony.

Phoenicia—­Arad, Marathus, Simyra, Botrys—­Byblos, its temple, its goddess, the myth of Adonis:  Aphaka and the valley of the Nahr-Ibrahim, the festivals of the death and resurrection of Adonis—­Berytus and its god El; Sidon and its suburbs—­Tyre:  its foundation, its gods, its necropolis, its domain in the Lebanon.

Isolation of the Phoenicians with regard to the other nations of Syria; their love of the sea and the causes which developed it—­Legendary accounts of the beginning of their colonization—­Their commercial proceedings, their banks and factories; their ships—­Cyprus, its wealth, its occupations—­The Phoenician colonies in Asia Minor and the AEgean Sea:  purple dye—­The nations of the AEgean.

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CHAPTER II—­SYRIA AT THE BEGINNING OF THE EGYPTIAN CONQUEST

Nineveh and the first Cossaean kings—­The peoples of Syria, their towns, their civilization, their religion—­Phoenicia.

The world beyond the Arabian desert presented to the eyes of the enterprising Pharaohs an active and bustling scene.  Babylonian civilization still maintained its hold there without a rival, but Babylonian rule had ceased to exercise any longer a direct control, having probably disappeared with the sovereigns who had introduced it.  When Ammisatana died, about the year 2099, the line of Khammurabi became extinct, and a family from the Sea-lands came into power.*

* The origin of this second dynasty and the reading of its name still afford matter for discussion.  Amid the many conflicting opinions, it behoves us to remember that Gulkishar, the only prince of this dynasty whose title we possess, calls himself King of the Country of the Sea, that is to say, of the marshy country at the mouth of the Euphrates:  this simple fact directs us to seek the cradle of the family in those districts of Southern Chaldaea.  Sayce rejects this identification on philological and chronological grounds, and sees in Gulkishar, “King of the
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History of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 4 (of 12) from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.