Explorations in Bible lands during the 19th century - H. V. Hilprecht

522 EXPLORATIONS IN BIBLE LANDS
of pavement observed. We must therefore presume that
the rooms consisted only of earth, well trodden, covered
with reed or palm mats over which rugs were doubtless
often spread.
In a like manner the walls were kept entirely
bare, no attempt being made at relieving their dull faces
with any kind of decoration. " We saw no sign of paint
and no remains of plastering, not even of mud plaster."
These early Babylonians, who excelled all other ancient
nations of the same period in their lofty religious conceptions,
in the depth of their sentiment and in the scientific
character of their investigations, did not suffer anything in
their schoolrooms that would tend to distract the minds of
the pupils and to interfere with their proper occupation.
The temple library of ancient Nippur was eminently a place
of study and a seat
of learning, where the attention of all
those who assembled for work was concentrated upon but
one subject, — the infusing or acquiring of knowledge.
accordance with an ancient Oriental custom even now universale
prevailing in the East — in the great Mohammedan
university of Cairo as well as in the small village schools of
Asia Minor — we should imagine the Babylonian students
of the time of Abraham being seated on the floor with
crossed legs, respectfullv listening to the discourses of the
priests, asking questions, practising writing and calculating
representative cuneiform texts
on clav tablets, or committing to memory the contents of
by repeating them in a moderated
loud voice.
The " books " required for instruction, reference and
general reading as a rule were unbaked clay tablets stored
on shelves, or sometimes deposited in jars. The shelves
were made either of wood, — as
In
ordinarily was the case also
— or of clay, for which rooms Nos. 1-3 on the accompanving
plan of the " Northeast Portion of the Temple
in the business houses on the western side of the Chebar,
Library " offer appropriate examples. These clay ledges