istic feature of the Babylonian tombs is their simplicity.
The dead body, which was often covered with palm woods, was placed
generally on the side--though occasionally on the back--on a board of
wood, or wrapped in a mat of reeds or palm fibers, and covered with a
tub-shaped clay dish. On the dish there was frequently an ornamental
design, but beyond this, there was no attempt at decoration. The body
was frequently pressed together in order to be brought within the
compass of the dish. Sometimes, the knees were pulled up or the body
placed in a semi-sitting posture, and there are indications that the
bodies were often divided into two or three parts prior to burial. On
the stele of vultures,[1261] representing the triumph of Eannatum over
his enemies, attendants are seen building a mound over the symmetrically
arranged bodies of the king's soldiers slain in battle. The monument
belongs to the most ancient period of Babylonian history, and we are
justified, therefore, in regarding this method of earth-burial as the
oldest in vogue. The dead, it would seem, are placed on the ground, or
near the surface, and covered with a mound. This custom would account
for the use of a dish to cover the body after it became customary to
place the dead in small houses or vaults built for the purpose. The
shape of the dish, or tub, recalls the earth-mound over the dead, and
the tenacity of conventional methods is apparent in the modern custom,
even among Western nations, of raising a mound over the grave, even
though the body is placed at a depth of six feet and more below the
surface. A modification of the form of coffin was the jar into which the
body was forced. To do this, still greater violence had to be employed.
Instead of one jar, two were also used, the body placed partly in one,
partly in the other, and the two were then joined with bitumen. In the
Persian period, a slipper-shaped coffin was used, into which the body
was inserted through an aperture at one end; but there is no evidence
that the Babylonians employed this method. With the bodies, various
objects were interred, many of which had a special significance. Except,
perhaps, at a very early period[1262] the dead were not buried naked,
but covered with a garment. The seal cylinder, which, as Herodotus tells
us,[1263] every person of position carried about his person, and which,
when impressed on a clay tablet, served as his signature, was buried
with the dead as an ornamen