t that had a personal value. The staff which
the man was in the habit of carrying is found in the grave, and also
such weapons as arrowheads and spears. Various ornaments of copper,
iron, gold, and stone, rings, necklaces or bands of gold were probably
placed with the dead as a sign of affection, not because of any belief
that the deceased needed these objects. Toys, too, are found in the
graves, and we may assume that these were placed in the tombs of
children. The frequent presence of shells in the tombs is still
unexplained. On the other hand, remains of food, dates, grain, poultry,
and fish, that have been found in graves belonging to various periods,
may be regarded as a proof for the existence of the belief that the dead
could suffer pangs of hunger. The closing lines of the Gilgamesh
epic,[1264] where the fate of the neglected dead is portrayed, confirms
this view. But such remains are more frequent in the early graves than
in those of a later time. Animal sacrifices at the grave appear to be
very old.[1265] Offerings of food and water were made to the dead, not
only at the time of the burial, but afterwards by surviving relatives.
The son performs the office of pouring out water to the memory of his
father.[1266] The close of the legend of Ishtar's journey suggests that
the festival of Tammuz was selected as an 'All-Souls' day. The weeping
for the lost Tammuz served as an appropriate link for combining with the
mourning for the god the lament for the dead. The water jar is never
absent in the old Babylonian tombs, and by the side of the jar the bowl
of clay or bronze is found, and which probably served the same purpose
as a drinking utensil for the dead. How early it became customary to
bury the dead together we do not know. It may be that at one time they
were buried beneath the dwellings that they occupied when alive, under
the threshold or in the walls;[1267] but the conception of Aralu as a
great gathering-place of the dead would hardly have arisen, unless the
'city of the dead' by the side of the 'city of the living' had become an
established custom. We are, therefore, justified in assuming that as the
villages grew into towns, the huddling together of the living suggested
placing the dead together in a portion of the town set aside for the
purpose. In comparison with the elaborate constructions in the Egyptian
cities of the dead, the Babylonian necropolis was a shabby affair.
Vaults, rarely more than five fe