ed the city of the living and
was laid out in streets through which ran rivulets of "pure" water. Many of
the tombs, which were built of crude brick, were provided with gardens, and
there were shelves or altars on which were placed the offerings to the
dead. As the older tombs decayed a fresh city of tombs arose on their
ruins. It is remarkable that thus far no cemetery older than the Seleucid
or Parthian period has been found in Assyria.

AUTHORITIES.--See A. H. Layard, _Nineveh and Babylon_ (1853); E. de Sarzec
and L. Heuzey, _Decouvertes en Chaldee_ (1884 foll.); H. V. Hilprecht, _The
Babylonian Expedition of the University of Pennsylvania_ (1893 foll.);
J. P. Peters, _Nippur_ (1897); E. Schrader, _Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek_
(1889-1900); _Records of the Past_ (new series, 1888-1892); Th. G. Pinches,
"The Babylonian Chronicle," in _Journ. R. A. S._ (1887); H. Winckler,
_Altorientalische Forschungen_ (1893 foll.), and _The Tell-el-Amarna,
Letters_ (1896); G. Maspero, _Dawn of Civilization_ (1896), _Struggle of
the Nations_ (1897), and _Passing of the Empires_ (1900); L. W. King,
_Letters of Khammurabi_ (1898-1900); H. Radau, _Early Babylonian History_
(1900); R. W. Rogers, _History of Babylonia and Assyria_ (1900); F. Hommel,
_Grundriss der Geographie und Geschichte des alten Orients_ (1904);
_Mitteilungen der deutschen Orientgesellschaft_ (1899).

(A. H. S.)

VIII. _Chronological Systems_.--The extreme divergence in the chronological
schemes employed by different writers on the history of Babylonia and
Assyria has frequently caused no small perplexity to readers who have no
special knowledge of the subject. In this section an attempt is made to
indicate briefly the causes which have led to so great a diversity of
opinion, and to describe in outline the principles underlying the chief
schemes of chronology that have been suggested; a short account will then
be given of the latest discoveries in this branch of research, and of the
manner in which they affect the problems at issue. It will be convenient to
begin with the later historical periods, and then to push our inquiry back
into the earlier periods of Babylonian and Sumerian history.

Up to certain points no difference of opinion exists upon the dates to be
assigned to the later kings who ruled in Babylon and in Assyria. The
Ptolemaic Canon (see sect. II.) gives a list of the Babylonian, Assyrian
and Persian kings who ruled in Babylon, together with the numbe