Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 01.djvu/390

LEFT ASSYRIA 312 ASTERACE^ and in civilization. They constructed large buildings, especially palaces, of an imposing character. The palaces were raised on high terraces; there were no windows, light being obtained by carry- ing the walls up to a certain height and then raising on them pillars to support the roof and admit light and air. The Assyrian sculptures, as a rule, were in relief, figures in the full round being the exception. In many cases, however, as in those of winged bulls and other monsters, a compromise was attempted between the full round and relief, the heads being worked free and the body in relief, with an additional leg to meet the exigencies of different points of view. The Assyrians understood and applied the arch; constructed tunnels, aqueducts, and drains; used the pulley, the lever, and the roller ; engraved gems in a highly artistic way; understood the arts of in- laying, enameling, and overlaying with metals; manufactured procelain, trans- parent and colored glass, and were ac- quainted with the lens; and possessed vases, jars, and other dishes, bronze and ivory ornaments, bells, gold ear- rings and bracelets of excellent design and workmanship. They had also sil- ver ornamental work. Their household furniture also gives a high idea of their skill and taste. Assyrian Astron(ymy. — The cities of Nineveh, Assur, and Arbela had each their royal observatories, superintended by astronomers-royal, who had to send in their reports to the king twice a month. At an early date the stars were numbered and named; a calendar was formed, in which the year was divided into 12 months (of 30 days each) called after the zodiacal signs, but as this division was found to be incorrect, an intercalary month was added every six years. The Assyrians employed both the dial and the clepsydra. Eclipses were recorded from a very remote epoch, and their recurrence roughly de- termined. The principal astronomical work, called the "Illumination of Bel," was inscribed on more than 100 tablets. Literature and Civilization. — One of the most important results of the ex- plorations has been the discovery in the palace of Asshur-banipal at Nineveh, of a large library consisting of many thousand tablets of baked clay inscribed with minute characters; large numbers of these are now stored in the British Museum. This library, in all probabil- ity, owes its origin to the keen political insight of Esar-haddon, but was com- pleted by his son Asshur-banipal, whose name most of the tablets bear. Its educational character is shown by the discovery of a number of syllabaries, dictionaries, and text-books for instruc- tion in the ancient Akkadian and Sumi- rian languages. There have been found also works on mathematics, tables of square and cube roots, as well as lists of plants, metals, and precious stones, animals, and birds; records of eclipses and other asti'al phenomena, brief lists of laws and various contract tables. The geographical works are limited to lists of countries with their prod- ucts, such as "Lebanon, cedar"; "Elam, horses"; "Cilicia, tin and silver"; and "Arabia, camels." The section most pro- lific in discoveries has been that of poetic and mythological literature. In 1872 the late George Smith, of the British Museum, discovered a series of poetic legends relating to the great Chaldean hero Gilgamesh (Gizdubar, or Izdubar), the 11th tablet of which contained a leg- end of the deluge, very closely resem- bling the Hebrew account. Chroyiology. — The chronology of the Assyrian empire now rests upon a firm basis, being founded on several carefully prepared chronological inscriptions. The most important of these is the "Eponym Canon," a tablet containing a list of the archons, or eponyms of Nineveh, or Ca- lah, giving an exact chronology from 913-659 B. c. As each of these officials was in office only one year, the year was named after them; and, as the date of the Bursagalu is fixed by a solar eclipse, the dates of all the officials can be ascer- tained. ASTER, a genus of plants, the type of the order asteracese, or composites. It is so called because the expanded flowers resemble stars. There is but one British species, the A. tripolium, sea starwort, or Michaelmas daisy. In the United States these asters grow wild in the meadows and on the prairies. They grow to beautiful forms under cultiva- tion. The popular name aster is applied to some species not of this genus. Thus the China aster is callistephus chinen- sis, and the Cape aster agathxa amel- loides. ASTERACE.ffl (as-ter-as'e-i), former- ly, an order, the fourth of five arranged under the alliance composite, or aster- ales, the others being calyceraceas, muti- siacese, cichoraceae, and cynaracese. These, excluding cynaraceas, constitute the com- posite proper. The term asteracese in this sense is called also corymbiferas, and comprehends the larger portion of the modern tubuliflorss.