Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 1).djvu/91

 The sculptures further show, contrary to what was long the received opinion, that the ancients possessed mechanical contrivances for diminishing manual labour, not unlike those now made use of. Indeed, the genius that planned and carried out the sculptures at Nineveh, might have been deemed equal to the knowledge of the pulley, or of the wheel and axle; and such we find to have been the case. In the museum at Leyden there exists a well made pulley, brought from Egypt; and on a bas-relief from Nineveh we clearly discern that the old mechanical contrivances differed inappreciably from those of modern days. Similar appliances would certainly have been adopted on shipboard, and ancient vessels must have been furnished with pulleys, or such other simple mechanical contrivances as were required for raising the anchor, hoisting heavy sails, or otherwise assisting manual labour.

In fact, the sculptures exhibit most of the common implements in actual use, as the saw, the pickaxe, the adze, and the handspike (or lever of the first class). Moreover, there are still preserved in the British Museum specimens of the metallic parts of all the above-named instruments.

Having called attention to the more important nations, the Tyrians, the Carthaginians, the Babylonians and the Assyrians, some other peoples who, in the ancient history of the world, played an important part, as maritime or naval states, require to be noticed, but more briefly.

Among these are the following: Lydia, Ionia, Caria, Phrygia, Sinope, Cilicia, and Scythia.

To take first Lydia. There can be no doubt that