VI. MIDDLE IRON AGE:
1. Greek and Parthian periods; c. 330 B.C.-220 A.D.

Characteristics. Sudden degeneration and disappearance of the ancient
native civilization and art; imitation of Greek culture, Greek
buildings (theatre at Babylon), and inscriptions; Greek legends on
Parthian coins; Parthian kings call themselves 'Philhellenes';
Graeco-Roman architecture imitated (Hatra). Graeco-Roman terra-
cottas, pottery lamps, pilgrim-flasks and bone-carvings; classical
seal gems; Roman glass; fragments of imitation of classical sculpture
in marble (the material being adopted as well as the style); and, of
course, coins--these are characteristic remains found on mounds of
this period. About l00 B.C. the use of cuneiform was given up; clay
tablets were no longer used. Aramaic became the usual form of
writing; ink used on sherds; wax tablets. Small bowls often found
with ink-written incantations in Judaeo-Aramaic (see XV, Fig. 19).
Mounds of this period are perhaps most easily recognized by the
quantities of deep-blue glazed sherds found lying about on them. The
glaze is rather thin, laid on a coarse drab ware, and is often
cracked. The blue is very fine, rivalling the old Egyptian. Burials
of this period are often found in (besides the shallow pottery
coffins mentioned above) rectangular oblong boxes of thin coarse ware
with light friable blue glaze (Babylon), or (later) in slipper-shaped
coffins (possibly Sassanian) of the same ware, rudely decorated with
human figures (warriors) in relief, on panels (Warka). The blue glaze
has often changed to a dark green, especially in the case of the
Warka slipper-coffins. The lids are cemented to the coffins.
Internments are now full length, the old custom of contraction having