page 14 note 1 ‘The ascertained colours applied to the stages of the ziggurat at Ur are a welcome contribution to the settling of a much discussed question. While the blue of the topmost shrine is not only attested archaeologically, but confirmed by the inscriptions of Nebuchadrezzar, much doubt has been expressed whether the other parts of the building were also coloured. Victor Place reported that he had found traces of colour upon the ziggurat at Khorsabad, and, in spite of sceptics, it now appears that he was probably quite right. But from the fact that some of the most famous ziggurats (e. g. that of Borsippa) bore names which suggested that they were of seven stories, the theory was developed that the normal type was a building of seven stories, each coloured the hue that was conjectured to symbolize the Sun and Moon, and the five planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, Mercury, Venus) known to the Babylonians. It was even supposed that these colours may have corresponded with those of the seven concentric walls of Ecbatana which according to Hdt. i, 98 were respectively white, black, purple, dark blue, scarlet, silver, and gold. But, even if these colours could be proved to have left traces, or to be identified with the heavenly bodies named, it is quite certain that seven was only one of the numbers of stages which a ziggurat might have, three or four being at least equally common. It is therefore impossible to maintain this theory of the planets, but, as the ziggurat seems to represent an artificial mountain, with the abode of the god upon the (blue) summit of it, there is every reason to see in the arrangement and the colouring of the stages a cosmological significance, even if its precise import is uncertain.’—C. J. Gadd.
