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CFT Made Simple A Clinician s Guide to

Practicing Compassion Focused


Therapy 1st Edition Russell L Kolts
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“This book is not just simple. It is elegant and powerful. Through engaging didactics and detailed
clinical examples, Russell Kolts demonstrates how we can bring compassion to clients’ lives by
applying innovative and precise techniques of compassion-­focused therapy (CFT). You will learn
to use perspective-­taking shifts and imagery techniques formally and through natural conversa-
tions. You will learn to help clients understand and overcome their struggles using evolution and
contextual sciences. Be kind to yourself and to your clients: read CFT Made Simple.”
—­Matthieu Villatte, PhD, coauthor of Mastering the Clinical Conversation

“An excellent book. Well written, easy to read, insightful, and inspiring. And bursting with practi-
cal ideas that will be useful for any health professional with an interest in compassion and mindful-
ness. A valuable contribution to the field of health and well-­being.”
—­Russ Harris, author of The Happiness Trap and ACT Made Simple

“A clinician’s ability to be compassionate, to help clients face their pain with kindness and courage,
is at the core of all effective therapies. Bringing together evolutionary psychology, affective neuro-
science, attachment theory, behaviorism, and mindfulness approaches, Russell Kolts provides a
compendium filled with heartfelt wisdom, step-­by-­step guidelines, and exercises that therapists of
any orientation can use immediately to help their clients reclaim warmth, affiliation, safeness, and
hope in their lives. This indispensable volume is a must-­have in any clinician’s library.”
—­Robert Kohlenberg, PhD, ABPP, and Mavis Tsai, PhD, codevelopers of functional
analytic psychotherapy (FAP)

“CFT is a revolutionary new approach to therapy firmly rooted in ancient wisdom and modern
science. The author has an uncanny ability to present this multidimensional model in a practical,
straightforward manner without losing any of its subtlety. This book is a wonderful resource for
clinicians who wish to dive deeply into CFT, or who simply want to integrate key aspects of the
approach into their existing practices. Drawing directly on our innate capacity for compassion,
CFT offers compelling insights for therapy and how we may live our daily lives more fully. Highly
recommended!”
—­Christopher Germer, PhD, author of The Mindful Path to Self-­Compassion, and
coeditor of Mindfulness and Psychotherapy

“This is a phenomenal book that manages to convey the complex theory underlying CFT into
extremely simple ideas and practices that translate directly into clinical practice. This book will be
an essential tool for any therapist wanting to effectively incorporate compassion into their work
with clients.”
—­Kristin Neff, PhD, associate professor in the department of educational
psychology at the University of Texas at Austin, and author of Self-­Compassion
The Made Simple Series
Written by leaders and researchers in their fields, the Made Simple
series offers accessible, step-by-step guides for understanding
and implementing a number of evidence-based modalities in
clinical practice, such as acceptance and commitment therapy
(ACT), dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), compassion-focused
therapy (CFT), functional analytic psychotherapy (FAP), and
other proven-effective therapies.

For use by mental health professionals of any theoretical


background, these easy-to-use books break down complex
therapeutic methods and put them into simple steps—giving
clinicians everything they need to put theory into practice to
best benefit clients and create successful treatment outcomes.

Visit www.newharbinger.com for


more books in this series.
CFT
made simple
A Clinician’s Guide to Practicing
Compassion-Focused Therapy

RUSSELL L. KOLTS, P h D

New Harbinger Publications, Inc.


Publisher’s Note
This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold
with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering psychological, financial, legal, or other professional
services. If expert assistance or counseling is needed, the services of a competent professional should be sought.

“On Pain” from THE PROPHET by Kahlil Gibran, copyright © 1923 by Kahlil Gibran and renewed
1951 by Administrators C.T.A. of Kahlil Gibran Estate and Mary G. Gibran. Used by permission of
Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Penguin
Random House LLC. All rights reserved.

The table in the section “Compassionate Thinking and Reasoning” in chapter 10 is adapted from
Kolts, THE COMPASSIONATE MIND GUIDE TO MANAGING YOUR ANGER (2012), with
permission from Little, Brown Book Group.

Distributed in Canada by Raincoast Books

Copyright © 2016 by Russell L. Kolts


New Harbinger Publications, Inc.
5674 Shattuck Avenue
Oakland, CA 94609
www.newharbinger.com

Cover design by Sara Christian; Acquired by Melissa Kirk;


Edited by Gretel Hakanson; Indexed by James Minkin

All Rights Reserved

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data on file

Printed in the United States of America

18  17  16
10   9   8   7   6   5   4   3   2   1 First printing
For my dear friend, colleague, and mentor Paul Gilbert. Paul, your brilliant work,
inspiration, nurturance, and tutelage have made this book possible, and have given me a
professional life that is more meaningful and rewarding than I had ever dared to dream.
Contents

Forewordvii

Introduction1

1 Origins and Basic Themes13

2 Introducing Compassion25

3 Compassionate Relating: Roles of the Therapist in CFT33

4 Compassionate Understanding: How Evolution Has Shaped Our Brains49

5 Compassionate Understanding: Three Types of Emotion61

6 Compassionate Understanding: The Social Shaping of the Self75

7 Compassionate Awareness: Cultivating Mindfulness91

8 Committing to Compassion: Working with Self-­C riticism107

9 Cultivating the Compassionate Self115

10 Compassionate Thinking and Reasoning129

11 Using Compassionate Imagery141

12 Embodying Compassion: Chair Work in CFT155


CFT Made Simple

13 Compassionate Integration: Case Formulation in CFT171

14 Exploring Affect: The Multiple Selves Practice181

15 Riding the Third Wave: Integrating CFT into Your Therapy195

Conclusion203

Afterword: Unpacking the Compassionate Mind205

Acknowledgments207

Appendix: Reproducible Forms209

References217

About the author223

Index225

vi
Foreword

In this beautifully and skillfully written book, Russell Kolts uses his experience to outline the key
themes in compassion-­focused therapy (CFT). It’s very easy to think that compassion approaches
to psychological therapies are just about helping people be kind to themselves and others. In
reality, the center of compassion—­particularly in the therapeutic arena—­is courage. Russell himself
has worked with anger problems in prison inmates and has developed a CFT approach that he calls
the True Strength program, highlighting compassion as the strength and courage to turn toward our
suffering, and that of others.
I must confess that I was dubious about “making therapies simple” because this can easily be
seen as dumbing them down. It’s important to note that compassion-­focused therapy is in some
ways very complex: based in consideration of basic scientifically established psychological pro-
cesses; the ways in which emotions, motives, and cognitions operate; and the manner in which
humans are deeply socially embedded and organized through their social relationships. So when
you read this in terms of “made simple,” don’t think that Russell is saying the therapy is “simple.”
Rather, he is outlining some of the crucial concepts of CFT in the hope that they will be useful to
you, and perhaps excite you to learn more.
I’m delighted to say that Russell achieves his goal brilliantly and in a way I never could. I am one
of those people who tend to see complexity rather than simplicity. So here is a wonderful guide to
introduce you to the realities of the toughness, difficulties, and complexities of CFT—­but, as
Russell says, creating the layers and building blocks in relatively straightforward and simple ways.
As explained in this book, CFT began in a relatively simple and straightforward way in the
1980s. It started with just noticing the importance of understanding the emotional tone people created
in their heads when they tried to be helpful to themselves. For example, imagine you are trying to
generate helpful thoughts when you’re feeling depressed. But imagine “hearing” and experiencing
CFT Made Simple

these thoughts in a very hostile way, as if you are irritated and contemptuous even as you say them
in your mind. How will that be? Even an encouraging phrase like You can do it becomes venomous
when communicated in a hostile mental “tone of voice.” You might try saying that to yourself in a
contemptuous, sort of hostile way and notice how that feels. Notice whether you feel encouraged.
Then imagine that you can really focus on warmth and empathic understanding in the words,
focusing on the feeling—­maybe as if you were hearing somebody who really cared about you say
it with a heart that wishes for you to be free of your depression, or maybe as if hearing your own
voice as supportive, kind, and validating with the same intention. Actually doing exercises like this
is helpful, because in CFT getting personal experience by doing the practices yourself is key to the
development of your therapeutic skills.
What I found all those years ago was that while people could “cognitively” learn to generate
new perspectives and coping thoughts, they often did so with a contemptuous or hostile, irritable
tone. Indeed, they often found it very difficult to experience coping thoughts that involved two
important aspects that are now recognized as being core to our understanding of compassion.
First, they struggled to direct these thoughts toward themselves with a heartfelt motivation that is
based on empathic concern to address the deeper causes of the difficulties (compassionate motiva-
tion). Many patients actually blamed themselves, or thought they did not deserve compassion, or
that compassion was weakness in some way—­just too soft! Sometimes they were very avoidant of
the causes of their suffering—­for example, not wanting to address the traumatic experiences
underpinning their depression, or the fact that they needed to make life changes. It takes courage
to begin working on these difficult issues. Second, they tended to struggle with generating sup-
portive, kind, understanding, and validating emotions when they actually created those thoughts in
their mind (compassionate action).
So CFT began with trying to think about how to help clients generate compassionate motivation and
care-­orientated emotions, and also within that motivation, to create certain kinds of emotional
balancing within the mind. As Russell says, we use a standard definition of compassion—­one that
captures the heartfelt wish for suffering to cease, a preparedness to develop “sensitivity to suffering
of the self and others with a commitment to try to alleviate and prevent it.” The prevention part is
important, because the training that we do is aimed at reducing suffering both in the present and
in the future. So the first psychology of compassion is about how we begin to address our suffering
and really start to understand it. As Russell outlines here, there are many competencies that we are
going to need, such as how we pay attention, how we experience being in contact with distress,
how we tolerate our distress, and how we empathically understand it without being judgmental or
critical.
The second psychology of compassion is really about developing the wisdom of knowing how
to be genuinely helpful. True helpfulness requires the development of wisdom—­we must under-
stand the nature of suffering before we are well equipped to work with it. Minds are very tricky and
are full of conflicted motives and emotions. Also, although warmth and gentleness can be part of
compassion, compassion requires a certain toughness, assertiveness, and a great deal of courage as
well. Parents are prepared to argue with their children over their diets or going out late at night

viii
Foreword

because they want to protect them, even though this may cause conflicts. In some therapy encoun-
ters, clients are frightened of their anger or anxiety or grief. Therapists may then need to encour-
age these clients to experience such emotions, even when a client is reluctant to do so, and even
when doing so may not be pleasant at the time, because that is what’s required to help this client
learn to experience and work with these difficult feelings. It’s a therapeutic skill and wisdom that
allows the therapist to know how and when to do this. Indeed, some years ago, studies showed that
some of the warmest therapists were behaviorists! That makes sense, because behavior therapy
often has to encourage clients to engage with things they’d rather not connect with.
CFT also uses evolutionary functional analysis to help us understand how our emotions work.
As Russ clearly outlines, we consider emotions in terms of three functionally distinct types of
emotion-­regulation system: there are emotions for dealing with threats and trying to protect us,
emotions that are stimulating us to go out and achieve and acquire resources, and emotions that
give rise to feelings of contentment, safeness, and slowing down—­which are sometimes linked to
the parasympathetic functions of rest and digestion. Many of our clients are very out of balance
with these emotions, and the capacity for contentedness and peaceful feelings can be almost impos-
sible for them to access. Studies of the parasympathetic nervous system have shown that this
system is out of balance in many people with mental health problems, with the major emotion-­
balancing and regulating systems not operating appropriately. In such cases, we have to help them
get these feelings of safeness online. In this way, building and cultivating the capacity for slowing
down, grounding, and experiencing safeness, connectedness, and affiliation are central treatment
targets for CFT. This creates the competencies and strengths for people to then engage with
feared material—­be these things they need to do in the outside world, or in the internal one.
Given that CFT is an evolutionary-­based therapy, it will not be surprising to hear that it draws
from attachment theory and its extensive research base. Attachment theory tells us that relation-
ships with caring others can provide a secure base (which can be the platform to enable us to go
out and try things, take risks) and a safe haven (a safe and secure base where we can be soothed,
helped, and supported when we’ve gotten into difficulties). CFT helps clients begin to experience
and develop this internalized secure base and safe haven.
Once a person understands the nature of those three different types of emotion we visited
earlier, then a lot of things fall into place. For example, when soldiers are trained, their secure base
and safe haven can shift away from their families and toward their combat buddies—­because that
is indeed the source of their safeness in combat. When they go out on sorties they will be in high-­
stakes arousal, and when they come back they will calm down and find that safe haven within the
company of their buddies. So the soothing systems have been rewired to respond in connection
with these combat buddies. When they come home, they can then lose the secure base and safe
haven that their brains have gotten wired up for, and there will be fewer intense “dopamine rushes.”
Even though they are now at home with their families in a physically safe environment, it can be
very difficult and even stressful, because those families are not now the source of the secure base
and safe haven.

ix
CFT Made Simple

CFT outlines these kinds of processes clearly because it contains an emotional model capable
of dealing with that degree of complexity. This example is reflective of a common aspect of CFT:
the CFT therapist is very interested in how patients are able to calm and ground themselves, feel
connected to a secure base and safe haven, and then develop the courage necessary to engage with
feared and avoided experiences. Key too is the development of the internal affiliative relationship;
that is, one learns to relate to oneself in a friendly, supportive way rather than in a critical manner
that will continue to stimulate the threat system.
Good therapists want to know the evidence behind the therapies they utilize. Given the
purpose of this book, Russell has not overwhelmed it with evidence, but makes clear that a lot of
the evidence for CFT is process evidence. That is, we don’t have many theoretical concepts, but
rather try to understand and draw upon what the science tells us about things like motivation and
emotion—­for example, what we know about the importance of the frontal cortex and how that
develops during childhood or is affected by trauma. We know that the affiliative motives (such as
attachment or group belonging) and emotions played a very major role in mammalian evolution and
in particular the evolution of human intelligence. We also know that affiliative relationships are very
powerful regulators of motives and emotions. It follows, therefore, that these would be targets for
therapeutic intervention.
The backbone of CFT is found in detailed knowledge of how our brains have become the way
they are, understanding the evolutionary function of emotions, understanding core regulating pro-
cesses of motives and how motives are linked to self-­identity, and understanding how self-­identity
can be cultivated in the therapeutic process. All over the world now, we are beginning to recognize
that the human mind is full of complex emotions and conflicts partly because of its evolved
design—­an awareness that is increasingly reflected even in popular culture, such as the Disney
movie Inside Out (2015). The human brain is very tricky, easily pushed into doing bad things to
others and harmful things to ourselves. Compassionate motives, however, help to bring harmony
and reduce the risks of both.
CFT is an integrative therapy, which makes use of many evidence-­based intervention strate-
gies. These include Socratic dialogue, guided discovery, identification of safety behaviors, focus on
avoidance and exposure, inference chaining, reappraisal, behavioral experiments, mindfulness,
body/emotion awareness and breath training, imagery practices, supporting maturation—­and more
besides. However, CFT also features a number of unique features:

• Psychoeducation about our evolved “tricky” brains

• Models of affect regulation with special focus on affiliation and the parasympathetic
nervous system

• A specific focus on the complex functions and forms of self-­criticism and self-­conscious
emotions, highlighting distinctions between different types of shame and guilt

• Building compassion-­focused motives, competencies, and identities as inner organizing


systems

x
Foreword

• Utilizing self-­identity as the means for organizing and developing compassionate


motives and competencies

• Working with fears, blocks and resistances to compassion, positive feelings, and espe-
cially affiliative emotions

One of the key aspects of CFT is the idea that motives are major organizers of our minds. They
are linked to phenotypes in complex ways that are beyond the scope of the current discussion. But
for example, imagine that you are invited to a party and you are motivated by competitive social rank.
You want to impress the people there, and avoid making mistakes or being rejected, and you want
to take any opportunity you can to identify the more dominant members of the group and impress
them. Now let’s change that motivation and imagine you have a motivation that’s focused on caring
or friendship. Now your attention is not on who is dominant or whom you can impress (or how you
can impress them), but on finding out more about them. You are interested in sharing values, and
perhaps developing friendships. You will be considering people in terms of whether you like them
and want to spend time with them or not. The ways we think, pay attention, and act are guided by
motivations. Of course, beliefs and things like organizing schemas come into it—­in fact, these are
linked to motives—­but the crucial issue is motivation. When we see how powerful these motives
can be in organizing our minds, it becomes clear why compassion and prosocial motivations are
central in CFT.
Research has revealed that many people with mental health problems are motivated primarily
through competitive social rank systems which play out in terms of harsh self-­judgments, self-­criticizing,
and worries of being seen as inferior or incompetent in some way and rejected, often with intense
feelings of loneliness. These individuals may often feel they are stuck in low-rank, low-status, or
undesirable positions. Of course, there are others who are hyper-­focused on attaining dominance;
focused on getting ahead and taking control regardless of the impact it has on others. Switching to
caring-­focused or compassionate motivations can be a revelation to such clients, but can also be
quite frightening. Different types of clients can experience resistance toward cultivating compas-
sionate and prosocial motives rather than competitive social rank–focused ones. CFT teaches
people how to think about different motivational and emotional states and to practice switching
between them. When we learn how to create within us a wise, strong, compassionate motivation
and then to anchor that motivation at the center of our sense of self, we discover that it brings with
it a wisdom for how to deal with life crises, orienting us to our own suffering and those of others in
very different ways. We discover that it’s a way of liberating ourselves from suffering and learning
how to tolerate that which can’t be changed. A very simple depiction of the essence of why devel-
oping a compassionate sense of self is important can be seen in “Compassion for Voices,” a very
short film about how people who hear voices can develop a compassionate self: https://www
.youtube.com/watch?v=VRqI4lxuXAw.
Russell guides readers through the processes by which we need to pay attention to our bodies,
learn how to identify which emotion motivational systems are operating through us (motives which
can be activated quite automatically and exert considerable control over our thoughts and

xi
CFT Made Simple

behaviors unless we develop more mindful awareness), and cultivate care-­focused motives, emo-
tions, and self-­identity using a range of techniques drawn from standard therapies, contemplative
traditions, and acting traditions. As Russell makes clear, the details of CFT can indeed be complex,
but the layered approach presented here helps to organize these complexities in a straightforward,
understandable way. I’m delighted to see Russell write this book in such a clear and easy-­to-­
understand, step-­by-­step way. I hope it will entice you to learn more—­perhaps to get more train-
ing, and perhaps even motivate you to cultivate an ever-­deepening compassionate motivation
within yourself. As Russell points out, there’s nothing like personal practice and insight to see how
these processes work.
All that I can do now is to leave you in the talented and capable hands of your author and hope
this inspires you to learn more about the nature of compassion and how we can bring it into
therapy, and of course, into all aspects of our lives.

—­Paul Gilbert, PhD, FBPsS, OBE

xii
Introduction

And a woman spoke, saying, “Tell us of Pain.”

And he said: Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.

Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain.

And could you keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles of your life, your pain would not seem less wondrous than
your joy;

And you would accept the seasons of your heart, even as you have always accepted the seasons that pass over your fields.

And you would watch with serenity through the winters of your grief.

From The Prophet, by Kahlil Gibran

Compassion involves allowing ourselves to be moved by suffering, and experiencing the motivation
to help alleviate and prevent it. Compassion is born of the recognition that deep down, we all just
want to be happy and don’t want to suffer. In this book, you’ll learn about compassion-­focused
therapy (CFT), a therapy that focuses on the purposeful cultivation of compassion, the skills and
strengths that flow from it, and how to use these to work effectively with human suffering. When
we see what we’re up against—­the situation we’re all in together, just by the virtue of having human
lives—­there’s a deep realization that can arise: With all the potential suffering and struggle that we and all
humans will face, compassion is the only response that makes sense.
Why do we need compassion? We need compassion because life is hard. Even if we’re born into
a relatively advantaged existence, with ready access to food, a comfortable place to live, people
CFT Made Simple

who love us, education, and opportunities to pursue our goals—­even if we have all of this—­we will
all face tremendous pain in our lives. We’ll all get sick, grow old, and die. We’ll all lose people we
love. We’ll all sometimes do our very best in pursuit of goals we desperately desire, and fail. Most
of us will have our hearts broken, if not once, then several times. To have a human life means we
will face pain. It’s the price of admission. Life is hard, for everyone.
But we can forget this. We can forget that all of us hurt, and that these feelings are universal—­
part of what binds us together as human beings. Many of us, and many of those we seek to help,
can instead experience these struggles and emotions as isolating, as signs that there is something wrong
with me. Instead of reaching out for help, we may pull back from others. Instead of supporting,
encouraging, and reassuring ourselves, we may meet our struggles with criticism, attacks, and
shame. And even when we know better, it can be hard for us to feel reassured. This business of being
human can be tricky indeed. And for some people—­such as the psychotherapy clients we seek to
help—­things are exponentially more difficult.

COMPASSION-­FOCUSED THERAPY
It was observations like these that inspired my dear friend and colleague Paul Gilbert to develop
compassion-­focused therapy. CFT was designed to assist therapists in helping clients understand
their mental suffering in nonshaming ways, and to give them effective ways to work with this suf-
fering. Over the last few years, CFT has been increasingly used by mental health providers—­first
in the United Kingdom where it was developed, and increasingly in other parts of the world as well.
It’s also been the focus of a growing body of empirical work.

What Is CFT and How Is It Useful?


CFT represents the integration of various science-­based approaches for understanding the
human condition with mind-­training practices that are literally thousands of years old. Finding its
scientific footing in evolutionary psychology, affective neuroscience (particularly the neuroscience
of affiliation), the science of attachment, behaviorism and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), and
the growing body of literature supporting the efficacy of mindfulness and compassion practices,
CFT is focused on helping clients relate to their difficulties in compassionate ways and on giving
them effective methods for working with challenging emotions and situations.
CFT was originally developed for use with patients who have a tendency toward shame and
self-­criticism, who may struggle in treatment even while engaging in evidence-­based therapeutic
protocols such as CBT (Gilbert, 2009a; Rector et al., 2000). For example, such patients may be
able to generate thoughts such as I know that what happened wasn’t my fault, but struggle to feel reassured
by such thoughts. A focus of CFT is to create an emotional congruence between what clients think
(for example, helpful thoughts) and what they feel (for example, reassured). CFT helps patients
learn to engage with their struggles and those of others in warm, accepting, and encouraging ways,

2
Introduction

to help themselves feel safe and confident in working with challenging affects and life difficulties.
CFT has been applied to a growing list of problems including depression (Gilbert, 2009a; Gilbert,
2009b), psychosis (Braehler et al., 2013), binge-­eating disorder (Kelly & Carter, 2014; Goss, 2011),
anxiety (Tirch, 2012), anger (Kolts, 2012), trauma (Lee & James, 2011), social anxiety (Henderson,
2010), and personality disorders (Lucre & Corten, 2013).

The CFT Approach


A growing body of empirical research supports the potential use of compassion interventions
in psychotherapy (Hofmann, Grossman, & Hinton, 2011). One thing that distinguishes CFT from
other therapies that incorporate compassion is our focus on helping clients understand their chal-
lenges in the context of evolution (how our brains evolved to produce basic motives and emotions),
the dynamics of how emotions play out in the brain, and the social factors that shape the self, par-
ticularly early in life. None of these factors are chosen or designed by our clients, but they play a
huge role in their struggles. In this book, you’ll learn to help clients apply these understandings to
their problems, so that they can stop shaming and attacking themselves for things that aren’t their
fault, and focus on taking responsibility for building better lives. Whereas shame is linked with
avoidance that can contribute to our clients’ struggles (Carvalho, Dinis, Pinto-­ Gouveia, &
Estanqueiro, 2013), compassion can give them a way to approach their difficulties with acceptance
and warmth, to face them and work with them.
In CFT, clients learn about how different emotions and basic motives evolved to serve certain
functions, exploring how these emotions play out in ways that can create interesting challenges
when combined with modern environments and new-brain capacities for imagery, meaning-­making,
and symbolic thought. For example, clients learn how the confusing dynamics of threat emotions
like anxiety and anger make complete sense when viewed through the lens of evolution. Such
understanding reveals why it’s so easy to get “stuck” in such emotions, which can help lessen
clients’ tendencies to shame themselves for their feelings. CFT also explores how social contexts
and attachment relationships can serve to transform our underlying genetic potential into challeng-
ing behaviors and emotions. This exploration creates a context for self-­compassion to take root, as
patients begin to realize how many of the factors that create and maintain their problems were not
of their choice or design, and hence, not their fault.
In CFT, this de-­shaming process is accompanied by a simultaneous building of responsibility
and emotional courage through the cultivation of compassion. Patients learn to work with evolved
emotion-­regulation systems to help themselves feel safe and confident as they approach and actively
engage with life challenges. They are guided in developing adaptive, compassionate strategies for
working with emotions, relationships, and difficult life situations. In CFT, the emphasis is on helping
clients learn to stop blaming themselves for things they didn’t get to choose or design, and to skill-
fully work with the factors they can impact to build a repertoire of skills for working with life chal-
lenges and building fulfilling, meaningful lives. As we will explore, this is done through both implicit

3
CFT Made Simple

aspects of the therapy, such as the therapeutic relationship and the therapeutic emphasis upon
guided discovery, as well as specific techniques such as imagery, compassion cultivation practices,
and the development of compassionate reasoning.

The Evidence Base for CFT


One of the most important movements in the field of mental health over the past century or so
is the emphasis on having our treatments grounded in solid science. The evidence base in support
of CFT is twofold: First, there is the growing body of research supporting the efficacy of CFT
interventions. Second, there are several underlying bodies of literature that provide the scientific
basis for the theory behind CFT as well as the process-­level components of the therapy. While the
focus of this book is on learning the therapy, I wanted to take a moment to briefly introduce you
to the science underlying CFT.

EVIDENCE FOR CFT INTERVENTIONS


Of course, the first question to consider is Does CFT work? There is a relatively small but rapidly
growing body of research documenting the efficacy of CFT interventions. Research has shown
that CFT can help to reduce self-­criticism, shame, stress, depression, and anxiety (Gilbert &
Proctor, 2006; Judge, Cleghorn, McEwan, & Gilbert, 2012). Other studies have documented posi-
tive outcomes using CFT with people suffering from psychotic disorders (Braehler et al., 2013;
Laithwaite et al., 2009), eating disorders (Kelly & Carter, 2014; Gale, Gilbert, Read, & Goss, 2014),
personality disorders (Lucre & Corten, 2013), problematic anger (Kolts, 2013), and traumatic brain
injury (Ashworth, Gracey, & Gilbert, 2011), and in conjunction with eye movement desensitization
and reprocessing for the treatment of trauma (Beaumont & Hollins Martin, 2013).
The primary limitation of the current literature supporting the efficacy of CFT is the relative
lack of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) documenting its effectiveness. At the time of this
writing, there are two such RCTs in print. One of these (Kelly & Carter, 2014) showed significant
impacts of CFT in reducing binges, global eating disorder pathology, and eating and weight con-
cerns, and increasing self-­ compassion in individuals with binge-­ eating disorder. The second
(Braehler et al., 2013), documented the impact of CFT upon clinical improvement in patients suf-
fering from psychosis relative to controls, along with increases in compassion that were associated
with reductions in depression and perceived social marginalization. A recent systematic review of
the literature on CFT (Leaviss & Uttley, 2014) concluded that CFT shows promise in treating psy-
chological disorders, particularly for highly self-­critical individuals, but notes that more high-­
quality clinical trials are needed before definitive statements can be made about CFT being an
evidence-­based treatment approach. We in the CFT community agree with this assessment, believ-
ing that a therapy model is only as good as the science behind it, and are committed to the growing
production of rigorous research examining CFT’s effectiveness.

4
Introduction

THE SCIENCE UNDERLYING THE CFT MODEL


A second question to ask in considering the science behind CFT is Where does CFT come from? In
developing CFT, Paul Gilbert’s goal was not to create an entirely new model of psychotherapy in
competition with other therapy models, but to integrate and build upon what existing science tells
us about how humans get to be the way they are, and how we can best help them work with suffer-
ing when things go wrong (personal communication, 2009). As such, CFT finds its roots in a large
and varied body of scientific research, including the neuroscience of emotion and affiliation (e.g.
Depue & Morrone-­Strupinsky, 2005; Cozolino, 2010), the existence and dynamics of basic evolved
emotion-­regulation systems (e.g. Panksepp, 1998; Panksepp & Riven, 2012), and the social shaping
of the self through attachment relationships (e.g. Schore, 1999; Siegel, 2012).
In its approach to understanding the dynamics of emotion, CFT also draws heavily on behav-
iorism (e.g. Ramnerö & Törneke, 2008) and upon cognitive science regarding things like the
working of our implicit and explicit memory and emotion systems (e.g. Teasdale & Barnard, 1993).
Likewise, in structuring our approach to treatment, CFT draws upon science documenting the
social regulation of emotion (e.g. Cozolino, 2010; Porges, 2011) and growing evidence supporting
the use of compassion practices (Hofmann, Grossman, & Hinton, 2011) and related therapeutic
strategies in the treatment of psychological disturbances—­strategies such as mindfulness, mental-
ization, and other interventions we’ll explore in this book. We won’t dive too much more deeply
into the scientific basis of the therapy here, as the focus of this book is on the application of CFT, and
there are existing resources that provide a detailed articulation of both the theoretical basis of CFT
and the science that underlies it (see Gilbert, 2009a; 2010; 2014).

The Practice of CFT


My goal in writing this book is to give you an accessible guide to learning and applying CFT.
CFT Made Simple is primarily designed to be an entry point for mental health professionals who want
to learn the CFT model and begin applying it in their clinical practice. It may also be useful for
clients, or anyone who is interested in CFT and wants to learn more about it and how it is used in
therapy.

LAYERED PROCESSES AND PRACTICES


My hope is that after reading this book, you will understand CFT not as a collection of tech-
niques, but as a set of layered processes and practices that interact and strengthen one another. These
layered processes and practices are aimed at helping clients to establish and elaborate upon two
common themes: developing compassion for themselves and others, and cultivating a repertoire of
compassionate capacities for working courageously with suffering. This book will be loosely orga-
nized to mirror this layered approach to CFT. Many of our clients will enter therapy with deeply
seated shame and self-­criticism, or with lives that are defined by experiences of threat and

5
CFT Made Simple

emotional distance, volatility, and ambivalence. In the beginning, such clients may not be ready to
benefit from diving into traditional self-­compassion practices. As with the practice of master gar-
deners, the first few layers of CFT are designed to prepare the soil, so that when planted, the seeds
of compassion will flourish. Let’s explore this layering:

Therapeutic Relationship

Compassionate Understanding

Mindful Awareness

Compassionate Practices

Figure 1: Layered Processes and Practices in CFT

After a brief orientation to the origins and basic concepts of CFT in chapter 1, chapter 2 will
provide an introduction to compassion and how it is operationalized in CFT, giving us a context for
what is to come. In chapter 3 we’ll focus on the first layer in our approach: the therapeutic relation-
ship. In the context of an unconditionally warm therapeutic relationship designed to help clients
learn to feel safe, we’ll orient ourselves to the process of the therapy. We’ll explore the presence and
roles served by the CFT therapist, and the general therapeutic approach used in CFT—­one of
guided discovery. This relationship forms the first layer of compassion in CFT, as clients gradually
learn to feel safe in relationship to the therapist, and to experience compassion coming to them, from this
person who is committed to their well-­being.
In chapters 4 through 6, we’ll begin exploring the second layer of compassion in CFT: compas-
sionate understanding. We’ll learn how CFT helps clients to begin to understand their emotions
and life experiences in nonblaming, compassionate ways. This work is done via the development of
understanding about how their minds and lives have been shaped by forces that they neither chose nor
designed—­evolution, social shaping, and the ways these interact. We’ll revisit this theme later in
the book, introducing a CFT-­based model of case formulation in chapter 13.

6
Introduction

In chapter 7, we’ll turn our focus to compassionate, mindful awareness, which is the third layer
of compassion in CFT. We’ll explore strategies to rapidly help clients increase their awareness of
their emotions, thoughts, and motives. We’ll also consider ways to help our clients not get caught
up in some of the common obstacles that often hamper beginners in their efforts to learn
mindfulness.
In chapters 8 through 15 we’ll formally turn our focus to the fourth layer: compassionate prac-
tices for working with suffering. In chapter 8, we’ll explore how to help clients develop motivation
to shift from a self-­critical to a compassionate perspective in working with their challenges. In
chapter 9, we’ll explore how to help clients develop the compassionate self—­a wise, kind, courageous,
adaptive version of themselves that will serve as a reference point from which they can develop the
courage to work with the things that terrify them, and the compassionate strengths to use in doing
so. We’ll then explore ways to help clients cultivate compassionate thinking and reasoning (chapter
10) and the ability to use compassionate imagery to self-­soothe and deepen compassion for them-
selves and others (chapter 11), and introduce the use of chair work and perspective-­taking exercises
in helping clients strengthen the compassionate self, giving it a central role in their lives (chapter
12). In chapter 14, we’ll explore the Multiple Selves exercise—­a powerful method for bringing
compassion to difficult emotions and situations—­and in chapter 15, we’ll explore how the compas-
sionate perspective offered by a CFT approach can fit with and enhance the tools you already use
in your therapy practice.
Together, these layers provide a framework for learning CFT, and for how CFT can be used in
conjunction with empirically supported technologies of change such as behavior activation or
exposure. Hopefully you’re beginning to realize that CFT is not simply a recycled form of cogni-
tive behavioral therapy with some compassion practices pulled from Buddhism added in for good
measure. We’re working to layer an interactive set of processes—­nurturing relationships, powerful
understandings, deepening awareness, and the purposeful cultivation of compassionate strengths—
to help clients shift away from threat-­focused ways of existing in the world and toward a perspec-
tive that is kind, wise, and confident, and which draws upon a body of effective skills for working
directly and courageously with life challenges.

WHAT IF MY CLIENT DOESN’T BELIEVE


IN EVOLUTION?
One factor distinguishing CFT from other therapy models is that we consider human emotions,
motives, and behavior in an evolutionary context. This understanding helps facilitate compassion
for ourselves and other people, because much about how these experiences play out in us makes a lot
of sense given our evolutionary history. Given the current cultural environment in the West, I thought
it might be useful to consider what to do if we find ourselves working with someone who doesn’t
agree with the theory of evolution. News articles indicate that approximately one-­third of Americans
don’t believe in evolution theory, instead ascribing human origins to the action of a supreme being.

7
CFT Made Simple

In fact, evidence suggests that rates of belief in evolution may be declining in some groups (Kaleem,
2013). So it’s likely that at some point we’ll encounter clients who simply don’t subscribe to the
theory of evolution. I certainly have.
Is this a problem for CFT? Well, yes and no. Certainly CFT therapists do not have an agenda
around challenging clients’ spiritual beliefs or religion, and there are plenty of CFT therapists who
have religious beliefs of their own. Trying to change the mind of someone who is motivated to
reject the idea of evolution is probably not going to be helpful, and may actively undermine the
therapeutic relationship. There are a few ways we could work with this issue. We could refer such
clients to clinicians who utilize approaches that don’t emphasize evolution—­which is pretty easy
to do, as there are many therapies that don’t speak to it at all. Alternatively, we could continue with
CFT, leaving out the evolution pieces. I don’t see either of these solutions as optimal. There are lots
of people who may not believe in evolution, but who could still benefit from CFT. At the same
time, evolution isn’t a small facet of the therapy—­it plays a significant role in how we conceptualize
the brain, the mind, and the problems our clients bring us.
I’d suggest some middle ground, which can actually help us create a model for how to work
with difficult issues that will come up in therapy: Honestly discuss the issue in a way that names the
situation, and enlist the client in considering how to work with it. We can also soften or omit lan-
guage around evolution across species, instead emphasizing adaptation within the human species—­
referring to how our challenging characteristics may have been quite useful for our human ancestors
(who faced very different threats and demands than we do now), even as these qualities play out in
ways that aren’t very well suited to modern life. Here’s an example of how that conversation might
take shape:

Therapist: Evan, as we continue to explore our emotions and how they work, I wanted to
mention that I’ll be talking about evolution—­specifically about how our
emotions make sense when we look at them in an evolutionary context. I know
that some people don’t accept the theory of evolution, and I wanted to touch
base about that.

Evan: (stiffening a bit) I don’t believe in evolution. I believe that God created humans,
just as we are.

Therapist: Good—­that’s what I wanted to clarify. I want to say at the outset that I don’t
have any agenda around challenging or changing anyone’s religious beliefs.
People have different beliefs, and there are different ways of understanding how
we got here, and how we got to be the way we are. So I’m not going to try and
push any beliefs on you.

Evan: (visibly relaxing) Good. Because that wouldn’t have gone very well.

Therapist: (smiling warmly) I don’t imagine it would have! So I want you to know that I
respect your beliefs, but at the same time, the therapy we’ll be doing is based

8
Introduction

on science, and so I’ll sometimes be talking about things from a scientific


perspective—­because it can help us make sense of how our emotions work. You
don’t need to accept the theory of evolution for us to proceed. All I need you
to accept is that we have brains and minds that sometimes work in tricky ways
to produce emotions that can be hard for us to handle. How does that sound?

Evan: That’s not hard to accept. I’ve definitely got some emotions that are hard to handle.

Therapist: Most of us do. Now, I’ll probably still talk about evolution from time to time,
because I come from a scientific perspective, and that’s the way I make sense
of things. How about when I do that, I’ll talk about it as “from the scientific
perspective,” which you can choose to agree with or disregard—­taking what
is helpful and ignoring the rest. What do you think?

Evan: Sounds like it’s worth a try.

Therapist: We can also focus on things as they played out for humans across the years, as
our societies have changed. The idea is that our brains work in ways that may
have helped our ancestors—­say, humans who lived in isolated villages in a harsh
world that included lots of very real physical threats—­but which can be less
useful in the modern world, in which most of the threats we face are very
different. What do you think?

Evan: I don’t have any problem with that. I know humans have lived in different ways
over time. It’s the “coming from monkeys” stuff that I don’t believe.

Therapist: It sounds like we’ve got lots of room to work with, then. Also, if it does seem like
this issue is getting in the way of our therapy, I’d appreciate it if you’d let me
know. If that were to happen, we could explore it together and figure out a way
to work with it. What I don’t want to happen is for you to be uncomfortable or
unhappy with the therapy and for me to be clueless about it.

Evan: Sounds good.

I’ve found that once clients understand that I respect their right to hold different beliefs and am
not trying to change them, the evolutionary perspective becomes much less of an issue. I’ve also
found that using the phrase “from a scientific perspective…” allows me to continue talking about
things in the manner we’ll explore in this book, and that clients can often accept it—­because we’re
acknowledging that there are other, valid perspectives as well. I’ve even had clients come up with
alternative explanations, such as “This tricky brain is a riddle that God gave me to figure out.”
Sometimes, I’ve found that as clients see how the information I’m presenting fits with their lived
experience and helps explain how their emotions work, they tend to soften to the evolutionary
perspective (without giving up any of their religious beliefs).

9
CFT Made Simple

Even clients who generally reject the concept of evolution are often willing to consider adapta-
tions occurring within the human race that fit better with some times in our history than others,
and that’s a good thing. The evolutionary piece isn’t just about deshaming emotions by considering
why we have them. It also helps us clarify and understand the ways that different emotions play out
in us. When we consider that threat emotions like anger and anxiety evolved to help us identify
threats and rapidly do what is needed to deal with them, it makes complete sense that when we
perceive a threat, our attention, thoughts, and imagery would all be drawn to the threat until the
situation is resolved—­in the harsh world faced by our ancestors, ignoring sources of threat could
mean injury or death. The problem is that these threat responses are better suited to the savannahs
and forests faced by our ancestors than to the boardrooms and relationships that form most of our
modern-day threats—­and they are of no use at all in facing the multitude of threats dreamt up
entirely via our “new-brain” capacities for thought, imagery, and fantasy.

CFT AND OTHER THERAPIES


One of the things I like best about CFT is that it is generally quite compatible with other therapy
models. We’ll explore this compatibility in the final chapter of the book, and will highlight it along
the way. Regardless of whether you want to become a “CFT therapist” or simply want to use a
compassion focus to enhance and deepen your work within your current therapeutic modality, I
hope you’ll find much here to draw upon.
CFT isn’t intended to be an entirely new model of therapy, but rather a basis for compassion-
ately understanding and working with psychological difficulties. Relative to other therapies, you
may find that CFT is distinguished by its emphasis on compassion as well as on conceptualizing
human problems in terms of evolution; how emotions and basic motives play out in our brains, or
minds; and the ways we can learn to help ourselves feel safe as we confront and work with the
things that scare us the most. At the technical level, you’ll likely find a number of new therapeutic
tools here, but there will be things you’ll recognize from other therapies as well.
I think it’s fair to say that CFT fits well into the “third wave” of behavioral and cognitive behav-
ioral therapies, alongside acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), dialectical behavior therapy
(DBT), functional analytic psychotherapy (FAP), mindfulness-­based cognitive therapy (MBCT),
and emotion-­focused therapy (EFT). As with these therapies, we rely on behavioral principles and
don’t seek to change the content of problematic cognitions and emotions so much as to change our
relationship to these mental experiences (while cultivating more helpful ways of attending and think-
ing). As with many of these other approaches, mindfulness plays an important role in CFT. I think
the experiential emphasis and perspective-­taking practices used in CFT will resonate with practi-
tioners of ACT, and as with DBT, we place a significant emphasis on things like distress tolerance
and learning to work with acutely difficult emotional experiences.
Longstanding cognitive therapists may find new ways to approach thought work that can help
to facilitate affective congruence in their clients—­so that new, reassuring thoughts feel reassuring

10
Introduction

to them. You may also find that the ways compassion is brought into CFT therapy have the poten-
tial to “warm up” longstanding approaches such as exposure therapy, to make them more accessible
for clients and more comfortable for therapists. I think practitioners will also discover aspects of
CFT that can enhance and deepen their existing therapy practice—­things like considering emo-
tions and motives in an evolutionary context, helping clients work with evolved affective systems
to create feelings of safeness, and applying the purposeful cultivation of compassion in facilitating
one’s willingness and ability to work directly with suffering.

Our Current Approach


Particularly in psychotherapy, I think it’s nice when a learning process models, shapes, and
reinforces the content that is being learned. That’s what we’re going to strive for here. The process
of CFT—­regardless of what we happen to be working on with our clients at the time—­is one of
warmth, guided discovery, courage, and commitment.
You’ll find that this book features a fair number of experiential exercises. Occasionally, I’ll ask
you to do some of the same things that CFT therapists ask their clients to do, and I’d like to for-
mally encourage you to practice all of the exercises yourself before trying them out with clients.
We can learn about things like compassion, mindfulness, and safeness, but if we really want to under-
stand them, we need to experience them. Personal practice can give us a depth of understanding with
regard to these practices—­the nuances, potential obstacles, and how to overcome them—­that can
be very difficult to get any other way.
With that in mind, I’d like to begin this book with a motivation-­setting exercise drawn from my
experiences learning from Buddhist teachers. These teachers believed that our motivation or inten-
tion, the reason we are engaging in a particular activity, is highly related to the outcome of the activ-
ity. As I’ve already mentioned, motivation is also a core component of compassion, and it’s a
component that we’ll be working to help our clients cultivate. So let’s do that now.

WORKING WITH MOTIVATION AND INTENTION


As we go through life, we’ll do lots of different things, for lots of different reasons. Sometimes our activities will
be driven by feelings of obligation, sometimes by excitement or ambition. We go through the day figuratively
(and sometimes literally) checking off items on our list, doing things simply so that we can move on to the next
thing that needs to be done. But motivation and intention are aspects of life we can work with.
So right now, I’d like you to consider your motivation for doing this activity. Why are you reading this book?
Perhaps you’ve heard about CFT and were curious to learn more? Perhaps you’ve been looking for ways to
deepen or enliven your existing therapy practice? Perhaps you’re a psychotherapy client whose therapist uses
CFT, and you wanted to learn more about it? Maybe something about the cover caught your eye, and you
impulsively bought the book to see what it was about, as I often do.

11
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
supervision of the Secretary of State of the United States,
and was to continue in existence for a period of ten years,
and, if found profitable to the nations participating in its
advantages, it was to be maintained for successive periods of
ten years indefinitely. At the first session of the
Fifty-first Congress of the United States, that body, in an
'Act making appropriations for the support of the Diplomatic
and Consular Service, etc.,' approved July 14, 1890, gave the
President authority to carry into effect the recommendations
of the Conference so far as he should deem them expedient, and
appropriated $36,000 for the organization and establishment of
the Bureau, which amount it had been stipulated by the
delegates in the Conference assembled should not be exceeded,
and should be annually advanced by the United States and
shared by the several Republics in proportion to their
population. … The Conference had defined the purpose of the
Bureau to be the preparation and publication of bulletins
concerning the commerce and resources of the American
Republics, and to furnish information of interest to
manufacturers, merchants, and shippers, which should be at all
times available to persons desirous of obtaining particulars
regarding their customs tariffs and regulations, as well as
commerce and navigation."

Bulletin of the Bureau of American Republics,


June, 1898.

A plan of government for the International Union, by an


executive committee composed of representatives of the
American nations constituting the Union, was adopted in 1896,
but modified at a conference held in Washington, March 18,
1899. As then adopted, the plan of government is as follows:

"The Bureau of the American Republics will be governed under


the supervision of the Secretary of State of the United
States, with the cooperation and advice of four
representatives of the other Republics composing the
International Union, the five persons indicated to constitute
an Executive Committee, of which the Secretary of State is to
be ex-officio Chairman, or, in his absence, the Acting
Secretary of State. The other four members of the Executive
Committee shall be called to serve in turn, in the
alphabetical order of the official names of their nations in
one of the four languages of the Union, previously selected by
lot at a meeting of the representatives of the Union. At the
end of each year the first of these four members shall retire,
giving place to another representative of the Union, in the
same alphabetical order already explained, and so on until the
next period of succession."

{11}

"The interest taken by the various States forming the


International Union of American Republics in the work of its
organic bureau is evidenced by the fact that for the first
time since its creation in 1890 all the republics of South and
Central America are now [1899] represented in it. The unanimous
recommendation of the International American Conference,
providing for the International Union of American Republics,
stated that it should continue in force during a term of ten
years from the date of its organization, and no country
becoming a member of the union should cease to be a member
until the end of said period of ten years, and unless twelve
months before the expiration of said period a majority of the
members of the union had given to the Secretary of State of
the United States official notice of their wish to terminate
the union at the end of its first period, that the union
should continue to be maintained for another period of ten
years, and thereafter, under the same conditions, for
successive periods of ten years each. The period for
notification expired on July 14, 1899, without any of the
members having given the necessary notice of withdrawal. Its
maintenance is therefore assured for the next ten years."

Message of the President of the United States.


December 5, 1899.

AMERICANISM:
Pope Leo XIII. on opinions so called.

See (in this volume)


PAPACY: A. D. 1899 (JANUARY).

AMNESTY BILL, The French.

See (in this volume)


FRANCE: A. D. 1900 (DECEMBER).

ANARCHIST CRIMES:
Assassination of Canovas del Castillo.

See (in this volume)


SPAIN: A. D. 1897 (AUGUST-OCTOBER).

Assassination of the Empress of Austria.

See (in this volume)


AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1898 (SEPTEMBER).

Assassination of King Humbert.

See (in this volume)


ITALY: A. D. 1899-1900;
and 1900 (JULY-SEPTEMBER).

ANATOLIAN RAILWAY, The.

See (in this volume)


TURKEY: A. D. 1899 (NOVEMBER).

ANCON, The Treaty of.


See (in this volume)
CHILE: A. D. 1894-1900.

ANDERSON, General Thomas M.:


Correspondence with Aguinaldo.

See (in this volume)


UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1898 (JULY-AUGUST: PHILIPPINES).

ANDRÉE, Salamon August:


Arctic balloon voyage.

See (in this volume)


POLAR EXPLORATION, 1897, 1898, 1899, 1900-.

ANGLO-AMERICAN POPULATION.

See (in this volume)


NINETEENTH CENTURY: EXPANSION.

ANGONI-ZULUS, The.

See (in this volume)


BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA PROTECTORATE.

ANTARCTIC EXPLORATION.

See (in this volume)


POLAR EXPLORATION.

ANTEMNÆ, Excavations at.

See (in this volume)


ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: ITALY.

ANTIGUA: Industrial condition.

See (in this volume)


WEST INDIES, THE BRITISH: A. D. 1897.

ANTITOXINE, Discovery of.

See (in this volume)


SCIENCE, RECENT: MEDICAL AND SURGICAL.

ANTI-IMPERIALISTS, The League of American.

See (in this volume)


UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1900 (MAY-NOVEMBER).

ANTI-REVOLUTIONARY BILL, The German.

See (in this volume)


GERMANY: A. D. 1894-1895.
ANTI-SEMITIC AGITATIONS.

See (in this volume)


AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1895-1896, and after;
and FRANCE: A. D. 1897-1899, and after.

ANTI-SEMITIC LEAGUE, Treasonable conspiracy of the.

See (in this volume)


FRANCE: A. D. 1899-1900 (AUGUST-JANUARY).

APPORTIONMENT ACT.

See (in this volume)


UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1901 (JANUARY).

ARBITRATION, Industrial:
In New Zealand.

See (in this volume)


NEW ZEALAND: A. D. 1891-1900.

ARBITRATION, Industrial:
In the United States between employees and employers
engaged in inter-state commerce.

See (in this volume)


UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JUNE).

ARBITRATION, International: A. D. 1896-1900.


Boundary dispute between Colombia and Costa Rica.

See (in this volume)


COLOMBIA: A. D. 1893-1900.

ARBITRATION, International: A. D. 1897.


Nicaragua and Costa Rica.

See (in this volume)


CENTRAL AMERICA (NICARAGUA-COSTA RICA): A. D. 1897.

ARBITRATION, International: A. D. 1897-1899.


Venezuela and Great Britain.
Guiana boundary.

See (in this volume)


VENEZUELA: A. D. 1896-1899.

ARBITRATION, International: A. D. 1898.


Argentine Republic and Chile.

See (in this volume)


ARGENTINE REPUBLIC: A. D. 1898.

ARBITRATION, International: A. D. 1898.


Treaty between Italy and the Argentine Republic.

See (in this volume)


ARGENTINE REPUBLIC: A. D. 1898.

ARBITRATION, International: A. D. 1899.


The Treaty for the Pacific Settlement of International
Disputes concluded at the Peace Conference at the Hague (Text).
The Permanent Court created.

See (in this volume)


PEACE CONFERENCE.

ARBITRATION, International: A. D. 1900.


Brazil and French Guiana boundary dispute.

See (in this volume)


BRAZIL: A. D. 1900.

ARBITRATION, International: A. D. 1900.


Compulsory arbitration voted for at Spanish-American Congress.

See (in this volume)


SPAIN: A. D. 1900 (NOVEMBER).

ARBITRATION TREATY, Great Britain and the United States.


Its defeat.

See (in this volume)


UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1897 (JANUARY-MAY).

----------ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: Start--------

ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH:
The Oriental Field.
Recent achievements and future prospects.

"Three successive years have just added to the realm of


Egyptian archaeology, not only the period of the first two
dynasties, hitherto absolutely unrecognized from contemporary
remains, but also a long prehistoric period. Assyriology
likewise has lately been pushed back into antiquity with
almost equal rapidity. Though the subjects will probably
always have their limitations, yet the insight of scholars and
explorers is opening up new vistas on all sides. … Our
prospect for the future is bright. Egypt itself seems
inexhaustible. Few of the cities of Babylonia and Assyria have
yet been excavated, and each of them had its library and
record office of clay-tablets as well as monuments in stone
and bronze. In Northern Mesopotamia are countless sites still
untouched; in Elam and in Armenia monuments are only less
plentiful.
{12}
In Arabia inscriptions are now being read which may perhaps
date from 1000 B. C. The so-called Hittite hieroglyphs still
baffle the decipherer; but as more of the documents become
known these will in all likelihood prove a fruitful source for
the history of North Syria, of Cappadocia, and of Asia Minor
throughout. Occasionally, too, though it is but rarely, an
inscription in the Phaenician type of alphabet yields up
important historical facts. When all is done, there is but
scant hope that we shall be able to construct a consecutive
history of persons and events in the ancient world. All that
we can be confident of securing, at any rate in Egypt, is the
broad outline of development and change, chronologically
graduated and varied by occasional pictures of extraordinary
minuteness and brilliancy."

F. LL. Griffith,
Authority and Archaeology Sacred and Profane,
part 2, pages. 218-219
(New York: Charles Scribner's Sons).

ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: In Bible Lands:


General results as affecting our knowledge
of the ancient Hebrews.

"The general result of the archaeological and anthropological


researches of the past half-century has been to take the
Hebrews out of the isolated position which, as a nation, they
seemed previously to hold, and to demonstrate their affinities
with, and often their dependence upon, the civilizations by
which they were surrounded. Tribes more or less closely akin
to themselves in both language and race were their neighbours
alike on the north, on the east, and on the south; in addition
to this, on each side there towered above them an ancient and
imposing civilization,—that of Babylonia, from the earliest
times active, enterprising, and full of life, and that of
Egypt, hardly, if at all, less remarkable than that of
Babylonia, though more self-contained and less expansive. The
civilization which, in spite of the long residence of the
Israelites in Egypt, left its mark, however, most distinctly
upon the culture and literature of the Hebrews was that of
Babylonia. It was in the East that the Hebrew traditions
placed both the cradle of humanity and the more immediate home
of their own ancestors; and it was Babylonia which, as we now
know, exerted during many centuries an influence, once
unsuspected, over Palestine itself.

"It is true, the facts thus disclosed, do not in any degree


detract from that religious pre-eminence which has always been
deemed the inalienable characteristic of the Hebrew race: the
spiritual intuitions and experiences of its great teachers
retain still their uniqueness; but the secular institutions of
the nation, and even the material elements upon which the
religious system of the Israelites was itself constructed, are
seen now to have been in many cases common to them with their
neighbours. Thus their beliefs about the origin and early
history of the world, their social usages, their code of civil
and criminal law, their religious institutions, can no longer
be viewed, as was once possible, as differing in kind from
those of other nations, and determined in every feature by a
direct revelation from Heaven; all, it is now known, have
substantial analogies among other peoples, the distinctive
character which they exhibit among the Hebrews consisting in
the spirit with which they are infused and the higher
principles of which they are made the exponent. …

"What is called the 'witness of the monuments' is often


strangely misunderstood. The monuments witness to nothing
which any reasonable critic has ever doubted. No one, for
instance, has ever doubted that there were kings of Israel (or
Judah) named Ahab and Jehu and Pekah and Ahaz and Hezekiah, or
that Tiglath-Pileser and Sennacherib led expeditions into
Palestine; the mention of these (and such like) persons and
events in the Assyrian annals has brought to light many
additional facts about them which it is an extreme
satisfaction to know: but it has only 'confirmed' what no
critic had questioned. On the other hand, the Assyrian annals
have shewn that the chronology of the Books of Kings is, in
certain places, incorrect: they have thus confirmed the
conclusion which critics had reached independently upon
internal evidence, that the parts of these books to which the
chronology belongs are of much later origin than the more
strictly historical parts, and consequently do not possess
equal value.

"The inscriptions, especially those of Babylonia, Assyria, and


Egypt, have revealed to us an immense amount of information
respecting the antiquities and history of these nations, and
also, in some cases, respecting the peoples with whom, whether
by commerce or war, they came into contact: but (with the
exception of the statement on the stele of Merenptah that
'Israel is desolated') the first event connected with Israel
or its ancestors which they mention or attest is Shishak's
invasion of Judah in the reign of Rehoboam; the first
Israelites whom they specify by name are Omri and his son
Ahab. There is also indirect illustration of statements in the
Old Testament relating to the period earlier than this; but
the monuments supply no 'confirmation' of any single fact
recorded in it, prior to Shishak's invasion."

S. R. Driver,
Authority and Archaeology Sacred and Profane,
part 1, pages 150-151
(New York: Charles Scribner's Sons).

ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: Babylonia:


Earlier explorations in.

For some account of the earlier archæological explorations in


Babylonia and their results,

See (in volume 1) BABYLONIA, PRIMITIVE;


and (in volume 4) SEMITES.

ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: Babylonia:


American exploration of the ruins of ancient Nippur.

[Footnote: Quotations in this account from Professor


Hilprecht's copyrighted reports in the "Sunday School Times"
are used with permission from the publishers of that journal.]

"In the summer of 1888, the University of Pennsylvania fully


equipped and sent out the first American expedition to the
northern half of the plains of Babylonia to effect a thorough
exploration of the ruins of Nippur—the modern Niffer, or, more
correctly, Nuffar—on the border of the unwholesome swamps of
the Affej, and to undertake extensive excavations. A few
intelligent citizens of Philadelphia had met in the house of
Ex-Provost Dr. William Pepper, and formed 'The Babylonian
Exploration Fund,' a short time before this with the purpose
of effecting a systematic exploration of ancient Babylonia.
What science owes to this unselfish undertaking can be
adequately estimated only by posterity. … Two professors,
Peters and Hilprecht, were entrusted with the management of
the expedition, Dr. Peters as director, and Dr. Hilprecht as
Assyriologist."

H. V. Hilprecht, editor,
Recent Research in Bible Lands,
page 47.

{13}

Professor Hilprecht, who conducts for the "Sunday School


Times" a most interesting and important department, in which
the proceedings and principal results of archæological
exploration in Bible Lands have been currently chronicled
during several years past, gave, in that journal of December
I, 1900, the following description of the scene and the
historical importance of the ruins in which the excavations
above mentioned have been carried on: "Nuffar is the modern
Arabic name of an old Babylonian ruin situated about half-way
between the Euphrates and Tigris, at the northeastern boundary
of the great Affej swamps, which are formed by the regular
annual inundations of the Euphrates. In a straight line, it is
nearly eighty miles to the southeast from Baghdad. A large
canal, now dry, and often for miles entirely filled with
rubbish and sand, divides the ruins into two almost equal
parts. On an average about fifty or sixty feet high, these
ruins are torn up by frequent gulleys and furrows into a
number of spurs and ridges, from the distance not unlike a
rugged mountain range on the bank of the upper Tigris. In the
Babylonian language, the city buried here was called Nippur.
According to Jewish tradition, strongly supported by arguments
drawn from cuneiform texts and archaeological objects found at
the ruins themselves, Nippur was identical with the Biblical
Calneh, mentioned in Genesis 10: 10, as one of the four great
cities of the kingdom of Nimrod. It was therefore natural that
the public in general should take a warm interest in our
excavations at Nuffar. This interest grew considerably in
religious circles when, a few years ago, I announced my
discovery of the name of the 'river Chebar' in two cuneiform
texts from the archives of Nippur. It became then evident that
this 'river Chebar,' which hitherto could not be located, was
one of the four or five large canals once bringing life and
fertility to the fields of Nippur; that, furthermore, a large
number of the Jewish captives carried away by Nebuchadrezzar
after the destruction of Jerusalem were settled in the plains
around this city; and that even Ezekiel himself, while
admonishing and comforting his people, and holding out to them
Jehovah's mercy and never-failing promise of a brighter
future, stood in the very shadow of Babylonia's ancient
national sanctuary, the crumbling walls of the great temple of
Bêl at Nippur. The beginning and end of Old Testament history
thus point to Nippur as the background and theater for the
first and final acts in the great drama of divine selection
and human rejection in which Israel played the leading role."

In the same article, Professor Hilprecht indicated in a few


words what was done at Nuffar by the first three of the four
expeditions sent out from Philadelphia since 1888. "It was
comparatively easy," he said, "to get a clear idea of the
extent of the city and the life in its streets during the last
six centuries preceding our era. Each of the four expeditions
to Nuffar contributed its peculiar share to a better knowledge
of this latest period of Babylonian history, particularly,
however, the third and the present campaigns. But it was of
greater importance to follow up the traces of a very early
civilization, which, accidentally, we had met during our first
brief campaign in 1889. By means of a few deep trenches, the
second expedition, in the following year, had brought to light
new evidence that a considerable number of ancient monuments
still existed in the lower strata of the temple mound. The
third expedition showed that the monuments, while numerous,
are mostly very fragmentary, thereby offering considerable
difficulties to the decipherer and historian. But it also
showed that a number of platforms running through the temple
mound, and made of baked bricks, frequently bearing
inscriptions, enable us to fix the age of the different strata
of this mound with great accuracy. The two lowest of these
platforms found were the work of kings and patesis
(priest-kings) of 4000-3800 B. C., but, to our great
astonishment, they did not represent the earliest trace of
human life at Nippur. There were not less than about thirty
feet of rubbish below them, revealing an even earlier
civilization, the beginning and development of which lie
considerably before the times of Sargon the Great (3800 B. C.)
and Narâm-Sin, who had been generally regarded as
half-mythical persons of the first chapter of Babylonian
history."

Of the results of the work of those three expeditions of the


University of Pennsylvania, and of the studies for which they
furnished materials to Professor Hilprecht, Professor Sayce
wrote with much enthusiasm in the "Contemporary Review" of
January, 1897, as follows: "In my Hibbert Lectures on the
'Religion of the Ancient Babylonians' I had been led by a
study of the religious texts of Babylonia to the conclusion
that Nippur had been a centre from which Babylonian culture
was disseminated in what we then regarded as prehistoric
times. Thanks to the American excavations, what were
prehistoric times when my Hibbert Lectures were written have
now become historic, and my conclusion has proved to be
correct. … For the first time in Babylonia they have
systematically carried their shafts through the various strata
of historical remains which occupy the site, carefully noting
the objects found in each, and wherever possible clearing each
stag away when once it had been thoroughly examined. The work
began in 1888, about two hundred Arabs being employed as
labourers. … The excavations at Nippur were carried deeply and
widely enough not only to reveal the history of the city
itself but also to open up a new vista in the forgotten
history of civilised man. The history of civilisation has been
taken back into ages which a short while since were still
undreamed of. Professor Hilprecht, the historian of the
expedition, upon whom has fallen the work of copying,
publishing, and translating the multitudinous texts discovered
in the course of it, declares that we can no longer 'hesitate
to date the founding of the temple of Bel and the first
settlements in Nippur somewhere between 6000 and 7000 B. C.,
possibly even earlier.' At any rate the oldest monuments which
have been disinterred there belong to the fifth or sixth
millennium before the Christian era. Hitherto we have been
accustomed to regard Egypt as the land which has preserved for
us the earliest written monuments of mankind, but Babylonia
now bids fair to outrival Egypt. The earliest fixed date in
Babylonian history is that of Sargon of Akkael and his son
Naram-Sin. It has been fixed for us by Nabonidos, the royal
antiquarian of Babylonia. In one of his inscriptions he
describes the excavations he made in order to discover the
memorial cylinders of Naram-Sin, who had lived '3200 years'
before his own time. In my Hibbert Lectures I gave reasons for
accepting this date as approximately correct. The recent
discoveries at Niffer, Telloh, and other places have shown
that my conclusion was justified. …

{14}

"Assyriologists have long had in their possession a cuneiform


text which contains the annals of the reign of Sargon, and of
the first three years of the reign of his son. It is a late
copy of the original text, and was made for the library of
Nineveh. Our 'critical' friends have been particularly merry
over the credulity of the Assyriologists in accepting these
annals as authentic. … So far from being unhistorical, Sargon
and Naram-Sin prove to have come at the end of a
long-preceding historical period, and the annals themselves
have been verified by contemporaneous documents. The empire of
Sargon, which extended from the Persian Gulf to the
Mediterranean, was not even the first that had arisen in
Western Asia. And the art that flourished under his rule, like
the art which flourished in Egypt in the age of the Old
Empire, was higher and more perfect than any that succeeded it
in Babylonia. … Henceforward, Sargon and Naram-Sin, instead of
belonging to 'the grey dawn of time,' must be regarded as
representatives of 'the golden age of Babylonian history.'
That they should have undertaken military expeditions to the
distant West, and annexed Palestine and the Sinaitic Peninsula
to the empire they created need no longer be a matter of
astonishment. Such campaigns had already been undertaken by
Babylonian kings long before; the way was well known which led
from one extremity of Western Asia to the other. …

"It is Mr. Haynes [Director of the explorations from 1893] who


tells us that we are henceforth to look upon Sargon of Akkad
as a representative of 'the golden age of Babylonian history,'
and his assertion is endorsed by Professor Hilprecht. In fact,
the conclusion is forced upon both the excavator and the
palæographist. Professor Hilprecht, who, thanks to the
abundant materials at his disposal, has been able to found the
science of Babylonian palæography, tracing the development of
the cuneiform characters from one stage of development to
another, and determining the age of each successive form of
writing, has made it clear to all students of Assyriology that
many of the inscriptions found at Niffer and Telloh belong to
a much older period than those of the age of Sargon. The
palæographic evidence has been supplemented by the results of
excavation. … As far back as we can penetrate, we still find
inscribed monuments and other evidences of civilisation. It is
true that the characters are rude and hardly yet lifted above
their pictorial forms. They have, however, ceased to be
pictures, and have already become that cursive script which we
call cuneiform. For the beginnings of Babylonian writing we
have still to search among the relics of centuries that lie
far behind the foundation of the temple of Nippur.

"The first king whom the excavations there have brought to


light is a certain En-sag(sak)-ana who calls himself 'lord of
Kengi' and conqueror of Kis 'the wicked.' Kengi—'the land of
canals and reeds,' as Professor Hilprecht interprets the
word—was the oldest name of Babylonia, given to it in days
when it was still wholly occupied by its Sumerian population,
and when as yet no Semitic stranger had ventured within it.
The city of Kis (now El-Hy-mar) lay outside its borders to the
north, and between Kis and Kengi there seems to have been
constant war. … Nippur was the religious centre of Kengi, and
Mul-lil, the god of Nippur, was the supreme object of Sumerian
worship. … A king of Kis made himself master of Nippur and its
sanctuary, and the old kingdom of Kengi passed away. The final
blow was dealt by the son of the Sumerian high priest of the
'Land of the Bow.' Lugal-zaggi-si was the chieftain who
descended from the north upon Babylonia and made it part of
his empire. … Lugal-zaggi-si lived centuries before Sargon of
Akkad in days which, only a year ago, we still believed to lie
far beyond the horizon of history and culture. We little
dreamed that in that hoar antiquity the great cities and
sanctuaries of Babylonia were already old, and that the
culture and script of Babylonia had already extended far
beyond the boundaries of their motherland. The inscriptions of
Lugal-zaggi-si are in the Sumerian language, and his name,
like that of his father, is Sumerian also. … The empire of
Lugal-zaggi-si seems to have passed away with his death, and
at no long period subsequently a new dynasty arose at Ur. …
According to Professor Hilprecht, this would have been about
4000 B. C. How long the first dynasty of Ur lasted we cannot
tell. It had to keep up a perpetual warfare with the Semitic
tribes of northern Arabia, Ki-sarra, 'the land of the hordes,'
as it was termed by the Sumerians. Meanwhile a new state was
growing up on the eastern side of the Euphrates in a small
provincial city called Lagas, whose ruins are now known as
Telloh. Its proximity to Eridu, the seaport and trading depot
of early Babylonia, had doubtless much to do with its rise to
power. At all events the kings of Telloh, whose monuments have
been brought to light by M. de Sarzec, became continually
stronger, and the dynasty of Lagas took the place of the
dynasty of Ur. One of these kings, E-Anna-gin, at length
defeated the Semitic oppressors of northern Chaldæa in a
decisive battle and overthrew the 'people of the Land of the
Bow.' …

"The kings of Lagas represent the closing days of Sumerian


supremacy. With Sargon and his empire the Semitic age begins.
The culture of Chaldæa is still Sumerian, the educated classes
are for the most part of Sumerian origin, and the literature of
the country is Sumerian also. But the king and his court are
Semites, and the older culture which they borrow and adopt
becomes Semitised in the process. … For many generations
Sumerians and Semites lived side by side, each borrowing from
the other, and mutually adapting and modifying their own forms
of expression. … Sumerian continued to be the language of
religion and law—the two most conservative branches of human
study—down to the age of Abraham. … The new facts that have
been disinterred from the grave of the past furnish a striking
confirmation of Professor Hommel's theory, which connects the
culture of primitive Egypt with that of primitive Chaldæa, and
derives the language of the Egyptians, at all events in part,
from a mixed Babylonian language in which Semitic and Sumerian
elements alike claimed a share. We now know that such a mixed
language did once exist, and we also know that this language
and the written characters by which it was expressed were
brought to the shores of the Mediterranean and the frontiers
of Egypt in the earliest age of Egyptian history."

A. H. Sayce,
Recent Discoveries in Babylonia
(Contemporary Review, January, 1897).

{15}

The third of the Pennsylvania expeditions closed its work at


Nippur in February, 1896. There was then an interval of three
years before a fourth expedition resumed work at the ruins in
February, 1899. In the "Sunday School Times" of April 29 and
May 27, 1899, Professor Hilprecht (who did not go personally
to Nuffar until later in the year) gave the following account
of the friendly reception of the exploring party by the Arabs
of the district, from whom there had been formerly much
experience of trouble: "The Affej tribes, in whose territory
the large mounds are situated, had carefully guarded the
expedition's stronghold,—a mud castle half-way between the
ruins and the marshes, which had been sealed and entrusted to
their care before we quitted the field some years ago. They
now gave to the expedition a hearty welcome, accompanied by
shooting, shouting, dancing, and singing, and were evidently
greatly delighted to have the Americans once more in their
midst. In the presence of Haji Tarfa, their
commander-in-chief, who was surrounded by his minor shaykhs
and other dignitaries of the El-Hamza tribes, the former
arrangements with the two shaykhs Hamid el-Birjud and Abud
el-Hamid were ratified, and new pledges given for the security
and welfare of the little party of explorers, the question of
guards and water being especially emphasized. In accordance
with the Oriental custom, the expedition showed its
appreciation of the warm reception by preparing for their
hosts in return a great feast, at which plenty of mutton and
boiled rice were eaten by some fifty Arabs, and the old bond
of friendship was cemented anew with 'bread and salt.'" …

"Doubtless all the advantages resulting for the Affej Bed'ween


and their allies from the presence of the Americans were
carefully calculated by them in the three years (February,
1896-1899) that we had withdrawn our expedition from their
territory. They have apparently found out that the
comparatively large amount of money brought into their country
through the wages paid to many Arabs employed as workmen, and
through the purchase of milk, eggs, chicken, mutton, and all
the other material supplied by the surrounding tribes for our
camp, with its about two hundred and fifty persons, has done
much to improve their general condition. The conviction has
been growing with them that we have not come to rob them of
anything to which they attach great value themselves, nor to
establish a new military station for the Turkish government in
order to gather taxes and unpaid debts. Every Arab engaged by
the Expedition has been fairly treated, and help and
assistance have always been given cheerfully and gratis to the
many sick people who apply daily for medicine, suffering more
or less during the whole year from pulmonary diseases, typhoid
and malarial fevers, easily contracted in the midst of the
extended marshes which they inhabit."

In the "Sunday School Times" of August 5, in the same year,


Professor Hilprecht reported: "The mounds of Nippur seem to
conceal an almost inexhaustible treasure of inscribed
cuneiform tablets, by means of which we are enabled to restore
the chronology, history, religion, and the high degree of
civilization, obtained at a very early date by the ancient
inhabitants between the lower Euphrates and Tigris. More than
33,000 of these precious documents were found during the
previous campaigns. Not less than 4,776 tablets have been
rescued from February 6 to June 10 this year, averaging,
therefore, nearly 1,200 'manuscripts in clay,' as we may style
them, per month. About the fourth part of these tablets is in
perfect condition, while a very large proportion of the
remaining ones are good-sized fragments or tablets so
fortunately broken that their general contents and many
important details can be ascertained by the patient
decipherer."

In November, 1899, Professor Hilprecht started for the field,


to superintend the explorations in person, and on the way he
wrote to the "S. S. Times" (published December 13): "The
deeper the trenches of the Babylonian Expedition of the
University of Pennsylvania descend into the lower strata of
Nippur, the probable site of the biblical Calneh, the more
important and interesting become the results obtained. The
work of clearing the northeastern wall of the high-towering
temple of Bel was continued with success during the summer
months. Particularly numerous were the inscribed vase
fragments brought to light, and almost exclusively belonging
to the pre-Sargonic period,—3800 B. C. and before. As I showed
in the second part of Volume I of our official University
publication, this fragmentary condition of the vases is due to
the wilful destruction of the temple property by the
victorious Elamitic hordes, who, towards the end of the third
pre-Christian millennium, ransacked the Babylonian cities,
extending their conquest and devastation even as far as the
shores of the Mediterranean Sea (comp. Gen. 14). From the
earliest historical period down to about 2200 B. C., when this
national calamity befell Babylonia, the large temple
storehouse, with its precious statues, votive slabs and vases,
memorial stones, bronze figures, and other gifts from powerful
monarchs and governors, had practically remained intact. What,
therefore, is left of the demolished and scattered contents of
this ancient chamber as a rule is found above the platform of
Ur-Ninib (about 2500 B. C.), in a layer several feet thick and
about twenty-five feet wide, surrounding the front and the two
side walls of the temple. The systematic clearing and
examination of this layer, and of the huge mass of ruins lying
above it, occupied the attention of the expedition
considerably in the past years, and was continued with new
energy during the past six months." At the end of January,
1900, Professor Hilprecht arrived in Babylonia, and wrote some
weeks later to the "Sunday School Times" (May 3): "As early as
eleven years ago, the present writer pointed out that the
extensive group of hills to the southwest of the temple of Bel
must be regarded as the probable site of the temple library of
ancient Nippur. About twenty-five hundred tablets were rescued
from the trenches in this hill during our first campaign.
Later excavations increased the number of tablets taken from
these mounds to about fifteen thousand. But it was only within
the last six weeks that my old theory could be established
beyond any reasonable doubt.
{16}
During this brief period a series of rooms was exposed which
furnished not less than over sixteen thousand cuneiform
documents, forming part of the temple library during the
latter half of the third millennium B. C. In long rows the
tablets were lying on ledges of unbaked clay, serving as
shelves for these imperishable Old Babylonian records. The
total number of tablets rescued from different parts of the
ruins during the present campaign amounts even now to more
than twenty-one thousand, and is rapidly increased by new
finds every day. The contents of this extraordinary library
are as varied as possible. Lists of Sumerian words and
cuneiform signs, arranged according to different principles,
and of fundamental value for our knowledge of the early
non-Semitic language of the country, figure prominently in the
new 'find.' As regards portable antiquities of every
description, and their archeological value, the American
expedition stands readily first among the three expeditions at
present engaged in the exploration of Ancient Babylonia and
the restoration of its past history."

Three weeks later he added: "The Temple Library, as indicated


in the writer's last report, has been definitely located at
the precise spot which, in 1889, the present writer pointed
out as its most probable site. Nearly eighteen thousand
cuneiform documents have been rescued this year from the
shelves of a series of rooms in its southeastern and
northwestern wings. The total number of tablets (mostly of a
didactic character) obtained from the library up to date is
from twenty-five thousand to twenty-six thousand tablets
(whole and broken). In view, however, of more important other
duties to be executed by this expedition before we can leave
Nippur this year, and in consideration of the enormous amount
of time and labor required for a methodical exploration of the
whole mound in which it is concealed, I have recently ordered
all the gangs of Arabic workmen to be withdrawn from this
section of ancient Nippur, and to be set at work at the
eastern fortification line of the city, close to the
temple-complex proper. According to a fair estimate based upon
actual finds, the unique history of the temple, and
topographical indications, there must be hidden at least from
a hundred thousand to a hundred and fifty thousand tablets
more in this ancient library, which was destroyed by the
invading Elamites about the time of Abraham's emigration from
Ur of the Chaldees. Only about the twentieth part of this
library (all of Dr. Haynes's previous work included) has so
far been examined and excavated."

In the same letter the Professor described the uncovering of


one façade of a large pre-Sargonic palace—"the chief
discovery," in his opinion, "of this whole campaign." "A
thorough excavation of this large palace," he wrote, "will
form one of the chief tasks of a future expedition, after its
character, age, and extent have been successfully determined
by the present one. Important art treasures of the Tello type,
and literary documents, may reasonably be expected to be
unearthed from the floor-level of its many chambers. It has
become evident, from the large number of pre-Sargonic
buildings, walls, and other antiquities discovered on both
sides of the Shatt-en-Nil, that the pre-Sargonic Nippur was of
by far greater extent than had been anticipated. This
discovery, however, is only in strict accord with what we know
from the cuneiform documents as to the important historical
rôle which the temple of Bel ('the father of the gods'), as
the central national sanctuary of ancient Babylonia, played at
the earliest period, long before Babylon, the capital of the
later empire, achieved any prominence."

The work at Nippur was suspended for the season about the
middle of May, 1900, and Professor Hilprecht, after his return
to Philadelphia, wrote of the general fruits of the campaign,
in the "Sunday School Times" of December 1: "As the task of
the fourth and most recent expedition, just completed, I had
mapped out, long before its organization, the following work.
It was to determine the probable extent of the earliest
pre-Sargonic settlement at ancient Nippur; to discover the
precise form and character of the famous temple of Bêl at this
earliest period; to define the exact boundaries of the city
proper; if possible, to find one or more of the great city
gates frequently mentioned in the inscriptions; to locate the
great temple library and educational quarters of Nippur; to
study the different modes of burial in use in ancient
Babylonia; and to study all types and forms of pottery, with a
view to finding laws for the classification and determination
of the ages of vases, always excavated in large numbers at
Nuffar. The work set before us has been accomplished. The task
was great,—almost too great for the limited time at our
disposal. … But the number of Arab workmen, busy with pickax,
scraper, and basket in the trenches for ten to fourteen hours
every day, gradually increased to the full force of four
hundred. … In the course of time, when the nearly twenty-five
thousand cuneiform texts which form one of the most
conspicuous prizes of the present expedition have been fully
deciphered and interpreted; when the still hidden larger mass
of tablets from that great educational institution, the temple
library of Calneh-Nippur, discovered at the very spot which I
had marked for its site twelve years ago, has been brought to
light,—a great civilization will loom up from past
millenniums before our astonished eyes. For four thousand
years the documents which contain this precious information
have disappeared from sight, forgotten in the destroyed rooms
of ancient Nippur. Abraham was about leaving his ancestral
home at Ur when the great building in which so much learning
had been stored up by previous generations collapsed under the
ruthless acts of the Elamite hordes. But the light which
begins to flash forth from the new trenches in this lonely
mound in the desert of Iraq will soon illuminate the world
again. And it will be no small satisfaction to know that it
was rekindled by the hands of American explorers."

{17}

ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: Babylonia:


German exploration of the ruins of Babylon.

An expedition to explore the ruins of Babylon was sent out by


the German Orient Society, in 1899, under the direction of Dr.
Koldewey, an eminent architect and archæologist, who had been
connected with previous works of excavation done in Babylonia
and northern Syria. In announcing the project, in the "Sunday
School Times" of January 28, 1899, Professor Hilprecht
remarked: "These extended ruins will require at least fifty
years of labor if they are to be excavated as thoroughly and
systematically as the work is done by the American expedition
at Nippur, which has employed in its trenches never less than
sixty, but frequently from two hundred to four hundred, Arabic
workmen at the same time during the last ten years. Certain
parts of the ruins of Babylon have been previously explored
and excavated by Layard, Rawlinson, and the French expedition
under Fresnel and Oppert, to which we owe the first accurate
details of the topography of this ancient city." Writing
somewhat more than a year later from Nippur, after having
visited the German party at Babylon, Professor Hilprecht said
of its work: "The chief work of the expedition during the past
year was the exploration of the great ruin heap called
El-Kasr, under which are hidden the remains of the palace of
Nebuchadrezzar, where Alexander the Great died after his
famous campaign against India. Among the few important
antiquities so far obtained from this imposing mound of
Ancient Babylon is a new Hittite inscription and a
neo-Babylonian slab with an interesting cuneiform legend. Very
recently, Dr. Koldewey, whose excellent topographical surveys
form a conspicuous part of the results of the first year, has
found the temple of the goddess Nin-Makh, so often mentioned
in the building inscriptions of the neo-Babylonian rulers, and
a little terra-cotta statue of the goddess. The systematic
examination of the enormous mass of ruins covering Ancient
Babylon will require several decenniums of continued hard
labor. To facilitate this great task, a bill has been
submitted to the German Reichstag requesting a yearly
government appropriation of over fifteen thousand dollars,
while at the same time application has been made by the German
Orient Committee to the Ottoman Government for another firman
to carry on excavations at Warka, the biblical Erech, whose
temple archive was badly pillaged by the invading Elamites at
about 2280 B. C."

Some account of results from the uncovering of the palace of


Nebuchadrezzar are quoted from "Die Illustrirte Zeitung" in
the "Scientific American Supplement," December 16, 1899, as
follows: "According to early Babylonian records,
Nebuchadnezzar completed the fortifications of the city, begun
by his father Narbolpolassar, consisting of a double inclosure
of strong walls, the inner called Imgur-Bel ('Bel is
gracious'), the outer Nemitti-Bel ('foundation of Bel'). The
circumference of the latter according to Herodotus was 480
stades (55 miles), its height 340 feet, and its thickness 85
feet. At the inner and outer peripheries, one-story houses
were built, between which was room enough for a chariot drawn
by four horses harnessed abreast. When Koldewey cut through
the eastern front of Al Kasr, he came upon a wall which was
undoubtedly that described by Herodotus. The outer eastern
shell was composed of burnt brick and asphalt, 24 feet in
thickness; then came a filling of sand and broken stone 70½
feet in thickness, which was followed by an inner western
shell of 43 feet thickness. The total thickness was,
therefore, 137.5 feet. By dint of hard work this wall was cut
through and the entrance to Nebuchadnezzar's palace laid bare.
Koldewey and his men were enabled to verify the description
given by Diodorus of the polychromatic reliefs which graced
the walls of the royal towers and palaces. It still remains to
be seen how trustworthy are the statements of other ancient
historians. The city itself, as previous investigators have
found, was adorned with many temples, chief among them Esaglia
('the high towering house'), temple of the city, and the national
god Marduk (Merodach) and his spouse Zirpanit. Sloping toward
the river were the Hanging Gardens, one of the world's seven
wonders, located in the northern mound of the ruins of Babel.
The temple described by Herodotus is that of Nebo, in
Borsippa, not far from Babylon, which Herodotus included under
Babylon and which the cuneiform inscriptions term 'Babylon the
Second.' This temple, which in the mound of Birs Nimrûd is the
most imposing ruin of Babylon, is called the 'eternal house'
in the inscriptions; it was restored by Nebuchadnezzar with
great splendor. In form, it is a pyramid built in seven
stages, for which reason it is sometimes referred to as the
'Temple of the Seven Spheres of Heaven and Earth.' The Tower
of Babel, described in Genesis x., is perhaps the same
structure. It remains for the German expedition to continue
its excavations in Nebuchadnezzar's palace."

ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: Babylonia:


Discovery of an inscription of Nabonidos,
the last of the Babylonian kings.

"A discovery of the greatest importance has just been made by


Father Scheil, who has for some time been exploring in
Babylonia. In the Mujelibeh mound, one of the principal heaps
of ruins in the 'enciente' of Babylon, he has discovered a
long inscription of Nabonidos, the last of the Babylonian
Kings (B. C. 555-538), which contains a mass of historical and
other data which will be of greatest value to students of this
important period of Babylonian history. The monument in
question is a small 'stela' of diorite, the upper part of
which is broken, inscribed with eleven columns of writing, and
which appears to have been erected early in the King's reign.
It resembles in some measure the celebrated India-House
inscription of Nebuchadnezzar, but is much more full of
historical matter. Its value may be estimated when it is
stated that it contains a record of the war of revenge
conducted by the Babylonians and their Mandian allies against
Assyria, for the destruction of the city by Sennacherib, in B.
C. 698; an account of the election and coronation of Nabonidos
in B. C. 555, and the wonderful dream in which Nebuchadnezzar
appeared to him; as well as an account of the restoration of
the temple of the Moon god at Kharran, accompanied by a
chronological record which enables us to fix the date of the
so-called Scythian invasion. There is also a valuable
reference to the murder of Sennacherib by his son in Tebet, B.
C. 681."

American Journal of Archœology,


January-March, 1896.

ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: Persia:


French exploration of the ruins of Susa,
the capital of ancient Elam.

"In 1897 an arrangement was completed between the French


Government and the Shah of Persia by which the former obtained
the exclusive right of archeological explorations in the
latter's empire, coupled with certain privileges for the
exportation of different kinds of antiquities that might be
unearthed. Soon afterwards, M. J. de Morgan, late director of
excavations in Egypt, who had made archeological researches in
the regions east of the Tigris before, was placed at the head
of a French expedition to Susa, the ancient capital of Elam,
the upper strata of which had been successfully explored by M.
Dieulafoy.
{18}
In the Babylonian cuneiform inscriptions Elam appears as the
most terrible foe of the Babylonian empire from the earliest
time: and the name of its capital, Susa, or Shâsha, was
discovered by the present editor several years ago on a small
votive object in agate, originally manufactured and inscribed
in southern Babylonia, in the first half of the third
pre-christian millennium, several hundred years afterwards
carried away as part of their spoil by the invading Elamites,
and in the middle of the fourteenth century B. C. recaptured,
reinscribed, and presented to the temple of Nippur by King
Kurigalzu, after his conquest of Susa. It was therefore
evident that, if the same method of excavating was applied to
the ruins of Susa as had been applied so successfully by the
University of Pennsylvania's expedition in Nippur, remarkable
results would soon be obtained, and amply repay all labor and
money expended. M. de Morgan, accompanied by some engineers
and architects, set hopefully to work, cutting his trenches
more than fifty feet below the ruins of the Achæmenian
dynasty. The first campaign, 1897-98, was so successful, in
the discovery of buildings and inscribed antiquities, that in
October of last year the French government despatched the
Assyriologist Professor Scheil, in order to decipher the new
cuneiform documents, and to report on their historical
bearings.

"Among the more important finds so far made, but not yet
published, maybe mentioned over a thousand cuneiform tablets
of the earlier period, a beautifully preserved obelisk more
than five feet high, and covered with twelve hundred lines of
Old Babylonian cuneiform writing. It was inscribed and set up
by King Manishtusu, who left inscribed vases in Nippur and
other Babylonian cities. A stele of somewhat smaller size,
representing a battle in the mountains, testifies to the high
development of art at that remote period. On the one end it
bears a mutilated inscription of Narâm-Sin, son of Sargon the
Great (3800 B. C.); on the other, the name of Shimti-Shilkhak,
a well-known Elamitic king, and grandfather of the biblical
Ariokh (Genesis 14). These two monuments were either left in
Susa by the two Babylonian kings whose names they bear, after
successful operations against Elam, or they were carried off
as booty at the time of the great Elamitic invasion, which
proved so disastrous to the treasure-houses and archives of
Babylonian cities and temples [see above: BABYLONIA]. The
latter is more probable to the present writer, who in 1896
('Old Babylonian Inscriptions,' Part II, page 33) pointed out,
in connection with his discussion of the reasons of the
lamentable condition of Babylonian temple archives, that on
the whole we shall look in vain for well-preserved large
monuments in most Babylonian ruins, because about 2280 B. C.
'that which in the eyes of the national enemies of Babylonia
appeared most valuable was carried to Susa and other places:
what did not find favor with them was smashed and scattered on
Babylonian temple courts.'"

Prof. H. V. Hilprecht,
Oriental Research
(Sunday School Times, January 28, 1809).

ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: Egypt:


Earlier explorations.

For some account of earlier archæological explorations in


Egypt,

See, in volume 1,
EGYPT.

ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: Egypt:


Results of recent exploration.
The opening up of prehistoric Egypt.
The tomb of Mena.
The funeral temple of Merenptah.
Single mention of the people of Israel.

"During all this century in which Egyptian history has been


studied at first hand, it has been accepted as a sort of axiom
that the beginnings of things were quite unknown. In the
epitome of the history which was drawn up under the Greeks to
make Egypt intelligible to the rest of the world, there were
three dynasties of kings stated before the time of the great
pyramid builders; and yet of those it has been commonly said
that no trace remained. Hence it has been usual to pass them
by with just a mention as being half fabulous, and then to
begin real history with Senefern or Khufu (Cheops), the kings
who stand at the beginning of the fourth dynasty, at about
4000 B. C. The first discovery to break up this habit of
thought was when the prehistoric colossal statues of Min, the
god of the city of Koptos, were found in my excavations in his
temple. These had carvings in relief upon them wholly
different from anything known as yet in Egypt, and the
circumstances pointed to their being earlier than any carvings

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