The Sun.
London, England, 1853-07-21 00:00:00

ROYAL SOCIETY OF LITERATURE.

At the last meeting of this society, Sir John Doratt,
V.P., in the chair,
Mr. Vaux communicated a paper from the Rev. Dr.
Hincks "On au Ancient Cylinder in the British
Museum," in which Dr. Hincks stated that Le had as-
certained this cylinder to contain a much more ancient
historical notice than any other document which had
as yet been published ; and that another cylinder had
lately been noticed by Colonel Rawlinson, which, in Dr.
Hincks' opinion, was nearly the same as the one in the
Museum, but not so interesting, as much of the chrono-
logical mattpr appeared to he Wanting on it, or, at all
events, had not been noticed by Colonel Rawlinson.
Both decypherers agree in referring the two cylinders to
the same monarch—Tiglath Pileser. The date of the
Museum cylinder can be approximated very nearly.
The king who wrote it is the same who is mentioned on
the Bavian inscription of Sennacherib as having been
conquered by the Babylonians 418 years before the first
year of Sennacherib. At this period Nineveh was
destroyed, and Kalah-Sherghat became the seat of
Government, and certain images and gods were carried
to Babylon, which Sennacherib suLsequsntly brought
back with him from that city. Now, as Sennacherib's
conquest of Babylon was in B.C. 702, the pre-
vious fall of Nineveh must have been in B.C. 1120, and
the date of the cylinder may have been a few years
later, about B.C. 1110. In the inscription, Tiglath-
Pileser speaks of four of his ancestors, all of whom bear the
titles of the Kings of Assyria, and notices especially one
of them, " Shemsiyao," the son of " Ishmi-Dakan," a
name which Dr. Hincks considers to be certain. He
states also, in the same inscription on the cylinder, that
he rebuilt a certain temple at Kalah-Shergat, which his
great-grandfather had taken down, and wich had been
originally built by Shemsiyao, 641 years before. These
years must have terminated with either the taking down
of the temple or its re-edification. In the former case,
Shemsiyao must have lived B.C. 1750 ; in the latter,
B.C. 1840. Tiglath-PKeser adds that he made tablets
and inscribed sculptures containing a record of his con-
quests, and that he put them up in the temple ; and
that he at the same time found tablets and inscribed
sculptures of his ancestor 4' Shemsiyao"—which were of
course in a character then legible, and similar to that
which he used himself—and that he put these up in the
temple, by the side of his own. Dr. Hincks suggests
that they are probably there now, and may yet be
found, whenever the great mound at Kalah-Shergat
shall be thoroughly explored. The accuracy of the date,
641 years, like that of 418 years on the Bavian, in-
scription, is worthy of remark, as it is clearly not in-
tended as a mere approximation, as in that case round
numbers would have been used. It is probably taken
from some canon of the kings' reigns, fragmento of
which have been found among the Assyrian collections
in the British Museum.
Mr. Birch read extracts from a letter ho had just re-
ceived from Colonel Rawlinson, in which he stated that
he had much difficulty with regard to the name of Egypt
in the inscriptions. Two words occur, one reading Mu-
suri, the other Musri ; the question is, whether they
have the same or different meanings. Colonel Rawlin-
son thinks the former is the case, and adds that, in bis
opinion, the only genuine notices of Egypt are, were: