The Weekly Kansas chief. [volume] (Troy, Kan.) 1872-1918, 1873-10-16
THE AssxRIAN EXPLOITATION.

The proprieturs of the Daily Telegraph have
presented to theIBritish Museum not only the
| tablets discovered by Mr.. George Smith, but al
50 the collection purchased by him in Assyria
The Telegraph, in a leading article on Mr.. Smiths
explorations, says:
ave are happy to be able to state that the
boxes containing the more portable of the treas
ures of antiquity exhumed by MIR. George Smith
| in Assyria, have safely reached this country.
| They have passed through various adventures of
field and flood while being brought down by
their discoverer to ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS package
having been nearly lost in n stream, and another
kicked open in mid desert by refractory mule.
Arriving safely from all these points at the coast,
they were detained by the Turkish officials, al
though Mr.. Smith opened and repacked the tab
let's in their presence, to show that no gold or
jewels of the Assyrian moDarehs were being ex-
ported. Thanks, however, TO the interpOsitiOn
Of Sir Henry Elliot, her Majesty's consul at Alex
andretta was soon enabled to send the treasures
forward, and we shall have the qualification this
week of handing them over intact to Mr.. Smith,
to enrich the national collection of Assyrian rel
les.
ave believe that the portion of tho deluge
tablet which our erudite Commissioner hit upon
fortunately will be found to add the missing
page to that very interesting part of the legend
where the building of the ark was described.
The narrative which excited so profound an in
terest last December broke off after this point,
but the new piece goes on to recite how the god
Hea enjoined the constructors of the ark to put
into it the various animals in their order To
light upon SO precious page of antique record,
50 absorbingly interesting at once to the natu-
ralist and Biblical student, was individually
lucky; and this was not the only instance of un-
usual good fortune. In the course of his exca-
vations Mr.. Smith came upon a broken sgnet
cylinder, made of black and white banded agate,
which he is convinced will prove to be the Miss
ing portion of an important seal of Sennacherib,
another moty Of which was already in our mu-
scum. Among other valuable items in those
boxes, will now come To hand the tablet of Assyr-
ian law denOuncing those who disobey the stat
utes and take brides in the seats OF Judgment;
the sllabary-asort of dictionary, throwing fresh
light upon all cuneiform texts-and q bilingual
inscription in Akkad and Assyrian of much
value for archRologists. There will arrive a
very curious fragment proving that the Sabbath
was an institution of these ancient mOnarchies,
prescribing the food to be eaten on the seventh
day, and forbidding the Kings chariot to he
brought forth, with other remarkable enact |
ments. A cylinder of Sargon is among the rel |
les, which illustrates in the most striking man
der passage in the Book of Isaiah aud there |
will be text of the reign of Assur-B ani
Pal, giving the history of the original conquest
Of Babylon, 2S0 years before the Christian era. |
brick inscription of Shalmanezer, and of his |
non, TugultiDinip, the builder of the great tenn
pie, Will lie OF interest to chrOnOlogists; and |
equally attractive to students of the religious
history of mankind, will be some tablets from
Babylon bearing on rites and ceremonies. FrOm
Aalah Sherghat comes a tablet inscribed with
he cOuquests of Assur-u- Bald, and from Hillah
ome contemporaneOus inscriptions of Cyrus,
long with other fragments, which may perhaps
brow light upon the singular fact that Xerxes,
although he reigned for twenty -one years, is not
mentioned on any of these southern monuments
hitherto discovered. There will be Seleuciau
md Parthian texts. too, amid this consignment
t "old oblivion" which, albeit of far later age
han the Assyrian treasures trove, may have i'm
'ortanee as bearing on historical dates and facts
{ is needless to remark that Mr.. Smith was far
o busy IN the superintendent of his excava-
ions to exhaust the significance of these and
many other items of his collection. With hun
red lazy Arabs to look after and trenches open
n several spots at once, he could do little more
n the actual site than verify the character of
ach discovery. So rich, indeed, are these
hounds in the records of vanished empire that
0 the last moment of his leave of absence, the
nergetic cuneologist kept finding precious frag-
tents, and objects Of high interest were actual
nnrarthed aud packed away on the morning
his departure.