American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1876-02-12
King Mesa's Pillar-Oldest DecIphered
Inscription In the World.

w OTlus
THE following interesting article is
from Galiqnani's Messenger, Paris;
"This famous stella has now been placed
for public inspection in that part of the
Louvre which is set apart for Hebrew an
tiquities- 1t bears the oldest inscription
in the world as yet deciphered, and is
historical monument without rival, con
temporaneous with the Bible, dating back
300 years before the Christian era. The pill
lar Is of black basalt, having almost the
same form IS the tables of the decalogue.
II measures forty inches in height, twenty
eight in width, and fourteen in thickness,
and for Q 800 years has remained in the
same position in the country of the Moab
ties, on the shores of the Dead Sea, at the
spot, as it is supposed, where the frontier
OF their territory joined that Of the tribe Of
Reuben. The column of Mesa was not
buried. 1t had remained erect in the full
light Of day for twenty eight centuries.
In 1870 NJ. Clermont- Ganneau, attached to
the French consulate at Jerusalem, heard
something about . stone placed at the en-
trance Of . small village near the Dead
Sea, and covered with 'myterious' char
acters. Attracted by those reports, he
sent two intelligent Arabs with ipstruc
tons to bring him an impression of the
inscription, by using the same process as
is employed in printing offices for obtain
o proof Of type in form-viz., to spread
sheet Of moistened paper on the letters,
and by means of q brush to drive the pulp
into the cavities. The operation succeeded
perfectly, as may be seen from the impress
sion which is exposed by the side Of the
pillar itself in the Louvre. But at the
moment when Yacoub, one of the Arabs,
was preparing to depart, he was attacked
by the Bedouins and badly wounded; but
his companion was fortunate enough to
get on his horse and escape with the
greater part of the impress NJ. Clermont-
Ganneau, some time after, sent another
Arab with instructions to copy by hand
the inscription, and the man fulfilled his
mission with great intelligence; the COPY
and sketch of the stone which he made
are also exhibited at the Louvre. Event
ually, the same enthusiastic functionary
succeeded In translating the famous in
scription.
at refers to King Mesa, the chief of
the Moabites, spoken Of in the Second of
Kings, ill.,, 4. He was a tributary OF the
monarch of Israel and paid each year the
almost inconceivable tribute of 100000
lambs and as many rams Mesa resolved
TO rid himself of the heavy burden and
declared war against the king OF Is
rael; the latter aided by the sovereign
Of Judah, fought the Moabites and
compelled their chief to take refuge
In the last fortress which remained
to him. Mesa, perceiying that his
cause was lost, sacrificed on the ramparts
his oldest son to propitiate the god Cha
mos. The Bible, which relstes the fact,
adds: Great indignation prevailed
among the Israelites, who left and re-
turned to their own country King Mesa
took the trouble, so to speak, of complet-
ing the somewhat obscure record of the
Bible, Is, according to the inscription of
the stella the armies Of Israel and Judah
were completely worsted and dispersed:
i, Mesa, seized the vessels of Jehovah,
which I dragged in the dust before the
idol Of Chamos, etc. The Moabite mon
session of large number of towns and
territories belonging to the Israelites, and
that he put to death 900 men, women
and children, etc. THESE facts will give
IN idea Of the value of the monument,
which, q previously stated, bears the old
ct inscription that has yet been deci-
rhnred. That on the sarcophagus of Ech-
1noear had hitherto held the first rank,
b. one Of which We speak II older by
four centuries.
There remains to describe how NJ. Cler
mont-Ganneau succeeded in procuring
the original of the inscription. He organ
lied for that purpose q real expedition,
composed Of bold and enterprising men,
70 whom he paid in advance one-half of
be the reward of their services. Unfor-
tunately the Bedouins, who, without
knowing the origin of the stone, attributed
70 it the magic virtue of . talisman, broke
up the pillar with . hammer and shared
the fragments among themselves. With
immense difficulty the pieces were sue
cessively purchased and Joined together,
the missing portions being replaced by
blackened plaster. The monument is,
Ixyr 1xrr ~
the original inscription and by the aid of
the rubbings first taken The text is in
Archaic Ph9nician characters, the most
ancient alphabetical words known in his
tory, according to Lucan:
rhenices print. fam@ ST creditur nusi
4Ansuram radfbus vocem st2nare fguris.
On that point the objection may be made
that inscriptions more ancient than that of
the stella Of Mesa exist, and among others
that Of the Obelisk of Luxor; next, frag-
ment of an Assyrian inscription in cunei-
form characters found ON several bricks at
Nineveh and Babylon. Egyptian hori-
xontal and vertical ones are TO be seen on
the ruins of the great temple of PhiIa,
which are assuredly anterior to that of
remained undecipherable. The reason is,
that with almost all the eastern nations
there were two sorts of writings, the HE
ratio, or sacred, for the use of priests, who
alone possessed the key, and the vulgar
taxi In spite of all the science of Cham
pollion and the works of so many Orien-
talists, the sacred hieroglyphics Of Egypt
will remain eternally . secret. Genera
lions will pass away; they may lose them
selves in contemplating the hieratic fig-
ures engraved on the gates Of the temple
Of Karnak, but the priests, who were
alone initiated, have taken the secrc. with
them. Even in the present day the Abys-
sinians of upper Egypt are accustomed to
tattoo the same mysterious marks on their
cheeks without knowing the Specification
of them. ALI that they can say is that the
custom has been perpetuated for centu.
ries. The National library in Paris pos
sesses an Egyptian hieratic inscription on
. papymus twenty five feet long, and uat-
ing from the time of the Pharaohs. Who
has been able to decipher it, There was
also at Jerusalem the familiar Hebrew
greatly resembling the PhGnican, and the
sacred or rabbinic language, which diff.
ferS essentially from the other"
Altitude Fascination.