Louisiana capitolian. (Baton Rouge, La.) 1879-1881, 1881-10-25
BEFORE THE FLOOD.
Records From the Ruins OF an An.
cieDt BabylOnian TempIe-Reve.
lattOns From the Misty Ages.
London Times.

| London Times.
The spade of the explorer has once
more been busy amid the mounds and
ruins of Assyria and Babylonia, and a
rich harvest of antiquities has resulted
from the work. The explorations carried
out during eighteen months by Mr.. Hor.
mud Rassan, though affording no such
grdnde EOuuaille as the bronze gates
from Ballawat, have, nevertheless, been
rich in discoveries which will be vel.
coined by all students of history and
philology. The recovery Of the library
Of terra-cotta tablets from the palaces OF
Sennacherib and Assurbanipal has re.
stored to us vast mass of literature and
supplied long lost chapters in the history,
mythology, and science of the world, 1t
has also proved to us that valuable as
those records are, we have in them but
second and third editions of works first
compiled by the scribes in the library
cities of Babylonia. The discovery of
fragments led Assyriologists to hope that
the explorer would be able to recover
from the ruins of the cities of Chaldea
the older versions of the Assyrian texts,
and the expedition of 1ss0-s1, which Mr..
Rassam has just concluded, has so far
met their wishes in that from the ruins
Of the temples and palaces of Babylonia,
Borsppa, Supra, and Cutha he brings
records and copies of religious texts,
some Of which will, no doubt, furnish
the required Chaldear versions.
From the earliest days of Mesopota-
mian travel the spade of the explorer has
been applied to the RUNS of Babylon
Strange as it may seem, although for
more than three centuries the ruins have
been known and visited, and for centu-
ries the Arab brick merchants have been
digging amid the ruins for bricks, it is
only within the last few years that re-
cords ofimportance have been discover
ed. With the exception of thousands of
bricks bearing the names and titles Of
ACKNOWLEDGMENT, and cylinders inscrib-
ed with the records of temples and pala-
ces built or restored by the builder-king
and his successors, no record of histOri-
cal or scientific Importance has been re-
covered from amid the ruins. But the
year 1874 began new era in Babylonian
explorations, for from that time on there
has been q continuous flow of inscrip-
tiOns and records from the treasure
house of the city and we now know
much more of the popular life of Baby
Ion and its people than after years of
study we have been able to ascertain re-
garding Ninevah from monuments and
records. The tablets found by the
Arabs in 1S74-5 were purchased by the
late George Smith for the Trustees Of
the British Museum, and the subsequent
finds made by Mr.. Rassam have added
some hundreds to this branch of the col
lection, so that of this class of tablets
there are now more than 5000 examples
in the British Museum These tablets
show that for long period, probably
several centuries, The family of the Benz
Egibi were the leading commercial firm
of Babylon, and to them was confided all
the business Of the Babylonian Ministry
of Finance. The building whose ruins
are marked by the mound of Jumjuma
was the chdncelleyie of the firm, and
from its ruins come the records of
every class of monetary transactions.
The documents being all most carefully
dated and compiled, are of great value
to the chronologist and historian; while
to the student of Babylonian civilization
they are of the highest Importance.
From the tax receipts we learn how the
revenue was raised by duties levied on
land, on crops of dates and corn, on cat
tie, by imposts for the use of the irriga-
ton canals and the use of the public
roads. 1t is almost impossible to esti-
mate too highly the Importance Of such
series of documents of these, dealing
with every phase of social life and COM
ing to us from city within whose walls
were gathered representatives of every
nation, people, aud tongue"
The Inscriptions which Mr. Rassam
has recovered are not confined to docu
ments of this class only. 1t was long
feared by Assyriologists that Babylonian
history was irretrievably lost, as no his
torical records were recovered, but from
the ruins of the palaces of the Kings of
Babylon Mr.. Rassam has brought frag-
ments of historical Inscriptions of Nebu-
ehadnezzar, q valuable precis OF the his
tory of the last days of the Babylonian
Empire, extending from the seventh wear