Louisiana capitolian. (Baton Rouge, La.) 1879-1881, 1881-10-29
BEFORE THE FLOOD.
Records From the Ruins Of an An.
cient BabylOnian Temple-Reve.
lati0ns 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 Rassam, though affording no such
grande trouuaille as the bronze gates
from Ballawat, have, nevertheless, been
rich in discoveries which will be well
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 psychologists 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 lsa0-9l, which Mr..
Rassam has just concluded, has so far
met their wishes in that from the ruins
of the temples and palaces of Babylonia,
Borslppa, Supra, and Cutha he brings
records and copies of religious texts,
some of which will, no doubt, furnish
the required Chaldean versions.
From the earliest days of Mesopota-
milan 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 oflmportance have been discover
ell. With the exception of thousands of
bricks bearing the names and titles of
Nebuchadnezzar, 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 a continuous flow of inscrip-
tons and records from the treasure
house of the city and we now know
much more of the popular life of Baby
lon 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 We're 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 confded all
The business Of the Babylonian Ministry
of Finance. The building whose ruins
are marked by the mound of Jumjuma
was the chdncellerie 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 q city within whose walls
were gathered representatives of every
nation, people, and tongue
The inscriptions which Mr.. Rassasn
has recovered are not confined to docu
ments of this class only. 1t was long
feared by psychologists 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 trag-
ments of historical Inscriptions OF Nebll-
chadnezzar, a valuable precis OF the his
tory of the last days OF the Babylonian