The Red Cloud chief., 1881-11-24
OLDER THAN THE FLOOD.

ia wv
Ruins and Records Found In q Eaby.
IO1tan Temple Remains. Also. Of
the Hanging Gardcns-Tablets and
Their Inscriptions.
The spade of the explorer HIS once
more peer busy amid the mounds and
ruins OF Assyria and Babyionia, and a
rich harvest of antiquities has resulted
from the work. The explorations car
ried ont during eighteen months by Mr..
Hsrmazd Rassam, though aifordirg no
such grande t%rouyaille as he bronze
gates from ballawat, have. neyerthe-
less, been rich in discoveries which will
be welcomed by all students of history
ard phiiology. The of the
library of terra-co.ta tablets from the
palaces Of Sennacherib AMI Assurbani-
pal has restored TO us q vast mass OF lit
erature, and supplied long-lost chap
tiers in the historg. mythology and
science Of the word. Ii has also
proved to us that. valuable as thee
records are, we have in them but sec
ond and third editions Of works first
compiled b. the scribes in the library
cities OF Babylon.a. The discovery OF
fragments led Assyrioiogisis to hope
that the explorer would be able To re-
cover from the ruins of the cities OF
Chaldea the older versions OF the As
syrian texts, and the expedition Of 1880
81, which Mr.. Rassam has Just con
cluded. has so far met their wishes in
that from the ruins Of the temples and
palaces of Babylon. Borsippa, Supra
and Cutha he brings records and copies
o; religloustexts, some Of which will. no
doubt. furnish the required Chaldean
versions.
Prom the earliest days of Mesopota-
mian travel the spade of the explorer
has been applied TO the ruins of Baby
Ion. Strange rs il may seem, although
for more than three centuries the ruins
have been known and visited. and for
centuries the Arab brick merchants
have been digging amid its ruins for
bricks. il is only within the last few
years that records of importance have
been recovered. With the exception of
thousands of bricks bearing the names
and titles of NebuchadneZZar, and evil
inders inscribed with the records of
temples and palaces built or restored by
the builder-king and his successors. no
record of historical or scientific impor-
lance has been recovered from amid the
ruins. But the year 1874 began a new
era in Babylonian explorations. for from
that time on there has been a c~ontinu-
Gus flow of inscriptions aud records
from the treasure-house of the city; and
we now know much more of the popu-
lar life of Babylon and its people than
after years of study we have been abe
TO ascertain regarding n neveh fromthe
monuments and records. The tablets
found b. the Arabs in 1S74-'76 were
purchased by the late George Smith for
the Trustees of the British Museum. and
the subsequent finds made by Mr.. Ras-
san have added some hundreds TO this
branch of the collect; on, SO that of this
class OF tablets there are now more
than 5000 examples in the British
Museum. These tablets show that for
4 long period, probably several centur-
les. the family of the Benz Egibi were
the leading commercial firm of BABY
lon, and TO them was con,ided all the
business of the Babylonian Ministry of
Finance. The building whose ruins are
married. by the mound o: Jumjuma was
the chancellerie OF the firm, and from
its ruins come the records of every
class of monetary transactions. The
documents, being all most carefully
dated and complied. are OF great value
10 the chronologist and historian;
while TO the student OF Babylonian civ
iiiZltion they are of the highest i'm
pertance. From the tax receipts we
learn how the reyenu was raised by
duties levied on land, on crops of dates
and corn, on cattle, by imposts for the
use of the irrigation canals and the use
of the public rrads. 1t is Almost i'm
possible TO estimate too highly the i'm
portance of such a series of documents
rs these, deal NC with every phase of
social life. and coming tous from q city
from within whose walls were gathered
representatives of every "nation. peO-
pie and tongue"
The inscriptions which Mr.. Rassam
has recovered are not confined to docu-
ments of this class only. 1t was long
feared by Assyriologisis that Babylo-
nian history was ir~retrievably lost, as
no historical records were recovered;
but from the ruins of the palaces OF the
Kings of Babylon Mr.. Rassam has
brought fragments Of historical de-
scriptions of Nebuchadnezzar, a valua-
blelrocis of the history OF the last days
of the Babylonian Empire. ex ending
from the seventh year of Nabonicus to
the fall of the city before the hosts of
Cyrus, a ROYAL record of the Persian
conqueror, and. lastly. an inscribed
record of the last great victor who en-
tered Babylon. Alexander OF Macedon.
The scarcity of stone in Babylonia. and
the extensive use of bricks. rendered
the ruins of BabylOnian palaces not
fruitful fields for the explorer in search
of architectural remains. In the ruins
of the kasr or palace mound, MIR.
Rassam has found chambers and corri-
doris which formed part of the royal
residence of the Kings of Babylon.
The use of plaster and painted bricks
as decoration in those chambers af-
fords strong support to the statements
Of the Greek writer's as 10 the mode of
decorating the royal residences of
Babylon. On the extreme north of the
ruins of Babylon. and partly without
the enceinte, is the large mound called
ly the natives the Babel mound. Exca-
v0SsOuS iOa ACAC hdtC OiOuSut W
light the remains of extensive hydraulic
works. wells and conduits lined with
'stenes. and evidently connected with
the Euphrates. The discovery of these
remains would seem to indicate that
here had stood the hanging gardens,
built by the Babylon;an King for his
Median Queen. and the supposition r
ceiyes additional support from the re-
covery of q small inscribed tablet,
which clearly proves the fondness of
the Babylonian KINGS for horticulture
A scribe attached to one of the palace
or temple libraries of Babylon has trans
to us q list of the gardens or
paradises of the Babylonian Monarch,
Mero1achbaladan. the contemporary OF
Sennacherib and Hezekiah.
This monarch appears to have been q
patron OF horticulture. for the
list furnishes the names of mor than
nixty gardens and parks in and about
Babylon constructed by the royal order.
Leaving Babylon, we now the
and pass southwest to glance
50 the work which has been carried out
81 tie ruirs of the Birs Ninroud. the
site of the Tower of Babel.
IL .oUAu stan