Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1882-03-24
OLDER THAN THE FLOOD.


lOnian Temple-Hemains, Also, Of
the Hanging GarGens-Tablets and
Their Inscriptions.
The spade of the explorer has once
more been busy amid the mounds and
ruins of Assyria and Babylonia, and
rich harvest of antiquities has resulted
from the work. The explorations car
red ont during eighteen months by MIR.
Hormuzd Rassam, though aflording no
snch grande trouvaille as The bronze
gates from Ballawat, have. neverthe-
less, been rich in discoveries which will
be welcomed by all students of history
and philOlogY. The recovery of the
library of terra Gotta tablets from the
palaces of Sennacherib and Assurbani-
pal has restored to us a vast mass of lit
erature, and supplied long-lost chap
ters in the history. mythology and
science of the world. 1t has also
proved to us that. valuable as these
records are, we have in them but Sec
ond 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 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 cf the temples and
palaces of Babylon, Borsipps, Supra
and Cutha he brings records and copies
OF religious texts. some of which will, no
doubt. furnish the required Cha!dean
versions.
From the earliest days of Mesopota-
mian travel the spade of the explorer
has been applied to the ruins of Baby
Ion. Strange as it 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. it 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 CYL
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-
tance has been recovered from amid the
ruins. But the year 1874 began a new
era in Baby bylOnian explorations, for from
that time on there has been continu-
Gus flow of inscriptions and 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 able
to ascertain regarding Nineveh from the
monuments and records. The tablets
found by the Arabs in 1874-'76 were
purchased by the late George Smith for
the Trustees of the British Museum, and
the subsequent finds made by Mr.. Ras-
sam have added some hundreds to this
branch of the collection, 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 centur-
les. the family of the Benz Egibi were
the leading commercial firm of Baby
business of the Babylonian Ministry of
Finance. The building whose ruins are
marked by the mound of 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 compiled, are of great value
to the chronologist and historian;
while to the student of Babylonian civ
ilization they are of the highest i'm
portance. From the tax receipts we
learn how the revenue 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 roads. 1t is almost i'm
possible to estimate too highly the i'm
portance of such a series of documents
as these. dealing with every phase of
social life. and coming to us from 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 AssyriOlOgists that BabylO-
nian history was irretrievably lost. as
no historical records were recovered;
but from the ruins of the palaces of the
King, of Babylon Mr.. Rassam has
brought fragments of historical de-
scriptiOns of NebuchadneZZar, valua-
BILE precis of the history of the last days
of the Babylonian Empire, extending
from the seventh year of Nabonidus to
the fall of the city before the hosts of
Cyrus, 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, Mr..
Rassam has found chambers and corri-
dors 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 TO 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
by the natives the Babel mound Exca-