The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1882-02-16

TEN THOUSAND TABLETS IN AN ENORMOUS
-:rIpING - POSSIBLY ANTEDLUyIAN Rs-
CORDS.
IRON the London Times.l
On Monday evening, during discussion
which took place on paper read at the
Victoria Institute, Mr.. Rassam, the we'll
known discoverer Of Assyrian relics. said ::
"Tn March last went out again TO the
East, Sc you know | am always doing,
FOR the purpose OF finding out the old
cities which lie buried there. As | was
journeying on one occasion III rur-
suit OF this object met with an Arab who
told me that he knew OF an old ruined
city, the remains OF which were to he found
within five hours Of Bagdad-that il 10 say,
taking the computation Of three miles an
hour, the place he knew OF was fifteen
miles from Ragdad. As we were travelling
along the route pointed out by the Arab
we came at distance of four hours jour-
neying upon an old ruin that had never
seen before-a ruin OF great magnltudc-so
large, indeed, that it must be about three
miles in circumference. / at first thought
that this was the place OF which my guide
had spoken. We went onward, ANA at last
the Arab showed me 4 most wonderful
ruin. | set to work and excavated there,
but i found nothing Of any antiquarian
value.
81 afterward went back TO the place /
had first seen, and commenced thorough
search there. The result was that after
digging for four days we came upon the
top OF some walls. This induced III to
perseverc with increased ardor, and We
soon found that we had come upon an
enormous building, in which we began to
find inscriptions. j may here say that | am
not an Assyrian reader. l AIN only dis
coverer OF Assyrian relies, which send TO
The British Museum, where those who have
made Assyriology study interpret the
inscriptions | find. We first OF all dis
covered four rooms, and then came upon
Il fifth. They were what / should call gen-
orally Of the Assyrian or Babylonian order,
and paved with bricks or stones bat the
fifth room was paved with asphalt, the dis
covery Of which brought TO my mind Solo
mons saying, There is nothing new I'M
der the sum- Previous. to this | had al
WAYS thought that asphalt was modern
invention. Singular as thi. discovery was,
we dug through the asphalt, and in 4 short
time we were rewarded by coming upon
Golfer on which we found inscriptions.
From this Golfer we took two cylinders.
which are supposed to be the most impor-
tant records OF the Oldest city in the world,
founded, as historians tell us, by Noah
after the deluge, and where, according to
tradition, Moab buried the antediluyian
records. Well, had to come home; but
| left some woYkmen continuing the
operations at the spot, and | have
sscertained that they have found, after
few days more digging, that in one of the
rooms there was channel. and inside that
channel there were records inscribed on
nearly 10000 tablets. These tablets are all
coming to England, but we cannot, of
course, as yet say what they contain. They
may contain something OF even greater
value than anything that has hitherto been
discovered in the course of our Eastern re-
searches. Ii may he. indeed, that we shall
really find on them the antediuvian records
Of which have spoken. After have been
out there again shall be happy to give you
further information as to this interesting
discovery on my return. l hope to be 90
ing out in another month, and then trust
| i shall be able TO make still further advances
on what we have already discovered