Morning journal and courier., 1885-01-22
Libraries at Babylon.

From the London Times
 | The resurrection of palaces and temples I which resulted from the explorations in Chal-
 dea by Mir. Hornuzd Rassam was indeed an
 astonishing surprise to archaologists. From
 beneath the huge grave mounds, where the | debris accumulated during many centuries | had attained an almost rock-like solidity, l the explorer has brought to view the dwell | ings of kings and the shrines of gods, whose foundations were laid in the childhood of the
 world. Startling as these discoveries were,
 their true value and importance could not be estimated until the mass of inscribed records | which the spade of the explorer had rescued from the dark chambers had been deciphered and arranged. The work of examining and classifying the thousands of inscribed tablets which MT Rassam recovered from the record
 chamber of the great Sun Temple of Sippara (Aboo Hubba) and the library of the great temple of Nebo at Borsippa, {Birs Nimrud,)
 together with the large number of commer-
 cial and legal tablets from Babylon, was
 slow and tedious task It indeed reflects
 great credit upon the Psychologists attached
 5o t.e 5sSartmentof Oriental antiquities iat!-e
 British museum. that in so short space of
 time they have been able to master the gen.
 era1 contents of this large mass of literature.
 The Babylonians, like the Chinese, were an
 essentially literary people, and every event
 in life found its record on the clay tablets
 The caste of the scribes was the most hon
 ored and ancient in their land; their ances
 tor being the seaborn Cannes, called Musar
 ros, 'tthe scribe, " who rose from the sea to
 teach men the elements of civilization. A1s-
 uthrus the Noah of Chaldean- tradition, was
 the writer of the first 'Boolz of Origins
 which he deposited in the temple of the Sun
 God of Sippara, to be recovered after tine
 deluge, and thus continued unbroken the
 roll of Chaldean history.
 If any proof were needed of the literary
 character of the Babylonials it is found ill
 the tens of thousands of inscribed tablets
 now stored in the cases of the Assyrian de-
 partment of the British museum. The dis coveries made during the last half century, which have restored to us tl:e history Of western Asia, have all been tending to carry us further and further back into remote antiquity, while each year fresh finds have been filling up tbe lacunfe in the roll of his tory thus open before Us. The recovered literature is by no means solely historical being as varied in character as that of the present day, embracing in its large area tab let books on religion, botany, zoology, astron- omy and even works of fiction, fables, and stories, as well a most important class of pathological works, grammars. lexicons, and 1 bilingual handbooks relating not only to the languages of Babylonia, but to those of sur lands. The of cuneiform re- search has been very much enlarged by these I discoveries of MT. Rassam, and i'll a volume 1 just issued "A Selection of Assyrian and 1 Babylonian Inscriptions" edited by Sir Henry Creswicke Rawlinson, is published cylinder inscription of Antiochus the Great, l dated in the forty-third year of the era of | the Seleueide, (B. c. 2!S-9D while there are tablets in the collection not sufficiently inter esting for publication, dated in the two hun l dred and eighteenth year of that era, or as | B. c. go. These tablets prove that the Ara | mean alphabet did not gain that popularity l which some have assigned to it, and the fact that among the thousand of contract tablets mean dockets indicates that in Babylon cer- tainly it was not the script of trade. These | tables furnish us with evidence as to the late | of the cuneiform writing, and evidence as to the very early period at which | 8 literature was developed in Babylon1a IS | afforded by the fine cylinder Of Nabonldus, | found in the record chest of the great temple | of Sippara This splendid cylinder, contain ! ing about ITO lines in the most perfect pres arvation may be considered the most impor- | tant inscription published in this volume. ing the temple of the Srln God he came upon the foundation record placed there by Marlin Sin, the son of -5argon, 5,200 years before his l time-that is in B. c. 31150
 Among the monuments found by Mir. Ras- sam in the ruins Of this temple was small | ovoid of pink and white marble, which bore l she inscription of Sargon, the father of this | king, reading: 'I, Sargon, the King of Agade ,o the Sun God in Silpara, 1 have ded1ca-
 ed" This surprising and important date loes not rest upon the evidence of one text done, for recently a second, though mutila- ed copy of the cylinder was offered for sale tt the museum in which the same date is 1 given. So there is little reason to doubt it's l accuracy. The importance of the record Is l increased by the fact that this inscription of 1 5;srgon is written III Semitic Babylonian, ill | phonetic characters, thus proving that only l prior to this date the cuneiform writing must lave been in use and passed through stages I ,f growth, development and adaptation which could not have taken place ill few centuries. From this new volume we have therefore evidence Of the most conclusive ! character of the antiquity of Rabylonian IL ,raries and the varied nature of their con ! ents. Of the latter have proof i'll th1s I rolume, which contains lists of plants, foods, | insects; in the latter we find the bee and the ! yasp mentioned Among the inscriptions of l historical importance here published the ] most valuable are the tablets of Nebuehad- ,ezzar l., (B. c. 11s0), and Nabubaliddlna, B. c. S50,) from Aboo Hubba. The former 1 # these is the charter of freedom granted to l he Kassite or North Elan:te city of Bit kar- ,iyabku by the Babylonian king in return or aid rendered by it's ruler, Ritti Merodach, 1 liter the Babylonian forces had been defeat .d by the allied tribes of Elaln. The docG- nent contains strange stipulations as to civic avs, freedom from taxes and conscription 1 or the army. Tine volume is, we believe, he last of the present series of which for | nore than twenty years Sir Henry Rawlinson l las been editor, it being intended to employ metal type in lieu of ithography in future It is to be hoped, however, hat the work will be continued, as the treas tres of the libraries of Babylon, the deposl- ories of the learning and wisdom of Chai- lea. are far from being exhausted, and stu |ents who are unable to visit the British mu-
 alic.,tiQ1,