Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1888-02-29
BOOKS OF AssYRIA.
what IL Told by the Clay Tablets Found
In Ruined Eastern Cities.


In Ruined Eastern Cities.
BY great good fortune large part
of one of the finest and largest of the
libraries of ancient times has been re-
covered. 1t was collected in the very
height OF the power of Assyria by
King who refined from Media to Egypt,
the great Assurbanipal. the Sardana-
palus of the Greeks. This King, whose
rule extended from 667 to 625 B. c.,
was no such effeminate monarch as is
described by the Greek historians, but
was successful warrior and very
M@cenas of letters His grand library,
unlike Egypt, Greece and Rome, has
been preserved because the books were
written, not on parchment or papyrus,
but on clay. All organic textures per-
ish, but a bit of earthenware is as
nearly imperi shable as any thing man
can make The Assyrians wrote their
books on tablets Of soft clay. 1t was
nodded into the shape of a cushion or
pillow, which, for small business docu-
ments, would be from little more than
an inch square to about three inches
by two, or even little larger. But
for large documen ts-books of litera-
ture or science-much larger tablets
were used and divided into success
sion of columns on two sides The
writing was done with stylus which
was not cut to a point, but was cut
square, like the end of a pocket rule.
upon pot of clay or on bit of blot
ting paper, to initiate the peculiar
wedges of the cuniform writing. The
clay tablet having been carefully in
scribed, it was fired, and produced a
light colored and permanent terra
Gotta. Ordinary contract tablets were
not necessarily burned, but were simply
sun-dried. Thousands of these bust
ness tablets have been unearthed in
Babylon and vicinity, all accurately
dated and invaluable for chronology.
Every chief Babylonian city has its
library, and Assurbanipal sent his
scribes to all of these, or had copies
made for his library in Nineveh of
their principal works. He took pride
in this similar to that which, in the
next century, Nebuchadnezzar took in
his enormous public buildings At the
end of every principal book he put this
colophon: "For the palace of Assur-
banipal, King of legions, King of ma
tons, King Of Assyria, to whom the
god Nebo and his spouse Tasmit
[deities presiding over literature have
given attentive ears and open eyes to
see the accounts of the writer's of my
realm, whom the Kings, my prede
cessors, have employed. IN my regard
Tor Nebo [god of learning] / have
found these tablets. | have had
them copied. l have signed my name.
and have put them in my palace"
The tablets were put in the charge of
an officer whose title was man of tab
lets. the precise equivalent to our IL
brarian. They were arranged in the
library in methodical way. Each
book had u title consisting. like those
of papal bulls, of the first words, and
in the case of a large work. extending
over large number of tablets, each
one was Numbered Thus the great as
Economical encyclopedia began with
the words when the gods Anu and
Ill.," and at the end of each tablet
came the words ''frst" Cor second"
third" etc. tablets of when the
gods Anu and Ill.," There were catch
words repeated, connecting the end Ct
one tablet with the beginning of the
next. Fragments of catalogues have
been found and of directions for read
ers.--Bo0b NesOs