Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1888-06-03
ASSYRIOLOGY.
RISING FROM THE DEAD TO DECLARE
TIE BIBLE TRUE.
Ths Difficulties Of Excavators-Ths Cunsi-
forms aud What They Ars-rsblets and
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.
LFor the Dispstch.l

hesitate 10 Iehppcdl III lVo1 NOAuui"" %.
a discussion Of n subject so difficult and
unsettled. 1t seems, however, that cour-
tesy demands that some response should
be made TO "Some Other Questions
About Assyria," which were published
in your columns several weeks ago.
without reproducing these questions, L
shall now attempt, in substance at least,
to answer them.
DIFFICULTIES OF THE RXCAvAToR.
Men who sit in their cosy libraries and
read newspaper notices about Assyrla,
have never dreamed Of the hardships and
perils which have confronted those who
have borne part in restoring the Assy-
Ran language. Botta, Layard, Rswlin-
son, and Smith ought to be enshrined IN
history. They were pioneers in Assyri-
oloey, and the story Of their exposures
and sacrifices is pathetic. Alamo with
scholarly FIRE, these men went out to ex-
plore the ruins of Assvria and 10 study
the mystery OF its symbols. They were
ready to labor and even to die-as, in
deed, the youthful George Smith actual
" did-in the service Of true learning.
But for them, the silent tongue of Assy-
ria would still lie Wondering in the
grave.
The record Of their trials would fill
volumes. Assyria Is q bad teld for the
excavator. The country is msrshy and
the climate is unhealthy. During their
tolls. these men, who were of gentle birth
and well used TO comfort, dwelt in the
rudest huts. They had to do constant
battle with reptiles, gnats, and sand
flies. In summer the heat was over
towering, end sand-storms and desert
winds often swept tine country Like the
breath of furnace. Sometimes whirl-
winds, laden with dust and sand, covered
them in darkness, rendering work ina
possible and putting life in peril.
The natives were openly hostile. They
looked upon the Assyrian ruins as OBJ
;ects OF terror. In their superstition,
they had conjured horrible faRcies con-
corning these ancient mounds. They
not only refused to touch them, but they
resented the attempt OF outsiders to dis
turb them. Officials annoyed the e1cs-
vators in every possible way. They OBJ
strncted their work, apd even whom they
had dug up valuable tablets, they OBJ
iected to their removal. They also found
il hard TO secure native workmen who
were competent and faithful, and were
often nut TO serious cost and delay in
conveying these ponderous tablets and
sculptures from that country to the Eu-
ropran museums
/ 20 roralU IN
scholars. and those pioneers often halted
for the lack of means, and that, too, IN
the midst of the most important dis
cogeries. Botta, tho French srch@olo-
pist, had serous conflicts with the Pacha.
This stupid Official set guards to watch
him, and even issued an order requiring
him TO suspend operations. be fancled
that the French explorer was an enemy
in Disguise, and seeking to overthrow
bis Government. Bottq was also IN ire
quont peril from robber bands, which
roamed unchecked through the country.
Layard. who made important e1cava-
tons at the mound of Nimroud, was
branded as a grave-robber and required
TO qnit work. lie was also charged with
digging for these inscriptions with view
of finding proof that the soil did not IN
reality belong to the Pacha's Govern
ment, hut to the Franks. These are
simply hints as t. the tribulGtions OF the
As,yrian excavstor. The story is long
and black, but cannot be given here.
WHY WE'RE THESE DISCOVERIES NOT MADE
BEFORE?
Ifaac.raralf
sooner? Why were the classics allowed
to be buried for nearly ten centuries 2
Why was the world SO belated in
the discovery OF gravitatiOn Dis
covery is not run on schedule time.
The finding OF hidden things, viewed
from human standpoint, seems largely
to be the work of chance.
In the matter of Assyrian discoveries
there are facts which in part At least ex-
plain the delay.
Tho material for reconstructing the
Assvrian language has been in sight for
centuries. Tablets, cylinders, monu-
ments, and ruins were scattered thick
over Turkish territory. Their inscrip-
tons cried for an interpreter. but the
Turks and Arabs are not arch@ologlsts.
They we're blind 10 the wealth which lay
at their feet. They feared to touch the
crumbling columns or TO enter the sub
terranean passages, or TO commune with
the inscribed tablets lest some curse
should fall upon them.
Then. it has only been within recent
wears that easy communication has been
L.. routtfraI TINA
means, exposure, and peril TO 60 on an
Oriental expedition-so much so, indeed,
that no man dared undertake it, and for
that matter, no man knew that 1t was
worth undertaking.
Perhaps there vas special Provi-
donce IN tie delay. it need not be said
here that in this day the enemies Of the
Bible have been peculiarly rampant and
defiant They have struck at the Bible
from every direction. They have been
most vehement in assailing the Old les
lament, boldly claiming that its historl-
cal portions are fabulous, unreliable, and
contradictory. Assyriology is neither
friend nor an enemy of the Bible, and
vet in its discoveries it has shed won
derful light upon Oriental history. The
first testimony which the Assyrian tongue
utters, after coming forth from the
grave, is in confirmation of Old Tesla
ment histories. Assyria rises from the
dead to declare that the Bible is true.
WHAT ARE cUNEToBMs
This question can be answered IN a
few sentences. The Assyriars did not
write, in the modern sense of this wOri.
They used neither pen, pencil, papyrus,
nor skins. Their instrument for impress
sion. making was an iron stylus. Ii was
so shaped, that when pressed into the
soft clay it would leave a wedge-shaped
indentation. The Assyrians wrote upon
a clay which was soft and yielding at
first, but when baked. hardened into a
well-nieh imperisbaUle stone. Their
ambition for historic immortality caused
them TO make their records III such ma
terials as this. although 1t is evident
enough that they little dreamed that
their tablets would become witnesses for
the truth OF GoG.
From this we see that in saying that