The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1889-10-18
ARCHAEOLOGICAL TREASURE.
discovery OF an AssyrIan Library Thirty
Five Hundred Years Old.

past year was read by Captain
Francis Petrie, the honorary secre-
,tary, by which it appeared that the
number of home, foreign and colonial
members had increased TO over |. 800,
and there had been an important ad-
vance in the practical work of the in
stitute in inves ugating philosophical
ana scientific questions, especially any
questions used by those who unhap-
PLY, sought to attack religion in the
name of science. l- a--H.s r -.-r
1t was ANNOUNCED that family mat
ters, consequent ON the death of his
father, prevented Prof Sayce's pres
ence, and he had chosen Rev. DR..
Wright, author of The Hittites,' to
read the address II gave an histori-
cal. description of what has become
known in regard to the conquests of
Amenophis III, as shown by the
archives OF his palace, which have
only lately been discovered, and
which the professor went last winter
to inves tigate on the spot before
writing the address for the Victoria
Institute. OF the tablets and inscrip-
tons he said: IF rom them we learn
that in the fifteenth century before our
era a century before the Exodus
active literary intercourse was going
on throughout the civilized world
of - Western Asia, between Baby
90 Ion and Egypt and the smaller states
Of Palestine, of Syria, of Mesopotamia,
and even Eastern Kappadokia- And
this Intercourse was carried on by
means of the Babylouian language,
and the complicated Babylonian
script. This implies that all over
the civilized East there were Libraries
and schools where the Babylonian
language and literature were taught
and learned. Babylonian appeared TO
have been as much the language of d.
plomacy and cultivated society as
French has become in modern times,
with the difference that, whereas it
does not take long to learn to read
French, the cuneiform syIlabal.y re-
-quired years of hard labor and atten-
ton before it could be acquired. We
can now understand the meaning of
the name of the Canaanitish city
which stood near Hebron, and which
seems TO have been one of the most
important Of the towns of Southern
Palestine. Kirjath-Sepher, or Book
town, must have been the seatof a
famous library, consisting mainly il
not altogether, as the Tel el-Amarna
tablets inform US, of clay tablets in
scribed with cuneifOrm characters As
the city also bore the name of Debir, or
Sanctuary" we may conclude that
the tablets were stored in its
chief temple, like the libraries
of Assyria and Babylonia. 1t may
be that they are still lying under the
soil. awaiting the day when the spade
Of the excavator shall restore them to
the light, The literary influence of
4 Babylonia in the age before the Isra-
elitish conquest of Palestine explains
the occurrence of the names of Baby
lonian deities among the inhabitants
| of the West Moses died on the sum-
| NIT of Mount Nebo, which received its
name from the Babylonian god of lit
erature, to whom the great temple of
Borsippa was dedicated. and Sinai
itself, the mountain ''of Sin" testifies
to worship of the Babylonian Moon
god, Sin, amid the solitudes of the
! desert Moloch, or Maliz was a Baby
lonian divinity like Rimmon, the Air
god, after whom more than one local
ity in Palestine was named, and Anat.
the wife of Anu, the Sky-god, gave her
name to the PaIestinian Anah, as well
as to Anathoth, the city of 1.-The Anat-
goddesses. ---.....r .-
In a careful reading of the tablets
Canon Sayce came upon many ancient
names and incidents known up to the
present only from their appearance in
the Bible. All these he carefully de-
scribed, as well as several references
in the tablets to the Hittites
- In regard to another point. he said:
-. Ever since the progress of Egypt
ology made it clear that Rameses IL
was the Pharaoh OF the oppression. it
was difficult TO understand how so
long an interval of time as the whole
period of the 18th Dynasty could lie
between him and the new King whose
rise seems to- have been followed al
most Immediately by the servitude and
+ oppression of the Hebrews The tab
lets of Tel el-Amarna now show that
the difficulty does not exist Up to
the death OF Khu-en-Aten, the Semitic
had greater influence than the native
in the land Of Mizraim. g -1E-l -
- Referring to those who have formed
opinions as to the non-historical char
acter of the Pentateuch, Prof. Sayce
said: "The Tel el-Amarna tablets have
already overthrown the primary foun-
dation on which much of this criticism
| has been built --s.,.- ~ e. --
- Prof Sayce closed his paper with a
peroration of passing eloquence as
TO the, ,dnty OF searching for the rich
Z Libraries that must lie buried beneath
the sands of Syria and Palestine, a
matter the Importance of which has
been urged in the Victoria Institutes
Journal more than once \ vote of
thanks was passed to Prof. Sayce for
his splendid address, and to DIR.
/ Wright for reading it. NJ. Naville,
the Egyptian discoverer, having ex-
pressed his admiration of the labors
of Prof. Sayce,- declared the discovery
the greatest one of the present cent
.ury.za 77.-. 3-f f- s7sas'a ia s7Fs r.iF
lrr sfrH rwFz
Smith "Huuo. johnson. you're
not looking we'll" Johnson-.'No,
I'm under the weather I've had to
leave of smoking, too. smith
That's very bad" Johnson-''Yes,
but that isn't the worst Of il. Tn
afraid that leaving of smoking is go
ing to do me good. Medical and Sur.
gical Reporter.
Too Much Land. dear
/ believe shall sell lot off our front
age" She-.'Why. Charleyl you SAID
when you bought the place you would
never sell an inch of that lovely lawn
even if we were starving" He-'tMl
love, at that time had never had an,
4 experience running lawn mower"