Thomas County cat., 1889-08-29
ARCHAEOLOGICAL TREASURE.
Discovery Of an Assyrian Library Thirty.
Five Hundred Years Old.

Discovery Of an Assyrian Library Thirty.
Five Hundred Years Old.
The Victoria Institute of London
recently held its annual meeting at
Adelphi Terrace. The report for the
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 1,300,
and there had been an important ad-
vance in the practical work OF the in
stitute in investigating philosophical
and scientific questions, especially any
questions used by those who unhap-
PLY sought to attack religion in the
name Of science.
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. DIR.
Wright, author of ''The Hittites, to
cal description of what has become
known in regard to the conquests of
Amenophis Ill, as shown by the
archives of his palace, which have
only lately been discovered, and
which the professor went last winter
to investigate on the spot before
writing the address for the Victoria
Institute. Of the tablets and inscrip-
tionS he said: From them we learn
that in the fifteenth century before our
era century before the Exodus
active literary intercourse was going
on throughout the civilized world
of Western Asia, between Baby.
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 Babylonian 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 di-
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 syllabary 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 '.Bool1-
town." must have been the seat of q
famous library, consisting mainly, if
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 eycavator shall restore them to
the light. The literary influence of
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 Baby lonian Moon
god. Sin, amid the solitudes of the
desert. Moloch, or Malik. was 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 Palestinian Anah, as we'll
as to Anathoth, the city of 1.-The Anat.
goddesses."
In careful reading of the tablets
Canon Sayce came upon many ancient
names and incidents known up to the
present only from their appearance in
'tAO A'AoiS. all luGSc uc 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 II.
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 elAmarna 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'
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
alraaHu A.