The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1894-01-08
REsURRECTING THE PAST.


RESURRECTING THE PAST.
Nj orris Jastrow contributes TO the last
| Century Magazine an article which will be
a revelation TO those who have not kept
| track Of Mesopotamian exploration. At
the beginning of this century the very
names Of Babylon and Assyria were be-
ginning TO fade from the memory of man.
Fierce winds sweeping over the deserts
had buried the ruins of the ancient palaces
under hillocks of sand, and travellers saw
nothing but huge and shapeless mounds
where they looked for ruins of edifices.
just fifty years ago the work of cutting
into the mounds began, and from that time
to the present it has gone on without
intermission, the iabOrs of Botta, L8yard,
RawlinsOD, George Smith. Ward and
Peters having been rewarded by dis
cOveries of priceless value. Before the
excavations began the key 10 the inteTpTe-
tatiOn Of the cuneiform writing had been
discovered, and the hundreds of thousands
of brass and clay tablets which were found
IN the ruins were as legible as modern
newspaper. The sandstorms had rem
dered IN unconscious service to history by
which, if they had been exposed to view,
would doubtless have shared the fate of
the great mass OF Greek and Roman
literature which persisted at the hands of
barbarians.
As these tablets are being decphered,
one by one, the history Of SenHacherib,
EsarhaddOu, Sardana palus, Beshazzar and
NebuchadnezZar is unf0lded year by year.
10 little while we shall know more of
the annals Of the Assyrian and Babylonian
empires than we know of portions of the
history of the Middle Ages or the history
of the AZtecs and the Toliecs. In ancient
Mes0pOiamia each ruler kept a journal of
his lie and adventures, and though he
was careful 10 forget the occasions on
which be was beaten in the field, his ac-
counts of his victories were copious and
probably IN the main accurate, aud his
descriptions Of the races be overcame
generally true TO life. They are the more
valuable as most Of them are illustrated
The tablets when pieced together render
the service which modern illustrated
papers do in our time. If we can fancy a
cataclysm in which all modern records
were destroyed except files Of Rdrpey's
Weekly, the Illustrated London NelrS, the
Illustration and U6er Land and Nicer. it
would be possible for painstaking in
vestigator TO reconstruct from them a
chronicle Of modern life. That is what
the MesopOtamian tablets are doing for
the age which interviewed between the
days of legend and the beginning of his
tory.
These records derive thrilling interest
from their vast antiquity. NJ. Marietta
assigns the date of 5000 b. c. to the estab-
lishment of the first dynasty in Egypt.
and the first date in Egyptian history
which chronologists consider reliable is
that Of the intermarriage Of Solomon with
an Egyptian Princess, about go 3. c. But
there is written evidence of cOnquests by
a Babylonian King who reigned in $500
B. c.. and who held Phenicia and Pales-
tine under his sway. Such exploits i'm
ply prehistoric era of several centuries.
perhaps as long as the 1900 years which
NJ. Chabas allows for Egypt before the
first dynasty.
Another interesting result of the recent
explorations is the light they shed on the
biblical narrative. AS every student of
Bible history knows, the two books of
Kings ana Chronicles contain many gaps
in the narrative. As to some Kings little
more is mentioned than their accession
and the length of their reign. The four
books were probably contemporaneous
records by many hands; some of them
were lost in the connections of war; some
periods of history failed TO find historiog-
rapher. Dean Stanley's perplexities in
describing the reigns of Solomon and Re-
hObOam have been often remarked. We
now find in these Assyrian tablets &C
counts of Jewish history at a time when
the Jews aud Assyrians came in 10 close
intercourse. which supplements and con-
firms the biblical record in very curious
way. Many things in the history of Heze-
kiah which were obscure are now made
clear. and the reason for Sennacherib's re-
treat from Judea when he had thoroughly
made up his mind to conquer 1t is ex-
planned. AS the work of reading the tab
lets proceeds many things which are now
hard 10 understand will be made plain.