The record-union., 1896-11-08
HISTORY IS UPSET.

Cuneiform Records Which Disturb Esti-
mates Of the Worlds Age.
Will Change Completely the Chronol-
| Ogy of the Old Testament and AS
tOund Orthodox Believers.
| "Whosoever removes this inscribed
| stone, may Bel, Shamash and Ninna
root him out and destroy his posterity.
/ This curse Sargon, the great Semitic
King, had engraved in cuneiform char
acters on the door sockets OF the en-
trance of the temple at Nippur, the
| Primitive city of the Babylonian king
dom and the oldest city on the face
| Of the earth. But it has proved to pe
| no terror to the science of the nine
teenth century. Nippur has been lifted
| from the grave of the past. The Amer
lean Assyriologist has been able to
| say, with King Nabuna'id, What for
ages no king among kings had seen,
me old foundation of Naram Sin, that
saw L." The pickax and the shovel have
been his friends.
The excavations at Nippur, the first
! City of the earth, according to the an
cient Sumerian legends of creation, are
| sending forth a food of life on the earli-
est history of our race, and may cause
| a revolution, or rather. give more ac-
| curate knowledge of biblical dates In
| their relation to science. In the land
Of the Affej tribes, between the banks
Of the Tigris and Euphrates, the ages
Of the prehistoric past have risen up in
| stone and clay slumbering witnesses
| of a world that has periShed. The olS-
| coveries have come as wonderful sur
| prise, and even the widest dreams OF
| the excavatorS have been more than
realized. Cuneiform inscriptions have
| been found and deciphered, showing
that they date back fully 2.23O years
earlier than any records of the world.
And the end is not yet. 1t may be
| that inscribed stone and clay may
| reach back 10000 years before Christ.
EGYPT A BABE IN HISTORY.
| Already Egypt with her pyramids and
| her ancient records has been trans
| formed in the light of these recent dis
coveries into a mere babe in history,
| While Nippur promises to prove the
| truth of the age-worn Sumerian le-
gends Nippur now stands as name
| for what is evidently a series Of cities
| built on the ruins of one another-gi-
| ants of the past sleeping in the oldest
grave in the oldest world. When the
| Assyriologists began their work of ex-
| cavation and sank their shafts they
| thought they had found the ancient
Nippur Records in the time of the
famous Sargon and of King Ur-Gur
were unearthed The scientists trem-
| bled with joy and there was a tumultu-
| GUS haste to show the treasures in mu-
| seums.
| But the latest excavations prove that
beneath what was believed to be the
ancient city of Nippur is another mass
| Of ruins-the debris of a more archaic
and more interesting Nippur, in which
| cuneiform inscribed tablets have the
| mark of antedating by thousands of
years previous discoveries. 1t has been
decided that they belong to period
about 1000 B. c., and possibly run back
as far as 10000 B. c. But the excava-
ton of this older city is by no means
complete. The belief is that older rec
crds than any already found are lying
there waiting to be unearthed.
That Nippur ruins contain a series Of
cities has been believed by the excava-
tors for at least a year. When shafts
were sunk in the recent explorations it
was found that Nippur discovered by
the early expedition was a later city.
This was proved by the difference in
the character of the ruins, just as in
geology the strata. of the earth vary and
show different times of formation.
The excavators as early as 1894 saw
that the Nippur mound exhibited a
series of civilizations. Consequently.
the main interest that was attached to
this discovery was that of determining G
the age of the inscribed records. In
several places the ruins have been PEN
etrated to the bed rock.
REVOLUTION IN BIBLICAL BE-
LIEFS.
That the discoveries will create rev.
olution in some biblical beliefs is known.
Early in the work there was a most
modest regard paid to such dates as
Christian scholars had assigned. But
as the work progressed it became evi-
dent that the sentimental end should be
dropped and that the explorations must
cling to scientific lines purely, in order
to be weighed and tested. The excava-
tors have left it to the future to show
the conformity between these ancient
records and the Bible.
There is no assertion that the disa
greement will be lasting, but it is
known that there are seemingly, diff
ferences which must be explained. The
age of the tablets and vases found at
Nippur can be accurately determined
They show the world to be older than
had been believed formerly-much older
III fact. Now the age of the earliest
history of our race becomes more of a
conjecture than ever before. 1t may be,
however, that in the ruins of Nippur
some record, which has lain there for
centuries and centuries, may be found
permitting the historian to begin at the
beginning of history and write con-
secutive account of our race.
The Rev. DR.. John P. Peters, who was
director of the first expedition to Nippur
and laid the foundation of the great
work. gave me his views on the results
Oh the tAplOIdtloHS, 81 lhI dS tIey re-
late to the age of the Nippur civiliza-
ton, and also what effect the discover
les would have on Biblical beliefs and
dates. DR.. Peters is very busy with his
literary work, and it was at some in
convenience that he was enabled to
find time to carry out the request /
made. He has been at his home, No.
302 West 103d street, nearly all sum-
mer, in order to get his literary task in
such shape that he can secure a little