The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-01-16

baked brick, like the walls, and eight
feet thick. Directly under 1T was Sar-
CONS platformtWo courses OF I'M
mense baked bricks of Il size and shape
like nothing ever before found in BABY
lonia or anywhere else i'm the world.
foot and half square and four inches
thick. Each had a convex top, being
shaped like a loaf of bread half risen
from the pan. In addition to King Sar-
gon's name in cuneiform figures the
bricks bore the deliberate imprint OF
the thumb of the slave who made II.
DUMBFOUNDED.
The scientists wer dumbfounded Sar-
gon, archaeologists had taught, was
myth, for there had never been any
thing found in the East to corroborate
the Biblical mention of his name. Ma
ramsin, they said, by the most liDeral
count, was the oldest in the line OF
known monarchs. History could trace
the succession no further.
But here in hard brick were the
works of both Sargon and of Naramsin,
the son of Sargon. The truth of the list
of kings was settled beyond question,
and, by 1t, the date of the building OF
the platform, for the scientists knew
that if Sargon lived at all ii was thirty
eight hundred years before Christ.
They had reached the latest remains
that they could have expected, but they
went still lower.
Under the two courses of great bricks
laid by Sargon they found strata about
thirty feet thick, containing vases and
inscribed fragments that had gradually
been deposited there by centuries of In
hahitants. AS they went further down.
proving with each spadeful the history
of kingdom and a people that had for
thousands of years been wrapped in inn
mar 1af tnl l,1 a ly,lyn hDN
pieces of the tablets or vases, on which
temple records had been kept
The cuneiform inscriptions grew
more primitive at every foot.
Hilprecht, who knew that at one time
the cuneiform writing had had it's orig
in in pictures, felt sure that before the
bottom of the vein was reached the pic
lures would be found. The pits. two OF
them, side by side, and having totaI
area of about one hundred square
yards, were sunk until they were thirty
feet below the platform which formed
such an important mile post in comput.
ing the passage of ages. The broker
clay came to an end and all traces OF
| human life disappeared.
| The eXcaVatorS We're now cutting into
| the virgin clay of Babylonia, and carry
ing out earth that since the creation OF
| the world had lain undisturbed by man
| They had not yet unearthed writings
| in which the pictures We're whole, nol
even the form in which round objects
were pictured in curved lines,a stage
| that must have preceded the time wher
the straight strokes We're used for al
| characters.
They found that the present deser
| level was not the one that had existed
in the early days of Nippur. There wa!
| an older desert thirty feet or so below
| the present line, and on this plan Nip
pur had been founded.
ANCIENT INSCRIPTION.
But they found that the oldest o
| these fragraments, those taken from
| the bottom of the pit, We're scratched
with cuneiform characters, dating 500
| years before Christ. Professor Hi
precht has no hesitation in stating this
and adds that it is based on a Yer.
| conservative calculation. Sargon live,
3,S0C b. c., and high above his platform
of bricks the gradual action of the bus.
life of NipDur, the industry of the in
habitants, the accidents of building
| changes, and the annuap sand storm
| had heaped forty feet of drift an
| debris before the opening of the Chris
tan era. Four thousand years, tn
| professor counts. was required to pill
those forty feet of earth. On tina
| computation he thinks it fair to sup
depos't found under the platform wa
5000 years in piling itself from tn
original soil. Nippur was not alway
as tusy and as great as she was i
Sargon's day and in the days of hi
successors. Her beginning may hav
been small, and thep rocess of the de
posit thus much slower than 1t wa
i'll later years.
So IIilprecht satisfies himself wit
stating that the lower layers of tn
strata We're thrown there three thOus
and years before Sargon, and nearl
six thousands years before Christ.
may have been very much easier tina
that 1t certainly was not later.
The world was not an infant even /
tho Sc days. The earliest of the writ
ings found represent a developmer
| that could not have been reached /
less than three thousand years. Ho'
long men lived without writing ma
never be known, but there is proc
| enough in the results of the eXpeditio
TO show that the worshippers of B'
wrote on clay nine thousand years be
fore Christ. Professor Helprecf
makes the statement advisedly 1t
based on his knowledge of cuneiforl
development, and as there are barrel
half a dozen men in the world toda
who can compare with him in II
science there will be few to dispul
his announcement.
He stated his belief in this compl
tation a few days ago, and it is pull
lished now for the first time.
Hilprecht believed it firmly when
wrote the first volumes of the repor
but he held it back until, after anotht
tive certainty.
WORK OF A YEAR.
; The deciphering of the Inscription
and the piecing of the fragmental
, text will be the work of years. Aft
poring over thousands of fragments
vases marked by him as the produ
of single century, the professor b
, came convinced that each vase ha
borne the same prescriptiOn-a temp
history-and he set about restoring
The text, when completed was formt
, of eighty seven fragments, and had l
:. lines of cuneiform writing. Its transl;
! tion occupied nearly year.
. "Hilprecht may well be proud" sa
= | Professor Sayce, of Oxford, "Of II
magnificent results he has achieved
;. and the other European archaeologis
who with Sayce is considered a lead
!, | in the science, Hummel, of Munic
: added that mo other living Assyriol
: | gist could equal such a contribution
q science"
9 AS it is. Hilprecht has added to hi
n tory about thirty new kings, pre-
9 iously unknown to us, and has clear,
q up by his reconstruction of Babylonif
n history the exact relations of the ear
q Semitic dynasties to the old Sumerit
s kings of Babylonia.
q The expedition is. admitted to be o.
V of the most important scientific u
- dertakings in the history of Weste
v Asia 1t was organized and sent out
the summer of 1883, number of pror
n inent Philadelphians organizing
e Babylonian expeditions fund of whi
3. the officers were Provost Charles