The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1898-02-20
BUSINESS IN NIPPUR.
IMPORTANT WORK OF AMERI-
CAN EXPLORERS.

CAN EXPLORERS.
How Contracts Were Made in the
Ancient Babylonian
City.
] In the autumn of last year We're given
the first Indications to the American
public of the remarkable discoveries in
Niffer, or Nippur, made by the Babylo-
MAN Expedition of the University Of
Pennsylvania. The feature in these
discoveries most noted at the time was
that they carried the history of the peo-
pie of Nippur to a period certainly q,
600, and probably 5000, years before
Christ. There is nothing of so start
| ling a character now to report. The
expedition is, however, continuing its
task of exploration at Nippur. Pro-
| fessor Hilprecht, as Secretary of the
committee which supports the expenses,
has thrown himself into the work with
unselfish energy and has greatly facili-
tated its task. He has given his SER
vices gratuitously to the Imperial Mu-
scum in STEAMBOAT for the reorganiza-
ton of the Babylonian Section, and
this during his summer vacation for
three months annually for the last five
years and has been able to obtain the
three renewals of the firman for the
exploration at Nippur. Within the last
few days the Sultan has presented him
personally with a considerable number
of the antiquities found, which the pro-
fessor, probably to the regret of Euro
pean students has handed over to the
Pennsylvania Museum. Without in any
way disparaging the work Of DR.. Peters
| of New York, it may safely be said
the second part of his history could
never have been written if Professor
| Hilprecht had not succeeded in sep
arating the various strata of the ruins
of Nipuur and, above ALL as Mr.. Sayce
says, of creating the science of Babylo
MAN photography. From the thou
sands of fragments, mostly small, of
vases smashed by the Illamites in $3.50
B. c., in the courtyard of the temple
of Nippur, Professor Hilprecht has re-
stored the earliest chapter of written
human history SO far known. The older
inscriptions are being deciphered. and
4
ume, however, is shortly to be pub
lished, giving a translation of a num-
Der of later date. 1t is a condition
| under which American and other ex-
plorers are allowed by the Porte to dig.
that their finds shall become the prop
erty of the STEAMBOAT Museum The
| result is that there has already ac-
cumulated in this city large and in
| H. IL
scriptions from Nippur, and it is with
portion of these that Professor Hill
precht has lately ben occupied and OF
which his forthcoming volume will
| treat.
BABYLONIAN BUSINESS TABLETS.
| While the American expedition in
| 1898 was working at Nippur it came
upon a room nineteen or twenty feet
below the surface The ceiling was, of
course gone, and the walls were in
great part ruined. A gang of work
men was ordered to clear away the rub
bish that covered the floor, and upon
beginning their task the men noticed
numerous clay tablets. The room was
carefully searched and cleaned, ana
1 $50 tablets were collected by Mr.
Haynes, the head of~the working party.
Many of them We're broken and more
or less damaged, but a considerable
number were intact and in an excel
lent state of preservation. Their exam
| nation leads to the conclusion that the
room had been used for storing the
business tablets-papers, / had almost
written; tablets however, is the correct
name-of a wealthy firm of merchants
The tablets themselves are of dried
! clay, of various sizes many of them
| of the size and shape of an ordinary
fiat tablet of soap with rounded edges.
Any one can see that they are covered
with writing in cuneiform characters,
4 which are usually sharply cut, and have
in many instances remained as clear
and distinct as on the day they were
| inscribed The firm to which they be-
longed was Murashu Sons of Nippur
who lived at the time of Artaxerxes /.
| AGA to 424 B. c. and Darius II (423
to 400 B. CO. in whose reigns the docu
ments are dated, just as if a modern
merchant. instead Of dating his contract
| A. D. 1897, were to write in the sixty
first year of the reign of Victoria. The
tablets have been written by many diff
ferent hands, and extend over a period
of upward of fifty years. Professor
! Hilprecht remarks that, although ne
| has examined upward of 10000 cunei-
form texts. ranging over nearly every
| century during the 1900 years before
| Christ, these are made of exceptionally
pure and soft clay, and are baked with
greater care than is usual with Babylo-
| MAN tablets. Among other points which
| they set at rest is the conclusion which
Assyriologists had arrived at upon 9TH
er grounds, that Darius lived after and
not before Artaxerxes. There are prop
er names of special interest to the gem
eral reader occurring in these tablets.
For example, Semiramis. which we take
from the Greek, appears as Shameramu
and Professor Hilprecht in his forth
coming book on the tablets gives many
others
MIXED CHARACTER OF THE PEO-
PIE.
| Babylonia was at an early date a
country of many languages. There is,
however, no period in it's history in
which the foreign element in its popu-
lation is so conspicuous as during the
centuries following the fall of Babylon
in 5S3 b. c. The conquests of Nebu-
chadnezzar IN the West We're followed
by the removal of thousands of cap
tives to his own land-the fertile plains
of Mesopotamia The overthrow OF
the Babylonian Empire by the victorf-
Gus armies of Cyrus caused the settle
Iment of Persian soldiers and merchants
in the newly acquired province The
constant invasion of nomadic tribes,
4 al. -,