The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-01-22
THE EARLIEST LETTERS KNOWN.
| Correspondence Discovered Dating
Back to Abraham's Time.
The Scotsman.

The Scotsman.
During the last few years the Babylonian
collection of the British Museum has been
enriched by the important addition of sew
eral thousands of tablets obtained chiefly
by DR.. Bulge during his expeditions to the
East on behalf of the trustees Among the
principal objects are a large number of
small tablets, many of them of the en-
Velope or duplicate class which were found
at Tel-sifr, in south Babylonia, represent
ing the ancient city of LarSa (the Ellasar
of Genesis XIV The majority of these
were contracts or legal documents, but
among them are many letters, both private
and official. This collection, having Just
been carefully arranged, is found to con-
tain ne OF the most important series of in
Scriptions which has ever been rescued from
Oriental ruins 1t is group of fifty let
tiers written by Khalnmurab King of
Babylon, who reigned about $500 b. c., and
who is generally identified with the Am
raphel of Genesis, xiv. We have already
been made acquainted with the existence Of
a system of letter writing in use among
the kings of the East at an early period,
as illustrated by the famous Tel-el-Amarna
These, we know, present the diplomatic
and private correspondence between the
kings of Syria, Mit9nni or northern Meso-
about 1850 r. c. The valuable series of tab
let's which has just been secured for our ma
tional museum belong TO period 1000 years
Garner, and are certainly the Oldest known
letters in the world The position of those
BabylOnian letters in Oriental literature Is
of extreme Importance They reveal the ex-
istence of a regular system of correspond
ence between rulers and their subordnates,
and that writing not only used to
record events in royal annals but for ordi-
nary purposes. They are. besides, manifest
ly the models for all after-time, as in the
case of the diplomatic correspondence I'm the
Tel-el-Amarna tablets. We can now see
how overshadowing was the influence of
Babylonia over all western Asia. During the
thousand years which elapsed between the
time of Khammurab and the date Of these
later letters discovered some years ago.
Babylonia became the educational center of
the Oriental world.
The great library at Borsippa was the
school and university not only Of Chaldea
but of Syria, north MesOpotamia and Asia
Minor Fragments of the deluge and crea-
ton tablets. dated from period more than
1000 years before Moses. have been dlscoV-
cred in BabylOnia. 1T is therefore clear that
if the scribes of Canaan We're taught to
write and use the cuneiform script through
these influences there must have been some
among them who were acquainted with the
traditions stored in the Chaldean libraries
The present find is indeed a great one; but
one can only regard 1t as prelude to stil
more important discoveries which will prob
ably nut a new aspect on the Vexed ques-
ton OF Hebrew origins. To possess letters
contemporary with the time of Abraham
is certainly an astonishing result of Oriental
exploration and one which far exceeds the
widest dreams of those who first revealed
to us the buried cities of Assyria and
Babylonia.