Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1899-01-22
EARLIEST LETTERS KNOWN.
BabyIonfnn CorresDondence Diseov. cred Dating Back to Abra-
 ham's Time.

During the last few years the Baby lonian collection of the British museum has been enriched by the important addition of several thousands of tab lets obtained chiefly by Dr. Budge dur ing his expeditions to the east on be- half of the trustees. Among the prin- eipal objects are a large number of small tablets, many of them of the en- yelope or duplicate class, which were found at Tell-sifr, in South Babylonia. representing the ancient City of Larsa fthe Ellasar of Genesis IA. The ma jofity 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 contain one of the most important series of inscriptions which has ever been rescued from ori- ental ruins. It is a group of 50 letters, written by Khammurabi, king of Baby lon, who resigned about 23oo B. C., and who is generally identified with the Amraphel of Genesis IA, Me have al- ready been made acquainted with the existence of system of letter writing in use among the kings of the east at aH early period, as illustrated by the famous Tel-el-Amarna tablets.
 These, we know, present the diplo mati2 and private correspondence be- tween the kings of Syria, Mitanni, or northern MeSopotamia, and Babylon. and may be dated about 1450 B. c. The valuable series of tablets which has just been secured for our National museum belong to period of l, 900 years earlier, and are certainly the oldest known let ters in the world. The position of those Babylonian letters in oriental literature is of extreme importance. They reveal the existence of a regular system of correspondence between rulers and their subordinates, and that writing was not only used to record events in royal annals, but for ordinary purposes. They are, besides, manifest lv the models for all after-time, as in the case of the diplomatic correspond ence in the Tel-eI-Amarna tablets. Ne can now see how overshadowing was the influence of Babylonian over all western Asia. During the thousand years which elapsed between the time of Khammurabi and the date of these later letters discovered some years ago, Babylonia became the educational cen ter of the oriental world
 The great library at Borsippa was the school and university not only of Ghaldea, but of Syria, North Mesopo- tamia, and Asia Minor. Fragments of ehe Deluge and Creation tablets, dated from a period more than 1000 years before Moses, have been discovered fn BabyIohia. Ii is therefore clear that if the seribes of Canaan were 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 great one; but one can only regard it as a prelude to still more important discoveries which will prob ably put new aspect on the FeXed question 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. Scotsman.