Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1900-11-08

tablets marked with cuneiform in !
scriptions, which he recently discover !
ed in an old temple in the ruins of
Nippur. These tablets contain rec
ords of civilization which existed IS
long as 5000 B. G..
Dr. Hilprecht has been exploring the
mounds of ancient Nippur for II years.
His campaigns have heretofore been
successful, but during the past year
he has made the greatest discoveries
Of all, the finding of the library of the
ancient Temple of Nippur and the re
mains of huge palace, having at least
two stories and containing many evil
dences Of what might be called
modern conveniences" The library
tablets throw strong light on how
people lives at Nippur at about the
time Adam and Eve were heretofore
supposed to be living in the Garden OF
Eden.
"The chief point to be remarked
said the professor. "is that we have
found the first Babylonian temple
library that was ever discovered.
more than knowledge of the probable
contents of such library, from copies
found in the royal library Of Ashur-
banapoI, in Nineveh, which was dis
covered 60 years ago.
This royal library, however, was a
compilation of documents gathered
from all over Babylon, SO far as it was
at that time known. In the library
which was unearthed this year at
Nippur we get for the first time an in
sight into the arrangement of such a
library, the disposition of rooms, and,
best of all, the different kinds of litera
tare represented in other words. al
idea OF the real characteristics which
constituted such a collection. Of
special Importance is the fact that We
have not only discovered a Babylonian
temple library, but the most infuen-
tial, important and oldest in the Coun-
try And not less interesting is the
fact that no doucment discovered in
this library is younger than 1000 B. G.
that is. about the period when the
first blossom of Nippur's civilization
had ended its life by the invasion of
the Elamites, Babylon, from that
time the capital of all Babylonia, sue
ceeded as the metropolis of the dis
trict of northern Babylonia.
so far, practically only one wing of
this great library has been excavated
Nearly $4,000 volumes were rescued
from the ruins this year. while.
sporadically at different times during
the progress of the expeditions work
some 10000 were found at various
localities in the building, although at
the time l had no convincing proof
that we were actually in the library.
My theory from the first moment
when | examined the ruins at Nippur,
II years ago, was that in this group of
mounds, if anywhere, the library of
Nippur was hidden. The size of these
clay inscribed tablets constituting the
library of Nippur varies from about
two inches by one, to a foot and a half
in length by one foot in width I'm
fortunately for a decipherer they were
made Of unbaked clay, and have there
fore suffered considerably by the col
lapse of the building and by the
humidity of the ground. But we have
all the fragments and it will be pos
siblo to restore a large number of the
texts in their completeness. Con-
siderable difficulty arises from the
fact that all of the Inscriptions are
written in the early Babylonian cunei-
form characters.
AS to the contents, they included
every branch of liturature known. To
the early Semitic peoples particularly
welcome are the lists of words written
in two languages, the Sumerina and
Babylonian. The grammatical exer-
cises, the chronological lists, the many
hymns, written often in terms closely
approaching the Old Testiment Psalms
and Proverbs. astronomical and as
THEOLOGICAL texts, tablets giving the IN
ventory of the temple. the different
gods worshiped, the income of the tenn
pie from different sources-all these
are invaluable contributions to our
knowledge of the ancient world. They
will considerably increase our knowl- |
edge of the vocabulary of two of the !
most ancietn languages of the human |
race"
In what manner will these dis |
coveries affect the Interpretation of
the Biblical records?"
They will noticeabIy affect our !
knowledge of the life, the religion and !
the arts of the Hebrews. whose earliest !
Vrifh l.; 9
Babylonia. The library of the Temple |
of Nippur was lost to human knowl- |
edge about the time that Abraham |
went out of Ur. 1t gives us the his
torical setting of the time when Abra-
ham went into Palestine Many of /
the customs and religions, mentions of j
which existed among the Hebrews,
will find here their first Interpretation.
I'VE have known all along too little
of this period. Now we will be able to
tell what is purely Babylonian and
what is Hebrew. Not through this
library particularly, but through the
discoveries we have made (my former
discoveries and researches about the
time of ARA and Nehemiah. we have
received a new impulse from tablets
and inscribed Hebrew boles-about
200 OF them that we found. The argu-
ments are conclusive that the larger
mass of the Jewish exiles transported
by Nebuchadnezzar after the destruc-
ton Of Jerusalem were settled at Nip
pur and alongside the canals in the
neighborhood
THE records from the library at