The Washington weekly post. (Washington, D.C.) 1878-1916, 1900-11-07
OLDER THAN THE WORLD.
seine Results Of Prof. uiiprechf's Archaee-
fssieaI Researches al sippuF-

FrUm the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Everybody has been supposed Ia know
that the world was created 4eEA years be
for the Christian era. hencs that IL is nov
Just 5ae4 years old There can Be no
doubt about II, for chronological annals.
tables. and charts have been published
In all sorts OF forms and sizes IN which
Creation OF the world ioo4 p. C." heads
the long list Of events. including the Del
uge and the Destruction OF the Temple,
down TO the election OF the last President
Of the United States previous 20 the date
Of publication. There are chroniclers who
gave the hour OF the day on which the
work OF creation was finished and the
history of the world began, but this was
carrying the thing 4 little too far. I'M
questionable authority rested With the
year OF the creation being 4OOi 3. C.
Now comes a Pennsylvania archaeolo-
gist with the assertion that some thou
sands of years before that time there was
a fiourishing civilization: that at Nippur.
seventy miles south OF Bagdad, there was
a mighty city, with an immense temple
to the god Bel. and a vast library. two
or three thousands years before Adam
and Eve made their appearance in the
Garden Of Eden. What Is more, he says
he has the books to prove IT, The books
themselves, volumes. or rather tablets,
Of baked clay. were thumbed by the Mp
pur STUDENT many hundreds. some OF
them thousands. Of years before Cain
and Abel were OF kindergarten age
Evidently the accepted chronology
which places the origin OF the human
race less than 6O0o years ago is wholly
at fault, or Prof. Herman V. HIlprecht
OF the University Of Pennsylvania, has
misread the clay records he dug up at
Nippur.
The professor 1 has just returned TO
Philadelphia from another years work
OF excavating the enormous mound at
which he has been for several years dig
ging at the instance Of the University Of
Pennsylvania and subscribers to the ex-
ploration fund. This year has given the
most astounding results of all in the dis
covery of the great temple library. The
work Of previous years showed that a
high state of civilization existed there
5000 years 3. c., and there were indica-
tons of still higher antiquity. This year
he went still deeper. and among other
discoveries found an immense building,
over 800 feet long on the front and buried
beneath ninety feet Of rubbish. There
were at least two stories, with little win
dows for air. but not for light. The
houses, he concluded, were used for
sleeping purposes and business was
transacted In the open air. From the in
dications and the objects found, play
things for children. &C., he believed the
building could not be later than 400
years b. C.-that is to say. when by ae-
cepted chronology the world was only
four years old.
Further exploration revealed part of
the great temple library, an immense col
lection of clay volumes" the most re-
cent of which was not later than 200 B.
c.. and the more ancient date back far
beyond any knowledge. actual or tradi-
tional, previously possessed of the worlds
history The tablets found in the royal
library of Nineveh. which date about
600 B. c.. were but modern editions Of
the ancient temple library at Nippur, the
volumes of which were thousands of years
older
Prof. Hilprecht says the tablets con-
cined grammatical sentences, written
half dozen times. as by a pupil practic-
ing upon them. Then there were lists of
words for chairs, stools, and other arti-
cles: lists of words of animals, birds, or
plants. There were the grammatical and
arithmeucal and astronomical literature
of the Babylonians. In addition to these
were lists of the kings of dynasties fol-
lowing each other and the years OF their
reign and what the king did each year
There were large numbers of astronomi-
cal, astrological, and NEUROLOGICAL tab
lets and beautiful hymns, as well as
large number Of historical tablets. There
was practically every branch of litera-
ture known 10 the Babylonians represent
ed in that library.