The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-09-04
VERY IMPORTANT AMERICAN DIS
COvERIES IN ANCIENT BABY
LONIA.

A very interesting find has been
mad in Babylon, by h expedition
e out by he university Of Penn
sylvania under the charge of Profess
sor Hilprecht. The London Daily
News publishes an elaborate account
OF the important discovery. The old
est library known to the world has
been found by excavation. 1t is Nip
pur, (mentioned in the Book OF Gene
sis) and THUS far 1920 tablets have
been recovered. The says:
The tablets are historical, philo-
logical, and literary. They treat of
mythology, of grammar and lexicog-
raphy, Of science, and of mathematics.
There is reason to believe that they
will for the first time enable the world
to form an adequate idea of life in
Babylonia such as only could be posi-
BILE by the discovery Of a national Ii
brary, recording the national progress
in literature, science, and thought gen.
orally. No document is found in this
collection of a later date than 2280 3.
c. AS this date marks the invasion
of the E1amites, the fact adds confir-
matory evidence that the library was
destroyed during this invasion The
UNEMPLOYED remains of the library are
even more extensive than those al
ready examined"
1t is confidently expected by Pro-
fessor Hilprecht that the remainder
OF the collection will be found to be
very rich and hat probably $50. 900
tablets in all will be recovered. The
account further mentions that the
American expedition nae to suspend
its investigation of the great library
temporarily in order to continue its
systematic work at the temple and to
complete the examination of the south
ern and eastern lines of walls of for
LITIGATION OF ancient Nippur. These
walls show clearly the different epochs
in which they were constructed. There
are, first, portions of which the build
ers were the Pre-Sargonic rulers.
These are followed by the works OF
Sargon $500 B. c. and Of Norum-Sin,
his son" The temple referred to is
very large with 600 feet frontage and
was probably the residence 'of the
early priest-Kings of Nippur." Many
~valuables remain in the way of seal
~ LiLidCL III clay A5oAlCS VI I'LL
date" have been found. One very
large building has been completely
excavated, we'll preserved and with a
remarkable colonnade. 1t was really.
it is thought, a strong fertilization.
Wealthy Philadelphians have supplied
the money for the expedition, which
befan ten or twelve years ago. The
report says and it is highly interest
ing:
THE systematic and thorough ex-
animation which it is hoped will be
made next year promises to give a
full antd detailed picture of life in
what the author of the Book of Cen
esis regarded as one of the oldest cities
in the world, and one whose origin
even in his time, was attributed to the
famous hunter whose name has be-
come mythical. The results OF the
explorations will probably show hat
Nippur was as important in the fifth
millennium before Christ as it was in
the third, that it anticipated the civil
cation and the period when Babylon
took the lead by at least two thou
sand years, and that at this early Pc
Rod the human race in Babylonia had
acquired arts and knowledge which
hitherto have only been attributed to
a much later period"