The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1902-05-17
BABYLONIA BANKING
Records of Thousands Of Years Az,
Being Deciphered.
TABLETS ARE WELL PRESERVED
Result of the Researches of DR.. AL
bert T. Clay of the University
of Pennsylvania.

DR.. Albert T. Clay. assistant to Pro-
lessor Herman V. Hilprecht, the leading
authority on Babylonian antiquities has
oeen at work for several months in the
museums of the University of pennsyIya !
MIA deciphering and copying the records
OF the banking firm Of Murasha Sons which
was the leading house Of the city of Nip
pur, in Babylonia: these records arc to
appear In connection with Professor Hill
precht's series of publications
Of the 100 of these Assyrianp tablets
which, in 1898, were discovered in a small
room in the ruins of Nippur, by one of the
Baoylonlan expeditions sent out by the
University Of Pennsylvania, about 500 are
now deposited in the university and OF
these the Inscriptions on 12O have been
deciphered, translated and published by
Professor Hilprecht and DR.. CLAW.
Many OF the tablets are in an excellent
state OF preservation, when it is consid.
cred that they are of soft clay and were
made more than 1000 years ago Some
are marred or slightly broken, and the
missing words and incomplete sentences
are supplied with difficulty That they
nave retained their original form for Sc
rany ages is thought to he due to the
TACT that they are made of especially pure
and soft clay, and were modelled and baked
with much greater care than were mos,
tablets of the Babylonian period
The two brothers, Bel hatin and Bel.
nadinshumu, sons of Murashu, who con
Quoted this barking house of the ante.
Christian era, did not confine their trans.
actions strictly to money changing and
receiving deposits, as is evidenced by the
great variety Of records now brought n
llght. Mortgages worded in a form very
similar to that in use in the present day:
Wills, deeds. leases, merchants aguaran.
tees OF goods sold in markets and ot1e,
6<aAl Sv,rx~
celVaole kind are found among them. =
The text for the next publication viii
De different from that contained in former
volumes. 1t will throw new light on lhe
manners, customs and lives Of the sub
1ects Of Artaxerxes (64-426 B. c., ant
Darius II (423-4O5 B. c.
Many tablets at present at the uni:
versity were, by the best calcula lions
made 5000 years before Christ, but the
contents of most of them are not vet
ready for publication. No collection is
so complete or extensive as this one of the
Murashu bankers, and the work which Dr.
Clay is at present doing is therefore in
tensely interesting. Work on the remain.
ing $50 tablets at the university will form
third volume and will be begun as soon
as the second volume makes it's appear
ance, the first having been published in
1888 :-r.s5 :
The result of the last Babylonian expe-
dition, under Professor Hilprecht, for the
disposition of which he is now in Con
stantinople, somprises some 10000 tab
lets, mostly of the time prior to the days
of Abraham, or more than two centuries
before Christ. The university first ha6
to- obtain the consent of the Turkish gov.
eminent to make these excavations, ane
now that they are made, must negotiate
further before bringing any of the an,
tiquities to this country. +,