Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1903-06-11

Ube Cooe Of Kbanmurabl.


I'm that day, /, Khammurabi, the
glorious prince, the worshiper of my
God, justice for the land for witness,
plaintiff and defendant; to destroy the
tyrant, and not to Cypress the weak
like unto the sun god, promulgated"
With these astonishing words opens
one of the most remarkable historical
monuments that has ever been re-
covered from the buried cities of the
ancient world. AS we read this record
of king who must live for all time
as the Father of Laws, it seems i'm
possible to believe that we have in
this carefully drawn series of laws
code thousand years older than the
Mosaic age, older than the laws of
Manu- or Minos, or any system of
ancient legislation. Not only is this
the fact, but there are ample indica-
lions that the laws which this great
oriental ruler so carefully cojified
are many of them of far greater
antiquity than his reign, somewhere
about B. c. 220O.
The monument and the circum-
stances of its discovery are alike re-
markable. The monument itself is
pillar of black diorite, eight feet high,
was found by M. de Morgan at Susa.
in the Acropolis mound, on December
and January, 1912 and the whole
has been carefully photographed AMI
published, with a translation by
Father V. Schiel, o. P, the as
syriologist of the expedition, by order
of the French minister of public in
struction, by Messrs. E. Leroux and
Gle. The diverse of the column is
surmounted by plaque in bas-relief,
which represents the king standing
before the throne of a seated divinity,
from whose shoulders flames of fire
proceed to form wings, who is dictat-
ing the king the laws. DR.. Schiel
would identify this figure with the
sun god; but it is more probably the
old Bel or Flu, the god Sadu-rabru of
the great mountain" or Ell ShaIiai,
who figures prominently in the text
as the god who inspired the hing. In
the opening of the Inscription he is
called the supreme god, the king OF
the spirits of earth, the lord OF heaven
and earth who foretells the destiny of
ALL" And the great prominence given
to Nippur, the holy city of Bel, ami
his temple, ''the mountain house,
would confirm this conjecture. The
old Bel was the god who dwelt on the
mountain Of the world and gave laws
to men, and wore on his breast the
tablets of destiny. So here we have
a curious proof of the existence of the
tradition of the mountain-given law
long before the Mosaic reception on
Sinai
The inscription which covers this
stately monolith is the longest Baby
lonian record ever discovered. II
contained originally about 5000 lines
of writing, divided into 40 columns;
but FIVE columns on the front have
been erased by some Elamite king
probably Sutruk Nakhund, who
served the stole of Naram-Sin in a
similar manner. The writing is a
very beautiful type of the best
archaic script, a kind of black letter
cuneiform, long used by kings fu,
royal inscriptions, after the cursfvt
writing was invented-as, for eX
ample, the Cyprus monolith of SargoI
II, B. G. 721, in the museum of Berlin
The inscription opens with a long
enumeration of the kings titles, of his
installation as king by the gods, and OF
the elevation of Babylon TO the posi-
ton OF capital This portion of the
inscription, if not eclipsed by the
code. which follows it, would be re
garded as one of the most important
historical records ever discovered, fol
it abounds in references to public
works and historical events of the
period. we must, however, notice one
most important passage which throws
great light upon the history of AS
syria at a much earlier period thar
hitherto known In one of the letters
of this king. recently published, there
is the reference TO move troops from
Assyria. but the new find is more ex
plicit. We read-the king is speaking
= of hims elf-"Q amp the settler OF The
tribes, the director of the people. who
restored It's propitious genie (winget
Luln to the city of Assur, who caused
1t to shine with splendor; the kins
who in the city of Nineveh, in the
temple Dubdub 90 has made brilliant
the adornments of the goddess lstar.'
Hence not only Assur, but Uneven
also. was contemporary with the time
of Khammurabi Is the passage in
Genesis \: II, based on this spread OF
Babylonian rule?
we now pass 10 the code, which oc-
cupied 10 columns, and is divided into
about 2SO clauses, and which is IN
troduced by the words, Law and
Justice / established in the land;
made happy the human race in those
laws" How little King Khammuraol
thought of the truth of his words
uttered some 400 years ago, for from
this code came the basis OF the
Mosaic code, and by that the races
of mankind are largely ruled. One
other important point remains to be
noticed. What was the reason OF the
..a+;o,, IF this rnonOlith and its IN