The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-07-16
DID ANCIENT BABYLONIAN
TEMPLES HAVE LIBRARIES

Prof. Morris Jastrow, Jr., in the Inde-
pendent.
NNN THE basis of the results of ex-
kVI cavations conducted up to the
- present on the sites of ancient
Babylonian cities, there are no sound
reasons for assuming that. with the single
exception of the city of Babylon, the
Babylonian temples ever had extensive
literary archives. our sites in Babylona
have now been pretty thoroughly eX-
plored, and In three of these notable re-
suits, including the discovery of large
numbers of tablets, have been attained.
These three sites are Telloh Abu Habba
and Nippur. All three are of first-class
historical and religious importance, Telloh
being the ancient city% of Lagash Tor Shir-
pula) which played an important role in
early Babylonian history; Abu Habba Is
Sippar, certainly one of the most ancient
cities of the Euphrates valley, and fam
Gus as the chief seat - the worship of
Shamash, the sun god; while Nippur was
at one time the center of a kingdom of
considerable extent; and after it yielded
its political prestige TO Babylon contin-
ued to be a religious center as the head
of the Babylonian pantheon. The fourth
site in question, where excavations were
undertaken over fifty years ago by the
French, and again taken up recently by
the German Oriental society, Is Babylon.
Although the typographical results here
have been extremely valuable, the exca-
vations have been Disappointment in
not yielding richer returns in inscriptions
and tablets.
What is the character of the tablets
found within the temple precincts of La
cash, Sippar and Nippur? At Lagash a
temple archive Of some 10000 tablets has
been discovered, but the tablets deal, with
scarcely any exceptions. with the busienss
affairs and administration of the chief
temple at Lagash. At Sippar about 10000
tablets have been found within the pre-
einets of the temple to the sun god The
great majority of these are likewise OF
business character, but divided into two
classes: % such as deal with the business
affairs of the temple, and % such as
are concerned with the commercial trans
actions and legal business Of private in
dividuals. From this we may conclude
for which there is concurrent testimony
that the temples Of Babylonia, at least
in certain places and from certain time
on, served as the official repositories
for legal and commercial records, CORE
spending somewhat to a modern ire
corder of deeds office.
In addition to this, there have been
found at sippar the remains of the temple
school, in which the aspirants to the
hat fv-ai y,iy. In
ing, writing and mathematics. and such
other subjects as were needed by them to
carry on the elaborate temple cult. Sign
lists, grammatical paradigIns, writing ex-
ercises, syllabaries multiplication tables
and astronomical calculations form the
chief Npart of the tablets belonging to the
temple school; but there are also some
distinctly literary texts, such as hymns,
nominations, legends and myths, which
are either practice tablets, prepared in
or for the school, or represent in part the
collection of texts used in connection
with the cult. 1t is plausible to assume
that the texts comprising the ritual of
the temple were kept in the school or
somewhere near the school; but even as
suming that there were a couple Of hun
not constitute a temple library by
which an extensive literary archive is
meant.
SO far as can be judged by the unsatis-
factory data at our disposal for determine
ating the character of the finds made by
Mesrs. Peters and Haynes at Nippur, the
large collection OF tablets from the tenn
pie of Bel at that place is precisely of the
same character as at Sippar. The great
of business and administrative charact-
err connected with tre temple or of a
private character, and it is also evident
that among the 1900 tablets Cor there
abouts) found by Haynes at Nippur in
January and February. 1900. there were