The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-07-16

quite a number That must have formed
sign lists, writing and reading exercises,
syllabarles, multiplication tables, etc.
precisely as at Sippar. That among the
school outfit there are also so.an literary
texts, in the proper sense (hymhs, incan-
tations, etc. may be regarded as extreme
ly probable. AS matter of course. wa
must assume that either in the school or
somewhere within the temple precinct
/ at Nippur (as at Sippar) the religious
texts used in connection with the cult
were kept but these certainly did not
range into the thousands and at all
events there is not the slightest reason
Tor assuming that there were a temn1e
library at Nippur consisting of '23 90 liter-
airy, texts AT Babylon the number Of
eaoiets round by systematic excavations
mas been small, out through private dig
slngs OF thievish Arabs conducted AZ
various times brought out of the mounds
at Babylon and the river marking the
site OF Borsippa. Through dealers thess
tablets have found their .way to the muse.
ums of Europe and America Uere
again the vast majority have turned out
10 De business documents either bear-
ing On the administration and CONNER
la activities of the temple to Mardnlr
o. BABYLON and temple to Nebo at Rorsin.
pa. evidence is also forthcoming for
."e existence of temple schools at hoth
piaces' ana we have numerous svI,ab,,ies
81 paradigms and religious texts
'iia. can De traced back to these schools.
Is
| ligious tendencies chat set IN aeta, ~,
oays OF aMmmoral &c 300 r. C1 WIZ
united the various Euphratean statas i,,o
single empire, and which led 70 tbs
ehueaVor 70 assign to Marduk. the natro,
deity OF the city of Babylon. the attr,h,,to-
| OF all the other great gods, like Rel of
Nippur Shamash of Sppar, Ea of Eridu
myths that were originally associated with
the one or the other of these gods. were
transferred TO Marduk. Instead of Bel OF
| Nippur, Marduk became the SLAYER of the
dragon Tlamat and the institutor Of 10 n,
ana order in the world. HYMNS and
rituals that were prepared for the Re,
Shamash and Ea cults were changed ana
adapted to the worship of Marduk. There
would thus be motive on the mart 80
the priests of Marduk to collect in .ba
temple or In the temple school literary
| productions that originated In Nipnur
sippar' Eridu and elsewhere, whereas the
motive would be lacking e. e.. in Nipnur
| the priests Of which would not be inter-
ested in the hymns. lamentations, rituals
and myths that belonged to sippar. and
vice versa, Literature for literatures
sake did not exist in ancient BabylonIa.
All literature; as all religion had practi-
cal basis and practical purpose.
With the single probable exception OF
Babylon, therefore, there is no reason To
beliece that the Babylonian temples had
libraries, |. e.. extensive literary archives.
The evidence is against the assumption
and the assumption itself is unwarranted
The exception in favor of the Mardpk ar
chive at Babylon is favored by the testi-
mony to be derived from the ONLY genuine
library hitherto found in Mesopotamia.
namely, the large literary collection made
by King Ashurbanapal of Assyria in the
seventh century B. c., in his palace at
Nineveh, which was discovered by Layard
| In 1919 Through Layard and subsequent
explorers, like Rassam. Smith, Rawlinson
and Bulge almost 30. 900 tablets and frag-
ments of tablets have been brought to the
British Museum. About two-ifths of this
collection is of Babylonian Origin. repre-
senting copies of Babylonian texts pre-
pared from the originals by Ashurbanpars
scribes. Internal evidence shows that very
many of these originals belonged to the
Marduk archive at Babylon, which 1t Is
safe to assert constituted the chief source
for the Babylon literature preserved in
the library of the ambitious Assyrian
king. In the case of Ashurbanapal, there
was motive for the collection OF texts
not produced in Assyria. only this mo-
tive was secular. and not religious, as in
the case of Babylon. The Assyrian mon
arch wished to secure for his capital,
Nineveh the pre-eminence once enjoyed
by Babylon: and In order to emphasize
and symbolic his control of Babylonia
and her cults, he gathered in his palace
not in a temple-the outfits of the temple
schools in Babylonia, including the texts
used in the cult-the hymns. incantations.
omens. rituals and also the myths and
legends which. as we now know, were
also directly connected with the cult.