Omaha daily bee., 1910-01-23
OF NINEyEHS GLORY
Valuable Record Received by the
, British Museum.
BIT OF ANCIENT HISTORY
Cylinder of Baked Clay Inscribed in
CuneifOrm RecouRts the GREATNESS
of ~sennacherib and His work
I'm Rebuilding the city.

LONDON. Jan. S.-sennacherib, the war
rior kong of Assyria, was not in the least
troubled with modesty regarding his
achievements, and the latest treasure placed
In the British Museum is a record which
he had Inscribed for his descendants, re-
counting all that he did for NIneveh.
The trustees OF the British Museum are
greatly pleased to have received this eight
sided cylinder of baked clay, which con
tains the fullest account Of sennacherib's
work In Nineveh and elsewhere yet discov-
cred. There are 40 lines OF cuneiform
characters on it, which makes 1t Just 1853
lines longer than is the famous Taylor
cylinder found by Colonel T.. J.-Taylor in
1880.
The new baked clay record supplies his
torical matters of the greatest Importance
concerning two Of Sennacherib's military
campaigns, gives a very full account Of
the kings enlargement of the city from
$500 cubits to 21,S00 cubits, and of the build
ing OF his palace, and contributes a very
valuable piece of information to the exca-
vators who are working there: that is, a
list of the fifteen gates Of the city, with
their relative positions.
The cylinder, which is about two feet in
height, occupies the place Of honor in a
case filled with examples Of the Ninevite
cuneiform and Is considered the finest spec
linen Of them all. 1t is In very good condi-
tion except that on one GIFTS eight sides
the clay is slightly Clipped SO tina some Of
the lines are ob%literated in part, but not
enough to make the translation difficult.
AS soon as the cylinder arrived 1t was
given at once to two of the officials of the
museum, who are experts at reading this
cuneiform writing; a cayeful translation
was made and the cylinder was placed in
Its present position in the room devoted
to Assyrian and Babyloniau antiquities.
Sennacherlb did for Nineyeh what Neb-
uchadhezzar later did Tor Babylon. Nine
vehjs great rival city of the Chaldeans In
the western Asian o-Babylonian en-
pire founded by Nimrod. He made it the
greatest city Of the time in the then known
world. He is chiefly famous as a mighty
warrior king, and the Old Testament tells
OF his campaign against Hezekiah, which
resulted in the disaster still unexplained
which lost him the main part of his army
and saved Jerusalem, Here on this cyl
inder, however, he is shown as a great
builder and the record seems to have been
inscribed with the special purpose Of point
ing this out. 1t wal buried IN the city wall
e6fA RANCOa NAA0AC 1LNCA 5OAAlt
ceremony COMMUNICATING the completion
Of the wall, very much as nowadays in
England daily papers are buried under
foundation stones.
In his introduction to the section Of the
cylinder relating to the building operations,
Sennacherib complains that there has been
none among the former kings, my fathers,
to widen the clty's dwelling places, to build
walls, to make straight the streets and to
dig a canal and plant plantations" Neither
had any of them turned his attention to
the palace therein, the dwelling place, the
lordly habitation, whose site was become
too narrow, whose construction was not
beautiful" So II, Sennacherib, the king
of hosts, the king of Assyria, to carry out
that work according to the will of the
gods, turned my mind"
decision was bad for the nelghbor-
ing states, for he goes on to tell how the