Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1910-03-19
STORY or OEtBGh
PROVED BY Tablet
FOUND IN NIPPUR
Discovery of Great Historical
Value One of Professor
Hilprecht's Treasures.

PHILADELPHIA, March 19.-Proof
that the deluge. as described in the
Bible, really occurred, is being offered
by Professor Herman V. Hilprecht, of
the University of Pennsylvania, from
the writings he has ~deciphered on a
piece of hardened clay brought out Of
Nippur by the last expedition sent out
from the university.
The writing also shows that the Bib
lical character Abraham was a histor-
ical parsonage and that he actually did
go from Ur. of the Chaldees, to the
land of Canaan That, however, is only
a secondary feature in this new devel-
opment of ancient history, the real
point being the fact that the people of
Ur had a story of the deluge almos
identical with that of the Old Tesla
ment, which has been the centre of re-
ligious discussion for years.
Among the tablets brought out of
Nippur was n fragment which is
part of a deluge story more ancient by
q thousand years than any that has
been found, and ~antedating by at least
200 years the time that Abraham left
Ur to go to the land of Canaan. And
his fragment has been deciphered by
Professor Hilprecht after months of
infinite labor and pains and the exer-
else of his profound knowledge of
assyriology.
1t is simply amazing in its coinci-
dence to the Bible story of the deluge,
to which it tallies in minute details.
In this, as in the Bible story. the Lord
God, the great king of the gods of
ancient Sumerians, says: ." will
loosen the confines of heaven. A del
uge | will make and it shall sweep
away all men together"
Even the errors in the translation
of the Bible text from Hebrew to Eng
lish and German mark the striking
similarity between the Nippur story of
the deluge and that of the ancient He
brews. For Professor Hilprecht points
out that the word which the ~transla-
tors of a few hundred years rendered
window really mean roof" in the
old Hebrew. Where our Bibles say "a
window shalt thou make to the ark"
it should have read by correct transla-
ton, "a roof shall thou make 20 the
ark"
The tablet story of the deluge, writ
ten 2100 b. C., which Professor Hill
precht has translated, contains this
very command. The Lord of the Gods
says: With a strong deck Tor ROOD
cover it,"
This tablet, or rather this fragment
of a tablet, with the story of the del
uge. seems destined to be the most ia
nous discovery in all Assyrian re-
search. The history of it is given to
the public in the fifth volume of the
records of the B~abyionian expedition
of the University of Pennsylvania. The
book is just off the press.
The tablets are made of unbaked
clay, probably hardened by being dried
in the sun. The writing was traced
on the surface of these tablets in GU
rious characters, which greatly resem-
BILE the Chinese method Of writing of
the present day.
Because of it's long period In the
earth the tablet was incrusted with
, crystals of nitre, which filled up the
characters of the ancient text. Be-
sides. the clay was in a state of de-
composition and exceedingly difficult
to handle without destroying the tablet
and losing the precious writings on 1t.
For weeks Professor Hilprecht
worked several hours a day to remove
the crystals and to put the tablet into
a state in which it could be deciphered.
Then ne set to work to translate the
writing.