The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-08-23
Tablet Inscribed Cen
turtles Ago i'm City
of Nippur Clear
Adam and Eve OF
Charges

wooden boxes. each holding hundreds.
in some cases probably thousands. of
clay fragments, broken into every con-
ceivablc shape and size. and II, lrly all
covered with inCrustatiou ConCealiag
their cunciform inscriptions.
In the main library Or. Gordon found
two of his technical assistants, Mss
Mary Connorton and William Wittc,
who for more than a decade have done
little else than search those boxes Of
fragments and assemble together bits
belonging to this tablet or that one.
Neither Mr.. Witte nor Miss Connur;un
has any knowledge of Babylonian or
Sumerian. but for fifteen years Miss
Connorton has developed remarkable
facility in picking out from n mass of
500 fragments in one box perhaps two
or three that are part of certain tab
let, and from corresponding masses in
other boxes "A few more belonging to
that tablet. while she has no knowl-
edge of the dead languages of those AN
cient peoples. she can distinguish at
glance the difference in their handwrit-
ing.
DR.. Gordon delivered to these tcchni-
cal assistants the request he had just
received from prof Langdon and asked
them to drop everything else until they
had found the missing fragments for
the tablet I.angdon was working on.
Miss Counurtun and Mr.. White looked
at each other. stored away in those
wooden boxes were about 900 tablets.
practically every one being in the shape
of broken bits of unhakcd clay. Alto
gcther they had before them the pros
poet of examining POSSIBLY 100000 to
100000 fragments unless by sheer aC-
cident they should come upon some of
those needed by the oxford man.
1t was something of a task. but it
had to Ice undertaken and carried out
regardless OF time and effort. DR.. Cor
don returned to his office and Miss
Connorton decided to complete the work
then in hand. which was baking a re-
stored tablet in AN oven before turning
to the new task. Mr.. Witte decided 10
finish few photographs he had In
process. get them ont of the way in
the course of an hour and then COM
mence the long. patient search in assoc
citation with Miss Connorton.
In the course of an hour or so both
assistants We're ready to begin the eX-
tensive Research. and decided to COM
mence with box OF fragments which
had been cleaned Of incrustation three
weeks before. 1t was fortunate
thing they happene; to select this par
ticuar tray. Or. Gordons astonish-
ment may be imagined when, a few
| hours later, he was informed that the
/ llngdon tablet was practically COM
| plete.
I Before that day ended Mr.. White dis
covered one very large fragment and
another Of smaller size which exactly
! fitted the single fragment Prof. Lang
don had translated. The inscriptions on
all three had been made by the same
Babylonlan scholar, Miss Connorton
testified. and from the standpoint of an
| expert in cuncifOrm characters there
| could Ice no doubt whatever that the
missing fragments had been found.
They were placed with the original
! fragment and DIR. Gordon assured him
self of the correspondence throughout
all Of them. Then he had photographs
made of the diverse and the reverse
and sent the photographs over To OK
! ford by the earliest steamer. \ short
| time ago Prof LangdOn received them.
| translated them carefully and made his
brief announcement so recently cabled
| to this country. The two sides of this
extraordinary tablet are herewith re-
produced for the first time in THE SIN
! DAY Sis through the courtesy of the
University of PENNSYLVANIA Museum.
At the top of the diverse (and the
bottom of the reverse) is the triangular
fragment which Langdon found last
autumn and copied with pen and paper
and afterward deciphered To the great
| interest # the scholarly world. II will
he noticed that the fragment referred
to constitutes only about one-third of
the tablet as fnrlly restored by finding
h.. Ia. L.,
tiun is on each side. therefore. Prof
Iangdon had only about ones sixth Of
'tthe inscription to docipher when he
went back to England toward the close
of 1918, Yet that one-siXth enabled
him To make the preliminary statement
which has been quoted above.
How much more he Is finding while
now deCiphering the fun text ii Is i'm
possible to say. The museum is ex-
peCting Ia receive from him by any
mail a translation of the complete
tablet. As soon as his work is done the
university museum will welcome any
responsible scholar who may wish to
examine the tablet. verifying LanIdon's
opinions. criticislng them and in any
other way adding to the sum of human
knowledge in this fascinating field.
There has been an impression that the
university museum guards It's Nlppur
treasures So jealousy that scholars not
connected with the Philadelphia insti-
tuition are practically deharred from the
collection. DR.. Gordon desires THE
SUNDAY SIN to correct this inn rcsslon.
There never was a greater m stake"
he adds I'VE want to obtain all the
light possible upon these tablets. Men
of scholarship from other institutions
are working here now. We welcome
them heartily and gladly give not only
access To The tablets but rooms to work
1 and every possible assistance and ia
'lity that they may need"
when he was in Philadelphia exam
ming the tablets Prof Langdon re-
marked to a friend there that the first
golden age of history was the sumner
ian, which came to a close about POO
H. &. and was comparable to that Of
Greece In the arts and sciences as well
as in literature, one Of the important
! al T., NJ