The Washington herald., 1915-10-09

Temple wall would go on his way rejoic-
ing. His state of mind cannot have dif-
fered much from that Of an Italian fruit
peddler of today. who. having disposed
Of his barrowload Of bananas at a decent
profit, drops into the church and lights
a candle before the shrine Of Our Lady.
The development of the cuneiform
writing with which the clay tablets
are inscribed is extremely interesting.
The Sumerians apparently did not
know the use Of clay when they reach
ed Mesopotamia. Possibly they came
or very little and of the papyrus and
sheepskin upon which they no doubt
wrote no trace remains. At least all
their earliest inscriptions were on
stone. The wedge" is, Of course, at
tributable solely to the method of
using the style on the moist clay.
The Sumerian picture letters became
formalised probably by slow degrees.
But once the method of writing with
the style on clay became common It
il obvious that the picture letters
must lose their form. partly on ac-
count Of the necessary presence Of the
wedges and partly because with the
style a curved line could not be made.
The picture (hgure y. which IL taken
from DIR. Banks book, 'Bismya, or the
Lost City of Adab." shows very clever
ly the transition from picturegraph to
cuneiform. The right-hand column con-
fingers Of the hand. q foot. q rising
sun, q fish. and q bird. They are cut
in stone and antedate the clay tablet
period. In the next column tho fg-
ures are still cut in stone and are
"up-ended" Just why this was done
10 not known, but II indicates that the
picture value Of tho sign n already
- kkA SSNn
value. In the third column tho signs
have been reproduced with the style
on clay The picture value Is not
wholly lost sight of. but from an ocu-
lar point Of view 1t may be said to
have disappeared. In the last column
the picture value has been definitely
abandoned and the cuneiform char
acter simplified. AS with Chinese and
Japanese writing today, each symbol
were expressed by compounding two
or more symbols. This was a true
combination Of words and not COM
bination Of ideas such as is found in
picture writing. Figure 5, also taken
from Prof. Banks valuable book, Is
an Illustration of Assyrian word COM
pounds.
Bear Name. of Old KinGs.
PERHAPS the most interesting of the
tablets are a set Of six each of which
bears the name and dates from the reign
Of one Of the -Babylonian kings, the
last dynasty before the stranger perma-
nently overran the land. These kings
were:
Nabopolassar, who reigned from 625-6N
B. c.: his son, Nebuchadrezsar II, who
lasted until 56l B. c.; Anil Marduk (Evil
Merodach), grandson Of the last-named
monarch. who enjoyed only a brief reign
and died in $50 B. c.: Nabonidus. who
lasted from $50 to 63S. and was succeeded
by the Persion Cyrus. called the Great
King" who held sway over Babylon un-
til 529. and Cambyses. who died In 5S1
B. c.
These monarchs were, of course. par
venus compared to the noble souls whose
sceptres were active at the time when
the majority of the clay tablets were
made. OF these more ancient kings may
be mentioned Naram Sin, who. according
to his successor. the Nabonidus above |
mentioned, f1ourished about $500 b. Z.
Gudea was another distinguished SOW
ereign who ruled in the year 200 b. c. or |
therea bouts, and the "Elamite" Khan |
murabi. who is placed at about 2250 B. c. !
Turning now to the tablets reproduced
here. the first Gig. u Is really a MIN
scribed brick rather than a tablet proper
and was taken from a fortified enclo- |
sure The inscription Is as follows: ITO |
Nin-gur-su, the powerful champion OF
Bel, Gudea Of Shir-pur-la accom- !
plished something worthy. built the
Temple of E-nin-nu Imgig (gu) barbara :
and restored it." I.ngig was a divine
bird, emblem of the god. Nin-gur-su. and |
Of his city. Shir-pur-la. This Is the ia
nous "Tello" where Prof Hilprecht has |
been excavating.
The second tablet (ig y is a compara-
lively modern one. dating from the reign |
of the great Cyrus. the King Of Persia. /
who conquered Babylon in 53S b. c. The |!