The Idaho recorder. [volume] (Salmon City, Idaho) 1886-1927, 1917-01-12

TY " UNDOUBTEDLY the Suncriau-Akka-
dian gentleman Of 1900 q. C. took
Id down from the shelves ~ his library
TtE1@1 a copy OF THE Handy Letter Writer"
| ~41D and sought the model upon which he
~ might build the important commune.
w cntl0n he had In hand.
To his wife he made little hen
| W scratches uud scrnwls that great
scholars tell ~ read Beloved light
u mines eyes Thy extrnvngances Hre beyond all
Va" patience Of man. Behold. thy slave Is return
ing without the shekcls thou brazenly hast de
mnhd"d Ever thy devoted husband"
or, 10 u slave oyerseer who had Willingly or
hnwittingly done him In some household deal he
s'yused In hot haste: ut Is with sorrow that thy
stupidity Is borne upon my consciousness. Thou
mast cheated me In scales and in price D
thee, thou art not worth three bekns Il week -
"hlch Is probably what slaves food then
This according TO May BOSNIAN writing in the
New York sun She continues:
AZ all events, the great wealth Of tnbIet records
aug up In Mesopotamla in recent years and
cleaned aud dociphered shows SO many little IN.
miliar. Intimate touches and such an abundance
OF letter writing all subjects under the sun
INIT the possibility OF the existence Of epstolary
guides then must be borne upon our conscious
ness, too.
An Interesting lot of dccIphering Of such tablets
u" OeihE accomplished by DIR. stephen Langdou
who came IN September from oxford England TO
be curator Of the Bahylonlan division of the Uni.
Ferslty of Pennsylvania museum In phladeIpha
Tie Is young nun stIll but he II the only man
living who has seen aud handled all the thousands
81 tablets unearthed by University of Pennsyl-
vnnla museum expeditions above the city of MIN
pur both those retained by the authorities ut Con-
stanttnoplc and those sent 10 Philadelphia
There are only about IL men in the world who
can rrad SumerRn and Rabyonlan characters
and he Is one Of them. Thanks 10 the war which
has len oxford dun. deud spot, America hns
cured him for one year He viii dcclpher as many
as possible Of the thousands of tablets that have
been cleaned ut the University Of Pennsylvania
museum VIII publish TRANSACTIONS OF all important
ones. now or later. aud viii classify and catalogue
the collection, stupcndous task
In 300 II, c, papyrus and paper for writing
were unknown Men scratched with a pointed
steel instrument called u stylus on unhnked red
clay tablets OF various sizes, mostly about the
size, shape and thickness of small book They
wrote both sides, and then, II they were not
through continued ON another tablet The aunluay
nf these tablets tu sheets OF paper Is not hard 20
comprehend, Sometimes a tnlc stops in the mid
die and the next tablet on which II was continued
IL never found. or - found years latcr
In the temples scrhes were busy copying old
picccS Of literature To- hand down to poStcrIty
lust as later monks spent their days and their
ulrhts copying lahornusly and preserving old
books for the archives ~ the monastery. The
work of the umnuucuses wuS placed ON shelves Ia
y library neat little rows and piles NJ cav hooks
Men digging SOlN years later hHrr found them.
aud other men have spent their lives fn studying
them that they might toll VS. what the tahrtr say.
The hooks cover wide nrld and comprise odrs,
crIcS religious hymns, dictionaries scientific
| PAMPHLETS The OLD IInhylnulau amt Swnvrun
/ tcnples were, also. great Industrial commercial,
| agricultural AMI stock rut~lng ecutrrs nud they
kent vast number ~ documents relating to these
various Interests.
| Millions NJ tablets hovr been found recording
4 snles ~ cattle slaves md staple goods, marriage
contracts and agreements; divorce dHrrrrS. Wills,
rsrglpt4 for iunumcrHblc things from irwvtry mud
! ,o,nanz dresses to- humnn ehBltsls, There Hrr
! tho tu,ekerpcrS' slips of the temple workers and
| bookkeeping accounts, Doctor lHuEdnn has found
! that ono his banking house dd business Ia the
city " Babylon Tor Gao years
The great bulk OF the tablets h0Ne boon found
| an the site ~ the ancient t"u''r "t N'ppur Ia
| Hahylanla This tc'npc was both religious
..,nt,r aud "a college designed primarily Tor the
education II priests, but the range NJ textbooks
unrarthtd there shows that instruction began at
/ prgmary stage md continued through elementary
and rramtuar grades to thr regulation collrs'
/ course aS Habyl oujans conceived IT. and to thvo
/ logical classes The textbooks show high "r
I ssr M Enthusiastically. Indeed the resemblance
. NJ these people tn Ms ~ to-day hriBE home ug0iJ
the nuchane,ahlrre~s 81 the great antiquity q
I civilization 81 called
[ u,,s exercise books have been found repeat
,,,lv In this and IN other collections They wer'
llkr prrssnt-tiay school states, hut made Of We
, ,l,v and the little fellow marked On them Will
r STYLUS and When he made mistake bloite'
Il out With his thumb.
; Tn, quality aud range OF the textbooks aston
ttsh one Books mathematics 0houodi the
=. taught the muIttplIfN tlon table up to 2tS an
a 5iO times a number. In their financial tranSaC
. ,,,ns Suuerians had TO do stupcndnuS calculation
=. . IN their heads. Doctor Langdou has Just found
Il too a comprehensive volume used TO the study q
y law. and among the grammar books one dcaliu
p pnrtirularly and completely with the use ~ tn
proposition. race that has arrived at the prepC