BABYLONIAN DISCOVERIES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10407, 3 April 1897, Page 2 (Supplement)

BABYLONIAN DISCOVERIES.

Important new discoveries in Babylonian antiquities are described by Professor Sayce in the Contemporary Review. At Telloh, in the extreme south of Chaldea, M, de Sarzec, French Consul at Basrah, has gradually disinterred a city whose Babylonian name was Lagas. It has yielded an' immense number of monuments of all kinds, but the most valuable treasure is a library, discovered last year. It contained no less than 33,000 day tablets, and was formed very nearly 5000 years ago. The larger part of the tablets has gone to Constantinople, whore Assyrian scholars are busily working at them. American excavators have been working among tho ruins of the great Sumerian tomplo of Mul-il or El-lil, "lord of the ghost-world," aftorwarde the Semitic Bel or Baal, at Niffer, the ancient Nippur, in Northern Babylonia. Tho reeults are such that Professor Hitprecht, historian of the expedition, says wo can no longer " hesitate to date the founding of the Temple of 801, and the first settlements in Nippur somewhere between 6000 and 7000 8.C., possibly even earlier." Tablets brought to light establish the historicity of Sargon of Accad and his son Narwn-Sin, who reigned about 3800 8.C., but whom German writers have made merry over as fabulous. Inscriptions of both kings have been found recording their conquests, including Syria and Palestine. The two kings rebuilt the temple ab Nippur. A floor has been found paved with huge bricks, some carved with the name of one, some with that of the other. Some fragmentary tablets recently deciphered by Mr. Pinches, af the British Museum, include letters of Khammurabi or Ammi-rabi, the Amraphel of Genesis, which clear up the history of the war of the kings. " Bri-Aku or Arioch had been supported by KudurLaghghamar, the king of Elam, and with Elamito help had driven Sin-idinnam, the former king of Larsa, ouli of Southern Babylonia. Sin-idinnam fled to the court nf the king of Babylon, and there awaited his opportunity. At last Khammurabi felt himself strong enough to proclaim his independence of Elamite authority. At first, however, the tide of war turned against him. Kudur-uaghghamar, the Chodorla'omer of Genesis, summoned to his help tho Umman-Manda, or nomad 'nations'of Kurdistan, whose chief apparently was TudghuU, the Tid'al of Genesis, and with .their aid he captured Babylon and desecrated its sanctuary of Bel-Merodach. But the gods came to the assistance of Khamniurabi, and in the end he was successful. The yoke of the Elamite wm shaken off, Larea was restored to its former lord, and Khammurabi ruled over-an independent and united Babylonia." So the Old Testamentis beiog dog oudof Chaldetn mounds!