ASSYRIAN ANTIQUITIES.

Southland Times, Volume I, Issue 11, 16 December 1862, Page 3

ASSYRIAN ANTIQUITIES.

(From the Athenceum.)

The Museum of Paris contains an inscription of Hammurabi, King of Babylon, of the greatest interest to Assyrian scolars. It is known that 'he kings who entitle themselves Kings of Babylon belong to two different periods, separated by about seven centimes. The first period began with the foundation of the Assyrian empire ; nearly in the twentieth century li ('., and finished in tlit-; middle of the sixteenth. After an interval of two hundred years commences the ascendancy of Nineveh, which became the metroplis of the great Assyrian kingdom. During this period the Kings of Assyria added to their qualification of King of Assyria the title of Sakkanalcu of Habylon, and nevcrstyled themselves king of tfal>ylon nor aHowed an) one to asMime this title. But afier the downfall of Nineveh Babylon became the metroplis, and the Kings of Assyria called themselves again Kings of Bab_\ lon.

According to the inscriptions of the Kings of the first period, it was doubtful to several schol-irs whether the Chaldeans spoke then the same language as their successors:' o t!i>» second Chaldean empire, because the documents were written with characters taken in their idea«raj)hical value. The inscription of Hammurabi, in the Musueni of Paris, tho single record of an important extent helonging to this period, is written in phoneticle characters, and resolves the question — all the characters admitting an explanation hased on the same principles and the same lules as tfte great historical inscriptions of Tiglnth-Pileser, Sardanapulus, Sargon, Sennacherih, or ihe larger aichi ectural documents of Nehuchadnezzar, Neriglissor and Nabonicus. 1 hail the honour to submit a French trans lntion of This rcni.irkahle inscription to the Institute of France in the sitting of the Academic de.s Inscripnons et Helles-Lettres of the Gth of February last. I am happy to give, on this occasion, an English t ranslaiion, which may be easily examined, for I sent fi copy of the inscription itself to trie British museum, where I supposed it would interest the learned Assyrian scholars of England.

Heieis the translation : — " Hammurabi, the mighty King, King of Babylon, (he King who rules over the four regions of the world, who attacks the enemies of Meroriach, the minister who rpjoiccs his heart, I— I sny: (>od llu and God Bel have bestowed upon me the people of fcjumirs and Accads, to reign over them. They had filled my hand with tiieir tributes I dug the N'ahar- Hammurabi, the fortune of the people of Babylon, and the river for the po ip!e of Sumirs and Acrads. I directed the course of its branches to the fertile plains, i dug irrigation ditches, and so I gave everlasting waters to the people of Sumirs an I Accads. I distributed the men of Sumirs and Accads in large boroughs; the desert and the wfll-watered plain I made similar.

• I watered them with canals, and as a delightful spot they weie inhabited. I say so, I, Hammurabi, the mighty King, the adorer of the greatest G<>d, I— I built, according to the immutilile decrees which Merodaeh made known to me, a high tower of which the large walls, like the mountains, lift iheir heads in the mouth of Nahar-Ham-mur-ibi,the fortune of thfi men; and I give to this tower the name of the mother that bare me and of the father who he»ot me. In the of the mother who bare me and of the father who begot me I live in this country." — JOACHIM menant, Juge au Tribunal do Li-ieux.