400 YEARS AGO

Southland Times, Issue 19522, 23 May 1922, Page 3

400 YEARS AGO

ANCIENT BABYLONIAN COLONY. Excavations made at Kaisargarh, in Asia Minor, have revealed that 2,400 years before the Christian era there dwelt there a Babylonian, partly military, partly commercial, colony. Its history is inscribed in cuneriform characters on tablets brought to light, all dated from the same epoch. They give curious details of the manner in which this colony was governed by a “prince” and a “prefect” by the side of whom were a “princess” and a “prefectess,” who had rights and powers absolutely equal to those of their masculine coUeagues. It is seen that Burs, as that town was formerly caUed, the rights of woman were respected. Even as the men, women there marry on business, bequeath their property and perform the same offices. Archaeologists therefore asked themselves to-day if there is not some truth in the story of the Amazons who, according to legend, lived in this very part of Asia Minor. Not far from Burns is the “City of Women,” where the latter had their colleges and their university. This university comprised two faculties, of arts and of letters, each placed, under the direction of a principal, who, however, was a man. The tablets also indicate that many modern institutions were then known. On the numerous routes that traversed the country a carrier distributed regularly letters of terracotta. If they were without envelopes they were not without stamps, and these were of circular form. In one of the letters the writer wishes the carrier a bright moon and a clear sky, on his nightly trip. In some correspondence allusion is made to a kind of cheque ; the messenger had received from the sender instructions to collect from the addressee a sum of money, the amount of which was indicated on the tablet—in brief, something like the modern postal money order.