OF THE PA
VOL. XI.
; ?
RECORDS OF THE PAST.
VOL. XI. ASSYRIAN TEXTS.
NOTE.
Every Text here given is either now translated for the first time, or has been specially revised by the Translator to the date of this publication.
RECORDS OF THE PAST:
BEING
ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS
ASSYRIAN AND EGYPTIAN MONUMENTS.
PUBUSHED UNDER THE SANCTION
OF
THE SOCIETY OF BIBLICAL ARCH/EOLOGY.
VOL. XL ASSYRIAN TEXTS.
" -
SEP 0 3 1987
Multa; terricolis linguae, ccelestibus una.
LONDON : SAMUEL BAGSTER AND SONS,
15, PATERNOSTER ROW.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
PREFACE ... ... ... ... ... ... i
Inscription of Rimmon-Nirari I. ... ... ... i
By Rev. A. H. SAYCE, M.A.
Record of a Hunting Expedition ... ... ... 7
By Rev. W. HOUGHTON, M.A., F.L.S.
Inscription of Assur-izir-pal ... ... ... ... 1 1
By W. BOOTH FINLAY.
Bull Inscription of Khorsabad ... ... ... 15
By Prof. Dr. JULIUS OPPERT.
Inscriptions of the Harem of Khorsabad ... ... 27
By Prof. Dr. JULIUS OPPERT.
Texts of the Foundation Stone of Khorsabad ... 31
By Prof. Dr. JULIUS OPPERT.
Babylonian Legends found at Khorsabad ... ... 41
By Prof. Dr. JULIUS OPPERT.
Nebbi Yunus Inscription of Sennacherib ... ... 45
By ERNEST A. BUDGE.
Oracle of Istar of Arbela ... ... ... ... 59
ByTHEOPHILUS GOLDRIDGE PlNCHES.
Report Tablets ... ... ... ... ... 73
ByTHEOPHiLus GOLDRIDGE PINCHES. Texts relating to the Fall of the Assyrian Empire ... 79
By Rev. A. H. SAYCE, M.A.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
The Egibi Tablets 85
ByTHEOPHILUS GOLDRIDGE PlNCHES.
The Defence of a Magistrate falsely Accused ... 99 By the late H. Fox TALBOT, F.R.S.
The Latest Assyrian Inscription ... ... ... 105
By Prof. Dr. JULIUS OPPERT.
Ancient Babylonian Legend of the Creation ... 107
By Rev. A. H. SAYCE, M.A.
The Overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah ... ... 115
By Rev. A. H. SAYCE, M.A.
Chaldean Hymns to the Sun ... ... ... 119
By FRANCOIS LENORMANT.
Two Accadian Hymns ... ... ... ... 129
By Rev. A. H. SAYCE, M.A.
Assyrian Incantations to Fire and Water 133
By ERNEST A. BUDGE.
Assyrian Tribute Lists ... ... ... ... 139
By Rev. A. H. SAYCE, M.A.
An Assyrian Fragment on Geography ... ... 145
By Rev. A. H. SAYCE, M.A.
Accadian Proverbs and Songs ... ... ... 151
By Rev. A. H. SAYCE, M.A.
Assyrian Fragments ... ... ... ... ... 157
By J. HALE'VY.
The Moabite Stone ... ... ... ... ... 163
By CHRISTIAN D. GINSBURG, LL.D.
PREFACE,
THE present volume is the last of the series which will contain translations from the Assyrian, and there will be found in it a series of texts of the highest interest by different Assyriologists. For besides those of historical import, which exhibit a mono- tonous style in narrating the important events known in their full details from the Assyrian annals, will be found several others which are literary compositions, prose or poetical, of great merit, and throwing light on the contemporaneous styles of other Semitic nations, especially prophecy and mythological narra- tives. This branch of the inquiry is by no means exhausted, and the time is fast approaching when a sketch of the Assyrian religion can be traced from the information afforded by the Assyrian inscriptions. Although the tablets and inscriptions found at Babylon have not presented so much of the history of that kingdom, especially for its later annals, yet the discovery of fragments of the age of Nebuchad- nezzar afford promise that future excavations may
ii PREFACE.
produce documents as important as those of Assyria. The writers in the present volume have, in some instances, copiously illustrated their translations by notes, and so supplied what some have conceived to be a want in the texts previously given. Besides the translations from Assyrian texts, a translation has been given by Dr. Ginsburg of the " Moabite Stone," now in the Louvre. It is a document so connected with Biblical Archaeology that its place in this volume is most appropriate, as concluding the Semitic portion of the work. It is impossible to close this Preface without a deep expression of sorrow at the recent death of Mr. W. R. Cooper, who contributed so much to the success of the " RECORDS OF THE PAST " by his zeal and energy in collecting and arranging the materials of which they are composed. His position as Secretary of the Society of Biblical Archaeology placed him in correspondence with the leading Assyriologists and Egyptologists of the day, whose co-operation he secured; and the Editor cannot omit this opportunity of expressing the value of Mr. Cooper's aid in carrying out the work to its conclusion.
S. BIRCH.
November, 1878.
INSCRIPTION OF RIMMON-NIRARI I.
KING OF ASSYRIA (B.C. 1320).
TRANSLATED BY
REV. A. H. SAYCE, M.A.
'T'HIS inscription is written on both sides of a stone tablet obtained by the late Mr. George Smith from Kaleh Sherghat, the ancient Assur and first capital of Assyria. It is an important historical document, since it throws light on a period which has left us but few remains. A translation of it is given by Mr. George Smith in his Assyrian Discoveries, pp. 243-246, and the original is copied in the Cuneiform Inscrip- tions of Western Asia, Vol. IV., 44, 45. Assur- yuballidh, who is mentioned in the inscription, had married his daughter to one of the Cassite princes of Babylonia (see Records of the Past, Vol. III., p. 29), and the inscription would seem to show that he subsequently received divine honours. His son, Bel-
nirari, restored the Babylonian crown to Curi-galzu, VOL. xi. 2
2 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
the son of Burna-buryas, who had lost it by a revo- lution. Pudil built a palace in the capital city Assur, which is the earliest known royal residence in Assyria, but little else is recorded of him beyond the notice in the inscription translated below. The concluding line shows that the system of reckoning time by a succession of eponyms was already in existence, so that Assyrian chronology has a firm basis as far back, at all events, as the fourteenth century B.C.
INSCRIPTION OF RIMMON-NIRARI I.
OBVERSE.
1 RIMMON-NIRARI, the holy Prince, appointment of god,
2 the holy conqueror, established by heaven (and) earth (and) the gods,
3 establisher of fortresses (and) demolished buildings
4 of the host of the Cassi,2 Gutium,3 Lulumi,
5 and 'Subari,4 destroyer of all
6 enemies above and below, the trampler
7 on their countries from Lubdi(?) and Rapiku *
8 to the confines of Zabidadi and Nisi,
9 the (remover) of boundaries and landmarks,
10 the (overthrower) of Kings and Princes
1 1 (whom) the gods ANU, ASSUR, SAMAS, RIMMON
12 and ISTAR to his feet subjected;
13 the supreme worshipper of BEL.
14 The son of PUDIL, established by BEL,
15 Vicegerent of ASSUR, the conqueror
1 6 of the lands of Turuci and Nirkhi
17 as far as the frontiers of his furthest castles,6
1 8 ruling the mountains and the forests
19 of the frontiers of wide Gutium,
20 of the Gunukhlami and the 'Suti,7
2 1 their streams and lands ;
1 Literally, " the ploughing1 down of buildings." * The Cossaeans who had conquered Babylonia.
3 The Goyim or " nations " of Gen. xiv.
4 Syria : literally, " the highlands."
5 Raphek.
6 Or, "of Carisugimeni."
7 The Bedouins.
o*
4 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
22 the remover of boundaries and landmarks.
23 The grandson of BEL-NIRARI,
24 worshipper of ASSUR also, who on the army of the Cassi
25 laid his yoke, and the spoil of his foes
26 his hand captured, the remover of boundaries
27 and landmarks. The great-grandson
28 of ASSUR-YUBALLIDH, the powerful King,
29 whom as a worshipper in Bit-Kurra I fixed.
30 The restoration and peace of his kingdom
3 1 to distant regions like a mountain he extended ;
32 the sweeper away of the armies
33 of the wide-spread 'Subari,
34 the remover of boundaries and landmarks.
35 At that time the ascent to the temple of ASSUR my Lord,
36 which (was before) the gate of the men of my country
REVERSE.
1 and the gate of the stars (called) Judges,1
2 which existed in former times, was decayed, and
3 was stopped up and was ruined ;
4 this place I selected,
5 its strength I took,
6 with clay and sand 4 gurs I cemented,
7 I made, to its place I restored,
8 and my inscription I placed
9 for future days. The future Prince
1 According- to Diodorus, 24 stars were called "Judges," and associated with the Zodiac, 12 being- north and 12 south. Among these were the Pole-star, Dayan-same or "the judge of heaven," and Dayan-esiru, "the prospering judge," also called " the crown of heaven." " The divine days >T or "lights of Assur" were dayani or "judges," and the names of the six " divine judges of the temple of Assur " are given as Samela, Ismi-carabu, Nuscu, Ilpada, Uzru-casunu and Sitamme-carabu.
INSCRIPTION OF RIMMON-NIRARI I. 5
10 at the time (when) this place
1 1 shall grow old and decay,
12 its ruins let him renew; my inscriptions (and) my written name
13 to its place let him restore. The god ASSUR
14 his prayers heareth. Whoever my written name
15 shall erase and his own name shall write,
1 6 and the record of my inscription shall cause to wash out,
17 to destruction shall devote,
1 8 in the flood shall lay, in the fire
19 shall burn, in the water shall lay,
20 with the dust shall cover,
2 1 into a house underground, a place not seen,
22 shall cause to descend and place,
23 then I appoint these curses :
24 (even) the enemy, the stranger, the wicked one and the injurer,
25 the hostile tongue, and whosoever
26 a rival shall urge on and excite,
27 and whatever he devises he shall accomplish.
28 ASSUR, the mighty god, who dwells in the temple of Kharsak-kurra,
29 the gods ANU, BEL, HEA and TSIRU,
30 the great gods, the spirit of heaven,
3 1 (and) the spirit of earth, in their ministry,
32 mightily may they injure him, and
33 (with) a grievous curse quickly
34 may they curse him : his name, his seed, his forces
35 and his family in the land may they destroy ;
36 the glory of his county, the duration of his people
37 and his landmarks, by their august mouth,
38 may it go forth, and may RIMMON in inundation
39 malign inundate (with) whirlwind,
40 may the wind dry up, and amongst his offspring
6 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
41 destruction, want of crops,
42 curse (and) famine in his country may he lay, (with) rain his country like a whirlwind may he fill,
43 to a mound and ruins may he turn ; may RIMMON in his evil devouring his country devour.
44 (Dated) the month Mukhur-ili,1 the 2oth day, during the eponymy of SHALMAN-KARRADU.
1 " Gift of the gods."
RECORD OF A HUNTING EXPEDITION
OF TIGLATH-PILESER I.1 (CIRC. B.C. II2O-IIOO.)
TRANSLATED BY
REV. W. HOUGHTON, M.A., F.L.S.
''THE inscription consists of about 39 lines, the lower portion of which is broken, and some of the lines more or less effaced ; it is published in Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia, Vol. I., pi. 28 : the left hand column is the hunting record, the right hand column gives some account of the repairs of the city of Assur. It has been supposed by some that the king of the broken obelisk was Assur-natsir-pal, circ. B.C. 883-858, who was, we know, very fond of hunting ; I agree, however, with those who would refer this inscription to a much earlier Assyrian monarch, viz., Tiglath-Pileser I. ; there are certain expressions in this hunting record that are almost identical with expressions which occur in the long inscription of this monarch ; see the translation
1 From a broken obelisk found at Kouyurijik (Nineveh), originally belonging to Kileh Shergat (Assur), now in the British Museum.
8 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
by Sir H. Rawlinson in Records of the Past, Vol. V., p. 5-26. In the long inscription Tiglath-Pileser I. himself records his own adventures ; in the Broken Obelisk Inscription the hunting achievements are related by some scribe who may have formed one of the party ; in both inscriptions reference is made to the king having killed wild bulls (rimi) near the city Arazik in the land of the Hittites ; Ninip and Nergal in both inscriptions are the special guardian deities of the monarch. In the king's own inscription he speaks of driving off the young wild goats, etc., like the young of tame-goats. In the Obelisk we read : " their young ones (wild goats') like the young of sheep he counted." Perhaps the inscription on the Broken Obelisk may have been intended to form a kind of supplement, by distinctly enumerating the various wild animals either killed or captured alive. Some of these names remain at present unknown, and I have not attempted to translate them. Those who would wish to see the matter more fully treated can refer to my papers on " The Mammalia of the Assyrian Sculptures," in the Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archeology, Vol. V., parts I and 2.
RECORD OF A HUNTING EXPEDITION.
1 NINIP and NERGAL, who love bravery, over the wild beasts of the field
2 have conferred on him power ; in ships of Arvad
3 he sailed, a grampus in the Great Sea x he slew ;
4 fierce and large wild bulls in the city of Araziki,
5 which is opposite the land of the Hittites, and at the foot of Lebanon he killed ;
6 the young wild bulls he captured alive ;
7 the property of them he collected; the (adult) wild bulls with his bow
8 he killed, the (young) wild bulls which he captured alive
9 he brought to his city of Assur; 120 lions, with his heart,
10 valiant in brave attack, on his open chariot,
1 1 on foot, with a club he slew ; lions (too)
1 2 with his spear he killed. The thick forests
13 had invited him to hunt their game ; on days
14 of varying storms and heat, in the days of the rising of
1 5 the star Cacsidi, which is like bronze, he had hunted in the country of Ebikh,
1 6 the countries of Urase, Azamiri, Ancurna, Pizitta,
17 Pi . . .2 iz, Casiyari, provinces of the land of Assyria and Khana,
1 8 the borders of the land of Lulime, and the provinces of the lands of Nairi ;
19 wild goats, deer, spotted-stags,
20 ibexes in herds he took ;
1 Mediterranean. * Lacuna.
10 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
21 the property of them he collected and brought forth; their young ones
22 like the young of sheep he counted; leopards,
23 tigers, jackals, two powerful bears,
24 mal-zir-khui he slew; wild asses and
25 gazelles, hyenas and simkurri
26 he killed ; (large) antelopes, wild cattle, and tesetu, the huntsmen whom
27 he sent had taken; the wild cattle he collected, and brought together
28 the property of them; the men of his country he caused to feed ;
29 a great black crocodile, scaly beast of the river, and animals of the
30 Great Sea, the King of Egypt caused to be brought; the men of his country he caused to feed.
31 As to the rest of the numerous animals and winged birds of heaven,
32 which among the beasts of the field were (also) the spoil of his hands, their names, together with animals
33 of the land for multitude, were not written ; their number with those (former) numbers was not written.1
34 He (then) left the countries, the acquisition of his hand; roads strange
35 ... .* the good (places) in his chariot, and the difficult on his feet,
36 he had marched over . . . .* their destruction he had effected
37 ... ." these . . . ." not penetrating countries
38 . ..." from the city Duban of ... .3 Accadi . . . .*
39 country of the West.3
1 I.e., " he killed more animals than he kept account of." * Lacunae. * Palestine.
II
INSCRIPTION OF ASSUR-IZIR-PAL(P).
TRANSLATED BY
W. BOOTH FINLAY.
first volume of the Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia, pi. 28, contains an inscription from a broken obelisk, attributed by Sir Henry Rawlinson to Sardanapalus (Assur-izir-pal). The learned General is of opinion that this obelisk, which was found in the ruins of Koyunjik, had been originally erected at Elassar (Kileh-Shergat), as the second column of the inscription treats principally of buildings belonging to this latter city.
There is however nothing in the inscription itself to identify the obelisk with Assur-izir-pal, whose early capital was Elassar, rather than with a later king, who reigned at Nineveh where the monument was found. Indeed, there are fair grounds for attributing it to a later monarch than Assur-izir-pal, as it seems strange
12 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
that buildings of his father and grandfather should have fallen into decay within so short a period.
In the uncertainty, and for sake of reference, I have left the designation as it stands in the volume of inscriptions. A translation was made by the late Mr. Fox Talbot in 1859, which was published in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. XIX. M. Oppert also translated the inscription in his Histoire des Empires de Chaldee et d'Assyrie, 1865, p. 132-135, which translation has been followed by M. Menant in the different fragments given by him in his Annales des Rois d ' Assyrie.
The following translation differs slightly from the latter ; that of the late Mr. Fox Talbot has been considerably amended by the progress made in Assyriology since 1859.'
1 The first column having been already translated by the Rev. William Houghton, see pp. 7-10, the continuation of the text only is here given.
W.R.C.
INSCRIPTION OF ASSUR-IZIR-PAL(P).
COLUMN II.
1 Bit-Abusate, the Palace of my lordship, had become too small,
2 the storehouses and all its buildings had decayed, and
3 from its foundations to its roof I rebuilt it.
4 Bit-Sahuri, which IRIS-BIN (had built), and its massive buildings
5 facing the North, which ASSUR-IDIN-AKHI, King of Assyria,
6 had erected, having fallen in ruins, I rebuilt. The moat
7 of my city Assur, which had been destroyed, and which • the earth had filled up,
8 from the great gate . . .'to the gate of the Tigris I dug.
9 The fir posts of the great iron gate Sahu I removed,
10 excellent beams of shittim wood I made,
11 and with sheets of copper I joined them. The great citadel
1 2 of my city Assur completely
13 I built. Heaps of earth round about it
14 against the raised part I spread.2 A temple of cedar,
15 a temple of ivory, a temple of fatm-vrood,3 a temple of carved wood,
1 6 in my city Assur I made. For the castles 4 burfyisi, and 174 lions of adamant, 2 sacred bulls and lions
1 8 of polished stone, 2 bur his of fine white stone
1 Lacuna.
1 Probably a network of earthen fortifications rendering the access to the citadel difficult.
J Oppert translates butni by " pistachier."
14 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
1 9 I made, and in their gates I set them up.
20 The canal which ASSUR-DAN-IL had dug,
21 its head was destroyed, and for 30 years the water within it
2 2 did not run ; the head of that canal I dug over again,
23 and the water into its bed I brought ; trees I planted alongside.
24 The parapet which for the great dyke of the gate of the Tigris
25 BiN-NiRARi, King of Assyria, had built, had gone to decay
26 and had perished. On the water-courses cement 2 7 and brick for 5 measures I laid. The building
28 of the Palace Kumti, which before Kisalate
29 TiGLATH-NiNiP,1 King of Assyria, had made,
30 for the length of i us and 3 kumani-alib had gone to decay
3 1 and had perished, from its foundation to its roof I built it up.
32 The Palace in the city Iz . . .a which risfyuli, which of the city Lib3 . . .'
33 The Palace Kumta in ma-a-qa
34 The Palace in the city Atki, which . . .*
35 I built '
36 the fortress "
1 Tiglath-Ninip II. was the father, and Bin-Nirari II. the grandfather, of Assur-izir-pal.
1 Lacunae.
3 Probably Libzu, i.e., Assur. T.G.P.
BULL INSCRIPTION OF KHORSABAD.
TRANSLATED BY
PROF. DR. JULIUS OPPERT.
PHIS document has a great historical interest for the history of cuneiform decipherment. It was the first inscription which was translated ; to the study of this text, first sent over by Botta from Nineveh, is attached the most ancient reading, and the first identi- fication of the name of an Assyrian king, made by Adrian de Longperier in 1847. -M. de Saulcy studied this text in 1 849, and attempted its interpretation even before the publication of the Babylonian Behistun text of Sir Henry Rawlinson. The first translation has been made in Scotland ; it was laid by myself before the Glasgow Meeting of the British Association in 1855, and published in the Transactions of the His- torical Society of Cheshire and Lancashire, 1856, and equally in the Annales de Philosophie Chretienne, 1855.
1 6 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
The discovery of many other texts drew the attention of Assyriologists away from this important document, which was for the first time, only in 1870, published with its transliteration and an interlinear translation in my Dour-Sarkayan, Paris. Since that epoch, it has been several times reprinted, and its locutions have been discussed by MM. Menant, Schrader, Praetorius, and others.
This new English translation contains some im- portant improvements and emendations on the former French version.
BULL INSCRIPTION OF KHORSABAD.
PALACE of SARGON, the great King, the powerful King, King of the legions, King of Assyria, Viceroy of the gods at Babylon, King of the Sumers, and of the Accads,1 favourite of the great gods, the only herdsman2 of the peoples to whom ASSUR, NEBO, and MERODACH, have confided sovereign power, and whose glorious name they have spread to the extremities of the earth.
He fulfilled the hopes of Sippara, of Nipur, of Babylon.
He reunited the dominions of Kalu, Ur, Erit, Larsa, Kul lab, Kisik,3 Nivit-Laguda;4 he subdued their inhabitants. He ratified the laws of the ancient empire,5 when the Kings interpreted to his favour the eclipse over Harran,6 and wrote their treaties according to the will of ANU and of DAGON.
Valiant and powerful, sharpening his arms7 he shot off his arrows for subduing the rebels. He routed the
1 That is, of the Turanian Sumers, and of the Semitic Accads.
1 The metaphor of "herdsman," ri'u, is now used in Turkey of the subjects, who are named "the herd," r'aya.
3 See on those cities the remarks made on the texts in Records of the Past, Vols. VII., IX.
4 Dwelling-place of the god Laguda.
5 Pal-mit-ki, explained in the syllabaries by " Assur."
6 This is the lunar eclipse of March 19, B.C. 721 (9,280), mentioned by Ptolemy. The matter becomes very intelligible to us, since we know the various portenta predicted from the position of the moon. But this eclipse proves also, that the accession of Sargon cannot occur till B.C. 722 (9,279)-
7 Halib namurrati.
VOL. XI. 3
1 8 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
King of Elam, he conquered the countries of Van, Karalla, Andia, Zikirtu, Kisasi, Kharkhar, and placed Media and Ellip under the dominion of ASSUR. He declared war with Armenia, and took the city of Musasir, when the Armenian, URSAHA, fearing his power, cut off his life with his own hand. He made slaves of the Princes of Circesium,1 of Hamath, of Commagene, of the city of Asdod, of the people of Hatti,2 his enemies who did not reverence the memory of the gods and who contemplated revolt. He appointed Lieutenants over all these countries for the purpose of governing the provinces, and he imposed tributes upon these people, as upon the Assyrians. He swept away Samaria, and the whole house of OMRI 3 and Kaska. He subdued the country of Tubal, and the whole of Bet-Burutas, he overcame Egypt near the city of Raphia, and placed HANUN, King of Gaza, in slavery. He crushed the city of Sinukhta. He put MITA, King of the Moschiens to flight. He changed the citadels of Kue and the marshes. He swam like a fish to Yamna which is in the sea. He drove away GUNZINAN of Khammanua, and TARHULARA of Gamgum from their dwellings ; he confiscated the whole of their possessions, which he reduced to an Assyrian province. He subjugated the seven Kings of Yahnaghe of the coast of Yatnan (Cyprus) who had taken up their residence, seven days' voyage, in the middle of the sea of the setting sun. He attacked Ras, subdued Pukud, the inhabitants of Tamun, and the city of Lahir. And he established the country of Yatburi under his dominion. , He chastised MERODACH- BALADAN King of Chaldsea. the enemy who, contrary to the wish of the great gods, had exercised sovereign power at
1 Carchemis. 2 Syria.
5 This is the usual designation of the Israelitish kingdom in the later texts; Salmanassar quotes Sir 'iL
BULL INSCRIPTION OF KHORSABAD. 19
Babylon,1 and the force of his arm came to him. He took off the foundation-stone of Dur-Yakin the city of his revolt, and heaped up in the depths of the sea, as on a threshing- floor, the corpses of these warriors. And UPIR, King of Dilmun, whose abode was established like that of fishes, thirty parasangs 3 in the middle of the sea of the rising sun, when he heard all these things brought his tributes.
The king anxious to fulfil his duty,3 and fostering a lucky intention, directed his mind to people those extensive habi- tations, to open porticoes, and to stick measuring pegs. Then above the valley which is at the foot of the mountains, to replace Nineveh, I founded a town, and I gave it the name of Dur-Sarkin.4 There I planted a variegated forest, reviving the memory of Mount Amanus which contains all the different kinds of trees in Syria, and all the plants growing on the mountains, and I fixed the limits of its extent.
Three hundred and fifty ancient kings had exercised before
1 It is said in other texts during twelve years. We have some "olives" dating1 down till the twelfth year, and which were destined, pro- bably, to serve for control to the women in the temple of Astarte at Babylon. They were brought by Sargon from Babylon to Khorsabad when Place discovered them. I published these curious monuments in my Dour-Sarkayan, p. 27. Mr. Boscawen believes that there were olives dating down to the twentieth year of Merodach-Baladan. But this statement is erroneous, and rests only upon a misprint in my book, p. 27, 1. 32, in the Assyrian text; my translation gives, line 33, the true reading of the tenth year. Mr. Boscawen says, that the number 20 is to be found in one of the Louvre documents without stating his author. At any rate, he scarcely saw it in the Louvre, as the original is in my own writing-desk, and affords the number " ten."
8 The kasl'u is a parasang, 30 stades, 5923mS, 6478 yards. The double of it was the kasluqaqqar, the schosnus of the Greeks, n847m6, or 12956 yards, seven miles and three furlongs. The word parasang is Persian, pardthanga, new Persian, farsakh ; the measure is still used in the East.
3 Here the style is in the first person. 4 "Fort of Sargon."
3*
20 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
me sovereign power over Assyria, and had embellished the empire of BEL ; ' but not one of them had touched thfs place, nor had proposed to people it, nor had thought of digging canals, nor of driving in measuring pegs. In the depth of my heart I have resolved peopling this city, erecting altars,3 the footstools of the great gods, and palaces, the abodes of royalty; I have decided upon its foundation.
On the propitious day of the happy month, the month of Sivan, on the day ap ap? I measured the ground,4 and I moulded bricks. In the month of Ab, the month of the god who lays the founding stone of towns and of houses, all the people assembled performed the ceremony of sulul* (of the hand bells) on gold, on silver, on copper, on metals, on stones, on the trees of Amanus, and according to the rule distributed the various employments. I laid the foundations and placed the bricks. I constructed smoking altars which are like part of the debt which we owe for the foundation to the gods HEA, SIN (Lunus), SAMAS (Sun), NEBO, BiN6 and NINIP.
1 This is a very important statement, and almost the only one which alludes to the universal history of anterior kings. The actual figures of Berosus' Babylonian kings give a very inferior number; they bear out only 222 kings. It is therefore probable, that Sargon included also the independent kings of Assyria in this number of 350.
' Makhkhi. An obscure word.
3 A designation of a certain day, which is unknown.
4 The former translation, "I burnt aloes," alltt tisadrig, must be abandoned.
5 It may be also the deposition of several things, thrown on the foun- dation ground, and which were found by M. Place in the sand stratum under the bulls. The word snlul may signify " launching."
6 The name of this god is really Bin, or Ben. The Sumerian word leni expresses the letter u, " master." The fanciful readings of Vul, Raman, and others are to be abandoned. The name of Benhadar, the antagonist of Ahab, is not Vul-idri, Raman-idri, but Bin-hidri.
BULL INSCRIPTION OF KHORSABAD. 21
With their assistance I constructed palaces of skins of takhash* of sandal-wood, of ebony, of tamarisk, of cedar- wood, and of pistachio-tree, for the purpose of lodging my royalty in them.
Above I disposed of the cedar and the cypress beams. As to the doors of cypress and tamarisk, I surrounded them with stripes of brass, and I symmetrically ornamented the interstices. I had a winding staircase made like the one of the palace of Syria, which in the Phoenician language is called bit appati. Eight double lions weighing i ncr (ton) 6 sossa (quintals), and 50 talents,3 and of first-rate bronze, in honoui of MYLITTA were sculptured on the doors ; and four beams of timmi and of bent cedar exactly corresponding to their 64 kubur, coming from Mount Amanus were placed on the lions 3 to fill up the namrir.* I had a garland of field animals and of sacred images hewn in stones from the mountains iski, sculptured very artistically on the (arched roof) s of the doors. I placed the lintels in the four heavenly directions, under them I arranged cornices of large black stones which came from countries which my arm has conquered; I made strong walls round the partitions, and I opened the doors for the admiration of my subjects.
Three ners6 and a third, one stadium, one fathom
1 A very obscure word.
* This is 1010 talents, viz., i ner . . 600 talents
6 soss . . 360 „ 50 talents . 50 „
101 o talents.
A Babylonian talent is to an English hundredweight Avoirdupois, exactly as three to five ; the quantity is therefore 606 cwt., 30600 kilograms.
3 Nirgalli. 4 These technical architectural terms are not clear.
5 Tappi. o Miles.
22 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
and a half, two spans,1 this is the dimension of the
1 This is the capital passage for the restoration of Assyrian measure- ments. The passage was explained in 1872, in the Journal Asiatique. Here are the leading- principles of this restoration of Assyrian metrology. Neither at Persepolis, nor at Nineveh, is there to be found an exact square; everywhere, and very likely by an unknown superstition, we meet always with oblongs differing slightly from an exactly quadrate form. It is also to be proved, that the smaller two sides of this rectangular parallelogram, contain a round number, and that the others afford an excess of unconstant proportion. In the present instance Botta's exact measurements give to the small side of the Khorsabad walls 1645, and to the large one 1750 metres. The proportion of these sides are as i : 1,06. The whole circumference is therefore 6790 metres, 7426 yards ; it is styled in the round number and in the excess thus, 6580 (4 x 1645) + 210 (2 x 105) as following : —
35 ners, at 7200 spans .... 24000 spans i soss or stade, at 720 spans . . . 720 ,,
1 fathom and a half, at 12 spans (variant:
3 canes at 6 spans) . . . . 18 ,,
2 spans 2 „
24,740 spans.
Why do we not find 3 ners, 4 soss, and 21 fathoms, and 8 spans, or 43 canes, and 2 spans? Because the author would express this idea : If the square would have been regular, it would have been 24000 spans long, 4 sides at 6000 spans each; but as the greater sides have each 370 spans more, 6370 spans, the 740 spans are pointed out apart. The formula of Khorsabad is very important for the history of mathematical terms : the perimeter of a rectangle is enunciated in order to determine in the mean time the four sides and the area.
2 sides at 6,000 12,000 spans
2 sides at 6,370 . . . . . . 12,740 „
Total 24,740 spans.
The exactness of this explanation is demonstrated in a stringently mathematical way : 6000 to 6370, or 600 to 637, is as i : 1.06166, just as 1650 is to 1750 (or more exactly 1646^ to 1748, as Botta measured only at a limit of half a decameter). This marvellous coincidence affords thus the discovery of Assyrian metrology. This proportion of two sides of i65Om, 1799 yards, and two sides of 1750™, 1914 yards, corrected to 1801 and 1912 yards, which bear out the 7426 yards of the circumference, are also in the proportion of i : 1.0616. As 1801 yards are just 6000 spans, or
BULL INSCRIPTION OF KHORSABAD. 23
wall.1 I laid the founding stone on the bare rock. At the
3000 cubits, the proportion of the yard to the Assyrian span is as three to ten, and that of the yard to the Assyrian cubit as three to jive. This is a statement with mathematical force and rigour.
The Assyrian span is therefore exactly io4/5 inches, and the cubit 2i3/s inches. We have consequently with an almost strict assimilation for the Assyrian stade 216 yards, for the parasang 6480 (6478) yards, and for the schoenus 12,960 yards, 7 miles, 2 furlongs, 200 yards, where the error can only amount to the trifling one of four yards.
The two smaller walls of Khorsabad were 3000 cubits long, and the larger ones 3000 cubits, and 185 cubits or 100 ells. An ell had 37 ulan. The little oblong of the excess was a surface of 555,000 square cubits, as the palace itself was 2,220 square double fathoms. We meet elsewhere with multiple of 37.
My distinguished friend, Professor Lepsius asks, if instead of 3T/s ners, we ought not to admit 4 sars and 3 ners, that is 27 ners. If the eminent Egyptian scholar had studied, I do not say the Assyrian documents, but only the two passages of the Bull inscription, he would not have raised this question in his paper at the Berlin Academy; he would have been aware that the ner is only alluded to, as it can be shown by this very document, in the statement of the weight of the copper lions. The calcu- lation of 191,540 spans (U) would give i inch 5 lines for a span, 2 inches 10 lines for the cubit, 21 yards for the stade, and 630 yards for the parasang of three miles ! ! !
I have replied to the views of Dr. Lepsius in the Monatslerichte of the Berlin Academy (Dec., 1877, and March, 1878), where my learned friend opposed some remarks to mine; but these are easily to be refuted. The German scholar doubts ultimately whether the now existing ramparts are really the outer wall, or dm; mentioned in this inscription ! Now the identity of the dur is ascertained undoubtedly by the eight entrance doors, which still exist, and were excavated by M. Place. All persons who have seen, or who will visit the Khorsabad remains, will be satisfied with the certainty that never a fancy wall existed exterior to the now existing wall, where the foundation tablets were discovered. This apocryphical outer rampart has only been invented in order to find the theoretical 8547 metres, which Dr. Lepsius calculated by his interpretatory system of the Khorsabad text; in reality, these 8547m cannot be employed by any surveyor of the spot itself, and the perimeter of the Khorsabad walls bears out only 6790 metres.
An English writer, M. Flinders Petrie, has arrived at the same valua- tion of the Assyrian cubit in his valuable work on Inductive Metrologi/,
1 The wall is the dur, that is, this outer rampart,
24 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
extremities of each side, near the angles of the circumvalla- tion,1 I opened 8 gates in the direction of the four cardinal points.
SAMAS" makes my designs successful, BIN affords me abundance ; I have named the large gates of the East the gates of SAMAS and of BIN.
BEL-EL lays the foundation of my city, MYLITTA TAAUTH grinds the painting stone in his bosom ; I have given the names of BEL-EL and of MYLITTA TAAUTH to the large gates of the North.
ANU executes the works of my hand, ISHTAR excites the men ; I have named the large gates of the West, the gates of ANU, and of ISHTAR.
HEA arranges the marriages,3 the Queen of the gods presides over child-birth ; I have dedicated the large gates of the South4 to HEA and to the Queen of the gods.
ASSUR lengthens the years of the kings he has appointed, he protects the armies of the enclosure of the town. NINIP, who lays the foundation stone, fortifies its rampart5 to distant days.
1 The words ina sili kilallan, a most difficult term, may signify " in the flank of the two angle branches ; " sili is literally " ribs."
2 The Sun.
3 This explanation of naqli, " to perforate," is possible, but it may have here a double sense, because naqbi signifies also the perforation of the earth, "a canal."
4 I accept provisionally the mutual change of North and South, on the authority of the Talmud passages: but the difficulty seems very great.
5 The Assyrians always distinguish the outer bulwark (dur} from the inner, or special, rampart (salhii). The measures are expressly given for the dur.
BULL INSCRIPTION OF KHORSABAD. 25
The four dominions,1 each of different language, the people exempt from all taxes living on the mountains and in the plains which the SUN, the light of the gods, the master of the spheres, illuminates, I have subdued them, in the remembrance of ASSUR my god, under the realm of my sibirr ;* I caused them to dwell separately, and I established them there. The men of Assyria, acquainted with all the sciences, I had confided to sages and learned men,3 for the instruction of right and for the adoration of their god and their king. I separated them from the sibir of the town and from my Palaces.
In the month of Tisri 4 I worshipped the great gods who inhabit Assyria, and I made the inauguration thereof when I had taxed the kings of the rising sun and of the setting sun in gold, in silver, and in slaves, to increase the treasures of these Palaces by their munificent offerings. O ye gods who inhabit this town may all the work of my hands be aug- mented! May they in their presence dedicate to eternity the inhabitant of these regions and the duration of my victorious reign.
But he who spoils the works of my hand, who effaces my
1 The four dominions are without Akkad, situated in the middle, Guti to the North, Hubur to the South, Elam to the East, Akharri to the West.
* The sense of the sibirr is very obscure.
3 "Astronomers." The word sapir seems to mean "learned man, explainer," but at first, the explainer of the celestial movements, "astro- nomer."
4 This quite agrees with the statement in an eponymic tablet (#'". A. 1. II., pi. 69), that Dur-Sarkin was inaugurated the 22nd of TisVi, of Sa-Assur-dubbu (Oct., B.C. 706). In the next spring, 6th of lyar (May, B.C. 705), were finished the walls of the new city. This fact is not stated in the Sargon texts; for the king survived this fact only 15 months. He was followed on the throne by his son Sennacherib in August, B.C. 704.
26 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
sculptures, who takes away the vessels containing my riches, who distributes my treasures ; may ASSUR, BIN, and the great gods who inhabit this town destroy his name and his race in his country, may they let him be treated as an insurgent by those who rebel against him !
THE INSCRIPTIONS OF THE HAREM OF KHORSABAD.
TRANSLATED BY
PROF. DR. JULIUS OPPERT.
'"THESE two inscriptions, found in 1852 by Victor Place at Khorsabad, have been saved by myself from destruction and oblivion. They were lost in the disaster of the French expedition in 1855; the two casts were brought by me to Paris, and published in 1858 in the Expedition de Mesopotamia, Vol. L, p. 333, and following.
I correct here, in this English translation, some faults which I committed twenty years ago; but I nevertheless maintain now, in 1878, the general sense as it was pointed out in my first publications.
The two texts are without analogy in their kind ; the two prayers addressed one to Ninip-Samdan,1 the
1 Or, "Simdannu," which is the correct reading.
28 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
Assyrian Hercules, and the other to Hea, the god of generation, point out, in their wishes, the matters which were granted by the two gods. One, the divinity of force, is implored to destroy the enemies, the other, the god of fertility, is expected to grant offspring to the kingly adorer.
29
INSCRIPTIONS OF THE HAREM OF SARGON.
I.
PRAYER OF SARGON TO NINIP.
NiNip,1 Lord of strong actions, which make his glory, increase the majesty to SARGON, King of the legions, King of Assyria, Viceroy of Babylon, King of Sumer and Accad, the builder of this thalamus. Let him attain old age,1 may his splendour be increased seven times. In the middle of the Zenith and the Asar* (Paradise) put his reign. Direct the course of his stallions,4 lead to its end his bravery, grant to him the mightiness without equal, the subjection of his servants ; cause his weapons to attain their aim ; may he destroy his enemies.
II. PRAYER OF SARGON TO HEA.
HEA, Lord of the mysteries, framer, increase the family to SARGON, King of the legions, King of Assyria, Viceroy
1 The name is really Samdan, as said Berosus, who knew about cunei- forms more than any of us may claim to do. Against all opposition of M. Delitzsch, I maintain my former reading of Sin-dan-nu, as the sign named gitrusii, has the values of tan, dan, and sin. Sil'utu suksidsii, in Assyrian.
3 The Zenith maybe the sense; it is domus verticis. The Assyrian name of the Zenith was nappakhtu, from napakh, "to be in the Zenith;" not " to dawn," as almost all scholars translated it.
4 Certainly a running animal.
30 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
of Babylon, King of Sumer and Accad, the builder of the thalamus. Let him open thy canals/ fecundate his love, and excite his pride and his joy.2 Dazzle his look, stop the open ear of the enamoured.3 Fix his destiny, make perfect his work : may he obtain offspring.
1 It may be an allusion to the double character of Hea, as god of wedding and god of the waters.
2 This very difficult passage had been doubtfully rendered by me in 1858, I saw there indications of spots produced by the painting of the figure. I believe this now proposed translation to be more correct.
3 Sumkira tamirtus uzne rapsute hasisu palka. There may be no doubt about the sense ; M. Renan once opposed the rather luxurious sense of this text, but I give the idea of Sargon, and not my own.
TEXTS OF THE FOUNDATION STONE OF KHORSABAD.
TRANSLATED BY
PROF. DR. JULIUS OPPERT.
IQOTTA'S successor in the Khorsabad excavations, the late Victor Place, found in 1853, at the very interior part of the construction, a large stone chest, which enclosed several inscribed plates in various materials. In this only extant specimen of an Assy- rian foundation stone were found one little golden tablet, one of silver, and others of copper, lead, and tin ; a sixth text was engraved on alabaster, and the seventh document was written on the chest itself. Only four of these tablets have survived the disaster which caused the almost complete loss of the two French collections gathered by the Expedition to Mesopotamia, and by the Nineveh explorers. The lead tablet being too heavy had been sent with the kelek which foundered in the Tigris, and this fate was also reserved for the stone inscription and the enclosure case. By an unpardonable negligence, not even casts had been taken from the originals sent away with the
32 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
great bulk of huge sculptures ; they had been packed up and sent away when the author of this translation passed through Nineveh in March 1854. I therefore could not copy them like the Harem inscriptions, which are now only preserved by my copies of the inscriptions from the casts at Khorsabad.
This loss is the more to be regretted as these very tablets contain several expressions which are not repeated in similar texts; moreover, one of 'those preserved, the copper document, is very far from being thoroughly legible ; a great deal of the text is destroyed by verdigris, but as besides that circum- stance the parts which are not defaced contain merely repetitions of known passages, I have thought it not useful to reproduce it now.
Of the three foundation tablets which I give here two have already been translated in French in my Doiir-Sarkayan ; the second, on silver, the most important one, has only been published with the text, transliteration, and Latin translation ; but there also the oxidation of the silver had rendered their reading most difficult, and the interpretation was hitherto rather faulty and defective. It is now for the first time properly translated into a European language.
33
GOLDEN TABLET.
PALACE of SARGON,' the Mandatary of BEL, the Lieutenant of ASSUR, the great King, the mighty King, King of the world, King of Assyria, who reigned from the two be- ginnings unto the two ends of the four celestial points;' he appointed satraps over the lands.
In these days I built, after my pleasure, a town near Nineveh, in the country which borders the mountains. I gave it the name of Dur-Sarkin.
I distributed in its interior temples to HEA, SIN, SAMAS,* BEN, NINIP, the sculptures dedicated to their great divinity. HEA,+ builder of all edifices,5 had them made, and the people raised altars.
I constructed palaces covered with skin, sandal wood,
1 The tablet is almost three inches long, and two inches wide; it weighs 2 gr. almost three drams, Troy, and has a value of £25.
2 This passage signifies from East to West, and from South to North. It has not been remarked, I think, that the an represents the dual in the constructive case.
3 The sun.
4 God of all holy art.
5 This style is peculiar to this tablet, the others have the usual manner of rendering the sense.
VOL. XI. 4
34 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
ebony, cedar, tamarisk, pine, cypress, cypress samal, and wood of pistachio tree.
I made a spiral staircase in the interior of the doors, and I placed at the upper part joists of pine and of cypress.
On tablets of gold, silver, copper, lead, tin,1 marble, and alabaster2, I wrote the glory of my name, and I put them into the foundations.
1 The tin is expressed by the ideogram A-BAR (parakku), which, I believe, is quite different from the Chaldaic. The word is expressed by the word qizasaddir, the Sanscrit kastira, the Greek kassiteron. The Assyrian word could be read " table-white-red," by decomposing it into monograms, but this seems to be merely fortuitous.
2 As the case enclosing these tablets was of gypsum alabaster, this mineral is of course expressed by the ideogram TAK-IZ-SIR-GAL, "the stone of the great light." TAK-ZA-SAT is the " white stone," that is, " marble." M. Delitzsch has translated erroneously this ideogram by " crystal." M. Place did not mention formerly the marble tablet, which was found broken and probably thrown away; he recollected it only after my insisting upon the statement of the inscription. But this false account had caused me to commit a singular mistake, in translating in the beginning " marble " by " copper," and " alabaster " by " lead ! "
With respect to the other materials mentioned in this text and in almost all Sargon inscriptions, I need not observe that some of them are by no means quite sure. What is, for instance, the sense of the ka-am-si, which is always put in the first place, before the different species of timber ? It must be something more important than a merely ornamental substance, but is certainly a very necessary one. Am-si seems to be either " buffalo" or "boar," but there are also sea-am si; and long since I believed the term to be identical with the biblical taklmsh, perhaps the skin of a cetaceum, as sealskin, or narvalskin, employed in Assyria as in Judaea. At any rate, it cannot possibly be "bull's horn" as Mr. Houghton supposed it to be ; bull's horns never occupied a prominent position in the construction of palaces.
The inscribed chest was, according to M. Place, om2S, om36, om43, that is, i U, i'/4 U, i1 /« U, or V,, 5/s and 3/4 of a cubit. That would speak against Professor Lepsius' division of a cubit into three double hands, and the hand into 5 fingers, and would rather agree with Smith's and my own division of the U into 60 parts. According to our reckoning, it would be, 60,
THE FOUNDATION STONE OF KHORSABAD. 35
Whoever alters the works of my hand, whoever plunders my treasure, may ASSUR, the great Lord, exterminate in this country, his name and his race !
75 and 90 parts; or, according to Dr. Lepsius, 15, i83/4 and 22 JA fingers. The calculation, of course, would be the same ; but in the system of Dr. Lepsius we ought to admit fractions of the smallest division, which does not seem admissible.
36 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
TABLET OF SILVER.
Palace of SARGON, the Mandatary of BEL, the Lieutenant of ASSUR, the mighty King, the King of Assyria, the King who reigned from the two beginnings unto the two ends of the four celestial points, who appointed satraps over the lands.
In these days, after the will of my heart, I made a town, in the neighbourhood of Nineveh, in the country which borders the mountains. I gave it the name of Dur-Sarkin. I chose in its interior dwellingplaces for HEA, SIN, SAMAS, BEN, NINIP, the great gods, my lords ; I had the statues of their great divinities made finely, and I had the altars erected.
I made halls covered with (sea-calf) skins, with sandal wood, ebony, cedar, tamarisk, pine, cypress samal, wood of the pistachio tree, in the palace, and with a spiral staircase like those of Syria,1 I adorned its doors. The beasts of the mountains, of the sea, of the river, very con- spicuously I painted upon the vaults (niplatti)* Within them I laid deeply their entrances. The god SIN shone on the top and shadowed the battlements,3 and I disposed symmetrically in their doors beams of cedar and cypress, and doors of sandal wood and ebony.
I erected its4 mighty walls, like rocks of granite. I
1 Hatti.
8 This and the following passages, are peculiar to this inscription, which, unfortunately, is not in all parts very distinct. They have not been interpreted in my Latin version, and in some points the English one may be doubtful.
3 Possible, but not sure. 4 The palace's.
THE FOUNDATION STONE OF KHORSABAD.
37
measured a surface of 10 aruras,1 and surrounding it, I
1 This statement of the silver tablet is of a highly important value. It is the sole passage giving directly a superficial calculation. The whole surface of the royal castle of Sargon is valuated at ten aruras (great U), and this capital statement affords us the clue to the very interesting system of Assyrian survey.
The castle represents a symmetrical rectangular octagon; six angles have 90° each, and the two others 270°. It is formed by two rectangles joined together, and, according to Place's measurings, giving this shape :
A B
237 metres, 259 yards 151 „ 165
AB, N.W. front
AC and BD
EC and DF
EG and FH
GH, S.E. back side
Total depth (15 1 + 191) 343
Total circumference . 1316
39 191
316
43
209
346
374
1439
D:
All these figures can be expressed by exact numbers in Assyrian cubits and feet. Moreover, all the numbers of cubits are divisible by 12, and all the feet numbers by 20 ; we can therefore reduce the numbers to unities of double sa, fathoms (of 6 cubits each), which we shall name pole. We have therefore :
AB .... 432 cubits
AC and BD . . 276
EC and DF
EG and FH
GH . . .
Total depth .
72
343
576
624
2400
36 poles
23 »
6 „
29 „
48 „
52 „ 200
720 feet
460 ,,
120 „
580 „
960 „
IC4O „
Total circumference . 2400 „ 4000 „ The circumference is just the double of 48 and 52, viz., 100 poles. The surface is altogether :
The smaller, the sculptural part, ABCD 36 x 23 = 838 square poles. The larger part, out-house . . . 48 x 29 = 1392 „
Total surface .... 2220 „
These 2220 square poles are equal to 319,680 square cubits, SSS,ooo square feet. That is also given by Place's statement of 9, 6 hectares, exactly 96 1 a 76, or 23 acres, three quarters, English.
We must remember here that the entire surface of the town of Khorsabad was an area of 9,000,000 and 555,000 square cubits. We have also here the element of 37; the additional town rectangle is to the castle as 125 to 72. Here also the ell of 37 Assyrian inches (3 feet plus i inch) enters into the calculation. The great U, which we name arura, is therefore a surface of 96 acres, or
38 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
distributed in 180 tiri1 its battlements.
almost 2 acres and i rood and a half. It is composed of 222 square poles, or the sum of three squares, one of 14 poles, another of 5 poles, and a third of i pole each side. (i42 + 5^ + i = 222.) The arura, equivalent to 31,968 square cubits, or 88,800 square feet, was therefore formed of an almost square-like rectangle of 296 feet, or 96 ells one side and 96 ells plus 4 feet the other side; that is, 300 feet. In the formation of this almost quadrate figure we have the great square of 96 ells, then three smaller regular squares, each side of which is 32, 12, and 4 feet, viz.: Great square of 96 ells, 296 feet . 87616 square feet Small square of 32 feet . . . 1024 „
12 „ ... 144 » » 4 „. . . . 16
Total of the arura . . SSSoo „
The construction of Khorsabad offered another problem to be resolved. The circumference ought to be 200 poles, and the surface 10 aruras. The Assyrian engineers took formerly the large back side of 48 poles, and then they fixed the monumental front at 36 poles. To gain a circumference of 200 poles, they ought to give to the entire edifice the depth of 52 (100 — 48) poles. The question was how to divide 52 into two unequal parts, as to obtain for the whole surface 2220 square poles. To that purpose they calculated first the central diagram, 36 x 52 = 1872, and divided the remainder, 348, into 12 (48 — 36) parts; they added therefore on both sides a rectangle, each 6 wide and 29 long. This is the geometrical resolution of the equation which we to-day would form algebraically : x + y - 52, 480: + 36^ = 2220
consequently: 363: + 3677 = 1872 ~^x = 348
x =29
y m =23
As all the measures are to be verified by Place's measurings, under- taken of course without any arithmetical predilection, they finally decide the matter, and they speak against the opinions of Dr. Lepsius. As all the figures, and especially the last, I3i6m, correspond to a round number, the values obtained by the statements of this text, are entirely confirmed by the ruins themselves. It is in English measures :
i Assyrian inch 1-0797 inches i Assyrian cubit . 21.5944 inches i „ span 10.7972 „ i „ fathom 129.5666 „
i „ foot 12.9567 „ i „ pole 259.1333 „
1 The word tiri is obscure, perhaps the number of rooms enclosed in the palace. Ordinarily the word tahlub signifies the uppermost part of edifices. The text is very badly rendered in my Daur-Sarkayan ; it runs thus : 10 U raluti uhallir-va eli 3 a-an us tiri tahlubi-siinu aksur.
THE FOUNDATION STONE OF KHORSABAD. 39
I wrote on tablets of gold, silver, copper, tin, lead, marble, and alabaster, the glory of my name, and I put them into the foundations.
May the King who will succeed me restore (this palace) if it falls into ruins, may he write his tablets, may he place them aside of my tablets.
Then ASSUR will listen to his prayers. Whosoever alters the works of my hand, whoever plunders my treasures, may ASSUR, the great lord, exterminate in this country his name and his race !
40 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
TIN TABLET.
Palace of SARGON,' Mandatary of BEL, Lieutenant of ASSUR, the great King, the mighty King, King of the legions, King of Assyria, the King who governed from the two beginnings unto the two ends of the four celestial points, he appointed satraps over the lands.
In these days I built, after my good pleasure, in the country which borders the mountains, near Nineveh, a town. I gave it the name of Dur-Sarkin. I chose places for the dwellings of the gods SIN, SAMAS, BEN, NINIP.
I built palaces covered with skin, sandal wood, ebony, tamarisk, cedar, cypress.
On tablets of gold, silver, copper, lead, tin, marble, and alabaster, I have written the glory of my name, and I have put them into the foundations.
May the King who will succeed me, re-establish this palace, if it will fall into ruins, may he write his tablets, and place them aside of mine. Then ASSUR will grant his prayer !
1 This tablet is pretty well preserved ; but the tin has been entirely oxydised, and could only be acknowledged as such by the late Due de Luynes, who also found some traces of antimony in the material. The tablet is small ; therefore it may be presumed that the matter was con- sidered as rather precious.
The text does not offer any subject for discussion ; the only result of it was to make known the value of the ideogram nu-ap, which is here replaced by the word patesi, "vicar; " it was the title of the early Assyrian princes.
BABYLONIAN LEGENDS
FOUND AT KHORSABAD.
TRANSLATED BY
PROF. DR. JULIUS OPPERT.
r~THE following short legends were discovered by Victor Place during his excavations at Khorsabad. Of Babylonian origin, they were probably transported to Dur-Sarkin in B.C. 709, when Sargon had become king of Babylon, after the retreat of Merodach- Baladan, B.C. 721-709.
The short legends with female names, nearly a dozen in all, were discovered in one heap ; they are little clay olives, with a hole in the uppermost part to bind them together. They are all dated from the month of Sebat, and descend to the twelfth year of Merodach-Baladan, February, B.C. 709 (9,292), that is, to the end of that king's reign.
These olives were, very probably, commemorative documents in connection with that Babylonian custom mentioned by Herodotus (I., 199), according to which every woman was obliged to deliver herself to a stranger, once in her life, in the sanctuary and for
42 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
the honour of Mylitta. The woman had not the right to refuse either the person or the money he gave her ; and it is probable that these olives were presented to the temple by the men we spoke of.
The inscriptions are important for the chronology of the reign of Merodach-Baladan, and are quite consistent with the dates handed down to us by the Almagest, and the so-called Canon of Ptolemy. The epoch of the reign of Merodach-Baladan is February 20, Julian, February 12, Gregorian, B.C. 721 (9,280); the commencement of the reign of Arkeanus, or Sargon, is February 17 Julian, February 9 Gregorian, B.C. 712 (9,292).
The cone with the legend of the king Ben-habal- iddin, written in archaic characters, is curious, as it is the only trace we have of the monarch who con- structed the inner wall of Nipur.
These inscriptions have been published in my Dour-Sarkayan, Paris, 1870.
43
BABYLONIAN LEGENDS.
I. Short inscriptions of the reign of Merodach- Baladan, king of Babylon (B.C. 720-709).
1 MANNUTAMMAT,1 whom acquired BAHIT of Alsi, the . . day of the month Sebat, the Qth year of MERODACH- BALADAN, King of Babylon.
2 BiNiT-Eou,2 whom acquired HAMKAN, in the month of Sebat, the loth year of MERODACH-BALADAN, King of Babylon.
3 HALALAT, whom, acquired MARNARIKH, in the month of Sebat, the nth year of MERODACH-BALADAN, King of Babylon.
4 BEL-HAIL,3 whom, acquired MARNARIH, in the month of
1 This name signifies, "Who is (the) pious (female) ?" The day of the month is difficult to be fixed with certainty.
" The name of Binit-Edu or Binit-Ekin, is "Daughter of Edu." In my book, p. 27, there is a misprint in the Assyrian text, not in the Latin and French translations; the two angles are faulty, as there should be only one. The original is in my possession, and the inscription is only known from my work. Mistaking this inscription as being in the Louvre, Mr. Boscawen thought that he had discovered a date of the twentieth year of Merodach- Baladan, but the original olive being in my possession I am able to certify that the document only presents the date "ten," and therefore any chronological scheme based upon the assumed reading " twenty," must fall to the ground.
3 Halalat and Bel-hail are also names of females. Bel-hail is a female name, it signifies, " Bel is strong." A man, the father of Hammurabi, is called Ummu-banit, "Mater (dea) est generatrix;" and the Biblical name Abi-gail signifies, "My father is rejoicing."
44 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
Sebat, the loth year of MERODACH-BALADAN, King of Babylon.
II. Clay cone. Khorsabad.
BENBALADAN (BENHABALIDDIN),' King of Babylon, has constructed Nivit-Marduk,2 the interior wall, the wall of Nipur, in honour of BEL his lord.
1 The name of Ben-habal-iddin signifies, "Ben, gave a son." In this instance it is entirely written with phonetic characters. It might not be superfluous to explain the god's name which has been read in very different ways during thirty years. The only sure indication we have about its pronunciation is the name of the Syrian king mentioned in the Bible, and whose name is Ben-Hadad or Ben-Hadar. The Assyrian texts name him AN-iM-idri. The god in question has been named Vul, Hu; finally, but erroneously, Dr. Delitzsch called him, following Professor Sayce, Raman. But as the god is also expressed by the simple angle, u, which signifies I'eni, Sumerian for lei, "master," we have thus an evidence which confirms the Biblical name Benhadar, and the pronuncia- tion Eeiii proposed for that divinity.
2 " Dwelling of Merodach."
45
NEBBI YUNUS INSCRIPTION OF SENNACHERIB.
(FROM A MEMORIAL SLAB FOUND AT NINEVEH.)
TRANSLATED BY
ERNEST A. BUDGE.
slab from which this inscription is copied is now in the Imperial Museum at Constantinople, and was found during the excavations undertaken by the Turkish Government. It is generally known as the Nebbi Yunus Inscription of Sennacherib. The printed text is found in the Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia, Vol. I., pi. 43, 44. Portions of the first six lines of the right hand corner are restored from other inscriptions, but parts of the lines in the lower right hand corner are defaced. The father of Sen- nacherib (Sargon) being a warlike king, and carrying
46 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
victory wherever he went, it is not surprising to find Sennacherib following so closely in his steps. Sargon built the city of Dur-Sargina (Khorsabad), and also temples, and ruled with great energy. Sennacherib renewed and carried on the wars which his father had begun, but he showed less power of management. The expeditions of Sennacherib were great, as also were his conquests, and his palaces were built after the grand style of his father. His inscriptions are, however, interesting in the extreme, for many of them mention Hezekiah, and the siege of his city Jerusalem. Nothing is recorded in the inscriptions of the defeat mentioned in the Bible, but it has been said1 that about B.C. 690 the warlike expeditions cease, while the Elamites ravaged the southern border of Assyria without check, which they would hardly have dared to do when Sennacherib was powerful. He was haughty and proud, as may be seen by the taunt of 2 Kings xviii. 33-35. The accounts given by the inscriptions seem to afford a reason for his cruel death, in the temple of Nisroch.2 The
1 Smith's Assyria, p. 125.
2 In Sennacherib's inscription on a slab, he says: "By the opened ears which the lord Nisroch has conferred upon me."
NEBBI YUNUS INSCRIPTION. 47
inscriptions show that he conquered among other places and nations, Babylon, the Kassi, Ellippi, the coast of Phoenicia, many parts of Palestine, he defeated the Egyptian army at Eltekeh,1 he captured 46 of the cities of Hezekiah,3 and "200,150 men, small and great,"3 some cities of Philistia,4 Elamite cities on the Persian Gulf, the regions around Lake Van, and very many cities which are mentioned in his annals. He had very great trouble with Suzub, son of Gaghul, but at last conquered him. It is noticeable that whenever the least opportunity occurred to the neighbouring and tributary tribes to conspire with one another against Sennacherib, or to openly rebel, they did so, and he
1 The NEFta of Josh. xix. 44. 9 Jr. A. I. I., 39, 13.
3 W. A. I. I., 39, 17.
4 Ashdod ("'i'TOtf) now village of Esdud, "a. castle;" one of the five cities of the Philistines; a fortress of F'alestine on the borders of Palestine and Egypt; this city was the inheritance of the tribe of Judah, see Josh. xv. 47. Amgurrunna (Ekron, 1^1$) no\v Akir; also of the five cities of the Philistines in the north, assigned to the tribe of Judah, Josh. xv. 45 ; and the Danites, Josh. xix. 43. Gaza (nW), situated at south of Palestine, Gen. x. 19, and a city of Philistia, Josh. xi. 22, still retains its name, W. A. I. I., 39, 24-26; Ascelon fl^$**) is now represented by the little Arab village of Askiilan, standing amid the ruins of ancient city. IV. A. I. I., 38, 58.
48 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
appears to have carried on almost continual warfare with the Elamites and Babylonians, in which the petty tribes joined with great eagerness. The inscriptions of Sennacherib which have come down to us are very fine, valuable, and numerous, for they offer many variant passages of great philological importance.
49
NEBBI YUNUS INSCRIPTION OF SENNACHERIB.
COLUMN I.
1 THE palace of SENNACHERIB, the great King, the strong King, King of nations, King of the land of Assyria, King of the four regions,
2 servant of the great gods, Sovereign, the Judge, the King, the Overseer, the Shepherd of the people,
3 Protector of men (nations) vast I am. AssuR,1 Father of the gods, among all Kings
4 firmly has raised me, and over all that dwell in the countries he caused to increase my weapons, he gave
5 the sceptre of uprightness, the extender of frontiers, a sword unyielding for the slaughter of the enemy,
6 he hath caused to hold my feet in the battle of the
1 In JJr. A. I. III., 66, 23, it is said, "Assur god of judges." The title Assur extended itself from the city to the surrounding country, and became abstracted into a deity, the patron and eponyme of Assyria. The power of the later Assyrian F.mpire was expressed by making this god the head of the Pantheon and the father of the three originally supreme gods, Anu, Bel, and Hea. Trans. Soc. Bib. Arch., Vol. II., p. 245. VOL. XI. 5
50 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
field MARDUK-PAL-IDINNA/ King of the land of Gan- dimiyas.2
7 The Chaldaens and Aramaeans with the army of Elam his help like corn I swept. He,
8 to the land of the sea alone fled, and the gods and his spoil with the attendants of his fathers
9 preceding, from within the great land he brought out, - and the men within the ships
10 he caused to ascend and to the city Nagiti,3 which is beyond the sea, he crossed and in that place
1 1 he took up his abode. The whole of his land I had taken, and like spoil his cities I threw down, dug up,
1 2 with fire I burnt ; I had taken the city Khigilimu, and the land of the Yasubigallai 4 of the land of Ellippi 5
1 Merodach-Baladan (pN?a T™"10)' i.e., " Merodach gave a son." He is called the "son of Yacin," also "King of Chaldsea," in Botta, 151 ; and say tamti, " King of the sea," W. A. I. II., 67, 26. A Chaldaean. He held a powerful castle near the Euphrates, called Dur- Yacin (the "fortress of Yacin "), he marched to Babylon B.C. 722, and proclaimed himself king of Babylon B.C. 712. He sent an embassy to Hezekiah king of Judah, this was unsuccessful. Afterwards he retreated to Ikbi-Bel. He was an enemy of Sargon, who says of him in the Khorsabad Inscription, 1. 38, " he did not revere the memory of the gods, he refused to send tribute, he made alliance with Khumbanigas king of Elam, he caused the countries of Sumer and Accad to rebel," and then he tells how utterly he (Sargon) defeated him. Sargon marched against Merodach-Baladan B.C. 709; Sennacherib B.C. 700. See his defeat described in W. A. 1. III., 12, 4.
* Also written Car-duniyas (W. A, I. II., 65, i), "the fortress of Duniyas," seems to have been Lower Chaldsea. It was also called Gun-duni (Smith's Assurbanipal, p. 183), "the enclosure of Duni," which has been compared with the Biblical Gan Aiden (\~V?. ]l, Gen. iii. 24), or Garden of Eden, by Sir H. C. Rawlinson (see Prof. Sayce, Synchronous History, p. 4).
3 An Elamite city on the Persian Gulf.
4 A race of people inhabiting' the mountainous region between Assyria and Persia.
5 This district contained the cities of Zizirtu, Kummahu and Beth-Barra.
NEBBI YUNUS INSCRIPTION. 51
13 I overran and destroyed its men. Of LULIE,' King of the city of Zidon,2 I took away his kingdom.
14 TUBAHLI upon his throne I caused to sit, and tribute and my lordship upon him (I placed).
15 I overran the wide district of the land of Judea, HEZEKIAH 3 its King did wickedness,
1 6 the men of the city of the Tukharrai inhabiting the mountains difficult, with my weapons I caused to slay. The city Uccu 4
17 with the whole of its men like a heap of corn I destroyed, the men of the land of Cilicia 5 inhabiting
1 8 the forests I overthrew with my weapons, their cities I threw down, dug up, with fire I burnt.
19 The city Tel-garimmu which is on the border of the land of Tabali I conquered, and I turned to ruins, the city Nagitu,
20 the city of Nagitu-dihbina, the land of Khilmu, the land of Nelatu, the land of Khupapanu, the districts
2 1 of the King of Elam, which beyond the sea are situated their site of which the men
22 of the land of Beth-Yacin6 before my strong weapons, the gods of their land in their shrines
23 assembled, the sea they crossed and they dwelt in the midst of them, in the ships of the land of Syria,
1 See W. A. I. I., 38, 35. The Elulaeus of classical authors (Fox Talbot).
2 rT?, more fully ™1 jiTS, « Tsidon the great," Josh. xi. 8, an ancient city of the Phoenicians.
3 See W, A. I. I., 38, 72 ; 39, 11,12; 12, 27.
4 Modern Accho, a maritime city in the tribe of Asher, Judges i. 31 (Heb. i32), now called St. Jean iVAcre.
5 A maritime province in the South-east of Asia Minor.
6 A fortified city near the Persian Gulf.
52 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
24 which in the city of Nineveh and the city Tel-Barsip r they had made, the sea then I crossed, the cities which (were) within
25 those districts I took, and with fire I burnt The men of the land of Beth-Yacin and their gods,
26 with the people of the King of the land of Elam I carried off, and to the land of Assyria I sent.
27 Afterwards the Babylonians who with MERODACH- BALADAN had gone forth, they fled *
28 King of the land of Elam, to Assyria they went, and SUZUB 3 son of GAGHUL, upon the throne of royalty
29 over them I caused to sit, and soldiers, sceptre, chariots, horses, the collection of my kingship against
30 the King of the land of Elam I urged on. The army numerous with his son they slew and he turned afterwards.
31 They to Nineveh passed, the Sun god of Senkereh,4 goddess of Bubesi, Lady of Erech, the goddess NANA
32 the goddess USURA-AMATSA, the goddess BILAT-BALADHI, the god BIDINNAV, the god KASSITU, the god NERGAL, the gods inhabiting
33 Erech,5 with their goods, their spoil which (was) in- calculable they spoiled. At their return
1 Biradjik, a city on the Euphrates opposite Carchemish, the modern Jerablus. Biradjik represents the " Birtu of the Aramaeans" of the Assyrian inscriptions. See Smith's Babylonia, p. 129.
2 Lacuna.
3 A Chaldean chief who defied the Assyrian pov/er, defeated by Senna- cherib B.C. 700 at the city of Bittu in the marshes. Hr. A. J. I., 39, 45, he is said to have been "to the sovereignty of Sumer and Accad restored;", in IV. A. I. I., 40, 26, 27, again defeated, and afterwards made king- of Babylon, W. A. I. I., 41, 41, but again defeated.
4 Or Larsa, a city where a celebrated library existed.
5 Warka. Compare this with the boast in 2 King's xix. 33: " Hath any of the gods of the nations delivered at all his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria ? Where are the gods of Hamath, and of Arpad ? Where are
NEBBI YUNUS INSCRIPTION. 53
34 SUZUB, King of Babylon in the battle field his life he took, their hands (in) fetters
35 (and) bonds placed him, and to my presence they brought him in the great gate in the midst of the city Nineveh.
36 I bound him firmly. The King of Elam, who (for) the help of the Babylonians had come,
37 to his land then I went. The strong cities, his house of treasures, and the small cities which depended upon them,
38 toward the lowlands of the land of Bit-bunakhi, I approached, I took, I spoiled their spoil, I threw down,
39 I captured, with fire I burnt. The King of Elam of the capture of his cities heard and fear overwhelmed him.
40 The remainder of the men of his land for defence I caused to ascend. He the city Madaktu,1 the city of his royalty
41 forsook, and to the city of Khandala which is within the mountains, directed (set) his face
42 to the city Madakhtu, the city of his royalty an expedition
the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivah ? Have they delivered Samaria out of mine hand ?"
In ffr. A. I. III., 66, a list of several hundred gods is given with their attributes. The tablet is divided into groups, the last lines of the group tell the temples and the cities which the gods were to inhabit, thus: " The gods of the temple of Gu-la
of the city of Assur, The gods of the temple of Marduk (Merodach)
of the city of Assur, The gods of the temple of Anu
(and) Rimmon of the city of Assur,
The gods of the temple of Sin (Moon-god) (and) Shamas (Sun-god) of the city of Assur."
1 The capital of Elam.
54 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
I commanded, the month Thebet,1 a strong (heavy) storm took place and,
43 storm unceasing came and snow, torrents the clefts of the mountains filled. I turned, and
44 to the land of Assyria I took the road, afterwards the Kings of the land of Elam, Parthia, Susiania,
45 the land Pasiri, the land Ellippi, the whole of the land of Chaldrea, the Aramaeans, the whole of them an assembly great
46 he gathered with him, with the King of Babylon to each other they approached, and to make
47 battle against me they had come. In the power of ASSUR, the lord, in the neighbourhood of the city Khalulina 3
48 with him I fought, their defeat I established, 150,000 of their men of war with my weapons
49 I slew, chariots, wagons, tents of their royalty I took away from them.
50 Their great men with NEBO-ZACIR-ISCUN,S son of MERO- DACH-BALADAN who were in chariots of silver
1 Thebet (^?P), the tenth month, December. This month among- the Assyrians was dedicated to PAP-SUCCAL, the messenger of Anu and Istar, see W. A. I. IV., 33, 45, the storm mentioned as having- taken place in this month seems to have caused Sennacherib great inconvenience, he mentions it again in W. A. 1. I., 40, 75-77.
2 Kha-lu-li-e in W. A. I. I., 41, 47.
3 " Nebo established the memorial." He fought with the Babylonian army commanded by Suzub and Umman-Menanu, king of Elam at Khalute B.C. 696, see H' A. I. I., 41, 47. Khalute was a city on the banks of the Tigris.
NEBBI YUNUS INSCRIPTION. 55
COLUMN II.
51 ' of gold heaped up, swords of gold they
were placed and with 52 'of gold were clasped their feet, them
alive in the midst of battle took
53 my two hands.3 The King of Babylon, and the King of the land of Elam the violence of my battle over- whelmed them in the midst
54 of their chariots, they abandoned their banner, alone they fled away, and their country
55 they left. Behold the palace of Cutalli which (is) within Nineveh which for the custody of the camp baggage,
56 overseeing of the horses, and laying up his furniture they caused to make, marching before (me)
57 my fathers, of that palace its mound was not made, and small (was) its seat (foundation).
58 For the establishment of the horses, the stable was not built of the basement (from) ancient days
59 its foundation decayed, and was fallen in its roof. That palace to its whole extent I dug up.
60 like an enclosure, much earth from within I caused to raise, then I took.
61 Its top I caused to add, the enclosure, of the former palace I left, and within earth
62 which from (within) I caused to raise, I took. The mound I caused to fill 200 tipd with my brickwork
63 great to the heights I raised its head, upon that mound of my palaces
1 Lacunae.
2 A description of the spoil taken is also given in W. A. I. I., 41, 72-76.
56 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
64 I laid down their foundations, the palace of alabaster (and) cedar like the palace of the land of Syria,
65 and a palace lofty the work of the land of Assyria, which much excelled in size and largeness for the seat
66 of my kingship I caused to make. Besides to my war horses, submissive to (my) yoke and overseeing
67 the spoil of enemies much which ASSUR conferred, its mound was made, the size
68 I caused to increase. In the power lofty of the gods my lords, the Kings of the land of Phoenicia,1 the whole of them
69 who to my feet I had caused to submit I urged them on,2 beams of cedar
70 great (from) within the land of Khamaniv they cut down,3 to Nineveh they had brought and I caused to be placed over them
71 doors of sherbin (and) liyari wood, (with) bands ot copper I bound and I hung in their gates
[Line 72 contains a list of various kinds of unknown stones.]
73 favourable and 4 which from below the land
of Nipur5
74 mountains were brought, with white alabaster which in the city of the Baladai was seen
75 for the colossi (and) bulls I caused to make and I caused to take. The avenue of them, a spoil of images
1 The West (MARTU).
3 Two characters occur in the text here, I am unable to read them.
3 Or, "planed."
4 Lacuna.
5 A range of mountains which ran from Lake Van, East to West, to Asia Minor, the western part is now called the Taurus.
NEBBI YUNUS INSCRIPTION.
57
76 of stone, a floor of cedar wood upon them I raised, and of the palace of that alabaster
77 I placed its shrines. In my ears uncovered which conferred the lord of wisdom, HEA/
78 as many heaps of copper which for the needs of my palaces of Nineveh I had built up.
79 According to the command of the god a storehouse opposite I built, and copper within it I poured (gathered), and rich ornament
80 the work of my hands, and bulls of bronze painted, I raised up.2
8 1 I caused to raise them, among raised figures I raised high up, I caused to sit and I caused to go,
82 strongly on the great lower embankment, the palace of alabaster for the greatness of my kingdom
83 of 3 I caused to make its circumference (?)
(and) floor of copper
84 of which their white marble 4 I had thrown down, upon it I raised, and with planks of cedar wood skilfully
85 as covering I caused to be placed its canopy. The former palace greatly I caused to enlarge, I caused . . .5
86 I made it great for the admiration of multitude of men, with fulness I filled it, tribute from the King of the
87 the offering of the land of the Medes remote, who among the Kings my fathers anybody
1 See IV.A.I. II., 48, 32, where Hea is again said to be Hea bit nimeci bil khayisi, " Hea lord of wisdom, lord of intelligence or understanding." In the magical texts, he is " god of the waters," and many other attributes are given to him, all pointing- out that he was a god of great importance. His wife is called NIN-CI-GAL (the lady of the mighty country).
* An unknown stone is mentioned here.
3 Various unknown stones are again mentioned.
4 Sissasunu, cf. Heb. nm
5 Lacunae.
58 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
88 had not received their offerings, with wagons, chariots,
89 the King of Babylon, and the King of Chaldsea, which my hands had taken * without number
90 which I had collected for the treasures of that palace, ' I caused to enter within it.
91 By the command of ASSUR, Father of the gods, and BELTIS, the Queen ' the palace x
92 with health of flesh (and) joy of heart and reception of
93 tributes may they come, alliance of city with city for days remote may they establish within it.
94 The divine Bull protecting the lives, the god who completes may he slay, and his name 'its hands.
[The tablet finishes thus.]
Lacunce.
59
THE ORACLE OF ISTAR OF ARBELA.
TRANSLATED BY
THEOPHILUS GOLDRIDGE PINCHES.
the commencement of Esarhaddon's reign, he warred, as shown by his annals, in a district called Khani-rabbe, on the Upper Euphrates. It is not known against whom he fought, but is generally supposed that it was against his two brothers, Adrammelech and Sharezer, who, after having slain their father, had escaped into Armenia, and now came with an army to dispossess their younger brother of the throne of Assyria, on which, during their absence, the people had seated him. At this time, evidently to encourage the young king in the difficult campaign in which he was engaged, the following addresses, purporting to come from his
60 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
favourite goddess, the goddess of war, Istar of Arbela, were sent to him.
Of all the goddesses of Assyria, none were in greater repute than the two Istars : the one, goddess of love, the " divine queen," or " divine lady," of Kidmuri, her temple at Nineveh ; and the other, goddess of war, at Arbela. Originally there was but one goddess, personifying both love and war, but two such opposite attributes could not long remain the characteristics of one goddess, so, gradually becoming distinct in the popular mind, they became the attri- butes of two distinct goddesses of the same name, but of different parentage, Sin being father of the goddess of love, and Ann father of the goddess of war.
In the following translation will be found some of the finest specimens of Assyrian poetry that have come down to us.
The text is printed in the Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia, Vol. IV., pi. 68.
6i
THE ORACLE OF ISTAR OF ARBELA.
COLUMN I.
[The beginning of this Column is broken off.]
|
2 . . . , 1 . |
J vast , . .' of one half |
|
A |
|
|
5 . . . . 6 . |
, .' by the King of countries .' fear [not!.9 |
7 (When) sweeps the wind from my hand, weeping,
8 I will tell him (what) I have not revealed.
9 Thine 'enemy
10 like the gathering-together3 of the month Sivan
1 1 before thy feet descends to do battle.
1 2 The great Lady am I.
13 I (am) ISTAR of Arbela,
14 who with thine enemy
1 5 before thy feet will do battle.
1 6 Let not pass away my word
17 which I speak to thee
1 8 concerning what thou hast not fixed for me.
19 I (am) ISTAR of Arbela,
20 thine enemy I cut off,
2 1 (and) I give to thee. I (am)
1 Lacuna;.
2 The words supplied to make the sense clear are enclosed in paren- theses, those supplied where the tablet is broken are enclosed in brackets.
3 "Harvest;" Sivan being the harvest month.
62 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
22 I STAR of Arbela.
23 In thy presence,
24 by thy side,
25 I go. Fear not.
26 (When) thou in (thy) heart (art) agitated
27 I in (thy) heart rest
28 lovingly do set.
29 From the mouth of ISTARU-LA-TASIYADH,
30 a daughter of the city of Arbela.
3 1 O King of Assyria, fear not,
32 the enemy of the King of Assyria
33 for a sacrifice I give.
34 ... .* thine offspring
35 ' thy Sod
36 * thy . .'
37 [The great Lady am] I
38 [I am I STAR of] Arbela
39 2 his heart
40 * his . .2
1 " The goddess Istar chastises not." 2 Lacunae.
THE ORACLE OF ISTAR OF ARBELA. 63
COLUMN II.
[Beginning lost.]
1 I heard thee not '
2 In the watch-tower '
3 with tribute '
4 to war afterwards '
5 I know [thy] sighing,
6 thine overwhelmer I cause to come not.
7 From the mouth of 'SINQI-SA-AMUR,'
8 a daughter of the city of Arbela.
9 The head I fix, O ESARHADDON, 10 my King, head of the city of Arbela.
11 From the mouth of RIMUTE-ALLATES
1 2 of the city of Darakhaya
13 across the mountains.
14 Fear not, O ESARHADDON,
15 I (am) BEL* thy strength,
1 6 I will ease
1 7 the beams 5 of thy heart.
1 8 Respect as for thy mother
19 thou hast caused to be shown to me.
20 (Each) of the 60 great gods, my strong ones,
2 1 with his life will guide thee —
1 Lacunae.
2 " See thou her captivity ;" or, " Her captivity I saw."
3 " A wife's love."
4 Istar of Arbela likens herself to the various deities mentioned in the text.
5 Or, " supports."
64 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
22 the Moon-god in thy right hand, the Sun-god thy left.
23 The 60 great gods as rulers thy lords
24 fix. In the midst strongly thou hast reigned.
25 Upon mankind trust not (but)
26 bend thine eyes
27 upon me, trust to me.
28 I (am) ISTAR of Arbela.
29 ASSUR, thy strong one does speak ;
30 thy littleness I take away from thee.
3 1 Fear not. Glorify me.
32 Let not gather together the enemy
33 who speaks against thee.
34 (Though) I may make an end,
35 verdure I raise, as in former times.
36 I (am) NEBO, the lord of the making of tablets,
37 glorify me.
38 From the mouth of BAYA," a daughter of the city of Arbela.
1 " Praying-."
THE ORACLE OF ISTAR OF ARBELA.
COLUMN III.
[The beginning of this Column also is lost].
• i
2 he turns ...... l
3 I (am) [ISTAR of Arbela].
4 From the mouth of '
5 of the city of Assur.
6 I (am) ISTAR of [Arbela].
7 O ESARHADDON, King of the country of Assyria,
8 in the city of Assur, the city of Nineveh,
9 the city of Calah, the city of Arbela,
10 long days,
1 1 extended years,
12 to ESARHADDON, my King,
13 I give.
14 (Of) the bounty of thy plentiful gift
15 the lover (am) I,
1 6 thy nurse (and)
1 7 thy guardian 2 (am) I.
1 8 For after days,
19 lasting years,
20 thy throne in heaven (and) earth
21 greatly I have fixed.
22 In a veil of gold
23 in the midst of heaven, in honour.
24 The light which clings to it
25 before ESARHADDON, King of Assyria,
26 I will cause to shine
1 Lacunae. VOL. XI.
Or, "soldier.'
66 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
2 7 as the crowns of my head,
28 (and) behind him.
29 Fear not, O King,
30 I speak to thee.
31 I have not despised thee.
THE ORACLE OF ISTAR OF ARBELA. 67
COLUMN IV.
[Thine] overwhelmer
2 shall not exist.
3 The river1 with fertility
4 I cause to bless.
5 O ESARHADDON, the son
6 eldest, the son of BELTIS,
7 the beautiful, the warlike, the safe,
8 in my hands
9 thine enemies
10 I handle.
1 1 O ESARHADDON, King of the country of Assyria,
1 2 cutting off (him) who (is) full of shame,
13 striking down (him) who (is) full of pride. 140 ESARHADDON, in the city of Assur,
15 long days,
1 6 extended years,
1 7 I give to thee.
1 8 O ESARHADDON, in the midst of Arbela,
19 thy servant (and) guardian2 (am) I.
20 O ESARHADDON, the eldest son,
2 1 the son of BELTIS,
22 the intelligent,
23 with intelligence
24 I exalt thee [and]
25 strengthen [thee].
26 Because of thy renown 2 7 from heaven vast
28 I descend to thee.
29 To thy right hand,
'The Tigris. 2 Or, "soldier."
68 RECORDS OF 'THE PAST.
30 thy people return.
31 In thy left hand,
32 tribute I will cause [thce to take].
33 [Thy] kingdom above '
34 to endure '
35 above '
[The rest of this Column is lost.] 1 Lacunae.
THE ORACLE OF ISTAR OF ARBELA 69
COLUMN V.
1 From his presence
2 I receive not.
3 Legions
4 enormous
5 which devise against me
6 before thy feet
7 I cut them in pieces.
8 Thou, even thou,
9 art King of the Kings.
10 From the mouth of ISTARU-BELA-DA'INI/
1 1 a petitioner of the King.
1 2 I (am) the Lady of Arbela.
13 To the mother of the King,
14 because she has angered me :
1 5 that from (thy) right hand
1 6 (and) from thy left hand
1 7 in chains she shall dwell,
1 8 that it may not be, 190 offspring of my heart,
20 (that in) the desert she may rest.
2 1 Thus, O King, fear not,
22 thy kingdom shall be safe,
23 thy power shall be safe also.
24 From the mouth of NIN-ABI-SA/ 2 5 a daughter of the city of Arbela.
" Istar, judge thou (my) lord." " Nobody (is) her father."
70 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
26 Peace to ESARH ADDON, King of Assyria.
27 ISTAR of Arbela
28 to a supreme (place) thou hast moved.
29 Peace to the little ones whom
30 throughout the city thou sendest
31 to send forth '
32 which l
33 the man x
[The rest of this Column is lost.] 1 Lacunae.
THE ORACLE OF ISTAR OF ARBELA.
COLUMN VI.
i ' Arbela.
2 l good
3 . . . / of the city of Arbela,
4 its hand3
5 thou wilt fill.
6 The word of former (time)
7 which I tell thee
8 concerning (what) thou hast not fixed.
9 Thus
10 more than thou raisedst i L thou fixest also.
1 2 Glorify me.
13 As the day
14 has shone forth
15 purity
1 6 let them complete.
17 In my presence glorify me.
1 8 The perverse person
1 9 from the midst of my Palace
20 I send forth.
21 O upright noble, thou judgest,
22 waters of uprightness
23 thou drinkest,
24 in the midst of thy Palace
25 thou actest uprightly.
26 Thy son, thy son's son,
27 the kingdom
28 with the blessing of NERGAL
1 Lacunas "' Or, " fist.'
72 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
29 rules.
30 From the mouth of LA-DAGIL-ILI,'
31 a son of the city of Arbela.
1 "(He who) trusts not in God." Almost every proper name, in Assyrian, as in Hebrew, tells of some event or circumstance connected either with the birth or with the life of the person bearing it. Thus, "'Sinqi-sa-amur" tells of a slave redeemed from captivity; "Nin-abi-sa" of early orphanage; " La-dagil-ili " of a son's impiety at some period of his life. An examination of the other names in this text will give the same interesting result.
73
ASSYRIAN REPORT TABLETS.
TRANSLATED BY
THEOPHILUS GOLDRIDGE PINCHES.
PHE following interesting inscriptions bring us into contact, as it were, with the common people of ancient Assyria. There are several hundreds of tablets containing inscriptions of this class in the British Museum, showing a very perfect system of communication between Nineveh, the capital, and the remotest parts of the empire. From those which do not treat of the political affairs of the empire we obtain much interesting information concerning the manners and customs of the Assyrians in Biblical times. From the other class, which may be called despatches, we get long accounts of the progress made by the different generals and commanders of the Assyrian armies in subduing some small state, quelling some revolt in a distant part of the empire, or bringing rebels to justice. They also abound in uncommon words and phrases which are most interesting to the student of philology.
It is very probable that many of these tablets were first written upon papyrus, and after having been sent
74 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
to the king, were copied by the royal scribes, and placed in the Royal Library at Nineveh for future reference. In support of this we find, among other proofs, a sort of postscript attached to one of them, which may be translated as follows : —
Insomuch as this (is) the fourth shaft-of-a-reed,1 anybody [who] neither into the presence of BEL, nor into the presence of the King (my) Lord [shall bring it, let the gods curse].
The above is an interesting and conclusive proof that clay and stone were not the only writing materials used by the Assyrians.
The number of dated tablets is very small in com- parison with those without dates, so that, for the most part, we can only arrive at an idea of the time when they were written by internal evidence, and that only approximately. There are some, however, which refer to historical events mentioned in the royal annals, the dates of these can therefore be determined accurately.
These tablets vary in length from one to about six inches, and in width from three-quarters to two inches and a half. Of the following inscriptions, the text of the first four is unpublished, that of V. is published in Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia, Vol. IV., pi. 54, No. i.
1 The character used here is one that represents the Akkadian a/a/, rendered by the Assyrian duppu-sadhru, " written tablet," and natsabu- sa-qani, "shaft of a reed;" this last is shown to be the proper rendering by the phonetic complement.
ASSYRIAN REPORT TABLETS.
L
This inscription evidently refers to the preparations for one of those lion-hunts in which Assuru-bani-abla delighted so much, scenes from which occur so frequently upon the slabs which once adorned his palace. These mural carvings show us the lions and lionesses coming out of their cages, set at liberty only to afford amusement to the great king, who, in his chariot, draws the bow against them — a truly kingly sport !
To the King my Lord thy servant . . . .'-iddina ; may there be peace (to the) King my Lord ; for ever (and) ever may NABU (and) MARDUK to the King my Lord be propitious.
Twenty-five lionesses which are caged, with three males, from Calah, from Nineveh, (and) from Dur-Sargina, have set out. I detected not a pregnant one. At sunrise they counted (them), of which they will tell the King my Lord.
II.
Letter referring to the stealing of some gold belonging to the king.
To the King my Lord thy servant ARAD-NABI : may there be peace to the King my Lord ; may, ASSUR, SAMAS, BEL, ZIR-PANITUV, NABU, TASMITU, ISTAR of Nineveh, (and) ISTAR of Arbela, these great divinities loving thy kingdom (for) a hundred years to the King my Lord give life ; old age and offspring may they give in plenty to the King my Lord.
1 Lacuna.
76 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
The gold about which, in the month Tasrit, the Astro- loger,1 the Palace Astronomer, and TUKLAT-ISS'I-SUNU, transgressed : 3 talents of the best gold, 4 talents not the best, the hand of the Chief-of-the-denled has placed in (his) house, he sealed up the gold (which was) for a statue of the King, and for a statue of the King's mother, (and) gave it not (up). May the King my Lord to the Astrologer (and) to the Palace Astronomer by a command fix (that) they may discover the gold. Up to the month Dhabuni3 to the army let them give, let them make payment.
III.
Inscription referring to the dedication of horses to the Temple of Bit-ili at Ere'ch.
To the King of nations my Lord, thy servant NABU-IBASSI, may Erech and Bit-Anna3 to the King of nations my Lord be propitious ; a day of health the divinity of Bit-Erech4 and NANA for the preservation of the life of the King my Lord are granting.
Sheep from Bit-ili and from the city Pekod in the city Tahua they eat ; their two shepherds, the one from Bit-ili and the other from Pekod, (with) white horses, their [harness] and saddles of silver [inscribed] and copper ornamented, [also harness] and saddles inscribed [and ornamented for] young ones one has sent.
The King of Elam to ISTAR of Erech has dedicated horses, at the same time he has caused some to be given to the King my Lord. With [all] reverence, the sum5 to
1 Lit., " the man of omens."
2 Dhabuni is another form of Dhabitu, "the month of benefits," Heb. I"Q"-?.
3 It is common in these salutations to use, instead of the name of the deity, that of the city or temple over which the deity presided ; thus Erech stands for Istar, Bit-Anna for the goddess Nana.
4 Istar.
5 That is, the full number of the horses.
ASSYRIAN REPORT TABLETS. 77
Kit-ili1 I gave not. At the same time the keepers of the horses he has dedicated to the King my Lord I send, and copper, ornamented and inscribed, in addition ; when I had seen to the King my Lord I caused them to be brought. May the King my Lord do according as he has laboured.
IV.
The following exceedingly interesting inscription is a despatch from an Assyrian officer to the king, in which the writer, by repeating the king's message to him, expresses his gratitude for the favours he had received. It contains also the account of a revolt of the people of Carchemish, and other interesting matters.
To the King my Lord thy servant ISID-NABI, may there be peace to the King my Lord ; may BEL, NABU, ISTAR of Nineveh (and) ISTAR of Bit-Kidimuri,2 to the King my Lord for ever (and) ever be propitious ; soundness of heart, soundness of flesh to the King my Lord may they give. Peace to the attendants of the King my Lord.
NADIN-SUM-ILI, son of ARAMIS-'SAR-ILANI, the Librarian, the will of the King in my presence made known thus to me : " The assembly of the enemy was abroad, so fifty soldiers from his band twelve horses with their hands took, they went by command of the Lords of Nineveh. The treasure also I have divided, the portion that (is) mine has been distributed (also). (To be) an attendant of the King thou, (even) thou, wast raised. I have made to go from me thus this (command)." (As for) the price, into the presence of the King my Lord I cause it -to be brought.3
1 "The house of the divinity," Istar of Erech.
- Istar of Arbela, called in Assurbanipal's annals, "the divine queen of Kidmuri."
3 From this it would appear the king required a gratuity for the honours which he bestowed.
78 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
Let the King my Lord ask him * concerning the destruc- tions, (and) to the King my Lord may he reply: "(As for) the Viceroy2 of the Carchemishians, his servants killed him, One among them he3 has not left. We took the ordinances4 of BELTIS, who (is) the Divine Lady of Kidimuri, (and) who the mothers whom she loves establishes. To the King my Lord he causes (them) to be brought."
May (a statue of) the Lady of Sipara by the King my Lord be carved.
We have passed on. Peace to the King my Lord. (In) the city of Assib the people one has numbered. V.
News of a revolt in some part of Arabia, supposed to have happened late in the reign of Assuru-bani-abla.
To the King of nations my Lord thy servant NABU-SUMA- ESIR. May NABU and MARUDUK healthy days, extended years, a sceptre of justice, a lasting throne, to the King of nations my Lord give.
Insomuch as the King my Lord the command fixed for me thus : "The news of the Arabians, all thou wilt hear, stop its course; from the Nabateans then thou wilt go forth.' AIHAMARU, the son of AMMIHTAH, (of) the Masahians over to them then 5 came, the soldiers he killed and he de- vastated. One among them that they left to the midst of the city of the King descends ; at the same time to the King my Lord I send him. May the King from his mouth hear.
1 I.e., the messenger who carried the despatch.
2 The word in the original is Damgarstl, which, from the context, evidently means viceroy.
3 That is, the sender of the despatch, Isid-Nabi, had avenged the death of the Dnni»-tD-st~i of the Carchemishians, by not leaving one of the servants, his murderers, alive.
4 It was the custom of the Assyrians to set up in a conquered city " the ordinances of Assur," here, however, the ordinances which are set up are those of Istar of Arbela, mentioned under the name of Beltis.
5 That is, after the command had been obeyed.
TEXTS RELATING TO THE FALL OF THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE.
TRANSLATED BY
REV. A. H. SAYCE, M.A.
PLIE following fragments seem to refer to the closing days of the Assyrian monarchy when Kyaxares the Mede, with the Kimmerians, the people of Minni, or Van, and the tribe of 'Saparda, or Sepharad (cf. Od., 20), on the Black Sea, was threatening Nineveh. Esarhaddon II., the Sarakos of the Greek writers, had proclaimed a solemn assembly to the gods, in the hope of warding off the danger. But the bad writing of the tablets shows that they are merely the first rough text of the royal proclamation, and we may perhaps infer that the capture of Nineveh and the overthrow of the Empire
8o RECORDS OF THE PAST.
prevented a fair copy from ever being taken. In the fragments translated below, Kaztaritu, or Kyaxares, is called " King of Karukassu " (? Caucasus), but a detached fragment terms him " King of Media."
The fragments are numbered S 2005 and K 4668, and I have given a copy of the text (transliterated) in my Babylonian Literature (Bagstcr and Sons), pp. 79, 80.
8i
THE FALL OF THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE.
FIRST FRAGMENT.
1 (O Sun-god), mighty (Lord), to whom I will pray, O god of fixed destiny, remove (our sin).
2 (CAS)TARIT, Lord of the city of Car-cassi, who to MAMITI-ARSU,
3 (Lord of the city) of the Medes had sent thus : With one another we are established, with the country of . . .' (we are confederate).
4 (MAMI)TI-ARSU hears ; he sets his hearing before him ;
5 . . . .* this year with ESAR-H ADDON, King (of Assyria, war he makes).
6 ' according to thy great divinity . . . .'
7 x of MAMITI-ARSU, Lord of the city of the
Medes *
8 ' (ESAR-HADDON), King of Assyria in "
[The rest of the tablet is too broken to be legible, but mention is made of "the city 'Sandulitir," and of "the people of 'Saparda."]
1 Lacunae.
2 Perhaps Babylonia has to be supplied here.
VOL. XI. 7
RECORDS OF THE PAST.
SECOND FRAGMENT.
1 O Sun-god, great Lord, I have prayed to thee ; O god of fixed destiny, remove our sin.
2 From the current day the third day of this month lyyar1 to the i5th day of the month Ab of the current year,
3 for TOO days (and) 100 nights current, let the General among the ranks proclaim sacred rites (and) festivals ;
4 since CASTARIT with his soldiers, and the soldiers of the Kimmerians,
5 and the soldiers of the Medes, and the soldiers of the Minni, and the enemy, all of them,
6 inundate (and) are multitudinous 2 since on the
seventh (day) 2
7 during the festival, by means of conflict and battle, and battering engines the revolters revolted.
8 Then with machines of war 2 and with famine
9 and with the oath of obedience to god and (King), and in addition 2
10 and with the bond of a letter ' (to) the cities,
all of them
1 lyyar corresponds roughly to our Aprli, Ab to our July. ~ Lacunae.
FALL OF THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE. 83
1 1 (belonging to) the city of the Cisas's'utians, '
the midst of the city Khartam, the city Cisassu they approached ;
12 the city Khartam, (and) the city Cisassu their hands captured.2
13 To their hands the Sun-god, the mighty eye (of heaven) numbered (them, along with)
14 five (villages) of the city of Khartam (and) the city Cisass'u into the hands of the enemy, all of them.
15 From the current day to the day of the feast in the land before thy great divinity
1 6 I left * (in) the midst of them they devise, they
turn and *
[The next 8 lines are too mutilated for translation.]
26 Since that (from) the current day, the 3rd day of (this) month lyyar to the nth day of the month Ab of the current year,
27 CASTARIT with his soldiers (and) the forces of the Kimmerians, the soldiers of the Minni,
28 and the soldiers of the Medes, (and) the enemy, all of them,
1 Lacunae.
2 These cities were probably situated on the northern frontier of Assyria.
7*
84 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
29 the city of Khartam (and) the city of Cisassu ap- proached ; the city of Khartam (and) the city of the Cisas's'utians,
30 (even) the city of Khartam (and) the city of Cisassu their hands captured ; to their hands they were measured.
1 Lacuna.
THE EGIBI TABLETS.
TRANSLATED BY
THEOPHILUS GOLDRIDGE PINCHES.
Egibi Tablets are documents of the class called Contract Tablets, and are the records of the transactions of a firm of bankers calling them- selves sons of Egibi, who lived and carried on their business in Babylonia, from an unknown period to about the fourth century before Christ.
The time of the existence of Egibi, the founder of this family, is totally unknown, but it was probably a thousand years before Christ at least, for other records in the British Museum tell us of his name, and " the family of the house of Egibi " is spoken of as of citizens well known, and of influence, about the time of Assuru-bani-abla (Assurbanipal).
These tablets are written in the Babylonian charac- ter, and, though showing a language varying but
86 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
slightly from that of Assyria, Babylonia's deadly foe in times past, they differ from the tablets of the same class of the older Babylonia and Assyria in a matter of the greatest import to chronologists, and that is, the way in which they are dated. The system of dating in older Babylonia was very imperfect, the year when a transaction took place being recalled to memory by any memorable event that might have happened during that year. The system in Assyria was much more precise, transactions being dated during the term of office of the eponym for the year in which they took place.
In the tablets of the later Babylonian empire the system of dating in the regnal years of the king was used, and this system prevailed as long as the cuneiform writing continued in use, the only ex- ception being the double dating of the Arsaka, or Arsacidae.
Now it is manifest, when we have a number of tablets belonging to the same firm, in which this system of dating is used, that by following the names of the heads of the firm from father to son, we must get the exact succession of the kings of the period
THE EGIBI TABLETS. 87
when these documents were written, and a most valuable check on the chronology.
The most valuable tablets being the first and the last date of each reign, I give here a list of them :
Nebuchadnezzar III. (the Great.)
FIRST.
LAST.
Accession year,
yth March esvan
43rd year, nth Nisan.
Evil-Merodach. Accession year, 2ist Tisri | 2nd year, 5th Sebat.
Neriglissar.
Accession year,
27th Marchesvan
4th year, i2th Adar.
Nabonidus. Accession year, 1 2th Tammuz | 171!! year, 5th Elul.
Cyrus. Accession year, i6th Kislev | 9th year, 22nd Ab.
Cambyses. Accession year, i6th Elul | 8th year, nth Tebet.1
1 Last date before the revolt of Bardes.
88 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
Bardes. ist year, 2oth Elul | ist year, nth Tisri.
Nebuchadnezzar IV. (Pretender.) Accession year, 2oth Kislev | 2nd year.1
Last date of Cambyses, I ith year, 7th day.2
Darius, ist year, month Nisan | 36th year, 5th Ab.
Other dates are :
A tablet dated month lyyar, day I4th, accession year of Lakhabbasi-Kudur, king of Babylon.
A tablet dated month Kislev, day 23rd, 3rd year of Marduku-'sarra-yutsur, king of Babylon.3
A fragment dated month Sivan, 5th day, I7th year of Artakfkur'su],4 king of Countries.
The Egibi Tablets thus cover a period of about 164 years.
The chronology of the period between B.C. 605 and 517, is, according to the tablets, as follows:
1 Month and day lost. 2 Month lost.
3 This tablet, unfortunately, I cannot find, though I have sought for it most carefully. It is probable that it got crushed in transit by some heavy objects, the antiquities having been badly packed.
4 Attaxerxes.
THE EGIBI TABLETS. 89
Nebuchadnezzar III. B.C. 604
Evil-Merodach ,, 561
Neriglissar „ 558
Nabonidus „ 554
Cyrus - ,,537
Cambyses1 „ 528*
Bardes - ,,520
Nebuchadnezzar IV. „ 519
Cambyses restored - „ 518
Darius - ,,517
Future researches and discoveries will doubtless make alterations in the chronology of this period, which the above lists will give some idea of the importance of these documents in determining.
The tablets vary in size from three-quarters of an inch by half an inch to nine inches by twelve. They are usually covered with writing on both sides, and sometimes, on the edges as well. Many contain no date, and these, on examination, prove to be either rough memoranda, lists of objects or produce,
1 Cyrus, after having reigned nine years as King of Babylon and Countries, abdicated the throne of Babylon in favour of his son Cambyses, and continued reigning some years as king of Countries only.
2 The dates of Maruduku-sarra-yutsur and Lakhabbasi-Kudur are be- tween B.C. 572 and 528. The latter was evidently an usurper.
90 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
or letters. The more important transactions were re-copied on larger tablets with great care and elaboration of details. These larger tablets usually contain impressions from cylinder seals, and nail- marks, which were considered to be a man's natural seal.
THE EGIBI TABLETS.
I.1
1 MARDUKU-SUMA-BANU,
2 son of TABNE-ABLA,
3 the son of NABU-KARIR, the Librarian,
4 of the family of the house of GAKHAL.
5 (The house of his father is in front of (the Palace of) my Lord.)
6 ITTI-MARDUKI-BALADHU,
7 son of SA-SIKKUL,
8 the son of BALA'SU,
9 of the family of the house of SUMA-LUBSI',
10 the Chamberlain.
1 1 (The house of his father is before the Temple of the King of the Abyss).
12 ILLATU,
13 son of MARDUK,
14 the son of BA'U-LASIN,
1 5 of the family of the house of BELU-EDIRA.
1 6 (The house of his father is before the gate of the descent
1 7 (to the Temple) of GULA.)
1 8 SA-PI-BELI, son of AYA,
1 K 6. About the time of Assuru-bani-abla (Assur-bani-pal).
92 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
19 the son of SIPUR-NAPISTI,
20 of the family of the house ot the Boatmen.
2 1 (Their house is on the farther side
22 the granary (and) cornfield.)
23 BELU-AKHA-IDDIN, son of NABU-KA'SIR,
24 the son of NABU-MUDU
25 of the family of the house of EGIBI.
26 (The house of his father is in the district of
27 (the Temple of) ISKHARA.)
28 In all 5 men,
29 whom NABU-BELI-SUNU,
30 to preserve his life
31 to BEL
32 has dedicated.
II.
1 Day 5th of the month Kislev, 'SARRU-KINU/ son of AMMANU,
2 his witness2 in the city Piqudu3 is smitten and
3 to IDIKHI-ILA, son of DINA they impute4 (it).
4 From IDIKHI-ILA to 'SARRU-KINU one sent
5 thus : " To determine concerning thy servant who was killed
6 with me conferrest thou not ? I
1 Evidently so named after 'Sarru-kinu (Sargon) or Agane, the celebrated early Babylonian king.
5 Observe this legal phraseology. This "witness" was 'Sarru-kinu's servant.
3 Pekod, a town lying to the south of Babylon.
4 Literally, " they cause to fix."
THE EGIBI TABLETS. 93
7 the life of thy servant will make up to thee."
8 As they determined it, i mana of silver, the price of
9 his servant, IDIKHI-ILANA' to
10 'SARRU-KINU gives,
1 1 because they did not fix it [upon him for certain].
1 2 Witnesses : NAZIYA, the Officer of the King ;
13 IL-SADI-RABI-IDDIN, son of TALMUD-ILI;
14 SEGURA, son of TALAH, Governor of Rutuv;2
15 and the Scribe NABU-AKHI-IDDIN, son of
1 6 SULA the son of EGIBI. Rutuv,
17 Month Samna,3 7th day, 4oth year,
1 8 NABU-KUDURRA-YUTSUR/ King of Babylon.
III.
1 A double field of corn-land, planted, 5 adults and children,
2 which NABU-AKHI-IDDIN, son of SULA, son of EGIBI,
3 with KIBIHTUV-KI'INAT, his daughter, for DUMMUQU,
4 son of BELU-AKHI-IDDIN, the son of EGIBI had bespoken.
5 Afterwards, in the month Aim,5 day ist, year i4th, NABU-NAHiD,6 King of Babylon,
6 ITTI-MARDUKI-BALADHU, son of NABU-AKHI-IDDIN, the son of EGIBI,
1 The same as Idikhi-ila, ilana being the plural form. The name signifies, " He goes before God/' or " the gods."
* An unknown city.
3 Marchesvan. 4 Nebuchadrezzar, or Nebuchadnezzar.
5 lyyar. 6 Nabonidus.
94 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
7 the double field of corn-land, planted, by the road of the hill, from beyond the King's road
8 which is beside the river Banituv, to beyond the boundaries of their corn-land
9 which is against (the enclosure of) BANUNU-ABLA, as the hill-road mounts to the approach, ITTI-MARDUKI-
BALADHU and DUMMUQA,
10 with the others, take. SALLATYA,
11 BUTA, NABNITUV-KHULATUV, SU'INNI,
1 2 and LATU-BARANU, who into the hands of the spice-
1 3 merchant, in all 5 adults and children,
14 ITTI-MARDUKI-BALADHU, son of NABU-AKHI-IDDIN, the son of EGIBI
1 5 has given. The adults, whom QUDASU for DUMMUQU
1 6 had bespoken, DUMMUQU asks QUDASU for.
1 7 Witnesses : BANIYA, son of TABNE-ABLA, the son of the Commander ;
1 8 NABU-NATSIR, son of INA-E-SAGGIL-IDDIN, the son of the Messenger of BEL ;
19 MASQUL, son of NABU-SUMA-IDDIN the son of NADIN- SE'IV;
20 BEL-BASA, son of NABU-RAKHIB, the son of NUR-'SINI ;
21 and the Messenger MARDUKU-AKALA-IDDIN, son of KUNA, the son of the Commander.
22 Babylon, month Airu, ist day, year i4th, NABU-NAHID,
23 Kmg of Babylon. 24 -SADARI they have taken '
1 In plainer language, the transaction is as follows: Nabu-akhi-iddin and Kibihtuv-ki'inat had bespoken a double corn field and five female slaves for Dummuqu, and afterwards, on the date named, Dummuqu, Itti-Marduki-baladhu, and others, took possession of the property. Itti- Marduki-baladhu took the slaves for himself, and delivered them into the hands of one of his employes, but Dummuqu demands of Qudasu, Itti- Marduki-baladhu's aunt, the adults which she had promised to him.
THE EGIBI TABLETS.
IV.
1 MANNUA-KI-BELI and ITTI-MARDUKI-BALADHU, '
2 his son, slaves of MUDINNU
3 whom NABU-IDDIN, son of DAN-RAMMANI for silver.
4 to ITTI-MARDUKI-BALADHU, son of NABU-AKHI-IDDIN,
5 son of EGIBI, for silver * gave and afterwards confirmed.
6 But UKKUS his3 elder brother who to (be)
7 a witness was come, the number (and) description
8 of the slaves, dwelling with ITTI-MARDUKI-BALADHU,
9 gave,4 and ITTI-MARDUKI-BALADHU,
10 in the kindness of his heart, a half mana of silver
1 1 in payment as a recompense to MUDINNU
12 gave. The silver, a half mana, MUDINNU
13 from the hands of ITTI-MARDUKI-BALADHU received.
14 Witnesses: IDDINA-MARDUKU, son of
15 BELU-BALIDH, the son of DAN-RAMMANI; BELU-IDDIN,
1 6 son of ZIR-YA, the son of ARAD-MARDUKI-ELLI ; NABU-
MATA-YUNAMMIR,
1 7 son of TALMUD, the son of EPES-ILI ; and the Mes- senger, NABU-SUMA-IDDIN, son
1 8 of MARDUKU-SUMA-IKHKHUR, the son of the Com- mander. Babylon, month Ululu,5 day loth,
19 year 7th, KURRAS,* King of Babylon (and) King of Countries.
1 Not to be confused with the descendant of Egibi of the same name, who is also mentioned in this text.
2 The repetition of these words seems to indicate that the document was written from dictation.
3 Mudinnu's. 4 This was to prove Mudinnu's right to the slaves.
5 Elul. 6 Cyrus.
96 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
V.
1 DA'INU-SUMA-IDDIN, son of NERGAL-ZIRA-BANI,
2 in the joy of his heart, UMMU-ANA-ALI,
3 GUDADITI, and RIHINDU,
4 in all three, his slaves, for three manas
5 of silver, for the complete sum, to
6 IDDIN-MARDUKU, son of BASA, the son of NUR-SINI
7 has given. (But) for the amount of 4 manas, 5 shekels,1
8 full weight, 4 sheep, (and) 4 oxen, which (are) more than
9 DA'INU-SUMA-IDDIN to DA'INU-BA(SA), 10 the Collector of BEL for E-saggil
u gave,
1 2 the agreement they settle, which concerning
13 UMMU-ANA-ALI, GUDADITI,
14 and RIHINDU, the freed-woman of DA'INU-SUMA-IDDIN
15 was raised."
1 6 Witnesses: LABASI, son of DA'INU-MARDUKU, the son of AVIL-NABI ;
j 7 ITTI-NABI-BALADHU, son of BELU-AKHI-IDDIN, the son of KILUBU;
1 8 ARAD-BA'U, son of BELI-SUNU, the son of RABU-BANI;
19 ARDI-YA, son of LABASI, the son of SALGUA;
1 Here the scribe has erased some words which, from the few marks left, probably read " Da'inu-suma-iddin to Da'inu-basa."
2 This line was completed to its full length, and afterwards erased by the scribe.
1 I
THE EGIEI TABLETS. 97
20 and the Messenger BELU-RABI-ABLA son of AKHI-SUNU. Babylon,
21 month Sabadhu, day i3th, year 7th, NABU-NAHID,
22 King of Babylon.
VI.1
1 3 half royal shekels, 95 royal shekels,
2 tribute. Month 'Sivanu,
3 day 24th,
4 year 2nd,
5 KURRAS,
6 King of Babylon,
7 King of Countries.
VII.3
1 i shekel of silver, which for
2 wine was given.
3 i shekel of silver, which to
4 the Messenger, TAMNAZIKU,
5 was given.
6 A loan of silver,
7 which to the Messenger
1 Tribute tablet, the smallest dated tablet of the collection.
3 Undated tablet, containing rough memoranda.
VOL. XI. 8
98
RECORDS OF THE PAST.
8 of the RATENU,'
9 was given.
1 Name of a people resembling the Ruten or Rutennu, supposed Syrians, conquered by the Egyptians. S.B.
99
THE DEFENCE OF A MAGISTRATE FALSELY ACCUSED.
(FROM A TABLET IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM.)
TRANSLATED BY THE LATE
H. FOX TALBOT, F. R. S.
tablet, marked K 31, is preserved in the British Museum, and has been published in the Inscriptions of Western Asia, Vol. IV., plate 53. It is very different both in style and subject from any- thing that has been hitherto translated. It is a letter to the King from a magistrate named Nebo-balatzu- ikbi protesting his entire innocence of the charges brought against him. He seems in great trouble, the letter passes from one subject to another almost without warning ; the diction is rapid and passionate, and there can be no doubt, I think, that we have here
100 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
the original letter and not a copy made from it afterwards.
The chief charges against him appear to have been two. First, disloyalty to the King (perhaps treason) ; and secondly, complicity in the carrying off a young lady of noble birth ; which crime he utterly denies all knowledge of, and professes his readiness, if the King is not satisfied, to submit to any judicial investigation that the King may desire.
This translation, together with its accompanying text, was first published in the Transactions of the Society of Biblical A rchceology, Vol, VI., p. I.
101
THE DEFENCE OF A MAGISTRATE.
1 To the King my Lord
2 thy servant NEBO-BALATZU-IKBI (sends greeting).
3 May NEBO and MARDUK to the King my Lord be pro- pitious !
4 and may the god .... who is the head of heaven and earth
5 prolong thy life ! Have I not once and twice
6 besought the King my Lord ? yet no one has sent to me
7 news from Babylonia.1 Is the countenance of the King turned away from me ?
8 and have I committed some crime against the King my Lord.
9 No ! I have not committed any crime against the King my Lord.
10 When trustworthy witnesses had assembled together,
11 and I had declared my fidelity to the King before a Public Notary,
12 a certain man, my accuser, entered the Palace
13 boldly; a criminal charge against me he raised : fetters
14 on my hands he placed, and said :
15 In the presence of all these people who are here assembled,
1 It is very uncertain whether Babylonia be intended here, but rather Akkad, a district of Babylonia of which the exact limits are not known. It was so called from its inhabitants, the Akkadai or " Highlanders."
102 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
1 6 as prisoner of my lord the King. I arrest you I1 All that day
17 I lay flat on my face upon my bed.
1 8 The soldiers who passed by my bed
1 9 out of ill-will no one gave me food for my mouth ;
20 hunger and emptiness fell upon me.
2 1 When evening came, I rose up, and I muffled my fetters,
22 and I passed by in front of the guard
23 whom the King my Lord had set in that place to guard it.
24 How I was liberated I will now tell the King.
25 Some soldiers, strangers to me, came in thither,
26 who broke off from me the King's fetters,
27 and with idle words against the King
28 spoke (the King will understand me)
29 For two days, for money, to sustain my life
30 they brought me of their food, for my portion, and for my nourishment,
31 and they spoke words of disrespect
32 against the King my Lord, that are not decorous that the King my Lord should know them ;
33 their full speech _I conceal, for it were not meet for the eyes of the King.
34 (SARLUDARU will tell me the will of the King).2
1 This is a very interesting account of the arrest of an accused, and of the subsequent severe treatment under confinement of which he complains. The irregular manner in which justice was administered in ancient times, as now, in the East, may be seen by comparing- this account with that given by another tablet (a translation of which will be found in this volume, see "Assyrian Report Tablets," p. 76), in which three men, two of them holding posts which were considered to be of great importance, kept back four out of seven talents of the gold which was to have been used for the images of some former kings, and an image of the mother of the then reigning monarch. No punishment is mentioned, the writer only asking the king to command that the gold should be returned as pay to the army.
2 That is, if the king wish to know what those words of disrespect were, would he communicate with me through Sarludaru.
DEFENCE OF A MAGISTRATE. 103
35 Moreover, a certain villain of the land of Sumir,1 who never
36 broke my bread,5 this man seduced the daughter of
BABILAI,3
37 who is the son of one of the Priests of the Sun.
38 To the King my Lord I wrote word of the crime, and, one at a time,
39 the Sukkal* and the Martinu* took it by turns to adjudicate,
40 for the King on purpose had mingled them so, to judge my household :
41 they sent writings in multitudes, letter after letter.
42 When SARLUDARU to the office of High Treasurer
43 had been appointed, the Martinu demanded judgment,
44 and having thrown the men of my household into prison
45 he gave them to SARLUDARU. When he came
46 to judge, he said : Fear not, my man !
47 In vain thou fearest. And I till the time of the evening meal
48 continued talking with him. Meanwhile, the girl
49 had been carried off; but how she left the house
50 I saw not ; I heard not; and I knew not who
1 Rather, " Akkad." T.G.P. • I.e., was my guest or friend.
3 Balilai, "the Babylonian." Many names of this kind occur in the inscriptions, such as: Assurai, "the Assurite;" Ninai, "the Ninevite;" ArlcCilai, " he of Arbela;" Khaltsuai, "the inhabitant of the fortress." These names do not seem to have been used because the writers did not know the real names of the persons spoken of, as there is a number of them in a list of proper names printed in the second volume of the Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia. They seem to have been given by parents to their children from motives of civic pride, for we find such names as: Mannu-ki-Arl-a'ili, "What is like Arbela ?" Mannu-ki-Nina, " What is like Nineveh ? "
4 Or, expert. 5 Or, law-officer.
104 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
51 carried her off, not in the least ! for in the crowd of servants
52 of the King my Lord, with whom she had been talking, she had remained behind.
530 MARDUK ! whoever has concealed her flight, I have as yet obtained no news of him,
54 but, O Lord of Kings ! I will urge with haste the search for her present dwelling-place.
55 The Martinu* has annulled the criminal accusation,
56 but that the King (himself) should judge all my family
57 from my heart I desire !
1 Or law officer.
I05
THE LATEST ASSYRIAN INSCRIPTION.
TRANSLATED BY
PROF. DR. JULIUS OPPERT.
TN 1870 I found, in the Museum of the Society of Antiquarians at Zurich, a little clay tablet, which struck me on account of the title of the king in the date of the tablet, " King of Persia." This title not having occurred in a single text of the Achsemenidae, who assumed the name of " King of the Nations," I found after a long examination, that this tablet must belong to the Arsacidae, and especially to King Pacorus II., who was contemporary with the emperors Titus and Domitian. This little inscription, the most modern of all known cuneiform texts, has been edited by myself in the Melanges d' Arche'ologie Egyptienne et Assyrieune (Tom. I., p. 240, ff.), and in the Documents juridiques, which I published with M. Menant; and lastly by Prof. Sayce in his Lectures upon the Assyrian Language^ p. 41.
106 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
THE LATEST ASSYRIAN INSCRIPTION.
TEXT OF PACORUS II.
Owed 40 tetradrachma.
LARASSIB, son of BEL-AKHE-IRIB, will pay into the hands ot ZIR-IDIN, son of HABLAI, in the month of Tyar, 40 tetra- drachma, in the temple of the Sun, in Babylon.
Witnesses : URRAME, son of PUYA ; ALLIT, son of AIRAD ; KISTAR, son of SINAM ; ZIR-IDIN, son of HABLAI, writer.
Babylon, in the month of Kislev, the 3rd day, in the 5th year of PIKHARIS, King of Persia.1
1 The names of this curious little tablet are in part Babylonian, in part Persian, all the witnesses seem to bear even modern Persian names.
The only king who can be referred to is Pacorus II., who commenced his reign A.D. 77. The fifth year in the Kislev is therefore December, A.D. Si, that is, the time of the emperor Domitian, who commenced his reign September 13, A.D. 81.
I should have supposed to find in the name one of the independent Persian kings during the Arsacidae's reign, if these petty kings had ever had Babylon in their possession.
The word which we express by tetradrachm, is lar sa, of a very obscure form.
107
ANCIENT BABYLONIAN LEGEND OF THE CREATION.
(FROM CUTHAH.)
TRANSLATED BY
REV. A. H. SAYCE, M.A.
HT H E following translation is made from an Assyrian copy of an old Babylonian text, belonging to the Library of Cuthah. The account of the Creation contained in it differs wholly from the later syncretistic story of the Creation in seven days, which does not seem earlier than the time of Assurbanipal. The proper names in the following legend, as well as certain expressions, are Accadian, from which we may infer that the legend itself is of Accadian origin. The name Memangab, which means " Thunderbolt," gives a clue to the primitive signification of the myth. Like so many other early Chaldean myths it describes
IOS RECORDS OF THE PAST.
the struggle between the evil powers of darkness, storm, and chaos, and the bright powers of order and light.
The tablet is unfortunately much injured, and a good deal of it has been lost. What is left, however, contains a reference to those creatures of compound shape which, according to Berosus, the Babylonians believed to have preceded the present creation. The text has not yet been published. A translation has been given by Mr. George Smith in his Chaldean Genesis, pp. 102-106.
IOQ
BABYLONIAN LEGEND OF THE CREATION.
COLUMN I.
[Many lines lost at the beginning.]
3 . . .' his lord, the crown of the gods . . . .'
4 the spearmen of his host, the spearmen of (his) host
i
5 Lord of those above and those below, Lord of the spirits . . . .*
6 who drank turbid waters and pure waters did not drink
i
7 who (with) his flame as a weapon that host enclosed,
8 has taken, has devoured.
9 On a memorial-stone he wrote not, he disclosed not, and bodies and produce
10 in the earth he caused not to come forth; and I ap- proached him not.
1 1 Warriors (with) the bodies of birds of the desert, men
1 2 (with) the faces of ravens,3
13 these the great gods created ;
14 in the earth the gods created their city.
1 5 TIAMAT 3 gave them suck.
1 6 Their life BILAT-ILI (Mistress of the gods) created.
17 In the midst of the earth they grew up and became strong, and
1 8 increased in number.
19 Seven Kings, brethren, were made to come as begetters ;
1 Lacunse.
* Literally, "a raven their face."
3 "The deep," the principle of chaos and anarchy.
110 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
20 six thousand (were) their armies.
21 The god BANINI their father (was) King; their mother
22 the Queen (was) MELILI;
23 their eldest brother who went before them, MEMANGAB (was) his name;1
24 (their) second brother, MEDUDU (was) his name ;
25 (their) third brother, . . ." PAKH (was) his name;
26 (their) fourth brother, . . .' (DA)DA (was) his name ;
27 (their) fifth brother, . . .2 TAKH (was) his name;
28 (their sixth brother,) . . .* (RU)RU (was) his name ;
29 (their seventh brother,) . . .' (RARA was) his (name).
1 Here the original Accadian is preserved.
2 Lacunae.
BABYLONIAN LEGEND OF THE CREATION. Ill
COLUMN II.
[Many lines are lost.]
1 . . .' the evil curse . . . .'
2 The man his determination turned . . .'
3 on a . . .' I arranged.
4 On a (tablet) the evil curse (which) in blood he raised
5 (I wrote and the children of) the Generals I urged on.
6 Seven (against seven in) breadth I arranged them.
7 (I established) the holy (ordinances).
8 I prayed to the great gods,
9 ISTAR, . . . .x ZAMAMA, ANUNIT,
10 NEBO, . . .* (and) the Sun-god, the warrior;
1 1 the Son of (the Moon-god), the gods that go (before) me 12 'he did not adjudge, and
13 thus I said unto my heart,
14 that, Here I (am) ; and
15 may I not go . . . .' (beneath) the ground
1 6 may I not go . . . .' may the prayer
17 go, when ' my heart
1 8 may I renew, the iron may I take.
1 9 The first year in (its) course
20 one hundred and twenty thousand soldiers I caused to go forth, and among them
2 1 not one returned.
22 The second year in (its) course ninety thousand soldiers I caused to go forth, and among them not one returned.
23 The third year in (its) course 60,700 soldiers I caused to go forth, and among them not one returned.
1 Lacunae.
1 12 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
24 They were removed away, they were smitten with sick- ness ; I ate,
25 I rejoiced, I rested.
26 Thus I said to my heart, that Here I (am) ; and
27 for (my) reign what have I left?
28 I, the King, (am) not the completer of his country ;
BABYLONIAN LEGEND OF THE CREATION. 113
COLUMN III.
1 and (I), the Shepherd, (am) not the completer of his army,
2 since I established corpses, and a desert I left.
3 The whole of the country (and) men, with night, death, (and) plague I cursed it.
4 With terror, violence, sickness, and famine
5 (I afflicted them) as many as exist. 6 * there descended
7 'a whirlwind
8 'its whirlwind.
9 ' all.
TO The foundations (of the earth were shaken.)
1 1 The gods '
12 Thou didst bind, and *
13 and l
14 Thou protectedst '
15 A memorial of spoiling and r
1 6 in supplication to HEA '
17 holy memorial sacrifices x
1 8 holy tereti x
19 I collected; the children of the Generals (I urged on.).
20 Seven against seven in breadth I arranged.
2 1 I established the holy ordinances.
22 I prayed to (the great) gods,
23 ISTAR, ...'.' (ZAMAMA, ANUNIT)
24 NEBO, . . . .' (and the Sun-god, the warrior)
25 the Son (of the Moon-god, the gods who go before me.)
[Lacunas.]
1 Lacunae. VOL. XI. 9
114 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
COLUMN IV.
[Many lines are lost.1]
1 Thou, O King, Viceroy, Shepherd, or any one else
2 whom the god shall call (to) rule the kingdom,
4 in the city of Cuthah, in the temple of Gallam,
3 (as for) this tablet (which) I made for thee, the memorial- stone (which) I wrote for thee,
5 for the worship of NERGAL (which) I left for thee,
6 to the mouth of this my memorial-stone hearken, and
7 thou shalt not rebel, thou shalt not slacken,
8 thou shalt not fear, thou shalt not curse.
9 May he establish thy foundation !
10 As for thee, in thy works may he make splendour.
1 1 Thy citadels shall be strong.
12 Thy canals shall be full of water.
13 Thy papyri,3 thy corn, thy silver, thy furniture, thy goods,
14 and thy instruments (all) of them
15 (shall be multiplied) 3
1 Of the first eight lines that remain only the first words in each line are left, viz : " with," " the men," " a foreign city," " this city," " to," " a strong king," " the gods," " my hand."
* There is here evidently a reference to the literature, a good deal of which was inscribed upon papyri.
3 Lacunas.
THE OVERTHROW
OF
SODOM AND GOMORRAH (ACCADIAN ACCOUNT.)
TRANSLATED BY
REV. A. H. SAYCE, M.A.
following Accadian poem describes a rain of fire similar in character and effect to that which destroyed the cities of the plain. It seems merely a fragment of a legend, in which the names of the cities were probably given, and an explanation afforded of the mysterious personage mentioned in line 17, who, like Lot, appears to have escaped destruction. It must not be forgotten that the campaign of Chedorlaomer and his allies was directed •against Sodom and the other cities of the plain, so that the existence of the legend among the Accadians
Il6 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
is not so surprising as might appear at first sight. The original Accadian text is given in the tablet as well as the Assyrian translation. Unfortunately only one half of the tablet is perfect. A copy of it will be found in the Cuneiform, Inscriptions of Western Asia, Vol. IV., 19, I Obv.
THE OVERTHROW OF SODOM AND GOMORRAH.
1 An overthrow ' from the midst of the deep2 there came.
2 The fated punishment3 from the midst of heaven descended.
3 A storm like a plummet the earth (overwhelmed).
4 To the four winds the destroying flood like fire did burn.
5 The inhabitants of the citie(s) it had caused to be tormented ; their bodies it consumed.
6 In city and country it spread death, and the flames as they rose 4 overthrew.
7 Freeman and slave were equal, and the high places it filled.
8 In heaven and earth like a thunder-storm it had rained ; a prey it made.
9 A place of refuge the gods 5 hastened to, and in a throng collected.
10 Its mighty (onset) they fled from, and like a garment it
concealed (mankind).
1 1 They (feared), and death (overtook them). 1 2 (Their) feet and hands (it embraced).
1 Literally, "sinking down," or "darkness" (Aram.
3 Not the sea, but "the waters which were above the firmament."
3 Assyrian, "the oath" (mamitu).
4 Literally, " the goings forth of the flames."
5 Assyrian, " their god."
Il8 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
13 ... '
14 Their body it consumed.
15 ' the city, its foundations it denied.
1 6 ' in breath, his mouth he filled.
1 7 As for this man, a loud voice a was raised ; the mighty lightning flash descended.
1 8 During the day it flashed; grievously (it fell).
Lacunae. 2 That is, " the thunder.'
CHALDEAN HYMNS TO THE SUN.
TRANSLATED BY
FRANCOIS LENORMANT.
Sun-god, called in the Accadian Utu and Parra (the latter is of less frequent occurrence), and in the Semitic Assyrian Samas, held a less important rank in the divine hierarchy of the Chaldaic-Baby- lonian pantheon, afterwards adopted by the Assyrians, than the Moon-god (in the Accadian Akuy Eniztma, and Hiiru-ki, in the Assyrian Sm), who was even sometimes said to be his father. His principal and most common title was " Judge of Heaven and Earth," in the Accadian dikud ana km, in the Assyrian dainu sa same u irtsiti. The most important sanctuaries of the deity were at Larsam, in southern Chaldaea, and Sippara, in the north of Babylonia.
120 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
Some few fragments of liturgical or magical hymns addressed to Shamas have come down to us. These are five in number, and I give a translation of them here. They have all been studied previously by other Assyriologists, but I think the present inter- pretation of them is superior to any which has as yet been furnished.
The following are the chief bibliographical data concerning them : —
I. The primitive Accadian text, accompanied by an interlinear Assyrian version, published in the Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia, Vol. IV., pi. 20, No. 2. I put forth a first attempt at a translation in my Magie cliez les Chaldeens (p. 165), and since then M. Friedrich Delitzsch has given a much better explanation of it (G. Smith's Chalddische Genesis, p. 284). Of this hymn we possess only the first five lines.
II. The primitive Accadian text, with an inter- linear Assyrian version, is published in the Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia, Vol. IV, pi. 19, No. 2. M. Delitzsch has given a German translation of it in G. Smith's Chalddische Genesis,^. 284, and a revised
CHALDEAN HYMNS TO THE SUN. 121
one in English has just appeared in Prof. Sayce's Lectures upon Babylonian Literature, p. 43.
III. A similar sacred text, published in the Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia, Vol. IV., pi. 28, No. r, in which the indications as to the obverse and reverse of the tablet are incorrect and ought to be altered. The two fragments left to us, separated by a gap, the extent of which it is at present impossible to estimate, belong to an incantatory hymn destined to effect the cure of the king's disease. Interpretations have been attempted in my Premieres Civilisations (Vol. II., p. 165 et seq.), and in the appendices added by M. Friedrich Delitzsch, to his German translation of G. Smith's work already cited.
IV. The primitive Accadian text with an inter- linear Assyrian version, published in the Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia, Vol. IV., pi. 17, col. I. This hymn, like the preceding one, is intended to be recited by the priest of magic in order to cure the invalid king. I gave a very imperfect translation of it in my Magie chez les Chalde'ens (p. 166).
V. We possess only the Semitic Assyrian version of this text ; it was published in the Cuneiform
122 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
Inscriptions of Western Asia, Vol. IV., pi. 1 7, col. 2. As yet, no one has produced a complete translation of this hymn ; but a few passages have been quoted by M. Friedrich Delitzsch (G. Smith's Chalddische Genesis, p. 284) and myself (La Magiechez les Chalde'ens, p. 164, and pp. 179, 1 80, of the English Edition,
I refer the reader to the various publications above mentioned for a convincing proof of the entirely revised character of the translations here submitted to him, and I think he will grant that I have made some progress in this branch of knowledge, since my first attempts many years ago.
I23
CHALDEAN HYMNS TO THE SUN.
FIRST HYMN.
1 MAGICAL incantation.
2 SUN, from the foundations of heaven thou art risen ;
3 thou hast unfastened the bolts of the shining skies ;
4 thou hast opened the door of heaven.
5 SUN, above the countries thou hast raised thy head.
6 SUN, thou hast covered the immensity of the heavens and the terrestrial countries.
[The fragments of the four following lines are too mutilated to furnish any connected sense ; all the rest of the hymn is entirely wanting.]
SECOND HYMN.1
1 Lord, illuminator of the the darkness, who piercest the face of darkness,
2 merciful god, who settest up those that are bowed down, who sustainest the weak,
3 towards the light the great gods direct their glances,
4 the archangels of the abyss,2 every one of them, con- template eagerly thy face.
5 The language of praise,3 as one word, thou directest it.
6 The host of their heads seeks the light of the SUN in the South.4
7 Like a bridegroom thou restest joyful and gracious.5
1 See also Lenormant, Chaldean Magic, p. 180.
2 In the Assyrian version : "The archangels of the earth."
3 In the Assyrian version : "The eager language."
4 The Assyrian version has simply: "of the Sun."
5 " Like a wife thou submittest thyself, cheerful and kindly." Sayce.
124 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
8 In thy illumination them dost reach afar to the boundaries of heaven.1
9 Thou art the banner of the vast earth.
10 O God ! the men who dwell afar off contemplate thee and rejoice.
1 1 The great gods fix . . . .*
1 2 Nourisher of the luminous heavens, who favourest . . .3
13 He who has not turned his hands (towards thee . . . .3 14 *
THIRD HYMN.
1 Thou who march est before 3
2 With ANU and BEL 3
3 The support of crowds of men, direct them !
4 He who rules in heaven, he who arranges, is thyself.
5 He who establishes truth in the thoughts of the nations, is thyself.
6 Thou knowest the truth, thou knowest what is false.
7 SUN, justice has raised its head ;
8 SUN, falsehood, like envy, has spoken calumny.
9 SUN, the servant of ANU and BEL* is thyself;
10 SUN, the supreme judge of heaven and earth is thyself.
11 SUN, 3
[In this place occurs the gap between the two fragments on the obverse and on the reverse of the tablet.]
12 SUN, the supreme judge of the countries, is thyself.
13 The Lord of living beings, the one merciful to the countries, is thyself.
1 In the Assyrian version : " Thou art the illuminator of the limits of the distant heavens."
3 Here occurs a word which I cannot yet make out.
3 Lacunae. 4 In the Accadian Ana and Mul-ge.
CHALDEAN HYMNS TO THE SUN. 125
14 SUN, illuminate this day the King, son of his god,1 make him shine !
1 5 Everything that is working evil in his body, may that be driven elsewhere.
1 6 Like a cruse of ... .a purify him !
1 7 Like a cruse of milk, make him flow !
18 May it flow like molten bronze !
19 Deliver him from his infirmity !
20 Then, when he revives, may thy sublimity direct him !
2 1 And me, the magician, thy obedient servant, direct me !
FOURTH HYMN.
1 Great Lord, from the midst of the shining heavens at thy rising,
2 valiant hero, SUN, from the midst of the shining heavens, at thy rising,
3 in the bolts of the shining heavens, in the entrance which opens heaven, at thy rising
4 in the bar of the door of the shining heavens, in ... .3 at thy rising,
5 in the great door of the shining heavens, when thou openest it.
6 in the highest (summits) of the shining heavens, at the time of thy rapid course,
7 the celestial archangels with respect and joy press around thee ;
8 the servants of the Lady of crowns4 lead thee in a festive manner ;
1 Meaning the pious king.
z Here follows an incomprehensible word.
3 Lacuna.
4 In the Assyrian version : "Of the Lady of the gods."
126 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
9 the 'for the repose of thy heart fix thy days ;
10 the multitudes of the crowds on the earth turn their eyes often towards thee ;
1 1 the Spirits of heaven and earth lead thee.
12 The . . . .x thou crushest them with thy strength, 13 ' thou disco verest them,
14 J thou causest to seize,
15 J thou direciest.
[I am obliged here to pass over five lines which are too mutilated for me to attempt to translate them with any degree of certainty.]
2 1 The Lord, as to me, has sent me ;
22 the great god, HEA, as to me, has sent me.2
23 Settle what has reference to him,3 teach the order which concerns him, decide the question relating to him.
24 Thou, in thy course thou directest the human race ;
25 cast upon him a ray of peace, and let it cure his suffering.
26 The man, son of his god/ has laid before thee his shortcomings and his trangressions ;
27 his feet and his hands are in pain, grievously defiled by disease.
28 SUN, to the lifting up of my hands pay attention ;
29 eat his food, receive the victim, give his god (for a support) to his hand !
30 By his order let his shortcomings be pardoned ! let his transgressions be blotted out !
3 1 May his trouble leave him ! may he recover from his disease !
1 Lacunae.
* There is no Assyrian version of this line, we have only the Accadian.
3 The invalid on behalf of whom the invocation is recited.
4 The pious man.
CHALDEAN HYMNS TO THE SUN. 127
32 Give back life to the King ! '
33 Then, on the day that he revives, may thy sublimity envelop him !
34 Direct the King who is in subjection to thee !
35 And me, the magician, thy humble servant, direct me !
FIFTH HYMN.5
1 Magical incantation.
2 I have invoked thee, O SUN, in the midst of the high heavens.
3 Thou art in the shadow of the cedar, and
4 thy feet rest on the summits.
5 The countries have called thee eagerly, they have directed their looks towards thee, O Friend ;
6 thy brilliant light illuminates every land,
7 overthrowing all that impedes thee, assemble the countries,
8 for thou, O SUN, knowest their boundaries.
9 Thou who annihilatest falsehood, who dissipatest the evil influence
10 of wonders, omens, sorceries, dreams, evil apparitions,
11 who turnest to a happy issue malicious designs, who annihilatest men and countries
12 that devote themselves to fatal sorceries, I have taken refuge in thy presence.
13 5
14 Do not allow those who make spells, and are hardened, to arise;
1 From this verse onwards the Assyrian version is wanting.
2 Cf. also Chaldean Magic, p. 185, 186.
3 Here I am obliged to omit a line, which I cannot yet make out.
128 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
15 Frighten their heart . . . .'
1 6 Settle also, O SUN, light of the great gods.
1 7 Right into my marrow, O Lords of breath, that I may rejoice, even I.
1 8 May the gods who have created me take my hands !
1 9 Direct the breath of my mouth ! my hands
20 direct them also, Lord, light of the legions of the heavens, SUN, O Judge !
21 The day, the month, the year . . . .'
. . ." conjure the spell !
. . .* deliver from the infirmity !
1 Lacunae.
I29
TWO ACCADIAN HYMNS.
TRANSLATED BY
REV. A. H. SAYCE, M.A.
two following hymns, both of which are unfortunately mutilated, are interesting from their subject matter. The first is addressed to the Sun-god Tammuz, the husband of Istar, slain by the boar's tusk of winter, and sought by the goddess in the under- ground world. It is this visit which is described in the mythological poem known as the "Descent of Istar into Hades" (Records of the Past, Vol. I., p. 143). The myth of Tammuz and Istar passed, through the Phoenicians, to the Greeks, among whom Adonis and Aphrodite represent the personages of the ancient Accadian legend. Tammuz is referred to in Ezek. viii. 14. (See Records of the Past, Vol. IX., p. 147). The second hymn treats of the world-mountain, the Atlas
VOL. XI. 10
130 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
of the Greeks, which supports the heaven with its stars, and is rooted in Hades. Under its other name Kharsak-kurra, or "Mountain of the East," it was identified with the present Mount Elwend, and was regarded as the spot where the ark had rested, and where the gods had their seat. A reference is made to it in Isa. xiv. 13. Both hymns illustrate the imagery and metaphor out of which grew the mythology of primaeval Babylonia, and offer curious parallels to the Aryan hymns of the Rig- Veda. The cuneiform texts are lithographed in the Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia, Vol. IV., 27, I, 2.
TWO ACCADIAN HYMNS.
I.
1 O shepherd,1 Lord Tammuz, Bridegroom 2 of ISTAR !
2 Lord of Hades, Lord of Tul-Sukhba !
3 Understanding one, who among the papyri the water drinks not !
4 His brood in the desert, even the reed, he created not.3
5 Its bulrush in his canal he lifted not up.
6 The roots of the bulrush were carried away.
7 O god of the world, who among the papyri the water drinks not !
II.
1 O mighty mountain of BEL, Im-kharsak,5 whose head rivals heaven, whose root (is) the holy deep !
2 Among the mountains, like a strong wild bull, it lieth down.
3 Its horn like the brilliance of the sun is bright.
1 The early Accadian kings frequently call themselves "shepherds." According to Berosus, Alorus the first antediluvian king of Babylonia gave himself the same title. Compare the Homeric TTOL^V Xaobv.
4 Khamir, literally " red " or " blushing one," in reference to the glow of the setting sun.
3 Or " was not green."
4 Lacuna.
5 " Wind of the mountain."
10*
132 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
4 Like the star of heaven ' it is a prophet and is filled with sheen.
5 O mighty mother of BELTIS, daughter of Bit-Esir : splendour of Bit-kurra,2 appointment of Bit-Gigune, hand- maid of Bit-Cigusurra !3
1 That is, Dilbat, " the prophet," or Venus, the morning star.
* " The temple of the East."
3 " The temple of the land of forests."
4 Lacuna.
133
ASSYRIAN INCANTATIONS TO FIRE AND WATER.
TRANSLATED BY
ERNEST A. BUDGE.
HTHE original text of these incantations is found in the Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia, Vol. IV., pi. 14, and on tablet K 4902 of the British Museum collection. They are written in Accadian and Assyrian. M. Lenormant has divided the great magical work copied for King Assur-bani-pal into three classes : (i) that containing formulae of con- juration against evil spirits ; (2) that containing formulae for curing divers maladies ; (3) hymns to certain gods, as fire, water, etc. These incantations belong to the last of these divisions. Many such are to be found in the fourth volume of the Cuneiform Inscriptions, and many more are among the treasures of the British Museum collection. These bilingual inscriptions are the more valuable, since they enable us to compare one language with another.1
1 While these pages were in the press I had ascertained that parts of these inscriptions have been translated by M. Lenormant, and the late Mr. Fox Talbot. My translations will appear in the shape of a paper with grammatical analysis, etc., in the Trans. Soc. Bib. ;4rch.,but on comparison many differences will be found. See Records of the Past, Vol. III., p. 137; and Lenormant, La Magie, p. 168.
134 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
Among the Chaldeans magic and sorcery attained to almost the rank of a science ; and one has only to see the number of magical texts and incantations that remain (in many cases only fragments), to understand to how great an extent this pseudo-science was practised. The primitive population of Accad was superstitious, and although these incantations were a part of a pure religion, at one time, they at last degenerated to mere magical formulae. The formulae are very numerous. A very fine fragment of a tablet is lithographed in W. A. /., II., 17 and 18, containing incantations against demons which take possession of various parts of the earth, the members of man, various diseases, etc. ; and each incantation finishes with the mysterious invocation : " O Spirit of heaven remember, O Spirit of earth remember." To the Accadian mind there existed a world of evil spirits. They saw a "spirit" in every object or force of nature, and believed that their priests, or rather sorcerers, could work good or evil by the use of magical charms,1 but gradually these numerous spirits were merged together among the 600 spirits of earth and 300 of heaven. The tablets containing incantations were classified in the libraries of Assur-bani-pal, and numbered thus: "Tablet No. 5 of Evil Spirits." (W.A.L, IV., 2, col. 6, 1.35).
1 Prof. Sayce, Babylonian Literature p. 42.
'35
INCANTATION TO WATER.
1 AN incantation1 to the waters pure . . . .*
2 The waters of the Euphrates which in the place . . . *
3 The water which in the abyss firmly is established,
4 the noble mouth of HEA,S shines on them.
5 The sons of the abyss (there are) seven of them.4
6 Waters they are shining (clear), waters they are bright, waters they are bright.
7 In the presence of your father HEA,
8 in the presence of your mother DAVCINA,S
9 may (it) shine, may (it) be brilliant, may. (it) be bright. 10 Conclusion :6 three times a prayer.
1 This occurs in the Accadian only.
2 Lacunse.
3 God of the earth's surface, brightness, etc, and chief protector of men. His son was called Marduk (the brilliancy of the sun), his daughter, Nina. The month of lyyar (April) was dedicated to Hea. Marduk is called " the eldest son of the abyss." W. A. /., IV., 3, 1. 26.
4 "There were seven inhabiting the earth." W. A. /., IV., 15, 67.
" The seven of the abyss were wicked." W, A. I., IV., 2, col. 5, 1. 50 ; and "They are seven; in the mountain of the setting sun were they born. They are seven ; in the mountains of the rising sun was their growth."
W. A. L, IV., 15, 22, 24 They are called :
"The seven gods of the vast heaven." W. A. /., IV., i, col. 3, 1. 14. " The seven gods of the vast earth." W. A. /., IV., i, col. 3, 16. " The seven wicked gods." PT. A. /., IV., col. 3, 20. " In the heaven (are they) seven." Line 26. " In the earth (are they) seven."
5 The wife of Hea.
6 The original CACAMA is Accadian, and is explained in Assyrian by amami, Heb. pN. See W. A. L, II., 62a.
136 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
FRESH PARAGRAPH.'
1 1 The god of the river (like a charioteer1) put him to flight.
1 2 (This) enchantment before him, its onset like a demon
13 all the world blackens ; like the zenith lofty
14 the Sun-god in his going forth his darkness he removed, in the house of Ai (he devours3)
1 This occurs in the Accadian text only.
2 This restoration is offered by Prof. Sayce.
INCANTATIONS TO FIRE. 137
INCANTATION TO FIRE.
With the Accadians, as with later eastern nations, fire was very favourably regarded, and various noble epithets were given to it. It is called the " warrior," " hero," in W. A. /., 17 obv., 1. 4; and mW.A. /., IV., 26, No. 4, 1. 36, it is called, "the lofty fire," "the male warrior," " illuminator of darkness," and many others may be found. It is curious to note that the name of the solar hero in the great Babylonian epic means " mass of fire " (Gis-dhu-bar).1 The name of the fifth month of the year, Ab (July), meant in Accadian the " month that makes fire."
1 INCANTATION to the desert places holy; may it go forth
2 (this) enchantment, O spirit of heaven mayest thou remember, O spirit of earth mayest thou remember.*
FRESH PARAGRAPH.
3 The Fire-god the Prince which in the lofty country,
4 the warrior, son of the abyss, which in the lofty country,
5 the god of fire, with thy holy fires,
6 in the house of darkness light thou art establishing.
7 All that is his also proclaimed;3 his destiny thou art establishing.
8 Of bronze and lead the mixer of them thou (art).
9 Of silver (and) gold the blesser of them thou (art). 10 Of the goddess NiNCASi3 her offspring thou (art).
1 See Prof. Sayce, Assyrian Lectures, p. 25.
2 This sentence is of frequent occurrence in these incantations.
3 I follow exactly the idiom of the original.
4 Accadian," meaning- "the Lady of the horned face."
138 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
11 Of the wicked (man1) in the night changing his breast thou (art).9
12 Of the man the son of his god3 his limbs mayest thou make brilliant.
13 Like the heaven may it shine.4
14 Like the earth may it be bright.
28 Like the interior of heaven may it shine.
1 This occurs in the Accadian text only.
• See/F.^. /., IV., 21, 61.;
* A good man.
4 Heaven is called the seat of Anu (W. A. L, IV., 5, col. i, 1. 50).
139
THE ASSYRIAN TRIBUTE LISTS.
TRANSLATED BY
REV. A. H. SAYCE, M.A.
T TNDER the second Assyrian empire, founded by Tiglath-Pileser II. and his successors, Shalmaneser Sargon, Sennacherib, and Esarhaddon, the conquered provinces were formed into satrapies, and the whole empire was divided into a certain number of districts and metropolitan towns, each of which paid a fixed yearly sum to the royal exchequer. Fragments only of the lists recording the amount at which each district and city were assessed have reached us, and a translation of them is here attempted for the first time. Copies of the original texts will be found in the Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia, Vol. II., 53, No. 2, 3, 4.
140
RECORDS OF THE PAST.
The special importance of these texts is obvious, since the tribute being generally paid in kind, the nature of the country and of its products is indicated, as well as the comparative wealth of the district taxed. The evidence also afforded by these lists that the taxation of certain countries was devoted to the support of various specified places and offices is curious, inasmuch as a similar system prevailed throughout Europe up to the Middle Ages.
THE ASSYRIAN TRIBUTE LISTS.
No. 2.— OBVERSE, i BY regulation. The payment.1 Fifty . . . .3
2 Thirty talents. The tribute of Nineveh. Ten talents for clothes.
3 Twenty talents, of the country of Assyria, (from) the same city, for the equipment of the fleet.
4 Ten talents, (from) the same. A fresh assessment. In all 274 talents.
5 Twenty talents, (from) the harem of the Palace. By regulation, the payment.
6 Five talents. The tribute of Calah. It is appointed as payment.
7 Four talents, of the country of Assyria, (from) the same city. Thirty talents for the highlands.
8 Ten talents (from) the city of £m7, for the lowlands.
9 . . .* talents (from) the city of Nisibis. Twenty talents for 600 makdkhi.
10 (. . .a talents from) the city of Alikhu, for 600 royal robes.
11 (. . .* talents) ; for six vestures of linen. Three talents for epd.
12 (. . .2 talents). Three twice for the security of the gates.
13 (. . .* talents) for the Collector. Two talents (from) the city of Alikhu.
14 (. . .' talents) for the chariots. For four wheels.
1 Agurtu, Heb. rTTUN. . * Lacunae.
142 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
15 (. . .' talents for) the Astronomer. Three talents for fringed dresses.
1 6 (. . .' talents for) the throne of the Palace. The tribute of the city. Two talents for royal robes of purple.
17 (. . -1 talents for) the throne of the Palace . . . ." Two talents 10 manehs (interest) for 500.
1 8 ' the city of Assur ' again,
19 (. . .' talents from) the city of Kalzu. Two talents (for) three conduits.
20 (. . .' talents from) the city of Enil. For the persons of the Overseers.
21 ' the country of Assyria:
Two talents (from) the house of the Collector.
Two talents for the right side.
Five talents for the performance of the regulation.
REVERSE.
1 . . . .' this regulation. Two talents from the Com- mander-in-chief.
2 (For) clothes each year.
3 (By regulation). The payment. Ten talents from the country of Risu.2
4 (Levied for) the possession of house-property (on) the inhabitants of Nineveh.
5 . . . .' the couches of the concubines. Five talents from their attendants.
1 Lacunae. 2 Or, Rikat.
THE ASSYRIAN TRIBUTE LISTS. 143
6 . . . .' every year from the lowlands.
7 . . . ." the payment of the Collector. Two talents (from) the male and female carpenters.2
8 . . . .' (from) the house of the Music-director. One talent for their coverings.
9 . . . .' from the house of the same.
10 . . . ." for the security of the chariot. In all, 190 talents, 10 manehs.
ii . . . .' manehs for what is before him, let him put out the payment at interest.
12 ... .^ manehs at double interest. Seven talents, 10 manehs (are gained) in addition.
13 Forty manehs and a half the worth of a sleeved dress; 22 talents, khukharat ;
14 at 6 per cent for each half let him put it out at triple interest.
15 Two talents, wanting the linen dress. Fifteen talents, 10 manehs (for) the same personage.
1 6 Three talents, 10 manehs (for) the custom-house. Thirty talents, 20 manehs, khukhanu.
1 7 Two manehs for wine presses. Let him put it out at double interest.
1 8 For veils.
1 9 One talent for the right side.
20 In all let 22 talents be put out at interest.
21 In all, 30 talents, 21 manehs out of 53 talents.
1 Lacunae.
a The Accadian us-lar is rendered by the Assyrian 'uspa, with which compare the Aramaic notOW "carpenter's axe."
144 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
22 In the presence of the Princes " khukharat let him put out at interest.
23 We do not receive.2
24 (What) we take we give up.
The following fragment contains a list of the tributes paid by the cities of Syria.
OBVERSE.
1 Thirty talents (from) the city of Arpad.
2 One hundred talents from the city of Carchemish.
3 Thirty talents (from) the city of Kuhe.
4 Fifteen talents (from) the city of Megiddo.
5 Fifteen talents (from) the city of Mannutsuate.
6 . . . .3 talents (from) the city of Tsimirra.
7 . . . .3 talents (from) the city of Khataracca.4
8 (. . . .3 talents from) the city of Tsubud. 6 (. . . .3 talents from) the city of 'Samalla.
REVERSE.
1 (. . . .3) talents let him put out at interest. Fifty talents he directs (to be issued) as bronze.
2 It is weighed out in the presence of the Princes.
3 (The tribute of) Damascus,
4 Arpad,
5 Carchemish,
6 Kuhe,
7 Tsubud,
8 Tsimirra,
9 Muni-tsimirra.
1 That is, with the princes as witnesses of the transaction.
2 That is, "we are not guilty of peculation." This is said by the tax-gatherers.
3 Lacunae. 4 Hadrach.
AN
ASSYRIAN FRAGMENT ON GEOGRAPHY.
TRANSLATED BY
REV. A. H. SAYCE, M.A.
'T'HE following fragment gives a curious list of the various countries known to the Assyrians, with their chief products, and in some cases their geographical position. Several of these geographical lists remain, but they are in too fragmentary a condition to be worth translation. They chiefly date from the period of Assurbanipal, B.C. 680, but are of considerably older origin, and appear to have been compiled for the purposes of the royal exchequer. The text is given
in the Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia, Vol. VOL. XL 11
146 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
II., 51, I, and is an amendment of the translation made by M. Oppert in the Transactions of the First Oriental Congress, p. 224-226.
147
ASSYRIAN FRAGMENT ON GEOGRAPHY.
OBVERSE. i
1 (The country of . . . .') let it be explained as the country of BEL. The country of Kharsak kurra as the (country of . . . .')
2 The country of Gazzir as the country of the Air-god. The country of Khuduk ..'..'
3 The country of Amanus as the country of cedars. The country of Khabur2 as (the country of . . . .')
4 The country of Khasur as the country of cedars. The country of 'Sirara as (the country of . . . .')
5 The country of Lebanon as the country of cypresses.
cuuuuy ui oiiaict ut> \iiic Lummy ui . . . .
5 The country of Lebanon as the country The country of Arur as (the country of . . . .')
6 The country of Atsildu as the country of cypresses. The country of Dillik as (the country of . . . .')
7 The country of Lambar as the country of pines. The country of Dabar as the country of pines.
8 The country of Sargon as the country of books.3 The country of Sessek as the country of allanu.
9 The country of Bibbu as the country of allanu. The country of Apaks'i, as the country of clothes.
1 Lacunre.
1 Probably the district round the Habor or Chaboras.
5 Literally, " tablets." The country referred to is the district round Agane in Babylonia, where Sargon I. established his famous library (B.C. 2000-1700). Compare also Kirjath-Sepher, "the book city," Jos. xv. 15, 16; Jud. i. u, 12.
11*
148 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
10 The country of Khana as the country of clothes. The country of Zarsu as the country of silver.
1 1 The country of Aralu ' as the country of gold. The country of Kappaks'i as the country of gold.
12 The country of . .* arkha as the country of lead.3 The country of Barsesenu as the country of lead.
13 The country of . ." gaba as the country of the stone gabsia. The country of Dapara4 as the country of alabaster.
14 The country of Nirkab as the country of bird's stone. The country of Accala as the country of the stone . . .*
1 5 The country of Malicanu as the country of the serpent's sting stone.5 The country of Dulupes as the country of marble.6
1 6 The country of Dudpes as the country of marble. The country of Dikmanu as the country of marble.
1 7 The country of Milukhkha 7 as the country of turquoise.8 The country of Maganna 9 as the country of copper.
1 8 The country of Tila as the country of ships. The country of Saggis as the country of ships.
1 This was the Accadian name of Hades. So in Greek mythology Pluton, the god of wealth, became a name of Hades, gold and other wealth being hidden under ground.
2 Lacunae.
3 Or, " tin."
4 That is, of the Bull-god.
5 M. Oppert thinks this means a stone which was considered an antidote to snake's poison.
6 Parru. Compare the land of Parvaim, 2 Chr. iii. 6.
7 Usually identified with Meroe, but it may be Libya, or south-western Arabia.
8 Or, "lapis lazuli." Literally, "blue stone."
9 The Sinaitic Peninsula.
ASSYRIAN FRAGMENT ON GEOGRAPHY. 149
19 The country of Enti as the country of treasures. The country of Khikhi as the country of Phoenicia.
20 The country of Lakhi as the country of Phoenicia. The country of Temenna1 as the country of Elam.
21 The country of Nisir as the country of Gutium." The country of Mamanu as the country of Syria.
22 The country of Kharsamna as the country of horses. The country of 'Sikurragas as the country of Lulubi.3
23 The country of Ciniparpura as the country of Lulubi.4 The country of Saggar as the country of cornelians.5
|. The country of Cipni as the country of palm branches?
24
25 The river Tigris let one explain as the bringer of fertility.
26 The river Euphrates as the life of the world.
27 The river Arakhtu7 as (the river) which flows into Babylon.
28 The river of the waters of Bel as the minister of Merodach.
29 The river of Arbela as the mother of rivers.
30 The river of (Za)ban as the minister of ADAR.
31 The river of the mighty waters as giving life to the enclosure of life.
1 Temenna or Tomon'd means "foundation-stone" in Accadian.
1 It was on the mountain of Nizir that the ark rested. Gutium (the Goyim of Gen. xiv. i, 9) extended from Mesopotamia to Media, and included the district which afterwards became Assyria. The mention of Gutium here seems to show that this list goes back to Accadian times.
3 Perhaps the district north of Mesopotamia known as Lulumi or Lullume to the Assyrians.
4 In Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia, Vol. I., 20, 34. Assur- natsir-pal states that the inhabitants of the country call Nizir " Lullu Cinipa," and Lullu is termed " a city of Arakdi " or " Arrakdi " on the Black Obelisk/ line 40.
5 Literally, " necklace stones."
6 Cupani. 7 Araxes.
150 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
32 The river Eulaeus (Ula] (is) the water which carries its sand to the sea.
33 The river of the Fish (is) the river of fish. The river of the Bird (is) the river of birds.
34 The river of the Serpent (is) the river of serpents. The river of the lady of Nisinna ' (is) the river of the goddess GULA.
35 * The river of Fertility is the river of fertility.
1 Nisin, also called Karrak, was a city of Babylonia.
2 Lacuna.
ACCADIAN PROVERBS AND SONGS.
TRANSLATED BY
REV. A. H. SAYCE, M.A.
HTHE following is a selection from an interesting collection of Accadian songs and proverbs, given in a mutilated reading-book of the ancient language which was compiled for the use of Assyrian (or rather Semitic Babylonian) students. These sentences were drawn up at a time when it was necessary for the scribes to be familiar with the old language of Accad, and to be able to translate it into Assyrian, and hence these phrases are of very great philological value, since they indicate often analogous words and various verbal forms. The Assyrian translation and the
152 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
Accadian texts are arranged in parallel columns. Some of the proverbs must be taken from an agri- cultural treatise of the same nature as the Works and Days of Hesiod. Copies of the texts will be found in the Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia, Vol. II., 15, 1 6.
I53
ACCADIAN PROVERBS.
1 Door and bolt are made fast.
2 Oracle to oracle : to the oracle it is brought.1
3 The cut beam he strikes : the strong beam he shapes.
4 The resting-place of the field which (is) in the house he will establish.
5 Within the court of the house he feels himself small.
6 A heap of witnesses3 as his foundation he has made strong.
7 Once and twice he has made gains ;3 yet he is not content.
8 By himself he dug and wrought.4
9 For silver his resting-place he shall buy.
10 On his heap of bricks a building he builds not, a beam he set not up.
11 A house like his own house one man to another consigns.
12 If the house he contracts for he does not complete, 10 shekels of silver he pays.
13 The joists of his wall he plasters.
14 In the month Marches van,5 the 3oth day (let him choose) for removal.
15 (Let him choose it, too,) for the burning of weeds.
1 6 The tenant of the farm two-thirds of the produce on his own head to the master of the orchard pays out.
1 That is, "compared."
Accadian izzi rilanna, Assyrian igar kasritu, "heap of covenant," like the Hebrew Galeed, Aramaic Yegar-sahadutha (Gen. xxxi. 47).
3 That is, " the more a man has the more he wants."
4 That is, " if you want a thing done, do it yourself."
5 October.
154 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
No. 1 6.— ACCADIAN SONGS.
26 (If) evil thou hast done, (to) the sea for ever . . . .' thou goest.
23 My city bless : among my men fully prosper me.
26 Bless everything ;
and to (my) dress be favourable.
28 Before the oxen as they march in the grain thou liest down.
30 My knees are marching, my feet are not resting : with no wealth of thine own, grain thou begettest for me.
34 A heifer am I ;
to the cow I am yoked : the plough-handle is strong ; lift it up, lift it up !
53 May he perform vengeance may he return also (to him) who gives.
Lacuna.
ACCADIAN PROVERBS AND SONGS. 155
55 The marsh as though it were not he passes ; '
the slain as though they were not . . . .2 he makes good.
57 To the waters their god3 has returned :
to the house of bright things he descended (as) an icicle : (on) a seat of snow he grew not old in wisdom.
10 Like an oven (which is) old against thy foes be hard.
1 5 Thou wentest, thou spoiledst the land of the foe ; (for) he went, he spoiled thy land, (even) the foe.
1 8 Kingship in its going forth (is) like a royal robe(?}
19 Into the river thou plungest, and thy water (is) swollen
1 I have translated this line from the Accadian, the Assyrian text being wanting, and the words "a recent lacuna" being written instead. This makes it clear that the scribe who copied the tablet for Assur-bani-pal's library did not understand Accadian and could not therefore supply the translation.
2 Lacunae.
3 This seems to be quoted from a hymn describing the return of Cannes to the Persian Gulf.
156 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
at the time : I
into the orchard thou plungest, and
thy fruit
(is) bitter.
34 The corn (is) high, it is flourishing ; how
is it known ? The corn (is) bearded, it is flourishing ; how is it known ?
42 The fruit of death may the man eat, (and yet) the fruit of life may he achieve.
1 See Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia, Vol. I., 25, 10.
'57
ASSYRIAN FRAGMENTS.
TRANSLATED BY
J. H A L E V Y.
poetical fragments which are here translated are of unusual interest because they afford authentic information upon different points relating to social life, morality, and eschatological belief of the Assyrio-Babylonians. The first fragment is a medical prescription for cutaneous eruptions. It proves that the Babylonians were in possession of a rational medicine, as well as a magical one, which had fallen into decline at the time of Herodotus, when patients were exposed in public places.
The second fragment, which is a description of a virtuous wife, reveals the manners of Babylonian society in a very advantageous point of view. We find again here the portrait of the virtuous woman of the Bible. It is quite different from the deep demoralization which prevailed at Babylon when Herodotus visited it. It appears that the forced prostitution of women, attested by the Greek writer
158 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
was due to the introduction of the Persian worship of Anaitis, under Artaxerxes.
The third fragment offers a new kind of poetry which has not been found at present, except among the Hebrews. It is an elegy on the destruction of the town of Erech, of which Istarit, Astarte, daughter of Annu and Anatu, was the patroness. The tone of the poem, as well as the details of expression, have such a Biblical stamp, that if Jerusalem was inserted instead of Erech, and Jehovah instead of Istarit, it might easily be taken for a psalm lamenting the destruction of the Holy City.
Lastly, the two last fragments belong to a cycle of poetry relative to beatification after death. They paint in brilliant colours the state of the just departed from earth to the realms of bliss. At the same time is learned that the Assyrians believed in the future judgment, and the final bliss of good men. These precious documents cut short the controversy about the belief of the immortality of the soul amongst the Semitic peoples, which has created so much controversy amongst certain theological schools of France and Germany. It is now certain the Semites have not only believed that the soul survived the body but that it received the reward of its work. This is extremely important in the point of view of the philosophy of religions.
159
BABYLONIAN MEDICAL RECEIPT.'
1 FOR the eruptions and tumours which afflict the body :
2 Fill a vase which has held drugs with water from an inexhaustible well ;
3 put in it a shoot of ... ." a ... ,2 reed, some date- sugar, some wine, some bitter hydromel ;
4 add to it some . . . .3
5 saturate it with pure water (and)
6 pour upon it the water of the (sick) man ;
7 cut reeds in an elevated meadow ;
8 beat some pure date-sugar with some pure honey ;
9 add some sweet oil which comes from the mountain (and) mix them together ;
to rub (with this ointment) the body of the (sick) man seven times.
DESCRIPTION OF A VIRTUOUS WIFE/
i ( What is a virtuous woman T)
z The woman who, being married, has caressed no man ;
1 W. A. I. IV., 26, No. 7. Translated for the first time. This is the only known specimen of an Assyrio-Babylonian prescription.
a Lacunae.
3 In the Assyrian unki zarihu, an unknown drug or material.
4 Assyrian fragment (W. A. L II., 35, No. 4).]
l6o RECORDS OF THE PAST.
3 who, in her husband's absence, does not paint herself;
4 who, in her husband's absence, takes not off her clothes ;
5 whose veil no free-man, of pure race,1 has raised ;
6 who has never moistened her teeth with an intoxicating liquor.
ELEGY UPON THE DESTRUCTION OF ERECH.!
1 How long, Lady,4 (wilt thou remain impassible ?)
2 Desolation reigns in Erech, thy magnificent city.
3 Blood has flowed like water in Ulbar, the seat of thine oracle.
4 Fire has made ravage in all thy countries, and has scattered itself abroad like a shower.
5 Lady, I suffer immensely from the misfortune.
6 Break the powerful enemy like an isolated reed.
7 I take no more any resolution ; I feel no more myself.
8 I, thy servant, exalt thee.
9 Let thy resentment calm, let thine anger be appeased \
j
1 Before slaves and men of mean rank women of the East are not obliged to veil the face.
* Lacuna.
' 3 Assyrian fragment (W. A. 1. IV., 19, No. 3).
4 The goddess Istarit or Astarte is the tutelar divinity of the city of Erech.
ASSYRIAN FRAGMENTS. l6l
HYMN UPON THE LOT OF THE JUST AFTER DEATH.1
1 Wash thy hands, purify thy hands.
2 Let the gods, thine elders, wash their hands, purify their
hands.
3 Eat sacred foods from sacred plates.
4 Drink sacred water from sacred vessels.
5 Prepare thyself for the judgment of the King of the son of his god.2
BEATIFICATION OF THE JUST AFTER JUDGMENT.3
i 4
2 They have put there the sacred water.
1 Assyrian fragment (W. A. I. IV., 13, No. 2). This beautifti^ piece reveals for the first time the Assyrians' belief in a recompense after death. The just man, having died, departs for the divine regions, accompanied by the guardian deities, his elders. Arrived there, he takes an invigorating repast from sacred utensils, and refreshes himself with celestial water, to prepare himself, without weakness, for the judgment which awaits him, and which is to terminate in his perfect beatification.
2 That is, "the just man."
3 Assyrian fragment (W. A. I. IV., 25, col. iv.). This fragment should, evidently, follow the preceding. The just man, having undergone the examination of the gods, and been found without reproach, becomes the cherished charge of Anat, who shelters him from every vexatious accident. Then the god lau, the sage of the gods, transports him into a place of delight, where he is abundantly provided with the most delicious foods, as butter and honey. Established in this place which he is to quit no more without an express order from the gods, he drinks the vivifying water, that divine drink which gives him eternal life; and, plunged in a sweet repose which nothing troubles, he sings thanksgivings in honour of the gods, his benefactors.
4 Lacuna.
12
1 62 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
3 The goddess ANAT, the great spouse of ANU,
4 will cover thee with her sacred hands.
5 The god IAU will transport thee into a place of delights.
6 He will transport thee into a place of delights.
7 He will place thee in the midst of honey and butter.
8 He will pour into thy mouth reviving water ;
9 thy mouth will be opened for thanksgivings. 10 . . .•
Lacuna.
i63
THE MOABITE STONE.
TRANSLATED BY
CHRISTIAN D. GINSBURG, LL.D.
'T'HIS monument was first discovered by the Rev. F. Klein, of the Church Missionary Society, in 1868, at Diban. It is a stone of black basalt, being about 3 ft. loin, high, 2 ft. in breadth, and 14^ in. thick, and rounded both at the top and bottom to nearly a semicircle, with an inscription on it consisting of thirty-four straight lines about i^ in- apart running across the stone.
When the discovery and importance of the inscrip- tion became known there was great competition for the possession of it ; but the Moabites exasperated, " sooner than give it up, put a fire under it, and threw cold water on it, and so broke it, and then distributed the bits among the different families to place in the granaries, and act as blessings upon the corn ; for they
12*
164 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
said that without the stone (or its equivalent in hard cash) a blight would fall upon their crops." Squeezes were previously taken from it by M. Ganneau and Capt. Warren, from which the text has been restored.
The inscription records three great events in the reign of Mesha, king of the Moabites. Firstly, lines 1-21 record the wars of Mesha with Omri, king of Israel, and his successors; secondly, lines 21-31 celebrate the public works undertaken by Mesha, after his deliverance from his Jewish oppressors ; thirdly, lines 31-34 recount his successful wars against the Horonajim or the Edomites, which he undertook by the express command of Chemosh. We may conclude that Mesha erected this monolith about B.C. 890.
The present translation was published in The Moabite Stone, etc., 4to., Second Edition, Reeves and Turner, Strand, 1871. A history of the literature on the Moabite Stone is given in that treatise. Nothing of importance on the subject has appeared since.1
1 There was a subsequent translation by Professor Dr. M. A. Levy, Das Mesa-Denkmal and seine Schrift, Svo., Breslau, 1871. S.B.
THE MOABITE STONE.
1 I, MESHA/ am son of CHEMOSHGAD, King of Moab, the
2 Dibonite.2 My father reigned over Moab thirty years,3 and I reign-
3 ed after my father. And I erected this stone to CHEMOSH at Korcha, (a stone of)
4 (sa)lvation,4 for he saved me from all despoilers, and let me see my desire upon all my enemies.
5 Now OM(R)I, King of Israel, he oppressed Moab many days, for CHEMOSH was angry with his
6 l(a)nd. His son succeeded him, and he also said, I will oppress Moab. In my days he said, (Let us go)
7 and I will see my desire on him and his house, and
1 Mesha is the same monarch whose desperate but successful resistance to the invasion of the three allied kings of Israel, Judah, and Edom is described in 2 Ki. iii. 4-27.
3 The ruins of Dibon are situate on the east side of Jordan about an hour north of the Arnon, and are called Dibhan. See Jos. xiii. 9; Num. xxxii. 34.
3 The expedition of the three allied kings of Israel, Judah, and Edom against Mesha took place most probably in the first year of Jehoram's reign, B.C. 896, which is to be inferred from the fact that Elisha was in the camp. As this invasion was undertaken because Mesha, on his accession to the throne of Moab, had revolted against Israel and thus terminated the forty years' vassalage, the thirty years' reign of his father Chemoshgad must have commenced B.C. 926, or synchronized with the fourth year of Omri's sole reign and the reigns of Ahab (B.C. 918-898) and Ahaziah (B.C. 898-896).
4 Mesha seems almost to use the very language which Samuel uttered, when he put up a similar pillar between Mizpeh and Shen, i Sam. vii. 12.
1 66 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
Israel said, I shall destroy it for ever. Now OMRI took the land
8 Medeba,1 and (the enemy) occupied it (in his days and in) the days of his sons, forty years. And CHEMOSH (had mercy)
9 on it in my days ; and I built Baal Meon,2 and made therein the ditch, and I (built)
10 Kirjathaim.3 For the men of Gad dwelled in the land (Atar)oth from of old, and the K(ing of I)srael, fortified
1 1 A(t)aroth, and I assaulted the wall and captured it, and killed all the w(arriors of)
12 the wall, for the well-pleasing of CHEMOSH and Moab; and I removed from it all the spoil, and (of-
13 ferred) it before CHEMOSH in Kirjath; and I placed therein the men of Siran and the me(n of)
14 Mochrath. And CHEMOSH said to me, Go, take Nebo" against Israel. (And I)
1 5 went in the night, and I fought against it from the break of dawn till noon, and I took
1 6 it, and slew in all seven thousand (men, but I did not kill) the wom-
17 en (and ma)idens, for (I) devoted (them) to ASHTAR- CHEMOSH ;5 and I took from it
1 8 (the ves)sels of JEHOVAH and offered them before CHEMOSH. And the King of Israel fortif(ied)
1 A Moabite city, on the eastern side of the Jordan, 3 Its ruins are situate about two miles south-east of Heshbon ; they are called Maein. See Num. xxxii. 38.
3 The present ruin Kureiyat, under the south side of Jebel Atturus. Num. xxxii. 37, 38.
4 Nebo was almost midway between Baal Meon and Medeba.
5 Ashtar, the masculine companion to the feminine Ashtarte, appears here for the first time in the religions of Canaan.
THE MOABITE STONE. 167
1 9 Jahaz, and occupied it when he made war against me ; and CHEMOSH drove him out before (me, and)
20 I took from Moab two hundred men, all its poor, and placed them in Jahaz, and took it
21 to annex it to Dibon.1 I built Korcha, the wall of the forest, and the wall
22 of the city, and I built the gates thereof, and I built the towers thereof, and I
23 built the palace, and I made the prisons for the crim(inal)s with(in the)
24 wall. And there was no cistern in the wall in Korcha, and I said to all the people, Make for yourselves
25 every man a cistern in his house. And I dug the ditch,3 for Korcha with the (chosen) men of
26 (I)srael. I built Aroer, and I made the road across the Arnon,
27 I built Beth-Bamoth,3 for it was destroyed; I built Bezer,4 for it was cu(t down)
28 by the armed men of Dibon, for all Dibon was now loyal ; and I reign(ed)
29 from Bikran, which I added to my land, and I bui(lt)
30 (Beth-Gamel), and Beth-Diblathaim, and Beth-Baal- Meon, and I placed there the p(oor)
3 1 (people of) the land. And as to Horonaim (the men of Edom) dwelt therein (on the descent from of old).
1 Dibon in this line and line 28 denotes a district, which obtained its name from the town it surrounded. 3 To make the fortifications as safe as possible.
3 Beth-Bamoth is most probably identical with the place mentioned in Num. xxi. 19; Isa. xv. 2; and in Num. xxii. 4; Jos. xiii. 17.
4 Bezer was a city of the Reubenites. See Deut. iv. 43 ; Jos, xx. 8 ; xxi. 36 ; I Chr. vi. 78.
1 68 RECORDS OF THE PAST.
32 And CHEMOSH said to me, Go down, make war against Horonaim, and ta(ke it. And I assaulted it),
33 (And I took it for) CHEMOSH (restored i)t in my days. Wherefore I ma(de) . . . .'
34 ... .' year . . . .' and I . . . ..*
1 Lacunae.
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