THE

NORTH BRITISH REVIEW.

NO. CII.

FOR JANUARY, 1870.

ART. I.-BABYLONIAN AND ASSYRIAN

LIBRARIES.

These tribes lived to the east

allusion to their strange language. They were most probably a branch of the tribes called Cossaii, Cussii, and Cissii, by classical THE valley of the Euphrates was the seat writers.* of a very early civilization, and the birth of Babylonia; and their dominion in that place of many of the arts and sciences country is probably alluded to in the Book known to the classical nations of antiquity. of Genesis, x. 8-12. As the Sumiri appear Babylonia was inhabited at an early period to have been foreigners, it is natural to by a race of people entirely different from suppose that the other tribe, the Akkadi, the Semitic population known in historic represents the original inhabitants of Babytimes. This people had an abundant lite-lonia; and we find that in early inscriptions rature; and they were the inventors of a the country is called kingi-akkad and matsystem of writing which was at first hiero- akkad, "the country of Akkad.” glyphic, but gradually changed into what is called the cuneiform or arrow-headed character. This character had its origin from the practice of writing on clay tablets, each line of the figures being separately pressed into the clay with a square instrument, which, going deeper into the tablet at one end than at the other, produced the arrowhead shape of the lines. Specimens of this writing are preserved in various stages, from the simple form to the decided cuneiform. The cuneiform characters were written from left to right; and the shape of the clay tablets used for this purpose was like that of rather flat pincushions. Where the writing is divided into two or more columns, the order of the columns is from left to right on the obverse, but from right to left on the Of the people who invented this system of writing very little is known with certainty; and even their name is a matter of doubt. In the early Semitic period we find Babylonia inhabited by two races who were called the Sumiri or Kassi, and the Akkadi. The Sumiri or Kassi were a foreign tribe, called by the Babylonians lisankalbi or the dog-tongued, probably in

reverse.

*

The language of the Akkadi, who originally used the cuneiform signs, was different from any known to have existed in the country in historic times. As a rule those particles (prepositions) which, with us, precede the words they govern, followed them in the Akkad. Plurals and emphatic forms were often expressed by doubling the root form. In the verbs the root remains unaltered, and is doubled, or has prefixes to denote the various forms. Another peculiarity is, that when a word consisted of two characters any other word indicating a part or quality of it might be inserted between the two characters. These and similar peculiarities in its structure mark the Akkad as decidedly different from any Semitic tongue.

The earliest cuneiform texts are written in

the Akkad language, and well exhibit the peculiarities of its vocabulary and grammar. Probably the most ancient inscriptions are those printed in Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia, the title of the cuneiform publications of the British Museum (hereafter referred to in this article as C. I.). The first inscription in the book is translated as follows: "Urukh, king of Ur, who Bit

Nannur built." The king whose name is doubtfully read as Urukh is the earliest

* Herod. iii. 91, v. 49; Strabo xi. p. 744; Diod. xvii. 111; Pliny vi. 27, s. 31.

on them; but the evil certainly predominate. | Speaking generally, indeed, it may be said There are the Asakku who were concerned that after the rise of the Semitic power with the head, the Vadukku with the neck nouns were written in Akkad,* and verbs in and shoulders, the Alu with the breast, the Semitic; but there are occasional exceptions Ekimmu with the inside of the body, the to both these rules. Gallu with the hand, the Simtaru with the life. So numerous were the supernatural beings that one tablet gives 50 great gods of heaven and earth, 7 magnificent gods, 300 spirits of the heavens, and 600 spirits of the earth. A good specimen of an invocation against evil spirits is printed in C.I., Vol. II, pp. 17 and 18. The paragraph on p. 17, lines 30 to 34, prays for deliverance from the supposed operation of some of these beings. It runs thus: "From the maker of evil, from the robber, from an evil face, from an evil eye, from an evil mouth, from an evil tongue, from evil lips, from an evil death, may heaven preserve, may earth preserve.' Real historical matter is very scarce in these early tablets; but we have part of an inscription of one early Babylonian king, with an Assyrian translation.

Such is the character of the earliest literary collections of Babylonia; and the Akkad language, in which they were written, probably continued in use in that country down to the close of the sixteenth century B.C. and, for some official documents, even to a much later period. At some time anterior to the nineteenth century B.C. the valley of the Euphrates was conquered by a Semitic race. Of the origin of this race we at present know nothing; it is possible they may have been the same as the Sumiri or Kassi, at one time the leading tribe in Babylonia. The passage in C.I., Vol. II, p. 65, 1. 8-12, relates how this people, having on one occasion revolted, slew the King of Babylonia, and placed another man on the throne. The Semitic conquerors, whoever they were, gradually imposed their own language on the country; but, on the other hand, they borrowed the system of writing in use there. From the time of the Semitic conquest the decline of the Akkad language began, and a period of mixed texts (part Akkad and part Semitic) cominenced. It is rarely that we find a text of any length purely Semitic. It was usual at all times to use the Akkad for the following words: 1. Names and titles of gods. These are very seldom written in Semitic; and hence their pronunciation is very uncertain. The gods Assur and Nabu are those oftenest written in Semitic. 2. Names of material substances generally, such as woods, metals, stones; but in these cases the Assyrian side or column on bilingual (Akkad and Semitic) tablets often gives the Semitic name. 3. Names of trees, and plants, and animals.

To the period following the Semitic conquest some of the larger literary works of the ancient Babylonians belong. First among these comes the great work on astronomy and astrology, a branch of ancient learning for which the Chaldeans have always been famous. This work covered at least seventy tablets. Beginning with the supposed influences of the appearance and motions of the moon, it proceeds to eclipses, and then gives the portents from the various positions and appearances of the sun; these are followed by accounts of cloud, rain, wind, &c.; and the work ends with the motions of the planets. Most of the positions and appearances are supposed to shadow forth future events; and on each tablet there are generally about 100 predictions. The following are some of them: "When on the 14th day of the month, the Moon and Sun with each other [i.e. at the same time] are seen, the face shall be right, the heart of the country shall be good, the Gods of Akkad [Babylonia] to give blessings shall incline, joy shall be in the hearts of the people, the heart of the king shall be right, and the cattle of Akkad in the desert in safety shall lie down." The next is a weather prediction, "When the aspect of the moon is very cloudy, great floods shall come." Notes are sometimes added by way of explanation. Thus, after the mention of some of the names of Jupiter, we are told: "The star of Maruduk [Jupiter] at its rising [is called] the star Dunpauddu; when it reaches 5 kaspu,f the star Sakmisa; when it is in the middle of heaven [southing] the star Nibiru." There are rules for calculating eclipses; but, as they depend on the appearance of the moon, they are of no value. Most of the predictions from the heavens relate to the fortunes of kings and countries. This astrological work could not have been composed later than the 16th century B.C., and may be much older; for, although it contains numerous geographical notices, it has not a single reference to Assyria. The kingdoms

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of Akkad (Babylonia), Gutium (the Goim), | Abraham, and now represented by the ruins Subarti,* Anduan, Nítuk or Asmun (on the of Mugheir. Ur remained the nominal Persian Gulf), Martu (Syria), and the Khatti capital of the country until Khammurabi (Hittites), and Elam (Susiana) are all men- (probably in the 16th century B.C.) fixed tioned; but Assyria probably had not yet the seat of government at Babylon. risen to the rank of a kingdom. The geographical notices scattered through the work are one of its most interesting features. Many of the principal towns of Babylonia are mentioned; and predictions respecting them are given.

There was a companion work, comprising more than 100 tablets, which gave a large number of portents from terrestrial occurrences and objects-from trees, animals, streams, dreams, births both human and animal, and many other things. The portents derived from these were not supposed to affect the fate of kings and countries, but related, as a rule, to minor matters, such as the life or death of a man or his wife, his child, or even his slave. These works on omens, celestial and terrestrial, mention in several places the name of Sargina, an ancient king of Babylonia, who, according to the tablet printed in C.I., Vol. II, p. 65, reigned a little before the time of Khammurabi. The passages in which Sargon is mentioned are not at present sufficiently perfect to enable us to say whether the word was used as a proper name, or whether it was the title of a race of kings who claimed descent from Sargon. If the word is used as a proper name, it would be probable that these works were composed in the reign of Sargon. We know that the period of the Babylonian king Sargon was considered an important one; for amongst the Babylonian treasures which were copied and preserved in the Nineveh library was a tablet of his which commenced with the words "I am Sargina King of Agani." Agani was one of the principal cities of Babylonia, and was celebrated for a temple of the goddess Anunitu.

In the flourishing days of the early Babylonian monarchy, Assyria was colonised from that country; and the earliest rulers of Assyria were governors subject to Babylonia. Their title was Patesi; and their office included the functions of high priest and governor. The seat of government was at the city of Assur (now Keleh Shergat); and the territory reached at least as far north as Nineveh, where a temple to one of the goddesses was founded in the 19th century B.C. Afterwards, under Bilkipkapi, Assyria became independent, and the city of Assur became an important place. It was the capital of Assyria for about 1,000 years, and the seat of the first Assyrian library. Little, however, is known of this collection, for the extensive ruins of the city have never been properly explored; but several valuable inscriptions have been found there, ranging from B.C. 1850 to B.C. 830.* It was during this period that the translations of the early Akkad works were made. That these translations were made in Assyria, and not in Babylonia, we gather from the fact that, in cases of words which differ in the two countries, the documents have the Assyrian and not the Babylonian forms. Shalmaneser I, king of Assyria, B. c. 1300, had founded a city near the junction of the Upper Zab with the Tigris, and called it Kalakh. It was rebuilt by Assur-nazir-pal, B.C. 885; and here an important collection of inscriptions was made. The earliest tablets from this place belong to the 9th century B.C., and include a copy of the great Chaldæan work on Astrology. Various other copies of this and other works were made from time to time; and our information about the libraries becomes by degrees more definite. The keepers of these literary treasures bore the title of Nisu-duppisatri, "man of the written tablets." The title was originally an Akkad one; and the first man

Beside the works already mentioned, there was one on the Mythology, which consisted of over 110 tablets. It is now very much mutilated, and has not yet been thoroughly examined. The Babylonian col-known to have borne it was a Babylonian lections also contained many minor works; in fact this store of literature was so rich that the greater part of the Assyrian writing onsists of copies from it. The great centre of learning in these early times was the city of Ur, famous as the birthplace of

The countries of Akkad, Elam, Guti, Martu, and Subarti are the only ones mentioned on the majority of these tablets. But one tablet gives the additional geographical names; and this (No. 2 in the series) is possibly of later date than the body of the work.

named Amil-anu, who lived in the reign of Emuq-sin, king of Babylonia, about 1,000 years before the date of the librarians of Kalakh and Nineveh. The signet cylinder of Amil-anu has the following insciption: Emuq-sin the powerful hero, the king of

One of the most beautiful and perfect of these is the inscription on the four cylinders of Tiglath Pileser I, cir. B.C. 1120. Translations of this inscription by Sir Henry Rawlinson, Mr. Fox Talbot, Dr. Hincks, and Dr. Oppert were published by the Royal Asiatic Society in 1857.

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