90 
In 1820, Rich identified the site of Nineveh: ; in 1842-5, Botta 
(a French explorer), excavated the temple of Sargon ; from 1847 
to 1876, Austen Henry Layard (afterwards Sir A. Henry Layard), 
Hormudz Rassam, and George Smith discovered the palaces of 
Assur-nazir-pal, Shalmaneser, and Ksarhaddon, and also the 
site of Babylon. The labours, perils, adventures, and successes 
of these explorers were marvellous, and of thrilling interest. 
Layard was the chief of them all. It is said there are 30,000 
tablets and fragments yet untranslated in the British Museum. 
which were sent home by him. A French explorer succeeded 
Botta in exploring Babylon, but, unfortunately, a large cargo of 
monuments, inscribed bricks, and other relics, went down to the 
bottom of the Tigris, and were completely lost. We have not 
the same rich collection from Babylon as we have from Nineveh, 
and so far as Egyptian relics are concerned, the British Museum 
is only surpassed by the Museum at Cairo. ‘The Assyrian monu- 
ments and relics preserved at the British Museum are from the 
land which is the home of the oldest literature, written or 
monumental, which this world possesses. Without doubt, the 
Eden of the first chapter of Genesis was in this vicinity. The 
word roots, the geographical features, the names are all 
Babylonian ; Eden, Adam, Eve, cherub, are Babylonian words. 
The Tigris and Euphrates are here—two of the boundaries of 
Eden, and two of their tributaries were, in all probability, Gihon 
and Pison. Not far away were the mountains of Ararat, on 
which the ark rested, and the plain of Shinar, the home of the 
Sumerians. When we read in Genesis (chap. x.), that ‘‘ Nimrod 
was a mighty hunter before the Lord, and the beginning of his 
kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the 
land of Shinar, out of that land went forth Asshur, and builded 
Nineveh and the city of Rehoboth and Calah’’—the names are 
all to be found here. 
The most ancient inhabitants of whom we have any monu- 
mental records are the Accadians and Sumerians, Further south 
were the Babylonians and Chaldeans. At a very early period the 
southern people invaded and subjugated the northern, By some 
writers culture and civilization are supposed to have spread 
northward with the conquerors ; by others the conquerors are 
supposed to bave adopted the arts and sciences already cultivated 
by the Accadians. ‘The probability is that each received some- 
thing from the other. The Chaldeans were always noted for 
their astronomical and astrological pursuits. The Accadians 
were the inventors of the cuneiform (Latin: cwneus, a wedge), 
symbols. At a very early period they cut and engraved in hard 
stone, and knew the use of the pulley and of lenses; they had 
the twelve signs of the Zodiac, and there has been a conjecture 
