137 
by the labours of MM. de Rougé, Chabas and Devéria in 
France. MM. Lepsius, Brugsch and Duemichen in Prussia. 
Mr. Goodwin, Dr. Hinks, Mr. Le Page Renouf, and others in 
this country. 
“The structure of the language, the meaning of the words and 
texts, are now (says Dr. Birch) thoroughly understood, and the 
contents of all documents can be interpreted.” 
Prof. Lepsius discovered at San, or the ancient Tanis, a 
bilingual tablet (Greek and hieroglyphic), nearly eight feet high, 
like the Rosetta stone ; the date is B.c. 238, about 50 years older 
than the latter. 
“Tt records the benefits conferred by Euergetes I. on Egypt, 
the priests and the people, the restoration of the statues taken 
from Egypt by the Persians, and the alleviation of the misfortune 
of a deficient Nile and impending famine by the generosity of 
Ptolemy and his consort Berenice.” 
A new tablet of Abydos has also been discovered. In 1866 
M. Duemichen discovered on a wall of the Temple, a list of 
seventy-six royal names commencing with Menes the first 
monarch of Egypt, and ending with Sethos I. of the nine 
teenth dynasty. 
SECONDLY—ASSYRIAN, BABYLONIAN, PERSIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 
In 1800 Grotesfend in Hanover made the first attempt to 
decipher the cuneiform character. 
The discoveries of Botta in 1842, and of Layard in 1845, and 
the subsequent excavations by Loftus, Rassam, and Rawlinson, 
of the Palaces of Nimroud, Khorsabad, Konyunjik, and other 
localities, built by Sargon, Ashur-bani-pal, Ashur-izir-pal, and 
Sennacherib, have thrown new light upon Assyrian history. 
“ Thousands of fragments of terra cotta tablets, deeds, annals, 
petitions, from the archives of Konyunjik, now in the British 
Museum, enable the decipherer to discover their hidden meaning 
by the opportunity of comparison.” 
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