18 



ARCHAEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES. (ASSYEIA.) 



K-i_Mi illustrated in the engraving. It is a 

 circle eleven teet two inches in diameter, in 

 low relief, composed of concentric circles and 

 divided off into regular panels, each of which 



BACRTFICIAL CALENDAR-BTONE. 



incloses some pattern or figure. In the center 

 is the face of the sun-god surrounded by em- 

 blems of chronometry. The " Sacrificial Stone " 

 has been the object of considerable controversy. 

 It is a cylindrical disk of porphyry, three leet 

 seven inches thick, and about twenty-eight 

 feet in circumference. The top is convex, 

 with designs in relief, but having a basin in 

 the center, from which a deep channel is cut 

 to the edge of the block. Around the cylinder 

 are sculptured fifteen identical groups, each 

 representing a warrior offering gifts to an- 

 other, who accepts them. Mr. Bandolier finds 

 that the block is not an accurate cylinder, and 

 observes that the sculptors did not have means 

 to correct the shape of the stone, but did the 

 best they could with it without attempting to 

 shape it nicely. 



Edited Assyrian end Babylonian Inscriptions. 

 The second part of the fifth volume of " As- 

 syrian and Babylonian Inscriptions," published 

 in 1884 by Sir H. Kawlinson, contains a num- 

 ber of valuable historical texts. The most im- 

 portant of them is probably the three-column 

 frrrn-cotta cylinder of Nabonidtis, 550 B.C.. 

 whioli, besides recording the battles of that 

 sovereign, in describing his excavations and 

 restorations of the temples, gives the date of 

 repairs that were made upon the temple of 

 the sun-god at Sippara, by Naramsin, the son 



of Sargon, as about 3750 B. o. This is the earli- 

 est date yet established in ancient hisiory. A 

 text from a Babylonian terminus, or boundary- 

 stone, contains the charter of freedom granted 

 to the city of Bit Karzi- 

 yabku in return for the aid 

 rendered by its ruler, Ritti 

 Merodach, to the Babyloni- 

 an king Nebuchadnezzar I 

 (B. o. 1120). Another tablet 

 records how Nebobaladan, 

 B. c. 900, set aside the reve- 

 nues of certain royal fanes 

 for the restoration of the 

 temple of the sun-god at 

 Sippara, which had been 

 destroyed by the Sutu, and 

 for its maintenance forever. 

 This tablet contains import- 

 ant information respecting 

 the services, sacrifices, and 

 festivals of Babylonian sim- 

 worship. An inscription of 

 Assur-nasir-pal, King of As- 

 syria, B. o. 860, is remark- 

 able for the insertion of 

 straight lines between the 

 sign that finishes one word 

 and that which begins the 

 next. Among other docu- 

 ments are a Babylonian cal- 

 endar containing examples 

 of the superstitions respect- 

 ing lucky and unlucky days, 

 etc., which prevailed among 

 the people; letters, petitions, 

 and dispatches, and business papers. Contrary 

 to the impression that has prevailed that the 

 old Babylonian libraries were destroyed by the 

 Assyrian invaders after they had copied the 

 tablets and carried them to Nineveh, the dis- 

 coveries made by Mr. Rassam show that the 

 libraries survived the invasion, and that the 

 cuneiform literature endured and was vital till 

 a comparatively late period. The newly pub- 

 lished volume contains the proofs that learning 

 was revived in Chaldea after the fall of As- 

 syria ; that the study of the sacred texts, le- 

 gends, and poems was continued during the 

 period of the Persian kings, and under Greek 

 and even Roman rule, and that distinct schools 

 existed in the temples. Among the inscriptions 

 published are some grammatical and lexico- 

 graphical tablets from the temple school at- 

 tached to the shrine of the great god of learning, 

 Nebo of Borsippa, which are dated in the reigns 

 of Cyrus and Artaxerxes; a cylinder of Antio- 

 chtis Theos, of B. o. 280, and some tablets that 

 bear dates proving them to have been written 

 as late as B. o. 29. 



Inscriptions of Nebuchadnezzar. Two inscrip- 

 tions, of little historical importance, of Nebu- 

 chadnezzar, have been found in the northern 

 part of the eastern range of Mount Lebanon, at 

 about two hours' distance from the village of 

 Herme, on the river Orontes. They are en- 



