xlvi 



1839-40 Rawlinson 's studies stopped perforce, and he was unable to 

 renew them until he took up his residence as British Consul in Bagdad 

 early in 1844. Soon after, the printing of his translation of the 

 Behistun text and commentary began, and two years later the work 

 appeared. When we have awarded all due praise to all other labourers 

 in the field of Persian cuneiform research, the fact remains that 

 Rawlinson was the first man to translate into a European language 

 two hundred lines of Persian cuneiform and to give a correct gram- 

 matical analysis and commentary. Three years later, i.e., in 1849, he 

 produced a translation of the Babylonian or Semitic section of the 

 Behistun text, which was printed in 1851. In this marvellous work 

 he gave a list of about 250 cuneiform characters with their phonetic 

 and ideographic values. 



Another triumph of this distinguished man ought not to be 

 forgotten. When the Trustees of the British Museum commissioned 

 him to publish copies of the Assyrian cuneiform texts in the British 

 Museum, the late Mr. Fox Talbot suggested that the great inscription 

 of Tiglath-Pileser I. should be translated by more than one cuneiform 

 scholar in order that a comparison of the translations might show if 

 experts had arrived at any well-grounded system of interpretation 

 which was known and accepted by them generally. The Royal Asiatic 

 Society asked Rawlinson, Hincks, Oppert, and Fox Talbot to send in 

 translations under sealed covers which were to be opened simul- 

 taneously by a committee of examination which included Dean Milman, 

 Dr. Whewell, Sir G. Wilkinson, Mr. Grote, Mr. W. Cureton, and Prof. 

 H. H. Wilson. After the specified time (one month) the translations 

 were sent in, and the Committee found that Rawlinson and Pox Talbot 

 had translated the whole text, Hincks one half, and Oppert rather less, 

 and that the general agreement of the translations was such as to 

 leave no doubt in the minds of the examiners that the interpretation 

 of cuneiform now rested on a thoroughly scientific basis, which, it may 

 be added, was founded chiefly by Rawlinson. 



In 1851, by means of a grant from the British Museum, he super- 

 intended systematic explorations at Kouyunjik, with the aid of 

 Mr. Hormuzd Rassam, and many valuable relics were obtained, which 

 are now in the British Museum. The site is still under the control 

 of the Trustees of the Museum, and it is to be regretted that from 

 financial causes further investigations cannot now be properly carried 

 on. The five volumes of " The Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western 

 Asia," which, with the successive assistance of Messrs. Edward Norris, 

 George Smith, and Theophilus Pinches, he prepared for the Trustees 

 between 1861 and 1884, testify to the value of these excavations and 

 to the untiring energy of Sir Henry Rawlinson. In 1876 he was 

 elected a Trustee of the British Museum, and was on all occasions r^ady 

 to promote the interests of that institution in every possible manner. 



