May 1, 1896.] 



KNOWLEDGE 



117 



in all probability, " the fortress of Akkad and the whole 

 of Borsippa (?) ; " after which " Kudur-lakhmal, his son 

 (probably the son of the King of Elam), pierced (?) his heart 

 with the steel sword of his girdle," and afterwards, it is to be 

 supposed, took the throne and " captured his enemy." 



The discovery of another tablet which followed shed 

 some light on the names, but did not give a very satisfac- 

 tory sense. It referred, however, to the above-named 

 Elamite prince, and seemed to state distinctly that he 

 became King of Babylon : — 



" [The gods '?] in their faithful counsel cared for Kudur- 

 lakhgumal, King of Ela^m]. He descended, and the thing 

 that unto them was good [he performed ?] , and he exer- 

 cised sovereignty in Babylon, the city of Kar-Dunias 

 (=Babylonia)." 



This passage gives an extra syllable to the name ( Kudur- 

 lakhgumal for Kudur-lakhmal), bringing it one degree 

 closer to the Hebrew Chedorlaomer (Greek Chodollogomor), 

 and rendering it probable that it is the same king. Of 

 real history, however, this second fragment does not give 

 much, partly on account of its imperfect state ; but it 

 refers to Dur-makh-ilani, whose father's name is called 

 Eri-ekua (a variant for Eri-Eaku, or Arioch, which the 

 first text gives), and to certain letters which passed, in 

 which he seems to emphasize his superior right to the 

 throne of Babylonia (over that of Kudur-lakhgumal). 



It was gratifying to find this second tablet, notwith- 

 standing the imperfect nature of the text. The present 

 writer then, with a view to renderintr his translation as 



sanctuary ("/ 



Fir. 1.— Babylonian Tablot. Obverse. 



complete as possible by reference to other texts, proceeded to 

 look through his copies for references to words, names, etc., 

 and was agreeably surprised to find on another tablet the 

 name Kudur-lakhgu — , who was called " the Elamite." 

 The completion of this as Kudur-lakhgumal was, as may 

 be imagined, the most natural thing possible, and an 

 examination of this third inscription gave some very 

 interesting items of ancient history. 



It ia a text divided into paragraphs, and is written in 

 poetical style, resembling, in some things, that of the 



Creation tablets, which are undoubtedly very ancient as to 

 their composition. This new text, where it begins to be 

 complete, speaks of someone (probably the Elamite whose 

 doings form the subject of the tablet) who descended to 

 Du-makh ("the supreme seat") like Tra h", ijamil {" the 

 unsparing pestilence "), and he saw there the temple, and 

 spoke with the children (probably the officials) therein. 

 He then sent a message to all his warriors, (saying) 

 " Carry off the spoil of the temple, take also its goods, 

 take away its image, break down its enclosing wall." 

 " Against the god Ennun-dagalla " i" the guardian of the 

 broad place") "the enemy pressed forward evilly." The 

 god, clothed with light before him, flashed like lightning, 

 and " the enemy was afraid." Nevertheless, he gave 

 instructions to take the crowns of the god, and to " seize 

 his hands " (probably instructions to carry the image out 

 of the templei— "he did not fear, he did not regard his 

 j life," but, notwithstanding this, " he did not remove his 

 crowns." This practically closes the obverse (Fig. 1), 

 I the sense of the remaining lines being doubtful in conse- 

 quence of the mutilation of the text. 

 ' The reverse (Fig. 2), which is divided into short para- 

 graphs, continues the narrative after a gap which is 

 probably considerable. The first complete lines tell ua 

 that " The enemy, the Elamite, devised evil, and the god 

 Bel devised evil against Babylon." After referring again 

 to the temple, the tablet says : " The enemy, the Elamite, 



took its goods , the god Bel had displeasure towards his 



After several lines in this same strain, in 

 which the unfavourable attitude of the 

 heavenly powers and the elements (_e.fi., 

 " storm and evil wind went round in the 

 heavens ") is referred to, a paragraph 

 occurs in which the question is asked, 

 " Who is Kudur-lakhgumal, the maker of 

 the evils? He has gathered the bar- 

 barians . . . the people ("?) of the 

 god Bel, he has laid in ruin ... by 

 their side." " He se t his face to 

 go] down to the land of Tiamtu " (pro- 

 bably by the Persian Clulf), then ruled, 

 apparently, by a prince named Ide-Tutu. 

 The writer of the tablet, however, 

 again goes back to the misfortunes of 

 the temples, etc., of his beloved country: 

 " [The enemy], the Elamite, directed 

 his yoke and set his face (to go) down to 

 Borsippa . . . The princes he sub- 

 jugated with the sword, he carried 

 ofl" the spoil of the temples, he took 

 away ai;d carried off to Elam their 

 goods. . . ." 



Such is, in short, the contents of these 

 three interesting and remarkable, though 

 mutilated, Babylonian texts. They lose 

 much value by their imperfection — indeed, 

 were they perfect they would probably 

 present no difficulties to the historian, and 

 but few to the translator. Badly preserved as they are, 

 however, it is a matter of great satisfaction that 

 time has spared them to us, for they throw light 

 on a dark period, and one of great interest. Whether 

 Kudur-lakhgumal (better transcribed, perhaps, Kudur- 

 laghgumal) be really Chodollogomor or Chedorlaomer, and 

 Eri-Eaku Arioch, time alone can decide ; but the fact that 

 the three names so closely resembling Chedorlaomer, Tidal, 

 and Arioch all occur on the same tablet is, of itself, a 

 great argument in favour of the identifications that have 



