EVIDENCES OF THE MIGKATIUN OF Alii;AM, 97 



SAR to wvite, borrowed by the Semites, and is found in the 

 form "^DDp in the passages — such as in the diflicult passage 

 in Jcr. li. 27, where the A.V. has "appoint a captain/' and the 

 R.V. " marshal." We should perhaps now read " a scribe/' 

 one who should write the summons to the nations against 

 Babylon. And also in Nahum iii. 17, '^ Thy scribes are as 

 the swarms of grasshoppers/' a most pointed alhision to 

 the vast number of scribes attached to the royal library and 

 temple-schools of Nineveh. The name of this scribe is 

 pure Semitic, both words being found in Hebrew " the king 

 has made." These two inscriptions of Sargon and that of 

 Naram-Sin* his son are ample evidence of the existence of a 

 people speaking a dialect akin to the Hebrew as early as the 

 thirty-eighth century before the Christian era. From time 

 to time in various inscriptions we meet with kings or officials 

 bearing Semitic names. About B.C. 2500 we have another 

 inscription of great value in a royal record of Dungi, King of 

 Ur, and from this time onward the inscriptions increase in 

 number and importance. This inscription of Dungi, of which 

 I give a facsimile, is engraved on a small tablet of black 

 basalt, and is now in the Louvre. In this inscription the 

 king claims the title of Sarrii daluv, " Strong king,"t and Sar 

 Jiijn-atlv arhaiv, " King of the four quarters," and states that 

 he was the builder of the temple of the Moon-god in the city 

 of Ur. This King Dungi was one of three important rulers 

 in southern Chddea. He was the son of Ur-bahu, " Servant 

 of Bahu " — whose name has been before read Urukh, Urbagas, 

 and Likbagas — and under him there ruled a very important 

 viceroy, Gudea, in the city of Sergul or Lagas, the ruins of 

 which are marked by the mounds of Telle on the Shat-el 

 Hie, where M. de Sarzac has recently made such important 

 discoveries. 



From this time onwai'd the names of Semites appear among 

 the rulers of various city jiingdoras, and such names as Gamil- 

 Adar, " The favoured of Adar," Ismi-Dagan, '^ Dagan the 

 hearer," Sin-Iddina, " The Moon-god has given/' &c., are 



before his time, that is, B.C. 1350, a date which is confirmed by the tablet of 

 synchronous history. In this cylinder also the names and genealogies of 

 Shalmaneser III. (B.C. 858) and Assurbanipal (B.C. 068) are given correctly 

 (col. ii. 3, 4). So that we may conclude that the writer of the inscription 

 had historical records to refer to when making these statements as to tlie 

 remote antiquity of these inscriptions. 



* Naram-Sin means " beloved of Bin," from root, Dm, Heb. Dm, to love. 

 Naram is given as a synonym of Dudu, the same as Hebrew David, 

 "beloved." 



t This may be idhiv, a? the archaic forms of da and id are very much 

 alike; it would then read Sar idlui\ " hero King." 



