170 EEV. J. N. FKADENBURGHj I'H.D., D.D., LL.D., 



letters wliicli seems to have been inaugurated in the reign of 

 Khammarabi from 2356 to 2301 B.C. This work celebrates^ 

 the adventures of Gilgames — the Chaldean Heracles — and 

 consists of twelve books, the subject of each book correspond- 

 ing with that sign of the zodiac Avhich answers to its place in 

 the numerical order. The Babylonian story of the deluge is 

 introduced as an episode in the eleventh book, agreeing 

 Avith the eleventh sign of the zodiac, or Aquarius. 



A large collection might be made of the epistolary cor- 

 respondence of Babylonia and Assyria ; and another collec- 

 tion would be possible of fables, tales and rustic songs. 

 There is one great astronomical work which consists of 

 seventy-two tablets. Then, too, there are nmltitudes of 

 commercial and legal documents, medical works, lexico- 

 graphical tablets, and numerous writings representing other 

 departments of knowledge. The discovery of the celebrated 

 royal library of Khuenaten, at Tel-el-Amarna, is one of the 

 most important achievements of the present century. The 

 tablets of this collection are all written in the cuneiform 

 characters of Babylonia, and most of them in the Baby- 

 lonian language. They belong to the century preceding- 

 Moses, and consist, for the most part, of the official corre- 

 spondence of distant cities, provinces, and governments Avith 

 the Egyptian king. They prove that in the century im- 

 mediately preceding Moses, the Babylonian language Avas 

 the common medium for commercial and diplomatic corre- 

 spondence throughout the civilized East. 



We need not speak of the vast number of tablets which 

 have already been secured from the old libraries of Mesopo- 

 tamia, kSo startling have been the discoveries, in these 

 ancient seats of civilization, that the recent announcement 

 of the acquisition of some tliirty thousand tablets from the 

 library of the primeval city of Tel-loh occasions no surprise. 



There are indications in tlie Bible which point to the sites 

 of some of the old libraries in Palestine. The existence of 

 such libraries has found its demonstration in the recent 

 discovery of a cuneiform tablet in the mound of Lachish, 

 a tablet Avhich belongs to the correspondence of Tel-el- 

 Amarna. There must have been such a library at Hebron 

 (? Debir), since its primitive name Avas Kirjath-sepher, "the 

 city of books," Avhile the same old city is called in one place 

 Kirjath-sannah, -'the city of instruction." These old libraries 

 of Palestine may yet yield up their secrets. 



Cuneiform tablets haA^e also been found at several sites in 



