EECENT DISCOVERIES IN THE REALM OP ASSYRIOLOGY, ETC. 173 



pressing Akkadian and the Akkadians. The other is a very 

 learned German Assyriologist who has found so much difficulty in 

 Akkadian that he has adopted the very simple way of ignoring the 

 existence of the language. But no one can really settle any 

 question in that way ! 



The Paper is very important, for it deals with the subject prac- 

 tically, and shows us something of the inner life of the people. 

 As to the burial and burning of the dead, I think I was one of the 

 first who expressed the idea that the Akkadians burned their dead. 

 The burning of the dead has been an expensive process at all 

 times. In Holland, for instance, all the rich people were burned 

 and the lower classes, who could not afford to pay, were buried ; and 

 so in Egypt, all the rich people were turned into mummies, and the 

 poor were buried; and those who were killed in battle, unless they 

 were victors, were burned to avoid pestilence. As to the remains 

 which are found in the East (in Babylonia and Assyria), showing 

 that people were buried, I do not believe in them, because in all 

 cases where the monuments have been attiubuted to the Assyrians 

 and Babylonians it has been found on examination that they 

 were neither Assyrian nor Babylonian, but of a later period — the 

 Greek period generally. I have not seen the monuments found in 

 Germany, but I think the Akkadians and the Germans used to 

 burn the dead, and the lower classes were buried like dogs, because 

 they were of no importance. 



I believe Akkadian was a dead language a very long time before 

 these inscriptions were written, but that it was the official language 

 to a late period, and that these remains were written in Akkadian 

 at a time when their language was Semitic, and -very likely their 

 names were not those given in this Paper, but a Semitic transla- 

 tion. I think that Gudea's name was really ISabu, and not Gudea. 

 The name does not prove the nationality or the language, because 

 people often have names that are not of the language they speak. 

 I am very thankful for what Mr. Pinches has done in regard to 

 this subject, and I hope he will publish much more about those 

 inscriptions of Tell Loli. 



Rev. W. St. Clair Tisdall, M.A. — Although I have not yet 

 studied Akkadian very thoroughly, yet what little I do know of it 

 has satisfied me that it was very closely connected with the Turkish 

 family of languages. This is by no mea;;s a new discovery, as I 

 am aware, having been pointed out by others. I venture to record 



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