NATURE 
337 
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1904. 
EARLY CIVILISATION IN. BABYLONIA. 
The First of Empires. By W. St. Chad Boscawen. 
Pp. xxix+356. (London: Harper and Brothers, 
1903.) Price 1os. 6d. net. 
HE appearance of Mr. St. Chad. Boscawen’s book 
on the “ First of Empires ”’ will, we believe, be 
welcomed by many, and we have no hesitation in say- 
ing that it will prove a very acceptable addition to 
the small library of trustworthy works on Babylonian 
archeology which is to be obtained in the English 
language. Mr. Boscawen is well known as a lecturer 
upon Oriental archeology and antiquities, and 
especially on the branch of them which brings the 
student into close relationship with the Bible, and 
there is no doubt that he has a good, working, first- 
hand knowledge of the cuneiform inscriptions; this 
being so, his book possesses a value which is not 
enjoyed by any other popular work on his subject. 
And here, before we proceed to criticise the ‘* First of 
Empires,’’ it will be well to describe 
briefly. 
The chapters in the volume are nine in number, and 
these are followed by four appendices, which are, in 
turn, supplemented by a tolerably full index. The first 
five chapters deal with the beginnings of Babylonian 
civilisation and the relations which appear to have 
existed between Egypt and Chaldaea, the next three 
discuss the life and times of Khammurabi and the 
famous ‘* Code”? of this king, and in his last chapter 
Mr. Boscawen describes the beginnings of literature. 
The breadth of the subject which Mr. Boscawen has 
undertaken to describe in a popular manner is thus 
considerable, and the examination which we have been 
able to make of his work convinces us that he has 
succeeded remarkably well. We must remember that 
we are dealing chiefly with texts, most of which were 
written more than four thousand years ago, and even 
experts are not agreed as to the exact meaning of 
scores of words which are of frequent occurrence; and, 
if we confess the truth, sufficient time to digest the 
immense number of facts which have been recovered 
during the last few years has not yet been given to 
Mesopotamian archzologists and cuneiform scholars. 
For this reason Mr. Boscawen and all other true 
students of cuneiform literature find it impossible to 
be dogmatic in the present state of the science of 
Assyriology, and it is necessary for professors of 
Semitic archeology to pause before they bid us throw 
overboard all our preconceived and existing notions on 
matters of vital interest and importance. 
That certain changes of opinion are necessary is 
very evident, for from Egypt, Babylonia and Assyria 
have come forth such a great mass of evidence and 
fact that a careful reconsidering of their mental posi- 
tion is incumbent upon all those who would possess 
in their minds the true history of the countries which 
have played such a prominent part in the development 
of civilisation. 
its contents 
Mr. Boscawen’s own position is quite 
NO. 1789, VOL. 69] 
pronounced. He comments adversely on the works 
which, though professedly scientific, actually made the 
Biblical element predominant, and declared as an 
axiom that Moses was the author of the Pentateuch; 
this mischievous system was inaugurated by the late 
Mr. George Smith, and he was followed by a number 
of far inferior workers and students, who, not finding 
the whole of the contents of Genesis in the cuneiform 
tablets, quickly abandoned the study for one more 
congenial. All the evidence now available proves that 
Ezra and his ‘‘ Great Synagogue ”’ drew largely upon 
Babylonian legends of the Creation and Flood for the 
narrative which they re-wrote or ‘ edited,’’ and that 
Babylonian literature has an antiquity some two or 
three thousand years greater than that of the writings 
which are attributed to Moses, and even of the oldest 
portions of them. 
We must now face the fact that the Hebrew text of 
the Bible has undergone various editings, and we must 
be content to have the literature of the Hebrews sub- 
jected to the same analysis and examination as the 
literature of any other Oriental people. Mr. Boscawen 
cites in proof of careless editing, and perhaps of a 
plurality of authors, the fact that the Hebrew text of 
the Pentateuch, it now stands, contains two 
versions of the Creation Story, parts of two versions 
of the Flood Story, three versions of the Ten Com- 
mandments, and so on. Want of space will not admit 
even of brief allusions to the fusion of legends of events 
which took place in Babylonia, or to the various ‘‘ edit- 
ings ’’ to which the scribes were compelled to submit 
the literary works in their hands in order to bring them 
up to the level of the requirements of their day, but it 
is quite clear that what went on in the great libraries of 
Babylonia also went on in the scribes’ chambers of 
the Jewish synagogues in Babylon. When once the . 
reader has made up his mind to these inevitable con- 
clusions, it will be quite easy for him to assign to 
Eastern archeology its full value in the solving of 
problems connected with the relations which existed 
between the Hebrews 
as 
and the nations round about 
| them, and the whole subject will assume its true pro- 
pertions on his mental horizon. 
In the first chapter of his work Mr. Boscawen treats 
of the lands of Nimrod, i.e. the countries which are 
commonly called Assyria and northern and southern 
Babylonia, and in a series of brief paragraphs he 
shows how the later historic kingdoms were developed 
from very ancient centres of government which were 
founded by people who made their way into Meso- 
potamia from a country lying to the north-east, and 
who spoke a non-Semitic language. The story of the 
earliest growth of civilisation in Babylonia forms the 
subject of the second chapter, and we are led on easily 
from the time when men were learning to make 
baskets and mats, and to draw rude figures of animals 
and objects, to the time when they possessed an 
elaborate system of writing, and had become con- 
summate sculptors. From the numerous monuments 
which have been discovered on the of several 
ancient cities in Lower Babylonia, we learn that long 
before B.c. 4000 the civilisation which had been estab- 
lished in the country by non-Semitic invaders had 
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