NATURE 



441 



THURSDAY, APRIL 8, 1875 



SMITH'S " ASSYRIAN DISCOVERIES " 

 Assyrian Disroveries : an Account of Explorations and 

 Discoveries on the site of Nincvah, during 1873 and 

 1874. By George Smith, of the Department of Oriental 

 Antiquities, British Museum. With Illustrations. 

 (London : Sampson Low and Co., 1875.) 



JUDGING from the marvellous discoveries made 

 within so short a time in the valley of the Euphrates 

 and Tigris, Assyriology promises to be one of the most 

 extensive as well as 'the most important auxiliaries to 

 the reconstruction of ancient mythology, history, and 

 philology. It is within the memory of the present genera- 

 tion that M. Botta, the French Consul at Mosul, first 

 began the excavations of the buried cities of Assyria, and 

 we can still remember the enthusiasm and also the in- 

 credulity with which Europe received the tidings that 

 this savant had actually discovered at Khorsabad, in 

 1842, the long-lost palaces built by Sargon, about E.c. 

 722-705, exhibiting one of the most perfect Assyrian 

 buildings and a most excellent specimen of royal archi- 

 tecture. Mr. Layard, who began his excavations as soon 

 as M. Botta carried off his trophies to France (i845\ 

 astonished Europe with the still greater discoveries, both 

 at Nineveh and in Babylonia. The researches thus started 

 were continued, especially in Babylonia, by Rawlinson, 

 Rassam, Loftus, and Taylor, and the British Museum 

 now exhibits the remarkable treasures of Assyrian art, 

 science, and literature, which crowned the labours of our 

 explorers. 



With the study of these records Mr. George Smith has 

 been engaged for the last ten years ; and since 1 866 he 

 has periodically published some of the discoveries he 

 made among the fragments of the terra cotta inscriptions 

 deposited in the British Museum. His most startling 

 discover)', however, he communicated in a paper read 

 before the Society of Bibhcal Archasology, December 3, 

 1872, which gives the Chaldean account of the Deluge, 

 and which he deciphered on the tablets of the Assyrian 

 library discovered by Layard. In consequence of the 

 great interest excited by these finds, the proprietors of the 

 Daily Telegraph placed a thousand guineas at Mr. 

 Smith's disposal, to undertake fresh researches at 

 Nineveh. It was no easy task for him to go over the 

 same ground and reopen trenches in the same localities 

 so successfully worked by his predecessors. Still, the 

 field of research is so extensive, and the hidden palaces 

 are so numerous, that even now far greater treasures may 

 be exhumed than those which have already been re- 

 claimed by the French and English explorers. This will 

 readily be seen from a perusal of Mr. Smith's work which 

 gives the results of his expedition, and from the success 

 he achieved, though his time was limited, and his diffi- 

 culties were great. In less than four months, excavations 

 on the sites of Kouyunjik and Nimroud, he found over 

 3,000 inscriptions and fragments of inscriptions, besides 

 many other objects of antiquity. The great object for 

 which Mr. Smith undertook this expedition, namely, to 

 recover, if possible, some of the missing portions of the in- 

 scribed terra cotta tablets he had deciphered in the British 

 Vol. XI. — No. 284 



Museum, was thoroughly achieved. Among the dis- 

 coveries he made at Kouyunjik is a veritable fragment 

 containing the greater portion of seventeen lines of inscrip- 

 tion which belong to the first column of the Chaldean 

 account of the Deluge, completing the only place where 

 there was a serious lacuna in the stor>'. 



The limits of this notice will only permit us to give a very 

 brief summary of the Izdubar legends. Izdubar, the hero 

 of these legends, is a giant who has a court, a seer or 

 astrologer, and officers. Having lost his seer, and being 

 unable to replace him, he determines to seek counsel of 

 Hasisadra, the sage who escaped the deluge. After pro- 

 tracted wanderings through fabulous regions, he at last 

 alights upon Hasisadra and his wife, and inquires of the 

 sage how he became immortal. The sage thereupon tells 

 Izdubar the story of the flood and of the vessel which he 

 built according to the directions of Hea to save himself and 

 his belongings from the universal deluge which the gods 

 brought upon the earth to destroy the human family 

 because of the wickedness of the children of men. This 

 deluge lasted six days, and on the seventh day the storm 

 ceased, when the vessel was stranded for seven days on 

 the mountains of Nizir. At the end of the second hexa- 

 hemeron, Hasisadra sent forth some birds to ascertain 

 the state of the ground, the description of which we must 

 give in the language of the legend :^ 



" On the seventh day in the course of it 

 I sent forth a dove and it left. The dove went and turned, 



and 

 A resting-place it did not find, and it returned. 

 I sent forth a swallow and it left. The swallow went and 



turned, and 

 A resting-place it did not find, and it returned. 

 I sent forth a raven and it left. 



The raven went, and the corpses on the water it saw, and 

 It did eat, it swam, and wandered away, and did not return. 

 I sent the animals forth to the foiur winds, I poured out a 



libation, 

 I built an altar on the peak of the mountain, 

 By sevens herbs I cut. 



At the bottom of them I placed reeds, pines, and simgar. 

 The gods collected at its burning, the gods collected at its 



good burning : 

 The gods like flies over the sacrifice gathered." 



A careful examination of this legend, which, according 

 to Mr. Smith, is at the latest more than two thousand 

 years before the Christian era, will show the impartial 

 student that he has here the polytheistic prototype of the 

 legend of which the biblical story is a monotheistic redac- 

 tion. Indeed, Mr. Smith has already announced that he 

 has also discovered the legends of the Creation, the build- 

 ing of the Tower of Babel, &c. A striking illustration of 

 how the Assyrian discoveries will materially contribute 

 to a scientific understanding of ancient mythology may 

 be seen in the legend of " The Descent of Ishtar into 

 Hades." 



The goddess Ishtar, /.t'. Venus, daughter of the iMoon, de- 

 termines to visit " the land from which there is no return." 

 On her arrival at the gate she demands admittance, 

 threatening that if refused she would assault the door and 

 raise the dead to devour the living. After consulting the 

 goddess oif the nether regions, the porter admits Ishtar, 

 who, on entering, is, by the command of the Queen of 

 Hades, punished in the same manner as those wives are 

 who have been unfaithful to their husbands. At each of 

 the seven gates of Hades she is stripped of some of her 



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