CHIEFLY FROM NIPPUR. 261 



CONTENTS AND HISTORICAL RESULTS. 



In the briefest possible way I will indicate the general results which I draw from 

 a combined study of the most ancient Nippur and Tello inscriptions. With the very 

 scanty material at my disposal this sketch can only be tentative in many points. For 

 every statement, however, which I shall make, I have my decided reasons, which will 

 be found in other places. 1 



At the earliest period of history which inscriptions reveal to us, Babylonia has a 

 high civilization and is known under the name of Kengi, "land of the canals and 

 reeds," 2 which includes South and Middle Babylonia and possibly a part of the North. 

 Its first ruler of whom we know is " En-shags ag-ana, lord of Kengi." 5 Whether he 

 was of foreign origin or the shaykh of a smaller Babylonian " city " which extended its 

 influence or the regular descendant of the royal family of one of the larger cities, can- 

 not be decided. It is therefore impossible to say whether he belonged to the Sumerian 

 or Semitic race, or traced his origin to both. That the Semites were already in the 

 country results, aside from other considerations, 4 from the fact that the human figures on 

 the stele of Ur-Enlil, which belongs to about the same period, 5 show the characteristic 



*In Assyriaca, part II, in Z. A., and in response to a repeated invitation from the President and Secretary of the 

 Philosophical Society of Great Britian, in the Transactions of the latter society, where I expect to give a more 

 complete sketch of the political and social conditions of ancient Babylonia. 



z Cf. No. 90, 4 (also No. 87, col. II, 21) and above p. 252, note 9. 



3 His inscriptions (Nos. 90-92) have the oldest form of mu, have older forms for saj and show other characteristic 

 features of high antiquity. His name signifies "lord is the king of heaven." 



4 Cf. for the present only the important argument drawn from Lugalziggisi's inscription Nj. 87, oil. Ill, 35. Here 

 we have the same writing DAUB, which from the inscriptions of Nebuchadrezzar II and other latest Babylonian 

 kings, is known to be a Semiticisrn for da.ru. Of. Delitzsch, Assyrisches Handworterbach, p. 213. 



5 It has the most ancient forms for dam and mu and shows a very characteristic feature of the oldest period of 

 writing by contracting the name of Nindin duj(-ga), or Ba'u (cf. above p. 252) into a monogram. The primitive 

 style of art, and such details as the headdress of the god, the short garment of the two persons following the sheep 

 and goat, the nakedness of Ur-Eulil, the fact that his figure and the other two have their hair shaved off, corrob- 

 orate my determination of the age of this monument. On the other hand, this stele and No. 38 of the same plate, 

 which doubtless belongs to the same age, show us a real Old Babylonian master, who produced a beautiful ensemble 

 with a few simple lines, and knew how to breathe life into his very realistic but very graceful figures. Cf. the great 

 skill he exhibits in his drawing of the graceful outlines of a gazel, and his remarkable knowledge of animal locomo- 

 tion ! The two animals in No. 37 "represent very characteristically two species, the near one a goat and the far one a 

 sheep. The goat shows more characteristics of the wild species of Eastern Persia and Afghanistan than of the Per- 

 sian, and so may be a domestic hybrid between the two (£. e., Caprafalconerii and Gipra cegagrus). The sheep is 

 probably also derived from Eastern Persia and is perhaps the ' urial ' Oois vignei, which is an ally of the domestic 

 sheep. It has resemblance also to the Armenian wild sheep Oois gmelinii, but the rugosity of the horns is too great, 

 and the lines are too vertical " (communication from my colleague, Dr. Edward D. Cope, Professor of Zoology and 

 Compaiative Anatomy, who kindly examined the monument). 



A. P. S. — VOL. XVIII. 2 H. 



