Photograph from Prof. Albert T. Clay 

 AN ASPHALT SPRING IN MESOPOTAMIA 



It is probable that it was this bitumen to which Genesis refers where it says "they had brick 

 for stone, and slime had they for mortar" 



A LOVE LETTER OE LONG AGO 



A young man sends his endearing in- 

 quiry concerning the health of his be- 

 loved, saying : "To Bibea, thus says Gimil 

 Marduk : may the gods Shamash and 

 Marduk permit thee to live forever for 

 my sake. I write to inquire concerning 

 thy health. Tell me how thou art. I 

 went to Babylon, but did not see thee. 

 I was greatly disappointed. Send the rea- 

 son for thy leaving, that I may be happy. 

 Do come in the month Marchesvan. 

 Keep well always for my sake." 



The letters, besides being extremely 

 valuable for rewriting the political his- 

 tory and the life and customs of the peo- 

 ple, offer most important philological and 

 lexicographical material. 



Many of these also were encased, but 

 only the address, with the seals of the 

 sender, appear on the outside. Not a few 

 letters have been found encased in their 

 original envelopes — i. e., they are un- 

 opened. They can only be explained as 

 being duplicate copies retained by the 

 sender. 



The Code of Hammurabi, written about 

 2000 B. C, upon a large and somewhat 

 irregular stele, is perhaps the most im- 

 portant monument of antiquity that has 



been found for a century. It is the prod- 

 uct of a civilization of a high order. In 

 codifying his laws, Hammurabi arranged 

 them in a definite and logical order, based 

 upon accepted judicial decisions (p. 141). 

 It is now definitely ascertained, as had 

 been inferred, that the code is based on 

 other codes that preceded it. In the Yale 

 Babylonian collection there is a tablet 

 written in Sumerian, which seems to be 

 a prototype of the code. Although it is 

 not dated, the script indicates that it is 

 older than the Hammurabi Code (p. 171 ) . 



ALL CONTINGENCIES COVERED 



A number of its laws bear upon sub- 

 jects covered in what are known as the 

 Sumerian family laws, but which are, 

 nevertheless, quite distinct. Others deal 

 with the leasing of boats and animals, 

 even making provision, as does the Ham- 

 murabi Code, when a lion kills a hired 

 animal. But especially interesting is the 

 fact that there are two laws dealing with 

 the injury of pregnant women, which 

 have been contracted into one law that is 

 found in the code. 



It is not impossible that the code was 

 extensively influenced from sources dis- 

 tinctly Semitic ; perhaps Aramaean. This 



i75 



