252 
Selections, 
[no. 2, NEW SERIES^ 
scriptions Hnr, and representing the biblical Ur of the Chaldees, 
inscriptions have been found of a king, " Kudur, the conqueror of 
Syria," who was probably the Chedorlaomer of the Bible. At any 
rate, a king named Ismi-Dagan, who lived some generations later, 
is proved, by a series of chronological dates found in the Assyrian 
tablets, to belong to the 19th century B.C., so that the era of the 
earlier king agrees pretty well with the ordinary computation of 
the age of Abraham. The names of about twenty-five kings have 
been recovered of the ancient period, and there are good grounds 
for believing that the Assyrians did not succeed in establishing an 
independent empire at Nineveh till the early part of the fifteenth 
century B.C. 
From B.C. 1273 to 625, the Assyrians seem to have been the lords 
paramount of Western Asia, and their history is preserved in an 
almost continuous series of documents, from the institution of the 
empire to the taking of Nineveh by the Medes and Babylonians. 
During the later part of this period, or from about 800 B.C., Jcav- 
ish history runs in a parallel line with that of Assyria ; and where- 
ever a comparison can be instituted between the sacred records and 
the contemporary annals of Nineveh, the most complete agreement 
is discovere'd between them ; and that not only in regard to the 
names of the kings, but also in respect to their order of succession, 
their relationship to each other, the wars in which they were engag- 
ed, and even the leading features of those wars. Col. Rawlinson 
noticed many such examples of coincidence, and drew attention to 
the great value of the verification which was thus obtained of Scrip- 
ture history. 
The third, or Babylonian period, was then shortly discussed ; the 
reigns of Nebuchadnezzar and Nabonidus being especially selected 
for illustration. A description was given of the excavation of the 
great ruin near Babylon called Birs Nimrud, and a translation was 
read of the edict of Nebuchadnezzar inscribed upon the clay cylind- 
ers, which were found imbedded in the walls of the temple. A 
number of original relics, discovered among the ruins of Chaldaea, 
Assyria, and Babylonia, and illustrative of these three periods of 
history, were also exhibited to the meeting, previously to _their 
being deposited in the British Museum. 
