4 
WARD'S NATURAL SCIENCE BULLETIN, 
MOABITE STONE. 
In tlie summer of 1869, Dr. Klein, a German 
missionary, while traveling in what was once the 
land of Moab, discovered a most curious relic of 
antiquity among the ruins of Dliiban, the ancient 
Dibon. This relic was a stone of black basalt, 
rounded at the top, two feet broad and nearly 
four feet high. Across it ran an inscription of 
thirty-four lines in the letters of the Phoenician 
alphabet. Dr. Klein unfortunately did not real- 
ize the importance of the discovery he had made; 
he contented himself with copying a few words, 
and endeavoring to secure the monument for the 
Berlin Museum. Things always move slowly in 
the East, and it was not until a year later that the 
negociations for the purchase of the stone were 
completed between the Russian Government on 
the one side and the Arabs and Turkish pashas 
on the other. At length, however, all was ar- 
ranged, and it was agreed that the stone should be 
handed over to the Germans for the sum of £80. 
At this moment M. Clermont-Ganneau, a member 
of the French Consulate at Jerusalem, with 
lamentable indiscretion, sent men to take squeezes 
of the inscription, and offered no less than £875 
for the stone itself. At once the cupidity of both 
Arabs and pashas was aroused; the Governor of 
Nablus demanded the treasure for himself, while 
the Arabs fearing it might be taken from them, 
put a fire under it, poured cold water over it, 
broke it in pieces, and distributed the fragments 
as charms among the different families of the 
tribe. Thanks to M. Clermont-Ganneau, most of 
these fragments have now been recovered, and 
the stone, once more put together, may be seen 
in the Museum of Louvre, at Paris. The frag- 
ments have been fitted into their proper places by 
the help of the imperfect squeezes taken before 
the monument was broken. 
When the inscription came to be read, it turned 
out to be a record of Meslia, King of Moab, of 
whom we are told in 2 Kings iii, that after Ahab’s 
death he “rebelled against the King of Israel,” 
and was vainly besieged in his capitol Kirhar- 
aseth by the combined armies of Israel, Judah 
and Edom. Mesha describes the successful issue 
of his revolt, and the revenge he took upon the 
Israelites for their former oppressions of his 
country. 
The last line or two, describing the war against 
the Edomites, is unfortunately lost beyond re- 
covery. The rest of the text, however, it will be 
seen, is pretty perfect, and is full of interest to 
Biblical students. The whole inscription reads 
like a chapter from one of the historical books of 
the Old Testament. 
The translation of the inscription is as follows: 
Translation. 
“I, Mesha, am the son of Chemosh-Gad, King 
of Moab, the Dibonite. My Father reigned over 
Moab thirty years, and I reigned after my father. 
And I erected this stone to Chemosh at Kirkha, 
a (stone of) salvation, for he saved me from all 
despoils, and made me see my desire upon all 
my enemies, even upon Omri, King of Israel. 
Now they aflicted Moab many days, for Chemosh 
was angry with his land. His son succeeded 
him; and he also said, I will inflict Moab. In 
my days ( Chemosh ) said, ( Let us go ) and I will 
see my desire on him and his house, and I will 
destroy Israel with an everlasting destruction. 
Now Omri took the land of Medeba, and (the 
enemy) occupied it in (his days and in) the days 
of his son, forty years. Aud Chemosh (had 
mercy) on it in my days; and I fortified Baal- 
Meon and made therein the tank, and I fortified 
Kiriathaim. For the men of Gad dwelt in the 
land of (Atar)oth from of old, and the King (of) 
Israel fortified for himself Ataroth, and I assault- 
ed the Avail and captured it, and killed all the 
warriors of the wall for the well-pleasing of 
Chemosh and Moab; and I removed from it all 
the spoil, and (offered) it before Chemosh, in 
Kirjath; and I placed therein the men of Siran 
and the men of Moclirath, and Chemosh said to 
me. Go take Nebo against Israel. (And I) went 
in the night, and I fought against it from the 
break of dawn till noon, and I took it and slew 
in all seven thousand (men, but I did not kill) the 
women (and) maidens, for (I) devoted them to 
Ashtar-Chemosh; and I took from it the vessels 
of Yahveh, and offered them before Chemosh. 
And the King of Israel fortified Jahaz and occu- 
pied it, when he made war against me: and 
Chemosh drove him out before (me, and) I took 
from Moab two hundred men, all its poor, and 
placed them in Johaz, and took it to annex it to 
Dibon. I built Kirkha, the wall of the forest, 
and the wall of the city, and I built the gates 
thereof, and I built the towers thereof, and I 
built the palace, and I made the prisons for the 
criminals within the walls, and there was no 
cistern in the wall at Kiskha, and I said to all the 
people, make for yourselves, every man, a 
cistern in his house. And I dug the ditch for 
Kirkha by means of the (captive) men of Israel. 
I built Aroer, and I made the road across the 
Arnon. I built Beth-Bamoth, for it was des- 
troyed; I built Bezer, for it was cut (down) by 
the armed men of Dibon, for all Dibon was now 
loyal; and I reigned from Bikram which I added 
to. my laud, and I built (Beth-Gamul) and Beth- 
Diblathaim and Beth-Baal-Meon, and I placed 
there the poor ( people) of the land. And as to 
Horonaim, ( the men of Edom ) dwelt therein 
(from of old). And Chemosh said to me, Go 
down, make war against Horonaim and take ( it. 
And I assaulted it and took it and ) Chemosh 
(restored it) in my days. Wherefore I made * 
year 
and I 
* * ” 
birthday; and, above all, that a copy of this 
synodical act should be engraved on a tablet of 
hard stone and set up in every temple of the first, 
second and third rank throughout the country. 
Although the inscription was one of very great 
historical interest, the Rosetta stone derives its 
greatest importance from the fact that it gave 
the first clue to the meaning of the Hieroglyphics. 
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COPY OF ROSETTA STONE. 
WARD & ITOWELL CASTS OF ANTIQUITIES. 
THE CHALDEAN DELUGE TABLET. 
Traditions of a deluge, or some great flood, 
are found in all parts of the world, but the 
Chaldean account, discovered by Mr. George 
Smith, is the only one, outside of the Old 
Testament, in which the cause assigned for it 
is a moral one. “Here, as in Genesis, Sisu- 
thros, the Accadian Noah, is saved from 
destruction, on account of his piety; the rest 
of mankind being drowned, as a punishment 
for their sins.” 
The story of the Deluge formed the subject 
of more than one poem among the Acadians, 
fragments of which have been found among 
the ruins of Nineveh and also in Babylonia. 
Two of these poems were amalgamated by 
the author of a great epic in twelve books, 
which described the adventures of a solar 
hero (Gisdhubar). The epic being arranged 
in books to correspond with the signs of the 
zodiac, the eleventh book answers to Aquar- 
ius, and very appropriately contains an ac- 
count of the flood. 
Sisuthros, who was not only saved from 
the flood like Noah, but was translated like 
Enoch, tells the story to Gisdhubar, whom 
..c meets in the other world. The most com- 
plete and latest version reads as follows: 
TRANSLATION. 
he 
The original of this celebrated inscription, 
which now occupies a central position in the 
gallery of Egyptian Antiquities, British Museum, 
was discovered in 1799, in the little town of 
Rosetta (Rasheed of the Arabs), in the delta of 
the Nile. It may be described as a very thick 
irregular shaped slab, about 2% feet square, of 
hard black basalt, on the flat surface of which 
is the inscription in three languages, first the 
Egyptian Hieroglyphics, second cursive Egyptain 
and finally Greek. A translation of the Greek 
showed that it was an act of the priests assembled 
in synod, at Memphis B. C. 196-197, in honor of 
the King Ptolemy Epiphanes in the ninth year 
of his reign; and after reciting the events of the 
period, the birth of the King, the troubles in 
higher Egypt, the inundation of the Nile, the 
decease of Ptolemy Philopater, the attack of 
Antiochus, the suppression of rebellion, the re- 
mission of taxation, and the gifts to the bulls 
Apis and Mnevis apd the sacred animals — pro- 
ceeds to order that a figure of the king should be 
placed in the temples; that a shrine should be 
placed with a gilded figure of wood of the 
monarch, in the adyta with the other shrines, 
and be carried in procession on a special festival 
in honor of the King on the 30th Mesori, his 
(Col. I.) “Sisuthros speaks to him, even to 
Gisdhubar: Let me reveal unto thee, Gisdhu- 
bar, the story of my preservation, and the 
oracle of the gods let me tell to thee. The 
city of Surippak, the city which, as thou 
knowest, is built on the Euphrates, this city 
was already ancient when the gods within it 
set their hearts to bring on a deluge, even 
the great gods as many as there are — their father 
Anu, their king the warrior Bel, their throne- 
bearer Adar, their prince En-nugi. Ea, the 
lord of wisdom, sat along with them, and repeat- 
ed their decree: ‘For their boat! as a boat, As 
a boat, a hull, hull!’ “‘Hearken to their boat, 
and understand the hull, O man of Surippak, 
Son of Ubara-Tutu; dig up the house, build the 
ship, save what thou canst of the germ of life. 
‘ ‘ ‘(The gods) will destroy the seed of life, but do 
thou live, and bid the seed of life of every kind 
mount into the midst of the ship. The ship 
which thou shalt build, * * * cubits shall be 
its length in measure, * * * cubits the con- 
tent of its breadth and its height. (Above) the 
deep cover it in.” 
I understood and spake to Ea, my lord: ‘The 
building of the ship which thou hast commanded 
thus, if it be done by me, the children of the 
