CUNEIFORM CHARACTERS. 
421 
From specimens of the cuneiform writing being so generally 
found, whether in Assyria or Persia, attached to the remains of 
great buildings, or on the mountain-rock, it seems reasonable 
to ascribe its use to public and solemn inscriptions alone ; and 
to suppose that a different character would be adopted in the 
common purposes of life. This idea is supported by certain 
more easy marks observable on many of the clay cylinders, and 
other fragments of the same material, engraved in short lines, 
and evidently by some sharp-pointed instrument; a part of one 
of these lines is shewn in Plate LXXVII. e. I have also in my 
possession two fragments of large bricks, found at Babylon, 
containing similar apparently more familiar writing. The deep 
antiquity of the cuneiform character appears evident in the 
singular simplicity of its component parts, which correspond so 
decidedly with the oldest style of building, without arch or 
curve. But if Sir William Jones’s opinion be admitted, that the 
most ancient discoverable languages in Persia are the Chaldaic 
and the Sanscrit; and that on their ceasing to be vernacular, 
the Pehlivi and Zend succeeded, in such a case it is to be 
feared that the inscriptions of Assyria cannot be deciphered by 
the alphabet which explains those of Persia. It is probable that 
the comparative complicated appearance of the Babylonian in¬ 
scriptions may arise from this very difference between the lan¬ 
guages they are called upon to represent. 
The curious relics in plates LXXIX. and LXXX. were all 
found at different times at Babylon. Nos. 1. and 2., in Plate 
LXXIX., are a couple of silver coins, the copies being exactly 
the size of the originals. They were discovered, with several of 
Alexander and his successors, in an earthen vessel, fished up 
from the Euphrates close to the ruins of the palace. No. 1. 
shews a figure combating with a lion, very similar to the bas- 
