Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 August 1892 — The Oldest Language. [ARTICLE]

The Oldest Language.

Probably the oldest known specimens of recorded larfguage in the world to-day are the inscriptions on the door-sockets and brick stamps found at pilfer by the Babylonian exploration expedition of the University of Pennsylvania, which has recently returned. The brick stamps, which are of yellow clay, about four by five inches and an inch in thickness, bear the name and titles of King Sargon and his son Narim-Sin, who lived about 3800 B. C., and they were taken from the mound which covers the site of ancient Nipptiru, with its famous temple of Baal. The expedition also found many other objects of interest, such as clay tablets containing contracts, lists of goods, temp o incomes, art fragments, and images sold by the temple fakirs. These throw much light on the history of the people as opposed to that of the kings, and the work of the expedition carries Babylonian records back one thousand years, to a time of which practically nothing has hitherto been known. The antiauitjes found are now in tile 'university museum. Tbe American gcoseberries requira prunnig every year.