Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 December 1876 — Babylonian Antiquities. [ARTICLE]

Babylonian Antiquities.

The main portion of the Babylonian antiquities, just received at the British Museum, as the result of the last expedition of Mr. George Smith, was found near Hillah, a town about three miles north from the site of Babylon. They are chiefly contract tables, mortgage loans, promissory notes, records of the sale of lands, shares and other commodities, representing, in fact, all the various commercial transactions of a Babylonian firm, who may be approximately described as Messrs. Gabi & Sons, bankers and financial agents. Many of the tablets, represent the renewal of loans and mortgages, so that the documents referring to the first and the last of continuing transactions bear the dates of several reigns. The dates thus extend from the fall of the Assyrian Empire to the reign of Darius Hystaspes, including dates in the reigns of Nabopolassar, father of Nebuchadnezzar, Evil-Merodach, Cambyses, and the elder and the younger Cyrus. The dates of the tablets, therefore, furnish very important chronological land-marks, and they are, in many respects, subversive of the recent chronology. The rate of interst current In Babylon on loans was generally ten per cent., and much light is thiown on the social life of the Babylonians from the circumstance that Witnesses of deeds are always described by their trade or profession. One of the tablets is dated in the reign of Belshazzar as King, being the first time his name has been found in connection with the royal dignity, previous inscriptions having’ had reference to the time when he was described as the son of Nabonidus. There are a large number of mathematical tablets, giving calculations of considerable intricacy. One curious and beautiful tablet presents a calendar for the entire Babylonian year—or would if a fragment had not been lost —and for every day in the year, distinguishing the days as lucky or unlucky, whether for feasting, fasting, marriage or the building of houses. The calendar further indicates in what respect the several days affect or influence person and property, health and fortune. Among the antiquities are some early Babylonian bricks and fragments of statuary of a King hitherto unknown in the city of Zergul, called at this day by the slightly varied form of Zerghul. There are also specimens of pottery, and two small bronze statuettes of gods, with inscriptions. The whole series of tablets may be said to be, all things considered, in a fair condition as to their integrity.— London Cor. Mamheeter Guardian.

—One word more about Baron de Palm. He weighed when alive one hundred and seventy pounds, and his ashes', after cremation, weighed five pounds and a quarter