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Since his discovery was announced, the most learned Assyriologists have made a study of the document, and now even those among them who most seldom think alike, are in agreement as to its meaning except in a few unimportant particulars.
Leadership in ancient civilization is claimed by Egyptologists and Assyriologists, each party for its own land. It is, however, Babylonia that has given rise to the largest theories of the unity of myths a fact due in part to its development of astronomy, in part, perhaps, to the resemblance between the Babylonian mythical material and that of the Old Testament.
The characters of the texts stamped upon bricks recovered from buildings erected by him, have, as all Assyriologists know, a peculiar physiognomy of their own. Ourkam is the Menes of Chaldæa, and his date is put long before that Susian conquest of which we have spoken above. The name of the latter occurs almost as often as that of his father among the ruins of Southern Chaldæa.
To this, we believe, there is but one exception the eagle-headed god to whom Assyriologists have assigned the name of Nisroch. But the difference between the two systems does not end here. There are a few deities, such as Ptah, Osiris, and Amen, to whom the Egyptians gave a human form in its simple entirety; but even in such cases it was not reproduced in its native elegance and nobility.
At the same time the help of several Assyriologists was welcomed in the further task of running over and sorting the collections as they were prepared for study. Professor Clay, Professor Barton, Dr. Langdon, Dr. Edward Chiera, and Dr. Arno Poebel have all participated in the work.
We must refer curious readers to the works of contemporary Assyriologists; or they may, if they will, find all the chief facts brought together in the writings of MM. Maspero and François Lenormant, whom we shall often have occasion to quote. We shall be content with giving, in as few words as possible, the theory which appears at present to be generally admitted.
The copyists have certainly omitted an M after the DCCXX. Sillig, following Perizonius has introduced this correction into his text. LENORMANT, Manuel, &c. vol. ii. p. 175. G. SMITH, Assyrian Discoveries, p. 407. LENORMANT, Manuel, &c. vol. ii. p. 181. LAYARD, Nineveh and its Remains, vol. i. p. 124. These storms hardly last an hour. Some Assyriologists believe this to represent Merodach.
All Assyriologists agree that in everything connected with the intellect, the Assyrians invented nothing; they did nothing but adapt and imitate, translate and copy from the more prolific Chaldæans, who furnished as it were the bread upon which their minds were nourished. It is the Chaldee intellect that we study when we question the texts from the library of Assurbanipal.
This, in fact, was the northern division of the country, and if we are to identify the Shinar of scripture with the Sumer of the monuments, as Assyriologists have agreed to do, Shinar would have been its southern half.
A mathematician used one system for his own studies, and another for documents which had to be read by the public. The doubts attending the question are gradually being resolved, however, by the combined efforts of Assyriologists and mathematicians.
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