. The literature of all nations and all ages; history, character, and incident. un the study of the great inscription on the Rock ofBehistun. This turned out to be trilingual,—the Zend orPersian, the Semitic Assyrian and the Median. The threeinscriptions were identical in subject, like those on theRosetta Stone, and described the conquests of Darius Hys-taspes, in the year 518 By dint of comparing one withthe others, the secret of the cuneiform writing was fullysolved. Sir Henrys investigation was published in \X\^ Jour-nal of the Royal Asiatic Society^ in 1847, almost simulta-neously wit
. The literature of all nations and all ages; history, character, and incident. un the study of the great inscription on the Rock ofBehistun. This turned out to be trilingual,—the Zend orPersian, the Semitic Assyrian and the Median. The threeinscriptions were identical in subject, like those on theRosetta Stone, and described the conquests of Darius Hys-taspes, in the year 518 By dint of comparing one withthe others, the secret of the cuneiform writing was fullysolved. Sir Henrys investigation was published in \X\^ Jour-nal of the Royal Asiatic Society^ in 1847, almost simulta-neously with the discoveries of lyayard in Nineveh. The Sardanapalan tablets comprise hymns to the gods,similar to the Hebrew psalms; mythological poems, TheDeluge, and The Descent of Ishtar into Hades; a num-ber of omens, astrological formulas, and other occult matter,and the legal and historical documents. The explorations areby no means complete; thousands of tablets still remainunexhumed in the mounds, which are all that is left of theonce mighty and famous cities of ASSYRIAN 71 THE BOOK-STAMP OF SARDANAPALUS. AssuRBANiPAL, or, as the Greeks called him, Sardanapalus, issupposed to have stored in his palace at Nineveh not less than 30,000tablets. Upon every work in his library his ownership was stampedas follows: The Palace of Assurbanipai,, King op Regions,King of Multitudes, King op Assyria, to whomTHE God Nebo and the Goddess Tasmeti havegranted attentive ears and open eyes to dis-cover THE Writings op the Scribes of my King-dom, WHOM THE Kings my Predecessors haveemployed. In my respect for Nebo, the God ofIntelligence, I have collected these tablets:I HAVE had them copied : I have marked themwith my name ; and I have deposited them inmy Palace. THE CHALDEAN ACCOUNT OF THE DELUGE. This account was translated by George Smith from the eleventh of aseries of tablets describing the adventures of the mythical hero,IzDUBAR (or Gisdubar), supposed to be the sa
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