Explorations in Bible lands during the 19th century - H. V. Hilprecht

DURING l'JTH CENTURY: ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA 189
analysis and a literal translation of representative inscriptions,
1 produced a similar effect in France, while it took
ten to twenty years longer before German scepticism was
fully overcome through Eberhard Schrader's renewed critical
examination of the elaborate system of Assyrian writing,
and his convincing proofs of the perfect reliability of the
achieved philological and historical results. 2
Meanwhile the rich cuneiform material previously gathered
began to be made accessible to all
those who were eager
to participate in the fascinating researches of the newly
established science. Rawlinson himself became the originator
of a comprehensive plan, the execution of which was
entrusted to him, in i860, by the trustees of the British
Museum. Ably assisted by Edwin Norris, Secretary of the
Royal Asiatic Society, to whom we are indebted for the first
attempt at compiling an Assyrian dictionary, and bv George
Smith, a talented engraver, who " was employed to sort the
fragments, and tentatively to piece together such as
seemed
to him to belong to each other," 3 the " father of Assyriology"—
as Rawlinson has been well styled — undertook to
publish the most important texts of the
English collections
in an accurate and trustworthy edition. In the course of
twenty-four years five large volumes of " The Cuneiform
Inscriptions of Western Asia " i were prepared by the united
1
Comp. Oppert, Expedition Scientifique en M'esopotamie, vol. ii., p. 1859,
and p.
171, above.
2
Comp. E. Schrader, Die Basis der Entzifferung der assyriseh-babylonischen
Keilinschriften, in Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenlandischen Gesellschaft,
vol. xxiii., Leipzig, 1869, and Die assyriseh-babylonischen Kerlinschriften.
Kritische U?itersuchung der Grundlagen ihrer Entzifferung, nebst detn Babylonischen
Texte der Trilinguen Inschriften in Transscription samt Vbersetzung
und Glossar, ibidem, vol. xxvi., Leipzig, 1872, and furthermore, Keilinschriften
und Geschichtsforschung, Giessen, 1878.
3
Comp. George Rawlinson, " A Memoir of Major- General Sir Henry
Creswicke Rawlinson," London, 1898, p. 240.
4
Vol. i., London, 1861 ; vol. ii., 1866 ; vol. iii., 1870 ; vol. iv., 1875 5