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

DURING Wit CENTURY: ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA 517
lowed the king's excavations of half-forgotten sites with great
attention in general, but who were eager to profit by them,
and even to imitate the example of their ruler. To illustrate
by a new example this remarkable spirit of scientific investigation
fostered especially in the Babylonian priest-schools,
I
refer briefly to a fine object in half-baked clay, several years
Squeeze of an Inscription of Sargon I. (3800 b. c. )
Taken by a Babylonian scribe of the sixth century B. C.
the front it bears
an
ago acquired by
me for the Universitv
of Pennsvlvania.
O n
old-Babvlonian
legend in
raised characters
reading
backwards,
while a
label in neo-
Babylonian writing
is inscribed
on the other
side. To my astonishment, the antiquity proved to be
nothing less than an excellent squeeze or impression of an
inscription of Sargon of Agade * prepared by ascribe whose
name is identical with that of several scribes occurring on
contract tablets of the British Museum dated in the reign
of Nabonidos. The label informs us that the object is a
" squeeze " or " mould " (zipu) of an inscribed stone, " which
Nabuzerlishir, the scribe, saw in the palace of King Naram-
Sin at Agade."
But to return to the interesting jar from the library
mound of Nuffar : the owner, or curator, of the little mu-
1 It consists of five lines, reading (i) Shargani-shar-ali (2) the powerful
(3) king (4) of the subjects (5) of Bel. This inscription is identical with
lines 1, 3, 4, 7, 8 of the same ruler's legend from Nippur, published in Hilprecht,
" The Bab. Exp. of the U. of Pa.," series A, vol. i, part 1, no. 2.